Category: XFINITY Series PR

SS GreenLight Racing | NASCAR Xfinity Series
Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway | EchoPark 250

Fast Facts
No. 08 SS GreenLight Racing Team:
Driver: Joe Graf Jr. (@JoeGrafJr)
Primary Partner(s): Core Development Group | EAT SLEEP RACE
Manufacturer: Chevrolet Camaro
Crew Chief: Patrick Donahue
Starting Position for EchoPark 250: 27th based on random qualifying draw
Driver Points Position: 23rd
Owner Points Position: 26th

Chassis Intel: SSGLR Chassis No. 711; competed last at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway on May 25, 2020 (Start: 28th | Finish: 19th)

Chassis No. 711 also ran at Atlanta Motor Speedway in February 2019 with a 16th place after a 35th place starting position.

Engine: Earnhardt-Childress Racing Engines (ECR)

Joe Graf Jr. Xfinity Series Atlanta Motor Speedway Starts: Joe Graf Jr. will make his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut in Saturday afternoon’s EchoPark 250 at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway.

Joe Graf Jr. Xfinity Series Career Intermediate Nuggets: In four NASCAR Xfinity Series intermediate track races, he has been running at three of the four races. He holds an average starting position of 24.5 and an average result of 22.2 with four (4) laps led.

Joe Graf Jr. ARCA Menards Series Career Intermediate Nuggets: In eight career ARCA intermediate track races, Graf Jr. has two top-10 finishes. He has been running at seven of the eight races. He holds an average starting position of 11.8 and an average result of 12.9 with five (5) laps led.

From The Pit Box: Industry veteran Patrick Donahue is Joe Graf Jr.’s crew chief. He will crew chief his 161st NASCAR Xfinity Series race on Saturday afternoon. In his previous 160 races, he has two wins, eight top-five and 14 top-10 finishes to his resume.

He has four races as crew chief at Atlanta with a track best finish of 12th in 2012 with 2003 Xfinity Series champion Brian Vickers.

Follow on Social Media: For more on Joe Graf Jr. visit JoeGrafJr.com, like him on Facebook (Joe Graf Jr.), follow him on Twitter (@JoeGrafJr) and Instagram (@joegrafjr).

Joe Graf Jr. Pre-Race Quotes:

On Atlanta Motor Speedway: “I’m upbeat about going to Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend. Even though I have never been there, as a team we are going there with the same mentality we have had for the other races I have never been to this season – optimistic.

“Without practice or qualifying, it is going to take a little getting used to but hopefully by the competition caution, we’ll be in a position to make some positive adjustments and contend for another strong finish in our No. 08 CORE Development Group | EAT SLEEP RACE Chevrolet Camaro.”

On Bristol Motor Speedway Career Best Xfinity Finish: “I was thrilled to come out of Bristol with a lead lap top-15 finish. We weren’t where we needed to be at the start of the race, but Patrick (Donahue, crew chief) did a great job making adjustments on our No. 08 CORE Development Group | EAT SLEEP RACE Chevrolet Camaro throughout the race to keep us in the hunt.

“We came up a little short of a top-10 finish, but that’s a good goal to fight for when we come back to Bristol later this year.”

Race Information:

The EchoPark 250 (163 laps | 251.02 miles) is the eighth of 33 NASCAR Xfinity Series races on the 2020 schedule. The 37-car field will take the green flag shortly after 3:30 p.m. on Sat., Jun. 6, 2020 with live coverage on FOX, the Performance Racing Network (Radio) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Satellite Radio, Channel 90). All times are local (Eastern).

About SS Green Light Racing:

As one of the most tenured teams in all of NASCAR, SS GreenLight Racing has been a developmental hub for drivers looking to climb the ranks. Led by owner and former driver Bobby Dotter, the team has fielded entries in either the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series or the Xfinity Series competition since 2001.

Coming off a successful 2019 Xfinity campaign, SS GreenLight Racing looks to build further momentum with their two-car program in 2020.

Ross Chastain Notes
Best start at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS): 15th (2019)
Best finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the NXS: 14th (2019)

Kaulig Racing Notes
Best start at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the NXS: 13th (2016 & 2019)
Best finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the NXS: 8th (2019)

Race Notes
Saturday, June 6 at 4:30pm ET on FOX
Stages: 40/80/163 Laps

Ross Chastain Quote
“Atlanta time again – take two! The last time we went down to race at Atlanta, the whole world shut down. A worldwide pandemic. NASCAR has done an awesome job to get us back to the track. I hate, and we all do, that all the fans can’t be there, but we are going to put on a show for you this Saturday in the Xfinity Series. I’ll be in the familiar No. 10 Nutrien Ag Solutions car, with the C2 Freight colors, the green and white, on AJ Allmendinger’s 16 car. It’s been awesome to have AJ as a teammate. I didn’t get many quality laps at Bristol with our blown tire, but AJ and Justin had good runs. Justin came around to lap me after we had all the damage and I was cheering for him in the car. He was running the leader down. That was really cool. There’s been a lot of progress for all three of the Kaulig Racing cars, and we will try to do it again this weekend.”

About Kaulig Racing™
Kaulig Racing™ is a full-time multi-car NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) team, owned by award winning entrepreneur, Matt Kaulig. Established in 2016 Kaulig Racing™ has made the NXS Playoffs consecutively each season since the playoff system started. Kaulig Racing fields two full-time entries; the No. 10 Chevrolet driven by Ross Chastain and the No. 11 Chevrolet driven by Justin Haley, as well as, a part-time entry – the No. 16 driven by AJ Allmendinger. Kaulig Racing™ earned two wins in 2019 and have come to be one of the top competitors on track each weekend. To learn more about the team, visit kauligracing.com.

About Nutrien Ag Solutions™
Nutrien Ag Solutions™ is the retail division of Nutrien™ Ltd. It combines global innovation with local expertise to provide full-acre solutions through a network of trusted crop consultants at retail locations around the world. Nutrien Ag Solutions strives to help growers achieve the highest yields with the most sustainable solutions possible, offering a wide selection of products, including our proprietary brands: Loveland Products, Inc.®, Proven® Seed and Dyna-Gro® Seed.

Toyota Racing – Harrison Burton
NASCAR Xfinity Series Quotes

ATLANTA (June 4, 2020) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Harrison Burton was made available to media via videoconference prior to the EchoPark 250 this Saturday:

HARRISON BURTON, No. 20 DEX/Hunt Brother’s Pizza Toyota Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing

What are your expectations for Atlanta?

“My biggest expectation is to just go out and perform like we always do. I think there is an added bit of pressure with the Dash 4 Cash and things like that are going on that are super exciting. I think my expectations of my race team are at the highest level in any given situation, and for me as well. It starts with the driver and it starts with the crew chief; and then we can all work together and have the right mindset for this race. There’s obviously a little race in the race with the Dash 4 Cash, which is exciting, but the main goal is to win the race and do as well as we can no matter what.”

Do you think we are to the point of the season where we have a clear picture on who the championship players are going to be?

“I think yes and no. There’s always comers and goers in a season. You see in Cup, Xfinity and Trucks, guys that run really good early, and sometimes they kind of get complacent on that. They feel over secure in the fact that we are going to go out and perform well every weekend because we did good this weekend and that doesn’t always mean that. You can go to California for example in our case, and we can win, and then we can go to the next weekend and run 11th or 12th or 14th or 15th. If we don’t our job every single weekend – that’s what is so hard about racing. It’s always evolving. Always changing. I think there’s definitely – you have an idea of the guys to beat. There’s always going to be some sort of relevant change in power rankings and things like that, just like every other sport.”

How do you feel about the start to your season?

“That’s obviously a great thing to have a win to kind of lean back on. There are races where I felt like I could have done a better job. There are always things to work on, which is great. That’s something that’s really great about my team. We are really honest with each other – with everyone at JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing). It’s ‘hey, the car needs help here, but here is what I could done too. Then you kind of formulate what your plan of attack is for the next week to kind of build on that. So yeah, it’s obviously a good start to the season. You want to win every single weekend, and that’s not always completely possible. You try your hardest and try to make it work the best you can. Fortunately, we have a win to kind of lean back on and hopefully, we can get some more.”

You mentioned after California that you thought you and your teammates (Riley Herbst and Brandon Jones) could be the next big three in the Xfinity Series. How close are the three of you?

“We are not far away. I think Riley has been fast very often and has had situations where he hasn’t finished where he has run or you go to Brandon. He had a chance to win in California – when I got a win. He goes and beats Kyle Busch in Phoenix. Things like that are team is doing well. I think we are missing just that little bit of consistency where ‘hey, all three of us are in the top five every week.’ That’s obviously the goal that’s way up here – to have three cars in the top five every weekend, but that is what the big three was last year. Those guys were up there every single week. They were always fast. That’s what I know we are capable of. Everyone here has the ability to do that, and I think that’s what our goals are – is to race each other for the win every weekend hopefully, not be mad at each other in the Monday morning meetings afterwards.”

With the Dash 4 Cash, what is the incentive of the extra $100,000?

“I think that it does incentivize that. You saw in years past that guys have been really aggressive to win the Dash 4 Cash. It puts on great racing. It reminds me a lot of the old Cup races that were worth a million dollars to win. That always seemed like it put more pressure on everything. It was a Playoff like atmosphere. That’s good. It’s a good little test for us. The guys that are in the Dash 4 Cash, along with us, are guys that you are going to have to beat to win a championship. This is a tiny little moment – almost like a Playoff race. The incentive for me is more competitive than it is monetary. There is obviously a lot of things that you can do with that money with putting it back into the team, with your crew members, and things with charities and things like that, which are all things that I’ve thought about. Things that I’m really excited that if I do get the opportunity to win the Dash 4 Cash, I think there’s a lot of good things you can do with that money to help people out in tough times. That’s exciting right? That’s a very cool thing to add on to the list, but the biggest thing that fires me up is competition. No matter what. That competition of these really fast race cars that I’m going to have to beat with this prize money on the line. It’s time to go get it. That’s really cool. What you do with that money afterwards is kind of something you figure out once you win it because you never want to focus on that. You just need to focus on doing your job and doing the best of your ability, as good as you can.”

I’m curious what the events of the past week have impacted you.

“It’s been interesting. I think everyone has taken a look at themselves and said ‘How can I be better?’ and help this situation. I’ve seen a lot of people do a lot of great things in the NASCAR community. I think the peaceful protests are great way to have people’s voices be heard and things like that. But what is really exciting also – along with that – is sports have a way of bringing people together. People rooting for a driver together or working on a team together or things like that bring people together from all different places in the world which is amazing. I think that when you have the opportunity to be that sport that it’s kind of on us to help people in need – and you can help bring people together – that is an amazing opportunity. I’m excited for that as well. I think there’s a lot of great things that are going on. People that are reflecting personally on what they could do to be better, and I know there has been a lot of conversations amongst a lot of people about how can we make a positive change from this tragedy.”

Are you thinking about anything that you can do? Where are you in that process?

“I think there’s things that everyone can do. It’s a tough situation to look at. It’s a tough thing for me as a young kid trying to figure things out in the NASCAR world and to be honest, I’ve always been so focused on racing. That’s been my whole life. The more we get into this year, it seems like the more I’m focusing on other things, focusing on the world as a whole. You realize that racing isn’t the whole world. You get so caught up in, ‘I got to win Atlanta next week. I got to go run as good as I can because this is my life, this what I’ve worked for, this is what I love to do.’ Which is all true, but there’s also the real world going on and so many issues out there as well that people are going through. I think there’s a lot of people that are looking introspectively and trying to see what they can do to help.”

# # #

About Toyota

Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in the U.S. and North America for more than 60 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands. During that time, Toyota has created a tremendous value chain as our teams have contributed to world-class design, engineering, and assembly of more than 40 million cars and trucks in North America, where we have 14 manufacturing plants, 15 including our joint venture in Alabama (10 in the U.S.), and directly employ more than 47,000 people (over 36,000 in the U.S.). Our 1,800 North American dealerships (nearly 1,500 in the U.S.) sold nearly 2.8 million cars and trucks (nearly 2.4 million in the U.S.) in 2019.

Through the Start Your Impossible campaign, Toyota highlights the way it partners with community, civic, academic and governmental organizations to address our society’s most pressing mobility challenges. We believe that when people are free to move, anything is possible. For more information about Toyota, visit www.toyotanewsroom.com.

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR XFINITY Series (NCS)
Friday, June 4, 2020
EVENT: EchoPark 250 Media Availability

Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 98 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang in the NASCAR XFINITY Series, currently leads the point standings and has two wins this season. He was a guest earlier today as part of a media availability session and answered questions about Saturday’s scheduled event at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

CHASE BRISCOE, No. 98 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang – HOW ARE YOU APPROACHING THIS WEEKEND? “I feel like Atlanta is gonna be a really good track for us. I feel like as a team and as a company we’re really good on mile-and-a-halves and specifically really slick mile-and-a-halves and Atlanta is definitely one of those race tracks. They won there two years ago with Harvick. We were running, I think, third or fourth last year and blew a tire, so I’m really confident going into there and it’s obviously really exciting running for an extra $100,000 this week thanks to XFINITY, so just looking forward to it. I feel like our team has really good momentum now, coming off a good finish at Bristol, and hopefully we can continue that onto Atlanta.”

YOU MENTIONED THE DASH 4 CASH. WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR TEAMS TO HAVE THAT CHANCE TO WIN AN EXTRA $100,000? “It’s a huge thing. For XFINITY to put up literally $400,000 as a bonus if you were able to sweep that, that’s like a brand new sponsor coming onboard for nearly half the season, so it’s a huge deal just to win one of them. If you could win four, it would literally change your entire program, so it’s a huge thing for us. I think everybody financially is struggling right now with everything going on with the COVID stuff, so for a team to be able to have that swing from no new money coming in to potentially $400,000 is a huge thing. I’m just thankful that XFINITY does that. They also obviously give us $100,000, but they do it in local communities and go and donate money as well, so it’s really a great thing they have going on.”

DO YOU FEEL WE’RE DEEP ENOUGH INTO THE SEASON TO KNOW WHO THE TITLE CONTENDERS WILL BE? “Yeah, I think you have a pretty good idea. We’ve run enough race tracks now, a good enough variety. For the most part, the playoffs are all short tracks or mile-and-a-halves, so you’ve kind of seen where guys are at on the mile-and-a-half side and now we have a short track. I think going in through the season you have a pretty good idea of who is gonna be kind of the guys that you’re gonna have to race against and I think those guys that you kind of expect have kind of been the same guys that have been running really good right now, so eventually as we go it’s gonna get more and more clear, but I think you definitely have a good idea of six to eight guys right now that are gonna be really hard to beat all year long no matter what race track you go to.”

WHO ARE THOSE SIX TO EIGHT AND HOW TO YOU STACK UP? “You have Allgaier. You have Gragson. Cindric. Justin Haley has been really good lately. Ross. There are so many guys that have been good. Harrison has been really good for is rookie season, so the same characters, I think, that you’ve seen up front for the most part are gonna be the same guys you’re gonna have to race against for a championship. With the race track changing now, going from Homestead to Phoenix, I think Allgaier is certainly the guy you gotta hope doesn’t get to the final four just because he’s so good at Phoenix. I think that changes a little bit of the narrative of who you’re going to have to beat for the championship just with the race track changing, but I feel like we’re as good as anybody right now. We weren’t very good at Bristol, but we were still able to salvage a second-place thanks to some good restarts at the end, but mile-and-a-half program-wise I feel like we’re just as good as anybody right now, if not a little bit better, especially on the slick ones, so hopefully we can use that to our advantage with Homestead and Atlanta coming up. Those are probably the slickest mile-and-a-halves we go to all year long, so if we could rattle off two or three wins right here, that would be huge for playoff points and everything else to really set us up good for the later half of the season.”

WHAT IS THE FEELING WHEN YOU ROLL OFF AT ATLANTA? “Just trying to figure out what the race car is gonna do from a balance standpoint and what you’re gonna need over the long run. Atlanta is a really fast mile-and-a-half, especially for how slick it is and that’s a place where balance is a huge thing, just because your car is never gonna handle perfect there. It’s just a matter of close can you get it and I think there it’s one of the races where we go there and the balance changes so much from the beginning of a run to the end of a run. Even the race track is gonna change just with temperature and where we start. It’s kind of the mid-afternoon and it’s probably gonna get a little hotter at first, but then it’s gonna cool off, so just trying to figure out what your car needs. You’re only gonna get two or three shots at it to make a big adjustment, so just trying to make sure your steer your team in the right direction. We don’t know where we’re gonna start yet. Hopefully, we can start up front and be in clean air. I highly doubt that happens. I think we’ve started 11th every week, but we’ll see what happens. I think that’s the biggest thing is just making sure you make the right adjustment at the beginning so you don’t have to start chasing yourself and going back the other direction.”

HOW CONFIDENT DO YOU FEEL? “Yeah, I feel really confident at Atlanta. Results-wise they don’t look very good, but I’ve always been running up front there and something happens at the end of races. Atlanta is one of my favorite race tracks. I’d say Homestead is my favorite and Atlanta is probably third or fourth just because we’re slipping and sliding around. I like the weather. It looks like it’s gonna be around 85-90 degrees so that’s even better. We’re gonna be slipping and sliding even more, so I’m definitely looking forward to getting to Atlanta and, like I said earlier, racing for an extra $100,000. That adds a lot more intensity to the race. It even makes the race within the race between us four a lot of fun.”

DO YOU THINK WE’LL SEE SOME SORT OF ALTERATION TO PRACTICE SCHEDULES WHEN THINGS RETURN TO NORMAL? “I think this year you’ve already seen shortened practices. Last year, I think we had two 50-minute practices and this year I think we get one-hour practice and then one like 15 or 20-minute practice, so they’re already shortening it. From a driver standpoint, I personally like it like a lot of the others just because I feel it puts a little more in the driver’s hands just because everybody starts off on an even playing field. Nobody’s car is gonna driver perfect. You have to figure it out and adapt, but at the same time it’s super-important for the crew chief and the team to unload somewhat close because you still have to be close. You can’t be way off in left field and still make something happen, but I think we could definitely limit practice. I think it would be nice to have practice. Looking back on it, if I was a rookie, a perfect example of going to Darlington, it would have been tough to start the race and try to figure it out, so I think 15-20 minutes of practice, just enough to make sure your travels are set, you’re not gonna bottom out or anything crazy, and then the drivers can at least get a look on the race track and shake everything down. I think that’s maybe a potential thing we could do to sort of practice, but I like it. It takes me back to dirt racing days, where you show up you get two laps and you’re racing. I’ve enjoyed it. I feel like it’s been good for our team because we’re typically pretty close in practice as it is when we unload, so it’s been good for us.”

INDIANAPOLIS ANNOUNCED TODAY THEY ARE GOING TO RACE WITHOUT FANS. WHAT WILL IT BE LIKE TO GO THERE WITHOUT FANS? “Yeah, that’s a bummer. I was bummed out this morning when I read it just because, for me, that’s going home and I get to see so many people and so many of my fans that I don’t get to see anywhere else. I always look really forward to that race because of that reason, so I was pretty bummed out when I saw that there was no fans, but, obviously, I understand why we’re not gonna have fans. That doesn’t make it any easier. That place is so fun to go to for me and get to see everybody, and even ride around the little driver intro car and ride around and have everybody waving, so it’s just a special weekend for me every time and all of my family gets to go, and they don’t get to go to very many races as an entire family, so I’m definitely bummed out, but we still get to race at Indianapolis. It’s gonna be a huge deal to be able to be the first race on the road course in the stock cars. That’s gonna be a huge opportunity and it’s gonna be an awesome weekend still, regardless with us and IndyCar and then the Cup Series on Sunday, so it will definitely be fun to watch it on TV, but we wish fans could be there. It’s gonna be a big deal I think next year whenever we go back.”

THOUGHTS ON POSTPONING THE BC39? “Which I was going to. That’s one of the few dirt races every year I get to run on and it’s turned into a huge deal. Everybody wants to go and support Bryan and then from the dirt side of things so many of those guys dream of getting to race at Indianapolis and that’s their only avenue to do it, so it’s a huge race. It’s one of the biggest dirt races of the year, really. I would say as far as prestige goes it’s in the top five. Everybody wants to win that race. It means so much to everybody because of who Bryan was as a person and as well as it being at Indianapolis. Hopefully, it will come back next year. I think the first two years it’s happened it has been a huge success and hopefully it can continue to be.”

DOES THE CURRENT ENVIRONMENT MAKE THIS DASH 4 CASH EVEN MORE PRESSURE PACKED? “I don’t think it adds any pressure. I think anytime you add that amount of money guys are gonna be up on the wheel even more than what they normally are, so I don’t think it adds anymore pressure. Certainly, from a team side of things, I think they’re gonna be making sure every detail is correct to make sure they don’t mess it up. From a driver’s standpoint, I’m going 100 percent, whether we’re racing for a dollar or $100,000. I just want to win as bad as I can, so I don’t think that changes from my side of things, but I think the teams will probably put a little more detail in on just making sure everything is perfect and precise. Pit crews are gonna be on it, so I think as a company I’m sure Stewart-Haas knows what opportunity that creates. If we were able to go win all four, like I said earlier, that’s nearly a half-million dollars, so that’s a huge thing to be able to have halfway through the year that you would never expect to get. It’s a huge opportunity and hopefully we can capitalize on that. Obviously, winning four would be a huge feat, but if you can just win one or two of those that’s still like a brand new sponsor coming onboard.”

HOW HAVE THE EVENT THAT HAVE HAPPENED IN THIS COUNTRY THE PAST WEEK AFFECTED YOU? “I put out a statement on Twitter the other day. Our God says, ‘Love your neighbor like you love yourself.’ And I think that’s the perfect way to put it. We all need more love. It’s obviously a terrible situation that happened and I’m sure everybody wishes it wouldn’t have been like that, but if we all had more love and compassion that would be the perfect situation to all come together as an entire universe and as a country obviously as well. That’s really the best way I can put it is we just need more love and if everybody loved their neighbor like we loved ourselves, then it would be a lot better place.”

DO YOU HAVE A FITNESS ROUTINE AND DOES IT CHANGE BASED ON THE TRACK? “The fitness thing with this COVID situation has not put it to a halt, but just changed it a ton. I worked out at Stewart-Haas typically and Ford had hired Olympian gold medal winner Dan Jansen to be my trainer for the last three years now and with all this stuff going on he got put to the side just because money was so tight, and then we weren’t able to go to Stewart-Haas for nearly two-and-a-half months. I’ve just been working out at home. I don’t have any equipment, but I have a Peloton bike, so I’ve been doing that. And then Huffy sent me a couple road bikes, so I’ve been riding up and down the road, but it has definitely changed a lot just because of all the COVID stuff. Next week, I’m finally gonna be going back to the shop to work out outside with the SHR trainer, so that will be new for me, but as far as race tracks go, we don’t really change it specifically for race tracks. If we know we’re going to Bristol or a road course or somewhere where it’s gonna be harder on my back or on my neck, we might work on my back or neck a little bit more that week, but, typically, we have the same routine week in and week out.”

AJ Allmendinger Notes

• Saturday, June 6 will mark Allmendinger’s first start at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS)
• Allmendinger has made 13 starts at Atlanta in the NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
• Best start at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the NCS: 11th (2011 & 2015)
• Best finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the NCS: 6th (2010)

Kaulig Racing Notes

• Best start at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the NXS: 13th (2016 & 2019)
• Best finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the NXS: 8th (2019)

Race Notes
Saturday, June 6 at 4:30pm ET on FOX
Stages: 40/80/163 Laps

AJ Allmendinger Quote
“I guess I had so much fun, or maybe the team had enough fun at Bristol, that they brought me back for Atlanta. Once again, no practice and probably starting near the back. Atlanta Motor Speedway, the ATL, is one of my favorite places to race at in the Cup Series. It will be the first time in the Xfinity Series. It’s slick – the racetrack is old. It wears out tires quick. You can run the bottom, you can run the middle, run the top. It’s a place that allows for great racing, a lot of passing, which we’re going to need, because from where I’m going to be starting, we’re going to have to pass a lot of cars. These Kaulig Racing Chevys are fast. I’m so excited and so fortunate – thank you Matt Kaulig, Chris Rice and everyone here at the race team for preparing this race car and giving me another shot. Let’s go!”

About Kaulig Racing™
Kaulig Racing™ is a full-time multi-car NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) team, owned by award winning entrepreneur, Matt Kaulig. Established in 2016 Kaulig Racing™ has made the NXS Playoffs consecutively each season since the playoff system started. Kaulig Racing fields two full-time entries; the No. 10 Chevrolet driven by Ross Chastain and the No. 11 Chevrolet driven by Justin Haley, as well as, a part-time entry – the No. 16 driven by AJ Allmendinger. Kaulig Racing™ earned two wins in 2019 and have come to be one of the top competitors on track each weekend. To learn more about the team, visit kauligracing.com.

Justin Haley Notes

• Best start at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS): 13th (2019)
• Best finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the NXS: 8th (2019)
• Haley earned Kaulig Racing its best finish at Atlanta in 2019

Kaulig Racing Notes

• Best start at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the NXS: 13th (2016 & 2019)
• Best finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the NXS: 8th (2019)

Race Notes
Saturday, June 6 at 4:30pm ET on FOX
Stages: 40/80/163 Laps

Justin Haley Quote
“We are headed to Atlanta Motor Speedway. This track has an old, rough surface – something that we really don’t see when we go to mile-and-a-halves, so it’s different. Racing is going to be all the way from the bottom to the top. You’re going to be able to wedge your car down on the yellow line on the bottom of the track and kind of slot car your way around, and then you’re going to go up top and lean against the fence. Our No. 11 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevy Camaro has been so fast. The Kaulig Racing boys have worked so hard. Atlanta is a tough track for me, only because we haven’t gone there that many times. NASCAR only goes there once a year, so that means I have a total of two starts there in my whole NASCAR career. That makes it difficult for me. I don’t have the experience there to really go back on. I tested there in a Kaulig Racing car last year. We’ve been super fast and had some awesome speed the past few weeks, so I can’t wait to get there. We are going to go up there and try to win. We’ve had top-five speed, so we will keep running in the top five and definitely get a win. Can’t wait to go back mile-and-a-half racing and hopefully pull off the “W” for all the LeafFilter Gutter Protection guys and girls.”

About Kaulig Racing™
Kaulig Racing™ is a full-time multi-car NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) team, owned by award winning entrepreneur, Matt Kaulig. Established in 2016 Kaulig Racing™ has made the NXS Playoffs consecutively each season since the playoff system started. Kaulig Racing fields two full-time entries; the No. 10 Chevrolet driven by Ross Chastain and the No. 11 Chevrolet driven by Justin Haley, as well as, a part-time entry – the No. 16 driven by AJ Allmendinger. Kaulig Racing™ earned two wins in 2019 and have come to be one of the top competitors on track each weekend. To learn more about the team, visit kauligracing.com.

About LeafFilter Gutter Protection™
Since 2005, LeafFilter Gutter Protection™ has revolutionized the gutter protection industry. The company is proud to have grown from one small office in Hudson, Ohio to the largest direct to customer home products company in the nation and the leading choice in gutter protection systems. Once installed on a homeowner’s existing gutters, LeafFilter Gutter Protection eliminates gutter cleaning for life. With more than 70 million feet of gutter guards installed on homes across the United States and Canada, LeafFilter Gutter Protection has the knowledge and expertise to guarantee that nothing, but water, will get into your gutters. Learn more about LeafFilter Gutter Protection and request a free estimate at www.leaffilter.com .


JR MOTORSPORTS TEAM PREVIEW:
TRACK: Atlanta Motor Speedway
RACE: EchoPark 250 (163 laps / 251.02 miles)
DATE: Saturday, June 6, 2020

Michael Annett
No. 1 Pilot Flying J Chevrolet
• Michael Annett will seek a third top-10 finish of the season on 1.5-mile ovals this weekend at Atlanta. He was seventh at both Las Vegas and Charlotte.
• Annett’s best finish at Atlanta is 10th in 2012, and he was 12th in this race a year ago in his Pilot Flying J Chevrolet.
• Consistency is king for the Iowa native at Atlanta, as he’s completed 99 .2percent of the laps run in his eight starts on the 1.54-mile oval.
• Annett enters this week’s race with momentum, having led nine laps at Charlotte in the most recent event on a 1.5- mile track.

Justin Allgaier
No. 7 BRANDT Professional Agriculture Chevrolet
• Justin Allgaier has nine NXS starts at Atlanta with two topfive and five top-10 finishes, including a third-place run last year in this event.
• In two starts on 1.5-mile tracks this season, the Illinois native has led 63 laps and earned a stage win, finishing eighth in Las Vegas and fifth in Charlotte.
• Allgaier has five NXS victories on tracks measuring 1 to 2 miles in length, including two wins at mile-and-a-half facilities. His most recent victory on a 1.5-mile track came at Chicagoland in 2017.
• This Saturday, in addition to racing at Atlanta, Allgaier will celebrate his 34th birthday

Daniel Hemric
No. 8 Poppy Bank Chevrolet
• In two previous NXS starts at Atlanta, Hemric has earned an average finish of 10.0.
• Hemric has also made a combined three starts at the 1.54- mile speedway between the NASCAR Cup Series and the NASCAR Gander Outdoors & RV Truck Series, scoring a best finish of fourth in the latter in 2016.
• In 37 NXS starts on tracks between 1 and 2 miles in length, Hemric has 11 top fives, 22 top 10s and two poles.
• Since the return to NXS action in May, Hemric has recorded three-consecutive top-10 finishes, with a best result of second coming at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 25.

Noah Gragson
No. 9 Axalta EchoPark Chevrolet
• Gragson has one start in the NXS at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He started fourth and finished ninth after leading nine laps in this race last season.
• At tracks that are 1.5-miles in length, Gragson has an average finish of 9.0.
• Through the first seven races of 2020, Gragson is tied for most series victories this season with two wins, four top fives, five top 10s and is currently second in the championship standings.
• The Axalta colors are aboard the No. 9 Camaro with EchoPark also joining the team for this weekend’s race in Atlanta.

Driver Quotes

“We were pretty solid at Charlotte the last time on a 1.5- mile track, and our No. 1 Pilot Flying J team has shown some good speed on those kind of tracks. We’ve really been more consistent, and that is what matters as the season starts to pick up steam again. We’ve had good speed and we’re making the right calls, and that’s half the battle going forward. We’ll take that and build on it to get where we need to be.” – Michael Annett

“I’m really looking forward to getting to Atlanta. Our JR Motorsports Camaros have had a lot of speed this season and this No. 7 team has been stout every week. We’ve led laps and won some stages, now we just need to put it all together and get that victory. I feel like we’ve got a great chance to get it done this weekend with our BRANDT Professional Agriculture Chevy.” – Justin Allgaier

“Atlanta should be a lot of fun on Saturday. It’s such a unique, fast track. With it’s worn out surface, you can really race from the top to the bottom of the track throughout the run. I feel like we will unload with a lot of speed in our JR Motorsports Camaro and hopefully we can build off of that second-place finish at the last mile-and-a-half we raced on in Charlotte and get that one spot better with our Poppy Bank Chevrolet.” – Daniel Hemric

“This Axalta EchoPark Camaro looks real good and the guys have been preparing fast racecars for me all year. We had a shot at the win in Charlotte and with Atlanta mirroring that track, I believe we will be in contention yet again. Coming off a win this week in Bristol has boosted our confidence and hopefully we can come out of here with an extra $100k thanks to Xfinity and the Dash 4 Cash program.” – Noah Gragson

JRM Team Updates:

• JRM at Atlanta: JR Motorsports has collected three wins, 11 top-fives and 23 top-10 finishes, along with two pole awards (2009 and 2014) in 35 NXS starts at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Jamie McMurray earned the organization its first victory at the track in 2010 and Kevin Harvick claimed back-to back wins in 2014 and 2015. JRM’s average finish of 9.5 at Atlanta is the team’s second-best among all tracks on the NXS circuit.
• JRM’s 1.5-Mile Success: 12 (25 percent) of JRM’s 48 victories in the NXS have come on 1.5-mile tracks. Mark Martin scored the organization’s first victory on a mile-and-a-half on March 1, 2008 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with Tyler Reddick earning the most recent victory at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 17, 2018.
• Dash 4 Cash Prowess: JRM drivers have claimed the Dash 4 Cash honors on 12 different occasions. Half of those victories have come since the 2017 season with Justin Allgaier being the most recent recipient for JRM at Dover International Speedway in 2018.

JONES, BURTON DRIVE TO TOP-FIVE FINISHES IN BRISTOL
Burton makes it seven straight top-10 finishes to start the season

BRISTOL, Tennessee (June 1, 2020) – Brandon Jones (third) and Harrison Burton (fourth) led Toyota with top-five finishes at the NASCAR Xfinity Series event at Bristol Motor Speedway on Monday evening.

Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS)
Bristol Motor Speedway
Race 7 of 33 – 159.9 miles, 300 laps

TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Noah Gragson*
2nd, Chase Briscoe*
3rd, BRANDON JONES
4th, HARRISON BURTON
5th, Myatt Snider*
14th, TIMMY HILL
24th, CHAD FINCHUM
27th, RILEY HERBST
30th, MASON MASSEY
34th, STEPHEN LEICHT
*non-Toyota driver

TOYOTA QUOTES

BRANDON JONES, No. 19 Menards/Pelonis Toyota Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 3rd

How was your race overall tonight?

“This was fun and very different from any other Bristol race I’ve been a part of. One thing that was really interesting was obviously the racing on the bottom never really got moved up to the top. I tried multiple times to get that groove going, but not one would really follow you so it was hard to get that section to rubber up. The biggest thing is that everyone at JGR brings really, really fast Supras to the race track every week. I knew we were going to be quick to get going. It was interesting, we would be really fast to start off the run. Middle of the run we would fall back really quick – everything that I would build up, I would lose and then it would come to me again at the end of the run. Then we would be just as fast if not better than the leaders. I thought at the very end, I could split the 98 (Chase Briscoe) and the 9 (Noah Gragson). The 98 took that away from me a little bit so that was kind of difficult. All in all, it was pretty good. We’re qualified for ‘Dash For Cash’ and we can go on to the next race and compete for that so that will be fun.”

How do you race your teammates at Joe Gibbs Racing?

“Maybe you’re thinking about the initial start of the race and stuff. We try to do our best. We are a team at the end of the day, but we always say when it comes down to the last five races, it’s free for all. We’re all trying to win races, that’s our main goal. I’m not going to fence a teammate. I’m not going to do anything crazy to jeopardize his day, but at the same time I’m going to race him pretty hard. There’s not many people out on the race track that I would. That’s just racing etiquette in my opinion. You race hard, you race clean, but when you start pushing people and wrecking people, that’s just a whole other level.”

Did Noah Gragson push it too hard with his teammate to win tonight?

“Tough to say really. There’s ways to win races without doing it and there’s ways to win races doing it too. If that’s the approach you want to take, I’m sure there will be a lot of burnt bridges there. That’s not our team and that’s not really my area to talk. I haven’t had that done to me yet, knock on wood. I think we all race really hard together and really clean at JGR so I’m pretty proud of that.”

Did the two tire pit stop after stage one and two set you up for the third stage to run well?

“We were kind of thinking it was actually going to help our balance compared to what we were fighting. We were pretty tight. We were thinking if we put the lefts on, it would loosen the car up some and it did for a few laps. I got pretty sideways a couple times and almost lost it a few. Definitely got loose, but at the same time, kind of came back around to me and I was running pretty good lap times. I think it did help us some at the end of the day kind of having a little more laying there in the pits. I think that was a pretty decent call.”

How difficult was it to stay patient using the low groove and not bump people out of the way?

“It was difficult. Patience plays such an important role at this race track. You start getting impatient, you overdrive the entry and then the whole entire corner is messed up or you get loose and you end your day. It was definitely tough and these races go by so fast, especially at a track as small as Bristol is. It was definitely tough. There was a few times I got used up and I never really had the opportunity to do it back to anybody. I’ll remember for sure, I know this is a short track and you have to do the things you have to do, but there was a few times there that I just had a better car and would out-do the bottom better than them and be able to pass them clean.”

Why are you so strong at Bristol?

“The biggest thing is that we have to get our short run speed where it’s at. I’ve cleaned up a little bit just today, I felt a lot better about my restarts than I have these past couple races. We did a couple things there to help and I did a bunch of studying and figuring out what I need to do a lot better so that helped a bunch. I think we still have to see what we have to do to bring a race car that’s going to fire off just as good if not a little better than those guys so I don’t fall so far back behind and we end up playing pit strategy games or having to do certain things there to get the track position. I think we need to really try to hone in on what we need to do to the car to make sure it will hold onto track position.”

Do you feel like Bristol owes you a win?

“I think it does. I had one race here my first year at Gibbs with (Chris) Gabehart, I led maybe 190 laps or so. Had a late caution and once again did some pit strategy stuff that we look back and we wouldn’t have done it now, but in the heat of the moment, I get it. It just didn’t work out for us. Same thing here last year. We look back and got the lead based on the tires not falling off very much. It worked for a long time and then we ended up blowing a tire. We just have to make sure we’re not putting ourselves in those pit positions and make sure we’re doing it with the car.”

What has it been like to continue being competitive since your first win last fall and through the break?

“It’s been tough, I will admit it. I’ve had to get used to again, especially at mile-and-a-halves, not so much a short track, but just that feeling of kind of being on the edge the entire time. That’s kind of what I think hurt me a little to get going at Darlington. I just was not used to again that car feeling out on the edge and it took me awhile to get that going again. We finally reeled back in on it the other week. I think that was the only thing that really got me from sitting was just getting used to that feeling again of being on the edge, being loose. Today, Bristol is not really an aero-dependent race track as much as some of the mile-and-a-halves are so that feeling kind of goes away.”

Are the upcoming ‘Dash For Cash’ races good for you?

“They’re good places. Atlanta, we finished I think fourth last year and that was with limited tools. Now we have a version of SMT, I think I’ve really been a lot better at starting these races by studying my film. You combine all of that, we’re going to be really strong when we come back to Atlanta.”

HARRISON BURTON, No. 20 DEX Imaging/Fields Toyota Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 4th

Solid night, another top-five finish and over 80 laps led. Talk about your run.

“Yeah, it was super fun to come to Bristol. I had a fast car, early, and that was because of all the hard work back at the shop, those guys put in. That was kind of something that we struggled earlier the last few races – firing off with the speed we needed to. This weekend, we were pretty good. I was pumped up about that. We had some ups-and-downs. We had some damage early. We got ourselves in a tough situation on older tires, and struggling a little bit, but we made some really good changes late and got ourselves in contention to win and that’s all you can ask for.”

You qualified for the ‘Dash For Cash’ in your first attempt. How excited are you to go to Atlanta and run for $100,000?

“That’s a big opportunity. There is a lot of things you could do with that money. There is a lot of people in need right now, and a lot of situations that I feel like that could be used for which is a really cool opportunity for me. Obviously, you have to treat your guys with some of that as well if you get it. It’s going to be a cool opportunity. There is a lot of good that you can do with that money. Hopefully, we get to do that. The main thing is going and winning. That’s the main goal, and then the other things will follow. That’s our mindset. No different than any other race, other than it’s a bigger payday in the end, which is obviously amazing, and we are pumped that Xfinity is doing that. The biggest thing for us is to just treat it like any other race and be aggressive and go and try to win.”

# # #

About Toyota

Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in the U.S. and North America for more than 60 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands. During that time, Toyota has created a tremendous value chain as our teams have contributed to world-class design, engineering, and assembly of more than 40 million cars and trucks in North America, where we have 14 manufacturing plants, 15 including our joint venture in Alabama (10 in the U.S.), and directly employ more than 47,000 people (over 36,000 in the U.S.). Our 1,800 North American dealerships (nearly 1,500 in the U.S.) sold nearly 2.8 million cars and trucks (nearly 2.4 million in the U.S.) in 2019.

Through the Start Your Impossible campaign, Toyota highlights the way it partners with community, civic, academic and governmental organizations to address our society’s most pressing mobility challenges. We believe that when people are free to move, anything is possible. For more information about Toyota, visit www.toyotanewsroom.com.

Team Penske NASCAR Xfinity Series Race Report
Track: Bristol Motor Speedway
Race: Cheddar’s 300
Date: June 1, 2020

____________________________________

No. 22 ODYSSEY Battery Ford Mustang – Austin Cindric
Start: 3rd
Stage 1: 35th
Stage 2: 35th
Finish: 36th
Status: Accident
Laps Completed: 8/303
Laps Led: 0
Point Standings (behind first): 6th (-56)

Notes:

Austin Cindric and the No. 22 ODYSSEY Ford Mustang team finished the Cheddar’s 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway in the 36th position after an early crash caused the team to retire the event early. Due to the finish, the Mooresville, N.C. native drops from second to sixth-place in the NASCAR Xfinity Series driver standings, 56 markers behind leader Chase Briscoe.

Cindric started the 300-lap race from the third position after the lineup was set per random draw. Cindric quickly showed the speed of the No. 22 Ford, battling for position in the top-five until misfortunes afflicted the 21-year-old.

On lap six, Cindric was collected in a multi-car accident after the No. 10 suffered a flat tire, knocking Cindric into the wall. With damage too excessive, the No. 22 team was forced to retire just eight laps into the race and would settle with a 36th-place finish.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series is back in action with the EchoPark 250 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on June 6 at 4:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.

Quote: “I wish I had a reason to be upset, but not even getting 10 laps into the race and having somebody else’s misfortunes end your day is really unfortunate, especially for Odyssey Battery. The momentum we have been on coming off two straight top fives, we’ve been an incredibly consistent team all year and I feel like that’s why we’re so far up in the points. We’re coming close to wins, so we just have to keep that same mentality moving forward to Atlanta, but that’s racing. It’s Bristol.”

NASCAR XFINITY SERIES
BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
CHEDDAR’S 300
FORD PERFORMANCE DRIVER – POST RACE QUOTES
MONDAY, JUNE 1, 2020

FORD FINISHING RESULTS:
2nd — Chase Briscoe
36th — Austin Cindric (DNF after getting involved in accident on lap 6)

CHASE BRISCOE, No. 98 — HighPoint.com Ford Mustang — YOU GET TO RUN FOR $100,000 NEXT WEEK AT ATLANTA. “I’m super-excited to go run for an extra 100-grand. Thanks to XFINITY. We were just a fifth to sixth-place car it seemed like most of the night and just was really tight. There at the end restarts kind of went our way and we were able to salvage a second, so I’m really happy for our HighPoint.com Ford guys and just really excited to get to Atlanta. That’s one of my favorite race tracks and race for an extra 100-grand, so you can’t beat it. I’m looking forward to it.”

TAKE US THROUGH THE END OF THE RACE. “Those last couple of restarts were pretty hairy and with Allgaier getting wrecked, that definitely helped. He was definitely the class of the field all night long, and then that last restart I was honestly surprised the Noah gave me the bottom. I feel like the bottom was a little bit better and if I could have just cleared him down in three and four, but that top line was so good for the first lap that he was able to clear me off of four. But, overall, I don’t think we were a second-place race car tonight with our HighPoint.com Ford, but to be able to finish second and go run for an extra 100-grand that’s what it’s all about, so that’s what we’ll try to go do next week.”

CHASE BRISCOE POST-RACE PRESS CONFERENCE

CAN YOU WALK US THROUGH YOUR NIGHT? “It was a weird night for us, at least speedwise. The beginning of the race I felt really good that first run and then I don’t know if the track changed or what, but we just weren’t as good as I felt we needed to be. We really struggled with the center-off turn and we’d get track position and then we’d have a bad restart and lose it. At the end we were fortunate to start on the inside a couple of those runs and was able to salvage a second. I felt like we were probably a fifth to sixth-place race car, but to be able to come home second and, most importantly, go run for an extra $100,000 next week is a huge deal, so I feel like Atlanta we’re gonna be really good. Finishing in the top four was a huge deal tonight if we couldn’t win.”

IS THAT $100,000 IMPORTANT FOR YOUR TEAM NEEDING THE FUNDING? “Yeah, I mean anytime you can add the possibility of $400,000 to your program, I mean, that’s night and day difference just in the amount to go racing. Obviously, that’s like bringing a whole new primary sponsor on board, so everybody right now is struggling financially as race teams, so I’m thankful XFINITY allows us to run for an extra $100,000 four weeks in a row and with the exception of Talladega I feel like, well, we don’t know where the fourth one is, but between Atlanta and Homestead I feel like those are two of our better race tracks as a team and me as a driver, so that opportunity is a huge deal for us and, like I said, anytime you can run for an extra $100,000 or an extra $10,000 or whatever, it’s just an added incentive. I’m looking forward to doing that at Atlanta and hopefully getting the win.”

WHEN THE 9 CAR USED UP THE 7 LIKE THAT DOES THAT OPEN THE DOOR FOR YOU TO DO SOMETHING SIMILAR? “I feel like I’ve always raced pretty clean in general. I’m not gonna go in there and wreck a guy for the win, but Noah is gonna do what he’s gotta do and you know that when you’re racing Noah. I saw what he did to the 7. Obviously, that didn’t affect me so I wasn’t gonna run him any different, but, for example, if I would have been on the outside and he would have been on the inside and he would have went in there and cleaned me out, then obviously that would have been payback coming back. But Noah hadn’t done anything to me, so as bad as we want to win the race I’m not gonna absolutely destroy a guy to do that. In my opinion, that’s not real racing, so I definitely saw what Noah did. I’m sure Justin, even though they’re teammates, he could potentially make life a lot harder on him and hopefully he does it next week at Atlanta and make it a little bit easier on us to win the $100,000. But I wasn’t gonna go clean him out by any means just because of what Justin did. Personally, as a race car driver, I wouldn’t appreciate it if someone cleaned me out for the win when I’d raced them clean, so I wasn’t gonna do that either.”

WHAT WERE YOU THINKING WHEN YOU SAW THE 9 GET INTO THE 7 OFF THE CORNER? “I thought it opened up our opportunity to sneak away with a win just because the 7 was by far the class of the field. He’s been the class of the field the last, especially last year in the fall. He was gonna win the race and blew a tire with four or five to go. So anytime the 7 is out of contention here it definitely opens up the door. We just weren’t that good all night, so even starting on the front row I didn’t necessarily think, ‘Oh man, we’re gonna win this race tonight,’ just because we hadn’t been that good all night. The 9 had been better for really all the night, but when he gave me the bottom I definitely felt like it was an opportunity that maybe I could sneak away with one. In the middle of one and two on the restart he got a little loose or something and I felt like I gained a ton of ground on him, and then three and four the top was just so good for the first lap that he was able to clear me and I got a little loose on exit. There for a second I thought midway through one and two I might sneak away with one, but we just weren’t a winning race car tonight. The 9 car was definitely the second-best car to the 7, so they did a good job and we just have to get a little bit better when we come back to Bristol.”

WHAT WAS THE INTENSITY OF THE RACING LIKE TONIGHT? “I thought it was a really odd Bristol race just from the race track changing standpoint. It seemed like the top never really came in like we typically see it and I think a lot of that was just with no practice the PJ1 doesn’t really have time to come in. They reapplied it after the Cup race and I felt like if they would have left it alone going into tonight’s race it may have been a little bit more two-groove, but it was kind of that old-school Bristol, where we were all on the bottom. It’s different from the old Bristol due to the fact that the PJ1 we’re all so fast around the bottom it’s hard to really gain time or gain speed on guys. It seems like we’re all the same speed, so restarts were super-crucial and after the restart, unless we had a long run, it was really hard to make up any time, and we didn’t get into lap traffic like we typically do. I feel like normally we’re dicing it up and I don’t know why, for whatever reason, we never got into heavy lap traffic.”

HOW DO YOU LOOK AT ATLANTA? “I feel like our 98 car has been really good on the mile-and-a-halves and you throw in the slick mile-and-a-halves and I feel like that’s kind of our bread-and-butter where our program is the best, so Atlanta is definitely a really slick mile-and-a-half and so is Homestead. So those are gonna be, I feel like, two really good race tracks for us. Hopefully, we can capitalize on that with the extra $100,000, but Atlanta is definitely a driver’s track. You’re slipping and sliding around. Hopefully, when we go next week it’s 100 degrees outside and we can move up to the wall and just be slipping and sliding. I feel like that’s when my background comes in the most, so hopefully that’s what we’ll have and hopefully we can just put on another good race.”

WHAT ABOUT THE TRACK FEELING LIKE THE OLD BRISTOL MADE SOME OTHER GUYS LIKE VINNIE MILLER AND BRANDON BROWN HAVE TOP 10 RUNS? “I think anytime you go short track racing it opens up the playing field as far as equipment doesn’t make as big of a difference. So that’s gonna make a difference and then when you throw in the fact it’s hard to pass. If they can get track position and they have good speed, then they’re gonna be able to maintain being up towards the front end of the field. I’m glad those guys had really good runs. A lot of those guys in the back half of the field are great race car drivers. They just don’t get the opportunity that some of us are fortunate enough to get. Josh Williams is a perfect example of a guy, I think, could go win races in top-notch equipment and he just doesn’t have that opportunity, so to see guys capitalize on coming short track racing, certainly it’s a cool thing for the series and I think that’s one thing that’s great about the XFINITY Series.”

AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 22 — Odyssey Battery Ford Mustang — “I wish I had a reason to be upset, but not even getting 10 laps into the race and having somebody else’s issue end your day is really unfortunate, especially for Odyssey Battery. The momentum we’ve been on coming off two straight top fives, we’ve been an incredibly consistent team all year and I feel like that’s why we’re so far up in the points. We’re coming close to wins, so we just have to keep that same mentality moving forward to Atlanta. It’s just annoying. I don’t really know how else to look at it, but that’s racing. It’s Bristol. We’ll move on, I guess.”