Danica Patrick and the No. 10 Nature’s Bakery Chevrolet SS team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) brought home a workmanlike 17th-place finish after starting 27th and overcoming an early race incident not of her doing in Saturday night’s Kentucky 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta.
We started saving fuel as soon as the final green-flag run started and we saved exactly the right amount. We were out at the end. I think all of us drivers that made it knew what we were doing. It's just a matter of if we thought we were as good as we were. I'm just proud of the guys. It's our first top-five finish of the year, but we'll keep digging." - Ryan Newman
“I don’t know if it blew a tire or if something broke in the car," said Allmendinger about the accident that ultimately ended his night. "Everything kind of happened at once. Unfortunately, it was right on the bottom of the racetrack on the tri-oval and it went straight to the fence.
"This is a night I’m not gonna forget. Last year we came here and I thought we were the best car and didn’t catch a single break, didn’t execute, and those two things kept us out of victory lane, not just here but a lot of times last year, and this week we caught some breaks. We executed and we were able to win, so not the fastest car but it’s still a hell of a team effort to be proud of.”
“It’s definitely an emotional rollercoaster for sure the last few laps of that race. When we pitted, I guess it was with about 70 to go, we knew that everyone was a little bit short. I feel like we’ve been on the good side of the fuel mileage this year.
A lap-87 crash that collected fellow rookie Chase Elliott sent a strong-running Ryan Blaney and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion to the garage early and to a 35th-place finish in the Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway Saturday night.
“That restart was pretty hectic from the beginning with the 78 getting loose and it kind of put everybody in a bad spot, and it wound up with us being in the middle of three-wide into three. It’s so hard to get into that corner all night with a car close to behind you and outside of you, and no one lifting either, and it’s just an unfortunate spot we got put in and I hate to see two really good cars tore up.
“I was just looking at the tire in there. I got loose and hit the wall about 10 laps before that and the car got really loose when you tap the right-rear quarter over. You’re trying to slow down a lot and the brakes started going away and I don’t know what happened after that, if a rotor blew up or what made the tire go down, but the right-front went flat and I was pretty much along for the ride after that.
“This is a great effort by this team and everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing. Everything was really, really good about this race car since we unloaded. NOS Energy Drink Camry had really good speed and Chris Gayle (crew chief) and the guys did an awesome job each and every week, this 18 Camry is always the best, always the one to beat.
The three-time Supercars champion from Auckland, New Zealand, led a race-high 74 of 110 laps and fended off Chase Briscoe over a 47-lap dash to the finish to notch his eighth Cup victory on a road course and his second in a row in Sonoma, California.
Kevin Rivenbark opened the JBS Equipment NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series presented by Elite Motorsports Road to the Championship with a victory on Sunday at Summit Motorsports Park
Shane van Gisbergen, driver of the No. 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, was first to the checkered at Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 NASCAR Cup Series race at Sonoma Raceway.
The 19-year-old Zilisch from Charlotte, North Carolina, achieved a career-best seventh-place result amid a difficult Cup Series rookie campaign in Sonoma, California.
RFK Racing put on a show of determination at Sonoma Raceway, led by Ryan Preece's eighth-place finish in the No. 60 Consumer Cellular Ford Mustang Dark Horse.
