MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
KANSAS SPEEDWAY
DIGITAL ALLY 400
TEAM CHEVY RACE NOTES & QUOTES
MAY 11, 2019
POS. DRIVER
2nd ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 AXALTA CAMARO
4th CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1
6th JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO
7th KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 GLOBAL POKER CAMARO
8th KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CAMARO ZL1
TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL FINISHING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Brad Keselowski (Ford)
2nd Alex Bowman (Chevrolet)
3rd Erik Jones (Toyota)
4th Chase Elliott (Chevrolet)
5th Clint Bowyer (Ford)
The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season continues next weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway with the Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star race on Saturday evening, May 18th at 8:00 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 2nd
WHO DO YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO ON THOSE CALLS?
“You have to listen to anyone that’s giving you any information. We had a really good car, I just made bad decisions going through lap traffic on lane choice. They stayed where I needed to run. I should have gone high and I shouldn’t have picked the middle like I did. I just had to lift and let the 2 and the 20 drive right around me. I’m pretty frustrated with myself. There was no way around that, that was a bad mistake on my part. We’ll go home and get them next week.”
IS IT A GOOD DAY EVEN THOUGH YOU’RE DISAPPOINTED?
“It’s absolutely a good day for everyone at Hendrick Motorsports. We all had really competitive cars and we really appreciate everyone’s hard work to continue to build our cars and continue to get better like we have. It was a really good day. My family is from here, so it would have been pretty cool. Probably the two closest times I have been to winning was my hometown and my dad’s hometown, so it’s just frustrating. We will get one soon.”
WHAT DID YOU LEARN?
“Just stick to what you know and don’t overthink it. When you’re out there running wide open, it’s all about lane choice.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 4th
HOW DO FEEL ABOUT TODAY’S RUN?
“It was OK. It was nice running top 5. I hate to have been leading the laps that we did and not finish it off, but what do you do. It was unfortunate.”
THOUGHTS ON THE PACKAGE WITH THE CONCLUSION OF THE RACE.
“I think this track suited with what they were after, as far as being able to draft and be close to each other. This is kind of the perfect form for it, I don’t really think it’s realistic everywhere. It was exciting tonight, so that was a win for them.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 6th
“The first three-quarters of the race was pretty awful for us. But, the guys kept their head in the game and made some big adjustments and made some good adjustments and we got back in the mix. We’re still missing some speed though. So, we’ve still got plenty of work to do. I’m pretty frustrated and we’ve got to try to get on top of things. That’s the bottom line.”
YOU KNOW YOU HAVE THE TALENT TO DO IT BUT YOU JUST DIDN’T HAVE THE CAR?
“Yeah, I wish I could share all the details of things that have taken place. It’s internal knowledge that I can’t share but I’ve had some bad luck and we’ve been aggressive when we shouldn’t have. It’s a tough environment we live in and we’re trying really hard but at the end of the day we’ve just got to make some better decisions and just get a little closer and then we’ll be in good shape.
“The first half, two-thirds of that race, we were terrible. That’s just the bottom line. Kevin (Meendering, crew chief) made some really good adjustments to get us back in the game and we worked out way up to fourth on the second to the last re-start and I lost a couple of spots there on the last restart. We’re still missing a chunk of speed even out there running by ourselves there’s a pretty good gap from our car to even our own teammates’ cars. We’re missing something. We’ve just got to get on top of it. But tonight was a night of perseverance and the guys did a nice job of keeping their heads in the game and taking a 25th place car and finishing sixth with it.”
KNOWING THAT THE NO. 9 (CHASE ELLIOTT) AND THE NO. 88 (ALEX BOWMAN) SHOWED SPEED THROUGH A LOT OF THAT RACE, IS THAT SOMETHING THE NO. 48 CAN ALSO USE TO BUILD ON?’
“Yeah, it is. We’re not the same. We’re similar in some ways but in other ways, definitely not the same. It’s tough. We know we want to get better so we want to be aggressive and bring new stuff to the track. We’re probably on the aggressive side of trying to bring new stuff to the track and doing a nice thing for our company in developing and proving it and I wish I could tell you what went wrong at Dover last week but the company learned a lot from it. So, I’m trying to stay patient but years are flying by. We’ve got to get to work. We’ve got to be winning races and finishing higher in the points if we’re going to have a shot at the championship. So, hopefully we can clean that stuff up and get where we need to be.”
IS IT TAKING AS LONG AS YOU THOUGHT IT WOULD TO GET TO THIS POINT?
“Company-wise, yes. But the company is there. We’ve seen good speed with the No. 9 (Chase Elliott) and the No. 88 (Alex Bowman) recently. The No. 24 (William Byron) has had some speed. We have had speed. We just haven’t had it from Friday to Sunday. We just can’t get on top of it.”
THERE WERE SEVEN CHEVROLETS IN THE TOP 10. WAS THAT CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE RACE OR, YOU’RE TALKING HENDRICK, GANASSI, AND JTG CARS IN THE TOP 10
“I don’t know how they ran. That’s the first I saw of the front. I don’t know what the front looked like for most of the race (laughs), so it could have been circumstantial.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 GLOBAL POKER CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 7th
“It feels like when the sun was out, our car had grip and I could make moves and make aggressive passes and then as the sun went down and each of our adjustments, I was just struggling for grip as the track got cooler. So, it doesn’t quite make sense. We did battle for good stage points today. I think we were like fifth, seventh, and seventh. But overall, our car was real racey early. So, thanks to my crew and the set up and everything that Matt Mccall is doing, normally we get better as the race goes on. Today was not the case. We just kind of plateaued and stayed there and I think others got better grip at the end or maybe we didn’t quite get it exactly racey enough. Literally, I was just kind of stuck in one groove at the end.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 8th
DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOUR TEAM HAS MADE GAINS?
“I feel like the Hendrick guys are really close to winning right now. I don’t feel like I’m close to winning yet. I feel like I’ve had eighth to twelfth place car speed all year long, I just haven’t gotten the finisher. The last couple of weeks we’ve finally got to finish some races where we deserve. We still have a lot of room to improve, but it is nice to see some Chevy’s up there.”
WHAT WAS IT LIKE FOR YOU BEHIND THE WHEEL DURING THE CLOSING LAPS?
“Restarts were intense, probably a little more intense than the old package was. I thought once we got some green flag laps in, I didn’t think it was easy to pass at all. On a couple of guys, I was slower than them, so I could hold them up and take their air away, which I’m sure was frustrating for them. In the pack, if you caught somebody, you could pass them.”
TYLER REDDICK, NO. 31 TAME THE BEAST CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 9th
THOUGHTS ON THE TODAY’S FINISH?
“We are very fortunate to have a lot of cars that were trapped down a lap or two. It honestly saved us from having a pretty unfortunate finish to how good we were at times throughout the race. I think we could have definitely had a little more there with the way the situation played out. From that aspect, it’s disappointing, but a top ten has a lot of positives. It was a lot of fun driving the car. It was a unique opportunity. I always want more. I’ve raced against some of these guys in the Xfinity Series. It’s still a lot of fun to finish in the top ten, but we didn’t come here to run top ten. We can here for the win.”
CHRIS BUESCHER, NO. 37 KROGER YOUR PERSONAL PIT STOP CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 10th
IT LOOKS LIKE YOU REALLY FOUND STRONG RACING AT THE END?
“It was really fun all day. This group did a fantastic job this week. We knew we had a good car. I’m not complaining about the system, I loved it. We did not qualify as good as we wanted to, but it was something that we sacrificed to be able to go out there and run up there. We did not need that caution at the end, that definitely made it hard to get going for the first two laps. After that, we were really solid. I had a lot of fun. I always love Kansas. This has been a really good track for me over the years. We always put on a good show. We are pretty happy with that.”
TAKE US FROM THE CAUTION TO THE END.
“It was just chaos. On the restart, you are just trying to get up to speed and by the time you get to turn one, you are three or four-wide. That’s frustrating, but it’s also exciting. It’s not what we needed; we definitely needed 10 to 15 laps in a run all the way to the end. We had a fantastic car and really good speed. Hats off to this group.”
TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 13th
“This just wasn’t our day. We decided to run a setup similar to our Texas car that ran well back in March after practice didn’t go how we wanted it to. Our GEICO Camaro ZL1 qualified well with it, but we weren’t quite sure what it would do during the race because all of the intermediate tracks are just so different from each other. It started off a little loose, but my team made great adjustments when they had the opportunity and I was really happy with my car by the end of Stage 2. I wish we could have gotten a better finish, but we will take this as a learning night and be ready to come back in the fall.”
Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.
About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is one of the world’s largest car brands, doing business in more than 100 countries and selling more than 4.0 million cars and trucks a year. Chevrolet provides customers with fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.
