Category: NASCAR Cup PR

Toyota Racing – Kyle Busch
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Daytona International Speedway – July 5, 2019

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Kyle Busch was made available to the media in Daytona:

Kyle Busch, No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Can you talk about your brother’s (Kurt Busch) role as a veteran leader amongst the drivers?

“I mean he certainly has a voice. He’s a champion in the sport and has been around a long time and he has seen things and been a part of a lot of things as well. I think he has that opportunity, that clout, and he should be listened to. It’s been pretty good for me the last couple years to be on that front and to be able to go to the NASCAR trailer and talk to those guys and have an opinion and have those opinions be listened to. Sometimes you see things come from those, sometimes you don’t. I go back to the Bill France Jr. adage that they need to run the sport how they need to run the sport and sometimes they need to stop listening to people that don’t know what they are doing or what they are thinking and just have a vision and go for it. I’ve given my opinion, and that’s kind of how I still perceive that’s how they should still do things.”

This is the last July 4th race at Daytona. Is it a big deal that there is not going to be another July 4th race here?

“Yeah, I am. Especially for where it’s going. I’ll be frank, I’m kind of disappointed. Overall, just being in Daytona for July 4th has always been cool. Having the opportunity to go to the beach, having the opportunity to do that, whether that be on Thursday or Friday, not having a lot going on, so we are going to miss that, the fireworks show, things like that. Now that’s going to be in Indy I guess. Yeah, there’s no beach there.”

Is qualifying being cancelled a big deal?

“I don’t mind not qualifying here. I think it’s kind of a waste of time anyways. All it does is show who has a faster car, and things tend to happen here during the race and that doesn’t mean much. Overall, being able to start up front is certainly better than we would have started. I think we would have been back in the teens. Having the second starting spot is better for us.”

Do you remember your first impressions of Bristol?
“I went into Bristol; first time ever going there just thinking about the times I was able to race at Winchester (Speedway). High-banked, half-mile racetrack. Asphalt, you run up against the wall. It’s different. Same sort of mentality, I guess. You just throw it into the corners and really attack it and really feel the cars squat, and everything that it does there with the amount of load that you pick up there when you go through the corners. It’s a fun place. My first time there didn’t end up well. It was in a Busch Series test back in my Hendrick Motorsports days. We had a throttle hang and I drove it up in the turn one fence about halfway through the test. That wasn’t too much fun. We were able to go back for the race and I think we ran second or third. Ever since then it’s always been a really cool place. I struggled there the first few times in the Cup car. Just with the more horsepower and trying to throw the thing around is hard. What I was doing with the Xfinity car wasn’t quite working; you had to have a little bit more finesse. Once I figured that out, it’s been pretty good.”

Are drivers tired of others blocking? Do you think there will be less lifting?

“I have never seen Brad (Keselowski) lift behind me anyways. I don’t anticipate if it’s an 18 car he’s going to do anything any different. You have to be careful with who you are racing, who you are doing things with and what’s going on. Tony (Stewart) always kind of said that too — years ago — I threw a big block on him in 2008 and about ended up on my lid.”

You would think (Martin) Truex Jr. and you are championship favorites, but after Chicagoland do you have any worries about your intermediate program?

“I look at Kansas. We could have won. I think, we should have finished second or third. We had issues happen. I had flat tires, got laps down, made all those laps back, and then got damage with like 20 to go and ended up two laps down. Same exact thing happened in Chicagoland last weekend. Where I got into the wall. Got damage. Had a flat. Went laps down. Was able to make it all up. Made it back into the top seven. Then was racing (Joey) Logano and cut a left rear and could never recover from that. Was stuck in the lucky dog spot for the next 80 laps. Just situational. I felt like in Chicago. We could have won. Realistically, we were probably a third-place car. So, I don’t think we are that far off. Things just keep biting us and not giving us the opportunity to finish the way that we feel that we should.”

Is there a challenge to starting a race here at Daytona from points versus qualifying?

“You know, I think you’re starting around those you’ve kind of raced around all year long realistically. When you’re in the order of how you are in points, you’re racing against the guys that you’ve been up front with year-round. I don’t see that as much of a difference. Yeah, there might be a faster car here or there that can qualify farther up than you, but when it all boils down to it at the end of the day, the competition in which you start the race around is kind of who you’ve been around all year long. Trust me, by lap three or four, it might even be sooner – you won’t be in the same spot.”

What is it about Kentucky Speedway that suits you so well?

“I don’t know. People ask me that question about a bunch of different race tracks. It’s pretty nice to be able to go to these race tracks and be able to have the opportunity to do well and run well and finish up front and win. You look at Bristol, you look at Richmond, you look at Kentucky, you look at Indy now more recently than years past and Kansas for that matter over year’s past – we’ve been doing a hell of a lot better and it’s been really good to go to these places and have the consistency that we need to run up front like that. Kentucky though, when we first started going there, I remember going there in the ARCA days and the Xfinity days, back when the asphalt was old, rough and bumpy. Then they ground it a couple times and it kind of changed a little bit. I kept up with the changes and then now it’s all repaved and it’s all new. I feel like I kind of lost the dance floor a little bit. We’ve got to get back on our horse and ride a little bit better. I think we’ve still run in the top-four there the last couple years.”

Are you more frustrated with the 550hp package due to your years of experience with the higher horsepower package?

“You’re momentum racing. It’s almost like electric car racing. You’re just trying to keep the gas down as much as you can keep the gas down rather than having the finesse of what it takes to be able to lift out of the gas and throw the car in the corner and feel it slide a little bit and then feed it throttle and get back to it a little bit. It’s under-powered and you’re just momentum racing. You’re trying the best you can to just keep the momentum rolling to try to hunt down that guy in front of you. It just seems that things are happening so much slower now. You’re going through the corner faster, but like getting a run on a guy and catching up to a guy is just so slow. You only beat him a half-a-tenth a lap so it takes forever to get there because there’s never a chance for the guy in front of you to slip that much that really hurts him and then you can get that tenth or that two-tenths a lap on somebody when they overheat their tires or something like that. Under the limit of the tire at some of these places we go to, like last week at Chicago, especially when it turned into a night race, the race was around the bottom all night long. The top never really came in as much as we all would have wanted it to and you couldn’t move around as much as you wanted to, as soon as you wanted to. It takes 20 or 30 laps for tires to wear out before you start moving around where before it was like eight laps. It’s a different form of racing and yes, it’s frustrating.”

Do you expect New Hampshire to be similar to Phoenix and hard to pass?

“It’s going to be hard to pass. It’s always hard to pass at New Hampshire so I don’t know how it will be much better or much worse. I anticipate it being still difficult to pass. I’m not certain if they’re spraying, I imagine they are for that top groove and that bottom groove so the middle is left undone. Since doing that, that’s kind of livened up the race track I feel like the last couple of years. It’s actually made it a bit more racey, especially on restarts and such where you’re not just so tense and on-edge and feeling like you’re on ice to not slide into the guy around you.”

Do you think NASCAR needs better judgement or show more common sense in calling pit road penalties?

“Shorter answer is yes, more common sense would be nice. But hey, it’s balls and strikes man. Even the best umpires are going to screw it up. It is what it is. It’s not cut-dry, you know what I mean?”

Why do you think Joe Gibbs gets so emotional when he wins at Daytona?

“It’s the Daytona 500. I think that’s probably what you’re referring to. I think you’re probably also referring to the first race back since the passing of his son with Denny Hamlin being able to win the Daytona 500 earlier this year. He’s won that race now three times – twice with Denny and once with Dale Jarrett. It would certainly be nice to have my name on that list of being able to win the Daytona 500 for the Coach. I can’t remember our win here in 2008, what it was like for him and whether it was an emotional one on that day. I wish I could, but my memory doesn’t serve me right now. Overall, I think everybody looks at Daytona as the world center of racing and obviously the most prestigious race here that we have so hopefully we can win tomorrow night and figure out if he’s emotional again. I’ll let you know.”

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Friday, July 5, 2019
EVENT: Coke Zero Sugar 400, Daytona Beach, FL.

Today’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session was cancelled due to weather, meaning Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang will start on the pole for tomorrow night’s scheduled Coke Zero Sugar 400. Logano addressed the media about starting up front.

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang – WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU WOULD HAVE QUALIFIED AND WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON STARTING FIRST? “I think anytime you can be first it’s a good position. That’s where I want to be all the time. The beginning or the end I want to be first all the time. Where we would have qualified? I don’t really care. We’re first (laughing). I don’t know, I don’t care. I know I’m probably the one that is not complaining about it though. We never made a qualifying run to really know where our single-car speed was gonna be, not that we were banking on rain or anything like that, it just played out that way. We’ll take it. I’ve never had a superspeedway pole before and I don’t know if this actually counts as one or not, but I’m starting first and I’m counting it and that’s all that matters.”

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS BEING THE LAST JULY 4TH RACE AT DAYTONA? IS THAT A BIG DEAL? “I think traditions are important and as a sport we stay true to a lot of traditions, but I also think if you don’t change tradition, you’ll always be where you’re at. You can never move forward. When I think about where this race is gonna be placed next year, the final race before the Playoffs, here we go. Think about it. If you come into this race and you think you’re 30 points to the good, and you think you’re gonna be alright to getting into the Playoffs, I wouldn’t think that’s a safe place to be at all. You definitely want to be ahead of that because you never know who is gonna win this thing. There’s a good chance the fastest car and the best teams usually win, but there’s also a good chance that they all crash and someone that doesn’t typically win wins this race. We’ve seen that plenty of times, too. So I don’t think there’s a safe place, unless you are a for sure lock going into it. I think that piece of it, even though it’s not on the Fourth of July and we’re all so used to it being on this weekend, this race being here, but I think where it’s gonna be placed is just gonna add drama and I don’t see where that’s a bad thing in sports at all.”

WHAT DID YOU THINK OF BRAD’S MOVE ON THE TRACK YESTERDAY AND HAVE YOU EVER TALKED TO HIM ABOUT THE WAY SOME DRIVERS BLOCK? “I guess he sent the message. That’s what he said afterwards, I guess, on TV and I’d say message delivered to the field. He had the opportunity to send a message and he did. The rest of it, I guess you’ll have to ask him. It’s not my place to talk about our conversations publicly. Obviously, he was frustrated about the way he’s been raced. That’s what he said to everyone on national television, so I guess he felt like that was his opportunity to send the message.”

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN FRUSTRATED BY THAT WITH TWO KINDS OF BLOCKING? “There is definitely different kinds and if you’re going to, I think there is a lot of blocking that’s accepted, especially in today’s world of racing, especially in stock car racing and even this year maybe more than ever with the 550 rules, where places like Chicago or Kansas or Charlotte it’s more something we’re all getting used to and it’s kind of part of it, but there is that other level where the guy that’s getting blocked has to give unless you both crash, and at that point, if you’re willing to make that move, you have to be willing to take the punches with it. You have to be willing to take the hit you’re gonna be receiving in the back bumper or you’re crossed up or you have to be willing to say, ‘we’re gonna crash.’ It’s a risky move. Those risks will be taken any time, whether it’s early in the race, definitely at the end of the race where those blocks will happen. I’m not saying that I won’t. I will to. It’s part of it. We’re all gonna do it because it’s just the way we race these days and you just have to be ready for the repercussions of that action one way or the other.”

HOW DO YOU JUDGE THE RISK VS. REWARD WHEN YOU MAKE A MOVE LIKE THAT? “You try to weigh it as much as you can in the two-tenths of a second you have, but the risk is weighed in your preparation and how confident you feel and where the other car is, how confident you feel in your spotter and what you feel like you have to be doing at that moment in the draft. Is it one of those moments where you can say, ‘OK, it’s 50 laps into the race.’ You want to make the block, but maybe it’s a little too close to cut early in the race. If it’s the end of the race and you’re willing to go for it, then you’re gonna do it, but you have that made up in your mind before the moment happens, I believe at least, or at least you should. Also, there are good blockers and bad blockers on the race track, too. It’s not just something that you just do. There are some that are just better at it, where their blocks are more precise or quicker to where it never gets to the point where the car is gonna get to your back bumper, and you’re never gonna get to that point before it happens. Those are the guys that are good at it, and there are some that are a little bit lazier to make the block and they’re a little slower to it and they see it later or whatever it is, those are the ones that get pushed around and get wrecked.”

HOW DO YOU APPROACH THIS RACE VERSUS IN FEBRUARY WHEN YOU HAVE LESS TRACK TIME? “When I look at speedway racing, I guess I’ve got to go back maybe three years ago when the Gibbs cars worked together for maybe the first time that we had seen four cars be that selfless. I think it was in the Daytona 500 and I think that was the evolution of speedway racing right there because we all realized at that point if we want to knock them out, we want to beat them, we have to join forces and we’ve seen Ford do a good job at that in the past, and then we go to Talladega and I feel like we’ve seen the next level that we saw the Chevys do. Now it’s forced the garage again to somehow come up with an alliance to beat them. That’s what we have to do, so it’s just evolving. Superspeedway racing is in general and it always has and it’s something where you can take any kind of rules package and all these different things and it doesn’t really matter, it’s about what the mentality is on the race track. There’s nothing that makes these cars run single-file up against the wall with one rules package more than the other. It’s just what the drivers’ attitude is and what they think is gonna happen. If you get in your mind that the top is gonna work and you have six or seven cars that think the top is the only way it works, well, guess what? Once there are six or seven up top, then you have to go up there, everyone has to even if you don’t believe in it you have to go up there because it’s the only way you’re gonna race. That doesn’t matter what the rules package is. It’s the same thing with this. Now it seems like you’re gonna have to somehow work as a team to be able to win this thing, or even to be in the top 10. That’s just kind of how this race is gonna play out.”

IS THE NEW KENTUCKY CONFIGURATION MORE OR LESS IN YOUR WHEELHOUSE AND WHAT DO YOU EXPECT THERE? “I guess it’s been, I guess I haven’t been as successful at that race track since they redid it. I guess my Xfinity stats early in my career were really good there. We’ve run well there since they reconfigured it, we just haven’t won yet. Any reasoning? It’s just completely a different race track. It doesn’t even look the same from what it used to be, and once again it’s gonna be quite the different race track when you come there with this rules package. That’s where it’s really gonna affect us a lot on how we race each other. One and two obviously is gonna be pretty easy wide-open, but three and four is not going to be and when you have cars that we have right now that when you get in dirty air and that flat entry to turn three, I’d expect the track to widen out a little bit to where we’ll all be looking for air.”

DOES IT MATTER WHO IT IS WHO IS PUTTING ON THE BLOCK, WHETHER YOU LIFT OR PUNT? “Yes. Yes, it does.”

DO YOU HAVE MORE THROTTLE RESPONSE WITH THE TAPERED SPACER NOW? CAN YOU CONTROL YOUR OWN DESTINY A BIT BETTER NOW? “I don’t think you can control it anymore than we used to. I think you’re in quite a bit of control of your own destiny here anyway, but maybe the recovery factor is a little better. If something was to happen, you have more horsepower to get back up to speed quicker, but once you’re up to speed they run pretty much the same. You have so much more aero drag than what we used to that kind of levels you back out to where it is. Even though you feel like you have more horsepower, there are times that maybe when someone is pushing you or something like that it’s easier to spin the tires because you have more horsepower, someone is bumping you down the straightaway and stuff you have more horsepower, you just have so much more drag that just kind of brings you back.”

BUT WHEN YOU PUNCH THE THROTTLE DOES IT SHOVE YOU BACK IN THE SEAT A LITTLE BIT? “A little bit, like restarts and things like that, a little bit there, yeah.”

WHAT IS YOUR STRATEGY FOR GOING OUT THERE TOMORROW. DO YOU TRY TO HELP RYAN SINCE YOU AND BRAD HAVE A WIN? IS IT AN ALL-FORD MENTALITY OR TEAM PENSKE? “I guess you’ll have to wait and see. That’s why you watch the race. I think what you’re gonna see, I don’t think it’s gonna be a secret to anyone, you’re gonna see manufacturers working together just because of what we saw in Talladega. It forces everyone’s hands to where you have to do that to have a chance. You hope that you’re the guy in the lead of it, but you might not be and you have to be OK with it.”

WILL YOU PUSH RYAN IF YOU CAN? “I want to push anything with a Blue Oval on it.”

THOUGHTS AGAIN ON THIS RACE MOVING TO THE END OF THE REGULAR SEASON. “I think in general that making this a cutoff race before the Playoffs is a good move. I think that keeps something real exciting and adds a lot of drama to our sport to where you’re never out of this thing. Sometimes if you weren’t really in contention for that bubble spot by points by the time you got to the final race of the cutoffs, you kind of thought, ‘I’m kind of out of it. I might not win at that type of race track.’ But here anybody can win, and so I think by NASCAR moving this race to that moment is gonna be something that adds more drama and more possibilities of things that can happen, so cool. I think that’s kind of what the schedule does in general, a lot of the moves they did over the off season they announced at least is going to really just add more stuff for you guys to talk about and more for us to worry about. That’s kind of what it does.”

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Friday, July 5, 2019
EVENT: Coke Zero Sugar 400, Daytona Beach, FL.

MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 34 Long John Silver’s Ford Mustang – HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS RACE? “They say it’s anybody’s ballgame, but it’s really the same winners a lot here. We’ve run well and I think that’s the thing I look forward to the most is Daytona is an opportunity race for a lot of people and we know that for sure, but it’s still the same 10 guys up there at the end typically. I’m just happy to be one of those 10 and you’ve got to put yourself in position to have a shot at it, which we’ve done a few times here and obviously with the 500 we had a shot at it and came up a little bit short, but we definitely circle this race as an opportunity for us to get a win and to kind of sneak our way into a Playoff spot, but also just to get a good finish and to hopefully score some stage points and make up some ground that we’ve lost over the last few months here, so yesterday was good. Practice went smooth. The car drove well, sucked up well. You don’t get the full feel of what it’s gonna be until you get into the race just because the packs aren’t quite big enough in practice, but it was hot and slick and that’s typical of what we have here, so hopefully it will race well tomorrow.”

WAS IT ENCOURAGING TO HAVE THE SPEED YOU SHOWED IN FEBRUARY? “Yeah, definitely, and I think more than anything, for myself, this has been my best track. Even prior to getting in the 34 is where a majority of my Top 5 and Top 10s have come, so for myself coming here I feel confident and then to have speed that we’ve had in qualifying and in the race with our Ford has been really encouraging. You can sometimes wedge yourself up there and stay there, but when you have speed and you have legitimate speed, it makes for a little bit of an easier day and easier to get those runs and get people to work with you and not hang you out and feel like our cars have had really good speed at superspeedways. We qualified well at Talladega with a top 10 there and think we would have had a good shot at qualifying in the top 10 or 12 today, but unfortunately didn’t get a chance to do that, but I want to say fairly easy to pass, but it gets harder and harder. Track position is gonna be important at the end, so you just have to be patient at the beginning and see how this unfolds. The biggest question mark is just this new package in particular. The last time we were here with a lot less downforce, a lot less motor. Now the package is different and the cars are gonna race and draft different, so it’s just adjusting really quickly in the race.”

HOW DIFFERENT IS IT WITHOUT THE PLATE? “You can tell, but it still feels like Daytona. It still feels normal. I think the throttle is the same, it’s just your suck up is a little bit better, you get a little bit bigger runs. The car is a little more sensitive in the air depending on positioning and so you just kind of learn as you go and you figure out where you car needs to be and you figure out what you need to do to successfully make passes and pull lanes and block runs.”

SO NOT DRAMATICALLY DIFFERENT? “From a driver’s standpoint it’s pretty similar.”

SOME GUYS HAVE FOUND ANOTHER GEAR WHEN THEY COME HERE. CAN YOU PINPOINT WHY THAT IS? “I think it’s just an equalizer. I think that it just brings the field closer together and because the field is closer together I think it puts more in the driver’s hand from just positioning and strategic and the easiest way to say it is that the car is less of the determining factor. You go to a place like Chicago and if you’re a half-second off, you’re not gonna make it up. You’re not gonna put yourself in position on the last restart and snooker them and here everybody is so close and the draft is so effective that if you can get yourself in the right spot at the right time, you can make things happen here, where at other tracks it’s hard to overcome a lack of speed.”

HOW MUCH DOES HAVING A POSITIVE ATTITUDE HELP WITH THIS KIND OF RACING? “I think there’s a lot to it. You should ask Matt D. that question. I think I helped him too much, but I feel like if you come to the race track and you enjoy what you’re doing, and you love what you’re doing, and you’re excited about what you’re doing, you do a better job. I think that the drivers that don’t like coming here, they maybe don’t like the risk associated with it, but I think when it comes right down to it the guys that are good at it enjoy it. If you don’t enjoy it, you’re not gonna go for the gap and you’re not gonna make the block and you’re not gonna do all the things you have to do to win the race. I think here in particular the mental side of planning your race and how you’re gonna approach it is a big part of it and you’re not limited so much by the car, so I think having a good attitude is real important. It doesn’t keep you out of the wreck, though (laughing).”

ARE THE MANUFACTURER WARS OR ALLIANCES GOING TO BE AS STRONG TOMORROW AS WHAT WE SAW AT TALLADEGA? “I don’t know. I think what we saw in practice yesterday and what you saw in the race in Talladega it is everybody’s best interest to have friends and to have people to work with and that is definitely manufacturer-driven and related. I think it’s worked out for a few of these races, where you can actually keep that group together, but sometimes it just doesn’t work out and you get split up. We’ve seen that, whether it’s getting to pit road or a caution falls at a certain time or those green flag stops you have a little bit of an issue like we had at the 500, and you can get split up. So you always have a plan, but you’ve also got to be able to adjust quickly in the race if for some reason you get broken up or you lose touch with that group of your locked up and you miss pit road or you take four and everybody else took fuel only. There are so many things that have to go just right and it’s very interesting because we all need each other to make it work, but nobody wants to give up their race for somebody else, so there’s a balance of getting to the end and getting yourself in position and giving yourself a shot at winning the race, and I think to get to that point you need a lot of friends to do that and then at the end it gets hard because you don’t always get to line up bumper to bumper with your friends, your teammates or other manufacturer, so it is tricky but we see it more prevalent. I think Ford has set the standard of what it could look like if you all work together. Now everybody else is getting on board and trying to get organized and so we’ve got to be a step ahead all the time.”

MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
COKE ZERO SUGAR 400
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
JULY 5, 2019

WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA PATRIOTIC CAMARO ZL1 Media Breakout Session Highlights:

TAKE US THROUGH WHAT HAPPENED IN PRACTICE YESTERDAY WITH BRAD KESELOWSKI FROM YOUR POINT OF VIEW
“I’ve kind of watched it a couple of times and I just feel like it was unnecessary still. I talked to Brad and got his opinion and I really appreciate him talking to me because that kind of helped just understand where he was coming from. But, I still feel like it was unnecessary for practice.”

DID YOU ASK TO TALK TO HIM?
“Yeah. I wanted to talk to him because I felt like he probably didn’t expect me to talk to him and I need to talk to him about things like that and need to hear where he’s coming from so I don’t draw my own conclusion, which probably isn’t going to be a good one. So, yeah, I think it’s important. Guys don’t talk enough to people now days and we need to handle things like that more often.”

DID YOU ACTUALLY SPEAK TO EACH OTHER OR TEXT?
“Yeah, I texted him first. And then I decided to talk to him later that night once I got back. Not the ideal circumstances being 4th of July, but I was appreciative that we got a chance to talk.”

AFTER HAVING THE DISCUSSION, WHAT MADE YOU KEEP THE SAME OPINION THAT YOU HAD YESTERDAY?
“It would have been, I feel like, more professional, to just come talk to me about what was wrong instead of tearing up a race car and making my guys have to bring out a back-up and have to work all the way through last night and get up early this morning and have to work even more. So, I don’t think that’s the way to handle it. So, that’s kind of the unnecessary part, for me, that I don’t appreciate.”

SO WHERE WAS HE COMING FROM OTHER THAN FROM YOUR TAILPIPE (LAUGHTER)
“I don’t know. I’ve seen guys block four lanes down the backstretch. And, I feel like that’s definitely a reason to get crashed. But, I was running in the lower middle part of the track and I entered the bottom of (Turns) 3 and 4, and the only reason I wasn’t completely on the line was because I got a little bit of a bump from him initially and tried to keep the wheel straight to not turn myself. So, I don’t know. I don’t know. I’m going to reserve my thoughts on that and just go race. I’ll try to learn from it, for sure, but I don’t know.”

DID HE SAY ANYTHING TO YOU ABOUT TEARING UP A RACE CAR?
“Yeah, he did. He apologized for that. And, I appreciate that. I am honest with that. I don’t put hours into the race car. My guys work really hard on it and I only had the Tuesday morning meetings that we talked about this weekend and an hour and a half in the race car. So, I definitely felt bad about it too because it’s not my place to kind of not appreciate their hard work on what they put into it.”

SOME ARE SAYING IT WASN’T SMART FOR HIM TO SEND A MESSAGE LIKE THAT
“Yeah, I don’t know. I just drive the car. So, I’m going to race how people race me. I still kind of hold my opinion of if I had done something egregiously wrong on the race track, I would feel not accepting of it, but I would understand why I got crashed. But, I just didn’t really understand it, so that’s my opinion.”

YOU DIDN’T SEEM RATTLED OR SHAKEN OR COCKY ABOUT THIS
“It doesn’t bother me because I’m driving the car at the end of the day and I still have an opportunity to do that. My team backs me. And, the confidence that comes from my team to know that they support me is all that I need. So, I think I’ve said this other times. I don’t care to have him as a friend or anything, so I don’t really need other people’s approval. So, I can still have a clean race car to go race on Saturday and hopefully go win the race.”

IT DIDN’T EVEN SHAKE YOU UP INITIALLY?
“Yeah, at first I didn’t really know if he touched me or I didn’t know…..I thought he was just pushing me and maybe I got loose or something. But, once I saw it I got a little bit clearer understanding. But still, I’m going to race the way that other people race me, too.”

WITH JUST THE NATURE OF THE RACING AT DAYTONA, IF YOU HAD TO GO TO THE BACK, IS THIS A TRACK WHERE YOU FEEL YOU CAN WORK BACK UP?
“Yeah, we came from the back last weekend and took the lead on Lap 80 of the race. So, I feel pretty optimistic about that. I mean luckily we are 12th in points so we can pick pits off of that so I feel pretty good about having a pretty good pit stall.”

WHAT IS YOUR STRATEGY FOR THE RACE WITH ALL THE TEAMWORK GOING ON?
“We’re going to work really well together. All the Chevrolet guys worked well together at Talladega. Unfortunately I wasn’t in on the good side of that. I got wrecked late in the race. But, I feel like this weekend will be a great chance for us to work together and hopefully with where we are in points, we can hopefully go for a win and try to get as many points as possible. But really, we want to win this race.”

LOOKING FOR YOUR FIRST TOP 10 AT A RESTRICTOR PLATE TRACK, DO YOU CHANGE YOUR APPROACH AT ALL? HOW ARE YOU LOOKING AT IT GOING INTO TOMORROW NIGHT’S RACE?
“I just feel like it’s honestly just been kind of bad luck and bad fortune. We’ve led laps in certain parts of the races; just not the end of it. I don’t know how we control that more than just continuing to line-up and race. Hopefully later in the race we don’t have a situation like Talladega where we got hit in the left rear and spun sideways or the races prior to that like July prior to that, I guess the No. 17 hit the No. 18 into me. Hopefully we just avoid situations like that and we can be up front at the end of the race.”

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.

The No. 18 M&M’S Toyota with NASCAR’s “Candy Man” Kyle Busch behind the wheel has found their way to Victory Lane four times this season, but this weekend fans will see the iconic No. 18 M&M’S paint scheme in an entirely new setting as an M&M’S NASCAR Euro Series Toyota Camry takes on the iconic hill climb at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Piloted by NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and Kyle Busch Motorsports driver, Todd Gilliland, the M&M’S NASCAR Euro Series Toyota Camry run up Lord March’s hill marks the first time that NASCAR and M&M’S – the Official Chocolate of NASCAR – have participated in the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Making the run even more special, Gilliland’s father David drove the M&M’S car in NASCAR’s top series in 2006 and 2007. David will also take on the famous hill this weekend, driving a Maltesers NASCAR Euro Series Toyota Camry in the same race.

Across the race weekend, race fans will also have the opportunity to trial M&M’S products in the NASCAR-designated paddock on-site at Goodwood. To follow all of the action, follow along on NASCAR’s social media channels and the M&M’S Racing Facebook page.

Toyota Racing – Denny Hamlin
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Daytona International Speedway – July 4, 2019

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin was made available to the media in Daytona:

Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Office Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

What’s your thoughts on this being the last July 4th race?

The good news is it’s not a race that’s going away from the speedway. This race track is definitely deserving of two dates and will have it for a very long time. As far as moving the schedule around, I don’t mind that at all. I think I’m more motivated to win the second race here. The July race has always been pretty tough on us, finish wise, I think a lot of it is, you are getting to the point of the season that this is going to be some of the last great opportunities for the underfunded teams to go out there and get a win so they are a lot more aggressive. The racing itself seems to be more chaotic. It’s tough to avoid those crashes. Sometimes you’re in it, sometimes you’re not. In the summer, we’re in it, so we’ve got to figure out how to play it, to win it. Because obviously, being a Coke family driver, it’s important for me to win a race that they sponsor.”

The uncontrolled tire violation keeps coming up, and you tweeted about it. What are some options that they could do differently to make that more of a straight-forward or fair rule?

“I don’t know what they can change, but I would like to see a change. I think rules have to evolve and this is not about us in particular. I made a comment and it has 3,000 likes, 500 retweets, 300 comments, so it touches the fan base. These are people that aren’t Denny fans; they just don’t get it. If they don’t get it at home, then it’s probably not a rule that needs to be in place in the Cup series because you can’t explain it to them. It’s hard to explain when a tire is just sitting there that it’s uncontrolled. It’s not moving. It is controlled. I don’t know the answer, and I don’t know how to fix it. They are pretty smart, and I’m sure they can make adjustments to fix it to make it a little more simple. But overall, everyone’s arms are a different length. So, what is an arm’s length? Do they have some kind of technology that says ‘Ok this distance from the tire changer to the tire is more than an arm’s length and they can pull a measuring out and they can measure it?’ I don’t know, but that’s just too much rules. Too many things that can change the ultimate outcome of a race. We had earned our spot up front. That’s the crappy part about it. We had earned our position up there. Then, you have to go to the back and in today’s racing, it’s harder than that ever to be able to come back. It’s virtually impossible to be able to come back now, no matter how fast your car is because everyone is running so much wide-open throttle. It changes your race; it changes how you are going to finish. It’s up to us to play by the rules that have been given to us, let’s be clear about that, but we think we are doing that. Sometimes, that judgement call doesn’t go your way and it’s been multiple times this year, that we don’t know what we could have done differently, and we are going to need that explanation so that we don’t do it again.”

Did you get any explanation from NASCAR?

“You are going to have to ask them. I haven’t, but I will. We have a meeting with them later on – with team officials. I think the team officials have shown me emails that they have prepared. Multiple pit stops, just from last week, that are identical or more egregious than ours, and nothing gets called. Is it just because they just so happen to be looking at you? You get judged or whatever it may be. It’s hard for me to believe that inside the system it flags you when a tire is not moving. It just seems like wherever their eyeballs are at on that particular stop is who gets especially looked at. But we have multiple video evidence of pit stops from other race teams that are identical. You cannot draw a difference between them and no penalty. That’s my compliant. It’s a judgement call. It’s not black-and-white. There’s no line. It’s not a line that gets crossed.”

So you would like to see a change this year?

For sure. It doesn’t affect just us. Of the top 10 teams, I’m sure most of them have had these penalties and they are all like, ‘What?’. I think an uncontrolled tire is a tire that goes across pit road. It’s uncontrolled as you have seen in years past. Certainly, a tire, sitting inside your pit box, stagnant, I’m not sure. We’re going to need more clarification and we will get that later.”

You think your team gets looked more often due because of the speeding penalties and the other penalties you have had?

“I’m not sure. We were up front. We were in the top five. Is it because maybe our pit stop was on TV? I’m not sure. We will get those answers shortly this afternoon.”

What happens when you get in the back of the field on a mile-and-a-half?

“It’s a challenge. Then we got damage and ruined the car. I was racing for 20th and got damage not too far after a restart and our day is over because we had a little bit of body damage. It was a cause and effect. We shouldn’t have been there in the first place. We should have been up front where we were supposed to start. It’s no one’s fault; I just think that it’s a really tight box that we are putting ourselves in as a sport to try to officiate something that’s not moving or not moving, arm’s length or elbow’s length or hand’s length, who knows. Sometimes there is just too much.”

Do you take it more personally because you have had a rash of crap happen to you on pit road?

“Not really. I don’t they single us out particularly. Sure. I think it affects me the most and I’m the most frustrated because I know we have a race-winning car. Every guy that was up front there finished in the top five. We passed them many times, just early in the race. You hate losing the opportunity to go win and when you get sent to the back, it’s over. It’s not like it used to be, that fast car can come through the pack, when you watch that person battle back to the front. There just ain’t enough laps in the day to get back there.”

Kyle Larson said out front, his car didn’t work well. As good as the racing has been this year, I don’t think I have ever heard that. Have you ever experienced that?
“That is something that I can understand because we had a little bit of it ourselves. When his car was out front, it appeared to be slow. When you are out front, you have all of the drag. His car was actually faster when it was behind someone and he was able to get a tow down the straightaway. Chicagoland, and if you look at all of the great races this package has put on, it has got to have a multiple line racetrack. You cannot have a one lane racetrack with this package. It just doesn’t work. You have to be able to run a different line in the corner to then be able to use the draft down the straightaway. You saw Pocono was a huge challenge; Indy will be a tremendous challenge for this package. But we have great racetracks for it too. I think the mile-and-a-halves have definitely been better this year. It’s just a matter of, can we move around to get out of that wake out of the corners so that we can make up the ground on the straightaways. I think for him, the reason he is saying his car is not good out front, is that it must have been too slow by itself. I think he qualified not very good, which means he probably had more drag and it was slower so he was struggling to hold off faster cars behind him.”

What do you like about your chances to sweep here?

“The reason it’s so hard is it’s not about a fast car. It’s not like you can hit on a setup at a race track and sweep both races. You see that a lot in a season. Whoever wins the first race at say Pocono, or Martinsville, or Richmond, they’ve won that race because they have hit on a setup and their car is fast. When they go back there, they use those notes and they are going to be fast again. At Daytona, it’s not setup driven. It is strategic that you really have to make yourself a great racecar driver here. It’s just putting yourself in the right position here at the right time and avoiding the wrecks. It’s hard enough to win one, let alone two because of all of the variables. It’s so hard to do. The odds are stacked so far against you. That’s why you don’t see it happen very often.”

Toyota Racing – Erik Jones
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Daytona International Speedway – July 4, 2019

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Erik Jones was made available to the media in Daytona:

Erik Jones, No. 20 Sport Clips Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Take us through the last lap of your win.

“Well, I remember that whole last sequence of restarts. The last one, the green-white-checkered, we were stuck side-by-side with Martin (Truex Jr.) on that first lap. Then coming around to take the white, I could see the top line forming behind me and I was hoping they would stick with me and I would get a big push. Going down the backstretch, Martin was trying to side draft hard and we got a really big push from behind from the 37 (Chris Buescher) and got clean of Martin there, and I knew at that point the only way we were going to lose it was a catastrophic failure so I was defending the last move that Martin could make and getting to the checkered. Coming out of four, I would say I knew it was pretty locked in. I remember everything about those last laps for sure.”

How was the celebration?

“It was good. I didn’t get home until three in the morning and I had to fly out and go out to Slinger the next day for a late model race, so I don’t know if we went to sleep. But we flew up there and practiced that day the late model, and finally got to celebrate that night. I had a lot of buddies that came over to Wisconsin from Michigan to come celebrate so that was a lot of fun.”

How does it feel to come back here as the defending winner?

“Coming back as the defending winner always feels good. For me, it gives you that extra little bump to keep being the defending winner and to come back and do it again.”

What are your thoughts on the race moving from July 4th?

“It’s kind of disappointing for me. Growing up, you always had the big July 4th race at Daytona and that is where everybody was. That is what you did on Saturday night, you watched the race at Daytona. It’s a little bit of a bummer. It’s a tradition and kind of some of the things in the sport that have stuck around, and this is one of those things and I’m sad to see it go. It’s a change of the times, but maybe we will make it back over here at some point.”

Lot of talk about manufacturer alliances here at Daytona and Talladega. Do you think that will happen again this weekend?

“I think so. We were talking about it just the other day as a group. We’ve got some strong racecars. Unfortunately, there is only five Toyotas out there and that doesn’t give us a lot to work with, especially with the other manufacturers having more. We will do all we can; I know we will have fast cars but it’s definitely going to be manufacturer driven with the other two linking up and sticking together. I think they saw what Toyota has done in the past, well before I was racing in Cup with working together and making sure they were in the place that they needed to be.”

Your teammate, Denny Hamlin, had what he thought was a questionable penalty on pit road. What are your thoughts on penalties like that?

“Yeah, I have got some odd penalties in my time in NASCAR. There are weird things that get called that you wouldn’t think would. It’s tough for me to say. I saw the video and I saw the call. I have seen some other uncontrolled tires that maybe didn’t get called. It’s a strike and ball call. You’re judging it a little bit from their eyes to make that call on what was an uncontrolled tire. I get it’s the rule and that’s what is in the rule book. Technically that was a penalty what they got called for. Was it a safety issue? Not really. So, I don’t know. There is probably more common-sense judgement that could be used there rather than black-and-white, this is the rule. We can call it either way, but if they are going to get into the judgment calls that makes it a whole other mess. I would rather have them stick to the black-and-white and make the call.”

How did the manufacturer alliances affect what you were able to do at Talladega?

“I felt like at Talladega we were trying to tag on with some of the other guys and tag on to their lines because they were so much bigger than ours. Just trying to make the most of what we had. Coming back here, the racing will be different here than what it was at Talladega. I think everybody has time to work on this package and optimize it. Daytona is a lot different track than Talladega. I don’t know. It will be definitely interesting to see. It’s definitely going to be a little tougher for some of the manufacturers to take advantage of the alliance with it being so narrow. There is not, sometimes, anywhere to go at Daytona. I think that plays into our hand a little bit. If we can get out front, we can command the race and get that line rolling around the top they Toyotas will be strong up there. I think this race plays better in our hand with having less cars. It’s easy to say now. I will tell you more about 10pm on Saturday night. Going into it, I would say we all feel a little better about it.”

Except for your crash, your worst finish at Kentucky is eighth. Talk about your success there.

“I remember the crash I had there. It was a dumb one. I still regret that one. Kentucky, I don’t know. It’s always been a place I have liked, even before the repave. I felt really comfortable on the old surface and enjoyed it. After the repave, I was thinking that I don’t know if that is going to still be good for me. It’s somewhere unique. One and two, I don’t think make a big difference. I’m focused on three and four. Making sure my car handled well and got through there well. That’s where I have focused and made a ton of passes and ran well at. I like the track. I just enjoy it. I like the layout. Just the way it drives fits my style from the start. A real flat turn three and four is always kind of been the sweet spot for me. I have always felt really comfortable.”

Coming in here the first driver outside of the playoff grid, have you and Chris Gayle (crew chief) talked about how you will attack the next nine races?

“I think for us our goal is 30 points a race. That’s about a seventh-place finish. If we can do that every week, we will easily point our way in without a win. We know we can win a race. We have a lot of good tracks coming up here. Kentucky is good to us, and a few more along the way, going back to Bristol. There are some tracks marked down that we feel like we can win at. If we can continue to crank out that 30 points a race, guys will make mistakes, and we will keep pointing our way up there. Really our year, we have missed out on so many stage points. It has killed us. There has been so races that we haven’t gotten enough stage points and it has really put us back further in the points than we want to be. Obviously, there has been some unfortunate circumstances, DNFs. Just some things that we could have done a little better and earned more points in some races. I would say the goal is 30 a race, and if we do that, we will be ok.

Has that season been more circumstances haven’t really shown that you guys are better than your finishes have been?
“Some of it has been our own fault. Phoenix, we had a loose wheel to start the race, blow a tire, get in the wall, ruins our day. Charlotte, we blow a right front; whether that is our fault or not, I don’t know. There is Bristol, loose wheel, go three laps down. There have been so many races where you take yourself out it. That’s what you can’t do in this sport and try to make the playoffs. We have had fast cars; Sonoma, we had another good car, but we had to start in the back. Chicago, we had an okay car, but we made a good day out of it. We’ve got good cars; we just need to have things go our way. We need to execute better on our end on all fronts. Make sure we are doing all we can to get the best finish that we can.”

Do you enjoy the superspeedway racing?

“It’s become something I have liked. Early in my career, it drove me crazy because I wasn’t very good at it. I didn’t understand it. I felt like I was always the victim. I was getting caught in wrecks. As much of it that is out of your control, it is also in your control. Just knowing better, situationally, becoming more aware on superspeedways on what situations you don’t want to be in. It helped me a lot. I learned more about the draft, how to position yourself, where you need to be at certain points of the race. Learning all those things have helped me enjoy it more. Learning more about it and having to figure out how to be better at it. I don’t think any driver likes things they aren’t good at. Eventually, I have really come to enjoy it. There are still things out of your control. You just have to take it as hey we are going to do all we can. This is a great opportunity for anyone in the field to win. You have to go into it with that mentality. At the end of the day, if you get taken out in a wreck that wasn’t your fault, it’s going to happen. I feel like I have learned a lot and got quite a bit better at it so it’s definitely something I have enjoyed more.

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Thursday, July 4, 2019
EVENT: Coke Zero Sugar 400, Daytona Beach, FL. (Media Availabilities)

COLE CUSTER, No. 00 Jacob Companies Ford Mustang – HOW DO YOU INSPIRED AND KEEP GOING AT THIS TIME OF YEAR WHEN IT REALLY BECOMES A GRIND? “Winning races. I think that’s pretty much the biggest thing. You’ve got to find a way to do your homework every single week and have a good idea of what you need when you show up at the race track and what you need to be doing, and then from there it just kind of takes car of itself. You have to have good people around you to also show up to the track strong, but it’s all about doing your job every week.”

AS HOT AS YOU’VE BEEN LATELY DO YOU FEEL YOU’RE THE FAVORITE FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP? “It’s hard to say. You can’t go off one race. I think the three of us – me, Christopher and Tyler – have been pretty much good everywhere, but I think hopefully throughout the year we can get better and better just because it being Mike’s first time working with me together at a lot of these tracks. This is the first time he’s worked with our chassis at a lot of these tracks, so hopefully it just keeps trending in the right direction.”

SO YOU FEEL GOOD ABOUT GOING BACK TO SOME OF THESE TRACKS FOR A SECOND TIME? “Yeah, we should definitely be better going back for a second time at these places. That should be our strong suit, I should hope. We’ve been strong at a lot of places it’s just a matter of keeping it going.”

DO YOU FEEL YOU’VE GOTTEN TO THE POINT WHERE IF YOU DON’T WIN EVERY RACE IT’S NOT BEEN A GOOD WEEKEND? “I don’t know if it’s not been a good weekend, but I think when we’re disappointed it’s because we didn’t compete for a win. I think if we’re not in the top five or top three competing, I don’t think we’re gonna be happy with our weekend, but I think we have the capability of going there and winning every track, but it’s just a matter of putting it together every single weekend.”

JOEY WAS VERY COMPLIMENTARY AFTER LAST WEEK. DID YOU HEAR MORE OF THAT FROM OTHER GUYS OR YOUR TEAM? “Yeah, I mean everybody has been supportive. We had a good race. I don’ t know what else to say.”

ANY MORE DISCUSSION ABOUT NEXT YEAR? “Obviously, people talk about it, but there’s nothing really to go off of. Right now we’re just trying to win races and that’s pretty much what we’ve got right now.”

DO YOU KNOW YOUR TIMEFRAME ON DECIDING ON ’20? “I have no idea, honestly.”

ONLY THREE FORDS IN THE FIELD TOMORROW. HOW WILL THAT AFFECT YOU? “Just be aggressive. I think that’s pretty much the name of the game at the speedways now is just being really aggressive. You’ve got to put yourself in jeopardy pretty much every lap and hopefully you don’t get wrecked. It’s just part of it and we’re gonna try to stay up front and be aggressive the whole race.”

DO YOU SEEK OUT YOUR OTHER FORD TEAMMATES IN ADVANCE AND TRY TO WORK WITH THEM THROUGHOUT? “I think at certain times, yes, especially when it gets single-file or when you can really work together. It gets tough when you’re in the pack because there is so much going on and so many different moving parts that it’s hard to stick together, but I think if by happenstance you get linked up together, you’re gonna try not to hang each other out.”

HAVE YOU NOTICED THE DRAFTING CHANGING AT ALL IN THE XFINITY SERIES? “Our package really hasn’t changed in the last three years, except for the tiny little nose change they made it’s been about the same. Our cars haven’t changed that much.”

WHAT ABOUT THE WAY THE DRIVERS ARE HANDLING THE CARS? ARE THEY DRAFTING MORE AGGRESSIVELY? “Not really. I mean, it’s been about the same. I think there’s a few more experienced guys in the race this time, but really it’s about the same as what it’s been.”

DO YOU THINK YOU’RE BETTER AT IT NOW? “Yeah, I think I’ve tried to get better at it and I’ve gotten better. It’s never been my strong suit, but it’s something I’ve tried to work at and hopefully I can put it together this time, but Daytona has never been a good place to me at all.”

HAS IT ALWAYS BEEN A STRUGGLE HERE? “I guess I’ve always struggled with it a little bit. It’s just hard putting yourself in jeopardy every single lap and being used to that and it’s just hard because you can do it on lap 10 and maybe you get wrecked and maybe you don’t, so it’s just tough getting used to that.”

SO DO YOU HAVE TO FORCE YOURSELF TO DO THINGS? “A little bit, I guess. It’s not the most comfortable thing to do, but I think it’s just part of the racing and you just have to be aggressive.”

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Thursday, July 4, 2019
EVENT: Coke Zero Sugar 400, Daytona Beach, FL. (Media Availabilities)

AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 22 Pirtek Ford Mustang – DO YOU SEE TEAMS WORKING TOGETHER ON THE XFINITY SIDE LIKE THE CUP SIDE? “I don’t think so much on the Xfinity side because I feel like a lot of different drivers priorities are in a lot of areas and careers are a lot more fluid down here in the Xfinity Series. But on the Ford side of things we have three really strong Fords and that’s it, so hopefully we’ll be able to work together when the time comes, but if we’re all lined up 1-2-3, that would be a really good day, but otherwise it will be pretty hard to find help from the manufacturer side of things, so we’ll work as hard as we can and make as many friends as we can and show off how fast your car is through the whole race.”

HAVE YOU FELT IN YOUR CAREER THE AGGRESSION LEVEL GOING UP AT THESE SUPERSPEEDWAYS? “Yeah, no doubt, and I feel like I’ve learned more about what I need to do throughout the pack to be able to position myself well. The last couple of speedway races I’ve felt really comfortable with what I’ve done and what my steps have been in my career to understand what’s gonna make this work at these type of race tracks because it is different than what we do every weekend and it is different than just generating speed with your hands and your feet, so trying to understand that and working with my spotter, Josh Williams. I really think my next step of that is understanding how to manage lanes running up front. That’s something I don’t have a lot of experience doing, so I’d love to be able to do that this weekend. I’ve got confidence that we’ll be able to do it if we’re put in that position, but definitely want to see us up there.”

YOU SAID THAT YOUR TEAM EXECUTED AS WELL AS EVER LAST WEEK. DO YOU FEEL YOU AND YOUR TEAM ARE IN A GOOD SPOT RIGHT NOW? “Yeah, I think so and it’s great because last week we had a great gauge with Joey. He’s one of the best right now and he’s been able to give us some really good feedback on our cars and maybe some of the things I’ve been doing or things we’ve been doing as a team or directions we need to improve on or stop working on, so it was really good to have him and have him sit down and debrief and learn from what he had to say and kind of help give us that direction. That 12 car runs a couple more times this year and really being able to understand what we want to do come Playoff time because I feel like this is an important part of the summer to really gain Playoff points. That’s something I’ve always said, I haven’t really had many Playoff points racing in the NASCAR Playoffs. When I was racing Trucks, yeah, I made it with one Playoff point, but it’s not easy and it’s hard to replicate something like that. Last year, you get wiped out in one race and your season is over, so you want to be able to have that kind of a buffer and this is the time of year you can continue to generate that, but once it comes Playoff time you have to be on your game.”

IS IT ALL ABOUT PLAYOFF POINTS NOW? YOU’RE FOURTH IN THE STANDINGS AND IN GOOD SHAPE IN TERMS OF MAKING IT. “Yeah, no doubt. Points-wise, we left the first Daytona finishing fifth and we were fifth in points. I think we’ve been one of the most consistent teams in the garage area and we come back here fourth in points. There are three guys that have generally dominated this season so far and then there’s us in fourth, so I feel like there are a couple of cars that are kind of in a similar position as me, trying to figure out what that next step is to jump in that lead group of guys. The next couple of months are gonna be really important for doing that.”

KENTUCKY IS UP NEXT. WILL THAT TRACK SPREAD OUT NOW AFTER THE REPAVE A COUPLE YEARS AGO? “It’s hard to say. It all depends on how the track ages over the winter. I think you’ve seen, I always use Kansas as my best example. When I started stock car racing, which was three or four years ago when I had my first ARCA race, Kansas was a repaved track and now we see Kansas with guys running at the wall, running every lane they can, rubber laying down really heavily, so I feel like you give these tracks time and they’ll wear in, they’ll move around and things will change. As drivers in our cars we’ll adapt. Texas, we had almost two usable lanes and that’s a relatively repaved track and then obviously that has to do with some of the traction compound stuff, but these things come with time and Kentucky is one of those places that I really like and one of those places where I think we can put it together. I’m hoping the track changes a little bit so we can be a little more dynamic with our passing, but I don’t think last year was too bad.”

MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
COKE ZERO SUGAR 400
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
JULY 4, 2019

ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 VALVOLINE PATRIOTIC CAMARO ZL1 met with media to discuss coming off of his first-career Cup series win, reflecting on the momentum to carry into the Playoffs, what to expect at Daytona this weekend, and more. Full Transcript:

YOU HAVE A NEW CAR IN YOUR DRIVEWAY, TALK ABOUT THAT. ALSO, THOUGHTS ON IT BEING THE LAST FOURTH OF JULY RACE HERE IN DAYTONA.
“On the new car, I got to drive a Camaro ZL1 at the Milford Proving Grounds last year. I’ve always been a Corvette guy, so I almost didn’t want to like it and I fell in love with it. I’ve been thinking about getting one and then I drove one at Spring Mountain a couple of weeks ago too. I said ‘If I win a race, I’m going to get one”. Yesterday, I had a little road-trip to Wilmington to get one and bring it back. That was a lot of fun. Thanks Mr. H for letting me take the helicopter to Wilmington to buy a car; that was pretty neat. It was definitely faster there than the 3 ½ hour drive back, but it was a lot of fun. I got to buy it from Jeff Gordon Chevrolet, so that was neat as well.”
“I don’t know, I guess it’s pretty interesting. I hadn’t really thought about it too much, but I feel like this place always puts on a show for the Fourth of July. Happy Fourth to everybody. I guess I’ll have put some thought into that one.”

TALK A LITTLE ABOUT HOW YOUR WEEK HAS BEEN SINCE THE WIN. DOES IT FEEL AS GOOD AS YOU THOUGHT IT WOULD?
“It’s probably been a little different than I thought it would be. It was just a really short week and a lot of obligations that come along with it. But it’s been a lot of fun. It was fun to get home Sunday night and share it with my friends. The whole race team stopped by on their way home from the airport, so that was really cool. It’s just been a lot of fun. I feel like it’s a big relief and now I just want to go win a bunch more. You always have that question in the back of your head: “What if I never win a Cup race?” You start thinking about all the drivers that have driven for Hendrick Motorsports that haven’t won a Cup race in their career. I don’t know if anyone has ever done that, but it feels really good to have that off my back. Now we can focus on just winning more.”

DID YOU HEAR FROM ANYONE THAT YOU DIDN’T EXPECT TO?
“Obviously, the messages on Twitter from a lot of really cool people. That was really neat. Nobody really surprising. I went through 400 text messages and tried to respond to everybody, so that took a lot of time. It was just really neat to see everybody’s support and I’m super appreciative of that.”

GIVEN YOUR SUCCESS AT CHICAGOLAND, DO YOU ANTICIPATE SIMILAR SUCCESS AT OTHER INTERMEDIATE TRACKS? WHEN WE GOT TO KENTUCKY NEXT WEEK, DO YOU EXPECT TO BE IN THE MIX AS WELL?
“Yeah, I think our intermediate program has been really strong for the last couple of months. Kansas we were really good, so Chicago was one we kind of circled. Kentucky is so different and it’s a fresh repave, so I think we will be really strong there. I don’t know if we circled it as much as we did at a place like Chicago or Kansas, but I’m looking forward to it. I think we can win each and every week. I think we can win this week. Any week we go to a race track right now, I feel like our cars are really capable of winning.”

INAUDIBLE
“Yeah, but I felt like that before that too. We went to a lot of different styles of race tracks and ran really well. Michigan and Pocono should have been top-five finishes. We had a bad last restart at Michigan and a part failure at Pocono. We’ve been fast everywhere I feel like and we just need to keep capitalizing on it. I need to go win a bunch more races at this rate if they are going to keep making me buy cars all the time (laughs).”

IN THE MEDIA CENTER LAST WEEK, YOU SAID THAT YOUR CAREER HADN’T BEEN WHAT YOU HAD HOPED IT HAD BEEN AS A KID. WHAT DID 10-YEAR-OLD ALEX BOWMAN THINK WOULD BE THE CAREER RIGHT NOW FOR 26-YEAR-OLD ALEX BOWMAN?
“10-year-old me would have thought it would be super easy the whole way and I was going to win all the time. There wouldn’t be any struggles and there wouldn’t be any low points. I think looking back at it all, I’ll take my way over that just because I feel like I appreciate it a lot more. I had to work a lot harder to get to this point and those low points and struggles make it all worth it so much more. 10-year-old me would have thought it would be easy and I would break every record there is and I’m better than everybody. But reality kind of sets in a little bit shortly after that.”

WAS THE CUP SERIES WHERE YOU WANTED TO BE?
“Yeah, for sure. As a kid, I thought Formula 1 was super cool all the time. Then, I went road racing once and realized that it probably wasn’t my end goal there. I would say Cup was the end goal, but making a living driving a racecar was kind of always my goal as a kid. I always like sprint car and midget racing as well, so I kind of would have taken anything. Anything I was driving I always thought winning would be super easy.”

YOU HAD ALSO SAID LAST WEEK THAT BY WINNING A CUP RACE, YOU KIND OF FEEL LIKE YOU BELONG. HAD THAT BEEN STICKING WITH YOU MAYBE MORE THAN YOU LED ON OVER THE YEARS?
“I don’t think it bothered me that much, it was just a lot of motivation. Just having people say all the time that you can’t do it and you haven’t done it was a good way to motivate me. I think it’s really easy to say that you aren’t supposed to read those articles or you aren’t supposed to think about it or let it bother you, but I’m probably not as good as that as I should be. I see that stuff all the time and just use it as motivation.

YOU HAD SAID THAT DURING THE STRING OF SECOND-PLACE FINISHES, THE BIGGEST THING FOR THE TEAM WAS TO STAY CONSISTENT AND NOT GO BACK TO RUNNING OUTSIDE THE TOP-TEN. EVEN BEFORE YOU GOT THE WIN, DID YOU FEEL LIKE THE TEAM HAS BEEN CONSISTENT ENOUGH?
“Yeah, for sure. You look at Talladega on for us, we’ve been really strong everywhere. Charlotte, I knocked the wall down and still finished seventh. Pocono, we lost fourth gear and still finished 15th. Sonoma, we lost power-steering and still finished in the top-15. So, those were really our worst weeks. Other than that, we’ve been really solid everywhere. It’s been a lot of fun to just be able to be a little more consistent than we’ve been and have really fast racecars each and every week. To go to Sonoma and have speed throughout practice and drive it off the track twice in qualifying and still make the final round, to me that’s crazy. I’ve always struggled making speed at road courses, so our cars are just so fast right now and it’s a blast to be driving them.”

AS YOU MAY INSPIRE OTHER DRIVERS, WHO INSPIRED YOU IN THOSE TOUGH TIMES?
“It was really cool to see the message from Landon (Cassill). Him and I raced each other a lot in the back half of the garage over the years. He’s obviously super good and does a lot with a little. You look at guys like Ross Chastain that have kind of had a similar career path. I feel like the back half of the garage doesn’t get the credit they deserve sometimes. Those cars are pretty difficult to drive sometimes, way more difficult than mine are now. To come from that to a ride at Hendrick Motorsports has been really cool. The most recent person I think of that has had a similar career path would be a guy like Brad Keselowski. I don’t know that through the struggles I really looked up to another driver. I kind of fell into some situations that helped pull me out of the super low points. I don’t really know how they happened or Dale (Earnhardt Jr.) said ‘Hey, we should all Alex Bowman to drive the car’. I don’t know why some of those things happened, but up until then, there were some really low points and I would just keep digging and keep making a living driving a race car. I don’t really have a Plan B to fall back on, so I didn’t really have a choice.”

WITH THE PLAYOFFS ON THE HORIZON, HOW FAR DO YOU THINK THE 88 TEAM CAN GO? DO YOU THINK YOU CAN GET TO HOMESTEAD?
“I think it’s very possible. I think each and every week, we show up and we can win. We have great partners making that possible, with Axalta, Nationwide, Valvoline this week, LLumar. We want to get them as far into the Playoffs that we can and try to go to Homestead. There are a lot of tracks that are good for us right now and I feel like we can get there.”

MOST OF THE TIME WHEN ONE DRIVER PASSES ANOTHER LATE IN THE RACE, LIKE KYLE LARSON DID TO YOU, PEOPLE KNOW HOW THAT IS GOING TO COME OUT. WHAT TOLD YOU SITTING IN THE SEAT OF THE CAR THAT TOLD YOU THAT YOU COULD GET BACK BY HIM AND WIN THE RACE?
“I just didn’t want to run second anymore, so I was going to crash the thing or win. It was as simple as that. I got a little more aggressive with how I was running during the lap that I was behind him and I was able to create a big run off of turn 4. He left both of my options open into turn 1 and I decided to go to the bottom. I was just able to get to him and drag him back down the straightaway. The top is so far along in 3 and 4 that when you have someone underneath you, there’s not really anything you can do to defend that. I was surprised as everybody else that we made that happen, but I’m glad it all worked out. I’ve still had to think about how it happened like that and I can’t figure it out. But I’ll take it.”

I’VE BEEN INTERIVEWING PEOPLE IN VICTORY LANE FOR OVER 20 YEARS AND I DON’T EVER REMEMBER A CREW CHIEF EVER SAYING TO ME ‘THIS IS SO AND SO’S TEAM’. WHILE I’M SURE PEOPLE TALK ABOUT THAT BEHIND THE SCENES, IT WAS A VERY PUBLIC STATEMENT. DOES THAT MAKE YOU STRONGER EVEN THOUGH YOU’VE PROBABLY HAD THOSE CONVERSATIONS? WHAT DOES THAT MEAN TO YOU?
“I think a lot of that comes from a little bit of the struggle I had to try to say that it’s my race car or our race car, however you want to look at that. Vegas might have been the first media availability that I hadn’t had the question ‘What’s it like to replace Dale Earnhardt Jr.’. It’s obviously really hard to come into an iconic car like this after somebody like Dale Jr. drove it. I would imagine Chase (Elliott) went through the same thing with big name guys coming before you. That was tough, just to try to be a leader. I’m not a natural leader either; I don’t think Greg (Ives) or myself are. I think that’s something we both struggle with and something we have both tried to help each other out with over the last year and a half. Lately, I feel like we’ve been doing a good job of it. I think it’s kind of a growing process with trying to figure out how to be leaders. We are both kind of a little bit awkward and shy in different situations. We have some really big personalities on our team and it’s easy for us to be quite and kind of let other people be more leaders than we are. We’ve both been working really hard at it and it seems to be paying off lately.”

ARE WE GOING TO SEE WHAT WE SAW AT TALLADEGA SATURDAY NIGHT, WHEN IT COMES TO THE MANUFACTURER AWARD SO TO SPEAK WITH CHEVY’S STRENGTH IN NUMBERS?
“Yeah, I think so. I think everyone watched it at Talladega, so now you are going to have elevated levels of it from our three camps. Each camp is probably going to replicate what we were able to do with the Chevrolet’s and have their own twist on it. It’s going to be really interesting. It’s tough to do, we’re really glad it worked out in Talladega and glad we were able to get one of our cars a win. That’s kind of the point we are at with speedway racing. There is a big strength in numbers and you want all those numbers to be on the same agenda.”
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.

TEAM CHEVY ADVANCE
COKE ZERO SUGAR 400
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
DAYTONA BEACH, FL
JULY 6, 2019

BOWTIE BULLETS:
BOWMAN AND TEAM CHEVY EXCEL:
In registering his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory in 134 races on June 30 at Chicagoland Speedway, Alex Bowman secured a spot in the playoffs. Bowman, driving the No. 88 Axalta Camaro ZL1, led five Team Chevy drivers finishing in the top 10. Six Chevrolet drivers are in the top 14 in the standings as the series enters Round 18 of 26 in the regular season. Kurt Busch, driver of the No. 1 Global Poker Camaro ZL1, has been the most consistent of the Team Chevy contingent with nine top-10 finishes. He’s eighth in the standings.

CHEVROLET IS TOPS AMONG SEASON POLES:
Chevrolet leads all manufacturers with 10 pole starts through 17 races. Austin Dillon, No. 3 Camaro ZL1, who earned the pole at Chicagoland Speedway, is tied with William Byron, No. 24 Axalta Patriotic Camaro ZL1, and Kevin Harvick for the season lead with three.

AND IN DAYTONA POLES:
A Chevrolet driver has sat on the pole at Daytona International Speedway 49 times, including the past five races. Chevrolet has earned the pole position for the Daytona 500 the past seven years, including this past February by William Byron. Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Batteries Camaro ZL1, is first among active drivers with three MENCS pole starts at the 2.5-mile track. On Feb. 21, 2016, Elliott became the youngest pole winner at the track (20 years, 2 months, 24 days). He was also the July 2018 race pole winner.

SIXTY YEARS SEEMS LIKE YESTERDAY:
Bob Welborn, driving a Chevrolet, won the first MENCS race at Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 20, 1959 (100-mile qualifying race to start on pole for inaugural Daytona 500). Chevrolet or GM brands Oldsmobile and Pontiac won the first 17 races at the track. Winning drivers in that span also includes Fireball Roberts (six wins) and three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Johnny Rutherford in 1963. In all, Chevrolet drivers have won 46 of the 144 MENCS races (24 in Daytona 500 and 22 in July race). Oldsmobile, Pontiac and Buick have added 23 wins.

TUNE-IN:
NBC will telecast the Coke Zero Sugar 400 live at 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday, July 6. NBCSports Gold will stream the race and live coverage can also be found on MRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

BY THE NUMBERS:
* Victories by current Team Chevy drivers at Daytona International Speedway:
Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1, has three wins (February 2006, February and July 2013), which is the most among active drivers.
Austin Dillon, No. 3 Camaro ZL1, has one win (February 2018)
Kurt Busch, No. 1 Global Poker Camaro ZL1, has one win (February 2017).
* Kurt Busch is the leader among active drivers with 13 top-five and 17 top-10 finishes in 36 starts at the track.
* Career Chevrolet driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. was the last winner from the pole on July 5, 2015.
* Chevrolet has won 39 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Manufacturer Championships.
* Team Chevy drivers have scored 781 wins and 709 poles in MENCS competition.

Chevrolet will be pacing the field at Daytona International Speedway, with a Camaro SS leading the NASCAR Xfinity Series in the Circle K Firecracker 250 Powered by Coca-Cola and a Silverado RST leading the NASCAR Monster Energy Series in the Coke Zero Sugar 400.

FOR THE FANS:
·       Fans can visit the Team Chevy Racing Display in the Fan Midway at Daytona International Speedway
·       Fans can check out an assortment of Chevrolet vehicles including: Blazer RS, Silverado TrailBoss, Traverse Premier, Equinox Premier, Camaro ZL1 Coupe, Colorado Bison W/Sports Bar, 2020 Silverado 2500 HD
·       At the Chevrolet Display, fans can also view the No. 42 Credit One Bank Camaro ZL1 Showcar
·       Other activities at the Team Chevy Racing Display include a variety of interactive games for adults and kids

TEAM CHEVY QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSIONS AT THE DISPLAY:
Friday, July 5th
·       1:35 p.m. – Joe Graf
·       2:00 p.m. – Justin Haley
·       2:15 p.m. – JD Motorsports
·       5:00 p.m. – Tyler Reddick

Saturday, July 6th
·       3:15 p.m. – Alex Bowman
·       3:45 p.m. – Daniel Hemric
·       4:00 p.m. – Austin Dillon
·       4:15 p.m. – William Byron
·       4:30 p.m. – Jimmie Johnson
·       4:55 p.m. – Chase Elliott

Chevrolet Display Hours of Operation:
·       Friday, July 5th – 11:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.
·       Saturday, July 6th – 11:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m.

QUOTABLE QUOTES:
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA BATTERIES CAMARO ZL1 – 7th IN STANDINGS
“I love the summer Daytona race. You can almost enjoy that one a little more – it’s not the 500 and it’s not all the madness that comes with that first race of the season. It’s nice to be able to go back to Daytona, which is a cool area. I love going to the beach that time of year and just being able to go down there and race, it feels more like a normal race weekend. Always a lot of fireworks under the lights there it seems.”

ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 VALVOLINE PATRIOTIC CAMARO ZL1 – 9th IN STANDINGS
“I’m still pretty speechless. I was able to go home and enjoy it even more with my friends and team and we won the race! I am just so thankful for Hendrick Motorsports, Axalta, Nationwide, LLumar, Valvoline and Chevrolet for believing in me. They stuck behind this team and it means so much. I am extremely thankful for this opportunity with this No. 88 team and Greg Ives. Greg is a great crew chief and I am so happy to get my first win with him.”

“Going to Daytona this weekend, we have a little bit of a monkey off our back. I was one who definitely kept track of the point standings and now we can go out and focus on stage points and race wins. Being locked into the playoffs is an amazing feeling. Our goal is to get to Miami and be in the running for a championship.
This team brought an amazing car to Talladega earlier this year and I know that these guys were back in the shop this weekend putting together a great car for this weekend. The superspeedway program at Hendrick Motorsports has always been good and the teams all work together pretty well on track. I think we have a shot at the win this weekend too, which is a great feeling.”

WILLIAM BRYON, NO. 24 AXALTA PATRIOTIC CAMARO ZL1 – 12th IN STANDINGS
“I’m excited to get to Daytona this weekend. We obviously started off the season there with a lot of speed by getting the pole for the Daytona 500, and we really had a good race going until the last couple laps. As a team we’ve gotten stronger since then, on and off the track, and I think that can only help us. The thing with Daytona though is you can’t really prepare for it; it’s about making sure you’re still there in the end. The hope is to collect as many points as possible in the first two stages to help balance out what may happen in the end, but even then, it’s easy to lose a ton as well. Hopefully though we can get the result that I think our team deserves. I honestly feel like we should be contending for the win at the end.”

CHRIS BUESCHER, NO. 37 SCOTT COMFORT PLUS CAMARO ZL1 – 22nd IN STANDINGS
“Superspeedway racing and I have not had the best relationship this season. At both the Daytona 500 and the race at Talladega, we got caught in two big ones that ended our days early, and I’m really hoping to not be involved again this weekend at Daytona International Speedway. However, Daytona is a place that’s been good to me in the past. This season, I really think we’ve been able to step up our program at every track, and we’ve seen improved qualifying positions at the superspeedways. Obviously, Ryan (Preece) has had really great success at both of those tracks this season. We just need to be in the right place at the right time with our Scott Comfort Plus Camaro ZL1 and I know we can make a move for the win.”

TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO MILITARY CAMARO ZL1 – 23rd IN STANDINGS
“Our team has been putting so much time and effort into not just making our cars faster, but also making them handle well. I think sometimes people underestimate the need for that at a superspeedway. Myself, my crew chief and my spotter have also been building up our patience at superspeedways. It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement and your adrenaline early in the race and make a mistake or get caught up in someone else’s. We try really hard to focus on the bigger picture, which is making it to the end. It’s all about feeling the energy of the pack and knowing when to go and when not to go. It’s not an easy game to play, but we’ve gotten pretty good at it. Our GEICO Military team has finished sixth in our last two races there. So I know that we’re all looking forward to heading back and breaking our sixth-place finish streak. We’re looking for a top-five finish this week.”

DANIEL HEMRIC, NO. 8 CESSNA CAMARO ZL1 – 24th IN STANDINGS
THIS IS GOING TO BE THE FIRST TIME RACING THIS PACKAGE AT DAYTONA. WHAT DO YOU EXPECT?
“I think some of what we saw at Talladega, we’ll see again. I think you’ll see a lot more of the teams and their manufacturers working closer together, especially with Chevrolet. The handling is going to be so much bigger and so much more critical. You need to have handling at Talladega, but nowhere near what you have to have at Daytona.”

YOU RUN PRETTY GOOD AT DAYTONA. DO YOU LOOK AT IT AS YOUR CHANCE TO GET A WIN?
“I definitely think the opportunity is greater. I think what we did at Talladega and Speedway racing in general has never really been a huge strong suit for me, so it’s good to kind of get my feet on the ground.”

RYAN PREECE, NO. 47 KROGER CAMARO ZL1 – 26th IN STANDINGS
“Daytona International Speedway is definitely a track I have circled on my list for the season. Running my first Daytona 500 and finishing eighth was a moment in my racing career that I’ll never forget. The superspeedway races seem like a reset for me, because anything can happen at any point during the race. I know we’ve got the speed in our Kroger Camaro ZL1 to get to the front and finish out at the checkered line, and I’m looking forward to doing that on Saturday night in Daytona.”

Chevrolet Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Statistics

Manufacturers Championships
Total (1949 – 2018): 39
First title for Chevrolet: 1958
Highest number of consecutive titles: 13 (2003-2015)

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

Drivers Championships
Total (1949 – 2018): 31
First Chevrolet champion: Buck Baker (1957)
Highest number of consecutive titles: 7 (2005 – ’11)

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

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

2019 STATISTICS:
Wins: 2
Poles: 10
Laps Led: 1144
Top-five finishes: 20
Top-10 finishes: 53
CHEVROLET IN NASCAR CUMULATIVE STATISTICS:
Total Chevrolet race wins: 781 (1949 – to date)
Poles Won to Date: 709
Laps Led to Date: 233,399
Top-Five Finishes to Date: 3,989
Top-10 Finishes to Date: 8,225

Total NASCAR Cup wins by Corporation, 1949 – To-Date

GM: 1,114
Chevrolet: 781
Pontiac: 155
Oldsmobile: 115
Buick: 65

Ford: 782
Ford: 682
Mercury: 96
Lincoln: 4

Chrysler: 466
Dodge: 217
Plymouth: 190
Chrysler: 59

Toyota: 132

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.