MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
STP 500
MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
MARCH 26, 2018
TOP TEAM CHEVY FINISHERS:
POS. DRIVER
7th ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CAMARO ZL1
8th AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KROGER CLICKLIST CAMARO ZL1
9th CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1
15th JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S FOR PROS CAMARO ZL1
16th KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK/DC SOLAR CAMARO ZL1
TOP FIVE FINISHERS:
POS. DRIVER
1ST Clint Bowyer (Ford)
2nd Kyle Busch (Toyota)
3rd Ryan Blaney (Ford)
4th Martin Truex, Jr. (Toyota)
5TH Kevin Harvick (Ford)
The next race for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) will be at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas for the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 on Sunday, April 8 at 2:00 pm ET. Live coverage can be found on FS1, PRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES:
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 7th
WAS THIS THE RUN YOU GUYS WERE LOOKING FOR AFTER KIND OF A SLOW START TO THE SEASON?
“Yeah, I mean… it’s frustrating to say we are looking for a seventh, but much better than we have been the last couple of weeks and just happy for all my guys. They have worked really hard all off season and all year. We haven’t had the results we wanted, so to come here and finish stronger is definitely a step in the right direction. We’ve got a long way to go, but we are headed the right way.”
WHAT IS THE MOOD LIKE IN THE SHOP?
“Nobody has really made a big deal of anything. Obviously, you read media stuff and everybody is all fired up, but we know we are off, but everybody is just real motivated and working harder. It’s a lot of guys that have won a lot of races and they want to get back to that winning feeling. So, they are all working really hard and got the best in the business back at the shop working to get better.
THERE WERE ONLY THREE CHEVY’S IN THE TOP 10 WITH YOU. WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR TEAM WAS ABLE TO FIND THIS WEEKEND?
“That is a good question. I don’t know if it was one thing. I felt like I had some good observations after second practice on somethings I wanted to change and they seemed to pay off big during the race. Or at least be the right direction during the race. Greg (Ives, crew chief) just made really good adjustments. Every stop we got better, we had solid pit stops all day, the pit crew worked really hard, just good decisions on top of the box and a good racecar.”
IS THIS THE PLACE YOU THOUGHT YOU WOULD GET YOUR FIRST TOP 10 OF THE YEAR?
“No, not at all. I mean Daytona, and then if not Daytona then Atlanta, and then if not Atlanta, Phoenix, I mean we are here to win races every week. To take this long to get a Top 10 it’s not what we wanted at all, but glad we are going the right way.”
DID THE RACE FEEL KIND OF LOW KEY FROM INSIDE THE CAR WITH ONLY FOUR CAUTIONS?
“No, I had my hands full. It wasn’t mellow for me. I’m a little worn out. That was a physical one for me at least. I changed some stuff inside the racecar that made me able to go faster, but probably wore me out a little quicker. I’m glad that I didn’t fall out of the seat there because it was pretty physical, but it was fun.”
ANY PARTICULAR CHANGES YOU ASKED GREG FOR DURING THE RACE THAT MADE A BIG DIFFERENCE?
“I think most everything we did was air pressure just because big changes take so long on pit stops now. So, just small changes. Got some different stuff in the car air pressure wise so I could play with the trackbar a little bit and it seemed to work out. So, definitely felt like the end of the run we fell off a little more than we wanted to. We were trying to go get that No. 22 (Joey Logano) and just kind of fell off too much at the end. Definitely solid changes all day.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KROGER CLICKLIST CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 8th
GREAT DAY FOR YOU AND THE NO. 47 TEAM CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR RUN TODAY:
“Yeah, it was just a solid day. We were just missing just a little bit to go up there and run with the best of them. The last set of tires didn’t agree with the car, the car was bouncing around a lot. It’s unfortunate that our last set of tires were our worst, but that happens. We still got a top 10 out it, ran in the top 10 all day and was able to start 25th and pass a lot of cars. Solid day, what we needed at one of our better racetracks. These are the places we know that we have a better chance at and we have to take advantage of it. So, I would say I’m okay with eighth, I wish we could have got a little bit more at the end of the race there, but a solid day all around.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 9th
NOT WHAT YOU WERE LOOKING FOR OUT OF TODAY, BUT ARE YOU SATISFIED WITH A 10TH?
“No, I thought our last run was way better than what we had had before that. But, we were just way too far off there for the majority of the day to expect that you are going to catch up by the end. We have some work to do.”
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 20th
“The first couple of runs I thought we were decent. Fifty lap runs seemed to be kind of our money spot, we needed a lot of 50-lap runs. I think that once we got into the run we struggled a little bit and towards the end we kind of managed. We just needed a couple of more short runs to kind of be able to gain some spots, but not bad. Not what we wanted by far, but this is a fun racetrack and hopefully come back stronger in the fall.”