Late-Race Incident Spoils Strong Run for Austin Dillon and the Rheem Team at Phoenix Raceway
“The No. 00 car just overdrove the corner, missed the corner and took me out with him. It sucks. It was a hard hit. The Rheem Chevy was pretty solid all day. We decided to take two tires on the last pit stop and we probably weren’t as fast as we had been all day, but when you’re taken out of a race at the end under those circumstances it just makes your day worse. Our pit crew had a great day. They did an awesome job and I am proud of their effort. It will be a good year. I was asked to the NASCAR trailer after the race because they believe I retaliated against the 00 car. I don’t think it will be that bad, though. We’ll probably just enjoy an ice cold Coca-Cola together and discuss things.”
– Austin Dillon
Ty Dillon and the Bass Pro Shops Team Rally to Top-10 Finish After Battling with a Tight-Handling Chevrolet Camaro
“Today was a trying day for our No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet team. We were way too loose in qualifying and ended up over-adjusting the car to start the race. I took off really tight from the drop of the green flag, and we didn’t have an opportunity to make changes until the end of the first stage. Crew chief Matt Swiderski made good chassis and air pressure adjustments to loosen me up, but we still struggled with takeoff on every restart. With so many cautions there at the end, it was hard to make any advances through the field. We really needed some longer green-flag runs. But, my team rallied and we were able to finish in the top 10. We’ll take what we learned here and turn our focus to next week.”
– Ty Dillon
Daniel Hemric Battles Through Adversity to Earn Top-10 Finish at Phoenix Raceway
“I’m really proud of all of these guys on this No. 21 Blue Gate Bank Chevrolet Camaro team. We just battled. We faced some circumstances we didn’t foresee in qualifying and never got to make a lap. We started in the back, but the car was really good on that first long green-flag run and we got ourselves some track position. We just struggled on pit road today and lost a good bit of spots. We’ll have days like that. We’ll go back, learn from it and regroup. Crew chief Danny Stockman made a great call to take no fuel on our final stop of the day. That allowed us to be aggressive on the restarts, and that’s what the race came down to in the end. I’m proud of the fight. I’m proud of how hard we’ve come all weekend, and now it’s on to Fontana.”
– Daniel Hemric
Brandon Jones Finishes 15th After Driving From the Back at Phoenix Raceway
“The team worked really hard all weekend long on our No. 33 Chevy Truck Month Chevrolet Camaro and we got a decent finish out of it. The handling improved a lot during the race from where it was during practice, but unfortunately our short run was not as strong as we needed it to be. We did well at the drop of the green flag and I was able to climb up from the back since we didn’t get a chance to qualify. Those cautions at the end of the race just sent us a little too far backward. It wasn’t the finish we deserved, but it was an improvement. I’m proud of the support from Chevrolet and all my guys on the No. 33 team.”
– Brandon Jones
Early Racing Incident Results in 27th-Place Finish at Phoenix Raceway for Brendan Gaughan
“Not the day we wanted for our South Point Hotel and Casino Chevrolet. I’m one of those eternal optimists. The way I look at things is that we battled back from three laps down, and we were in sight of the lucky dog at the end. That’s hard racing and great work by the boys on pit road. I learned the hard way today that you have to know who you can race around. It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have messed with the No. 19 car like that. He has seen some things on TV and doesn’t know how to do it yet. He has a lot to learn. I’m proud of what our team accomplished and we will lick our wounds and move on to Auto Club Speedway.”
– Brendan Gaughan
