Author: Official Release

NASCAR CUP SERIES
BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
ROUND OF 16: ELIMINATION RACE
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING REPORT
SEPT. 20, 2024

Bowman, Larson Drives Chevrolet to Front Row Sweep at Bristol

• A pair of Hendrick Motorsports teammates powered their Camaro ZL1’s to a front row sweep for the Round of 16 Elimination Race at Bristol Motor Speedway – led by Alex Bowman and the No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1 team, who posted a monster best-lap of 15.142 seconds to claim the pole position.
• The pole – Bowman’s first of the season – marks the 31-year-old Tucson, Arizona, native’s fifth career pole in NASCAR’s top division, and his first on a short track.
• Bowman delivered Chevrolet its ninth pole of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season; the manufacturer’s 40th pole at Bristol Motor Speedway; and its 752nd all-time in the division.
• Leading Chevrolet in the playoff rankings heading into the first elimination race, Bowman started the Bristol race weekend posting top-10 speeds throughout the extended practice session. Building on that speed, Bowman topped his group’s first round of qualifying en route to the pole-winning lap in the final round.
• Joining Bowman on the front row for tomorrow’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race will be teammate Kyle Larson, who laid down a lap of 15.183 seconds, at 126.378 mph, in his No. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM Camaro ZL1.
• A strong contingency of Team Chevy drivers claimed top-10 qualifying results at the Tennessee high-banked half-mile, with William Byron starting third; Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar and Corey LaJoie in the seventh and ninth positions, respectively; and Chase Elliott rounding out the top-10.  
  ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 – Pole Win Quotes

Talk about your pole winning lap here at Bristol Motor Speedway:

“I thought we struggled a little bit in practice, more than I was expecting. And then really in qualifying, I just had a lot of grip. I was a little bit too tight. It was one of those situations where you run a lap and you’re like – it’s either going to be really good or really slow. When your tight, you just slow down until you can turn it. Yeah, I mean obviously after the first round, I felt pretty good about it. I’m thankful to start up front and qualify well. Obviously qualifying hasn’t been our strongest suit over the years, so with it being a cutoff race and everything, starting up front is definitely important.”

It looks like you did a little over 70 laps on your first run on tires. Did it feel like a year ago here, or did it feel like the spring here?

“Yeah, I mean I think it’s back to where it was a year ago. I didn’t really see any unusual wear. They don’t fall off that much. So definitely curious as to what the variable is there, right? I think there’s a lot of smart people that will figure out what that variable is; between the tests here, the spring race and everything, with the same stuff causing different results. Yeah, I think we’re in for Bristol a year ago, more than Bristol from the spring. Unless all the rubber comes up off the track overnight for whatever reason, I think that would create the spring race again. But barring that happening, I think it’ll be kind of normal Bristol again.”

Given that now you have the best starting spot in the house, do you think this will change your strategy, in terms of approaching it going for stage points now that you have track position, or is this trying to set yourself up for the win?

“I think typically at Bristol races, like the stage points guys are the guys that contend for the win, just with how the way strategy falls. But if that’s not the case, I think it’s obviously important for us to lock-in through the stages, if we can, just with how crazy this place can get and how easy it is to get caught up in somebody else’s mess. Sometimes not getting the finish you want is frustrating, like last weekend was for us. But guaranteeing yourself those points through the stages is important to do when you can. So yeah, we’ll see how the strategy stacks up, but I think it will kind of be business-as-usual.”

First true short track pole for you. I know maybe traditionally, the results haven’t always shown for you on the short tracks, but you were fourth here in the spring and eighth at Martinsville. Is it a case where you and Blake (Harris) have finally found more of a feel of what you’re looking for this year on short tracks?

“Yeah, I mean I don’t know. We’ve won at Martinsville and Richmond. Obviously that was the old car, but yeah, I think we’ve just been better since the playoffs have started, really. We’ve unloaded faster. We’ve just had more raw pace, in general. I don’t really think we’re doing anything different, just things have worked out a little better for us. Certainly going into qualifying, I obviously had what I needed to make a really comfortable lap, and it worked out to be really fast.”

To show this kind of pace and have this kind of improvement at this point of the season, how critical is that for you and this No. 48 team?

“Yeah, I mean I think it’s important, right? Like we have the tools that we need to go do it, it’s just a matter of using them correctly; going to work and finding the results. We’ve definitely had streaks of great runs throughout the season, and we’ve had some runs that haven’t been so great, too. Obviously starting the playoffs strong is really important for us, and continuing that positive momentum forward is really key.”

This is the first pole that you’ve won for a race that isn’t the Daytona 500, since Phoenix 2016. I know you said qualifying isn’t your strong suit over the years, but does it feel like it’s been that long?

“Yeah, I mean honestly, qualifying has probably been our weakest link over the years. So it definitely feels good to be able to change that here lately. Obviously we’ve qualified pretty well over the last couple of weeks. It’s weird because I don’t feel like I’m doing anything different. I’ve worked really hard all season, and qualifying has certainly been something that I’ve continued to try and improve on. If anything, I’ve probably studied a little less, particularly for qualifying, this week. But yeah, I think we’ve just had faster race cars here lately and it’s shown.”

If this ends up being a traditional Bristol race and if track position is really, really important, how does this help set you up for the first two stages and building a points buffer and how that can potentially help you in the Round of 12?

“Yeah, I think it sets us up really well, honestly. The best you can, right? Obviously pit stall one is big, every time. Our pit crew has been on it this year, so that will be really good for us. Honestly we struggled a little bit in practice. We have some work to do on our race trim stuff, but yeah, it puts us in the best position we can start in and it gives us the best pit stall, so we’ll have that going for us.”

How do you sum up the last two or three months? You go from getting a needed win at Chicago, having to answer questions about your contract. And then all of a sudden, here is the performance turnaround that everybody has been waiting for. You guys have said ‘we can do this’, and here it is.

“I mean I think that’s just the story of my Cup career, in general, right? It’s always been that way. There’s never been – I mean, you know, the years we won the second-most races of anybody and it was still the same questions and the same stuff. Yeah, I mean just continuing to try and improve, and I think our team is in a good spot right now. But yeah, honestly, the last couple of months, the rumor mill got going more than normal. But I feel like I’ve answered those same questions for five or six years now. So I’m used to it, at this point.”

 

About Chevrolet

Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands. Chevrolet models include electric and fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Bristol Night Race Qualifying | Bristol Motor Speedway
Friday, September 20, 2024

Ford Qualifying Results:

5th – Chase Briscoe
14th – Ryan Preece
16th – Noah Gragson
17th – Chris Buescher
18th – Michael McDowell
20th – Joey Logano
22nd – Ryan Blaney
23rd – Brad Keselowski
24th – Todd Gilliland
25th – Josh Berry
26th – Justin Haley
27th – Austin Cindric
34th – Harrison Burton
36th – Kaz Grala
37th – Josh Bilicki

CHASE BRISCOE, No. 14 Rush Truck Centers Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “It’s a good start to our weekend for sure with our Rush Truck Centers Ford. I feel like our Dark Horse is pretty good. I don’t know what to think if we go to the top. I felt a lot better about my car on the bottom and, honestly, I thought we would qualify a touch better than that as crazy as that seems. Overall, that’s what we needed to do. We had to put ourselves in contention to start up front and have the ability to try and score some stage points. It’s gonna be tough. It’s gonna be an uphill battle because all the guys we’re racing with qualified right around there, too. I think that’s the biggest thing. We’re gonna have to race around those guys all night. As long as we do that, we have a little bit of a cushion to lose one or two spots to them throughout the race. I feel good about it right now, we just need to execute tomorrow.”

HARRISON BURTON, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING TO ACCOMPLISH AT AM RACING NEXT YEAR? “I definitely would love to go there and win races. I haven’t gotten to talk to Cole much about his experience. I do know Cole well and like Cole, but just haven’t had a chance. I’ve been really focused on the Cup side right now and obviously the goal in my career is to get back to Cup and try and win races in Cup. I was really fortunate to win one this year, so I’ll try and go down to the Xfinity Series and win more races and earn my way back and just see how it goes.”

DO YOU FEEL THIS WILL BE MORE OF A LEARNING EXPERIENCE TO GET BETTER? “It’s a privilege to drive a race car in NASCAR in any of the top three series, so obviously it’s not what I wanted to happen. I didn’t want to lose my job, but what I did do was learn a lot from this experience. I feel like I’m a better race car driver than when I was in Xfinity and AM Racing has confidence in me that I can help them turn their program around and get it to where it needs to be as well. They have shown the want to do that and get better and are willing to put the work in to do that. I think with both of us having that same mindset, I don’t see why there’s any reason we can’t. I’m excited to get that rolling when we do, but as for now I’m just focused on today.”

HAVE YOU TALKED WITH THE TEAM YET AND WHAT HAVE YOU SEEN OUT OF THEM THIS YEAR? “I think what they have right now is they have a decent foundation of the alliance with the Haas Factory Team. That’s really gonna help them next year. They have the equipment and now it’s just about putting the small details together and showing up prepared. What I’ve been very fortunate to do in my career is being with a lot of really good race teams. I’ve got a lot of experience, whether its my late model team with my dad or trucks or Xfinity or Cup teams and what works, what doesn’t work, and I can kind of bring that to those guys and someone that’s had a lot of experience for my young age and hopefully help them get their program where it belongs and I think we can do that relatively quickly.”

WHAT WAS THE TIMELINE LIKE FOR YOU SIGNING WITH THEM? “It was pretty recently that I signed my deal. It wasn’t like I had this deal signed and was sitting on it. I’d been talking with them. They expressed interest in me as a driver early on, as soon as my announcement came out that I wouldn’t return to the Wood Brothers they expressed interest and have kind of shown me the will and want to improve and get better and do things the right way. As time went along, I felt like that was the best opportunity for me to help them build their program and in doing that help rebuild myself and my confidence and try to win races in the Xfinity Series.”

Toyota Racing – Denny Hamlin
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes

BRISTOL, Tenn. (September 20, 2024) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin was made available to the media on Friday prior to practice for the NASCAR Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

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

What is your mindset going into the race – points or do you think you need to win?

“I’m coming here to win. That strategy won’t change unless the situation changes during the race.”

How would you describe this round of the Playoffs? Is it frustrating?

“Yeah, that’s a good word for it, for sure. I think that when we saw how the tracks were placed in the Playoffs and whatnot, and we knew the adding of Atlanta was going to put some variability in the results that you can’t always plan for, but still you have to execute and certainly, you look at the top five and you look at the bottom five – it is not something you would have predicted and not have seen for the first 27 or 28 races in the year, but it is a new ballgame now, and you still have to go out there and perform, so frustrating, being that we haven’t had the results – but today is a new opportunity.”

I saw that Stephen A. Smith at 23XI. Can you describe how that came together?

“Obviously, his relationship with Michael (Jordan) is pretty close, and we had a great sponsor summit over a two-day period at Airspeed over the week. He came and did a speaking engagement for us, which was fantastic.”

When you communicate with NASCAR, are they receptive to the conversations concerning competition items?

“Truthfully, I’m not aware of any conversations that the teams have or the drivers have as far as the influence on the schedule. Competition, yeah – there are certainly rules that they are continuing to look on how to make short tracks better and really putting an emphasis over the last year on the tire. We definitely saw something in the right direction at Watkins Glen and some of the other short tracks. I’m really excited to see what happens at Martinsville with that tire. I think we are trending in a direction that we used to race at decades ago, to age myself, but still the parts and pieces are all the same, it is going to put it in the drivers hands to go out, like this weekend, and differentiate yourself, but yeah, I think that the collaboration has been good on the competition side, but ultimately, they will still makes decisions based on what they think is best and react to given situations.”

With Bubba Wallace’s extension, has anything changed with the charters?

“No, nothing has changed on that side with all of that. We’ve said for a while that we plan on racing next year no matter what, so we are sticking to that.”

On Bubba Wallace’s extension, did you feel like that was a no brainer?

“The 23 team needs to make the Playoffs every year. I think that is our expectation, and then make a deep run and finish in the top-10 in points. That is kind of our expectation of kind of where we are at. Just getting in, it is hard for me to say that is the only expectation, but it is an expectation given the standards we are giving ourselves. He knows that he needs to get better. I think he has gotten better, so as long as he continues that – last year, when he made it on driver points, he was 14th, this year, 12th – while it won’t look great in the final box score, because once you get in, who knows where you go, your floor is only 16th – this year, it is going to look worse than last year, but we know that given the stats he has had, the laps that he has led – everything has improved over what he had last year, just have to take the next step.”

Did your sponsors at the 23XI summit ask more questions about the charters or you moving forward in the Playoffs?

“It was a little bit of both. We were really strong in our messaging that nothing is changing from our employee standpoint to our sponsor standpoint going forward, what battles we have off of the race track is on ownership. We are going to make sure that no one is adversely affected by all of that.”

What have you seen from Bubba Wallace on his growth?

“I think his willingness to continue to learn is something that I see that is very, very positive – not that he didn’t in the past, I think his willingness to put himself out there in vulnerable situations to ask for help when he needs it has been very encouraging, and certainly, we’ve seen from my standpoint more pace on road course, more pace at tracks typically that he wasn’t as fast at, that he needed to be, so I think all of that is good. His feedback has gotten better. That is very, very important. As long as he continues on that trajectory, he will be fine.”

What do you need to see from the officials this weekend if we have a similar race at Bristol than we did in the Spring?

“Just consistency on whatever is a caution early, it is the same caution that is late. If you are willing to let guys run around the bottom or the top with a flat tire, let them do that at the end of the race as well. Just consistency as far as that is concerned. If it is called tight in the beginning, call it tight at the end. If it is called loose in the beginning, call it loose at the end. Those are kind of the only consistencies that competition would be looking for.”

Have you seen any other discrepancies, especially on the short tracks?

“I’m not sure. Sometimes I feel like it depends on how tight we are on our TV window, truthfully. If I had to kind of draw conclusions on when we want cautions and when we don’t, but that is just my tin foil hat theory.”

Is it an advantage knowing you are battling with your teammates or a disadvantage?

“I’m not really sure. Probably a disadvantage because we have had success here and they know what we had in our car to make it work so well, things like that. If they were with a different team, maybe you get your competition panicking or guessing – okay, we don’t have enough pace – we need to wholesale our car and then you end up missing it big, but still, I think it is still so tight, I think it is just going to be who outruns who. Hopefully, things work out in our favor, but if not, certainly, we have some team cars – all of our cars, there are three of them in the question mark there – it would awesome to get all three of them in, but odds are, we are going to get more than one.”

Does the tire management possibility excite you?

“If I had a preference, I would prefer it not be that way, just because it is another variable that is thrown into the mix, and we talk about cautions – is that untimely caution really going to cost you. If you make the nice, conservative call to go ahead and pit before your tires go flat, and someone else doesn’t and caution comes out and it traps you laps down, certainly, it could have some big implications, so truthfully, I would kind of let it be the natural fall race that we’ve had where the best cars and best drivers run their way to the front, but if it is a crazy race, we have to adapt and I feel like we are prepared for either.”

How important is qualifying at Bristol?

“It is not totally indicative if I don’t qualify well, the rallying cry will be, well, we can win from anywhere, right? If you do qualify well, well, it is a great start to the weekend, but certainly, you don’t want to set any kind of panic in on your team or anything like that. I’m not going to be, regardless of the result, but again, I’m going to be on the offense, starting right away – I’m going to be fine with the result – either way – because I know, over 500 laps here, things will work their selves out and we will have a shot to win.”

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.

Toyota Racing – Martin Truex Jr.
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes

BRISTOL, Tenn. (September 20, 2024) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Martin Truex Jr. was made available to the media on Friday prior to practice for the NASCAR Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway.  

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing

How do you think back to the Chance 2 era and your relationship with Dale Earnhardt Jr.?

“Yeah, a lot of special memories, and a lot of fun stuff that we got to do together. He was a veteran around here at that point, so I learned a lot of the ropes on how things go from him and tagged along – doing a lot of the things that he got to do. I got to experience a lot of the things I never would have had at that point in my career. A lot of fun. A lot of memories. We got to go to victory lane a bunch, so that was cool. I told him the other night when I saw him that – ‘can you just do one more year of a few Xfinity races, so we can race together one last time?’ – but definitely a ton of good memories. Definitely an amazing start to my career because of him and the team that he built.”

Are you willing to go out of your comfort zone or your ethical zone to advance out of the round tomorrow night?

“I really don’t know. I think it will just kind of depend on the situation – what we find ourselves in and what is going on, but most likely not. I will most likely I will race the same way I always do and hopefully we are good enough to get the job done in that way.”

Do you feel any responsibility as you leave the garage in a full-time capacity to discuss with others on officiating racing and the contact on track?

“I would say I won’t have anything to do with that going forward. I will enjoy watching. I don’t know. It is interesting – just to see how much things have changed over the years. It just has kind of been a gradual shift of these things. I was frustrated and all of that, but I think it is road courses – mostly – turn one after restarts. At a lot of the places, we’ve moved the restart zone back. If it was off turn six, maybe, at Watkins Glen, that would be a good thing. I think overall the race was great, besides from the inability to pass, which is a problem. That is kind of what spurs on those restarts of, alright, I’ve got to get a spot or two here because it is the only chance that I really have – besides a handful of cars that could pass a few guys. But to answer your question, no, I don’t think I will put my hat in the ring on officiating racing or telling people what they should or shouldn’t do.”

How isolating can it be to be a full-time NASCAR driver?

“It is just a big commitment – a lot of things that you miss out on. We don’t get sick days. We can’t be late for things. It is none of that. We can’t take a weekend off of work or day off work to do friends and family things, you know? There is a lot of things that you miss out on, but that is part of the job. That is what you commit to. If you are going to do this, you have to be all in. If you are going to be good at it, you have to be 100 percent committed to it. You just get comfortable in that situation and what it is, and I think the people around you do as well. I wouldn’t say you feel isolated. I would say you just feel that you miss out on lots of things.”

Is it even too late to change your ethical guidelines on how you do things?
“Probably (laughter). I’ve been racing the same way my whole career. You can’t just wake up one day and say that you are going to drive through everyone. It is just not in your DNA.”

What is the process today with the tires?

“We just have been working on it all week, like we normally do – looking at video, data and simulator time. Trying to kind of understand – or guess somewhat – because the hard part about this track is it changes a lot. You never quite know what you are going to get – are we going to race the bottom or are we going to race the top? Are the tires going to wear out like they did in the spring or is it going to be like last fall? There is always a lot of questions when you come here, but I think we have a game plan that we feel like is the right way to approach it for us, and we will just be able to take it one step at a time.”

Are you nervous about tomorrow night?

“It is our last shot. I don’t know. I wouldn’t say nervous, you just kind of want to get it done with – the next 24 hours there is going to be a lot to talk about, a lot to think about and a lot of guess work on how we approach the race. We will just see, but I wouldn’t say that it is nervous. I’ve been doing this long enough, that I just look forward to the opportunity. You just more want to get it over with and see how it all turns out, so hopefully it is good, but the guys are working hard, and I’m hoping that it races like it did in the spring because that worked out well for us, we will just see. Hopefully it goes well.”

Do you have some sense of just being done with it?

“That just usually lasts a few hours, and you get home and you are like okay, everything is okay in the world and we are going to get to work on Bristol, and hopefully we are going to do what we need to do. It is not easy. We are in quite a hole, but I look forward to the opportunity and just hope nothing bad happens.”

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.

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Bristol Night Race Media Availability | Bristol Motor Speedway
Friday, September 20, 2024

Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse, has already clinched a spot in the Round of 12 after winning the playoff opener at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Logano answered questions from the media today at Bristol Motor Speedway before qualifying for tomorrow night’s race.

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT HAS LOCKING YOURSELF INTO THE ROUND OF 12 ALLOWED THE 22 TEAM TO DO AND PREPARE FOR THE REST OF THE PLAYOFFS? “To answer your question, it’s been nice to be able to think a little bit further forward for the next two races that were ahead of us, not that we discount these races any, but it does give you the advantage to look a little bit ahead – not like it does when you win in the Round of 8 and you have the opportunity to look for just one race. These races still matter. There’s still a long ways to go in the playoffs, but it’s more comfortable, I’ll say that. You sleep a little better at night, which is nice, but next week in Kansas we’re right back to where we were, so we’ve got to go make sure we score points again.”

IS THIS JUST WHO WE ARE NOW OR IS THERE AN EBB AND FLOW TO WHAT’S HAPPENING ON THE TRACK NOW? WHAT HAPPENS NOW THAT EVERYONE AGREES WE MIGHT HAVE A PROBLEM? “I don’t really know. I think we know where the line is. We saw that a few weeks ago in Richmond. We know that’s too far. Outside of that, there’s gonna be bumping and banging and there’s gonna be some door-to-door, bumper-to-bumper, that’s gonna happen in NASCAR racing and the bottom line is our cars are stronger than they’ve ever been, for the most part. Outside of the really fragile parts, most of the parts are really, really tough. Even on superspeedways, the pushes and the bumps are tougher than ever because those type of bumps used to knock the nose in. Now they’re tougher. We used to not be able to even lay a fender on somebody because you’d cut a tire down or you’d knock your fender in and lose a ton of downforce. These cars aren’t like that anymore. Even the Xfinity cars, we’ve kind of seen this coming when they went to the composite body that those cars could hit the wall and keep on going most of the time. When you put that body on Cup car, you’re gonna see the same thing and when you also make all the cars the same, like they’re all close enough to where they run almost the same speed and everyone knows that if you want to move through the field, it’s gonna have to be on restarts and everyone gets more and more aggressive in those moments because they know that’s the opportunity to move through the field if you’re gonna do it. That’s why I think we’re all fighting for tire fall off because it opens up the opportunity for cars to be different speeds, and ultimately be able to race more and be able to pass more than just in the first five laps of a run, so you have a little bit more separation throughout the field. I think some of it is the product of the environment that you’re in sometimes and the race car that we have.”

HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO DUPLICATE WHAT YOU DID IN ROUND ONE, NOT HAVING TO ROLL INTO THOSE RACES IN ROUND TWO WITH ANY PRESSURE TO MAKE SOMETHING BIG HAPPEN? “In each round it’s harder to move onto the next round. They’re taking less cars, so each round a win means more the previous round. The nice part about winning in any round, but in the first round particular, is that you have five playoff points that continue with us into the next round, so those are nice, which you can argue means as much as the win sometimes when you’re going through this next couple rounds. If you could win at Kansas, yeah, you’re gonna feel fantastic. Somebody will and will feel great. Hopefully, it’s us. Outside of that, you’ve got to try to score points because you look at Watkins Glen last weekend and the day a lot of playoff drivers had. It’s pretty wild out there. We talked a minute ago about how close everybody is on speed. The cars that aren’t in the playoffs are still really good and can win as well, so it’s just a different ball game than what we had a couple years ago with the old car.”

DO YOU FEEL YOU ARE IN BETTER PLAYOFF SHAPE THAN YOU’VE BEEN AT TIMES WHEN YOU ACTUALLY COME INTO A PLAYOFF AND WON THE TITLE? “Yeah, I think in both of our titles we haven’t had the most playoff points or really a great regular season leading into it. The playoffs have gone really well for us. There are multiple reasons that go into that, but there have been times that we’ve come into the playoffs with a ton of playoff points and didn’t make it to the Championship 4. I guess it just kind of depends on what the 10 weeks looks like and what each three-week little season looks like. That’s really the most important part is you’ve just got to stay alive and stay in the game three weeks at a time.”

HARRISON BURTON IS GOING TO AM RACING NEXT YEAR. WHAT HAVE YOU SEEN FROM THAT ORGANIZATION AS THEY TRY TO BUILD AND WILL IT BE BENEFICIAL TO HAVE A CUP GUY COMING IN? “I think it will be good for both of them. It’s good for Harrison. It’s good for AM to have each other. There’s so much potential in that race team and they really just need consistency. That was the biggest thing I took out of the whole thing. When you’re switching to a different driver every week, and it’s not their fault, but some drivers have zero experience and some have a lot of experience, but the ones that have none can’t guide the team into the right things. If you haven’t really raced an Xfinity car many times, you don’t know what it’s supposed to feel like, so you can’t tell them what’s wrong. In return, the team can’t get any better because they don’t know what’s wrong because the driver’s not telling them, so they need some consistency. Harrison will definitely be great for that. He definitely has a lot of experience winning Xfinity races and running in the Cup Series for a few years. It’s amazing what just a year or two of Cup racing will do for you. When you go back to Xfinity after running Cup and you see the level of not only the drivers but the people that are in the Cup level, it’s night and day different. And when you’re able to take some of that experience of like, ‘I’ve seen the other side’ and bring that to a team like AM, it’s a huge value for them. I think it’s a great win for the both of them. I wish them the best of luck. Now I’ve got some relationships over there, so you want to see then do good and I think they will. I also think there will be a learning curve and some bugs that have to get worked out first, but there’s a lot of potential there. The car can run in the top 10. Every time I’ve been in it it can do that, but it’s just getting the little stuff worked out.”

IS THE TIRE SITUATION STRESSFUL TO YOU OR JUST ANOTHER VARIABLE BECAUSE NOBODY IS SURE WHAT THEY’RE GOING TO DO TOMORROW NIGHT? “Not as stressful for me as it is for others (laughing). It’s a huge variable. It might be the biggest one. We’re not 100 percent sure and we’re gonna see here in a few minutes when practice starts and we get out there and we start running a few laps and say, ‘OK, what was it? Was it the tires, the track temperature, the resin?’ What is it. Will it repeat? I think it will. My take is I think it will. I don’t know if everyone is voting on what we think. We should all put a vote in to see who’s right, but I think it will fall off hard again, but there’s no way to be 100 percent certain that that’s what it’s gonna be until we get out there. But I think we’ll know in practice what the race will look like this time. Last time in the spring, we saw that in practice and everyone’s like, ‘Yeah, but the track will rubber up and it will get better. Wear will go down and the pace will go down,’ and then it didn’t. It stayed the whole time. Now, the teams will be more aware of it. I’m sure a lot of teams probably made some changes to their cars from last time. That will help that. I thought it was great last time. It’s entertaining to watch, just watching the race back. There was so much going on, almost too much going on to where you can’t actually keep up with it all, but it definitely threw quite the old slider on us that we weren’t ready to see. This time, everyone will be more prepared.”

IS THE EXPECTATION THE SAME FOR THE ROUND OF 12 WITH THE WILD CARD RACES IN THAT ROUND? “I think it’s the most wild cards we’ve ever had in the playoffs – ever as far as racetracks that we’re just not certain of. Kansas, we talk about Kansas and there are a lot of crazy things that happen at Kansas, too. When you look at those restarts when you’re four and five-wide, you’re gonna tell me that’s a calm situation? That’s the most calm race that we have in the next round? Are you kidding me? And then you look at this round. Watkins Glen was really supposed to be the most predictable race of the three. I mean, I don’t think we’ve had a playoff schedule that’s looked like this ever before. I absolutely expect more of the same. Like I said, it’s a lot about survival – survive and move on and get to the Round of 8 and figure it out from there.”

DO YOU HAVE MORE FLEXIBILITY TO GAMBLE AND TRY TO DO SOMETHING CRAZY TO WIN THE RACE IF YOU NEED TO? “Yeah. That’s the position we’re in. That’s what we’re going for this weekend. We tried that last weekend in Watkins Glen. It was either stage win, race win – that’s all that mattered. We were in position to do that if that caution didn’t come out coming to the end of the second stage. We were pretty certain that Ross and Shane were gonna pit there and we would have won that stage and we would have been as happy as could be with a playoff point leaving there, and that caution came out maybe six seconds too soon. We lost all our track position for basically nothing at that point and took our chance to win away, but that’s just the cards that were played. Sometimes they just don’t fall in your favor and that’s kind of what happened last week, but this week is the same thing. You’ve got to be able to go out there and if we can win, great. It’s the Bristol Night Race. Everybody wants to win this race. This is a big one, but if we go win a stage and put ourselves off strategy to do that or whatever it may be, we may look at that opportunity maybe a little bit more so than if we were just racing for points.”

WHAT IS IT LIKE BEING UPSIDE-DOWN IN A RACE CAR AND WHAT IS THE FEELING WHEN YOU SEE SOMEONE ELSE GOING THROUGH THAT? “What it’s like, it’s honestly the scariest part about being in a car because it’s the time where you literally have zero control of your car. There are other times where you may be wrecking, but you can at least steer it or do something. It’s kind of like if the throttle sticks. There’s only so much you can do. It’s like the scariest thing because you’re along for the ride. Well, once the tires leave the ground, there’s no input that you can make to make a difference. You’re along for the ride and that’s not a comfortable feeling. It’s kind of hard to put into words. Most people will never understand what that feels like or can even imagine what that’s like, and that’s why it’s hard to put into words. You know that this might hurt or maybe worse, but there’s nothing you can do about it so you’re just strapped in and holding on, so when you watch somebody else go through a traumatic experience like that, the human side of you is obviously concerned for them and you just want to know if they’re OK or not as quickly as possible. That’s really what you want to know. You hope that they are and then you move on and you go racing again. It’s just what we have to do. That’s the part that probably makes us a little bit crazy and different than most people is that we watch that and know what it’s like and you say, ‘OK, let’s go. Let’s go again.’ That’s just what racers do.”

WHAT HAVE YOU SEEN FROM AUSTIN THESE LAST COUPLE OF WEEKS AND MONTHS LEADING UP TO THIS POINT WITH HIM AND THE 2 TEAM? “I wouldn’t say it’s surprising. When you look at especially those first two racetracks, those were right in his wheelhouse. Superspeedways, road courses, that’s Austin’s wheel house. Not that he can’t win anywhere else. We saw him win at Gateway, but I think if you look off of history and whether it’s Xfinity or Cup, wherever it may be, those type of racetracks are what fits him and that team. I’m not surprised to see that many points scored from them. Hopefully, we can keep all the Penske cars in when we leave here tomorrow night and be able to fight again next week and try to keep them all in all the way to the end.”

Chris Buescher, driver of the No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang Dark Horse, is coming off his first win of the season last week at Watkins Glen International. He stopped by the infield media center at Bristol Motor Speedway and talked about his week and expectations for Saturday night’s race.

CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang Dark Horse – IS THERE LESS PRESSURE TRYING TO WIN RACES WITHOUT BEING IN THE PLAYOFFS? “To be clear, we’ll take a win at any point in the season and in the moment part of me cared that it was past the playoff cutoff line. But as you sit there and think about it and know that we were able to win that race and know that we’ve got a lot of good ones coming up, obviously I wish things would have played out better earlier in the year and we would have been able to be in the playoffs knowing what that win would have done for a round for us. That being said, we go to the racetrack to win races no matter the situation. I don’t know that it changes the pressure on the weekend, but it does take the mindset of having to chase three or four stage points here or there in a race and ultimately set us up for a strategy that puts us in the best scenario to win a race versus trying to hunt those couple points along the way. I think that’s the bigger difference. It’s not necessarily how we approach the weekend and any of the effort that’s put into it or any of the prep work, that all stays the same. It’s just a little different on how you can play some strategy calls and maybe take a little bit more of a chance throughout a race.”

WHEN YOU LOOK BACK AT KANSAS AND THE WAY THAT ENDED, WHAT DO YOU THINK? “I think about 100 different things that could have created a thousandth of a second (laughing). Trust me, that one has been replayed a lot and will continue to be no matter what. You go there and win next week and you’re still gonna say, ‘Man, we lost a chance at another one months back.’ The same way coming to Bristol. Every time I show up at this place I think about leading on a green-white-checker in an Xfinity race and running out of fuel or having a fuel stumble. That was probably 10 years ago, nine or 10 years ago, and it’s still on my mind when we show up and walk down that tunnel. That one is never going away, but, to your point, when we go there it’s exciting to know that it’s another racetrack that we’ve had circled for a long time as a fast racetrack for us, something that we’ve found a lot of speed and been good at and have the opportunity to capitalize on when we get there. There’s always gonna be some amount of looking back, but the good news is when we look back on it the high notes are the fact that we were even in the position to be able to win a race and how do we execute just ever so slightly different.”

ON THAT LAST LAP AT KANSAS, WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT AND WISH YOU MIGHT HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY? “It’s line decisions, knowing that if you would have gotten back to the throttle three inches earlier that it probably makes the difference. That’s an incredibly small number as well. I just think about all that. Being ready for the contact down the front straightaway. If I would have been more prepared for that, I wouldn’t have been caught off-guard and been sideways scrubbing speed out of it. A lot of different things in that moment that we’ll be more prepared for that next go-around.”

DO YOU FEEL RFK IS WHERE IS SHOULD BE NOW? “We’re not winning every week, so we’re not where we should be. Granted, that’s not a realistic expectation in our sport, but the chance to win every week or the opportunity, the speed, the ability to say if things would have played out in a little more favorable way. Don’t leave there saying that we didn’t execute to the best of our ability that we didn’t have the speed capable of winning a race. It’s a lot of different things. You’ll never win every one of them, but how do you at least feel like you had a shot given a couple things go your way and you’re able to do everything right from what you can control. We’re not there. It’s been a great year. It’s been a really good turn around for the last three seasons, but it needs a little bit more yet. That’s showcased by the fact that we weren’t able to win a race before the playoffs, that we don’t have more wins on the season. For us, this race will be stressful for the 6 bunch and Brad. It’s been a very good racetrack for RFK – for myself and for Brad – so I don’t think there’s a worry about not having speed when we come to this place, but needing to fully execute on everything that we can knowing how this spring race went, what do we predict this go-around and what does that actually look like. When we get into practice there are a lot of different things on the table that are on our minds because we’re not exactly where we want to be, but massive progress has been made and is continuing to be pushed towards a better standard each and every week still.”

DOES IT FEEL PARADOXICAL THAT YOU WERE ABLE TO GO FOR THE WIN LAST WEEK WHILE MANY OF THE PLAYOFF DRIVERS HAD TO POINTS RACE? “Yeah, when you put it that way. It’s certainly interesting to think about and I talked a lot probably six weeks ago or eight weeks ago – through that stretch – we’ve been kind of living on a bubble for that playoff spot for a long time, and knowing that we were gonna need a win most likely. We did a good job at putting ourselves in a good spot and recovering from three accidents in the last three weeks and gaining a ton of points on those that we thought we were racing and a couple new winners got us, but that being said, I talked a lot about the fact that I think that points racing does take away your best effort when you go to the racetrack. I did not want to get stuck in that mindset as we got into those last couple of months that we were going to the racetrack just to try to grab stage points and finish decently. I don’t want to do that. The system can lead you down that road if you’re not careful and it can work. Obviously, the most secure way to do it is to win, so, yes, it is weighted toward going out there and just winning a race, but it’s easy as you get down to the wire to know that you are close on the points side of things with half a dozen other drivers that you’ve got to be aware of it. You can’t be out there making insane calls or massive risk taking, but at the same time could that have worked out? Maybe. Really, I think about the last three weeks and we were in an accident every one of those weeks and we were in an accident because we were making strategy calls to try and figure out how to win a race and not to try to capitalize on two or three points here or there.”