Category: NASCAR Cup PR

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
YellaWood 500 Qualifying | Talladega Superspeedway
Saturday, October 5, 2024

MCDOWELL EARNS SIXTH POLE OF THE SEASON AND 10TH OVERALL FOR FORD

• Michael McDowell won his series-leading sixth pole of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season today.
• This is the 10th pole overall for Ford: McDowell (6), Joey Logano (3) and Ryan Blaney (1).
• McDowell won both poles this year at Talladega.
• Five of McDowell’s poles have come at Talladega (2), Atlanta (2) and Daytona (1).
• Ford has five of the top six starters in tomorrow’s race and six in the top 10.

Ford Performance Results:

1st – Michael McDowell
2nd – Austin Cindric
3rd – Todd Gilliland
5th – Ryan Blaney
6th – Joey Logano
9th – Harrison Burton
13th – Brad Keselowski
18th – Ryan Preece
19th – Josh Berry
20th – Chris Buescher
22nd – Noah Gragson
28th – Corey LaJoie
34th – Cody Ware
36th – Chase Briscoe

MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang Dark Horse – POLE-WINNING INTERVIEW: BILL ELLIOTT IN THE 1980s WAS THE LAST TEAM TO WIN SIX STRAIGHT POLES ON THESE STYLE OF TRACKS. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN TO HEAR YOU’RE MATCHING BILL ELLIOTT? “I don’t even think you can put me in the same conversation as Bill Elliott, but I’m really proud of the 34 team and the cars that we’re bringing to the racetrack. Our Ford Mustangs are super fast. I’m not thinking about it as I’ve matched a record or tied a record or did what Bill Elliott did. I’m looking at my team and saying these guys have done an amazing job to accomplish something really special. I’m proud to drive this Love’s Travel Stop Ford Mustang. I’m really thankful to Doug Yates and everybody at the Roush Yates Engine shop. We’ve had the speed all year long to do this and we just executed everything really well and once you get into that rhythm and you start doing it, it just breeds more hunger to do it more often, so I’m really proud of what we’ve done.”

WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO WIN ONE MORE RACE WITH THIS TEAM? “It would mean the world. I think you guys have seen it in some of desperation this season of moves that I typically wouldn’t make just trying to get that win because it is my last season at Front Row Motorsports. I owe so much to Bob Jenkins for taking my career from barely hanging on for dear life to winning races and winning poles and contending. Everything inside of me and this 34 team, we want to get a win before the end of the year and we have great opportunities to do that. Today was the first win that we needed to get the pole and tomorrow we’ll go out there and try to get that checkered flag.”

MCDOWELL POLE-WINNING PRESS CONFERENCE

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO WIN THE POLE HERE THIS WEEKEND? “Talladega qualifying there’s not a tremendous amount to it, but we knew coming here that we would have a shot at the pole. It was a priority for us. A lot of effort went into it, so you feel that pressure of not making any mistakes and not screwing it up. Just really proud of our team. I mean, it’s very difficult to come down to these superspeedways and have cars that we have and continue to bring cars that we’ve brought every weekend, so really proud of the effort. It’s amazing. We sort of had this in mind, that today would be a day that we’d come down here and try to get the rest of the superspeedways locked down and really proud that we were able to accomplish it.”

IS THERE A PART OF THIS THAT FEELS LIKE DEJA VU AND HOW MUCH HAVE YOU REPLAYED THE SPRING RACE IN YOUR HEAD? “After the spring race, I played it in my head a lot, just because you’re always trying to learn and study and figure out, ‘OK, what went right and what went wrong? How would you process it different? How would you make the moves different?’ It’s more analytical than just, ‘Oh, don’t make the last block.’ It’s how do you do all the things you need to do and still win the race. And then you kind of just lock in and get focused and you move on. You move on pretty quickly in our sport. You have to learn to do that because if not, next week is here and you can get in your head and anytime that happens you can lose momentum, good or bad, so you try to move on quickly. As this race came up and is coming up, you see it all on social media – the last lap. Every time I just won’t even let it get to the wreck. I stop it. I just scroll up or scroll left or right. I don’t know what you call it, but it’s because I don’t want to see it. The reason I don’t want to see it is it’s hard. That was my shot to make the playoffs. That was our shot to get a win and it slipped out of our hands, but the reason I don’t want to watch it and the reason why I don’t reflect on it is because I’m staying in this moment. Tomorrow is a new day, a new opportunity and we’ll have a shot of winning the race. I’m gonna think about the things I need to do to win the race tomorrow and try not to fixate too much on what happened last time. You learn from it and you definitely, like I said right after, I studied it hard for hours and figured out a game plan of what I would do different, and so we sort of have that locked in and try to move on.”

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED WORKING WITH BOB AND JERRY, WHETHER IT’S THEIR CHARACTER OR WHATEVER AS THEY GO THROUGH THIS PROCESS WITH THE LAWSUIT? “That’s a great question. What I would say is that Bob Jenkins is so dedicated to this sport. What I mean by that is, he probably wouldn’t me saying this, but he has spent millions and millions and millions and millions and millions of his own dollars to be in this sport and to be competitive. Nobody does that unless they’re insane or super passionate. Bob is very passionate. He’s passionate about this sport. He’s passionate about our race team and getting competitive. It’s been a steady progression and I feel like we’re at a point now where we’re a contender. We’re a contender week in and week out. They fought really hard to be in the spot that we’re in now, to be as competitive on the racetrack as we are, and then Jerry has been around the sport for a long time. He’s a guy that everybody on our race team leans on when they’re going through good times and bad times and it’s a big family at Front Row. It’s not this corporate feel when you walk in. Everybody knows each other’s names. We all know each other’s families. We celebrate the good moments together and we fight through the tough ones. That atmosphere isn’t like that everywhere at every race shop. I think a lot of it has to do with just how Bob and Jerry have gone about their business. We’ve kind of stayed that small, nimble, family feel and they love the sport. As far as all the things going on, I mean, I think it just shows like today, how dedicated we are to performing on the track and doing our jobs. The rest will take care of itself.”

FIVE SUPERSPEEDWAY POLES IN A ROW IS MORE THAN JUST A COINCIDENCE. DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU GUYS HAVE FOUND SOMETHING THAT NOBODY ELSE HAS FOUND AT THIS POINT? “That’s a great question. I couldn’t answer it. I don’t know what everybody else is doing. I can tell you that we’ve found a lot of little, little details go a long way and it’s not just one thing. I think I shared this story earlier this year of how we got here, and how we got here was we didn’t qualify last, but it was close to it the previous year and we were like, ‘Man, we’ve got to fix this. We have to fix this,’ so we all just put our heads together and said, ‘OK, we are gonna build this Daytona car and we’re gonna put as much time, energy and resources into this Daytona car. Every little detail from every decal to every clear coat to every nut, every bolt, every body panel. We are gonna make sure that everything on this car to the last thousandth is perfect.’ And it was a tremendous undertaking through the offseason and we went down to Daytona and, as you guys know, there is no practice, so cold turkey you go out there and we qualified on the front row. So we went from qualifying 20-plus, 30s sometimes, to sitting on the front row of the Daytona 500 and all of a sudden we were like, ‘OK, we can do this. It’s gonna take a lot of time. It’s gonna take a lot energy. It’s gonna take a lot of effort.’ But you’ve got to throw in the mix there too is that the Ford Mustang Dark Horse body update lent itself to being very quick at the superspeedways. We’ve seen a lot of Ford Mustangs up front at superspeedways. Roush Yates Engine power, we know that we come down here with a little bit of an advantage, so as you guys know in NASCAR there are very few windows of opportunity that you get because next year there could be a different spec, a different rule update, a manufacturer finds something. Things like this happen all the time to where all of a sudden you go from being the top dog from a manufacturer’s standpoint to behind at certain tracks, so we knew that there was an opportunity to capitalize. We knew that there were eight Fords in the top 10 at the Daytona 500 and we’re like, ‘Hey, this is our time. This is our year. This is our opportunity to make the most out of every superspeedway track that we have.’ And so it’s just taken that kind of laser focus and applying it. Unfortunately, we’ve come up short when it comes to winning the races, but at the same time I’m proud of what we’ve done. Like, we’ve been three or four hundred yards away from a couple checkered flags and not just here, but at Daytona. We were leading the race with five or six to go and we got spun out and we’ve been in the lead or first or second when these things have happened, so we’re not just fast on Saturday, we’re fast on Sunday, too. So I’m proud of that. There’s been times over my career where you might go qualify really well and then they drop the green flag and the car drives terrible and you’re hanging on for dear life and you can’t stay up there. That’s not the case. The speed that we’ve found in our race car applies to the race, too. It’s tough to do what we’ve done and I’m really proud of Travis Peterson and Griff and all the guys on the 34 because they’re there later than everybody else. Eight p.m. Wednesday and Thursday night they’re still there. They work their guts out with a plan to come down here and sit on the pole. I get to sit in front of you guys and kind of take the glory, but it is 100 percent all of the work they put in at the shop and my job is to try and not screw it up. I’m just super proud. I’m proud of the effort. I’m proud of the fact that once I made my announcement that I was making a change for next year, it would have been very easy for those guys to just give 80 percent and some people call it a lame duck year or whatever it is, but those guys have fought super hard and they continue to fight hard even with six to go or seven to go. I’m just really proud of those guys. They’ve fought really hard and it’s a testament to what hard work looks like.”

HAVE YOU HAD A CHANCE TO STUDY THE CHANGES AT THE ROVAL? “I have had an opportunity to study it and I’m looking forward to it. The Roval hasn’t been super strong for me and us and so I’m glad that there is some change because sometimes change is exactly what you need to turn the ship and get to where you want to be. But the Roval is super challenging. It’s not your typical road course. It’s a challenge technical, tight, twisty, big curbs, the turtles they call them. There are a lot of challenges at those places, so I’m looking forward to it. Anytime I get to race on a road course I’m happy about it and it’s an opportunity again to try to go there and win the race.”

WAS THERE ANY TEAM MEETING ABOUT WHAT IS GOING ON OFF THE TRACK? DID YOU HAVE ANY CONCERNS NOW THAT FRONT ROW IS SUING NASCAR THAT IT MIGHT IMPACT PERFORMANCE? “No concerns on it impacting performance. All of that stuff is happening above my pay grade and my road crew guy’s pay grade. We just stay focused on the task in front of us, so it wasn’t much of a distraction from that standpoint. It’s the same thing, when you have a goal in front of you, it’s easy to stay focused and the goal was to come down here and sit on the pole. I mean, it’s not just because of trying to have five consecutive superspeedway poles, I mean that’s one of it, but the other part of it is that we want to beat Kyle Larson for the most amount of poles in the year. That’s a big goal for us and I think right now we’re ahead. He’s got great racetracks coming up. I think he’s probably got more opportunities to get poles from here on out than I do, but he’s gonna have to execute perfect and that’s the kind of pressure we wanted to put on him. Now, we know he’s fighting for a championship and he is not worried about who gets the most amount of poles. Actually, I think he is. I gave him a little wink before qualifying and he didn’t flip me the bird, but it was close to it (laughing). Look, we know we’re not gonna go and win every weekend, so this is something that we can win and we’re focused on doing it. I’m just happy that we’ve executed it. There’s more opportunities, so tomorrow is a big one right in front of us.”

YOU’VE SEEN ALL FORMS OF THE NASCAR BUSINESS MODEL WITH DIFFERENT TEAMS IN YOUR CAREER. HOW MUCH OF WHAT YOU’VE SEEN INFLUENCES THE PRISM THROUGH WHICH YOU VIEW THE ONGOING CHARTER NEGOTIATIONS AND THE LAWSUIT THAT’S COME OUT OF IT? “I don’t know how to answer that. I mean, I did get a memo before I came here of what to not say and talk about, so I don’t know if this fits into it. I need to pull out my phone and email, but this is what I can tell you. When we were start and parking with Phil Parsons and Randy Humphrey, everyone was like, ‘What are these guys doing? They’re just stealing from NASCAR, taking the check and going.’ I know that there was years that Phil lost hundreds of thousands of dollars doing what we were doing. Everybody got paid. There were 10 guys working on that race team and that race car and if we made the race, we made it. And if we didn’t, we didn’t. There was a tremendous amount of pressure on us every single weekend to perform and execute and everyone just thought, ‘Oh, what are these guys doing just wasting space and wasting time.’ And the goal was to never be a start and park team. That wasn’t the goal, it’s just what we had to do to keep things going. We worked on sponsorship and when we got sponsorship we raced and that might have only been five or six times a year. If you made the Daytona 500, you had a little bit of a cushion. If you made Texas, it was great. If you made Indianapolis, that was a bonus. If you missed those races, you lost money. There’s no doubt about it and there were years that we didn’t make those races, so I’ve seen it from that side and I’ve seen it from the Front Row side. Like I said, I’m not gonna go into the details, but I can tell you this for sure is that Bob Jenkins has and continues to spend a tremendous amount of his own money. Every time we ask for more and more resources and more cars and more parts and a hawkeye. You guys have heard me talk about it over the years and it’s coming out of Bob’s pocket. So, I feel like I can’t answer your question all the way, but I can answer it enough to know that there’s not a team in the garage, and you can quote this, that’s more efficient than Front Row Motorsports – not one team. There is nobody spending what we spend and performing how we perform. Nobody. And if he has to spend his own money, there’s a problem.”

NASCAR MADE THREE CHANGES TO THE CAR FOR THIS WEEKEND. DID YOU NOTICE ANY DIFFERENCE TODAY AND DO YOU THINK THEY’VE DONE ENOUGH? “Those are loaded questions. I felt nothing today, which we expect. The changes that we make you won’t really feel until you get into a big draft and you have a lot of air flow going over the car and around the car. Whether it’s effective or not, the same thing, we won’t know until one of us is sideways at 180 miles an hour and see if we blow over or not. It’s not a super easy solution to any of this. As you guys know, a lot of what we do is computer simulations, CFD, and you can go to the wind tunnel and you can get those numbers, but you can’t put five or 10 cars in the wind tunnel. Anytime you affect one area of the race car, you’re gonna affect other areas of the race car and there’s a ripple effect. I think they’re working hard. I think that they’ve done a good job of finding a few things that from a data standpoint are moving it closer to where they think it needs to be, but it’s a moving target because situationally you can get into a different spot that the car has not been in yet and we see something tomorrow, but we’re moving everything in the right direction. They’ve been proactive. I don’t think there’s any driver that’s sitting there like, ‘Oh, what are these guys doing?’ We know that they’re proactive. They’ve been proactive. They’ve always been proactive on safety. They’re making the changes that they can make. Sure, there are probably more things that we could do, but we don’t know what that’s gonna affect and we don’t know how it’s gonna affect it. The last thing you want to do is create another problem and so it’s not an easy, quick decision. It’s not an easy, quick fix, but I feel safe going into the race tomorrow. It’s not a concern of mine. It’s not something that I’m thinking about. I think that you’re not gonna always have a safety net for every situation. Race cars that go 200 miles an hour are dangerous. They’ve been dangerous and they’ll continue to be dangerous. I feel way safer today sitting in a race car than I did 10 years ago and way safer than I did 20 years ago. I think they’ve moved everything in the right direction, so I’m confident strapping in on Sundays and letting it all hang out.”

AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “It’s definitely important. It certainly gives us options from a strategy standpoint and obviously shows that we have a really fast Discount Tire Ford Mustang, but, once again, the Fords are really fast on these types of racetracks, so I’m proud of everybody at Ford Performance and Team Penske. You see the consistency there with all of our cars really, really close. Everybody in the shop should be proud of that one and we’ve got something to race with tomorrow.”

TODD GILLILAND, No. 38 Georgia Peanuts Commission Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “Daytona hurt the most because we were really close, but with this one there were three or four guys that seemed to have everyone covered today. Congrats to them. It’s still a really fast car. We definitely have enough speed to go win tomorrow, so that’s the important thing. Execution now goes to the top of our list going into tomorrow.”

Ryan Blaney, driver of the No. 12 Menards/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse, stopped by the Talladega infield media center before today’s NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session and answered questions from the media. Blaney goes into tomorrow’s race in second place, 28 points above the cut line.

RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT IS YOUR MINDSET COMING TO TALLADEGA? “I think we’ve had some success here as a group for a long time and there are a number of factors that go into it. I don’t know, I think we see these races as big opportunities for us. We’ve come to look forward to these events. I know some people come out and say, ‘We don’t look forward to these events.’ That’s not a good mindset to have, so I think how do we maximize the weekend, whether it’s here or Daytona or Atlanta. How do we work together as a team between Joey, Austin and myself and Harrison? How do we try to support each other and try to do the best we can for our groups? I feel like we do a better job at teamwork here than anybody else. I feel like we constantly look for each other. We constantly have each other’s backs, and that’s what you need here. That’s what we’ve done to be successful at these racetracks. We don’t look at it like, ‘Oh, Talladega.’ You know that things aren’t fully in your control and that’s just a given, and you just put that out of the way and say, ‘Hey, how do we execute this race as good as we can,’ and understand that if things do happen to us that isn’t in our control, well, that’s just the way it is. It stinks, but it’s just not anything you can really stew over, so I think our group has a really good mindset when it comes to these places – good or bad – and you never know what the outcome is gonna be.”

ONLY ONE NON-PLAYOFF DRIVER HAS WON THIS RACE SINCE 2014. DO YOU VIEW THIS RACE AS A CRAPSHOOT OR AS ONLY A SELECT FEW WHO CAN WIN? “I think the opportunity for a potential surprise winner is higher here than other places. That’s just how it is. I don’t see it as a complete crapshoot. You have your guys who run really well at these racetracks, and you have your guys that maybe struggle a little bit as far as decision-making and all that stuff. I don’t think it’s a secret that some folks excel at this type of racing. I think Denny is great. Brad is great. Joey is awesome. For years and years those guys have found themselves at the front of these things at the end of them and that’s just not all by chance. I feel like if they stay clean and don’t get tore up, they’re always at the front of these things at the end. It’s just how they strategize their race. A small percentage of it is a crapshoot, just because you could be riding around – like, I look at Daytona has been a crapshoot for me for the last three years. I don’t think I’ve finished a race at Daytona in two years, just getting tore up in someone else’s mess, but when we do stay out of the trouble, we run pretty good. I think you have your folks that are comfortable with it and they do well, and then you have others that might struggle a little bit more.”

WHAT’S THE MENTALITY THIS YEAR IN THE PLAYOFFS? “I go into every weekend, our whole group goes into every weekend wanting to win, obviously, and expecting to win. I think our group is capable of that and I think we’ve done a great job up to this point. I think we as a company and as the 12 team are way stronger than what we were at this point last year. Our cars are faster. We’re gelling as a team better. We don’t come to these places expecting to win, we just come and try to do our job the best we can do our job. Do you execute well on pit road? Do you try to make more good decisions than bad decisions out there? You’re obviously going to have some moves that don’t work for you and that’s just the way it is, but you just have confidence going to these places and it’s the same every week. I don’t go to a certain place looking forward to it more than others. I look forward to every weekend and just trying to see what we can bring to the track and how we can utilize our efforts and skills the best that we can and that’s really all I ask for. Kind of a big thing on our team is do your job to the best of your ability and if you do the best to your ability, you can at least hold your head high and whatever happens happens. If you win, great. If not, you did the best job you could and I think that’s just something we’ve thought about through the last year and a half, two years and I think everyone is just kind of taking that in a good way – like I want to give all of myself on this weekend and this day and see what happens to it.”

HOW ARE YOU LOOKING AT THE ROVAL AND THE CHANGES THEY’VE MADE THERE? “I haven’t walked the track. I have done sim work. It’s a little different. The frontstretch chicane is a little bit tighter. I don’t think that’s the biggest change. Obviously, five, six, seven are the biggest changes. I think you opened up a passing zone in seven. It’s gonna be kind of a dive bomb central corner, for sure, just the way it’s shaped, so that will be interesting to see how it races. You’re gonna have to drive that corner very differently if you have pressure or not behind you, and, honestly, I think the frontstretch chicane is gonna be a slower corner, so I feel like you might have some more out-braking potential there, so I think it’s good. I think it’s good they changed it up. Whenever you add passing zones, that’s good for a race. It’s the same for everybody. It’s gonna be different for everyone and just who can adapt to it the quickest. I’ve done some sim work. I’ve got another session this week and we’ll see where it goes.”

YOU ARE SOLID IN THE POINTS. DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHERE YOU ARE DURING THAT RACE NEXT WEEK? “Yeah, I look at the points before the weekend. ‘OK, this is where I’m at.’ I don’t really look at the points again and then through the race they kind of give me updates. Where is it looking after stage one, after stage two, and then after stage two you have an idea of, ‘OK, I’m racing these guys. These folks have gotten this amount of points.’ I’m here to the cut line. This is kind of what I need to do.’ We did the same thing at Bristol. After the first two stages they said, ‘Hey, OK, you have to finish ahead of this guy or X amount of positions.’ And then we’re done talking about it. I don’t want constant updates, but I like a little bit of feedback after every break in the race with points and stuff, and the Roval always kind of gets funky with people flipping stages and stuff. Hopefully, we’re in a good spot leaving tomorrow to where we can just go have a solid race at the Roval and not have to hit a home run, but if we have to hit a home run, I’m sure we’ll do everything we can to do that.”

WHERE DID THIS EVOLUTION OF FUEL MILEAGE IN THESE RACES START? HOW HAVE WE GOTTEN TO THIS POINT? “That’s a great question. I’d love to tell you how or why it’s gotten this way, it just has. Do I like it? No. I don’t know if anyone really likes it. It’s kind of just turned into a gas game the first run of the stages to where, ‘hey, I can take a second less gas or a second and a half, two seconds less gas than this guy and I’m gonna jump him on a caution or a green flag stop.’ And I think it’s just gotten this way mainly because it’s hard to make up spots anymore. This car is so draggy that the third lane, especially here, Daytona is better because it’s more handling, but here handling is not a big thing so the third lane just kind of hurts. The bottom lane isn’t lifting like you have at turn four of Daytona to where the top can kind of get rolling late in a run. I feel like you’ve got to take drag off of these cars at these places to just where handling becomes a little bit more of an issue. The top can go a little bit better, so now if you’re mired back in 20th, I’m not going to the front, so I might as well just try to be more efficient with fuel save than the next guy and I’m gonna jump him on the stop, so that’s the strategy and that’s the easiest way to make positions and that’s just the constant thing is I’d say the last year everyone has gotten smartened up and now everyone is doing it. I feel like we were one of the first groups to kind of like, ‘OK, this is a good strategy. Let’s do this,’ and now everyone has a good idea about it, so, ‘OK, how do you still do it better than the rest of the folks?’ That’s hard to do. The cars are draggy. It’s hard to make up positions on the track and they almost drive too good here to do that, so it’s just the game we’re playing now. It’s just can you do it a little bit better than the next guy.”

YOU SAID THIS TEAM IS STRONGER AND IN A BETTER POSITION THAN LAST YEAR. AFTER FOUR RACES HOW DO YOU FEEL NOW? “I feel great about our group. It was hard to see how good we were because we got wrecked in the last 40 percent of races, like the Glen we didn’t even get a run. Darlington, we were great and got wrecked on lap two. Daytona, I got wrecked at the end of that race Our speed has been great. I look at the other races from Atlanta and Bristol and Kansas and we’ve been running top five every week, so I think our speed is great. We had a little bit of execution issues on pit road last week, but you hope to clean all of that stuff up and they work hard to try to get that better, but I feel great about where our group is at. It’s just a matter of staying out of trouble and just controlling the things we can control, but I love where we’re at right now pace-wise. I think for us to run as good as we did at Kansas last week really showed, that’s a place where we’ve struggled as a company ever since this new car and for us to run as good as we did, myself was fast. Joey and Austin were great before they had their issues as well and luckily we were able to have a good finish out of it. I feel good about it and we’ll just try to keep going. We’ll see.”

HOW DOES YOUR OFFSEASON LOOK COMPARED TO WHAT YOU DO DURING THE SEASON? “I don’t know. I’m lazier in the winter, for sure. I drink a little bit more (laughing), but I enjoy the offseason. It’s a long year. I just like to relax and just kind of unwind. Your mindset is just so different in the competing months during the year of you’re constantly on kill mode and as a competitor you’re trying to figure out ways to better yourself or outsmart the competition. The fire in you is lit all the time and in the offseason I try to turn that off. I have no reason to be competitive in the winter. I’m not competing with anybody, so I just try to mellow out a little bit in the winter and enjoy things that maybe you can’t enjoy through the year. I don’t know if I’ll be able to relax too much. I’m getting married, so it’ll be full blow. I’ll be focused on that when Phoenix is over, but I just turn the competitive nature off and just let your mind kind of rest a little bit. Your mind is pretty tense through the year, so I think it’s nice to get that breath and relaxation even if it’s a month, it’s still nice. It’s better than nothing.”

WHY DO YOU THINK IT HAS BEEN SO HARD FOR SOMEONE TO REPEAT AS CHAMPION OF LATE? “I don’t know why you haven’t seen a repeat champion back-to-back since Jimmie when he won five in a row. I don’t know why. That was just one of those rare instances, Jimmie winning five. Who was the person before Jimmie to win back-to-back? Was it Jeff? I don’t know. It’s tough to do. Teams are always getting smarter. It takes everything kind of perfect to go your way. The team has to execute the best they can and you have to have a little bit of fortune on your side to not be in any unfortunate circumstances through the playoffs, so I don’t know why. I look back and there have been plenty of teams good enough to win back-to-back and it just hasn’t happened. I think that just shows you how hard it is to do. It’s a lot easier, I feel like, to win back-to-back in other sports because you’re one v one pretty much when these games and racing there are so many other competitors it’s like trying to win the Master’s back-to-back. You’re competing against so many other people that it’s just hard to do it perfectly two years in a row. I’m confident with our group and that’s not from a cocky or arrogant standpoint. I have faith in our group that we can do it and we’re good enough to where we can do it again, and I just have so much faith in our team and our guys. I’d like to, obviously. I think we’re in a good position. We just have to keep doing what we can and keep staying hungry. It’s funny, I think we’re all even hungrier for a second one than we were the first. I said it in an interview somewhere, but it’s like you taste the forbidden fruit and you want another bite of it. You want that feeling again. You want to share that moment with all your folks that work hard with you week in and week out and through the year. Hopefully, we can break that trend. We’ll see.”

Ryan Blaney, driver of the No. 12 Menards/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse, stopped by the Talladega infield media center before today’s NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session and answered questions from the media. Blaney goes into tomorrow’s race in second place, 28 points above the cut line.

RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT IS YOUR MINDSET COMING TO TALLADEGA? “I think we’ve had some success here as a group for a long time and there are a number of factors that go into it. I don’t know, I think we see these races as big opportunities for us. We’ve come to look forward to these events. I know some people come out and say, ‘We don’t look forward to these events.’ That’s not a good mindset to have, so I think how do we maximize the weekend, whether it’s here or Daytona or Atlanta. How do we work together as a team between Joey, Austin and myself and Harrison? How do we try to support each other and try to do the best we can for our groups? I feel like we do a better job at teamwork here than anybody else. I feel like we constantly look for each other. We constantly have each other’s backs, and that’s what you need here. That’s what we’ve done to be successful at these racetracks. We don’t look at it like, ‘Oh, Talladega.’ You know that things aren’t fully in your control and that’s just a given, and you just put that out of the way and say, ‘Hey, how do we execute this race as good as we can,’ and understand that if things do happen to us that isn’t in our control, well, that’s just the way it is. It stinks, but it’s just not anything you can really stew over, so I think our group has a really good mindset when it comes to these places – good or bad – and you never know what the outcome is gonna be.”

ONLY ONE NON-PLAYOFF DRIVER HAS WON THIS RACE SINCE 2014. DO YOU VIEW THIS RACE AS A CRAPSHOOT OR AS ONLY A SELECT FEW WHO CAN WIN? “I think the opportunity for a potential surprise winner is higher here than other places. That’s just how it is. I don’t see it as a complete crapshoot. You have your guys who run really well at these racetracks, and you have your guys that maybe struggle a little bit as far as decision-making and all that stuff. I don’t think it’s a secret that some folks excel at this type of racing. I think Denny is great. Brad is great. Joey is awesome. For years and years those guys have found themselves at the front of these things at the end of them and that’s just not all by chance. I feel like if they stay clean and don’t get tore up, they’re always at the front of these things at the end. It’s just how they strategize their race. A small percentage of it is a crapshoot, just because you could be riding around – like, I look at Daytona has been a crapshoot for me for the last three years. I don’t think I’ve finished a race at Daytona in two years, just getting tore up in someone else’s mess, but when we do stay out of the trouble, we run pretty good. I think you have your folks that are comfortable with it and they do well, and then you have others that might struggle a little bit more.”

WHAT’S THE MENTALITY THIS YEAR IN THE PLAYOFFS? “I go into every weekend, our whole group goes into every weekend wanting to win, obviously, and expecting to win. I think our group is capable of that and I think we’ve done a great job up to this point. I think we as a company and as the 12 team are way stronger than what we were at this point last year. Our cars are faster. We’re gelling as a team better. We don’t come to these places expecting to win, we just come and try to do our job the best we can do our job. Do you execute well on pit road? Do you try to make more good decisions than bad decisions out there? You’re obviously going to have some moves that don’t work for you and that’s just the way it is, but you just have confidence going to these places and it’s the same every week. I don’t go to a certain place looking forward to it more than others. I look forward to every weekend and just trying to see what we can bring to the track and how we can utilize our efforts and skills the best that we can and that’s really all I ask for. Kind of a big thing on our team is do your job to the best of your ability and if you do the best to your ability, you can at least hold your head high and whatever happens happens. If you win, great. If not, you did the best job you could and I think that’s just something we’ve thought about through the last year and a half, two years and I think everyone is just kind of taking that in a good way – like I want to give all of myself on this weekend and this day and see what happens to it.”

HOW ARE YOU LOOKING AT THE ROVAL AND THE CHANGES THEY’VE MADE THERE? “I haven’t walked the track. I have done sim work. It’s a little different. The frontstretch chicane is a little bit tighter. I don’t think that’s the biggest change. Obviously, five, six, seven are the biggest changes. I think you opened up a passing zone in seven. It’s gonna be kind of a dive bomb central corner, for sure, just the way it’s shaped, so that will be interesting to see how it races. You’re gonna have to drive that corner very differently if you have pressure or not behind you, and, honestly, I think the frontstretch chicane is gonna be a slower corner, so I feel like you might have some more out-braking potential there, so I think it’s good. I think it’s good they changed it up. Whenever you add passing zones, that’s good for a race. It’s the same for everybody. It’s gonna be different for everyone and just who can adapt to it the quickest. I’ve done some sim work. I’ve got another session this week and we’ll see where it goes.”

YOU ARE SOLID IN THE POINTS. DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHERE YOU ARE DURING THAT RACE NEXT WEEK? “Yeah, I look at the points before the weekend. ‘OK, this is where I’m at.’ I don’t really look at the points again and then through the race they kind of give me updates. Where is it looking after stage one, after stage two, and then after stage two you have an idea of, ‘OK, I’m racing these guys. These folks have gotten this amount of points.’ I’m here to the cut line. This is kind of what I need to do.’ We did the same thing at Bristol. After the first two stages they said, ‘Hey, OK, you have to finish ahead of this guy or X amount of positions.’ And then we’re done talking about it. I don’t want constant updates, but I like a little bit of feedback after every break in the race with points and stuff, and the Roval always kind of gets funky with people flipping stages and stuff. Hopefully, we’re in a good spot leaving tomorrow to where we can just go have a solid race at the Roval and not have to hit a home run, but if we have to hit a home run, I’m sure we’ll do everything we can to do that.”

WHERE DID THIS EVOLUTION OF FUEL MILEAGE IN THESE RACES START? HOW HAVE WE GOTTEN TO THIS POINT? “That’s a great question. I’d love to tell you how or why it’s gotten this way, it just has. Do I like it? No. I don’t know if anyone really likes it. It’s kind of just turned into a gas game the first run of the stages to where, ‘hey, I can take a second less gas or a second and a half, two seconds less gas than this guy and I’m gonna jump him on a caution or a green flag stop.’ And I think it’s just gotten this way mainly because it’s hard to make up spots anymore. This car is so draggy that the third lane, especially here, Daytona is better because it’s more handling, but here handling is not a big thing so the third lane just kind of hurts. The bottom lane isn’t lifting like you have at turn four of Daytona to where the top can kind of get rolling late in a run. I feel like you’ve got to take drag off of these cars at these places to just where handling becomes a little bit more of an issue. The top can go a little bit better, so now if you’re mired back in 20th, I’m not going to the front, so I might as well just try to be more efficient with fuel save than the next guy and I’m gonna jump him on the stop, so that’s the strategy and that’s the easiest way to make positions and that’s just the constant thing is I’d say the last year everyone has gotten smartened up and now everyone is doing it. I feel like we were one of the first groups to kind of like, ‘OK, this is a good strategy. Let’s do this,’ and now everyone has a good idea about it, so, ‘OK, how do you still do it better than the rest of the folks?’ That’s hard to do. The cars are draggy. It’s hard to make up positions on the track and they almost drive too good here to do that, so it’s just the game we’re playing now. It’s just can you do it a little bit better than the next guy.”

YOU SAID THIS TEAM IS STRONGER AND IN A BETTER POSITION THAN LAST YEAR. AFTER FOUR RACES HOW DO YOU FEEL NOW? “I feel great about our group. It was hard to see how good we were because we got wrecked in the last 40 percent of races, like the Glen we didn’t even get a run. Darlington, we were great and got wrecked on lap two. Daytona, I got wrecked at the end of that race Our speed has been great. I look at the other races from Atlanta and Bristol and Kansas and we’ve been running top five every week, so I think our speed is great. We had a little bit of execution issues on pit road last week, but you hope to clean all of that stuff up and they work hard to try to get that better, but I feel great about where our group is at. It’s just a matter of staying out of trouble and just controlling the things we can control, but I love where we’re at right now pace-wise. I think for us to run as good as we did at Kansas last week really showed, that’s a place where we’ve struggled as a company ever since this new car and for us to run as good as we did, myself was fast. Joey and Austin were great before they had their issues as well and luckily we were able to have a good finish out of it. I feel good about it and we’ll just try to keep going. We’ll see.”

HOW DOES YOUR OFFSEASON LOOK COMPARED TO WHAT YOU DO DURING THE SEASON? “I don’t know. I’m lazier in the winter, for sure. I drink a little bit more (laughing), but I enjoy the offseason. It’s a long year. I just like to relax and just kind of unwind. Your mindset is just so different in the competing months during the year of you’re constantly on kill mode and as a competitor you’re trying to figure out ways to better yourself or outsmart the competition. The fire in you is lit all the time and in the offseason I try to turn that off. I have no reason to be competitive in the winter. I’m not competing with anybody, so I just try to mellow out a little bit in the winter and enjoy things that maybe you can’t enjoy through the year. I don’t know if I’ll be able to relax too much. I’m getting married, so it’ll be full blow. I’ll be focused on that when Phoenix is over, but I just turn the competitive nature off and just let your mind kind of rest a little bit. Your mind is pretty tense through the year, so I think it’s nice to get that breath and relaxation even if it’s a month, it’s still nice. It’s better than nothing.”

WHY DO YOU THINK IT HAS BEEN SO HARD FOR SOMEONE TO REPEAT AS CHAMPION OF LATE? “I don’t know why you haven’t seen a repeat champion back-to-back since Jimmie when he won five in a row. I don’t know why. That was just one of those rare instances, Jimmie winning five. Who was the person before Jimmie to win back-to-back? Was it Jeff? I don’t know. It’s tough to do. Teams are always getting smarter. It takes everything kind of perfect to go your way. The team has to execute the best they can and you have to have a little bit of fortune on your side to not be in any unfortunate circumstances through the playoffs, so I don’t know why. I look back and there have been plenty of teams good enough to win back-to-back and it just hasn’t happened. I think that just shows you how hard it is to do. It’s a lot easier, I feel like, to win back-to-back in other sports because you’re one v one pretty much when these games and racing there are so many other competitors it’s like trying to win the Master’s back-to-back. You’re competing against so many other people that it’s just hard to do it perfectly two years in a row. I’m confident with our group and that’s not from a cocky or arrogant standpoint. I have faith in our group that we can do it and we’re good enough to where we can do it again, and I just have so much faith in our team and our guys. I’d like to, obviously. I think we’re in a good position. We just have to keep doing what we can and keep staying hungry. It’s funny, I think we’re all even hungrier for a second one than we were the first. I said it in an interview somewhere, but it’s like you taste the forbidden fruit and you want another bite of it. You want that feeling again. You want to share that moment with all your folks that work hard with you week in and week out and through the year. Hopefully, we can break that trend. We’ll see.”

NASCAR CUP SERIES
TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY
ROUND OF 12: RACE TWO
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES
OCTOBER 5, 2024

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 KELLEY BLUE BOOK CAMARO ZL1, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session at Talladega Superspeedway.

Media Availability Quotes:

I KNOW YOU CONSIDER ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY AS YOUR HOMETRACK, BUT IT’S JUST ABOUT EQUAL DISTANCE HERE TO TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO COME TO THIS TRACK WITH THE HISTORY YOUR FAMILY HAS HERE?

“Yeah, this track has always kind of been, to me, a second home track in a lot of ways.. because of the distance and I feel like the fans here have always been really good to us and good to me. I’ve always recognized that and appreciated that, and it’s one of the reasons why I always look forward to coming here. I’ve always enjoyed coming over here. It’s close to home, like you said. We’ve had a couple of good days, so that’s good, and we’ll try to have another good one on Sunday.”

WITH THE EXTENSION ON THE ROOF RAIL ON THE RIGHT SIDE AND THE ROCKER PANEL, DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA IF IT’S GOING TO DO ANYTHING?

“I don’t. I don’t know any more than you guys do, from that standpoint. I think it’s certainly an effort to try and keep the cars on the ground, as we’re all aware of. I also know it’s got to be extremely difficult to test those things; put cars in the same circumstances that they’re going to see during a crash. I think that’s almost impossible to simulate every little detail that happens in a wreck. I think there’s always going to be that perfect storm, that a car can get upside down or whatever it may be, just because we’re going really fast. You make tire contact and you get any air up underneath it – the whole bottom is just a flat plate, right, basically. So air finds its way underneath there and if you’re going fast enough, it’s probably not going to stay on the ground. Unfortunately, it’s been a part of our sport for a long time. While I don’t think you can necessarily completely eliminate that, hopefully there are ways to make it better, and hopefully this is a step in the right direction. I hate that it’s an afterthought… it kind of looks silly. But outside of that, hopefully it’s an improvement. I hope we don’t find out. I hope nobody finds out, whether it works or it doesn’t work. I’m sure there will be a circumstance at some point down the road that it’s tested and we’ll all see for ourselves, and hopefully there’s just a better process of implementing these things or finding a better way to do it than kind of tacking on these little pieces here and there in the middle of the season.”

HOW SOON AFTER KANSAS DID YOU LOOK AT POINTS, KNOWING YOU HAD TALLADEGA AND THE ROVAL THAT ARE SO CRAZY? DO YOU EVEN BOTHER WITH LOOKING HOW CLOSE IT WAS?

“Yeah, I mean I knew right there after the race. I did an interview when they told me where we were at basically.. they had it up on the screen there. I was aware very quickly. I knew based on just how the day went, that it probably wasn’t very good. All things considered; we thought our performance was pretty solid. I was happy with our pace. We fought an uphill battle all day, with circumstances on pit road and so on and so forth. That was challenging. But I think the biggest miss of the day for me was not scoring more points in that second stage. We had an opportunity to get five or six (points), and I think we only got two or three. It doesn’t seem like a big deal, but anything can happen here on Sunday, and that can put you in a position to where those two or three might have meant a lot. It could potentially mean if you get through to the next round or not. Overall, based on Saturday and starting behind the eight ball and trying to claw our way out of that; I thought a top-10 was OK. But again, I would have liked to have seen some more stage points there when we had the opportunity.”

YOU’VE WON TWICE AT THE ROVAL, BUT WITH THE CHANGES TO TURNS SIX AND SEVEN, IT’S GOING TO BE DRAMATICALLY DIFFERENT. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT, AND HOW ARE YOU PREPARING?

“Yeah, to me, I kind of look at it like it’s a new race track, truthfully. That section of the track is going to change the entire flow of the lap there, so I’ve been kind of approaching it as a new track with my preparation. I’ve spent some time in the simulator, just trying to really memorize the track and where the little bumps are. Typically those track scans are pretty good. I think that’s probably one of the best things about the simulator is that a driver can go and get familiar with the track layout; surface content, roughness, so on and so forth. It’s really about all I feel like I can do until we get some time on-track. Obviously, we have extra practice next week, so hopefully that’s enough to find a good rhythm and get a good flow for qualifying and then obviously for the race.”

DEPENDING ON WHERE YOU END UP ON SUNDAY WITH THE POINTS, HOW MIGHT YOUR APPROACH CHANGE, AS FAR AS YOU WANTING TO KNOW WHAT YOUR POSITION IS IN THE STANDINGS?

“Yeah, I mean we have to get through this week first. Whatever it is next week, I’ll certainly be aware throughout the day, and I’ll be aware going into it, as far as what the situation is and what the circumstances are; what’s required for us to move on or not. I think it puts a lot of emphasis on this weekend. It would be really nice to win this race for a lot of reasons. But another big one that I think can sometimes be overlooked is that whoever wins this race or the people that are up in the points and have a really good cushion or whatever, can put themselves in a position, if they have the pace, to short the stages next weekend. I think shorting the stages at the ROVAL is going to significantly increase your chances of winning that race. When I look at this weekend and the opportunities ahead, I think that’s really kind of the underlying positive of having a good week here because it really significantly helps your chances of getting five more bonus points next week, as well.”

YOU HAVEN’T HAD A WIN SINCE APRIL. OBVIOUSLY ANYONE CAN WIN ON ANY GIVEN DAY, FROM A DRIVER’S PERSPECTIVE, HOW FRUSTRATING IS THAT?

“I don’t necessarily find it frustrating. It does seem like we have a more consistent widespread number of winners yearly since we’ve had this car, so that’s been interesting to watch. And I think a lot of that has come down to just the aero-platform that we have to work with, and just how much defense can be played by the lead car; restarts shaking out, how fast your pit stop is, all those little details throughout the day can put you in a good position at the end of those races. And a lot of guys are good enough to hold on for short stints. We see a lot of green-white-checkered finishes.. all those things are really just recipes for more winners. Races that go green, the cream will eventually rise to the top, and I don’t think you see that quite as much. But when you have those short stints and guys having opportunities to get leads that might not necessarily be the best car, it puts those things into perspective and can certainly make it happen. And the fact that we have four plate races in a year now.. all these things are just promoting more and more winners, and you’ll probably continue to see that as we go down the road that we’re trucking along on.”

DOES QUALIFYING LATER TODAY DETERMINE WHETHER YOU’RE GOING TO HAVE A CONSERVATIVE OR AGGRESSIVE APPROACH TO TOMORROW’S RACE?

“I don’t think so. It would be nice to not qualify terrible, but I don’t necessarily think it’s a make-or-break. I think if you can be somewhere inside the top-15 or so, maybe just outside the top-10, I think that would be really solid and put yourself in a plenty good enough position to have a shot. I think that everybody is obviously out to try and achieve that, but I think that overall, it’s not the end of the world if you don’t qualify well. All the games that get played with manufacturers and so on and so forth, you’re going to be pitting with those guys anyways, so it’s not like it’s a standard race week, where the pit pick is quite as crucial as you would see last weekend at Kansas.”

AS STEWART-HAAS RACING’S TENURE COMES TO AN END IN THE CUP SERIES, OBVIOUSLY THEY’RE GOING TO REBRAND AND DO THINGS A LITTLE DIFFERNETLY, BUT STEWART-HAAS RACING, WHAT DO YOU THINK THERE LEGACY IS OR HOW WILL YOU REMEMBER KIND OF WHAT THAT COMPANY DID OVER THE YEARS?

“Yeah, that’s a good question. You know, my respect and admiration for Tony (Stewart) I think kind of raises my thought of that company and just what they did. I’ve always gotten along really well with him; looked up to him as a kid when I was watching him race. So I think that kind of skews my opinion a little bit. I’m not sure what his level of involvement is nowadays.. it kind of seems like there isn’t any, but I don’t really know that for sure. But when I look at what they did through the course of however many years it’s been.. I know Gene (Haas) was around long before Tony joined there, and when Tony joined, it seemed like that was when things really ramped up and improved. It was really impressive to watch because at that point in time, there wasn’t a lot of driver-owners that had had success in the sport.. very few. And I thought it was really cool to see a guy come in; kind of stick his neck out in certain areas, whether it be financially or just from a sheer time standpoint and being spread thin. I think being an owner and a driver can probably do that to you. I’ve never experienced it, but I would imagine that is a factor, and I always thought it was really cool that he went out and did that; had success with it and made it work. So yeah, you hate to see him go, just because I think the overall health of our sport wants and needs healthy race teams. They’ve been a healthy race team and I hate to see that. But I think they’ve had a solid legacy. Anytime you have something end like that, it’s really easy to forget all the good that went on and just look at what’s happened in the past year or whatever. But I still admire their efforts to go and be what they’ve become. Being a top tier team in NASCAR, that’s a hard thing to do and they did that.”

About Chevrolet

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Toyota Racing – Denny Hamlin
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes

TALLADEGA, Ala. (October 5, 2024) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin was made available to the media on Saturday prior to qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway.

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

How do you go out and win a championship with all that’s going on off track?

“I think it’s pretty simple. Just need to prepare the best you can and do the best you can on Sunday. I think, you know, it’s more of a question for my team and I would ask them ‘has your driver never not been prepared? Has he never given 100%?’ Never. I’ve certainly talked about it, probably a year or so ago when it came down to this and I became more comfortable with what the result was. No matter what, whether I win a championship or not, I’m going to make sure I can sleep at night knowing that I gave it my all for my team. Certainly, there’s been some circumstances over time that I haven’t been able to control, but to not let those situations affect me. Certainly, this is a situation I can control and I give the team the proper preparation and make sure that when I get in the race car on Sunday, they know through my actions on the track that I’m 100% in it and focused.”

Were you part of the group that walked the new ROVAL layout and how different is the new section and your strategy for those corners?

“Yes, I was there. I think it’s set up for chaos, truthfully. I think that they were very strategic, making sure to put us to a decision what might be fast, the normal racing line will be fast, but there will be an option to short cut it and just wipe out whoever’s in front of you. Whatever reason would we have changed it, other than to create more chaos and things like that. And I certainly think it’ll be that way.”

What has been the reaction with the current lawsuit of 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports v. NASCAR?

“You know, I feel like the reaction has been positive on our end. Of course, I think that (pause). My Jordan (Michael Jordan, co-owner of 23XI Racing) sent me an awesome clip from ‘The Moneyball,’ where John Henry was saying ‘the first one through the wall always gets bloodied.’ But, in the end, it’s because you’re threatening the status quo and threatening people’s jobs and things like that. I hope it’s not seen that way, just seeing that this is certainly an opportunity for us to try to promote change in the sport that’s positive for everyone. And that’s teams, drivers, fans, everyone. I feel like, certainly on our end, that’s actually been good for me. This is not like just one day, we woke up and said ‘this is going to happen.’ This has been on the plate for a while. And certainly, from my standpoint, it’s provided more relief for me to put more focus on the No. 11 car and everything I have to do there since it’s out, done and now there’s other people out to speak on it, from the legality standpoint.”

Do you know what the recent bad finishes of the No. 45 team could be attributed to?

“Yeah, they’re just in a little slump right now and I can’t emphasize enough how much the sport has ebbs and flows of that. We (No. 11 team), in the spring, we were knocking good finishes down, leading laps and winning races. And then all of a sudden, in the summer, nothing changed from a speed standpoint, our results were just horrendous and for various reasons. And during that time, the No. 45 (Tyler Reddick) had very, very good results. They were getting, and you can see it from a statistical and analytical point of view, they were getting finishes that were better than their speed at times. Now, again this sport, you have these ebbs and flows and you’re not always going to be the fastest, but it just seems like the averages are now working themselves out. And, certainly, some of it too is the schedule and certainly these tracks that we’ve run. Four races in the Playoffs, it’s just hard to get results. That’s why you’ve seen people and some of the underdogs in the Playoffs being some of the top point scorers as this format itself creates chaos. And then when you throw in tracks like you have, you’re just going to see a random lottery ball come out at times. Some time, it may call your number, maybe it doesn’t.”

How does this week/weekend compare to chaotic situations you’ve dealt with in the past?

“Yeah, I would say Dustin (Long, NBC Sports), that they’re pretty similar. If it was personal issues in the past or rivalries with other drivers, that always takes a certain amount of time of focus, right? But I’ve also always been one of those that doesn’t want to be consumed with this 24 hours a day, like the driving aspect. I would get burnt out if I raced as much as Kyle Larson or Kyle Busch. That’s just not my style of coming out here and competing. Make no mistake, the competitor in me, you don’t think I don’t want to come out here and win this weekend more than any? That’s what I fuel myself on, making the 18-foot on hole 18 to win the match. Like, I live for those moments. So, certainly, anyone that knows me personally will tell you that these moments, you’ll typically get more out of Denny because I hate to lose and certainly will not justify any excuses to losing. And so, I’m going to give it all I can, and to answer your question directly, it’s very similar and a big thing, when you think about it. But this isn’t a responsibility I’m taking all myself, right? We have a team that handles this now and they’re now speaking upon it and acting upon it. Really, the work’s been done on my standpoint, you just let them do their work and things will work themselves out.”

Is there anything else you must do for your team this weekend?

“Of course. I think Chirs (Gabehart, crew chief) is a great leader for our team. He makes sure that I’m prepared and no matter what, I’ve had many things conflicting on my schedule for quite some time. But always, if a request comes for the No. 11 team, it supersedes anything else. Chris will tell you I’ll cancel anything I need to cancel to make sure the No. 11 team gets what they need from me first. And like this week, going to Charlotte (Motor Speedway) and checking out the track (ROVAL), hours before a big moment, it doesn’t matter. That’s what they needed from me, getting my eyes on it and processing it. What do I need? What are we going to fight here? That’s part of the process of being good in this sport, and I’m going to make sure I give that.”

How do you go about the lawsuit situation where it doesn’t become a lose-lose situation for all sides?

“Yeah, I’m not really sure and can’t speak to that part of it. I think it’s been stated in statements by Michael Jordan that he loves NASCAR. We’ve obviously invested heavily in NASCAR and reinvested what I got out of this sport as a driver back into it as an owner. Certainly, we love the sport, just would love to see change as well.”

With all the financial commitment 23XI Racing has made to the sport, do you think it’s been appreciated by the other side?

“Probably not.”

Does your strategy tomorrow depend on where you start?

“I don’t think so. No. From the No. 11 team’s approach, certainly, we feel we’re in a spot where we’re going to do like most teams and go out there and race and try to race upfront and live with the result. If we have a bad result and get crashed, that’s part of superspeedway racing. Certainly, you would see from the outside, they learned their lesson from Atlanta, but Atlanta was very unique in the sense I had the ability to go up there and race without being crashing myself and others, so I stayed out of there until that time came at the very end. Here, at Talladega, handling is not going to be as big of an issue. So, I think, certainly, my strategy is going to be put the gas down. Again, there’s going to be situations where fuel mileage is going to be a thing and what not. But yeah, I think my strategy, whether I qualify first or last, will be the same.”

How does your driving style here change in this car vs the old car?

“Not even close. I wish that I felt like I had a bigger role in what our result would be this weekend. Obviously, all the things I’ve learned from Dale Earnhardt Jr. And Tony Stewart, some of the greats I’ve watched make moves and make runs, it’s just a different world today and more about where the spotter tells you to go, as they can see the bigger picture and make sure you’re staying in the right line. And at that point, yeah it does come down to some good techniques if you’re in those first three or four cars, but the days driving from the back to the front are over. You just have to do the best you can to execute and it’s just the biggest name of the game on this track now.”

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.

Richard Childress Racing in the NASCAR Cup Series at Talladega Superspeedway… Richard Childress began his driving career at Talladega Superspeedway in the inaugural Talladega 500 on September 14, 1969. As an owner, Childress has won 13 NASCAR Cup Series victories at Talladega. Kyle Busch became the latest RCR driver to win in the Cup Series at the Alabama speedway when he captured the GEICO 500 at Talladega in 2023. Clint Bowyer won twice for RCR (fall races in 2010 and 2011) while Kevin Harvick won the 2010 spring event. Dale Earnhardt earned nine Talladega wins under the RCR banner, his first coming in 1984. Earnhardt scored his 76th and final Cup win in the 2000 fall race at Talladega which earned the team and a lucky fan each a $1 million bonus from the series sponsor. Other victories by Earnhardt include a sweep of both races in 1990 and 1999, plus 1991 (July), 1993 (July) and 1994 (spring).

RCR in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Talladega Superspeedway… Richard Childress Racing has two Xfinity Series wins at Talladega, most recently by Jesse Love in April. Two-time Xfinity Series Champion Tyler Reddick gave RCR its first Xfinity Series victory at Talladega in 2019 when he drove his No. 2 Chevrolet to Victory Lane. RCR has won four consecutive pole positions at Talladega, three by Austin Hill (fall 2022, 2023, and spring 2024) and one by Jeffrey Earnhardt (spring 2022).

Big Power on the Drafting Tracks… ECR has been dominant at the drafting tracks in the NASCAR Xfinity Series this season (Daytona International Speedway, Atlanta Motor Speedway, and Talladega Superspeedway). In the five races entering Talladega, ECR teams have four wins, four pole positions and have led 425 laps (62.68 percent) and 843.14 miles (60.39 percent) in those races. ECR powered a sweep of the top-three finishers in the most recent drafting track event in Atlanta last month (Austin Hill-Parker Kligerman-AJ Allmendinger).

Catch the Action… The United Rentals 250 at Talladega Superspeedway will be televised live on Saturday, October 5, beginning at 4 p.m. ET on The CW. The race will be broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

The YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway will be televised live on Sunday, October 6 beginning at 2 p.m. ET on NBC. The race will be broadcast live on Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

Austin Dillon and the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Off Road Chevrolet at Talladega Superspeedway… In the 22 NASCAR Cup Series starts at Talladega Superspeedway, Austin Dillon has two top-five and five top-10 finishes with a career-best finish of second in the spring of 2022. The 2013 NASCAR Xfinity Series Champion has made four starts at Talladega Superspeedway in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, earning one pole (2015) and a career-best finish of third among three top-10 finishes. In two NASCAR Truck Series races at Talladega, Dillon has two top-10 finishes.

About Bass Pro Shops… Bass Pro Shops is North America’s premier outdoor and conservation company. Founded in 1972 when avid young angler Johnny Morris began selling tackle out of his father’s liquor store in Springfield, Missouri, today the company provides customers with unmatched offerings spanning premier destination retail, outdoor equipment manufacturing, world-class resort destinations, and more. In 2017 Bass Pro Shops united with Cabela’s to create a “best-of-the-best” experience with superior products, dynamic locations, and outstanding customer service. Bass Pro Shops also operates White River Marine Group, offering an unsurpassed collection of industry-leading boat brands, and Big Cedar Lodge, America’s Premier Wilderness Resort. Under the visionary conservation leadership of Johnny Morris, Bass Pro Shops is a national leader in protecting habitat and introducing families to the outdoors and has been named by Forbes as “one of America’s Best Employers.” Bass Pro Shops has a long relationship with NASCAR, dating back to 1998. For more information, visit http://www.basspro.com/.

AUSTIN DILLON QUOTE:

You’ve won on superspeedways. What kind of race do you expect we will see at Talladega Superspeedway?

“I have Talladega Superspeedway circled on my calendar. I love racing there and can’t wait to get on track in the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Off-Road Chevrolet. At Talladega, there’s a lot of movement in the draft, the packs are big and wide, and with the way this package works, there is more two-lane racing around the bottom. You can do certain things throughout that race to put yourself in a better position, but it’s one of those tracks you go into knowing that there’s probably a 75 percent chance that you could be in a wreck. You have got to be in the right place at the right time for the right run. A lot goes into it. Depending on what people pull out, you can get too far forward on that last lap and that will put you in the position to black lanes, and sometimes that turns into a mess.”

Kyle Busch and the No. 8 Lucas Oil Chevrolet at Talladega Superspeedway… Kyle Busch will make his 39th NASCAR Cup Series start at Talladega Superspeedway this weekend. Busch won the 2023 spring event at the Alabama track, after stretching his fuel mileage to perfection and scoring the victory in NASCAR Overtime. The driver of the Lucas Oil Chevrolet claimed his first win at Talladega in 2008, when he paced the field for 12 of the final 15 laps to secure the victory in his seventh Cup Series start at the 2.66-mile facility. Busch has two NASCAR Truck Series wins at Talladega (2009, 2010) and one win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series (2011).

Drafting Track Performance… Busch has performed well on drafting tracks during the 2024 season. The Las Vegas native is tied for the most top-10 finishes (three), led a lap in all five races, and piled up the fourth-most points (162) in those events.

Stat of the Week… Busch has led a lap in 30 of 38 – including the last seven consecutive – Cup Series events at Talladega Superspeedway.

Lucas Oil’s Role as a Technical and Development Powerhouse in Motorsports at RCR and ECR… Lucas Oil has contributed first-hand to the many on-track successes of one of NASCAR’s legendary race teams since 2014. Lucas Oil’s resources and expertise, including R&D, technical development and support, have provided a competitive on-track advantage that has equated to RCR’s more than 20 trips to Victory Lane over the past decade. All RCR NASCAR Cup and ECR engines rely on the best performance motor oil in NASCAR: a direct result of joint research and development. The same success that Lucas Oil and RCR/ECR have found at the highest levels of motorsports, has been successfully transferred to grassroots racing efforts throughout the country. And all team operations rely on the full line of Lucas Slick Mist appearance products – from metal polish to speed wax and detailers – to keep all types of vehicles looking their best. To learn more about Lucas Oil, visit lucasoil.com.

KYLE BUSCH QUOTES:

Would you like to see NASCAR add a practice session at Talladega Superspeedway and Daytona International Speedway? Are you okay with the current format?

“I am perfectly okay with the current format of going straight into qualifying and then to the race at Talladega Superspeedway and Daytona International Speedway. I do, however, think that a practice session at Atlanta Motor Speedway would be beneficial to everyone to make sure they have their heights correct and their car balanced because there’s not really any simulator work for Atlanta.”

How mentally draining is the racing at Talladega Superspeedway for a driver?

“I would say the racing at Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway is more mentally taxing than physically demanding. The mental aspect comes in with riding in line, saving fuel, and paying attention to everything going on around you while you’re trying to make the right moves, while getting yourself in position to strategically get stage points and a great finish on the day.”

Jesse Love and the No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet at Talladega Superspeedway… Jesse Love has made one career NASCAR Xfinity Series start at Talladega Superspeedway, claiming his first series victory at the Alabama track earlier this season. Love started from the second position, led a total of 28 laps, and secured Whelen’s first primary victory. In addition, the Menlo Park, California native has participated in one ARCA Menards Series event in April 2023. During that race, Love qualified in the second position, before leading 35 of 74 laps and claiming victory.

Defending Race Winner… For the first time in his career, Love enters Talladega Superspeedway as the most recent Xfinity Series race winner.

Top-10 Streaking… With a ninth-place result at Kansas Speedway, Love extended his top-10 streak to five consecutive races. The 19-year-old accomplished this same feat earlier this season, capping off the five consecutive top-10 finishes with a win at Talladega Superspeedway.

About Whelen Engineering… Whelen Engineering is a family-owned company with a pioneering spirit and a passion to protect the lives of those who protect and serve others. The company mission is to provide industry-defining safety solutions around the world, while creating a community of problem-solvers who are inspired to push boundaries and continue our legacy of delivering ground-breaking innovation. As a global leader in the emergency warning industry, Whelen has been trusted to perform since 1952, when George Whelen III invented the first rotating aviation beacon. Whelen now encompasses two state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in Connecticut and New Hampshire with over 750,000 square feet of engineering and manufacturing space and the largest design staff in the industry. Every part of every Whelen product is proudly designed and manufactured in America. We embrace quality as our foundation, we celebrate innovative engineering in every product we produce.

JESSE LOVE QUOTE:

Did winning at Talladega Superspeedway earlier this season help or hurt your season?

“Winning the race earlier this season at Talladega Superspeedway was huge for not only myself, but for our entire No. 2 team and everyone at Whelen. That group had been so close so many times, so I knew winning a race was something I needed to do this year. To win so early in the season was a boost for our team, but it also hurt me a bit too. I had all this confidence that I was going to win four more races this season and make a run at the regular season championship. I stopped focusing on the execution and started focusing solely on the results. With that came making mistakes and not maximizing our day, which probably played a role in our downward trajectory in the middle portion of the season. About a month ago though, I reset myself and got focused for the Playoffs. I told myself to go run 10th today and take what the car will give you. Once I did, we got back on the path, and I feel like we have a shot to make it to Phoenix Raceway.”

Austin Hill and the No. 21 Bennett Transportation & Logistics Chevrolet at Talladega Superspeedway… Austin Hill has made five career NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Talladega Superspeedway, but never captured the checkered flag at the Alabama track. The Winston, Georgia native has claimed three poles and led a total of 182 laps in the last four events, all while piloting the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. Hill has also participated in five NASCAR Truck Series events, securing a best finish of sixth in 2019.

Four in a Row? Hill has earned the last three pole positions (fall 2022, spring 2023, spring 2024) at Talladega Superspeedway and on Saturday, the 30-year-old will look to make it four in a row.

Superspeedway Dominance… Hill has captured the victory in three – February at Daytona International Speedway and twice at Atlanta Motor Speedway – of the five Xfinity Series drafting races in 2024.

Women in the Driver’s Seat… In celebration of female truck drivers, the No. 21 Bennett Transportation & Logistics Chevrolet will proudly carry a special pink tribute to the ladies who succeed in a male-dominated industry. As a woman-owned company since 1974, founder and CEO, Marcia G. Taylor, started the Women in the Driver’s Seat program to advance women in trucking and logistics careers. The four pillars of the program are to Be Resilient, Be Steadfast, Be Courageous, and Be Fierce. Over 40 guests, including the Women Drivers of Excellence honorees, will be on site at Talladega Superspeedway to support Hill. Visit womendrivebennett.com to learn more and apply today.

About Bennett Family of Companies… McDonough-Ga. based Bennett Family of Companies is a woman-owned, Women’s Enterprise Business Council (WBENC) certified, diversified transportation and logistics company. Through its 14 affiliated operating companies, the Bennett Family of Companies delivers integrated transportation and supply chain management solutions worldwide. Bennett has 4,625 drivers/owner-operators, over 1,000 employees and 600 agents located across the United States. For more information, visit www.bennettig.com.

AUSTIN HILL QUOTE:

What is it about superspeedway racing that suits your driving style?

“Superspeedway racing in general has treated me very well. It starts with having a great team and engine with everyone at Richard Childress Racing and ECR Engines. Our Chevrolets are really good, but even with having a fast car, you, as the driver, have to know what to do with it. The more I think about it, I really think it stems from the relationship that my spotter, Derek Kneeland, and I have. We know when to make the moves and when not to make the moves. We try to learn early in the race of what moves may work for when the pay window opens up at the end. At a place like Talladega Superspeedway, the track will race differently depending on the weather. It is still superspeedway racing at the end of the day, but the way that runs are generated are always different. You have to have an open mindset of the things that have worked in the past may not work this time around, and if it doesn’t work, we are going to try something different.”

As Harrison Burton and the No. 21 DEX Imaging team head to Talladega Superspeedway for Sunday’s YellaWood 500 they’re hoping to duplicate their success in the most recent race at Talladega’s sister track, Daytona International Speedway.

In the Aug. 24 Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona, Burton surged ahead at the finish and delivered the Wood Brothers their 100th Cup victory and his first in NASCAR’s elite division.

Crew chief Jeremy Bullins was upbeat heading into that Daytona race and feels similarly about the upcoming 500-miler on the high-speed, high-banked, 2.66-mile track.

“The superspeedways have been a strength for us all year, and obviously winning at Daytona gives us a ton of confidence knowing that our race cars are good enough to go win another one,” Bullins said. “Just like Daytona, we have our DEX Mustang ready to go compete, and there’s no reason we can’t go get win number 101 for the Wood Brothers this weekend.”

Per NASCAR’s rules for Daytona, Talladega and Atlanta, there will be no pre-race practice. Qualifying at Talladega is set for Saturday at 12:35 p.m. Central Time (1:35 p.m. Eastern Time.)

Sunday’s 188-lap race is scheduled to get the green flag just after 1 p.m. (2 p.m. Eastern) with TV coverage on NBC.

Stage breaks are planned for Laps 60 and 120.

About DEX Imaging
DEX Imaging is the digital document imaging division of Staples, the world’s largest business solutions provider. DEX sells and services the broadest selection of copiers, printers and data management solutions, such as HP, Konica Minolta, Canon, Kyocera and numerous others.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES:
Reducing Operating Costs
Reducing Paper Consumption
Increasing Productivity

DEX Imaging has been the recipient of virtually every industry award since the company’s inception, including the JD Power & Associates Award for Best Customer Experience, the prestigious ProTech Service award by Konica Minolta, the Diamond Premier Dealer Award by Kyocera, and the Elite DEALER Award by ‘ENX’ magazine. Other accolades include being named ‘Best Place to Work’ by numerous business journals in the markets DEX serves.

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.

COREY LAJOIE | CODY WARE
Talladega Advance

Event Overview

● Event: YellaWood 500 (Round 31 of 36)
● Time/Date: 2 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Oct. 6
● Location: Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway
● Layout: 2.66-mile oval
● Laps/Miles: 188 laps/500 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 60 laps / Stage 2: 60 laps / Final Stage: 68 laps
● TV/Radio: NBC / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Corey LaJoie, Driver of the No. 51 Mighty Fire Breaker Ford Mustang Dark Horse

● Corey LaJoie is set to make his second start for Rick Ware Racing (RWR) in the No. 51 Mighty Fire Breaker Ford Mustang Dark Horse at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. Sunday’s YellaWood 500 marks LaJoie’s 14th NASCAR Cup Series start at the 2.66-mile superspeedway. He finished 18th in April’s GEICO 500. His best result at the track came in the October 2023 race when he finished fourth. The result also matched LaJoie’s best-career Cup Series result.

● In 13 previous starts at Talladega, LaJoie has one top-five, two top-10s, four top-15s and six top-20s, with an average finish of 20.1 and only one DNF (did not finish).

● LaJoie made his debut with RWR last Sunday in the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City. The 29-year-old racer earned his career-best Kansas finish and set a new team-best finish at the track with a 15th-place effort.

● Mighty Fire Breaker LLC debuted with RWR last month at Atlanta Motor Speedway as the primary partner on the No. 15 Ford Mustang Dark Horse driven by Cody Ware. Mighty Fire Breaker is a leading provider of environmentally safe and sustainable solutions for proactive wildfire defense. The Mighty Fire Breaker portfolio includes EPA Safer Choice Certified Citrotech® Wildfire Inhibitors, mobile and stationary spray application systems, and GPS-tracking, recording and mapping technologies that support intelligent proactive wildfire defense management practices.

Cody Ware, Driver of the No. 15 Arby’s Ford Mustang Dark Horse

● Cody Ware, driver of the No. 15 Arby’s Ford Mustang Dark Horse for RWR, will make his eighth start of the season and his ninth at Talladega. Ware also made one Xfinity Series start at Talladega in 2019, finishing 21st for car owner B.J. McLeod, and one Truck Series start in 2015.

● Ware made his first start of the 2024 season at Talladedga on April 21. He qualified 34th in a field of 38 and finished on the lead lap in 24th. In seven starts this year, Ware has an average finish of 22.3 and has completed 1,363 of 1,391 laps available (98 percent). Twenty-six of the 28 laps Ware has not completed were the result of an early exit at Pocono due to a damaged radiator.

● In the Cup Series’ most recent superspeedway race Aug. 24 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, Ware drove to a fourth-place finish. It was his best finish in 104 Cup Series starts and matched the organization’s best overall finish. Prior to earning his top-five result at Daytona, Ware’s best finish was sixth, earned at Daytona in August 2022.

● In 15 Cup Series starts on superspeedways to date, Ware has completed 2,603 of 2,762 laps available – 94.2 percent.

Rick Ware Racing Notes

● The Mission Foods NHRA Drag Racing Series spent last weekend competing at World Wide Techonology Raceway in Madison, Illinois, near St. Louis. RWR Top Fuel racer Clay Millican qualified fourth, but a first-round exit from the elimination rounds bumped the Drummond, Tennessee, native to seventh in the playoff standings. The NHRA Drag Racing Series takes a weekend off before returning to action at Texas Motorplex in Ennis Oct. 9-13 for the fourth event in the Countdown to the Championship.

● Rick Ware has been a motorsports mainstay for more than 40 years. It began at age six when the third-generation racer began his driving career and has since spanned four wheels and two wheels on both asphalt and dirt. Competing in the SCCA Trans Am Series and other road-racing divisions led Ware to NASCAR in the early 1980s, where he finished third in his NASCAR debut – the 1983 Warner W. Hodgdon 300 NASCAR Grand American race at Riverside (Calif.) International Raceway. More than a decade later, injuries would force Ware out of the driver seat and into fulltime team ownership. In 1995, Rick Ware Racing was formed, and with wife Lisa by his side, Ware has since built his eponymous organization into an entity that fields two fulltime entries in the NASCAR Cup Series while simultaneously campaigning successful teams in the Top Fuel class of the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series, Progressive American Flat Track and FIM World Supercross Championship (WSX), where RWR won the 2022 SX2 championship with rider Shane McElrath.

Corey LaJoie, Driver Q&A

You matched your career-best finish of fourth in two of the last three superspeedway races. What is your goal for this weekend?

“I’m really looking forward to getting back to Talladega and having a chance at redemption. The April race certainly didn’t end the way I wanted it to. You know it’s a possibility, but you don’t want to be that person upside down at the finish line. I enjoy superspeedway racing and I think we can build on the top-five finish that RWR earned at Daytona. The Fords are always so fast at the bigger tracks and the RWR cars have been up there at the front, so I’m excited to get there and see what we’ve got.”

How has last weekend’s performance impacted the shop environment at RWR?

“When you can join a team and knock off a finish like that in the first race, it brings with it a big boost of excitement. It reinforces the time and energy that everyone puts in to get these cars ready each week. It gives the No. 51 team momentum to build on for these final six races. One good finish can lead to another. I’m going to do everything I can on the track to bring home those results and show these guys that I appreciate the work they put in.”

Cody Ware, Driver Q&A

Superspeedway races have been your strong suit. How has it felt to continue to improve at these bigger tracks?

“I’ve always felt like speedway races were in my wheelhouse. I’ve always focused on doing what is needed to make sure we’re there at the end. When we’re successful at that is when we get the finishes we deserve. If a driver can get to the final five laps with their patience intact, there’s a higher chance of competeing for a win. Rick Ware Racing has shown a lot of progress this year, a lot of speed, and we’ve had some good finishes. It’s been nice to be a part of that and I think we can continue to find that next level of success, whatever that may be.”

Is there an accurate way to describe all of the things you have to think through, and how fast you have to do so, during a superspeedway race?

“You’re thinking through a lot. You’re listening to the spotter, looking for an opening to get in another lane that may be faster, or leapfrog a slower car, all while watching what is happening ahead so you don’t get caught in a wreck. You’re also trying to pay attention to what your car is doing when you’re being pushed versus being the pusher, if it handles any differently up high or down on the bottom. It’s a lot. You go through that every race but everything moves quicker at a superspeedway. At least at Talladega, you’ve got a little more room to work with if something does go wrong. It’s chaotic, but that’s what makes for an entertaining race.”

TEAM CHEVY ADVANCE
Talladega Superspeedway

 All three NASCAR national series will be back in action this weekend as the NASCAR Cup Series, Xfinity Series and Craftsman Truck Series face arguably one of the most unpredictable tracks in playoff competition: Talladega Superspeedway. For NASCAR’s top two divisions, this weekend will be their second appearance at the 2.66-mile Alabama venue this season, with Saturday’s United Rentals 250 and Sunday’s YellaWood 500 marking the second race of the Round of 12 for both series. For the Truck Series, Friday’s Love’s RV Stop 225 will be its sole visit to the superspeedway this season, with the event opening the Round of 8 and delivering the first of three opportunities to claim an automatic berth into the Championship 4.

Chevrolet in the NASCAR Cup Series at Talladega:

Talladega Superspeedway is yet another track where Chevrolet paces its competitors in NASCAR Cup Series victories, with the manufacturer heading to the 2.66-mile Alabama venue with 44 all-time wins. Chevrolet’s first trip to victory lane at Talladega Superspeedway came with Darrell Waltrip behind the wheel of the No. 88 DiGard Racing Chevrolet in May 1977. The Bowtie brand later went on a historic run that saw the manufacturer reel-off 17 wins in 18 races – starting with Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s victory in the famed No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet in April 1999. That run included a streak of 13-straight victories (April 1999 to May 2005) – a series record that still stands today.

Upon the start of the Next Gen era, Chevrolet found success right out of the gate – making three consecutive trips to victory lane at the Alabama superspeedway. Three drivers from three different Chevrolet organizations have earned wins in the Next Gen Camaro ZL1 including Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain (April 2022), Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott (Oct. 2022) and, most recently, Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch (April 2023).

NASCAR CUP SERIES ROUND OF 12: PART TWO

After a series-best 52-point day in the Round of 12 opener at Kansas Speedway, William Byron and the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team found themselves at the top of the playoff standings with a 34-point advantage over the cutline. While having a sizable points cushion heading into the weekend, the 26-year-old North Carolina native has an added boost of confidence with three top-10 finishes on drafting-style tracks this season, including his victory in the 66th running of the Daytona 500. When it comes to Talladega Superspeedway, Byron has tallied finishes no worse than 15th in the Next Gen era, including a pair of seventh place finishes and a runner-up finish in the series’ last three events at the track.

Heading into the second race of the round, Byron is joined by his other three Hendrick Motorsports teammates in the top-eight positions of the standings. Despite yet another challenging race to open the second round, Kyle Larson and the No. 5 Chevrolet team still holds a double-digit points cushion (+18 points) over the elimination line. Alex Bowman and the No. 48 Chevrolet team made the biggest move up the standings once again, going from below the cutline to the sixth position with an eight-point advantage. The 31-year-old Arizona native has three top-five finishes on drafting-style tracks this year, including a runner-up finish at Daytona, as well as a pair of fifth-place results that came at Talladega Superspeedway and Atlanta Motor Speedway. With an engine issue forcing the No. 9 Chevrolet to start at the rear of the field at Kansas Speedway, Chase Elliott and the Alan Gustafson-led team salvaged a top-10 result and a 30-point day to maintain a position above the playoff cutline. The former series champion heads to a track where he has found victory lane twice in NASCAR’s top division, one of which came in the Next Gen era (Oct. 2022).

Suarez Looking to Capitalize on Rising Superspeedway Strength:

While Daniel Suarez and the No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet team might be on the outside looking in, this season’s playoff competition proves how quickly things can change. When it comes to drafting-style tracks, the 32-year-old Monterrey, Mexico, native has a pair of podium finishes in five races this season – one of which included a trip to victory lane (Atlanta Motor Speedway – Feb. 2024). At Talladega Superspeedway, the Chevrolet driver has earned three top-10 results in five Next Gen races at the venue, including a career-best eighth-place finish in the 2022 fall race.

NASCAR XFINITY SERIES ROUND OF 12: PART TWO

With a playoff spoiler victory in the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ Round of 12 opener at Kansas Speedway, all eight tickets into the next round remain up for grabs as the series heads to Talladega Superspeedway this weekend. Four drivers from three different Chevrolet organizations currently occupy positions above the playoff cutline, with Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill leading the charge in the third position (+26 points). JR Motorsports’ Sam Mayer departed the Midwest as the second-highest mover up the playoff standings, sitting in the fourth position with a double-digit advantage over the cutline (+13 points). Joining Hill and Mayer in the top-eight of the playoff standings includes series rookie, Shane van Gisbergen, and the No. 97 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet team in the sixth position (+8 points), as well as the series’ most recent Talladega Superspeedway winner, Jesse Love, in the seventh position (+3 points).

RCR Teammates Shining on Superspeedways:

The pair of Richard Childress Racing teammates, Austin Hill and Jesse Love, can easily be viewed as natural favorites to earn the first automatic berth into the NASCAR Xfinity Series Round of 8. The Chevrolet organization has made its way to victory lane in four of the series’ five drafting-style races this season, including all three of Hill’s 2024 victories (Daytona International Speedway; Atlanta Motor Speedway sweep). Richard Childress Racing also returns to Talladega Superspeedway as the series’ most recent winner courtesy of Love’s victory earlier this season. In the rookies’ five starts on drafting-style tracks this season, Love has qualified no worse than fifth in each event, including three pole wins. In addition to his victory earlier this season, Love also earned a sixth-place finish in the series’ most recent drafting-style race (Atlanta Motor Speedway).

Chevrolet in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Talladega:

Since the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ debut at Talladega Superspeedway in 1992, Chevrolet has earned a monstrous winning percentage of 67 percent with 24 all-time victories. The Bowtie brand’s winning ways at the 2.66-mile Alabama venue began when the manufacturer took the victories in the series’ first-three visits to the track, including the inaugural event that was won by Ernie Irvan (July 1992). Chevrolet currently holds an active, and record-setting, streak of 10 consecutive Talladega triumphs in the series – recorded by eight different drivers between April 2018 and April 2024. Among that list of winners includes two of Chevrolet’s current playoff contenders, with Kaulig Racing’s AJ Allmendinger claiming the victory in Oct. 2022, and Richard Childress Racing’s Jesse Love earning his first-career victory earlier this season (April 2024).

FIVE TEAM CHEVY DRIVERS CONTINUE IN NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES

TITLE HUNT

The checkered flag at Kansas Speedway last weekend officially dwindled the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series’ playoff field down to just eight remaining title contenders. Among those left in championship contention includes five drivers representing four different Chevrolet organizations. With the playoff standings restacked for the final three-race stretch to the championship-deciding race, McAnally-Hilgemann Racing’s Christian Eckes continues to lead the Bowtie brigade – settling into the second position with a 29-point cushion to the elimination line. Joining Eckes in the Round of 8 includes Rev Racing’s Nick Sanchez (fourth; +8 points); Spire Motorsports’ Rajah Caruth (fifth; -8 points); Eckes’ teammate Tyler Ankrum (sixth; -11 points); and CR7 Motorsports’ Grant Enfinger (seventh; -11 points).

A win in the series’ next trio of races also comes with a ticket into the Championship 4, with the first opportunity coming at Talladega Superspeedway. The series has only contested on two drafting-style tracks in 2024, which came back-to-back at Daytona International Speedway and Atlanta Motor Speedway to open the season. Only three of the series’ remaining playoff contenders were able to bring home top-10 results in both drafting-style events, including Chevrolet’s Nick Sanchez and Rajah Caruth. Sanchez became a first-time Truck Series winner at the “World Center of Racing”, going on to follow up that career moment by driving his No. 2 Silverado RST to a fifth-place result at Atlanta Motor Speedway one week later. Caruth also came out of the gate with a pair of top-10 results, including a podium finish at the 2.5-mile Florida superspeedway.

Looking at the greater picture, Eckes continues to prove to be a leading contender for the championship title. The 23-year-old Middletown, New York, native has tallied top-10 results in 18 of the series’ 19 races this season. Among those finishes includes a series-leading 13 top-fives, three of which were victories. Driving his No. 19 Silverado RST to a third-place result at Kansas Speedway last weekend, the Chevrolet driver enters the Round of 8 with eight consecutive finishes of no worse than fourth, with that streak including one victory and seven podium finishes.

Chevrolet in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at Talladega:

The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series has a much shorter history at Talladega Superspeedway, with Friday’s event marking the series’ 19th appearance at the track. Chevrolet ranks second among its manufacturer competitors with six Truck Series victories at the 2.66-mile Alabama venue. Six different drivers have tallied a Talladega triumph behind the wheel of a Chevrolet-powered machine, including current playoff contender Grant Enfinger – recorded in Oct. 2016 with GMS Racing. With that victory, the 39-year-old Fairhope, Alabama, native holds the advantage as the series’ only current playoff contender that has found victory lane at the track.

BOWTIE BULLETS:

· Chevrolet will pace the field for the tripleheader race weekend at Talladega Superspeedway. The Silverado RST will lead the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in Friday’s Loves RV Stop 225; and the Camaro ZL1 will lead the NASCAR Xfinity Series in Saturday’s United Rentals 250; and the Camaro SS will lead the NASCAR Cup Series in Sunday’s YellaWood 500.

· In 14 tripleheader weekends this season, Chevrolet is the only manufacturer to earn a weekend sweep – accomplishing the feat three times (Daytona International Speedway, Atlanta Motor Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway).

· With 77 races complete across NASCAR’s three national series this season, Chevrolet has earned a winning percentage of 46.75% with 36 victories (NASCAR Cup Series – 13 wins; NASCAR Xfinity Series – 14 wins; NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series – nine wins).

· Active Chevrolet drivers with a NASCAR Cup Series win at Talladega Superspeedway:

Kyle Busch – two wins (2023 & 2008)

Chase Elliott – two wins (2022 & 2019)

Ross Chastain – one win (2022)

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – one win (2017)

· In 110 NASCAR Cup Series races at Talladega Superspeedway, Chevrolet has recorded a series-leading 44 victories – including three of the five events in the Next Gen era (Ross Chastain – April 2022; Chase Elliott – Oct. 2022; and Kyle Busch – April 2023).

· With 17 drafting-style races for the NASCAR Cup Series in the Next Gen era, Chevrolet leads its manufacturer competitors with 10 victories – recorded by seven drivers from four different Chevrolet organizations.

· Chevrolet continues to lead its manufacturer competitors with playoff contenders across all three NASCAR national series, with five drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series Round of 12; eight drivers in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Round of 12; and five drivers in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Round of 8.

· In 102 points-paying races in the Next Gen era, Chevrolet leads all manufacturers with 50 victories – a winning percentage of 49%.

· With its 42 NASCAR Cup Series Manufacturer Championships, 33 NASCAR Cup Series Driver Championships, and 864 all-time NASCAR Cup Series wins, Chevrolet continues to hold the title as the winningest brand in NASCAR Cup Series history.

 
FOR THE FANS:

· Fans can visit the Team Chevy Racing Display in the Fan Midway at Talladega Superspeedway.

· Fans can check out an assortment of Chevrolet vehicles including: 2025 Equinox RS, Trax 2RS, Blazer EV, Silverado 1500 Crew 2LT Trailboss, Silverado 2500 ZR2 Bison Diesel, Traverse Z71, Colorado ZR2, Corvette 3LT Z51 Convertible, MSABC Pink Wrapped Silverado 1500.

· Fans can also view William Byron’s No. 24 Camaro ZL1 show car.

Team Chevy Driver Appearances at the Display:

Friday, Oct. 4

· Chase Purdy: 11:00 a.m.

· Bayley Currey, Matt Mills & Kaden Honeycutt: 1:45 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 5

· Justin Allgaier & Sam Mayer: 9:15 a.m.

· Brandon Jones: 9:30 a.m.

· Sammy Smith: 9:45 a.m.

· BJ McLeod: 10:30 a.m.

· Jordan Anderson: 12:30 p.m.

· Jeremy Clements: 1:00 p.m.

Sunday, Oct. 6

· Ross Chastain & Shane van Gisbergen: 9:30 a.m.

· Alex Bowman & Chase Elliott: 9:45 a.m.

· Kyle Busch: 10:30 a.m.

· Connor Zilisch: 11:15 a.m.

Chevrolet Display Hours of Operation:

· Friday, Oct. 4: 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.

· Saturday, Oct. 5: 8 a.m. – 3 p.m.

· Sunday, Oct. 6: 8 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Manufacturer Points Standings

Chevrolet: 1094
Toyota: 1053 (-41)
Ford: 1052 (-42)

Manufacturer Points Standings

Chevrolet: 998
Toyota: 966 (-32)
Ford: 870 (-128)

Manufacturer Points Standings

Chevrolet: 705
Toyota: 668 (-37)
Ford: 638 (-67)
 
TUNE-IN:

NASCAR Cup Series

Playoffs Round of 12: Race Two

YellaWood 500

Sunday, Oct. 6, at 2 p.m. ET

(NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90)

NASCAR Xfinity Series

Round of 12: Race Two

United Rentals 250

Saturday, Oct. 5, at 4 p.m. ET

(CW, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90)

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series

Round of Eight: Race One

Love’s RV Stop 225

Friday, Oct. 4, at 4:30 p.m. ET

(FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90)

 
QUOTABLE QUOTES:

ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 1 Busch Light CAMO CAMARO ZL1

Some people love Talladega racing and others loath it. Do you fall into either of those categories?

“Obviously I’ve won at Talladega before, but I’ve also been spinning around through the grass backwards. You hope for the best and do everything you can to keep your car together for the end of the race, and if you’re lucky, you’ll probably come away with a good finish. You just can’t have any expectations at a superspeedway like Talladega.”

How excited are you to get to Talladega?

“It sure would be fun to get back-to-back wins. I can vividly remember the last time I drove to victory lane at Talladega and how much fun it was. I’m confident in my team at Trackhouse and I would love nothing more than to celebrate with them and our partners in victory lane again this weekend.”

KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1

Larson on heading to Talladega Superspeedway:

“Cliff and the entire group at Hendrick Motorsports do a great job with pit strategy at drafting tracks. We’ll work with our Chevrolet teammates to hopefully score points in both stages. While we always seem to run well at Talladega, we just don’t have the results to show for it. I would really just like to see the checkered flag with a solid finish.”

JUSTIN HALEY, NO. 7 GAINBRIDGE CAMARO ZL1

You made your first Cup start with Spire at Talladega in 2019 on your 20th birthday. What do you remember about that day, and what does it mean to return to the site of your Cup Series debut with Spire.

“I don’t remember too much about it to be honest. I remember it was my 20th birthday, so that was cool to get that experience. It is awesome to return to Talladega with Spire. I’m excited to get a plate race under our belts and figure out what we need to do to be successful on those tracks. They are so reliant on fuel mileage these days, so we need to execute on and off pit road. We’ll keep the nose clean and see where we end up at the finish.”

You have had a lot of success at Talladega in the Xfinity series. What about drafting races suits your style?

“First off, you have to have a fast race car, a good team around you and good teammates to work with. It takes everything to win a superspeedway race. With fuel mileage becoming the name of the game, it has come down to execution by the pit crew and the driver hitting his marks.”

KYLE BUSCH, NO. 8 LUCAS OIL CAMARO ZL1

Would you like to see NASCAR add a practice session Talladega and Daytona? Are you okay with the current format?

“I am perfectly OK with the current format with going straight into qualifying and then to the race at Talladega and Daytona. I do, however, think that a practice session at Atlanta would be much beneficial to everyone to make sure they have their heights correct and their car balanced right because there’s not really any SIM for Atlanta.”

How mentally draining is the racing at Talladega for a driver?

“I would say the racing at Daytona and Talladega is more mentally taxing than physically demanding. The mental aspect of just sometimes riding in line, saving fuel, and how much you’re paying attention to everything going on around you while trying to make sure that you’re making the right moves to get yourself in a position to strategically get stage points and a great finish on the day.”

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 KELLEY BLUE BOOK CAMARO ZL1

Elliott on Talladega Superspeedway in the playoffs:

“Talladega, whichever round it falls in every year, is always unpredictable. You just don’t know what’s going to happen. There’s a lot out of your hands in that race.”

WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 RAPTORTOUGH.COM CAMARO ZL1

Byron on the points situation heading to Talladega Superspeedway:

“It’s a good feeling knowing how many points we got in Kansas before heading into Talladega this weekend, but we can’t relax any just because of that. It’s the playoffs so every point is going to matter even more. Talladega is a track we’ve always run well at. It’s a superspeedway that handling is a bigger factor than it is at say Daytona. It’s still a place where anything can happen though. Hopefully we can have another solid points day and be sitting in a really good spot heading into the (Charlotte) ROVAL.”

DANIEL HEMRIC, NO. 31 CIRKUL CAMARO ZL1

“Talladega is a place where we feel we have an equal opportunity to go out and win. Kaulig Racing always brings strong superspeedway cars, and we have shown speed at each of those races this year. Hopefully we have a strong showing in our No. 31 Cirkul Chevy.”

ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1

Bowman on playoff momentum and Talladega Superspeedway:

“We have been OK, for sure. We have had better pace in the playoffs than where we were prior, and it’s made my job a little easier. So, yeah, we are not perfect by any means, and we have got a lot of things we need to improve on. But we are kind of headed in the right direction right now and doing the right things. Talladega is certainly the wild card of this round so hopefully we can continue this positive momentum and come out on the good side of it.”

ZANE SMITH, NO. 71 FOCUSED HEALTH CAMARO ZL1

After a top-10 finish at Kansas, what’s your mindset with Talladega looming?

“Superspeedway racing is unpredictable. Anything can happen. If we can finish the race with a clean car, then we will probably have a great result and might even be in the best position at the end. We just have to execute at the highest level for all 500 miles of the race. I’m really proud of my Spire Motorsports team and the turnaround we have had in the second half of the season. We are going to build off our 10th-place finish last weekend and continue to show everyone what we are capable of.”

CARSON HOCEVAR, NO. 77 DELAWARE LIFE CAMARO ZL1

This is your third career start at Talladega. You’ve achieved some impressive finishes at superspeedways this season. Do you have any goals for this weekend?

“My goal is a top-15. I think as long as we can finish and put together a solid day, then it’ll be a successful day. Talladega always seems to be less chaotic than other superspeedways because it’s wider and when things do happen, there’s a lot more escape routes. The whole idea of riding in the back and letting other people make mistakes doesn’t really apply here. As long as we have four tires on the ground rolling toward the finish line that’s a success to me.”

DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 TOOTSIES ORCHID LOUNGE CAMARO ZL1

How will you race Talladega?

“We will race hard. We want bonus points and need a good finish. We race intending to win. We want to have a big party at Tootsie’s Sunday night in Nashville. We aren’t going to do anything crazy or wild. We will be smart about everything. It will just come down to execution, and because it is Talladega and little bit of luck wouldn’t hurt.”

Is it too early to points race?

“A lot of things can happen in two races, as you very well know. We just have to go out there and execute our race; maximize the potential of our racecar. I’m pretty sure that’s going to be pretty good. We’ve been good here in the past and I expect we will be again this weekend.”

Do you take inspiration when you see Ross win at Kansas?

“Of course. The No. 1 guys had a great day. They have had a great year. I know they were disappointed not to be in the playoffs, but they have been one of the best cars every week. At Trackhouse we believe when one car has success we all have success. I was very proud of Ross. We have a great relationship and work together really well. We celebrated with them in victory lane Sunday and it would be nice if they could join us there this weekend and a few more times in 2024.”

CONNOR ZILISCH, NO. 7 AUSTIN HATCHER FOUNDATION SILVERADO RST

You will be making your first start on a drafting-style race track. What have you done to prepare for the new challenge?

“I have a lot of guys around me I can ask for help who have raced at Talladega. My teammates at Spire have been helpful all year, including Rajah (Caruth), Nick (Sanchez) and Chase (Purdy). Their advice and opinion is very valuable and it means a lot. It will be a new experience for me, but I am excited for it and ready to learn as much as I can. This weekend will help get me prepared to hit the ground running at Daytona in February.”

You’ve shown speed in all your truck starts, but circumstances regulated you from the finish you deserved. What do you need to do to seal the deal and park the No. 7 Silverado in victory lane?

“We just need to have a clean day and keep the Austin Hatcher Foundation Silverado up front. I am sure the team will bring a fast truck to the track, but we can’t make mistakes. It’s crucial for the team and I to execute at the highest level so we can bring home best result.”

BAYLEY CURREY, NO. 41 DQS SILVERADO RST

Are you heading into this weekend with the mentality of ‘going for broke’ for the win?

“I think so. I’ve played the conservative game a lot of times and it never works for me. We were getting all we could get in Daytona, and granted, we did end up getting wrecked at the end, but we were still able to come back for a decent finish. I think we have to go into this weekend to get all we can get. We aren’t in the Playoffs, so might as well. At the same time, I know how fast this truck was at the start of the year, so I really don’t want to tear it up. So we have to play it somewhat smart, but I think all of our guys want us to go out and try to win it.”

MATT MILLS, NO. 42 J.F. ELECTRIC / UTILITRA SILVERADO RST

Do you use this race as an opportunity to try and snag a win, or are you more looking at it as another shot to learn for Daytona next year?

“Well, for my past experience with superspeedway in the teams I’ve been with, our number one goal was to take care of the car. Before this year, I never really had any chance to go to the front and try to stay up there. Being with Niece Motorsports, we can take a bit of a more aggressive approach. Thankfully, having TJ Majors on top of the roof spotting for us – he’s one of the best on super speedways – I think will be very exciting for me to learn from him. Hopefully, we can get together with our teammates and go have a good race.”

DANNY BOHN, NO. 44 RUST-OLEUM SILVERADO RST

You’ve had a few good runs on super speedways, so in your past experience, what’s the key to doing that?

“I think you’ve just got to be there at the end. The first time I went to Talladega, we wrecked out on lap 20. So, it’s going to be one of those games where you have to try and race smart throughout the day and hope that you make it towards the end of the race. If you can make it to the last lap, you’ll have a good shot at getting a good finish. At a speedway, there’s a high chance of crashing on any given lap, so avoidance is key to keep yourself in the game.”

KADEN HONEYCUTT, NO. 45 MOORE’S VENTURE FOODS SILVERADO RST

Have you ever been in a position to go race your truck and instantly hop in a dirt car on the same day?

“Nope, I’ve never done that. That’s going to be extremely fun for me to do and I can’t wait to go there and race at both the superspeedway and the dirt track all in the same day. Thankfully, Talladega isn’t a physically-demanding track for us in the trucks, but it’s all mentally draining. I’ve never raced on the Talladega Short Track before, but it’s different than what I’m used to. There’s red clay, and they’ve added a wall there, so things have changed. I’m really excited to go from track-to-track and hope we can put together some good runs at both.”

RAJAH CARUTH, NO. 71 HENDRICKCARS.COM SILVERADO RST

Talladega kicks off the Round of 8. Do you feel it is a great opportunity to lock into the Championship 4, or a place you can fall way behind?

“I believe Talladega is an amazing opportunity. Some go into drafting tracks and try to avoid the crash or anticipate when the wreck is going to happen. If you have that hesitant and nervous mentality, it is all over before you get off the plane. I think it is a great opportunity to qualify well and grab some valuable stage points. We will see how it shakes out at the end. Talladega is an awesome race track. I enjoy pack racing and hopefully it goes our way this time.”

If you win this weekend, what would your next two races look like for your team?

“I wouldn’t be thinking about any racetrack except Phoenix Raceway (laughs). Realistically, we do the same things we’ve been doing. As a whole, I’d be more excited to have the opportunity to race for a championship. I think the main goal coming into the year was for to be competing for the championship in Phoenix. It doesn’t matter how you get there. If it’s in our stars and in the plans of the man upstairs to win Talladega, then Homestead and Martinsville will be even more enjoyable.”

CHASE PURDY, NO. 77 BAMA BUGGIES SILVERADO RST

You’ve led laps and had multiple great performances at Talladega. How do you plan to seal the deal and get your first career win?

“To win the race you have to survive the chaos and be there at the end. I’ve always believed the best way to avoid the mess is to be ahead of it. That is what we plan to do on Friday. Keep it up front and be there at the end to make a move.”

Talladega is your home track. What would it mean to get your first-career win there?

“I grew up a few hours west in Meridian, Mississippi and my mom’s side of the family is a couple hours away in Tuscaloosa. I grew up coming to this track as a kid. Hopefully we can put on a good performance in my home state.”

 
Chevrolet NASCAR Cup Series Statistics

Manufacturers Championships:

Total (1949-2023): 42

First title for Chevrolet: 1958

Highest number of consecutive titles: 13 (2003-15)

Years Won: 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2021, 2022, 2023

Drivers Championships:

Total (1949-2021): 33

First Chevrolet champion: Buck Baker (1957)

Highest number of consecutive titles: 7 (2005-11)

Most Recent: Kyle Larson (2021)

Years Won: 1957, 1960, 1961, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2020, 2021

Event Victories:

Record for total race wins in single season: 26 (2007)

2024 STATISTICS:

Wins: 13

Poles: 9

Laps Led: 2,944

Top-five finishes: 57

Top-10 finishes: 119

Stage wins: 21

· Chase Elliott: 1

· Kyle Larson: 12

· Ross Chastain: 2

· William Byron: 2

· Shane van Gisbergen: 1

· Daniel Suarez: 1

· Kyle Busch: 1

· Alex Bowman: 1

CHEVROLET IN NASCAR CUMULATIVE STATISTICS:

Total Chevrolet race wins: 864 (1949 to date)

Poles won to date: 752

Laps led to date: 252,099

Top-five finishes to date: 4,355

Top-10 finishes to date: 8,979

Total NASCAR Cup Wins by Corporation, 1949 to Date:

       General Motors: 1,198

       Chevrolet: 864

       Pontiac: 154

       Oldsmobile: 115

       Buick: 65



       Ford: 837                                                           

       Ford: 737

       Mercury: 96

       Lincoln: 4



       Fiat Chrysler Automobiles: 467

       Dodge: 217

       Plymouth: 191

       Chrysler: 59



       Toyota: 188

 

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.

CLUB ENTRY LIST

JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK
POINT STANDINGS: 34TH

ERIK JONES
POINT STANDINGS: 32ND

CLUB NOTES

LEGACY M.C. at Superspeedway’s: There have been three Superspeedway races (two at Daytona and one at Talladega) during the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season. LEGACY MOTOR CLUB as a whole (Jimmie Johnson, Erik Jones and John Hunter Nemechek) have an average starting spot of 23rd and an average finish of 20th. During the Daytona 500 to start the season, Nemechek and Jones both scored top-10s with a seventh and eighth-place respectively.

Nemechek & Jones at Dega: During the 2024 spring race at Talladega Superspeedway, Nemechek led 20 laps, the most laps at any race that he has led this season. Nemechek has two top-10 finishes in his three NASCAR Cup Series starts at the 2.66-mile oval. Erik Jones at Talladega has earned seven top-10s, his best finish being second in the fall of 2020.

Elenz’s 100th Race: By participating in the YellaWood 500 this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, crew chief Dave Elenz will call his 100th NASCAR Cup Series race. The Gaylord, Michigan native made his debut as crew chief in NASCAR in 2015 leading JR Motorsports’ (JRM) No. 88 NASCAR Xfinity Series team piloted by multiple different drivers that season. Elenz earned back-to-back NXS Championships from 2017-18 with then JRM drivers William Byron and Tyler Reddick. Elenz made the jump to NASCAR Cup Series in 2022 to join Erik Jones in the coveted No. 43 car.

Back in the Booth: LEGACY M.C. co-owner will continue his stint with NBC Sports this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway co-hosting the pre-race NBC Countdown to Green with Dale Jarrett and providing commentary and the driver’s point of view throughout the sure-to-be exciting event on Sunday.

Appearances: John Hunter Nemechek will visit the LEGACY MOTOR CLUB’s merchandise trailer to sign some autographs this weekend. He will be signing on race day, Sunday starting at 10:00 a.m.

Strictly Business: John Hunter Nemechek and Melin, a better hat for better adventure is teaming up for a custom signature hat called, “Strictly Business”. The inspiration behind Strictly Business, when it comes to racing, it’s all business, all the time. The hat will be available on Melin.com starting Saturday, Oct. 5 at 9 a.m. PT.

Hurricane Helene Relief: Last week, Western Carolina was devastated by the recent Hurricane Helene that ripped through the Southeastern part of the United States. With LEGACY M.C. being close to the Statesville Airport, LEGACY M.C. is collecting items that are needed to assist in the efforts in Western Carolina. Anyone that wishes to donate items can bring them by the race shop Monday-Friday from 7:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Items will also be accepted during LEGACY M.C. Fan Day.

LEGACY M.C. Fan Day: Next week on Thursday, Oct. 10 from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., LEGACY MOTOR CLUB will host Fan Day at the shop in Statesville, N.C. The event will include autographs, shop tours, show cars, pit crew demonstrations, food trucks, and much more.

A Touch of Color: Throughout the month of October, Dollar Tree/Family Dollar has opted to alter each paint scheme with touches of pink to acknowledge the millions of women who are currently battling, have won their battles and those who have lost their battles with breast cancer. Keep an eye out for these unique paint schemes starting this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway.

Paint the Wall Pink: On Tuesday, the Erik Jones Foundation (EJF) and the NASCAR community joined together at Charlotte Motor Speedway (CMS) for an event rightfully named “Paint the Wall Pink”. Fighters and survivors of breast cancer had the opportunity to spread awareness for this global cause by painting the pit wall at CMS bright pink to serve as a visible token of solidarity during the upcoming races at the track next weekend.

Going for G.O.L.D.: Partners Dollar Tree Family Dollar has a “Go for G.O.L.D.” (Grand Opening Look Daily) program. Each week throughout the season, the No. 42 and No. 43 will feature one of the local store on the decklid of the Toyota Camry XSE.

PETTY 75TH ANNIVERSARY

ABOUT PETTY 75th: The 2024 season marks a significant milestone in the history of the Petty family as they have helped define stock car racing for 75 years. Their commitment to the sport and the people who make it possible – behind the wheel, under the hood, in the back office, and beyond – has shaped the growth and success of NASCAR. Their LEGACY lives on with the countless fans, drivers, technicians, and team members they touched. Throughout 2024, LEGACY M.C. will celebrate the Petty family and share countless memories with friends and fans at racetracks across the country.

This Week in Petty History: On October 1, 1967, Richard Petty earned his 75th career win at North Wilkesboro. Exactly 24 years after this achievement, on October 1, 1991, Petty announced his retirement after the 1992 season. In 2009, on October 1, Petty Enterprises merged with Gillett Evernham Motorsports to form Richard Petty Motorsports.

The King’s Hat: At the spring Talladega race in April, The King’s Hat was unveiled. The King’s Hat will once again be on display and will be located in the Fan Zone Midway, near the NASCAR Experience.

CLUB QUOTES

John Hunter Nemechek, Driver of the No. 42 GEARWRENCH Toyota Camry XSE:

“Our LEGACY MOTOR CLUB team has shown some speed at each of the Superspeedway races this year, we just haven’t had the luck to close one out. We have a sharp looking GEARWRENCH Toyota Camry XSE for this weekend’s race at Talladega, hopefully we can put it out front during the race and turn our season around.”

Erik Jones, Driver of the No. 43 Dollar Tree Toyota Camry XSE:

“Talladega is a unique track, as wide as it is and as much banking as it has, handling really isn’t an issue at all, it’s more just about outright speed and how capable your car is to go up and drive towards the front. It’s a unique place in that sense. It’s unique in the crowd as well. I think we get a great crowd, a big turn out and people who are really excited to see a race, so makes it pretty fun.”

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK

Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson joined TODAY fresh off a race at Kansas speedway. Johnson talks with the hosts about the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis. If you missed the segment, be sure to watch it HERE (Photo by: LEGACY MOTOR CLUB)

Erik and Holly Jones paints the pit wall at Charlotte Motor Speedway pink to show support for Breast Cancer Awareness. (Photo by: Erik Jones Foundation).

BROADCAST INFO

TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 6TH @ 2:00 PM ET

ABOUT OUR PARTNERS

ABOUT LEGACY MOTOR CLUB: LEGACY MOTOR CLUB™ is a professional auto racing club owned by businessman and entrepreneur Maurice “Maury” J. Gallagher and seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson. The CLUB competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series fielding the No. 42 Toyota Camry XSE of John Hunter Nemechek, the No. 43 Toyota Camry XSE of Erik Jones, and the No. 84 limited schedule entry for Jimmie Johnson. LEGACY M.C. also competes in the Extreme E Series. Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Petty “The King” serves as CLUB Ambassador. With a unique title signifying a nod to car clubs of past eras, LEGACY M.C. is an inclusive club for all motorsport enthusiasts to celebrate the past and future legacies of its members, while competing for wins and championships at NASCAR’s elite level. To keep up-to-date with the latest news, information and exclusive content, follow LEGACY MOTOR CLUB™ on Facebook, X, Instagram and at www.LEGACYMOTORCLUB.com.

ABOUT GEARWRENCH®: GEARWRENCH is a premier hand tool brand from Apex Tool Group. Since the launch of the original five degree ratcheting wrench, the GEARWRENCH brand has led the industry with breakthroughs in pass-thru ratchets, sockets, screw/nut drivers, pliers, and specialty tools. For more information, visit www.gearwrench.com.

ABOUT DOLLAR TREE, INC.: Dollar Tree, a Fortune 200 Company, operated 16,622 stores across 48 states and five Canadian provinces as of October 28, 2023. Stores operate under the brands of Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, and Dollar Tree Canada. To learn more about the Company, visit www.DollarTree.com.