Category: NASCAR Cup PR

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Sunday, July 21, 2019

EVENT: Foxwoods Resort Casino 301, Loudon, NH.

KEVIN HARVICK WINS FIRST CUP RACE OF 2019 IN THRILLING FINISH AT NEW HAMPSHIRE
· Kevin Harvick won his first race of the season and 46th of his Cup career today.
· This marks the 16th win for Stewart-Haas Racing since joining Ford in 2017.

· The win is Mustang’s sixth of the season.

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

KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Busch Beer/National Forest Foundation Ford Mustang – VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW – WHAT MORE CAN THIS WIN DO FOR YOU? “We’ve run well enough a few times this year to win, but we’ve just made mistakes and to finally battle and get over that hump is a great day for everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing and everybody on the 4 car. I was really questionable about how that was gonna go and the thing took right off. The only thing that wasn’t good was we got the traffic and my car started pushing. I knew that he was gonna take a shot. I would have taken a shot. I stood on the brakes and just tried to keep it straight. I just didn’t want to get him back from the inside and let him have another shot. I wanted to at least be in control of who was gonna have contact in turn three and four. It was a heck of a finish, closer than what we wanted, but it was our only chance. I would have never done it, but that’s why he’s on the box and not me.”

RODNEY CHILDERS, Crew Chief, No. 4 Busch Beer/National Forest Foundation Ford Mustang – WHAT MADE YOU KEEP HIM ON THE TRACK AND NOT PIT? “I felt like we had a great car all weekend and everybody had been doing a good job. We were just in a bad spot there with track position and I didn’t think we were gonna win from where we were at, so sometimes you have to make those decisions and Kevin did a great job on the restart and holding his own. That track position was key today and clean air and just really proud of everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing and everybody at Ford and everybody that has pushed hard for us all year to try to get our cars better and get back to Victory Lane.”

Ford Finishing Order:
1st – Kevin Harvick
4th – Ryan Blaney
7th – Ryan Newman
9th – Joey Logano
10th – Brad Keselowski
11th – Aric Almirola
13th – Paul Menard
17th – Michael McDowell
19th – Daniel Suarez
20th – Clint Bowyer
23rd – Corey LaJoie
24th – Matt Tifft
28th – Andy Seuss
34th – David Ragan
36th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

RICKY STENHOUSE JR., No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang – “The 20 ran over us and cut our left-front, I guess. We were just struggling with our Fastenal Ford. I wasn’t happy with it at all the whole day, so it was a struggle for us. We were looking to just make it to the end of the stage and work on it again and make some more adjustments, but, all in all, a pretty frustrating day. We had a decent run here last year, but it’s definitely not the day we wanted. We didn’t want it to end this way, but we’ll move on and go to next week.”

WHAT HAPPENED? “The 20 ran over us. He’s been known to do that to us a couple times now lately. He’ll get one coming his way before it’s over with, or at least before I’m through with it. Our Fastenal Ford just wasn’t near as good as what we wanted it to be. I felt we were OK in practice. We qualified well and the first stage was going OK, but then we just lost the front turn in our car and never really could get it back. We were looking forward to hopefully making some more adjustment there before the end of the race and we just didn’t get the opportunity to after blowing that left-front. All in all it was a frustrating day for us, but hopefully we can learn something from it and come back with something better.”

DID YOU FEEL IT COMING WITH THE 20? “No, he was out front. I don’t know what happened to get him in the back. We had that restart with him up front and didn’t have any issues, so he’s run over us a couple times, but that’s his deal. He’s gonna have to deal with it at some point.”

DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE TO SHOW HIM TO PROVE HE CAN’T DO IT AGAIN? “I will – outside of the car or inside of the car – one of the two. I’m over it. We’ll see how it goes.”

RYAN NEWMAN, No. 6 Oscar Mayer Ford Mustang – “Honestly, it was the most fun I’ve had all year in a race car, and that’s mostly because we had a good, competitive Oscar Mayer Ford. I slid through the box. We had a bad coil wire. We had a bunch of things that set us back, being in a back-up car starting last and to have the finish that we did at a track that is usually difficult to pass at, but I will say that I did pass a few guys three-wide and that doesn’t happen very often here. I’m proud of the team effort and it’s something to build on for sure.”

WHAT IS IT ABOUT THIS TRACK AND YOU? “I don’t’ know. There’s something about me and the Magic Mile, I guess. I don’t know. Today was kind of like a win for us to fight back from all the things that we did. I feel very emotional about how well we did today given the adversity we had in front of us.”

WHAT WAS GOING THROUGH YOUR MIND ON PIT ROAD WHEN THEY WERE WORKING ON THE ENGINE? “I didn’t know what it was and I was thinking of ways to fix it without fixing it, and they found that they could physically fix it. I was thinking of ways to help it without fixing it, so they did an awesome job assessing the situation. We caught a couple breaks there with cautions and did all we could to stay on the lead lap and it worked. It was an awesome job. If we would have had one more decent run in there, we could have been up there racing with them for the lead, but the second to the last run we were just way too loose.”

HOW DID YOU GET THAT FINISH? “We just passed a bunch of cars. I literally probably passed the most cars today.”

WHAT DOES IT SAY ABOUT THIS 6 TEAM GIVEN HOW DIRE YOUR POINTS SITUATION IS? “It’s not dire. We’re just out there doing the best that we can and I don’t think of it as dire. I think of it as opportunity. We keep gaining. This is our first time at this race track. We’ve got a string of top 10s going here that we need to keep going and look forward to these next few races.”

ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang – “We scored a lot of points, but we just got behind. It’s kind of a double-edged sword when the caution comes out late like that in the stage. You’ve got to make a decision on scoring points or trying to win the race, and we chose to score stage points and that paid off. We won the stage, but in the end we got behind and couldn’t recover from track position.”

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 AAA Ford Mustang – “We were off when we unloaded and we just kept trying to find a little something here and there to keep moving forward on things and never really did. We qualified eighth and ran about 12th to 15th most of the race. We grabbed some stage points in the second stage and came home eighth or ninth, so that’s kind of the best we had. I’m a little disappointed with that. I want to be better here, but we learned what not to do and sometimes that’s very valuable.”

RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Sylvania Ford Mustang – WHAT MORE DID YOU NEED? “I didn’t think we had leader speed all day. We got better throughout the day for sure, but I thought maybe second or third. We got to second there towards the end and I was starting to fade a little bit, but I thought we could probably run second. The last caution when we started sixth, we got up to fourth and just kind of stayed there. We just needed a little bit more speed, but, overall, not a bad day.”

WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT TODAY? “It was alright. We weren’t the fastest. I thought we were a fourth, fifth, eighth-place car. At times we were an eighth-place car. At times we were a second or third-place car and just ended up fourth, but we got better all day. There was kind of a middle point in the race where I didn’t think we were great, but we were able to drive back up through there. Overall, not a bad day. Obviously, you want to be fighting for a win, but I thought we did a good job of staying on top of the race track, which is something to be proud of.”

MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
FOXWOODS RESORT CASINO 301
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
JULY 19, 2019

RYAN PREECE, NO. 47 KROGER CAMARO ZL1 Media Breakout Session Highlights:

HOW MUCH IS THE TRACK GOING TO CHANGE DURING THE COURSE OF THE WEEKEND?
“I don’t know if it was a different mixture or what, with the grip. The grip compound feels so much different than it did last year or the year before. It’s weird, to be honest. So, I don’t know. It definitely doesn’t feel nearly as gripped-up as it has in the past. But that could also be my car.”

THE HEAT IS THE STORY OF THE WEEKEND. IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE 95 DEGREES ON SUNDAY.
“I don’t know. At Daytona, it was pretty hot. And at Charlotte, it was pretty hot. Chicago wasn’t terrible. I didn’t think so. Either that, or I’m getting used to it. I don’t think it’s that bad. It could be way worse. Just keep hydrating.”

ON RACING IN NEW HAMPSHIRE
“It’s nice. Being here, hometown, there are a lot of friends and family. So, it’s nice to be here. I think New England is probably one of the most underrated places for auto racing throughout the United States. And it’s probably one of the biggest fan bases for racing in general. When I pulled in here yesterday and I saw the campers, I feel like they have a really good crowd of people.”

DO YOU FEEL PRESSURE AND EXCITEMENT TO BE IN A PLACE LIKE THIS?
“I think I put more pressure on myself to not do what I did in the All-Star race. When we come here, I want to run good. That’s it. I love winning and I love running good. I put more pressure on myself running good than I do anything else. I feel like if there’s going to be a place that we should run really good, it should be here.”

IS THIS ONE OF THOSE PLACES WHERE YOU FEEL LIKE YOU CAN PLAY A STRATEGY GAME LATE AND BE IN POSITION TO WIN IT?
“It really just depends on how the tire fall-off is and if you can kind of do what you did last week, which was just take fuel only and get some of that time back. I think that’s a big part of it. But, I’d say this is definitely a place where we can run good. I feel confident about that.”

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)
Friday, July 19, 2019
EVENT: Foxwoods Resort Casino 301, Loudon, NH. (Media Availabilities)

RICKY STENHOUSE JR., No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang – DO YOU HAVE A PLAN FOR MAKING THE PLAYOFFS IF YOU DON’T WIN A RACE? “Short of winning, yeah. We’ve been trying to get stage points as much as we can and we’ve been doing that the last few weeks. We had a strong car last week and cautions and pit strategy didn’t exactly work out the way that we wanted it to, but I think we were in sixth or seventh position coming to the white and, I don’t know, a couple cars got together underneath us and moved us outside the VHT and we ended up finishing 12th there, but I felt like we had a top 10 car and got to lead some laps and just build confidence that the mile-and-a-half program is where it needs to be. We had a good run last year here in Loudon. I think our short track program this year needs a little bit of work. It’s been a while since we’ve been on a place where you’re in the brakes and slowing the car down and trying to get it to turn, so we’ll see how qualifying goes. You need to qualify good here to try and get stage points here in the first stage and just really trying to accumulate as many points as we can. We feel like we’ve done a really good job in getting stage points, but I guess you could say the third stage, the final stage, we just haven’t been doing as good of a job as we need to to get that ultimate finish out of it to add to our point total. We’ve just got to clean some things up to make sure that we do that.”

HARVICK SAID IF GUYS RACED LIKE THIS 10 YEARS AGO THEY WOULD HAVE GOTTEN PUNCHED IN THE MOUTH. HAVE YOU NOTICE AN INCREASE IN AGGRESSION? “Yeah, I definitely think the cars and conditions play into how people drive and knowing that if you keep your track position, if you get track position on restarts, then you set yourself up for a way better finish and just running better. We’re all super-aggressive. I enjoy it, especially when I have a car capable of doing what I want it to do. I could see Kevin saying that because I feel like that was the mentality of the garage for a long time and I think just like every sport changes and I feel like now you’ve got a bunch of us that feel like we’re racing for our job every lap, so we go out and put it all on the line. I mean, it’s not a ‘hey, here’s our 43-car field’ like back in the day. I think now there are people standing in line, some with money, that can come in and take your job if they want to and so I think the whole mentality is just a little bit different from that aspect.”

HOW DO YOU LOOK AT THIS WEEKEND? “I think when it comes down to it it’s gonna be really similar to Kentucky. The mile race tracks being able to bump and bang and move each other out of the way I think it’s gonna happen. It’s kind of funny, I was talking to people earlier and they’re like, ‘I don’t understand, you can run the first Martinsville and nobody has a scratch on the car and the second Martinsville all of a sudden fenders are beat off of it and everybody is super-aggressive.’ It’s kind of the same thing with Richmond and I think it’s getting closer to Playoff time and there’s cars that are right there on the cutline, really battling hard. You’ve got people like us that kind of have to make a bigger jump, but are still looking to steal stage points and come up with a strategy to have a shot at the win or at least put ourselves in a position to do that. I expect people to be moving each other out of the way.”

HOW DO YOU LOOK AT POCONO? “I try not to worry about Pocono. I’m trying to figure out what we’re gonna do here at Loudon first. I am excited with putting PJ1 on the race track at Pocono. I do think that will help, but we’ve got a lot to do this weekend first.”

WOULD TONY STEWART HAVE GONE OFF THE DEEP END WITH ALL OF THIS BLOCKING? HE PROBABLY WOULD HAVE PUNTED A DRIVER OR TWO. WHERE DOES THIS PHYSICAL STUFF END? “We all try to calculate whether it be a block or somebody is putting the block on us, you try to calculate that before it happens. If somebody puts a late block on you too many times, then I think you just get fed up with it and probably crash them. I try to do it calculated and like last I shot the middle a couple times there on restarts, but I felt like I had a gap and it wasn’t too tight, and I knew that my car was capable of doing what I wanted it to do and I knew that when I got down into the corner in the middle three-wide I could still be in control of it and wide-open, and so I try and calculate everything I do. If that’s putting a block on somebody, then making sure I’m not doing it last-minute.”

THEY KNOW NOT TO MESS WITH YOU. “I’m sure they will. For us, like here at New Hampshire, you block for a few laps and all of a sudden the cars get spread out a little bit and all of a sudden you’ve got a much easier race if you can keep that track position like I said earlier. It’ll be interesting to see how the race plays out. They put PJ1 all the way to the fence, but I can tell you anything outside the third groove right now is really slick, so it’ll be interesting to see if that changes throughout the weekend or not.”

THOUGHTS ON THE HEAT THIS WEEKEND? “I feel like in the Cup car I haven’t really had any hot races here at Loudon, but I do remember a few XFINITY races, where it did get pretty warm. All in all, I’ve put a lot of work in during the week to make sure that I’m ready for that, and I feel like, for me, the hotter it is the better. I feel like it doesn’t hinder my ability at all in the car and I feel like I’m ready for it.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS PLACE? “I like it. It’s difficult. It’s not the easiest to get around. You’ve got bumps getting into the corner. You don’t have a whole lot of grip out there even with the PJ1. You’re always looking for more and then it’s tough to pass, and so you’ve got to be good by yourself, but you also have to figure out how you’re gonna get your car to handle and be able to pass. It’s difficult and I think that’s why we like it.”

HOW WILL LONG GREEN FLAG RUNS AFFECT YOU WITH THE HEAT? “I don’t feel like it affects me at all. I think watching some people I feel like it could hinder them a little bit. We all push really hard in our race cars no matter what. I do remember having strep throat here for a week back in like 2012. I ran the XFINITY race and finished third, I believe, maybe fourth, and then I got out and passed out, so I obviously was on the verge of not feeling well and still got the job done, so I feel like once we’re in the car we get the job done and then you deal with the after effects later.”

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Friday, July 19, 2019

EVENT: Foxwoods Resort Casino 301, Loudon, NH. (Media Availabilities)

RICKY STENHOUSE CONTINUED — IS IT JUST PURE ADRENALINE? “Yeah, probably. You’ve got to stay hydrated throughout the week. I put a lot of work in in my gym. It was 100 degrees outside this week at the house and I worked out with no air conditioning and the doors up and did two-a-days this week, so I always feel really good when I get to the race weekend.”

RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Sylvania Ford Mustang – ANY ISSUES WITH THE HEAT? “I’ve never had a problem with the heat stuff. That’s what our sport is based on. I’ve got other things to worry about. The heat has always been fine to me. I’ve never had any problems with it.”

NASCAR SAID 125 DEGREES IN THE CAR. “That’s pretty cool, actually. Chicago last year was like 140. I’m sure it will get up there in the race with the right side windows being in there. That will increase the cockpit temp, but that’s a cool 125. I don’t mind that. I’m actually more worried about my dog. I’ve got my dog this weekend and it’s hot to have dogs outside when it’s this hot. I’m more worried about him than I am me. I’ll be fine. I’m worried about him.”

WHAT WAS THE HIGHLIGHT OF YOUR RUSSIA TRIP? “The highlight was the air race stuff. That was awesome. We have a buddy who competed in that and I just thought it was neat to see how that all worked. You’re a fan of all the different kind of motorsports, whether it’s land, sea or air. You’re fascinated by everything of what makes them work and the way their weekend goes. We were able to go up in the competition building where they ran it all and I thought the way they ran it was really unique and very efficient, but just like the rules those guys go through. Those guys are pulling 12 g’s and that’s insane without a g-suit. I just thought it was really interesting of how they did all that stuff and then talked about how they were gonna get better throughout the weekend. They look at data like we do. They change stuff on their plane like we change things on our cars to make them better. I just thought that was pretty neat, and the location they had it at it was over water, so it was brilliant. You could put one of these anywhere and it sits right in the middle of the city. I just thought that part was really neat, and then seeing other cultures. I thought the city in Kazan and Russia was beautiful. The people were really nice and I think they get a bad rap over there. There are good and bad people wherever you go in the world, but I enjoyed every minute of it. There wasn’t one moment where I felt weirded out about the location, but the air racing stuff, I thought, was the coolest part, just seeing kind of how that all was. I didn’t like the travel over there. You’re halfway around the world. That took a long time to get there, but it was cool to get over there and check out the city and their culture.”

HOW WAS THE CUISINE? “The cuisine was good. I tried to venture out. Not a lot of people know this but horse meat is very big over there in that country and that part of the world. I thought it was weird at first. They raise horses like we raise cattle. It’s just kind of their thing. I didn’t try it and I’m upset I didn’t because when else are you ever gonna try it, but I thought the food was great. Beef stroganoff, that’s a bit thing over there and it was good. It’s food. You can eat it. It’s good. You can’t look at it or read into it too much. Just to eat it is fine.”

RYAN BLANEY CONTINUED — HOW DO YOU LOOK AT POCONO AND THEN WATKINS GLEN? “Two places I feel like will be good for us. Pocono I thought we were really fast there, we just didn’t qualify good and restarts never went our way, but I think we passed the most cars there all day. We just never got up there to show what speed we had, so I’m looking forward to Pocono. The Glen, I love road course racing so the Glen is gonna be fun. I’m double duty that weekend and able to run the XFINITY car that weekend, but the next two – this week, the next two, really all of them I look forward to, but I’m looking forward to running double duty. I haven’t done that yet this year. I’ve only got a couple of them, so I’m excited for the Glen. Pocono, hopefully we can go back and actually show what speed we have because I thought we were contenders if we could have got up there.”

THE GLEN LOOKS LIKE FUN FOR A DRIVER. “It is. It’s just interesting. It’s the complete opposition to Sonoma. In Sonoma you’re scared to push the throttle down because you’re gonna spin the tires at any given moment, but the Glen you can’t push down hard enough. I even think this year with the cars being the way they are, you’re gonna be running even harder there, so I’m excited to get there, but it is fun, especially that bus stop in the back, jumping curbs. Drivers like jumping curbs. Crew guys don’t like us jumping curbs, but it is what it is. The Glen is a blast. I’ve come to like Sonoma, the Glen and the Roval all the same and they’re all different in their own way – you just have to learn how to adapt – but the Glen is fun and, like I said, I get to run even more laps there this year, which is great.”

HARVICK SAID THE RACING IS MORE AGGRESSIVE THAN THE PAST AND 10 YEARS AGO HE WOULD HAVE PUNCHED SOMEONE IN THE MOUTH IF THEY RACED THAT WAY. STENHOUSE SAID IT FEELS LIKE EVERY LAP YOU’RE RACING FOR YOUR JOB. IS THERE A BALANCE TO STAY RELEVENT? “Yeah, it feels like restarts are the craziest they’ve been ever since I’ve been in the Cup Series just because the cars are so draggy. That’s the easiest spot to kind of make a move and you can just drive these cars so hard, it’s just about driving harder than someone else a lot of the time. Your right-foot commitment is way higher, I feel like. As far as the aggressive level, I think people see that because you’re seeing a lot more blocking and cutting off runs now just because you have to do it. You have to do that and I’ve thrown big blocks this year on mile-and-a-half race tracks. I’ve been thrown big blocks this year. That’s just how it is and you kind of expect it. Have I expected to get punched in the mouth a couple of times this year? Yeah, but at the end of the day you realize that that person would make the same move that you do and vice versa. It’s just how the racing is now, just with the package, but I honestly think this year has been pretty decent. I think we’ve seen some good races. We’ve seen some bad ones and that’s just how it is. Not every race is gonna be an amazing race. That’s not how it is. There are some races that are gonna be ‘boring’ but that’s with any package – you’re gonna have that. You’re not gonna have four-wide everywhere, but I think the racing this year has been good. I would agree with both of their statements. Yeah, for sure, but even last year you’re racing every lap like it’s for your job. You have to stay relevant in this deal. You can’t just be relaxed and run around there. There is always someone younger than you and you hope not more hungry than you, but wanting to come up through the ranks and take your job. There are all these people that aren’t in your ride that probably want your job, so you have to prove yourself week in and week out.”

DO YOU SEE ANYONE ABLE TO MAKE A RUN AND BUMP YOU OUT OF THE TOP 16? “I think we’ll be fine if we just don’t have any problems. We’ve kind of been, we had a little stretch there of difficult races and bad finishes that hasn’t really let us separate from that line or get a win. I don’t really see that happening, but you’re never safe unless you’ve won a race. I think we’ll be fine if we don’t have any catastrophic problems – a month in a row where you finish dead last, get no stage points, but you never know. Someone could win just like that right out of the top 16 or right below you and move you back a row. That’s just kind of how this deal is and what makes it exciting. I think we can solve all that by winning a race here soon.”

MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
FOXWOODS RESORT CASINO 301
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
JULY 19, 2019

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 KELLEY BLUE BOOK CAMARO ZL1 Media Breakout Session Highlights:

ON THE FOLKS THAT BROADCAST THE RACES
“When I think of listening to races, I just think of the picture that you guys create in someone’s head when you’re riding down the road listening to the races, is second to none. It’s been awesome to grow up around that and have the broadcasters paint the picture of what’s going on.”

ON POCONO NEXT WEEK AND THE ADDITION OF TRACTION COMPOUND
“Oh, I think it’ll be great. Pocono is Pocono. And, I can’t even remember how we did there, although I don’t think it was very good a few weeks ago. So, hopefully we can improve upon that.”

THE KENTUCKY RACE SEEMED TO BE A LITTLE STEP BACK FOR HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS. IS THAT TROUBLING FOR YOU GUYS?
“No, it was just a bad Saturday night it looked like to me. It happens and I think nobody wants to struggle like we did last week. Those days aren’t fun. But, Kentucky has frankly been a struggle point I feel like for me, and in my career, personally, since I started going there racing an ARCA car. I haven’t run worth a crap in anything there. Got lucky in a couple of restarts and finished good there in one Cup race but it wasn’t because I did a really good job or whatever. So, I think I have a lot of work to do there, personally. Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) is like I haven’t run there very good, either, in my career. So, two bad efforts at the same race track doesn’t equal a good last week. So, we’ll go to work on it and I think we have some good topics of conversation. The good news is we only go there once and don’t have to worry about it again until next year.

“You can’t write it off. And I guess the unfortunate side of that is that Texas is now very similar to what Kentucky is, especially with the way Turns 1 and 2 are shaped; very similar to (Turns) 3 and 4. We’ve had struggles at Texas since the repave and to me they’re very similar to what we fought at Kentucky this past weekend. I think a lot of that is on me. William (Byron) was fairly fast last weekend, and I think there’s something about the way those corners are shaped and myself don’t work together really well, or whatever it is. The feel I’m looking for isn’t realistic. So, yeah, we just need to do a better job. I think if we can make Kentucky better, Texas will show; which obviously is a much more important event in the way the schedule falls.”

ON THE RECENT RACES
“We had an engine failure at Sonoma. We got wrecked like everybody else did at Daytona. Yes, Kentucky was bad. But I think there is silver lining in how we ran. At Chicago I thought we had a good car. We had a mishap there during the race on pit road. So, I think our speed is certainly attainable and I think we can get to competing for wins and I know the last few weeks haven’t been very good finishes; but I still feel like we can compete.”

HOW GOOD OR BAD OR INDIFFERENT IS THE PJ1?
“It’s kind of the same as I feel like it’s been the past couple of trips here. I think it’s better. Anything is better at this place, frankly. So, I think it’s an improvement. To me, that grippy stuff at a place like this, when they put it down just to make something change, I think is nice, as the race goes. Like that stuff is going to wear off and you’re going to have to move around to find that grip, which I feel like is exciting and fun for us to try to find something different as the race goes.

“I think it’s about the same as it was here last year. But, I think it’s a good thing to have here and I think it helps this place and I think it changes as the day goes, which is kind of cool. You don’t typically get that at a NASCAR race and so, I like it.”

ON BLOCKING AND SIDE-DRAFTING AND AGGRESSION, HAVE YOU NOTICED THE AGGRESSION PICK UP, OR IS IT THIS CAR MODEL THAT IS MAKING YOU REACT DUE TO A LACK OF PASSING OR DIFFICULTY IN PASSING?
“I just think everybody, as time goes, has a better understanding of what’s advantageous and what’s not. And everybody also has learned what puts the other guy in a bad situation and what doesn’t. So, now everybody just takes advantage of those moments. If it’s side-drafting a guy down the straightaway or if it’s sticking it on his door; getting in the corner if you’re the outside guy. It’s just a lot of aero-game and I’m sure as the teams do a better job of keeping the cars lower to the race track all the way around the track, the cars drive different and we all know the advantages of that from the driver’s seat. And, I just think the air games are going to continue. I just think everybody has gotten smarter and everybody knows those are the things you have to do to pass or block or whatever. You’ve just got to do it.”

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
NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
FOXWOODS RESORT CASINO 301
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
JULY 19, 2019

KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 MCDONALD’S CAMARO ZL1 Media Breakout Session Highlights:

HOW WAS YOUR CAR IN PRACTICE TODAY?

“In practice in my first run I felt pretty close to good. Then in the last two runs I made, the car was just too out of the track too much. So, hopefully we will make the right adjustments on it during this little break and be good here shortly for qualifying. I don’t know if the track changed a whole bunch for us there or if the cycled tires or what. But the balance changed from round one to two.”

THE SPINS IN TURN THREE BY DENNY HAMLIN AND RYAN NEWMAN, IS THAT A TOUGH TURN AND DO YOU SEE WHY THAT WOULD HAPPEN THERE? DID YOU HAVE ANY ISSUES?

“My entry got freer in the second and third run. So that is why I really don’t know if the track changed or if cycled tires were that much freer. Yeah, I guess it was odd to see those two spin out.  But it seems to happen most times in practice when we come here to New Hampshire.  I don’t know why.  Guess their cars are not handling right.”

YOU FELT LIKE YOU WERE JUST FREER THERE AND YOU WEREN’T GOING TO LOSE IT?

“I was free in both ends, but it wasn’t anything different than normal here.”

HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO KEEP UP WITH THIS RACETRACK HERE AT NEW HAMPSHIRE BETWEEN THE PJ1, THE MODIFIED RUBBER, THE K&N RUBBER, THE XFINITY CARS?  THERE IS A LOT GOING ON HERE.
“Yeah, for sure. It’s a fun place because its definitely changing quite a bit. There is a lot of VHT put down at this track and with it being flatter, I also feel like it wears out more so than other racetracks. That is fun to keep up with, especially during the race where you have to adjust your line throughout the race to keep up with the changing track conditions. I think being a dirt track guy, that benefits me a little bit.”

WHERE DO YOU STAND ON YOUR CONTRACT WITH CHIP GANASSI RACING AND IS IT WRAPPED UP?

“I am wrapped up. (laughs) There has been no contract negotiations. I am still there through next year. I don’t know why all the contract stuff has been coming up. I think because people try to make things up.  Yeah, I don’t know. I am there, so not really sure what else to say.”

BIG WIN LAST WEEK, BUT OVERALL WHERE IS CHEVROLET AT GIVEN THE COMPETITION YOU HAVE TO BEAT EVERY WEEK?

“As far as Chip Ganassi Racing, I feel like both of us have gotten better here the last month and a half or so.  It has started to show, our season has turned around a little bit, and Kurt with the win last week. So, I really don’t know if it is a Chevy thing because Hendrick has been pretty good all year.  Obviously we always want to get better, every team out there continuously wants to get better, and every manufacturer continues to get better. So, we just have to keep working hard, and it will be alright.”

KURT SAID EARLIER THAT HE HAS ASKED THE TEAM TO BUILD TRACK-SPECIFIC CARS MORE OFTEN INSTEAD OF TAKING A MILE-AND-A-HALF CAR TO A TRACK LIKE THIS. HAVE YOU SEEN PROGRESS ON THAT FRONT?

“I don’t know, I don’t get too involved in that. Its nice having Kurt there because I think he brings knowledge of what to work on and where to kind of shift focus. I haven’t really heard anything like that, but like I said, I don’t get too involved in that because I don’t know what is different between a 1.5-mile car and a short track car. I think everybody trusts Kurt a lot at our shop. He is a really smart racer and just listening to him communicate about his race car itself is always fun to listen to. He knows the right areas to work on.”

IS IT COMFORTING FOR YOU TO HAVE HIM IN THERE THIS YEAR?

“Yeah, he has a ton of experience and he is a past champion. I think there is something in the Busch’s genetics in that they know what changes to make within a race car and at the race shop. It’s nice having him on the team.”

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)
Friday, July 19, 2019

EVENT: Foxwoods Resort Casino 301, Loudon, NH.  (Media Availabilities)

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 AAA Ford Mustang – WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE TO COME BACK HERE AS A CHAMPION?  WHAT HAS THE REACTION BEEN LIKE?  “It’s actually been, I didn’t really think about it before I got here much because you’re kind of thinking about how do you win here, but I went out this morning for the champions breakfast that Speedway Children’s Charities does every year and to see some of the support there, and I guess that’s when it kind of hit me.  It’s kind of cool to come home for the first time, or at least the home track for the first time since we won the championship and that’s been pretty neat so far.  I’m looking forward to Sunday because it’s always a fun race for us, but especially just because of the support my team gets and I get here.  At home it’s cool.  I always say I feel like Dale Jr. here because there’s so much 22 gear and a lot of New England race fans are rooting for their hometown guy, so that’s a pretty special and neat feeling.”

DO YOU FEEL THERE WAS NOTHING YOU COULD DO ON THAT FINAL RESTART AT KENTUCKY AND IS BEING THE LEADER WITH LANE CHOICE SOMETIMES NOT AN ADVANTAGE?  “It was a perfect storm, really.  The lineup of that restart, I don’t really know what I could have done a whole bunch, but there is one thing I think I could have done a little better.  There are a lot of what-ifs in my mind.  None of them have the outcome of me winning I don’t believe.  Some of them have an outcome of maybe better than fifth or seventh, maybe we could have still squeaked a top three out of it, but the way the lineup was with teammates on the inside, teammates behind me, that was a tough spot.  It just seems like in today’s world with the less horsepower like that you’re side drafting way earlier than what we used to.  We used to start side drafting maybe off the corner in turn two, but now we’re going back and forth because we have a longer period of time from the restart zone to turn one or really to when you lift.  You don’t lift until you get to turn three now, so you have way more time and distance that you’re wide-open and side drafting back and forth, and if cars can get behind you with a big push like the two Ganassi cars did, that on top of getting slowed down by the 18 on the side draft and air coming at me five miles an hour quicker I couldn’t stop it.  I just had to pick a lane and hope for the best that something was gonna save me.  It was frustrating because we had the race won basically.  It was over.  We were far enough ahead and then that happens.  That always stings, but that’s why there is next week all the time, but I’m not really sure if I could have done anything to successfully win the race, but I think there might have been one or two things I could have done to stop the bleeding a little bit sooner.”

YOUR CAR WAS SET FOR LONG RUNS.  IS THERE ANYTHING YOU CAN DO WHEN YOU GET A SHORT RUN AT THE END?  “We had it set up to run the long haul and it showed how good we were on the long haul.  I mean, the first run went pretty long and we started driving up through the field.  I felt like if we went the full stage we would have been in the lead, and then the last run obviously was a pretty long run with a green flag cycle and then, boom, drove to the lead and that whole theory was working out really good.  We didn’t have the opportunity to change anything because we didn’t come back down pit road.  There’s the typical may be air-pressure, fuel load, things like that you can maybe adjust a little bit to help your car fire off quicker on a late-race restart, but there was never the opportunity for us to come down pit road.  If we pitted there with a green-white-checker for the lead, we would have come out like 15th.  I don’t think anyone was gonna pit.”

CAN THE DRIVER DO ANYTHING?  “You’re pretty committed.  It’s a decision we made as a team beforehand, and it looked like it was gonna work until it didn’t.  But I don’t think we went the wrong way with it, the race just didn’t play the way we thought it would.”

DID YOU LEARN A LOT AT POCONO THE FIRST TIME THAT YOU CAN TAKE BACK THERE NEXT WEEK, AND HOW WILL THE PJ1 PLAY A ROLE?  “We definitely learned a lot at Pocono.  I feel like we made a lot of mistakes and I feel like we learned a lot from that, so I don’t see mistakes as such a negative thing.  I kind of think of it as a positive because we learn from a lot of them, and with the PJ1 that will change some things.  I still think what we learned is valuable, but the groove will probably move around, things will be different.  You might come back a little bit like when they had that paved section with the old asphalt there, when we used to call it the grip strip, I don’t know, call it whatever you want, but it may kind of play that way a little bit more like it used to, so I think it’s gonna be a lot of fun.  I’m kind of excited about getting back there.  Kudos to Pocono and NASCAR on that one.  Try something.  I think it was maybe not one of our best races and I think that was probably well-documented afterwards and let’s try something to make it better.  I think honestly this traction compound that we’ve been laying down at these race tracks has not hurt.  I think Kentucky without it wouldn’t have been the same race.  I don’t think it would have been as good as what it was.  It would have been really hard to pass without it, but I think the ability to move up the race track and car be able to go to the bottom and be about the same speed and be able to find clean air created a lot of passing – more passing than I thought there would be – so I thought that was a gain.  When you look at that and you look at how Pocono was without it, let’s try to apply it and try something different.  We’re gonna learn as a team one thing, but I think as a sport we’re gonna learn what corner was the best.  Maybe we need to apply it thicker in one corner than another, so how much does it wear out, how often do you reapply.  We learn it as we race.  There’s no scientific way of figuring that out until we race, really.”

WHAT WAS THE MOST DISAPPOINTING THING ABOUT POCONO IN JUNE?  “You couldn’t pass.  That was the most frustrating part, but, like I say, I think this is gonna be directionally better.  I think it’s definitely gonna help the racing.  It should open the race track up for cars to start to run the top more in the corners.  It’s gonna allow, like Kentucky, go to the bottom and find cleaner air which will get you through the corner good and that way the top and the bottom are comparable.  Right now, you couldn’t move up the race track.  You wouldn’t have anywhere to race.  There was no grip up there before, but now there should be grip up there to where you can go to the bottom and find air, so it’s all good.”

ARE YOU SURPRISED THE DRAFT DIDN’T WORK THE WAY PEOPLE THOUGHT IT WOULD AND PASSING WOULD BE A BIT EASIER AT POCONO?  “I wasn’t too surprised by it, actually.  I thought restarts were pretty crazy and that’s normal at Pocono with those long straightaways and your restarts and the cars area already two-wide and you go three-wide and all that.  That was all there like normal and that was just as chaotic as it usually is, but what I think we saw happen is that bubble we talk about behind the car, when you get to a certain point, a certain distance behind the car in front of you, you push that lead car ahead and that lead car actually has less drag than the trailing car when you get to a certain point.

“That’s what we need to try and fix because you get the draft and then it stops, so if you’re able to somehow continue that momentum to a back bumper of a car, you’ll see more passing, so I think that will be an adjustment for the cars in the future.”

A COUPLE OTHER NEW ENGLAND GUYS ARE DEBUTING THIS WEEK IN ANDY SEUSS AND USTIN THERIAULT.  HAVE YOU TALKED TO THEM?  “I have not had a chance to talk to them.  I don’t really know them that well.  I maybe know Austin a little better than Andy, but it is cool to see the New England guys get into this more and more.  You think about these race teams, and I think a lot of people think of NASCAR’s heritage as being a southeastern sport, but you think of what kind of racers come out of New England, I think Dick Berggren’s museum out there, the Northeast Motorsports Museum, really shows how present motorsports is in the New England area.  It’s special to be a part of that heritage.  It’s really cool to be able to see that and to see more, but you look at the race teams out here and there are a lot of crew guys that are from up here, that come from modified racing or just racing up in this area and whatever it may be.  There’s a lot and the majority of my team is from around here, not too far, and that’s a lot of fun for us to be a part of.”

IS THIS A FEEL TRACK WHERE ONCE YOU GET IT YOU’RE GOOD ALL THE TIME?  “Yes.  Definitely.  This race track is one that, for me earlier in my career, was the most frustrating track for me to go to, which always was awful because it’s my home track and it’s where you want to run the best, but for years it was the most challenging track for me to get my head wrapped around, but there are tracks like New Hampshire or Richmond or Martinsville that it seems like – and Sonoma is a little bit like this – but once you get something that works and the driver and the team understand what you need to be really good, not just in practice and not just in qualifying, but in the race when you have a long run or trying to pass cars and what traffic and restarts are, and once you figure out that balance – because it’s never perfect here.  It never drives the way you want it to.  If it does, it does for three laps and then something goes wrong – either your front or rear tires give up – so trying to figure out that compromise here with those flat corners like that it seems like once somebody gets their head wrapped around it and understands it, they get it for a while and it doesn’t matter if their racing tricycles or Cup cars out there, they have it figured out and that’s just kind of how this place is.  I still don’t feel like I’ve got it figured out by no means, but we get closer and closer to where we need to be.”

DOES DEFENDING THE TITLE FEEL DIFFERENT THAN CHASING IT?  “I still feel like I’m chasing it.  I think we accomplished a goal last year and we’re trying to accomplish the same goal this year.  It doesn’t make a difference if we won or not last year, our goal is the same this year.  We still want to win the championship.  It’s nothing new.  I feel like we’re in a better spot this year than we were last year at this point.  We’ve got more speed in our cars.  We’ve got more Playoff points and more wins.  We should have a few more wins, but overall the speed is there and I think that’s a key thing to think about right now, so we’ve got to continue that into the Playoffs and have the run that we did last year through those 10 races.”

MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
FOXWOODS RESORT CASINO 301
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
JULY 19, 2019

KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1, met with media and discussed his contributions to various race teams, the importance of family and racing with his brother, Kyle Busch, a few of the boxes he’s like to check during his racing career, and more. Full Transcript:

WHEN IS THE LAST TIME IN YOUR CAREER THAT YOU REMEMBER HAVING THIS MUCH FUN?
“It’s always funny. Like when people are telling different stories. Yeah, like back in the day, when it was fun. And, I’ve been trying to remind everybody, or just influence the fact that no, this is right now and this is fun. It wasn’t more fun then. We’ll look back on this a go, yeah, it takes time for things to settle-in and sink-in. But, for me when I first came into the series, a 22-year-old kid from Vegas who had to cut my way through some pretty heavy areas to make it to the top. You’re still nervous that you don’t know if you’re going to make it stick or make it to where you’re going to be around for a long while. I’ve had a blast with every team. And, it’s just a matter of keeping it competitive and at that top edge. Over the years, it just feels like the older I get, the easier it is to accept some of the tougher days. And then, to enjoy the big days with more excitement, and more of a passion and more fun. It’s tough, though. Mark Martin said hey, you’re going to have some good days and some bad days. Just try to draw a nice line and keep it there. And, ever since I met Ashley, there are no bad days. And everything is up here for excitement and fun. I would say that right now, with Monster and Chip Ganassi, and everything that’s going on, it’s a blast. Each week is fun because there’s speed to be found and teamwork to work on to make sure we’re going to have the best weekend. And it brings it back to that passion and desire when I was younger to go out there each week and try to make sure we’re getting the most out of each session.”

AFTER THE RACE LAST WEEK YOU WERE ASKED WHERE YOU NEED TO BE TO IMPROVE AND YOU SAID YOU FELT LIKE YOU NEEDED TO GET BETTER ON SHORT TRACKS AND LOWER-GRIP TRACKS, AND TO THE TEAM HEY LET’S INVEST ON GETTING BETTER ON THESE TRACKS. WOULD THIS BE A PLACE LIKE THAT? WERE THE COMMENTS WELL-RECEIVED? DO YOU FEEL LIKE MAYBE THE TEAM IS PUTTING IN AN EXTRA EFFORT NOW THAT YOU’VE WON AND HAVE QUALIFIED FOR THE PLAYOFFS?
“Yeah, I feel like a few weeks back we were leading into the half-way point. And I left some bullet points with some of the top engineers and management on this category or that category. And then with the way that Daytona went for us, where it was so close to a win; but yet, okay, what else do we need to position ourselves better to be closer to wins? That’s when some other bullet points from other engineers popped-up. And (Kyle) Larson’s evaluation where he feels where the No. 42 car is; and yes, that has opened-up more talks about building different style cars for different style tracks instead of just trying to use a 1.5-mile-style car for a short track. There are things that Gibbs is doing. There are things that Penske is doing. We have to apply it the best way that we can. And, some of it’s through the motivation of Chip Ganassi, Rob Kauffman, and Felix Sabates to get it to that A-plus level. It’s been well received. You can’t just completely tip over the apple cart mid-season, especially when things are going good. But, it’s looking ahead to the future and what we can do to make sure that we make the best Playoff run this year; and look at things for 2020 and beyond.”

INAUDIBLE
“Yeah, to finish your question, this is a short track, low-grip; this is where if we have a good run this weekend, then we have turned a good corner. If we struggle a little bit, it shows that this is that weakness for us and we have to get that fixed.”

HOW DID YOU END UP GETTING HOME LAST WEEK?
“The Ganassi team plane, they reserve seats on Victory Air. So, there’s like six different crew-member planes that a bunch of guys jump on. And so they held us and we got on that. I think there were maybe three or four seats left on the whole plane itself. And so Ashley and I jumped on that plane and we got home around 4:15 a.m.”

YOU MENTIONED LOOKING AT 2020 AND BEYOND. AFTER THE RACE, YOU SAID ON MONDAY YOU WERE GOING TO START LOOKING AT CONTRACTS AND THINGS OF THAT NATURE. HAVE YOU STARTED THE BALL ROLLING? I GET THE INDICATION YOU HAVE NO DESIRE TO GO ANYWHERE
“It doesn’t matter if I’m driving in 2020 and beyond. It would be what I’d want to do to help a program or to give my knowledge and to be part of a team and to make things work here for 2019 and continue to improve whether I’m driving or I’m not, to help all of Ganassi. It’s just a matter of if I’m driving or I’m not. I’m still going to do my job to make sure we are progressing and pushing toward the future on what I believe is important and what they want to do to apply it and what they believe is important and what I have to listen to.”

IT DOESN’T SOUND LIKE YOU HAVE ANY INTENTION TO STOP DRIVING
“You’re asking me all these fun questions when everything is on a high. When everything is great and we’re coming out of Victory Lane and having fun scavenging rides home and just living at the top level. We’ll see how things all piece together. I don’t have all the full answers, but things are all pointing in the right direction to be teamed-up together and to continue to race and to win races and to run at a championship. I mean I haven’t thought about other than through your question. But if I’m able to make a run at the championship, that could change things as well, and that wouldn’t happen until the week of Thanksgiving.”

LOOKING AHEAD TO POCONO, THEY ARE GOING TO US THE PJ1 THERE. LEARNING WHAT YOU DID WITH THE NEW CAR CONFIGURATION THE LAST TIME WE WERE THERE, HOW DO YOU THINK IT’S GOING TO CHANGE THE COMPLEXION OF RACING WHEN WE RETURN?
“It’ll definitely help with creating different lanes and being able to produce a lap time not in the optimum groove. That’s been the tough part about Pocono and some of the other tracks. The optimum groove is utilized and that’s where the best lap time comes from. Therefore, there’s not a lot of passing for the lead. If we can create a second lane or third option and be able to run a really good lap time, as the second or third place guy, then you have a chance at passing the leader. So, I think it’s a good option to try out. You have to commend the tracks and Goodyear and NASCAR and the drivers all working together to find the best product.

STARTING WITH RYAN NEWMAN IN 2002, JIMMIE JOHNSON IN 2003, AND YOU IN 2004, THERE ARE SIX DRIVERS IN THE FIELD THIS WEEK THAT HAVE THREE WINS APIECE AT THIS TRACK THROUGH VARIOUS GENERATIONS OF RACE CARS. WHAT IS IT ABOUT THIS PLACE? IS IT A FEEL THAT YOU GET THAT CARRIES THROUGH ALL THAT TIME AND RULE CHANGES AND LETS YOU CONTINUE TO BE SUCCESSFUL?
“Yeah, there are certain tracks that when you find a nice set-up, that it stays hot for a while and you’re able to use it the next time you come back because not much changed; whether it’s been aero or the tires. I remember in 2004 when I swept the two races here, the second race had a lot of weather issues and we didn’t get a lot of practice time. So, we were all forced to use the set-up that we used at the first race. That helped us as a race-winning team to be able to sweep the races that year. It’s similar to Bristol. If you find that right set-up, it works for a little bit.”

YOU’VE REALLY RAISED THEIR BAR AT EVERY TEAM YOU’VE BEEN WITH AND EVEN SOME TEAMS THAT WERE STRUGGLING. WHAT IS IT ABOUT YOU THAT YOU’RE ABLE TO DO THAT NO MATTER WHERE YOU GO AND WHAT TEAM IT IS THAT YOU’RE ABLE TO BRING THEM UP?
“I appreciate that. I started out racing with my dad and when I was with my dad, we didn’t have a big racing budget. We were just kind of scraping it together. He taught me a lot about communication and he would ask me so many questions. As a 16 year-old, I felt frustrated. I was like really? I’ve got to analyze the car this much? And he goes well, if you do that, it makes my job easier to help you with the set-up. And so when you learn at and early age and from a successful racer like my dad was, it gets instilled in you on how to communicate the proper things with the car and gives you that confidence to know what you want changed in the car and to help. And then there are days when it can hurt, though, where I’m so confident where I know what I want with the car and the crew chief didn’t get it to me that there’s that frustration with it. And so, it’s just a matter of trying to help the crew chief and engineering and everybody. I want their jobs to be easier because if their jobs are easier, they are doing better and ultimately the car that I’m driving will have better results.”

YOU MENTIONED THAT THE TITLE SCENARIO MIGHT IMPACT HOW OR IF YOU RACE NEXT YEAR. CAN YOU IMAGINE A BETTER SCENARIO THAT RIDING OFF INTO THE SUNSET LIKE THAT? IF YOU WON THE CHAMPIONSHIP, WHAT WOULD BRING YOU BACK NEXT YEAR?
‘It’s always hard to play ‘what if’. I don’t want to put too much ahead of it and it would be the ultimate scenario, right? And with everything that’s been accomplished in my career, that’s what has allowed me to also have more fun. I’ve got a lot of boxes checked-off. Even last year, to get my first-ever superspeedway pole at Talladega, last October; not a lot of guys would put much emphasis in that category, but it’s like all right. Now I have a pole on short tracks, road courses, intermediates, and finally a superspeedway pole finally. That’s what’s made this fun. And so, what would bring me back is if like Monster Energy, Global Poker, GearWrench, and everybody’s putting together their advertising campaign and how they want to push to sell more product, that’s where it would hit home for me here. And then I would react to what we want to do together to make sure everybody is feeling the benefits. Selling more stuff, having more fun at the track, and ultimately for me, I would then be approaching 42, 43-years old. There’s a lot of young talent out there and it would be that chance to maybe pick the guy or the girl who is going to come up and drive after I’m done racing.”

INAUDIBLE
“Good question. Another championship ultimately. More playoff wins. And again, the last few years I haven’t led a lot of laps and I want to lead some more laps and be up front. I don’t know the exact boxes. Let me reevaluate and I’ll get back to you.”

TALK ABOUT HOW IMPORTANT FAMILY IS IN RACING EVEN WHEN YOU GET TO THE POINT WHERE YOU ARE NOW
“I would say ninety percent of everybody that’s made it to this top Cup level and if you’re a winner, it helped with the way you got here by family. Family is what really helps keep the drive alive, so to speak. With the travel that it takes go to when you’re first starting out and the money that it takes because racing is very different than stick and ball sports. You have to have extra money for sets of tires and the fuel and crash damage and things that it takes. So the time and investment from a set of parents, that’s something that Kyle (Busch) and I are very grateful for. Our mom and dad didn’t sacrifice much and we went to the track with as little and as much as we could and made the best of it. And, Dad was there to teach me. I felt like I was there to teach Kyle along with my dad teaching Kyle. And it was really neat. Like I was racing Late Models, struggling in college, and didn’t know how far I’d get because Mom was like, you probably need to get a real job. This racing thing is really starting to take over your life and we’re almost out of money. And yet, my little brother was just starting out at the age of 12 in Legend cars. And I wanted to help him as much as I could. So, family has always been there. It’s great to race Kyle at this top level. I always have to remind people a lot that Kyle and I didn’t race against each other much when we were kids just because we are seven years apart. So anytime I was bumping up in a racing division, he was never there racing until we got ultimately to this Monster Energy Cup Series level. And so this is where we’ve had the most races against one another. The family-side is still there. It’s fun. Kyle and I have got to deal with each other a lot and that’s why it’s no sweat for him to drop me on a plane ride because I’m going to see him the next week and I can give him some flack for it. So, it’s really fun. The family aspect, the team aspect, and everything that goes into all this and there’s a lot to it. I’m checking the boxes off. I have yet to win the Southern 500 and yet to win at Indianapolis. Those are the top two. And if I can find a third for my trifecta, I want to win at Watkins Glen really bad.”

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)
Friday, July 19, 2019

EVENT: Foxwoods Resort Casino 301, Loudon, NH.  (Media Availabilities)

KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Busch Beer/National Forest Foundation Ford Mustang – HOW DID IT ALL COME TOGETHER FOR YOU HERE AT THIS TRACK?  “It’s just like anything else, I could probably tell you the ones that we lost and felt like we should have won, and last year our car came around at the end of the race.  We had a decent car all weekend, but we capitalized on some mistakes and a good car at the end of the race, so we’ve had a good car here a number of times, just last year it finally all came together.”

YOU HAVE WON HERE THREE TIMES, MANY YEARS APART, IS THERE A FEEL FOR THESE CARS THAT TRANSCENDS THE MANY CHANGES THAT HAVE HAPPENED?  “I think racing is a lot like other sports.  You go through spells of capitalizing on things and having good cars and mediocre cars and circumstances and I think that part of this sport is those streaks come and go at certain race tracks.  At RCR we had a lot of good, flat track races at Richmond and Loudon and we only won here one time and I thought this was one of our better tracks, so I think as you look at different race tracks I feel like we’ve always run fairly well here.  I feel like we probably should have been to victory lane 10 times here, but you look at the results and it’s just hard to win these races, but over the last few years it’s gone OK and we’ve been on the right side of it.”

PJ1 AT POCONO NEXT WEEKEND.  WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT?  “Our car was extremely fast there last time and the steering box broke, so I feel like we had a lot to build on for us individually as an organization and team we’re still trying to recover from not being where we needed to be to start the season.  The progression for us has been rapid.  There’s been a lot of different things that have been tried as we’ve gone over these last two months and we’re still building and trying to get the cars exactly where we’d like them to be, but Pocono was definitely a race we could have won with the circumstances going right and it seems like on the days where we’ve had chances to win, we’ve just either made mistakes or we’ve had something go wrong.  It’s probably been three or four, maybe five times this year that we’ve had those opportunities and just haven’t capitalized on them, but Pocono was definitely one of those races.  I feel like we’ve been able to hopefully make the car better than it was last time.  I think we’ve done that every week, so I think as you go there with the PJ1 a lot of that came from the meeting at Daytona with the communication from the drivers and NASCAR and everybody trying to figure out how to make the racing better there and with these particular cars and the way that passing has been so difficult lanes are a good option for all of us to make the racing better.  I think from the outside looking in, the race is OK to watch.  From inside the car it’s a little bit frustrating just because of how difficult it has been to pass at some of the race tracks, so I think with as much better as we are as a sport in adding the PJ1 at a lot of these race tracks and seeing the results.  I mean, it was way better at Kentucky than it had been in the past.  You look at this particular race track and Bristol and we’ve just done a lot better job.  You look at the science that goes into when you spray it, how you spray it, all the things that come into play.  The long and short of the story is we’ve just become a lot better at the traction compound and the things that we do and when we put it down and where we put it down and you see a lot more people open to it because it’s more consistent.   We need lanes as drivers in order to go where the other car isn’t in order to pass, and I think that’s really the reasoning behind Pocono.

“You see them spray it all the way to the wall here and you saw it was better last week at Kentucky.  It didn’t get all the way up, but it at least gave you an option outside of the preferred bottom lane, so I think we’re making gains on it as a sport and I think that will be interesting because you never know how far out on the straightaway you need it, how far up you need it, and you just have to do it and I think this will be a good step.”

LOOKING AT THE GEN 7 CAR, IS THERE A LOT THAT NEEDS TO CHANGE FOR THE INTERMEDIATE PACKAGE?  “I think a lot of it is just driveability.  I think that’s everybody’s focus right now is just driveability in traffic to make the driver more useful in the car.  I think everybody knows that and everybody is working on that.  I think that’s one reason why the PJ1 is such a necessity and everybody has been so open to it because you just want to make it better, so, yes, I would agree that the mile-and-halves are better to watch, for sure, especially if we have cautions.”

WHY HAVE YOU BEEN SUCH AN ADVOCATE FOR GRASSROOTS TRACKS?  “One, it’s awareness.  Two, in my opinion and this is how the conversation started when this kind of took off a couple years ago at Phoenix and after the race.  I think the biggest reason to me is the fact that Winston used to cover a lot of the expenses and shortfalls that a lot of these short tracks had.  When Winston went away and that connection between the Winston Racing Series and the Winston Cup Series started to separate through the years it took time for that to dwindle and racing has changed, and you don’t have that same short track connection that you had.  In my opinion, that’s where a lot of the grassroots fans live, and I feel like there’s been a huge disconnect over the last five or six years of participation from what’s happening here and what’s happening there.  Really, I’ve said this a number of times that running the K&N races a few years ago, three or four years ago, you really started to hear that opinion of, ‘we just really need some help here.’  And you hear so many race fans talk about they don’t like when this driver comes and runs this series or that series, but the competitors actually do like it because it brings attention to their series.  Attention to their series brings more people in the stands.  More people in the stands brings more value to the sponsorship.  For us, we’ve had a lot of success with our short track series contingency programs.  I think we have three of them now.  We have one on the Spears SRL Series.  We have one at Stafford Speedway and then we have one with Bill McAnally and his track in California.  You’re talking about $125 to $150 buck at a time, but when you can take the 13th-place driver like we do at Stafford and make him make the same money as the sixth or seventh-place driver, that’s a pretty big deal to that guy who is running mid-pack, struggling to get to the race track, and maybe he paid for one or two tires that night.  You’re not talking about a lot of money.  I tell a lot of people this when we deal with our foundations and the things that we do at our public high schools, especially at home, it doesn’t take a lot of money.  Some of them it just takes time, so the short tracks, to me, has a direct effect on TV ratings, fans in the grandstands, especially in the local market and you see a lot of these race tracks participating with their local markets, whether they’re dirt tracks or asphalt tracks or whatever they may be, and drawing all of that together is important for the health of this sport and racing in general.”

WHEN DID THIS STYLE OF RACING START WITH GUYS RACING ALL OVER THE TRACK?  I FEEL IT WASN’T THAT WAY 10 YEARS AGO?  “If you drove like this 10 years ago, you’d have had a fist in your mouth.  What changed were the rules and when every spot becomes that much more difficult to achieve, you have to defend the spots that you have because you know that you might not get it back, and you know that you have to block.  Blocking is a part of what we do.  Defending your position is a part of what we do and it’s just an evolution of where the rules package is.  Heck, I had a blown motor last week, a broken engine and was only three-tenths off the pace, so you’re talking about small amounts of time, especially on the mile-and-a-half race tracks, where you know if you can keep somebody behind you, and that comes with side-drafting and blocking and all those things that if they’re directly behind you, there’s now way they’ll pass you because of the aero.”

HOW WILL THE HEAT PLAY A FACTOR IN HOW YOU APPROACH THE RACE THIS WEEKEND?  “I think it’ll come into play a little bit with the handling of the car.  I think as you look at it, I always look forward to coming up here because it’s always the cooler portion of the summer stretch and the last couple years we’ve gone to Chicago and you come here and those have been our hottest races as we’ve gone through the summer.  The heat for us inside the car is not gonna be something that’s abnormal this time of year.  For the fans it’s gonna be abnormal in this portion of the country, but I think as you look at it, it’ll be interesting to see where the grooves go and how the cars fall off because I think handling will be a little bit more difficult with the temperatures up like they will be.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE CONTINUITY YOU’VE HAD WITH RODNEY THE LAST FEW YEARS?  “I think where you really see that come into play, especially this year when things didn’t’ get started off well, we’ve had things not go 100 percent right, you have that connection and that communication to be able to productively work on things and keep things moving in the right direction, and we’ve definitely done that.  We haven’t been to victory lane, but we’ve slowly but surely progressed in the right direction and that’s really where you see that continuity and that relationship and experience as a group together pay off.”

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Friday, July 19, 2019
EVENT: Foxwoods Resort Casino 301, Loudon, NH. (Qualifying)

Ford Qualifying Results:
1st – Brad Keselowski
5th – Ryan Blaney
8th – Joey Logano
9th – Aric Almirola
11th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
13th – Daniel Suarez
14th – Kevin Harvick
16th – Clint Bowyer
17th – Paul Menard
20th – David Ragan
24th – Michael McDowell
26th – Ryan Newman
29th – Corey LaJoie
30th – Matt Tifft

POLE-WINNING PRESS CONFERENCE

BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Alliance Truck Parts Ford Mustang – WHEN DO YOU START THINKING ABOUT THE PLAYOFFS? “I think for me personally, I can only answer for myself, I start thinking about the Playoffs the second you get your first win and you’re locked in. And for there it’s kind of ‘how can I have the most amount of points, bonus points, whatever it might be, to enter those Playoffs.’ That’s why it’s such a big advantage early in the season because you can really focus your eyes on the big prize.”

DO YOU CHANGE YOUR STRATEGY AT ALL? “I think you’re willing to take more risks because you know you’re not reliant on the overall season points to get you in, so you can focus more on those bonus points and what it takes to accrue them.”

HOW BIG OF AN OPPORTUNITY IS THIS TO BANK SOME PLAYOFF POINTS STARTING ON THE POLE? “I always personally hesitate to under-value qualifying, but with that in mind there are some tracks that are less impactful to win the pole than Loudon, New Hampshire is. Certainly, the restrictor plate tracks come to mind, but that doesn’t mean you don’t enjoy them as much at those tracks and that they don’t mean something to you. They certainly do, but as you look to rank the tracks for where qualifying well matters this is certainly towards the top. I think probably the only track I can think of where it’s maybe more important would be Martinsville in the fall, or the two races we have there in the spring and fall, but we’re happy with that effort. It certainly bodes well for our shot to get those stage wins and of course the overall race win come Sunday, but we still have to go earn it. You’re happy for it. You take a breath. You celebrate it and then you get your head back down and go to work.”

HAVE YOU WATCHED ANY OF THE SPECIALS ABOUT THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE MOON LANDING AND HAVE YOU SEEN ANYTHING THAT CONVINCES YOU ONE WAY OR THE OTHER? “Yeah, I saw some really good stuff and it looks great and makes a lot of sense. Yeah. I think it’s cool, but I’m not gonna put my head on the line. I know from the little bit of experience I have working with the government that I would be completely shocked if they were able to pull that off as a hoax. If you’ve ever been to the Secretary of State to get your license renewed, you know how hard it is for our government to achieve those things, so with that in mind, I feel like it happened. It was good, but I’m not putting my first-born child on the line. How about that?”

DO YOU HAVE A STRATEGY AT THIS TRACK? “I don’t feel like I have a strategy. This is a really hard track to have a strategy for because every year we come here something gets changed. They change the PJ1. They change the bodies on the car. They change the rules on the ride height. I don’t feel like I’ve been here for more than two straight years where the cars have been anything alike. And every time they make those changes it affects the way the car is driving and how you maximize lap time on it, so it’s part of the challenge of being in the Cup Series, evolving to the dynamic rules and dynamics of the cars and the teams and evolution of engineering and so forth, but I wouldn’t say there’s one trick that served us through those years.”

HARVICK SAID IF DRIVERS RACED LIKE THIS 10 YEARS AGO THEY WOULD END UP WITH A FIST IN THEIR MOUTH. HAMLIN SAID IT CHANGED IN THE BRAD KESELOWSKI ERA WITH YOUR AGGRESSION. DO YOU THINK THAT’S THE CASE? “Certainly, the drivers change over the years and the tactics change over the years. The side drafting since I’ve been a part of the sport has become more prevalent. The moves just have changed. The game has changed. It evolves and there’s a lot of reasons for that. It’s not all the drivers, in fact most of it is not the drivers it’s the rules and what’s at stake. I’d agree 100 percent with Kevin that things have changed dramatically in that what was acceptable 10 years ago would get you pushed out of this sport if you were a driver that did it today because you’d lose your ride. So this sport is dynamic. It always has been. I think for me I look for inspirations and I tell people my job as a race car driver is I always feel like I’m 10 percent of the equation and I get 90 percent of the credit. And if you feel like you’re 10 percent of the equation, then what’s the other 90 percent of it? Well, it’s the pit crew, the engineering, the mechanics that bolt the car together. All of those things have to come together on any given weekend to be successful. With that in mind, my job as that 10 percent person or the role that I play as a driver is to take the days where our total effort is not good enough to win and still find a way to win. And that means applying tactics that help advance us and so I think if you look at guys like Dale Earnhardt and the mystique that he has, part of that mystique came from his ability to do just that – was to take the days where he didn’t have the fastest car and make something happen. I give a lot of credit to a guy like Kyle Busch. I think he does that a lot. He takes cars that maybe aren’t the fastest and finds a way to run up front and win with them. That’s part of what makes him so good, and that means advance tactics, it means being the best down pit road as a driver, it means making moves and maybe side drafting is an example of just one of a list of things you can do to help differentiate yourself to create that advantage when you’re at a deficit. But as a whole my philosophy has always been that you’re not a great driver unless you can take a car that shouldn’t win and win with it, and that’s gonna come through advance tactics. Some of those tactics are less controversial than others. Some of them evolve the sport in good ways or bad ways, but the reality is that’s what separates the best from the good. And that’s what guys like Dale did that led to their mystique. Dale took cars on superspeedways that were probably fifth-place cars and dominated with them because he knew advance tactics that nobody else knew. He figured them out and kept them to himself and beat people with them. If you go back and watch videos in the nineties of Dale, the moves that he’s pulling and then you look back at the other guys it’s like, ‘Why aren’t they pulling those moves?’ And I think that’s some of what was going on 10 years ago is those moves were out there and the drivers just weren’t taking them, and you could argue there was a different code back then. I would say there’s probably some truth to that, but I would also say that I didn’t come in this sport with the opportunity to have the best cars and equipment and I raced against drivers that had been in this sport for 10-15 years and quite honestly were probably in better equipment and found a way to survive and thrive, and that’s my job. So, if I’ve played a role in that, I’m thrilled to death to have done that because I know personally what that means. It means that I did more with my equipment than I should have done and I earned my spot in this sport.”

WHAT IS YOUR OPINION ON CUP DRIVERS SUPPORTING THEIR LOCAL SHORT TRACKS? “I think it’s good. There’s certainly a gap there between the local tracks and the upper echelon of the sport. There are a number of reasons for that. Some are just innocent and some are not. I would say that at the end of the day though we need the grassroots. The grassroots are important to our sport and I feel fortunate to have played a role in supporting that with owning some late model teams. Maybe the Truck Series isn’t the grassroots, but it’s somewhere in between. It’s a nice, intermediate step and owning a team there it was certainly a pleasure to be a part of and I’ve had a lot of fun with that and was able to get five or six drivers up through the ranks with that and I look at those drivers today and I’m really proud to see their success and know that I had this small of a part, but still a part in their success. I think ultimately it’s in all of our hands, and that’s not just drivers, it’s everyone who enters this garage area from the fans that maybe bring their kids to the race and experience it for the first time to media members to reach out on social media to new fans and tell them whether the track has lights or not, to us drivers and NASCAR officials. Those interactions are how we pay it forward to this sport for the privileges and opportunities that it’s given us and I think they’re very important and the grassroots level is just one of many ways for us to pay it forward and it’s good to see some of those guys become successful because they’ve certainly earned it.”

DO YOU GET MORE EXCITED WHEN KYLE IS ON THE FRONT ROW OR WORRIED BECAUSE YOU GUYS HAVE HAD SOME ISSUES? “I don’t think about it that much because that’s just not the type of person that I am, and the reason I don’t think about it is not out of any kind of disrespect or anything like that, but it’s out of a feeling that to win the race tomorrow we’re one of 40 cars. He’s one of 40 cars. Do the math and that means I have to beat him and 38 other cars, and I’ve always felt like if you put too much focus on one you’ll forget about the other 38. I could finish 39th and him finish 40th and I could tell you I still would not leave this track happy. My goal is to beat everyone and not just one.”

RYAN NEWMAN, No. 6 Oscar Mayer Ford Mustang – “I didn’t really push it very hard there. I wanted to get through qualifying. The brakes need to be bled and a bunch of stuff wasn’t really prepared 100 percent, but I was surprised we ran as quick as we did with me not pushing it as hard as I did. We’ll just take it for what it’s worth and work on race trim. I surprised myself, obviously, in practice. I’ve been here quite a few times and never hit the fence, especially there, but it just caught me off guard and we’ve gone to a back-up car and try to get the Oscar Mayer Ford up front on Sunday.”

HOW MUCH DID THE PJ1 HAVE TO DO WITH THAT? “I don’t know. I just was really stranding in it and I caught the bumps wrong and ended up above it and there still wasn’t enough grip to save it, so I don’t know. I don’t know if they used a tire dragon or a spray or what they do. It’s a science project every time we come to the race track and they start putting chemicals on it. I’m not a fan of it.”

IT WAS THE SAME TURN DENNY HAMLIN SPUN OUT ON. “We’ve both won here quite a few times and we both ran out of talent within about five minutes of each other. I don’t know. There were people asking me if there was oil on the race track and I don’t think so.”

PAUL MENARD, No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Mustang – “The car drove pretty decent, really. I have to go back and look at it on where I lost some time. I felt like I attacked the corner pretty hard. Maybe I used a little bit too much brake just to get it to point, but I was fairly happy with how it drove and all that. I don’t know how it’s going to shake out, but we’ve got all day tomorrow to get it right for the race and that’s what we’re here for.”

RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Sylvania Ford Mustang – “I just kind of got loose in one and two and I jumped the cushion my first lap. I got in the fourth lane, so that laps junk. And then you’re worried about doing it again the second lap, so you kind of don’t have the best feel for one and two, but I thought our car in three and four was awesome. I was just a little bit too free in one and two, and it should have been a lot faster than that, but I didn’t really get the best couple of laps.”

ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang – “I thought that was a good lap for us. We struggled in practice and changed quite a bit of stuff going into qualifying, and didn’t really know what to expect. But I thought that was a good lap for us. I’m really proud of everybody on this Smithfield team and I feel like this is a place we can win at. We ran really well here last year. I know it’s a lot different with the car and the rule changes and everything, but I really like this place. I like racing here and I feel good about what we’ve got.”

WE HAD TWO CARS SPIN IN PRACTICE. ANOTHER ONE HIT THE WALL IN QUALIFYING. IS THAT INDICATIVE OF THIS TRACK? “Yeah, I don’t know. Right now, I just feel like there’s a real fine line between the grip and the PJ1 on the new asphalt, and the PJ1 when you transition over onto the old asphalt. You just have to be really, really careful and there’s a delicate balance between how much grip there is in those two different surfaces.”

MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
FOXWOODS RESORT CASINO 301
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES & QUOTES
JULY 19, 2019

TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
3rd Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1
10th Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1
12th Chase Elliott, No. 9 Kelley Blue Book Camaro ZL1
15th Kyle Larson, No. 42 McDonald’s Camaro ZL1
18th Ty Dillon, No. 13 GEICO Military Camaro ZL1

TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Brad Keselowski (Ford)
2nd Kyle Busch (Toyota)
3rd Kurt Busch (Chevrolet)
4th Erik Jones (Toyota)
5th Ryan Blaney (Ford)

NBCSN will telecast the Foxwoods Resort Casino 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway live at 3:00 p.m. ET Sunday, July 21. Live coverage can also be found on NBC Sports Gold, PRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

TEAM CHEVY POST-QUALIYFING NOTES AND QUOTES:

KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 3rd
DID YOU GET EVERYTHING YOU COULD OUT OF YOUR RACE CAR?
“I don’t know. I’m happy that we got third, but I’m disappointed because I’m like where was the lap time? Where did I lose it? But, thanks to the guys and the engineering group to take our car from where we were in practice and to give us a shot at the pole. That’s that team chemistry and that feel that we’re getting for one another. I don’t know. I’m going to call that one all-driver. It’s so tight for the top four guys. That’s what this Monster Energy Cup is all about. You’ve got to be perfect and we were off just a bit there I guess.”

DOES A THIRD PLACE QUALIFYING EFFORT CONTINUE THE MOMENTUM OF THIS TEAM?
“Yes, as long as the driver isn’t too wound-up about not getting the pole, we’ll be all right.”

HOW MUCH DOES YOUR PAST SUCCESS HERE MEAN ANYTHING WITH THIS NEW PACKAGE? IS THERE STILL A FEEL YOU CAN LOOK FOR IN THE CAR?
“I don’t want to give away too much, but I rolled into Kentucky last week and said it’s a brand new track. Anytime I go back to these places with this new package or a new team, I just try to find the speed I can. And, a lot of things from the past don’t work anymore.”

WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1 – Scraped the wall during his run. Qualified 22nd
‘I don’t know. I’ve just been missing it today. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. But, I’ve just got to go figure it out. I hit the wall again so that’s not going to help. We’ll just work on it tomorrow. I just brushed it off of Turn 2. Hopefully it’s not damaged to severely. We’ll just have to see what we have when we get back.”

CHRIS BUESCHER, NO. 37 SCOTT COMFORT PLUS CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 25th
“I was looking forward to having a cooler weekend and now, but it’ll be hot. We have to stay hydrated, for sure. A place like this requires a little bit more rhythm. It’s a tough race. The weather is hot, but it’s been hot for a while. We’re not out of practice by any means. The bottom groove here definitely has some grip. It will wear off during the race and starts getting some exciting times on restarts when that bottom grip becomes more dominant than the top.”

BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 VICTORY JUNCTION CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 27th
“Sunday’s race is going to be an interesting race. We’ll just try to figure it all out. I think tomorrow in race trim we’ll get a good balance. I want to get an idea of what NASCAR is going to do with regard to the traction compound. But, it should be fun. I love coming here. I think we have a decent Victory Junction Chevrolet.”

ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 AXALTA, CAMARO ZL1 – Had driveshaft issue during run and will go to a back-up. Qualified 37th
WERE THERE ANY DRIVESHAFT ISSUES DURING PRACTICE?
“No, there was just a big boom going down the front straightaway and then smoke and oil everywhere. I just tried to get it off the race track. I parked down there in Turns 1 and 2 once before, with the car on fire, and the guy with the fire extinguisher. So, I’m not friends with Turns 1 and 2 there. It’s just a bummer. I don’t know that we were going to qualify very well with Turns 1 and 2 being a ‘beach’ right now with all the speedy dry down there, but we were definitely going to start better than last. But obviously, we’re going to start last now. I’m bummer for my Axalta 88 guys. The race car has been really good all day, but we’ll put a new driveshaft in it an go from there.”

DESCRIBE THE TRACK CONDITIONS RIGHT NOW. YOU SAID IT’S LIKE A BEACH IN TURNS 1 AND 2
“Yeah, I’m sure I oiled down the front straightaway there. And then (Turns) 1 and 2, sitting on pit road watching and you’re like man, I really want to run up there in the PJ1, but it’s all full of sand from that Xfinity car. That’s just part of it. It’s part of single-car qualifying and you can’t wait it out. When you’ve got to go, you’ve just got to go.”
Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.

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