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

KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 2nd--YOU SAVED ENOUGH TO GET HERE. HOW DID YOU DO IT?--“I don't know. It's surprising finish for us. Our HendrickCars.com Chevy was really loose for a majority of the race, then we got a lot of nose damage there on one of the restarts. Was off on speed. I felt like after that.”
“Cliff (Daniels, crew chief) and everybody did a really, really good job managing the race, coached me through saving fuel there at the end. Was hoping that the 18 (Kyle Busch) was going to run out. I saw the 11 (Denny Hamlin) running out. I was, Okay, they're teammates, they got to be close to running out.”

“The 18 did pit a lap after us under caution. That actually probably won them the race. But, yeah, second-place finish, I thought we would be outside of the top-20. A lot of points throughout the race today; we'll take it. Happy about the effort for sure all weekend.”

WITH THE DAMAGE ON THE CAR AND WHERE YOU SAW YOURSELF WITH FUEL, HOW MUCH OF A BELIEVER DID HE MAKE OUT OF YOU? DO YOU THINK HE COULD GET HERE?
“Not until we actually started saving fuel. Seemed like every point of the race, everything that happened in the race, nothing went my way. Restarts, just guys messing up in front of me, me getting shuffled out of the groove, bad lane choices on my part, everything didn't go my way.”

“Cliff did a really good job keeping my head in it, coached me through saving fuel. Yeah, I mean, I had a lot of hope there at the end thinking that the 18 might run out.”

ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 7th
“It was an OK day for the No. 48 Ally team. Strategy didn’t work out for us. We struggled in traffic; kind of knew we would have after yesterday. But we got out front for a bit and we were pretty decent. Onto Road America next weekend.”

TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 KALAHARI RESORTS & CONVENTIONS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 9th
“My team definitely made some good changes to the No. 8 Kalahari Resorts and Conventions Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE overnight. We were a lot better over the bumps today, which was one of my bigger issues on Saturday. I seemed to fire off too loose for each run but then build too tight, especially when I was in dirty air. The adjustments my team made all race long did help though. I just needed to get a little creative with the lines I was running since I had no grip when I would try to run the traction compound. We got a little off-sequence with our strategy today, but it ended up working for us in the long run when all those other cars ran out of gas during the last few laps. Our car had good speed all weekend long, so that’s great for us to build on as we head to Road America next weekend for some road racing.”

WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA COLOR OF THE YEAR CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 12th
DID YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THE FUEL SAVE EARLIER ON?
“We definitely had the fastest car. The caution didn’t fit us perfectly. We had control of the race there and were right on our number to make it or not, but it just didn’t work out. We had a really fast car. The Axalta Chevrolet was awesome. It sucks to lose like that, but I feel like we had everything we needed in the car. We just couldn’t save enough fuel as far back as we were. It’s just part of it, but thanks to the guys.”

WHEN THE PLAN WAS FIRST PRESENTED TO YOU TO GO OUT AND RUN LIKE CRAZY AND GET A GAP THERE, DID THAT MAKE SENSE TO YOU?
“Yeah, I figured we were first on four tires. We can make it. I kind of thought we were closer on fuel than we were. I thought we could get up as far as we could, and a couple of guys would have to pit and we’d save and win. So that was kind of how it was looking to work out there with the No. 2 (Brad Keselowski) and then we had to go into max save. I thought for sure we’d make it because usually you’ve got a little bit of fudge factor there, but we ran out with three (laps) to go, so not even close.”

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 WORKRISE CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 13th
“P-13; I think we had a little better car than that. We did everything we could to get track position all day. We ran out just there at the end of stage two on the backstretch; so close to getting top-10 and stage points there. That would have set us up for the end pretty good I think, as far as track position goes.”

“Have to thank everyone at Workrise. We’ll go to Road America. We gained points today, that’s all that matters. But we want some more – we want to win. We’ll keep working hard. Thanks to all the guys. Justin (Alexander, crew chief) and the pit crew; everybody did a good job today. This is a tough place. You really have to have your stuff together and no mistakes. Onto Road America.

ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 42 MCDONALD’S CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 26th
“We had to start in the back, so it took us a little while. But once we got up into the top-10, we had the balance in the car and the grip to stay there. With pit strategy, we restarted in the top-five a couple of times. I just got into the 20 (Christopher Bell) there. I drove into (turn) three and thought I could clear him. By the time I realized I couldn’t, it was too late. I tried to keep off of him, but ruined his day and mine. Sorry to Christopher. We cut our right front and I think got him into the wall.”

“I’m really proud of the 42 McDonald’s team for unloading a good backup car. We’re close – I just have to do a little better job.”

OP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
2nd KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1 1LE
7th ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE
8th RYAN PREECE, NO. 37 THOMAS’/KROGER CAMARO ZL1 1LE
9th TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 KALAHARI RESORTS & CONVENTIONS CAMARO ZL1 1LE
12th WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA COLOR OF THE YEAR CAMARO ZL1 1LE

TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Kyle Busch (Toyota)
2nd Kyle Larson (Chevrolet)
3rd Brad Keselowski (Ford)
4th Kevin Harvick (Ford)
5th Bubba Wallace (Toyota)