Category: NASCAR Cup PR

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Sunday, August 11, 2019

MARK RUSHBROOK, global director, Ford Performance

HOW IMPORTANT IS THIS FOR FORD IN YOUR BACKYARD? “This is our home track and in the backyard of Ford Motor Company and it is really important for us to perform well in front of our employees, executives and all their families. It is a big deal. We brought 1,100 employees and their families out to watch the race today and we had great support from all our senior management here today to watch and to celebrate this victory.”

THIS MUST HAVE BEEN A GREAT WEEKEND FOR YOUR COMPANY WITH EDSEL FORD HERE, IT MUST HAVE BEEN A REAL FORD CELEBRATION: “Yeah, Ford is a family company, for sure. Having Edsel Ford support us as much as he does and Bill Ford and Joe Hinrchs and all the senior executives of the company. It is why we are in racing, because Henry Ford won a race with Sweepstakes and started the company. It is important for us to be on track, racing, and using it in tech transfer and learning how to make our road cars better. We got to have employees come out here and see what we do first hand and then see the ultimate result on track. It means a lot to everybody.”

THIS IS FOUR WINS IN A ROW HERE FOR FORD AT MICHIGAN, WHAT KIND OF MESSAGE DOES THAT SEND TO CHEVROLET AND TOYOTA? “We want to win every race but we definitely want to win here at Michigan. To have the Heritage Trophy, we display it proudly and it will go back and be in Dearborn first thing in the morning for our executives to see there and we will put it on display for our employees to see. It is kind of neat the way the trophy works. You bring it out here and give it back at the beginning of the race and it is kind of neat to take it right back at the end of the race. It is great to do it four races in a row. We want to keep that streak going.”

WHAT KIND OF TECHNOLOGY FROM NASCAR GOES INTO THE ROAD COURSE BUSINESS? “There are a lot of examples of that. As you know, there are no parts that are on the race car that go directly onto the street car from NASCAR but the technology and engineering processes that we use, I could sit here for a couple hours if you wanted to talk that long. At a high level, the engine analytical tools that we use to design our engines for the road cars and race cars are the same tools. By stressing those tools in the racing environment to make them even better it ends up making our road car engines even better. Same thing for aero CFD, computational fluid dynamics, it is the same tool on our road cars and race cars and we are stressing that tool to make it more precise and accurate with what we do in racing that ends up making our road cars better for their aero performance or air flow for cooling. The final way is in vehicle dynamics. The simulation we use, especially the driving simulator, we have two of those now at our Tech Center in North Carolina and we use those same two simulators for working on our future road cars instead of using prototypes. We are able to do the development work in the simulators and it reduces the number of prototypes to make the end product better, making our road cars better. There are a lot of examples like that and it is pretty meaningful to have the racing team be able to win on track but to also know we are making our road cars better at the same time.”

WHY ARE YOU GUYS SO GOOD HERE? “Of all the active tracks on the circuit, we have 38 or 39 wins at Michigan. I think it is a combination of the power and fuel economy which is a testament to Doug Yates, Roush Yates and the engine team and use of our analytical tools of optimize the power and fuel economy which we saw today with what Kevin and the Stewart-Haas team was able to do.”

CAN YOU UPDATE US ON THE GEN 7 CAR PROJECT? “We continue to be excited about the new car for 2021 and the relevance that is going to be put into it to make it even closer to our road cars with the body and suspension. I think that NASCAR has done a great job in the leadership of that, including the right partners to help with the design and development of that. Engaging all the OEM’s and teams. There is a lot of positive movement behind it right now. It is going to be a great race car. It will look great and race great and we are excited about racing it in 2021 but we have a lot of racing to do between now and then.”

MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
CONSUMERS ENERGY 400
TEAM CHEVY RACE NOTES & QUOTES
AUGUST 11, 2019

TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL FINISHING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
3rd KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 MCDONALD’S CAMARO ZL1
7th RYAN PREECE, NO. 47 KROGER CAMARO ZL1
8th WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1
9th CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 KELLEY BLUE BOOK CAMARO ZL1
10th ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1

TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL FINISHING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Kevin Harvick (Ford)
2nd Denny Hamlin (Toyota)
3rd Kyle Larson (Chevrolet)
4th Martin Truex Jr. (Toyota)
5th Daniel Suarez (Ford)

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season continues next weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway with the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race on Saturday evening, August 17th at 7:30 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on NBCSN, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

RACE NOTES & QUOTES:

KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 MCDONALD’S CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 3rd
COMING BACK FROM A SPEEDING PENALTY TO FINISH 3rd IS NOT A BAD DAY AT ALL, IS IT?
“No, I guess if you’re going to get a speeding penalty, the first run of the race is the time to do it. But yeah, I was surprised when they said I was speeding because I hadn’t hit a read light at all until after leaving my pit stall. That was the only time I hit a red. I was conservative on my lights the rest of the day and maybe I don’t know if we just misjudged a little bit or maybe I just was a little too fast. But anyway, our race was good. Our car handled really well, so I was happy about that. And, we had a great points day. So we saved just enough fuel there at the end to get to the finish line and now we’re well above the cutline. So, I’m happy about our day.”

RYAN PREECE, NO. 47 KROGER CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 7th
“It was a good day. Expectations-wise, it was a top 20 or 15 would be fantastic. Well, we ended up with a top 10 and we made the car better and better every lap. It was good. We had a good race car. Track position, like fuel helped, but we were still going to end up anywhere from 12th to 10th, so it was a good day.”

WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 8th
“Honestly, I thought we tried a little different approach today and our car was just really hard to handle. We struggled in traffic a lot. But, to come out with a top 10 is good. I feel like we ran in and around there. We just struggled on restarts. But, not bad overall. I think we made up a lot of points. Just kind of needed a couple of different things to play a little bit differently for us to have a better finish.”

WHAT DID YOU LEARN?
“Just how to time the runs and I feel like I was a little more patient than the previous race here. So, patience and just timing the runs to where I could complete the pass was the biggest deal.”

YOU ARE SOLID WEEK AFTER WEEK. YOU MAY NOT BE THE WINNER BUT YOU’RE SOLID
“Yeah, I think so. Besides last week. I think we’ve finished in the top 10 in a two out of three, I guess. That’s great. And we can really build on that. It seems like Chad (Knaus) just calls really solid races. I think if we get our practice structure to be a little bit better, I think we’ll be in good shape.”

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 9th
“We finally got our car going pretty good there at the end and then ran out of gas on that last lap. I just needed to save a little better after the caution.”

ON THE CHALLENGES OF THIS RACE
“I need to be better, for sure. I just need to be a little faster. I needed to do a better job of saving.”

ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 10th
“We had a really good car in practice and just took off really right there in the race and nothing touched it. It was really tight. It was on the splitter all day. Track position was so key. A lot of opportunities to take a big swing at it and Greg did a good job calling the race. Strategy kind of bit us a little bit there getting buried. We didn’t have it today.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 34th
WHAT HAPPENED EARLY IN THE RACE
“The right side tires went into the PJ1 and as soon as I got my tires in it, I went straight into the wall. When you’re aggressive, it doesn’t work and then sometimes you’re cautious and it doesn’t work. It was a great car. That hurt, for sure. We’re just going to have to rally on and these guys are doing an amazing job. We’ll keep digging.”

CLINT BOWYER HAD TROUBLE, SO YOU’RE PROBABLY ABOUT 12 POINTS BEHIND HIM FOR THE PLAYOFF SPOT. DANIEL SUAREZ GAINED A TON OF POINTS TODAY, TOO. WHAT’S YOUR ATTITUDE NOW?
“To just fight hard for every point. The guys around that cutoff point, all seem to be having bad luck. If one of us could just string together some good races and get in the clear and get away. I think that’s what the No. 24 (William Byron) has been able to do is just have some good, consistent races and built a nice gap. You’ve just got to keep fighting for every point.”

IS IT ‘HEARTBREAKING’ OR IS IT JUST ‘THAT’S RACING’ WHEN IT COMES TO SOMETHING LIKE THAT?
“No, it’s super disappointing. It’s a little easier when it’s not on you and you can call it a mechanical or a flat or get caught up in a wreck. But, I’m behind the wheel and I’m the one that got us in the fence.”

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, August 11, 2019
Consumers Energy 400 Race Results

KEVIN HARVICK CAPS FORD SEASON SWEEP OF MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY

Kevin Harvick won his second race of the season and 47th of his Cup career today.

This marks the 17th win for Stewart-Haas Racing since joining Ford.

The win is Mustang’s seventh of the season.

Today’s win is Ford’s 683rd all-time in Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series competition.

The win caps a season sweep of Michigan International Speedway for Ford after Joey Logano took home the June race win.

The win keeps the coveted Michigan Heritage Trophy at home in the Ford offices in Dearborn for the next 10 months.

FORD FINISHING RESULTS
1st – Kevin Harvick
5th – Daniel Suarez
12th – Ryan Newman
15th – Paul Menard
16th – David Ragan
17th – Joey Logano
19th – Brad Keselowski
21st – Corey LaJoie
22nd – Michael McDowell
24th – Ryan Blaney
25th – Matt Tifft
28th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
33rd – Aric Almirola
37th – Clint Bowyer

KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang – Finished 1st

Another win, congratulations: “Yeah, it was, like you say, a day of a little bit of adversity that we were able to overcome. But we just had a really fast car all weekend. Our car handled really well today, and with the multiple lanes, we were able to run all three lanes pretty well and make our way through traffic. So just really proud of everybody on our Mobil 1 Ford, everybody from Busch and Hunt Brothers and Jimmy John’s and everybody back at the shop from Haas Automation and Stewart‑Haas Racing, just put a really fast car on the racetrack and we were able to capitalize on it, and that’s always fun.

When Marty got to you on the racetrack, you seemed winded. “I was. The more you turn off, the faster it goes, so with like 30 to go I shut everything, all the air conditioners and foot fans and everything off, and it just got hot, and then I had to lift him up, walk him around the car and then walk back around, and it’s a lot for me to get in and out of the car nowadays. Yeah, so it was ‑‑ I was a little hot.”

We talk about you have good race cars, but Doug Yates that builds the engines, and you think about horsepower, you don’t necessarily think about fuel mileage being that good. What do you have to do as a driver to make all of that work knowing what you had to do? “Well, you remember those days when you made the most power and you had the best fuel mileage, right? It’s nice. Doug and everybody at Roush Yates Engines does a great job, and obviously Ford puts a big circle around these two Michigan races to come up here and be the top manufacturer, and when you look at our engine program, I think that these particular racetracks really fit the style of our torque curves and the things that we do, and it was right in our wheelhouse. A lot of things different on the car from the first race. The evolution of these race cars is rapid, and when you talk about the engine shop, obviously Mobil 1 is a huge part of that in being able to develop new oils, and today was no different with the new oil and things in the car. It was a good day and a lot of pieces coming together, and hopefully when we get to Las Vegas there will be a few more come together, as well.”

Take us inside your helmet; you’re running third or fourth, chasing the 11, I guess you got around the 21 and there’s the 2 and all these guys. You’re saving fuel and trying to get to the front at the same time to get around Logano, and when you finally got around him, what’s it like racing under those conditions? “Well, for me I wasn’t really having to save fuel, and I felt like the key to winning the race was getting around the 2. I felt like in clean air he was going to be the hardest one to pass. I felt like the 22 fell off as the runs went and it didn’t seem like his car was going to be as good, and my car was still handling really well, top, bottom and middle. I could run anywhere on the racetrack, and I felt like his was a little more line sensitive as to where he needed to run on the racetrack. They told me I was one or two laps to the good, and when I got the lead and got a good enough distance, then I tried to start managing the throttle. It’s a lot easier to manage that gap than it is to try to manage passing and saving. Yeah, we were able to do some burnouts and drive it back to Victory Lane, so we had plenty of gas.”

You’re getting ready to race for possibly a second championship. You’re going to be in the Hall of Fame already, but talk to me as a dad how special these moments are with Keelan here. “Yeah, for me it’s pretty awesome because I didn’t say anything and he asked me right when I walked out the door, and he’s like, hey, if we win today, I get to ride in the car again. I’m like, absolutely, you just make your way to pit road and we’ll figure it out. We stepped it up a little today. We were able to do a straight‑line burnout and a donut, and I made him put my helmet on in case he flew out the side there into the roll bars. I said, you’d better put the helmet on, and we did some burnouts. So that was pretty cool.”

Jeff Burton brought it up and then Marty brought it up a little bit later talking to you and talking to a couple other people. We saw it last year with the 22 team. Are you guys peaking at the right time? “Yeah, you know, we really got off on the wrong foot as far as where we needed to be on the cars, and it’s been kind of an uphill battle really all year to get where we needed to be. The cars have been running a lot better as we’ve got into the last two months, and Dale knows this, I’ve been nursing a shoulder injury for the last two months to try to make sure I made it through Watkins Glen, and that was no problem. I hurt myself throwing a baseball to him, so it’s cut into my golf game. So, we’ve ha

BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang – Finished 19th

“Man, I want this one so bad. We got that flat tire early on and we recovered and got up to third there in the late stages and then we just ran out of gas. That is just the way it goes sometimes.”

CLINT BOWYER, No. 14 One Cure Ford Mustang – Finished 37th — (Retired due to accident on lap 139)

“Somebody got in the back of me. When I went around I just saw Bowman and thought it was him. I guess maybe the 21 or somebody. As soon as it happened, I was just along for the ride. I don’t know. We have to get something figured out with these race tracks. We are really fast by ourselves, practice and qualifying really well, in the top-five almost every single time but then we start the race and don’t make the grip we need to compete. We definitely need to find some things out. You can talk about the bubble and worrying about points but I am way more worried about getting established and running up front at these types of race tracks. If you make the playoffs and can’t compete in it then what is the use? We have some things to work out. We have some time. We have some good race tracks for us including Bristol coming up. We have plenty of racing but we have to get some things figured out.”

RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Moen Ford Mustang – Finished 24th

“I had a really good car. Our Mustang was fast, especially later in the race. I just got off pit road too early and we ended up running out of gas. It is easy to second guess those types of decisions after the race, but I didn’t second guess anything at the time. Just the way it shakes out sometimes.”

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Mustang – Finished 17th

“I needed more gas. The Shell car isn’t supposed to run out of gas. The positive is we were way better than we were on Friday and Saturday. The negative is that we almost won the race but ended up finishing 17th. You win some you lose some. If the caution comes out we would have been in good shape but it stayed green, and that is it. That is the gamble. We took the gamble and it didn’t pay off. Pocono we played it the other way and the caution came out. That is two races and we played it wrong both times.”

DANIEL SUAREZ, No. 41 ARRIS Ford Mustang – Finished 5th

“It was a decent day for us. We had ups and downs. There was something wrong, a bad set of tires or something in that second stage. We couldn’t control it. The team was able to overcome that with good adjustments and they put me back in the game with track position and we were able to get a good result from there.”

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Friday, August 9, 2019
Consumers Energy 400 Post-Qualifying

BRAD KESELOWSKI POLE WINNER PRESS CONFERENCE

WAS THERE SOMETHING ABOUT THE TRACK CONDITIONS THAT ALLOWED YOU TO GET THE POLE TODAY?

“I think the track was in really good shape. I don’t know if there was anything that really favored up, mostly it was just the team doing a great job with the preparation and executing a flawless lap driving the car. Most of the credit goes to my team for sure.”

WHAT ARE YOUR INTERACTIONS LIKE WITH OTHER DRIVERS THAT HAVE SIMILAR OUTSIDE INTERESTS, SUCH AS YOUR OWN COMPANY YOU HAVE STARTED? “It is tough because it is an interesting position to be in as a race car driver because the people that maybe can relate to you the most are other race car drivers and they are also the same people that are trying to beat you and you are trying to beat them. So your communications with them are not always friendly or favorable. Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren’t. The relationship is always a little bit strained. I can’t say I have had a lot of communications about business stuff with those guys but I do respect that any of those guys that are successful running their own business with respect to trying to do that and balance their personal lives with their other job that has to take precedent of being a race car driver.”

DO YOU FEEL THE CARS BEHAVE DIFFERENTLY THAN BEFORE WITH THE PJ1 ON THE TRACK? “I would say that with the PJ1, I haven’t used it yet and I don’t expect it to come into play until tomorrow. Obviously it hasn’t come into play today. I don’t think anyone has made a lot of it. Generally speaking it will be much more impactful in the race than in practice and that is the intention of it, to offer alternative lines in the race. With that in mind it is TBD.”

WILL YOUR TEAMMATES ADJUST THEIR SETUP TO MATCH YOURS NOW? “I can’t really speak to what they are going to do with their cars but it is interesting because a lot of times we are similar and sometimes we don’t. I don’t always know. They might already be the same as us right now, or they could be way different. I don’t know exactly. Those decisions are in a different realm of control than my own.”

THROUGHOUT YOUR CAREER YOU HAVE HAD SOME INSTANCES WHERE YOU HAVE HAD ISSUES WITH ANOTHER DRIVER. SOME SHORTER THAN OTHERS. HOW MUCH CAN THAT STUFF WEAR ON A DRIVER AND DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE MATURED ENOUGH TO BE ABLE TO HANDLE THAT WHEN IT IS YOUR TURN? “It wears on you as much as you let it wear on you. I think that is my first thought. Second, I would say that there are some drivers that handle conflict incredibly well and there are some that don’t. I have never considered myself to be the best at it. I will be honest, I do look at videos of guys like Dale Earnhardt. He was in so many situations of conflict and they were easier to deal with in his time and age because of the lack of social media and lack of 24-hour news cycle and things of that nature. But then on the flip side he was a master at dealing with it. So I think you look at those guys and you think that probably parlayed into some of the success of his career so you would be a fool not to study and try to learn from it. In today’s landscape it is harder than ever to handle for sure.”

QUESTION INAUDIBLE: “It was always easier earlier in my career when I was lesser known and social media wasn’t like it is today. I would say that lucky is one way of putting it but thankful is another. But it certainly, social media has changed our sport. There is no way around that. We are in a sport where the teams are reliant so heavily on commercial partnerships and sponsorships and having social media means you have to be more careful because there are more voices and those angry voices are 100 times louder than the happy voices. Sponsors really take that into account. It is a double edged sword.”

YOUR TWEET FROM DAYTONA IGNITED AND PUSHED THINGS FORWARD REGARDING SOCIAL MEDIA IN NASCAR. SOME OF THOSE THINGS PROBABLY WOULD HAVE HAPPENED EVENTUALLY BUT DO YOU FEEL LIKE IN SOME SENSE THAT IS PARTLY ON YOUR SHOULDERS? “I think that is a fair way of putting it. I maybe pushed it forward but not by much. It was going to get there anyway. NASCAR was going to make the investments and do the things they have done to be successful as it is now. I am careful not to take too much ownership or blame. Maybe I am deflecting blame, I don’t know. I am thankful to be a part of it in some small way and I got to ride a little bit of the wave which was fun. Who knows where it will go from where it is today. I imagine 10 years from now that the story of social media will not be what it is today. If I knew what it will be I would be in Silicon Valley and making trillions of dollars. With that in mind, it is an interesting time to see how those things affect our sport and they certainly are affecting our sport.”

WHAT IS IT LIKE TRYING TO BALANCE PUTTING YOUR ALL INTO RACING HERE WHILE NOT PUTTING TOO MUCH INTO IT? “This race track means a lot to me for a lot of reasons. With family and friends and being my home track, closest to my home, you just want to impress. You want to do a good job in front of your family. You want to kind of show them what you are made of and make them proud. That does put a lot of pressure on yourself and I think most drivers would say they fall into that category. At the end, I look at it now and I made my Cup debut here 10 years ago and I look at those times now and I think of how fortunate I was to make it in the sport. It was a much more difficult time to be a rookie in Cup than it is now. But I am still thankful I had that opportunity and could make it to this position.”

HOW MUCH DOES BEING ON THE POLE MATTER HERE? HOW MUCH DOES IT NAG ON YOU THAT YOU HAVEN’T WON HERE YET? “Nag is the right word, it definitely nags on me. The advantage of being the pole sitter is really dependent on how the yellows fall and the pit strategies fall. It can be a huge advantage if the race has a lot of yellows but if the race doesn’t have many yellows it can be maybe a slight disadvantage with pit stalls and things of that nature. It plays out to how the strategy unfolds as much as anything else.”

MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
CONSUMERS ENERGY 400
TEAM CHEVY QUALIYFING NOTES & QUOTES
AUGUST 9, 2019

TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
3rd William Byron, No. 24 Liberty University Camaro ZL1
4th Alex Bowman, No. 88 Axalta Camaro ZL1
6th Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS Camaro ZL1
7th Austin Dillon, No. 3 Chevrolet Accessories Camaro ZL1
11th Daniel Hemric, No. 8 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats Camaro ZL1

TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Brad Keselowski (Ford)
2nd Kevin Harvick (Ford)
3rd William Byron (Chevrolet)
4th Alex Bowman (Chevrolet)
5th Clint Bowyer (Ford)

NBCSN will telecast the 203-lap Consumers Energy 400 live at 3 p.m. ET Sunday, August 11. The NBC Sports Gold app will stream the race and live coverage can also be found on MRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

QUALIFYING NOTES & QUOTES:

WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 3rd
“For us to qualify third is really good. We started the day here kind of 1th to 13th, so to make that improvement is really good for us. I feel great about it, honestly. I feel like the guys have worked super hard and we just need a good weekend. I think if we start up front we’ll have a really good shot at it.”

WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT CREW CHIEF, CHAD KNAUS, ENCOURAGING YOU TO ‘GO GET HIM’ (KYLE BUSCH) AT THE GLEN LAST WEEK? DID YOU AND CHAD DISCUSS IT AFTERWARDS?
“Ultimately, I’m driving the race car and I’ve got to make the decisions. So, even if he tells me something to do, I ultimately make the decision. And, so it’s up to me. Obviously it’s my space and everything. I felt like I was done a little wrong and that’s kind of how I handled it. Unfortunately, it cost me a lot more. So, I learned from that, for sure.”

ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 4th
“There’s not a lot of driver skill or driver anything involved in that one. You just hold it wide open and it’s really a showcase of the car that the team brought. I’m very proud of that. I’m excited to go racing. We had such a good race car here earlier this year. And we’re starting toward the front and it will be a good one.”

DO YOU THINK YOU NEED TO BE MORE AGGRESSIVE? NOT SURE IF THAT’S GOOD OR NOT
“Yeah, I don’t know. Last week we ran out of fuel. I’m not quite sure what we could have done more aggressively. We were really aggressive with strategy, and look where it got us. So, that’s just part of it. We’ve been trying things these last couple of weeks and they’ve been biting us here and there. I’m just excited to be back at a race track where I feel like I’m pretty good at with obviously, a really strong race car.”

DANIEL HEMRIC, NO. 8 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER BOATS CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 11th
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR RUN TODAY AND WHAT DO YOU GUYS PLAN TO WORK ON TOMORROW DURING PRACTICE?
“I feel good where our Bass Pro Shops ZL1 unloaded. We have good speed. Looking at it, some of these guys may have been a little more aggressive here in qualifying and found a little bit more speed than we did, but our stuff has driven good. I’ve been happy with that side of it. It’s just a matter of going into race trim and making sure we can get the balance right for Sunday’s race. But, so far I’ve been happy and Chevrolet has been really fast, I feel like, since we unloaded. That’s a good trend. Hopefully we keep it going.”

KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 15th
BASED ON HOW WELL YOU RAN HERE IN JUNE, HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR CHANCES FOR A WIN ON SUNDAY?
“As good as we ran here in June, which I think was our best race by qualifying fourth and finishing second and running up front all day, this weekend will tell us a lot about how we’ve improved and what direction we thought we had then, which was a solid finish, but also what we’ve chosen to improve on where we stand right now racing here in August.”

ON RECENT AGGRESSION AMONG DRIVERS
“This is that time of year where things are heated because there are guys on the bubble and it could be where it’s a young guy that gets roughed-up by a veteran or a veteran who gets roughed-up by a younger guy. It doesn’t matter who it is. If you in the bubble-situation, that’s the pressure cooker. And I think it’s the same as year’s past in the same style of racing. It’s just being talked about in a different way because people like drama more so than talking about the racing that’s on track.”

BUBBA WALLACE, JR., NO. 43 VICTORY JUNCTION CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 28th
ON HIS QUALIFYING EFFORT
“Well, we were a little disappointed. Actually, my guys are very disappointed. It’s a brand new piece for us so we don’t know what we’re missing right now. Everything is updated; what we’ve been wanting for a really long time and still kind of going to be the same speed. We’ll go over it tonight and get our Victory Junction Chevrolet tuned-up for tomorrow. Qualifying is what it is. But, I’m focused on race runs and getting our package better and finally putting a full race together. We were pretty decent here in the first race and I hit the fence. So, I’m going to just try to minimize my mistakes and see what we can do.”
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
MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
CONSUMERS ENERGY 400
TEAM CHEVY BREAKOUT SESSION
AUGUST 9, 2019

KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 MCDONALD’S CAMARO ZL1 BREAKOUT SESSION HIGHLIGHTS:

AT SOME POINT, WOULD YOU LOVE TO HAVE THAT OPPORTUNITY TO JUST RUN FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP UNENCUMBERED?
“I look forward to that day. I know it will happen, just don’t know when. 2031, that’s 12 years from now. I’ll have as long of a Cup career as Tony Stewart did and I’ll still be in my mid-30s. I’ll be fine.”

WHEN YOU RACE THESE OTHER FORMS OF RACING DOES IT TAKE AWAY FROM WHAT YOU DO AT GANASSI? IT RESURFACES THAT YOU’RE WORE OUT, ETC.
“I just that’s fans assuming stuff. The way I view it is the often I get to race the better I’m becoming, so I would race every single day of the week if I could and I believe it would help me. I think people could look at early in my career in Cup and say, ‘Oh, he ran bad on Sundays because h’s not focused.’ Then, all of a sudden, when we got our cars better I was still racing more Sprint Car races and now it’s ‘Oh, it’s because he’s racing all the time.’ My schedule didn’t change. I think media and the fans and some people on the teams look too deep into it and assume their own opinion. All that matters to me is that it makes me better. My team understands that. In 2017, we had that really good year and I think that rally convinced them that it really doesn’t hurt when I go race Sprint Cars.”

ARE YOU DOING THE BC 39 RACE AT INDY?
“Yea, I’ll do that this year. I didn’t do it last year. I was worried about a flight delay or anything like that.”

YOU’RE VIEWED AS ONE OF THE ONES WHO RUNS UP HIGH AT THIS TRACK. WHERE DO YOU THINK THE GROOVE WILL BE?
“I think if it was a few feet lower it would be a lot easier to go up there and try it out. Tomorrow you might get some guys who venture up there. I think you’ll be able to try in (Turns) 3 and 4 first and then maybe if it’s gripped up enough it will give you confidence to try it in 1 and 2. We’ll see. I know everybody thinks I’ll be the first to go to the top but I don’t ever think I am. I just wait for other people to try it and just typically go a little faster than they do up there. I think it’s a few feet too high, but we’ll see once we get out there and race on it.”

WHY WOULD YOU TRY 3 AND 4 FIRST?
“I got a sense today in practice you go up to speed really close to it and even in the race earlier this year we were running that high – we could run that high – and I drove around some people, so I already know it’s equal up there. At least I feel like I’ll try it in 3 and 4 more before 1 and 2. Something tells me we should try that first.”

BRISTOL IS COMING UP NEXT WEEK AND YOU’VE HAD A GREAT RUN OF TOP-10 FINISHES. WHAT IS IT ABOUT BRISTOL AND YOU THAT JUST CLICKS?
“It just feels like a dirt track and how you would race a dirt car. It’s just really aggressive and you can move around and it just suits my driving style. I love it; it’s my favorite track by far so that helps.”

WITH THE PLAYOFFS LOOMING, DO YOU PREPARE DIFFERENTLY FOR THIS RACE?
“I honestly don’t do anything differently. We’ve just run well here. The race here earlier this year our pit strategy didn’t work out. We lost a ton of track position at the end, but I ran inside the top five or six once I got up there all race basically. And I feel like our cars are a lot better now than they were then, so I look forward to the race on Sunday and hopefully we can have a good shot.”
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.

Toyota Racing Post-Qualifying Report
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Michigan International Speedway – August 9, 2019

TOYOTA STARTING POSITIONS
1st, Brad Keselowski*
2nd, Kevin Harvick*
3rd, William Bryon*
4th, Alex Bowman*
5th, Clint Bowyer*
16th, DENNY HAMLIN
17th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
18th, ERIK JONES
24th, DENNY HAMLIN
29th, MATT DIBENEDETTO
*non-Toyota driver

TOYOTA QUOTES

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 19 Auto-Owners Insurance/Truex 500th Start Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Qualifying Position: 17th

This weekend is your 500th career Cup Series start. What does that mean to you?

“I’m getting old! It’s cool. I have been lucky to have a great career and have worked with a lot of great teams and drive a lot of great cars and win a lot of races. It’s been fun. Hopefully, we can keep it going for a couple hundred more, I don’t know about 500. It’s been crazy to see how long we have been around. Pretty cool.”

Did you ever think your career would evolve to what it has?

“I never knew it could come around to this, but I just tried to work hard, believe in myself and surround myself with good people. Definitely went through a lot of ups and downs until Furniture Row, even there, it started bad and we just worked hard to get to where we were. The last five years has been a lot of fun. Hopefully we have five more just like it.”

What do you think about your piece for this weekend?

“I don’t know. Qualifying we are off a little bit, which we kind of figured we would be coming here. Guys have been working hard to find some speed in the single car stuff without hurting our racecars for Sunday. Looks like we gained on them, but still quite a bit off those fast guys. Looking forward to Sunday and hopefully we can race well.”

ERIK JONES, No. 20 DeWalt Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Qualifying Position: 18th

How was your qualifying lap?

“It’s no different than Daytona or Talladega right now. You are just wide open. Hopefully we will stay in the top 20, I think we will. That’s good for next week, because we need to be in the back 20 at Bristol. It was a little bit faster than we thought we were going to go, so that was good.”

MATT DIBENEDETTO, No. 95 Toyota Express Maintenance Toyota Camry, Leavine Family Racing

Qualifying Position: 29th

How do you think the race is going to go?

“Track position will be everything. You pick somebody up and put them in 12th they will probably run 12th. 24th, they will probably run there. All track position. You can’t pass in the dirty air. It’s a lot of pressure on the pit crews. I wouldn’t want to be them. So much pressure on them and the crew for strategy and restarts. Hopefully, we will be on that outside line. It’s a track position race now, where before it wasn’t, but now it is.”

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Friday, August 9, 2019
Consumers Energy 400 Post-Qualifying

FORD QUALIFYING RESULTS
1st – Brad Keselowski
2nd – Kevin Harvick
5th – Clint Bowyer
8th – Ryan Blaney
9th – Joey Logano
10th – Paul Menard
13th – Daniel Suarez
14th – Aric Almirola
20th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
21st – Matt Tifft
22nd – Ryan Newman
25th – Michael McDowell
26th – David Ragan
33rd – Corey LaJoie

KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang – Qualified 2nd

“It was a good day for our Mobil 1 Ford Mustang. Track position is really important everywhere we go. Coming to Michigan it is of the utmost importance so this is a really good start to the weekend for us.”

CLINT BOWYER, No. 14 One Cure Ford Mustang – Qualified 5th

“All the Ford Mustangs are fast. We know the Mustangs are going to be fast at this track and we have them wound up. Starting inside the top-five and it was down to the thousandths of a second. Coulda, woulda, shoulda in a lot of ways. That is the world we live in right now. The good news is, there are a bunch of Fords up top and we gotta keep them that way.”

RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Moen Ford Mustang – Qualified 8th

“We were pretty solid all day. We had pretty decent speed, better speed than what we had the first race here. We will start eighth and we can work from there. We will have to see what our Mustang has for us tomorrow when we put it in race trim and practice.”

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Mustang – Qualified 9th

“It was a good recovery from where we started the day. We unloaded a little far off. We were just a little too tight when we fired off today and it was hard to find the right balance for today because we just didn’t unload quick. But it is a good recovery and we will race from ninth and that is okay, we can make some moves from there.”

PAUL MENARD, No. 21 Master Tech/Quick Lane Ford Mustang – Qualified 10th

“We picked up a little bit from practice which is kind of hard to do at a speedway race which this kind of falls into this category because all of your fluids and everything are so cold. In practice everything gets hot. To pick up I am proud of my guys for dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s and it is a pretty good starting spot for Sunday.”

ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 3D Systems Ford Mustang – Qualified 14th

“We have been off on speed. This place has kind of gotten to where it is more like Daytona and Talladega for qualifying where the driver just kind of holds it wide open and runs a lap. I thought in practice we were off a little bit on speed and still in qualifying trim we are still off a little bit on speed there with our 3D Systems Mustang. I don’t know. We will go to work on it, look at it, and get it ready for race trim tomorrow.”

DAVID RAGAN, No. 38 Schuler Systems Ford Mustang – Qualified 26th

“Our Mustang is real stiff and rigid and a little too bouncy right now. I feel like there is a fine line for having a good attitude and splitter control and getting the back down as low as you can but we are probably over that a little bit. We still have a little speed left in it. I don’t think that will be a great lap but we will work on it some tomorrow and it all depends on how it races in traffic on Sunday. I am still optimistic that we can get it tuned up.”

MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
CONSUMERS ENERGY 400
TEAM CHEVY BREAKOUT SESSION
AUGUST 9, 2019

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 BREAKOUT SESSION HIGHLIGHTS:

SOME PEOPLE LIKE SEEING THE JIMMIE JOHNSON THAT IS AGGRESSIVE. CAN YOU TAKE US THROUGH YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT?
“Of course, I was very upset following the race with what took place there, and in my opinion you have to go talk to people and try to find out if what you thought in the car happened or not. Through that conversation, I was able to learn a lot about where Ryan’s head was on it all and here we are, we’re in Michigan. That’s last weekend. It did not turn out the way if could have for us and points are so important for us right now. That is where a lot of the frustration came from. I’m sure we’ve all talked about it plenty and I’m ready to go racing at Michigan. I practice today we continued to make the car better.”

HOW WOULD YOU LIKE IT POSITIONED MOVING ON INTO THIS WEEKEND?
“It’s so funny in today’s world how many opinions exist out there. I have no desire to position it in any way. I was pissed out; I was crashed, I got drove through. Plain and simple. I don’t care how it looks or how it’s perceived. I got dumped and I was upset. The way I was raised and I went racing was when something like that happens you go talk to the guy. I was taught not to use my car as a weapon, go out and try to crash a guy back. Fighting is really not my thing either unless I have to defend myself, so I went there and talked to the guy and hoped to hear a different side of the story than what I thought took place in the car. So that’s the way I was raised in racing and the way I handled it. I’m not looking for a position, or anybody’s buy-in or what anybody really thinks. I’m doing my thing and that’s just the way I go racing.”

RYAN SAID HE THOUGHT YOU EXPECTED HIM TO CALL YOU THIS WEEK TO FOLLOW UP. IS THAT ACCURATE?
“All I can speak to is the way I know I would handle things. Wrong, right or indifferent, I’ve always made an effort to talk to the person. I have learned more about Ryan’s point of view through reading articles than I have from out of his mouth, and that part bothers me. It’s pretty sad. When I went to go talk to him after the race, at some point he said he felt bad but I never heard ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to,’ nothing that would make me think that he didn’t care if it happened. That aspect only confirmed the way I felt in my car. So I thought I would get a call from him during the week, just the friendship that we’ve had, the amount of respect that I thought we had for one another, and I didn’t.”

HE SAID HE HAS RESPECT FOR YOU BEING A SEVEN-TIME CHAMPION.
“That’s what I thought. I didn’t hear from him.”

WOULD THAT HAVE CHANGED ANYTHING?
“Absolutely. Your actions back up what happens in the car. No form of apology when we were chatting, no follow-up, nothing after. To me, it’s pretty obvious – he meant to drive through me.”

WOULD A CONVERSATION BE NEEDED AFTER THAT?
“There’s a million ways to look at it and everybody sees it differently. If I was in his shoes and saw that, I would realize that I didn’t say enough and I respect that guy and I need to follow up with him and talk to him during the week. That’s how I would have responded. I didn’t hear any form of sympathy from him following the race. So I went there and ‘What the hell happened? What went on?’ And to leave that conversation with no remorse, it’s like all right, he meant to do that. I had no other way to think than that. Again, everybody handles things differently and that’s just the way I was raised. Clearly a big age gap between us in the way we go about things, so I would have handled it differently and that’s all I can go by.”

WHEN YOU SAID HE WAS SCARED AND HIS LIP WAS QUIVERING, WAS THAT THE REAL JIMMIE JOHNSON OR JUST LOSING IT A LITTLE BIT?
“It was an observation, it was happening, I didn’t hear a lot of details that I expected to hear and I could have gone into a much more intense line of thought in said a lot more that would have been a lot more damaging to him that saying his lip was quivering. I don’t understand the sensitivity to that or why it’s such a big deal. His lip was quivering and he didn’t have a lot to say. It’s one of the facts that took place in the conversation.”

YOU NEVER ACTUALLY SAID HE WAS SCARED?
“Too many details to worry about. Again, this could have been cleared up with a phone call. The phone is still sitting in my bus and there hasn’t been a call placed to it.”
CAN YOU ASSESS CLIFF’S (NEW CREW CHIEF DANIELS) JOB THE FIRST WEEK?
“Today was just remarkable how it went and the speed that’s in the car. We worked through some issues from our first run and I think picked up almost three-quarters of a second of speed from our first run to our fourth run. The communication that we have an how quickly we can move through things I think that will be very noticeable sooner than later.”

DID YOU HAVE AN ISSUE WITH PITTING AT THE TIME THAT YOU DID BECAUSE THERE WAS SOME TALK THAT IS WHEN YOU GOT IN THE POSITION WITH BLANEY?
“There are risks to every strategy. We felt like we would have come out and been seventh to 10th with that strategy as things played out. I feel what happened was avoidable and I think somebody passed me just before that. I was on older tires with fuel and we felt like it would yield us a top-10 spot.”

ARE THE YOUNG GUYS STARTING TO COME INTO THEIR OWN AND DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN THAT WAS YOU? OR YOU HAVEN’T CHANGED HOW YOU RACE AND THEY’RE MORE AGGRESSIVE?
“I think there are so many things that today make us more aggressive than happened during my rookie year. Stage racing is a big part of it. It’s just a different world. What pissed my off tremendously was to have the old guy sit me down and say ‘You’re racing too hard, you’re being too aggressive.’ So I really bite my tongue and try not to go down that road of the veterans that sat me down. I just boils down to the basics, in my opinion. There are time when you get used up and there are times when it’s just racing. There are accidents that happen, and I just try to call it a ball and strike in my mind and try not to get caught up with age or car number or who it might be.”

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
MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
CONSUMERS ENERGY 400
TEAM CHEVY BREAKOUT SESSION
AUGUST 9, 2019

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 CHEVROLET ACCESSORIES CAMARO ZL1 BREAKOUT SESSION HIGHLIGHTS:

YOU WERE FAST IN PRACTICE
“It’s pretty cool. It’s not an impound race, so people are all trying to go as fast as they can and doing their thing to make the car go fast. We obviously did a really good job of that. It’s not the easiest to drive when you’re trimmed out like that. It’s a little more hair-raising, I guess you could say, when you’re out there in qualifying trim doing your thing. So, yeah, I’m pumped. I think we have a good shot at the pole and an opportunity to start up front here means a lot. You saw what Joey (Logano) was able to do with the pole last time. Hopefully this is good for us.”

DO YOU FEEL LIKE IT’S DILLON TIME IN AUGUST? DO YOU CIRCLE THIS RACE FOR A WIN OR A TOP 5?
“Yeah, for sure. This has always been a great track for me. I hope that we can capitalize on that. Like you said, we’ve had some really good finishes this second race around. We have a pretty solid package here. I re-watched the race and felt like we were a top 10 car most of that day and I feel like we’ve brought a better race car this time around than that. So, it’s definitely a place we have circled. I want to win it. It would upset a lot of people in that Playoff bubble. We have the capability of doing that this weekend.”

DO YOU FEEL LIKE THIS IS YOUR BEST SHOT RIGHT NOW IN THE NEXT FOUR WEEKS?
“Yeah, for sure. I think this is probably the best shot because this is the week that we’re on, you know? But, it feels good to have the speed that we have and I know a lot has gone into the race cars that we’re taking to the track these last four weeks.”

HOW MUCH DO YOU SEE THE TRACTION COMPOUND BEING A FACTOR COME SUNDAY?
“I think a lot of people thought that it was too high. But, I feel like (Turns) 3 and 4 will get used tomorrow. We’re already running the edge of it now. Turns 1 and 2 might take a little bit longer to get where people are using it all the way through the corner. But I definitely feel like (Turns) 3 and 4 is going to be used up in the race and in practice tomorrow.”

WITH THIS PACKAGE, WHAT DO YOU THINK IS GOING TO MAKE THE DIFFERENCE COME SUNDAY? IS THERE A CERTAIN X-FACTOR OR JUST A COMBINATION OF EVERYTHING?
“A combination of everything. I think the speed is one key factor. But, you’ve got to have a car too that you’re not always going to be out front with clean air. So, a car that can allow you to get back to the front quickly and make moves in that way… I feel like the No. 22 (Joey Logano) team did a good job the last time were here in bringing a car that was capable of doing that. And so hopefully we’ve hit on it this time.”
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.