TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTES: ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 1 TOOTSIES CAMARO ZL1 Finished: 2nd What a move that was to take the lead. “Yeah, I had the same opportunity 30-laps earlier, and I didn’t take it because it just wasn’t the right time. It was putting a lot of risk on the table to do it. We got the lead and did everything we could for our No. 1 Tootsies Orchid Lounge Chevy. It was all we could do.” I know you think about wanting to win this race, but when you’re thinking about the championship and making the final 4, it’s good to have a day like today. “It hurts, right? It hurts to lose like that with just a few laps to go to fresher tires. It’s so good to be driving these Trackhouse Racing Chevy’s for everybody at AdventHealth, Moose Fraternity, Jockey and Worldwide Express. To keep bringing this kind of speed in the playoffs is a dream come true.” KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1 Finished: 35th Did his (Bubba Wallace) reaction and retaliation surprise you? “No, it didn’t surprise me. I obviously made an aggressive move into (turn) three; got in low, got loose and chased it up a bit. He (Bubba Wallace) got to my right front, and it got him tight and into the wall. I knew he was going to retaliate. He had a reason to be mad, but his race wasn’t over until he retaliated. It is what it is. Just aggression turned into frustration and he retaliated.” Is retaliation at that speed an acceptable thing? “I think with everything that’s been going on here lately, with head injuries, fractured ligaments and all that, I don’t think it’s probably the right thing to do. We’ve all done it – maybe not all of us – but I have. I’ve let the emotions get the best of me before, too. I know he’s probably still upset. I’m sure with everything going, he’ll know that he made a mistake in the retaliation part and I’m sure he’ll think twice about that next time.” What about the off-track retaliation when he came up and tried to shove you.. did that catch you off guard? “No, I saw him walking over, so I figured he would do something. Like I said, he had every right to be upset. I would rather him do that than tear up our cars in a dangerous manner. It is what it is.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 HOOTERS CAMARO ZL1 Finished: 21st Can you describe what you were feeling out there? “I just did a really bad job. I’m obviously missing something at places like this to compete with the gentlemen that know what they’re doing.” Homestead-Miami Speedway is another 1.5-mile track, but it’s very different from Las Vegas. Do you feel like you can bounce back; or does this make you more concerned for Homestead? “Homestead is definitely different, but I need to re-evaluate myself, in general, to have a shot next week.” AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 16 CELSIUS CAMARO ZL1 Finished: 9th “Overall, I felt like it was a solid day for our No. 16 Celsius Chevrolet team. We fought being a little bit tight most of the day. Track position was critical and we lost that a couple of times. I was fairly happy with the speed we had. The car was fairly comfortable. We had one run where we got really loose, but other than that, we just fought the front issue. We had good speed and it’s something to build on when we come back to Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March. To get another top-10 was really solid and I’m proud of both cars. Justin (Haley) was fast. We’ll keep working on that.” WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 RAPTORTOUGH.COM CAMARO ZL1 Finished: 13th “We just struggled. We were kind of just bouncing all day and we could never really get our car to stop bouncing, so we just struggled with that. At times, we had the balance OK, but really could never get the right balance to get ourselves to be able to run up front. We just hoovered around the fifth- to eighth-spot all day. It was just unfortunate that we couldn’t really finish there.” How frustrating is that when it’s the first race of this round? “I thought Las Vegas (Motor Speedway) was going to be good for us, but unfortunately all day, we couldn’t really show that. We had some decent stage points, but never enough to really get up towards the front. Just a struggle all day.” JUSTIN HALEY, NO. 31 LEAFFILTER GUTTER PROTECTION CAMARO ZL1 Finished: 14th A pit strategy call that didn’t quite work out and you ended up finishing 14th. Take us through those final laps and what more you needed to hang onto that lead. “I think we would have been fine with those two tires there in clean air. As soon as that caution came out, the tires cycled and they just cycled too tight. I got into some dirty air and just fell back after that. Awesome effort by everyone on this No. 31 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevrolet. It’s cool to run up here and start slowly building up these finishes. We started a little slow, but I feel like the speed is where we want it right now at the end of the season.” TY DILLON, NO. 42 LUCKY 29 VODKA CAMARO ZL1 Finished: 33rd “We had a good day in Las Vegas and were on our way to a strong run, but made contact with the wall late in the race and broke something in the suspension that ended our day early. Thanks to Lucky29 Liquors for coming on board this weekend, wish we could have gotten them a better finish, but appreciate their support and look forward to the next one!” ERIK JONES, NO. 43 FOCUSFACTOR CAMARO ZL1 Finished: 6th “We had a good, uneventful day in Las Vegas with another solid top-10 finish. We had speed all weekend, didn’t qualify where we wanted, but were able to adjust on our FOCUSfactor Chevy all race to improve throughout the day. We were there at the end, just needed a little more to get up front and be in the mix for the win. We’ll head to Homestead next weekend where I feel like we made gains at the test a few weeks ago and see what we can do.” | 
