Chevrolet’s struggles in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series continued Sunday as Denny Hamlin won the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway in his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry.
But while Chevy was unable to take the win, there were still some positive takeaways for the bowtie brand in the Lone Star State. The race marked its best NASCAR outing so far in 2019, with Jimmie Johnson performing solidly to put his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in the top five.
Johnson didn’t quite have the pace that the race-winning Toyota, did, though, with Hamlin looking fast in all three stages and leading the race three separate times for a total of 45 laps on his way to the victory. The Camry’s speed was so significant, in fact, that Hamlin won the race despite incurring a handful of penalties and missing pit road under green.
“I don’t know. We tried every way we could to give it away, and we found a way to do it with this FedEx Camry,” he said. “Once we got out front, we were able to pull away from the pack a little bit. Got a little bit loose when we were racing our teammates in the 18 (Kyle Busch) and the 20 (Erik Jones). So wasn’t able to be as aggressive as I was earlier in the race. We had a super-fast car. That’s why we won.”
A late and final caution came out on lap 255, setting up the end of the race. When the green came back out, Johnson diced with Busch, Daniel Suarez and Aric Almirola for the lead. Busch appeared to be the faster car of the four, but he later hit the wall and was forced to pit on Lap 282 after leading a race-high 66 laps. Meanwhile, Hamlin was working his way through the field, taking a splash of fuel on Lap 319 before reeling the leaders in for the final time 4 laps later and passing Stewart-Haas Racing’s Clint bowyer for the lead.
Click here for full results from the 2019 NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.
Comments
I wonder if that recessed area below the hood where the headlights are is causing aero problem for the chevy. the other cars that area is flush with the rest of the car for smoother air flow
It’s funny the ZL1 is having problems winning on the track against Toyota Camry and Ford’s Mustang…….I have no problems on the street with my ZL1, knocking them into tomorrow :).
SAD if your a Chevy fan. Its already taken too long for a fix. Good thing Kyle Busch is strong at Bristol, I won’t have to watch.
I’m actually a Kyle Busch fan (judge me) so NASCAR hasn’t been entirely boring as of late.
NASCAR is such a freaking joke. None of these cars has anything in common with any other car that bears its name. Follow the leader for 500 miles is ridiculously BORING!
Why must GM authority be so pessimistic about NASCAR???
#48 had enough speed to stay ahead of the pack. Where trouble started was when he was in the middle of the pack and dirty air slowed him down. He was the fastest in all practices and won the pole. The speed is there. What’s lacking is experience (outside of #48 and couple others). Talent is there, they just need laps behind their belts. Too many mistakes made now.
With as many Camaros that they sell, GM should pull out of NASCAR, it is an investment not well spent. Use to be race on Sunday, sell on Monday. Sure not the case with the Camaro.
What vehicle will they use in NASCAR when they discontinue the Camaro? Spark?
Something doesn’t add up. Hamlin was penalized twice and misses pit and still wins?! At least the Camaro is starting to get speed. Taken way too long to have results. Mustang is a new body and not having any trouble.
I remember a time when Chevy dominated vehicle sales. Then they no longer did that but they still dominated raceing. Now it seems they can no longer dominate in anything. Hard times for GM Raceing except for Cadillac.
I remember GM actually used Chevies in racing. More of A$SCARs fault they don’t use real cars.
I can remember when I started watching NASCAR 50 years ago when NASCAR was NASCAR!! It was Ford, Chevy ,Pontiac an Chrysler,! America founded car manufacturers the big 3 !
WHAT HAPPENED??? MONEY!!!!!!!!
What I ment was the big 3! Ford GM anChrysler
The Chevy’s were fast all weekend. Elliott and Austin Dillon got caught on a bad pit strategy at the end, but they were top ten cars.
The Camaros have three major issues at the moment:
1. They aren’t working together. Hendrick is working with Ganassi and RCR is working with the other Chevy teams, but all Toyotas work together and all Ford teams share engines. The Toyotas are backed by Toyota Racing Development and they all share data. The Penske, Roush, and Wood Brothers Fords all share data as well. The ones working together will combine resources and money for research and development, which makes them faster. The Chevys work with less teams, so they have less R&D.
2. They lack talent. Ford’s good drivers include Keselowski, Logano, Blaney, Harvick, Bowyer, Amirola, Suarez, and Ryan Newman. Toyota has Kyle Busch, that Jones kid, Truex Jr, and Hamlin, but there are only 7 or 8 Toyotas overall. Chevy has Elliott, Johnson, Larson, Kurt Busch, and Austin Dillon, but there’s 18-20 Chevy teams. The Ford and Toyota teams have a greater number of experienced drivers and crew chiefs, and more driver-crew chief combos that have been together for a long time. Chevy has tons of new teams, young drivers, and new driver-crew chief pairings.
3. Most of their talent left. Dale Jr, Jeff Gordon, Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick, Kasey Khane, Martin Truex Jr, Tony Stewart, and a plethora of great crew chiefs and spotters have either retired or switched from Chevys to other manufacturers in recent years. That left many rookies without talented mentors, and most drivers in lower series have been picked up by Toyota or Ford teams. A major talent shift like that is rare in NASCAR and was devastating for team Chevy.
Hendrick and RCR need to work together to get make better engines and to acquire better drivers. If Chase Elliott could have the same power under his hood as the guys at Penske and Stewart-Haas, he’d be running in the top 5 every race.
All good reasons why the others are doing better than Chevy. You have to wonder why all of the good talent left the Chevy teams? Is it because they have lost faith in GM’s commitment to raceing or in GM’s chances of survival because of the mixed signal and the many missteps made latel?
Other than some marketing activities, GM outsourced all direct NASCAR related support a while ago. Pratt and Miller is contracted to provide engineering and technical support for GM NASCAR activities, primarily out of NC where they have a satellite building to their Michigan complex. The GM driver in loop simulator in NC is Pratt and Miller managed and owned. The RO7 NASCAR engines are ancient non production based architecture with no production information usable to GM. There has been little direct GM involvement with RO7 engines since the last GM powertrain support engineer moved to LS/LT based sports car engine work. Truck engines are mostly now spec engines based on LS aftermarket content assembled by Ilmor. The other two manufacturers still have significant engineering technical support in NASCAR through corporate owned operations in NC and California with company engineers invovled. Other than the marketing aspect, GM doesn’t have a need for NASCAR and gets significantly more engineering and product feedback from sports car. Indy car, and off road racing. Unless NASCAR makes some significant structural changes soon, popular opinion is the other two manufacturers will pare back too.
the person responsible for the design of the RO-7 has retired. GM is more interested in selling crate race engines because there is no market for RO-7 engines to the weekend racers.