Chase Elliott blew a tire on lap 184 of the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500 NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday. He finished the race in 32nd and fell out of the points lead.
From your perspective, is there a design issue with these tires?
“I’m not sure that Goodyear is at fault. Goodyear always takes the black eye, but they’re put in a really tough position by NASCAR to build a tire that can survive these types of racetracks with this car. I wouldn’t blame Goodyear.”
Was it a tire that went down?
“Yeah, something came apart. I could hear it flapping in the right rear fender well. I don’t know, but if it wasn’t down, it was certainly coming apart. One of the two.”
You guys have relied on points all year long. As it sits now, just plus six-points above the cutline. How do you now view Talladega and the ROVAL?
“It’s not a great position to be in for sure, but it is what it is now. I hate it for our No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet team. We were actually decent here for once, so that was nice while it lasted. We’ll go to Talladega (Superspeedway) try to get a win and go on down the road.”
— Chevrolet Racing —