MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
CHICAGOLAND SPEEDWAY
CAMPING WORLD 400
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES & QUOTES
JUNE 30, 2019
TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Alex Bowman, No. 88 Axalta Camaro ZL1
2nd Kyle Larson, No. 42 McDonald’s Camaro ZL1
4th Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1
8th William Byron, No. 24 Liberty University Camaro ZL1
10th Austin Dillon, No. 3 DOW Univar Solutions Camaro ZL1
TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Alex Bowman (Chevrolet)
2nd Kyle Larson (Chevrolet)
3rd Joey Logano (Ford)
4th Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet)
5th Brad Keselowski (Ford)
The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season continues next weekend at Daytona International Speedway with the Coke Zero Sugar 600 on Saturday, July 6th at 7:30 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on NBC, NBC Sports Gold, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTES:
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 MCDONALD’S CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 2nd
YOU HAD ALEX (BOWMAN) AT ONE POINT. WHAT COULD YOU HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY THERE AT THE END?
“Yeah, I could see him struggle when I was getting to him, and when I got by him, I’m like, all right, good, he’s going to be in my dirty air and get loose. He could get big runs on me down the straightaways, and I think that allowed him to get that run into 1 and he got to the main side and I got tight, I don’t know if him getting air on my spoiler or something got him tight, but I had to kind of breathe it a little bit, and then we side drafted on the backstretch. I wish I would have maybe done some things different into 3 instead of going all the way to wall, maybe chase him to bottom, just try to hang on his quarter, but he might have cleared me anyways down there.”
“But yeah, I wish I could have got a win for McDonald’s and got them to Victory Lane. But still a great day for Chevy and Hendrick engines. That was really cool to see a lot of us Hendrick engine guys up front and kind of drafting and breaking away from the groups behind us on the short runs. I felt good about my car on the long runs. If I was out in clean air, I think we just had a lot of downforce and drag in our car, so I just felt slow in clean air, but when I could get behind people I was okay and could just wait until we got laps on tires, then I could start making ground. Was actually surprised I even got to him. I thought when he came out about the same distance off pit road in front of me, I thought he was just going to check out. But like I said, he was struggling, and we were able to get to him and get by him, but he did a good job. He did a good job regrouping and figuring out how to make his car drive better and got the win. Cool to see him get the win there. Would have liked for him to have to wait another week or so, but happy for him. He’s an open‑wheel guy, so cool to see.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 4th
ALL FOUR HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS INSIDE THE TOP 11. A FOURTH PLACE FINISH FOR YOU. YOU WERE OUT FRONT FOR A BIT. WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR TEAMMATE, ALEX BOWMAN, FOR THE WIN?
“It was just a solid performance for our Ally team. I’m really proud of everyone. I just couldn’t clear the No. 4 car (Kevin Harvick) when he was so on-track and the car to beat and I think he was probably the strongest car tonight. The way some of those restarts unfolded, the No. 88 (Alex Bowman) had a great opportunity with the draft and working very well and got the lead. Once he had that control, there’s really no taking it from him.
“I’m extremely happy for Hendrick Motorsports. I can’t wait to see Alex and congratulate him and this No. 48 team is smiling. It was a good night.”
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 8th
“We were really good. We just had a couple of things not go our way; the one restart and we had one run that wasn’t the greatest. We got back to the top five and we just didn’t quite have enough that last run. Alex (Bowman) and those guys were really fast. Congrats to them. They did a great job. I just have to close in on those details a little bit more. We, as a team, are really close. It’s a little disappointing now that we have the speed that we do, but it’s good to take the lead at some point in the race. I think that’s six or seven in a row for that, so we just have to continue to do that. It’s good for Alex (Bowman) and hopefully we can piggy-back on that. I think we had another good points day, which doesn’t sound great, but we are making our way up the Playoff grid.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW UNIVAR SOLUTIONS CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 10th
“The outside on restarts was awful. It was a freight train on the bottom and it was just wild. I need to go back and watch the restarts; it was crazy trying to see how to gain momentum. It was fun. We had a really good car on the long runs and got some track position there at the end. We’ll build off of this. Our cars are fast; we got a pole and a top ten so that’s a good start to where we need to head.”
WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU WERE MISSING TODAY?
“We got behind in track position and it’s just so hard. We were fast enough to run in the top five and that gives you a better position. But we need a little bit more. It’s good to see a Chevrolet win. Alex (Bowman) and team have gotten their stuff better progressively the last couple of weeks with all of the second-place finishes. Hopefully we can learn off of they’ve done somehow.”
TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO MILITARY CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 35th
“Our result doesn’t show how much speed and grip we had in our GEICO Military Camaro ZL1. I feel very confident that today was going to be our best mile and a half race of the season so far. My Germain Racing team continues to work hard to improve our cars and this weekend was a step in the right direction. It’s a shame we had a loose wheel and broke a stud during the first stage, because even when I went back out after repairs, the car was still very good. We made the most of our situation though and learned as much as possible to carry over into future intermediate races.”
