4th William Byron, No. 24 RaptorTough.com Camaro ZL1
10th Josh Berry, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1
TOP-FIVE UNOFFICIAL RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Martin Truex Jr. (Toyota)
2nd Ross Chastain (Chevrolet)
3rd Ryan Blaney (Ford)
4th William Byron (Chevrolet)
5th Denny Hamlin (Toyota)
The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season continues at Kansas Speedway with the AdventHealth 400 on Sunday, May 7, at 3 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE QUOTES:
Ross Chastain, No. 1 Jockey Camaro ZL1
Finished: 2nd
Were you surprised that the two-tire call by the No. 19 held you off with four?
“No – whoever got in the lead was going to have a shot at it.
First, I want to say so sorry to Brennan Poole and everybody at Rick Ware Racing. I owe them a big apology and a bit more. I’ll head over there tomorrow and talk to those guys, and make some of that right.
We were just so close again for our No. 1 Jockey Chevy team and everybody at Trackhouse Racing, Advent Health, Moose Fraternity, Worldwide Express. It’s surreal to continue to do this and get to race against my heroes. I guess I told him (Martin Truex Jr.) too many of my secrets last year after we went fishing.”
William Byron, No. 24 RaptorTough.com Camaro ZL1
Finished: 4th
“The middle section – I don’t know, I need to maybe do a little better job on the feedback, and then just us communicating the adjustments there. We took off, had clean air and the car was just too loose. I couldn’t load the rear tires and we were just hanging on. That run was obviously really bad – we fell from first to seventh. We just had to work our way up from there.
Proud of the effort. Getting a top-five is great. The No. 24 RaptorTough.com Chevy was really good today. Definitely needed some more, but we’re having speed at all different kinds of tracks. In our history, this hasn’t been our best track. We came with something a little bit different to try and help that. I think it did for the majority of the race, but just got too loose.”
“We showed a lot of promise early on in our No. 31 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Camaro ZL1. We fired off so well and had a ton of speed. Unfortunately, as the track built up rubber and I got in dirty air, we just couldn’t find the grip we needed. The first five laps on tires we would be so good, but then we would lose grip and get super free. By the end of the race i felt like we had improved and learned so much — we just couldn’t get the track position back. We will keep focusing to get back where we need to be starting next week in Kansas.”
Noah Gragson, No. 42 Sunseeker Resorts Camaro ZL1
Sidelined by damage sustained in an accident on lap 27.
Finished: 34th
“I don’t know what happened. I tried to get to the top and search for clean air. It was a mistake on my part. The air was tricky in the back of the pack. It was tight and it got loose – I don’t know, I need to go back and look at it. It’s just been a disappointing year overall. I’m thankful for all of the guys’ efforts on our No. 42 LEGACY MOTOR CLUB team, we’ll take our Sunseeker Resorts Chevy off to Kansas next week and move on from here.”
Erik Jones, No. 43 Allegiant Camaro ZL1
Finished: 16th
“It’s a good day for our No. 43 Allegiant Chevy, you know, we were kind of back and forth on the balance throughout the day just trying to get some stuff better, but we came a long way from where we were in practice. Obviously, we were pretty off there from when we unloaded, but we got quite a bit better, quite a bit closer, but we just needed to get the balance. We missed one run and kind of got mired back and lost a lap, so we couldn’t really come back from it that late in the race. We’ll take it, move on and learn from it, and take it to Kansas next week!”
Josh Berry, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1
Finished: 10th
“Happy to get another top-10. I think it was a really solid day for the No. 48 Ally Chevy team. We needed a little bit more there to be a little bit better, but overall with the amount of experience I have in Cup cars, I feel like to run about where we did was really solid. Just proud of Blake (Harris, crew chief) and everybody on this team for a great job.”
Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Pitbull/Freeway Insurance Camaro ZL1
Sidelined by damage sustained in an accident on lap 34.
Finished: 35th
Suarez said he just snapped loose and got into the wall. What were the conditions like out there in the first 30 laps?
“The conditions were perfect. I don’t think it had anything to do with the track. The track was good, the car was really good. For how quick I lost the car, I think I had a tire going down or something because it happened instantly. My car wasn’t loose and I didn’t have a warning or anything. It’s unfortunate to be out of the race this early at a race track that we normally run very well at.”
TEAM CHEVY RACE HIGHLIGHTS:
Stage One
·With the starting lineup set by the NASCAR rule book, last weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series winner Kyle Busch and the No. 8 Lenovo Camaro ZL1 team led the field to the green in today’s Wurth 400 at Dover Motor Speedway.
·Busch continued to pace the field until a competition caution that flew on lap 20. The field came down pit road for the race’s first round of pit stops with crew chief Randall Burnett calling Busch down pit road for four tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment. Busch ultimately had to restart at the rear of the field due to a speeding penalty on his pit road entry.
·Starting from 23rd, the No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1 crew chief Blake Harris made an early pit strategy call to bring Josh Berry down pit road for right-side tires and fuel only to give Berry a top-five restart position.
·Noah Gragson spun on lap 27 to bring out the caution. The No. 42 Sunseeker Resorts Camaro ZL1 team came to pit road to make repairs on a broken toe link. Unable to make minimum speed, Gragson was forced to retire early from the race.
·The race’s second caution came at lap 34 involving Team Chevy’s Daniel Suarez and Ty Dillon. Both drivers sustained damage that was unable to be repaired, ultimately ending their day.
·Kyle Larson was involved in an accident on lap 80, sustaining right-front damage. Larson brought his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL1 to pit road for repairs, returning to the field in the 27th position for the restart.
·Larson returned to pit road on lap 100 for further evaluation. Having already met minimum speed, Larson was able to take his Camaro ZL1 to the garage for additional repairs.
·William Byron took the lead on two separate occasions in Stage One, leading a combined 90 laps en route to the stage win – his series-leading sixth stage win of the season.
·Team Chevy Stage One Top-10:
1st William Byron, No. 24 RaptorTough.com Camaro ZL1
5th Ross Chastain, No. 1 Jockey Camaro ZL1
10th Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Kroger / Icy Hot Pro Camaro ZL1
Stage Two
·Under the stage break, Stage One winner William Byron came down pit road for four tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment. The No. 24 RaptorTough.com Camaro ZL1 crew got Byron off pit road first to take a front-row starting position for the start of Stage Two.
·The race continued under green-flag conditions, forcing the field to begin a green-flag pit cycle nearing the halfway point of the stage.
·As the field cycles through green-flag pit stops, Ross Chastain drove his No. 1 Jockey Camaro ZL1 to the lead on lap 201.
·Stage Two continued caution-free with Chastain leading the field to the green-white checkered for his fourth stage win of the season.
·With 250 laps in the book at the conclusion of Stage Two, four Chevrolet drivers had led a combined 239 laps (Byron – 162 laps led; Chastain – 51 laps led; Busch – 25 laps led; and Josh Berry – 1 lap led).
·Team Chevy Stage Two Top-10:
1st Ross Chastain, No. 1 Jockey Camaro ZL1
2nd William Byron, No. 24 RaptorTough.com Camaro ZL1
9th Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1
Final Stage / Post-Race Notes
·Ross Chastain led Team Chevy to the checkered flag, driving his No. 1 Jockey Camaro ZL1 to a season-best runner-place finish.
·Four drivers from three different Chevrolet teams led a combined 319 of the 400-lap event, including William Byron (race-high 193 laps led), Ross Chastain (98 laps led), Kyle Busch (25 laps led) and Josh Berry (three laps led).
·Byron and Chastain drove Team Chevy to a sweep of the stage wins, bringing the manufacturer to a series-best 13 stage wins in 22 NASCAR Cup Series stages thus far.
·In 11 points-paying NASCAR Cup Series races complete, Chevrolet continues to lead the series in wins (seven), top-fives (25), top-10s (46), stage wins (13) and laps led (1,509).
