RCR Post Race Report – Talladega Superspeedway

“We ended up in a wreck that ended our day early in the American Ethanol Chevrolet. It’s just part of speedway racing. What do you do? You can go and race hard all day. You can ride in the back and try to not to get in one of those big wrecks. We chose to run right in the pack and it bit us today. I was proud we earned some stage points at the end of Stage 2.”

“We fired off with good speed in this Knauf/Menards Chevrolet, so much so that I told my crew chief, Matt Borland, to leave it alone during the first round of pit stops. I cut a tire after running over something and I ended up getting into the outside wall. Luckily, we didn’t end up with much damage, but we spent most of Stage 2 feeling the car out and working to make it competitive again.  We made our way into the top-10 with about 25 to go, and then something broke in the gears. Without all four gears, we had to somewhat limp home to that 12th-place finish.  I appreciate the hard work from this whole team. We definitely had the speed to contend today.”

“Today was a good kind of crazy, but that’s the nature of speedway racing. I’m proud of the guys on this Caterpillar Chevrolet, and everyone who is a part of RCR and ECR, for accomplishing what we did. We tried to play it smart and in the end we were close, but not close enough. I got double-teamed with the No. 2 and the No. 22 (Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano). That was the difference. We held them off longer than I expected. I couldn’t tell how much nose damage I had and I hadn’t led all day, so I didn’t know what to expect. I saw the No. 2 (Brad Keselowski) car in the mirror backing up and then he lost his draft and then he backed up again and he caught the No. 22 (Joey Logano). That was all it took for him to get a good run. I would have maybe played it differently and backed up to them in hindsight, but I don’t think it would have made a difference. They were double-teaming me. Overall, it was still a good race to finish second with the Caterpillar Chevrolet.”