MADISON, Ill. (Sept. 25, 2021) – Brittany Force and the Monster Energy team secured the No. 2 qualifying spot Saturday night at the NHRA Midwest Nationals at World Wide Technology Raceway just outside of St. Louis. Robert Hight and the AAA Missouri Chevrolet Camaro SS team landed in No. 7 and John Force with the PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Chevy will start race day from No. 10. Back to their high-performance ways, Brittany Force and the Monster Energy team came out Saturday to be quickest in both qualifying sessions earning a total of six bonus points. Early in the afternoon, during the second qualifying session, Force handled her Monster dragster to a solid 3.700-second run at 331.53 mph and continued to improve ending the evening with a stout 3.663-second pass at 330.39 mph. “Big improvement for this Monster Energy / Flav-R-Pac team today out in St. Louis. Definitely stepped it up and made two awesome runs today,” said Force who will face-off with TJ Zizzo in the first round of eliminations. “We have a good ladder for tomorrow and our plan is to go out and turn on four win lights.” Coming into the day No. 4, Robert Hight and the AAA Chevy team had trouble in the second session. Hight had to shut his Camaro off early to run only 4.958 seconds and 153.46 mph. The two-time winners of the event picked things back up in the third and final qualifying session going 3.898-seconds at 327.11 mph. While Hight improved, so did the rest of the Funny Car class shifting him into the No. 7 position. “Overall, not a bad qualifying effort, not great but not terrible,” said Hight who lines up against teammate John Force first round. “Obviously we were hoping to move a bit to get us out of that first round match-up with John. Not ideal with us both chasing a championship. It’s bound to happen, but you hope it’s at the end of race day, in the finals. We’ll have our work cut out for us but it’s nothing this AAA team hasn’t handled before and can handle again.” With nothing but room for improvement, John Force and the PEAK Camaro went 3.915-seconds at 304.94 mph despite the parachutes coming out early during their second qualifying run. Tire smoke had Force and the PEAK Chevy coasting to 6.881-seconds at 93.84 mph in the third and final lap of qualifying. “Figuring this car out. Like I said, made some changes, had a fluke with the parachutes in that first run, would have loved to have had that back but the early numbers looked good,” Force said. “We have good information for tomorrow so we should be okay. This championship fight is getting exciting. Just glad to be in it.” Eliminations at the NHRA Midwest Nationals at World Wide Technology Raceway are slated to begin Sunday at 10:30 a.m. For qualifying television coverage, tune-in Sunday at 1 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1 (FS1). Eliminations will air Sunday at 2 p.m. ET on FS1. -30-

BRITTANY FORCE, 35, Monster Energy Top Fuel dragsterQualifying:2nd; 3.663-seconds at 330.39 mphBonus Qualifying Points:6 (quickest Q2 & Q3)

ROBERT HIGHT, 52, AAA Missouri Chevy Camaro SSQualifying:7th; 3.898-seconds at 327.11 mphBonus Qualifying Points:0

JOHN FORCE, 72, PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Chevy Camaro SSQualifying:10th; 3.915-seconds at 304.94mphBonus Qualifying Points:2 (second quickest Q2)

MADISON, Ill. (Sept. 25, 2021) – Brittany Force and the Monster Energy team secured the No. 2 qualifying spot Saturday night at the NHRA Midwest Nationals at World Wide Technology Raceway just outside of St. Louis. Robert Hight and the AAA Missouri Chevrolet Camaro SS team landed in No. 7 and John Force with the PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Chevy will start race day from No. 10. Back to their high-performance ways, Brittany Force and the Monster Energy team came out Saturday to be quickest in both qualifying sessions earning a total of six bonus points. Early in the afternoon, during the second qualifying session, Force handled her Monster dragster to a solid 3.700-second run at 331.53 mph and continued to improve ending the evening with a stout 3.663-second pass at 330.39 mph. “Big improvement for this Monster Energy / Flav-R-Pac team today out in St. Louis. Definitely stepped it up and made two awesome runs today,” said Force who will face-off with TJ Zizzo in the first round of eliminations. “We have a good ladder for tomorrow and our plan is to go out and turn on four win lights.” Coming into the day No. 4, Robert Hight and the AAA Chevy team had trouble in the second session. Hight had to shut his Camaro off early to run only 4.958 seconds and 153.46 mph. The two-time winners of the event picked things back up in the third and final qualifying session going 3.898-seconds at 327.11 mph. While Hight improved, so did the rest of the Funny Car class shifting him into the No. 7 position. “Overall, not a bad qualifying effort, not great but not terrible,” said Hight who lines up against teammate John Force first round. “Obviously we were hoping to move a bit to get us out of that first round match-up with John. Not ideal with us both chasing a championship. It’s bound to happen, but you hope it’s at the end of race day, in the finals. We’ll have our work cut out for us but it’s nothing this AAA team hasn’t handled before and can handle again.” With nothing but room for improvement, John Force and the PEAK Camaro went 3.915-seconds at 304.94 mph despite the parachutes coming out early during their second qualifying run. Tire smoke had Force and the PEAK Chevy coasting to 6.881-seconds at 93.84 mph in the third and final lap of qualifying. “Figuring this car out. Like I said, made some changes, had a fluke with the parachutes in that first run, would have loved to have had that back but the early numbers looked good,” Force said. “We have good information for tomorrow so we should be okay. This championship fight is getting exciting. Just glad to be in it.” Eliminations at the NHRA Midwest Nationals at World Wide Technology Raceway are slated to begin Sunday at 10:30 a.m. For qualifying television coverage, tune-in Sunday at 1 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1 (FS1). Eliminations will air Sunday at 2 p.m. ET on FS1.

Richard Childress Racing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway… Las Vegas Motor Speedway is one of only four active race tracks where team owner Richard Childress has yet to earn a NASCAR Cup Series victory. In 74 Cup Series starts at the Nevada tri-oval speedway, Richard Childress Racing has 11 top-five and 22 top-10 finishes. The Welcome, N.C. organization has also found success in the NASCAR Xfinity Series capturing four wins, 14 top-five and 30 top-10 finishes in 56 starts.  Catch the Action… The NASCAR Xfinity Series’ Alsco Uniforms 302 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway will be televised live Saturday, September 25, beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN and will be broadcast live on the Performance Radio Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.  The NASCAR Cup Series’ South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway will be televised live Sunday, September 26, beginning at 7 p.m. ET on NBCSN and will be broadcast live on the Performance Radio Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

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Austin Dillon and the No. 3 BetMGM Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE at Las Vegas Motor Speedway… In 12 NASCAR Cup Series starts at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Dillon has two top-five and two top-10 finishes, including his best finish of fourth in March 2020. He is a former winner at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in both the NASCAR Xfinity Series (2015) and NASCAR Truck Series (2010). About BetMGM… BetMGM is a market leading sports betting and gaming entertainment company, pioneering the online gaming industry. Born out of a partnership between MGM Resorts International and Entain (formerly GVC), BetMGM has exclusive access to all of MGM Resorts’ U.S. land-based and online sports betting, major tournament poker, and online gaming businesses. Utilizing Entain’s U.S.-licensed, state of the art technology, BetMGM offers sports betting and online gaming via market leading brands including BetMGM, Borgata Casino, Party Casino and Party Poker. Founded in 2018, BetMGM is headquartered in New Jersey. AUSTIN DILLON QUOTE:What are your thoughts on Las Vegas Motor Speedway?“Las Vegas Motor Speedway has always been one of my favorite tracks. It’s always been a rough place as far as Turn 1 goes. Being able to turn through the bumps is very important. In Turn 3, it is important not to miss the entry. It starts there. The track has gotten a lot of character over the last couple of years, and that is what makes it fun to drive on. You really have to challenge yourself to be disciplined on your marks. I really enjoy the track. I’m looking forward to going there this weekend in the BetMGM Chevrolet.”

Tyler Reddick and the No. 8 Cat Trials 11: Hot Wheels Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE at Las Vegas Motor Speedway… Reddick has three previous NASCAR Cup Series starts at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, all behind the wheel of the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. The 25-year-old has previously found Victory Lane at the 1.5-mile track with wins in both the NASCAR Xfinity Series (2019) and the NASCAR Truck Series (2016), while also collecting a total of four top-10 finishes in eight starts between the two series.  Chasing a Trio of Wins in Vegas… With victories at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in both the Xfinity Series and Truck Series already under his belt, Reddick is looking to complete the trio in Sin City with a win in the premier series. The Corning, California native would only be the second driver to achieve this accomplishment.  About Cat Trials 11: Hot Wheels®… From the world’s largest game of Jenga to building the world’s tallest sandcastle with Caterpillar machines, the latest edition of Cat Trials arrives this Sunday, September 26. With a desire to showcase the importance of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education, Cat Trials 11: Hot Wheels® is a salute to imagination. As STEM education expands globally, the Caterpillar Foundation recognizes that success in math and science is not a matter of inherent skill – it’s a matter of access. The foundation focuses on expanding access to STEM education in under-served communities in the US and around the world, while helping students pursue and enter STEM careers.  In Cat Trials 11: Hot Wheels®, two professional stunt drivers, Tanner Frost and Greg Tracy, performed unique stunts. From drifting and bunny hops to driving a car out of the bed of a giant off-highway truck and down a ramp to a ramp-to-ramp jump over five pieces of Cat equipment, the trial showcases the power of play and STEM education. Greg Tracy and Reddick will be available to the media at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday from 1:30 to 1:45 p.m. PT.  About Caterpillar… Since 1925, Caterpillar Inc. has been helping our customers build a better world – making sustainable progress possible and driving positive change on every continent. With 2020 sales and revenues of $41.7 billion, Caterpillar Inc. is the world’s leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines, and diesel-electric locomotives. Services offered throughout the product life cycle, cutting-edge technology and decades of product expertise set Caterpillar apart, providing exceptional value to help our customers succeed. The company principally operates through three primary segments – Construction Industries, Resource Industries and Energy & Transportation – and provides financing and related services through its Financial Products segment. TYLER REDDICK QUOTE: What is your outlook heading into Las Vegas Motor Speedway? “Going to Vegas will be a good blast. Earlier this year at Vegas, we were at a rough point for our team. We were not happy with the pace of cars or a lot of things honestly. I believe we had to pit for a tire rub or loose wheel during the race; it just wasn’t the best day for us. We were really feeling down our ourselves leaving Vegas in the spring, so I’m excited to see how we have improved as a team going back. Our RCR Chevrolet Camaros have gotten much better from that point to now, so it’s going to be exciting to see how much better we are currently. Even though we are no longer in the Playoffs, we are not going to ride it out. We are going to be aggressive and keep getting better. We’ll see how it all plays out in our Cat Trials 11: Hot Wheels Camaro on Sunday.”

Myatt Snider and the No. 2 Alsco Uniforms Chevrolet Camaro at Las Vegas Motor Speedway… Snider has three career NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, starting from the pole position in two of the three events. The Charlotte, N.C. native has also competed in three NASCAR Truck Series races, posting a sixth-place result in 2018. Let the Playoffs Begin… With Snider’s win at Homestead-Miami Speedway in the third race of the 2021 season, the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing team punched their ticket into the Xfinity Series Playoffs. The 26-year-old enters the Playoffs as the ninth seed and Saturday will mark the start of his first Playoffs appearance in just his second full season. Looking Sharp at the Shop in Alsco Uniforms… Alsco Uniforms, the uniform industry’s best kept secret, will be the title sponsor of Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Alsco serves as the official uniform provider of RCR and has been instrumental in helping the race team navigate the COVID-19 pandemic with a full suite of hand soap, sanitizer, first aid kits and cleaning products. Check out Snider piloting the Alsco Uniforms Chevrolet Camaro in the Alsco Uniforms 302. Myatt’s Mats… Several custom Alsco mats, featuring Snider and Alsco products, will be placed around property at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. If you find one of Myatt’s mats, please share on social with the hashtag #MyattsMats and tag @alscoinc. About Alsco Uniforms… Alsco is a fifth-generation family-owned and -operated uniform company founded in 1889 and recognized by the prestigious Hohenstein Institute for having invented the uniform rental industry. Celebrating over 130 years of business, Alsco provides uniform laundry services and other products that keep businesses clean and safe to all kinds of customers in the healthcare, automotive, industrial and hospitality industries. With more than 180 locations and 20,000 employees, Alsco provides laundry rental services to more than 355,000 customers in 14 countries, which makes Alsco Uniforms the largest uniform company in the world. Visit www.alsco.com to learn more about how Alsco Uniforms is the industry’s best kept secret. MYATT SNIDER QUOTES:Week one of the Playoffs is here. How important is it to have a good run at Las Vegas Motor Speedway? “It sets the tone for your Playoffs for sure. I feel good about where we are as a team though. I didn’t have quite as good of a race as I would have liked in the spring Vegas, but it has always historically been a place that I run good at. The key to this first round is being consistent and running inside the top-10. If you do that, the results will start showing. Our No. 2 Alsco Uniforms team isn’t going to make any big changes and I think we will have the speed needed when moving forward into the Playoffs.”  How are you preparing for the next seven weeks? “The good thing is here at Richard Childress Racing, I have Austin Dillon and Tyler Reddick that I can lean on. Both have really good experience at the Cup Series level and obviously Tyler has won two Xfinity Series championships recently which is good advice to lean on. Tyler and I actually share the same trainer, so I see him often and then I come here to the shop to talk to Austin on a weekly basis to discuss how to approach things. Both have been extremely helpful, not just with driving race cars, but with dealing with stuff outside of the race car.” With the Playoffs are starting, how do you reflect on your win at Homestead-Miami that now puts you in a battle for the championship? “It’s really nice for sure. But it was both a benefit and drawback for me personally. It was benefit, because I’m obviously in the Playoffs. The drawback was that it forced me to really learn some hard lessons. I went into the season with a lot of confidence. The first three races – at Daytona, Daytona Road Course and Homestead – were really solid from being in contention for the win at both Daytona races and then winning at Homestead. I had a lot of confidence, but that confidence blinded some things that I wasn’t dealing with and addressing in order to move forward. The bulk of the season has been working on those things, learning how to do my job better and ultimately getting better overall. That is part of this job. The good thing is that we did win early though, which was a blessing, and it opened up some doors for me to get ready for this point of the season.”  As a competitor, how have you been able to separate some of the challenges throughout the season and make sure you’re prepared for these next few weeks?“For me, it’s making sure I’m taking care of myself during this time. It’s so easy to become so focused and caught up in all this that you forget to let yourself have fun. I get to drive race cars, which is inherently a really fun thing to do. I can’t let the fact be lost that I’m getting to live out my dream thanks to my great partners – TaxSlayer, Louisiana Hot Sauce, Superior Essex, Crosley Furniture and Alsco Uniforms – and have the chance to drive for a great team at RCR. I have to keep things in perspective, not lose focus of my goals and not stare too far down the road.”

CHEVROLET RACING IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES ACURA GRAND PRIX OF LONG BEACH STREETS OF LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENDERS PRESS CONFERENCE SEPT. 24, 2021 PATO O’WARD, NO. 5 ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET AND JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET PARTICIPATED IN CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENDERS PRESS CONFERENCE. CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENDERS PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
THE MODERATOR: Once again, welcome. It’s great to be back on the Streets of Long Beach and certainly the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach 2021 version here in September. Welcome to our 2021 NTT INDYCAR Series championship contender press conference.It’s been a remarkable year certainly for the 2021 INDYCAR Series championship journey that started all the way back at Barber Motorsports Park back in April and concludes here on the historic Streets of Long Beach on Sunday. It’s the 16th consecutive season in which the NTT INDYCAR Series title will be decided in the final race. Remarkable.Who’s ready to go? I know you guys are ready to go come Sunday and certainly when practice starts tomorrow.Also joining us, a two-time race winner here in 2021, also a three-time pole winner this season who’s racked up five podiums. He sits second in points, the driver of the No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet. We say hello to Pato O’Ward.On the far end, he is a two-time NTT INDYCAR Series champion, a winner at Mid-Ohio and Worldwide Technology Raceway this season, racking up five podiums in 2021, driving the No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet. He sits third in points. Great to have Josef Newgarden with us this afternoon.Let’s start with Alex. It’s really been a dream season for you, Alex, and really right out of the gate. You go back to Barber Motorsports Park picking up your first win back then, which seems like a long time ago but maybe it hasn’t been that long ago. How did that win set the stage for what has been a tremendous season for you here in 2021?Pato O’Ward also picked up his first career win this season and no better place to have that than your home state of Texas to kind of kick off the month of May. It’s really been a series of top-10 finishes ever since then. How big of a step has this season been for your career?PATO O’WARD: Yeah, I think it was really cool. I think we broke through one of the biggest walls that you go through whenever you’re not a race winner yet, I guess you could say. I feel like the team and I have grown a lot. We haven’t had the most perfect season. No season will be perfect, but I think we’ve maximized the package that we have in very multiple occasions.Long Beach is cool, man. We’ll see what we can pull off this weekend.THE MODERATOR: We wrap things up with the two-time NTT INDYCAR Series champion Josef Newgarden. Interesting year for you. Once you got past some of the bad luck, things picked up for you this season. The way this team and you fought out of that hole you guys were in early on, what does that say about this team?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I think there was definitely a lot of hullabaloo about our performance in the beginning of the season, just Team Penske in general, what were we doing, what were we. I felt like we had good performance throughout, but when you look at the last couple week, we definitely got ourselves in a kerfuffle with the qualifying sessions.We’ve got to figure out how to be stronger this weekend; I think in qualifying it’s going to start. But happy to be here. It’s been a real pleasure driving with these guys. They’re incredibly talented, and I love to see that coming into the INDYCAR Series.There’s a great deal of pride amongst all of us that we have such amazing talent in this championship. It makes it more meaningful I think when you do a good job, so these guys should be really proud of what they’ve done, and to be here at the finale and still have somehow an opportunity, I think it’s almost an impossible opportunity, but to be in the fight is really cool.THE MODERATOR: So we’ve had hullabaloo and kerfuffle.JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It may or may not be part of a game, but those got worked in.THE MODERATOR: You take a look at the Astor Challenge Cup, and certainly Josef, you’ve been a part of that thing. Do you allow yourself to think about taking that home this weekend, any of you, Pato, Alex?THE MODERATOR: Do you have a spot for that somewhere, Pato?PATO O’WARD: I’d make a spot. Yeah, it’s a nice Cup. You have two at home, Josef?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I’ve got a couple of them.PATO O’WARD: Yeah? Where are they sitting?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: They’re in my office, right above me where I sit. Just trying to feed off the energy of them. They didn’t really work this year.PATO O’WARD: Don’t put it in your room because then the feng shui is not very good because of, what is it, iron, titanium? What is it made out of?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: They’re definitely not iron. I’m pretty positive.PATO O’WARD: Seriously, good question. Actual question, what is it made out of?THE MODERATOR: Silver.PATO O’WARD: Yes. No good in your room, but in your office is okay.THE MODERATOR: The mind games have started here, I think.Q.Josef, on the kerfuffle and hullabaloo, you joked it’s all part of the game. I just want to clarify, what mind games are we talking about?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Oh, a hundred percent mind games, you know, a hundred percent. There’s also $20 on the line for those two right there. Pretty happy about that.Q.You got $20?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Potentially. Potentially, yeah.Q.Can you give us anything more?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I’ve just got to clear the transaction and then I’ll have realized that victory.Q.There is a mental element towards winning a championship that you have gone through many times. You’ve won two championships. Neither of you have won major championships at this level, and yet you look at other series like Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton today were playing mind games with each other. You two are not. I don’t know how serious your mind games really are, but I’m wondering what’s the difference with you guys and how are you approaching this from the mental point of approaching a championship?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: You know, I think it’s a very respectful championship when you look at it, which is I think the beauty in INDYCAR racing. You have such a fierce environment where you have the best of the best in my opinion from around the world that want to compete every weekend, want to be the best and be on top. But we do it in such a respectful way. You have great drivers that I think they push to the limit, but they don’t try and go over it, certainly not purposely.Mind games are part of that. Obviously we’re going to try and — I always try and project my strengths, but at the same time I always want to win fairly.I think what I’m trying to get at, though, is why you don’t see a lot of that mess in our series is just because it’s a really respectful group of people that are here to work hard and let that really shine through at the end of the day. The hardest working group and the group that gets it right is the group that’s going to be victorious, and that’s what we all focus on. It’s a really pleasant environment to be in. You can see that as evidence with Romain.It’s one thing I love about this championship and being a part of it. It’s a real pleasure.Q.Josef, you used to be the young guy battling the veteran for the championship; now you’re the veteran with two young guys going after you. What’s it like to see that dynamic shift?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I’ve got to tell you, I didn’t think I was going to get any questions during this press conference, so I’m happy to answer them, though, and speak about these fantastically talented guys. This is really the fight right here without a doubt. If an act of God happens and somehow we win this thing, great.But these two — I don’t want to call them youngsters because I’m not that much older than them. I feel like I’m in the weird middle position right now in the championship where I’m not the old guy but I’m not the young guy. It’s fun competing against these two because this championship you want to compete against the best from around the world, and to see what Pato is doing with the contingent from México and to see how invigorated Spain is becoming and his fellow countrymen from Alex is just what this championship is about. You want the best from around the world competing and trying to showcase their abilities.I’m excited to compete against them. I’m disappointed we’re not in a better position. I wish this was more of a true fight here for this final round and we could be closer, but we fought hard and I think we fought against the best this year. Whoever comes out on top I think is a very deserving winner between those guys.Q.For Pato, it’s Pato’s second year that he’s been involved in the late stage championship fight, it’s your first, but in a lot of ways when you’re that young and you’re in a fight for a championship, is it new, fresh, exciting, and it’s almost like you don’t know what you don’t know so you just have at it?PATO O’WARD: Yeah, it’s a really cool opportunity, I guess, that we have, and yeah, last time in the position to fight for a championship was in 2018, but nowhere near the magnitude of what this championship would mean to me, the team and my family and everybody around.Yeah, like I said, it would be cool if it was maybe a little bit tighter, kind of in the same boat where Josef is at. I know he’s a little further. But yeah, all I can do is just try and maximize what I can out of the car that I’m given and then see where everything else falls, I guess.Q.Could you talk about the mental approach, Pato?PATO O’WARD: For me, I’m just really trying to enjoy it because I feel like I’m up against very — these guys have a good head on their shoulders, and I wish I could say that from everyone, but some guys just don’t.It’s nice to fight against people that you can respect and that you can — you can really trust whenever you’re racing at 100 something miles an hour heading into a corner where things can go sideways very badly. But you can just compete against them fairly.I feel like it’s a little bit of what Josef said. I just think the respect, at least from all of us that have been in the fight all year, is strong. I hope they feel the same from me because I always try and be fair.It’s a lot more enjoyable when you can actually compete against someone and not always have to give in because you know that they’re just going to stick their nose in and ship you into the wall if you don’t give them their way.Q.Josef, two years ago you mentioned after winning the second championship you mentioned it was probably toughest and most draining race you ever won. Should you be in a situation Sunday where you pull off this title, number three in five years, would it be probably the most fulfilling in that regard?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Well, I think they’re all special. I don’t know that it would be — it’s hard to say. I don’t know how I’d feel about it. I think I’d be in shock if we won it. Like I say, that would be the most shocking without a doubt.After that, I don’t know. I’d probably have to sit on it a little bit and see how it feels, but yeah, they’re all difficult. They’re all difficult to win. Something as improbable as this one would be very shocking. That’s the only way I can put it.I don’t think we’re in the best position, but just to even be in the conversation still is still a task in itself. It’s very hard to get to this point in the year and still be in the fight. We’re not where we want to be, but we’re in the fight nonetheless.But yeah, I don’t know, the second one was very, very fulfilling. Very, very fulfilling. I don’t know that that would be the same answer for this one. This would be just shocking.Q.As far as Pato, of course in 2019 both of you had different career trajectories. Did you ever think you would now be in this position fighting for a championship?PATO O’WARD: Not at all, no. If you told me in 2019 I’d be fighting for the INDYCAR championship in 2021 I’d probably tell you, wow. Yeah, probably not.PATO O’WARD: Yeah.Q.Pato, you’ve been on both sides of a championship battle before. In 2016 Indy Pro 2000 you were on the losing side and then in Indy Lights and in IMSA WeatherTech you were on the winning side. Is it difficult to be on the bottom half trying to get on top this time, or are you just looking at it like you did a few years ago in Indy Pro?PATO O’WARD: I feel like all you can do is just try and maximize what you can control because I can’t control where Josef finishes, I can’t control where Alex finishes, I can’t control anything else that’s kind of out of my hands. I can just try and maximize what I can do and then let everything else fall where it will fall.But yeah, I don’t know, man. Obviously it’s better to be on the other end of it because you’ve got some breathing room, but I’m not angry about the position that I’m in. I’m very proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish as a team this year. So yeah, we’re just treating it as another weekend and trying to maximize and end the year in a strong note.Q.There are several drivers here that are trying to secure their seats for 2022 and a good finish would really help them out. When you’re battling with those drivers, is there any additional worry that they might try and do something crazy to try and improve their position for next year, or do you race everyone the same?PATO O’WARD: I feel like it’s best to just kind of know who you’re racing against. I feel like by now we know who — at least I do. I know who I can get close with or who it’s just like, oh, this is just going to be hell. Yeah, just be mindful of who you’re fighting against, I guess.JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I think it’s always good to have just awareness. All of us need to have awareness as drivers on the track for what’s taking place around you. Putting it simply, we should race each other the same at all points, with just enough respect and fairness, racing hard, but to where there’s never an issue that comes up. Of course it’s impossible in racing. Sometimes you make a mistake or you miscalculate something or you just get something wrong.But if I was on the other end of it, it’s easy to say beforehand, but I would be aware of what people in a championship that are fighting in a final round, I would be aware of what they’re doing on the day. Not that I have to completely compromise my day for those people, but I think just being aware of how you race them or what you’re doing around them is important.That’s what I would do as a competitor. I can’t speak for everybody. But you should always, I think, race everybody with enough respect to keep it clean.Q.Pato, you guys were talking a few minutes ago about the couple races where your paths in racing crossed in 2019 in Super Formula. Can you maybe — if you can remember, can you guys give us an idea of maybe your first impression of each other as a driver out on track when you guys first got to know each other a little bit?PATO O’WARD: Well, I wasn’t near Alex, honestly. He was usually near the front. I was more struggling in the middle of the pack. Yeah, I felt like my life in Japan was like getting thrown into like a platoon of crocodiles, and it was like, okay, survive, not knowing anyone, no car, no test, no nothing. I barely knew the team. For me I didn’t really have as many encounters with Alex on the track. Just a little bit outside of the car because we were the both that spoke Spanish.I think I went to him and asked, what do you have for breakfast, because — I loved the food in Japan, but the breakfasts are horrendous. I went, man, what do you do. So he told me a tip: Go to a grocery store, get some cereal.Q.Josef, how have you seen these kind of situations with them but also with Takuma sometimes and with the Brazilian drivers? How do you feel about that?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: This? I love it, actually it’s beautiful. I was thinking while watching them, I’m like, man, I really should just take Spanish again because it’s so cool to be able to know that. I wish I was bilingual or something, but I’m not.PATO O’WARD: Josef is that guy that comes up to you and be like, I took Spanish in high school. Do you know any Spanish? Eh, poquito.JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I don’t know none of it, but I wish I did. I love it. I think it’s great. Obviously we’re a domestic championship, but I always tell people because I’ve always had the question how do you feel about being American in the championship and succeeding, but I’ve always loved that — and I harp on this a lot, but I love that we have the best talent from around the world, and I’d love to see more of it.Certainly interacting with the fans from different areas of the world, like the Japanese fans are some of the coolest fans I’ve ever met in my life, and the Mexican fans actually seem incredible now, having witnessed them from Pato. I think we should welcome it and we should do more for sure.PATO O’WARD: We need to go to México in a race. We need to go.Q.Josef, have you located which Port-a-Potty you’re going to put Palou in so that he doesn’t actually start because I think that’s the only way you’re going to win this, right? Where are you going to put Alex so that he can’t start the race to give you a chance to win?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Are you guys staying at the Hyatt?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: What hotel are you at?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Well, we’re talking about it. I’m going to stop before I get in trouble.I don’t know, it’s going to take a crazy act for sure.PATO O’WARD: I’m at the Hyatt; do you want to come join?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It’s getting weird now.Q.Josef, do you feel any obligation to kind of help Pato a little bit out of loyalty to Team Chevy?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: No. No. Unless — well, seriously, we’re not in a position where we can help Pato. We’re in the fight ourselves, so we have to look out for our own position. I would love to see it in the Chevy camp this championship, whether it’s me or Pato. But we’re not in a position, I think, to say — I don’t even know how we would help him, to be quite honest with you. I’m not sure that we would do anything that would be overt to clearly help him somehow win the championship. So no.be P1 with 35 points lead after those three weekends? Probably not.Q.Just wondered if you’d considered the implications of double points at the Indy 500 on the championship for the second year in a row, given it’s kind of cost you a lot of points.JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, it has, but you know, we know the rules and the points table going into the season. We have to account for the fact that Indy is double points. We know qualifying is important there. Both of those went against us for sure. We’d be in a different position if we had a better event, but that’s something that we’ve got to control.Yeah, I’m still not a fan of it. Even if this was a different situation — I think it’s good we’ve dropped the double points in the finale. I was never a fan of that, and I’m still not quite a fan of the double points at Indy. But like I said, we know the rules, we know the landscape going in, so I don’t think we can fall back on that. It would be an endless discussion of saying if this went different or that went different, I could go down the road and cite a lot of examples, but we always end up where we are, and unfortunately we’re a little bit short this year.Q.Pato, just wondered if you felt you’re kind of at a disadvantage this weekend given the fact you’re going up against two bigger teams with more teammates to hold you up over the course of the weekend?PATO O’WARD: I mean, yeah, they have more cars, I guess, but at the end of the day I feel like we’re racing against — I think the bigger thing is that we’re racing against teams that have won multiple championships, talking about Ganassi and Penske, and yeah, I think that’s our biggest battle right now. I think the guys in the series are respectful and they know — at least kind of what Josef said, if I was in a position to screw someone up that’s fighting for a championship, I would get out of the way because I wouldn’t because fighting for a championship is pretty big, and if I was in that position I wouldn’t want someone to get in the way forcefully. I hope everybody plays clean, I guess. I don’t know what to expect.THE MODERATOR: Thank you, guys, for your time this afternoon. So many storylines coming into this finale. Best of luck in this championship race, the 2021 NTT INDYCAR Series championship. Chevrolet IndyCar V6 Year-By-Year Results since 20122021 ­– 6 wins, 7 poles in 15 racesWins – Pato O’Ward (Texas2, Detroit2); Rinus VeeKay (Indy RC1); Josef Newgarden (Mid-Ohio, St. Louis); Will Power (Indy RC2). Pole – Pato O’Ward (Barber Motorsports Park, Detroit1, Indy RC2); Josef Newgarden (Detroit2, Road America, Mid-Ohio); Will Power (St. Louis).2020 – 7 wins, 11 poles in 14 racesWins – Simon Pagenaud (Iowa1); Josef Newgarden (Iowa2, St. Louis2, Indy RC2, St. Petersburg); Will Power (Mid-Ohio1, Indy RC3, St. Petersburg). Poles – Josef Newgarden (Texas, Road America1, Iowa2), Will Power (Indianapolis road course, St. Louis1, Mid-Ohio1, Indy RC3; St. Petersburg), Pato O’Ward (Road America2), Conor Daly (Iowa1), Rinus VeeKay (Indy road course October)2019 – 9 wins, 9 poles in 17 racesDriver/owner championship (Josef Newgarden/Roger Penske); Indianapolis 500 win (Simon Pagenaud)2018 – 6 wins, 9 poles in 17 racesIndianapolis 500 win (Will Power)2017 – 10 wins, 11 poles in 17 racesEngine Manufacturer Championship; driver/owner titles (Josef Newgarden/Roger Penske)2016 – 14 wins, 13 poles in 16 racesEngine Manufacturer Championship; driver/owner titles (Simon Pagenaud/Roger Penske)2015 – 10 wins, 16 poles in 16 racesEngine Manufacturer Championship; driver/owner titles (Scott Dixon/Chip Ganassi);Indianapolis 500 win (Juan Pablo Montoya). First manufacturer to capture all titles since Chevrolet returned to INDYCAR in 20122014 – 12 wins, 14 poles in 18 racesEngine Manufacturer Championship; driver/owner titles (Will Power/Roger Penske)2013 – 10 wins, 11 poles in 19 racesEngine Manufacturer Championship; Indianapolis 500 win (Tony Kanaan)2012 – 11 wins, 10 poles in 15 racesEngine Manufacturer Championship; driver/owner titles (Ryan Hunter-Reay/Michael Andretti)Total – 95 wins, 106 earned poles in 164 races

BROWNSTOWN, IN (September 23, 2021) – Brandon Sheppard won his second consecutive Indiana Icebreaker as the previously postponed $15,000-to-win event was held Thursday Night at Brownstown Speedway.  It was Sheppard’s first Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series win of the season as the 4-time and reigning Dirt Track Word Championship winner came across the line ahead of Steve Casebolt, Devin Moran, Hudson O’Neal, and Jimmy Owens. Sheppard earned the outside front row starting spot in March and jumped to the lead at the start of the 50-lap race. Casebolt was the third driver to run in second as both Josh Richards and Kyle Bronson fell by the wayside. Casebolt picked up the second spot on lap 18 and stayed there until the checkers, with Sheppard in control of the race from the get-go. Sheppard, who won the race when it was last held in 2019, led all 50 laps to become the 15th different winner this year in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. “Our car was really good. I would like to thank all the fans for coming out tonight. We have three nights of racing this weekend, we love coming to Brownstown Speedway. The track had a lot of character to it tonight, but if it’s like that the rest of the weekend I won’t be mad at all about it.” Casebolt, a Hoosier native, came home in second. “I had a lot of fun out there tonight. It was a little nerve racking at times but considering the rain they have had this week; it was also fun at the same time. It was nice to get a podium finish, it’s like a win for us. All these guys are so good, they do it all the time. To run second to the Rocket House Car, I am pleased with that.” Moran finished second in the Jackson 100 a few years ago but is still seeking his first career win at Brownstown as he rounded out the podium in third. “I always seem to run good here. They did all they could do to the track. It has rained here three or four days straight. It’s kind of incredible we got to race here at all tonight. I couldn’t run up there with Brandon and Steve. When I found that bottom, I just stayed there. We’re happy with a third and we will give it another shot tomorrow night.”  The winner’s Mark Richards Racing, Rocket Chassis is powered by a Durham Racing Engine and sponsored by Valvoline, Seubert Calf Ranches, Gunter’s Honey, Ace Metal Works, Integra, and Petroff Towing. Completing the top ten were Josh Rice, Tim McCreadie, Spencer Hughes, Tanner English, and Tyler Erb. Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt SeriesRace SummaryIndiana IcebreakerThursday, September 23rd, 2021Brownstown Speedway – Brownstown, IN Allstar Performance Time TrialsFast Time Group A: Josh Richards / 12.509 seconds (overall)Fast Time Group B: Brandon Sheppard / 12.620 seconds Penske Race Shocks Heat Race #1 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 14-Josh Richards[1]; 2. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr[2]; 3. 39-Tim McCreadie[4]; 4. 21-Billy Moyer Jr[3]; 5. 76-Shelby Miles[7]; 6. 32S-Chris Simpson[8]; 7. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[10]; 8. 418-Michael Wesselman[11]; 9. 1G-Devin Gilpin[5]; 10. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[6]; 11. 9G-Larry Greer[9] Summit Racing Equipment Heat Race #2 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 40B-Kyle Bronson[1]; 2. 20-Jimmy Owens[2]; 3. 71-Hudson O’Neal[3]; 4. 157-Mike Marlar[4]; 5. 11R-Josh Rice[6]; 6. 1T-Tyler Erb[5]; 7. 29V-Darrell Lanigan[7]; 8. 18R-Fast Eddy[9]; 9. 3Z-Zack Burton[11]; 10. 24-Jared Bailey[8]; 11. (DNS) 14M-Mark Robbins Simpson Race Products Heat Race #3 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 1S-Brandon Sheppard[1]; 2. C9-Steve Casebolt[2]; 3. 25-Shane Clanton[8]; 4. 8-Kyle Strickler[4]; 5. 21H-Robby Hensley[7]; 6. 14R-Jeff Roth[9]; 7. 14B-Britan Godsey[10]; 8. 57M-Cameron Marlar[5]; 9. 16-Justin Rattliff[11]; 10. 3S-Brian Shirley[6]; 11. (DNS) 28E-Dennis Erb Jr Ohlins Shocks Heat Race #4 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 9-Devin Moran[1]; 2. 81E-Tanner English[2]; 3. 1-Earl Pearson Jr[5]; 4. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[4]; 5. 14G-Joe Godsey[7]; 6. D8-Dustin Linville[9]; 7. 20B-Todd Brennan[11]; 8. 18A-Jeffrey Ledford[6]; 9. 19R-Ryan Gustin[3]; 10. 13W-Brayton Laster[10]; 11. 17J-Greg Johnson[8] LINE-X B-Main #1 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 76-Shelby Miles[1]; 2. 1T-Tyler Erb[3]; 3. 11R-Josh Rice[2]; 4. 1G-Devin Gilpin[5]; 5. 11H-Spencer Hughes[8]; 6. 6-Ashton Winger[7]; 7. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[4]; 8. 3Z-Zack Burton[6] UNOH B-Main #2 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 14G-Joe Godsey[2]; 2. 28E-Dennis Erb Jr[6]; 3. 21H-Robby Hensley[1]; 4. 66C-Matt Cosner[7]; 5. 14W-Quentin White[8]; 6. 14R-Jeff Roth[3]; 7. 13W-Brayton Laster[5]; 8. 14B-Britan Godsey[4] Indiana Icebreaker Feature Finish (50 Laps):

Race StatisticsEntrants: 48Lap Leaders: Brandon Sheppard (1-50)Wrisco Feature Winner: Brandon SheppardArizona Sport Shirts CJC – Presented by DirtOnDirt Feature Winner: n/aBrandon Ford TV Challenge Feature Winner: n/aMargin of Victory: 1.889 secondsCautions: Brayton Laster (Lap 5); Billy Moyer, Jr. (Lap 5 Restart); Shane Clanton (Lap 9); Matt Cosner (Lap 10); Josh Richards (Lap 14); Kyle Bronson (Lap 16); Mike Marlar (Lap 35); Shelby Miles (Lap 40); Spencer Hughes (Lap 42)Series Provisionals: Spencer Hughes; Matt CosnerFast Time Provisional: n/aSeries Emergency Provisionals: n/aTrack Provisionals: Brayton LasterBig River Steel Podium Top 3: Brandon Sheppard, Steve Casebolt, Devin MoranPenske Shocks Top 5: Brandon Sheppard, Steve Casebolt, Devin Moran, Hudson O’Neal, Jimmy OwensOptima Batteries Hard Charger of the Race: Josh Rice (Advanced 13 Positions)Midwest Sheet Metal Spoiler Challenge Point Leader: Tim McCreadieHot Rod Processing Most Laps Led: Brandon Sheppard (50 Laps)Sunoco Race for Gas Highest Finisher: Brandon SheppardEibach Springs Rookie of the Race: Ricky Thornton, Jr.Dirty Girl Racewear Fastest Lap of the Race: Brandon Sheppard (Lap #3 – 13.012 seconds)Fast Shafts Tough Break of the Race: Ricky Thornton, Jr.Outerwears Crew Chief of the Race: Danny WhiteARP Engine Builder of the Race: Durham Race EnginesMiller Welders Chassis Builder of the Race: Rocket ChassisDirt Draft Fastest in Hot Laps: Ricky Thornton, Jr.Time of Race: 42 minutes 3 seconds Lucas Oil Point Standings:

*Results are unofficial until Close of Business on the Tuesday following Race Day*

LONG BEACH, Calif. (Sept. 25, 2021) – Corvette Racing’s Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy won their second straight race in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship on Saturday – a victory in the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach with the No. 4 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R.

TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – GTLM WINNER: “It’s not easy. On the surface it may look easier than normal, but it’s not. Having to race our teammates heads-up like that is very, very hard. The Corvette today was really, really good. We don’t normally do this, but we went in a little bit different direction from each other, so Jordan was quite a bit better than I was off the Hairpin, but I was better off Turn Six. I think it made for better racing on different parts of the race track for us. I’m super happy to be in the 4 car and for the team. We’ve had a string of bad luck and sometimes it was tough, but I’m really happy for all of the guys to get another one and going back-to-back is fantastic. The championship is still pretty far off I think. But a couple of events ago Nick and I said we just have to win out from here. That’s our goal. If we can win a championship, that is great. But for us it’s not so much for morale, but just to give us and all of our guys who work so hard all the time no matter what the result is some validation to reinforce that all of that hard work pays off. We share in the excitement when the 3 car wins, but it is still a competitive sport and our teammates are our competitors as well. So today was a good day for the 4 car.”

NICK TANDY, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – GTLM WINNER: “It’s always like this between the Corvette cars… so close and tight.  That is kind of why even if there are only two cars, it still makes for a very good race. It might not be such a spectacle, but for us it’s the best competition you can have. You need to speak to this guy next to me (Milner). He won the race. He had an awesome first stint, got in front of the 3 car and basically whoever came out of the stop in first was going to win the race. It is so special to win at Long Beach. There is no other track or event that we go to like this. It is one of a kind here and we’re glad to be back.”

Championship leader Alex Palou qualifies 10th, Honda driver seeking his first NTT INDYCAR SERIES title
Honda clinched 10th Manufacturers’ Championship – and fourth consecutive title – last weekend in Monterey

LONG BEACH, Calif. (Sept. 25, 2021) – Scott Dixon led the Honda field in today’s qualifying action at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, in preparation for Sunday’s NTT INDYCAR SERIES finale. The outgoing series champion advanced through all three rounds of Indy car “knockout” qualifying and will start tomorrow’s 85-lap race from the outside of the front row, second, in his Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.

After winning the Indianapolis 500 earlier this year in his debut with Meyer Shank Racing, Helio Castroneves will start third in his MSR Honda, with series Rookie of the Year contender Romain Grosjean rounding out the “Firestone Fast Six” in his Dale Coyne Racing with RWR Honda.

Dixon’s teammate, championship leader Alex Palou, can clinch his first Indy car drivers’ title with a finish of 11th or better tomorrow, and will line up 10th at the start. Other Honda top-10 qualifiers included James Hinchcliffe, leading the Andretti Autosports group in seventh; and Ed Jones, who will start ninth in his Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan Honda.

Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach Honda Qualifying Results
2nd Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
3rd Helio Castroneves Meyer Shank Racing Honda
6th Romain Grosjean-R Dale Coyne Racing with RWR Honda
7th James Hinchcliffe Andretti Autosport Honda
9th Ed Jones Dale Coyne Racing with Vasser-Sullivan Honda
10th Alex Palou Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
11th Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport Honda
14th Colton Herta Andretti Autosport Honda
15th Alexander Rossi Andretti Autosport Honda
16th Takuma Sato Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
17th Marcus Ericsson Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
19th Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
25th Jack Harvey Meyer Shank Racing Honda
27th Jimmie Johnson-R Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
28th Oliver Askew Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
R – Rookie

Quotes
Alex Palou (Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) Championship leader, can secure his first INDYCAR drivers’ title with a finish of 11th or better in tomorrow’s season finale; will start 10th: “It was not the best of the [qualifying] sessions for us, but the good thing is that we had the pace, and it’s good to see Scott [Dixon, teammate and second-fastest qualifier] up there. We’ll see what we can do tomorrow from the top 10. We know we have a good race car. We’ll try and overtake some guys tomorrow, and just focus on ourselves. If we do a good job tomorrow, we win the championship. We can’t focus on what the other cars are doing.”

Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) Qualified second: “We had some traffic on the last lap that I think cost us some time. We were definitely ‘up’ [on the lap segment times] until we caught that car and I think it cost us three to five-tenths [of a second lap time]. But the car is fantastic, it really came alive for us in qualifying. But goal number one is to do everything we can to help [teammate] Alex [Palou] take home the championship.”

Helio Castroneves (Meyer Shank Racing Honda) Indianapolis 500 winner earlier this year; qualified third in his sixth Indy car race with Meyer Shank Racing: “Today was an incredible day. I have to thank the whole AutoNation/SiriusXM team and Honda. We keep improving with every race. I made a little mistake in the hairpin [Turn 11] on my best lap, and that might have cost me pole. But we can look forward to a great race tomorrow.”

Fast Facts
Honda-powered drivers and teams have won the Grand Prix of Long Beach 14 times in 20 appearances. This includes victories in seven of the last 11 races; and a seven-year victory streak in Championship Auto Racing Teams competition from 1996-2002.

Honda-powered winners at Long Beach include Jimmy Vasser (1996), Alex Zanardi (1997-98), Juan Pablo Montoya (1999), Paul Tracy (2000), Helio Castroneves (2001), Michael Andretti (his final Indy car victory, in 2002), Dario Franchitti (2009), Ryan Hunter-Reay (2010), Mike Conway (2011), Takuma Sato (2013), James Hinchcliffe (2017) and Alexander Rossi (2018-19).

Honda clinched its fourth consecutive NTT INDYCAR SERIES Manufacturers’ Championship – and 10th overall – last weekend at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. Honda teams and drivers have won nine of 15 races to date this season.

Where to Watch Sunday’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach
Live network television coverage Sunday’s 2021 NTT INDYCAR SERIES finale starts at 3 p.m. EDT on NBCSN. Complete, flag-to-flag race coverage also will be available on NBC Peacock, the INDYCAR Radio Network, and on SiriusXM satellite radio.

Honda Racing social media content and video links from the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach can be found on Instagram (www.instagram.com/hondaracing_hpd), Twitter (twitter.com/HondaRacing_HPD) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/HondaRacingHPD). Additional features and long-form videos can be found on the Honda Racing/HPD YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV).

CHEVROLET RACING IN NTT INDYCAR SERIESACURA GRAND PRIX OF LONG BEACHSTREETS OF LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIAQUALIFYING RECAP-NEWGARDEN PUTS CHEVY ON POLESEPT. 25, 2021
JOSEF NEWGARDEN PUTS CHEVY ON POLE AT LONG BEACHO’WARD AND NEWGARDEN TO BATTLE FOR CHAMPIONSHIP ON SUNDAY LONG BEACH, CALIF (Sept 25,2021) – Two-time NTT INDYCAR Series champion Josef Newgarden came into the season’s final weekend knowing exactly what he had to do to keep his championship hopes alive sitting third in the standings 45 points down to the leader. 
So far the driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Chevrolet is one-for-one. He progressed to the Firestone Fast Six and turned that into the pole with a lap of 1 minute 08.22411 seconds/103.846 mph. For the fourth time this season and 15^th time in his career, he will lead the field to the green flag and add another NTT P1 Award to his trophy case. With today’s pole, Newgarden stays in contention for the season-long NTT P1 Award. Team Chevy drivers Simon Pagenaud, No. 22 Menards Team Penske Chevrolet, and Felix Rosenqvist, No. 7 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet joined Newgarden in the final round of knock-out qualifying. They will start Sunday’s race fourth and fifth respectively. Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet, who came to Long Beach second in points, 35 points behind leader Alex Palou will start eighth tomorrow. Palou will roll off 10^th.  Rookie-of-the-year contender Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet, qualified 13^th for the season finale. Scott Dixon, Helio Castroneves and Romain Grojean made up the remainder of the Firestone Fast Six, and will start second, third and sixth respectively. NBCSN will telecast the 85-lap/167-mile race on the  1.968-mile, 11-turn temporary street circuit in Long Beach, California at 3 p.m. ET Sunday, Sept. 26. The race will be broadcast live on INDYCAR Radio Network affiliates, Sirius 211, XM 205, Indycar.com, and on the INDYCAR Mobile app powered by NTT DATA. TEAM CHEVY DRIVER STARTING POSITIONS: No. 2 Josef Newgarden, Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet, Qualified POLENo. 22 Simon Pagenaud, Menards Team Penske Chevrolet, Qualified 4^thNo. 7 Felix Rosenqvist, Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, Qualified 5^thNo. 5 Pato O’Ward, Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet, Qualified 8^thNo.12 Will Power, Verizon5G Team Penske Chevrolet, Qualified 12^thNo. 3 Scott McLaughlin, PPG Team Penske Chevrolet, Qualified 13^thNo. 77 Callum Ilott, Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet, Qualified 18^thNo. 20 Conor Daly, U.S. Air Force Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet, Qualified  21^st  No. 14 Sebastien Bourdais, ROKIT AJ Foyt Chevrolet, Qualified 22^nd  No. 59 Max Chilton, Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet, Qualified 23^rdNo. 21 Rinus VeeKay, Sonax/AutoGeek Ed Carpenter Chevrolet, Qualified 24^thNo. 4 Dalton Kellett, K-Line AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet, Qualified 26^thDRIVER QUOTES:JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – POLE WINNERYOU ARE FIRED-UP! THAT IS GREAT TO SEE. YOU DID WHAT YOU NEEDED TO DO“There’s some guy roaming around Long Beach that has just been yelling all weekend and getting us fired-up (laughter), and I was pretty much screaming that whole last lap. He’s at the track somewhere. He’s just getting me hyped. He was getting all of us hyped. He needs to be in this pit box. “I’m so happy. It’s been a little bit demoralizing the last couple of weekends where we’ve qualified. We’ve had really good cars. The team has been doing a phenomenal job, Gavin (Ward, Race Engineer) and all the boys. They’ve been killing it. To start where we’ve started these last couple of races has just taken the life out of me a little bit. So, I’m so pumped that we were able to be quick here. I think we’ve got the package, for sure, with Team Chevy. I wish we had more of a fight with Colton (Herta). He was going to be really tough to beat today. It’s a shame we didn’t get to fight him straight up, but you know what? We accomplished our job for today and now we have to go after it tomorrow.” YOU HAVE A CHANCE AT THE CHAMPIONSHIP. IT HAS TO GO REALLY BAD FOR ALEX PALOU. HOW DO YOU APPROACH TOMORROW? IT SEEMS PRETTY SIMPLE SINCE YOU CAN’T CONTROL THEM“Yeah, I mean look, we’ve fought hard all year. We’ve had ups and downs. It’s very unprobeable for us to win this championship. So, I think our goal is to win the race tomorrow. Let’s finish our season on a high note. Everyone here deserves that. We’ll see what happens. I think it’s pretty unlikely, but you never say never in this sport.” DOES SECOND IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP MATTER? IS THERE SIGNIFICANCE IN THAT IF YOU CAN GET PAST PATO O’WARD?“Well, we always want to maximize our potential. If second is what we can do for the year, then we want to get that done. I know that’s what’s important to Roger (Penske) and the team and the same with me. So, we’re going to do everything we can to finish as high as possible and we’ll see where the chips fall at the end of the day.”
FELIX ROSENQVIST, NO. 7 VUSE ARROW MCLAREN SP – QUALIFIED 5thWALK US THROUGH ALL THE CONFUSION TO MAKE IT TO THE FAST 12, WHAT WAS YOUR TAKE ON THE LOCAL LEVEL AND EVERYONE SAYING YOU DIDN’T SLOW DOWN, YOU SAID YOU DID SLOW DOWN. WHAT WAS THAT ALL ABOUT?“Man, I don’t know how they judged that because I’m happy I got through and we were fast enough to get through. But man, the car was standing there, and they kept the yellow for two or three laps and its qualifying. You have to push. But I wasn’t pushing. I was slowing down like three-tenths in that section, which I thought was safe. So yeah, I think we just have to be more clear on how the rule works. But anyway, I thought it was a good session. We ended up P-5. Maybe wanted a little bit more out of the Fast Six, but it was good qualifying again.” TALK ABOUT THE SPEED IN YOUR CAR, BUT ALSO HOW YOU CAN HELP YOUR TEAMMATE TOMORROW? THAT’S GOING TO BE THE FOCUS FOR THE ENTIRE ORGANIZATION AT ARROW MCLAREN SP“Yeah, we haven’t talked a lot about it yet but I think tonight we’ll go through potential scenarios. The fact that we’re up there is helpful. I think that’s a really good thing that both cars are starting in the top – 10. It just gives you more window to play around with things, with strategy, and potential outcomes that can happen in the race. It’s INDYCAR and you never know what’s going to happen tomorrow. We kind of have to get through Turn 1 and then we’ll see where we are. I’ll just push and do my best race.” SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 MENARDS TEAM PENSKE – QUALIFIED 4thYOU SAID IF YOU COULD HAVE GOTTEN A LITTLE BIT MORE OUT OF THE HAIRPIN, YOU MIGHT HAVE BEEN ON THE POLE“Yeah, I was on the lap and went hard in the hairpin and it was a little too much for the car. I may have lost second position there, but I tried. The goal was to go for pole position but Josef (Newgarden) sticked a really good one in. Great for Team Penske to be one and four. And tomorrow, we get to go racing. It’s my favorite track, so I’ve been enjoying the weekend.” YOU’VE BEEN IN THESE CHAMPIONSHIP BATTLES. PATO O’WARD STARTING 8th AND ALEX PALOU STARTING 10th. HOW WOULD YOU PLAY THE GAME IF YOU WERE THOSE GUYS? AND ARE THEY NERVOUS TONIGHT STARTING MID-PACK LIKE THAT?“Well, first of all, personally, and I’m sure it’s the same for a lot of drivers. But it’s awesome to be in the fight in the end. You’re doing this to be in the fight in the last race and Pato and Palou are in it. Man, Pato is in a tough situation. He’s starting mid-pack you know, and it’s been a mess, mid-pack, lately. So, I’m sure it won’t be easy, but he’s got cold blood. He’s really good. And Indy after the crash, he came back and finished second, so he’s strong. He’s going to be able to manage the pressure, I’m sure. But it is not an easy situation he’s in but first you’ve got go through all the mess.” TAYLOR KEIL, PRESIDENT ARROW MCLAREN SP AND STRATEGIST FOR PATO O’WARD: ON CONFUSION AT THE END OF FAST 12 SESSION:“I think we should (be in the Firestone Fast Six). We’ve actually got some data on our own team – I’m surprised Felix is through – frankly, good for him. Two cars we know went through the local yellow, but the results are official, so we have to make the best with what we’ve got. It’s unfortunate when the stakes are so high at the moment.” PATO O’WARD, NO. 5 ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 8thI KNOW YOU CAN’T SEE WHAT THE OTHER CARS ARE DOING, BUT WHAT’S YOUR REACTION AND WHAT THE SITUATION IS WITH THIS RACE NOW IN NOT GETTING A CHANCE TO START IN THE FRONT COUPLE OF ROWS?“Yeah, we should be in there. We were up on our last lap and I had eyes and I saw yellow flags and there were yellow flags until the end of the session. (Alex) Palou had to slow in front of me. I slowed up because that’s what you have to do whenever there are yellow flags. INDYCAR is never consistent with their calls. They need to review that because we should be in the Fast Six right now.” THE CONSOLATION IS THAT ALEX PALOU IS RIGHT BEHIND YOU. WHAT CAN YOU MAKE HAPPEN TOMORROW? WHAT KIND OF STRATEGY OPTIONS DO YOU HAVE TO TRY TO WIN THE RACE AND MAYBE PUT HIM IN A BAD SITUATION?“He’s not the only one we’re worrying about. There’s Josef (Newgarden), there’s Scott (Dixon) that are in there and we should be fighting against at least for pole. I don’t know if we quite had it for the pole, but we definitely had it to get into the Fast Six. It’s a crappy situation. A bummer. But we’ll see what we can do.”
 NTT INDYCAR SERIES POST QUALIFYING NEWS CONFERENCEJOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLETPATO O’WARD, NO. 5 ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET
THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everyone. Wrapping up qualifying at Long Beach. Joined by Josef Newgarden, the fourth pole of the season, 15th career pole for Josef today. Also joined on the far end by Pato O’Ward, second in the championship. He will start eighth tomorrow.Pato, championship still very much in play. The good news is you start in front of Alex tomorrow. How big of an advantage is that on a street course like Long Beach?PATO O’WARD: Yeah, our car has been good. I mean, we didn’t roll off the best, but I think we made some really good changes, just kept improving. We had enough for the Fast 6. Yeah, we should have been in the Fast 6, so…Kind of sucks to get hosed by a very odd call. I’m still seeking for answers. But, yeah.THE MODERATOR: Josef Newgarden, congratulations on the pole position. Tell us about your qualifying session today.JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I wish we didn’t lose that the last couple weekends. That would have been nice to have that mojo. It’s really what’s done our fate in for this weekend, is just not qualifying well. It’s nice to have that back.We’ve had a fast car this weekend. Actually like we started a little bit slower. It’s been kind of the opposite the last two weekends where we started really quick, then for whatever reason we just fade and don’t get it right on the day when it counts.Really proud of the team. Felt like our car was good from the start. Just needed the track grip to come up. The more grip we had, the better I felt our car was. Yeah, pretty happy for our whole team, especially Gavin, all the boys on the car, Hitachi, Team Chevy.Got one goal accomplished for the weekend. Hopefully we can finish things off tomorrow and have a clean day. Staying alive, man, for now.THE MODERATOR: Questions.Q.Josef, you got out of the car excited, a couple of expletives doing the photography stuff. How excited are you to cut the gap, even if it is just a bonus point?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: You should hear Dixon, he’s way worse. They call him The Iceman, this guy. Dropping fire (laughter).Yeah, I was pumped. We’ve had a guy roaming around here all weekend that’s just been yelling, like in excitement.PATO O’WARD: White shirt? Redhead, beard?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Dude, he has jacked me up. I just heard him the entire qualifying session. I tried to embody him as I got out of the car. I think I successfully did that. I apologize if anyone heard any of that. But I was pretty excited.It’s been a hard couple of weeks, like it said. The last couple qualifyings have been demoralizing. To bounce back and show our form is very gratifying. Very pleased for our team and that’s what we saw.Q.What did he yell?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: What does he yell, Pato?PATO O’WARD: No, I’m going to get in trouble (laughter).JOSEF NEWGARDEN: He’s so loud. You can’t miss this person. He’s great. I wanted him in our pit box. I meant to tell him that. I forgot to tell him before qualifying.He’s awesome, though. Don’t get rid of him.Q.Is he an INDYCAR fan?PATO O’WARD: Some guy just goes around screaming.JOSEF NEWGARDEN: He’s knowledgeable. The guy is a fan. He’s not just some crazy person that lives around here. He’s a real fan.PATO O’WARD: I think he’s had a tattoo of Will Power on his forearm.JOSEF NEWGARDEN: 07 Will Power race car on his forearm, massive. He loves it. Will took a video of him earlier in the week. You have to find this guy.Q.Have you seen him previously at Long Beach?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I don’t remember him. I’ll remember it now.Q.This race being in September for the first time, two days to absorb it, how does it feel? Different from the April race?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I mean, not to me. It’s great to be back. I don’t know, now that you’re here in the space, it feels like normal Long Beach in a lot of ways. Definitely missed this track, missed the crowd, missed the energy. Feels like it hasn’t really dipped, to be quite honest, coming back two years later, which is really great to see.Excited to be here. Excited that hopefully we’ll be back in April, no problems as well next year. It’s just a classic. You can’t not go to Long Beach on the year. It’s something you’d miss if we weren’t here. It’s nice to be here.Q.Would it make sense for INDYCAR to look at street races to finish things out?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I would agree. Also just being in L.A., it’s a great market to end the year. I think that adds an element to it that should probably be talked about.There’s a lot that goes into it, right? There’s so many other logistics, other variables to consider. Yeah, if you’re looking at it from a pure excitement standpoint, to Scott’s point, it’s interesting. It adds an element of chaos sometimes which can be very exhilarating.It can probably be worrisome if you’re leading the points, like if you’re an Alex in this situation it’s tough. If you’re a Pato in this situation, it’s encouraging because something maybe can happen, right, that you can’t plan for. I like it from that standpoint.I would also agree, an oval is fun, too. Iowa would be super crazy, but probably not the right place to end the year.Q.(No microphone.)PATO O’WARD: I love Iowa. I’m so excited we’re going back.Q.Pato, obviously you were able to see Felix’s data. What is the explanation you’ve had for the reason why the other cars weren’t penalized and Ed was the only one?PATO O’WARD: Yeah, I mean, really, really happy for Felix, that he went into the Fast 6. I mean, we’re in the same team and we have literal data that shows that at least two of the cars that didn’t get penalized kept going quickly in the yellow flag. I don’t know. Maybe rules don’t apply the last race of the season when everything’s at stake.It just sucks. Sucks that we’re stuck there because we should have transferred. We had the car to fight it. I don’t know if for pole, but we definitely had a car to be in the Fast 6 and start within the first two rows.Q.You’ve not been given an explanation?PATO O’WARD: I’m still waiting on the explanation, just like you and everybody else. But doubt I’ll get an explanation.Q.Pato, we’ve seen a few people have trouble getting into the walls, trouble staying on track. You brushed against the wall once. How do you balance risk versus reward on a tough track like this?PATO O’WARD: Yeah, I don’t know. I think you can’t get too greedy because it will bite. It will for sure bite you. I think as we saw today, not sure where Colton was, but for me he was the guy to beat for sure for pole. Yeah, like I said, when you get too greedy in places like this, they will bite. You just have to kind of find the fine line without damaging your car too bad, I guess.Q.You didn’t get any damage?PATO O’WARD: No, yeah, I gave an exit of turn four a little smooch. I just bent the tow link, then they fix.Q.Is pole more important here than at some other tracks? Does that help you stay out of trouble?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I mean, it never hurts, right? I think they’re important at all tracks just from that standpoint. It puts you in the best position to kind of control the start in the race, stay out of any mishaps.But INDYCAR these days is unpredictable. You can start up front and it can flip pretty quickly. We haven’t seen as much of that this year. Looking at the statistics, probably starting up front is good.JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I just jinxed it. It will flip now (laughter).I hope it doesn’t. So far this year starting up front has been what looks like pretty important. Yeah, hopefully that bodes well for tomorrow.Q.Josef, you said it’s been a tough couple of quallies. Does your race engineer Gavin give you any words of inspiration from qualifying or the start of the Fast 6?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: We have these fun things that we do. He’s got a pre-event report that he always does, and I love to read it. He puts inspirational quotes at the top page. In this case he just put three pole winning photos. I was laughing with him on Friday. I was like, Well, at least we know how to do it, right? Literally it feels like we forgot how to do our job the last couple weeks.Yeah, that’s the inspiration he gave me, was let’s just go do what we normally do. Somehow it worked out. Pretty pumped on that.Q.When the Fast 6 got started, did you know Pato and Alex were out? How did that play into your mindset?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I saw where they were. I was kind of hoping they’d be a little further back. They got well within the top 10 there. It’s good, but they weren’t in the Fast 6, which is positive for our outlook. But we still had a job to do so I was just kind of focused on what we were going to do in the Fast 6.Q.Pato, you said last weekend in Laguna after the race that you were in the championship hunt but you never felt like you had the car to beat the whole weekend. Do you feel like you have a really good car this weekend? Seeing how you were angry about not being in the Fast 6, seems like you have a pretty good shot at it.PATO O’WARD: We definitely have a better car than what we’ve had, at least last weekend. Yeah, happy about that. I think the guys have done a great job in being efficient with changes, just working together to make everything just go a little bit better.But, yeah, I mean, it’s hard to say. There’s a lot of really quick cars out there. We’ve got champions in the front, people that know how to win races, people that know how to win championships.Yeah, it won’t be easy. But we’re definitely going to send it tomorrow.Q.Seeing how St. Pete went last year, do you feel we can have the same thing tomorrow in Long Beach? Does it give you a good feeling?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It’s impossible to predict honestly. You try and predict these races and it does the opposite, to Scott’s point a second ago, saying I might have jinxed it. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I really don’t.Alex has been extremely strong. I think if he sticks to his program, he should be in good shape. He’s been very resilient this year and done a tremendous job. Really the same with Pato. I don’t see him make a lot of mistakes, he’s always a charger.If they have a normal day, I don’t expect too much craziness to happen. But like I said, it’s unpredictable. You just don’t know in these events. We’ll see what we get tomorrow.Q.You’ve always expressed a great deal of confidence with the Arrow McLaren SP team since you first joined them. Did you know all along this season that you would end up in the top three for the championship?PATO O’WARD: For sure that was the goal. Last year we finished fourth, so the goal just starting off on the season was definitely to not be fourth, to be at least third, then maybe a bit better.Yeah, I mean, we can still finish there. We’re sitting second right now. At least from where I’m at, it’s really tight. We need to have a good race tomorrow to try to secure second. We just need to monitor where Alex is and see if we should really risk it to go for a win or not if we have a chance, or just try and save second, which is where we are.Q.Josef , there’s three Chevys and three Hondas in the top six. Talk about how important it is at this race to get that win. Have you noticed, is there a difference in drivability off the corner at top speed or something you’ve seen where you have a bit of an advantage?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: We all want to have a good end to our championship regardless. As a team, as a manufacturer, as a competitor, you want to end the year on a high note. We’re all pushing for a good result tomorrow.There’s definitely differences I think between the two brands. I think for us, very pleased with our reliability, our fuel mileage, certainly our power that we’re able to create.I think there’s definitely differences between the two, the way the cars get off the corner, you can see visual differences between the two manufacturers. I’m happy to be a Chevy guy. I think they’ve backed every one of my wins in INDYCAR, have been still doing a stellar job for us this year.Q.For the Firestone reds, what do you think is going to be the dropoff?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I’ll do what he does. See what happens.Q.Josef, you have a big mountain to climb to winning the championship. Is it liberating to know the only way you can get this thing if you get all the points, bonus points, win the race, not worry about anything anybody else does?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I feel like I’m nearly dead. Just put me out of my misery at this point.But we’re, like, clinging to life. It’s a little bit, I don’t know, a hard place to be. We were in a similar situation last year. I just wish we were in a closer striking distance to Scott. We’re even worse than that this season. We’re just in it.Not much more to think about than trying to just go win the race. We did that last year at St. Pete. We approached it with let’s focus on ourselves, try to win the race, see what happens. We’ll do the same tomorrow and see where everything lands at the end of the day.Q.Josef, can you go into a little bit of detail about what went wrong in the last three qualifyings. Was it the same thing each time?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: No. Laguna was probably the most confusing. I felt like we had the car to beat going into Laguna. It just unraveled oddly on Saturday morning when we put red tires on. Not a hundred percent sure what took place there.I think Portland we just got behind. It was sort of self-inflicting. We made, yeah — just didn’t keep up with the track, didn’t put it together. That happens at Portland. It’s so tight there, if you do that, you can get bounced out pretty quickly. That was more easy to understand, but no less difficult to realize.I think it was probably a combination of things at the GP weekend. But you just can’t have that. When you have 28 cars in the championship now, I mean, you can’t start back in 17th, 18th. It’s going to kill your day, especially when there’s nothing that happens in the race to help you. You’re really banking on at least some help somewhere to vault you to the top three.We can fight to fifth or seventh, that’s what we did, but to do much more than that you have to have an extraordinary day. Those are just really hard to come by nowadays with the parity in the series.Yeah, I don’t know. The last two weekends were really, really odd. I’m so pleased to go into this off-season with something more normal and just feeling a little bit better about going into ’22.THE MODERATOR: Thank you.
Chevrolet IndyCar V6 Year-By-Year Results since 20122021 ­– 6 wins, 7 poles in 15 racesWins – Pato O’Ward (Texas2, Detroit2); Rinus VeeKay (Indy RC1); Josef Newgarden (Mid-Ohio, St. Louis); Will Power (Indy RC2). Pole – Pato O’Ward (Barber Motorsports Park, Detroit1, Indy RC2); Josef Newgarden (Detroit2, Road America, Mid-Ohio); Will Power (St. Louis).2020 – 7 wins, 11 poles in 14 racesWins – Simon Pagenaud (Iowa1); Josef Newgarden (Iowa2, St. Louis2, Indy RC2, St. Petersburg); Will Power (Mid-Ohio1, Indy RC3, St. Petersburg). Poles – Josef Newgarden (Texas, Road America1, Iowa2), Will Power (Indianapolis road course, St. Louis1, Mid-Ohio1, Indy RC3; St. Petersburg), Pato O’Ward (Road America2), Conor Daly (Iowa1), Rinus VeeKay (Indy road course October)2019 – 9 wins, 9 poles in 17 racesDriver/owner championship (Josef Newgarden/Roger Penske); Indianapolis 500 win (Simon Pagenaud)2018 – 6 wins, 9 poles in 17 racesIndianapolis 500 win (Will Power)2017 – 10 wins, 11 poles in 17 racesEngine Manufacturer Championship; driver/owner titles (Josef Newgarden/Roger Penske)2016 – 14 wins, 13 poles in 16 racesEngine Manufacturer Championship; driver/owner titles (Simon Pagenaud/Roger Penske)2015 – 10 wins, 16 poles in 16 racesEngine Manufacturer Championship; driver/owner titles (Scott Dixon/Chip Ganassi);Indianapolis 500 win (Juan Pablo Montoya). First manufacturer to capture all titles since Chevrolet returned to INDYCAR in 20122014 – 12 wins, 14 poles in 18 racesEngine Manufacturer Championship; driver/owner titles (Will Power/Roger Penske)2013 – 10 wins, 11 poles in 19 racesEngine Manufacturer Championship; Indianapolis 500 win (Tony Kanaan)2012 – 11 wins, 10 poles in 15 racesEngine Manufacturer Championship; driver/owner titles (Ryan Hunter-Reay/Michael Andretti)Total – 95 wins, 106 earned poles in 164 races

CHEVROLET RACING IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES ACURA GRAND PRIX OF LONG BEACH STREETS OF LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA JOSEF NEWGARDEN POLE WINNING QUOTE SEPT. 25, 2021
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – POLE WINNERYOU ARE FIRED-UP! THAT IS GREAT TO SEE. YOU DID WHAT YOU NEEDED TO DO“There’s some guy roaming around Long Beach that has just been yelling all weekend and getting us fired-up (laughter), and I was pretty much screaming that whole last lap. He’s at the track somewhere. He’s just getting me hyped. He was getting all of us hyped. He needs to be in this pit box. “I’m so happy. It’s been a little bit demoralizing the last couple of weekends where we’ve qualified. We’ve had really good cars. The team has been doing a phenomenal job, Gavin (Ward, Race Engineer) and all the boys. They’ve been killing it. To start where we’ve started these last couple of races has just taken the life out of me a little bit. So, I’m so pumped that we were able to be quick here. I think we’ve got the package, for sure, with Team Chevy. I wish we had more of a fight with Colton (Herta). He was going to be really tough to beat today. It’s a shame we didn’t get to fight him straight up, but you know what? We accomplished our job for today and now we have to go after it tomorrow.” YOU HAVE A CHANCE AT THE CHAMPIONSHIP. IT HAS TO GO REALLY BAD FOR ALEX PALOU. HOW DO YOU APPROACH TOMORROW? IT SEEMS PRETTY SIMPLE SINCE YOU CAN’T CONTROL THEM“Yeah, I mean look, we’ve fought hard all year. We’ve had ups and downs. It’s very unprobeable for us to win this championship. So, I think our goal is to win the race tomorrow. Let’s finish our season on a high note. Everyone here deserves that. We’ll see what happens. I think it’s pretty unlikely, but you never say never in this sport.” DOES SECOND IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP MATTER? IS THERE SIGNIFICANCE IN THAT IF YOU CAN GET PAST PATO O’WARD?“Well, we always want to maximize our potential. If second is what we can do for the year, then we want to get that done. I know that’s what’s important to Roger (Penske) and the team and the same with me. So, we’re going to do everything we can to finish as high as possible and we’ll see where the chips fall at the end of the day.” NBCSN will telecast the 85-lap/167-mile race at 3 p.m. ET Sunday, Sept. 26. The race will be broadcast live on INDYCAR Radio Network affiliates, Sirius 211, XM 205, Indycar.com, and on the INDYCAR Mobile app powered by NTT DATA.
Chevrolet IndyCar V6 Year-By-Year Results since 20122021 ­– 6 wins, 7 poles in 15 racesWins – Pato O’Ward (Texas2, Detroit2); Rinus VeeKay (Indy RC1); Josef Newgarden (Mid-Ohio, St. Louis); Will Power (Indy RC2). Pole – Pato O’Ward (Barber Motorsports Park, Detroit1, Indy RC2); Josef Newgarden (Detroit2, Road America, Mid-Ohio); Will Power (St. Louis).2020 – 7 wins, 11 poles in 14 racesWins – Simon Pagenaud (Iowa1); Josef Newgarden (Iowa2, St. Louis2, Indy RC2, St. Petersburg); Will Power (Mid-Ohio1, Indy RC3, St. Petersburg). Poles – Josef Newgarden (Texas, Road America1, Iowa2), Will Power (Indianapolis road course, St. Louis1, Mid-Ohio1, Indy RC3; St. Petersburg), Pato O’Ward (Road America2), Conor Daly (Iowa1), Rinus VeeKay (Indy road course October)2019 – 9 wins, 9 poles in 17 racesDriver/owner championship (Josef Newgarden/Roger Penske); Indianapolis 500 win (Simon Pagenaud)2018 – 6 wins, 9 poles in 17 racesIndianapolis 500 win (Will Power)2017 – 10 wins, 11 poles in 17 racesEngine Manufacturer Championship; driver/owner titles (Josef Newgarden/Roger Penske)2016 – 14 wins, 13 poles in 16 racesEngine Manufacturer Championship; driver/owner titles (Simon Pagenaud/Roger Penske)2015 – 10 wins, 16 poles in 16 racesEngine Manufacturer Championship; driver/owner titles (Scott Dixon/Chip Ganassi);Indianapolis 500 win (Juan Pablo Montoya). First manufacturer to capture all titles since Chevrolet returned to INDYCAR in 20122014 – 12 wins, 14 poles in 18 racesEngine Manufacturer Championship; driver/owner titles (Will Power/Roger Penske)2013 – 10 wins, 11 poles in 19 racesEngine Manufacturer Championship; Indianapolis 500 win (Tony Kanaan)2012 – 11 wins, 10 poles in 15 racesEngine Manufacturer Championship; driver/owner titles (Ryan Hunter-Reay/Michael Andretti)Total – 95 wins, 106 earned poles in 164 races

BROWNSTOWN, IN (September 24, 2021) – In a wild Night Before the Jackson Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series main event, Tyler Eb emerged for his series-leading seventh win of 2021 on Friday Night at the Brownstown Speedway. Erb took over the top spot when race-leader Josh Rice slowed with a right rear flat tire on lap 29. Erb went on for his first ever win at Brownstown. Current LOLMDS Championship point leader, Tim McCreadie, finished in second followed by Brandon Sheppard, Devin Moran, and Tanner English. Scott James started from the pole, as the veteran Indiana racer was looking for his first LOLMDS win since 2009. James would lead the first three laps before yielding the top spot to fellow front row starter, Josh Rice. Rice, the 2021 Ralph Latham Memorial winner at Florence Speedway in May, held the race lead until Erb passed him on lap 13 for the top spot. Rice would then use the high side to his advantage retaking the point from Erb on lap 17. Erb and Rice came across the line side-by-side with Erb narrowly edging out Rice. Suddenly, Rice slowed coming off turn number two with a flat right rear tire which forced a caution flag and a trip to the hot pit for a tire change. Erb went on to lead the rest of the race for the $10,000 victory. In Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the 16th time in his career and his third in the last four series races, Erb said, “It feels great to win here at Brownstown. They did a great job from yesterday to today to give us a good racetrack. I have a great time. We had to bring out two cars yesterday. I have a great crew and great car owners. We had a good car tonight and it gives us confidence for tomorrow night.” The defending Jackson 100 winner, McCreadie, finished second in Friday Night’s event. “It was really wild out there. You’d think it was the beginning of the year the way some of them raced tonight. They’re really hungry, I guess. I just tried to stay out of their way. This place is so much fun to race on when it gets like tonight. It was cool and a lot of fun tonight.” Sheppard rounded out the podium as the Illinois drive, who won the Indiana Icebreaker on Thursday night, will be looking for his first Jackson 100 victory on Saturday Night. “It was pretty crazy there for a while for sure. We were fortunate to keep our nose clean there and hang on for a third-place finish. Our car was good, we probably need do a few things different for tomorrow night.”    The winner’s Best Performance Motorsports Rocket Chassis is powered by a Clements Racing Engine and sponsored by M&W Transport, Roberts Bee Company, First Class Septic, Bazell Race Fuels, Posi Flow, Lucas Oil Products, Go Lithium, Midwest Sheet Metals, Keyser Manufacturing, and KBC Graphics. Completing the top ten were Earl Pearson Jr., Billy Moyer Jr., Steve Casebolt, Josh Rice, and Shane Clanton. Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt SeriesRace SummaryNight Before the JacksonFriday, September 24th, 2021Brownstown Speedway – Brownstown, IN Allstar Performance Time TrialsFast Time Group A: Mike Marlar / 13.385 seconds (overall)Fast Time Group B: Josh Rice / 13.653 seconds Penske Race Shocks Heat Race #1 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 83-Scott James[3]; 2. 39-Tim McCreadie[4]; 3. 81E-Tanner English[6]; 4. 25-Shane Clanton[5]; 5. 16-Justin Rattliff[7]; 6. 28JS-Jeff Shackelford[9]; 7. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[2]; 8. 21H-Robby Hensley[8]; 9. 157-Mike Marlar[1]; 10. 14B-Britan Godsey[10] Summit Racing Equipment Heat Race #2 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 71-Hudson O’Neal[1]; 2. 1S-Brandon Sheppard[3]; 3. 21-Billy Moyer Jr[2]; 4. 6-Ashton Winger[6]; 5. 11H-Spencer Hughes[4]; 6. 12J-Jason Jameson[5]; 7. 22L-Skyller Lewis[7]; 8. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[8]; 9. 14W-Quentin White[9]; 10. 79-Troy Worrick[10] Simpson Race Products Heat Race #3 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 11R-Josh Rice[1]; 2. 1T-Tyler Erb[2]; 3. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[5]; 4. 76-Shelby Miles[7]; 5. 2S-Stormy Scott[3]; 6. 97-Michael Chilton[6]; 7. C9-Steve Casebolt[8]; 8. 40B-Kyle Bronson[4]; 9. 66C-Matt Cosner[9]; 10. 1CJ-Casey White[10] Ohlins Shocks Heat Race #4 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 20-Jimmy Owens[1]; 2. 1G-Devin Gilpin[2]; 3. 1ST-Johnny Scott[3]; 4. 9-Devin Moran[4]; 5. 28E-Dennis Erb Jr[6]; 6. 14-Josh Richards[5]; 7. 14G-Joe Godsey[7]; 8. 17D-Zack Dohm[8]; 9. 14R-Jeff Roth[9]; 10. (DNS) 13W-Brayton Laster LINE-X B-Main #1 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 157-Mike Marlar[5]; 2. 11H-Spencer Hughes[2]; 3. 16-Justin Rattliff[1]; 4. 22L-Skyller Lewis[6]; 5. 21H-Robby Hensley[9]; 6. 12J-Jason Jameson[4]; 7. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[8]; 8. 79-Troy Worrick[12]; 9. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[7]; 10. 28JS-Jeff Shackelford[3]; 11. 14B-Britan Godsey[11]; 12. 14W-Quentin White[10] UNOH B-Main #2 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 2S-Stormy Scott[1]; 2. C9-Steve Casebolt[5]; 3. 28E-Dennis Erb Jr[2]; 4. 97-Michael Chilton[3]; 5. 40B-Kyle Bronson[7]; 6. 14-Josh Richards[4]; 7. 17D-Zack Dohm[8]; 8. 14G-Joe Godsey[6]; 9. 66C-Matt Cosner[9]; 10. 14R-Jeff Roth[10]; 11. 1CJ-Casey White[11]; 12. (DNS) 13W-Brayton Laster

Three Wins in Five Races for Shark Racing, Drydene Performance Products #1S

ROSSBURG, OH – September 24, 2021 – Start with Logan Schuchart and Eldora Speedway, then add in that crisp autumn air of September, and you’ve got a perfect recipe.

The Shark Racing pilot continued his hot streak on Friday night, leading the final eight laps at The Big E and scoring his second-straight BeFour the Crown Showdown victory.

After a tough opening half to the 2021 World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series campaign, the Drydene Performance Products #1S has roared to life over the past month with three wins in the last five races. His stellar stretch has been good enough to propel him into a tie with Sheldon Haudenschild for fifth in the championship standings.

Schuchart’s third-career win at “The House That Earl Built” came with a little help from lap traffic, as he pounced on 10-time Series champion Donny Schatz on Lap 22 and never looked back.

“I thought I could use those holes to my advantage, but I ran through it and I swear the motor felt like it lost two cylinders,” Schuchart said. “I think it ripped two spark plug wires off, so I was worried. I thought David would slide me for sure on that last restart, but we never saw him. Eldora is always in great shape and it was a lot of fun tonight.”

From the jump of the 30-lap NOS Energy Drink Feature, all eyes were pointed to Oklahoma City’s Wayne Johnson, who earned his second pole position of the season.

However, Schatz stole command on the start and cruised away to lead the opening 21 laps aboard the Ford Performance, Carquest #15. Schuchart quickly charged from fifth to second, and then all attention turned to an epic battle for third between Johnson, David Gravel, Tyler Courtney, Ayrton Gennetten, and James McFadden.

The first two stoppages of the race were for championship leader Brad Sweet, who suffered a flat right rear on the Kasey Kahne Racing, NAPA Auto Parts #49 not only once, but twice. He went to the work area on Lap 11 and Lap 22, ultimately crossing the line 19th for his worst finish of the season.

At the front of the field, Schuchart pounced on Schatz thanks to lap traffic and never saw another challenge. A green-white-checkered restart made it interesting, but neither Gravel nor McFadden could pressure the #1S as he scooted away to his sixth win of the season and 29th of his World of Outlaws career in a new Triple-X chassis, which he credits for their revitalized success.

“We just didn’t have the summer we wanted,” Schuchart elaborated. ” We felt like at any moment we’d start clicking, and we really felt like Eldora owed us one after July. We left Kings Royal week bummed out with the results considering how good our cars were. I don’t think we were good in the Dash tonight, but Ron, Ben, Jack & Bill made some awesome changes, and here we are.

Australian James McFadden earned a career-best Eldora Speedway result by placing second with a last-lap pass. It also extends his stellar stretch with five podium finishes in the last eight races aboard the Kasey Kahne Racing, Karavan Trailers #9.

“That was so much fun,” McFadden said with a grin. “I told the boys I couldn’t stop laughing in the car it was that much fun. I grew up watching Eldora and watching guys pound it off the fence like that. A bit of redemption after leading laps at the Kings Royal and stepping on my old feller. This team is really clicking right now.”

The Big Game Motorsports #2 made a late charge at Schuchart for the lead, but the final caution on Lap 28 was a caution that David Gravel didn’t want to see as he slipped back to finish third. Ultimately, it was a massive points night as Sweet struggled with two flat tires and Gravel gained 32 points with some of his best tracks on the horizon in the final 10 races.

“Track was slick, but it was great,” Gravel noted. “The holes made it interesting. I don’t think I would’ve won the race, but the caution didn’t help with losing second. Overall it’s a good night to rebound after Hanford. I’m excited for Lernerville tomorrow, one of my favorite tracks.”

After leading the opening 21 laps, Donny Schatz fell back to finish fourth aboard the Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing #15. Rounding out the top-five was King Tyler Courtney in the NOS Energy Drink TURBO #7BC, who started his night with a win in the USAC Midget program.

Closing out the top-10 on Friday night was KSE Hard Charger Justin Peck in sixth-from-18th, polesitter Wayne Johnson in seventh, Eldora rookie Ayrton Gennetten in eighth, Jason Johnson Racing’s Carson Macedo in ninth, and Slammin’ Sammy Swindell with his first top-10 of the year.

UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series now embarks on a long overnight drive to Sarver, PA as Lernerville Speedway hosts the Commonwealth Clash on Saturday, September 25. If you can’t be at the track, you can watch Every Lap LIVE on DIRTVision.

NOS Energy Drink Feature (30 Laps): 1. 1S-Logan Schuchart [5][$10,000]; 2. 9-James McFadden [9][$6,000]; 3. 2-David Gravel [6][$3,500]; 4. 15-Donny Schatz [2][$2,800]; 5. 7BC-Tyler Courtney [8][$2,500]; 6. 13-Justin Peck [16][$2,300]; 7. 2C-Wayne Johnson [1][$2,200]; 8. 3-Ayrton Gennetten [7][$2,100]; 9. 41-Carson Macedo [10][$2,050]; 10. 70-Sammy Swindell [12][$2,000]; 11. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild [18][$1,600]; 12. 26-Cory Eliason [11][$1,400]; 13. 11K-Kraig Kinser [13][$1,200]; 14. 10-Zeb Wise [24][$1,100]; 15. 5T-Travis Philo [17][$1,050]; 16. 5-Ian Madsen [4][$1,000]; 17. 97-Greg Wilson [22][$1,000]; 18. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss [23][$1,000]; 19. 49-Brad Sweet [3][$1,000]; 20. 101-Cale Thomas [15][$1,000]; 21. 83-Kasey Kahne [21][$1,000]; 22. 7S-Jason Sides [19][$1,000]; 23. 1A-Jacob Allen [14][$1,000]; 24. 11-Parker Price-Miller [20][$1,000]. Lap Leaders: Donny Schatz 1-21, Logan Schuchart 22-30. KSE Hard Charger Award: 13-Justin Peck[+10]

NEW Championship Standings (70/80 races): 1. Brad Sweet (9,266); 2. David Gravel (-124); 3. Carson Macedo (-164); 4. Donny Schatz (-234); 5. Sheldon Haudenschild (-322); 5. Logan Schuchart (-322); 7. James McFadden (-702); 8. Kraig Kinser (-1058); 9. Brock Zearfoss (-1324); 10. Jacob Allen (-1638).

Dane Cameron qualifies his Acura ARX-05 fourth for Meyer Shank Racing
Filipe Albuquerque to start fifth in the Wayne Taylor Racing Acura prototype
Till Bechtolscheimer, Gradient Racing pace Acura NSX GT3 qualifying

LONG BEACH, CA (September 24, 2021) – Dane Cameron led the way for Acura today in qualifying for Saturday’s IMSA Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, and will start his Meyer Shank Racing ARX-05 prototype from the outside of the second row, fourth. His co-driver in tomorrow’s 100-minute WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race will again be Olivier Pla.

Championship points leaders Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor will start fifth in their Wayne Taylor Racing Acura following today’s practice and qualifying sessions.

In the production-based GTD class, Till Bechtolsheimer led the trio of Acura NSX GT3 Evo’s running this weekend in Long Beach, and will start 10th with co-driver Marc Miller. Defending GTD champions Matt McMurry and Mario Farnbacher will start 13th In their Compass Racing NSX, while Andy Lally and co-driver John Potter will start 16th for Magnus Racing with Archangel.

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Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach Qualifying Results
4th overall – #60 Dane Cameron, Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05 DPi
5th overall – #10 Filipe Albuquerque, Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05 DPi
10th GTD – #66 Till Bechtolsheimer, Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo
13th GTD – #76 Matt McMurry, Compass Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo
16th GTD – #44 John Potter, Magnus with Archangel Acura NSX GT3 Evo

Quotes
Dane Cameron (#60 Meyer Shank Racing ARX-05) qualified fourth; race co-driver will be Olivier Pla: “A good rebound from this morning, with the unfortunate incident in the first practice [when co-driver Pla made contact with the wall]. But I think we’ve had a pretty good car throughout the day. Both Oli [Pla] and I were quite happy with the handling. It seems like all the turbocharged cars are a bit off from the normally aspirated cars here, which is a bit of a shame. But we were kind of the ‘best of the rest’ of the turbo group, and sometimes that’s all you can do. So we’ll see if we can make some magic happen tomorrow [in the race]. A big ‘thank you’ to all the Meyer Shank team, they had a really long day today with two practice sessions and qualifying all in the same day, so a really big ‘thank you’ to them.”

Matt McMurry (#76 Compass Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo) qualified xxth in GTD, co-driver will be fellow defending GTD champion Mario Farnbacher: “Qualifying today was a bit tough. There was a traffic jam almost every lap going into the last corner. I think we’ve improved the car a ton since we first arrived here this morning and I think me and Mario [Farnbacher, co-driver] are ‘there’ now. We have a fast car and know the track now. We’re plenty quick, but didn’t play the traffic [in qualifying] quite 100% right, so we’ll have some work to do in the race to get back up to the front.”

Fast Facts
Acura Motorsports and its performance arm, Honda Performance Development, have recorded a total of nine sports car victories at the Grand Prix of Long Beach, second only to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca for Acura and HPD.
This total includes three Long Beach wins for Acura, and six victories under the HPD umbrella. The victories all came in a consecutive, six-year period from 2008-13, and included “doubles” [wins in both LMP1 and LMP2] in 2009, 2012 and 2013.

Where to Watch the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach
Live US television coverage from the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach begins at 5 p.m. EDT Saturday on the NBC Sports Network.  Live flag-to-flag race coverage also will be available on NBC Sports Gold TrackPass, on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports App with NBCSN authentication.

Fans can listen to audio commentary via IMSA.com, RadioLeMans.com and XM Radio; and follow the race live via in-car cameras, IMSA Radio and timing & scoring available worldwide on IMSA.com and the IMSA mobile device App.

Acura Motorsports social media content and video links from Long Beach can be found on Instagram (www.instagram.com/hondaracing_hpd), Twitter (twitter.com/HondaRacing_HPD) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/HondaRacingHPD). Additional features and long-form videos can be found on the Honda Racing/HPD YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV).

Another close battle with Milner second in GTLM with No. 4 Corvette

LONG BEACH, Calif. (Sept. 21, 2021) – Corvette Racing continued its perfect run of pole positions in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship as Jordan Taylor earned fastest-qualifier honors Friday ahead of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. Taylor, in the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R, set a time of 1:16.801 (92.248 mph) around the 1.968-mile, 11-turn street course in Southern California. It’s his fifth consecutive pole position in GT Le Mans (GTLM) this season ahead of Saturday’s 100-minute race. Taylor and teammate Antonio Garcia enter Saturday leading the GTLM Drivers Championship on the strength of four wins and six pole positions this year. The No. 3 Corvette C8.R duo also won five races in 2020 en route to the class title. Taylor was 0.297 seconds clear of teammate Tommy Milner in the No. 4 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R. He and Nick Tandy were winners in the most recent GTLM race at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca two weeks ago. Saturday’s race will be the first at Long Beach for the mid-engine Corvette C8.R as the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled last year’s race and delayed this year’s running from April.  All four drivers have previous victories at Long Beach. Milner and Taylor each of three while Garcia and Tandy have one each. Corvette Racing will contest the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach on Saturday from the Long Beach Street Circuit in Long Beach, Calif. Live television coverage will air live on NBCSN at 5 p.m. ET with live streaming coverage on TrackPass and NBC Sports Gold. Live audio coverage from IMSA Radio will be available on IMSA.com, XM 202 and SiriusXM Online 992.

JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – GTLM POLE-WINNER: “Track position obviously is crucial here. It’s nice to for us to be on pole and have another 1-2 for Corvette Racing. It’s the first time we’ve brought the C8.R here. It suited the track really well. We rolled off the truck strong, so preparation-wise the guys did a good job. Looking ahead to tomorrow, it’s always a one-stop race so it’s all about execution in that one stop and maintaining track position. You always put an emphasis on qualifying to try to get the pole and get a good run into Turn One. Hopefully we can control the race from there and make a good call on when to make that stop. It seems like we had a couple of yellows throughout the practices so we might be able to count on one of those at some point. Obviously I couldn’t be happier to get another pole this year.”SECRET TO QUALIFYING? “I think we just made good decisions. Setup-wise, we’ve had a different setup for qualifying than the race. We put a big emphasis on that knowing where the car needs to go in the race. We spent Practice Two adjusting for race conditions and had in the back of our mind what we wanted to do in order to extract the most laptime when the tires are fresh. We did a long run at the end of Practice Two, and we’re pretty happy with things.”INFLUENCE OF SIMULATOR WORK: “It’s tough to know where the track is going to go. IndyCar only had one session today and they’ll do more running tomorrow. The track was a bit different when we went back out on it this evening. It will go in another different direction, I’m sure. It makes it that much more stressful. The street courses are great, and we love coming to them. But as a driver it’s very stressful when you have to get the maximum out of the car in a session like qualifying. It’s always nice to get through unscathed. We’re in a good spot. We’ve done a lot of sim work to understand what the car will do over a long run. We made those adjustments in practice to confirm what we learned in the simulator.”DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING DETROIT AND LONG BEACH AND DIFFERENT TIRE RUBBER: “We did. It was our first street course race with this car. It was good and bad, I’d say. It was stressful, like I said earlier, but it was even worse when you’re racing for no points and there’s no real incentive be pushing! But you want to push to learn lessons about the car, be on the limit of it to understand how the tire works, how it degrades and what we want from setup and development points of view. It was crucial for us to understand that. Every race we go to, we have multiple tire compounds to pick from so understanding how that comes into play with different rubber on the track and what will suit the car best… Corvette Racing does a great job on the engineering side to log data, make notes, study it and take those notes to the simulator to confirm things. It makes our jobs as drivers a lot easier when we go to a track like this where we’ve not been to with this car. We’re not fighting with the car in the first session; we know we can go in confidently that the car is going to be pretty well-suited already so we only need to make fine adjustments. Honestly this is probably the best car I’ve ever had at Long Beach. I’ve been here a few times before, and this was the nicest car I’ve driven here. It was stressful to drive but it was probably one of the easier cars I’ve driven, and it was still quick. That speaks a lot to the car setup.”CHAMPIONSHIP OUTLOOK: “We’re in a good position. I think the 4 car and the 79 are close on points. So trying to build their gap will be more important. Looking at the way the BoP has gone and you compare it from this year to last year of where Porsche is, they should have a decent jump. These sprint races suit us. We’re pushing the whole time. But when you get to an event like Petit Le Mans where you have 10 hours of racing, that’s where you can see their advantage grow. At the same time, we’ve seen races won by the slowest car on track. So we’ll never give up.”

TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – QUALIFIED SECOND IN GTLM: “Realistically, I’m not completely happy. I haven’t qualified a lot in my career but have had some good race cars. Getting beaten by your teammate isn’t ideal, but they’re the best comparison you can possibly make. Those guys are doing a great job and you can’t take anything away from them. Our guys are pushing super-hard and I’m trying super-hard. I probably threw away my last lap locking up the right-front tire on the backstretch. That’s unfortunate but the name of the game when you’re trying for every last little bit. I think we have a good Corvette. We were fast right away in the first practice. We can tweak on it a little bit but I think we fundamentally have a good race car. For the entire lifetime of this C8.R, we show up to the track and the cars are really good and we’re never lost. It gives us the chance to find every last little bit. Awesome job by Jordan but hopefully we can switch it around tomorrow again.”

MADISON, Ill. (Sept. 24, 2021) – Robert Hight and the AAA Missouri Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car ended day one of the NHRA Midwest Nationals at World Wide Technology Raceway sitting No. 4. John Force and the PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Camaro are temporarily No. 14 and Brittany Force and the Monster Energy dragster are No. 15 with two more runs tomorrow. Hight, who is looking for his fifth No.1 qualifying position at World Wide Technology Raceway, handled the AAA Chevy to a clean 3.902-second pass at 326.87 mph to open qualifying at the NHRA Midwest Nationals. “Not a bad start to the weekend. Two more runs tomorrow to try and improve, maybe pick up some points,” Hight said. “We’ve got some ground to cover but we have to take it one run at a time. This AAA team needs to be aggressive and get the job done. Looking forward to what we can do tomorrow to set us up for race day.” The PEAK Chevy struggled in its first try at qualifying on Friday night. Force lost traction and had to pedal his Camaro hot rod before shutting off early for only a 5.816-second pass at 125.75 mph. “This PEAK Chevrolet team made some changes coming into this race, we’re figuring it out. We have two more runs tomorrow. Not worried, we’ll just have to see how it goes,” said Force who is looking for his fourth No. 1 at the facility. “It’s great to be back in St. Louis at World Wide Technology Raceway, weather is beautiful so the racing should be good. We’ll put on a show so come on out.” Top Fuel points leader Brittany Force and the Monster Energy / Flav-R-Pac team had a rare stumble during Friday night qualifying. The 10-time No. 1 qualifiers this season went up in tire smoke mid-track to only go 5.620-seconds at 116.81 mph putting them, momentarily, in the No. 16 spot. “Unfortunately, we didn’t get down there in Q1. I drove it a bit out of the groove and it went into smoke,” Force said. “We’re collecting all the information from tonight and we’ll adjust for tomorrow. Conditions should still be cool so we should be able to run well. This Monster Energy / Flav-R-Pac team is not letting one run get to us. We get two more tomorrow and we’re confident we’ll step up.” Qualifying at the NHRA Midwest Nationals at World Wide Technology Raceway continues with sessions on Saturday at 1:45 and 4:25 p.m. Eliminations are slated to begin Sunday at 10:30 a.m. For qualifying television coverage, tune-in Sunday at 1 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1 (FS1). Eliminations will air Sunday at 2 p.m. ET on FS1. -30-

BRITTANY FORCE, 35, Monster Energy Top Fuel dragsterQualifying:16th; 5.620-seconds at 116.81mphBonus Qualifying Points:0

ROBERT HIGHT, 52, Automobile Club of Southern California Chevy Camaro SSQualifying:4th; 3.902-seconds at 326.87 mphBonus Qualifying Points:0

BATAVIA, Ohio (September 23, 2021) – As the “Official Fantasy Sports Provider” of the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, Dirt Draft makes it easy for fans to have fun playing dirt track fantasy games and win prizes, while offering a cash bonus to one driver at the year-end Series Championship banquet.  Dirt Draft is a fantasy racing contest that allows you to compete against hundreds of other fans across the country. Select a team of five drivers while staying under the $100,000 salary cap and earn points towards the Speed Shop for event tickets, merchandise, subscriptions and much more! Join in on the fun at dirtdraft.com/lucasoil today! At the beginning of the season, Dirt Draft introduced the Hot Lap Award. The driver with the most overall fastest lap time in Hot Laps at the conclusion of the season will be presented with a $500 check courtesy of Dirt Draft Fantasy Racing. Currently, Jonathan Davenport leads the Dirt Draft Fastest in Hot Laps point category, with Tim McCreadie trailing by just a single overall fastest hot lap time.  A fan will be crowned the 2021 Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Dirt Draft Fantasy Champion. Not only does this title come with bragging rights, but the fantasy champion will be invited to the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series banquet in December to be recognized in front of and alongside some of the nation’s most elite teams and drivers. Draft your team today! For the latest breaking news concerning the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, including the latest series standings, 2021 tour schedule, driver information, and more visit the official website at: www.lucasdirt.com.

Long-time partners extend sponsorship; Several step up to present more than $20,000 total in special awards OSWEGO, NY – Sept. 23, 2021 – The 49th NAPA Auto Parts Super DIRT Week will boast more than a $400,000 total purse for the week of racing (Oct. 6-10), which couldn’t be accomplished without the support of new and long-lasting sponsors.Earlier this year, NAPA Auto Parts announced it was extending its partnership with Super DIRT Week with a multi-year deal, which will include the 50th edition of the historic event. This year will mark the ninth consecutive year that NAPA has served as the title sponsor.“NAPA Auto Parts is thrilled to be a part of the history and legacy of Super DIRT Week,” said Ryan Nowitzke, general manager of NAPA Syracuse. “We look forward to seeing our dedicated, hard-working race fans from across the Northeast spend the week in Central New York at Oswego Speedway and surrounding racetracks. Nothing compares to the excitement and drama of Super DIRTcar Series racing at Super DIRT Week. It takes a lot of “NAPA Know How” to get to the top level of dirt racing.”NAPA isn’t the only well-known partner returning, as well. Billy Whittaker Cars & Trux enters its fifth consecutive season as the sponsor of the Super DIRTcar Series 200-lap, $50,000-to-win, main event (Sunday, Oct. 10).“Super DIRT Week is a special event with an amazing community of race fans and I’m proud to have Billy Whittaker Cars & Trux continue to play a key role,” Billy Whittaker said. “This has been a tremendous partnership throughout the years as we all work to produce the best dirt car racing, we can in the Northeast.”The familiar gold bowtie will dawn the DIRTcar Sportsman main event once again for the Chevrolet Performance 75 – taking place on Sunday, Oct. 10.When it comes to the essential tires and fuel, Hoosier Racing Tire and VP Racing Fuels have become synonymous with NAPA Super DIRT Week and DIRTcar Racing throughout the Northeast. They’ll both continue to be suppliers of those essentials for competitors throughout the week.DIRTVision joins NAPA Super DIRT Week as the new official live broadcast partner this year. The entire week of racing from Oswego Speedway, Brewerton Speedway and Weedsport Speedway will be broadcast live with expert play-by-play announcing, in-depth pit reporter and superior camera action – including drone coverage. There will also be jumbotrons at every race for fans in the grandstands. To watch DIRTVision, sign up now with an annual Platinum FASS PASS or the monthly FAST PASS. You can watch at DIRTVision.com or on the DIRTVision App.“We’re very excited to showcase to the Northeast fans that can’t be at the track the expert coverage and storytelling DIRTVision has to offer,” said DIRTVision General Manager Jim Chiappelli. “We have a lot of exciting things in store that will make them feel like they’re still a part of Racing’s Biggest Party.”More than $20,000 in total special awards will be available to drivers in all four divisions (Super DIRTcar Series, DIRTcar 358 Modified, DIRTcar Sportsman and DIRTcar Pro Stock) with awards for all four coming from SRI Performance (Pole Award), Low-E Insulation (Outside Pole Award), St. Lawrence Radiology (Last Chance Showdown), Bart Contracting (Hard Luck Award), K1 Race Gear (Last Car/Finisher Award), Fastline Performance (Halfway Feature Leader Award), Integra (Last Car on the Lead Lap) PJC Spray Foam (Lap 50 Leader Award) and Penske Racing Shocks (Hard Charger Award). Area Auto Racing News will also again present the Best Appearing Car award for each division.Beyond those sponsors, NAPA Super DIRT Week counts on many other key sponsors and partners, including: SIS Insurance, Automotive Racing Products, A-Verdi, ASI Race Wear, Best Western Plus-Oswego, Beyea Custom Headers, Bicknell Racing Products, City of Oswego, C&S Companies, Clarion Hotel-Oswego, Cometic Gasket, COMP Cams, Drydene, Empire Golf Cars, Fast Shafts, FireAde, Fox Factory, Gypsum Express, Integra Racing Shocks, Intercomp, iRacing, MSD, Penske Racing Shocks, Racing Electronics, Tracey Road Equipment, and Wrisco Aluminum.

NAPA Super DIRT Week is brought to fans by many important sponsors and partners, including: NAPA Auto Parts, DIRTVision (Official Live Broadcast Partner), Billy Whittaker Cars and Trux, Chevrolet Performance and SIS Insurance. Other Super DIRT Week sponsors include: ARP (Automotive Racing Products), A-Verdi, Area Auto Racing News, ASI Race Wear, Bart Contracting Inc, Best Western Plus-Oswego, Beyea Custom Headers, Bicknell Racing Products, City of Oswego, C&S Companies, Clarion Hotel – Oswego, Cometic Gasket, COMP Cams,  Drydene, Fast Line Performance, Fast Shafts, FireAde, Fox Factory, Gypsum Express, Hoosier Racing Tire, Integra Racing Shocks, Intercomp, iRacing, K1 Race Gear, Low-E Insulation, MSD, Penske Shocks, PJC Spray Foam, Racing Electronics, SRI Performance, Tracey Road Equipment, VP Racing Fuels, and Wrisco Aluminum. Special thanks to New York State. The Super DIRTcar Series is brought to fans by many important sponsors and partners, including: DIRTVision (Official Live Broadcast Partner), Hoosier Racing Tire (Official Tire), SIS Insurance (Official Insurance Provider), VP Racing Fuels (Official Racing Fuel), Chevy Performance Parts, iRacing (Official Online Racing Game) and NAPA Auto Parts. Contingency sponsors include: ARP (Automotive Racing Products), ASI Race Wear, Bicknell Racing Products, Billy Whittaker Cars & Trux, Cometic Gasket, COMP Cams, Drydene, Fox Factory, MSD, and Wrisco (Exclusive Racing Aluminum); along with manufacturer sponsors, including: FireAde, Intercomp, and Racing Electronics.

TEAM CHEVY ADVANCE SOUTH POINT 400 LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY LAS VEGAS, NEVADA SEPT. 26, 2021
RACE #30 – LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAYThe Round of 12 of the NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) Playoffs for four Team Chevy drivers opens Sunday, September 26, with the 267-lap South Point 400 on the 1.5-mile oval of Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Chevrolet has won nine of the 27 NCS races held at the Nevada venue, including the past two by Kyle Larson (March 2021) and Kurt Busch (September 2020). Larson, first in the Playoff standings entering the race, will start from the pole in his No. 5 Tarlton and Son Camaro ZL1 1LE.
The diverse three-race set of the second round also includes the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway oval and the Charlotte ROVAL, where the field will be trimmed from 12 drivers to eight in pursuit for the NCS championship title. A look at Team Chevy in the NASCAR Cup Series title hunt:
Kyle Larson, No. 5 Tarlton and Son Camaro ZL1 1LE – 1st in Standings (3,059 Points)Victories: 6 (field-high)Top-Fives: 16; Top-10’s: 21; Poles: 1; Laps Led: 1,905Average Finish: 9.0Stage Wins: 14At Las Vegas (10 career NCS starts): Wins: 1; Top-Fives: 4; Top-10’s: 7; Average Finish: 9.8Of Note: In the March 2021 NCS race at Las Vegas, Larson led a field-high 103 of 267 laps to capture his first win of the 2021 NCS season and his first with Hendrick Motorsports. The NCS Regular Season Champion starts the second round 46 points above the cutline. 
Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 1LE – 6th in Standings (3,021 points)Victories: 2Top-Fives: 12; Top-10’s: 17; Laps Led: 524; Average Finish: 12.0Stage Wins: 3At Las Vegas (9 career NCS starts): Top-Fives: 2; Top-10’s: 3; Average Finish: 20.556 Of Note: The 2021 NCS season marks Elliott’s sixth consecutive year of being part of the Playoff field. Six of his 13 career NCS wins have come in the Playoffs. Elliott has wins at five of the next seven venues on the NCS schedule. 
Alex Bowman, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1 1LE –7th in Standings (3,015 Points)Victories: 3Top-Fives: 7; Top-10’s 14; Pole Wins: 1; Laps Led: 151; Average Finish: 14.1At Las Vegas (9 career NCS starts): Top-Fives: 1; Top-10’s: 2; Average Finish: 19.667Of Note: The 2021 NCS season marks Bowman’s fourth-career Playoffs appearance. Bowman has raced his way into the Round of 12 for the last three years. Bowman tied a career best at Bristol of a fifth-place finish to advance to the Round of 12. 
William Byron, No. 24 Axalta/Service King Camaro ZL1 1LE – 8th in Standings (3,014 Points)Victories: 1 Top-Fives: 10; Top-10’s: 17; Pole Wins: 2; Laps Led: 276; Average Finish: 13.7Stage Wins: 3At Las Vegas (8 career NCS starts): Top-10’s: 2; Average Finish: 20.286Of Note: The 2021 NCS season marks Byron’s third-career Playoffs appearance. Byron produced a career-high third place finish at Bristol, making up an 18-point deficit to advance to the Round of 12. In six NCS races on 1.5-mile tracks thus far this season, Byron has captured one win (Homestead-Miami Speedway) and finished inside the top 10 in five of those races. 
CHEVROLET OCCUPIES SEVEN OF 12 NXS PLAYOFF SPOTSSeven drivers of the Chevrolet Camaro SS – AJ Allmendinger, Justin Allgaier, Noah Gragson, Justin Haley, Jeb Burton, Myatt Snider and Jeremy Clements – qualified for the 12-driver NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) Playoffs that begin Saturday, September 25, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.Allmendinger sealed the regular season championship with his fourth victory of the season at Bristol Motor Speedway. The Kaulig Racing driver returns to Las Vegas Motor Speedway looking to become a repeat winner after capturing the NXS victory at Las Vegas in March. Chevrolet, with 12 NXS wins, is heading into the NXS playoff run atop the Manufacturer Standings.
NCWTS ROUND OF EIGHTReigning NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) champion Sheldon Creed, Zane Smith and Carson Hocevar advanced to the Round of 8 in their Chevrolet Silverado’s. The reigning NCWTS Champion, Sheldon Creed, had an impressive first round, capturing the victory at two of the three races in the Round of 10. Creed leads the Team Chevy brigade sitting second in the driver standings. The Round of 8 kicks off at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Friday, September 24, with the Victoria’s Voice Foundation 200 Presented by Westgate Resorts. 
TWENTY YEARS AGO – GORDON RECORDS CHEVY’S FIRSTCareer Chevrolet driver Jeff Gordon gave the Bowtie Brand its first victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 4, 2001. Gordon led twice, including the final 20 laps of the 267-lap race, after starting 24th. Jimmie Johnson leads Chevrolet and all NCS drivers with four wins at the track, including three in a row in 2005, ’06 and ’07. 
CHEVROLET HOLDS LEAD IN MANUFACTURER STANDINGSChevrolet remains the leader in the NASCAR Cup Series Manufacturer Standings in pursuit of its 40th title. Team Chevy has recorded field highs of 14 victories, 128 top-10 finishes, 3,300 laps led and 26 stage wins through 29 races. The Bowtie Brand has already surpassed its totals for wins (9), top-10 finishes (120), laps led (2,399) and stage wins (21) from the 36-race 2020 season.
BUSCH TO MAKE 750TH START ON HOME TRACKLas Vegas native Kurt Busch, driving the No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing Camaro ZL1 1LE, will make his 750th NASCAR Cup Series start on his home track. In his 22nd season, the 2004 NASCAR Cup Series champion is the longest-tenured active driver in terms of career starts. He has 33 wins and 327 top-10 finishes. Busch, 43, qualified for the Playoffs this season for the 15th time in the 18 years of the postseason.
ON THE WAY TO THE GREENWith no practice or qualifying for the 267-lap race, the starting lineup is determined by NASCAR’s metrics system that was introduced to the series last year and incorporates results from both individual races and season-long results. Team Chevy’s Top-20 Starters:1st     Kyle Larson, No. 5 Tarlton and Son Camaro ZL1 1LE 3rd     William Byron, No. 24 Axalta/Service King Camaro ZL1 1LE7th     Alex Bowman, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1 1LE 11th   Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 1LE 13th   Tyler Reddick, No. 8 Cat Trial 11: Hot Wheels Camaro ZL1 1LE15th    Austin Dillon, No. 3 BETMGM Camaro ZL1 1LE16th    Erik Jones, No. 43 Medallion Bank Camaro ZL1 1LE 18th   Ross Chastain, No. 42 Clover Camaro ZL1 1LE20th   Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1 1LE
BOWTIE BULLETS·       Chevrolet leads all manufacturers with 14 wins, 128 top-10 finishes and 3,300 laps led of 7,293 total this season.·       In addition to its nine wins, Chevrolet has amassed 55 top-five and 106 top-10 finishes in 27 races since Las Vegas Motor Speedway opened in 1998.·       The Southpoint 400 is the fourth race of the Playoffs. Career Chevrolet driver Jimmie Johnson won the fourth race in 2009 and 2016 on the way to claiming the Driver Championship.·       Johnson’s four wins at Las Vegas leads all drivers.·       Erik Jones (22 years, 3 months, 17 days) is the youngest pole winner at Las Vegas.·       Jones led non-Playoff drivers with an eighth-place finish at Bristol.·       Hendrick Motorsports continues to lead the Owner Standings.·       Kyle Larson paces all drivers with 1,905 laps led.·       Tyler Reddick is second among drivers with 99.49% of laps completed (7,256 of 7,293).·       Five Team Chevy drivers have combined for 26 stage wins: Chase Elliott (Daytona RC, Michigan, Daytona2); William Byron (Homestead, Pocono2, Road America); Tyler Reddick (Road America, Indianapolis Road Course x2); Kurt Busch (Nashville Superspeedway, Pocono1, Atlanta2); Kyle Larson (Las Vegas, Atlanta x2, Kansas, Dover x2, Charlotte x3, Sonoma x2, Nashville, Darlington2, Bristol2).
TUNE INNBCSN will telecast the 267-lap NASCAR Cup Series South Point 400 at 7 p.m. ET, Sunday, Sept. 26. Live coverage is also on PRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. NBCSN will also telecast the 201-lap NASCAR Xfinity Series Alsco Uniforms 302 at 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday, Sept. 25. FS1 will telecast the 134-lap NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Victoria’s Voice Foundation 200 presented by Westgate Resorts at 9 p.m. ET, Friday, Sept. 24.
QUOTABLE QUOTESKYLE LARSON, NO. 5 TARLTON AND SON CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 1st IN STANDINGSLARSON ON RETURNING TO LAS VEGAS: “It’s nice going back to a track we’ve won at before. We were really good at Vegas earlier this year, so definitely excited to go back and hoping we have similar speed. The temperature will be much warmer this weekend, so that changes things but our team has been really good at adapting to every situation this year. Hopefully, we can prepare well and have another good car and battle for the win.”
CLIFF DANIELS, CREW CHIEF, NO. 5 TARLTON AND SON CAMARO ZL1 1LEDANIELS ON HOTTER TEMPERATURES COMPARED TO MARCH: “It definitely presents a lot of challenges – from the ambient air temperature to the track temperature, and the pace is going to be slower and (tire) fall off is going to be higher. We’re taking all that into consideration and hope we make the right decisions to have a good car – not only for speed but longer into a run when grip is lacking.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 6th IN STANDINGS“We haven’t had the best results at Las Vegas. The good thing is I feel like we have been fast out there at times. That’s the frustrating thing. Terrible results. I feel like every time I leave out there I’m mad and ready to go home, but I’m looking forward to this trip. Vegas is a place that I don’t have any ill will toward and again, I feel like we have had pace there. We have just really struggled to get the results. Hopefully, this time is a little different. It would be nice to get a win out there. That would be even better.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 7th IN STANDINGS“Advancing to the Round of 12 was exactly what we needed to do going into the Bristol race. It is obvious we struggled in the first two races in the playoffs, but we went into Bristol with a strategy and Greg (Ives) and the team did a great job with adjustments throughout the race. We fought hard and coming out with a fifth-place finish was big for this Ally team. We want to take Ally as far as we can in these playoffs and putting races together like last weekend will do just that for us.”
“Going to Vegas this weekend is a good track for the 48 team. We have seen success there in the past and earlier this season we had a top-10, if not a top-five run going before we had a tire go down. Our mile and a half program is strong and this Ally team has been working hard on our Chevrolets. This round of the playoffs has a lot of good tracks for us, so we are looking to have strong runs the next three weeks.”
GREG IVES, CREW CHIEF, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE “Whether it’s a great week or a bad week, you try to look at each week as a new start and have realistic goals in mind. A realistic goal for us at Las Vegas is a win. There are some places you go and try to get top five in stages and then come out with a good finish. With Vegas, I feel like we got great race cars capable of going out there and scoring a lot of stage points and getting the win. Fortunately, or unfortunately, we have teammates who have the same thing. We just got to go out there and execute to the best of our abilities and take advantage when we can. Whether it’s a restart or on pit road or short runs or long runs. We just got to stay focused on that. I feel like we’re capable of winning at any racetrack, but there’s a lot of confidence going back to Vegas.”
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA / SERVICE KING CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 8th IN STANDINGSBYRON ON HOW CRUCIAL LAS VEGAS IS FOR THE NEXT ROUND OF THE PLAYOFFS: “It’s a great feeling knowing that we had the performance we did in Bristol and were able to advance on. I knew this team was capable of it but to be able to execute it in a Game 7-style situation is even more impressive. Now we’re moving on and turning or focus to the next round. These upcoming tracks are ones that have always been good for us but they also can be wildcards in their own respective, especially Talladega (Superspeedway) and the Charlotte ROVAL. That’s why it’s even more important for us to go to Vegas, execute everything and maximize points. We don’t want to start this round off in a hole like we did the first round. Myself and Rudy (Fugle) would rather play offense through these next three races than have to worry on defending points. Vegas is crucial, in my mind, to determine how you play the rest of the round. Hopefully, we come out with a win and the only points that matter for the next two races are playoff points.”
RUDY FUGLE, CREW CHIEF, NO. 24 AXALTA / SERVICE KING CAMARO ZL1 1LEFUGLE ON THE MOMENTUM HEADING TO LAS VEGAS:“We’re super excited to hit the reset button at this stage. Darlington put us behind and we didn’t have a good run at Richmond. It made Bristol way too stressful. I feel like Vegas is really good for us, and this whole round has tracks where we are fast and perform well. I’m really excited about getting a reset, getting a good start at Vegas, competing for a win and maybe not having to worry about the next two (races), so that would be great.”
ERIK JONES, NO. 43 MEDALLION BANK CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 24th IN STANDINGSTHOUGHTS ON GOING BACK TO LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY FOR A SECOND TIME THIS SEASON? “I’m looking forward to going back to Las Vegas (Motor Speedway). We had a really good run there in the spring with a top-10. Hopefully we can just go back and run as good and improve on it, as well. We’ll see how it goes. Las Vegas is kind of an interesting track. I feel like this race is a lot different than the spring, just because it ends at night and the track changes a lot when it cools down.”“Overall, I feel good about our package and being able to come back with something that was good in the spring and hopefully just as good when we go back this weekend.”
DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 GOOD SAM CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 25th IN STANDINGSWHAT IS DANIEL’S AMIGOS?“Daniel’s Amigos was just an idea. I always wanted to do something special for the Latinos, and was just trying to come up with ways to bring this community to the race track and give them a special, cool experience.
“After several conversations with Coca-Cola and NASCAR, we were able to make it happen in 2019 at Auto Club Speedway in California. The program just grew from there until COVID made us take a break. It has been a while since we have done it, but we are back Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.”It has taken a lot of work by Coca-Cola and NASCAR to make this happen, but I am super excited about it.”
WHAT DO YOU EXPECT ON SUNDAY WITH DANIEL’S AMIGOS? “We are going to have a few hundred people in the infield of the race track in an open air space where they can have a good time. I am going to be there for 45 minutes, taking pictures, questions and answers and lots of fun. I want them to get to know me better and I want to get to know them. I want to show them how cool NASCAR really is.”
WHY IS THIS PROGRAM IMPORTANT? “One of the great things I love about our sport is that it is very family oriented. Every time I get the opportunity to do one of these Daniel’s Amigos events, I want to make them feel like they are at home so they will come back and support us every week at the track.”
HOW COOL WOULD IT BE TO WIN SUNDAY? “Winning Sunday would be amazing. I would invite all 200 Daniel’s Amigos to victory lane to help us celebrate.”
COREY LAJOIE, NO. 7 BUILT BAR CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 29th IN STANDINGS“Heading into Vegas this weekend with some high hopes. I turn 30 on Saturday, so my friends at Built Bar did a special scheme that makes me look like I’m turning 80. We broke a gear running 16th the first race here, so hopefully we can back that up and have an even better run this time. This track changes drastically from the start of the race in the direct sunlight, to the end of the race when it finishes under the lights. We’ve got some good notes that we’ll apply from previous races & stay on top of the changes to our Built Bar Camaro all night.”
Chevrolet NASCAR Cup Series StatisticsManufacturers Championships:Total (1949-2020): 39First title for Chevrolet: 1958Highest number of consecutive titles: 13 (2003-15) Years Won: 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 Drivers Championships:Total (1949-2020): 32First Chevrolet champion: Buck Baker (1957)Highest number of consecutive titles: 7 (2005-11)Most Recent: Chase Elliott (2020) Years Won: 1957, 1960, 1961, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2020 Event Victories:Record for total race wins in single season: 26 (2007)                2021 STATISTICS:                                                                                                    Wins: 14Poles: 5Laps Led: 3,300Top-five finishes: 60Top-10 finishes: 128Stage wins: 26 – Chase Elliott (Daytona RC, Michigan, Daytona), William Byron (Homestead, Pocono 2, Road America), Kyle Larson (Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Atlanta x2, Kansas, Dover x2, Charlotte x3, Sonoma x2, Nashville, Darlington, Bristol), Kurt Busch (Nashville, Pocono 1, Atlanta 2), Tyler Reddick (Road America, Indy RC x2)  CHEVROLET IN NASCAR CUMULATIVE STATISTICS:Total Chevrolet race wins: 809 (1949 to date)Poles won to date: 722Laps led to date: 240,005Top-five finishes to date: 4,125Top-10 finishes to date: 8,530                                                                                                          Total NASCAR Cup Wins by Corporation, 1949 to Date:           General Motors: 1,143           Chevrolet: 809           Pontiac: 154           Oldsmobile: 115           Buick: 65            Ford: 811                                                                    Ford: 711           Mercury: 96           Lincoln: 4            Fiat Chrysler Automobiles: 467           Dodge: 217           Plymouth: 191           Chrysler: 59            Toyota: 160

CHEVROLET RACING IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES ACURA GRAND PRIX OF LONG BEACH STREETS OF LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA SEPT. 24-26 RACE 16 OF 2021 NTT INDYCAR SERIES SEASON Team Chevy heads to Long Beach with eyes on the prizePato O’Ward and Josef Newgarden take aim at driver championship in season finale; Scott McLaughlin eyes Rookie-of-the-Year titleDETROIT (Sept. 23, 2021) – Pato O’Ward’s path to clinching the Astor Cup has become more challenging. But like any true competitor, the second-year NTT INDYCAR SERIES driver thrives on challenges. The driver of the No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet enters the 85-lap championship-deciding race Sunday, Sept. 26, on the 1.968-mile, 11-turn temporary street circuit in Long Beach, California, second in the standings. Scoring his third win of the 16-race season is a necessity to leave Southern California with the title. “We are still alive in the championship, and a lot of things can fall our way,” said O’Ward, who enters the season finale 35 points out of first. “I’m going for the win in Long Beach, whatever it takes. I think our street course package is probably one of our stronger packages in terms of road courses, street courses, ovals, short ovals. I think I’m pretty handy around a street course, so hopefully I can pull off something good.” O’Ward has one NTT INDYCAR SERIES start on the technical street circuit, qualifying ninth and placing 12th in 2019. The event was not contested in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’re here as underdogs,” O’Ward added. “It’s the first time we truly challenged for a championship of this magnitude, with this amount of competitiveness. I think it’s been a fantastic year. I’m very proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish. Really proud of how we’ve grown. But we’re not there yet. We need to keep pushing and we need to keep improving.” Two 45-minute practice sessions on the precede knockout qualifications Saturday, Sept. 25. The race will be the 165th for Chevrolet since it returned to INDYCAR manufacturer competition in 2012. The Bowtie Brand has four victories on the Long Beach course in that span and seven in a row from 1987-93.
“Chevrolet enters the final race of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES season with the same objective and resolve it entered 2021 with — to provide the best support possible to our teams and drivers and see a race car with the Bowtie take the checkered flag,” Chevrolet INDYCAR program manager Rob Buckner said. “It’s been a challenging season in many regards for everybody but rewarding, too. 
“We’re looking forward to watching the one of Chevy’s newest talents Pato O’Ward tackle the Long Beach street circuit in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet and Josef Newgarden wheel his No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet as they both charge for the win and hopefully either Pato’s first or Josef’s third championship.” 
Two-time NTT INDCYAR SERIES champion Newgarden, who was runner-up in the 2019 race at Long Beach, is 45 points behind front-running Alex Palou and mathematically in contention for the title. “I’m so proud of the No. 2 car team and everyone with Chevy and Hitachi — just a little short,” said Newgarden, who advanced 10 positions to finish seventh at Laguna Seca. “Little bit tough, but we’ll go to Long Beach and try to get another win before the offseason.” McLaughlin seeks to secure rookie of year titleScott McLaughlin will aim to wrap up the INDYCAR Rookie of the Year award in the No. 3 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet. With five top-10 finishes through the 15 races, including runner-up at Texas Motor Speedway in his oval debut, the three-time Australian V8 Supercars champion is a respectable 13th in the standings. Buckner continued: “Scott has made a difficult transition with incredible determination. He has challenged himself all season. It will be an exciting to see his hard work rewarded.” Chevrolet on displaySpectators can learn more about Chevrolet vehicles at the Chevrolet Motorsports Display in the Long Beach Expo Center throughout the weekend. Display vehicles include the No. 16 Paretta Autosport Chevrolet NTT INDYCAR SERIES car that raced in the 2021 Indianapolis 500, a 2022 Corvette Stingray convertible, a 2021 Camaro 1LE and a 2021 Silverado Trail Boss. Chevrolet INDYCAR team owner Beth Paretta will meet fans at the Chevrolet Display on Sunday at 10:00 a. m. 
Of noteINDYCAR veteran Charlie Kimball returns to AJ Foyt Racing for the season finale in the No. 11 Tresiba Chevrolet. … Dalton Kellett, driver of the No. 4 K-Line Insulators AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet, got engaged to be married after the Sept. 16 race at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. … Sebastien Bourdais, driver of the No. 14 ROKiT AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet, is a three-time winner at Long Beach. … The 2022 Long Beach race will be third event of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES schedule, scheduled for April 10. Tune inNBCSN will telecast the 85-lap/167-mile race at 3 p.m. ET Sunday, Sept. 26, and knockout qualifications at 3 p.m. ET Saturday, Sept. 25. Qualifying and practice sessions will also stream on Peacock Premium. The race, qualifications and practice will be broadcast live on INDYCAR Radio Network affiliates, Sirius 211, XM 205, Indycar.com, and on the INDYCAR Mobile app powered by NTT DATA.
Team Chevy will be represented by:A.J. Foyt EnterprisesDalton Kellett, No. 4 K-Line Insulators AJ Foyt RacingCharlie Kimball, No. 11 Tresiba AJ Foyt RacingSebastien Bourdais, No. 14 ROKiT AJ Foyt RacingArrow McLaren SPPato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren SPFelix Rosenqvist, No. 7 Vuse Arrow McLaren SPCarlinMax Chilton, No. 59 CarlinEd Carpenter RacingConor Daly, No. 20 U.S. Air ForceRinus VeeKay, No. 21 Sonax/AutogeekJuncos Hollinger RacingCallum Ilott, No. 77 Juncos Hollinger RacingTeam PenskeJosef Newgarden, No. 2 Hitachi Team PenskeScott McLaughlin, No. 3 PPG Team PenskeWill Power, No. 12 Verizon 5G Team PenskeSimon Pagenaud, No. 22 Menards Team Penske Chevrolet IndyCar V6 Year-By-Year Results since 20122021 ­– 6 wins, 7 poles in 15 racesWins – Pato O’Ward (Texas2, Detroit2); Rinus VeeKay (Indy RC1); Josef Newgarden (Mid-Ohio, St. Louis); Will Power (Indy RC2). Pole – Pato O’Ward (Barber Motorsports Park, Detroit1, Indy RC2); Josef Newgarden (Detroit2, Road America, Mid-Ohio); Will Power (St. Louis).2020 – 7 wins, 11 poles in 14 racesWins – Simon Pagenaud (Iowa1); Josef Newgarden (Iowa2, St. Louis2, Indy RC2, St. Petersburg); Will Power (Mid-Ohio1, Indy RC3, St. Petersburg). Poles – Josef Newgarden (Texas, Road America1, Iowa2), Will Power (Indianapolis road course, St. Louis1, Mid-Ohio1, Indy RC3; St. Petersburg), Pato O’Ward (Road America2), Conor Daly (Iowa1), Rinus VeeKay (Indy road course October)2019 – 9 wins, 9 poles in 17 racesDriver/owner championship (Josef Newgarden/Roger Penske); Indianapolis 500 win (Simon Pagenaud)2018 – 6 wins, 9 poles in 17 racesIndianapolis 500 win (Will Power)2017 – 10 wins, 11 poles in 17 racesEngine Manufacturer Championship; driver/owner titles (Josef Newgarden/Roger Penske)2016 – 14 wins, 13 poles in 16 racesEngine Manufacturer Championship; driver/owner titles (Simon Pagenaud/Roger Penske)2015 – 10 wins, 16 poles in 16 racesEngine Manufacturer Championship; driver/owner titles (Scott Dixon/Chip Ganassi);Indianapolis 500 win (Juan Pablo Montoya). First manufacturer to capture all titles since Chevrolet returned to INDYCAR in 20122014 – 12 wins, 14 poles in 18 racesEngine Manufacturer Championship; driver/owner titles (Will Power/Roger Penske)2013 – 10 wins, 11 poles in 19 racesEngine Manufacturer Championship; Indianapolis 500 win (Tony Kanaan)2012 – 11 wins, 10 poles in 15 racesEngine Manufacturer Championship; driver/owner titles (Ryan Hunter-Reay/Michael Andretti)Total – 95 wins, 106 earned poles in 164 races

ST. LOUIS (September 23, 2021) — A grueling four race stretch of NHRA national events will come to a close this weekend at the NHRA Midwest Nationals at World Wide Technology Raceway outside of St. Louis. Alexis DeJoria and the Bandero Premium Tequila ROKiT Toyota Camry might be one of the few teams that would like to keep the racing streak alive on the heels of their strong performance at the DeWalt NHRA Carolina Nationals last weekend. The five-time national event winner raced to the semifinals and while they did not get the trophy, the improved performance numbers across the board has the entire team ready for the final five races of the NHRA Countdown.

“Luckily, our next race is at St. Louis, we’ve had some good luck there, but we’ve also had some problems,” said DeJoria. “It’s a good track and we’re excited to get back on it. We’re closing the gap and the finals will be here before you know it and, hopefully, we can get a win before the end of the season.”

Sitting in eighth place may not seem like an optimal position but the compact point differential has DeJoria only 51 points, less than three rounds of racing out of fourth place. A strong weekend in St. Louis could easily catapult her into the top tier of Funny Cars with four races remaining. The remaining Countdown national events also play into DeJoria’s hand considering last season the Bandero Tequila ROKiT Funny Car team performed very well at those events.

Alexis DeJoria, Bandero Premium Tequila ROKiT Toyota Camry Funny Car

 “When you look at the races we have coming up to close out the season I have performed well there over the years,” said DeJoria. “I think we could get on a roll at just the right time and make this Countdown interesting. The main thing we need to do is make a great run Friday night during the first session. That will set the tone for the rest of the weekend.”

DeJoria’s success at World Wide Technology Raceway extends back to the 2015 season when she raced to the quarterfinals from the No. 12 qualifier position upsetting Tommy Johnson Jr. in the first round before losing to Ron Capps in the next round. Two years later as the No. 4 qualifier DeJoria once again raced to the quarterfinals with a strong race day performance. After a two-year hiatus from racing DeJoria returned, qualified No. 2, her best starting position in St. Louis, and raced to the semifinals before losing to eventual finalist Matt Hagan. 

“We had a wild ride in the second round last year, but I was really proud of my team getting us ready for the semifinals,” said DeJoria. “These race cars are a handful. We have been doing a great job this season of going up and down the track. (Crew chiefs) Del Worsham and Nicky Boninfante have a great handle on the tune up and I am looking forward to getting to St. Louis.”

The Bandero Tequila ROKiT Toyota Camry Funny Car has raced to the semifinals in two of the last three races and additionally has started from the top half of the field in eleven of the past twelve races. In that span DeJoria has been either the No. 2 qualifier five times.

Qualifying for the NHRA MIdwest Nationals begins with one session on Friday at 6:00 p.m. with two more qualifying sessions on Saturday afternoon. Eliminations will begin on Sunday at 10:30 a.m. CDT with the race being broadcast nationally on FS1 starting at 1:00 p.

The Clinton, IL driver has made three starts with the Series this seasonCONCORD, NC – September 23, 2021 –  As the 2021 season begins to wind-down, some drivers are already looking ahead to next year. For Kyle Hammer, it’s embarking on a new journey in 2022—his rookie campaign with the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Models. The Clinton, IL driver switched from a DIRTcar UMP Modified to a Late Model earlier this season and plans to take his racing program to the national level. After a conversation with fellow Illinois driver Dennis Erb Jr., his team decided to join the Series. “We talked to [Erb] to see what it would cost money-wise, and he pretty much just kind of put it in our eyes that no matter what you do, it’s going to cost the same amount of money,” Hammer said. “The only difference is with the World of Outlaws; you’re going to spend more money on fuel getting to the track. But, in the long run, you’re going to make more with the payouts, so he kind of talked us into it, and we’re going to go for it.”  Hammer already gained experience with the World of Outlaws Late Models in 2021, starting with the Northern tour in July. He’s made three starts in six appearances with the Series and said he’s enjoyed how efficient the schedule is on race night.   “We definitely liked an organized program more than we do a local show where some of our local shows around [Illinois] you’re not getting out of the track until two, three in the morning, and they’re only running four classes,” Hammer said. “We like being able to know what time you’re going to do exactly what; everything’s planned out, and you’re good to go.” The switch has been a learning curve for Hammer, getting behind the wheel of a Late Model for the first time since 2015. He stated the difference between the two cars is more complicated than people might think.  “The driving style is the biggest thing; it’s not as similar as what everybody thinks it would be,” Hammer said. “The Modified, they drive themselves so much easier going into the corners and stuff like that where the Late Model you really have to hustle them and get them to work themselves. It’s just a lot more work than what people realize.” Tires are another challenge Hammer faced when he switched to a Late Model because of the preparation teams need to do before hitting the track.  “It’s been a little bit difficult here and there, going from not doing any tire work with the modified where you can’t groove or anything like that, to the Late Model that’s double the tire and you have to groove and sipe them and everything else,” Hammer said. Despite the steep learning curve for Hammer, he’s already gained valuable experience racing against some of the top Late Model drivers in the country. He was surprised at how quickly he started to move in the right direction.  “To be able to go out and actually be able to make the shows and run decently close to the front; we had a couple of top-10s and stuff was definitely an eye-opener, not something you really expect to do the first time in a Late Model for six years,” Hammer said.  In three starts with the World of Outlaws, Hammer has finishes of 11th, 13th, and 23rd. As Hammer embarks on his new venture in 2022, he’s already taken a liking to a particular type of track.  “I’m looking forward to the bigger stuff; I like the bigger tracks,” Hammer said. “The 1/4-mile stuff is what I grew up on, but we’ve been to Eldora and Knoxville the last two weeks, and I enjoy that kind of stuff.  “The bigger momentum tracks, you don’t have to hustle the car around the cushion and stuff like that.” That may help Hammer kickoff a strong rookie season in 2022 as the World of Outlaws Late Models will run seven nights at the half-mile Volusia Speedway Park in Barberville, FL, starting with the Sunshine Nationals (Jan. 20-22) and then concluding with four nights at the DIRTcar Nationals (Feb. 16-19). Hammer is looking forward to his new journey next season but doesn’t have the goal some fans may expect. While he’d love to add Rookie of the Year to his accolades, he has another priority in 2022.  “We really just want to be able to complete every race,” Hammer said. “There’s a lot of guys that go out there, and their goal is to win points and stuff like that, but we just want to be able to say we made every race, completed every race, didn’t have a lot of parts failures, keep up on the maintenance side of stuff, and have an overall decent season.” The World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Models return to action on Friday, Oct. 1, at Cherokee Speedway in Gaffney, SC, followed by a return to Senoia Raceway in Senoia, GA on Saturday, Oct. 2.   If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch all the action live on DIRTVision – either online or through the DIRTVision App.

The World of Outlaws Morton Buildings® Late Model Series is brought to fans across the country by many important sponsors and partners, including: DIRTVision (Official Live Broadcast Partner), Drydene (Official Motor Oil), Hoosier Racing Tire (Official Tire), iRacing (Official Online Racing Game), Morton Buildings (Official Building), SIS Insurance (Official Insurance Provider) VP Racing Fuels (Official Racing Fuel); in addition to contingency sponsors, including: Arizona Sport Shirts/Gotta Race, ARP (Automotive Racing Products), Cometic Gasket, COMP Cams, MSD, Penske Racing Shocks, Quarter Master, Slick Woody’s (Quick Time Award), and Wrisco (Exclusive Racing Aluminum); along with manufacturer sponsors, including: Capital Race Cars, FireAde, Integra Shocks, Intercomp, K1 Race Gear, Racing Electronics, Reliable Painting, and Rocket Chassis.Founded in 1978, the World of Outlaws®, based in Concord, NC, is the premier national touring series for dirt track racing in North America, featuring the most powerful cars on dirt, the World of Outlaws NOS® Energy Drink Sprint Car Series and the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings® Late Model Series. Annually, the two series race nearly 140 times at tracks across the United States and Canada. CBS Sports Network is the official broadcast partner of the World of Outlaws. DIRTVision® also broadcasts World of Outlaws events over the Internet to fans around the world. Learn more about the World of Outlaws.