Category: NASCAR Cup PR

NASCAR CUP SERIES
AUTO CLUB 400
AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 1, 2020

ALEX BOWMAN PUTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE IN VICTORY LANE
AT AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY

FONTANA, CA (March 1, 2020) – Alex Bowman collected his second NASCAR Cup Series career win in his No. 88 Cincinnati Camaro ZL1 1LE at Auto Club Speedway. In dominant fashion, Bowman was fastest in both Friday practice sessions, qualified third on Saturday and then led 110 laps of the 200 lap/400-mile race on Sunday.

The victory was Bowman’s first in the 2020 season, his first win in five races Auto Club Speedway, and first for the new 2020 Camaro ZL1 1LE, which was introduced in February at Daytona Speedweeks. The win also marked the 787th for Chevrolet in NASCAR’s premier series, and 15th at this track for Team Chevy. Additionally, it was the 257th NASCAR Cup Series triumph for car owner Rick Hendrick.

Other Chevrolet drivers with strong finishes included Kurt Busch, who was third in his No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1 1LE, Chase Elliott, who was fourth in the No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 1LE, and seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, Jimmie Johnson finished 7th in his No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1 1LE.

Kyle Busch (Toyota) was second in the order and Brad Keselowski (Ford) finished fifth.

The NASCAR Cup Series season continues next weekend at Phoenix Raceway with the FanShield 500 on Sunday March 8 at 3:30 p.m. ET. Live coverage will air on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

ALEX BOWMAN AND GREG IVES PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:

THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by the winner of the Auto Club 400, Alex Bowman, driver of the No. 88 Cincinnati Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, along with crew chief Greg Ives. Congratulations, gentlemen. Alex, can you tell us a little bit about your run? You had a pretty strong afternoon.
ALEX BOWMAN: Yeah, for sure. I don’t know that we’ve changed anything since we unloaded off the truck, so that really comes down to a lot of great preparation in the shop, Greg making really good decisions with our package that we brought here this year. This is a place we’ve struggled at for the last two years, so for him to be able to unload that close, really the last two weeks in a row, makes my job much easier. We can really fine tune the car throughout practice instead of having to make huge changes. It’s really been our probably best couple practices the last two years that I’ve been driving for HMS, and I just attribute that to the hard work in the shop and great work over the off‑season.
Today was good for us. I feel like if I got bad restarts, I was really ‑‑ I would burn my stuff up getting back to the 12, so I was glad to get clear of him there that last restart and just be able to run hard and build that gap. Felt like we fell off a little bit at the end of runs, but had a really good car.

Q. Ran into you on Friday, Alex, and you said if you don’t screw it up, you would get to Victory Lane. You kind of called your shot.
ALEX BOWMAN: Yeah, for sure. I mean, I don’t know what it was when we unloaded. No car feels perfect here by any means, just with how the tire wear is, but every run in practice I would honestly ask Greg, I’d be like, it’s doing a couple different things, but like how are our lap times, and he’s like, you’re like two‑and‑a‑half tenths better than anybody else on those laps. Really knew we had a really good car, and it was just our job to keep up with the racetrack from there.
Obviously the racetrack is quite a bit different today just being 30 degrees cooler than it was on Friday, raining for the first 50 laps probably, but it was a lot of fun, and Greg did a good job keeping up with it.

Q. I guess the real question is I believe if I remember correctly, your contract is only through 2020. Does this win kind of help make that conversation a little bit easier for negotiating an extension again?
GREG IVES: No, he’s going to need multiple wins, so we’re going to work on that.
ALEX BOWMAN: Man, I love Gregory. (Laughter.)
Every year is a contract year. Every year of my life in the Cup Series has been a contract year. I’ve had contracts and two weeks before Daytona read a Tweet that said I’m not going to Daytona. There’s never a situation that I feel completely comfortable in. I feel like if somebody doesn’t want you driving their race cars, you’re not going to be there driving it. I’m as motivated as ever, doing everything I can to try to be the best on and off the racetrack as I can be. Hendrick Motorsports is where I want to be. It’s where I want to stay for the rest of my career. I don’t have ‑‑ it’s just where I’ve always wanted to be. It’s where I want to stay.
Hopefully we can make that happen, but like you said, it is a contract year, but honestly every year of my career has been a contract year, so it’s not much different than last year.

Q. There was some question even after Vegas where it was like how much gain did the Chevys really make, and you go out and do this today, so it’s clear that there’s been a lot. Is it this good? Did you make it seem even better than it is today, or is it somewhere in the middle? How do we judge how big of a gain Chevy as a whole has made so far?
ALEX BOWMAN: Yeah, that’s a tough one. I feel like Phoenix is going to be a good judge of that. I feel like our mile‑and‑a‑half program was very strong last year, so at the end of the year, I feel like if we would have come here we would have been strong anyway. I think the new body has helped us a lot, the new Camaro. Any change we make, we make for a reason, and Chevy did a good job with that car.
So I think on the intermediate stuff it’s really showing up. Phoenix I think we finished like 25th there in the fall last year. We were absolutely horrendous, so hopefully we can go there and run a ton better.
But it’s just hard to say this early in the year, but I think the new car is quite a bit better. I think Greg has done a really good job this year, too. Like I said earlier, we’ve never unloaded so close two weeks in a row. We’ve never unloaded that close, period, and to do it two weeks in a row has been really cool. He’s making my job easy right now for sure. Not easy, but easier, and it’s definitely paying off.

Q. Alex, can you describe the pressure of trying to win when you know you have the best car versus trying to win when you don’t?
ALEX BOWMAN: I don’t really think it’s that much different. You know, I think there’s a lot of pressure regardless to win races when you drive for Hendrick Motorsports. I feel like that pressure ‑‑ I drive for the best team in the sport, so I feel like that’s where a lot of the pressure comes from. I feel like I have one of the best crew chiefs in the sport, definitely have the best pit crew on pit road. So there’s a lot of best things that I’ve got to back up and do my job with.
I put a lot of pressure on myself. There’s a lot of pressure that goes on. But however the car is you’re going to get what you can get, and we knew we had a good one this week, and we knew we had a shot at it.

Q. Greg, we’ve seen NASCAR penalizing teams the last couple weeks from them seeing things on cars. Is there a big crackdown? Is it just early in the year and teams are trying things?
GREG IVES: I think it’s up to crew chiefs. That’s their job is to try to see where the line is, and sometimes you’ve got to cross it before you understand where it is. Fortunately for us, there’s ‑‑ what Alex talked about what the Chevrolet has been able to maybe ‑‑ made us not have to go as far and work in the areas that we typically had to, and just downright have speed in the car. That’s been very good from my standpoint to be able to unload and know we have a solid baseline and not have to chase and try to find speed, and when you do that, sometimes you get desperate and sometimes you get over the line.

Q. Take us through some of the restarts because they seemed like they were insane. Three and four wide, and you were right there in the thick of it. Is it a testament to the package that was brought here, or is it just Auto Club Speedway and the fact that the racing surface has basically never been resurfaced?
ALEX BOWMAN: Yeah, I think the restarts were like that for a couple reasons today. The track was pretty cool, so the grip level was up. So for five or six laps, pretty much everybody could run wide open. When everybody can run wide open, you can all go about the same speed, which means it’s more about drafting and lane choice and building those runs, which turns into running four and five wide.
I didn’t feel like we did a great job over any of the restarts. It seemed like there was a don’t push me sign on my rear bumper, but I’m glad we finally got up ‑‑ had a good one there at the final one. But it’s a culmination of pretty equal grip level from top to bottom here, and just being able to run wide open for those first couple laps on tires.

Q. You had I guess it could be called a gap year in 2017. What has that done for you, to have that year to kind of step away and be in the simulator and not worry about the week‑to‑week pressure of winning and maybe develop things?
ALEX BOWMAN: Yeah, I don’t think it developed any good things for me, to be perfectly honest with you. I don’t think there’s ever a time that sitting out of a race car is a good situation for a race car driver. For me it was ‑‑ I knew I wanted to be at Hendrick Motorsports, and I quite honestly had talked to Dale at that point and knew there might be an opportunity the following year and just knew that sitting out was probably my only opportunity to end up at Hendrick Motorsports some day.
It was kind of one of those, you have to do it. But it also opened up some weaknesses to start in 2018. When you’re not on and off pit road every week a couple times, when you’re not doing green‑flag stops every week, not in a race car every week, you get rusty and you’re not always improving. Every driver here is always improving and always learning what they’re doing, so I took a year and all I got to do was I ran three races and I tested. I don’t feel like I learned as much as I would have if I would have been full‑time. But I did get to take a break and kind of hang out and not ‑‑ I had a day job, I drove the simulator a lot. I got addicted to coffee. When they need you in the simulator at 7:30 in the morning every morning, you start drinking coffee so you stop falling asleep in it. That’s probably the one good thing I developed was my love for coffee.

Q. Alex, have you had any other driving aspirations like Marcos Ambrose came and did some NASCAR? Have you thought about doing some Supercars in Australia?
ALEX BOWMAN: I would love to. I’ll race anything. I’ll race a lawnmower. I’ll race the rental cars. We’ll probably race the rental cars back to the airport. Don’t tell California Highway Patrol. I just want to say, so I’m from ‑‑
GREG IVES: So he said drivers are continuously learning.
ALEX BOWMAN: So I’m from Arizona ‑‑ quick story because last time we were in the media center and we won it was a total s‑‑‑ show, so we’re just going to go back to that.
GREG IVES: It was going great there for a while.
ALEX BOWMAN: Growing up in Arizona, I raced quarter‑midgets down the road from here at Pomona Valley all the time, so I’d get off school Thursday, me and my dad would load up in the truck and trailer and we would drive to Pomona. In Arizona there’s only one speed limit. Trucks and cars, we’re all 75, and then we would get into California and they’d have this dang 55 miles an hour speed limit and we got pulled over a lot, like a lot, a lot.
One time we got ‑‑ like my dad didn’t have a CDL and you’re supposed to be a CDL and he was going to jail. Yeah, don’t tell CHP about the rental car return lot. But yeah, I’ll race anything, back to your question. Forgot there was a question there.
I would love to run a V8 Supercar. That would be cool. I think Bathurst is a really cool event. But anywhere they run, they beat the s‑‑‑ out of each other, they have a good time. It looks like a blast.

Q. It’s usually a street track and Mount Panorama in Bathurst is a real tough one and a lot of American drivers have gone there and said, hey, we need a track like this here in America. Yeah, we’d love to see you.
ALEX BOWMAN: Yeah, I played it on iRacing a lot and I’ve wadded them up a lot there, so I probably need some more practice before I go for it, but it’s a lot of fun.

Q. Can I ask you about Phoenix next week because it’s the first time you guys are going to have the championship race also be in the regular season. How important is that going to be for teams in?
GREG IVES: Well, I think it’s really important just to not be embarrassed like we were last time there. We kind of had a stranglehold on that place for a while, winning with Dale and then almost winning with Alex and having a lot of confidence going to that track, and then to kind of fall flat on your face is not a really good feeling, especially when I know it’s his hometown, I know we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to run well there, and I don’t care if it’s the championship race or not, I want to win at any place we go and not be embarrassed.
That’s my goal for Phoenix is to go out there, unload just as fast as we did here, execute a good race, and whatever happens at the end of the year is going to happen. But we’ve got to learn, we’ve got to continue to grow, and that’s kind of my focus next week.

Q. Greg and Alex, you guys obviously put in a lot of work in the off‑season because you wanted to get better. You also had a new car. You’re also going to be going to another new car next season. To see a lot of positive results this early in the year, what does that do for everyone back at HMS that’s working on these various projects to see the return so quickly?
GREG IVES: Yeah, I think the one thing that I kind of talk about a lot is the fact that when Chevrolet said they’re going to commit to working hard to try to improve the body, that put a sense of morale throughout the whole shop, throughout the whole team, a lot of positive attitudes towards it. It was our job as a team, my job as a crew chief, his job as a driver to go out there and execute it, right, and the last few years haven’t been great for Hendrick Motorsports on what they’re historically used to and the platform that we show up at the racetrack at.
We need to take that positive momentum of the hard work Chevy put in and we needed to put that to results on the racetrack, whether it was top 10, top 5s. It’s great to have the win, but continuously building that momentum is something that is needed in the shop environment. It’s needed when the guys turn on the TV and they see the racing we had today, and their product was on the racetrack competing for laps, competing on pit road. It’s a totally different vibe, totally different feeling.
I know when I show up next week or tomorrow morning in the shop, it’s going to be a totally different feeling than what I had last year coming out of California.
ALEX BOWMAN: Retweet.
GREG IVES: What I said.

Q. Alex, after the race, I think one of the TV commentators said you led 110 laps out of 200. How difficult was it to stay focused and not make a mistake?
ALEX BOWMAN: Yeah, I mean, I think the most difficult time was when we did get behind on those restarts, really just felt like I really would have to burn my stuff up to get back to the 12 and then not be able to get around him and then eventually drive away from us. So that was the most difficult time. Our car was really good and it was really hard for me to decipher whether I burn the car up or we needed to make a change. I kind of went with my gut and thought that I just burn the tires off of it and if we could get in front of the 12 and not have to pass five guys to get to him, we could stay in front of him.
I’m not sure if we made any changes or not because Greg doesn’t really tell me anything. Apparently my tire was going to explode and he didn’t tell me anything. But it’s cool. So yeah, that was the most difficult time.

Q. Greg, I was told that Goodyear is giving recommendations concerning tire pressure for each track. Technically in your team, do you have a possibility to make simulations to find out where the critical factor is?
GREG IVES: Yeah, we have people back at the shop that all they do all week long is work with the Goodyear engineers, work with the simulation, work with tools, whether it’s wheel‑force data, to understand where the optimum pressure is for tire based on grip but also based on failure. Sometimes when you want to get greedy and get to a level that’s not in agree‑ance with what Goodyear wants but you’re chasing some grip and you’ve just got to figure out how to get there without having failure.
Our issue this week with the right‑rear tire is to be fast and continue to have lap time, you’re on the right‑rear tire, and it went down to the fabric. That’s what we want. We want tires that wear out but tires that don’t give out and blow.
We had tires last week at Vegas that wore out and gave you an indication of where you were but didn’t blow out. Same here at California. Goodyear I feel is doing a great job this year of giving what the drivers want, what the crew chiefs want, and ultimately what the fans want, the falloff in racing and the side by side, and they’re doing a great job.

Q. Alex, I was just curious last week with the outcome of the race at Vegas, knowing that you had a car that was capable of winning the race, how much motivation did you have this week at Auto Club to come here and finish what you started there?
ALEX BOWMAN: Yeah, for sure. I feel like I’ve had a lot of motivation every week. There’s a lot of outside pressure. There’s a lot of pressure from myself. I just want to win races. That’s all there is to it. When I come here and don’t run well and people think I look mad or upset or I’m not friendly, you’re dang right, I want to win races. I don’t like running bad.
I want to run well for me and my team, and last week it would have been really easy to get down on each other, start second‑guessing each other based on that ending, and my team never second‑guesses me, I never second‑guess Greg and the guys, and instead of taking that defeat and getting upset about it, we took the positives from the end of the race and definitely rolled it into positive momentum coming here.

Q. What’s the deal with the tattoos?
ALEX BOWMAN: Oh, man. So one of my good buddies, Aaron Gillespie, he’s a drummer in Underoath. He was in Paramour for a little while. It’s kind of a big deal if you’re into that scene. We made a bet at Daytona. Pretty much everybody from Underoath was at Daytona. We made a bet that if I won, we were getting 88 tattoos, and then it just never stopped. We’ve been talking about it for the last two weeks. Apparently I have to get a neck tattoo, which I’m not really sure that that’s going to happen or not, but yeah, next time we’re all together, I guess we’re all going to get tattoos.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Alex, congratulations.

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Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.

About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is one of the world’s largest car brands, doing business in more than 100 countries and selling more than 4.0 million cars and trucks a year. Chevrolet provides customers with 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.

NASCAR CUP SERIES
AUTO CLUB 400
AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY RACE NOTES & QUOTES
MARCH 1, 2020

TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL FINISHING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Alex Bowman, No. 88 Cincinnati Camaro ZL1 1LE
3rd Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1 1LE
4th Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 1LE
7th Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1 1LE
11th Tyler Reddick, No. 8 I am Second Camaro ZL1 1LE

TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL FINISHING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Alex Bowman (Chevrolet
2nd Kyle Busch (Toyota)
3rd Kurt Busch (Chevrolet)
4th Chase Elliott (Chevrolet)
5th Brad Keselowski (Ford)

The NASCAR Cup Series season continues next weekend at Phoenix Raceway with the FanShield 500 on Sunday March 8 at 3:30 p.m. ET. Live coverage will air on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES:

ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 CINCINNATI CAMARO ZL1 1LE – FONTANA RACE WINNER:
NO WORRIES ON THAT RIGHT REAR NOW:
“No, not at all. Greg (Ives, crew chief) said to save it, so I saved some to use some there! How about that California! I grew up quarter midget racing here, maybe 20 minutes from Pomona Valley. Went there every week. Made a lot of great friends there. I know a lot of you are here today. Man so cool for Cincinnati. Seems like every time they are all on the car we run really good. Promised my buddy Aaron we would all get 88 tattoos if we won so I think I have to get a tattoo now. It will be a good time. It’s been a lot of fun. Thanks to Greg and all the guys. Greg made a lot of good calls today. We were up front when it counted.”

THE SECOND WIN IS ALMOST AS SPECIAL AS THE FIRST BECAUSE IT PROVES THE FIRST WASN’T A FLUKE:
“Yes, for sure. The first one was a real enjoyable experience and then we sucked for six months. We started this year so strong. I feel like I’ve got a lot on my side that I’m doing better. My life has gotten a lot more organized than it was then. Greg and the guys are just on point. We’ve unloaded the last two weeks and I don’t think we have had to make a change to the race car from the way it came off the truck. That makes my job a lot easier. I’m just so proud of this team. Everyone at Hendrick Motorsports. Hendrick horsepower under the hood. The whole shop back home. They work their butts off. We’ve put a lot of effort in this new car and it is obviously working out really well.”

KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 3rd
WHAT IS YOUR TAKEAWAY OF THIS RACE AND A THIRD PLACE FINISH?
“We did really good to balance our Monster Energy Chevy on short run speed, and long run speed. Being able to maneuver on re-starts is something that I’ve been harping on. Making sure we get better when we’re in dirty air. And to come away with a third place finish, that gains a lot of points back for us and I feel really good about the way the car handled this weekend. So, whatever we can do to baseline this, is what we’ve got to do moving forward.”

DOES IT FEEL GOOD TO HAVE THE CHEVYS SO STRONG? BOWMAN WAS REALLY FAST
“As soon as his car unloaded, he was super fast. We were all trying to figure out what it was. But he did the job. As a team, they did their job. And he executed to put a Chevy in Victory Lane, so congrats to Alex Bowman.”

YOU FINISHED IN THIRD. WHAT ELSE DID YOU NEED?
“Oh, a little spray can of grip. If I could spray some grip on her, we’d be right there. We just had different trends. The car would be wide-open for five laps and I’d be really fast after Lap 20. So, if I can narrow it down, I just need to work on that transition from wide-open to that partial throttle and then be able to maneuver through the draft.”

TAKE US THROUGH THE PIT STOP. WHAT HAPPENED THERE? WHERE WAS THE CONFUSION?
“I just drove right by it. I was trying to get my lights matched up and I had my car bucking back and forth. By the time I got my lights settled, I drove right by the box. It was just a flat out mistake on the driver part.

“It’s crazy. We’re trying to get all we can on pit road and that’s how tight it is and we don’t have a pit road speed limiter button, which I think would create safety on pit road, but we don’t have one of those.”

YOU DROPPED TO 25th AND WORKED YOUR WAY UP TO FINISH THIRD, WHAT DOES THAT SAY ABOUT YOU AS A DRIVER AND YOUR NO. 1 TEAM?
“Our team stayed glued together. Spotter said hey man, I know you want to go to the bottom and pass 20 of them in one lap, but you’re going to have to go to the high side and pass one every lap. And that’s what Kyle Busch and we followed him, basically, up through there.”

AWESOME PODIUM FINISH
“Yes, this is an awesome podium finish. It’s a good vibe, a good feel, and yes, we needed a nice solid finish here for Monster Energy, and everybody here in SoCal.”

ON THE CHEVROLETS
“I feel like the Chevys had a really good balance when it came to speed and long run speed. It looked like the Toyotas were just bogged down early in a run when they were wide-open. That’s why they qualified poorly.”

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 4th
WAS IT A SOLID DAY?
“Yeah, it was decent. I feel like we were better than we’ve been, which is good. Not good enough to win, obviously, but better than we’ve been. So, we’ll take it and move on.”

HOW DOES IT FEEL COMPARED TO LAST YEAR? TODAY AND LAST WEEKEND YOU HAD A REALLY STRONG CAR.
“Yeah, Alex (Bowman, race winner) was dominant today. He was by far the best. I was good for our company and hopefully we can keep it rolling.”

DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE NO. 88 ALEX BOWMAN HAD FOR THE SPEED? HE WAS VERY FAST ALL WEEKEND
“Yeah, he was super-fast. So, we’re happy for those guys. They did a really good job.”

WHAT WAS THE NATURE OF TODAY’S RACE? IT WAS A REALLY GOOD RACE
“It was okay. I thought we were able to move around a little bit. It was nice. Yeah, I thought it was good.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 7th
ON THE DAY
“This team is going in the right direction. I know in my heart what I am capable of and what this team is capable of. It’s just taken a little bit to get the right people in the right places, and rebuild and get this Ally Chevy exactly where it needs to be. We just couldn’t adjust this car on the pits stops quite enough to get the tight out of it. It was really competitive and racy at the start of a run and then we would fade at the end. At the end, I thought I was going to blow a tire, I think I had cords on the fronts and I thought I wasn’t going to finish the race. So to salvage a top-10 out of it and two thirds in the stages, so we are headed in the right direction. I want to thank the fans here in California. There have been some great vibes all weekend.”

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT TODAY?
“Oh, a lot of neat things happened today. The card is full, that’s for sure. I was pretty bummed about that last run. We got super-tight. I think I was pretty lucky to finish. I think one of the front tires was getting ready to blow out. We just didn’t stay on top of the adjustments needed to keep the car free and going, but we still had a great day and ran up front and led some laps and raced for the lead. But the longer the run, the tighter the car.”

YOU ARE CLOSE TO A WIN, BUT THE CLOSER YOU GET, THE MORE YOU WANT IT, RIGHT?
“Oh, without a doubt. I’m a competitor at heart and I want to win races and be up front and get it all done. So, I was pretty disappointed the way it finished and ended up 7th. But it’s a good sign of where we’re heading.”

ON RACING AT HIS HOME TRACK
“Oh, there’s nothing like coming home and this was beyond anything I could have every imagined.”

ON YOU AND ALEX BOWMAN RACING EACH OTHER, DO YOU EXPECT A TEAMMATE TO GIVE YOU MORE COURTESY OR IS THIS JUST HOW PEOPLE HAVE TO RACE TODAY TO WIN?
“No, that was just racing. Honestly, with Blaney, Bowman, and really the way it all works with everybody, I didn’t see any bad laid blocks. You’ve got to use the draft when you can and sometimes you’ve got a small run and you probably need to wait until you have a bigger run so you both stall out side-by-side. I saw drivers using that mindset as well. I thought Alex did a good job and congratulations to him and his team on their win.”

HE WAS REALLY FAST. DO YOU KNOW WHAT HE HAD FOR SPEED?
“We were all theorizing going into the race. We definitely came their direction from practice into qualifying and the race and I think it helped us quite a big. They’re hitting on some stuff right now and I’m sure everybody will go home and look really close to the No. 88 set-up and take that to the next track.”

WILD RESTARTS AND FOUR-WIDE RACING IN CALIFORNIA
Three Toyota Drivers Earn Top-10 Finishes

FONTANA, Calif. (March 1, 2020) – Kyle Busch finished second in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Southern California’s Auto Club Speedway and was followed to the checkered flag by two other Joe Gibbs Racing Camrys in the top-10.

Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Auto Club Speedway
Race 3 of 36 – 400 miles, 200 laps

TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Alex Bowman*
2nd, KYLE BUSCH
3rd, Kurt Busch*
4th, Chase Elliott*
5th, Brad Keselowski*
6th, DENNY HAMLIN
10th, ERIK JONES
14th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
28th, DANIEL SUÁREZ
37th, TIMMY HILL
38th, CHRISTOPHER BELL
*non-Toyota driver

TOYOTA QUOTES

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 2nd

After the weekend you had, how do you feel about second place in the race?

“We have a lot of work to do. Guys did a great job here though just trying to work on it and trying to make everything we could out of it all day long, all weekend long. Interstate Batteries Camry wasn’t a second place car, but thankfully we got a good finish out of here and try to get some points. Guys are doing all they can, I know along with everybody at TRD (Toyota Racing Development). I appreciate all the hard work, we just have to get a little bit better. We finished the end of last year so strong, I don’t know what we’re missing here. Obviously, it’s a little bit of something here and maybe a little bit of something in a few different areas, but overall good car today. Thank M&M’s, Snickers, Skittles, Rowdy Energy and go on to next week.”

How would you sum up your day?

“Slow, we were slow. Just didn’t have the speed overall today for some reason. Then, there at the end felt like the tires were worn out at the last bit of the race. Just frustrating day for us with our Interstate Batteries Camry. Give it up to my guys and everybody at the shop, they’re certainly working hard. I just feel like we’re kind of missing it a little bit – here, here, here and here and those things kind of add up and drag you down a little bit. Overall, great day I guess coming home with second and getting good points out of here. Thanks to Toyota, M&M’s, Interstate Batteries and Rowdy Energy – let’s go next week.”

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Office Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 6th

Did today finish better than you initially anticipated?

“We’re still slow. Our cars handled okay. If we don’t have a draft, we’re just run over. It’s tough because I feel like we’re getting beat on throttle time, but we’re also just getting murdered down the straightaways. Just need more horsepower, more downforce and less drag. If we can have all those, we’ll be better.”

What happened between yourself and Martin Truex Jr. during the race and is it difficult to have to race your teammates hard?

“We’re just fighting like cats and dogs. I think I was on the bottom there on the right rear and it just dumps air so much on my right rear spoiler that caused me to plow tight and kind of shove up into him. It’s just a bad combination.”

ERIK JONES, No. 20 Reser’s Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 10th

“It was a step in the right direction. I don’t think any of us really had race-winning speed. I think Kyle (Busch) got some good track position on that restart and was able to maintain. We got shuffled back and kind of had to come back from 15th. I don’t know, I think we’re off. We didn’t have anything for the 88 (Alex Bowman) or anything like that. We have to get faster, but I think we learned a lot. Just have more to get. Don’t know how to get there, but we have more to get.”

# # #

About Toyota

Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in the U.S. and North America for more than 60 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands. During that time, Toyota has created a tremendous value chain as our teams have contributed to world-class design, engineering, and assembly of more than 40 million cars and trucks in North America, where we have 14 manufacturing plants, 15 including our joint venture in Alabama (10 in the U.S.), and directly employ more than 47,000 people (over 36,000 in the U.S.). Our 1,800 North American dealerships (nearly 1,500 in the U.S.) sold nearly 2.8 million cars and trucks (nearly 2.4 million in the U.S.) in 2019.

Through the Start Your Impossible campaign, Toyota highlights the way it partners with community, civic, academic and governmental organizations to address our society’s most pressing mobility challenges. We believe that when people are free to move, anything is possible. For more information about Toyota, visit www.toyotanewsroom.com.

Austin Dillon and the No. 3 Dow Coatings Chevrolet Team Solid at Auto Club Speedway Before Last-Lap Pit Stop

Finish: 24th
Start: 25th
Points: 14th

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
Sunday, March 1, 2020
EVENT: NASCAR Cup Series Post-Race (Auto Club 400, Fontana, CA.)

FORD FINISHING RESULTS
5th – Brad Keselowski
8th – Aric Almirola
9th – Kevin Harvick
12th – Joey Logano
13th – Matt DiBenedetto
16th – Chris Buescher
17th – Ross Chastain
18th – Cole Custer
19th – Ryan Blaney
22nd – Michael McDowell
23rd – Clint Bowyer
25th – John Hunter Nemechek
29th – Corey LaJoie

Brad Keselowski, No. 2 America’s Tire Ford Mustang – FINISHED 5th

“We had a good run today with the Discount Tire Ford. We ran fifth, which isn’t bad. There were some highlights. We were able to drive through the field there a couple times. The car had a lot of long run speed. We never had the speed the 88 had through the whole weekend but we fought really hard and scored a lot of points today to dig us out of a hole we had from early on in the season. There were a lot of positives.”

“I think we executed really well today. I probably could have done a little better on one of the early restarts, but other than that the team did really good.”

Aric Almirola, No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang – FINISHED 8th

“I have to clean up some things and we have to clean up some things as a team. I thought we had a top-five car and we just kept giving away all of our track position. We have to do better, but we are building and we got a top-10 and we will take that and move on. I think we have a lot of potential. I think Bugga and all the guys did a great job with the car and I felt like we had a top-10 car going into today and we proved that. We ran in the top-10 most of the day but I feel like with track position and a few other things going a little better, a little smoother, we could have had a lot better result. Overall, it was still a decent day and we will take the points and move on.”

Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang – FINISHED 9th

“We just didn’t have a very good weekend. This place wasn’t very good for us last year either. I am just having a hard time getting the car to be balanced all the way through the corner. I think as you look at it, we didn’t have a ninth-place car either, we just had a great day on pit road. Those guys did a phenomenal job on pit road and that kept us in the game.”

Ryan Blaney, No. 12 BodyArmor Ford Mustang – FINISHED 19th

YOU LED 54 LAPS AND HAD TO PIT LATE WHILE RUNNING SECOND, CAN YOU TAKE ANYTHING POSITIVE AWAY FROM TODAY? “Yeah, we led a little bit and ran pretty good, we just corded a right rear at the end. We lost the lead there at the beginning of the third stage and kind of got swallowed up and the 88 got away and got gone. We needed to be in front of him. It is just the way it goes sometimes.”

NASCAR CUP SERIES
AUTO CLUB 400
AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES & QUOTES
FEBRUARY 29, 2020

TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
2nd Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1 1LE
3rd Alex Bowman, No. 88 Cincinnati Camaro ZL1 1LE
4th Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1 1LE
9th Kyle Larson, No. 42 McDonald’s Camaro ZL1 1LE
10th Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. No. 47 Kroger Camaro ZL1 1LE

TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Clint Bowyer (Ford)
2nd Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet)
3rd Alex Bowman (Chevrolet)
4th Kurt Busch (Chevrolet)
5th Kevin Harvick (Ford)

FOX will telecast the 200-lap Auto Club 400 live at 3:30 p.m. EST Sunday, March 1. Live coverage can also be found on MRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES:

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Qualified 2nd
ON STARTING ON THE FRONT ROW AND SEEING HIS GIRLS WAVE THE GREEN FLAG:
“It will be super special. I wish we were one spot further ahead and clearly off turn four there I ran a little more distance to the start finish. It is such a fine balance to try to understand how much you can open up and let the engine run. Clearly I did too much, but that’s just the competitor in me. Very special weekend for me and I can’t wait to see my girls up in the flag stand waving the green flag.”

ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 CINCINNATI CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Qualified 3rd
“My car drove really well. We backed-up the lap time we ran yesterday. Not everybody mocked-up yesterday. It looks like the SHR cars are pretty quick, but I’m just really confident about how our car is going to race. Obviously on the long runs our car was really good yesterday. So, I’m looking forward to getting the race in, hopefully, tomorrow and I think we will end up somewhere there towards the front and we can definitely race from there.”

YOU LED BOTH PRACTICES AND WANTED THE POLE, BUT THE TROPHY IS FOR THE RACE WIN. SO, NOW YOU TURN YOUR ATTENTION TO THAT, RIGHT?
“Yeah, sure. I think there were probably some things we could have done to qualify a little better. That would have hurt our car for the race. So, we are really just focused on racing really well and I think that’s something we can definitely do.”

KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Qualified 4th
“I was really proud of the effort. I was hopeful that we’d be able to hold it wide open and have speed in reserve. That’s the key with impound. Sometimes pole-sitting cars don’t have that downforce in the race and sometimes being on the pole at a super-fast track like this isn’t a good thing and being right up front, where we qualified is absolutely perfect. So, thanks to Matt Mccall (crew chief) and all the guys for finding all the right little additions and all the little itty-bitty things. When you add-up a few thousands, you get that tenth that you need.

“The car felt good yesterday in practice. We know we can run well up in the high grooves on the long runs, we’ve just got to make sure that we’ve got speed on the short runs when we’re carving through the bumps and when you have that dirty air, that’s where our car has struggled and we just have to make sure we’re making moves and making changes to the car to help us in traffic.

“The new Camaro ZL1 1LE has a little bit more front downforce and a little bit more rear, and a little bit more side force to it. Everything that it shows in the wind tunnel it gives us when we’re out on the track. We just still, at Ganassi, have to be doing a better job when we’re in race conditions around other cars.

KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 MCDONALD’S CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Qualified 9th
ON THE IMPORTANCE OF QUALIFYING AT AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY
“It’s somewhat important. You always want to start the race off as far forward as you can to try and maintain good track position all day.”

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Qualified 13th
“We were 13th. The sun is shining and we’re all here. So, we’re good.”

ON THE CAMARO ZL1 1LE
“Well last week, I thought was a little better. I thought we were a little more competitive last week than we’ve been at some 1.5-miles. So, I was encouraged by that. I hope that we can keep that up and that it wasn’t just a one-time thing. That’s why we’re back here again.”

AFTER YOU HEARD WHAT KEVIN HARVICK WAS GOING TO DO WITH THE TRUCK BOUNTY, DID YOU SAY YOU WANTED TO TRY TO DO ATLANTA?
“Yeah, it was as simple as I reached out to (GMS president) Mike Beam a text saying hey, I don’t know if you’ve heard about this but it’s going to be kind of fun. He said cool, that he would work on it and see what they could come up with. I thought it would be fun. Heck, why not? I’m either going to watch it on the couch or go try to do it, so I opted for (plan) B.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK YOUR CHANCES ARE?
“I hope they’re good. I don’t know when the last time I ran a Truck race was, but yeah, just go have fun and it will be a good challenge to try to out-run him. If we do, great. And it’s a fun story, regardless and a cool deal and I’m glad Kevin was having fun with it. At the time, nobody was really jumping on board and I was like why not? Let’s give it a shot. It’ll be fun.”

BUBBA WALLACE, JR., NO. 43 VICTORY JUNCTION CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Qualified 14th
“We’ve still got some speed to get out of our car, but it’s all about race trim for us and our Chevrolet. All-in-all, decent speed and decent balance on our Victory Junction Chevrolet, so we’re excited. We’re definitely a lot better than we’ve been here in the past coming to California, one of my favorite places to race at. So, we’ll have some fun tomorrow.

WHAT’S THE TOUGH PART OF THIS TRACK?
“I think just trying to manage your tires. When you’re loose, you’re kind of just sitting in place spinning your rear tires and just losing grip over the long run, so we’re really focused on the long-run handling. But we’ve got to be able to fire off too. So, we’ll see what we’ve got.”

WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA 24 TRIBUTE CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Qualified 21st
“Our car is decent. We’ve kind of been all over the place so far. So we just have to kind of do a few things and get ready for Sunday.”

TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 24th
“Our GEICO Camaro never really hit a balance and speed combination that we’re really comfortable with and it was a little loose there in our Qualifying run, but I was able to hold it full throttle. We’ve still got some tuning to get it honed in to be able to race the way we want it to. All-in-all, we’ve had some good momentum this year with our ZL1 1LE, so hopefully we’ll keep it going.”

Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.

About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is one of the world’s largest car brands, doing business in more than 100 countries and selling more than 4.0 million cars and trucks a year. Chevrolet provides customers with fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
Saturday, February 29, 2020
EVENT: NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying (Fontana)

CLINT BOWYER, No. 14 Rush/HAAS CNC Ford Mustang – POLE WINNER PRESS CONFERENCE

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT STARTING OUT FRONT HERE TOMORROW? “Certainly that is where you want to be. Honestly, I didn’t really see that in the car. We didn’t run a qualifying lap yesterday. We made some changes in happy hour and the car kind of woke up and showed some speed but honestly, we were kind of focused on downforce and doing what we needed to do in traffic. That being said, that thing rocketed to the top there and he told me the lap time and I was like, ‘Damn, I think that is on the pole.’ Again, the sun was coming out and that changed the qualifying day quite a bit as the sun came out and it was right before us. I was watching the Gibbs cars go and you could see on SMT with the data we have now you can visibly see everyone starting to really jerk on the wheel in the middle of one and two and get loose. I was like, ‘Oh damn, here I go. I am fixin to see the same thing.’ Sure enough, I got in there and she just kind of slid in the slot and I didn’t have to chase it up the track. I just gave it one big catch and it pointed and shot off the corner and I was able to keep the throttle down. Then you see the 48 car, the last car out, the story of his last race at home. I figured there was no way we were going to win. I was better coming to the green and then better through one and two but then all of a sudden off of two he had a really good run and got ahead of me into three and four. Honestly, he was ahead of me off of four even, but I just pulled it down just a little bit more than he did down the front straightaway and just barely got him. That is what qualifying is all about with this produce where you are all but wide open. It comes down to your balance and how the car is trimmed out and things like that. It makes it interesting and nerve-wracking as well because it is all so close.”

IT SOUNDS LIKE IT IS AN ADVANTAGE TO GO OUT LATE SO YOU CAN SEE WHAT PEOPLE ARE DOING ON THE LIVE DATA. HAS THAT CHANGED THE GAME A LITTLE BIT, BEING ABLE TO WATCH AS YOU ARE QUALIFYING? “Absolutely. SMT and that data that we have now we can see everything, and you can see if you are wide open. We all knew after practice, everybody had a good handle on their cars and had worked for two practice sessions to get the handling dialed in and all of a sudden we all looked back at the SMT and the 88 car was wide open for five laps. It was like, ‘Uh oh. We are going to have to change the thought process. We need to do some different things.’ That is all on ride heights of the car and stuff like that. When you start moving those ride heights that is drag and downforce but it also changes your balance quite a bit so you have to really go back in and dissect your balance in your race car and setup with the chassis because you have moved the aero platform with the body. Those two things have to work together to find grip in the racetrack. That is when you hope that the computer and the smart guy behind it, that he didn’t have a bad night and that computer doesn’t have a virus because you need those worlds to collide with your aero platform and your chassis. For that, I think it has to do with this old surface really. That cloud cover was huge. You could see in your steering that everybody was barely working the wheel and as it kept getting hotter and hotter everyone was really sawing on the wheel as we went. That is why I was pretty nervous about it. I didn’t think anybody would beat those cars that went early unless they were just drastically trimmed out different.”

THIS RACE A YEAR AGO IS WHEN YOU MENTIONED HOW YOU GUYS ALL GOT BOOED. THIS YEAR, THE FANS WERE REALLY INTO QUALIFYING HERE TODAY. WHAT IS THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE? “I think this is the right format and it has stood the test of time. One thing that did kind of mess with me, to be honest with you, it may have played in my favor was that the 34 car that was the fastest stayed on the track and didn’t cut across the apron in three and four. That might not register to you guys but that is stuff that we all look for. When I came around, the 11 was shut off and on the apron. I didn’t even have that option. I don’t know if that was to my advantage or not but it was the cards I was dealt. Had it not been a good lap I may have been crying foul there. I wasn’t the only one though. There were several guys that were riding on the apron when their lap came around, that is just the way the timing was. We may need to look into that to make sure we all have a good clean lap. The last thing you want to do is get in the way of somebody. Or maybe you do, right? That was definitely something that kind of threw me for a loop. I think that the data that we have and Jeff being able to call that qualifying session with watching that loop data and that ghost car catch me and run me down and barely get by me, I am watching the same thing, right? I am thinking, ‘Nooooo!’ He got us right there at the end and then he didn’t quite pull it down far enough. I thought I was done. I threw my hat. I was kicking the ground. I just barely squeaked by him there at the end. That is what qualifying is all about, being nervous about it right until the end.”

YOU WILL SHARE THE FRONT ROW WITH JIMMIE JOHNSON IN HIS LAST RACE HERE, WHAT IS THAT LIKE? “It is cool. I guess I will be in all the pictures because you know damn well they will all be on him. At least I will be in the background for my sponsors right?”

JIMMIE BASICALLY SAID WHEN HE GOT TO THE CORNER IT WAS A CHOICE AS TO WHETHER HE WAS GOING TO LET THE MOTOR RUN AND HOW WIDE TO KEEP IT OFF OF THAT CORNER. IS THAT SOMETHING YOU GUYS CAN THINK ABOUT AND MAKE THAT CALL IN THE SPLIT-SECOND LIKE THAT? “Well, with the cars the way they are with the horsepower and the drag and everything else, throttle response, you have to be wide open. Then you start thinking that it can almost be too loose too. Those things get sideways and crank out and that side force can slow you down as well. You can’t be too loose or too tight. You have to have balance and keep that thing straight as possible to be sleek through the air. Me getting loose down there, it just kind of slid in the slot and I was good to go. I still knew that it scrubbed a lot of speed. You can hear it in the engine when it does that because it picks up that side force as well. It just worked out today. I have said it time and time again, my worst nightmare is when you make a qualifying lap in practice and it does that, you just slide it off in there and it is that perfect lap where it points and you mash the gas and away you go and you don’t think you can do it again and nine times out of 10 you can’t. It was one of those laps where it slid in well. I think after that he actually came off lower than I did off of four and I thought we were done but he didn’t pull down on the apron right at the flag stand and that is kind of where I got him back. Hell, I don’t know.”

WILL YOU TAKE THE INSIDE LANE? “Great question. I didn’t even think I would be in this situation when I woke up this morning. I was worried about being trimmed out and focused on Sunday. I don’t know. Probably the outside I would think.”

HIS FAMILY IS IN THE FLAG STAND: “Well, how can I cover him up the most in the shot that I can get the most pictures on my car? That is probably where I need to be.”

DO YOU PREFER TO RUN UNDER COOLER TEMPERATURES ON SUNDAY? “I am not going to lie to you, right now I don’t really care as long as we race tomorrow. I have been on the road for 11 days and trust me, I am feeling the heat from the wife back home that has been home with two kids for 11 days while I have been out chasing this dream. We are supposed to take the kids and meet up in Park City to go skiing next week. If my ass doesn’t make that tomorrow because we aren’t racing, she isn’t going to be very happy. I think this track is unique in so many ways from as wide as it is to the grip level that it has because of the worn surface, I think it presents well for a product for our fans and it doesn’t matter if it is going to be cool or hot, we will be slipping and sliding around and looking for real estate where that car in front of you is not and trying to keep that momentum alive. That is what is important.”

DID YOU GET A CHANCE TO TALK TO YOUR TEAMMATE COLE CUSTER? “I haven’t yet. I talked to him, we all debrief after practice. We all have been doing this a long time and I think it is important for all of us to try to help out as much as possible. The kid came from a dominant fashion in Xfinity and it is hard when you get in this series. You are used to leading every lap and leading every practice, winning every practice, winning a lot of races. It is hard. It is very hard when you get into a practice session and you look over and you are 20th and you are freaking out just on that alone. Forget the way the car is. You freak out looking at the lap times and you get to focusing on that and chasing the stopwatch. We all just try to make sure that he is pointed in the right direction. I guess it is a path, a thought process. We have been coming to this track a long time and we all kind of know what to expect and that is one thing he doesn’t know in these cars with the traffic and everything else. There are so many different things when you get to this level of competition in the Cup Series that catches you off guard. We all try to help out as much as we can with that. I am telling you, the kid is impressive. He is a wheel man and he has a hell of an opportunity. He will make the most of it.”

WHAT DOES WINNING THE POLE DO TO YOUR ATTITUDE GOING IN? “It makes today better but it makes it more nerve-wracking for me. Last time I did that I was like 50th on lap five. I couldn’t go back fast enough the way we were trimmed out in Vegas. We were conscious of that and focused on making sure we had downforce and it would race well. That is why when I woke up this morning I wasn’t even worried about today because I didn’t think we had a chance in hell to sit on the pole. Here we are baby. I am happy.”

WHAT HAS IT BEEN LIKE WORKING WITH JOHNNY KLAUSMEIER? “I think Johnny’s demeanor is just so chill. Mine is not. It is a good counter for me. I am freaking out in the car and he is just like, ’10-4’ and I am like, ‘That’s it? 10-4?’ It helps me calm down and stay focused on the task at hand. His through process and way he goes about his business is super chill. He has a good group of engineers and everybody underneath of him. It is a new opportunity. I always say a new broom always sweeps good. We have to keep together and make sure we are doing the right things and keep our communication down pat. It seems like this year has already thrown us for a lot of adversity and have to work through a lot of circumstances. Whether it was the Clash, my God, all the cautions and pits and fixing things to the 500, a chaotic 500 for us, to last weekend where we struggled. In my opinion, when you struggle with a new group it gives you a chance to work through a lot of things that sooner or later you will have to encounter. We stubbed our toe last week. We were off. There is no question. We were bummed out but caught a break there at the end and got a decent finish out of it and kept us alive in the points. No harm, no foul there. Coming this weekend is another learning curve. This has been a good track for me but I can’t finish here. I always run well here and really enjoy the racetrack but I have blown up, we blew up last year. I have done that two or three times. I have struggled to get the finish, so I am looking forward to having the opportunity to be there at the end of this thing. Beating ‘em by and inch would be just fine with me.”

NCS Post-Qualifying Report – Auto Club Speedway
Six Camrys Set to Start Sunday’s 400-mile California Race

FONTANA, Calif. (February 29, 2020) – Kyle Busch claims highest starting position for Toyota at California’s Auto Club Speedway.

Toyota Racing Post-Qualifying Report
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Auto Club Speedway – February 29, 2020

TOYOTA STARTING POSITIONS
1st, Clint Bowyer*
2nd, Jimmie Johnson*
3rd, Alex Bowman*
4th, Kurt Busch*
5th, Kevin Harvick*
17th, KYLE BUSCH
22nd, CHRISTOPHER BELL
28th, DENNY HAMLIN
29th, ERIK JONES
31st, DANIEL SUÁREZ
38th, MARTIN TRUEX JR
*non-Toyota driver

TOYOTA QUOTES

CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 95 Rheem Toyota Camry, Leavine Family Racing
Qualifying Position: 22nd

How was your qualifying lap?
“Qualifying is qualifying. Honestly, it was a lot easier than what I was anticipating. Yesterday it was 20-something degrees hotter or 10 degrees, whatever it was, but yesterday qualifying runs were not easy. It was just right on the edge of could you hold it flat or could you not hold it flat and today, at least for my car it was easy to be flat all the way around. Hopefully, that’s a sign of what’s to come tomorrow. I don’t care where we qualify, as long as we race good.”

Was that more adjustments or track temperature?
“A lot of it was probably track temp and especially whenever I was out there, it was clouded up quite a bit.”

How has the adjustment to Cup been for you?
“Obviously it hasn’t been great so far. At Vegas and Daytona I felt like we were right with our teammates so that’s good. I have to limit my mistakes obviously. Can’t afford to be crashing. It’s very important for me to finish this race on Sunday.”

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Office Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Qualifying Position: 28th

What happened in qualifying?
“We’re just slow, a half-second off all weekend. We knew we would be at least that in qualifying.”

Is there an explanation or is the team scratching their heads?
“I’m not sure. I think we definitely are. We think a lot of guys have grip built into the car and they were able to hold it wide open so it would be faster. I don’t know, it’s tough to say what we’re struggling with.”

Does it seem odd since nothing really changed?
“A manufacturer got a new body, built for one year based off the rules that we got. That helps. Everyone else continues to develop, you definitely don’t sit still. No team really sits still.”

Why is the racing so much more aggressive mid-pack now?
“It certainly is. Last week I was in the 20s, it’s nuts back there. It’s not any fun, I can tell you. It’s definitely a lot different racing. These are people that are scratching, clawing to stay on the lead lap. I know I had to race Chase (Elliott) in a very unprofessional way last week at the end of the stage to stay on the lead lap. It sucks that you have to do that when you’re having a struggling day and running in the 20s, it’s what you have to do.”

ERIK JONES, No. 20 Resers Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Qualifying Position: 29th

What happened in qualifying?
“Just not good. Almost crashed in one and two, we were just slow. We haven’t been able to get the car driving that good all weekend. Just been fighting it. Just struggling. Have to be better. Just wasn’t that good.”

Is the team looking for answers right now?
“We’re obviously behind as far as speed and race ability right now. It’s just going to take time. Chevy has a new body and it’s doing pretty well for them. We are just behind right now. We have work to do, but we’re doing all we can with what we have for wind tunnel numbers and trying to get the cars better, it’s just going to take time right now.”

Is there a sense of frustration?
“Yeah, you’re frustrated, but it’s part of it. It ebbs and flows in racing. Sometimes you’re really good and we were really fast last year at a lot of places and this year we’re just struggling to start. It’s hard when you come off a good year and the next year you struggle out of the gate and that’s where we kind of are right now. We don’t know how we’re going to race tomorrow, hopefully we race good. Obviously, we’re going to start pretty far back and that will make it tough. Hopefully we can race up and just have a decent day. Didn’t have a great day in Vegas and we need to have a good race here soon.”

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Qualifying Position: 38th

Does the performance of your car in practice yesterday make you optimistic about the race?
“I’m always optimistic. I did feel good about our car and seemed like long runs we were strong. Hopefully we’ll have a lot of those tomorrow and be able to use those to our advantage.”

Do you know what failed in inspection?
“I guess we failed a small spot on the body the first time through and then fixed it, came back and then got into the LIS roulette game. Chased that around a few times and here we are.”

Is there frustration within the organization about performance?
“We had a car capable of winning last weekend. This stuff is not easy. We’ll see how tomorrow goes. We lack speed by ourselves for sure on these bigger tracks and we did last year as well. I think we focus on what we need to race good with and hopefully tomorrow we’ll find out that we can race good, that’s the plan. We’ll see how it goes. We have to race first.”

Will you have a different strategy to get track position?
“There’s not many opportunities here because of tire wear. You have to put tires on. If you don’t, you’re just going to get run over. We’re just going to have to pass some guys and look forward to having some fun.”

# # #

About Toyota

Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in the U.S. and North America for more than 60 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands. During that time, Toyota has created a tremendous value chain as our teams have contributed to world-class design, engineering, and assembly of more than 38 million cars and trucks in North America, where we have 14 manufacturing plants, 15 including our joint venture in Alabama (10 in the U.S.), and directly employ more than 47,000 people (over 36,000 in the U.S.). Our 1,800 North American dealerships (nearly 1,500 in the U.S.) sold 2.8 million cars and trucks (2.4 million in the U.S.) in 2018.

Through the Start Your Impossible campaign, Toyota highlights the way it partners with community, civic, academic and governmental organizations to address our society’s most pressing mobility challenges. We believe that when people are free to move, anything is possible. For more information about Toyota, visit ToyotaNewsroom.com.

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
Saturday, February 29, 2020
EVENT: NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying (Fontana)

FORD QUALIFYING RESULTS
1st – Clint Bowyer
5th – Kevin Harvick
6th – Aric Almirola
7th – Joey Logano
8th – Michael McDowell
11th – Chris Buescher
12th – Matt DiBenedetto
15th – Brad Keselowski
16th – Ryan Blaney
18th – Cole Custer
23rd – John Hunter Nemechek
26th – Corey LaJoie
27th – Ross Chastain

ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang

“I thought that is about where we expected to be. We have done a good job at qualifying in the past as an organization and our cars always have speed. It really is just about trying to figure out how to create longevity and make them run good for a long time. I felt decent about what we had in practice yesterday and I think the package that you bring here is always interesting because the track is so big and long with long straightaways but the pavement is worn out. There is certainly a balance between speed and downforce but tomorrow will be overcast and 55 so hopefully speed will pay off.”

CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang

“That was a good lap for our Fastenal Ford Mustang. I was really, really happy with the gains we made yesterday through practice. The second practice was night and day over where we unloaded. I am really proud of the group and what they did to get us to that point. I kind of thought we might give up a little speed through some of the changes we made but it is holding its own really well. I don’t think I am really too concerned about it. The car is driving good, right to the bottom. I was able to put down a decent lap. We have been holding on.”

COLE CUSTER, No. 41 Production Alliance Group/HAAS Ford Mustang

“I was hoping we would be a little better than that. I got a little tight on the bottom. I probably could have done something a little bit better. We will just go and race. I think we have to try to go out there and see what we have in the race.”

MATT DIBENEDETTO, No. 21 Menards/Quaker State Ford Mustang

“It was fine. I held it wide open and didn’t lift. That is good. Qualifying is just different because it isn’t like before where we would go and see what kind of lap we could lay down. It is different because we hold it wide open and we are not quite trimmed out, so we aren’t really shooting for the pole, so it kind of changes the game. It is weird to have the odd situation where you could easily just set your car up to go out and get the pole, it wouldn’t be hard. We would trim the car out, trim the body out and go get the pole, but then you sacrifice raceability and it kind of stinks from a drivers perspective because you want to go compete for the pole but the game has changed with the new package in 2019 and you have to figure out what you really want, what is important, starting position versus raceability in your car. That is most people’s focus.”

KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang

“We just weren’t very good yesterday so we made wholesale changes to the car. We were a little too loose right there for our run on both ends and kind of had to breathe it off of two and kind of missed my mark getting into one, sliding a little bit. Everyone did a good job on our Mobil 1 Ford. We had to do something different and that is what we did.”

MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang

“I am happy and worried all at the same time. With this package we have seen this a few times last year where we had a lot of speed in qualifying and then struggled in the race. We have as much downforce built into it as we can. Definitely not us trying to be tricky by any means. We thought our car was really good yesterday in race trim and the fall off was good. I thought we were about a top-15 car. Not a top-10, but a top-15 which is a good step from where we were last week. It has been a smooth weekend. Vegas was a struggle and this weekend has been good. The Ford Mustang is good. Love’s Travel Stops is on for their third consecutive race so hopefully this will be a good one for them.”

JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK, No. 38 Fire Alarm Services Ford Mustang

“That was definitely an improvement from yesterday. We struggled yesterday in practice. I went back and talked to Michael (McDowell) quite a bit and put his setup in for today. We definitely made improvements for sure. I was happy with where we are at right now. We finally got on the other side of where we were at yesterday as far as balance so we will go back and fine tune for tomorrow. I am looking forward to it. It is my first time here in a Cup car but only my third time here as a driver so I am trying to figure out this place still. I have leaned on Ryan Newman quite a bit back home as well to ask him questions as well.”

Toyota Racing – Martin Truex Jr.
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes

FONTANA, Calif. (February 28, 2020) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Martin Truex Jr. was made available to media at Auto Club Speedway:

Martin Truex Jr., No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Are you concerned with any performance from Joe Gibbs Racing this season?

“I was pretty happy with my car again today. The guys are doing a good job there. These things, they’re very picky and very tricky and things change really quick. Guys are obviously doing a good job. Had a really strong car in Vegas last week, I was really happy with that. Felt like we were going to be in position to have a shot at winning there. Of course we had our issues. That’s part of the deal. So far here at Fontana, feel pretty good and hopefully that will translate into a good day on Sunday.”

Do you see the Chevrolet teams running better?

“They definitely look fast. We typically, even if you go back to last year, we don’t have a lot of speed. The speed charts and the faster lap times, we seem to struggle. That’s something we’ve been working on, but we haven’t really made any progress on. It’s a little bit frustrating. It makes it difficult to really know where you are with your car and things like that until you get into the race. Last week I had a really good feeling about our car, we got in the race and it raced well. That’s not always the case. Feeling pretty good here today again once we got some things dialed in throughout practice and our last run was our best, which is always a good sign. Hopefully we can get it dialed in for Sunday.”

Will racing at Phoenix make the championship race more abnormal?

“I think it will be more important for sure. Obviously, there’s no guarantees if you run good in the first race that you’ll run good in the second one, you know what I mean. I think a lot of guys are definitely going to be focused on next week and what they can do there. It’s definitely unique going to that track twice. I don’t necessarily like that. I like that Homestead was a one-off deal. A lot of guys will be putting a lot of effort in next week to see where they stand.”

Do you not like it because it gives people an advantage?

“It gives you a sample and then you have six months to work it out. I don’t necessarily like it, but it is what it is.”

Do you have a good car this weekend thus far, which will make up for last week?

“You do this long enough, you understand that it’s an up and down sport. Some days are going to be good and some days aren’t going to be good. We seem to have a lot of good days and it makes the bad days a little easier to take. You go onto next week and you have a shot at redemption. Certainly last week was disappointing, but the speed in our car and the opportunity I felt like we were going to have if things didn’t go the wrong way, that’s what we’re looking for and hoping for. See if we can do better on Sunday.”

Do you expect the short track package to improve the racing at Phoenix?

“I think if you go back to 2018, it will be similar to that. The cars are going to be basically exactly the same as they were then aside from what guys have learned since. Should be good, looking forward to it.”

Are you concerned that you haven’t won at Phoenix?

“Not really. It’s been kind of a decent track for us over the years I would say. I felt like since the repave, it’s taken a little bit for us to get our arms around it. I feel like we’re getting better there and that’s a good thing. Some good runs there the last couple years. Last fall felt like we were about the closest we’ve been in a few years at least to having a shot. New rules going back a few years. 2018 we ran well there so hopefully we can expand on that and find some more speed there.”

How is Ryan Newman doing?

“He’s doing good. He’s chomping at the bit to get to the race track, I can tell. He’s in good shape, doing good.”

What do you think this race is going to look like Sunday?

“I don’t remember a whole lot about the race last year, but I know restarts will be crazy, they always are. You look at last week and I feel like the tighter the field gets speed-wise, the more important restarts become. Everyone knows that and you get on a track with five lanes on it like California, there’s going to be a guy in every one of them. Certainly, hopefully you can stay out of trouble. Last year we got wrecked here on the very first restart, which was end of stage one I guess. Pretty much ruined our day. Same thing happened last week. You have to try to watch out for the dumbasses out there. It’s pretty difficult to do sometimes.”

How do you work around them?

“Pick a hole and go with it, hope they hold their line. That’s all you can do. Not a whole lot you can do about others driving their cars.”

How do you get over being frustrated about the others?

“You just finish the race the best you can and move onto next week.”

Do you expect the package from last week to behave similarly in Atlanta?

“For sure. Anywhere where we have multiple grooves, restarts are going to be as many cars as we can fit between each other on the race track. That’s just the way that goes. The cool part about a place like Atlanta is tires fall off and you slide around and you have to start lifting. The good cars go to the front and that’s what’s fun. We’ll have some of that here as well. There will be some guys that are really fast for a few laps, probably qualify good and then after 10 or 15 laps on tires, they’re going to go backwards. That’s just the nature of this package and these types of tracks. I’d expect we’ll qualify in the 20s somewhere like we always did last year and hopefully be able to drive forward from there.”

What did you think of the new tire this weekend?

“To be honest, I only ask sometimes. I just drive and try to talk to the guys about what I need. I feel good about the tire, it’s got good fall off. It’s got pretty decent grip taking off and no tire wear issues, that’s all you can ask for.”

What is qualifying like here?

“It’s going to be wide open for sure. Difficult wide open. Maybe some of the fast cars might have to lift. I did a mock run in first practice and I was able to hold it flat, barely. It wasn’t easy, but we weren’t that fast either. We’ll see what happens.”

How are things going with James Small?

“I’m feeling really great about things. Honesty, last week at Vegas we unloaded, and our car was so close I was like, ‘Damn, that’s pretty good James, you’re first real race as a crew chief and the balance is pretty close unloading.’ Last year that was probably what we did the worst. We were always way off to start and had to figure it out. I think he’s doing a great job, and everything is going smooth. He’s really prepared, he’s calms, he’s straightforward with everything and he has game plan. Things are all really going well so he’s doing a perfect job.”

Do you remember what it was like to have the race at the back of the field regularly?

“It’s nothing now like it was then. It’s not at all like that. This package and this racing are so different than it was back then. Everybody, these cars are bad in dirty air, they’re not good in traffic and you get back in the 20s and the 30s there, a lot of things can surprise you. Some guys just don’t understand that yet, that’s part of the learning process. We were going to be fine last week and just got blocked on the straightaway and got run into the fence and got a tire rub. It was probably my fault, I should have lifted, and I didn’t expect what happened to happen. I was a little caught off guard, but I should have lifted. Most other drivers I would have lifted anyway, and I probably should have done that. That was on me. Fast car and that’s part of racing getting back there like that.”

Is there less experience in the back these days?

“There’s definitely less experience for sure. I think a lot of it has to do with these cars and you have to run them so hard and you have to try not to lift and you just find yourself in bad positions a lot more often because of that. One slip trying to run wide open, you can be moving up a whole lane if there’s a guy there, it’s over. Back in the day, you were lifting, and guys weren’t three and four wides on restarts for the most part. It’s more difficult because there’s more traffic and smaller mistakes are magnified, especially when you’re back there around a lot of cars.”

# # #

About Toyota

Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in the U.S. and North America for more than 60 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands. During that time, Toyota has created a tremendous value chain as our teams have contributed to world-class design, engineering, and assembly of more than 40 million cars and trucks in North America, where we have 14 manufacturing plants, 15 including our joint venture in Alabama (10 in the U.S.), and directly employ more than 47,000 people (over 36,000 in the U.S.). Our 1,800 North American dealerships (nearly 1,500 in the U.S.) sold nearly 2.8 million cars and trucks (nearly 2.4 million in the U.S.) in 2019.

Through the Start Your Impossible campaign, Toyota highlights the way it partners with community, civic, academic and governmental organizations to address our society’s most pressing mobility challenges. We believe that when people are free to move, anything is possible. For more information about Toyota, visit www.toyotanewsroom.com.