TOP TEAM CHEVY FINISHERS:
POS. DRIVER
7TH RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVY SS
9TH KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 HUGGIES LITTLE MOVERS CHEVY SS
11TH JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVY SS
12TH JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 MCDONALD’S/CESSNA CHEVY SS
TOP FIVE FINISHERS:
POS. DRIVER
1ST Kyle Busch (Toyota)
2nd Erik Jones (Toyota
3rd Denny Hamlin (Toyota)
4th Matt Kenseth (Toyota)
5th Kurt Busch (Ford)
The next stop on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule is at Darlington Raceway for the Bojangles’ Southern 500 on Sunday, Sept. 3rd.
POST RACE QUOTES:
RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CHEVROLET SS – Finished 6th
“I got too fast on pit road, which cost us, but guys did a good job in the pits which is a nice change. Overall, I’m proud of the team effort. Fought hard and kind of got lucky there with the tires. I don’t know that we had a sixth-place car, but we did tonight.”
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 HUGGIES LITTLE MOVERS CHEVROLET SS – Finished 9th
“It was a good race up until the last stop. I felt like we had a shot to win and then something went on with the left-rear maybe. I didn’t get a good stop and lost all of our track position and that was kind of all she wrote. Just got stuck behind and then guys had better tires than I did and it just is what it is.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET SS – Finished 11th
“We had a really good race. I got stuck on the inside on a lot of restarts, which kind of affected our progress. But we would drive up to the top three, top five and at the end there something happened with the back of the car and I lost it going into Turn 1 and hit the wall with like 30 to go, and somehow still finished 11th. The car is destroyed. The tail is moved over like two feet, right front is pushed in, I’m surprised I didn’t get a flat. So, I got really lucky to finish, but a strong effort, very good race car. Just unfortunately, I had a little issue getting into Turn 1. I don’t know if it was brake related or something went wrong with the back of the car, but the back just started wheel hopping really bad that final 30 laps and it was a handful to drive.”
JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 MCDONALD’S/CESSNA CHEVROLET SS – Finished 12th
“We struggled at the beginning did a really good job adjusting our car. Matt (McCall, crew chief) made some really good calls there. I had good track position at the end we were just kind of at the end of the car that didn’t put tires on and tires meant a little more than we expected. He (Matt McCall) was just telling me that he thought we got out ran by all the guys that put tires on, but overall, we had a really good car. We have run well here at the beginning of the race and struggled at the end and I thought we actually finished really well. So, pretty proud of our team.”
HOW WAS THE RACING WITH THE TWO LANES TONIGHT?
“I thought it was pretty equal. They have asked our opinions of what we think and I don’t really care. It is the same for everybody, but I mean the bottom was good for, I don’t know, 40 or 50 laps and then you would go run the top and you could pass on the bottom. I mean I thought it was a good compromise.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 24 NAPA CHEVROLET SS – Finished 18th
ON THE INCIDENT WITH KEVIN HARVICK:
“Yeah that was just a racing incident with Kevin (Harvick). I tried to… we were just working lap traffic and he and I had been racing really hard back and forth with each other and I kind of go to his inside and he was setting up to pass the guy on exit. He has been running the top and he just didn’t know I was down there. I had a really good Turn 1 and 2. He just didn’t know. I shouldn’t have stuck my nose in there, I guess.”
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KROGER CLICKLIST CHEVROLET SS – Finished 22nd
“That was just a long night. We didn’t start off very good, but kept fighting, kept staying on the lead lap and got hit by the No. 38 and I went to turn back behind him and Chris (Buescher) had gotten there and he hit me in the left-rear. It’s not his fault. I overreacted about Chris hitting me. So, it wasn’t his fault and then it just had a bad tire rub, so we had to pit and we could never get those two laps back and I think we weren’t fantastic, but we were fighting. At times, we had a pretty good car and then we would try something else and we would lose a little bit, but I thought we could have ran top 15 to top 18 which would have been okay. It’s just a long night.”
DALE EARNHARDT, JR., NO. 88 AXALTA/DUCKS UNLIMITED CHEVROLET SS – Finished 23rd
“We struggled. We had a real fast car for like 10-15 laps and then we would just real, real tight, so we struggled all day trying to figure it out. We weren’t good and we weren’t going to fix it on pit road either. We’ve got a lot of tools on pit road to really get after it, but the problems we had we couldn’t fix with wedge or trackbar.
HOW MUCH ARE YOU GOING TO MISS RACING HERE?
“I don’t know. I mean I think I will much rather enjoy coming here and watching. (Laughs). I always loved watching, but this race track can be a lot of fun. It can be very difficult. There is never really no middle ground. We struggling, gosh, I just don’t know what to do. We were pretty quick for the first 20 laps, passed five cars and then we dropped like a rock. The thing would get so tight and wouldn’t turn.”
TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CHEVROLET SS – Day Ended Early with a Mechanical Failure – Finished 36th
“It really felt like we had some raw speed in our GEICO Chevrolet. We had a couple pit road penalties and ended up three laps down. We earned one back and felt like we were fast enough to get more laps back. We got into the wall a little earlier on and probably weakened the ball joint a little bit. We hit the wall again and the car is done. It was a really rough night but we did seem to have good speed in our car tonight.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW WATER & ENERGY CHEVROLET SS – Involved in an on-track incident on lap 231
WHAT HAPPENED?
“From my perspective, we were running really good and all of a sudden the left-rear went flat. I don’t know what happened if we had contact on that restart or our trackbar broke. My car chief said the letters on the Goodyear were rubbed off and about two laps later we broke. I was just moving forward. I passed like four cars and then it busted a tire. It never works out when you break when you are running bad, but we were running good and it broke. Bummer, our battery was going dead too so it probably wasn’t going to be much longer we were going to be out of the race either way, but just a bummer I really love this track and was having a blast tonight. It sucks it had to end this way.”
FRUSTRATING OBVIOUSLY THIS RACE IS SO IMPORTANT:
“Yeah, it’s just a fun race and we had a lot of people here from the Dow Energy and Water family and we had a good car. We were going to be just fine. We were making it better. The last stop was the best adjustment we had made all night and passed about four cars and then the tire goes flat. So, just one of those nights.”
WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT THE RACING TONIGHT?
“I loved it. I thought the racing was great out there right now. I wouldn’t change a thing as far as the track goes. I think they are doing a great job with it. The bottom is pretty dominant and the top is just good enough to make a difference. So, it’s a blast.”
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