Category: NASCAR Cup PR

Toyota Racing – Denny Hamlin
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Charlotte Motor Speedway – May 25, 2019

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

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

How do you feel about your chances tomorrow with Toyota’s success in the Coca-Cola 600 over the past few years?

“It should be pretty good. I felt pretty good with our practice there. It was one of our better practices of the year. We’re going to have to start from deep in the field, which is going to be a challenge with traffic, but we’ve got a long race to get it done. Pretty happy with where we’re at.”

With this being the last Happy Hour over the next few weeks now that you’re qualifying in between the Xfinity Series qualifying session and Xfinity Series race, will how your team approaches the weekend change?

“It’ll change it for the crew chiefs. More than anything it’ll change things for them. For us, we’re either in qualifying mode or race-trim mode and once we’re in that, we’re doing the best we can – the conditions don’t get any different than what we’re running here right now to what we’re going to be ending the race in in the 600. If we can adapt to that, we can adapt to any schedule.”

When you have the car impounded following single-car qualifying, do you give up on qualifying trim and focus on race trim?

“Yeah, absolutely. We don’t do anything – with impound races, we’re going to do everything we can to make our race cars as fast as we can. That’s going to pay a price for qualifying certainly. It will be the same for everyone though, so you’re going to try to do your best to have that balance of a car that can have low drag, but a lot of downforce and that’s going to be the key.”

Has there been an adjustment going to single-car qualifying after group qualifying for several years?

“Not really. I was part of both during the course of my career, so it’s been a really easy transition. Not much to it.”

What do you think about the prospect of a potential NASCAR/IndyCar doubleheader ?

“I think it’d be great. I mean I think that sometimes our fans are not the same and so it would be an opportunity to introduce each other. I’ve never been to an IndyCar race before, so it would be an opportunity for me to kind of see it up close and personal and I wouldn’t mind wandering around the garages and seeing how they do things.”

What’s stood out to you about your Toyota teammate Christopher Bell in the Xfinity Series?

“Just his ability to adapt to different cars is the biggest thing that I’ve noticed. When I got to race with him in Xfinity two years ago in his debut here at Charlotte, I thought he did a great job of getting better throughout the race. Obviously he’s winning races over there with that program and qualifying on a lot of poles, things like that. He’s got raw speed and it looks like he’s gotten better and better I think over the last year managing races and getting there at the end and then winning. Even when he doesn’t have the best car, which I thought at Dover he didn’t have the best car, but he was able to win because he’s smart and took his time.”

Is Christopher Bell ready for the Cup Series?

“Yeah, absolutely. I think any person that’s accomplishing what he is at this level – we’ve seen even with like Chase Elliott spending that extra time in Xfinity, it really does pay off and so I don’t think that it’s a wasted year by any means. I think he would probably tell you at the end of this year that he’s probably glad he had one more year in Xfinity to learn a little bit more because when he gets to Cup, you want to be ready to be a contender right away.”

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Thursday, May 23, 2019
EVENT: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Media Availabilities

RICKY STENHOUSE JR., No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang – THE LAST OF YEARS WE’VE BEEN ASKING YOU ABOUT HOW ROUSH IS GOING TO GET BETTER. DO YOU START TO GET IMPATIENT AFTER A WHILE? “Oh, I’ve been over it. Yeah. You always want it to be quicker. I think there are times that we’ve had really, really good runs and there are times that we’ve had quite the opposite, and I think that’s the frustrating part is when you go to one race track and you’re really good, and then you go back to another race track and can’t seem to find that same speed. I think we’re getting better at that, for sure. You always want it to be overnight, but when all the other cars and teams are trying to do the same thing and continue their path of progression, it makes that task difficult. I know it’s tough, but it’s nice to have runs like Kansas and being able to pass for the lead under green and not just restart up there and take the lead, so I think that gave everybody at our place a little bit of confidence that we’ve got a car that’s capable of doing that, we just have to put all the parts and pieces together to do that every week. Another thing that I took from that weekend is we were not very good on Friday and we changed everything in the car and made the same chassis, the same body car with different components underneath and made it fast for racing on Saturday, so that gave me a little bit more confidence that we are building the right things, we just have to make sure we put it all together every weekend.”

DOES IT FEEL LIKE YOU’VE GONE THROUGH AND DONE EVERYTHING YOU CAN? “Yeah, I’m no engineer, but I do know that our guys at Roush Fenway work so hard and at some points you’re like, ‘Man, are we working on the right things?’ Because it’s not for the lack of effort put in. I mean, everybody is working really, really hard. We even have a segment of our debriefs on Monday to kind of go over and let at least us drivers know because that was one thing I wanted to know was, ‘Hey, what are we working on?’ So we have a whole section of our meetings that let us drivers know exactly what they’re working on and I think that’s been really beneficial to let us talk about the importance of some of those things that we’re working on and then also just to know that, ‘Hey, we’re working on it.’ Like I said, it’s not from a lack of effort. I think we have a lot more speed in our cars this year than what we’ve had, and that’s kind of the frustrating part is that on those days that we don’t have the speed or the weekends that we don’t have the speed it’s frustrating when you don’t have it. So we just have to get more consistent because we have speed in our cars and we haven’t had speed on the mile-and-a-halves in a long time and this year those are by far our better race tracks, so that’s been neat to see and we’ve had some issues. Heck, I ran into the back of the 18 on lap two at Bristol and I felt like that was the best car we had at Bristol in practice and I ruined that for us, and then you get caught in a wreck at Talladega and then we blew a right-front at Dover. We had three weeks in a row there that were pretty demoralizing, but we bounced back at Kansas and we kind of stepped on our feet at the All-Star Race, but so far this weekend I think we’ve brought a better car than what we had at the All-Star.”

HOW DO YOU AND NEWMAN PUSH YOURSELVES AND YOUR TEAMS TO GET BETTER? “I think the biggest thing with Newman, for me, is he doesn’t make a lot of mistakes. I feel like he always gets good finishes out of his cars even if they’re not good and that’s something that I’ve always kind of struggled with. I’ve always tried to take a 15th-place car and make it an eighth-place car, and sometimes you just have to sit back and make small adjustments, keep your track position and get the best finish out of it that you can, and that’s something that I feel like I’m starting to learn from Ryan when it comes to actual driving things, but in team meetings and things like that with his schooling and background that he has I feel like he helps bridge that gap between him and I and our engineers and what we’re working on, so it’s been a really good start to the year as far as teammates go, and I kind of knew that going in – that I felt it was going to be beneficial, but I had never really worked with him before as far as teammates go, so our relationship outside of the car is really good.”

HOW HAS THE SPONSORSHIP LANDSCAPE CHANGED IN DIRT RACING? “I think we’re attracting, I feel like, more and more partners with better brand awareness. I think Kasey (Kahne) and Tony (Stewart) have always kind of had that, but then I think you look across the board and a lot of teams are doing really well at bringing in those partners. Dirt racing is growing like crazy I think all across the board, not just sprint car racing. I think social media has a lot to do with that. I do think that being able to watch it online, I can watch my car every single night and for somebody like Nos Energy Drink that’s huge. So many people watch that can’t get to the races every weekend and the crowds are growing. We’re getting standing room only at just about every race track you go to, and all of those things help – no different than Cup racing. It’s still difficult. You still don’t cover your whole budget, but it’s definitely going in the right direction.”

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE SOMEONE MAKING THEIR FIRST COKE 600 START? “Don’t do what I did. My first Cup start was in the 600. I hit the wall on lap nine. We qualified ninth, hit the wall I think two more times after that and ended up the way everything worked out we ended up finishing 11th. We had a really fast car, but you’ve just got to be patient. I think this race I’ve been good during the day and struggled at night, and then I’ve had cars where you kind of stayed the same throughout the whole night. I do think that with this package you’re gonna have a lot of comers and goers when the temperature changes, the sun goes down. I think we saw a little bit of that in the All-Star Race. I felt like my car during the day in practice was driving really good and had OK speed, but once it cooled off everybody else’s car started driving better and the ones with more speed prevailed, so we struggled when the sun went down, and so we brought a different package here, a little bit versus the ideas that we had going into the All-Star Race, so, to me, don’t flip out too early.”

DOES THIS RACE GET EASIER FOR YOU OVER THE YEARS? “It wasn’t hard to begin with. I mean, it’s just more laps and running. I put a ton of training in anyway, but even when I didn’t put a ton of training in I felt prepared. Hydration is key. That’s one thing, and I feel like everybody in the garage is a lot smarter than they used to be when it comes to hydration. That’s the key.”

DO YOU GET INVOLVED WITH WHAT YOU WANT GOODYEAR TO DO WITH TIRES? DO YOU MEET WITH THEM? “I don’t. I know some teams do. I think we’ve voiced opinions and I feel like they might not listen. They do what they feel like they need to do to cover themselves from having too many blown tires and things like that, so I can’t really blame them for that. To me, when we were going the low downforce package I wish we would have got less downforce and even softer tires, so that we had tire fall off and really good at direction. We’ve obviously steered totally away from that and now that our corner speeds are so high you have to have a tire that’s hard enough to withstand that, so I’m actually surprised we haven’t had many tire issues this year, so I feel like Goodyear definitely did a good job building a durable tire. It’s hard. We’d still like it to lose grip and lose speed throughout the run, but I know that’s difficult to do.”

MATT TIFFT, No. 36 Surface Sunscreen/Tunity Ford Mustang – WHAT WAS THE GOODYEAR MEETING LIKE? “I thought it was good. It was constructive. I think it was a chance for some of the veteran drivers in there to really just voice what they’ve experienced over the years. This is such a new package for everybody that we’re all trying to make the racing as good as we can, so a big component of that is the four things that touch the ground. I thought it was good. It was just trying to give direction to how we get the best tire to give the most amount of fall off and create the most amount of passing for those races.”

WHAT WOULD YOU SAY ABOUT THE TIRE? “I think that a lot of it was covered in the meeting of different ideas. There’s no one way to do it. You’ve got two very different packages with the 550 horsepower package and the 750 package. Here, we’re not always using the limit of the tire, so maybe getting a bit more grip in to try to be able to overcome some of the aero issues that you are going to face, but that being said I think we see our best races have been the last few weeks during these night time, cool races, so just making sure we can keep that going in the daytime, hot and slick races, too.”

DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING? “I think it was more of just a good open conversation to learn what Goodyear’s goals are and what the drivers want to see. Ultimately, we’re all in this boat together.”

THEY’VE DONE THAT BEFORE. “That was my first experience with it, so being a rookie I’m just kind of being a part of it.”

DID YOU SPEAK? “Not on any particular issue, but it’s just definitely cool to see the different opinions, but I think we all have the same thing in mind that we want to be able to create moments where we can have more passing. That’s what the fans want to see, it’s what the metrics show is that when we have a good race it’s because there’s a lot of passing. So how do you make sure you have that every single week because, otherwise, you get single-file and it’s boring, and nobody wants that.”

ARE YOU PLEASED WITH HOW THINGS ARE GOING THIS YEAR? “I think there’s definitely room for improvement on myself and the team side. Front Row as a whole, we’ve been together most of the time, whether it’s on the same straightaway or our practice speeds today we were all three lumped together and I think we’d like to see our speed pick up a little bit and be better week to week. That being said, we’ve had a couple good runs. The last points race at Kansas we were 21st and that’s a good weekend for us, but, overall, we’ve just got to be better at consistency and closing our gap to our Roush alliance partners in there. That’s where we’ve got to close that gap in there. I feel like I’ve learned a lot over the first portion of the season, but at the same time Front Row as a whole has been learning a lot. We know we’re behind the eight ball of where we should be right now.”

HOW DO YOU MENTALLY COMBAT YOUR SITUATION NOW IN TERMS OF EXPECTATIONS? “It’s a totally different deal. You have to be realistic about who you’re racing and what the performance level of the team is and you just try to push that ceiling each week to see where you can get it, but you know you’re gonna be racing guys. We’re around the 43 a lot. We’re gonna be racing against him. The 13, we kind of use those guys as benchmarks – the JTG cars – so you can kind of use that as a benchmark and I think they’ve been slightly better than us this year and that’s where we need to be able to get to. On our good days we’re able to run with some of the third or fourth cars of Hendrick or RCR or whatever, but you certainly want to be there a little bit more consistently and I feel like we’ve just been a little bit off of even the JTG and the Richard Petty car with Bubba there a little bit too much. I feel like the goal for us is to be able to close that gap and run with the 13 and guys like that, that have been established in the low twenties.”

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED ABOUT YOURSELF AS A DRIVER IN THIS TRANSITION TO CUP? “I think it’s actually been the most fun part for me because we actually have data over here, so you’re actually learning what you’re doing off of SMT and going back and looking at MoTech files and your green flag pit stops and rolling times and all that kind of stuff. You can create yourself to be a much better driver through the Cup process, so I think sitting here today at the end of May I’d say I’m a much better driver than I was at the end of my XFINITY season last year just because between Ford Performance’s access that they give us in the simulator and the things we do within our team, you become a better driver and then with that, for me, I’ve been able to close the gap to where I’ve been able to come up closer to where Michael and David are. Of course, they’re veterans and they have more experience, but I feel like I’ve been able to close that gap some and now our competition meetings are all three of us kind of working together of how we need to get our cars better because I’ve been able to work on myself to get to a closer level of where they were with their experience.”

HOW HAVE YOU WORKED ON YOURSELF TO RUN 600 MILES ON SUNDAY FOR THE FIRST TIME? “I work out a lot with Blake Koch, so he’s been a trainer of mine for the last year, and it’s definitely been a question of, ‘OK, how do you get ready for this?’ And I think a lot of the planning has just been asking other drivers what they do and what they do for hydration schedules. They say to start hydrating a day earlier than what you normally would, especially with how hot it is, but the thing I keep hearing is people are wanting a snack during the middle of this race, so I’ll try to figure out a protein bar or something like that in the middle of the race to keep you going because it is so long, but the one good thing about it is that as the night goes it does get cooler, so you just have to fight through those first 300 miles and then get that little break, that little snack or whatever and kind of reset. The hard part for us is you have to be so good in the daytime to have a race at the end. If you’re too many laps down at that point, you don’t have a shot and you’re just kind of riding. You just want to make sure you’re not in that boat and you can take off how you need to performance-wise.”

YOU’VE HAD A COUPLE OF 500 MILE RACES SO FAR THIS YEAR, BUT IS THERE ANY WAY TO EXPECT WHAT THIS ADDITIONAL 100 MILES WILL FEEL LIKE? “You just have to kind of go one stage at a time, really. That’s been the biggest thing, for me — learning the whole Cup deal from the beginning of the year. In XFINITY you’re like, ‘OK, when is halfway?’ Because you know you have to go at that point. Over here everybody is so aggressive, and you have to play the lap game for where we are, that you’ve got to make sure you’re on the lead lap or just one lap down at the end of that second stage becomes such a huge deal. If you’re one lap down at the end of stage two, more than likely you’re gonna get a top 25 finish, so you just kind of play that game. But I think the same thing applies here. You just have to be able to go as hard as you can at the beginning of those stages and those restarts are so important that you focus on that and the good thing is once you’re kind of done with the job you have to do there, then you’re on the next segment of the race and you do it again. So that’s the easiest thing is just trying to focus on the short term of where you’re at. We haven’t had too much tire fall off this year, so you haven’t really had to manage that on the big tracks. On the short tracks you have, but for a place like here you’ll have to be pretty aggressive and go as much as you can.”

DOES 600 MILES FEEL DAUNTING WITHOUT EVER HAVING DONE IT BEFORE? “It sounds it. I know a couple of years ago I was in the XFINITY race the day before and I think I went out to dinner and did some patio furniture shopping and did some other things and the race was still going on, so it’s a different deal and it is daunting. Shoot, 600 miles is a long time, but at the same time you just try not to get wrapped up too much into that. It’s just like the first 500 miler for the Daytona 500 that I did. You go and you go and you don’t stop until they tell you to. I think the most difficult one for me was Bristol, just because of the pace and the 500 laps there, but it’s still 400 laps around Charlotte Motor Speedwway and that’s no joke either.”

Paul Menard and the No. 21 Menards/Knauf Insulation Mustang are set to start Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway from the 17th starting position.

Menard earned that spot Thursday evening with a lap at 181.830 miles per hour in a one-driver-at-a-time qualifying session.

That significantly bettered his best lap of 180.246 mph in pre-qualifying practice.
Menard said in a post-qualifying media session that he’d already begun focusing on the Coca-Cola 600.

“The race on Sunday is going be a lot different than qualifying on Thursday night,” he said, adding that his qualifying speed will give him a decent pit selection for Sunday.

And he said the length of the race – 100 miles longer than the next-longest race on the schedule – offers more chances to tune on the Menard/Knauf Mustang.

“Six hundred miles is a long time to dial in a car,” he said. “You start in the day and end at night, so hopefully we’ll get it dialed in for the night time.”

With Charlotte Motor Speedway idle on Friday, Menard and his No. 21 team will get their next chance to tune on their Mustang on Saturday morning, when two 50-minute practice sessions are scheduled.

The Coca-Cola 600 will follow on Sunday evening with the green flag flying just after 6 p.m. FOX will carry the TV broadcast.

Menards

A family owned company started in 1958, Menards is headquartered in Eau Claire, WI. Menards has more than 300 retail stores located throughout the Midwest in the states of IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, MI, MN, MO, NE, ND, OH, SD, WI and WY. Menards is known throughout the home improvement industry as the low price leader. It’s famous slogan “Save Big Money at Menards” is widely known and easy to remember. For more information, visit Menards.com, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest.

Wood Brothers Racing

Wood Brothers Racing was formed in 1950 in Stuart, Va., by Hall of Famer Glen Wood. Wood Brothers Racing is the oldest active team and one of the winningest teams in NASCAR history. Since its founding, the team won 99 races (including at least one race in every decade for the last seven decades) and 120 poles in NASCAR’s top-tier series. Fielding only Ford products for its entire history, the Wood Brothers own the longest association of any motorsports team with a single manufacturer. Glen’s brother, Leonard, is known for inventing the modern pit stop. The team currently runs the Ford Mustang driven by Paul Menard in the famous No. 21 racer.

MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
COCA-COLA 600
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
MAY 23, 2019

WILLIAM BYRON PUTS CAMARO ZL1 ON THE POLE AT CHARLOTTE

CONCORD, NC (May 23, 2019) – Behind the wheel of his No. 24 Liberty Patriot Camaro ZL1 at 21 years of age, William Byron became the youngest driver ever to capture the pole for the 60TH Annual Coca-Cola 600 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The Charlotte native turned a lap of 182.424 mph/29.440 seconds to lead the field to the green on Sunday in NASCAR’s longest race.

This marked the second pole in 49 MENCS races for Byron, who also sat on the pole for the Daytona 500. It was the sixth pole for Chevrolet in 2019.

Austin Dillon was fourth quick in his No. 3 Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Camaro ZL1 was fourth quick to give Team Chevy two of the top four qualifiers.

Aric Almirola (Ford) qualified second, Kyle Busch (Toyota) was third, and Kevin Harvick (Ford) qualified fifth to round out the top 5.

FOX will telecast the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway live at 6 p.m. ET Sunday, May 26. Live coverage can also be found on PRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY PATRIOT CAMARO ZL1 PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT:

YOU ARE THE YOUNGEST EVER POLE WINNER AT CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY. EARLIER TODAY YOU MENTIONED THIS IS YOUR CROWN JEWEL RACE AND YOU WANT TO WIN THIS MORE THAN ANYTHING. WHAT DOES STARTING FIRST MEAN TO YOU?
“It means a lot. Obviously to win the pole here is a good first step to the weekend, but it means a lot just being here and sitting in this room before racing here when you think what it’s like to go around the big track, let alone win something at it. So, it’s been a good couple of weeks. Hopefully it just continues and we can keep that momentum going, which is definitely on our side. I’m excited for it and that number 1 pit stall will pay huge dividends later in the race, for sure.”

YOU USED TO WATCH THIS RACE EVERY YEAR AS A KID. BUT THIS TIME, YOU’LL BE LEADING THE FIELD. HOW DO YOU TEMPER THOSE EMOTIONS?
“Yeah, it’s really cool. Obviously, I’ve had one race here other than this one and it didn’t go so great last year. I really had that thought in my head going into this week is to just make it better than what last year was because that was miserable. I think that I honestly learned from that and the mistakes I made. I’ll take that and use it as momentum or motivation going into this year. And, it helps when the guys bring a really fast car and that just makes your job easier. I think it’s going to be added motivation going into the weekend.”

IN LOOKING AT THE GHOST CAR, IT LOOKED LIKE YOU GOT OFF OF TURN 2 BETTER THAN ABOUT ANYBODY ELSE. WAS THAT THE KEY FOR YOU?
“I didn’t really look at that. But, the question was how much were you going to have to breath it through (Turns) 3 and 4 and manage some of the bumps and handling characteristics. I was just committed to what I was going to do and went out there and luckily it stuck. At some of these tracks we’ve been easy wide-open. I can’t speak for everyone. But it was definitely a lot tougher to be closer to the mat today. It’s good. It think we’ve got the handling and the speed in the car in the right balance and that’s what paid off for us. We were able to have a really smooth lap and the car had speed. So, that was good.”

WHEN YOU HEAR THAT YOU ARE THE YOUNGEST TO ACHIEVE SOMETHING, IS THAT A NEW FEELING FOR YOU?
“Somebody was asking me that a bit ago. I don’t really like having the youngest term attached to me because I’ve always been the young guy and I just want to be part of the conversation as a normal person, no matter what age I am. So, I don’t really look at myself as younger than other guys, just as what I’m doing and how I’m doing it compared to them or everybody out there. But yeah, it’s cool. But I really just look at myself as a race car driver.”

TALK ABOUT SOME ADVICE CHAD KNAUS MAY HAVE SHARED WITH YOU ABOUT RUNNING A 600-MILE RACE
“We had a really good conversation today about a 600-mile race. Just the balance characteristics and the changes the track goes through, but the cool thing about him is that there are certain tracks where he really lights up and likes to talk about and Dover is one of those and really Charlotte is the other one where he has that knowledge and background. It’s really cool to listen to him about what he’s got to say about this place. He’s got a good idea of what we need to do to be successful here. Hopefully we can get the balance right on Saturday and have a really good Sunday.”

HAVE YOU LET YOURSELF THINK ABOUT WHAT IT MIGHT MEAN TO WIN THIS RACE IN THE NO. 24 CHEVROLET (FORMERLY DRIVEN BY JEFF GORDON) ON SUNDAY?
“I think you take it one step at a time. There are a lot of things we’ve got to do right to get to that point. But, I think the speed has been really good and the execution of our race last weekend was nearly flawless from a team’s perspective and then from my perspective. So, I think we’re getting there, for sure. We’re close.”
Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.

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

Toyota Racing – Kyle Busch
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Charlotte Motor Speedway – May 23, 2019

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

Kyle Busch, No. 18 M&M’s Red, White and Blue Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Talk about your hopes of repeating and becoming a back-to-back Coca-Cola 600 champion.

“That would certainly be the goal and all of our aspirations here for this weekend. We’ve certainly unloaded pretty close and felt like we had a fast Camry in practice. I really like the Red, White and Blue M&M’s Toyota, so hopefully we can qualify up front here tonight and get a good starting spot for Sunday night.”

Last week Denny Hamlin said we don’t need a 600-mile race. Do you think we need a 600-mile race like the Coca-Cola 600?

“I believe I was asked the same question last week as well too. In my opinion I think there is tradition. I think Denny (Hamlin) thinks otherwise. To me, I just remember being a kid growing up watching the 600 miler on TV. It certainly meant a little bit more years ago. The farther back you went, I think it meant even more because it was kind of man versus machine. Would the machine make it? Would the man make it through the 600-mile endurances race? These days the cars are essentially almost bullet proof and so are some of us drivers – just kidding. I think it’s just today’s society is just different than what it used to be. If that means that a shorter race will be a better race, then I’m all for it. I’ve also been on the flip side of that where I go run some short track races across the country and they used to be a 100 lappers and now they’re 200 lappers or they used to be 200 lappers and now they’re 300 lappers because they think longer is better. It depends on who you talk to and what side of the bed they woke up on.”

Brad Keselowski said Hendrick Motorsports is the team to beat right now. Where would you rank Joe Gibbs Racing compared to other teams?

“He (Brad Keselowski) said Hendrick (Motorsports)? I think Hendrick has certainly found some speed. They’re certainly getting better. They’re waking up. They’ve come to play a bit more lately. As far as the (Team) Penske group goes, they don’t really qualify well but they always race well. Then you look at the SHR (Stewart-Haas Racing) cars and they qualify well and they’ll race well typically. It seems like the SHR cars are trimmed out a little bit more than some of the rest of us. They get more speed out of their cars but maybe they don’t have it for the long haul. Where it seems like the JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) cars are kind of a compromise. We might not qualify on the pole or be the best in qualifying, but we’ll also race well. I wouldn’t call it middle of the road, but I feel like we’re in a position to win each week. We put ourselves in position to win each week and just due to certain circumstances for us in the 18 car, we’ve kind of eliminated ourselves a couple times this year. That’s certainly been frustrating, but we’ll keep fighting.”

In 2018 the 10 fastest cars in each race earned top-10 finishes in those races 70 percent of the time. This year, that rate has increased to 90 percent. Have you noticed a heightened dependency on pure speed and if so, has that changed your team’s focus in planning for a race?

“Can you send me those stats? I need those for my Monday meeting. I don’t know how much that has to do with track position and being up front. I feel like this year when you are the leader or you’re running in the top three, the air is so much different there that if you can maintain that position then you can hold that spot for pretty much the entire run. In years past, you could have a better opportunity to kind of pass some guys. If you were 16th or 18th or whatever and you’d kind of work your way up to the front and get into the top 10 and then you could maintain the top 10. You could still continue to drive up through the field. I don’t know how all of that is exactly formulated and relative to competition, but certainly when you have a faster car and you can keep it up front, your statistics are better. It’s always nice to have fast cars. Kevin Harvick says it the best – you can’t drive a slow car fast.”

In your mind, why has Joe Gibbs been so successful?

“Joe Gibbs has been successful his entire life. There certainly are some stories through his books and things that he’s written with Game Plan for Life that you learn a lot about them and you learn about some of his sacrifices and some of the poor decisions that he made and where he’s been able to change his life and change the direction of it through his early years. When you look at him as an NFL football coach and the success and the things that he did there – he hired a lot of great people and he also hired a lot of good players and things like that, but he was the brain child behind all of that. He’s got to take some credit there. I think the same can be said for him and his racing and his race team as well. He hires good drivers, he hires good crew chiefs, he keeps good people and the veteran people. The better the people that are there and the better they are, they continue to move up the ladder and stay with the company for a long time. I’ve been there now 10-12 years, whatever it’s been and a lot of the same faces are there from when I got there that are still there today. They’ve been there for 20-25 years. We have our team Christmas dinners every single year and we give out 20-year awards, 25-year awards and there’s a lot of people that have been there for that long. It’s pretty special that he’s been able to have that allure or the camaraderie and the chemistry within the organization to keep people there forever and to treat people well that they want to stay. That comes all from the top.”

What advice do you have for drivers making their first Coca-Cola 600?

“It’s a long-ass race. Don’t even focus on – you want to work on your car handling a little bit, but you can’t necessarily focus on your car handling for the first 300 miles and then you can kind of start to pay attention through it at mile marker 400 to 500 and then 500 on is where it all comes to play. That’s when business picks up. That’s when you need to be in position in order to put yourself in position for a final pit stop or the final couple of pit stops that’ll gain you track position and get you up in the position that you need to be in. If you’re running mid-pack through the beginning part of the race, there’s really nothing to worry about. You just try to stay on the lead lap. If you do go a lap down, you just try to stay one lap down because there may be an opportunity for you to get a wave-around or something with the stage breaks and stuff like that. You can’t get impatient and try to overdo it.”

How do you go from different vehicles in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series?

“You just have to know the difference between the three vehicles. For me, I feel like I do it not enough as much anymore as I used to, but I still kind of understand the different vehicle dynamics that they have between each other – the aero dynamics that they have between each other and the different driving techniques that they have. I kind of formulate a plan when I go from truck to car to car or whatever it might be that the driving techniques on this one that I can use the same on this one but modify it a little bit and then do it over here is kind of the same thing. A lot of guys think that when they go from Truck, Xfinity, Cup that they can drive all of them the same – same lift points, braking points, all that sort of stuff at all of these race tracks. That’s not true. If you’re at a braking point with a truck, you might be able to use the same one with the Xfinity car, but you’re going to have to be different with a Cup car. Or it could be the same with the Cup car and the truck, it just all depends so you’ve got to formulate all that in your brain and figure it all out and I have enough experience doing that where I feel like I can do it.”

How will this package perform at Pocono with a long straightaway and flat corners?

“I’m not sure exactly. It all depends. It depends on how the weather is up there on what happens and how the race plays out, how good the race will be – if it’s cloudy or sunny or whatever, what the track looks like now a year removed since we’ve been there. I think restarts are obviously going to be interesting. You go down the front straightaway and everybody fans out, but some guys push. You know pushing is a big deal now because of how much drag the cars have. When you can put two engines together essentially on one car, that’s what’s happening when you’re pushing because the air over the first car doesn’t have time to go down and hit the rear spoiler. It keeps going straight across both roofs and only hits one rear spoiler. That’s why it’s faster to push. Guys will be doing a heck of a lot more of that. Bump draft is going to be important down the straightaways and stuff coming out of Turn 1, going down into Turn 2. Once it kind of single files out a little bit, I’m not sure we’ll see a whole lot different. As a matter of fact, I’m going to be pessimistic here, it might actually be a tick worse because the wake, the aero wake that you have from the car in front of you to behind you – I’m thinking Turn 2 right now is going to be a disaster. When you’re trying to close on somebody and you’re making ground up on them in the middle of the corner and then your car lifts and takes off and goes to the wall and knocks the wall down – there’s nothing you can do to protect that as a driver. That’s what is so frustrating. That’s what happened to me with (Kyle) Larson last week. Like I had speed on him through the middle of the corner and he washed up a little bit in front of me and my car just found his wake and took off and went to the fence. There’s nothing you can do. People are like well, you just drove into the fence and I’m like yeah, that’s what I meant to do. I drove it in the fence. Exactly. Like no, the air took me into the fence, but whatever. It’s a challenge. It’s way bigger now than what it was.”

Is there an art to side drafting to put your competition in the wake so it puts them at a disadvantage?

“When you’re side-by-side with somebody you’re always trying to side draft them and slow them down and get yourself in the right position for when you’re going down a straightaway to getting into the next corner, things like that. There’s an art to it. There’s a science to it. I guess that’s probably all I need to share.”

How will it change to take the shifting element out of Pocono with the gear change?

“I have no idea. Shifting at Pocono has always kind of been – when we went from shifting to not shifting it didn’t do anything. It didn’t save anybody any money. It didn’t do anything. All it did was reduce gear temps. In my opinion I think it’s better if you’re able to shift. You can have an opportunity to have different gearing and stuff like that for the betterment of you and different than somebody else that you’re racing around. It might actually help you be able to make moves or passes or whatever but in all retrospect it’s probably not much different.”

MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
COCA-COLA 600
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES AND QUOTES
MAY 23, 2019

TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st William Byron, Liberty Patriotic Camaro ZL1
4th Austin Dillon, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Camaro ZL1
10th Daniel Hemric, Cessna Camaro ZL1
11th Kurt Busch, GEARWRENCH Camaro ZL1
12th Chase Elliott, NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1

TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st William Byron (Chevrolet)
2nd Aric Almirola (Ford)
3rd Kyle Busch (Toyota)
4th Austin Dillon (Chevrolet)
5th Kevin Harvick (Ford)

FOX will telecast the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway live at 6 p.m. ET Sunday, May 26. Live coverage can also be found on PRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES:

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 COCA-COLA ZERO SUGAR CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 4th
“I think there’s always an advantage to running a lot of laps. I’ve definitely got to do a good job of keeping myself cool and keeping myself hydrated. So, I’ve got a lot on my plate as far as that goes. But, I’m always happy to learn more and get out on the track and see what I can learn as far as experience goes.

“I missed it a little bit out there in qualifying. In general, we all missed it a little bit; our team. We were just too loose because the temperature dropped so much that it got me turning a little too good. I never lifted through (Turns) 1 and 2 and then in (Turn) 3, I thought I gained a little time. But most of my speed came from the line. And (Turns) 1 and 2 were a little too free.”

ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 NATIONWIDE PATRIOTIC CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 13th
HOW DID YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR QUALIFYING RUN?
“It was wide open. We were a little free through three and four, but we were just wide open.”

WITH A STRING OF THREE-STRAIGHT RUNNER-UP FINISHES, WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO YOU WIN YOUR FIRST CAREER VICTORY AT THE COCA-COLA 600?
“It would be really cool. I’ll take the win any week I can get it at this point. The Coca-Cola 600 is a special race. Any cup race would be good, I’m not picky.”

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE TRACK IN GENERAL? I KNOW THEY’VE MADE A FEW ALTERATIONS TO IT PRIOR TO THIS PAST WEEKEND.
“I think this place does a good job of widening the track out. This place is fun. It’s one of the few places that you can naturally run the top. It’s one of my favorite racetracks and I’m happy to be here.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY PATRIOTIC CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 15th
DOES THE QUALIFYING RUN MATTER IN A RACE THAT’S THIS LONG?
“Not really, but we would have liked to be better of course. There are three of our Hendrick cars right there with us. The 24 had an incredible lap, so we’ll try to dig in and see just how committed they were to qualifying. I think we were a bit more in a race-scenario the way it looks at my quick glance, but we just have to stick together as a group. The fact that three of our cars were there and so close in speed is a great starting spot for all of us. We had a couple of cars that ran good in the All-Star Race and a couple that didn’t, mine was one that didn’t. To piggy-back on what those guys had going on is the goal for us this weekend and we’ll see how that translates to the race.”

WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO YOU TO NOT ONLY BREAK THE WINNING STREAK FIRST, BUT TIE THE 600 WIN RECORD THIS WEEKEND?
“It’s such a special track. I have early memories before I was even racing of coming here to watch this race. Hendrick Motorsports is so nearby; family and friends are always here. There are just so many reasons that make this race special. I’m honored to have all of the trophies I do and I’d love to get up there and tie Darrell (Waltrip).”

BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 COCA-COLA ORANGE VANILLA CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 29th
“It was okay. No speed. So that’s a little discouraging. But it’s qualifying.”

WHAT DO EXPECT GOING INTO THE RACE ON SUNDAY?
‘Qualifying is qualifying. We obviously want to get something out of it but I don’t know why we didn’t post a faster time. We slowed down, actually, from earlier today. We’ll figure that out. But, Saturday is when it really matters to get our car out in practice. It’s a long race. The slower we are, the more downforce there is. That’s what we’re kind of banking on. That would be nice.”
Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.

About Chevrolet
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Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Thursday, May 23, 2019
EVENT: Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying

Ford Qualifying Results:
2nd – Aric Almirola
5th – Kevin Harvick
6th – Daniel Suarez
7th – Joey Logano
8th – Clint Bowyer
9th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
17th – Paul Menard
18th – Ryan Newman
19th – Ryan Blaney
21st – Brad Keselowski
23rd – Michael McDowell
26th – Matt Tifft
30th – Corey LaJoie
31st – David Ragan

ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang – “We got off a little bit and just kind of aborted on all the changes we made and went back to how we started practice, where we felt the most confident about what we had for qualifying. I’m proud of all the guys on this Stars and Stripes Smithfield paint scheme on our Ford Mustang. It looks awesome and I’d really like to bring the field to the green with it. Hopefully it holds up for the pole, but if not I’m really proud of the effort and that should be a good starting spot for us.” DID YOU GET EVERYTHING YOU COULD OUT OF IT? “I got everything I could out of it. If somebody else gets in there maybe they might be able to do something different, but I felt like I got everything I could out of it. Surprisingly, it was a handful to drive so I’m proud of that lap.”

DANIEL SUAREZ, No. 41 Coca-Cola Ford Mustang – “It wasn’t easy, but I’m really proud of my guys because I felt like the car was good enough to maybe go a little bit quicker than that and maybe we’d be P1 right now. I don’t know. It’s very hard to adapt in one lap only, but the car has been fast and just trying to make the car drive a little bit more comfortable, but I’m proud of my guys. The 41 Coca-Cola Ford Mustang is looking amazing out there and I’m looking forward to the race.”

PAUL MENARD, No. 21 Menards/Knauf Ford Mustang – “The race on Sunday is gonna be a lot different than qualifying on Thursday night, so we’ll wind up somewhere around the top 15. That’s decent track position to get a good pit selection and 600 miles is a long time to dial in a car. You start in the day and end at night, so hopefully we’ll get it dialed in for the night time.”

KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang – “We’ve definitely found the speed and, in my opinion, you have to have speed and you have to able to lead laps to consistently win races. We still are fine-tuning where we need to be on the handling of our cars because we’re still going to a lot of these places for the first time and knowing what you can and can’t do, and I think you can’t do a lot of the things you did in Kansas here today for sure, compared to what you could do there. So we’re still learning where the limits are, but our guys are doing a good job. Today we were horrible in practice with all the things we tried and just kind of went off of what we did last week for qualifying and wound up being OK.”

ARE YOU SURPRISED SHR DOES NOT HAVE A WIN YET? “Nothing surprises me in this sport. I think we’ve been in this position before as a group and not having won a race. You just never know how a year is going to go. We’ve run well, really, for all of the conditions and scrambling and all the things we’ve had to do. We’ve run well, but the last couple weeks we’ve led laps and, to me, that’s more important than anything in getting into victory lane.”

WHAT WOULD YOU TELL YOURSELF IF YOU WERE MAKING YOUR FIRST START IN THE 600 THAT YOU NOW KNOW FROM EXPERIENCE? “The car matters. My cars are a lot faster today than they were the first several 600s. This place used to be my least favorite and it’s definitely become one of our better race tracks.”

CLINT BOWYER, No. 14 Peak Antifreeze & Coolant Ford Mustang – “We are among the fastest cars, that’s for sure. I don’t know why, but it seems like the track is a lot different than it was last week even. It’s so close. I mean, I think it’s so tight. Anytime the cars are like this, where they’re close to wide-open, you know the lap times are gonna be close and they were.”

Toyota Racing Post-Qualifying Report
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Charlotte Motor Speedway – May 23, 2019

TOYOTA STARTING POSITIONS
1st, William Byron*
2nd, Aric Almirola*
3rd, KYLE BUSCH
4th, Austin Dillon*
5th, Kevin Harvick*
14th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
16th, ERIK JONES
20th, DENNY HAMLIN
27th, MATT DIBENEDETTO
34th, PARKER KLIGERMAN
40th, JOEY GASE
*non-Toyota driver

TOYOTA QUOTES

MARTIN TRUEX JR, No. 19 Bass Pro Shops / Tracker / USO Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Qualifying Position: 14th

We were talking about the fine balance between the grip of the race track going early and what it’s going to get when it gets later and how much speed cars will pick up because of that.

“I think everybody is going to be wide open. I just had the tires sliding just enough through (Turn) 3 – through the middle of (Turns) 3 and 4 that you know you’re scrubbing speed. Drawing that early is going to hurt us for sure. I thought we had a good car in practice. It’s been a good day. I’m happy with what the team did and how things are going. We’ll just have to see where we end up and go from there.”

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang – CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THIS WEEKEND AND SALUTING THE MILITARY? “Honestly, this is some of my favorite times of the year to be able to do that, especially when you come here for the Coca-Cola 600 and what this weekend really means. It’s a good reminder for us because I think a lot of times we think of Memorial Day Weekend and if you’re in this industry sometimes you think of three really big races that are happening this weekend, but, for me, I think it’s a good reminder and Charlotte does a great job, the speedway here does a great job, at reminding all of us how we get to do that safely. The only reason we get to do that safely is because of our men and women in the military fighting for our freedom. In the past, or now, that is the reason why we are here sitting here today and we should all feel blessed and lucky to be here living in this great country. Whether you like our leadership or not I don’t think it matters, I really believe it’s all about us being united together and we’re pretty strong when we can do that. This is a great weekend for all of us to remember that and have the opportunity to shake the military members families and all of them and say thank you – shake their hands and, to me, I almost wish this happened two or three times a year because I feel like sometimes as a country we need to do this more often.”

TAKE US INTO YOUR EXPERIENCE TO VOTE FOR THE HALL OF FAME YESTERDAY? “It was really neat. I felt a little out of place, to be honest with you. There were some legends in that room and some real Hall of Famers that have been around for a long time. I really enjoyed that part and listening to everybody’s reasoning. Everyone has the opportunity to stand up and say why they think a particular person belongs in the Hall of Fame and everyone has different reasonings why and you kind of have that discussion between everybody. It’s very formal. It’s not like you just say something. You raise your hand, get a microphone and talk about what you want to say about them and things like that. That was really interesting to hear everybody’s perspective because there were a few members on the ballot that I knew, that I raced against or knew personally, but there were also a few that I never met and I never had the chance to watch racing and things like that. For me, that perspective was important for me when I was filling out who my votes were going to be. I’d say pretty much all but one made it into the Hall of Fame that I voted for, so that’s pretty cool. I was impressed by all that. I thought it was neat, just the whole discussion was fun and afterwards everyone just kind of hangs out. I talked to Richard Petty for 15 minutes and anytime you get to do that it’s just a cool feeling. I’m still a race fan at heart, so I kind of took a moment to enjoy it.”

DOES NASCAR NEED A 600-MILE RACE? “This is a special race. The Coca-Cola 600 has been around for a very long time. Yeah, you keep it. That’s what makes it so special. It makes it unique. It makes it different. Does every other race have to be 500 miles? Probably not. Maybe certain ones, the iconic ones need to be. This is an iconic race. It’s 600 miles. That’s what makes it special. That’s what makes it a crown jewel event. Yeah, you keep the 600 miles. That’s a no-brainer. I get mad when someone asks me that question. It’s a no-brainer. I’m not mad at you, I know other people are asking, but I’m just saying that is the heritage of this event and you can’t change that.”

WHAT ATTRACTS YOU TO DOING RADIO AND TV BROADCASTING? “For me I enjoy doing it. I think it’s a lot of fun and it’s kind of my way to give back to the sport. We talked about this as far as Hall of Famers yesterday in there. My only comments that I had was I felt like the definition of a Hall of Famer is somebody who gives more than they take and if you have the opportunity to give back to your sport and try to make your sport bigger, instead of just being a race car driver and driving in circles, taking your check and driving home and never doing anything else, that, to me, doesn’t define somebody that belongs in the Hall of Fame. I think everyone agreed with that there. I’m not saying I’m a Hall of Famer at all in any way, don’t take that the wrong way, but I feel like those are the things that I’m supposed to do – to try to gain more interest into our sport than what there already is and that’s one of the few ways that I’ve found to do things and it’s good for the brand of NASCAR, it’s good for Joey Logano’s brand. It’s a good way to get my personality out there and who I am because a lot of times everyone’s perspective or who they think I am personally when you see an interview when I first get out of the car is a lot different than when you have a moment to relax and you’re talking and you’re not wearing a race suit and you’re wearing your jeans and you’re having a good time, then all of a sudden it’s a different person. It’s like that for every driver, too, so it gives you a good opportunity to show that side of you as well.”

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE CHALLENGES? “I used to get nervous about it because I didn’t want to say the wrong thing and then I realized just be you. It’s way easier and a lot of fun. I just kind of lose a little bit of a filter and just be who I am, which is great. I think that’s a fun part about it. There are some challenges on Saturday when we’re on TV, probably the hardest piece for me is when you’re talking and you have someone in your ear and you’re trying to listen while you’re trying to put a thought out and they’re counting you down to how much time you actually have to get what you’re saying out, and you kind of start rambling because you’re trying to listen but you forgot what you’re saying and it becomes a disaster (laughing). That’s probably my hardest thing to get through sometimes, but I will honestly say being an analyst is maybe one of the easier parts for me because I do it so I really know what I’m looking at, so to be able to just talk about what I see is simple. It’s the TV stuff that makes it hard, just the way everyone is supposed to work together and some of our TV partners how they can bring it back from commercial and send it back and do that so smooth. That’s really where the true professionals can do that really good.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THIS PACKAGE AT POCONO NEXT WEEK? “That’s the longest straightaway in NASCAR. That’s what I know. Every time I go there that’s what they say, so you have a long time to draft down the front straightaway and really down the Long Pond straightaway you have a long time for the cars to suck up to each other before you get into the corner, so I don’t really know what to expect. I expect restarts to be nuts. The amount of time, it’s always nuts as it is because you have so long from the start-finish line to turn one, where now you kind of have more time. It’s the same distance but you’re going slower, so you have more time for all those moves to be played out as you get into turn one before everything kind of funnels in and we have to funnel in as much because we won’t be going as fast. Maybe we can hold it wide-open through turn one, probably you can’t if you’re towards the front, but not towards the back. That momentum piece of how you get off the corner, if you have a little mistake off of turn three or off of turn one they’re gonna be passing you like you’re sitting still and your hands are gonna be tied. There’s nothing you can do at that point, so making the right decisions about what is best at the end of the straightaway and not necessarily off of the corner is what we have to think about. It’s gonna evolve throughout the race and that’s what has been happening all year. Sometimes the lanes that work the first few runs of the race on restarts changes after the second restart or third restart, where everybody has now seen it and now you have to evolve and try something different. It’s gonna be the same thing when we get to Pocono, but maybe even more extreme.”

DID YOU HAVE ANY THOUGHTS ABOUT ONE DAY YOU MIGHT BE A MEMBER OF THE HALL OF FAME? “I didn’t because I guess I feel like I’m still in this sport and I haven’t achieved everything I want to achieve. I want to keep that rolling. I don’t know. In quite a few years from now I would hope that I can get what I think is Hall of Fame material. I’m getting closer inch-by-inch, but the good thing is I have a long ways to go in my career, I’m pretty young, so I have quite a few years to reach what I want to do, but, like I said, it was an honor to be in the room and just be around those people and see how the decision-making goes because it’s interesting what people think Hall of Fame means and it’s different for each person, whether you believe the Premier level means a lot or somebody that’s won a ton of short-track races racing a late model or a modified and what that is. It’s interesting to hear everybody’s perspective on what defines a Hall of Famer and that was fun for me to see that and we all have a different take, and I’m sure everyone in here has a different take on it, but it was fun to listen to.”

HOW LONG IS THE FRONT STRETCH AT POCONO? “I don’t have time. He must be really good because I don’t have time to do any of that in there. You might be going down the straightaway, but you’re still racing. There are cars around you. You’re getting a run on the car in front of you, you’re thinking about how you’re gonna get through the corner, maybe you’re side-by-side and you’re side-drafting, maybe there’s a car behind you if you’re side-drafting is gonna go three-wide, maybe even four-wide. There is a lot of racing down the straightaways these days with this 550 package. There is a lot going on all the time to where you really don’t get a moment to chill. There’s no moment for that. It’s like Daytona and Talladega, you’re constantly in the mirror looking around trying to figure out how do you position yourself best to get through the next corner ahead of the car that’s behind you or in front of you. I feel like mentally these days are maybe more straining than ever working or trying to pass cars. Physically, it might not be as much because you have more time down the straightaway where you’re not working and sawing on the wheel, but mentally you have to be more engaged, I think, than ever.”

WHAT QUALITIES MADE JOE GIBBS A NASCAR HALL OF FAMER? “I think when you think about the qualities of Joe Gibbs where do you start? There’s a lot. There’s a reason he’s a champion in multiple sports. There’s a reason why he’s now in the Hall of Fame of multiple sports. That doesn’t happen often. I think there’s only one other person who is in two different Halls of Fame in two different sports and that’s an amazing accomplishment to be able to do that, but his leadership is probably what that all stems from. That’s what he is, he’s a leader. He’s a great coach in football and he’s been a great coach in NASCAR and putting together a great team. It’s all about people when it comes to this level and he’s done a great job at finding great talent, putting them together and then he sees success because of it. Obviously, they have the parts and the pieces to go along with that, but we can all buy parts and pieces – someone has to run the machine and that’s the part that’s the most challenging sometimes to figure out, so his leadership, his faith, what he does for our sport outside of owning a race team, I think those are the biggest things to where he, in my opinion, was a shoe-in. I’d be surprised if he wasn’t on everybody’s voting sheet at that point. We didn’t have to talk much about him. We just kind of all said, ‘Yeah, he’s in.’ What else is there to say?”

DID BEING INVOLVED YESTERDAY MAKE YOU WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS SPORT? “I feel like I try to learn as much as I can already. I really like learning about it. What I probably enjoy the most is just hanging out around some of our retired racers of any sort or track promoters from back then or whoever and just hearing their stories because that’s as much fun as anything. I think our TV partners do a great job of putting some specials out every now and again that they air usually during rain delays (laughing). That’s usually the best time to watch some of those and those are a lot of fun to watch and hear their stories, but when you hear them first-hand that’s a very special opportunity not many race fans get to experience – when you hear some of the stories they went though when they were racing. Those are the most fun moments for me in those situations.”

WILL THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF RACING WITH THIS PACKAGE CONTINUE? “Did you watch Kansas? It’s the same thing. That’s what this rules package has kind of promoted is that we’re so close to each other and to be able to clear someone or to really put yourself in the position you need to sometimes you’ve got to make those aggressive moves, whether it’s an aggressive block, maybe you’re pushing someone by, maybe you find yourself four-wide like the did down the frontstretch. I didn’t think that was possible, and it really kind of wasn’t, but they got through it somehow down the front straightway here at Charlotte. A lot of it is the rules package. We’ll see that continue. The other piece though is just the All-Star Race and you have nothing to lose and everyone says for lack of better words is ‘screw it, I’m going for it, this is what it’s about, we’re going for the win and second doesn’t mean anything to me.’ I know that’s my attitude. I’m pretty sure that’s most driver’s attitudes when they get into that race because it’s an all-or-nothing race. That’s why we pitted from fifth. We said, ‘Well, fifth, that doesn’t pay a big check. Let’s give it a shot. Let’s go back to 17th and see if we can pass a few cars.’ That’s what that race is about. If that’s the Coke 600 do we still make that play? I don’t know. We might not, so it’s really a combination of those two that really makes it like that.”

WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO WIN THIS RACE SUNDAY? “This is probably, when it comes to races that I haven’t won yet, the Coca-Cola 600 is probably the one that’s at the top of the list for me, personally as a race car driver for a few reasons. Anytime you win at Charlotte is special because you get to celebrate with everybody here because our race teams are in Mooresville and most of them are around this area to where your family is here and maybe some of your crew guys their families are there, so we all get to celebrate. Victory lane becomes really fun, but it’s the Coca-Cola 600 which makes it one of the crown jewel events. That’s one reason why I want to do it. I’m a Coca-Cola driver, part of the racing family, that’s a big piece that you want to make sure you win for them in this thing and one of their drivers win. You really want to make that happen. I noticed yesterday when I was sitting in that Hall of Fame voting area and one of the big stats that everyone always had up on their resume was Coke 600 winner. That was something that was on there. There wasn’t anything about the fall race as much as the Coca-Cola 600. That was a big deal. Daytona 500, Coke 600, maybe the Southern 500 – those were the key races on their resume that helped them get into the Hall of Fame. That’s what makes this race special.”

CAN YOU GIVE A LUIGI UPDATE? “I don’t know. Our little Luigi, I believe he’s stolen, I think. We can’t really put a match to anything. We put a bunch of signs up and things on social media and we watched the cameras at our house and you see him run around the backyard and then you don’t see him again, so I’m not really sure what happened there. I hope we can find him. We haven’t given up hope yet, but hopefully over time someone will find it in their heart to do the right thing and hopefully give us a call and we can find him.”

HE HAD A MICROCHIP? “Yeah, he’s microchipped, but it doesn’t do GPS. The only way I think it works is if you go to a vet or someone that has a scanner, they can scan it and say who the dog belongs to. If you’re getting a dog that you’re buying from someone that’s a little sketchy, go get that dog scanned because that might be someone’s dog. It’s really not that funny. You hope someone does the right thing there and returns the dog when that happens. It’s kind of sad We’ve learned that Frenchies are one of the most stolen dogs around, so it’s kind of sad that someone does that because it’s a member of your family. It’s kind of a jerk move. Hopefully, we can figure it out.”

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? “My wife put some stuff out on her social and some other lost dog stuff. She’s been on it. Believe me, we’ve had flyers going up over the neighborhood, putting them up everywhere. Hopefully, something gets figured out eventually.”

HOW MUCH DO YOU DO TO REMAIN MENTALLY SHARP AS YOUR CAREER HAS PROGRESSED? “I guess the thing that makes me feel mentally sharp is being prepared. I don’t do much mental training. I never get into any of that stuff, but the more prepared I am, the more calm I am and usually the more calm I am the longer I can do something. I try to know what’s going on around me and not be surprised by anything. If I’m getting surprised left and right, boy, I’m gonna be exhausted because I’m not gonna know how to react if I keep getting beat. But if I’m in control and I know what’s coming, and every move I see what’s gonna happen, I’m aware of my surroundings, I’m able to maintain a high level of focus for a long, long period of time. I feel that’s a trait that you learn from racing as a kid, going from track to track, running races that get longer and longer and you find yourself making mistakes and learning from those. And eventually you find a way to train your mind to get into this mode that you just got this ultra-focus. There’s nothing else going on in your life besides driving that race car in that moment. That’s all you think about. You have to find ways to get yourself to that point. Some of it is just the risk that you take and naturally you get to that point because you know a mistake is the end of the race and maybe worse, so that’s almost enough to keep you focused alone, but to be able to do that for a long period of time you have to find some ways to make you work and it’s different for everybody, I would assume.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE 43 CREW WAVING TO ALL THE CARS AS THEY COME OFF PIT ROAD? DO YOU NOTICE THAT AT ALL? “I don’t know what they’re doing. They wave at everybody and the do this really goofy Forrest Gump wave going on (laughing). I’m like, ‘What are these guys doing here?’ But at that point I’m not really, I don’t know, call me a jerk, but I’m not really wishing anyone luck at that point. It’s all about going to win.”

Toyota Racing – Martin Truex Jr.
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Charlotte Motor Speedway – May 23, 2019

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Martin Truex Jr. was made available to the media in Charlotte:

MARTIN TRUEX JR, No. 19 Bass Pro Shops / Tracker / USO Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Do you feel like other teams are catching the JGR and Penske cars in performance?

“I think it’s a little bit hit and miss for everybody I feel like from what I can see. It certainly has been for us. For the 19 team, we’ve been really good at places and off at places. It’s just been one of those things that’s been hard to hit consistently. It’s just the package – we’re going to new tracks that we haven’t been to with it before. We’re going on new tires it seems like almost every time. We just don’t have a lot of information, there’s been a lot of guessing going on and for whatever reason, it seems like the balance on these cars is really, really temperamental and real sensitive. If you get off a little bit, I feel like you pay a lot bigger price than maybe what you did before. It’s harder to drive through problems when you have to run wide open.”

Is there something you would like to say about the tires?

“I don’t really have any issues with the tires. I was just talking about how it’s been a challenge that we’ve been on new ones this year to go along with the new package and how it’s been really hard to just be consistently good. You go to a track and you’re way off. I don’t know why we didn’t seen this coming, we’ve been through this quite a few times this year. Just a lot of new stuff we’re still trying to figure out this year. I always still like faster tires that wear out and we seem to be going the opposite way. That’s part of the package as well, we have so much downforce and our corner speeds are so high that you don’t want to risk blowing tires. It’s a tough balance for Goodyear to juggle for sure.”

Do you expect Michigan to mirror California?

“No, Michigan is Michigan. It’s so different and the only thing the same from Michigan to California is the length of the race track and the somewhat shape — the curved frontstretch. They couldn’t be any different. Michigan is just super high-grip, new asphalt and California is the oldest place we go, which is what I like about it. Michigan has just typically been a single to maybe two-lane at best track and that’s going to be a challenge for us.”

How hard is it to acclimate to the reduced horsepower?

“It’s been a challenge and it’s so different, just the whole approach to the weekend from a driver’s standpoint — the way you drive these cars, the way you manage traffic – all the things that we have to do right now is a lot different from last year and the last couple seasons. It’s been a challenge just to figure it out. At the end of the day, it is what it is and we get paid to win races and try to put ourselves in position to win a championship. We’re just constantly searching and at the same time, that’s what makes this sport so fun and challenging is that it’s always changing. I tell people all the time, you watch other sports and it’s always the same. You go to a different stadium, but it’s still the same field or size field. If you’re good at baseball, you’re good at baseball. If you’re good at football, you’re good at football. If you’re good at soccer, you’re good at soccer. In racing, there’s a lot of different things you have to be good at and they get changed on you constantly, which is frustrating, especially when you have something really figured out like the low downforce stuff – we were really dialed in. I really liked that package and it suited my style really well and this has just been a huge learning curve. Just trying to figure it out, work hard and keep chipping away at it.”

What do you think of when you hear ‘Coca-Cola 600’?

“2016 — the domination. Just to be able to do that at this level is something you dream of. The fact that no one will probably lead more laps than that ever, ever, ever and that’s just crazy to think about. Pretty cool and I wouldn’t say we need to duplicate that, but would like to try to win another one. It’s a special race to win, it’s one of the crown jewels.”

Do you know how you dominated that race?

“We just hit it. Charlotte is a track that’s like that. When you hit it, you can knock it out of the park here. It’s so hard to get your car doing the things you want it to do that most guys are probably off more than at a normal track. When you do hit it right, we’ve seen it here before, but never like that and it was pretty cool.”

Do you have to use more finesse with less horsepower?

“I would say less finesse. I feel like now it’s more – if you went to the go-kart track and they slowed them down and you had rubber rails all the way around and you’re playing bumper cars, I feel like it’s more of that. We’re stuck together, you can’t get away from each other – that kind of thing. The challenge is the dirty air that these cars produce because of the big spoiler and the high downforce and all that. You’re stuck together, but you can’t be close together in the corners so you just have to give a lot. You’re trying to find space all the time. At the same time, you’re driving the car super aggressive so it’s a weird balance and it’s so much different that it’s hard to even explain.”

Did you notice a difference from what you drove at All-Star to what you had in today’s practice?

“The challenges we have of running behind cars is still there and that didn’t really change. I thought that the splitter sensitivity was better, if you feel the splitter hitting the track a little bit then it wouldn’t go straight. It was a little bit more consistent from a travel standpoint, which I think is better for racing and the teams for sure. The regular splitter is 30-thousandths of an inch from being good to being junk. That’s a big challenge for these guys so that helps for sure. We still have to work on somehow making these cars stick to the track behind a car. We would be able to put on better races if we can.”

What will the challenge be like at Pocono not being able to shift?

“I really wish I could answer that. They’re all tricky, they’re all tough and they’re all important. You look at the competition today – years ago you would go there and you’d hear guys say they were focused on turn three as the most important and today if you go there and you don’t have all of them really, really good, you’re going to get your butt kicked. That’s honestly the way it works. I’m sure they’re all going to be a challenge, the package itself is going to be a challenge I think and just not knowing is going to be so different. We used to go there and run 210 down the straightaway before and we used a ton of brake and you downshift. Now it’s going to be asking if we can even run wide open. I don’t know. It’s just going to be like everywhere else, it’s going to be a lot different than what we’ve been doing for so long.”

How important would it be to win at an intermediate track with this package?

“I think it would be good for us just to have some confidence with it. It’s been our biggest challenge this year, no question. Kansas, historically one of our best race tracks and we go there and kind of struggled. We know where we missed it, the problem is that you have to show up at a track where you haven’t raced this package before and do the right things. That’s still a challenge and we know what we missed in practice and we know how we missed it at the All-Star race last week, but the hard part about this sport is being on top of it when you show up. Unloading good – you have to kick your weekend off right because you only have 50 minutes of practice on Friday to qualify good. If you don’t qualify good, your weekend starts off on a bad note. Just still searching for that confidence as a team of what we need to show up at these tracks with. I feel like we’ve gotten better each week as we’ve went, we just haven’t hit it off the hauler. This week feels different. I was really happy today and I felt like it was one of the best practices we’ve had all year. Hopefully that will continue throughout the weekend.”

What advice would you give rookies to the 600?

“Take it easy for the first 500, let everybody pass you – including me. It’s a long race and I think the biggest thing is that guys get that first 100 miles – if you can get through that with the heat of the day and the track being slick and just the danger of that on restarts and things. Usually if you can get through the first 100 miles, you can figure out where you settle in. Then the track starts to somewhat settle in and then you go to work on it.”

When did you know your car was so strong in 2016?

“Honestly, I think I knew it was pretty good throughout practice and qualifying. We got the pole. You never know in this series. I’ve had places where we’ve ended practice and said, ‘This thing is crazy good and I don’t want you to do anything to it.’ Then you start the race and it’s not as good as you thought. I don’t think you ever settle. Yeah, we’re leading, but you still, if it needs a little something, you work on it because if you don’t you’ll get beat. You just never take it for granted. You just push all the time and try to get better as the race goes on.”