CHEVY MENCS AT TALLADEGA 1: Chase Elliott Gives Team Chevy Third Place Finish at Talladega (includes Ryan Newman post-race quote)

POST RACE PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT:

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 – FINISHED 3RD

THE MODERATOR:  We're going to get started with our post-race media availabilities.  We are joined by our third‑place finisher, Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet.

Chase, take us through the final surge there.

 

CHASE ELLIOTT:  It was definitely interesting.  Last few laps was really trying to make a run and do something there at the end.  Those guys were being awfully patient with one another.  I was very surprised.  I mean, it was more than obvious that they were not going to help me move forward.

We had a solid car.  I don't think it was the best car today, but we had a good car.  Our team did a nice job overcoming a little bit of damage there mid portion of the race.  Alan made a good call there towards the end to ultimately get us some track position and have a shot.

It was a pretty wild afternoon.  Cars were hard to drive.  Scared some people off from running three‑wide and four‑wide.  That was interesting, as well.  So, could have been worse.

           

THE MODERATOR:  Questions.

 

Q.  Chase, could you talk about being the Chevy in the Ford sandwich there.  You really were kind of the lone man and got it done.

CHASE ELLIOTT:  Yeah, it was interesting.  Like I said a second ago, I was really surprised with how patient they were being with one another.  Really thought they would want to win a little more than what they did, or at least showed to me.

I tried to kind of break out of line and do a couple things there.  Like I said, it was very obvious that nobody was going to help me, around me.  It's hard to move forward.  Even if I had just had one other person to help, I felt like it would have made a big difference.  Like I said, could have been worse.

 

           

THE MODERATOR:  Thanks for joining us.

 
FastScripts by ASAP Sports

 

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 CATERPILLAR CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 9th

“I’m just happy to have been in front of the ‘Big One’ for a change. The start of our weekend saw us caught up in a practice wreck. It is what it is at a place like this. So many things happen here that are out of our control but we kept our primary engine and raced the back-up. Stage 1 did not go as planned for us but we managed to get back out front by Stage 2 to run in the top 10. My plan was to go when we could, but be smart about it and fortunately for us, we had luck on our side. We’ve been running well but haven’t had much to show for it as of late so I’m happy that this Cat Racing team can leave here with a ninth-place finish.”

ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 8^th

ON HIS DAY: 
“I’m just glad we stayed out of trouble and got a good solid finish.  It could have been a lot worse.  Still want a bunch more, but it wasn’t a terrible day for us.”

 

ON THE RACING TODAY: 
“The cars are just pretty unstable so the racing is just different.  Nobody is going to want to race quite as hard because their stuff is not driving as good to be able to do it.  I feel like people were pretty limited on how their stuff drove, but our stuff drove better than most.  We were really fast until we got that hole in the nose and that just killed us.  Miscommunication on that, but we will learn from it and move on.”

 

CHRIS BUESCHER, NO. 37 DEGREE CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 11^th 
GOOD SOLID FINISH FOR YOU TODAY: 
“Yeah, that was good for our Kroger Clicklist JTG Daugherty team.  We needed to come here and have a good showing.  We ran good at Daytona this year and trying to stick to a strategy that keeps us out of trouble.  It’s still hit or miss.  AJ (Allmendinger) was on the same deal and got caught up in that one there.  It’s a little bit of luck involved with just being out of that stuff.  Definitely, a more white-knuckled race than usual here.  Very on edge.  Tires gave out a lot and really slowed our pace down or hurt the handling.  So, it was a more fun race than normal out here.  I will say that.  I am not the best advocate for plate racing, but I can enjoy it from time to time.  I’m glad we were able to bring our Degree Camaro ZL1 home in one piece with very limited damage and we got an 11^th place finish out of it.”

 

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S FOR PROS CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 12^th

WERE YOU LOOKING AT THAT VIDEO TO SEE WHAT HAPPENED IN THE ACCIDENT? 
“I knew I had help somehow just the way it turned around.  Unfortunately, when I was sliding the No. 12 car (Ryan Blaney) hit us and bent something in the rear end.  It wasn’t the same after.  (Looking at the car) There really isn’t much damage and he hit me pretty hard on the other wheel and it was just super draggy and slow that last restart.  Something is bent in the rear end and very loose.”

 

DID YOU FEEL LIKE WILLIAM (BYRON) TOOK THE AIR OFF OF YOU? 
“Yeah, it looks like a racing thing there.  I mean something got him off the bottom.  I was in the second lane and he came up near my lane and then packed air underneath us and around it went.”

 

REALLY HARD TO MAKE RUNS HERE TODAY? 
“No, I mean it seemed like a normal plate race to me.  The cars weren’t handling really good, so you had to be very cautious with the runs that you had and where you had them.  I don’t know how that looked to the eyeballs watching from the outside, but inside it seemed like a normal plate race except going 20 mph faster with the lower ride heights.”

 

TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 15^th

“GEICO 500 weekend was not an easy one for us. Our primary car was incredibly fast in practice, but we were forced pull out our backup car after I got caught up in the big wreck on Friday. We were confident in this backup car though because it has run well at superspeedways in the past. We knew that we wanted to run a conservative race at the beginning after we got too aggressive in Daytona and were taken out before the end of Stage 1. Our plan to survive worked, but we were but by a tire issue early on and had to come back from a lap down. It is not how we wanted to race, but we battled back to the lead lap and a top-15 finish. A solid finish is exactly what we needed. I know it was a tough weekend for our GEICO Camaro ZL1 team, and I appreciate all of their hard work to keep us in this thing.”

 

WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1 – Sidelined in multi-car accident on Lap 166.  Finished 29^th

THIS WAS YOUR FIRST RACE HERE IN A CUP CAR. WHAT HAPPENED? WHAT LED TO THE ACCIDENT?

“Honestly, I think we just got side-drafted going into (Turn) 3 and got me a little bit free and then I think I just packed some air on his (Jimmie Johnson, No. 48) left rear. I haven’t seen a replay so I can’t really tell. Hopefully one of our guys can get it done. It was just unfortunate that we couldn’t get to the end of the race, but we’ll learn from it and come back here in the fall and hopefully have an even better run.”

 

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW SCOOPER CAT CAMARO ZL1 – Involved in multi-car accident on lap 166

WHAT HAPPENED? 
“I just saw them wrecking in front of me and I got it slowed down.  I went to cut through the grass because everybody was kind of wrecking that way and when I hit the grass it just tore the oil cooler off of it.  It sucks because we really wouldn’t have had any damage if I had kind of rolled through the grass.  It’s part of this racing and hate it.  We were on the good side of it at Daytona, bad side here we will just go back to Daytona and see what we can do there.”

 

AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KROGER CLICKLIST CAMARO ZL1 – Involved in multi-car accident on lap 166
“Yeah I’m not sure what happened. I just saw the 48 spin and all heck broke loose after that. I actually got it checked up, got it to the apron. There was so much smoke and grass flying. I had it slowed down. I wasn’t going to drive into the wreck and just got clobbered from the right side. I don’t know. I felt like I did everything I was supposed to do and still got wrecked.”

 

KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CAMARO ZL1 – Involved in a multi-car accident on lap 71
A LOT OF DAMAGE TO YOUR CAR AND TIME EXPIRED WHILE THE TEAM WAS TRYING TO FIX IT, SO YOUR DAY IS FINISHED.  HOW WOULD YOU SUM-UP THE RACING WITH THIS NEW PACKAGE TO THAT POINT OF THE RACE?

“Oh, I think everybody’s cars were really on the edge so I think that’s why so far we’ve seen a lot of single-file racing. It’s just because it’s tougher, I think, for anybody to be aggressive because they’re out of control in a single-file line, at lease I am. It looks like other people are. Yeah, I don’t know. I was ready to get to go do some racing. That whole first stage was a little uneventful you know, just single-file. I think we had a group of like six cars, so I was ready to hopefully get to race aggressively in the second stage. But, I’m not really sure what happened in the wreck. I saw Jamie (McMurray) get loose and then I saw the No. 20 (Eric Jones) get into the wall and then I had nowhere to go and got into Jamie. I hate that we tore up a Credit One Bank Chevy. Like I said, I was just kind of ready to go racing and didn’t really get to today.”

 

TALK ABOUT THE INCIDENT AND THEN YOUR TEAM’S EFFORT TO GET THE CAR BACK ON TRACK: 
“Yeah, I mean I haven’t really seen what happened.  I saw Jamie (McMurray) get loose and then I saw the No. 20 get into the wall and then Jamie came back down and I ran into him.  Just nothing I could really do and then there wasn’t much we were trying to repair there we were just waiting on pit road to close so we could back up and get back to the garage area and out of the way of everybody on pit road.  I hate that we are going to get a DNF here.  I feel like our Credit One Bank Chevy drove a little bit better than it did at Daytona, so would have liked to have gotten to race.  I didn’t really ever feel like we got to race we were just single file and it was kind of boring.  I was ready to start racing get two and three wide it would have been fun but ended up getting in a crash.”

 

ON THE ACCIDENT: 
“I don’t know if you are asking about the wreck I didn’t really see much.  I saw Jamie (McMurray) get loose and then the No. 20 got into the wall and we were just kind of caught up in it.  There wasn’t really anywhere I could go.”

 

ON THE HANDLING OF THE CARS: 
“Yeah, I think the cars are a handful to drive and I think that is why we have seen a lot of single file racing just because everybody’s confidence in their cars isn’t as high as it has been in the past.  Less big moves and stuff, so I think it kind of gets single file because of that.”