Category: NASCAR Cup PR

Martin Truex Jr.
Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond Advance
No. 19 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota Camry XSE for Joe Gibbs Racing

Event Overview

● Event: Toyota Owners 400 (Round 7 of 36)
● Time/Date: 7 p.m. EDT on Sunday, March 31
● Location: Richmond (Va.) International Raceway
● Layout: .75-mile oval
● Laps/Miles: 400 laps/300 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 70 laps / Stage 2: 170 laps / Final Stage: 160 laps
● TV/Radio: FOX / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● At the Point: With yet another top-10 finish last weekend at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, Truex moved into the points lead for the first time this season. The New Jersey native heads into Richmond (Va.) Raceway with 220 points, five ahead of second-place JGR teammate Ty Gibbs. All four JGR entries are currently inside the top-10 in points heading to the seventh race of the season, with Denny Hamlin fourth and Christopher Bell seventh.

● Truex has three wins, nine top-five finishes and 17 top-10s and has led a total of 1,359 laps in 35 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Richmond. His average Richmond finish is 15.3.

● Truex notched his most recent Richmond win in September 2021 when he led 80 laps en route to his third victory at the .75-mile oval. All three of Truex’s Richmond wins have come in a JGR car. In fact, over the last 10 races at Richmond, Truex has only finished outside the top-10 just once.

● In those last 10 races at Richmond, Truex has amassed six top-five finishes and nine top-10, which included the aforementioned three victories.

● Laps Led: Of all the Cup Series currently races on, Truex has led the most laps at Richmond with 1,359. His next-best is Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway, where he’s led 1,059 laps.

● Looking for 35: Truex’s win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon last July was his most recent Cup Series win, the 34th of his career, tying him with 2004 champion Kurt Busch for 25th on the all-time Cup Series win list.

● Ahead at this Stage: Truex has accumulated 61 stage wins since the beginning of the stage era in 2017. He is the only driver with 10 or more stage sweeps, with his latest sweep coming at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn last August.

Martin Truex Jr., Driver of the No. 19 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota Camry XSE

Did Richmond go from toward the bottom to toward the top of tracks you like once you had some success there?

“I’ve always really liked it, to be honest. From the first time I raced there in 2003, I’ve always enjoyed the track. There was a long period where I didn’t have great numbers there, but I felt like I loved the track and always ran well there and had a lot of crazy things happen there throughout my career. Once I got to Furniture Row (Racing), we started leading a ton of laps there. We also had a couple of heartbreaking finishes there where we should have won the race but didn’t and I wondered if it was ever going to happen. Then we went on a streak there, so it’s been a great track and it’s a ton of fun. Last year, the short tracks were tough to make passes and we would get stuck a car length behind someone. You would run them down and get a car length back and you couldn’t make any moves because of the dirty air. Hopefully we’ve been able to help that some and we can go back to putting on a great show at places like Richmond, and I hope for myself and my team we can get our Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota back in victory lane there like we’ve done before.”

With the success you’ve had there, what are the challenges when you’re racing at Richmond?

“I love the track, it’s great. Been very successful there, especially lately with our Auto-Owners Insurance Camry. Been lucky enough to win some races there. I really enjoy the track because it’s kind of unique. It’s a short track but it races like a bigger track than it is. You can really move around there the way the tires wear out and the track is really slippery. That makes it fun and a challenge and always a good race for the fans.”

How has the NextGen car changed your approach to short tracks?

“Short tracks have been a challenge, but I feel like we’ve been gaining on it in the last year and certainly, starting at Phoenix, we had a strong car. It was a lot harder to pass than years past, for sure. With the shifting and with how the brakes are on these cars, it’s so different than it was before. I think shifting has been the biggest difference, but you have the braking to go along with that. Then you have the independent rear suspension and the differential and all those things go along with each other to what we have now. We almost have more than the brakes and tires can even take, so it’s been tough to try and modulate that and try not to lock up the rear tires. It’s been a challenge. This is the first true short track with some of the tweaks they’ve made to the package, so we’ll see if that has helped some of that or not and what we need to work on with our Auto-Owners Insurance Camry this weekend at Richmond.”

How important is qualifying at short tracks?

“It’s very important. At all of the short tracks, qualifying has been huge from starting up front and having a good pit stall. You need both of those at Richmond to be successful. Track position is going to be everything, and we want to start up front and stay there. I’ve been able to lead a lot of laps at Richmond over the years and staying up front is a key for the success we’ve had there over the years.”

No. 19 Auto-Owners Insurance Team Roster

Primary Team Members

Driver: Martin Truex Jr.

Hometown: Mayetta, New Jersey

Crew Chief: James Small

Hometown: Melbourne, Australia

Car Chief: Chris Jones

Hometown: Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia

Race Engineer: Jaik Halpainy

Hometown: Blockville, New York

Engineer: Jeff Curtis

Hometown: Fairfax Station, Virginia

Spotter: Drew Herring

Hometown: Benson, North Carolina

Road Crew Members

Underneath Mechanic: Ryan Martin

Hometown: Mechanicsburg, Virgina

Mechanic: Todd Carmichael

Hometown: Redding, California

Interior/Tire Specialist: Tommy DiBlasi

Hometown: Annapolis, Maryland

Engine Tuner: Beau Morton

Hometown: Lake Havasu City, Arizona

Transporter Driver: Kyle Bazzell

Hometown: Fairbury, Illinois

Transporter Driver: Eddie DeGroot

Hometown: Baldwinsville, New York

Over-The-Wall Crew Members

Gas Man: Matt Tyrrell

Hometown: Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Jackman: Caleb Dirks

Hometown: Riverside, California

Tire Carrier: CJ Bailey

Hometown: Outer Banks, North Carolina

Front Tire Changer: Lee Cunningham

Hometown: Leaf River, Illinois

Rear Tire Changer: Marquill Osborne

Hometown: Cornelius, NC

Richmond Event Info:
Date: Sunday, March 31
Time: 7 p.m. ET
Series: NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Location: Richmond, Virginia
Format: 400 Laps, 300 miles, Stages: 70-160-170
TV: FOX
Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90)

Weekend Schedule:
Saturday: 10:30 a.m. ET, Practice (FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
Saturday: 11:15 a.m. ET, Qualifying (FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
Sunday: 7 p.m. ET, Race (FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

Pace Laps:

• Richmond hosts its first of two race dates of the season as the Cup Series embarks on a 300-mile Easter Sunday night race.
• Chris Buescher is the defending winner at Richmond as he visited victory lane at the ¾-mile track last July. That win began a stretch of three victories in a five week span for the No. 17 team, who later won Michigan (the next week), and Daytona the next month.
• Jack Roush has 16 wins all-time at Richmond, including now six in the Cup Series.
• Take out Buescher’s spring finish in 2023, and he and Brad Keselowski have finished top-15 in every Richmond race since the beginning of the 2022 season.

6 Team Info:
Crew Chief: Matt McCall
Partner: BuildSubmarines.com

17 Team Info:
Crew Chief: Scott Graves
Partner: NEXLETOL (bempedoic acid and ezetimibe)

Keselowski at Richmond
Starts: 28
Wins: 2 (2014, 2020)
Top-10s: 14
Poles: 2 (2014, 2019)

• Keselowski, a two-time winner at Richmond, makes his 29th Cup start at the ¾-mile track on Sunday. He won the lone race at Richmond in 2020 after leading 192 laps.
• More recently, Keselowski led 102 laps and finished sixth in the race last fall where Buescher won. He’s finished inside the top-15 in every Richmond race since the spring of 2015, and in that stretch has led laps in 11 different races. In total he’s led 1280 laps at Richmond in 14 different races, his most of any track on the circuit.
• Keselowski won back in 2014 after starting on the pole, leading 383 of the 400 laps.
• His 12.31 average finish holds as one of his best among all tracks with 14 top-10s overall and six finishes inside the top five.
• He also has two poles – 2014 and 2019 – for an average starting position of 11th, also one of his best marks. Last season he qualified 24th (spring) and 13th (fall).
• Keselowski made 17 Xfinity Series starts from 2006-17 earning four victories and 10 top-10s. He won his last NXS start there in 2017 and also went to victory lane in 2010 once and 2013 twice.

Buescher at Richmond
Starts: 15
Wins: 1 (2023)
Top-10s: 2
Poles: —

• Buescher is the defending winner at Richmond, having led 88 laps en route to his first of three victories last season, and the first of three in a stretch of five weeks.
• He makes his 300th Cup Series start this weekend at Richmond, now in his ninth full season in the series. He first made a Cup start back in 2015 at age 22.
• Despite a 22.5 average finish at the track, Buescher has two top-3 finishes in the last three Richmond races. He finished third in the 2022 fall event, and qualified seventh last spring before finishing 30th due to late troubles.
• Buescher has a 20.4 average qualifying effort with a best effort of seventh (twice) last spring and in 2019.
• Buescher made five NXS starts for Jack Roush from 2011-15, earning three top-10s with a best finish of seventh (2014).

RFK Historically at Richmond
Cup Wins: 6 (Mark Martin, 1990; Jeff Burton, 1998; Matt Kenseth, 2002; Kurt Busch, 2005; Carl Edwards, 2013; Chris Buescher, 2023)

• History in the Commonwealth of Virginia: Overall, RFK has 366 starts at Richmond Raceway, earning a total of 16 wins, 91 top-five and 154 top-10 finishes. RFK Fords have sat on the pole 14 times and led 5,151 laps across NASCAR’s three major touring series.
• To Xfinity and Beyond: RFK has earned nine victories, 43 top-five finishes, 66 top-10 finishes and an average finish of 11.8 at Richmond in the Xfinity Series. All in all, three different drivers are responsible for the nine victories at the Virginia short track (Edwards, Mark Martin and Jeff Burton).
• Nine and Counting: RFK’s nine victories at Richmond rank fourth among all tracks the organization has competed on in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, trailing Darlington Raceway (15), Charlotte Motor Speedway (12) and North Carolina Speedway – formerly known as Rockingham – (11).
• Tale of the Tape: RFK has started 225 NCS races at Richmond with 77 top-10 and 39 top-five finishes along with seven poles. Former drivers Mark Martin (1990), Jeff Burton (1998), Matt Kenseth (2002), Kurt Busch (2005), and Carl Edwards (2013) are responsible for RFK’s five Cup wins, with Buescher adding his name to that list in 2023, and a Jack Roush Cup Series Ford has led 2,633 laps at the .75-mile track.

RFK Richmond Wins

1990-1 Martin Cup

1993-1 Martin NXS

1993-2 Martin NXS

1997-1 Martin NXS

1998-1 Burton NXS

1998-2 Burton Cup

1999-1 Martin NXS

1999 Biffle Truck

2000-2 Burton NXS

2002-2 Kenseth Cup

2005-1 Edwards NXS

2005-2 Busch Cup

2008-2 Edwards NXS

2009-2 Edwards NXS
2013-2 Edwards Cup

2023-2 Buescher Cup

Last Time Out & Where They Stand
COTA: Buescher drove through the field to an eighth-place finish at the 3+-mile road course for his third-straight top-10 overall, and third consecutive on a road course dating back to 2023. Keselowski earned stage points with a P6 stage two finish, before finishing 34th.

Points Standings (17: 12th, 6: 16th): Buescher advanced two positions to P12 while Keselowski dropped three spots to 16th in the standings through six races.

CHASE BRISCOE
Richmond Advance
No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse

Event Overview

● Event: Richmond 400 (Round 7 of 36)
● Time/Date: 7 p.m. EDT on Sunday, March 31
● Location: Richmond (Va.) Raceway
● Layout: .75-mile oval
● Laps/Miles: 400 laps/300 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 70 laps / Stage 2: 160 laps / Final Stage: 170 laps
● TV/Radio: FOX / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● Chase Briscoe comes into Richmond (Va.) Raceway on a streak of quiet consistency that emulates his overall history at the .75-mile oval. The driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Stewart-Haas Racing has had three straight finishes of 13th or better. He finished a season-best ninth March 10 at Phoenix Raceway and 13th March 17 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway before earning another 13th-place drive last Sunday at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas. The runs have placed Briscoe a respectable 17th in the championship standings, just three points and one position away from the top-16 – the cutoff spot for the 10-race championship, which is still 20 races away. In the marathon that is the NASCAR Cup Series, consistency is key, and just as Briscoe has shown top-15 reliability in the early races of 2024, he’s been similarly reliable at Richmond across both the Cup Series and the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

● Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond will mark Briscoe’s seventh career Cup Series start at the track. He has three finishes of 12th or better, including a pair of 11th-place drives, the most recent of which came last July in the series’ prior visit to Richmond.

● In five career NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Richmond between 2018 and 2020, Briscoe finished outside the top-16 only once, with three results of 11th or better. His best run came in September 2019, when he started fifth and finished fifth in his No. 98 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas.

● The story of how HighPoint.com came together with Briscoe and Stewart-Haas is one that could’ve been scripted in Hollywood. In November of 2019, while walking to dinner after attending the SEMA show in Las Vegas, Kevin Briscoe was stopped by a stranger who noticed his No. 98 Stewart-Haas hat. The man was Mike Mendiburu, founder and CEO of HighPoint.com, and he said he was a big fan of Chase Briscoe, then a young NASCAR Xfinity Series driver from Mitchell, Indiana. Kevin informed Mendiburu that Chase was his son and the two carried on a conversation like they were old friends. The two walked away with Kevin accepting Mendiburu’s business card, just in case the Briscoes ever needed anything. Months passed and Chase Briscoe was told that he may not have a ride in the No. 98 for the 2020 season if funding couldn’t be found. So, Stewart-Haas was given Mendiburu’s information and an agreement was reached for HighPoint.com to sponsor Briscoe. That chance encounter in Las Vegas led to a nine-win season in 2020. In October of that year, midway through the playoffs, Briscoe arrived at Tony Stewart’s house in Indiana for what he thought was a discussion with his team owner about whether HighPoint.com would be returning as his sponsor for the next season. The group sat down for dinner and Briscoe, joined by his parents, was informed a decision had already been made – he would be leaving the No. 98 Xfinity Series program to become the next driver of the team’s No. 14 Cup Series entry, the car first driven by Stewart himself. “I wouldn’t have a career if it wasn’t for Mike and everyone at HighPoint.com,” Briscoe said. “Going into 2020, I was going to be done. They literally came in fourth quarter with 30 seconds left and kept things going. Without them, I think my career would’ve been over.”

● Riding along with Briscoe this weekend at Richmond is HighPoint.com, a leading provider of technology infrastructure solutions. HighPoint has been a partner of Briscoe and Stewart-Haas since 2020 when the company supported Briscoe’s NASCAR Xfinity Series campaign, a collaboration that netted a season-best nine victories and earned Briscoe a promotion to the NASCAR Cup Series. HighPoint has climbed the NASCAR ladder with Briscoe and has helped Stewart-Haas maximize its IT investments. Said Briscoe about the partnership: “Even though we race stock cars, there’s nothing stock about what we do. The science of our cars is impressive, but the technology that goes into building our Ford Mustangs and then making them perform is even more advanced. Our IT needs are pretty complex, and we demand a lot from our technology every day, whether it’s at the shop or at the track. HighPoint provides efficiency and security. They’re more than just a sponsor – HighPoint is a partner that helps us perform.” As an IT Solutions Integrator focused on all things that connect, HighPoint helps its customers with the selection and supply of network infrastructure, mobility, collaboration, data center, security solutions and the risk-mitigated implementation and management of their technology. The company, founded in 1996, is a minority-owned business headquartered in Sparta, New Jersey. HighPoint serves markets in its nearby tri-state region (New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware) and the southeastern United States via its presence in Charlotte, North Carolina, as well as globally with offices in Amsterdam and London. To learn more about HighPoint’s solutions, please visit HighPoint.com.

Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang

The tire wear we saw in the last short-track race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway – did you like it or dislike it?

“I don’t really know how I feel about it, to be honest. I thought that it was definitely unique. I did like the fact that there was a little more strategy involved. And I even felt like, on the driver’s side, it put a little more in your hands instead of whoever had the best car was going to be really good. We probably don’t need it as drastic to where they just blow out, but I do think a good mix of that would be really cool to have, especially for the short-track races, for sure.”

It seemed like a return to old-school racing where tire management was the key to success. In all the racing that you’ve done in your career, was there a track or style of car where you had to manage your tires that you ended up relying on for that Bristol race?

“I’d never done any of that type of racing at any time in my career where you had to save tires. Everything I grew up doing was the complete opposite of that. But last year, I was able to run two Late Model Stock races, one at North Wilkesboro and one at Florence, South Carolina, and the Florence race, specifically, at the beginning of the race I remember we rode around quarter throttle just saving tires and it felt very similar to that. I texted the guy I drove for, Chad Bryant, after the Cup race and I was like, ‘Man, I was so glad I got to run those races because I would’ve been so lost without them.’ Definitely felt like it was a lot like that and I feel like you saw all those guys with Late Model experience run so well.”

How do you save your tires? You have to continue to race, but what is that balance between racing for the position you have now and the position you want to have later?

“It’s just a risk-versus-reward thing. You know you have to get to X-amount of laps. Tony (Stewart) actually told it to me that your tire is like a battery. You only have 100-percent battery at the beginning and every time you push it or use more energy or use more of that tire, you’re never getting that percentage back. You have to just understand what that risk versus reward is and if you feel like you can get a couple of spots and only use maybe eight percent of your tire wear, then maybe that’s worth it.”

Would you like to see that kind of tire fall-off at Richmond?

“For sure. Richmond, just naturally, has that fall-off and you definitely see a little bit more of that, in general. I wouldn’t mind it being a little bit more extreme, but you will just naturally see it at Richmond just because of how the racetrack is versus how a place like Bristol is, typically.”

If you had tire fall-off where the track still rubbered up, would you need 1,000 horsepower, or are you in the camp that wants both tire fall-off and more horsepower?

“If we can have both, might as well take it. If you have more horsepower, it’s just going to make things harder for the drivers. I think if the tire is where it normally is, then 1,000 horsepower only helps. But if we have a tire that lasts only 30 laps, then you might only use 600 horsepower, so you don’t really even need 1,000. It just depends on how the tire is and how the race is playing out. It’s different every week, so I’d say it’s what you have versus what you need.”

You had a good race at Phoenix and scored your best finish of the season, so far (ninth). Even though the Richmond oval is shorter, it embodies some of the same characteristics of Phoenix. Does that give you confidence and an idea of what to expect when you unload at Richmond?

“Just because you’re good at Phoenix doesn’t mean you’re going to be good at Richmond, and that’s because the track is so different. But I do think we’ve had a good short-track package the last year or two. Richmond’s been a place where we’ve been OK. We haven’t been great, but we definitely haven’t been terrible. I think we’ll be in the mix. If we can get our car a little bit better, then we’ll be right where we need to be. We’ve been able to run in the top-five up there, just haven’t been able to get that little bit extra that we need, so hopefully this time we’ll be able to do that.”

HighPoint is back on your car at Richmond, and it’s a good reminder that if it weren’t for HighPoint and its founder and CEO, Mike Mendiburu, your racing career may have ended in the Xfinity Series. How crucial was that support, and what’s your advice to someone who’s been grinding away and just needs a break to get to the next level?

“Without Mike and HighPoint, I’m definitely not in the Cup Series and my career probably would’ve been over in 2020. That was the year when I leaped up into the Cup Series. It’s always special for me to have the HighPoint colors on my car, just because of what that family’s done for me and what that company’s done for me. It’s just special every single time. My advice for someone grinding away trying to make it all work would be to just keep your eye on what you want to achieve because you never know when that opportunity’s going to come. There have been multiple times when I thought my career was over, and then another door opens. You just have to trust the process. It’s not always going to be open doors because there are going to be a lot of closed doors, but it just takes those few open doors that you get and being able to capitalize on them. Fortunately, I’ve been very blessed to be able to do that.”

No. 14 HighPoint.com Team Roster

Primary Team Members

Driver: Chase Briscoe

Hometown: Mitchell, Indiana

Crew Chief: Richard Boswell

Hometown: Friendship, Maryland

Car Chief: J.D. Frey

Hometown: Ferndale, California

Engineer: Mike Cook

Hometown: Annapolis, Maryland

Spotter: Joey Campbell

Hometown: Berlin, Connecticut

Over-The-Wall Members

Front Tire Changer: Shayne Pipala

Hometown: Frankfort Square, Illinois

Rear Tire Changer: Dakota Ratcliff

Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee

Tire Carrier: Jon Bernal

Hometown: Holland, Michigan

Jack Man: Dylan Moser

Hometown: Monroe, North Carolina

Fuel Man: Corey Coppola

Hometown: Bluefield, West Virginia

Road Crew Members

Underneath Mechanic: Stephen Gonzalez

Hometown: Mooresville, North Carolina

Interior Mechanic: Trevor Adams

Hometown: Plymouth, Wisconsin

Tire Specialist: Keith Eads

Hometown: Arlington, Virginia

Shock Specialist: Brian Holshouser

Hometown: Charlotte, North Carolina

Engine Tuner: Jon Phillips

Hometown: Jefferson City, Missouri

Transporter Co-Driver: Todd Cable

Hometown: Shelby, North Carolina

Transporter Co-Driver: Dale Lackey

Hometown: Taylorsville, North Carolina

Dillon Set to Compete in Limited Schedule in the No. 16 Camaro ZL1

 Lexington, N.C. (March 25, 2024) – Kaulig Racing announces that Ty Dillon will make his first 2024 NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) start in the No. 16 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 at Richmond Raceway on March 31.

Dillon, a 10-year NCS veteran with over 200 career starts, will compete in a limited schedule for Kaulig Racing.

“I’m excited to be back in the NASCAR Cup Series with Kaulig Racing,” said Dillon. “This is the highest level of our sport and allows me to go out and prove what I can do with great leaders in Matt Kaulig, Chris Rice, Travis Mack, and the entire team. Kaulig Racing gives me the best opportunity to showcase what I can do on the track.”

Dillon, grandson of Hall of Fame team owner Richard Childress, is currently competing for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series title.

“We’re excited to have Ty Dillon compete for Kaulig Racing this season in the NASCAR Cup Series,” said Chris Rice, President of Kaulig Racing. “With our continued success in the sport and support from Richard Childress Racing, it made perfect sense to lean on a veteran driver to help pilot the No.16 NCS.”

In addition to Richmond, Dillon will run in the No. 16 Camaro ZL1 at the following races:

• Texas Motor Speedway (April 14)
• New Hampshire Motor Speedway (June 23)
• Richmond (August 11)
• Kansas Speedway (September 29)

About Kaulig Racing:

Kaulig Racing™ is a full-time multi-car NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) and NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) team, owned by award winning entrepreneur, Matt Kaulig. Established in 2016, Kaulig Racing™ has made the NXS Playoffs consecutively each season since the playoff system started and has won back-to-back regular-season championships. Before becoming a full-time NCS team, Kaulig Racing made multiple starts in the 2021 NCS season and won in its seventh-ever start with AJ Allmendinger’s victory at “The Brickyard” for the Verizon 200 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The team expanded to a two-car, full-time NCS team in 2022 and added a third, part-time entry during the 2023 season. In 2024, the team will once again field two, full-time entries in the NCS and continue to field three, full-time NXS entries. To learn more about the team, visit kauligracing.com.

EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix
Austin, Texas – March 24, 2024

AUSTIN CINDRIC No. 2 DISCOUNT TIRE FORD MUSTANG

START: 11TH STAGE ONE: 4TH STAGE TWO: 28TH FINISH: 18TH POINTS: 19TH

RACE RUNDOWN: Austin Cindric, driver of the No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang, fought to an 18th-place finish in Sunday’s EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas. Cindric showcased the speed of his car right from the start, powering to the seventh position after starting 11th. The Discount Tire machine sustained heavy nose damage in the opening laps but remained on track through the end of Stage 1 to finish fourth as other drivers pitted early. Under the caution period, crew chief Brian Wilson called Cindric to pit road for the team to assess the damage and make repairs to the grille and fenders. With heavy damage to the duct work, the Team Penske driver restarted 39th for the launch of Stage 2, gradually elevating a few positions to conclude the segment in the 28th position. After pitting just prior to the Stage-end, Cindric remained on track during the break and fired off 18th for the third and final chunk. Cindric’s drive never faltered as he battled through to notch an 18th-place result.

CINDRIC’S THOUGHTS: “We made some progress at the start and then it all pretty much came to an end with a couple of guys getting spun off turn 11. I got a ton of damage and the guys had to pretty much take the air box out of it which makes the engine extremely inefficient and down on power. It was a fight from there, but we made some improvements in the car over the weekend and thought we had something to compete inside the top-10 today. It’s frustrating to not fully see our potential today.”

RYAN BLANEY No. 12 MENARDS/JACK LINK’S FORD MUSTANG

START: 28TH STAGE ONE: 23RD STAGE TWO: 2ND FINISH: 12TH POINTS: 3RD

RACE RUNDOWN: Ryan Blaney and the No. 12 Menards/Jack Link’s Ford Mustang team fought their way to a 12th-place finish Sunday at Circuit of the Americas in the NASCAR Cup Series’ first road course event of the 2024 season. After starting 28th, Blaney gained seven spots in the first five laps before making his first trip to pit road under green with four laps remaining in the opening stage, resulting in a 23rd-place finish in Stage 1. The No. 12 team’s strategy call to flip the stage saw Blaney line up 15th for the start of Stage 2 as he battled his way towards the top-10. As green flag pit stops began in the latter stages of the second segment, Blaney was scored second with two to go and got within two car lengths of the leader but ultimately settled for a second-place finish in Stage 2. Following a four-tire stop at the stage break, Blaney worked his way up to 18th during the opening laps of the final stage before going for a spin in turn 11 that saw him drop out of the top-20 in the running order. Despite the setback, Blaney worked his way back through the field and made his final pit stop with 17 laps to go and made up 11 positions over the course of the final run to come away with a 12-place finish.

BLANEY’S THOUGHTS: “We didn’t start great. We got some stage points in Stage 2 and then the start of Stage 3 we were really good and drove up to the low teens and I spun out passing somebody into [turn] 11. That set us back. Then we drove back through the field to finish 12th. I thought we had pretty decent at the end, we just didn’t start up front. Spinning out didn’t help. We probably could have run seventh or eighth, but we still have some work to do.”

JOEY LOGANO No. 22 SHELL-PENNZOIL FORD MUSTANG

START: 35TH STAGE ONE: 24TH STAGE TWO: 24TH FINISH: 11TH POINTS: 22ND

RACE RUNDOWN: Joey Logano and the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Mustang team rallied for an 11th-place finish after starting 35th at Circuit of the Americas Sunday afternoon in the Cup Series’ first of five road course races on the 2024 schedule. Logano made up nine spots in the first four laps before the No. 22 team opted to flip the opening stage by bringing the Shell-Pennzoil Ford to pit road on lap 11 for a four-tire stop, resulting in a 24th-place finish in Stage 1. The strategy call allowed Logano to restart Stage 2 from 17th as the No. 22 team planned to go the rest of the way on only two more stops, prompting Logano to hit pit road with five laps remaining in Stage 2 as Logano was scored 24th at the conclusion of the second, 15-lap segment. Logano lined up to take the green flag from 14th at the start of the final stage and fought his way up to ninth on the leaderboard before hitting pit road for the final time – along with a handful of the leaders – with 24 laps to go. As the race stayed green the rest of the way, Logano worked his way through traffic over the course of the final run to secure an 11th-place finish.

LOGANO’S THOUGHTS: “We passed a few cars and then we always flipped the stages. We were trying to go for a finish. 11th, the way our season has gone so far. We will take that and start scratching and clawing our way up in the points. We probably left a few out there with the stages but, overall, we had decent pace at the end. Nothing to win with but something we can run with in the top-10 if we were up there. On to Richmond. I am looking forward to that one.”

The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Richmond Raceway for Round 7 of the 2024 season on Sunday, March 31 for the Toyota Owners 400. Coverage begins at 7:00 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

Harrison Burton and the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Mustang Dark Horse finished 31st in Sunday’s Echopark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.

Burton started Sunday’s 68-lap race over the 20-turn road course from 29th place. An early spin dropped him to 36th place. The team made its first pit stop at Lap 10 and ended the first 15-lap Stage in 33rd place.

After a pit stop on Lap 25, Burton ended Stage Two in 32nd place.

The third and final Stage initially looked much more promising for the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team as Burton, having made his stop before the end of the previous Stage, moved into the top 20 when racing resumed following the Stage break.

Burton pitted from 27th place at Lap 42 then moved into the top 25 just past the 50-lap mark and ran there until a pit stop for fuel at Lap 58 dropped him out of the top 30. There were no caution flags in the race other than for the Stage breaks.

Next up for Burton and the Wood Brothers team is a 400-lapper next Sunday at Richmond Raceway.

About Motorcraft®
Motorcraft offers a complete line of replacement parts that are recommended by Ford Motor Company. From routine maintenance to under hood repairs, Motorcraft parts offer value with high quality and the right fit at competitive prices. Motorcraft parts are available nationwide at Ford Dealers and Lincoln Retailers, independent distributors and automotive-parts retailers, and are backed by the Service Parts Limited Warranty* of Ford Motor Company. For more information, visit www.motorcraft.com.
*See your dealer for limited-warranty details.

About Quick Lane® Tire & Auto Center
Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center offers extraordinary service for routine maintenance, serving all vehicle makes and models. Quick Lane provides a full menu of automotive services, including tires, oil change and maintenance, brakes, batteries, alternator and electrical system, air conditioning system, cooling system, transmission service, suspension and steering, wheel alignment, belts and hoses, lamps and bulbs and wiper blades plus a thorough vehicle checkup report. Service is performed by expert technicians while you wait at any of nearly 800 locations in the U.S., with evening and weekend hours available and no appointment necessary. For more information about Quick Lane, please visit www.quicklane.com.
*See your dealer for limited-warranty details.”

About Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) is a global company based in Dearborn, Michigan, committed to helping build a better world, where every person is free to move and pursue their dreams. The company’s Ford+ plan for growth and value creation combines existing strengths, new capabilities and always-on relationships with customers to enrich experiences for customers and deepen their loyalty. Ford develops and delivers innovative, must-have Ford trucks, sport utility vehicles, commercial vans and cars and Lincoln luxury vehicles, along with connected services. The company does that through three customer-centered business segments: Ford Blue, engineering iconic gas-powered and hybrid vehicles; Ford Model e, inventing breakthrough EVs along with embedded software that defines exceptional digital experiences for all customers; and Ford Pro, helping commercial customers transform and expand their businesses with vehicles and services tailored to their needs. Additionally, Ford is pursuing mobility solutions through Ford Next, and provides financial services through Ford Motor Credit Company. Ford employs about 177,000 people worldwide. More information about the company and its products and services is available at corporate.ford.com.

About Ford Performance
Ford Performance is based in Dearborn, Mich. It is responsible for Ford’s performance vehicle development and major racing operations globally, including NASCAR, IMSA, SRO British GT, FIA World Rally Championship, Supercars Championship, World of Outlaws, Ultra4, SCORE-International, FIA Rally-Raid, Formula Drift, NHRA, Rebelle Rally, Thailand Super Series and our latest commitment in Formula 1 with RedBull Ford Powertrains. Ford Performance also maintains a constantly evolving fleet of electric performance demonstrators to showcase the limits of electrification technology. In addition, the organization also oversees the development of Ford’s racing engines, as well as the outreach programs with all Ford Clubs and Ford enthusiasts. For more information regarding Ford racing’s activities, please visit Performance.Ford.com or follow @FordPerformance on Facebook, Instagram, X, Threads, TikTok and YouTube.

Wood Brothers Racing
Wood Brothers Racing was formed in 1950 in Stuart, Va., by Hall of Famer Glenn Wood. Wood Brothers Racing is the oldest active team and one of the winningest teams in NASCAR history. Since its founding, the team won 99 races (including at least one race in every decade for the last seven decades) and 120 poles in NASCAR’s top-tier series. Fielding only Ford products for its entire history, the Wood Brothers own the longest association of any motorsports team with a single manufacturer. Glenn’s brother, Leonard, is known for inventing the modern pit stop. The team currently runs the Ford Mustang driven by Harrison Burton in the famous No. 21 racer.

No. 17 Team Earns Third Top-10 in Four Weeks; Keselowski Finishes 34th at Road Course

AUSTIN, Texas (March 24, 2024) – Chris Buescher drove to an impressive eighth-place finish at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) Sunday afternoon to lead all Ford drivers, while Brad Keselowski finished 34th in the Castrol Edge Ford.

The top-10 marks the third-straight for Buescher, who also now has three-straight top-10 efforts on road courses dating back to 2023. Keselowski earned a sixth-place finish in stage two, earning valuable stage points.

6 Recap
Keselowski had an up-and-down day in Austin after starting from the 34th position based on group qualifying Saturday. In a race that ran all green – minus the stage breaks – Keselowski and the Castrol Edge team employed strategy to flip track position by the end of the stage (lap 15). They did just that, finishing 12th by the end of the stage, and would line back up 22nd for stage two.

The team would do the same thing again in stage two, leaving Keselowski on track as a majority of the pack hit pit road by the stage end. The No. 6 would earn a sixth-place finish in the segment, setting him up with stage points and 20th to restart the final stage.

From there, Keselowski battled to a 34th-place result.

17 Recap
Buescher again drove his way through the field after going to the rear prior to the race for a mechanical change (steering rack). The Fastenal team used somewhat of an opposite strategy than the No. 6, pitting prior to the stage end in both race scenarios.

After starting from the tail end, Buescher drove to 26th by the time of his first stop at lap 12, finishing in the same spot to end the stage (lap 15). He restarted 22nd in the segment, and again hit pit road from the 14th position at lap 25. He went on to end the stage in 18th, which set him up for a top-10 position to begin the final run to the finish.

He fired off eighth at lap 33, and after his final pit stop at lap 44 under green, drove back into the top-10 and remained there to earn the eighth-place result.

“We were behind the eight ball to get started there, having to drop to the rear,” Buescher said following the race. “We had a freak deal happen with a parts failure in practice and qualifying. That was unfortunate but I am proud of everybody on this Fastenal Ford Mustang team to pick ‘em off all day long.

“That was the name of the game. We knew we would be in a really tough spot all day and we knew we would need a handful of things to fall our way if we were going to compete for a win. I am proud of the top-10 finish. We had some big gains. We have some stuff that we learned and we will be better next time.”

Up Next
Richmond Raceway hosts the seventh race of the season next weekend, with a night race set for Easter Sunday. Race coverage is set for 7 p.m. ET on FOX, with radio coverage on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).

About RFK Racing
RFK Racing, in its 37th season in 2024, features an ownership lineup pairing one of the sport’s most iconic names, Jack Roush, along with NASCAR Champion, Brad Keselowski, and Fenway Sports Group owner John Henry. Roush initially founded the team in 1988 and it has since become one of the most successful racing operations in the world, propelling him to be the first NASCAR owner to amass three hundred wins and capturing eight championships, including back-to-back NASCAR Cup titles in 2003 and 2004. Keselowski, a former owner in the NASCAR Truck Series, is the 2012 NASCAR Cup Series Champion. In 2007, Roush partnered with Henry, who also owns Major League Baseball’s Boston Red Sox, English Premier League’s Liverpool F.C., and the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins, to form Roush Fenway Racing. Off the track, RFK is a leader and proven winner in NASCAR marketing solutions, having produced multiple award-winning social media, digital content and experiential marketing campaigns. Visit rfkracing.com, and follow the team on all social platforms @rfkracing.

STEWART-HAAS RACING
EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix
Date: March 24, 2024
Event: EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix (Round 6 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas (3.426-mile, 20-turn road course)
Format: 68 laps, broken into three stages (15 laps/15 laps/38 laps)
Race Winner: William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Christopher Bell of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Stage 2 Winner: Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)

SHR Finish:

● Chase Briscoe (Started 32nd, Finished 13th / Running, completed 68 of 68 laps)
● Ryan Preece (Started 24th, Finished 24th / Running, completed 68 of 68 laps)
● Noah Gragson (Started 39th, Finished 35th / Running, completed 67 of 68 laps)
● Josh Berry (Started 31st, Finished 36th / Running, completed 67 of 68 laps)

SHR Points:

● Chase Briscoe (17th with 131 points, 89 out of first)
● Josh Berry (29th with 76 points, 144 out of first)
● Ryan Preece (31st with 73 points, 147 out of first)
● Noah Gragson (34th with 58 points, 162 out of first)

SHR Notes:

● Briscoe earned his fourth top-15 of the season and his third top-15 in four career NASCAR Cup Series starts at COTA.
● This was Briscoe’s third straight result of 13th or better. He finished ninth March 10 at Phoenix Raceway and 13th last Sunday at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.
● Preece finished fifth in Stage 2 to earn six bonus points.
● Berry finished 10th in Stage 2 to earn a bonus point.
● This was Berry’s first career NASCAR Cup Series start at COTA.

Race Notes:

● William Byron won the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix to score his 12th career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his second of the season and his first at COTA. His margin of victory over second-place Christopher Bell was .692 of a second.
● There were just two caution periods for a total of four laps.
● Thirty-four of the 39 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
● Martin Truex Jr., remains the championship leader after COTA with a five-point advantage over second-place Ty Gibbs.

Sound Bites:

“Our race was OK overall. I felt like, starting 32nd, that for the first couple of laps we were able to drive up to 17th and were going to be in a really good spot coming to the end of the first stage. I bottomed out really hard into the esses and it made me miss a corner and that really changed the whole complexity of our race. I had to go to the back and then drove back up there to the top-10. At the end with eight to go I made a huge mistake and got in the dirt in turn eight and allowed those guys to all swallow me up those last couple of laps. I thought we made our Mustang better throughout the day. I thought we had a solid 10th-place car, but we don’t really have anything else for the rest of the guys. We need to do some work, but to finish right outside of the top-10, we’ve been able to do that pretty much every week this year. If we aren’t in the top-10, we’re just a couple of spots outside of it. We’ve been really consistent, which is nice. We just need to get a little bit better and then, hopefully, we can improve on the finishes.” – Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang Dark Horse

“We just could never get track position. Every time we went up there we’d get spun or wrecked or whatever. I felt like we had a pretty good racecar, just nothing to show for it.” – Ryan Preece, driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse

“We struggled from the get-go. We made some spots up at the beginning of the race and then fell back. Was kind of off the pace and knew we were probably worse than we were in practice, so we decided to come down pit road at the end of stage two and make some extensive changes to the setup, just wholesaling it and throwing everything we could at it. We were hoping to get a caution there at the end to get racked back up, but never did. Definitely a brutal day, but still proud of everyone on this team. A long day with nothing to show for it.” – Noah Gragson, driver of the No. 10 Rush Truck Centers Ford Mustang Dark Horse

“We got better throughout the race. Our lap times were pretty good at the end. We just needed some more cautions to bunch everything up and help our odds. It was a tough weekend and going into it we knew it would be hard, but we learned a lot and we’ll be better for the next one.” – Josh Berry, driver of the No. 4 Overstock.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Richmond 400 on Sunday, March 31 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway. The race begins at 7 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FOX and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

RICK WARE RACING
EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix
Date: March 24, 2024
Event: EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix (Round 6 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas (3.426-mile, 20-turn road course)
Format: 68 laps, broken into three stages (15 laps/15 laps/38 laps)
Race Winner: William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Christopher Bell of Joe Gibbs Racing (Ford)
Stage 2 Winner: William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)

RWR Race Finish:

● Justin Haley (Started 13th, Finished 17th/ Running, completed 68 of 68 laps)
● Kaz Grala (Started 23rd, Finished 28th/ Running, completed 68 of 68 laps)

RWR Points:

● Justin Haley (26th with 92 points, 128 out of first)
● Kaz Grala (33rd with 64 points, 156 out of first)

Haley Notes:

● Haley earned his second top-20 result in four career NASCAR Cup Series starts at COTA.
● This was Haley’s fourth career start at COTA. His best finish remains 15th, earned in March 2022.
● Haley’s 17th-place finish was a team-best for RWR at COTA. The previous best-result was Jenson Button’s 18th-place finish in March 2023.

Grala Notes:

● This was Grala’s second career start at COTA. His best finish remains 25th, earned in March 2022.

Race Notes:

● William Byron won the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix to score his 12th career NASCAR Cup Series victory and his first at COTA. His margin of victory over second-place Bell was .692 of a second.
● There were two caution periods for a total of four laps.
● Thirty-four of the 39 drivers in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix finished on the lead lap.
● Martin Truex Jr. leaves COTA as the championship leader with a five-point advantage over second-place Ty Gibbs.

Sound Bites:

“We had an okay day. I thought we did everything right up until the end when we had a slow pit stop and kind of faded from there. I am really happy with the results we are getting. We have such a small team and we are trying as hard as we can. I appreciate everyone at Ford and RFK for giving us the information they give us, and I am glad we are starting to apply it.” – Justin Haley, driver of the No. 51 Fraternal Order of Eagles Ford Mustang Dark Horse

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Richmond 400 on Sunday, March 31 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway. The race begins at 7:00 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FOX and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.