Allmendinger reported early in the race that his Action Industries Chevy was building tight and the handling was worse in traffic. He drove up to eighth position before coming to pit road on lap 33 for a scheduled green flag pit stop. When the caution came out on lap 70, Allmendinger was in eighth place, telling crew chief, Trent Owens, the overall balance was not bad, but he was battling a brake shake. The team came to pit road for four fresh tires to give Allmendinger to run for stage points. Allmendinger restarted in sixth place for the second stage and continued battling handling issues. He reported he lost overall grip and the car was bouncing over to the right rear. The team made a left rear adjustment at the stage break to help Allmendinger with the handling of his Chevy going into the final stage. Allmendinger was happy with the adjustments and went on to battle inside the top 10, quiet in the radio, for the remainder of the race.
“I was able figure out enough lines to make speed and do different things where certain guys just rip the fence to keep the momentum up. We just didn’t quite have enough there in the longer run. In general, I was really happy there. We fought hard, lost a little bit in the second stage but Trent Owens and the team worked hard to get it back and be very competitive.”
– AJ Allmendinger
No. 10 Sea Best Camaro ZL1
Start: 34th
Stage 1 Finish: 25th
Stage 2 Finish: 24th
Finish: 27th
Ty Dillon started Sunday’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway from the 34th position. Focused on moving forward, the team was able to move inside the top 25 by the end of stage 1. Continuing to run inside the top 25, Dillon and the team were making progress for a top-20 finish late in stage three before a tire vibration forced the team down pit road for an unscheduled stop. The untimely pit stop dropped Dillon off the lead lap and the team was scored with a 27th-place finish.
“We got better and better all day. We were probably going to run around 20th. I thought I had a tire going down and it was vibrating really bad with 15 to go. I didn’t think it would make it to the end, so I came down pit road and hurt our day, hurt our result. But we improved all race, so that’s the positive. We just need to improve our Saturday’s and we’ll be even stronger.”
