NASCAR CUP SERIES
CIRCUIT OF THE AMERICAS
ECHOPARK TEXAS GRAND PRIX
TEAM CHEVY RACE NOTES & QUOTES
MAY 23, 2021

CHASE ELLIOTT CAPTURES 800th WIN FOR CHEVROLET IN NASCAR CUP SERIES
First-Ever NCS Victory at COTA

AUSTIN, Texas – (May 23, 2021) – Chase Elliott’s win of the inaugural EchoPark Texas Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas (COTA) in his No. 9 Llumar Camaro ZL1 1LE scored the 800th all-time victory for Chevrolet in NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) competition. This unprecedented win secured a significant milestone for Chevrolet as the most successful manufacturer in NASCAR history.

In addition to reaching this 800th triumph for the brand, Elliott brought the Camaro ZL1 1LE to Victory Lane for the 14th time since becoming Chevrolet’s flagship NCS race vehicle in 2020, and the fifth time in the 2021 NCS season.

“I couldn’t be more excited,” said Elliott. “I’ve never won a rain race before, so it’s kind of cool. And I’m just super proud of our team for just continuing to fight. We started the day, and we weren’t very good. I just kept pushing myself and we kept making some good changes throughout the day and got to where I thought we were on pace with those guys there at the end. So, I’m really proud of that. It’s not the greatest thing ever, for it to rain and to have a rain race win, if it’s your first one; but I think it’s okay if it’s down the road, so I’m pretty excited about that. I’m looking forward to next week and trying to keep it rolling.”

Due to inclement weather, the EchoPark Texas Grand Prix was called with 14 laps to go. Elliott’s triumph marks the first appearance for the NCS in its debut at COTA, a 3.4-mile, 20-turn, counterclockwise track circuit track with multiple elevation changes that that flow with the hilly landscape.

This win was Elliott’s 12th NCS career victory, his sixth road course win, and first of the 2021 NCS season. It also celebrated the 268th victory for Rick Hendrick and Hendrick Motorsports.

“So proud of Chase Elliott and his No. 9 Camaro team for persevering all race long and handling such challenging conditions to deliver a big win at the first race at Circuit of the Americas,” said Jim Campbell, vice president of Performance and Motorsports. “Chase’s first win of the season is extra special as it was Hendrick Motorsports 268th Cup win and Chevrolet’s 800th Cup win.”

“I’d also like to thank all of the Chevrolet engineers, and all of the drivers, crew chiefs, teams and owners who have contributed to those 800 wins over the past 66 years.”

Chevrolet’s rich heritage in NASCAR competition began when Fonty Flock took the checkered flag on March 26,1955 at Columbia Raceway in Columbia, South Carolina in his ‘55 Chevy. Sixty-six years later, the ‘Bowtie Brand’ continues to set the mark.

Chevrolet’s accolades in NASCAR racing are vast. To date, the manufacturer has earned 32 Driver titles and 39 Manufacturer titles en route to its 800 victories. No manufacturer has carried more drivers and teams to championships in NASCAR’s premier division than Chevrolet.

MILESTONE VICTORIES LIST:
1st WIN: 3/26/55 – Fonty Flock, Columbia, SC
100th WIN: 7/07/62 – Rex White – Columbia, SC
200th WIN: 6/11/78 – Benny Parsons – Riverside, CA
300th WIN: 4/20/86 – Dale Earnhardt, Sr. – North Wilkesboro, NC
400th WIN: 9/10/94 – Terry Labonte – Richmond, VA
500th WIN: 8/12/01 – Jeff Gordon – Watkins Glen, NY
600th WIN: 3/25/07 – Kyle Busch – Bristol, TN
700th WIN: 11/4/12 – Jimmie Johnson – Ft. Worth, TX
800th WIN: 5/23/21 – Chase Elliott – Austin, TX

DURATION BETWEEN MILESTONE WINS:
1st to 100th: 2660 days = 7 years, 3 months, 11 days
100th to 200th: 5818 days = 15 years, 11 months, 4 days
200th to 300th: 2870 days = 7 years, 10 months, 9 days
300th to 400th: 3065 days = 8 years, 4 months, 21 days
400th to 500h: 2528 days = 6 years, 11 months, 2 days
500th to 600th: 2051 days = 5 years, 7 months, 13 days
600th to 700th: 2051 days = 5 years, 7 months, 10 days
700th to 800th: 3122 days = 8 years, 6 months, 19 days

WINS BY NAMEPLATE:
Bel Air or Biscayne = 55
Chevelle/Chevelle Laguna/Laguna S-3 = 36
Lumina = 61
Monte Carlo/Monte Carlo SS = 396
Impala/Impala SS = 152
Chevrolet SS = 73
Camaro/Camaro ZL1/Camaro ZL1 1LE = 27

Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.

About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands, available in 79 countries with more than 3.2 million cars and trucks sold in 2020. Chevrolet models include electric and 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.

AUSTIN, Texas (May 23, 2021) – Chase Elliott was declared the winner Sunday in a rain-shortened EchoPark Automotive Texas Grand Prix in the NASCAR Cup Series’ inaugural visit to the challenging Circuit of The Americas road course. With Elliott leading, NASCAR officials called the race due to inclement weather with 14 laps remaining in the 68-lap race.

Elliott, the defending series champ, took the lead from Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman and his No. 48 Chevrolet at lap 50 and led five laps before a caution came out on lap 53 for weather. Elliott, driving the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, secured his sixth career road course win and his fifth in the last six road course races. It also marked his first victory of this season and the milestone 800th NASCAR Cup Series win for Chevrolet.

“I couldn’t be more excited. I’ve never won a rain race before, so it’s kind of cool,” Elliott said. “And I’m just super proud of our team for just continuing to fight. We started the day, and we weren’t very good. I just kept pushing myself and we kept making some good changes throughout the day and got to where I thought we were on pace with those guys there at the end. So, I’m really proud of that… I’m looking forward to next week and trying to keep it rolling.”

The race on the 3.41-mile, 20-turn winding layout opened with spits of rain forcing teams to choose between racing slicks and wet-weather tires for the green flag. The majority took the slicks, which prompted a quick round of pit stops for those teams as the rain increased. Pole-winner Tyler Reddick led the first lap and then Team Penske’s Austin Cindric, the Xfinity Series points leader making one of his scheduled Cup starts, led the next four laps on slicks before he spun out and had to pit to change tires.Cindric teammate Joey Logano grabbed the lead on lap 11 and led the final five laps to win the first stage.

Rain continued to increase at the end of the first stage and during the opening of the second stage.

Visibility issues through the rainy mist created by the cars’ wake was a factor in a pair of incidents in Stage 2 that took out several contenders. In the first, Bubba Wallace ran into the back of Kevin Harvick’s car, which also collected Christopher Bell, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ryan Blaney in the aftermath. The cars of Wallace, Bell and Harvick sustained enough damage to be sent to the garage.

In the second incident, which occurred at lap 24, Martin Truex Jr. hit the back of Michael McDowell’s car and then Truex’s damaged vehicle was hit by Cole Custer’s No. 41 Ford at speed, lifting the No. 19 Toyota high into the air. Custer’s car then careened to the left and hit an outside retaining wall and caught fire. None of the drivers were injured in either of the incidents.

NASCAR officials then sent out the Air Titan trucks to help clear some standing water from the track before Stage 2 resumed. Kyle Busch won the second stage after leading the final five laps. Busch, who won the Xfinity race on Saturday, led 12 laps and appeared to be on his way to a weekend sweep in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

Green flag pit stops shuffled the field and Kyle Larson, Ross Chastain and Bowman all led laps before Elliott took over on lap 50.

Elliott’s sixth career road course victory puts him closer to NASCAR’s all-time road course winner Jeff Gordon, who has nine victories, and Tony Stewart, who has eight. He says he is dedicated to being a strong contender at all venues, not just road courses.

“At the end of the day we have to continue to push ourselves and try to be better and try to push forward at all tracks, not just road courses,” Elliott said. “A win is a win at all of them and I’m going to enjoy them all.

“These races are too hard to win to pick and choose on the how, you want to win them without rain to change the normal distance. A win is a win, and it’s a big win today for our team and for Chevrolet.”

Larson finished second in his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy and was followed by Logano, who led a race-high 14 laps in his No. 22 Penske Ford. Chastain was fourth in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevy and A.J. Allmendinger rounded out the top five in his No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevy. Other notable finishers included Reddick, who finished ninth after winning the pole in his No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevy and Kyle Busch, who finished 10th.

Denny Hamlin maintained the points lead despite finishing 14th in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. He leads William Byron, who finished 11th in the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy, by 98 points. Larson is third (-110), Logano fourth (-111) and Elliott fifth (-116).

The NASCAR Cup Series moves on to Charlotte Motor Speedway for its annual Memorial Day weekend running of the prestigious Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday, May 30, at 6 p.m. ET (FOX, PRN Radio).

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series — EchoPark Automotive Texas Grand Prix
Circuit of the Americas Post | Sunday, May 23, 2021

Ford Finishing Results:
3rd — Joey Logano
6th — Chase Briscoe
7th — Michael McDowell
13th — Chris Buescher
17th — Ryan Blaney
18th — Anthony Alfredo
19th — Brad Keselowski
23rd — Matt DiBenedetto
24th — Ryan Newman
25th — Austin Cindric
26th — Aric Almirola
28th — Garrett Smithley
30th — Josh Bilicki
31st — Kyle Tilley
36th — Cole Custer
37th — Kevin Harvick

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang — WAS THERE ANY POINTS WHERE YOU FELT IT NEEDED TO END RIGHT THEN AND THERE? “No, I felt fine most of it. It felt uncomfortable at times on the restarts if you were fifth on back. It felt pretty uncomfortable because they get to the point that the little red light, you can’t even see that light anymore. They don’t have to be that far — maybe 30-40 feet in front of you and you’d lose their red light and that’s where it gets a little sketchy.”

SKETCHY SEEMED TO BE A COMMON WORD TODAY. “Yeah, it was, but it was fun. I had a blast. It was mentally draining, mentally very, very challenging out there because the track changed so much from lap to lap. One lap it’s pouring. The next lap it’s raining a little bit and then you’re hydroplaning everywhere and you’re really slipping and sliding, and tires meant something, which I think was surprising to everybody — that tires meant something. You saw the 18 drive through the field one time. We put tires on and were able to drive through the field, so it was kind of fun. We’re all learning together and trying to figure it all out at the same time.”

ARE YOU GOOD WITH THEM CALLING IT OR SHOULD THEY HAVE WAITED LONGER? “Here’s the situation. If we kept going, everything was fine. If we kept clicking laps off, probably everything would have been fine. Yeah, we were hydroplaning a lot down the straightaway. Yes, there was standing water. What’s the line? I don’t know. I think we’re all trying to figure it out together, but once they put the yellow out, then you can’t restart the race because you pack everybody up and they’re hydroplaning and you can’t see. It was a recipe for disaster so you can’t restart the race, but everyone was spread out at that moment, so you were probably OK, but maybe safe than sorry after looking at that crash with Cole and the 19. I didn’t see that coming. I didn’t see the race, but I just saw a replay a minute ago when I got out. When that’s kind of a situation, you need to really be aware of the situation.”

DOES THERE NEED TO BE A DISCUSSION ABOUT HOW TO OFFICIATE THESE TYPE OF RACES IN THE FUTURE? “Yeah, I think the biggest thing is just trying to understand the spray. That’s what we’ve got to fix. I’m going to Richmond tomorrow to work on a rain test. I don’t know, maybe they’ll bring some mud flaps or something to put the spray down. Honestly, I think you’ve got to do something like that. I know that sounds goofy and it sounds like a joke, but I honestly think you’ve got to do something to get the spray down to where we can see where we’re going. Once you do that, we’re good to go. We actually raced fine. It was actually a lot of fun. The racing was good, so it was a crazy day.”

WOULD A REAR DIFFUSER ON THE NEXT GEN HELP? “I have no clue. I don’t know. I don’t even know what a diffuser does in the first place (laughing).”

CINDRIC SAID TO PUT MUD FLAPS ON THE CAR. “He’s right. It’s true. You need to do something. You’re still gonna have spray, but you’ve got to close off the back of the car a little bit. That’s gonna kill downforce, but if everyone’s got it, it’s fine and you’re going so slow what kind of downforce are you making anyway?”

DO YOU WANT TO COME BACK HERE? “Yeah, honestly I thought the racing was pretty fun. We won’t know what it’s like when it’s dry much, but there was definitely passing zones. You could pass cars. It’s one of the best road courses I think I’ve gone to when it comes to race-ability. You’re not stuck behind somebody all the time. There are passing zones and things you can do, so, yeah. Our road course stuff has been good lately. I’m pretty proud of our finish. If everything cycles out, we cycle back to second, which it didn’t obviously with the 9. I wasn’t good enough to beat the 5 on the long run for sure, but we’re making progress on them.”

DID YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT BRAD WORKING ON SOMETHING FOR NEXT YEAR? “I didn’t know. Obviously, you look at what happened last year and a one-year term and you could kind of see the writing on the wall for the most part. Whatever he does and how everything ends up — I don’t think anything has actually been officially announced — but I think it’s definitely an interesting period for us at Team Penske and for Brad in his life.”

MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 34 Outwest Express Ford Mustang — “The beginning of the race wasn’t too bad. We started out on kind of a damp track and then obviously rain started coming down. It was a lot of fun in the first little bit, but those restarts, once the rain started really coming down was so treacherous. Our cars don’t spray like a sports car or an open-wheel car that has ground effects or a rear diffuser. It doesn’t shoot it in the air. It stays on the ground, so you just can’t see the car in front of you. It was super treacherous. The back straightaway accident there was completely my fault. I saw a brake light, but I couldn’t see anything else. Normally, you’re looking for the bridge for your braking markers, looking for something, but I could not see anything so I just rolled out of the gas. Obviously, the guys behind me didn’t and I hate that, but I literally could not see anything. The conditions were really treacherous. Once the cars got single filed out you were OK, but as soon as you got within four or five car lengths of a car it was pretty tough to see, and it always is in the rain, but a little bit different in our cars. And then at the end with the heavy rain our cars just hydroplane so bad that you just go down the straightaway and lose it, so those are always really dangerous when you’re hydroplaning down the straightaway. But, at the same time, it’s the same for everybody so you’re always in the same conditions and have to manage them the best you can, but at the same time I felt really unsafe at the end there just making laps by myself trying to hold onto a top 10 finish.”

YOU GOT THAT TOP 10 FINISH. DOES THAT HELP? “Bittersweet. I wish I could have beat Joey for that stage. That stage point would have been nice, but he was just a little bit better than us. We got stage points and ran in the top 10. We passed a lot of cars, so it was a great day for the Outwest Express Ford Mustang. We’ll take it and take another top 10 and get ready for Charlotte. That’s always a big week, so looking forward to going home.”

CHASE BRISCOE, No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang — “It was crazy with the conditions. With the Roval I felt like I was gonna have a pretty good understanding of what it was gonna be like, but we’re just going so much faster here that the vision was way worse. The grip level, I felt like was honestly a little bit better, but you just couldn’t see. There could be a guy stopped in the middle of the straightaway and you would have hit him wide-open, so between that and hydroplaning it was definitely challenging. Overall, it was good for us. I felt like we passed a lot of cars today. We continue to make our car better and this is the type of run we needed where we were up front a lot of the day.”

DID NASCAR MAKE THE RIGHT CALL BY ENDING IT EARLY? “I think so. We were just gonna keep tearing stuff up. I’m all for racing in the rain, but it was dangerous. You couldn’t see anything and literally anybody could have been stopped and you would have hit him wide-open. That’s how bad it was. It was hairy to say the least, but it was fun, too.”

RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 BodyArmor Ford Mustang — “Overall, it wasn’t a bad day. We kind of just got caught up in some wrecks and came home with an OK finish. It wasn’t great, but we’ll go again next week.”

EVERYBODY IS SAYING YOU COULDN’T SEE OUT THERE. HOW BAD WAS IT? “You couldn’t see a thing. I thought down the backstretch was pretty dangerous because you just can’t see anything. I got run over pretty hard by somebody not seeing anything and just clobbered me, and it happened a couple other times. That was pretty wild not being able to see nothing. It was one of those deals.”

CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 autoTempest Ford Mustang — WAS IT THE RIGHT CALL TO END IT THERE? “I don’t know. I have mixed emotions because I felt like we had more in us, but at the same time I haven’t seen the replays of some of those crashes on the back, but when vision is zero it’s dangerous. I think that’s where this amount of rain and even though we’re standing outside now and it’s not terrible, but it would have taken a lot of time to get the standing water off. Unfortunately, it comes down to vision. That’s it. The cars don’t drive that bad in these conditions, it’s just vision. We can’t see.”

HOW WERE YOU FROM A COMPETITION STANDPOINT TODAY? “We were in the ballpark for competitiveness. I thought the setup stuff was pretty good in a lot of different scenarios. We fought some brake issues all day since qualifying and that’s what we’re talking about and trying to get to the bottom of because that held us back today. That’s what kept us from being able to drive a lot harder, so trying to diagnose some of that will really help put everything into perspective and help figure out what was going on because we had a lot of speed in the car.”

KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Mobil 1 Thousand.com Ford Mustang — Involved in accident on lap 19

“It’s the most unsafe thing I’ve ever done in a race car by a lot. You can’t see anything down the straightaways. These cars were not built to run in the rain and when you can’t see, my spotter said, ‘Check up, check up,’ because he thought he saw two cars wrecking. I let off and the guy behind me hit me wide-open because he never saw me. It’s unbelievable that we’re out there doing what we’re doing because we’re in race cars that aren’t made to do this, and if you can’t see going down the straightaway it’s absolutely not safe, not even close.”

SO YOU HAD NO BUSINESS BEING OUT THERE? “We don’t have any business being out in the rain, period. All I can say is this is the worst decision that we’ve ever made in our sport that I’ve been a part of, and I’ve never felt more unsafe in my whole racing career, period.”

COLE CUSTER, No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang — Involved in accident on lap 25

“I’m all good. It didn’t hurt as much as I thought it was gonna be, but it’s just that you can’t see anything. It’s pretty bad. I mean, you can’t see a foot in front of your car. I was just rolling down the backstretch. You can’t see anything. I’m just so frustrated about having our day end like this. It killed the car and it’s just really frustrating. It’s not fair to all our guys and everybody at Haas Tooling.com and everybody at SHR, so it’s just you can’t see anything.”

“You just can’t see anything on that backstretch. I think the same thing happened to us at the same time, somebody was going slower and by the time you want to slow down, they’re in your front bumper so there’s no chance of you even missing it. It’s just so frustrating. We just wanted a good run and it’s just not fair to all our guys and everybody at SHR to have a destroyed race car for really no good reason. It’s frustrating, but we’ll move on to the next one.”

BUSCH LEADS TOYOTA AT CIRCUIT OF THE AMERICAS
Kyle Busch follows Xfinity Series victory with a top-10 finish in Texas

AUSTIN, Texas (May 23, 2021) – Kyle Busch (10th) was the top-finishing Toyota Camry in the EchoPark Automotive Texas Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas on Sunday afternoon.

Toyota Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Circuit of the Americas
Race 14 of 36 – 68 laps, 231.880 miles

TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Chase Elliott*
2nd, Kyle Larson*
3rd, Joey Logano*
4th, Ross Chastain*
5th, AJ Allmendinger*
10th, KYLE BUSCH
14th, DENNY HAMLIN
21st, TY DILLON
35th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
38th, CHRISTOPHER BELL
39th, BUBBA WALLACE
*non-Toyota driver

TOYOTA QUOTES

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Mix Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 10th

How difficult was the visibility?

“There were certainly times where you could not see. You’re behind guys and in traffic and there is just so much spray down the backstretch that you just could not see. There were other times for me, running around the race track where I think I was up to ninth or eighth or something and I’m blind through the esses. Just so much dirt and stuff up on the windshield that the windshield can’t stay clean. Light rain is okay, but heavy rain is not.”

What could NASCAR learn from today’s experience for future road races in the rain?

“It’s all discretion, it’s all a discretion call on how much rain is too much rain. We certainly found today that there were definitely times with too much rain and too much puddling. They would clean it off and it was just sprinkling, it was fine after that, no issues after that. Single file restarts was a smart idea. We’re doing all we can and we’re trying to put on a show for the fans.”

Are there other road courses where these conditions could come about if we have rain on a road course?

“I think Road America, if I remember right, they have a super long back straightaway with a kink in it so that’s going to be even worse than this one was. There’s definitely times where conditions are treacherous. We need to be smart about it.”

Did your pace fall off late in the race?

“We had super pace early on and we were really good. Once it go to where it was raining heavier, we lost pace to the 9 (Chase Elliott) and those guys. We were going to finish third. A couple tires were killed with just how bad it was driving and how wet it was so we came in to try to get better tires to carve through the wet and that didn’t do anything so we cost ourselves seven spots, but it is what it is.”

Should NASCAR have waited to call the race?

“It’s been four hours, enough is enough. White flag, wave it.”

Did you have any fun during the race?

“It was fun for a while there earlier when it was just sprinkling, but once it got too heavy, it was dangerous. It was treacherous.”

TY DILLON, No. 96 Bass Pro Shops/Black Rifle Coffee Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 21st

How was your race overall today?

“You’re just learning and adapting the whole time as the rain strengthens and weakens so it’s a moving target. But there the last 15 or 20 laps, I really found the groove. Really ran some good laps and wish we could have kept racing and ran some more. I think we could have had an even better finish. Proud of where we ended up. We had a couple issues on pit road that kind of got us behind and that loose wheel kind of put us behind on that last stage restart. Grateful for the opportunity and thankful to Bass Pro Shops and Black Rifle Coffee.”

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 35th

What did you feel and see in the accident?

“I don’t know, I couldn’t see anything. Going down the backstretch just trying to stay on the road and next thing I know, I saw a taillight and it was on my hood in a split second. You just can’t see anything out there. It’s a shame for everyone that works so hard on these cars and Bass Pro Shops, Tracker and everybody. We got in a bad spot with oil on our windshield. Couldn’t see, had to pit and get a tearoff and then getting in the back there. I don’t know what happened up ahead. If there was a car sitting in the track or slow or what was happening. You can’t see. Just wide open in third gear and next thing there’s a car on my hood, it’s not a good feeling. I’m trying to stay in the gas and keep going. I want to get out of that area and through the braking zone because I knew I was going to get hit again and the next thing I knew, I got hit so hard that I was 10-feet in the air. I don’t know. Just wild. Hopefully, everybody else is okay, that’s the most important thing. Just a mess, you can’t see anything.”

How would you describe the racing and that moment of impact?

“Well, I mean, the only way to describe it is you can’t see anything so I mean it’s, you just mash the gas and going through the gears on the backstretch praying that nobody’s going to be there and all of a sudden I seen the tail light flash, and I was already in through him. It happens that fast when you’re going that fast and then my thought was that once I hit that guy , I need to try to keep going because I knew they were coming from behind, and literally next thing I know, again, I get drilled so I mean, there’s just nothing you can do in those situations. A shame for Bass Pro and Tracker and all our guys and girls are working on these things. Sorry, we got behind there just. We got a little oil windshield at some point there and I literally couldn’t see anything and I had to pit and we got off sequence in the back there and then it’s you know it’s really, really hard to see back there so it’s I don’t know it’s hard, it’s really hard to race like that if you’re not in the top, you know couple cars and we’re not sure how we can make it easier or better but, man, it’s dangerous and you just get on the backstretch every lap praying there’s nobody having an issue you know you’re praying there’s not going to be a crash or a car stuck or whatever because you’re just wide open and can’t see anything. Just wrong place, wrong time.”

CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 Craftsman Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 38th

What happened from your perspective?

“I don’t exactly know what happened. I wasn’t sure if they were wrecking up there or what. I drove in blind and ran into the back of somebody. I was really looking forward to running my Craftsman Camry today – had a lot of fun in practice yesterday, but when you get into the pack, you’re just racing blind.”

Can you explain what happened in the accident?

“You probably know better than me, I’m just out there riding along and there was a car stopped in front of me and I ran into him. I don’t really have any idea what happened other than that.”

Can you explain the visibility challenges with the wipers?

“The wiper works good, but the windshields are rectangle, they’re not square so your left half and your right half of your windshield are completely blurred up. The windshield wiper works good whenever it’s working, but then on the race track you have so much spray, you’re just racing blind.”

MIKE WHEELER, crew chief, No. 23 DoorDash Toyota Camry, 23XI Racing

What happened in the accident that ended the day for Bubba Wallace?

“It was just one of those things that once you got mid-pack you just couldn’t see what was going on. Early on we were trying to talk about braking points into turn 12 and he (Bubba Wallace) just couldn’t see. We got back on a clean track and he was hitting his braking points well. Once you are back in the teens to twenties, it’s not good vision. It looked like somethingg happened between the 12 (Ryan Blaney) and 20 (Christopher Bell) first. I think the 4 (Kevin Harvick) was coached up to kind of check up when he was going 100 mph and we just ran in the back of him because we couldn’t see more than five feet in front of us.”

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