NASCAR CUP SERIESDARLINGTON RACEWAYTOYOTA 500TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTESMAY 20, 2020
TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:POS. DRIVER8th JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE 12th WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 1LE 13th TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 CATERPILLAR CAMARO ZL1 1LE15th KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE 16th BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 VICTORY JUNCTION CAMARO ZL1 1LETOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS: POS. DRIVER1st Denny Hamlin (Toyota)2nd Kyle Busch (Toyota)3rd Kevin Harvick (Ford)4th Brad Keselowski (Ford)5th Erik Jones (Toyota) The NASCAR Cup Series season continues at Charlotte Motor Speedway with the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday, May 24, at 6:00 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on FOX, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES:JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 8th“It was a solid night for the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet. We had to start in the back because of the crash during the first race. Things were looking pretty good early, we were able to march up through there. But the competition caution, and just so many cautions honestly, affected our strategy and affected us being able to take advantage of our strong racecar and move forward. Finally, in the middle of the race, we got some longer runs in and were able to move forward. We were in a nice position and then we were caught a lap down when the caution came out when the 42 car spun from his flat tire. So, we had to start all over again. On that last restart, I think I was 14th and, fortunately, I was in the outside line, which was the place to be, and we worked our way up to 8th before the caution happened and the rain came.”“It was a good rebound from a few days before; I wish I could have that weekend back. I really felt like we had things going our way there and could have capitalized. But it’s nice to be back. Good finish in the top-10 and looking forward to going to Charlotte.” WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 12th“It was a solid night for us. We really just needed a decent result. We’ve had a tough stretch of races with a multitude of things go bad that were really out of our control. Today was good just to be able to put together a solid result. Obviously having to start in the back was a detriment with a short race and short runs. Our pit stall was difficult too, having to go around the No.14 who ran really well all night and the No.42 was in front of us. So, we had a tough time on pit road there. Overall, it was solid and we got some stage points in Stage Two. We got trapped a lap down in that green-flag sequence which was tough. We rallied though and finished 12th. We’ll take it. Definitely not where we want to be but at least we could put a number up there and go into Charlotte.” TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 CATERPILLAR CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 13th “Man, we had to fight hard for that finish, and I’m proud of my No. 8 Caterpillar Chevrolet team for sticking together tonight. We weren’t exactly where we needed to be to fire off tonight and just missed the handling a little bit for the first half of the race. I kept bouncing from being too tight to too loose, but mostly too tight. It honestly felt different every lap we ran, which made it tough to decide which way to keep adjusting. I made a slight rookie mistake at one point and got some damage after a brush with the wall, but my team helped get back after it. I have to hand it all my guys. They kept after it and worked really hard to make the changes we needed to pick our way back through the field. We were in a good spot for that final restart in the 11th position, but restarting on the bottom is tough here and we slipped back a couple spots to 13th. That’s just a product of the restarts here. The top lane is so good that it’s almost impossible to stop that momentum. We’ll take it though and move on to the Coke 600. We’re going twice the distance there, more than I’ve ever gone in a race, so minimizing mistakes will be key, but I’m looking forward to the challenge.” KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 15th“What a tough race. Seems like nothing went our way tonight. The handling was all over the map with our Monster Energy Camaro. After finishing third on Sunday, it is tough to understand how we had such a difficult time finding the handle on the car. The guys had to make a ton of adjustments on pit road, so it was hard to make up any ground on pit stops. We will have to go back and dissect that one and figure out what we had. Ready to move on to Charlotte this weekend.” BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 VICTORY JUNCTION CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 16th “It was an interesting night at Darlington Raceway for the round two race. Position 16 – I’m excited about the finish and I’m bummed about the finish for two reasons. I wish we would have restarted, I know with the weather, but I also wish that caution wouldn’t have come out because we had a big run off of turn four. So, I believe we would have finished a couple of spots better, especially with another restart and starting on the top. I was excited about that. But, all-in-all, it was a great day for our No. 43 Victory Junction Chevrolet team. We pulled some strategy there, led some laps, and got a career-best finish at Darlington Raceway. So, we got a lot of positives that came out of it. I’ve already talked to Jerry (Baxter) on the way home. I’m proud of him and the guys for the efforts they put in. We’ll jump on calls in the morning on how to be better; the grind never stops. The Coca-Cola 600 is up next, I’m excited about that one. It’s a home race for us and we’ve always had speed there. We’ll build off this and continue on.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 CHEVYGOODS.COM NOCO CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 18th “Not the day we wanted. At least not the finish we wanted. Just didn’t go our way there at the end. Definitely some differences from Sunday to now. We struggled to get the balance where we needed to get it with the car. It was much better through the bumps. Bummed out about that, but we will move on to Charlotte and be strong there.” TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 19th“My GEICO guys are awesome. They build and prepare solid Chevrolet Camaros each and every week, which gives me the confidence to dive it into turn one like I did at the beginning of the race without any practice laps. For four years now, I’ve trusted them and it just builds confidence as a driver. I appreciate all the hard work everyone at Germain Racing is putting in, especially with racing so close together right now. A pair of 19th-place finishes isn’t a bad way to get this thing restarted and it was so cool to lead laps early, especially in the GEICO Hump Day car.” AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW / KEEP AMERICA BEAUTIFUL CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 20th“Long race tonight, not what we wanted. We thought at the beginning we were going to be OK getting the car freed up, but just never could. It was just really tight; we just missed it pretty bad with the weather change. The cool weather, the rain, the temperatures dropping – it didn’t play into our hands. We wanted a little more heat. It just wasn’t a good night for the No. 3 team, but we’re looking forward to the Coca-Cola 600. We know we can find some speed there and I think it will be a good one for us. Thank you for tuning in, all the people out there. It’s been fun. We’ll see you Sunday, another quick turnaround!” MATT KENSETH, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 30th “It was an up and down day today. It ended on a down note, unfortunately. We had some good runs and some bad runs. I made a couple mistakes. I had a good run going and just scraped the wall a little bit off of turn two. We ran another ten laps; we didn’t really think we had any damage. We came in and got new tires, got a tire rub and cut a right rear down. So, it got us a couple of laps down and pretty much ended our night. It was a disappointing finish to the day, for sure. But I felt like we learned a lot the last five days or so, and I’m ready to give it another shot at Charlotte!” ALAN GUSTAFSON, CREW CHIEF FOR THE NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE YOU HAD A GOOD OPPORTUNITY TO LISTEN TO KYLE BUSCH’S EXPLANATION OF WHAT HAPPENED. DOES THAT CALM THE WATERS SOMEWHAT?“No; I mean ultimately he (Kyle Busch) made a mistake and I get it. I don’t think he intentionally wrecked us, but you just get tired of coming out on the wrong end of those deals too often. I certainly feel like we were in position to win that race. Denny (Hamlin) was in trouble on old tires and we were going to clear Kyle. You get tired of getting ran over like that. His explanation I’m sure is accurate, but it doesn’t change it. All these guys work their tails off on this NAPA Chevy and they deserve to win a race.”
