After qualifying in 19th, AJ Allmendinger made his way into the top 15 by lap 23. He maintained position until the conclusion of the opening stage when he reported the car was building tight as the run went on. Allmendinger came to pit road during the stage break for tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment to help with the handling of the No. 16 Action Industries Chevy. During the second stage, Allmendinger received a pit road speeding penalty and restarted at the tail end of the longest line. By the end of the stage, he had driven up to 19th place. Allmendinger stayed out at the end of the stage to restart in 12th place. On the final pit stop of the day, Allmendinger lost positions and as a result, restarted in 25th place on lap 151. By lap 154, he had driven up to 13th and was told he needed to save fuel. Allmendinger went on to finish in 17th place.
“Just a hard fought day for our No. 16 group. I needed to be a little bit better, definitely made some mistakes for our race team and tried to get them back on the final restart. I felt like we got pretty close to where we probably should have been running, just more disappointed in myself today. I need to be a little bit better, but we fought hard and got everything out of it at the end there. We had to save a little bit of fuel, probably lost two spots in doing that, but at the end of the day, I think about 14th to 17th was about all we had. We did a fairly good job of maximizing our day and we’ll go to Mexico City and try to win the race.”
– AJ Allmendinger
No. 10 Sea Best Camaro ZL1
Start: 18th
Stage 1 Finish: 23rd
Stage 2 Finish: 9th
Finish: 24th
Ty Dillon and the No. 10 Sea Best Chevy team started Sunday’s race at Michigan International Speedway from the 18th position. As the first stage ran caution free, Dillon reported his Chevy was a little too free and finished the stage in 23rd. Making adjustments to the No. 10 Chevy throughout the second stage, Dillon ran as high as sixth before finishing the second stage in the ninth position and earned valuable stage points. During the final stage, Dillon restarted the race from the 20th spot. As the laps ticked off, the team continued to adjust on the No. 10 Chevy and Dillon crossed the finish line in the 24th position.
