CHEVY NCS AT ROVAL: Post-Race Notes and Quotes

TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTES:

KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Race Winner--THIS WAS A BATTLE-TESTED WIN FOR THIS RACE TEAM TODAY. IF I HAD TOLD YOU IN THE MIDDLE OF STAGE 2 WHEN THEY WERE CHANGING ALTERNATOR BELT, THAT YOU WOULD WIN THIS THING, WHAT WOULDYOU HAVE SAID?--“I wouldn’t have believed it, that’s for sure. I don’t know. I didn’t even feel that good early. Started changing some things and they were doing a good job letting me know what to do inside the cockpit to get better.

About that time, I noticed my battery was going low, so I was getting stressed out. Like man, I’m not going to get knocked out of the Playoffs like this. It wasn’t looking too good. Thankfully, everybody on our No. 5 car did a great job of staying calm. Cliff (Daniels, crew chief) as always, did a great job of communicating with me and what was going on and getting the battery changed and the alternator changed and whatever it takes to get our battery running. But man, my HendrickCars.com Chevy was good. William (Byron) was obviously really good. It’s a bummer to see that not work out for him. But I think the No. 9 (Chase Elliott) ended up making it, so that was some great perseverance by that team, too. So, it’s just awesome to be with Hendrick Motorsports and glad to get another win and I’m looking forward to the next round a lot.”

WERE YOU AWARE THAT AT TIMES TODAY, YOU WERE BELOW THE CUTLINE AND GOING TO MISS THE NEXT ROUND?
“Yeah, I obviously had a pretty good idea. I’ve gone through it a few years ago in the No. 42 and when you think you’re good, then all of a sudden, you’re running like 40th. And you’re like well, I’m down below the cutline. I knew I was going to have some sketchy moments. I just had to pick my way through traffic and stay calm. We had some good restarts there at the end and I was able to kind of use my tire advantage to get under Denny (Hamlin) and kind of squeeze some real estate off of No. 4 (Kevin Harvick) there. It was fun racing with Tyler (Reddick). He’s one of the best there is. I don’t like racing him because he’s so good and so hard to race and pass. So, it was just a fun race there and a lot of craziness all day long.”

TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 LENOVO CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 2nd
I KNOW YOU ARE EXCITED ABOUT YOUR FINISH TODAY, BUT YOU PROBABLY WISH YOU WERE IN THE PLAYOFFS?
“I am fired up because we had a really good car today. We had to start 29th because of crashing at Talladega last week and didn’t have a great pit stall because of that as well. So, it really forced our hand to be off sequence and we were in a situation there pretty early in Stage 1 where we were on new tires and I thought I had established myself in the outside and got in the wall and knocked both sides in and that hurt me a little bit. As the race progressed and we were in that situation where we were trying to chase Kyle (Larson) down and I just knew we couldn’t change anything about what happened. It does leave a ‘what if’ in your mind. It’s like if I hadn’t crashed this car early in the race, and almost ended our day, it should have been a little bit faster.”

REGARDING CONTACT WITH WILLIAM BYRON:
“I just flat out made a mistake and ran in the back of the 24. I am trying to stay as close as I can, and we are all trying to brake to the limit of the car and I got to the bumper trying to put myself back in position again to make a pass to the inside or outside. I got into the back of him ever so slightly and that is all it took to unhook the rear tires. Not on purpose. It’s just that small amount of contact that changed the trajectory that much. That was shocking to me and sure disappointing.”

DO YOU UNDERSTAND HIS FRUSTRATION?
“Absolutely. He is racing for everything and second means nothing. He just broke through on the best tires and in position to make the pass and take the win away. And yeah, I took that from him. So, he handled it very well and I would probably have been a little more upset than he was. He was great at listening and hearing what I said, but I really understand his frustration.”

WITH YOU AND AUSTIN IN THE TOP FIVE MOST OF THE DAY, WHAT DOES THAT SAY ABOUT THE ROAD COURSE PROGRAM AT RCR?
“It’s gone in the right direction really well and having AJ Allmendinger come in and be a part of Kaulig Racing and work on making our stuff better on the Xfinity side, and now on the Cup side, has really helped. Our team worked really hard in the off season to clean up and make better what was our worst type of racing. A year ago here, I was absolutely terrible and just dreading getting to it, but now with this car, we felt like we had the best shot to win. Its just a shame to not take advantage of it.”

ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY / CHARLOTTE FC CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 10th
WHEN DID YOU ISSUES WITH THE BATTERY AND ALTERNATOR COME UP?
“Pretty early, I would assume. I probably don’t catch that until it’s been a bit, right? I’m not sitting thee staying at the volt gauge. But there pretty early, we knew we had a volt issue. It acted like it threw the belt, So, we came down and put a belt on it and it didn’t. Don’t know what we had going on, but it’s unfortunate. It’s tough to make a car live long here without any brake fans and tire cooling, but Greg (Ives, crew chief) and all the guys on the No. 48 Ally team did such a good job letting me know what I needed to do to get it to the finish line and what I could and couldn’t do with fans; and we put a battery in it at one point and kind of went from there. I hate it. I’m glad we got a top 10. I’m exhausted. I’m just mentally drained after the roler coaster that was. But it’s good to get a top 10. I wish we had more. Congrats to the No. 5 (Kyle Larson, race winner). The kid is super-human. It’s cool to see. I’m really happy for Kyle.”

WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 VALVOLINE CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 11th
I KNOW YOU CAME UP A BIT SHORT, BUT WHAT CAN YOU TAKE FROM THIS PERFORMANCE TODAY?
“It was great. We had a really good car in two of the three races in this Round and today we had an amazing car, probably capable of winning, but just didn’t have things go our way there. At that point when I got up to third, my tires were shot, and there were only two laps to go. I wasn’t going to win, and made a mistake to not finish third, but at that point I was just mad.”

ARE YOU SATISFIED WITH WHAT TYLER (REDDICK) SAID ABOUT IT BEING A MISTAKE IN HITTING YOU?
“Yeah, I know it was a mistake, but it doesn’t make any difference. The awareness there in that situation where a guy is there in the Playoffs and the first guy on new tires is probably going to win the race. And there was just a lack of awareness there. I feel like if the roles were reversed, I would be aware.”

DID YOU TALK TO HIM ABOUT IT?
“Yeah, I just first off wanted to hear it from him and not take it for granted that it was a mistake. And yeah, at that point, what do you do?”

YOU SAID YOU WERE MAD. WHAT WERE THE RANGE OF EMOTIONS TODAY?
“At the end I was just at a full rage, so I didn’t really care about finishing third because that wasn’t going to do anything for me in the Playoffs. It sucks now that we didn’t finish third, but overall, we were in position to win. We were leading on the long run, the caution comes out, we pass all the guys on new tires, and we were the first guys on new tires. That’s all you can do.”

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 12th
HOW DO YOU COMPARTMENTALIZE ALL THE STRESSFUL MOMENTS TODAY?
“Yeah, our team did a great job of putting the car back together and that was really the bottom line. They just took the right amount of time to get it fixed and fixed properly so as to not have tire rubs and cut a tire down and end our day. Super excited about that and excited about three more weeks and another opportunity to win a championship.”

DID YOU SEE (KEVIN) HARVICK IN YOUR MIRROR AND DID YOU EXPECT WHAT YOU GOT?
“I don’t have anything to say about him or anything. Just glad to be moving on and that is all that matters to me.”

HOW DID THE TEAM KEEP YOU CALM DURING THOSE MOMENTS? IT SEEMS YOU HAVE SOME VETERAN LEADERSHIP AROUND YOU?
“Yeah, the good news is that we have been fighting together for a few years now so I think we all understand what is important to us. We are all looking forward to three more weeks.”

YOU MENTIONED YOUR TEAM. A DAY LIKE TODAY SEEMS TO GO A LONG WAY TOWARD BUILDING SOME MUSCLE FOR YOU AS A GROUP. WAS TODAY IMPORTANT TO COME BACK?
“Absolutely. To overcome adversity; and fortunately, it was early enough in the race and we were able fix it and got a caution and was able to keep fighting. So, I’m just really proud of that. We could have easily given up or not fixed to the proper standard and have something break or had a tire rub, so everybody just did a really good job today and I’m super proud of that. Coming off of a really fast car, I thought we had a shot to win and obviously that didn’t happen. But in the grand scheme, moving on is the most important things and our season is still alive. So, I’m pumped.”

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 WHELEN CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 15th
“It felt good to run in the top-five in our No. 3 Whelen Chevrolet today at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL. I just wish we could have finished up there at the end. Track position was so important, and crew chief Justin Alexander made great calls all day to keep us out front. We ran solidly in the top-five, and as high as second, throughout Stage 2 and for most of Stage 3. Unfortunately, the cautions didn’t fall our way. At the end of the race, we couldn’t turn in a lot of places where we needed to be able to turn. Still, I’m proud of this RCR team and our overall road course performance this year. We’ve improved so much as a team and have been able to put together solid road course performances all year. We’re headed to Texas Motor Speedway next, and we’re going to try our hardest to find Victory Lane.”

TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1 1LE
2nd TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 LENOVO CAMARO ZL1 1LE
10th ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY / CHARLOTTE FC CAMARO ZL1 1LE
11th WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 VALVOLINE CAMARO ZL1 1LE
12th CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE
13th DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 COMMSCOPE CAMARO ZL1 1LE
15th AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 WHELEN CAMARO ZL1 1LE


TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Kyle Larson (Chevrolet)
2nd Tyler Reddick (Chevrolet)
3rd Chris Buescher (Ford)
4th Kyle Busch (Toyota)
5th Denny Hamlin (Toyota)

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 2021, Issue 10, Posted 8:13 PM, 10.10.2021