Manufacturer Notes and Driver Quotes from Las Vegas 2 2018

BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Autotrader Ford Fusion VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW

HOW MANY TIMES DID YOU HAVE TO HOLD OFF THE COMPETITION TODAY?  “I didn’t think it was ever gonna end.  I was worried about running out of gas there at the end.  I know the fans can hear on this microphone and I want to say thank you to everyone who braved 100 degree heat all day.  You guys are the real heroes.  I get paid to do this.  You guys pay to watch and thank you for doing that.  Thank you for coming out today and tolerating the heat.  We’re so glad to be able to win and get in Victory Lane again with the Autotrader Ford.  What a special day for 500 wins for Penske, three in a row here, first win in the Playoffs.  There are too many storylines for me to get it all right, but we’re very thankful and very proud for all of them.”

 

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN ON A ROLL LIKE YOU ARE NOW?  “I don’t know if we’ve ever had a team that was this strong on pit road before.  This is the best we’ve ever been on pit road and that made a huge, huge difference today.  I’m very thankful for that.”

 

WHAT ABOUT WIN #500 OVERALL FOR ROGER PENSKE?  “That’s quite a number.  It’s really great to be a part of that and to get the last four to get us there, that’s one special time.”

 


Ford Notes and Quotes

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)

2018 NASCAR Playoff Media Day (Las Vegas, NV)

Thursday, September 13, 2018

Page 2

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Pennzoil Ford Fusion - Finished 4th

DID IT ALL COME DOWN TO LANE CHOICE ON THE RESTARTS? “Pretty much. Really the 78 was the fastest car. After three laps he was really quick but the first three laps he was a little bit off. We had a good restart with the 2 there at the end. There is so much more drive on the bottom there. You could hook up the rear tires and squirt ahead of the field there. Overall I am proud of the effort this weekend. We had a good Ford. I just wish I could do it one more time.”

 

“Once we lost our track position we went from first to third there and it was just hard to get it back. I thought I had a shot at it on the restart when I got to the outside of the 2 but I just couldn’t clear him down into three. I don't know. I wish I could re-run the race. Might be a little better. But everyone in the field is probably saying the same thing.”

 

ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Smithfield Ford Fusion - Finished 6th

“We gotta keep doing that. I felt like our Ford was pretty good today. We got behind on qualifying and that kind of set the tone. That was my fault. I was trying to get too much and got in the fence and made another mistake and we were able to come down on pit road and get all the damage fixed and the car was back to being good again. I am proud of that effort. That was a really hard fought sixth place. Man, one of these races we will have it go smooth and we will be a contender. I am really proud of that effort. That was a really hard fought sixth.”

 

RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 PPG Ford Fusion - Finished 5th

YOU BROUGHT HOME A GOOD FINISH AFTER SOME EARLY RACE TROUBLE: “Yeah, a lot of people had trouble. We had our own troubles and luckily our damage didn’t affect us to the point of taking us out of contention. We fought for 400 miles and it was a good job by the 12 group today.”

 

WHAT WERE YOU BATTLING THE MOST? “We were all over the place. I was good on short runs and long runs I was really loose. We were trying to get it to where it would last. We got it a little better but definitely not where we need to be. It was a struggle. They worked really hard all day. I can’t thank them enough for that. I tried to stay out of trouble and just survive I guess. Congrats to Brad and the 2 team on their 500th win for Team Penske, that is pretty neat. We have to work on some stuff but salvaging a decent day is a good day.”

 

KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Fusion - Retired After Accident on Lap 147

HOW MUCH NOTICE DID YOU HAVE THAT THE TIRE WAS GOING TO GO?“Well, there was something wrong from the time we put the tires on. It was like russian roulette every time you put these piece of crap tires on and try to drive around the race track. One time it is tight, one time it is loose, one time they are blistered. We had a great car and then you put a set of tires on it and you can’t hardly make it through the field. I just hate it for everyone on our Mobil 1 Ford.”

 

FRUSTRATING DAY OBVIOUSLY, BUT YOU SAID BEFORE THE RACE YOU WERE HAPPY YOU HAD THOSE 50 BONUS POINTS COMING IN: “I am not happy about anything right now.”

 

FORD QUALIFYING RESULTS

1stBRAD KESELOWSKI

4thJOEY LOGANO

5thRYAN BLANEY

6thARIC ALMIROLA

10thPAUL MENARD

13thTREVOR BAYNE

21stKURT BUSCH

23rdCLINT BOWYER

24thMATT DIBENEDETTO

27thDAVID RAGAN

29thMICHAEL MCDOWELL

30thRICKY STENHOUSE JR.

39thKEVIN HARVICK

 

BRAD KESELOWSKI WINS THIRD STRAIGHT, TAKES PLAYOFF OPENER AT VEGAS

  • Brad Keselowski won the 2018 NASCAR Playoff opener at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, his third win in as many weeks.

  • The win today is the 27th of his Cup Series career and is the historic 500th career racing with for Team Penske.

  • Ford leads all manufacturers with 14 victories this season.

  • The victory marks the 62nd win all-time for Team Penske with Ford and the 18th for Keselowski.

  • Of Team Penske’s 62 MENCS wins with Ford, 35 have come since rejoining Ford in 2013.

  • The win is Fusion’s 103rd Cup Series triumph since becoming Ford’s flagship vehicle in 2006.

  • Today’s win is Ford’s 672nd all-time in Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series competition.

TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS

 

1st, Brad Keselowski*

2nd, Kyle Larson*

3rd, MARTIN TRUEX JR.

4th, Joey Logano

5th, Ryan Blaney*

7th, KYLE BUSCH

8th, DANIEL SUÁREZ

17th, JJ YELEY

25th, JEFFREY EARNHARDT 

32nd, DENNY HAMLIN

33rd, TIMMY HILL

40th, ERIK JONES

*non-Toyota driver 

 

 

TOYOTA DRIVER POINT STANDINGS**

 

1st, MARTIN TRUEX JR                  2087 points

2nd, KYLE BUSCH                           2085 points

15th, ERIK JONES                           2009 points

16th, DENNY HAMLIN                  2008 points

19th, DANIEL SUÁREZ                     530 points

**unofficial point standings

 

  • Camry driver Martin Truex Jr. was the highest-finishing Toyota in the opening Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday afternoon.
  • Truex Jr. would lead a race-high 96 laps (of 272) and won the first stage of the event at Las Vegas. Truex’ third-place finish was his 16th top-five of the season.
  • Toyota teammate and Joe Gibbs Racing driver Kyle Busch finished seventh in Sunday’s Playoffs race in Las Vegas – netting his 22nd top-10 of 2018.
  • Toyota Playoffs drivers Denny Hamlin and Erik Jones both exited the race early due to incidents and finished 32nd and 40th, respectively.

TOYOTA QUOTES

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 78 5-hour ENERGY Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing

Finishing Position: 3rd

Did the short runs and restarts at the end of the race hurt your chances for a victory?

“It took the race from us, no question. With 15 laps or so we could take the lead and drive away. We were actually a little too good on the long run, I wish maybe we could have gone the other direction a little bit and still been able to get the lead. If we were the leader, we could do okay, I could maintain, but when I was second or third or fourth, it just made me tight enough that I had to wait for the thing to come to me or wait for other guys to start getting off the bottom in front of me. All in all it was a great day for everybody on the Bass Pro/5-hour ENERGY Camry and all the guys did a phenomenal job this weekend. Thanks to all the guys back in Denver at the shop, it’s pretty cool to see the effort going into these last 10 – we’re going to get after them. We had a winning car, just didn’t work out for us today. Really proud of the effort.”

 

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing      

Finishing Position: 7th

How were you able to come back from the spin and a handling issue with the race car?

“It was certainly a lot better than we should have been. Certainly, we thought we were going to run a lot better too even when we were up front – if we had the chance to be up front, our car just wasn’t very good and we would lose spots. Everybody was just faster than us. We just kind of missed it a little bit this weekend, all weekend long. Unfortunately, I feel like our stuff wasn’t that good, but the 20 (Erik Jones) had speed and we were better than him to start the race so I have no clue. Our M&M’s Camry guys did a great job fighting through that and getting me some good repairs and stuff like that on pit road. That’s what this time of year is all about is minimizing the bad days and being able to recover and come back. You don’t want to have the bad days, but when you do you have to turn them around and make chicken noodle soup out of something else. It’s all good I guess, but hopefully Richmond looks a lot better.”

Did you feel the spin through the grass caused a lot of damage to the race car?

“It didn’t feel like it tore up the car that bad. I haven’t necessarily looked at it, but you would think it would cause a little bit of damage, but the guys got to work on it and tried to put it together the best they could. We just had kind of a sloppy day and this whole weekend we just didn’t unload very good. The 78 (Martin Truex Jr.) ran strong so at least there is something positive of it or some notebook, but ours wasn’t.”

How aggressive was the racing today?

“There was a lot of racing going on there at the end and the restarts here were very, very hectic with three-wide and everything kind of happening off of two and guys banging into one another. You get really tight off of two if you’re not careful so that’s where you saw a lot of carnage happen. With 20 (laps) to go, you’re probably going to see a lot more top runners finish farther up front.”

Did you experience any tire issues today?

“We didn’t have any today, but we certainly had some this weekend. We had I think two sets or maybe one set happen in practice that they blistered.”

Does the inability to find handling today concern you for the rest of the Playoffs?

“We’ve been struggling for four or five weeks in a row man, just something not right. I don’t know what it is Bad aura or something right now and we need to switch that around or change that around – fix that up, clean that up, whatever. It’s not the time of year to be having that stuff. At least the finishes that we’re getting out of our days here are decent, they’re not great and they’re not where we want to be for sure, but all things considered today, seventh is good.”

What are your thoughts on so many Playoff drivers having issues today?

“If you would have taken the finish from 20 (laps) to go, it would have been a heck of a lot different finish than it is now – there was a lot of racing and a lot of chaos happening the last few restarts. Good for us, a couple of those cars having trouble and getting pushed to the back and things happening the way they were obviously helped us and got us farther up front. If it wasn’t for those, we probably would have been 16th or so. We’ll take what we can get and hope for better days ahead.”

 

DANIEL SUÁREZ, No. 19 ARRIS Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 8th

How was your race today?

“It was tough. We didn’t have the speed today. We had a 15 to 20th place car. We have to keep working hard for the rest of the season and hopefully keep improving for our next half-mile track.”

 

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 32nd

What happened that ended your race early?

“Trying to get more than the car was capable of. We should have just finished 15th or 10th or wherever we were at the time, but trying to get more and the car won’t handle it. No grip and just a bad day overall.”

 

ERIK JONES, No. 20 DeWALT Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 40th

What happened in the accident to end your day early?

“It’s just unfortunate – we didn’t have the best-handling DeWalt Camry today and thought we were going to end up okay. We were going to finish top-10 no matter what. It’s unfortunate we had that happen, nothing Kevin (Harvick) could do and nothing I could do unfortunately. Not the situation we needed to be in, we didn’t have any bonus points and we’ve got some work to do now. I don’t think we have to win, but we definitely need to run really well here at Richmond and the Roval so we’ll keep at it, but it’s just unfortunate that had to happen.”

Was there just no time to react when Kevin Harvick got into the wall?

“I saw him (Harvick) blow the tire, but I was committed to the top and running up there. When you get in the corner, unfortunately it’s hard to get slowed up and get to the bottom when you’re carrying that much speed. It’s unfortunate and not what you want, but we’ll keep after it.”

 

Is it more intense thinking about what you have to do going forward?

“We have to run well at Richmond and the Roval now. I thought it was going to be a pretty relaxed day. We thought we’d be finishing in the top-10 today. It’s unfortunate we’re even behind. We don’t want to be in this spot and nothing we can do to prevent it now. We have to move forward.”

 

Was the track super slick?

“It wasn’t terrible. It was hard to get the car to handle the way you want it to. It wasn’t too bad. We seemed to be getting the car better to where we wanted it. We have a little bit of work left to do.”

 

TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS

 

1st, Brad Keselowski*

2nd, Kyle Larson*

3rd, MARTIN TRUEX JR.

4th, Joey Logano

5th, Ryan Blaney*

7th, KYLE BUSCH

8th, DANIEL SUÁREZ

17th, JJ YELEY

25th, JEFFREY EARNHARDT 

32nd, DENNY HAMLIN

33rd, TIMMY HILL

40th, ERIK JONES

*non-Toyota driver 

 

 

TOYOTA DRIVER POINT STANDINGS**

 

1st, MARTIN TRUEX JR                  2087 points

2nd, KYLE BUSCH                           2085 points

15th, ERIK JONES                           2009 points

16th, DENNY HAMLIN                  2008 points

19th, DANIEL SUÁREZ                     530 points

**unofficial point standings

 

  • Camry driver Martin Truex Jr. was the highest-finishing Toyota in the opening Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday afternoon.
  • Truex Jr. would lead a race-high 96 laps (of 272) and won the first stage of the event at Las Vegas. Truex’ third-place finish was his 16th top-five of the season.
  • Toyota teammate and Joe Gibbs Racing driver Kyle Busch finished seventh in Sunday’s Playoffs race in Las Vegas – netting his 22nd top-10 of 2018.
  • Toyota Playoffs drivers Denny Hamlin and Erik Jones both exited the race early due to incidents and finished 32nd and 40th, respectively.

KYLE LARSON CARRIES BANNER FOR CAMARO ZL1 AT LAS VEGAS
Driver of the No. 42 Chevrolet Earns Sixth Runner-Up Finish of 2018

  • Kyle Larson was Chevrolet’s top-finisher in the South Point 400 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (LVMS), ending the day with the runner-up effort in his No. 42 DC Solar Vegas Strong Camaro ZL1.
  • The run marked Larson’s sixth second-place finish of the season, his fourth top 10 finish in six races at LVMS, and his 15th top 10 finish of the 2018 MENCS campaign.
  • Larson battled back from an early tire issue in the 400.5-mile race to lead 24 laps and contend for the win in an overtime finish that included multiple re-starts.
  • As one of the 16 Playoff contenders in the final 10 races that will determine the 2018 MENCS champion, Larson now ranks 8th in the point standings following the opening round at LVMS.

POST RACE PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT:

KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 DC SOLAR VEGAS STRONG CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 2nd

 

THE MODERATOR:  We're joined by our second‑place finisher, Kyle Larson, driver of the No. 42 DC Solar Vegas Strong Chevrolet.  We will open it up to questions for Kyle.

 

Q.  Kyle, the restart when you went three-wide to take the lead, what gave you the confidence to think that could work?


KYLE LARSON:  I mean, you're trying to find clean air on the nose of your car, so I mean, I didn't really expect to get to the lead.  I was just trying to get clean air on my nose, and it happened ‑‑ the run timed out perfectly where I could get to his right rear quarter and kind of slow him down a little bit.  So honestly, that wasn't even ‑‑ I guess it's a thought before the restart, but I didn't think ‑‑ I was just trying to kind of shove him out to the lead, and then I never really got to his bumper, so the run just kind of worked out where I was able to go around him, and I needed it to stay green there.  I felt like I could have won the race right there because he was really good on the short run and I was terrible on short runs today, but once I could get the top going, I was really good, and I was ‑‑ right when I moved up top in 3 and 4 and pulled away, the caution came out.  I felt like I was going to be able to stretch it.


I felt like the 78 would probably get by him at some point and then maybe chase me down.  I knew if I could hold Brad off for a little bit, I would have a good shot, but it didn't work out.  And then we had a ton of restarts there; a couple of them worked out for me, a couple of them didn't, and thankfully the last one worked out and we were able to get to second.

 

Q.  Can you kind of describe what it was like for you out there?  The race lasted a lot longer than it normally would, a lot of cautions and red flags at the end.  What was it like to go through all that with the heat?


KYLE LARSON:  Yeah, I mean, it honestly wasn't too bad in the car I didn't think.  It's nice being out here with no humidity.  I mean, my hair wasn't even sweaty when I got out.  It wasn't too bad.  The red flag got a little hot, but nowhere near like some of the races in the Midwest that we run, or Chicago was terrible.  Yeah, I did glance in the stands, and it stinks that the sun beats on them all race.  The stands were pretty packed before the race, and then there that red flag, it looked like they were pretty thin.  But it was so hot.  I felt like it was hotter in the sun probably than it was for us in the car.  Just a hot day, but hot days make for great racing.  I thought the track was awesome.  For us to be able to run next to the wall and all over the place was a lot of fun.

I wish we could run more races here in the heat.

 

Q.  You said the other day that your outlook would be good if you could eliminate the bad luck.  Did you feel like when you had that tire problem the bad luck was occurring again, and is your luck changing that you were able to rebound and do so well today?


KYLE LARSON:  We're only one week in, so I'm sure bad luck will creep up eventually.  I mean, that was bad luck, but it was also good luck at the same time that it happened off of the corner down the backstretch and not into Turn 3.  The tire didn't come apart and tear the car up.  I knew when we came back out and only lost a lap, it was going to work out pretty quickly, and it worked out, I mean, perfectly.  We lost that lap, took the wave‑around, got back to the lead lap, went under caution like four laps later.


So, it sucked that we lost stage points there.  I felt like I probably would have got eight or nine points that stage and then who knows about the next stage, maybe eight to ten more, maybe less.  I lost out on a lot of points today because of the track position that we lost.  So yeah, could have been a lot worse, that tire problem.  But we did lose out on a lot of points there.

 

Q.  That being said, though, I think there were nine guys or 11 guys who had trouble today.  Knowing that you came in with so few playoff points and now came out with a second-place finish, do you feel more comfortable looking through the first round now?


KYLE LARSON:  I don't know, I feel like you only want a few guys to have bad finishes.  You don't want a group of them because then it allows them to have ‑‑ the guys who had problems have a little less stress because they're all kind of bunched together with not a lot of points.


But I haven't even seen the points.  I don't know what it looks like.  But we had a decent day.  I felt like with those stage points that we lost out on, there was probably guys that we ran better than that still gained more points than we did today.  So that stinks, but we had a good finish, so that was nice.

 

Q.  Kyle, the tire went out first, but after you replaced the tires, did you feel the grip of the tires really getting loose and wearing out real quick?


KYLE LARSON:  I don't know.  There for a minute, I thought the track freed up, and then I thought it was getting tighter and tighter throughout the race, the last half or so.  I don't know.  It was hot.

 

Q.  Is there any theory or explanation for why this was such a crazy wild card‑ish type race when it's just a normal mile‑and‑a‑half in theory?


KYLE LARSON:  I'll let Martin answer.  My tire ran out of talent.  It looked like the 4's tire ran out of talent, and then I'm not sure what ‑‑ I don't know who all had issues, what issues they had, but it seemed like a lot of people had issues.  Yeah, I don't know.  I guess all the red playoff cars, that's a bad deal.  Hopefully that doesn't happen to me next week.

 

Q.  For both of you, the big three obviously dominated up until now six races ago.  Has the worm turned?  Martin, obviously you're one of the big three.  For each of you, do you feel like now the big three is scrambling to get back to being the big three?


KYLE LARSON:  I felt like the 18 struggled here the last few weeks.  I'm sure they're trying stuff.  Maybe not, I don't know.  Martin was really strong today.  I felt like he just needed to stay green and he had the best car.  Harvick was a little off of Martin, and then Brad again was really fast, especially on the short runs.  And then I felt like I was kind of right there, also.  Didn't really get to show it much there until the end, but the 18 is definitely off their game a little bit right now, but they'll be able to sprinkle some fairy dust and figure it out.

 

Q.  Kyle, did you have any other tire issues beyond the one that you had today that we saw?


KYLE LARSON:  No, I don't think so.  That first set that we had on, they said looked perfect.  I was kind of shocked when we ‑‑ we must have cut it.  I was running the top, and that same corner that I had the issue, I had entered maybe four to six inches higher than I had any other lap, so maybe I ran something over.  I'm not sure.  It didn't sound like I did or anything like that.  But once I got to exit and down the backstretch, I realized that my tire was flat, so I was able to get down pit road.

TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:

POS.   DRIVER (* = Playoff Contender)

2nd       *KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 DC SOLAR VEGAS STRONG CAMARO ZL1

9TH       RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 31 LIBERTY NATIONAL CAMARO ZL1

11TH     *AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOWFROST CAMARO ZL1

12TH     REGAN SMITH, NO. 95 PROCORE CAMARO ZL1

14TH     AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KROGER CLICKLIST CAMARO ZL1

15th      CHRIS BUESCHER, NO. 37 NATURAL LIGHT RACE DAY RESUME CAMARO ZL1

19th      *ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 VALVOLINE CAMARO ZL1

22nd     *JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S FOR PROS CAMARO ZL1

35th      *CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1

 

TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:

POS.   DRIVER (* = Chevy Playoff Contender)

1ST       Brad Keselowski (Ford)

2nd       *Kyle Larson (Chevrolet)

3rd        Martin Truex, Jr. (Toyota)

4th        Joey Logano (Ford)

5TH       Ryan Blaney (Ford)

 

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season continues next weekend at Richmond Raceway with the Federated Auto Parts 400 on Saturday, September 22 at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

 

POST-RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 DC SOLAR VEGAS STRONG CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 2nd

YOU CAME CLOSE AGAIN TO GETTING THE WIN. HOW CLOSE WERE YOU TO MAYBE GETTING THE VICTORY? 
“Yeah, the restarts a couple of them worked out for me and a couple of them didn’t. But, was happy to end up second there.  Didn’t really expect to get to second there on that final restart, but it was pretty hectic.  Just glad we had a good day after the tire issue we had early in the race.  So, yeah, good points day.”

WITH ALL THE ATTRITION WITH THE PLAYOFFS DRIVERS HOW MUCH CONFIDENCE DOES THIS GIVE YOU HEADING INTO RICHMOND? 
“I don’t know, I mean you just have to take it race by race. I mean, (Brad) Keselowski has got a ton of confidence right now. I don’t think anybody besides him can really lean on confidence.  So, we had a good test at Richmond, but that doesn’t really mean anything until you go there and have a good couple of practices and hopefully a good race.”

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOWFROST CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 11th

WHAT A RUN TODAY COMING FROM LAST TO FINISH 11TH: 
“Yeah, I’m proud of our guys.  They brought a really fast race car.  We gave up a lot of track position throughout the day, not just from starting in the back, but on pit stops we really struggled.  But, you know, proud of the effort.  I felt like I got out all I could out of it.  Bummer at the end.  We needed a top 10.  Eleventh is good, but racing my teammate to the line there I thought we would get him, but we didn’t.” 

ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 VALVOLINE CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 19th

WHAT IS YOUR OUTLOOK ON THE NEXT TWO? ON THE ONE HAND YOU HAD A GOOD CAR, ON THE OTHER HAND YOU DIDN’T FINISH WHERE YOU WANTED TO TODAY: 
“Yeah, I mean, we ran better than I really expected to coming here.  So, I think that gives me some optimism going forward, just super frustrated.”

WHAT CAN YOU TAKE AWAY FROM THIS? 
“I mean that is the most speed we have had on a 1.5-mile all year.  I was running 50 percent probably maybe 60 percent that first run towards the end and just mowing guys down.  Our long run speed was so good.  We were too tight to restart, but our long run speed was really good.  So, that is super encouraging, unfortunately we don’t have another 1.5-mile for a while, but we can turn it around at Richmond too.”

WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED TO YOU THERE AT THE END? 
“It looked like they got jumbled up in front of us.  I got jumbled up the No. 31 kind of slid up in front of us.  I was loose off and cars kind of backed up into us at the same time.  So, hard racing happened to us at the end, but we should have been pretty far in front of that and not in that position to being with.”  

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S FOR PROS CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 22nd

WE SAW YOU DUMPING WATER ON YOU BEFORE THE RACE.  DID SOMETHING GO WRONG WITH YOUR COOLING SYSTEM DURING THE RACE? 
“No, nothing went wrong.  That was part of my cooling system, it worked great.  If you are ever hot get your shirt wet and walk around outside it feels great.  I did that all day long.  I just took bottles of water and just sprayed my suit.  It worked great.”

WITH THE ATTRITION TODAY DOES THAT GIVE YOU ANY SOLACE?  A LOT OF THE PLAYOFF DRIVERS HAD PROBLEMS DOES THAT HELP?  
“No, it helps, but we could have closed with a top five finish that would have really helped and given us a cushion.  Today was really a good day for the Lowe’s team. We had good speed in the car, good pit stops, everything was going well and unfortunately, cut a right-front tire when we touched the No. 41 off of Turn 2.  I don’t know how next week is going to go, I really don’t and I sure as hell don’t know how the ROVAL is going to go.  So, sure, we finished higher than some guys, but any cushion we could have gotten today would have been nice.”

WE HAVE HEARD THAT THE ROVAL WAS THE UNKNOWN, BUT IT SEEMS LIKE TODAY WAS THE UNKNOWN? 
“Playoffs, man.  Everybody is trying so hard.  It means so much to everybody to be in the Playoffs and have a shot at a championship.  Everybody is just trying really hard.”

TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 34th

“Today was one that just didn’t go our way. I fired off tight on each run, but my GEICO Camaro ZL1 would come to me the longer we would run. It’s unfortunate to have our day ruined by a blown tire because we had a lot more than what we got to show everyone. The right-side damage was pretty significant to the nose of our car, but we didn’t give up. It could have completely ended our day, but my team worked hard in the garage to get everything fixed and get me back out there. None of us wanted to quit. We still wanted to get all that we could out of this race and gain as many spots as possible. All we can do is hold our heads up and regroup to be ready for them next week in Richmond.”

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 – Sidelined in crash with Jamie McMurray on Lap 211

THERE WAS NOWHERE TO GO FOR YOU. YOU ALSO SAID SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR SHOULDER ON THE RADIO AFTERWARD.  NOW YOU ARE HOLDING YOUR SHOULDER A LITTLE GINGERLY. WHAT HAPPENED?

“Yeah, I guess it just got caught in the wheel. But it popped really big and then I kind of got stopped and got to messing with it and it popped really big again. So, all good now and we’ll try to rebound next week. We had a really good car today and yeah, almost, just barely clipped him (Jamie McMurray).  I just hate it. So many guys fell out today. I feel like half the top 16 has crashed. So, we’ve just got to finish, I guess.”


HOW ARE YOU? 
“I’m okay now.  Like I said on TV a second ago, it (his shoulder) popped really big there, my hand kind of got caught in the wheel and then I got to messing with it after and it popped really big again, so all good and move on to Richmond.”

WE THOUGHT THE ROVAL WAS GOING TO BE THE ONE THAT WAS GOING TO SHAKE THINGS UP, BUT WE HAVE HAD A NUMBER OF PLAYOFF DRIVERS HAVE ISSUES TODAY.  HOW DOES THAT CHANGE THINGS? 
“Yeah, I don’t think it does.  I mean, it just puts us in a hole to start, so not good.”

YOU SAID YOUR SHOULDER JUST POPPED OUT? 
“Yeah, it hurt really bad when it happened and kind of got to messing with it and it popped again. Yeah, it’s better now.”


JAMIE MCMURRAY, NO. 1 GEARWRENCH CAMARO ZL1 – Sidelined on Lap 211 due to right rear tire issue and subsequent crash with Chase Elliott

DID YOU KNOW THE RIGHT REAR TIRE WAS RUBBING?

“There was no smoke inside the car and the spotter said that he couldn’t see any smoke. So, typically it will run a while. But yeah, I’m assuming that the right rear tire must have rubbed a hole in it, and I don’t know why I chose to run the bottom on that lap. I wish I had stayed against the wall. But sometimes those look big but it actually didn’t hurt that bad. It was a big day for Gearwrench. They actually gave away a new Camaro to a customer. We’ve had a great week. I had a good car. I’ve had a good car for the last three weeks, so that’s unfortunate.”


THAT WAS A HARD HIT.  DID THAT START WITH CONTACT WITH RYAN BLANEY? 
“Yeah, I’m not sure.  I don’t know if the No. 12 got into the back of me on exit or just got really close.  I slid up and I hit the wall.  I didn’t hit that hard and I didn’t see any smoke inside the car. The spotters thought everything looked good, but I only made it like two more laps before the tire blew out.”

HOW HARD WAS THAT HIT? 
“Yeah, it wasn’t as bad as I expected.  I wrecked in that exact same spot in a Busch car back in 2002 or something and it hurt really bad, like kind of head ringing afterwards, but that, honestly the hit it must have looked spectacular because it didn’t hurt that bad.”

HOW SLICK WAS THE TRACK? 
“It wasn’t bad.  This place always on Sunday is extremely slick compared to Saturday, but I thought it was pretty normal.  It was hot inside the car, but the top was really good today and the bottom.  It was a pretty racy track.”

HOW FRUSTRATING WHEN YOU HAD SUCH A GOOD CAR TODAY? 
“I mean, gosh, I feel like our whole year has kind of went like that.  I mean there is nothing you can do about it.  I was thrilled with our speed.  I felt like at Darlington and Indy we had really good cars, and we felt like yesterday after practice we had a little better car today.  I thought we had a car that was capable of winning today.  It’s frustrating, but it’s much more frustrating to run bad.”

WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 – Eliminated from competition due to a rear suspension issue 
“I thought the beginning of our day went pretty good. Then in the wall the first time off (Turn) 2 and we were able to fix it after that and then pitted again, same spot, so just kind of ended our day after that.”

 

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 9, Posted 10:53 PM, 09.16.2018