Allmendinger struggled with the handling of the car throughout the duration of the race. Crew chief, Trent Owens, made a plan to lower the nose and free up the No. 16 Action Industries Chevy during the first stage break. When the next caution came out, Allmendinger reported his Chevy was wrecking loose. The team continued to make progress on the handling of the Action Industries Chevy throughout the final stage, ultimately finishing 14th after a green-white-checkered finish. Allmendinger also scored the Xfinity Fastest Lap Bonus, earning an additional championship point.
“Hard fight all night, just struggled with balance overall. Then when you get back there in traffic, it’s hard to make the right moves. I definitely need to be a little bit better making the right moves. I’m proud of the guys; we made a lot of changes to make the car as good as we could. We salvaged a decent finish there at the end, but we need to be a little bit better overall.”
– AJ Allmendinger
No. 10 Sea Best Camaro ZL1
Start: 20th
Stage 1 Finish: 30th
Stage 2 Finish: 38th
Finish: 29th
Ty Dillon and the No. 10 Sea Best Chevrolet started the Ambetter Health 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway from the 20th position. Struggling with the handling of his Chevy early in the race, Dillon slipped outside the top 30. The team made adjustments during the Stage 1 break to improve the handling of the No. 10 Chevy and restarted the race from 24th on lap 68. Unfortunately, Dillon ran over debris early in Stage 2 and on lap 81, blew a tire and spun on the track. Forced to the garage for repairs, Dillon returned to the race on lap 105 in the 39th position, 24 laps down to the leaders. The team continued to make repairs during the remainder of the 260-lap race and stayed out of trouble to gain multiple positions and finish the race in 29th.
“We didn’t have the best day in Atlanta with our Sea Best Chevy. We started the race too free and that put us behind a little. We made adjustments during our first pit stop to improve the handling but ran over something that cut the right rear early in the second stage and that caused us to spin and get right side damage. I’m proud of the hard work this team put in to make repairs to our Sea Best Chevy. We were able to get back on track, stay out of trouble when others wrecked and gain 10 spots. We aren’t going out without a fight, and I think we proved that today. We’ll regroup this week and head to COTA for the first road course of the year.”
