October 2, 2016

By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service

AUSTIN DILLON ADVANCES IN CHASE WITH PEAK PERFORMANCE AT DOVER

DOVER, Del. – A catastrophe at New Hampshire could have knocked Austin Dillon out of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup—if the driver of the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing had let it.

But Dillon and crew chief Slugger Labbe came to the elimination race at Dover International Speedway with a fast car and the perseverance to score Dillon’s first finish of better than 20th at The Monster Mile.

In fact, Dillon ran eighth in the Citizen Soldier 400 at Dover, the second car one lap down in a race that ended with a 202-lap green-flag run and Martin Truex Jr. with a 7.527 winning margin. But for Dillon, who had to resort to a backup car a week earlier after a wreck in practice at New Hampshire, eighth was more than good enough.

Dillon advanced to the Chase’s Round of 12 by 11 points over Tony Stewart, who finished 13th on Sunday. While Stewart’s hopes for a fourth championship in his final season of Sprint Cup racing ended at Dover, Dillon grabbed the final berth in the Round of 12 and will continue in NASCAR’s 10-race playoff.

“We wrecked a car in practice (at New Hampshire) and we had to use a backup car, an older car that wasn’t our primary that we wanted to have,” Dillon said. “We just stayed focused. And once again God has blessed us. I’m still awestruck, because things like this just don’t happen.

“I’m proud to be going on to the final 12 and having race cars that are capable of moving on. I have three really solid tracks coming up (Charlotte, Kansas and Talladega), and I am going to drive the wheels off of it and have fun.”

Dillon didn’t learn his running position in the points until the final laps of the race.

“I don’t care how many it was, whether it was 12 or 11 or 2 or 1, as long as we’re in the next round,” he said. “It feels good. It’s time to knock some more of these guys out, because we’ve got this opportunity, and I want to say that we’re going to be the underdog in this next round, so let’s go do it.”

October 2, 2016

By Mike Hembree
NASCAR Wire Service
DOVER, Del. – It was a double-departure Chase day for Chip Ganassi Racing.

CGR drivers Kyle Larson and Jamie McMurray entered Sunday’s Citizen Soldier 400, the first elimination race in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, riding on the ragged edge. Larson, 12th in the Chase standings, was five points above the cut line, and McMurray, in 13th, was five points below.

Long before the end of Sunday’s 400-lap marathon at Dover International Speedway, both drivers saw their hopes to advance to the Chase second round essentially evaporate.

Chris Buescher, Tony Stewart, McMurray and Larson were eliminated Sunday. The second round of the Chase is scheduled to begin Saturday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

McMurray’s chances went up in smoke – literally – as the engine in his Chevrolet expired on the frontstretch near the race’s halfway point. Larson lost power in his car early in the race, dropped a lap on pit road and then gave up more ground when the team was penalized for having too many crewmen over the wall as they tried to deal with Larson’s issues. To further cement his demise, Larson slapped the turn 3 wall on lap 182, which brought out the race’s third caution.

“It’s unfortunate that both the No. 42 (Larson) and the No. 1 had a problem today,” McMurray said in the garage. “But it is what it is, and that’s why we race. I’m proud of my team and proud of our guys and all the hard work they’ve put in. And it stinks that it’s over this way, but we get to race next week. So, we’ll come back and try to do it again.”

McMurray said it appeared that he and Austin Dillon would battle for a Chase spot as the race progressed. McMurray’s engine issue blocked that possible drama, and he ultimately finished 40th (last).

“But I’m proud of our whole organization from where we started the year to the point that we are at right now,” McMurray said. “When you run in the top 10 every week – and Kyle won at Michigan – we just have had great cars, and it stinks that it ended this way.”

McMurray, who dropped out of championship contention in the first round of the Chase for the second straight year, said a vibration was the first hint of trouble with his Chevy.

“It vibrated earlier in the race, and it went away,” he said. “And it’s weird because engine issues usually don’t go away. It felt like it had power, and then, I don’t know, about 40 laps before it finally blew up it just started vibrating real bad.”

Larson, who finished 25th, lost a lap because of the electrical problem but suffered a triple-whammy with the penalty for the team having too many crewmen over the wall and, later, the accident.

“I don’t know what happened with the battery or whatever,” Larson said. “I lost power and lost a lap. Then we had too many men over the wall. Really, if it had not been for that, we would have been all right because I was only a lap down. But it was a nice little present there for Austin by both Ganassi cars.”

Dillon, who finished eighth, was the final driver to make the 12-driver cut for the next Chase round.

“We came a long way from where we started the season,” Larson said. “We just didn’t have good luck again this year.”