Category: NASCAR Cup PR

MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
KANSAS SPEEDWAY
DIGITAL ALLY 400
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING NOTES & QUOTES
MAY 10, 2019

TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
5th Chase Elliott, No. 9 Napa Auto Parts Camaro ZL1
7th William Byron, No. 24 UniFirst Camaro ZLI
8th Kyle Larson, No. 42 Credit One Bank Camaro ZL1
10th Alex Bowman, No. 88 Axalta Camaro ZL1
12th Bubba Wallace, No. 43 World Wide Technology Camaro ZLI

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

FS1 will telecast the Digital Ally 400 live at 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday, May 11. Live coverage can also be found on MRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES:

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 5th
ON HIS QUALIFYING EFFORT
“It was okay. It was fine. I thought everything was smooth and our car drove okay, which was fine. We’ll see what happens tomorrow.”

DO YOU HAVE CONFIDENCE FROM LAST FALL FOR TOMORROW NIGHT?
“It’s so different. It’s hard to really carry that. And, that was a long time ago too. You’d like to think so, yeah. It doesn’t hurt for sure.”

WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 UNIFIRST CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 7th
“I’m not really sure yet. Hopefully it holds up in the top 10 or so and that would be good. Our speed was pretty good in practice in our mock run. We picked up a little bit, still. So hopefully that holds up okay.”

HOW IMPORTANT IS TRACK POSITION GOING TO BE IN THIS RACE TOMORROW?
“I think it’s pretty important. It’s probably no as important tomorrow as it has been in the past with this new package. I think you’ll be able to pass relatively well.”

KYLE LARSON, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 8th
“I’m happy with that. We trimmed our car a lot during the first practice today. We made some big improvements. So, we’ll see how it races. But I felt good about it in Happy Hour practice. Kansas is a good track for us, so we’ll see if we can have another good race tomorrow.”

DID YOU TAKE ANY DAMAGE EARLIER FROM THAT SPIN DURING PRACTICE?
“Just a very, very small dent. Yeah, I got lucky there. I don’t know how we didn’t crash but I would have hated that if I would have tore up Martin (Truex Jr’s) car. Thankfullly, we just barely touched.”

KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 GLOBAL POKER CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 14th
“We didn’t quite back up the time we did in practice. I don’t know where the speed was lost. We were wide open all the way around, so I anticipated at least gaining a tenth of a second. And that would have put us in the top 5. But instead, we lost two-tenths of a second. I’m not quite sure where the speed was lost.”

TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 15th
ON HIS RUN:
“It was good. We were not really happy with our car in practice. But we went to package that was fast earlier this year at Texas in qualifying and it raced really well. We’re not exactly sure what it’s going to do in the race but we know it’s raced well before.”

Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.

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

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Friday, May 10, 2019
EVENT: Digital Ally 400 Qualifying

FORD QUALIFYING RESULTS
1st – Kevin Harvick
2nd – Aric Almirola
3rd – Clint Bowyer
4th – Daniel Suarez
9th – Brad Keselowski
16th – Paul Menard
19th – Ryan Blaney
20th – Joey Logano
21st – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
23rd – Michael McDowell
28th – Ryan Newman
33rd – David Ragan
35th – Matt Tifft

KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Busch Beer Ford Mustang | Qualified: 1st

HOW SURPRISING IS IT TO YOU THAT YOU ARE WINLESS THIS SEASON? “We have run well. All seasons aren’t going to be like last year. It isn’t like I have been through a season this far and not won a race before. Every season is different. We have scrambled very well and knocked some top five and top-10s out and some poles. We have done everything with what we feel like are not superior cars. The whole organization, engine shop, team, you can see a vast improvement across the board from our cars this week. It started at Texas. That was the last step on this 550 package for us and we knew we were off at the beginning of the year and they have done nothing but work and work and work and work. This is really a good moment for Stewart-Haas Racing in general. I think that is something to be proud of. Sometimes it isn’t about wins or losses, it is about how you are running and we have run well the last three weeks at the 750 tracks and you just can’t force those things.”

DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU ARE KNOCKING ON THE DOOR NOW? “It is all in how you look at it I guess. We want to lead laps and win races. That is the ultimate goal. I think as you look at the poles, they are great, but in the end you do want to win and that is why you are here. When you can’t and you think you are off, being able to scrape decent finishes out of weekends is also important too because you are not always going to have the fastest car. If you are comparing it to last year you can compare every year of my career to that and say it was worse because it was. Every year is a little different and has a little different look to it and this one is just shaping up to whatever it will look like when we are done.”

THIS IS YOUR FIFTH POLE HERE, YOU HAVE WON TWICE FROM THE POLE HERE. YOU HAVE LED THE MOST LAPS HERE. HOW COMFORTABLE DOES ALL OF THIS MAKE YOU GOING INTO TOMORROW? “This has just been a really good race track for us since they have redone it and even when I was at RCR this was probably our best race track. Coming here to SHR and having the success we have had here, we feel like we have lost more than we should have at this particular race track for one reason or another but we have also had good success here, whether it is poles or wins. It is a place that fits a lot of things that I like to do in the car and they like to put in the car. It has been a happy spot for us. You just have to take advantage of those places and try to get a good result out of those places that you think you should.”

KEVIN HARVICK CONTINUED — HOW DO YOU FEEL THE RACE IS GOING TO BE TOMORROW NIGHT? “I think it is going to be very similar to Texas. I think you will see some wild restarts and I think you will see guys when they have to check up you will get a swarm of cars that catch you. I think for us the closing rate has been very good when you catch a draft off a car. I don’t think it is going to be one big pack. You will see that for seven, eight or 10 laps on a restart like you did at Texas. You have multiple lanes here. As you run through the night, I think you will see tire strategy. I don’t think the tire fall off will be near as bad as in the past. There will still be some there but we haven’t seen a lot today and it will be cooler tomorrow night. I think the exact style of race it is hard to tell you because the conditions are going to be different when it is dark.”

WE KNOW YOU ARE AN ADVOCATE OF SWAPPING THE SCHEDULE AROUND. NEXT WEEK IS THE ALL-STAR RACE. SHOULD IT STAY IN CHARLOTTE OR DO YOU WANT TO SEE THAT BE ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS MOVED TO MAKE IT MORE ACCESSIBLE TO FANS? “I think it needs to be more accessible to the fans. There are a number of places that I think you could move it around to. I think it would be a great piece of NASCAR racing that you could use to help build back the short track system. You could take that race to a number of short tracks across the country and combine it with a truck race or K&N race. Go to the Nashville Fairgrounds or Irwindale Speedway or race tracks like that. There are no rules you have to make up, you will just have a good race. You are going to have as many people as you want in the grandstands and as many grandstands as you can put up. It is a great way to spotlight a short track and build some enthusiasm in a market and put some money in the infrastructure of a short track that may need it to keep going to give it a stable type facility that can race in that region. There are a number of ways you can look at it. You could go to ORP during the week of the Indy 500 and race on a Wednesday night at ORP and I bet you would have plenty of people there. I think you could get really creative with it. I love Charlotte but I think in the end, Charlotte has three races. In this day in age I think that is too many.”

I WAS GOING TO ASK IF YOUR QUALIFYING LAP WAS LIT AF. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE PAINT SCHEME? “I think as you look at next week, they made the tweet and I didn’t really pay attention to it. Sometimes they get pretty edgy on their things that they say on Twitter. So I didn’t really think anything of it. Then I saw all the plans and pait schemes – let me take that back – I didn’t see all the schemes I saw all the plans. Obviously I didn’t see that paint scheme but I thought that particular plan was fun just because it is interaction. It is just kind of poking fun at yourself. In the end, I had to look up and I still don’t even know what “Yeet” means. It says SKRRRT SKRRRT on the skirts with no i and I don’t think that is proper spelling. I can kind of relate to “squad goals” but I don’t really know what the frog in the tea means. In the end it is something that I believe is a lot of fun. Really, it is the perfect event to put that at and kind of create some interaction. They have had great interaction. For God’s sake we got Jeff (Gluck) to change his name. There will be some great merchandise, some great Bush AF merchandise to go with it. It is fun. I have learned that sometimes it is more fun poking fun at yourself because you don’t know what something is and this is one of those situations. It is the ugliest race car I have ever seen though, but I think that is part of what makes it great. And who knew there was a color called millennial pink. That is an actual color. It isn’t the prettiest pink though.”

HAVE YOU SEEN THE CAR WITH THE UPDATES AS FAR AS THE RADIATOR DUCTS COMING THROUGH THE HOOD? “I have not seen the car. I have seen the drawings. The guys tell me that the duct fits in there well. These cars are really, really sensitive currently with this particular splitter to the height to the ground and if that improves the sensitivity to the splitter height and the cars lose less downforce because of where the cars run on the race track behind each other then I am a fan. They are losing 400-600 pounds of downforce when you get behind somebody. At Texas, we had a weird situation where the splitter was at a weird height and the car vibrated and bounced so bad that you couldn’t drive it. Those are the types of things that you don’t really know but it was a strange thing. The radiator duct is really for under hood temperatures and to keep the underhood temps down because they make the engine guys nervous with all the wires and things under the hood. I think everybody will be fine with that. The splitter is the part that I am excited about.”

“When you get behind a car right now, the car raises up. If it raises up a couple hundred-thousandths of an inch, it is going to lose hundreds of pounds of downforce because of the car coming up off the race track. It is not all the splitter that loses all the downforce. It isn’t just the splitter.”

REGARDING INTRATEAM COMPETITION: “It is hard to get a word in because Clint talks so much. It is difficult to understand if we are talking trash to each other because most of the time Aric, myself and Danile just kind of look at him and wonder what he is talking about. It is a good group of guys to have together just because I feel like we all work together well. Clint and I have been around for a long time and around each other. Daniel is new but very easy to get along with and Aric can get along with anybody. Most of the time it is just me being a pain in the butt more than anybody else. Everybody is competitive but helpful. Today is a classic example of having four good teams and the progression rate and you look at how we got to this point and the things that were tried at Texas and other race tracks and you can’t do that with one or two cars. You have to have four cars that are running well and four guys that are willing to be somewhat similar to the thought process and that is really where we are as an organization and I think that showed up last year as well with the way that the cars ran.”

QUESTION INAUDIBLE: “As you look at it, our lives are much different due to the fact we both have kids and it is hard to find time to do things that we used to do. One, we probably would be in more trouble nowadays than we were in those days and two, you just don’t have time. When I have free time I want to spend it with my kids, not out doing whatever. We go to work and we know what we have to do and then it is Keelan’s schedule and his baseball games and the things that he does. We just both wind up busy.”

ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang | Qualified: 2nd

“We have really fast race cars. Our Ford Mustangs are fast and I like it. It is fun when you show up to the race track and have a lot of speed. It has been tough to show up to these race tracks and just not feel like we were one of the cars to beat, so it feels good to show up here and have the speed we have today and I am looking forward to the race tomorrow night. Hopefully we can carry that speed through the rest of the race.”

CLINT BOWYER, No. 14 Rush Truck Centers Ford Mustang | Qualified: 3rd

“It is fun to be back home in Kansas and it is fun to be in a fast car at home. That is the biggest thing. You come home and you just want to run good. I have been beat up pretty bad here. There are so many media members, fans, family, everybody tells me how I have to do better at home. Obviously, everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing has been working hard to get us in victory lane and I think their efforts are really starting to show. The speeds in our cars are very obvious from the time we got in there here today. That is exciting for me. These mile and a half tracks, we need to do better and I need to do better. Certainly having a good hot rod goes a long way towards that.”

“Having the top-4 is just awesome. The guys have been working hard to get us in victory lane and we have knocked on the door pretty hard here lately. We have had a lot of short track success and I have been looking for that on the mile and a half tracks. We have a long night ahead and we will be ready tomorrow.”

DANIEL SUAREZ, No. 41 Haas Automation Demo Day Ford Mustang | Qualified: 4th

“This feels very good. This is the first time I have been in this situation where we qualified 1-2-3-4. What can I say? I am very, very grateful to be a part of our organization at Stewart-Haas Racing and Ford Performance. We have very good speed in our cars. We actually struggled alot in the 41 team to find the balance in the morning practice. Good information from our teammates helped us get in a better direction but right now it looks like the Q trim is different than the race trim but the car drove very good and hopefully we can keep that going tomorrow night.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Wurth Ford Mustang | Qualified: 9th

“It was an easy, wide-open run. It was just all she had today. It drove good, there just isn’t much to say more than that. I feel okay about tomorrow. I am interested to see how it is going to play out. This is a different mile and a half than we have been running this at. Different shape and different style. I am not really sure what to expect but I am looking forward to it.”

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Mustang | Qualified: 20th

“We qualified 20th. We didn’t do very good today. Hopefully it races better than that. I feel like we will be able to make passes. We are going to have to. But I do think it is going to be a good race and plenty of two and three-wide racing with plenty of opportunities to pass, so I think we will be okay.”

MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 34 Dockside Logistics Ford Mustang | Qualified: 23rd

“Our Mustang has been really good in both happy hour and qualifying there. Single car it is hard to tell because it depends on how trimmed out you are. I feel like our car is going to race really well and we are looking forward to tomorrow night.”

RICKY STENHOUSE JR., No. 17 SunnyD Ford Mustang | Qualified: 21st

“We ran about what I thought we would run. We didn’t do a qualifying run in practice or do any trimming out. We just tried to work on our race car because we had a pretty disappointing practice. We have been working hard on our SunnyD Ford. It seemed to be a little better there. Hopefully it is in the right direction. It is an impound race so hopefully we are heading in the right direction for the race.”

RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 BodyArmor Ford Mustang | Qualified: 19th

“Well, I held it wide open but I think we are 11th right now and probably going to drop. It is just the way it is. You have cars trimmed out and other cars kind of hopefully better for the race. That is how we have really been, that has been our mindset at the mile and a half tracks. We will give up some qualifying to have a good handle on the race car. We will see. You never really know until it gets going.”

Toyota Racing – Erik Jones
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Kansas Speedway – May 10, 2019

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

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

What do you think of the All-Star rules package?

“Number one, the All-Star package, I don’t know. It’s different. I know a little bit about it as far as the splitter goes. It’s going to be a forward aero shift. I don’t know what that’s going to do for racing really. As far as the ducts in the hood, I don’t know if that’s going to change either. It’s hard to know, we don’t really have any data on it yet as a team so we don’t really know what it’s going to change in the cars. We haven’t done a lot of work on it. I don’t think that anybody really has to be honest with you, with it being the All-Star race. It’s interesting and it’s an interesting test. I know NASCAR has worked some with those aero ducts in the hood in the past. As far as that splitter goes, it’s pretty new for us. I think something I think is a positive – the splitter, but we’ll have to see where it plays out.”

What are your thoughts on the new rules package for Homestead, Pocono and Darlington?

“I think it’s a good change. We saw pretty quickly the last few weeks with the brakes, we haven’t seen any issues with cooling. At a lot of places that we ran in the past, last week at Dover we pulled the cooling off and didn’t run any so you’re really not using any brake. You have so much more downforce to slow you down, you’re not going as fast in the straightaway so I think Pocono it’s probably going to be pretty exciting with guys getting bit runs in the straightaway because the straightaway is so long. Darlington and Homestead, I don’t know if it will be as much of an effect just having enough room to do a lot with it, but Pocono it will make it pretty interesting for sure.”

What does it mean to compete for a million dollars in the All-Star race?

“I’m looking forward to it, it’s finally my first year that I get to run it. I missed it the last two years so it’s nice to actually be in it this year and have a shot to race for it. I’m excited for that. I’ve been sitting on my couch back home watching it. It’s great. I love this month coming up just being at home for a couple weeks and not having to get on a plane and travel. You get a lot of friends and family that come and stay in town and that’s always fun. A million bucks, who doesn’t want to win that? It’s a great race. You look at the history of it and some of the shows that have been put on at that race and it’s something that I think we all look forward to as a driver to have an opportunity to go and compete in.”

How would you assess your season to date?

“I think last week was where we should have run everywhere. I look at our season and last weekend was just a day that was quiet, we didn’t make mistakes, we didn’t do anything spectacular, we just ran where we’re capable of and I thought we were capable of even a little better than that. It was just time, it was time to turn it around and it was time to do things right, do what we knew we were capable of and the last month was rough for us. We had a lot of things just not go our way, didn’t play out, had some issues on pit road, off pit road so just a lot of things not going our way. You’ll have times like that in racing, but I knew we had fast enough cars that eventually you’re going to overcome it. When you have fast race cars, you’re going to overcome those odds and eventually run where you think you’re capable of. Hopefully just keep the trend going, it was good to get running where we need to and we need to keep it going here over the summer stretch.”

Who do you turn to when you need reassurance in a bad stretch of races?

“Coach (Joe Gibbs) is really good about it. He’s really on top of it and obviously coaching football, he knows driver and athlete personalities really well and he was always there to make sure that I was staying positive and keeping my head up and know that we’re doing everything we can to fix some of the issues that we knew we had and they did. At this point I think we’ve resolved a lot of the problems we had and we’re able now to move forward on it and start to really focus on what we need to do. Coach is really involved in the program. I think many people know that from the outside, but he’s heavily involved in the competition side and making sure that when things need to be fixed, he’s able to get in there and make things right.”

Is it good to have someone that’s also a spiritual mentor?

“He is and it’s nice to have someone that’s had experience in a variety of different worlds. From football to racing to personal life, he’s really got a lot of experience and knowledge in all of them and he’s able to resolve any issue. I think Joe is there for anything I would need, he’s always told me he’s there anytime if I need to call him and talk about anything. It means a lot because Joe has put a lot into my racing career since I’ve been with him in 2015 and 2016 on. It means a lot to have his support and what he’s done for me has meant a lot. He’s meant a lot in my personal life as well.”

What was your biggest challenge in practice today?

“For me, we were just really loose. We unloaded and I think we missed it a little bit, as a company probably with all four of us. We were able to get it better by the second practice and get where I thought we needed to be, but once you get it driving good it’s just a matter of figuring out what you really need to race, which is tough when you really don’t have any notes with this package at this race track. Obviously a track that you need to focus on coming back here in the Playoffs and trying to figure it out and make things right. It’s a challenge as a driver, you want to do what makes your car drive best and sometimes that’s not always the fastest with this package. It’s a tough balance and it’s tough to figure out sometimes what you really need with this package.”

Do you think the best driver with this package will be the driver that gets the least frustrated working with it?

“I think it’s a part of it. I think the frustration comes from not knowing. It seems like the last two years, we got really used to that package and we all kind of knew what we needed and we knew what was good. If you were fast in practice, you were going to be fast in the race. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if this package in practice where you really stack up and even in qualifying, I don’t feel like we’re going to qualify great today, but I feel like we’re going to race really well. It’s just weird and it’s a tough balance. Sometimes you get looking at the times and you really throw yourself off. As long as you can figure out a little better than everybody else what’s going to be the fastest on Saturday this weekend, it’s going to add up to you winning the race. It’s tough to figure out and it’s easy to get frustrated when you’re a competitor and you want to be the fastest one out there.”

Were you nervous when you made your first start here at Kansas in the No. 18 Camry in 2015?

“It doesn’t seem like it was four years ago, but I think back to it and before the weekend, I didn’t find out until real late that I was even going to drive the car that weekend. My Dad told me, ‘Just remember you don’t have to set the world on fire this weekend. There’s no expectations, you don’t have to go and try to win the race. As long as you run top-15, that’s a solid day.’ I’m 18 and I’m still young, but especially at 18, you’re thinking, ‘Well, I’m just going to go out and win, that’s the point.’ We had a really fast car and I remember that weekend well. We were fastest in practice and we qualified okay, ran well – we were running fourth and I wrecked it by myself so that was unfortunate. Going back to the nerves, it was weird, I wasn’t nervous that weekend. I don’t know why. Probably because I looked at it a little bit as, hey, there’s no pressure and I’ve never driven a Cup car, I’ve never even tested one. My first laps in one were at Bristol filling in for Denny (Hamlin) a couple months before that. Now I’m like, ‘I’ll figure it out from here.’ I was probably more excited than anything because I was getting to race against so many guys that I watched growing up. Jeff (Gordon) was in that race, Tony (Stewart) and getting to race with all those guys was just a really cool experience for me.”

Was that race your ‘welcome to the big leagues’ moment?

“Looking back on it, I got purposely put in a pretty bad spot with the 48 (Jimmie Johnson), he was really pressuring me and getting up on my left-rear and I was trying to pass (Kevin) Harvick at that time and I was running the top and just put myself in a bad spot that at the time I didn’t really know was a bad spot. It was for sure and we were really competitive that day. I honestly think that if I could run that race over again, we probably would have won it knowing what I know now. It’s frustrating to look back on sometimes, but it was a welcome to the big leagues moment for sure.”

Will it be cool to look back and realize you raced with Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart?

“It was a cool moment for me. I look at some of the guys that I’ve had a chance to race against over my short career in NASCAR to this point. It’s some big names and guys I’ve looked up to a lot. I know that day I started next to Jeff (Gordon) – he started 11th and I started 12th. I thought, ‘Man, this is pretty cool rolling around for pace laps and seeing your hero growing up.’ Now I’m racing side-by-side with him and that’s a kid’s dream. It’s cool to have those memories and they’re ones I’ll never forget and it would be cool someday to be able to tell young guys, ‘Hey, I got to race against those guys.”

Toyota Racing – Martin Truex Jr.
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Kansas Speedway – May 10, 2019

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

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 19 Auto Owners Insurance Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Wrapping up some thoughts on the All-Star Race, what are your thought about going for the million?

“I’m not sure really. We’ve not run Charlotte yet with this rules package, and there are going to be a few tweaks to it for the All-Star race. I don’t know. It’s really up in the air. It’s always a fun weekend. The All-Star Race always has a great atmosphere, the Saturday night short-track feel. The short little stages are like heat races. It’s usually a lot of fun. You do not have to worry about points. It’s fun all the way up till its not. Last year, we had a lot of fun. We thought we could win it, and then we got caught up in wreck, and our night is over and then your frustrated. It’s exciting and it’s a big night for the sport.”

Coming off the big win in Dover, what would a another win, your second in five days, here in Kansas mean to you?

“It would be awesome. To be able to win here, with this package, would be something good for us. We have not been stellar with it yet. We did run second in Atlanta, and thought we had the best car at the end of the race. That place is a lot different than here, and Vegas, and some of the other places. It would be a big boost for our team to figure this package out. We had a rough day today, but I’m excited about racing here in Kansas. It has been good to us, so hopefully we can get it dialed in and get a few things figured out this afternoon and tonight and have a good run tomorrow.”

Can you talk about the incident in Happy Hour where Larson came across your nose?

“It was one of those moments. A oh-you-know-what moment. I saw him out of the corner of my eye. We were almost, but not quite, side-by-side. He got loose at the top. I’m staying wide open, and I can see him coming down the track. He was coming down this way and I’m staying wide open. He keeps on coming down and coming down. Then I’m like, you need to make a decision here. You either go wide open or try to slow down. At the last moment, I had to step on the brakes because he was coming down there on my right front. Luckily, he got it straight just in time, and I kind of got backed out of there just in time. I think we actually touched, barely. So we got pretty lucky there for sure.”

Can you talk about the balance? Is it really tricky to get it right here?

“The first practice we were bouncing so bad and were so loose that we were making two laps at a time. I was trying to fix it, and make big changes. It definitely has been difficult to hit this package exactly. It is so temperamental. You have to be wide open. The second you lift out of the gas, even a little bit, you lose a ton of time. There is just a fine line there of being good and not being good at all. The bouncing part of it, I think a lot of the field fought this year, even places where you think it is smooth. There are actually some little bumps in turn 1 and for whatever reason with this car this year when you start hitting the splitter, each time the splitter hits the track, it hits harder, harder and harder throughout the corner until you finally get straight. It literally how it is. It has been a big challenge for everybody. Honestly, I think, even at the bumpy tracks, it is probably no less challenging than the smoother tracks.”

What is the balance of the frustration that you feel with the package and your job as a driver?
“We have a job to do; we go out and do it. Like you mentioned, we only hear about it when it is someone who gets really frustrated. I could come in here right now and start complaining because I am very frustrated. We had a bad practice. At the end of the day, it is what it is. We have to deal with it. If it never changes, we really got to deal with it. We have a job to do and I try to focus on that more than anything. We can talk about it behind close doors as a team or drivers together inside of a team. It is what it is. They are not going to change it on my account. I just try to do the best job I can with it.”

Next week is Catwalk with a Cause. Can you talk about what we can expect next week?

“I’m really looking forward to it. It’s a big week for us. It’s the 10th anniversary; it’s definitely a big deal. We have a lot of the heroes from years past coming back to be a part of the show. Cole Swindell is coming as an afterparty, Adam Sanders and my buddy, Taylor, is coming to open for him, so we have some good music at the end. But the show is going to be awesome. It sold out already. It’s a special event for us with a lot of great sponsors; Wells Fargo is a presenting sponsor. Toyota is a big part of it as always. Everybody does so much for us and for it; it’s a lot of fun to put it on. I know it is a lot of stress on everybody at the shop and our staff, but just really proud of what we have been able to do over the years and how much money we have been able to raise and the projects that we have going on right now with Novant in Charlotte and Huntersville. There are some big things happening now. We have been able to give away a lot of money, so it has been very special.”

How have you had to change the feedback you give the crew when you are in traffic?

“That’s the challenging part. There are so many approaches and options right now on how you want your car to be. The things you want to work on, how fast you want to be by yourself, how good can you be in traffic without sacrificing too much speed is basically what it boils down to. There is just a lot of different options when it comes to the cars on what you can do, so it is just trying to find that right combination for us has been a little bit tricky. I felt like we have been on both sides of the drag part of it and both sides of the handling part of it and we haven’t quite hit it yet. We are just searching a bit, but it is definitely tricky. Typically, you try to make the cars as fast as you can. That is how we always tried to do. You were always grip limited; when the car handled better it always paid off. Now that is not the case. Sometimes making your car handle better doesn’t pay off. And that’s difficult to get your arms around as a driver. It feels better, but it’s slower. In that mind, it does not make much sense but that is kind of the way it is. It’s a difficult balance.”

It seems like we have hit a part of the schedule that is so good for you. Do you feel like these tracks are good for you or do you hit your stride 10 races in?

“I think it is a little bit of both. I think we are still getting things going, but for sure as racetracks go, they are some of my favorite. We won a lot of races at Charlotte and Sonoma, and always have been places that I have been good at even in years that we were not the fastest. So yeah, a good stretch of tracks, no question. A good part of the season for our team; especially this season right now.”

Are pit crews more important than they ever were?

“No question. Pit stops, pit crews, time on pit road is more precious now than ever. You also have to look that cars are closer than they have ever been and that adds to that equation. There’s a lot of pressure on those guys every weekend.”

How do you feel your team is trending right now?
“I feel pretty good about where we are at. We are still trying to figure out this drafting package, not only for our team in general, but for me. It is so different from what I am used to. I am trying to figure out how I can adapt my style and get better at it. Drafting and superspeedways have never been my forte, and you have to add a little bit of that superspeedway element to these mile-and-a-halfs, which have always been pretty good to me. I am still trying to figure that out, but as far as everything is concerned and what we have been doing lately, everything is really good. Hopefully we can continue to improve week-by-week.”

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Friday, May 10, 2019
EVENT: Digital Ally 400 Media Availability

DAVID RAGAN, No. 38 Mystik Lubricants Ford Mustang —

“The biggest difference between the two race weekends at Kansas is one is a Saturday night race and one is a Sunday afternoon race. The playoff race there is generally a little more momentum behind the season. Everyone has all their cars on deck and you are trying to get everything you can and are racing for a championship or a playoff round. Here in the spring I think there is research and development going on and trying to understand what these cars need to go fast and getting ready for the summer stretch leading into the playoffs. It is fun for me this weekend, I love Saturday night racing and the race track is great, in a great area of Kansas, the weather is generally really nice this time of year. It doesn’t get much better.”

DOES IT CHANGE HOW YOU PRACTICE DOING IT DURING THE DAY AND THEN RACING AT NIGHT? “Generally that is a variable that we have to work thorough but being that it is so cool this time of year you don’t have much of a delta swing when it is 65 during the day and at night when it is 55 or 60 degrees. I don’t think the balance will change a whole lot. The amount of rubber that gets laid down on the track will be a little bit of a factor but I don’t think it will be as big a swing as when it is 90 during the day and cools off to 70 at night. I don’t think the track will change much but there will be a small difference that our crew chiefs have to work on.”

WHAT IS YOUR CAMPAIGN PITCH TO THE FANS TO VOTE YOU INTO THE ALL-STAR RACE? “If you can’t win a race to make the All-Star race or win the showdown, I don’t want to be voted in. I don’t like the voting side. I have never really campaigned to be voted in. If I can’t race my way in, I want to go home and hang out in my misery. Vote for someone else, don’t vote for me.”

WILL YOU TAKE NOTES FROM THIS RACE TO THE OCTOBER RACE? “Absolutely. There are a lot of things that are similar. The race track, depending on what type of tire we have here in the fall. Anytime you are at a race track, even though you might have a temperature swing it is very important to take all the notes you can. It is an important race for everybody because we know the playoffs will be in the middle of it in the fall.”

PAUL MENARD, No. 21 Menards/Dutch Boy Ford Mustang

“You just try to beat the next guy. This package lends you to really not getting away. I think tomorrow night you will see that there are a couple cars that kind of stood out that could potentially get away from the pack but outside of that it is going to be double-file and three or four-wide on restarts and then it will start to single out. Tires will come into play. We put new tires on and it handled way better than it did with 30-lap tires. It is all part of the deal.”

HOW MUCH DIFFERENT WILL IT BE THAN WE HAVE NORMALLY SEEN HERE? “I am surprised we are running up by the fence already. We are wide-open around the bottom and you could go wide-open there and wide-open around the top but the top came in pretty good. It keeps momentum up. In the past you could run about three or four laps on the bottom and then stick it to the wall. I think you will have more options but I think the top will still be preferred.”

WHAT IS THE BIGGEST THING YOU HAVE LEARNED THIS YEAR WITH THE RULES? “Nothing really stands out. We are still learning. Our notes from last year at Kansas and years past – we have been racing here a long time – the track has certain trends and usually frees up when the sun goes down. With this package, we don’t know what it is going to do. It could free up or maybe the package lends itself to be tighter, we just don’t know. I guess what we learned is that we don’t know.”

HOW DO YOU ADJUST TO NOT KNOWING THINGS FOR A LOT OF TRACKS THIS YEAR? “You just do it. You take notes, you put yourself in positions in practice to try to make a good decision for the race and you just keep track of all that and try to come up with something that makes sense.”

HOW MUCH OF THIS STUFF THAT YOU WORK ON TODAY CAN TRANSFER TO A NIGHT RACE? “A lot of it. The big variable is what the track is going to do at night. We know what it has done in the past and we don’t know what it will do with this package but you put yourself in different positions in practice to be confident for tomorrow and make some changes to the race car.”

MAKING NOTES FOR OCTOBER? “Yeah, for sure. It is a day race and this felt like October weather here today. High 60s and sunny. The only thing we didn’t have was the wind. That will come in October.”

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT NEXT WEEK AND TRYING TO RACE YOUR WAY INTO THE ALL-STAR RACE? “I am curious to see how this new air ducts thing works. I have seen pictures of it being assembled on the race cars and it looks really cool. I really hope it works. Next week is just kind of going and playing around and see what we can do.”

WE HAVEN’T REALLY GOTTEN TO SEE THE NEW DUCTS: “They come in through the nose, through the radiator shroud and goes up into another duct that shoots out of the hood and blows on the windshield essentially.”

YOU HAD SO MANY FANS LAST WEEK AT DOVER. DO YOU FEEL YOUR FAN BASE GROWING? “Yeah, it is a really good feeling. Every time you go to a race track and you have people cheering you on is a good feeling. I don’t get to race at home, so it isn’t my family that is cheering me on. It feels good to start building a good fan base and people who follow me along and the 41 team as well. They are at some race tracks more than others. Dover is a good place for me. I enjoy racing there a lot and it is good to have some good fans there.”

WHAT ABOUT KANSAS? “It is a good place for me. Last time we finished in the top-10. I love racing at night. That is why I am so excited to come here for the second race of the year at night and am excited to come back and have some fun.”

WHEN YOU FIRST CAME INTO NASCAR, YOU HAVE COME SUCH A LONG WAY AT MAKING FRIENDS AND KNOWING WHAT IS GOING ON. I CAN’T IMAGINE HOW CRAZY THAT MUST HAVE BEEN: “Time goes by quick for sure. I am very happy where I am at right now. We have a great group with a lot of potential and there are a lot of different things that we know we can do better. We are getting better at knowing each other and that is good. Our expectations – we didn’t have expectations at the beginning of the year – right now we finish close to a top-10 and we are not very happy. Nobody on my team was very excited about the 11th place last week in Dover. I wasn’t happy about it. I few days after the race I look back and I know we were hoping to finish close to a top-10 earlier in the year and now we aren’t happy with it. So we are doing something good. We have a long way to go to keep improving but we are in the right direction.”

WHAT IS YOUR PITCH TO THE FANS TO VOTE YOU INTO THE ALL-STAR RACE? “It would be awesome to make it with the fan vote. That would be cool. I want to drive my way in, but I would like to have the support and know that I make it for the fans. I feel like we have a very fast race car and I feel like we are very capable to race our way in. We have done that the last three years. I would like to say that the fans got me into the All-Star race though. Hopefully we can make that happen.”

LOOKS LIKE YOU ARE SIXTH RIGHT NOW IN THE FAN VOTE: “Well, I will have to drive my way in then.”

WITHOUT CHASE (ELLIOTT) IN THE FAN VOTE, DO YOU FEEL LIKE IT IS MORE OPEN THAN THE PAST? “It could be. Chase is always strong when it comes to that. I wish I was spending a little more time with the fan vote and doing more noise about it. I just spend my time with my teammates and team. I love the fans and all the support and it is good to give them that reminder every day and I haven’t done that, honestly. Some people do a better job than others at that. I feel like my teammates are very capable of doing good things in the All-Star race and hopefully we can do what we have done in the last couple of years and drive our way in.”

HOW WOULD YOU EVALUATE THE FIRST FOUR MONTHS OF THE SEASON? “I think it has been good. I feel there is room for improvement but that it has been good. I feel like we are moving forward and it has been positive and better than what we were expecting. I am a race car driver, so it is never good enough. If we are not winning races then we are not great. We have to keep pushing and keep learning.”

DANIEL SUAREZ CONTINUED — WAS LAST YEAR MENTALLY CHALLENGING FOR YOU? “Every year it is mental. Being a race car driver is a mental game and it has been like this since I was 15-years-old. As a race car driver you have to be strong mentally. It is extremely important. Most of the drivers in the Cup series are very strong mentally. There is a reason why they are here. I feel like you have to be on top of your game and you have to know that you are going to have ups and downs and when you are up you have to work very hard to stay up and when you are down you have to work even harder to go up. It is a mental game in many different ways and the driver has the responsibility to carry that team. Somebody has to take the lead of the team and the driver most likely plays that role.”

IS THERE A ROUTINE YOU HAVE? “I just like to be in communication with them and be pushing and bringing everyone together. These guys make my job very easy on the 41 team. These guys are amazing and very good together and get along very well. We all hang out. Later tonight we are going to go bowling together. For me, it is very important to do our work in racing but to have fun at the race track.”

WHAT WOULD WINNING THE ALL-STAR RACE AND $1 MILLION DO FOR YOU? “Honestly, I will enjoy the trophy more than anything else. Money comes and goes and it is a big amount of money but to say that you won the race, as a race car driver that is all you care about. Everything else is what I call consequences. A consequence of something else. I care about winning the race. Last year I finished second and I wasn’t thinking about the money, I was thinking about the trophy and saying that I won the race. I feel like we will have a shot.”

CLINT BOWYER, No. 14 Rush Truck Centers Ford Mustang

“It is always fun to come back to Kansas Speedway and be home. Our schedule is so long and grueling and there is always a sweet spot when you look at the schedule and look forward to coming back to kansas and seeing family and friends and everybody that comes out in support of me and our Stewart-Haas cars. Our cars, you want to talk about confidence, this hasn’t been a good track for me. This has been one of my worst tracks statistically but we unloaded a very fast Rush Truck Centers Ford as did my teammates. All our SHR cars are fast. We left practice with a lot of confidence of our chances tomorrow night.”

IS THIS YOUR BEST CHANCE TO WIN AT KANSAS? WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO DO THAT? “I think it is the best chance I have had in a long time. That is no kidding. The old stopwatch is one that you can never lie about and when you look at the board, all our SHR cars are right up there at the top of it in both practice sessions. You have to try to figure out what you need. It is so drastically different, this package is, from other years here. Drafting, the more cars you have in front of you the worse you are going to drive. Qualifying will be a premium. Getting up front and getting that clean air, I think our cars will benefit from that a bunch. If we can get them up front, they are all capable of staying up front.”

ALMIROLA CALLED YOU A CLASS CLOWN: “I saw that. I need to have a word with him. I guess you can either be energetic and have fun or be boring. I chose to have fun and enjoy the sport. I enjoy our teammates. We are all so drastically different. Aric is such the quiet one and always down to business. If I can’t have fun, I can’t have success. Fit factor is so important in anything in life and I don’t think I have every fit in at an organization like I have at Stewart-Haas Racing. All us teammates have something different in common with one another and I think that is why it works.”

WHO IS YOUR CO-PILOT HERE? “This is Cash. I said I was going to the media center and he said he wanted to go so here we are. He is a bigger star after him and Owen’s interview at Daytona than I am anyway. Every weekend I walk around and all I hear is, ‘Where is Cash?’ So I just brought him with me to fix that.”

YOUR MOM AND DAD WERE COMING TO RACES WHEN YOU WERE ABOUT HIS AGE. COULD CASH BE A DRIVER SOME DAY? “Of course. Just look at the names of the first, second, third-generation drivers that have been in this deal. How can they do anything else? We are trying out the stick-and-ball stuff but still you find yourself in a parking lot making laps around the cones with a GoKart. I grew up racing motorcycles so naturally it was pretty easy to put him on a PW50 and make laps in the yard and stuff. At the end of the day you just want them to have fun, enjoy what they are doing and be passionate about it. I think the work ethic is something all our parents instilled in us and it is up to us to do the same for our children.”

HARVICK’S PAINT SCHEME AT THE ALL-STAR RACE: WHAT WOULD BE ON YOUR CAR? “Not millennial. It is a funny campaign and some of the sayings on the side of it are so true. You see all of that and see it on social media and stuff and half the time you are like, ‘What the hell does that mean?’ I think he has been doing the same thing. I am pushing 40 and he is well past that. We are trying to figure it all out.”

CLINT BOWYER CONTINUED — JOHNNY CASH? JACK DANIELS? WHAT WOULD BE ON YOUR RIDE? “I have had Jack Daniels on my ride before and it was a damn good time. You know it is all about the partners. I spent the week out with Rush Truck Centers in Vegas and had an awesome reception with all their refuse industry and selling trucks out there. I got to meet a lot of waste management people and all these big CEO’s and COO’s of these big companies. It was amazing to learn their world and break bread with them and enjoy some time out there. For me, I enjoy that almost as much as racing anymore. I love getting in the car and racing but I love the business side of this sport. It is a lot of fun and so important. You have to be good at that. You have to be attractive out on the race track but you also have to go out and stand in front of 600 people and have a good time and be relative and make sure they are all enjoying it because that is how you get them back to the race track.”

WHAT IS BIGGER, YOU TURNING 40 OR SMOKE (TONY STEWART) TURNING 50? “He is going to be 50? Are you kidding? Whoa. I can’t even imaging. I just hope I make 40, let alone 50. I have a month yet I gotta get through. It doesn’t matter. Getting these little things (pointing at Cash) keeps you young. Keeps you on your toes for sure.”

HOW MANY HOMETOWN MEMORIES START RUSHING BACK TO YOUR HEAD WHEN YOU COME TO THIS TRACK? “Here is the thing. We have a place near Lake of the Ozarks and spend a lot of time there and those are all Kansas City and St. Louis folks there and everybody starts reaching out to you. They don’t know. They just know you are in town and ready to race. Everybody is texting me during practice. I get back to my phone and I am like, ‘I am trying to work.’ Hopefully we get to see them and hang out. I wish we weren’t qualifying so late. I would like to be over at Kauffman Stadium watching the Royals. That looks like a hot ticket for tonight and everybody knows where to be tomorrow night.”

THE ALL-STAR RACE, WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT THAT NEXT WEEKEND? “Being a part of it, it is what it is. It is the all stars race and it is important to know that your team is a part of such a prestigious group. A million bucks are on the line and that is an opportunity. It isn’t everyday you get a chance to race for a million dollars.”

WHAT DOES A MILLION DOLLARS MEAN TO CLINT BOWYER? “Same thing it means to you buddy. I don’t know where you come from or how you would be any different but a million dollars is a million dollars. That opportunity only comes around once a year but we will all be ready for it.”

26 RACES HERE AND A LOCAL HAS NEVER WON THE CUP RACE. CARL EDWARDS COULDN’T DO IT. JAMIE MAC DIDN’T DO IT. YOU ARE THE LAST MAN STANDING: “Yeah, and we all, it means the same to all of us. We all want to win here something crazy. You know it, you feel it. Driver intros, everybody experiences a home race at some point right? You get out there and you hear the fans cheering pre-race and stuff like that. It is like, ‘Man, I want to go win in front of this deal because it would be big.”

HOW MUCH HAVE YOU TAUGHT CASH ABOUT YOUR ROOTS HERE? “For him it is about what is meaningful for me, being able to come back and see family and friends. Aunts, uncles, grandmas and people that we don’t get a chance to see very often are always here. It is important for me to have him here in front of them.”

MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
KANSAS SPEEDWAY
DIGITAL ALLY 400
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
MAY 10, 2019

BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 WORLD WIDE TECHNOLOGY CAMARO ZL1 media breakout session highlights:

IT SEEMS LIKE EVERYONE WAS REALLY DRAFTING WITH EACH OTHER.
“The package we have here produces close racing. We were able to tune on our single-car package a little bit and get the balance. Our whole organization has a lot of work to do as far as aerodynamic platforms, but we are trying things. We are all pushing the same envelope, so we’ll see what happens.”

IT’S BEEN REALLY FRUSTRATING SEASON FOR YOU. HOW DO YOU MOVE FORWARD?
“The mental game has been cloudy. We just show up next weekend.”

WITH THE ALL-STAR RACE NEXT WEEKEND, YOU ARE IN THE RUNNING FOR THE FAN VOTE. WHAT WOULD YOUR MESSAGE BE TO THE FANS TO VOTE FOR YOU?
“Thank you for the support. Hopefully we can make it in, but we have a lot of work to do to be competitive.”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR SPONSOR THIS WEEKEND. THEY ARE PRETTY LOCAL, LOCATED IN ST. LOUIS, SO IT’S CONSIDERED A HOME RACE FOR THEM.
“Yeah they are in-house this weekend. They have done a lot for me and jumped on board as a new partner in the sport. They really took a huge investment and dive into this crazy sport; it means a lot. It seems like they are in for the long haul, which is what we need.”

YOU POSTED A COUPLE OF PICTURES LAST WEEK AND YOU SEEMED REALLY DOWN. YOU SAID THAT THE FANS REALLY HELP PICK YOU UP.
“You are the one that always tells me to keep smiling. It’s been a rough moment for a while. The fans and family help a lot. I’m just trying to do everything I can.”

IS THIS THE MOST CHALLENGING STRETCH OF YOUR CAREER SO FAR?
“The on-track is what it is and it will get better over time. You just have to try to be the best that you can be and sometimes it’s not good enough.”

ARE YOU BEATING YOURSELF UP WITH THE PARAMETERS YOU ARE WORKING UNDER?
“I’m my worst critic. It’s my competitive nature.”

YOU’RE FIFTH IN THE ALL-STAR VOTING. WITH CHASE NOT IN THERE, DO YOU FEEL LIKE IT’S WIDE-OPEN AND WHAT IS YOUR OUTLOOK?
“We have to race our way in; that’s the biggest thing.”

HAVE YOU GOTTEN A CHANCE TO SEE WHAT THE CARS ARE GOING TO LOOK LIKE?
“Not yet. I have been traveling all over. I went straight to LA after Dover, so I haven’t been to the shop in two weeks. I hate it for my guys. It kills me not being there, but I’ll get to look at it next week.”

WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER ABOUT THE 600 MILES?
“It’s big. NASCAR does it the best. We do so much around the military, from the start of the season to the end. It’s special to have those names on our cars and represent those families of fallen heroes that paid the ultimate sacrifice. It’s special for all of us. We don’t say it enough, but we are truly grateful for ev
Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.

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

MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
KANSAS SPEEDWAY
DIGITAL ALLY 400
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
MAY 10, 2019

ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 media breakout session highlights:

ON THE FAN VOTE FOR THE UPCOMING ALL-STAR RACE
“I think having the support of internet forums is pretty big when it comes to online votes.”

CAN’T YOU RALLY THE TROOPS?
“Yeah, but I’d rather just go win.”

IF YOU DO HAVE TO RACE YOUR WAY IN, DO YOU HAVE ANY CLUE HOW THINGS WILL GO? HAVE YOU EVEN SEEN WHAT YOUR CAR IS GOING TO LOOK LIKE YET AS FAR AS THE NEW RADIATOR?
“I guess the teams were given the pieces last Friday. So, it’s pretty last minute, for sure. I didn’t see them while I was at the shop this week. So, I’m interested to see what it looks like. Hopefully it will make the racing really good and I’m kind of excited to see what we have there.

“Instead of having a long time to work on them, the guys just work all night and work crazy hours on them. I’m very appreciative of all the hard work going on in the back of the shop because those guys are working a lot of long hours and I think it’s starting to show. But, getting parts and pieces kind of last-minute like that is definitely going to make for some long hours.”

WHAT’S YOUR TAKE ON THE ALL-STAR RACE? YOU WANT TO RACE YOUR WAY IN AND SAY TO TAKE YOUR NAME OFF THE BALLOT. LET’S SAY YOU RACE YOUR WAY IN AND THE WEEKEND GOES PERFECTLY. WHAT’S A MILLION DOLLARS MEAN TO A GUY LIKE YOU?
“Yeah, it means a lot, for sure. We’ve been talking about how much a hundred grand means with the pitch to win big deal for Nationwide and their Small Business Program and that’s ten times that. That would be pretty special. I’m not sure how much I do or don’t get to keep out of it, but I’ll take whatever we can get if we can make it happen.”

COMING FROM 750 HORSEPOWER DOWN TO 550 IS KIND OF LIKE STEPPING ON A SPONGE COMPARED TO WHAT YOU HAD LAST WEEK. HOW MANY LAPS DO YOU THINK YOU CAN GO FLAT IF YOU’RE OUT THERE BY YOURSELF?
“I think the challenge is just keeping your momentum up. The race track is going to keep changing. Tomorrow night is going to be much different than today was. I ran a 36-lap run. Aside from some traffic, I never really lifted. So I was flat the whole time. The next two runs, I started having to lift a little bit and handling came into play a little more. If you’re car is perfect, you’ll be able to run wide-open for quite a while.”

WHEN YOU TAKE THAT POWER AWAY YOU’VE GOT TO FREE THAT CAR UP A LITTLE BIT THAT GETS YOU CLOSER TO THE EDGE?
“I don’t know. The mid-corner speeds are just really high. So, you definitely can’t afford to be tight. That bogs the car down a ton and then in traffic, it obviously makes it really hard to pass. So, you want to be free. This place, being a newer paved race track is always kind of edgy anyway when you do get loose. Yeah, you’re pretty close to the edge but everybody’s got to flight the same thing.”

IS IT MORE CHALLENGING TO RUN THESE CARS ON THE EDGE LIKE IT IS WHEN YOU’RE RUNNING FLAT ALL THE TIME?
“Not here, no. I think here, physically, is probably the same as it was if not easier. A place like Dover, I think was really physical and a long day. This race is, at least for me, my car is good enough that I’ve feel like in the past I’ve been working harder here, but at Dover we were working our butts off, for sure.”

Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.

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

MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
KANSAS SPEEDWAY
DIGITAL ALLY 400
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
MAY 10, 2019

KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 GLOBAL POKER CAMARO ZL1 was the fastest driver in the final practice session today with a speed of 177.731 mph / 30.383 seconds, and met with media to discuss the effects of the new package, preparation for the All-Star Race, the importance of Memorial Day weekend for motorsports, and more.

WITH YOU BEING ONE OF CLINT BOWYER’S FORMER TEAMMATES, WHAT WAS THE RELATIONSHIP YOU HAD WITH HIM WHEN YOU WERE AT STEWART-HAAS?
“Bowyer is one of those true racers that you are always curious as to what he is going to say about his car or how he is going to approach a certain qualifying session or practice session. He always did it light-hearted, did it with fun, did it with swagger. Bowyer always lit up the room with his honesty and made it fun. He’s just one of those true dirt track racers from the Midwest that likes to go out there and sling the dirt. Then, there are days where he puts his collar on, straightens up and comes to the asphalt races.”

YOUR THOUGHTS GOING INTO THE ALL-STAR RACE: HAVE YOU GIVEN ANY CONSIDERATION TO IT AT ALL?
“The All-Star Race next week is with a little different front splitter and a hood configuration. I’m really looking forward to what that package will bring. The package here this weekend has been intense; it has been fun and it has been a challenge already with the way practice has been shaking up. Out there by yourself, you’re wide open and it almost gives you an indication that your car is handling too good. When you jump into the draft and you’re out there in a pack drafting like Talladega, your car is all over the place with pushing, loose, and the way the car is sliding around. It’s a big challenge. The track conditions right now are cool, but it’s still not going to be what it’s like tomorrow night. With next week at the All-Star Race, again it’s a new package, a different track, and there is so much to learn. I think that’s what you’re feeling from a lot of the drivers; the continuity, patterns, and consistency isn’t there right now because each week we go to these tracks for the first time and the packages are all over the place. Even a tire we ran last week is acting completely different at Kansas than what it does at Dover. Right now, a lot of people are just bouncing around like a ping-pong ball on their setups and that’s why there’s the action.”

CAN YOU TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE POKER FACE SPONSORSHIP DEAL YOU HAVE GOING ON THIS WEEK?
“Global Poker is a great advertising campaign to create attention for our brand. With Global Poker, they want everyone, social media wise, to activate onto their site and to send in their best ‘poker face’. There is going to be a chance for a grand prize type of effect for tons of people to have their face on our race car at Martinsville Speedway during the Playoffs. It is a fun initiative, social media and awareness wise, for Global Poker.”

BOWYER IS TURNING 40. SINCE YOU HAVE ALREADY PASSED THAT MILESTONE, CAN YOU GIVE HIM A LITTLE BIT OF ADVICE AS FAR AS WHAT HE HAS TO LOOK FORWARD TO?
“Bowyer will probably be mid-life crisis status. He is going to take it pretty abruptly. With each year that you come back to the tracks, the experience level that you have and the confidence level, I’ve just had to learn to ignore it. I feel like with this package and the way that our sport feels right now on this youth movement is exuberayting and a fun challenge. I feel like I just have to revert back to being 25 again and 40 is just a number.”

YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT TIRES EARLIER. HOW NOTICEABLE IS THE LACK OF TIRE WEAR OR THE DIFFERENCE IN TIRE WEAR COMPARED TO LAST YEAR?
“That’s a good question. It’s tough to really even describe it because, like last week, we were going through the corner around 17 mph quicker and we had the horsepower last week to challenge the car on corner exit. This week, the horsepower is down, so it comes back more into drafting. If you are out there in clean air, you hardly have an issue with tire wear. When you are in dirty air and you are back in the pack, you are working twice as hard and your tire wear really increases. The rich get richer or the fast get faster. When you are up front, you don’t have as much tire wear and tire air pressure build up. When you are in the back or fifth place back to fifteenth, those are the guys that are working the hardest and those are the ones that see the most tire wear and the most air pressure build up.”

IT IS INTERESTING WHAT YOU SAID ABOUT THE DIFFERENCE IN PACKAGES EVERY WEEK. IS THAT WHY THE DRIVERS ARE A LITTLE FRUSTRATED?
“It’s basically the same package at the 1.5-mile tracks, but we are going to the tracks for the first time. Kansas is acting completely different than what we thought and the most recent notes we had was Texas. Texas has two completely different ends of the race track, where it’s high-banked in turns 3 and 4 and flat (or not banked as much) in turns 1 and 2. Our group at Ganassi feels this is almost like Vegas and that was from March. We are jumping back two months, but we have also learned so much since March. I think when we come back here for the Playoff Race, it will be much calmer, so-to-speak.”

IT HAS ALSO BEEN DESCRIBED TO US AS MORE OF A MENTAL GAME, LIKE A CHESS GAME, WHICH SEEMS TO FIT RIGHT UP YOUR ALLEY AS STRATEGIC RACERS.
“There is the Talladega and Daytona effect that has happened now at the 1.5-mile tracks because we are wide open, but the handling still comes into play. What happens is that it’s more like a light switch and that’s where the good teams will learn how to take off the sharpness and the edginess the cars have and that way you race better in the pack.”

NEXT WEEK WE GO BACK TO CHARLOTTE AND LEAD UP TO THE COCA-COLA 600. WHEN YOU DID THE DOUBLE A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO, CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE PREPARATION YOU DID PHYSCIALLY BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER SO YOU COULD PHYSICALLY GO FOR BOTH RACES?
“For me, I started January 1 as a mental approach to working out twice as hard. The gym was three miles from the house, so I would run to the gym, then do the exercises, and then run back home. I was really prepared with all of the extra physical activity. I checked in with Jimmie Johnson about nutrition and adjusting things for the month of May. I went on with a super low carb diet the week of and then carb-load
on race weekend. I felt like Superman. With the preparation for myself mentally, physically, and nutritionally, the actual 1,100 miles weren’t easier than I thought, but I was prepared months in advance.”

CAN YOU DESCRIBE WHAT A BIG WEEKEND FOR RACING ALL OVER THE WORLD MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND IS?
“I love Memorial Day weekend. It’s the chance for all of motorsports to shine. I was always looking forward to getting the USA Today and seeing what they would put on there for Memorial Day Weekend in the sports section. It’s like an unofficial weekend for motorsports to shine and it kind of kicks off summer. Kids are getting close to getting out of school and you always hoped that it motivated families to come out to our events and race tracks around the country.”

YOU MENTIONED ALL OF THE NEW VARIABLES THAT ARE NOW IN PLACE. HOW DO YOU, AS A DRIVER, ADJUST MENTALLY TO KNOWING THAT THE NOTEBOOK OF DATA YOU HAVE IN YOUR HEAD IS PROBABLY NOW THROWN OUT THE WINDOW?
“It has been wild. Everything seems to be different. Even for media sessions, we now have to do media after qualifying and that was usually just for the top guys and the top rookie. There are media sessions for the top manufacturer or the fastest laps in practice. There are so many new things that you just have to roll with. I think a lot of the drivers’ frustrations was the process in qualifying and now we have that nipped. I think there is a new freshness, new feel. The racing action is what I think we need to try to focus more on.”

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 – Matt DiBenedetto
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Kansas Speedway – May 10, 2019

Leavine Family Racing driver Matt DiBenedetto was made available to the media in Kansas:

MATT DiBENEDETTO, No. 95 Digital Momentum/Hubspot Toyota Camry, Leavine Family Racing

Your team owner has owned Twitter this week. Can you give us some insight into his personality?

“I’m definitely proud to drive for Bob (Leavine, Team Owner), because he’s a really, really passionate individual. He always wants to be a man of the people. I guess that’s the best way to explain him. He’s responding to so many people, and he’s so new to social media, so it’s kind of like when younger kids get on social media and are on it non-stop and obsessed with it. He has been there quite a bit. But just in general, to sum up Bob, he’s just a passionate individual about everything he does and he wants to be a man of the people, just one of the regular guys.”

You are one of the leaders of the Fan Vote. Do you have any hopes of winning it?

“Yeah, I thought that this is what this media availability is for! All of the ‘Vote for Guido’ campaigns. I think a lot of people have seen we have made a lot of big pushes in the past, but I have been fortunate that my popularity or risen through the ranks has risen over the past few years, so I am in the best possible position I have ever been in. So I think we have a shot, by far, this year at winning the Fan Vote. I have been asked in the past why it is so important to me and the race team, but it is, it’s a big deal for your team, your sponsors, for everybody. So it’s a big deal.”

Given your good runs this year, how has your confidence level changed versus years past?
“Confidence is definitely something I have never lacked for sure. That is just how you have to be to be successful in this industry. As far as our performance this year, I’m not happy with our results just due to random circumstances. I mean, we have had great runs, great speed in our cars, but some of the results have made you want to bash your head against the wall, because it just doesn’t reflect how good we are as a team. Like the Daytona 500, we led the most laps and arguably had a dominate car and you crash. Phoenix, we had a good car, running 10th to 12th, and we had an alternator issue, and then results show 27th. Last weekend, we had to start at the tail, and had a car that could have probably ran top 10, and we got stuck in 20th. I could go on and on. The team does an amazing job. Toyota is nothing but fast race cars this year, and I just hope to get into a rhythm that we are getting the finishes that reflect the power of our team.”

Do you think you have a better chance of winning the Fan Vote or winning one of the stages of the Open?

“I think we should have a shot at racing our way in. A really good shot based on the speed that our cars have had this year. That is the ultimate goal and the plan. But it is also nice to have the support of everybody and the ‘Vote for Guido’ campaign and the cool response we got to the nickname, I don’t want to call it change, I have been called Guido my whole life, but for some people, change.”

What has the transition been like with the new team and working with Wheels (Mike Wheeler, crew chief)?

“It definitely has been a big transition. Not only for me, but the whole team because there has been so much change: switching to Toyota, the alliance with JGR, all of that has been great. My job is a whole lot busier this year, and I have been fortunate to grow and mature a lot over the years. This would be a much tougher task to take on if I was a rookie or very inexperienced. It has been nice because we have guys that are experienced coming in, like Wheels. It is a lot of transition for the team, but when you have Wheels, who can come in and lead the team and a lot of good people; it has gone smoothly and we have a lot of speed in our cars.”

Do you believe LFR is in a position to expand to two cars?

“I don’t really know. I think I am so focused on my stuff and my team and trying to get in a rhythm. I will be honest with you; I just haven’t paid it enough or any attention to give you a good answer. Probably some of the guys on the team would be better ones to ask than me.”

You took a big gamble to make this move. What has the transition been like from a personal level?

“Thankful for sure is the word that I would use and lucky, which has been my whole career to get to this point. It was the most stressful time of my life when I made that decision. But it has been my whole life to get to the Cup Series and I want to win races, and I want to compete, so that is why I took that gamble and bet on myself. I always put a lot of pressure and stress on myself to perform and do the best possible job that I can. My job is just a whole lot busier, a whole lot more going on. Between being at TRD a lot, and at the race shop a ton and looking at data, so I’m pretty much seven days a week this year, which is what I like. I love and life for this stuff so much, so when we haven’t got some of the results and finishes due to just some poor luck and circumstances. It really affects my week and my life at home because I don’t do or really live anything other than this.”

How is your dog?

“That is an important question. Brian is doing good. He got bit by a copperhead yesterday. His face is pretty swollen up, but we rushed him to the hospital and he is doing okay. He is doing better today; the swelling is starting to go down. He is on some pain meds.”

MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
KANSAS SPEEDWAY
DIGITAL ALLY 400
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
MAY 10, 2019

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 met with media and discussed new rules changes, his expectations at Kansas, the fan vote for the upcoming All-Star race, and more. Full Transcript:

INAUDIBLE
“I don’t know. There are a lot of takeaways. The biggest takeaway for us is just having a victory this early, which is nice. Aside from that, we’ve had some mediocre runs. We’ve had a couple of races where I felt like I had an opportunity to win and some races where we didn’t have a fighting chance to win. So, having a victory is nice, and that’s our biggest take-away right now.

INAUDIBLE
“To continue to be dynamic because everything is just changing and evolving. Every time something changes, it takes a lot of effort to figure out what’s the best thing for that change. When something does change, it offers opportunity to catch-up or get behind. So, making sure you’re able to make changes and do them quick because the rules have changed rapidly.”

HOW IS HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS AS A WHOLE FEELING GOING INTO THE FIRST 1.5-MILE TRACK SINCE TEXAS WITH THE IMPROVEMENTS OVER THE LAST COUPLE OF RACES?”
“I think it’s better, for sure. I still think we have room to improve and do a better job yet. But, definitely the performances over the past couple of weeks have been nice. And yeah, I think that helps. So, we’ll see. I see you get your report card every week, so we’ll find out.”

WHAT ARE YOUR EARLY OBSERVATIONS ON KANSAS?
“Honestly, it’s kind of hard to say because of the groups in which we were out there driving around. It just wasn’t exactly like the race because you’d have guys getting up to speed, which would kind of jumble-up the packs and stuff. So, honestly, until we race I really don’t know. So, we’ll see.”

ARE YOU ENCOURAGED BY SEEING ANOTHER ONE OF YOUR HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS TEAMMATES, ALEX BOWMAN, SHOWING SUCCESS MEANING POTENTIAL SUCCESS ACROSS THE BOARD, NOT JUST WITH THE NO. 9 TEAM?
“As a company, that’s good, right? If we’re all running better. We’re all increasing the health of Hendrick Motorsports, which is at the end of the day, I’d say a good thing. We’re also pushing each other to do a better job. So, yeah, I think it’s good.”

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS AND STRATEGIES GOING INTO THE ALL-STAR RACE NEXT WEEKEND?
“To be honest with you, I don’t even know what the rules are next week, so I couldn’t tell you. But I think it will be exciting to be in the race for the first time and be locked-in. And whatever package it is next week will be great. And, I look forward to being a part of the big show, for sure.”

INAUDIBLE
“I have lost track. So, we’ll just roll with it and whatever it is, is. I’m going to push as hard as I can with whatever the rules are. So, I look forward to it.”

YOUR FANS SEEM TO REALLY BE ENJOYING THE FACT THAT YOU’RE ENJOYING IT A LITTLE MORE. IS IT OKAY WHEN PEOPLE ARE NUTS OVER YOU WHEN YOU WIN? ARE YOU MORE COMFORTABLE WITH THAT NOW?
“I don’t really feel like I’ve changed a whole lot. From that perspective, I think it’s always nice to do good or get a victory or running well or however that comes about is probably a good thing. So, yeah, I don’t feel like I’ve changed a whole lot. I’ve always tried to enjoy it. So, I don’t know. Good question.”

WITH THE NEW 550 HORSEPOWER ENGINE PACKAGE, HOW LONG CAN YOU RUN FLAT OUT? CAN YOU RUN FLAT OUT? AND IF SO, HOW DIFFICULT IS THAT GOING TO BE TO SET SOMEBODY UP GETTING UP OFF THE CORNER FOR THE NEXT CORNER?
“It’s definitely going to be tough. You can run wide open for a long time and when you’re by yourself, you really should be able to run wide open the whole time. And if you do lift, it’s very little. Seems like when you do lift, it’s because of a guy, or you ended up picking the same lane as him, or something like that. So, I think it’s just going to be about going where the guy in front of you isn’t, to get out of his wake. But, as crazy as it is with 550 horsepower, the corner speeds still feel pretty high. So, I think you’re kind of asking the question on how the draft is going to play and what not. I still think it’s going to be about getting runs and using that draft to your advantage. But, it’s just going to be about the clean air. It’s not going to be like a Talladega or Daytona look to it, for sure. It’s still going to have to be where the guy in front of you isn’t, to where you have your car in fresh air, which is always important at these places. Like I said, the corner speeds are still pretty high so we’re still not going slow enough to create that kind of racing and just be comfortable all the time and pushing and shoving and things like that all the time, I don’t think.”

YOU HAVE THE LAST FOUR WINS FOR CHEVY. DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU ARE CARRYING THE LOAD FOR THE BOWTIES?
“It’s nice to have wins, obviously. I think as a manufacturer, the more that we all run better, we’re all going to help each other much like Alex (Bowman’s) good runs the past couple weeks. They are good for the company as well. Just like I think Chevrolet having good runs is good for the manufacturer. I don’t necessarily think we’re carrying it. Any of the Chevrolets could have won Talladega and that wouldn’t even be a relevant question. It’s nice to have won some races but no, I think that narrative could have changed pretty easily a couple of weeks ago to somebody else.”

WHAT’S DIFFERENT COMING BACK AFTER YOU WON HERE IN THE FALL?
“A lot is different. Obviously the rules and being a nighttime race versus being an afternoon race here in the Fall. And, it’s pretty cool here this weekend. Obviously the race is going to look different from what we saw here then. So, I’m excited to see what it is. It’s definitely been a different practice session than what we’ve seen at these other places where we’ve have a big spoiler and high drag and stuff.”

YOU DON’T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT THE FAN VOTE THIS YEAR FOR THE ALL-STAR
“Yeah, I’m just excited to be in the race for the first time, which is really nice and not have to worry about it.”

DO YOU CARE WHO WINS? ARE YOU ROOTING FOR SOMEBODY IN THE FAN VOTE?
“That’s a good question. To be honest with you, I need to look and see who’s even in it. My teammates are in it. But, I don’t know. I’m going to have to look. We might pick and underdog. Teammates are the obvious ones, right? It would be politically correct. I could pick one of them or both of them or want everybody to do good. But, there might be somebody cool we’d like to see win it over just the politically correct answer.”

YOU WERE SO GREAT OUT FRONT LAST WEEK AT DOVER. A LOT OF GUYS SAID IT WAS TOUGH PASSING. IT SEEMS LIKE YOU CAN COME FROM THE BACK OF THE FIELD, BUT ONCE YOU GET UP TO LIKE THE TOP 15 GUYS, THE CARS ARE ALL THE SAME AND THE TALENT IS PRETTY SIMILAR. HOW ARE YOU GOING TO DISTINGUISH YOURSELF AND BE THE GUY THAT CAN MAKE THAT MOVE SHORT OF DOING IT ON A RESTART?
“It’s going to be tough. I think you’re going to have to be smart with everything. That’s where pit road and the sequence of pit stops and when you pit and how you get on and off pit road; those are the details I think are even more important now. But, it was tough last weekend, for sure; especially there at the end. It was very difficult to make something happen. So, it just puts more emphasis on situations like restarts and pit road and pit stops. It’s not just how fast your pit stop is, but how fast you get down pit road and how fast you get inside your box and get stopped and let your guys go to work and how close you are to your mark and all those things are just that much more important. That’s why you see the guys who are really good at that stuff typically towards the front because they’re gaining spots at times or people tend to forget about.”

WHEN STUFF LIKE THAT HAPPENS, DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE A VOICE WITH NASCAR WHERE YOU WANT TO POINT THAT STUFF OUT TO THEM? OR ARE YOU JUST LIKE HEY, I’LL RACE WHATEVER AND WAIT UNTIL LATER IN YOUR CAREER TO MAKE THOSE TYPES OF OPINIONS?
“It’s a good question. I think there is certainly a right way to maybe bring it up. Frankly, I’ve tried to voice my opinion at different times or in those meetings that we’re supposed to voice our opinions in. And at the end of the day, I’ve come to the realization, and maybe this will change as time goes, but I just don’t think that my opinion matters to the people who make the rules. Really and truly, I’m not sure that it should, right? Why do the owners and the drivers and the teams even have a voice in some of that stuff? When it comes down to it, just make the rules and be done with it. We’re racing. Either you like it or your don’t.”

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.