Notes and Quotes from Dover's Gander RV 400

TOYOTA

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 19 SiriusXM Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 1st

How good does it feel to be back in Victory Lane at this place?

“It feels incredible. So thankful for this team. What a race car we had today. This SiriusXM Camry was just incredible. Thank you to everyone back at the shop at JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing), Bass Pro, Auto Owners, everybody who supports us and makes this happen. We have one hell of a team and we came here with a new setup this time. We had an older setup that won in 2016 and had been good but not good enough. Hats off to Cole (Pearn, crew chief), James (Small, engineer) and everyone with TRD (Toyota Racing Development, U.S.A.) back in California, Costa Mesa for awesome engines and horsepower. Thanks to all these fans that have come out today on Monday.”

They say this is a tough place to pass. How did you do it?

“I promise it wasn’t easy. It was a lot of work. It was tough. But this race car was just incredible. Just thanks to everyone who makes this possible. I can’t believe it. Without Talladega, we would have had two in a row. It is special. New guys this year. Coach (Joe Gibbs, team owner) has put together a good bunch and Cole (Pearn, crew chief) and everybody. I am really, really proud to drive these Toyotas. They are awesome and I am a lucky guy.”

What has started to click for you guys?

“I think just putting all the details together. We've had speed all year. Finished second at Atlanta. Felt like we had the best car. Had some issues on pit road. Phoenix we ran second again. Seems like we were having little hiccups here and there. Now we're starting to not only make our cars a little bit faster, show up better on Fridays, we're a step ahead on the weekend. The pit crew is really doing a great job. That's been the difference. We had a lot of trouble in the pits earlier in the year, didn't get to show our speed. The guys are coming together, gelling, doing a fine job. We were able to take advantage of fast race cars today.”

How much did the track change? Did you guys adapt or did it come to you?

“It definitely changed a lot. We were really fast the first run of the race and I think from there we just had to keep up with the race track. It was definitely changing, and there were a few runs in there where we got pretty tight and we had to continue to free the car up. It was right at the end when we needed it to be and luckily no cautions at the end there, so we could just ride around and put it in the bag.

 

What about Monday at the Monster Mile works well for you?

“I don’t know, but if we have to race here again on a Monday, I will be pretty excited about it.”

ERIK JONES, No. 20 Sport Clips Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 6th

Talk about your top-10 finish today at the Monster Mile.

“We had really good speed in the Sport Clips Camry. We kind of rode around there all day in the top 10. We just couldn’t get the track position we needed to go and run up front. We felt like we were better than a couple in front of us. Just couldn’t quite get there. Just a long day. It was tough to pass and you really had to rely on track position and getting good restarts and getting good pit stops. A solid day for us. We have had some rough weeks, so to get back on track and run where we know we are fully capable of - good momentum and we are going to Kansas next week which has been a good place for us the past few times.”

 

Define “hard to pass”.

“It seemed like the bottom groove was preferred by a lot and it was tough to get up and make a move in the middle. It was hard to get some speed rolling there, especially if you had someone behind you. It felt like they would kind of snooker you and put you back another spot. It was just tough to make moves and it was tough to be aggressive and find a way to pass. Just tough all day.”

 

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Pedigree Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 10th

How was your day?

“I kind of thought we were off as a program but obviously the 19 (Martin Truex Jr.) won the race. We were probably going to end up about eighth but then I got into the wall at the start of the last stage so after that I was just sort of hanging on with my Pedigree Camry. It would have been nice to run better. It would have been nice to lead laps. When you run better you have something to hang your hat on so we obviously have some work to do before we come back here in the fall.”

CHEVROLET

TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL FINISHING RESULTS: POS.   DRIVER 2nd     ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 NATIONWIDE SMALL BUSINESS CAMARO ZL1 3rd     KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CAMARO ZL1 5th      CHASE ELLIOTT, NO 9 NAPA BRAKES CAMARO ZL1 8th      WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 13th    KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1   TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL FINISHING RESULTS: POS.  DRIVER 1st      Martin Truex Jr. (Toyota) 2nd      Alex Bowman (Chevrolet) 3rd       Kyle Larson (Chevrolet) 4th       Kevin Harvick (Ford) 5th      Chase Elliott (Chevrolet)   The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season continues next weekend at Kansas Speedway with the Digital Ally 400 on Saturday evening, May 11th at 7:30 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.   TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES:   ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 NATIONWIDE SMALL BUSINESS CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 2nd A GREAT EXAMPLE OF EXECUTION. YOU STARTED AT THE BACK AND NEARLY JOINED MARTIN TRUEX, JR. IN SCORING HIS FIRST WIN AT DOVER. YOU LOOK LIKE YOU COULD GO AN EXTRA 100 LAPS “I’m worn out. This is the physically hardest race of the year for me, for sure. We at least had a shot at it. That’s really all you can ask for. Congrats to Martin Truex, Jr. Our Nationwide Small Business Chevy was really good. Cool deal they’ve got going on. A small business owner can enter to win a $100,000, so that’s a pretty neat promotion for them. I’m still proud of (crew chief) Greg Ives and everybody on this No. 88 team. We had a miserable start to the season and we did a really good job of resetting over the off-weekend. We’ve come out strong since then.”   BACK-TO-BACK SECOND PLACE FINISHES FOR YOU AND YOU’VE ALMOST SCORED TWO WINS IN A ROW. WHAT DOES THAT DO FOR THE CONFIDENCE DEPARTMENT? NOT ONLY FOR YOU, BUT FOR THE ENTIRE TEAM? “It would be better if we had a trophy, right? But, we needed this, for sure. Talladega is a speedway and it’s a lot of luck involved. But to come here to, in my opinion the hardest race track we go do, and run like that from the back of all things, was pretty special. I’m just proud of everybody at Hendrick Motorsports for all the improvement we’ve made over the last year or so and we’re going to keep it going.”   KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 3rd YOU FINALLY BROUGHT IT HOME IN THE TOP 5 WITH A THIRD PLACE FINISH. YOU FINALLY DELIVERED WITH WHAT YOU EXPECTED OUT OF THIS CAR. DESCRIBE YOUR DAY “Oh, yeah, we ran inside the Top 5 all race long. We fought tight early-on, with our Credit One Bank Chevy, but we freed it up and got it to where I felt like I was pretty good. And in the last run there, after cycling through green-flag stops, I was really loose and got stuck in traffic and then was just looser in the dirty air. So, I had to just make sure I hit the bottom lap after lap to hold (Kevin) Harvick off. So, it was good to finally have a clean race. I don’t think we’ve had a clean weekend all year long. And we’re 11 weeks into the season. So, it’s good to finally get a clean day, like I said, and thanks to our race team. Our pit crew did a good job today as well. It was a nice day.”   CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 5th YOU WERE THE POLE SITTER AND YOU LED A LOT OF THE RACE. YOU HAD A GOOD FINISH, DIDN’T WIN, WHAT HAPPENED THERE AT THE END? “Yeah, we just fell off there at the end of that second Stage.  That was the time of the race that we needed to be controlling it and not falling back. Just a bad time to have a bad half of a run and that is kind of what happened. So, we were fast, just not fast enough when it really mattered.”    YOU HAD A GOOD RACE CAR, BUT IT SEEMED LIKE IT WOULD HAVE BEEN HARD FOR A NUMBER OF YOU TO CATCH MARTIN TRUEX JR.? “Yeah, he was really good there at the end for sure. His car came on about the time I felt our car was starting to fall off. And hey, that is what pays.”   HOW DID YOU LOOK AT THE RACING BECAUSE THERE WAS SO MUCH TALK ABOUT HOW IT WOULD BE WITH THIS PACKAGE?  “It was a tough race for sure. It was a very physical event, a lot of corner speed, which is hard on us for sure.”   WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 8th TELL US ABOUT HOW THE RACE PLAYED OUT FOR YOU GUYS? “Yeah, we had the strategy deal where we took two tires and got some Stage points. And then we had to start at the back, and ultimately we were clawing our way back the whole race. We finished behind the 22, and we both started in the back, which was unfortunate. The guys brought a really fast car that was a lot of fun.”    COMPARE IT HOW IT RACED LAST YEAR VERSUS THIS YEAR “It was really hard to pass. Coming from the back the one time, it took me the whole race to get back there. The 22 and us worked our way back from wherever we were at the end of Stage 2, and then it took another 130 laps to kind of get any farther. That was unfortunate, but he could run the top which is nice.”   YOU SAID IT WAS HARD TO PASS, IS THAT THE PACKAGE HERE? “I don’t know. It might have just been me, but it was hard to pass anyone on the bottom and really defend significantly on the bottom. I don’t think I passed many guys on the bottom all day, if we were both running bottom/bottom. If they ran up a car length, I could get enough air that I could. But the only passes I made really all day were on top.”   SEEMED LIKE NOBODY HAD ANYTHING FOR TRUEX ANYWAY “I am not really sure. We were kind of with him at the end of Stage 1 and then got in the back. So, I really don’t know for sure.”   TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 22nd “We didn’t really know what to expect coming into this weekend but speeds here were incredibly fast. It made the racing a lot more challenging in some ways, but we made it through with a good, clean race. My Twisted Tea team worked hard all weekend to get our Camaro ZL1 where we needed it to be. We went back and forth on the balance throughout the day, but I ended the race feeling pretty good about everything. I wish we could have cracked into the top 20, but I’m proud of the progress we’ve made as a team at this track. This was a solid race for us and a good day to keep 2019 going in a positive direction.”   FORD  

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 2019, Issue 4, Posted 5:02 PM, 05.06.2019