CHASE ELLIOTT WINS DUEL 2 AT DAYTONA – TEAM CHEVY PHOTO
NASCAR CUP SERIES DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY – TEAM CHEVY POST-DUELS REPORT
Team Chevy Unofficial Duel #1 Results
Pos. Driver
3rd – Austin Dillon
6th – Shane van Gisbergen
7th – Daniel Suarez
10th – Alex Bowman
11th – Cole Custer
17th – Cody Ware
18th – Kyle Busch
20th – AJ Allmendinger
21st – Ross Chastain
22nd – William Byron
Duel #1: Post-Race Driver Quotes
Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 3rd
“Everyone at RCR and ECR Engines did a great job in the offseason. Our
Bass Pro Shops/Winchester Chevrolet was fast tonight. The new Chevy
Camaro has shown some speed for sure, and it’s nice to be able to
shove a line. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to fight those
Penske guys up there, and that was kind of fun tonight. We can work on
some stuff to help me when getting pushed, but past that, really happy
with the speed. The biggest thing for Sunday is to execute. I have to
sharpen up some moves but it’s nice to have the feeling that you can
go out there and play offense.”
Shane van Gisbergen, No. 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 6th
“We obviously didn’t qualify as well as we would have liked. We
missed it a little bit. But once the race started, our No. 97 SuperFile
Chevy was really nice. We were just patient at the start; saving fuel
and riding in the back being safe. Once we were ready to go, I could
creep up the pack quite nicely. It was really fun to be competitive and
put ourselves in a good spot. We got close to a couple of wrecks, but
missed them. We had a good pit stop and it worked out really well.
It’s a good starting spot for Sunday.”
Cody Ware, No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 17th
“Just really proud of this team. We had a really fast No. 51 Jacob
Construction Chevrolet for the DAYTONA 500 on Sunday. I got to really
have my first race on a full-size track in a Chevrolet, so to be out
there, know the horsepower and the speed, it was great. The car feels
like it’s drafting really well, so I feel like we have all the pieces
of the puzzle to go have a phenomenal Sunday afternoon.”
Kyle Busch, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 18th
“Thanks to the hard work of everyone at RCR and ECR we brought an
extremely fast No. 8 zone Jalapeno Lime Chevrolet to Daytona and I’ll
start the 500 on the pole for the first time in my career. While we
didn’t get the finish in the Duels we wanted, we finished with a clean
car and are ready to go chase a win that’s eluded me in 20 prior
starts.”
Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 21st
Chastain on how the new Chevy body felt:
“I got pushed really well. Chandler (Smith) pushed me early in the
race, and yeah, it was better than in the past. I don’t know if
that’s our rear tail or if he was just taking care of me, but I felt
good.
We were all saving fuel during the first stint, and then when we went
hard, I felt competitive around people. I got pushed better than I
probably remember, but that’s also the first time I’ve been pushed
in five-six months, so it’s been awhile.”
What happened there at the end?
“I don’t know. I just saw a car spinning and somebody ran into the
back of me a couple of times. I was just slowing down and I got
turned.”
Did you learn anything that you feel like will help you on Sunday?
“Not really, nothing crazy. The No. 1 Busch Light Chevy drove good. It
seemed like it burnt through the tires evenly through that first fuel
run.”
AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 20th
“It just looked like Corey (LaJoie) just got touched, nothing
malicious. It looked like whoever was behind him, maybe the No. 7
(Daniel Suarez), was trying to push him and it just turned Corey
straight up into me. I just happened to be the lucky guy that was right
next to him when it happened. I thought I almost had it saved up on the
banking, but when the banking caught it, it spun me back down. I don’t
know how much damage is on the car. I didn’t really get hit a lot.
Maybe the splitter is going to have to be redone, but we’ll see.
Unfortunately, I got hit right at the end in the back of the car that
did some damage. Just tried to play it smart and be there at the end,
like usual, but it’s just kind of the way it’s going here.”
William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports ChevroletFinished: 22nd
Byron on the incident that ended the No. 24 team’s night early in Duel
#1:
“I felt like I was in a good spot and moving forward in the middle.
The No. 23 (Bubba Wallace) got squirrely on the bottom. It looked like
he kind of saved it, I’m not exactly sure. And then, whoever was next
to me, hit me in the left rear. I kind of straightened it out against
the wall, and then they hit me again and I spun.
It’s just a bummer. We’ve won this race with a backup car, so I’m
not super worried on that aspect. But it does suck that you put a lot of
work into the primary and you don’t get to race it. Maybe we will, who
knows. In front of the left rear tire, it was pretty hurt, so I don’t
know if that’s fixable. But we’ll see. It just stinks to start in
the back and not get the points tonight, but we’ll just move on and
get ready for Sunday.”
Did you learn anything on the new Chevy body?
“I didn’t really push or get pushed as much as I would have liked
to. Honestly, it looked like a lot of the cars were just super unstable
getting pushed. I noticed that from the beginning. It just seemed like
guys were moving around a lot. My car felt fine, but yeah, I never got a
chance to get up there and control it.”
Team Chevy Unofficial Duel #2 Results
Pos. Driver
1st – Chase Elliott
2nd – Carson Hocevar
3rd – Kyle Larson
4th – Michael McDowell
7th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
15th – Connor Zilisch
16th – Ty Dillon
18th – Anthony Alfredo
19th – BJ McLeod
21st – Justin Allgaier
22nd – JJ Yeley
DUEL #2: POST-RACE DRIVER QUOTES
Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Finished: 1st
Chase, you said you wanted to get after it in this Duel. New body, feel
it out. What is your opinion of it?
“A great way to get the blood pumping for sure on a Thursday night.
There was a lot going on those last handful, really ever since we came
off of pit road after the cycle, we were getting after it. It was a lot
of fun. Had some great support there. Carson did a great job helping me
control those lanes, helping get Team Chevy for Victory Lane tonight.
Certainly, owe him an appreciation for just kind of sticking with it,
also pushing me well. It’s real easy to get people out of control. So,
appreciate that and its nice to get the NAPA Chevy a win. Not a 500.
I’ve been here before and not the other one, so you have to kind of
learn to take it a day at a time. Look, a great way to start the speed
week for our team. Really proud of our effort, everybody at Hendrick
Motorsports, the boss, from top to bottom. Their commitment and will to
win, is pretty darn high. Proud to be a part of their team. Good night.
Looking forward to Sunday.”
How does getting this win, knowing how your team executed, set you guys
up for Sunday, trying to win your first Daytona 500?
“Yeah, it’s been a little bit of a rocky road. We’ve had a couple
close opportunities. Fortunately, we’ve won this race here tonight
before, like I said. I’m excited, but I’m also kind of cautiously
realizing what Sunday brings. Obviously, that’s the big prize we all
want. Certainly, will enjoy tonight and we’ll think about what we can do
to do better. Definitely some things we can improve on before Sunday.
The track is going to deteriorate. It’s going to be a bit warmer,
sunshine being out. A lot to think about between now and then, but
appreciate effort. We’ll be ready to come to work come Sunday.”
Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
Finished: 2nd
“First of all, it’s great to see the Hendrick Engine Shop go
one-two-three, and then I had a Spire Motorsports teammate (Michael
McDowell) try to push me to the win. It was just a great execution by
us. We got nine points and that’s very important for us. We wanted
eight and we got nine, so we overachieved on this No. 77 team. Our
Spectrum Chevy was really good. I would have loved to have won, but
it’s only a one-point difference and the DAYTONA 500 pays a lot
more.”
Kyle Larson, No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet
Finished: 3rd
“We were just kind of saving fuel the majority of that first run
there. I think we were just kind of pacing off each other, and then the
two in front of me were probably pacing off of me. We had the pace
really slow. I kind of fell back further than I wanted to be during the
green-flag cycle, but our pit crew did a great job. Our gas man did a
great job to get us efficiently through our pit stop to still leap frog
a lot of the guys we pitted with. And then, yeah, it got crazy there for
a while. I’m not really sure how we ended up shaking out into third in
line there, but was happy when it finally got single file. I knew it
would be difficult to get to the lead. I didn’t know what was going to
happen, but I just wanted to be ready to be able make a move.”
Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
Finished: 4th
“I learned that our No. 71 Modo Casino Chevrolet was fast. Those Spire
Chevy’s were very fast. I was hoping that I could push Carson
(Hocevar) there to the win. I know it’s just the Duel, but it’s fun
to get a trophy. There are a few things I think we can make better, but
overall, the car drove really well and it pushed well. Everybody at the
Hendrick Engine Shop did a great job. There were four Chevy’s up front
there. It was a little tricky because obviously the No. 5 (Kyle Larson)
was trying to get a run and I knew his run could possibly jeopardize
Carson not getting there, but we had four Chevy’s up front and we were
able to control it and not let the Toyota’s get around us. I felt like
we did a good job with the execution.”
Connor Zilisch, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 15th
“I don’t think I made the most of what I had. I was running probably
fifth or sixth in line on the top, and when I got down, I just didn’t
get the pushes I needed to make the lane go. But overall, we ran up
front and I felt everything I wanted to. I did what I came here to
accomplish. We get to race this car on Sunday, so I’m excited for it
with his No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet team and everybody that
makes this happen.
I’m glad I got to run upfront. I think I led a lap or two. I ran at
the back and ran at the front. I saved fuel, so I checked a lot of boxes
tonight, which is what I wanted to do. Although the result isn’t quite
what we wanted, Sunday is a long race.”
Ty Dillon, No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 16th
“I felt like our No. 10 Grizzly Nicotine Pouches Chevy was strong. It
handled pretty well and it pushed well. We did everything we could. Just
with our pit cycle, we kind of came out in the back end of our group and
almost the draft there. We were kind of fighting from behind at that
point. I had a big run and tried to make something happen and get some
spots, but it just didn’t fall through. The first superspeedway with
everybody is good to shake-off the rust. I felt like we did things well,
and we have a car in one piece to make better for the DAYTONA 500.”
Anthony Alfredo, No. 62 Beard Motorsports Chevrolet
Finished: 18th
“I definitely don’t love being in that position. Making it in on
time is a lot easier, but this is the third time and it’s really cool.
My first race ever and I was sitting right there. My career has had its
ups and downs, and you never know when you are going to get another shot
to race on any Sunday, especially the Daytona 500 the Great American
Race. So, I have all my family here, my baby girl Everleigh. I think I
have only been chocked up this much in my life, when she was born and
qualify for the Daytona 500. It wouldn’t be possible without Beard
Motorsports, it’s just a tremendous family and the only women-owned
NASCAR team carrying on with a dream of Mark Beard Sr.’s legacy. And
Dude Wipes, I wouldn’t be where I am at in my career without them.
They have been my flagship partner in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts
Series, and we have done some Cup races together and excelled, but to
come here and to make the Daytona 500 together, it’s a dream come
true. Missing it last year has haunted me until this very moment. This
is the only thing that could blow that black cloud over.”