RCR Post Race Report – Dover International Speedway

Race Highlights:

  • Richard Childress Racing teammates Ryan Newman, Paul Menard and Austin Dillon finished eighth, 16th and 24th, respectively.
  • Newman ranks ninth in the Sprint Cup Series championship point standings, while Menard ranks 20th and Dillon ranks 21st.
  • Jeff Gordon earned his fourth victory of the 2014 season and was followed to the finish line by Brad Keselowski, Jimmie Johnson, Joey Logano and Matt Kenseth.
  • The next Sprint Cup Series race is the Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway on Sunday, September 28, which is scheduled to be televised live on ESPN beginning at 2 p.m. Eastern Time and  on the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Satellite Radio, channel 90.

 

Austin Dillon Earns 24th-Place Finish in Dow Chevrolet at Dover International Speedway

Austin Dillon started 10th and finished 24th in the Dow Chevrolet at Dover International Speedway on Sunday after struggling with handling conditions throughout a majority of the 400-lap NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. Dillon, who sported a special Warrior Games logo on his deck lid in support of Dow’s involvement in the competition for wounded, injured and ill service members and veterans, was scored in the 14th position when the first caution flag was displayed on lap 64. Noting a tight-handling condition on entry to the corners and a loose-handling condition in the middle of the corners, crew chief Gil Martin called for 4 tires, fuel and a chassis adjustment on pit road. He restarted from the 13th position but continued to fight handling conditions for the remainder of the event, which varied from tight to loose, depending on cloud cover. Dillon fell one lap down to the race leader on lap 247, and then incurred damage to the right-rear quarter panel and tail end of his Chevrolet SS after a car made contact with him and forced him to brush the outside wall. Still, he managed to earn the Lucky Dog award when the caution flag was displayed on lap 253. He pitted twice to repair damage, but struggled the remainder of the race with handling issues as a result of the car’s damage, falling two laps down to the race leader and ended with a 24th-place finish in the Dow Chevrolet.

Start -10th        Finish – 24th    Laps Led – 0    Points – 21st   

                                                   

  

AUSTIN DILLON QUOTE: 

“We dug hard today but it was all around tough. I’m proud of our team’s qualifying effort and all of our work trying to make adjustments on pit road. I’m looking forward to Kansas Speedway next week.”

  

  

2011 CC Team Icon 27 NSCS Menards

Paul Menard Finishes 16th at the Monster Mile in the No. 27 CertainTeed/Menards Chevrolet

 

Paul Menard drove Richard Childress Racing’s No. 27 CertainTeed/Menards Chevrolet SS to a 16th-place finish in Sunday’s 400-mile event at Dover International Speedway. The Eau Claire, Wisc.-native qualified 19th during Friday’s knockout qualifying session at the one-mile track and took the green flag from the 10th row. After 25 laps, Menard reported to crew chief Slugger Labbe that he was fighting a loose-handling condition and needed rear grip. The No. 27 crew came up with a pit strategy and remedied the condition during its lap 65 pit stop with four tires, fuel and a left-rear suspension adjustment. Throughout the remainder of the 400-lap event, Menard experienced a tight and loose-handling condition which brought him down pit road five additional times for four tires, fuel and a mix of adjustments. The RCR team rallied all the way to the top 15 and ultimately finished in the 16th position. Up next for the No. 27 team is Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event at Kansas Speedway.  

 

Start – 19th             Finish – 16th            Laps Led – 0                Points – 20th

 

PAUL MENARD QUOTE:

“I’m really proud of my guys for never giving up today. They made good calls from the pit box and gave me changes that really helped the handling. We didn’t have a super fast car, but I knew it would be good in the race. It’s just hard to pass here once you fall back a little bit, but we were able to come back with a decent finish.”
 

   

Newman’s Eighth-Place Finish at Dover International Speedway

Transfers Quicken Loans Team into the Contender Round

 

Ryan Newman drove Richard Childress Racing’s No. 31 Quicken Loans Paint Your Way to Dover Chevrolet SS to an eighth-place finish in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event at Dover International Speedway. The South Bend, Ind., driver started 20th. In the early stages of the 400-lap event, crew chief Luke Lambert fine tuned the No. 31 Chevrolet during each caution-flag stop on laps 62, 76 and 126. Newman’s biggest challenge was simply racing through traffic. By halfway, the Quicken Loans crew competed just outside the top 10 in the 12th position and just 60 laps later climbed to 10th. The team’s final stop happened under green with Newman in eighth position with 75 laps remaining. The driver battled for position in the closing stages and managed to score the hard fought eighth-place finish. The result transfers the No. 31 team into the second round of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship. The first of three races in the Contender Round is next week at Kansas Speedway. Earlier this year at Kansas, Newman posted an 11th-place finish.

 

Start – 20th            Finish – 8th           Laps Led – 0                Points – 9th

 

RYAN NEWMAN QUOTE: 

“The Quicken Loans crew did a heck of a job to turn this Chevrolet around after final practice. We just weren’t good enough at the point, for the race today it was so much more drivable. I cannot say enough about the team effort to get this car to the point that we could contend for a transfer spot and finish top 10. I am also happy for Blake Pass, He designed our Paint Your Way to Dover Chevrolet for this weekend. Our top-10 finish gets him a free mortgage payment courtesy of Quicken Loans. Now we’ve got to focus on Kansas and Charlotte. We need to win one of those two races because Talladega is going to be such a wild card.”

 

RCR PR