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| Chase Elliott won the All-Star race on Wednesday. |
“Alan (Gustafson) and our entire UniFirst group did a great job. I’m not sure that I’ve had a better car at Bristol. That’s one of those cars that you don’t get very often. We’ve had cars like that before and haven’t won the race so when you have a car that drives that good you just really want to get the job done. It’s one of those things where if you didn’t, you’d be leaving there really kicking yourself.”
Elliott on his last few races:
“These past couple weeks have been a struggle for us. I think we learned some things at Kentucky, Indy and Pocono that we can try to apply this weekend at Texas. They are all places that have straightaways and the outright speed of your car is important nowadays with the downforce and whatnot. I think there are some tools that we learned. We’ve learned some lessons the hard way these past couple weeks and we are going to try and be better and hopefully it will show up at Texas.”
Elliott on the heat at Texas:
“Texas is a hot place. This time of year, I think everywhere is probably going to be hot. It always is. From the hydration standpoint, that’s always important. Preparing to sweat a lot is another big thing. As far as the track goes, I don’t expect the racing to look a whole lot different just because it’s hot. I think it will be really similar to what we’ve seen there in the past. The repave has been a big-time struggle for us. We just need to settle in and try to find some consistency and get going a little better. It’s such a unique place now with the ends being so different and how you want to configure your car.”
Crew chief Alan Gustafson on his Texas outlook:
“We’ve had a stretch of races that haven't been the greatest for us, but that's the way it goes sometimes. You just don't get the finishes that you feel like you deserve. I think we've had pretty decent performance in our cars though. We learned some things from Kentucky that we can take to Texas this weekend.”
Driver William Byron on his success at Texas:
“I don’t know why I’ve always been so good at Texas Motor Speedway other than it’s one of the tracks I’ve raced at the most in my career. We always bring fast cars, which definitely helps, especially with the amount of grip the track has. I would say it’s just a bit of luck that Texas suits me. I really like that place and it seems to like me, as well. Hopefully, we will have a good run there this weekend.”
Driver Jimmie Johnson on Texas:
“Since they reconfigured the track, Texas is so weird these days. The line we run in turns one and two is the apron or even below it where we used to race. So the rhythm of the track is really awkward, and in some respects it almost races like Darlington – like an egg-shaped racetrack. You let off really early in (turns) one and two, slow the car down, chase the bottom ,and then the rest of the track with this horsepower package is like a straightway and you don’t lift again until you get into turn one. This new asphalt has really held up and not worn like we thought it might.”
Driver Alex Bowman on what makes Texas’ unique track:
“Texas is different because since they reconfigured it, it’s just really tricky down in turns one and two. In turns three and four, you’re just wide open. Turns one and two are just really flat and different. It’s not the normal 1.5-mile track shape. It started widening out there in the fall and hopefully it continues to move in that direction this year.”
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