MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY
AUTO CLUB 400
TEAM CHEVY RACE NOTES & QUOTES
MARCH 17, 2019

TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL FINISHING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
6th KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1
10th AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW COATINGS CAMARO ZL1
11th CHASE ELLIOTT, NO 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1
12th KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CAMARO ZL1
15th WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1

TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL FINISHING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Kyle Busch (Toyota)
2nd Joey Logano (Ford)
3rd Brad Keselowski (Ford)
4rd Kevin Harvick (Ford)
5rd Ryan Blaney (Ford)

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season continues next weekend at Martinsville Speedway with the STP 500 on Sunday, March 24 at 2 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES:

KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 6th
“We had a good day. I was just hoping to get a top 5 and came home just a bit short. But the growth rate of us at Ganassi and the adjustments we’re making, I couldn’t be happier. I’m smiling as I’m driving the car. It’s so much fun to toss it down in there with all this downforce and the horsepower, you just pitch it sideways and see if it’s going to stick. But, we know we’ve got our work cut out for us. It’s awesome to run up front. I’m smiling. But, we know at our growth rate, we’re not on a plateau yet. I’ve got to keep going.”

TALK ABOUT KYLE BUSCH, YOUR BROTHER’S ACHIEVEMENT OF 200 NASCAR WINS TODAY?
HE GOT A SPEEDING PENALTY BUT CAME BACK AND WON HIS 200TH. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THAT?
“Yeah, I thought he was done. Denny (Hamlin) got back up to 7th. Those guys, man, when they’re dialed in, they’re hard to catch. And, at the growth rate we’re growing at Ganassi with the No. 1 car, we’ve got to keep going because these guys are a couple steps ahead of us, maybe even more than that, but we’ve done well as a team to find the speed we need to and to come away with good consistent finishes. But, this is a big day. For my little brother to have 200 wins, they’re all added up through his hard work and his dedication to perfection. Not bat for two kids with an attitude from Vegas.”

IT’S A BUSCH FAMILY TRADITION, ISN’T IT?
“As far as attitudes and winning? I’ve got to hold up my end of the bargain. I’ve gotten too nice and I’m not winning enough; but I’m having fun. I love the Ganassi guys. Matt McCall (crew chief) wants more. I know he does. I want more. I was hoping for a top 5 today but we’ll take it. All in all, we’re running where we need to be running.”

ARE YOU PROUD TO BE LEADING THE CHEVY CONTINGENT? THIS IS THE THIRD TIME THIS YEAR THAT YOU’VE BEEN THE TOP BOWTIE
“I want to see more Bowties up there all around me. It’s those teams that are there right now with Penske, SHR, Gibbs, that’s what’s towing the boat and towing the whole sequence. For us at Ganassi, we’ve got to cross over that threshold and get to that next level. Whether Chevy is going to help us or we’re taking them, we’re just going to continue to work hard as a team no matter what it is.”

AT VEGAS, YOU HAD YOUR STRONG RUN THAT WAS HELPED BY MATT’S PIT DECISION, BUT TODAY IT SEEMED LIKE IT WAS MORE ABOUT WHAT THE CAR COULD DO. HOW DO YOU FEEL THE CAR AND YOU GUYS HAVE IMPROVED IN THE LAST TWO WEEKS BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T NEED A PIT CALL TO GET POSITION?
“The biggest thing is we’re not getting stage points. At the end of the day, I think we might only get 30 points today. It’s fun to finish well and to have that accolade, but the way you run this series is you’ve got to have stage points. So, we’ve got to qualify better. Right now the RCR guys are doing that. As a Chevy group, Hendrick was good at Phoenix last week. We’ve got to cover more bases quicker. We’re going a good job of getting entrenched with each other, but we also need to start pinpointing where we can gain that time.”

WAS IT A CHOICE OF PICKING YOUR SET-UP FOR QUALIFYING OR YOUR CHOICE OF PICKING YOUR SET-UP FOR RACE DAY WITH THE SHORT TIME YOU HAVE TO PRACTICE NOW?
“I didn’t like the way our car was handling and I didn’t want to jump out in that draft. I didn’t think I was going to be able to even add throttle being in the draft. And so, I just went rogue and qualified on my own. We ended up 21st. It wasn’t the right thing to do, but we know we need more help and we have to do more work on Fridays.”

WHEN YOU SAID DURING THE RACE YOUR CAR WAS ALMOST TOO GOOD, WHAT DID YOU MEAN? WAS EVERYTHING JUST GOING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION AT THAT POINT?
“Well, when I say too good it means it’s not doing anything severely wrong and yet our lap times were two tenths too slow. Then when we loosened it back up, I’m driving with elbows out as hard as I can, and we got our lap time back, but then we’ll cook our tires off at the end of the run. And that’s what happened where we didn’t quite bring hope the top 5.”

TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 27th
“We had a really great GEICO Camaro ZL1 at the start of this race. It was handling the best it had all weekend. My guys had found something that was going to work and keep our good finishes going, but the flat tire under green at the end of Stage 1 really hurt us. We had strategy plans to get our laps back if we could ever catch the cautions that we needed, but those just didn’t happen. It’s unfortunate that a tire ruined our day, but that’s not going to get this team down. We are going to keep grinding and working hard to be ready for Martinsville next weekend.”