Austin Dillon and the AAA Team Fight Hard All Day at Dover International Speedway But Miss Round of 12 by 4 Points
“We finished 16th and missed the Round of 12 by just four points. Truthfully, I put it back on myself in Chicago. I got a speeding penalty there where we were going to get stage points and a top 10 run and that just kind of crushed our points situation. Today was more luck than anything when the No. 33 spun out and put us two laps down. I had to take the wave around and we fought out of that hole to get back on to the lead lap. The No. 17 (Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.) played the strategy right and got the stage points. We were racing him pretty much the rest of the day. So, we tried some more strategy stuff by staying out there at the end on older tires and we didn’t get the caution. Congratulations to the No. 17 team for moving on to the next round. Our AAA team will just keep working hard and see if we can’t get a win by the end of the year and come back stronger next year. I’m proud of my guys. They fought hard. I would have liked to battle down to the end with the No. 31. But, that first caution kind of killed our day right there.”
– Austin Dillon
Early Caution Hurts Paul Menard’s Day in Richmond/Menards Chevrolet at Dover International Speedway
“This Richmond/Menards Chevrolet fired off pretty decent to start the race. It hugged the center okay, but we couldn’t go anywhere in traffic. We were in a decent place and hit pit road for some solid adjustments, but when that caution came out in the middle of green flag stops it hurt us pretty bad. Track position was key and we were stuck laps down and forced to take the wave around and get on a different strategy. You can’t predict cautions and we were just on the wrong side of that deal today.”
– Paul Menard
Ryan Newman and the Waste Masters Team Make Valiant Effort to Transfer into the Round of 12 But Come Up Two Points Short at Dover
“We gave it all we had today, but unfortunately, we just weren’t good enough. It’s as simple as that. We got snookered on that pit sequence there where the No. 17 took advantage of it, got some points and that’s all it took. I want to thank Waste Masters Solutions for coming on board and sponsoring us this weekend. We just didn’t have what it took. You cannot run like we have the last three races and expect to transfer in and compete for a championship. We have some work to do to build upon next year and we’ll do all we can to improve.”
– Ryan Newman