Category: NASCAR Cup PR

Martin Truex Jr. wins the Playoff opener in Las Vegas
Truex clinches his spot in the Round of 12

LAS VEGAS (September 15, 2019) – Martin Truex Jr. won his series-leading fifth victory of the season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this evening.

Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Race 27 of 36 – 400.5 miles, 267 laps

TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, MARTIN TRUEX JR
2nd, Kevin Harvick*
3rd, Brad Keselowski*
4th, Chase Elliott*
5th, Ryan Blaney*
15th, DENNY HAMLIN
19th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
21st, MATT DiBENEDETTO
36th, ERIK JONES
39th, JOEY GASE
*non-Toyota driver

• Truex earned his second career win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and 24th victory of his career.

• Joe Gibbs Racing have won 14 of the 27 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races this season.

• Truex Jr. takes over the points lead.

TOYOTA QUOTES

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

Finishing Position: 1st

Three of the last four Playoff openers he’s able to do it. What did you tell me earlier this week? We don’t have the magic. Is the magic back now?

“It was today. That’s for sure. We took a gamble this weekend. Thanks to everybody back at the shop that makes this happen: Toyota, TRD, all the guys, Todd (Berrier, Director of Fabrication) and all the guys back there that build these cars. We took a gamble, qualified 24th. For a while, it wasn’t looking too smart with the 4 (Kevin Harvick) out front. Got the right adjustments in the end. Had a great car all day long. Thanks to Toyota, TRD, Auto Owners, everyone who makes this happen for us. Hell of a way to make a championship run. Get some good bonus points, move on to the next round, see what we can do there.”

You gave the credit to Cole Pearn, your crew chief. You said, You gave me exactly what I needed.

“That run before when the 4 (Kevin Harvick) was running away from us, we got too loose. I just had to baby it for too long. The last five laps of the run, we started to equal out to him. I just said, You got to tighten me up some more so I could hustle. At the end I was able to hustle all the way to the checkered and get to the end.”

I think everyone expected you to be in the next round. How big, though, to punch your ticket first race in?

“It takes the pressure off, for sure. Biggest thing is just more Playoff points. Just next two weeks, we can try to get even more of those. That’s huge. I mean, any Playoff points you get are going to help you get to Homestead. I felt like after Charlotte we’d run good here. This package has been so tricky to figure out, you never know. Cole and the guys worked really hard this week to come here with something different. We took a bit of a gamble. But it worked out. Thanks to Bass Pro, Toyota, TRD, everybody back in the shop, everybody on this team. Everybody has been working hard. Say hi to Sherry (Pollex) back home. I’m out of breath; it’s little hot out there.”

Stage 2, Martin, you restarted 18th. You came back and drove through the field and won.

“It was a lot of fun tonight, and anytime you get a car like that you have fun. But we did have our challenges. It wasn’t easy for sure; we had to go to the back that one time for a pit road deal and work our way back to the front and then our car got off, and we lost some spots on that one run and luckily, we got a caution and was able to come in and fix it. We just had to do all the little things right. We went back and forth loose-tight, loose-tight and we just hit it right on that last run. I think the 4 (Kevin Harvick) missed it a little. It was so easy to do tonight. You’d be good one run and sideways the next and you couldn’t go anywhere. Then you’d be good; it was just back and forth. We hit it right when we needed. The 4 was really strong, but we took a gamble to have extra downforce and qualify 24th and it paid off tonight.”

At one point in the final stage, Harvick was pulling away. At that point, what did it feel like and what made the difference?

“At that point, we were pretty good, and then five laps later, we got too loose and that was why he was able to drive away. That whole second-to-last run, I was babying it, trying to save the right rear to like the last five laps of that run. Then, we started being a little bit faster than him. I told Cole (Pearn, crew chief) if you tighten me up, we can get him. He got the car perfect, and I was able to hustle the car there at the end and get the lead and drive away.”

You move to the next round with the win.

“These next two weeks are all about bonus points. This is big today to get six. Those are really important to get to Homestead.”

COLE PEARN, crew chief, No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

How did you turn things around in the race today?

“We felt good about it. People don’t always know what they’re talking about. The guys did a great job. We’ve never gone day to night here so that was kind of a wild card. Those guys that were more trimmed out, their car was really strong there after the one restart, but we were fortunate enough to not get any cautions and get long runs and that’s what we needed. Martin (Truex Jr.) did a great job taking care of it and managing tires. The pit crew came together. It was a little rocky early on. Just had to settle their nerves and then they had some really fast stops that really helped us close on the 4 (Kevin Harvick) on that last stop so they were huge.”

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

Finishing Position: 15th

It was a handful for Denny Hamlin today. He winds up 15th. At times, I would describe the car as evil. How would you describe it?

“Yeah, very much so. It seemed like we were gaining on it as the sun was out, and as soon as the sun went down – we battled with the 12 (Ryan Blaney) and it looked like we got a little damage to the nose. We took two (tires); we were a little tight anyway and the car just took off. It felt like I had a hole in the nose – a big hole. But I don’t see anything there. Certainly, not as good there at the end as we were expecting. Something is out of whack. All of a sudden, in one run the car went backwards. We will figure it out and go to Richmond and try to clinch our spot there.”

ERIK JONES, No. 20 CRAFTSMAN Gas Monkey Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 36th

First off, you said over the radio that it was stuck in second gear. Any idea on how it happened?

“Yeah, we had an issue with the throttle sticking the run before. I think it got stuck wide open when I was trying to shift to third, and obviously, you can’t shift wide open or else it’s going to jam it in the rails. The rails got jammed there in the shifter on the actual transmission and we couldn’t get it on pit road. You had to take the shifter boot off, and get in there and fix it from the top side. Had to fix it. Just unfortunate.”

Your car was still really fast.

“Yeah, I think we had one of the better cars out there. We were 30 laps farther on tires than a lot of guys and running just as fast if not faster. It’s a bummer. I think we could have run top three. I don’t know. I didn’t race up there with those guys; we broke before the second stage even got going really. 25 points out; we just have to focus and run well the next two.”

Does that make one of the next two a must win?

“No. I think we can still get in on points. The gap is not too big to climb out of. We need to run well, no worse than top-fives the next two weeks if we don’t win. I think Richmond’s our shot to win; the Roval is kind of a wildcard for us – a tougher one to win. We have to push hard. We can’t outdo ourselves and beat outselves, but we definitely have to race hard.”

# # #

About Toyota

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MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
SOUTH POINT 400
LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
SEPTEMBER 15, 2019

TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL FINISHING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER (* = Playoff Contender)
4th * Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA FILTERS Camaro ZL1
6th * Alex Bowman, No. 88 Nationwide Camaro ZL1
7th * William Byron, No. 24 Liberty University Camaro ZL1
8th * Kyle Larson, No. 42 Clover Camaro ZL1
11th Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1

TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL FINISHING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER (* = Chevy Playoff Contender)
1st Martin Truex, Jr. (Toyota)
2nd Kevin Harvick (Ford)
3rd Brad Keselowski (Ford)
4th * Chase Elliott (Chevrolet)
5th Ryan Blaney (Ford)

UNOFFICIAL CURRENT PLAYOFF RANK (Following Round 1 of 10)
POS. DRIVER (* = Chevy Contender)
1. Martin Truex Jr. (Toyota)
2. Kevin Harvick (Ford)
3. Joey Logano (Ford)
4. Kyle Busch (Toyota)
5. Brad Keselowski (Ford)
6. *Chase Elliott (Chevrolet)
7. Denny Hamlin (Toyota)
8. * Kyle Larson (Chevrolet)
9. * William Byron (Chevrolet)
10. Ryan Blaney (Ford)
11. * Alex Bowman (Chevrolet)
12. Aric Almirola (Ford)
13. Ryan Newman (Ford)
14. * Kurt Busch (Chevrolet)
15. Clint Bowyer (Ford)
16. Erik Jones (Toyota)

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season continues next weekend at Richmond Raceway with the Federated Auto Parts 400 on Saturday, September 21 at 7:30 P.M. ET. Live coverage can be found on NBCSN, NBC Sports Gold, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTES:

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA FILTERS CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 4th
“It was a solid top-five. I feel like we finally got our car going pretty good the last two or three runs, which was good, and a good time to do it. We just got some damage on the restart and he had to come down to pit road and fix it. We just couldn’t take a chance on cutting a tire. I felt like we were closer today than we have been the past few weeks, so that was nice. Hopefully, we can have cars like that for the next nine weeks.

ALTHOUGH YOU DIDN’T WIN, THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN NUMBER ONE, BUT ARE YOU OVERALL PRETTY HAPPY WITH HOW YOU FINISHED AND WHAT YOU SAW IN YOUR CAR?
“I’m glad our car drove better today, so I think it’s an improvement.”

YOU GUYS SEEM TO BE REALLY QUICK IN THE NIGHT END TO THE RACE
“Yeah, our NAPA FILTERS Camaro, we finally got it going pretty good there at the end, I felt like. We got a little damage on that restart and just couldn’t risk cutting the tire. So, we got behind. The guys did a good job of fixing it for what we could. We just needed to catch back up just to see if we could run with those guys. But I thought we were a lot better tonight than we’ve been the past few weeks and more competitive, for sure. So, like I told these guys a minute ago, I feel like we can have cars that drive like that for the next nine weeks, I think we’ll be just fine.”

ON THE RESTARTS, THEY WERE CRAZY. ARE WE GOING TO SEE THESE THROUGHOUT THE PLAYOFFS?
“Yeah, I would assume so. It’s unfortunate that you can just barely touch somebody and you have a flat tire. But, that’s kind of the box that we’re in. That really needs to be addressed because it’s really hard to be aggressive and not make a little mistake here and there. But that’s what we have to work with right now and it is what it is. So, onward.”

ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 6th
“We just didn’t fire off very good. As the race ran, we got our car much better. I think kind of the in between from day to night was the best we were. When it grouped up there at the end, it helped out some of the other cars. But, proud of my guys. I wish we would have gotten some more stage points, but we’ll take sixth.”

“I think we ran about where we should have run. Avoiding some of the mess was definitely a good thing. I’m just proud of our guys and we didn’t have any issues.”

WHAT ARE YOU MOST FRUSTRATED ABOUT TODAY IN PARTICULAR?
“Just not getting stage points, really. That’s frustrating. The racing is tough. You just get blocked, guys changing lanes. It’s just super frustrating, but everybody has to do it. That’s just part of it. Overall, it wasn’t too bad of a day.”

WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 7th
“We just had to recover. I don’t really know what happened there. I was just running on the wall on the back straightaway and got hit in the left rear. I thought the tire was going to last and hold up. It cleared the fender for a while and it obviously had a cut in it already. That was a big bummer. We were really fortunate that the caution came out when we spun. That was really good for us. Overall, we were able to rally to a seventh-place finish. So, that’s not bad.”

“It was crazy. You think about all of the things that can go wrong in a race. It’s tough, you have to really manage the whole race and recover from things that happen. It seemed like every car has something that happened during this race, so you just have to recover from it.”

WE HAVEN’T HEARD YOU THAT MAD ON THE RADIO IN A LONG TIME. HOW DID YOU COMPOSE YOURSELF IN THAT SITUATION?
“Yeah, I was just really frustrated. We had a great day going. We were just racing there and I didn’t really expect that to happen. But we had to recover and rebound from it, which we did, so that was good.”

THE HENDRICK CARS WERE PRETTY STRONG TODAY. WHERE IS YOUR CONFIDENCE LEVEL AT GOING INTO THESE LAST NINE RACES?
“Yeah, it was good. I feel like 1.5-mile tracks, at least for us, have been a little bit of a struggle. So, it’s good to get a top-10 finish, rally, and hopefully have a good run going into Richmond.”

KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CLOVER CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 8th
“Our car was better than I thought it would be. We were able to battle up front there in the second stage. Then, we had the pit road penalty and had to come from the back. The restarts were crazy and I was just being safe. It probably cost us a little bit, but we still got a top-10 out of the day and some decent stage points. So, all-in-all, it wasn’t a bad day.”

KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 GEARWRENCH CAMARO ZL1 – Sidelined due to damage sustained in crash; Finished 39th
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE RACING THAT LED TO THAT?
“We were trying to go for the same spot, in the middle. We ended up four wide, got a fender rub and the day is done. It just happens that fast.”

THE WAY THAT THESE CARS RACE THESE DAY, WAS EVERY RESTART LIKE THAT?
“It wasn’t as animated, but everyone wants to try to get in the middle and that’s where you make up the most spots. Martin Truex Jr. and I were going for the same piece of real estate.”

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
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Sunday, September 15, 2019

SOUTH POINT CASINO 400 | POST RACE
FORD RACE FINISH RESULTS
2nd – Kevin Harvick (P)
3rd – Brad Keselowski (P)
5th – Ryan Blaney (P)
9th – Joey Logano (P)
10th – Ryan Newman (P)
13th – Aric Almirola (P)
14th – Paul Menard
20th – Daniel Suarez
22nd – David Ragan
24th – Michael McDowell
25th – Clint Bowyer (P)
26th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
28th – Corey LaJoie
30th – Matt Tifft

(P) KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang – FINISHED 2nd

“It was good. We had two solid stages and with the way that practice went for us, that was a miracle. To be in contention with a chance to win the race with 25 laps to go says a lot about the guys working on this 4 car and everybody did a great job of making something out of what wasn’t very bright for us on Friday.”

HOW DID YOUR CAR CHANGE AS THE SUN WENT DOWN? “It didn’t really change a whole lot. It is hard to tell whether it was the track – obviously the speeds got faster but for us we kept adjusting on our car and making it better. It wasn’t drastic by any means.”

DID LAP TRAFFIC HURT YOU? “Not much. I was having trouble with the front turning and the back sliding. We were lacking overall grip and Martin was able to catch us on that next to last run at the end of the run and I needed a restart. I needed the rubber to be picked up and be able to run flat out for 10 laps to build that lead and I was just never able to do that.”

(P) RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 PPG Ford Mustang – FINISHED 5th

“It was a long night for sure. We didn’t start very good. We started really tight and didn’t go anywhere and I was really worried. We took really big swings at it. We were on the really tight side and really loose side and a little bit of both. We couldn’t take off very fast. Other guys would take off really fast. At the end of a run we were really fast up by the wall but we just lost too much ground and then I just got tight there at the end. I might have been able to run third but the top two cars were in a league of their own, especially the 19.”

(P) BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Autotrader Ford Mustang – FINISHED 3rd

“We had a bad start tonight but a good finish. We weren’t driving very good at the start. Nothing I was doing was working and we were just kind of bleeding positions. Almost lost laps. The team worked on it really hard there and got us back to a spot where we could kind of almost steal a win. I thought for a minute we might be able to. All in all it was a good day. Not the win we were looking for but a lot of perseverance and a lot to be proud of.”

WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF? “Well, I am disappointed we didn’t start the race better but very proud that we didn’t freak out and everyone kept their head on their shoulders.”

HOW ABOUT THE RESTARTS? “Typical playoff restarts. everything is on the line and everyone is trying to get all they can get. That is part of the fun.”

(P) JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Pennzoil Ford Mustang – FINISHED 9th

“We got shuffled to the back and then got to the outside of the 41 and he didn’t know I was there and he crashed our car. We just didn’t have a chance to fix it as good as it needed to be and as good as it was before that. I don’t think we could because aero means so much here. They fixed it as good as they could to recover with a top-10. Our car was so fast and I feel like we had a chance of winning it but we just kind of got shuffled into everything.”

WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT YOUR TEAM TONIGHT? “Our car was fast. We were definitely capable of winning this thing, no doubt. We showed that. That is positive. I like that part. We scored a lot of points which is also positive. I don’t know where we are in the standings yet but the stages and the finish gives us some points to hopefully give us a little cushion over the next couple races but we have to still be smart to make it to the next round.”

“If we didn’t have a wrecked car we would have had a shot at winning. We were really good at the beginning of the race. We drove all the way to the lead and led a bunch of laps. We can be proud of that. We won’t let our heads get down on this. It is still a strong day.”

AT THE END OF STAGE 2, TRUEX BEAT YOU AND DIBENEDETTO KIND OF HELD YOU UP AND THEN TRUEX LET HIM BACK ON THE LEAD LAP. DID YOU GET RACED UNFAIRLY THERE? “I guess they are still teammates. That is my thought on that. I mean, it is racing. What am I going to do, be a hypocrite and complain about something? No. It is racing. He is trying to stay on the lead lap or trying to stay a lap down instead of two down and he had his teammate racing for a stage win in the playoffs behind him. What do you expect?”

AND YOU WEREN’T HAPPY WITH THE 41 AT ONE POINT AS WELL: “Yeah, well, he crashed me, so I wasn’t too excited about that. It wasn’t on purpose, he just made a mistake. Unfortunately we were the one that paid the penalty for his mistake there.”

(P) ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang – FINISHED 13th

“I am leaving content. We dug deep and I feel like we maximized our day. We had a few miscues and weren’t 100% perfect on our execution. The car wasn’t 100% perfect and we still managed to go up there and lead the race and score stage points. I think we finished third in Stage 1 and scored a fair amount of stage points. After Stage 1 we kind of lost the handle on the car and lost some track position and it because even more of a handful. We dug deep and fought hard and got out of here with a decent finish. I think they just told me we are plus-six to the good on 12th so I feel gooda bout that. It is better than leaving minus-six or minus-16 or minus-60. I am happy with that. We will keep our heads up and keep diging. Our Smithfield Ford Mustang showed some signs of strength tonight and we just lost a little bit of the handle on it.

(P) RYAN NEWMAN, No. 6 Oscar Mayer Bacon Ford Mustang – FINISHED 10th

“We needed track position but most importantly we needed to get our Oscar Meyer Ford Mustang tightened up and we finally did toward the last run. We still finished loose but we fought really hard with being loose all day long and this is not a good place to be loose. It is a challenge. I am surprised we were as loose as we were but we had a good car and made some decent points but not the day that we wanted to have.”

(P) CLINT BOWYER, No. 14 Toco Warranty Ford Mustang – FINISHED 25th

“We just weren’t very good tonight. We were just off. Off in all areas.”

DO YOU NEED TO TALK WITH DANIEL AFTER WHAT HAPPENED ON THE FIRST LAP? “No, no. I mean, it is a product of it. I had a run on the Buescher kid and he ran me in the wall so I tried to go inside of him and someone hit me in the left rear and knocked it down. It just wasn’t our night. It wasn’t anybody’s fault. I had a run on Buescher on the outside and he ran me in the wall. I went low and tried to fill the hole and I got nailed in the left rear. We shouldn’t have been back there though.”

(P) – indicates NASCAR Playoff driver

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Saturday, September 14, 2019

SOUTH POINT CASINO 400 | MENCS QUALIFYING

FORD QUALIFYING RESULTS
1st – Clint Bowyer (P)
2nd – Daniel Suarez
3rd – Kevin Harvick (P)
4th – Aric Almirola (P)
10th – Michael McDowell
11th – David Ragan
12th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
17th – Ryan Newman (P)
18th – Brad Keselowski (P)
21st – Paul Menard
22nd – Joey Logano (P)
23rd – Ryan Blaney (P)
29th – Matt Tifft
33rd – Corey LaJoie

(P) Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang – Qualified 3rd

“Our Mobil 1 Ford Mustang is fast. I kind of blew it right there getting up to speed. I got sideways accelerating coming off pit road there. Our guys have done a great job and we have done a lot of things to make our cars handle better and knocking speed out of them so they have done a great job.”

DOES THE MOMENTUM FROM YOUR WIN LAST WEEK HELP YOU TOMORROW? “It never hurts. Anytime you can get to victory lane and capture some of that momentum it is something that you have to forget but it definitely doesn’t hurt.”

(P) Aric Almirola, No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang – Qualified 4th

“You have to qualify well because it puts you in position to start the race on a good note and stay up front and keep some track position and it really sets you up to score points in Stage 1. That is really what qualifying well does for you. I think that is the biggest thing. With the points as tight as they are, qualifying well and getting some stage points in Stage 1 really helps. So usually if you qualify 25th it is really hard to get stage points in Stage 1. Qualifying well is important and I am happy about that and really proud of everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing. There is so much effort going in week in and week out and I feel really good about where we are at.”

(P) Ryan Newman, No. 6 Oscar Mayer Bacon Ford Mustang – Qualified 17th

“That was an improvement for us for sure in speed. I felt good yesterday in practice with our Oscar Meyer Ford. We will see where we go from here. Obviously it will be interesting to see what the track does as it cools off starting the race at 4 pm, we will just have to go from there.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK THE RACING WILL BE LIKE TOMORROW? “I don’t really know what to expect. I think this race a year ago can be used to predict it more because of the playoffs. I think it is going to be – I don’t know. I think there will be more cautions than there was in the spring, without a doubt. Maybe not to the extent of last year. We just need a clean race for us to keep ourselves in contention and keep up the consistency part of what we have been doing but also improve our performance and we did that today in qualifying. We definitely aren’t where we want to be but we have improved on the gap that we needed to close up.”

(P) Ryan Blaney, No. 12 PPG Ford Mustang – Qualified 23rd

“I think we are a little slower here than we were the first race. Race pace will be a little slower I think with less grip. Maybe towards the end of the race when the sun gets off the race track it will be a little more gripped up. Not a ton different, just a little more slick and teams kind of change the way they build their cars. This race was early in the spring and people were building their cars differently and now I feel like teams have gone in different directions and it has been interesting to see that.”

(P) Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Autotrader Ford Mustang – Qualified 18th

“It is hard to say with the impound qualifying. If they have that speed in the race then it is time to worry. But right now it isn’t really a good indicator with this qualifying format. It might be and it might not be. We should know about 20 laps in who really has what.”

(P) Joey Logano, No. 22 Pennzoil Ford Mustang – Qualified 22nd

“That was not very fast. We were set up to handle and obviously, it is pretty obvious when you look at the rundown of who has speed and who is dialed for handling. If the Stewart-Haas cars have both we are all in trouble. It is a trade-off when you come to these places. It is really hard to have both. You can’t have both. You have to make your bed and lay in it. We have made our bed and we will lay in it tomorrow. Hopefully it is the right direction, we will see. As the sun goes down we might lose some of the advantage of having the handling but time will tell.”

HOW SOON WILL YOU KNOW IF THE SHR CARS HAVE MADE THE RIGHT TRADE-OFF? “If they stay up front it will be pretty apparent that it is probably okay. As tires start to fall off and you catch lap cars you will be in dirty air. If you are out front it is a pretty big advantage if you have a trimmed out car. It will be tough to pass them on restarts when they have the grip in the tires to beat them. If you run longer, I think we will bury them in the pack to where it will be hard for them to come back from it. That being said, at the end of the race when the sun goes down, they are probably going to come back with the speed they have.”

(P) Clint Bowyer, No. 14 Toco Warranty Ford Mustang – Qualified 1st

IT IS YOUR FIRST POLE IN 12 YEARS: “It beats the hell out of me, guys. I am as shocked as you are. It is tons of fun. Obviously bragging rights for the guys first and foremost and I am extremely proud of the effort. Hey, we sit on the pole but look, my gosh, 1-2-3-4 for Stewart-Haas Racing and I think that shows a lot about our hard work, dedication and focus on the qualifying lap. Now, that being said, what does that mean for tomorrow? I think we have seen in our sport before that cars that are bad fast on Saturday or on qualifying day sometimes can’t hold it for 400 miles. That is going to be a tall order for tomorrow. Obviously if those things are that fast they are trimmed out quite a bit for that speed. That being said, you do make adjustments and go back into race trim and we all know clean air is very important on a race track like Las Vegas and we have that. That is in our favor. I am going to have to be aggressive to hold my teammates off on starts and restarts and Mike has to do a good job of playing the strategy game. We are back to a 1.5 mile track and a tire that is conducive to an untimely caution that breaks up a stage and you have a decision to make. We are here in Sin City and there is some gambling to do tomorrow that just might win you a race. I think that is a fitting thing for being at this race track in this situations in the playoffs and everything else with it being for all the marbles.”

THESE GUYS HAVE BEEN MAKING SOME PRETTY GOOD JOKES ABOUT HOW LONG IT HAS BEEN SINCE YOU HAD A POLE WIN: “Yeah, well, it used to be that you got a check. I don’t even think the pole pays anything anymore, I don’t know. I got a flag! I didn’t even get a beer. This is the Busch Light Pole Award and there was no Busch Beer out there.”

KYLE BUSCH IS THE ONLY DRIVER TO WIN FROM THE POLE HERE. WHY IS IT SO HARD? “Well it turns out he is pretty decent. There is fixing to be two tomorrow. It is hard, man. The fastest car doesn’t win the race more often than not when you look at our sport. That just goes to show you all the things and all the components that go in to finding success on any given Sunday on any given weekend on any given race track. It is always different. The same recipe that will apply this weekend in Las Vegas won’t apply next weekend in Richmond or again the following week in Charlotte. The only things that do apply are confidence, momentum, hard work and dedication and seeing all those through and putting all those pieces together. We have done a good job, my race team, Mike and all the guys on the 14 car of preparing ourselves for these playoffs. Things ratchet up in the playoffs and the pressure is intense. You have to be able to perform your best in the most extreme situations and we have kind of been there for the last month and a half as we have been grinding it out and looking over our shoulders to make all the right decisions. Don’t give up too many stage points here and don’t sacrifice here to be good on the second one. Go for a win, whatever the case may be you have to read every situation accordingly and pull and audible if needed and those are the things you have to do to survive and go to the next round in the playoffs. Again, momentum, coming off three good finishes with us we are building. Timing is everything and certainly, hell it has been 12 damn years since I have been on the pole and we are starting off the playoffs on the pole. I think we won that race by the way in New Hampshire. It is so long ago I don’t really remember. I am proud of the situation and proud of the effort first and foremost and certainly proud to lead a strong field to the green flag here at Las Vegas.”

IS THERE A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF POSITIVE VIBE YOU HAVE BEING IN THE FIRST PLAYOFF RACE AND STARTING FROM THE POLE? “Well, you can’t just make up momentum. You can’t make up confidence. There is only one thing that breeds that and it is success on the race track. You can’t just wake up and say, ‘Alright guys, we are going to change our attitude.’ My old man used to tell me all the time to fix my attitude and my attitude sucks. Well damn dad, I can’t just put a smile on my face and go from 25th to the pole. It doesn’t work that way. You have to build and work hard and start the infrastructure from within and a positive attitude goes a long way. We have been learning this Ford Mustang body all season long and we have been learning this new format all season long and it is time to put all that to good use. Certainly the timing is in our favor right now. Getting out of race cars and situations, whether it is qualifying or the race the past three weekend and you have a smile on your face. You are confident and proud of the job you did. That is the momentum I am talking about.”

HOW CONFIDENT WERE YOU GOING IN THAT YOU COULD WIN THE POLE? “Well, it was really fast yesterday in our qualifying run so I kind of had that in the back of my mind. To be honest with you it was a handful yesterday. The other thing about it is we ran that mock qualifying run in the first practice. In happy hour we changed quite a bit of our fundamentals of our race car, the front end geometries and things and both rear springs, some pretty big hitters to be good in that race. You don’t know what that means to the balance of that race car and you don’t know what that means in terms of if it will knock speed out of your car. It is the first time in my career where you can knock the drag out or put downforce in. It is a trade-off and you have to find a happy medium. You can make those things like a bullet and streamline through the air and be sleek and extremely fast but it comes at a downforce deficiency. You put too much downforce on and then there is too much drag and you are slow. You see teams that are more in that favor and you will see them tomorrow drive up through the field. We all know that those Gibbs cars have been strong all season long and they don’t qualify very good but as soon as you look in the mirror here comes the ol’ 19 car. It is a design built within these race cars and a thought process and mentality. Sometimes it doesn’t even go as far as mentality and thought process. Sometimes it is the card that you have in your hand that you are dealt. Sometimes those things are in your favor and some years they are in your favor and they change the rules and maybe next year it is not. You go to work and try to make it the best you can for any given situation.”

WITH DANIEL STARTING BESIDES YOU, WILL YOU TALK TO HIM AT ALL TO SEE IF HE WILL WORK WITH YOU? “Daniel is going to race me as hard as he can no different than I am going to with him. I wouldn’t expect him to do anything less. The only thing that we could do is the cars behind us need to probably get all four of our cars off and running and established early. I think we can all race each other cleanly and hopefully finish that first stage 1,2,3,4 and hopefully finish the second stage 1,2,3,4 and finish the race 1,2,3,4 in the exact order that it is. Kevin has already won some races, he will be fine. Third place will be good enough for him. It can stay just how it is. But I don’t think it will probably go that easy.”

FROM 2007, THE LAST TIME YOU HAD A POLE TO NOW, HOW HAS LIFE CHANGED FOR YOU? “Man, I had Jack Daniels for a sponsor back then. Let me tell you, that day was celebrated roughly. Yeah, those were the days. Thank God I was younger back then. I remember going to that race track which was a good race track for us and having a lot of confidence knowing that we could take care of business and unloaded off the track extremely fast and it started off the Chase and we sat on the pole and kicked their ass that day. It was a ton of fun. I didn’t remember that it was this exact day 12 years ago but I certainly remember that day and that win and what it meant to me and my family. It was literally the answer to everything we had ever wanted.”

LAST YEAR YOU HAD A PRETTY SOLID FIRST ROUND OF THE PLAYOFFS WITH THIS BEING YOUR WEAKEST TRACK. IS THERE POTENTIAL THIS YEAR TO REALLY TURN YOUR ENTIRE SEASON AROUND IN THIS FIRST ROUND? IS IT HARD TO LOOK AT THAT WHEN YOU ALSO NEED TO FOCUS FIRST ON SUNDAY? “The playoffs have always been fun for me. It is a perfect time in the year. It is not that you lose focus or wore out or whatever the case may be it is just the long summer grind is hard on all of us. I see you guys back at the playoff media day and it is not a new day at school but it is kind of like that. It is a new life and new opportunity to sell yourself as a race car driver or you guys something new to sell. It is something new. For right now, for me, it is a shot in the arm to make it and a shot at new life and new opportunity and it is right in front of us. It is instantly exciting and gets your mind back sharp and honed in and excited and hungry to wake back up the next morning and do better than you did the last time.”

HOW DO YOU TRANSFER ALL THIS FUN YOU ARE HAVING INTO PERFORMANCE? “Well, you can’t just wake up and decide that you are going to have fun today and do good and do better than you did yesterday or last week. It is hard work. But I feel like the playoffs are extremely intense on the crew members, crew chief and engineers and everybody. It is a lot of pressure. It is something that people see that I am just light hearted and think that I don’t care but it is kind of strategic for me and what works for me. You have to have fun within those situations and allow people to make those decisions constantly instead of with their butt puckered up all the time. That guy has to be able to do his job on the box and not be worried about messing up. He has to be confident in his decision and know that is the right thing come hell or high water.”

HOW AS YOUR CAR IN RACE RUNS? “It is a different agenda tomorrow. Our cars are trimmed out to go fast. You can make subtle adjustments to be able to be better in race trim over the course of a long fuel run or something like that. Time will tell. Clean air is very important. You have to have a sleek car and have a fast car to have the clean air. You also have to make sure that you don’t make any mistakes on the race track, on pit road, on strategy calls, on an adjustment or anything. You can’t afford to get back there in traffic because they don’t like to be back there. They like to be up front. There is a reason they are sleek and fast. Like I was alluding to earlier, there is a balance there. You can take downforce away and make them faster, make that bullet go faster down the straightaway but you get it back there in a pack where it is sheer aero and you are at a deficiency. That is a balance that every race team in every organization in the sport was going through right now. Certainly it is time to go. We have watched Kevin Harvick dominate Indy last weekend and was extremely fast. We qualified well and he stayed up front. We lost some track position there that first pit stop and I couldn’t get it back. We were just riding back there and all of a sudden you are in a playoff type situation where you aren’t racing Kevin Harvick for the win anymore, you are racing the three cars that we were trying to beat for the playoffs. It is going to be a challenge tomorrow. Damn right it is gonna be.”

ARE YOU AT ALL SURPRISED THAT HALF OF THE TOP-10 QUALIFIERS ARE NOT PLAYOFF DRIVERS? DOES THAT CHANGE THE VIBE AT ALL? “It all goes back to what I am talking about. That balance of downforce and drag and everything else. Teams don’t have anything to lose and you are going to make that thing as fast as possible and they are going to tell you they want to put it in the drivers hands. It is a collective effort. You have to have that thing in clean air and up front and that goes as far as making the right decisions when a caution comes out. Are we four tires? Two tires? Do we give up track position here to gain it later? Then the gambling starts. It is a collective effort across the board with any race team on pit road tomorrow.”

“You are going to see everybody that is in the playoffs is accustomed to running up front and you will see them running up front tomorrow. They are going to be the ones. The same guys every week, week in and week out, that you have to beat for any given win will be the same guys I have to beat tomorrow at Las Vegas.”

HOW HARD TO YOU PUSH THE AGGRESSION ISSUE IF GUYS THAT AREN’T IN THE PLAYOFFS ARE RACING YOU HARD OUT THERE? “Accordingly you have to. YOu have to keep up with the Joneses. You have to stay in front of them and you can’t let them take advantage of you and lose track position and everything else. That is what I have been preaching for the last 30-,oinutes. I need to keep that thing up front no different than my teammate Daniel Suarez has to do or Kevin or Aric or anybody else. It is playoff time. It is going to get intense and it will happen right off the bat. Every single year we see it here. I say it every year. You can’t win the championship at Las Vegas but you can lose it here. You certainly can knock yourself out of an opportunity. We have great race tracks coming up in this first round. They are good tracks for me, back in my wheelhouse where I am comfortable and confident racing. This one is the question mark of the first three for me. My team has helped me answer some of that and fix some of that question mark with an exclamation point with qualifying up front, for sure.”

(P) – indicates NASCAR Playoff driver

MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
SOUTH POINT 400
LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST-QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
SEPTEMBER 14, 2019

TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
5th KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 GEARWRENCH CAMARO ZL1
6th DANIEL HEMRIC, NO. 8 CESSNA CAMARO ZL1
7th AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 CAMARO ZL1
8th CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA FILTERS CAMARO ZL1
9th JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1

TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Clint Bowyer (Ford)
2nd Daniel Suarez (Ford)
3rd Kevin Harvick (Ford)
4th Aric Almirola (Ford)
5th Kurt Busch (Chevrolet)

NBCSN will telecast the 267-lap race on the 1.5-mile oval live at 7 p.m. ET Sunday, Sept. 15. The NBCSports Gold app will stream the race and live coverage can also be found on PRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES:

KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 GEARWRENCH CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 5th
“I think with qualifying, we’ve been doing a really good job at the 1.5-mile tracks. Making sure we are wide open, but also to be able to have the right downforce levels for the car for the race. It’s going to be a slick one tomorrow and that’s really where the focus is with the impound. We are making sure the race setup is dialed in.”

DANIEL HEMRIC, NO. 8 CESSNA CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 6th
“I think our No. 8 CESSNA Camaro ZL1 had a lot of speed from the time we unloaded, so that’s always good. The drivability wasn’t quite where we wanted it to be in practice and we tried to go a couple of different directions, but I never really felt like we got any better. We kind of aborted and went back to our baseline. I expect to end up pretty well in qualifying. Hopefully we made the right changes to go and have some success in tomorrow’s race.”

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA FILTERS CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 8th
“It was a much better run than we had yesterday in practice, so that was encouraging. I appreciate my guys working on our No. 9 NAPA Filters Camaro this week and we’re going faster than we did yesterday. So, that was nice. Hopefully we can stick around somewhere in the top-10 and try to get some stage points in the first stage, and go get them after that.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 9th
“We have some goals for the rest of the season. Things are going in the right direction and there is a ton of excitement and optimism around that. But, seeing all the guys that made the Playoffs partying on the Strip doing burnouts hurt. There’s no way around that. I want to be a part of all that and I should be. As I analyze that, I’m glad it hurts. If it didn’t hurt, I think it would be a problem. I’m disappointed that it was more than just one race and what happened in Indianapolis to put us in that position. There is a season full of mistakes that put us in that position. There are 26 races that we could have made a difference, but we have 10 left. Again, the optimism and excitement on the team is really inspiring. I’m excited and ready to go.”

“There are some really good tracks coming for us. I think the company is getting stronger and we’ve had a lot of good things going on. To see the planning for 2020 for Chevrolet and Hendrick Motorsports and what we have in the pipeline, there are a lot of good things coming.”

WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 14th
“I think tomorrow is going to have a lot of cautions at the end. With it being a night race, just the conditions and the way that they are. It’s hot and the track is going to be changing. It’s a slick race track and really fast, too. I think there are going to be quite a few cautions, especially at the end of the race when restarts seem to pile on.”

“I think you have to be aggressive. I think if situations start to play out at the end of the race and there are a lot of cautions, I think you have to see who you’re around and try to manage your risk. Ultimately, you just have to hope you’re not part of the carnage, I guess. We’ll see, I don’t know if this race is going to be that crazy. I’m sure it’s going to ramp up towards the end.”

HOW DIFFERENT DO YOU TREAT A PLAYOFF RACE?
“I don’t really know. I’ve never been in it, so I think we’ll just have to be cautious about who you’re around and who you’re racing against. Everybody is racing for position, so you can’t treat it any differently than any other race. You just have to hope you have the speed and the good fortune to keep yourself up front. It takes a lot of pressure off your mindset going into the final stage if you get good stage points in the first two.”

KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CLOVER CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 15th
“I think it will be a tougher race that earlier this year. It seems like everybody is struggling a little bit more this time around. It has been a little hotter. I would expect there to be more cautions than just the stages themselves. You never know until you get out there in the race. We’ll see, I hope I’m not a part of one of those cautions. My car was terrible yesterday in practice. We changed a bunch of stuff on the car and it’s driving a little better.”

“I didn’t look too deep into other peoples’ lap times yesterday because we were just struggling so much. We were just trying to figure out what we needed to do. So, I didn’t pay too much attention to other people yesterday. Qualifying is so different, too. Everybody is wide open, so a lot of the fast cars are probably pretty trimmed out. It’s going to be a hotter part of the day when we start the race, so I don’t know what to expect. It seemed like a lot of people were having to lift after a few laps, so it won’t be like it was earlier this year when you could run wide open.”

RYAN PREECE, NO. 47 KROGER CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 16th
“I think we will be alright tomorrow, I’m not sure what to expect yet. After watching the Xfinity cars a little bit, they looked really loose. I don’t really know yet, I guess we will find out. I think there are a lot of things we can take from the past six weeks to this week. It’s kind of like we had to start over. I kind of know what direction we were in earlier this year here and I feel like we are in a totally different area code. So, I think we’ll be alright.”

ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 NATIONWIDE CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 19th
“I think we have a lot of handling built into our race car. I just held it wide open and I didn’t go very fast. But, I’d rather handle good tomorrow when it’s 105 degrees than be fast today.”

“You look at our times and you take out a couple of bad laps that we had in practice, we were up there with the good guys. I think we can be really good tomorrow. I think we’ll be somewhere in the middle with cautions compared to earlier this year. I think we are going to have cautions, I think we are going to have tire failures with it being so fast. I think you are going to have guys crashing their stuff. It’s just going to be a really slick race track and tough to drive. Nobody is going to give an inch, so it’s going to create some cautions. I don’t think it will create the 12 that we had here last year, but maybe somewhere in the middle.”

WITH THE PLAYOFFS THIS YEAR, IS THE VIBE ANY DIFFERENT THAN IT WAS LAST YEAR?
“Yeah, I think so. I think we’ve shown that we are capable of having really fast race cars, which makes it easier. I think we have the chance to win races, not just pointing our way through. I think tomorrow will be a good opportunity for us, but we’ll just have to wait and see. The next couple of weeks are really important. You don’t want to be in a must-win situation going into the Roval. We just have to do our best to position ourselves well.”

TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 27th
“I felt really good about our GEICO Camaro after both practices. It’s been a good combination of good speed and handling, and we really haven’t had that here the past couple of races. I’m excited for tomorrow, I think we’ll end up pretty well in qualifying. We really had some good momentum going the last four weeks and I’m looking to continue that here.”

CHRIS BUESCHER, NO. 37 NATURAL LIGHT SELTZER CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 28th
“We watched around five cars spin out in Xfinity qualifying now, so I’m a little nervous going into it. You don’t see it very often and to have as many spins in qualifying over the last couple of days is surprising. Some people have talked about it being easy wide open and we have not been easy wide open. So, we’ll see how it goes tomorrow. I think we found a lot of things with our Natural Light Seltzer Camaro yesterday that should make it better for us compared to what we had in practice. But with that, there is the unknown of it being a lot different than what we had. We go out really late, so we have plenty of data to look at.”

BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 VICTORY JUNCTION CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 31st
“We’ve been slow this weekend. It’s not handling very well. We’re just kind of slipping and sliding all over the place. We were really, really bad in practice. We made the car better in second practice, so that was good. Obviously, it’s not the speed that we had in Indianapolis. That’s just how small teams operate. Those little moments of highlights and success, but we’ll keep on trucking.”
“Everybody has been pumped up. Since it’s Vegas, all of the guys usually have Monday off, but they were working on Monday to get the cars prepped and ready to roll out on Tuesday. They are all still pumped up and on cloud nine. All the guys at the shop that don’t travel were excited too. So, it’s definitely been a good week and I’m excited to see the direction that we have getting out of Vegas. I think we are really starting on the right direction from here on out.”

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.

MENCS Post-Qualifying Report – Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Denny Hamlin earns a top-15 starting spot to lead Toyota

LAS VEGAS (September 14, 2019) – Denny Hamlin was the top Toyota driver in NASCAR Cup Series qualifying at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Toyota Racing Post-Qualifying Report
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Las Vegas Motor Speedway – September 14, 2019

TOYOTA STARTING POSITIONS
1st, Clint Bowyer*
2nd, Daniel Suarez*
3rd, Kevin Harvick*
4th, Aric Almirola*
5th, Kurt Busch*
13th, DENNY HAMLIN
20th, KYLE BUSCH
24th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
25th, MATT DiBENEDETTO
26th, ERIK JONES
39th, JOEY GASE
*non-Toyota driver

TOYOTA QUOTES

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Qualifying Position: 13th

How different will the race be versus how it was last time we were here?
“I don’t know. I don’t know how much is going to play out differently. It kind of remains to be seen. We came here and we thought we were going to be pretty confident off of the truck, and it just did not drive well at all. So, we kind of went through a transition there through practice, so it seems like they made some improvements on it for qualifying.”

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Hazelnut Spread Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Qualifying Position: 20th

Were you guys flat out, wide open?
“Yep.”

Were you surprised because it’s so hot and slick out there?
“No, with as much as you had to put into race trim to keep gas on from lap 10 and on, I knew qualifying was going to be ugly for us.”

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Qualifying Position: 24th

How much is the driving different here than the first time?
“It’s way different. The track temperature being 50 degrees hotter has changed it a lot. Even yesterday from first practice to second practice, it changed a lot. It’s going to be a tricky race tomorrow night with it starting at the hottest part of the day and ending with darkness under the lights. It’s going to be pretty challenging to keep up with it.”

Can you talk about how it feels when it’s slick here?
“It’s just free. You are trying to run around here wide open, or close to it, and the tires are giving up as you run laps and they give up fast. You just start losing feel for the car and you start sliding. You start letting off and the guy who lets off the least starts making up so much time. It’s crazy. You just barely start cracking the throttle, you lose like two or three tenths a lap. It’s very challenging. It’s very important to keep your car balanced, but like I said, that’s going to be very difficult with the changing conditions.”

MATT DiBENEDETTO, No. 95 Barstool Sports Toyota Camry, Leavine Family Racing
Qualifying Position: 25th

How is the Barstool Sports sponsorship this weekend?
“It’s awesome. Their reach is crazy. I’ve been a fan for a long time, so it’s an easy fit for me. Their reach is really cool, and it’s to a demographic that is my age group so it’s natural, and way beyond me it’s good for the sport to attract that crowd anyway.”

What’s it been like on-track this weekend?
“It’s been a crazy week; being so appreciative and humbled. But still the focus for the rest of the year is LFR (Leavine Family Racing), and that’s the main thing for me. I desperately want to get the first win for our team. It would mean a lot, not for just me, but the guys, Wheels (Mike Wheeler, crew chief), Doug (Campbell, spotter), Bob and Sharon (Leavine, team owners) for investing in me. That’s part of why I was so emotional after Bristol – not just for myself, but for them too. I want it bad for LFR, so that’s my main focus.”

ERIK JONES, No. 20 CRAFTSMAN Gas Monkey Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Qualifying Position: 26th

Talk about your qualifying lap.
“It’s just frustrating. You hold it wide open and you hope to go fast, but it’s not where we want to be. We have qualified pretty close to 15th all year, and we will just have to race good. It’s frustrating, because it takes time to get up there. You have such a better car than that, but you have to sacrifice your race to qualify well and it’s not a good fit for us. We want to race good. We will just have to race our way to the front. The CRAFTSMAN Camry has speed. It’s just going to take all day to get up front. It’s frustrating in that aspect, but we know we have a fast car.”

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
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Saturday, September 14, 2019

SOUTH POINT CASINO 400 | MENCS QUALIFYING

FORD QUALIFYING RESULTS
1st – Clint Bowyer (P)
2nd – Daniel Suarez
3rd – Kevin Harvick (P)
4th – Aric Almirola (P)
10th – Michael McDowell
11th – David Ragan
12th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
17th – Ryan Newman (P)
18th – Brad Keselowski (P)
21st – Paul Menard
22nd – Joey Logano (P)
23rd – Ryan Blaney (P)
29th – Matt Tifft
33rd – Corey LaJoie

(P) Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang – Qualified 3rd

“Our Mobil 1 Ford Mustang is fast. I kind of blew it right there getting up to speed. I got sideways accelerating coming off pit road there. Our guys have done a great job and we have done a lot of things to make our cars handle better and knocking speed out of them so they have done a great job.”

DOES THE MOMENTUM FROM YOUR WIN LAST WEEK HELP YOU TOMORROW? “It never hurts. Anytime you can get to victory lane and capture some of that momentum it is something that you have to forget but it definitely doesn’t hurt.”

(P) Aric Almirola, No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang – Qualified 4th

“You have to qualify well because it puts you in position to start the race on a good note and stay up front and keep some track position and it really sets you up to score points in Stage 1. That is really what qualifying well does for you. I think that is the biggest thing. With the points as tight as they are, qualifying well and getting some stage points in Stage 1 really helps. So usually if you qualify 25th it is really hard to get stage points in Stage 1. Qualifying well is important and I am happy about that and really proud of everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing. There is so much effort going in week in and week out and I feel really good about where we are at.”

(P) Ryan Newman, No. 6 Oscar Mayer Bacon Ford Mustang – Qualified 17th

“That was an improvement for us for sure in speed. I felt good yesterday in practice with our Oscar Meyer Ford. We will see where we go from here. Obviously it will be interesting to see what the track does as it cools off starting the race at 4 pm, we will just have to go from there.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK THE RACING WILL BE LIKE TOMORROW? “I don’t really know what to expect. I think this race a year ago can be used to predict it more because of the playoffs. I think it is going to be – I don’t know. I think there will be more cautions than there was in the spring, without a doubt. Maybe not to the extent of last year. We just need a clean race for us to keep ourselves in contention and keep up the consistency part of what we have been doing but also improve our performance and we did that today in qualifying. We definitely aren’t where we want to be but we have improved on the gap that we needed to close up.”

(P) Ryan Blaney, No. 12 PPG Ford Mustang – Qualified 23rd

“I think we are a little slower here than we were the first race. Race pace will be a little slower I think with less grip. Maybe towards the end of the race when the sun gets off the race track it will be a little more gripped up. Not a ton different, just a little more slick and teams kind of change the way they build their cars. This race was early in the spring and people were building their cars differently and now I feel like teams have gone in different directions and it has been interesting to see that.”

(P) Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Autotrader Ford Mustang – Qualified 18th

“It is hard to say with the impound qualifying. If they have that speed in the race then it is time to worry. But right now it isn’t really a good indicator with this qualifying format. It might be and it might not be. We should know about 20 laps in who really has what.”

(P) Joey Logano, No. 22 Pennzoil Ford Mustang – Qualified 22nd

“That was not very fast. We were set up to handle and obviously, it is pretty obvious when you look at the rundown of who has speed and who is dialed for handling. If the Stewart-Haas cars have both we are all in trouble. It is a trade-off when you come to these places. It is really hard to have both. You can’t have both. You have to make your bed and lay in it. We have made our bed and we will lay in it tomorrow. Hopefully it is the right direction, we will see. As the sun goes down we might lose some of the advantage of having the handling but time will tell.”

HOW SOON WILL YOU KNOW IF THE SHR CARS HAVE MADE THE RIGHT TRADE-OFF? “If they stay up front it will be pretty apparent that it is probably okay. As tires start to fall off and you catch lap cars you will be in dirty air. If you are out front it is a pretty big advantage if you have a trimmed out car. It will be tough to pass them on restarts when they have the grip in the tires to beat them. If you run longer, I think we will bury them in the pack to where it will be hard for them to come back from it. That being said, at the end of the race when the sun goes down, they are probably going to come back with the speed they have.”

(P) – indicates NASCAR Playoff driver

MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
SOUTH POINT 400
LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
SEPTEMBER 13, 2019

KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 GEARWRENCH CAMARO ZL1, met with media to discuss the progress of his plans for the 2020 season, his relationship with Monster Energy, the importance of personalities in branding of the sport, and more. Full Transcript:

BEFORE YOU MAKE THE DECISION ON COMING BACK TO GANASSI, WOULD YOU HAVE ANY INTEREST IN RUNNING THE INDIANPOLIS 500 AGAIN? IS THAT ONE OF THE THINGS THAT WOULD COME INTO PLAY?
“It’s just a matter of all the different categories lining up, as far as the sponsorships and manufacturer. Yes, Indy is a question. That was one of the things that brought attention towards moving to Ganassi. Even with the sportscar program, there are things around it and I’m just trying to weigh it all out. Again, it’s about focusing on the Playoffs right now and getting the most that we can out of our No. 1 car to make sure we have the strongest Playoff run possible. We have just kind of pushed that off to the side a little bit.”

HOW DID YOU FEEL AFTER FIRST PRACTICE?
“As far as practice, yeah that’s the reason why we’re here. We are getting our car dialed in. Right now, we have just done single car runs and we’ll run into some qualifying runs here shortly. Then, we’ll jump into as much traffic situations that we can find to try to double check the balance, low grove and middle grove. When we raced here in March, the high groove in three and four was the first ever time that I’ve seen the Cup guys up there. So, I believe that will be a factor in Sunday’s race. We’ll see. We have nightfall as well and that will be the first time we’ve raced under the lights here at Las Vegas. I think that’s a great look for everything and everybody thinks of Vegas as the Strip and the skyline at night. It’s tough to have a race at night and still get everybody down to the casinos for gambling, fun and shows afterward. So, it’s a nice start time. It will be a little warm, but I hope everybody can get out of here at a decent time and gets back to the casinos.”

THE TRUCK GUYS HAVE BEEN TALKING ABOUT GRASSHOPPERS ON THE TRACK. HAVE YOU NOTICED THAT AT ALL?
“There were a few extra splatters on the windshield, but I didn’t know it was the grasshoppers. I did hear about the grasshopper migration, but again, you always have to be ready for anything. Whether it’s the quick-dry buildup that gets into the front grill and into the radiator or a grasshopper; you have you make sure you don’t get caught by something by surprise.”

WITH RESTARTS BEING SO IMPORTANT THIS YEAR AND IT SEEMS LIKE THAT’S WHEN THE CARS ARE MOST ABLE TO PASS, DO YOU GO BACK AND VIEW ANY VIDEO FOOTAGE OF PAST RACES OR AT THIS TRACK TO SEE WHERE YOU COULD MAYBE GAIN AN ADVANTAGE ON A RESTART OVER A DRIVER?
“Absolutely. Right now, pit stops and restarts are the biggest zone to gain spots or lose spots. We’ve got a former driver that helps us at Ganassi, Josh Wise. All of us bounce ideas off of each other and we started to go back to tracks for the second time, like Pocono and Michigan, and now we are here at Vegas. This was really one of the first races where we had these big, big restarts. The information is now on video from what we have this year. Otherwise, every video we were watching was from 2018 and it wasn’t relevant. So yes, it’s a whole new chapter that you have to invest time into to perfect it.”

WITH MONSTER, OBVIOUSLY BEING AN EDGY SPONSER IN THE INDUSTRY, HOW DOES HAVING THEM ON THE CAR ALLOW YOU TO DO SOME THINGS THAT OTHER SPONSORS IN THE PAST HAVEN’T ALLOWED YOU TO DO?
“For me, it’s a perfect connection of a sponsor and having an organic delivery of somebody’s personality fitting within a brand. Dale Jr., when he was Budweiser, seemed like the truest look of a driver and a sponsor. That’s what I told Monster, I said that I feel like I’m you guys, you guys are me and let’s do this NASCAR thing together. It has been incredible. We are getting close to almost a decade together. Monster’s branding and the way we feed off of each other is called a lifestyle in a can. You drink it, you feel it, and you want to be a part of their promotions and their different activities outside of NASCAR. Times when I’m going to the X Games to hang out with other Monster athletes, it’s because I volunteered to go. Then, you end up on TV doing interviews or hanging out with a snowmobiler. Monster called and wanted me in New York City one year for New Years Eve because they were throwing a big party up there, but also PBR riders were up there and the next thing you know, I have the microphone at the Madison Square Garden in front of 18,000 people rooting them on and promoting Monster at the same time. It’s a lot of fun wherever we go, whether it’s Supercross, sport cars or Formula 1. I was in France earlier this year with Chip Ganassi at Le Mans and Monster is looking at that. They are over in Australia looking at different ways to promote their brand there. Asia is a market they want to push harder in and I’m always sitting there like yeah, let’s go race cars wherever. Again, that all comes back into the decision on my contract here for full-time NASCAR. That’s what makes it fun, to have a brand like them to do cool things with. We always tease each other like, what’s next? Like this week, I was on David Spade’s Comedy Central show with the car parked right in the audience. I didn’t know we would take seats away from the audience, but the car was right there and I was hanging out with Jay Leno and David Spade, and we were having fun with things. NASCAR helped set some of that stuff up and it’s great to do those promotions together.”

DO YOU SEE THE OPENESS FOR BIG PERSONALITIES OR IS IT STILL KIND OF A STRUGGLE?
“I have the luxury with Monster Energy, the fun we get to have and the barriers aren’t really set up for me. That’s what I ended up looking for because I know what Brad (Keselowski) was talking about and I agree with Brad on his main point. Winning is everything, that is what this sport is about and that’s why sponsors want to be involved. You are giving their brand on opportunity to show the world that they are winners and that they can advertise in a unique atmosphere. But what Brad (Keselowski) is referring to is what I ran into with Shell Pennzoil; my personality didn’t fit that brand and that’s why there was a problem. That’s why I found a perfect relationship with Monster. It’s ideal, it works, they understand motorsports and that’s what we have to continue to cultivate more of. It’s an opportunity for brands to come into NASCAR and the driver has to have its personality and we have to have the right marketing campaign with it. It all has to work together in a cohesive way.”

AFTER YOU DO ALL OF THE MEDIA DAY THINGS YESTERDAY AND THEN COME TO THE TRACK TODAY, FANS WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU ARE ABLE TO DO TO RELAX.
“It’s a busy schedule. It’s a lifestyle that we are all committed to and you recharge on Tuesday or Wednesday like anybody else. Our weekends are racing, but then we can find a couple of days where it’s quite on a Tuesday or Wednesday to recharge. Again, it gets back to nutrition, hydration, working out, stretching, it’s a process. The younger guys can get away with certain things when going hard. Something you missed on our schedule was the charity bowling event last night at the South Point with Speedway Children Charities. We raised close to $70,000 with bowling. It’s a process we all have to do to make sure you find the right time for everything. You blend it into the seven days. All of our energy is peaked at the green flag start on race day.”

YOUR CREW CHIEF IS AN ENGINEER AND FORMER RACER, WHICH IS KIND OF UNIQUE. WHAT ARE SOME OF HIS STRENGTHS AND WHAT HAS HE BROUGHT TO YOU THIS YEAR THAT MAYBE SOME OF YOUR OTHER CREW CHIEFS DIDN’T?
“His demeanor is very calm and yet, when he says something, he knows that he doesn’t have to say it twice. When he’s saying the direction that they are heading with certain things, everybody listens and they are onboard. Yet, his delivery is very calm and he doesn’t get rattled with things that might go wrong at tech, if the driver is chirping in his ears, or if the balance changes from things they learned in the wind tunnel. He applies it and he moves forward. I think Matt McCall is a diamond in the rough, he reminds me a lot of Cole Pearn. He is an engineer and also a former late model racer. The way he approaches his craft, you can tell he’s a racer and he’s a perfectionist. Right now, it’s just a matter of going through enough lessons to perfect his craft. We ran out of fuel at Michigan earlier this year, he said I need you to save two laps. So, as I was trying to save fuel during that run, he said I need you to save a little more, but we’re good or you’re doing good. We ended up running out going down the back straightaway and after the race, those lessons of you needed to be more assertive on the radio and you needed to tell me that we were not good needed to be communicated a little bit differently. It’s just those little things that I think Matt (McCall) is on the verge of completing and we can grab another gear once we get through some of those.”
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.

MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
SOUTH POINT 400
LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
SEPTEMBER 13, 2019

BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 VICTORY JUNCTION CAMARO ZL1, met with media to discuss his confidence from Indianapolis carrying over to the rest of the season, how expectations will change from building off their recent success, what it’s going to take to get his first win, and more. Full Transcript:

WHAT’S THE LAST WEEK BEEN LIKE FOR YOU WITH MANY CONGRATULATORY CALLS AND TWEETS? WHAT DOES HAVING A RUN LIKE THAT MEAN FOR YOUR TEAM GOING FORWARD?
“Yeah, it’s actually been a pretty smooth week, surprisingly. Thank you, Courtney (Weber). I’m sure that will all change here soon. It was a solid week, solid Sunday for us. Just being able to build off of that. I think that biggest thing is I keep saying, we are such a small team and that was a brand-new car we ran at Michigan 2. So, that car won’t be in rotation again until Kansas I believe. For us, the car this weekend was the one we ran the last time here. Obviously since then, we’ve made a lot of improvements to our cars and our team to better our programs. I’d like to say we will go out and run top-five again, but I’m not really sure until we hit the first couple of laps on track and get to see where our speed is. I think for our team, it’s a spotlight or a highlight of what our team can do. The funding is in place, but start getting resources out of that, start getting more cars, more people and just man hours on the car. We can do those types of things. It’s awesome to see. Despite our weekend last weekend, we were an 11th to 12th place car, and I said that even after practice. That’s double the spots we usually have been in. To come home third, yeah, a lot of people crashed out, but the ones that didn’t crash out we still beat them. We just have to keep pushing the envelope, keep doing what we can do in our control, and get as much speed out of our cars that we can.”

IT SEEMED LIKE JUNE AT POCONO IS WHEN YOU GUYS GOT THE SPONSOR SUPPORT. LOOKING AT YOUR RESULTS, YOU’VE BEEN IN THE TOP-20 OR TOP-25. IS THIS STRAIGHT FROM THE BLUE OR A COMBINATION OF THINGS HAPPENING BEHIND THE SCENES THAT WE ALL MISSED?
“If you look at strictly results, then yeah it just looks like we just a good day. But, ever since Charlotte, we’ve been running inside the top-20 during the race and not just on restarts. 30 or 40 laps into a run, we’re running from 18th to 21st. That’s good for us. We’re not happy with that, but it’s an improvement from where we started the season. It seems like 30 laps into a run, we were running 27th at Atlanta. We were OK here. At Auto Club, we weren’t very good at all. But there were multiple instances where, Michigan 1 stands out, we were 19th or so when we hit the fence. Kentucky, we hit the fence with 60 laps to go. When we come in and I’m praying for those last 60 laps, we come in and just do fuel only, and it bites us with 7 to go. We were running in the top-15 there. Where we were running throughout those races, the finishes just didn’t show that. That last star that I keep talking about that hasn’t been in align. It’s little mistakes on my end or running out of fuel at Michigan 2. It’s just those little things that take us out. We’ve had a little bit more speed since that time. Last week, we had a little bit more speed than what we previously had. It’s just a brand-new car, being able to race it at Michigan, taking it back to debrief and figure out what we can do to get a little more aerodynamic advantage for us. We have five to seven guys on our team and that’s just all we got. We have a couple of guys back at the shop, but there’s not many. So, we are just trying to do everything we can with the limited amount of people and resources. To see them bring that much speed and that much confidence to the race track last weekend is definitely an eye-opener for all of us in the garage. I’m excited to see where the direction goes.”

HAVE YOU HAD ANY SIGNS OF THE SAME LEVEL OF SUPPORT FOR NEXT YEAR?
“Yeah, we’re still working through that. I’m really confident about our program being even better than where we are at today and getting more funding in. It’s been a blessing, it’s been an uphill climb for sure. It still is, despite our third-place finish. It’s still been a hard battle on that side of things and we are very fortunate at Pocono for Dave Stewart, Victory Junction, Dave Stewart’s family and the Foundation to all jump on board and take that next big step with us. I think we can continue to grow that. He wants to see myself and the King be successful and bring that 43 back to victory lane. With runs like that, that obviously helps the effort. At least we like to think so. We’ll keep doing what we can, take the finishes that we can get and eliminate the mistakes. Eliminate hitting the fence in these cars. In the Xfinity cars, you can go out and hit the fence and continue racing. For us, it’s a little bit more edgy. You hit the fence just barely and it can cut a tire down and take you out. It’s just mistakes on my end, clean up mistakes on pit road, and just have a flawless weekend. We have to have a flawless weekend, we can’t have any mistakes. Any mistakes takes us from running 19th to 29th. Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and all of those guys, they can speed on pit road two or three times during a race and still come back to finish top-five. We don’t have that type of speed, we can’t get up there like that. We just have to do everything in our power in the best way possible. Some of those days are going to be 25th, but we take it and move on. As long as we can come back, look at the right side and it be clean, no mistakes on pit road, no loose wheels, no speeding on pit road, or anything like that, we have a lot more in control that can take us out of the ball game.”

WHAT DOES THE NEW CAR FEEL LIKE? WHAT CAN YOU TELL IS THE DIFFERENCE WHEN YOU WERE IN THE CAR YOU WERE IN LAST WEEK VERSUS MAYBE THE CAR YOU ARE IN THIS WEEK?
“It feels fast, just the feeling of it. Lap 4 or 5, I was like this car feels fast. My spotter was like, “Well you are P-11 right now”. Usually when that happens, we are like the 11th car that has gone out and that’s it. By the time I get back to the garage, we are like 111th. When I turned, the car turned. When I wanted to make a move inside of a car, it followed suit. It reacted the way I wanted it to react. I was a little worried about how our car would be in traffic from the first practice. I was really worried with just the way it felt, the right height stuff was off. So, we went out behind the three front row cars in the second practice to start out and we passed them. I was like maybe I was wrong. It just had the speed, the handling and just the whole package the whole weekend. It was really cool to see and I was pumped from the time I got in the car to the time I got out. Just a ton of confidence and that obviously carries over to a lot. You can charge into the corner and know you can make that pass instead of being like I’ll try it and see what happens. Just a lot of confidence with it.”

WHEN YOU HAVE THE RUN THAT YOU HAD AT INDIANAPOLIS, DO YOU ALSO THINK THAT YOUR TWO BEST SHOWINGS IN A CUP CAR HAVE BEEN AT THE TWO MOST ICONIC VENUES THAT IT COULD POSSIBLY BE AT?
“Yeah, for sure. They pay well too, so that’s nice. Picking all the right ones. I haven’t looked at it from that standpoint, it’s just ironic how it worked out. It’s not like I’m thinking this is a big stage we have to go out and perform. Every race is a big stage for me, as far as taking my career to new heights and new levels. Indy is just the same as Martinsville for me. Every race is special. You never know when it’s going to be your last race; you always have to treat it as a special one. I’ve never looked at it from that standpoint, but I’m not complaining. It’s fine with me.”

WHEN YOU HAVE RUNS LIKE THAT, WHAT ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS EVEN WHEN YOU KNOW YOU HAVE A SMALL TEAM AND ALL THE HARD THINGS YOU HAVE TO DEAL WITH MONITARILY TRYING TO BUILD UP THE TEAM SUPPORT?
“A prime example is Ryan Blaney. We had talked about it after the race. He said I chopped him, which I didn’t have a side mirror that was usable, so I couldn’t really see where my line was and where he was at. But, after thinking about it, we might just be lucky enough to even see the top-five this weekend. Those guys know that when they climb in the car, they expect to run top-five. I expect to run 20th. We’ll see, I don’t know where our speed will be at until we climb into the car for first practice and see if the car is reacting or responding the same way. My expectations are very low. They have not increased because of that run at Indy and that’s just how it’s been. For us, not knocking our team at all of running 20th or 25th, but it’s just what we have shown in the past. Like I said, we don’t have a brand-new car for this weekend, so it’s kind of seeing how much we can massage this older car and see how much speed we can get out of it. Hopefully we can show up and run top-15. I said that the night before Indy; I was like a top-15 would be great. I didn’t expect to run like that.”

WHEN YOU LOOK AHEAD TO NEXT YEAR, ARE YOU RAISING YOUR EXPECTATIONS KNOWING THAT YOU HAVE SOME BUILDING BLOCKS AND THE OFF SEASON TO WORK WITH?
“Obviously, as a competitor, you want to keep raising your expectations and being on that level where it’s like every race I can go out and win, have a good finish or run top-three. But I’ve had a lot of high expectations throughout my years in this crazy sport and I’ve been let down a lot. Some of my darkest days have come from high expectations. I just keep low expectations. My expectations change in the moment. For example, in Indy, I said I expect to run top-12 here. Then we’re in the top-five on the last restart and I expect to finish in the top-five. Foreshadowing that I can go out and expect to run top-five in Vegas, no I’d be let down. I could be let down, I’ll say that, and I don’t want to go through that.”

WHEN YOU GET UP IN THE TOP-FIVE AND YOU START RACING AROUND DIFFERENT COMPETITION AND TOUGHER COMPETITION, ARE YOU MORE AWARE OF ALMOST REIGNING YOURSELF IN TO NOT OVERDRIVE, NOT DO TOO MUCH AND PUT YOURSELF IN A BAD SITUATION?
“Yeah, for sure. I have yet to go back and look where Kevin Harvick was able to do on those last 20 laps. But he just yarded the rest of us. Him and Joey (Logano) were able to pull away and I was a little slower than the 12 and 24. But when I’m running that good, I know the car is at the absolute 110% edge. That 111% would have been getting really tight, closing your eyes because you think you’re going to hit the fence, losing all that momentum, and letting five cars get past you. For me, it’s like you have to hit your marks every single lap. You have to find that mark, find that edge fast. For us, when I’m making adjustments on the car, it’s like we have the same tendencies. Our tires get loaded up and you start to get tight, but other teams can kind of drive through that. They know where the car is going to land and be positioned by the time they get off the corner. When we go in, it’s like if I drive any harder, we’re going to be pulling out the backup car. You adjust to that. For me, yeah I was up there with those guys and they are expecting me to mess up and I didn’t mess up.”

AFTER THE RACE, YOU PLAYFULLY CALLED OUT YOUR TWITTER HATERS. WHEN I LOOKED AT TWITTER AFTER THE RACE, IT SEEMED LIKE THERE WAS A LOT OF POSITIVE. DID THAT MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD?
“Yeah, there is a lot more positive than negative and that’s nice to see. But I pay more attention to the negative than the positive. It’s just like what are you talking about. There’s a kid that I’ve actually shut him down before. He has me blocked on things. There is an Instagram account that sent me his post in talking about my interview and talking about how nobody expects you to run 25th, crash cars every week, you don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m like, are you living in my Twitter feed and seeing what I’m getting? Are you monitoring the tweets that I get? After every post, whether it’s NASCAR, Fox, NBC talking about me, he’ll go back and see he’ll run 25th next week, he’ll crash next week, he’ll do this next week. He’s like I’ve crashed a car every week. For one, I have not. I don’t know what they consider a crash. Is getting a donut on the side of your car from banging tires with somebody considered a crash? Or scraping the car on the right side? I need to talk to them and figure out what is considered a crash. I’ve crashed Talladega, Daytona, I think all the speedway races. Other than that, I don’t think we’ve crashed. Roval is coming up, that’ll be three or four cars crashed there (laughs). Watkins Glen, I got crashed. I don’t know, I shouldn’t be wasting my time, but it just eats at me. When I said that stuff, it’s like yeah, I get that all the time. I was supposed to crash, I was supposed to run 25th at Indy, I’m supposed to crash or run 25th at Vegas. I’m supposed to do those things each and every race, according to Twitter. But, when I don’t, they don’t have anything to say.”

WHEN THAT DAY PRESENTS ITSELF AND YOU GET YOUR FIRST WIN, A LOT OF THE DRIVERS HAVE TALKED ABOUT THE LEVEL OF AGGRESSION HAS PEAKED. WHAT WOULD YOU BE WILLING TO DO AS FAR AS BEING AGGRESSIVE TO GET THAT FIRST WIN?
“Obviously, I wouldn’t flat out dump somebody. We always joke, would you wreck your mother for a win? No. It depends what the situation is. If she’s two car links in front of me and we’re running down into turn three coming to the checker, I’m not going to drive in four car links to wreck her. It’s going to be like I’m going to do everything I can without touching you to get by you. It’s just tough. For an example, we laugh about it now, but Ryan Newman and I were racing at Darlington. We were racing hard, he got by me and he left a lane on the top through one and two. I just got on his door and down the backstretch, he gives me the bird. Which I was like hey man, that’s my move, don’t take my move (laughs). Walking through the garage last weekend in Indy, he said that he was just kind of frustrated, but no harm no fowl. People hate being raced on the race track. They get mad when you take it three or four wide, and they start to point the blame at you. It’s like why are we in that position? You messed up, you forced me to make a move and I’m not going to sit there and ride behind you to get passed. I’m going to make the move and get by you. It’s different. I love how aggressive we race. That’s just what I was taught growing up; be as aggressive and clean as you can. There is a fine line, but if the opportunity presents itself to me force the issue onto you, absolutely it’s going to happen. I fell victim to it at this race earlier this year. Ryan Preece and I were racing for I think the lucky dog or something. We came out on a little different pit strategy about two laps or so and we were racing hard against each other. In my Monday morning debrief, I texted him and said I was sorry and it was just hard racing. He was like, “why are you apologizing for racing hard?”. I was like, you are absolutely right. We were racing hard, we weren’t mad at each other. It was just one of those days. That’s what we do, we get paid to race. Not to fall in line and not race the other guys hard. I don’t care if you were racing 20 years ago and it wasn’t like this; it’s a new day. It changes every day and you have to get accustom to it. “
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 Drivers Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer Hid Inside Larger Than Life Machine to Surprise Fans with Personalized Prizes during the Las Vegas Race Weekend

LAS VEGAS – On Thursday, September 12, before the first race of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series ^TM  Playoffs, excited fans lined up inside the MGM Grand Casino for a chance to spin the reels on the Mobil 1^TM 250K Mile Slot Machine – a unique pop-up experience with surprise appearances from Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) drivers Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer.

Participating players were given the chance to pull the handle and win one of ten $250 prizes. To play, fans inserted a bottle of conventional motor oil into the machine. Everyday drivers win when they trade up from basic conventional motor oil to Mobil 1 synthetic motor oil, which keeps important vehicle engine parts in excellent condition for 250,000 miles.*

Drivers Harvick and Bowyer took turns hiding inside the large slot machine, signing personalized items for the winners, while a hidden camera caught the excited reactions of fans. For select $250 winners, the drivers emerged from the machine to offer congratulations and give prizes to stunned fans.

Watch the full video of Harvick and Bowyer surprising fans in the Mobil 1 250K Mile Slot Machine on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @mobil1, and learn more at mobiloil.com.

“The slot machine was pretty interesting and I can’t say that I’ve ever thought about stepping inside one, but there’s a first time for everything.” said Harvick. “Mobil 1 is such a good technical partner and sponsor, and it was a great way to show the benefits of synthetic oil over conventional oil. I’ve used synthetic for more than 25 years, and I’ve seen it help with my horsepower and performance. Hopefully we can put the Mobil 1 car in victory lane this week at Las Vegas and get the playoffs started right.”

While 10 lucky winners received $250 cash prizes, all other players came away with a coupon for a gift card that is redeemable with the purchase of a Mobil 1 or Mobil Super synthetic motor oil change at participating Mobil 1 Lube Express^SM locations.

“We were excited to see race fans at the MGM Grand test their luck at our custom slot machine and meet Kevin and Clint ahead of the Las Vegas race weekend,” said Michele Biamonte, North America Consumer Marketing Manager North America. “As always, we want to wish the SHR drivers the best of luck on the track this weekend. They’ll have more than just luck of course – they’ll have first-class lubricant science and technology on their side with Mobil 1 synthetic motor oil in their engines.”

Mobil 1, the world’s leading synthetic motor oil brand and the “Official Motor Oil of NASCAR ®,” is used by over 50 percent of teams in NASCAR’s top-three series; Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series ^TM, and NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series ^TM. Compared to conventional motor oils, Mobil 1 motor oils offer outstanding performance, long-lasting protection and extended engine life.

^*Total engine miles. Tested in vehicles primarily in highway driving conditions with respective product recommended oil change intervals.

About Mobil 1

The world’s leading synthetic motor oil brand, Mobil 1™ features anti-wear technology that provides performance beyond our conventional motor oils. This technology allows Mobil 1 to meet or exceed the toughest standards of car builders and to provide exceptional protection against engine wear, under normal or even some of the most extreme conditions. Mobil 1 flows quickly in extreme temperatures to protect critical engine parts and is designed to maximize engine performance and help extend engine life.

For more information, visit Mobil 1 online or on Facebook. Mobil™ and Mobil 1™ are trademark or registered trademarks of ExxonMobil Corporation or one of its subsidiaries.