While Chevrolet powerhouse Hendrick Motorsports endured plenty of issues during Sunday’s Kansas Lottery 400 at Kansas Speedway, Richard Childress Racing capitalized on their misfortune with three top-10 finishes for all three of its Sprint Cup Series teams.
Chase hopeful Ryan Newman led the way with a seventh place finish, while rookie Austin Dillon sandwiched himself between his two veteran teammates, while Paul Menard closed out with a top-10 finish.
For Newman, Sunday’s race was important to keep his title hopes alive, but the one ounce of speed that the RCR trio is missing could be the deciding factor that keeps the driver of the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet SS in the third and potentially fourth rounds of this year’s version of the Chase.
“I just knew we were a sitting duck (on restarts) on the high side,” said Newman. “Just kind of really struggled with restarts, I think mostly our set-up more than anything. Just a good run for the Caterpillar Chevrolet, it was nice to lead some laps. First time in a long time we have done that, but didn’t lead the right ones.”
Newman utilized a two-tire strategy following the seventh caution of the race and led for four laps, before being shuffled on a Lap 240 restart.
“We will just keep working on it. Proud of the guys they are coming to the race track with really good race cars and improved on it the entire weekend. We took advantage of some other people’s misfortunes today, a good point’s day for us.”
Dillon collected his first top-10 since a 10th place run in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in July, while Menard secured his 12th top-10 finish of the year in his next-to-last race with crew chief Slugger Labbe at the helm.
“We fought hard all day,” offered Menard. “We didn’t quite have the speed our teammates did. We made some really good adjustments to get the car balanced out good. I’m pretty happy with a top 10 after struggling most of the race. We hit on a couple of things throughout the race that got us better.”
More importantly, it appears that all three of Richard Childress’ teams are communicating and functioning well. No beating around the bush, there’s still work to be done, and the pressure to win has never been greater, but the Welcome, North Carolina-based team is taking the right steps forward to eventually becoming a dominating factor once again.
Newman leaves Kansas tied with Carl Edwards for third in the championship standings, nine points behind Joey Logano, entering race two of the Contender Round at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway next weekend. The South Bend, Indiana native finished 15th in the Coca-Cola 600 in May.
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