MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY
GEICO 500
TEAM CHEVY RACE NOTES & QUOTES
APRIL 28, 2019

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 MOUNTAIN DEW/LITTLE CAESAR’S CAMARO ZL1 – Race Winner
YOU HEARD IT ON THE RADIO HOW IMPORTANT THIS WIN WAS FOR THIS TEAM AND FOR CHEVROLET AND FOR YOU?
“Thank you. What a day. Just a huge thanks to all of our partners, my team, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet; there was obviously a lot of teamwork done today. Big thanks to Mountain Dew and Little Caesar’s and NAPA and all our partners that make this happen. But, you guys (fans) are really what makes it happen. Thank you.” Continue reading Chevy Racing–NASCAR–Talladega–Chase Elliott →

MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY
GEICO 500
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER NOTES & QUOTES
APRIL 28, 2019

BUBBA WALLACE, JR., NO. 43 WORLD WIDE TECHNOLOGY CAMARO ZL1 – Sidelined in multi-car crash on Lap 10. Finished 39th

THE FRONT BUMPER OF YOUR CHEVROLET VERSUS THE REAR OF THE FORD, DID THAT HAVE ANY SIGNIFICANCE OR JUST TOO MUCH BUMP?
“No, it wasn’t that. It was the amount of runs and the force of it. All I was trying to do was just some wreck avoidance. I didn’t want to wad up the No. 12 (Ryan Blaney). That’s the last car I want to wad up out there. Had such a big run on him. And the No. 22 (Joey Logano) pulled up and he checked up a little bit. I went to go to the bottom, where I was safe. I don’t know if I crossed his bumper or whatever. But it got him wiggled down and shoved me even farther down than I wanted to go. So, I went back up just to stay off the apron and it just unloaded. It’s just unfortunate, but I tried not to wreck my buddy, Ryan, and it cost our day and some others. I apologize. But, we should have been wrecked a couple of laps before that. The No. 11 (Denny Hamlin) had a big run on us and let me in throughout the middle, so I appreciate that. We were fast. I was just trying to ride and not wreck somebody and I wrecked myself.”

AUSTIN DILLON PUTS CAMARO ZL1 ON THE POLE AT TALLADEGA
Five Team Chevy Drivers Qualify in the Top 12

TALLADEGA, Ala. (April 27, 2019) – Austin Dillon powered his No. 3 DOW Camaro ZL1 to the pole position for Sunday’s GEICO 500 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) race at Talladega Superspeedway with a fast lap of 49.734 seconds, 192.544 mph. This marked Dillon’s fifth pole in 203 MENCS races, his first pole in 12 races at Talladega, and his second pole thus far in 2019.

The feat was also the 36th pole for Chevrolet at Talladega Superspeedway, the 704th pole in NASCAR’s premier division, and the fifth pole this season for the Camaro ZL1.

Dillon’s RCR teammate, Daniel Hemric, driver of the No. 8 Caterpillar Camaro ZL1, was fifth quick and the fastest qualifying rookie. Alex Bowman qualified ninth in his No. 88 Nationwide Camaro ZL1, Kyle Larson was 10th in the No. 42 Clover Camaro ZL1, and Chase Elliott qualified 11th in his No. 9 Mountain Dew/Little Caesar’s Camaro ZL1 to give Chevrolet five qualifiers in the Top 12.

Aric Almirola (Ford) qualified third, Clint Bowyer (Ford) was third, and Brad Keselowski (Ford) qualified fourth to round out the Top 5.

FOX will telecast the 188-lap/500-mile GEICO 500 live at 2 p.m. ET Sunday, April 28. Live coverage can also be found on MRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW CAMARO ZL1 POST QUALIFYING TRANSCRIPT:

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO GET THE FIRST POLE FOR THE 3 CAR AT TALLADEGA IN 25 YEARS?
“I’m a numbers kind of guy and you correlate all those numbers together – it’s the 50th anniversary for RCR, 50th for Talladega. Talladega is where RCR kind of started in 1969. I’m pumped to be here in the No. 3 car. Danny Stockman (crew chief) and the boys did a great job building a fast car and you want to go out there and make some noise and they did that. I give all the credit to those guys. Tomorrow it’s up to us to keep that car up front and hopefully make a real iconic win for RCR and everyone here at Talladega.”

HOW BIG IS IT TO HAVE DANNY STOCKMAN BACK?
“Stockman is my guy. He’s a grinder. He’s like me. We’re cut from the same cloth when it comes to just competitive nature. We hate to lose at anything and it’s nice to have that back just because he pushes me for every little bit he can get. We were second right there in that first round and he was talking to me about my line and where I can make up some speed. It’s pretty tough to cut feet out of this track because it’s so big. I did my best for him, I didn’t spin the tire leaving that time and I think that kind of jumped us up a little bit – enough to get the pole.”

HOW DO YOU KEEP THE LEAD TOMORROW IF IT’S TOO DANGEROUS TO BLOCK?
“I think having people behind you that you can trust is a big key to that. Getting those Bowties up front and working together, that will be a big part of it. Blocking is going to be tougher for the ducts in the front, but it’s a part of the game. We’ll just have to test it out early and see what it is. I definitely don’t want to give up that front position, but there are going to be guys – just the front guy seems to be a little bit of a sitting duck. There will be a lot of movement on the track tomorrow, hopefully it’s good movement and not cars going the other way.”

HOW MUCH DID IT BOTHER YOU AT DAYTONA THAT A CHEVY TEAM WORKED WITH ANOTHER MANUFACTURER?
“I think that’s in the past. I think it’s cool that we’ve learned from that and moved forward. I think it was cool today sitting in there with all of our guys in one group having a group discussion about what we need to do to accomplish our goals for tomorrow.”

WHAT WAS THE MEETING ABOUT TODAY WITH THE CHEVY TEAMS?
“I think we’re just unified as a group now and in a better position to work hard. We know we saw other teams doing a really good job of it here at Talladega last year. For us, that was just about working together to get a Chevrolet to victory lane the best we can. Put ourselves all in a better position and that’s just kind of what it was, working together was the message.”

IS THERE AN ORDER FROM CHEVROLET TO ONLY HELP CHEVROLETS OR MORE OF A SUGGESTION?
“I think it’s just looking at what the other teams have been successful in the last couple plate races, you look at those guys and they’re grouping up and they’re dictating the race. We don’t want to be in that position where we’re having to fight from behind the whole time and we have good numbers at Chevy and we need to use them. Honestly, it’s just looking at what the competition has done and trying to make it better. Do our job to be better at it.”

IS IT MORE OF AN EMPHASIS BECAUSE CHEVY HASN’T WON THIS SEASON?
“I don’t think it’s any more of an emphasis if we didn’t have this meeting, we would just still be behind. I think everybody with the other manufacturers have done a good job of doing this and instead of sitting back and playing it the old way of speedway racing, we’ve decided to take it as a group effort and I think you’ll see that tomorrow. I truly hope so. It’s our first time. These guys have been working at it for a couple races now and they’ve kind of done a good job perfecting how to get to the front and work together. We’re still working as a group. We have a young group of Chevy drivers there, a little less experience, but we as a group have done a good job over the weekend and last couple weeks. This is not just our first meeting about it. We’ve been talking about it a little bit behind the scenes and leading up to Talladega to do our best job as a group to work together.”

WERE YOU CONCERNED ABOUT THE CONFISCATED DECKLID IMPACTING YOUR PERFORMANCE TODAY OR ANY PENALTIES GOING FORWARD?
“I knew it wasn’t going to hurt our performance. It’s not from a speed and penalty-wise, it wasn’t something. We were just fixing a problem and it turned out we didn’t need to do that. I’m sure Stockman was spun out about it, but speed-wise, I knew it wasn’t going to hurt us and moving forward, I hope that NASCAR takes into effect the entire story of it and whatever is dealt our way, we’ll handle it and go on from there. I’m just happy that RCR has brought a lot of speed to the track this year, we’re running toward the front more where I feel like as a driver and as a team, we can compete with these guys and consistently if we are, Richmond was awesome for us. We really had a car capable of running in that top-three group and had a bad stop at the end. More of these type of races where we show speed and we’re constantly up there, we’re going to have a chance to win a race and lock ourselves into the Playoffs. That’s what I’m more concerned with. You fight for points all year long, but we need to have a shot to win the championship and that’s our ultimate goal.”

DO YOU FEEL MOMENTUM AT RCR?
“Truthfully, speed-wise, I feel like we’ve had momentum all year. You go back to Vegas, Fontana I sat on the pole. I’m really proud of us as a company with what we showed up to this year with the packages. The Xfinity team has been kicking butt all year. With Randall and Tyler Reddick, they’ve been impressive so that’s always good moral in the shop. Just the edge that brings running up front, it keeps the guys wanting to do more, wanting to go faster and that’s what you love seeing out of a group at RCR that’s been here for a long time. The fire is lit and when that fire is lit, we can be tough to beat.”

DO YOU FEEL THE RELATIONSHIP IS REKINDLED WITH DANNY STOCKMAN?
“That relationship has never really gone away. It has distanced itself, but now I feel like – I told him after one of the races, we had a practice at Phoenix and we started yelling back and forth at each other and we were fast in the practice. I told him we were going to do this and he was like, all right. We did it and the car didn’t respond to what I wanted and then he did what he wanted to do and it went fast again. After practice I told him that was the best practice we’ve had since we’ve been separated and that I loved him again. It was just me and him joking with each other, but it was a good race for us at Phoenix and it kind of got us back on the right path. He’s just constantly on me and that’s what I have to have, I have to have that guy and I’m a fiery personality and he hates to lose at anything when it’s both practice sessions, qualifying and the race – I love that. That’s the mentality you should have every weekend, as a company and as a race team. Everybody should want to win everything they do.”

MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY
GEICO 500
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES & QUOTES
APRIL 27, 2019

TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Austin Dillon, No. 3 DOW Camaro ZL1
5th Daniel Hemric, No. 8 Caterpillar Camaro ZL1
9th Alex Bowman, No. 88 Nationwide Camaro ZL1
10th Kyle Larson, No. 42 Clover Camaro ZL1
11th Chase Elliott, No. 9 Mountain Dew/Little Caesar’s Camaro ZL1

TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Austin Dillon (Chevrolet)
2nd Aric Almirola (Ford)
3rd Clint Bowyer (Ford
4th Brad Keselowski (Ford)
5th Daniel Hemric (Chevrolet)

FOX will telecast the 188-lap/500-mile GEICO 500 live at 2 p.m. ET Sunday, April 28. Live coverage can also be found on MRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. Continue reading Chevy Racing–NASCAR–Talladega–Qualifying →

MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY
GEICO 500
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
APRIL 27, 2019

TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CAMARO ZL1, met with media and discussed his 100th career start in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, what the cars and the racing will be like on Sunday in the GEICO 500 at Talladega, his long-term relationship with Germain Racing and GEICO and how they are growing together, what Talladega Superspeedway means to him, and more. Full Transcript: Continue reading Chevy Racing–NASCAR–Talladega–Ty Dillon →

MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY
GEICO 500
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
APRIL 26, 2019

RYAN PREECE, NO. 47 KROGER CAMARO ZL1 met with media in a breakout session at Talladega Superspeedway. Select highlights:

WHAT IS IT LIKE TO TRY TO GAIN RESPECT WHEN RACING AT A SUPERSPEEDWAY?
“I’ve already learned that I’m the rookie and not a lot of people are going to want to follow me. So I’m trying to be that guy that’s just following the leader and you know, hopefully I’m in the right position in the last lap to try and take advantage of a slingshot move. So we’ll see. But as far as respect, I think that’s just something where when guys start racing around you and you show a, what’s the word I’m looking for? I’m not being erratic is one thing. So if you show that you’re not erratic, I think more people will work with you over time.”

DO YOU EXPECT TO FIGHT HANDLING ISSUES HERE LIKE AT DAYTONA?
“I think I’m fighting more handling issues today than I did at Daytona, but this is also our typical package. I would say that we run on intermediate tracks that we, or you know, maybe just actually all of us haven’t really run. So, it’s a different animal and I felt like handling was an issue. I don’t know unless other people aren’t saying the same thing, but that’s kind of what we agreed this is, this is something that we came to and we didn’t really expect to be fighting handling and we unload it, and it was certainly an issue. So, we got it a lot better. But I think it’s going to be something you’re going to see on Sunday.”

HOW DO YOU CHARACTERIZE THE INITIAL PART OF YOUR CAREER TO THIS POINT?
“It’s been full of highs and lows for sure, but something that, you know, hard work and never giving up always prevail. So we just have to keep heading in that direction and, I feel like ultimately by the middle of the season, towards the end of the season, we should be hitting our stride and be exactly where I want to be. It’s just, it takes time. We’re working on that and, obviously I’m extremely thankful for the opportunity that JTG Jody and Tad and, and Brad and Gordon that have given me, and Kroger being behind me 110%. I get those texts every single week from all those guys. It’s a good feeling to know that no matter what, at the end of the day, they’re proud of me and we’re just going to keep moving forward.”

MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY
GEICO 500
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
APRIL 26, 2019

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 met with media in a breakout session at Talladega Superspeedway. Select highlights:

HOW WAS THE BOSTON MARATHON?
“The race itself was awful and amazing at the same time. I had a goal in mind to run a certain pace and tried to hang onto it. I didn’t really slow down and enjoy the experience as much as I maybe should have. I was kind of in race mode and ran it hard. I had a few arguments with myself along the way that look, you just need to enjoy this and take it all in. There was definitely a mental battle going on through the course of the 26 miles, but just extremely painful and the most amazing experience I think I’ve had. To have two million people cheering, to have competitors offering you advice as you’re running next to the Continue reading Chevy Racing–NASCAR–Talladega–Jimmie Johnson →

MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY
GEICO 500
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
APRIL 26, 2019

DANIEL HEMRICK, NO. 8 CATERPILLAR CAMARO ZL1 met with media in a breakout session at Talladega Superspeedway. Select highlights:

WERE THERE SOME INTERESTING MOMENTS DURING PRACTICE?
“That’s what they’re telling me. In all honesty, there were a couple moments that made you touch the brake pedal a little bit or breathe in because the guy in front of you got out of shape and I wasn’t quite in the middle of the biggest pack out there by no means, but guys were definitely must have felt okay because everybody was aggressive. It was just a matter of what’s the edge we can go to. You try to find that in practice and from the sounds of it, a couple guys almost got there. Fortunately for us, we didn’t and we’re going to keep working on our car and try to get better.” Continue reading Chevy Racing–NASCAR–Talladega–Daniel Hemric →

CHEVROLET IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIES
INDIANAPOLIS 500 OPEN TEST
INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
RECAP
APRIL 24, 2019

INDIANAPOLIS (APRIL 24) – Intermittent rain played havoc with the first official on-track activity for the 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500. But, with patience and determination the NTT IndyCar Series teams and drivers were able to get the veteran drivers significant track time to get their preparations for the 500 well underway.

Ed Carpenter and Spencer Pigot led the way for Team Chevy in the veteran group with fastest laps of 226.414 mph and 226.325 mph respectively. Carpenter was the 2018 pole winner and finished second in the race. Continue reading Chevy Racing–INDYCAR–Indianapolis Open Test →

CHEVROLET AT CHARLOTTE

What: NGK Spark Plugs NHRA Four-Wide Nationals
When: Friday, April 26-Sunday, April 28
Where: zMAX Dragway in Concord, North Carolina
TV: FS1 will telecast eliminations and finals at 6 p.m. ET April 28

Chevrolet drivers take momentum into four-wide race
Brittany Force in Top Fuel, Robert Hight in Funny Car coming off wins

DETROIT (April 24, 2019) – Victories in the last National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Mello Yello Drag Racing Series event have Team Chevy drivers Brittany Force and Robert Hight determined to extend their momentum in the NGK Spark Plugs NHRA Four-Wide Nationals. Continue reading Chevy Racing–NHRA–Charlotte Advance →