Team Chevy Kansas Notes and Quotes

KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CLOVER/FIRST DATA CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 4th 
YOU LED 100 LAPS TONIGHT. ONE OF THE BEST DRIVES. HOW WERE YOU ABLE TO FIGHT BACK AFTER THAT CONTACT WITH RYAN BLANEY? WHAT HAPPENED ON PIT ROAD?

“Yeah, we just had a really good car tonight. Our Clover Chevy was fast. I always run pretty good here at Kansas, so it was nice to lead some laps. I thought we were going to have a really good shot to win there, and Kevin (Harvick) was able to get to my outside. And then, I was tight in traffic there. Yeah, then Blaney was side-drafting really hard and I was as high as I could get and we made contact, whatever, and we had a bunch of damage, so I hate that we didn’t turn today into a win, but it’s satisfying to see how much speed our car had tonight. And, it’s definitely good to show that Chevy has a lot of speed, at least in the No. 42 team; so, we’ll just keep working hard and try to get as fast as the No. 4 (Kevin Harvick). I thought, myself, the No. 4 and the No. 12 (Blaney) were all pretty equal tonight. It was kind of just whoever got out in clean air and could get to the top quick enough would be the fastest throughout the run. So, it was a fun race but a little bit disappointing there in the last 20 laps.”

THE NASCAR OFFICIALS ARE STILL LOOKING AT THE REAR WINDOW OF YOUR CAR. DO YOU THINK THAT SAG IN THERE IS FROM THE REAR DAMAGE?

“Oh, definitely, because I didn’t have it until after Blaney and I got together. So, I’m glad to see that we have a lot of damage back there because obviously if there was no damage back there we would probably get a penalty and who knows, we might still. But I’ve got a ton of damage back there. These cars are pretty rigid and one piece of damage can affect the whole rest of the car, as you can see. So, we’ll see what NASCAR says about it, but I think it’s pretty obvious that we have a ton of damage back there.”

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 12th

TALK ABOUT YOUR NIGHT: 
“Yeah, just scratching and clawing to run mediocre.  We have a lot of work to do.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KROGER CLICKLIST CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 16th
ON HIS NIGHT: 
“It was a hard-fought night for sure.  We didn’t have a good Friday, so made kind of whole sale changes on it. Fortunately, Chris (Buescher) was really good all weekend, so we kind used a little bit of his and that helped.  Just kind of all day, I could be loose or tight, just felt like I was at a certain speed and that was about as good as I was going to go there.  The track definitely changed a lot.  I thought we fought hard.  I did everything I could on the restart there to get all the spots and a little fortunate from a couple of cars falling out.  We salvaged a decent night from a tough weekend and hopefully just learn from this and keep going the right direction and try to make it better.”

WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1 – Sidelined in 7-car accident on lap 253 – Finished 24th

ARE YOU OKAY?

“Yeah, that one hurt really bad. But, I’m fine. We took two tires there and couldn’t get it turned on the bottom and then got sucked around at the last minute. It just should have been lower than that. Just couldn’t rotate. Couldn’t cut. I think overall, we were trying to kind of push some things there and it just didn’t work out. But, we’re going to wherever is next and that was definitely the hardest hit I’ve been in. But, I’m thankful to be walking, so that’s good.”

YOU TRIED TWO TIRES A FEW TIMES. HOW DID THAT MAKE THE HANDLING CHANGE COMPARED TO FOUR TIRES?

“It just wouldn’t turn on two tires. We were kind of a sitting duck there with that strategy and then I felt like after that, we kind of….  We were a pretty decent car before that, but a lot of guys were on different strategies, so I car got hung up on top, a couple of guys split the middle, and I think we were three or four wide and it was hard to tell or judge, really, how much room I had to my outside and so I just got sucked around there, I guess and got loose and hit the wall.”

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 BASS PRO SHOP/CABELA’S CAMARO ZL1 – Involved in multi-car accident on lap 253 – Finished 30th

WHAT DID YOU SEE FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE FROM THAT ACCIDENT? 
“We were just an innocent bystander really.  They crashed kind of underneath me, in front of me and just got all wadded up.  I mean I had no place to go.  It’s jus unfortunate, kind of a ho-hum race I guess you could say for so long and then to get 14 laps from the end and tear up a bunch of cars like that just kind of sucks.”

CHRIS BUESCHER, NO. 37 BREYERS 2 N 1 CAMARO ZL1 - Involved in multi-car accident on lap 253 – Finished 34th

ARE YOU OKAY AND WHAT HAPPENED FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE? 
“It was pushing and shoving late race restart and everybody gets impatient so just wadded up a bunch of cars.  I thought we had cleared it and we were in the grass and just had somebody come from the top and wipe us out.  Not what we wanted with our Breyers 2 N 1 Camaro.  We had good speed in the sun and the sun went down and we lost a little something.  We were working hard to get it back and trying to be fighting for the lucky dog there and we were for a long time.  We just got swiped and something that who knows, I haven’t seen a replay, I don’t know.  I’m sure just uncalled for.”

IT SEEMS WHEN YOU GUYS GET TIGHT IT’S REALLY HARD TO HANDLE THE RACE CARS: 
“Yeah, just extremely aero dependent.  As soon as you pull down on someone’s door it’s going to get sideways as soon you are on your left-rear it’s going to turn sideways. Tucked up behind somebody you lose the nose, I mean it’s just all about aero. If we can’t get enough clean air to keep stable then you end up wiping out.” 

TY DILLON, NO. 13 TWISTED TEA CAMARO ZL1 - Sidelined in 7-car accident on lap 253 – Finished 38th

"This weekend was a rough one for our Twisted Tea team. From the moment we hit the track for practice and throughout the entire race, we struggled with our Camaro ZL1. Then we got caught up in the wreck at the end. I tried to avoid it, but drove in the grass and knocked the radiator out of it. Tough ending for our Germain Racing team, but we will go back to the shop and continue to push to make our cars better."

Ron Fleshman

RIS NASCAR Editor.  Has been with RIS since the middle 90's. Writes on each of the three main series of NASCAR.

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Volume 2018, Issue 5, Posted 2:26 AM, 05.13.2018