NASCAR CUP SERIES
BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
FOOD CITY 500
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE REPORT
MARCH 17, 2024
Bowman, Larson Lead Chevrolet with Top-Five Finishes at Bristol
- Alex Bowman led Chevrolet to the checkered-flag in the NASCAR Cup Series Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway – driving his No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1 to a fourth-place finish.
- Three Camaro ZL1’s earned top-10 results at the Tennessee short-track, with Bowman leading his Hendrick Motorsports teammates Kyle Larson, No. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM Camaro ZL1, in fifth; and Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1, in eighth.
- With his second top-five finish of the season, Larson took over the top position in the NASCAR Cup Series driver points standings.
- The 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season continues at Circuit of The Americas with the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix on Sunday, March 24, at 3:30 P.M. ET. Live coverage can be found on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-20:
POS. DRIVER
4th Alex Bowman, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1
5th Kyle Larson, No. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM Camaro ZL1
8th Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1
15th Ross Chastain, No. 1 Busch Light Fishing Camaro ZL1
18th Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Jockey Outdoors by Luke Byran Camaro ZL1
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE QUOTES:
Alex Bowman, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1
Finished: 4th
Bowman on his fourth-place finish at Bristol Motor Speedway:
“We just made our left-front tire last a little longer than some others there. I think it was a good, solid day for the No. 48 Ally Chevy team. I feel like we had a pretty good Chevy, but we just had to go roll around half-speed and try to make it last. It kind of reminded me of Greenville Pickens (Speedway), short-track racing in the East Series, or something like that. Just had to be really, really, really patient. Obviously that long green-flag run where we all pitted, I think our right-front probably lasted the longest. It got us some track position and we ended up with a fourth-place finish. I don’t really know where my race car could have ended up, straight-up, because we were never able to run hard, but it was pretty good.”
Kyle Larson, No. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM Camaro ZL1
Finished: 5th
How difficult was it to get into a rhythm in today’s race?
“Yeah, it was tough.. tough to get a rhythm. I felt like I was kind of in a rhythm when I could run around fourth to sixth behind the Gibbs cars and kind of pace myself. I felt like I was doing a good job of managing my stuff, we just never got a long run. And then the one time we get a long run is when we had the penalty and we had to go to the back, and abuse my tire to get back to the top-five.
It all just kind of weirdly worked out. I still don’t really know how we ended fifth, but we will take it and move on.
You’ll take a fifth. You don’t care how you got there, as long as you get to fifth, right?
“Yeah, for sure. Obviously, I would have loved to not get that penalty because I felt like I could pace the 11 (Denny Hamlin) well, and I thought I could manage my tires good. He would have been hard to beat, but we could have ended up a little bit better and we could have ended up worse. So, yeah, I think I will take the fifth and be happy with it.”
Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1
Finished: 8th
For short-tracks, is this a good thing?
“It’s a better race than we’ve had here. It was pretty fun from my seat.”
What made this race challenging?
“Normally, you could just bury the car into the corner so far and you don’t ever really get beat by guys with tires that bad. But you could just fall off a cliff there with the way that was. It was like racing at a really old, worn out short-track. It was a lot of fun. I think there was probably a little better balance somewhere up there, but I had a good time.”
AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Mountain Dew/Doritos Camaro ZL1
Finished: 23rd
“We initially struggled to find balance in our No. 16 Mtn Dew Cheetos Chevy. Combined with the tire issues the field faced, we had our hands full. I’m proud of our team and Travis [Mack] on the pit box. The way our day started, it wasn’t looking good, but we refocused as a team and made the most out of our day.”
Austin Dillon, No. 3 BREZTRI Camaro ZL1
Finished: 24th
“We fought hard with the No. 3 BREZTRI Chevy. It didn’t matter what we did, we just kept losing tires. We were kind of in a box there trying to save and trying to go. Man, it was a weird race. Hate it that we couldn’t hold on because that would have been good run if we would have gotten ourselves into a better position. It was a good fight. We’ll go get a little bit more next week at COTA.”
Daniel Hemric, No. 31 Cirkul Camaro ZL1
Finished: 28th
“Lots of highs and lows during this long race. We had a solid second stage, but after making some contact with the wall, we just fought a really tight-handling No. 31 Cirkul Chevy. The right front would wear quickly, and the rear would start going away not long after. Hopefully we can come back in the fall for some redemption.”
Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.
About Chevrolet
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