CHEVY NCS AT BRISTOL 2: Post-Race Notes and Quotes

YLER REDDICK, NO. 8 CHILDRESS VINEYARDS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 4th - “Our No. 8 Childress Vineyards Chevrolet Camaro was a fast one tonight, and we had a great finish to show for it at Bristol Motor Speedway. It took a couple adjustments to get our car to where I needed it to be, but our communication as a team on what adjustments to make has been a big focus for us over the past few weeks and that paid off during tonight’s race. I fired off a little loose on the bottom and tight on the top, so our team had a decision to make on what to focus on. I felt that the top the better groove for our car, so we chose to work on loosening up our Chevrolet a little bit throughout the night and got it in a really good spot for the final stage. Those adjustments made it so I was able to cut through traffic during that last stage and race our way into the top five for the last 100 laps or so. I think I may have pushed my front tires a little bit too much on that final run, but this was a really good night for our team. We’re chasing wins in these remaining races while also working on building a strong notebook for next year, and this is a solid step in the right direction for both of those goals.”

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 7th
“Definitely excited to move on in the playoffs. I thought the NAPA team had a solid race tonight. It’s unfortunate the way the pit cycle went there, but I felt like we were close. Not sure if we were as good as the 4 and 18, but I thought we were close to them. I am proud of the effort and I hope this next round is good for us. It’s definitely not going to get any easier as it goes. Nice to get the stage point and stage win and we will try again in Vegas.”

RYAN PREECE, NO. 37 BUSH’S BEANS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 9th
“That was a really fun night at Bristol Motor Speedway. This year has obviously had its challenges for us, and we’ve worked so hard to try and make the strategy play in our favor and get JTG Daugherty Racing the finish we deserve and it feels really good to be able to put it all together. Our BUSH’S Beans Chevrolet was really good on the long run, and Trent and the guys did some great work on pit road to get our handling where we needed it to be to maintain those fast laps at the end of the long run. The cautions finally fell our way and we were able to capitalize on it. Every week for the rest of the season is so important to keep focusing on the positives and get as many good finishes as we can and to be able to get BUSH’S Beans as top-10 finish at their home track is something we’re all proud of.”

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER OFF ROAD CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 12th
"We did what we had to do tonight in our Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Off Road/ E-Z-GO Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. We advanced to the Round of 12 in the NASCAR Playoffs. We started off really strong, but our Chevy ended up getting extremely tight in Stage 2. We recovered from that and were running in the top 10 when Harvick slowed on the track to make a green-flag pit stop. I got on my brakes as hard as I could to avoid hitting him, but a lapped car was in the middle of the track and I had nowhere to go. My RCR team did a great job making repairs, but we were never able to catch the break we needed to get back into the top five. Our car was fast overall tonight, though, and I'm looking forward to seeing what we can accomplish during the remainder of the season. We'll go to Las Vegas next week and try to get a win."

KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 15th
“It was a good day, we had a loose wheel and we battled after that, but our stage points are what really helped the Monster Energy Chevy tonight. That gave us the cushion we needed to absorb the problem that we had. All-in-all we advanced and that's what we expected to do and that is what we have to continue to do. We will do it through teamwork and execution. The next round we have a mile-and-a-half Superspeedway and then the Roval. We’ve just got to be on our toes, keep adjusting and adapt to all the things that are coming our way in the next round.”

ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 16th
“That was pretty eventful. We had a really good car all night. Our Axalta Camaro was really fast. Probably going to end up somewhere in the top five, at least the top 10. We just had a tire issue under green there in the last stage and had to pit. Unfortunately, we were not in our window to pit. Once the caution did come out, we weren’t able to take the wave around. We were just kind of trapped there and unfortunately couldn’t recover from that. I think we finished 16th. So awesome to advance to the next round. Proud of my team. This is the strongest we have been going into the Round of 12. I feel like we have some great tracks for us coming up. This is the most consistent we have been as a race team. I am bummed we lost our streak of top-10 finishes, but we have plenty more opportunities throughout the year to have great cars and contend for wins. Wish we would have ended up a little better, but we are ready for Vegas.”

TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 18th
"Our Germain Racing team battled all night long. It was a really good night for our GEICO Camaro ZL1 1LE. Everyone on our team executed throughout the entire race, from Matt (Borland) making good calls, the pit crew having great stops and Chris (Monez) on the spotter stand helping me navigate traffic. We all worked hard and it paid off. The car was its best at the end of the race, which is all you can ask for as a driver. I'm proud of our effort and we will keep digging to finish strong."

BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 CASH APP CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 22nd
“We had a pretty fast No. 43 Cash App Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE tonight – probably the best car we’ve ever brought to Bristol (Motor Speedway), so that was a positive. We got a stage point in the Stage 1. I thought the guys were doing a really good job throughout the night. Our Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE was on the tight-side a little bit. We didn’t really seem to help it, but we didn’t really hurt it all either – kind of just stayed the same balance from the start of the race to the finish. A little frustrating, but super frustrated that we just can’t seem to get some luck on the strategy side. Unfortunate that we got trapped three-laps down, or whatever it was, and you’re just stuck, especially that late in the race. We’ll go onto the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and see if we can turn it around.”

WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Sidelined by accident on lap 232; Finished 38th
ABSOLUTE HEARTBREAK FOR WILLIAM BYRON, WHO WILL NOT ADVANCE TO THE ROUND OF 12. HE’S OUT OF THE CAR. THEY’RE TRYING TO ASSESS EXACTLY ALL THE DAMAGE ON THE NO. 24 CAR, BUT IT IS GOING TO END HIS EVENING. WHAT HAPPENED, WILLIAM, ON THE TRACK? EVERYTHING WAS GOING FINE AND THEN WHAT HAPPENED?
“I think the No. 51 car (Joey Gase) checked up in the middle of the straightaway. As fast as we were running the top, I was right behind the No. 95 (Christopher Bell) and I had literally nowhere to go. You can’t stop in the middle of the straightaway when everybody is so committed to the top like that. Just ridiculous that that’s what takes us out. I thought honestly we had a shot to run top-five or seven. The car was really, really good. We just needed a couple good pitstops. We were running probably ninth or tenth there. Just super disappointing – I’ve got to go back and watch that because that was kind of ridiculous.”

GIVE US A LOOK AT THE INCIDENT THROUGH YOUR PERSPECTIVE.
“Yeah, we were running tenth, I believe, and trying to get a couple of stage points. We had gotten a few in the first stage. Our car was really good, just needed a little bit of track position I feel like. Probably went the wrong way on the last adjustment – tried to get myself turning a little better and it got too free. (inaudible) Really the incident, the No. 51 (Joey Gase), I think it was green and black car, was coming off the corner and the No. 95 (Christopher Bell) and I were both running the top. The No. 51 just checked up in the middle of the straightaway and had nowhere to go. And the No. 95 slammed on the brakes to try to not hit him and I slammed into him because I was on his bumper. So, just a terrible situation, but not really sure why that happened or what really transpired for him to stop like that. But, go back on SMT like we can now and look at what happened and move on.”

DESCRIBE THE EMOTIONS OF WHAT YOU’VE GONE THROUGH THE LAST MONTH WITH THE WIN AND THE WAY YOU FALL OUT TONIGHT.
“I think they’re two separate things. It would have been worse if we just completely ran horrible this first round, but I think outside of Richmond, we were going to have two top-seven finishes. I feel like we were well capable of finishing in the top-five tonight. It was only halfway through the race and we were going to finish top-10 in both stages, probably, and move on from there. So, yeah I don’t really know – things like that, I don’t know, you’ve just got to be more aware I guess than that to check up like that. But I don’t know – I don’t know what happened that would cause that really.”

HOW DO YOU EVALUATE THIS SEASON? OBVIOUSLY, YOU GOT YOUR FIRST-CAREER WIN AND THERE’S STILL SEVEN RACES LEFT THIS YEAR. HOW DO YOU LOOK AT THIS SEASON, EVEN THOUGH YOU’RE OUT IN THIS FIRST ROUND?
“Yeah, I think it’s been a great season. I think that we’ve performed well. I think we would have liked to perform better, based on how we ended last year. But we got a win and I feel like really the last five or six weeks, we’ve had all top-10 runs, besides Richmond, which is our worst track. I don’t know – hopefully continue being fast the next few weeks.”
Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.

NASCAR CUP SERIES
BASS PRO SHOPS NIGHT RACE
BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
SEPTEMBER 19, 2020

TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS.   DRIVER
4th      TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 CHILDRESS VINEYARDS CAMARO ZL1 1LE
7th      CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE
9th      RYAN PREECE, NO. 37 BUSH’S BEANS CAMARO ZL1 1LE
12th    AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER OFF ROAD CAMARO ZL1 1LE
14th    MATT KENSETH, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CAMARO ZL1 1LE
 
TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS: 
POS.  DRIVER
1st      Kevin Harvick (Ford)
2nd     Kyle Busch (Toyota)
3rd      Erik Jones (Toyota)
4th      Tyler Reddick (Chevrolet)
5th      Aric Almirola (Ford)
 
UNOFFICIAL CURRENT PLAYOFF RANK (Following Round 3 of 10 / Entering into the Round of 12)
POS.   DRIVER (* = Chevy Contender)        
1st      Kevin Harvick (Ford) – 3,067 points
2nd     Denny Hamlin (Toyota) – 3,048 points
3rd      Brad Keselowski (Ford) – 3,035 points
4th      Joey Logano (Ford) – 3,022 points
5th      *Chase Elliott (Chevrolet) – 3,021 points
6th      Martin Truex Jr. (Toyota) – 3,016 points
7th      * Alex Bowman (Chevrolet) – 3,009 points
8th      * Austin Dillon (Chevrolet) – 3,005 points
9th      Aric Almirola (Ford) – 3,005 points
10th    Kyle Busch (Toyota) – 3,004 points
11th    Clint Bowyer (Ford) – 3,004 points
12th    * Kurt Busch (Chevrolet) – 3,001 points

The NASCAR Cup Series seasons continues at Las Vegas  Motor Speedway with the South Point 400 on Sunday, September 27th,, at 7:00 p.m. ET to kick off the Round of 12 for the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. Live coverage can be found on NBCSN, the NBC Sports Gold app, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.