CHASE FOR THE NASCAR SPRINT CUP
ROUND 1 OF 10
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES 400
CHICAGOLAND SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER RACE NOTES & QUOTES
SEPTEMBER 18, 2016
Chase Elliott led Team Chevy with a third place finish in his No. 24 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet SS.
This was Elliott’s first Cup career race and first top 10 finish at Chicagoland Speedway
Elliott led 75 of the 267-lap race
Elliott was the highest finishing rookie
TEAM CHEVY FINISHING ORDER (TOP 12)
3rd – Chase Elliott, No. 24 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet SS
7th – Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Liftmaster Chevrolet SS
10th – Alex Bowman, No. 88 Axalta Chevrolet SS
11th – Jamie McMurray, No. 1 McDonald’s Chevrolet SS
12TH – Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS
POST-RACE CHAMPIONSHIP POINT STANDINGS (Top 16):
Martin Truex Jr., (Toyota) – 2050
Brad Keselowski (Ford) – 2049
Kyle Busch (Toyota) – 2046
Denny Hamlin (Toyota) – 2045
Joey Logano (Ford) – 2043
Chase Elliott (Chevrolet) – 2039
Matt Kenseth (Toyota) – 2038
Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet) – 2037
Carl Edwards (Toyota) – 2032
Kurt Busch (Chevrolet) – 2031
Jamie McMurray (Chevrolet) – 2030
Tony Stewart (Chevrolet) – 2028
Austin Dillon (Chevrolet) – 2027
Kevin Harvick (Chevrolet) – 2027
Kyle Larson (Chevrolet) – 2026
Chris Buescher (Ford) – 2016
NEXT RACE: Round 2 of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup takes place at Loudon, New Hampshire on Sunday, Sept. 25.
POST RACE PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 NAPA AUTO PARTS CHEVROLET SS – FINISHED 3RD
THE MODERATOR: We will continue on with our post-race media availability. We are joined now by Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 24 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports.
Chase, you did just about everything you could to get that win today. What was going through your mind when that final caution came out?
CHASE ELLIOTT: I expected it. We’ve all watched this stuff long enough; we know these races don’t go green that long typically. We know that we see late‑race cautions way more often than not. That’s a part of racing from short‑track racing all the way up to this stuff.
I’ve learned over the years, you just got to expect it from my seat, from the crew chief’s seat, from the pit crew’s perspective. You just got to be ready for it, embrace it when it happens, suck it up and try to figure out how to make it happen after it does.
THE MODERATOR: We’ll open the floor for questions for Chase.
Q. You’ve been close a couple times in races before. You seem like this is a little bit easier outcome to accept than what happened at Michigan. Is that true when it’s sort of a late caution and more random than a mistake?
CHASE ELLIOTT: No, there is no easy outcome. You know, it’s unfortunate. You hate to have it happen. As you get faced with these situations more than once, I think you learn. You learn from situation to situation.
But like I said, I felt like we did a good job as a team today trying to control the things that we could control. And you can’t control when a caution is going to come out. Granted, you can expect one a lot of the time, but you can’t control when it’s going to happen, and you certainly can’t control how many guys are going to stay out on tires and try to make something happen at the end of a race.
That’s just a part of life, part of racing.
THE MODERATOR: Chase, best of luck in New Hampshire next week.
CHASE ELLIOTT: Thank you