CHEVROLET NCS AT CHICAGO: Post-Race Report

TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE QUOTES:

TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE QUOTES:

SHANE VAN GISBERGEN, NO. 91 ENHANCE HEALTH CAMARO ZL1

Finished: 1st

Let’s be honest, Shane, when this deal came together, did you honestly feel like this was possible?

“No, of course not, but you always dream of it. Thank you so much to the Trackhouse team, Enhance Health, Project91. What an experience in the crowd out here. This was so cool. This is what you dream of. Hopefully I can come and do more.”

What were you telling yourself on those final few restarts?

“Wow, when we had that strategy back to 18th, I started to worry a bit. But had some full stands on some people, and the racing was really good, everyone was respectful. It was tough, but a lot of fun.”

It’s Monday back in Auckland but I’m sure there’s a party going on about 1:00 in the afternoon. What would your message be to the young drivers back there in Australia and New Zealand?

“Anything is possible. But the fans in Australia and New Zealand, the response this week and the coverage has been — I can’t explain it. Like the response and the support I’ve got from everyone and even over here how welcoming everyone is, I can’t believe it. Dream come true.”

You know everybody is going to want you to drive their car now. Are you up for a full-time Cup ride?

“I’m doing one more year in Oz and then I’d love to come over here.”

JUSTIN HALEY, NO. 31 BENESCH LAW CAMARO ZL1

Finished: 2nd

Justin Haley had the unenviable task of trying to hold off a three-time Supercars champion with 16 lap less fresh tires. Talk us through final laps there.

“Yeah, it was tough. I put it in the tire barrier yesterday and we stayed up all night. I stayed with the guys through the rain; rewrapped this thing and put a new body on it. Benesch came on for this weekend. Congrats to Project91. It sucks, obviously, where we are right now – we aren’t in position to win every week, so coming that close obviously is not what you want. But just really proud of everyone at Kaulig Racing and what an awesome event. Can’t wait to come back next year.”

Once your crew chief, Trent, told you that you were okay on fuel, what clicked in your head to try and go get it because you had no idea where Van Gisbergen was?

“I was really struggling under the braking zones. Felt like I could get off the corner better than anyone, but, I mean, what are you going to do? He had 16 lap fresher tires.

Just strategy, and I feel like I put us behind yesterday putting it in the tire barrier. And then from there, it just kind of trickles and whatnot.

But what is there to be disappointed about, you know? We’ll go to Atlanta (Motor Speedway) next week and try our best. Appreciate Kaulig Racing, Matt Kaulig, Chris Rice, for giving me this opportunity and we’ll try to make the best of it.”

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 HOOTERS CAMARO ZL1

Finished: 3rd

Was there anything more you had to go up and contend with the 91?

“Well, first off, I really appreciate everyone on our Hooters team for just fighting all weekend. I did not do a very good job yesterday, obviously crashing and crashing again today and just kept putting us in big holes. So I have to certainly be better, but I appreciate the effort and the willingness to keep fighting by everybody on our team. I appreciate that and looking forward to going back to work and trying to get better. 

Huge congratulations to Shane (van Gisbergen), man that was a clinic. He made us look really, really bad. He is going to go home and tell all of his friends how bad we are. So, I am looking forward to getting to work and hopefully we can figure out how to run with him at the next one he comes to.”

He is pretty good, but what kind of momentum does this build for you guys in the Playoff push right now?

“Yeah, I am still of the mindset that we need to win. I need to do a lot better job than I did this weekend to go win. We were gifted an opportunity there at the end and I just could not comfortably out-brake someone enough than really putting myself in a vulnerable position. I felt like when we got the track position, I was trying to get Justin (Haley) as quick as I could. I knew Shane was coming and I needed to get that pass done quicker and try to get going there, but just needed more pace and needed to be faster in a lot of different areas. So, like I said, need to go to work a little bit, but proud of the effort and glad our group never quit.”

KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1

Finished: 4th

YOU WERE PATIENT IN THE WET, THEN YOU LIT UP LIKE FIRE WHEN YOU PUT THE SLICKS ON

“Yeah, I was trying to get my confidence built up while it was wet and I knew as long as it didn’t rain, it was eventually going to dry out.  So, just didn’t want to hurt my car in the wet and tried to maintain the best I could, which we did. As soon as the lanes started to dry out, we were much better than the people braking. We just had a lot more confidence than the people braking around me and was able to get to second and the pit strategy cycle stuff happened and it kind of messed our race up a little bit. But we were able to rebound to finish fourth. So, a great points day for our team and we needed that.  So, had a lot of fun and congrats to the Trackhouse team.  I mean, so much respect to them because that was really cool to watch. Him out my windshield making the moves he was making and taking us all to school. So, he is an extremely amazing race car driver and I hope the rest of the world notices that.  Its pretty damn cool. So just a pleasure to get to race with him and battle with him a little bit.  I know all of Western Springs Speedway in New Zealand is pretty pumped up right now.”

DISREGARDING THE RAIN, WHAT WAS THE WHOLE EXPERIENCE LIKE HERE ON THIS TRACK IN CHICAGO?

“It was an amazing experience and I hope everybody here enjoyed it as much as I did. I hope the fans here that maybe had never been to a race before enjoyed it.  I hope the city enjoyed it enough to welcome us back because I felt like the buzz around the city last handful of days was amazing. The crowd stuck around the whole race too. I mean, it was downpouring all race long and I was not sure what kind of crowd we were going to have once we got going and it was great.  Without the rain we had yesterday and today, it would have been way better with the concerts and all that. So, hopefully we get another go at it last year because I enjoyed it, I thought NASCAR did a great job with the racetrack, and all that. It got a little messy with the stack up in 11, but aside from that……and we all need to look at that and see how we can do that better to get the lineup right. But, all in all, it was a great event and I just had a great time.”

KYLE BUSCH, NO. 8 3CHI CAMARO ZL1

Finished 5th

“The No. 91 passed me there towards the end of the race. Just finding a rhythm- I just couldn’t find that middle all day long. So when you see someone else do it, and you’re like ‘I’ll trust him, I’ll do it.’ 

We gave everything we had for the 3CHI Chevy. A good top-five finish; solid run. I wanted more, obviously. I felt like I could’ve got the next two, at least. Just trying to maintain and come home with a good top-five at the end.” 

From wet tires to slicks, and the track was still wet in parts – what was that like? 

“Just slick. Just ice to start. You’re trying to brake as hard as you can, as deep as you can, into these turn; but yet as soft as you can so you don’t lock up tires. That was my issue there getting into Turn Six – I just overstepped it a little bit and got the rears locked up. Just could never get it back under control the whole way in. Just was sliding. 

Hate it for my guys that we got back behind there, but again, we had a good car that was able to get us good track position to get a good day out of it. 

Thanks to Rowdy Energy, Chevrolet, 3CHI, everybody to get us a good finish again today. We’ll see if we can get this again next week.” 

How did you think NASCAR managed the race with single-file restarts and everything? 

“They did it alright. That was definitely the way to go. Just trying to finish out two-wide into Turn One with half the track dry, half the track wet, was not going to be good. 

Talk about how your day played out in Chicago…

“I mean we put it in the tire barriers there early in the race. Didn’t do us any favors. Trying to get all you can in those icy conditions. It was a bit treacherous, but I just got locked up and couldn’t get it back. Just slid off the track into the tires. Thankfully we didn’t have too much damage. We were able to come in and fix it; get back rolling, get back out there and work on passing some guys. Really wasn’t going too far forward, so we were able to pull a different card on strategy being back there, being back in traffic, and just thinking – maybe, just maybe the race would get cut short for darkness. We played that option and it worked in our favor.” 

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 GET BIOETHANOL CAMARO ZL1

Finished 36th

“Unfortunate ending to an exciting day. Road racing has never come easy to me, but the work and effort has started to show up. Proud of the fight today by the No. 3 Get Bioethanol Chevy team. As far as clipping the wall, I knew it would be an issue. I even talked about coming to this place knowing you can’t peak out to get more air. In this instance, I didn’t feel like I peaked out, just had my car setup for an early apex, it was turning and just caught the wall. Thankful for our partners at Get Bioethanol. We had the green machine rolling pretty good. We will keep fighting.”

NOAH GRAGSON, NO. 42 WENDY’S CAMARO ZL1

Finished 25th

“Today was kind of crazy – it the course was so different than yesterday – I really had fun yesterday and today was just so different. It was definitely a learning experience for sure. We had good speed in qualifying and had an incident early on. Lost two laps and then got them both back so we battled a bit. We had a lot of fun with Wendy’s this weekend and it was so cool to see how many fans stayed through all that rain to watch the race. I’m proud of what all we did with Wendy’s for bringing out the Baconator to Chicago. We had a fast No. 42 Chevy last time in Atlanta so just looking forward to next week and getting back there. Overall a fun weekend, just wanted a better result.”

ERIC JONES, NO. 43 DRAIVER CAMARO ZL1

Finished 16th

“It was a good day for the DRAIVER Chevy. Just got up there and were in a good spot, then got a little behind and crossed up on pit strategy when they shortened the race. Lost a lot of spots there through that cycle and just never could get them back. Only had 25 laps there and a lot of them were yellow, so it kind of is what it is. I thought we had good speed, a good car. Just got mired too far back in the pack to try and get back up front and contend. Solid day, though. Good car and had a lot of fun.”