CHEVY NCS AT ROAD AMERICA: Post-Race Notes and Quotes

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Race Winner
CHASE, WHAT AN INCREDIBLE DRIVE FROM 32ND TO THE WIN. I LOVE THAT VICTORY CELEBRATION. YOU WANTED TO SEE EVERYBODY HERE AND THANK THEM FOR A TERRIFIC TAKE.
“Absolutely, I wasn't going to miss anybody. I appreciate y'all coming out. Thank you for spending your 4th of July with us. I hope you enjoyed the show. Man, it was a hot day. But a lot of fun, man.”

“Just really proud of our team for overcoming some adversity early and having to start in the back, having good pit stops. Had a really fast NAPA Chevrolet. Just so proud.”

“We've had a rough few weeks, so it feels really good. I guess I was supposed to do a burnout here, I'm sorry. I missed the memo. I did a really cool one on the front stretch. Thanks, everybody, for coming out. Happy 4th. Y'all have a safe weekend. Thanks for coming out.”

AREN’T YOU THE SAME GUY THIS MORNING THAT TOLD ME, I HAVE A LOT TO FIGURE OUT ABOUT THIS RACETRACK. HOW DID YOU FIGURE IT OUT SO QUICKLY?
“Yeah, I never felt like I got in a real good rhythm all of yesterday. For whatever reason there, after about halfway through the race, I started finding some of that rhythm, was able to put it together, piece different parts of the track. Finally, I felt like I was able to piece most of it together.”

“Yeah, stayed with it and glad it worked out.”

TALK ABOUT THE CHALLENGE OF THIS DAY, THE HEAT AND A NEW RACETRACK FOR EVERYONE. THAT WAS A LOT TO FIGURE OUT.
“Yeah, it's just this track has a lot of character to it. It's so long. You have a lot of opportunity to make mistakes or be good whenever you hit it.”

“I mean, four miles is a long course. Just has a lot of character to it, a lot of bumps, a lot of sections that are really tricky to get through. I think conserving your tire was actually a little bit of a thing today, which to be honest we don't have much of that I feel like any more.”

“It was a little different race. Like I said, proud of our group. Most importantly, thanks everybody for coming out. Thanks to our partners, everybody back at Hendrick Motorsports. Been doing a phenomenal job. Bodies, chassis, engines, fab shops. It's just been incredible. Looking forward to more.”

KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 4th
YET ANOTHER STRONG RUN AT THIS POINT IN THE SEASON WHEN IT MATTERS MOST, TO GET YOU TO THE PLAYOFFS. WHAT WAS IT LIKE FOR YOU TODAY?
“It was fun. I really enjoyed Road America and just the whole challenge of running here; posting good laps early with fresh tires and then managing the tires on the long run. I knew our strategy was to go for Stage points; which man, I was going to have to work hard today. I gave it everything I could. So, I think we got a lot of points with the Monster Energy Chevy.”

“I’m just really proud of our group to come here. I worked through the simulator work and worked through everything we could. I put one tire wrong today and gave up one point to (Kyle) Larson in Stage 2. I really enjoyed coming up here today and the Wisconsin people were great. There were tons of old school gear that I saw from racing back in my Penske days. The fans here were just ecstatic that the Cup Series was here. It was a lot of fun.”

COMPARED TO SOME OF THE HOT RACES YOU’VE DONE IN THE PAST, HOW HOT WAS IT TODAY?
“It was hot. Once you get heat soaked and you’re going and you’re in the groove, things go away. At 42, got to keep pushing hard. We’re getting a little older, but I love it. I’m having fun and we’ll keep pushing.”

ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 42 ADVENTHEALTH CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 7th
“Seventh-place here at Road America in our No. 42 AdventHealth Camaro ZL1 1LE. We got good stage points and a good finish. Proud of the effort from all the men and women at Chip Ganassi Racing to bring two really fast hotrods. Kurt Busch and the No. 1 Monster Energy Chevy was fast and we were too. We were around each other all day and had speed passing a lot of cars.”

“Proud of AdventHealth, Clover, McDonald’s, and Moose for all the support. It puts a little calming factor into everybody I think now. We’re still going to bring fast cars. It’s been a crazy week. We still race for Chip Ganassi and Team Chevy; and we’re going to keep pushing and keep trying to win.”

TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 KALAHARI RESORTS & CONVENTIONS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 8th
“We worked really hard on prepping for these road course races over the off-season, and it’s great to see all the hard work pay off when we have a solid day like today. I was really happy with the speed and handling of our No. 8 Kalahari Resorts & Conventions Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE right from the start of the race today. It handled so well that I was worried about adjusting on it at all today, but my crew chief, Randall Burnett, and the team made some good changes on air pressure throughout the race that helped me with all around rotation through the course. We stayed out during Stage 2 and played a little bit of strategy to grab our first Stage Win of the year, which is great for our points situation in the standings. By doing that, we did trade-off a little bit and have to climb back up through the field in the final stage, but I was confident we had both the speed and handling to do so today. It got a little tough during the final laps of the race when I felt like my brakes were starting to fade, but we were able to fight through it and grab another top-10 finish.”

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW SALUTES VETERANS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 11th
“I’m proud of everyone who works on the No. 3 Dow Salutes Chevy. We knew we had our work cut for us since we started deep in the field, but if there’s anything this Richard Childress Racing team has proven this year, it’s that we aren’t afraid of grinding it out. We passed a lot of cars on old tires in Stage 1, which really shows how fast our Chevy was. It was hard to get track position today but we finally clawed our way into the top 10 to start Stage 3. Overall, 11th is a solid finish so nice job to the pit crew, spotters, road crew, everyone today.”

“Thanks to all of our troops, especially the 1,903 veterans and active-duty military members featured on the No. 3 Dow Salutes Chevy this weekend. It was great to highlight them, Team Rubicon and Dow’s Military Degree Equivalency program on the July 4th holiday. We’re headed to Atlanta next, and we’ll do our best to get a win there.”

KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 16th
IF MY MATH WAS CORRECT, YOU WERE IN A POSITION TO TAKE THE POINTS LEAD.
“Yeah, we hate to give up points, but there’s still a lot of racing left before the Playoffs start. We’ll just keep trying to do a good job in the Stages. It would be nice to get back and win some Stages, win some more races and pad our bonus points. Obviously, it would be good to beat Denny (Hamlin) and get those five extra. Really shooting for it. You can tell he’s really shooting for it too. He was really aggressive today. Those five bonus points are important.”

HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR CAR TODAY? DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU COULD HAVE RACED CHASE (ELLIOTT)?
“No, I don’t think I could have raced Chase (Elliot). He’s so good at road courses. I don’t know – I felt like we were a fifth-place car. Not bad, but I think there’s a lot of areas that I need to get better. I feel like our team did a really good job of improving it from practice. It definitely drove better today than it did yesterday, so I was happy with that. I think we still have some room to improve all around; myself and the car a little bit.”

ERIK JONES, NO. 43 SCAG POWER EQUIPMENT CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 19th
“Was a fight all day for the SCAG Chevrolet. We stuck with it and came home with a top twenty. Think we learned some things for the next road course and hope for some more improvement there.”

TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE
4th KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE
7th ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 42 ADVENTHEALTH CAMARO ZL1 1LE
8th TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 KALAHARI RESORTS & CONVENTIONS CAMARO ZL1 1LE
11th AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW SALUTES VETERANS CAMARO ZL1 1LE
12th RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 KROGER/BALLPARK BUNS & ROLLS CAMARO ZL1 1LE

TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Chase Elliott (Chevrolet)
2nd Christopher Bell (Toyota)
3rd Kyle Busch (Toyota)
4th Kurt Busch (Chevrolet)
5th Denny Hamlin (Toyota)