Author: Official Release

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
South Point 400 Qualifying | Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Sunday, October 20, 2024

JOEY LOGANO PUNCHES TICKET TO CHAMPIONSHIP 4 AFTER LAS VEGAS WIN

• Joey Logano won his third race of the season with today’s victory, not including his win in the All-Star Race.
• It marks his fourth career triumph at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, most among all tracks.
• Logano will be making his sixth career Championship 4 appearance in two weeks at Phoenix.
• The win is Logano’s 35th of his Cup Series career and 33rd with Ford.
• Those 33 wins put him 4th on the all-time Ford win list.
• Today’s win is Ford’s 738th all-time in NASCAR Cup Series competition.
• It also marks Team Penske’s 99th series win with Ford.

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse – VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW – A WEEK AGO WAS DEJECTION AND NOW HERE YOU ARE GOING TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP 4. “Oh my gosh. It’s an incredible turn of events coming from what was at the end of last weekend and what it was like Sunday night after a couple hours after the race and to this Sunday. This sport is just incredible. Things change, but what a team I’ve got. I stood out there at the start-finish line and it takes a total effort. Obviously, the car had to be pretty good. It was solid, but when you think about what it takes to win a fuel mileage race, you’ve got to have a good engine. You’ve got to have good engineers calculating stuff. You’ve got to have good communication communicating what they see and being able to make sure that I only gave up the right amount of spots on the racetrack and trying to get to the 99 in front and keep the 20 behind. Coleman, Paul, Joe, Nick Hensley, our gas man making sure it’s full. It takes everybody to do it, so we’re in the Championship 4 again. I’m so proud of this team. We just find a way and that’s what I’m most proud of. I said it as we entered this thing this week that we may be the underdogs, but I don’t think so anymore.”

HOW ARE YOU GOING TO CELEBRATE? “I have no clue. We’re a bunch of old guys. We’re probably going home.”

IS THE FAMILY AT HOME? “Yeah, they’re all at home. We’ll have a couple weeks to have some fun, but the focus tomorrow morning is gonna be on Phoenix.”

HOW INTENSE WAS THAT FINAL RUN? “We do some fuel mileage stuff, don’t we? Holy cow. What an incredible turn of events the last week. What a very fast Pennzoil Mustang. We’ve got the old kids crew here today and a lot of kids rooting us on, so it was really special to win in front of them again. My kids at home, I wish you guys were out here, but we’re going to the Championship 4 again. I don’t know what the deal is with the even year thing, but maybe it’s real. Thanks to the fans out here. Thanks to Roush Yates Engines for making great fuel mileage, great calls by Paul and Nick Hensley, our gas man, making sure she’s full, giving me the good info I need to save fuel and keep the lead that we needed to. Boy, we’re going racing again. What an incredible situation. I’m so blessed.”

HOW DISCIPLINED DID YOU HAVE TO BE ON THAT LAST RUN? “Coleman up there in the spotter’s stand, working with Paul and our engineers – Shaggy and Joe – everybody does a good job at just feeding the info that I needed. You have to go the right pace to make sure you get in front of the 99, but get to where the 20 was gonna catch me. It was an incredible day. Like I said, it takes the whole team to do the fuel mileage stuff. It’s not just the engine or the engineers or the driver or the spotter, it takes all of us together to do it. It’s a total team win. We may not have been the fastest car today, but we were a solid top-five car and being able to maximize it at the end.”

Ford Performance Unofficial Results:
1st – Joey Logano
10th – Chris Buescher
14th – Corey LaJoie
15th – Harrison Burton
18th – Noah Gragson
20th – Michael McDowell
21st – Cody Ware
22nd – Ryan Preece
24th – Josh Berry
26th – Chase Briscoe
31st – Todd GIlliand
32nd – Ryan Blaney
34th – Austin Cindric
36th – Brad Keselowski

RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Great Stuff Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “We’re still alive. It’s definitely not the best of days. It was just a rough weekend overall. I don’t know what to do about it, to be honest with you, running over something and having a hole in it in practice. And then just getting clipped by the 6 there. I thought I could get around him and didn’t know if he’d come up the racetrack and then by the time he was kind of on the track it was too late. I got clipped and bent everything all to hell, so it was just a rough weekend. We still have two more weeks, so we’re definitely not out of it.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 King’s Hawaiian Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT HAPPENED ON TRACK? “I was coming off of turn four and the guys in front of me got together. It’s a shame. This is the best run we’ve had the whole playoffs. The car was really fast and we were fighting within the top five and top 10. It’s racing. You hang around long enough and you’ve got a shot at it if you hang around the top five or top 10. We just kind of got caught up in somebody else’s deal.”

WHAT HAPPENED? “I was kind of a victim of circumstances. A couple of cars got together in front of me and I just couldn’t miss them. It’s a shame. This is one of the best cars we’ve had in quite some time. I was really proud of our team. We were in a good spot to have a great day and just didn’t get to see it through.”

WAS REDDICK’S MOVE TOO AGGRESSIVE? “I haven’t seen it, so I don’t really know. I couldn’t see what happened.”

AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Autotrader Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT HAPPENED DOWN THERE? “I have no idea. That’s a great question. I haven’t seen a replay. I just know that they wrecked off of four and the 6 came back up the track and either clipped me or I just got loose from getting up in the gray by the start-finish line and slapped the fence and killed all of the right side suspension and now I get to watch the rest of the race.”

HOW DO YOU MOVE ON NOW THE REST OF THE SEASON? “It’s totally frustrating because we’ve had really fast cars, especially today. I felt like we had one of the best cars on the long run and the way those cautions and the strategy and all that, it’s a shame. The last three weeks we’ve had cars that easily could have finished in the top five and some of those we got wrecked. It’s racing. It’s tough, but I definitely want to finish strong.”

A LOT OF AGGRESSIVE MOVES TODAY. DID ANYTHING SURPRISE YOU? “Not really. I think the thing that gets more and more frustrating on these is where was the line drawn when it comes back to lagging back on restarts. Depending on where the leader goes sometimes it’s hard to tell, but guys just continually back up to get gaps. It just puts you in a worse spot the further back you go and it’s just the benefits of having track position. That’s one thing that I would say is frustrating.”

BELL FINISHES SECOND IN VEGAS
Pole winner Bell leads race-high 155 laps, comes up just short after late charge through field

LAS VEGAS (October 20, 2024) – Christopher Bell won the pole, led 155 of 267 laps and finished second after charging through the field late in the running of the NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday evening. Bell led four Toyotas in the top-10 finishers with Martin Truex Jr. in sixth, fellow Playoff driver Denny Hamlin coming home in eighth and John Hunter Nemechek scoring a solid ninth-place finish.

The third Toyota Playoff driver, Tyler Reddick, led nine laps and won the first stage before being involved in an early stage two incident.

With the finish, Christopher Bell leads the overall standings and is second in the Playoff rankings. He is 42 points above the cutline. Denny Hamlin moved up to fifth. The Virginia-native is now 27 points out. Tyler Reddick ranks sixth, 30 points below the cutline.

Toyota Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Race 33 of 36 – 267 Laps, 400.5 Miles

TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Joey Logano*
2nd, CHRISTOPHER BELL
3rd, Daniel Suarez*
4th, William Bryon*
5th, Alex Bowman*
6th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
8th, DENNY HAMLIN
9th, JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK
12th, BUBBA WALLACE
25th, ERIK JONES
28th, JIMMIE JOHNSON
30th, TY GIBBS
35th, TYLER REDDICK
*non-Toyota driver

TOYOTA QUOTES

CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 2nd

How do you come to terms with how that race played out?

“I don’t know. I don’t know, and I don’t think I’ve come to terms with it yet. Just a bummer. Everyone on this team did everything perfect today. This thing was obviously on rails, the pit crew did an amazing job, Adam (Stevens, crew chief) called an amazing race. We did everything we needed to put the Rheem Camry into victory lane, and unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be today.”

How do you use this to fuel you next weekend in Homestead?

“It is a whole new race next week. This track means nothing for next week, and fortunately, we were able to go and win in Homestead last year, but nothing is guaranteed. Just because I ran second this week, doesn’t mean I’m going to finish anywhere next week. I think the points look pretty good, which is a positive, but you are never safe in this deal. We needed to win today, and unfortunately, we didn’t. We will go on to the next one.”

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 Yahoo Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 8th

How would you describe this day?

“Not a clean day. That certainly sums it up. You’ll have that. We did the best we could to get the best finish. I thought Chris (Gabehart, crew chief) did a great job to get some sort of finish. Once we lost the track position early, he was doing the best he could to try to get it back through strategy, and then it goes long there, and we fall to the back. Just part of it.”

How do you feel about your points position with Miami and Martinsville coming up?

“I don’t know where we are at, but certainly, we are not running quite as strong as we were earlier in the year, and we are definitely not as clean, execution wise, as we were. We will just have to clean it up and go to Homestead and try to win it.”

JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK, No. 42 Pye Barker Fire & Safety Toyota Camry XSE, LEGACY MOTOR CLUB

Finishing Position: 9th

Solid run today, can you talk about your race?

“Solid day. We didn’t start off great – started in 26th, I think we fell back to the 30s and Brian (Campe, crew chief) and the engineers – everyone on this 42 Pye Barker Fire & Safety Toyota team worked really hard to get the car right. I felt like our communication was good today. I just felt like everything went okay. We got track position, made some adjustments, woke the car up. I felt like we were running top-15 there for a little bit, and we opted to save fuel on the strategy that we played and came home ninth. Obviously, we want more – but at the same time, very, very solid day for this 42 group, and something I feel like us and LEGACY MOTOR CLUB needed.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON, No. 84 Dollar Tree/Family Dollar Toyota Camry XSE, LEGACY MOTOR CLUB

Finishing Position: 28th

Can you talk about the race and how it all progressed for you today?

“Not bad for this Dollar Tree, Family Dollar Toyota. We were in that lucky dog position, and as the race went on and some quality cars were trapped down a lap, it just made that really tough and we narrowly missed getting back on the lead lap multiple times, so trapped down a lap, and just ran along and did what we could, but it was great to see our other two cars with pace, especially the 42 (John Hunter Nemechek) car finishing there in ninth. That was a great day for us.”

TYLER REDDICK, No. 45 Jordan Brand Toyota Camry XSE, 23XI Racing

Finishing Position: 35th

First off, are you okay and secondly, what happened out there?

“Yeah, you just have to be aggressive on restarts. It’s how the Next Gen racing has been from the beginning. I kind of saw them both have a moment, and I just had to split second make a decision. You have to be aggressive on the restart. It is hard to pass after a while. Being myself on a mile and a half, being aggressive – by the time I realized I was in trouble, the 19 (Martin Truex Jr.) started sliding and the 9 (Chase Elliott) was coming up and I was pretty much already on their outside at that point, with nowhere to really go. I needed to make the decision earlier when I saw them sliding to be more conservative to avoid an incident – just not who I am, but it is unfortunate. It took us out of the race. We had a really, really fast Jordan Brand Toyota Camry, probably would have been in the mix all race long, but we will go to Homestead – a place where I have had to get it done before and go for it there.”

About Toyota

Toyota (NYSE: TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in North America for more than 65 years and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands, plus our more than 1,800 dealerships.

Toyota directly employs more than 63,000 people in North America who have contributed to the design, engineering, and assembly of nearly 47 million cars and trucks at our 12 manufacturing plants. By 2025, Toyota’s 13th plant in North Carolina will begin to manufacture automotive batteries for electrified vehicles. With more electrified vehicles on the road than any other automaker, Toyota currently offers 29 electrified options.

For more information about Toyota, visit www.ToyotaNewsroom.com.

NASCAR CUP SERIES
LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
ROUND OF EIGHT: RACE ONE
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE REPORT
OCT. 20, 2024

 Suarez Leads Chevrolet with Podium Finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway

 TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10:
POS. DRIVER
3rd – Daniel Suarez
4th – William Byron
5th – Alex Bowman
7th – Ross Chastain

WITH 33 NASCAR CUP SERIES RACES COMPLETE:
Wins: 15
Poles: 10
Top-Five Finishes: 66
Top-10 Finishes: 133
Stage Wins: 22

 UP NEXT: The NASCAR Cup Series will head to Homestead-Miami Speedway next weekend, with the Straight Talk Wireless 400 marking the second race of the Round of Eight. Coverage of the 267-lap event can be found on Sunday, Oct. 27, at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

• A late-race pit strategy paid dividends for Daniel Suarez and the No. 99 Tootsies Orchid Lounge Camaro ZL1 team, ultimately leading Chevrolet with third-place finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
• Despite a tumultuous day for much of the remaining title contenders, William Byron and the No. 24 RaptorTough.com Camaro ZL1 team escaped with a stellar points day and a fourth-place result in the opening race of the NASCAR Cup Series Round of Eight at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Taking the green flag following a top-10 qualifying effort, the 26-year-old Charlotte, North Carolina, native drove his Hendrick Motorsports-prepared Chevrolet to top-four points in both stages en route to the team’s 12th top-five finish of the season. Byron will head into Homestead-Miami Speedway in the top-four of the playoff standings with a 27-point advantage over the playoff cutline.
• Defending Las Vegas Motor Speedway winner, Kyle Larson, took the green flag from the fifth position in his No. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM Camaro ZL1. Following a top-10 finish in Stage One, a rare mishap during a scheduled stop near the midway point of the race ultimately put the team two laps down. There was no quit by the No. 5 Chevrolet team, going on to fight back to the lead lap and a top-15 position on the leaderboard with 60 laps remaining. The 31-year-old Elk Grove, California, native went on to earn a 11th-place result, with the team leaving Las Vegas still above the playoff cutline in the third position with a 35-point cushion.
• Chase Elliott and the No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 team fell victim to an early Stage Two crash involving a handful of playoff competitors. With Alan Gustafson (crew chief) calling the driver to pit road multiple times for repairs, the team was able to hit minimum speed to ultimately take their Chevrolet to the garage for further repairs. Returning to the track multiple laps down, the 28-year-old Dawsonville, Georgia, native took the checkered flag in the 33rd position, with the former series champion falling to the eighth-position and 53-points below the cutline heading into the second race of the round.

 TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE QUOTES:

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BOOT BARN CAMARO ZL1

Sidelined by damage sustained in an accident in the closing laps of Stage One.

Finished: 37th

What was your take on the contact with Daniel Hemric?

“He (Daniel Hemric) flat-out wrecked me.. no clue why. He’s got three races left, and I don’t know if was just over his head. He stays in the gas into (turn) three until he hits me. I don’t know what that was.”

Are you OK?

“Yeah, it was a hard hit, but I’m good.”

KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1

Finished: 11th

It was kind of an up-and-down day. You got back on the lead lap. How do you evaluate this day?

“Yeah, it was a messy, messy day. None of the first races in the rounds have been clean, at all, for us. But this was a long, hard-fought 11th-place finish. We just had a lot of unfortunate things happen with the debris that got stuck on our nose. We were able to overcome that and I thought we were going to be fine. We had a strong finish in the second stage, and then we had the issues on the pit stop and just had to fight from there.

We got the most we could out of the rest of the day. I’m proud of this No. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM Chevy team for the rebound and having a clean rest of the race.”

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1

Finished: 33rd

Elliott on the incident in Stage Two:

“The No. 45 (Tyler Reddick) was coming with a really big run on the top. I don’t think Martin (Truex Jr.) knew that, and he was kind of running as if we were two-wide. Once I recognized that there wasn’t going to be enough room, I bailed and there was just nowhere to bail.. it was too late. I need to sit down and take a look at it. I was, personally, just trying to get out of the situation and it was just a little too late at that point.

It sucks. Our No. 9 NAPA Chevy was really, really good there at the start. It was the best we’ve been out here in this new car, so it was just a bad day for that.”

WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 RAPTORTOUGH.COM CAMARO ZL1

Finished: 4th

“Yeah, we really improved a lot as the day progressed. That was a lot to be said about this No. 24 RaptorTough.com Chevy team, and our ability to get the balance close and get the speed once we had the balance close. We just started the race a little bit off, but I’m really, really happy with how we came on. I thought we were going to have a shot to compete for a win there in the final stage, but it turned into a fuel mileage race.

Just sucks. It’s going to take a win, I feel like, so we have to keep working for it and keep running up front. If we run up front, it will do two things – we’ll be able to compete for a win and score a lot of points. We just have to keep running like this.”

ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1

Finished: 5th

You had a great car today. What could you have done there at the end?

“Yeah, I mean obviously they made it on fuel, so that’s what got those guys there. But hats-off to them for taking advantage of that opportunity. The second-to-last run, we were super-fast. And then on the last run, I don’t know if just coming out in some clean air or if I built the right-rear up too quick or what happened, but I was just too loose the last run. I struggled to run the wall in (turns) three and four like I could the run previously. I had some big moments behind Christopher (Bell) and kind of just melted the right-rear off the thing.

Bummed that we’re not a couple spots better at least, but it was a solid top-five effort for the No. 48 Ally Chevy team. We’ll keep on digging.”

DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 TOOTSIES ORCHID LOUNGE CAMARO ZL1

Finished: 3rd

“It’s a little heartbreaking. We had a great No. 99 Tootsies Orchid Lounge Chevy. I think we could have won it. We just needed the bottom lane. A couple of cars right there, they were stuck on the bottom and I was in very dirty air. The No. 22 (Joey Logano) was a little faster than us right there at the end. I felt like if I had the bottom, Joey wasn’t going to be able to pass me, but you never know.

Our Chevy was good, but on the very last run, it was falling off. I’m very proud of my team because they won it again today with the strategy. The car was fast.. it was a top-10 car. But top-three is a solid finish. I’m very proud of my team.”

 

About General Motors

General Motors (NYSE:GM) is driving the future of transportation, leveraging advanced technology to build safer, smarter, and lower emission cars, trucks, and SUVs. GM’s Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC brands offer a broad portfolio of innovative gasoline-powered vehicles and the industry’s widest range of EVs, as we move to an all-electric future. Learn more at GM.com.