“The first three-quarters of the race was pretty awful for us. But, the guys kept their head in the game and made some big adjustments and made some good adjustments and we got back in the mix. We’re still missing some speed though. So, we’ve still got plenty of work to do. I’m pretty frustrated and we’ve got to try to get on top of things. That’s the bottom line.”
YOU KNOW YOU HAVE THE TALENT TO DO IT BUT YOU JUST DIDN’T HAVE THE CAR?“Yeah, I wish I could share all the details of things that have taken place. It’s internal knowledge that I can’t share but I’ve had some bad luck and we’ve been aggressive when we shouldn’t have. It’s a tough environment we live in and we’re trying really hard but at the end of the day we’ve just got to make some better decisions and just get a little closer and then we’ll be in good shape.
“The first half, two-thirds of that race, we were terrible. That’s just the bottom line. Kevin (Meendering, crew chief) made some really good adjustments to get us back in the game and we worked out way up to fourth on the second to the last re-start and I lost a couple of spots there on the last restart. We’re still missing a chunk of speed even out there running by ourselves there’s a pretty good gap from our car to even our own teammates’ cars. We’re missing something. We’ve just got to get on top of it. But tonight was a night of perseverance and the guys did a nice job of keeping their heads in the game and taking a 25th place car and finishing sixth with it.”
KNOWING THAT THE NO. 9 (CHASE ELLIOTT) AND THE NO. 88 (ALEX BOWMAN) SHOWED SPEED THROUGH A LOT OF THAT RACE, IS THAT SOMETHING THE NO. 48 CAN ALSO USE TO BUILD ON?’“Yeah, it is. We’re not the same. We’re similar in some ways but in other ways, definitely not the same. It’s tough. We know we want to get better so we want to be aggressive and bring new stuff to the track. We’re probably on the aggressive side of trying to bring new stuff to the track and doing a nice thing for our company in developing and proving it and I wish I could tell you what went wrong at Dover last week but the company learned a lot from it. So, I’m trying to stay patient but years are flying by. We’ve got to get to work. We’ve got to be winning races and finishing higher in the points if we’re going to have a shot at the championship. So, hopefully we can clean that stuff up and get where we need to be.”
IS IT TAKING AS LONG AS YOU THOUGHT IT WOULD TO GET TO THIS POINT?“Company-wise, yes. But the company is there. We’ve seen good speed with the No. 9 (Chase Elliott) and the No. 88 (Alex Bowman) recently. The No. 24 (William Byron) has had some speed. We have had speed. We just haven’t had it from Friday to Sunday. We just can’t get on top of it.”
THERE WERE SEVEN CHEVROLETS IN THE TOP 10. WAS THAT CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE RACE OR, YOU’RE TALKING HENDRICK, GANASSI, AND JTG CARS IN THE TOP 10“I don’t know how they ran. That’s the first I saw of the front. I don’t know what the front looked like for most of the race (laughs), so it could have been circumstantial.”
Inside Track Communications PR
