Recap: For the first short track of the season, Ty Dillon and the No. 10 HybridLight Chevy team started the Shriners Children’s 500 from the 25th position. Battling the handling of the No. 10 Chevy throughout the first two stages, Dillon was scored one lap down in the 25th position when the caution flag waved to end Stage 2. Crew chief Andrew Dickeson made the call to stay on track and take the wave around during the Stage 2 caution break to restart the final stage from the 21st position on lap 194. With luck on their side, the No. 10 got their break on lap 214 when the caution waved with Dillon in the ‘lucky dog’ position. The team was able to return to the lead lap and opted to put the NASCAR option tires on the No. 10 Chevy. Dillon restarted the race from 21st on lap 222 and was able to quickly make moves to improve his position. When the caution waved on lap 267, Dillon was running fourth. The team made a routine pit stop, but Dillon was nabbed for speeding on pit road resulting in a penalty. Restarting the race from the tail end of the field in the 21st position, Dillon was able to miss the late-race cautions and rebound for a 16th place finish.
“We were a bit off to start the day. The first stage or so, we just kind of missed it to fire off, but then we were fighting track position. We had some things go our way with the way the cautions fell and the tire situation. Andrew (Dickeson, crew chief) made a great call, a gutsy call, to put us in a position to be a little bit different than everybody else and put us on the right tire. Once we put the red option tires on, we had that tire advantage. I was able to drive up to top five, and we were going to finish there if there was no caution as the car was solid, it wasn’t having any tire fall off. So, it was a good day and then I sped on pit road. I’ve just got to clean up my mistakes, so we can turn a good day in to a great day.”
– Ty Dillon
No. 16 Celsius Camaro ZL1
Start: 16th
Stage 1 Finish: 25th
Stage 2 Finish: 23rd
Finish: 22nd
Recap: Allmendinger and the No. 16 team battled the handling of the Celsius Chevy throughout the race weekend. In Stage 1, Allmendinger reported the rear was loose off and the entry built free as the run went on. The team made adjustments at the stage break and Allmendinger reported he lost the rear of the car. Under caution, the team planned for a long pit stop to make a sway bar adjustment to help the handling. Allmendinger avoided a stack-up wreck on lap 99 to restart in 23rd on lap 112. At the stage break, the team put on the optional red tires and planned to maintain position as the lucky dog. In the final stage, Allmendinger came to pit road under green from 19th place for his last set of optional tires. The caution came out as Allmendinger was exiting pit road and he received a speeding penalty. Allmendinger went on to finish in 22nd place.
