NASCAR CUP SERIESBRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAYSUPERMARKET HEROES 500TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPTMAY 29, 2020

RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 KROGER CAMARO ZL1 1LE, spoke with media via teleconference to discuss his fourth-place finish in the Alsco Uniforms 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, looking towards the next race at Bristol Motor Speedway, and more. Full Transcript:  IT WAS A FUN RUN THAT YOU HAD LAST NIGHT. WALK US THROUGH THE EXPERIENCE AND THE NIGHT FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE.“Yeah, for us, it was just really good to just have a smooth race with really no issues. Obviously, the first race back at Darlington, I kind of ruined our day early. Then, the second Darlington, we had some issues that we couldn’t fix while we were in the race. Charlotte, the Coca-Cola 600, the first run, we ran up to tenth. I felt really good about it. After we came to the pits, we had some issues again that we had to get over and just didn’t really have the speed after that first run. We felt like what we had in the car was really good and I liked the way it drove at the beginning of the 600. So, we just kind of worked on that and made sure that we limited all of our mistakes and got all of our issues figured out. Brian (Pattie, Crew Chief) and the boys did an awesome job with that. From the drop of the green flag, I felt really good about how our Kroger Camaro ran. For us, it was just huge to get a good run in and pass a lot of really good cars. We ran decent at Vegas and got a good finish on pit strategy. But last night, it was just nice to be able to run up front, pass a lot of really good cars and actually catch the leaders there at a few points towards the end of the race. All-in-all, a great night for us and really looking forward to hopefully carrying that momentum, show what we are capable of and be able to do that more and more often.” WITH THE WAY THAT THIS SEASON HAS GONE, FOUR RACES WITH YOUR NEW TEAM, A TEN-WEEK BREAK, THEN BACK, I’M WONDERING IF IT’S MAKING IT DIFFICULT FOR A NEW TEAM TO FIND A RHYTHM?“Yes and no. We semi had a rhythm going to start the year. I felt like we still had some things to kind of work through. But you sit around for a long time and you’re trying to think of new ways to make your car faster. Then, I go out and make a huge mistake and we didn’t learn anything at Darlington, so that was a rough way to kick it back off. Some of those things that we were working on, if we would have had practice, we definitely would have found some of those issues that we had at the second race at Darlington and the first race at Charlotte. But now, I think we have it under control. We’ve figured out what issues we had and I feel really good about where we are after the way yesterday went. No issues, still things to work on. I don’t really feel like the new team coming back is hard to get in that rhythm, it was just I made a huge mistake that kind of got us off because we could have learned a lot I felt like in that first Darlington. It kind of put us a race behind, so we could have maybe figured out our issues a race earlier and had two good Charlotte races.” YOU’VE HAD SUCCESS AT BRISTOL BEFORE. HOW MUCH ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO SUNDAY AND WHAT YOU THINK YOU GUYS CAN DO THERE?“I feel really good. I know (Chris) Buescher when he was here, they had some really good runs at Bristol. Our setups, looking at what we normally run versus what they ran here, are pretty similar. So, I feel good about that. The feel that I have in this race car I feel like is better than really any of the feel that I had in my Cup cars over my career so far. I felt like last night was a car that kind of reminded me of when I raced the Xfinity Series on the 1.5-mile tracks – I could kind of put my car where I wanted to and it did a lot of the things that I was asking it to do. So, I’m looking forward to getting that to Bristol knowing that we’ve had good runs there. We’ve had chances to win there. It would be nice to be able to get up and go lead some laps, and contend for a win there as well.” YOU GET YOUR FAIR SHARE OF CRITICISM FROM PEOPLE WHEN YOU DO MAKE A MISTAKE, LIKE AT DARLINGTON, AND SOCIAL MEDIA IMMEDIATELY JUMPS ON IT. HOW DO YOU BALANCE THE LOWS OUT WITH SOMETHING LIKE LAST NIGHT?“Yes and no. The frustrating part is that I just need to get more consistent, not make those mistakes and not give people reasons to run their mouth. But it’s all part of it, that’s the things you have to take with the sport. Anytime you have a lot of fans watching and definitely fans of different teams, you’ll have people run their mouth. But you just have to stick to what you know, stick to your team, know that you bring your friends with you to the race track, and know they’re the ones around you supporting you. Honestly, I think that’s one thing that I get out of working out so hard – it doesn’t just physically prepare you for the race, but mentally just keeps you focused on what you need to focus on. I know for me, I definitely need to get more consistent. I look back at my years in the Xfinity Series, it didn’t start off great, but when our cars were right, I felt like I was able to do a lot with them, be more consistent, contend for wins, win and run up front. If we keep having cars like we had last night, I feel like I can make less mistakes, but also be aggressive and still get a lot out of the race car, and try and keep those haters off the internet as much as possible.” ONE OF THE DRIVERS SAID TO US THIS MORNING THAT THE FIRST LAP AT BRISTOL CAN BE NERVE-RACKING FOR ANY DRIVER, EVEN IF YOU HAD YOUR CAR DIALED IN. DO YOU FEEL THE SAME WAY, CONSIDERING WHAT THIS MAY BE LIKE WITH NO PRACTICE, NO QUALIFYING? “Practices at Bristol, kind of that first run, you get out of breath, you almost have to remind yourself to breathe. But we’re all going to be doing that at the same time now. I think for us, the biggest unknown is normally we’re able to run the top of the race track in during practice. You kind of get two grooves going, people aren’t too scared to venture high early in the race. But now, with no practice, you’re not going to have those runs up there to lay the rubber. It’ll be nerve-racking, for sure. I think everybody is going to kind of take it a little bit easy, probably not going to do what I did at Darlington on the first lap. Just kind of let the race play out. Everybody is going to be hoping they get a good draw. That’s another reason why the race last night was important for us. After the last three, we slipped in points quite a bit and we were kind of in that third group of drawing for positions. Now, we put ourselves in that second group. Hopefully, we can draw towards the front of that and get a good starting position so we don’t feel like we need to be in a hurry. The leaders come fast at Bristol and that’s always a nerve-racking thing as well.” HOW DO YOU FEEL ALL THE COVID-19 PROTOCOLS THAT NASCAR HAS PUT IN PLACE HAS GONE?“Yeah, it’s definitely smooth. I think any updates that they’ve had, they’ve sent it to us and everything has gone really smooth as far as on the driver side. I haven’t heard any complaints from the crew guys or really anybody. I feel like everybody has been doing a good job and just accepted it. It might not be comfortable wearing a mask, but it’s part of what we have to do. It’s cool that our sport is back up and running, and being able to get our season back going. I know there are a lot of other sports that wish they could be doing the same thing. NASCAR has done a great job of working with the government and the states to make sure we are capable of going racing at the race tracks that we need to race at.” YOU’RE AN AGGRESSIVE DRIVER, IT’S WHAT YOU DO. WHERE IS THE LINE AT BRISTOL BETWEEN FINESSE AND AGGRESSION IN YOUR MIND? “I think you just have to feel out your race car and feel out the race track. You’ll have the bottom lane, the top lane, the middle – it’s just a race track you just have to get a feel for where you want your car to work, knowing that top lane will eventually come in and be the fast way around. But knowing that you might have to run the bottom on restarts and through traffic. So, really it’s just going to be feeling your car out until that competition caution that we generally have with no practice and just make sure that you give your crew chief as much information as you can to make sure when that pit stop comes that we can make the right adjustments to be good after that.” HOW DO YOU THINK THE FIELD WILL BE PULLING OFF AT BRISTOL? TOTALLY DIFFERENT TRACK THAN DARLINGTON OR CHARLOTTE. “No, I think it will be about the same. Probably the weirdest thing I feel like at Bristol would be no fans because the grandstands are so close to the race track. That will be a different feeling kind of walking down into the stadium with nobody yelling at you or cheering for you, so that’ll be different. But all-in-all, I think everybody is going to be in kind of the same mindset and just trying to feel everything out.” ALL THESE RACES IN A CONDENSED SCHEDULE, IT’S BEEN PRETTY WELL RECEIVED IT SEEMS LIKE AMONG THE YOUNGER DRIVERS. YOU AS A DRIVER WHO HAS BEEN AT THIS FOR A FEW MORE YEARS THAN SOME OF THE YOUNGER DRIVERS, DO YOU LIKE IT? “Obviously, since we’ve been back going, it was nice to be able to jump back into the race car at Darlington on Wednesday after our issues on Sunday. We had issues at Darlington with our race car on Wednesday, so it was nice to get back in on Sunday. I enjoy it as far as that goes, but to me, I just like to race. I like to be in the race car. Practice and qualifying doesn’t do it for me as much as getting out and competing in the race, as far as we’d be in the car on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. But really there’s nothing like going out and racing. I enjoy racing as much as possible. I like the Sunday – Wednesday schedules; I wish would could kind of keep doing that. I’ve never been a fan of shortening the season because I just like to race. I’m going to try and sprinkle some more dirt races in when I can, if NASCAR lets me (laughs). For me, I enjoy the racing aspect of it. I love being in the race car as much as possible. Like probably the other crew chiefs said, the guys at the shop definitely have a lot more work, as far as getting cars ready week in and week out. So, that’s always been probably the biggest question mark of running these mid-week races to catch up our schedule is the toll that it’s taking on the crew guys. But it’s all been well received, they enjoy it and they love us back racing.” I KNOW THAT YOU AND KYLE LARSON ARE PRETTY CLOSE. HAVE YOU BEEN TALKING TO HIM AT ALL AS THE SEASON IS RESUMING AND HOW HE’S DOING?“Yeah, he’s obviously got a big adjustment and it’s totally different than what was his schedule and life before everything went down. He’s glad to be racing, definitely misses being in the Cup car and competing at this level. He’s just been hanging out with his family and going dirt racing. It’s a big adjustment, but he seems to be doing alright.” COMING OUT OF THE PANDEMIC, WAS THERE ANY POINT WHERE YOU FELT LIKE WE REALLY NEED TO HAVE A STRONG RUN IN THIS MID-WEEK RACE AT CHARLOTTE OR DID YOU FEEL ANY EXTRA PRESSURE ON YOURSELF TO DELIVER THAT, KNOWING HOW YOU HAD SLIPPED IN THE POINTS?“Yeah, it’s was very important. Like I said, the first Darlington obviously was kind of written off. The second Darlington, we learned a lot. Didn’t have the run that we wanted, but knew that there were some big issues that we needed to fix. Coming into Charlotte for the 600, we felt like we fixed all those issues and we kind of had some different issues come up that we weren’t expecting. So, I felt like we learned a lot those two races that we could get everything smoothed out and ready for that mid-week race at Charlotte. Knowing that it was a short race, you had to be on your game from the start and we were. I told the boys that we needed a good run going into Bristol, my favorite race track, knowing that I really like the way these cars drive. And if it drives as good at Bristol as it has at these other race tracks, I feel like we’re going to have a shot at a win. I wanted a good solid top-15 run, no issues, no mistakes and it turned out to be way better than that. So, we’re looking forward to hopefully carrying that momentum into Sunday.” DO YOU FEEL LIKE THAT RUN, FINISHING IN THE TOP-FIVE AND THE SPEED YOU HAD, IS THAT THE POTENTIAL YOU SAW WHEN YOU JUMPED OVER TO JTG DAUGHERTY FOR THIS YEAR?“Yeah, definitely. Looking at the equipment that they have here, the people, the parts and pieces, the Hendrick power, the new Chevy Camaro body – I feel like those are all really good things to put together. Bringing my crew chief Brian Pattie over, bringing Mike Kelley over, with a lot of knowledge and a lot of experience to work in, they jumped right it. I felt like they’ve been working with these guys for a long time and it’s only been a short amount of time. So, I feel like we are definitely capable of running in the top-ten. I feel like last night was definitely a night that we hit it right. We had a really good car and I hope we can continue to run top-five and contend for wins. But I definitely feel like we can run top-ten with everything that we have right here. We have to do that – we have to limit my mistakes, limit the issues that we’ve had and just have good, smooth, solid nights, and I think we can run top-ten.”

TEAM CHEVY ADVANCEFOOD CITY PRESENTS SUPERMARKET HEROES 500BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAYBRISTOL, TENNESSEE MAY 31, 2020
RACE #9 AT BRISTOL:In the revised 2020 NASCAR Cup Series schedule, the 60th running of the historic Food City 500, the ninth race of the season, will be held Sunday, May 31st at the iconic Bristol Motor Speedway. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 266-mile, 500-lap race on the famed all-concrete high-banks will be held without spectators in attendance. In honor of those serving on the front lines within the supermarket industry of the United States and around the world, the event has re-badged as the Supermarket Heroes 500. BOWTIE BULLETS·       Chevrolet leads all manufacturers with 45 all-time wins and 39 poles in 116 races at the track known as the ‘World’s Fastest Half-Mile’, more than any other brand. ·       Of active Team Chevy drivers, Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1, is a six-time winner at Bristol (’02, twice in ’03. ’04, ’06, & ’18) and Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1, has won twice (’10 & ’17) ·       The most recent Chevy pole winner is Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 1LE, (April ’19). Elliott’s 2019 pole holds the track’s current qualifying record with a time of 14.568 (131.713 mph). ·       To-date, Chevrolet has also scored 209 top-fives, 432 top-10’s, and has led 23,613 laps around the .533-mile coliseum-style track. ·       In 1971, Charlie Glotzbach captured Chevrolet’s first win at Bristol Motor Speedway, which was also the first NASCAR Cup win for Monte Carlo. With the aid of relief driver, Friday Hassler, the duo clocked an average pace of 101.074 mph throughout the caution-free, 500-lap race. That speed record still stands today. SCORECARD:With Chase Elliott’s Thursday night victory at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and Alex Bowman’s win at Auto Club Speedway on March 1st, two Team Chevy Camaro ZL1 1LE drivers have now secured spots in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs that will determine the 2020 champion. The Hendrick Motorsports teammates, Elliott and Bowman, are currently ranked third and fourth, respectively, in the point standings. STARTING ORDER:With no qualifying for the event, the starting line-up has been determined by a random draw. Five Team Chevy drivers will start in the Top-15: Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 1LE – starts 6thAlex Bowman, No. 88 ChevyGoods.com/Adam’s Polishes Camaro ZL1 1LE – starts 11thKurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1 1LE – starts 12thWilliam Byron, No. 24 Axalta Camaro Zl1 1LE – starts 13thMatt Kenseth, No. 42 McDonald’s Camaro ZL1 1LE – starts 14th TUNE-IN:The Supermarket Heroes 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway gets underway on Sunday, May 31^st at 3:30 p.m. ET. Live coverage will air on FS1, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.  QUOTABLE QUOTES:CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 3rd IN STANDINGSELLIOTT ON CHARLOTTE WIN: “We battled hard and finally got our car good enough there at the end. I’m not sure that we had it exactly perfect, but the guys did a great job making good adjustments and good pit stops there to put us in a position, and I think the race going long played into our favor as compared to what Kevin (Harvick) had to work with. Just had some good fortune and things went our way. Just appreciate all our partners for sticking with us. Finally good to get a Kelley Blue Book win. That’s our first win together, so hopefully many more.” ELLIOTT ON HOW HE FEELS PHYSICALLY AFTER THREE RACES IN FIVE DAYS: “I feel really good. I feel like I tried to stay biking and doing things throughout those two months off, and honestly coming back and going back to Darlington where it was hot and then coming into the 600, it kind of just threw us back right to the wolves, and I think that was really a good thing just to really get some hot races and some long races in right off the bat and just jump right to it. I feel good, and I’m certainly tired, it’s been a long week, but I’m going to rest these next couple days and get ready for Bristol. I am looking forward to going and hopefully having a good run.” ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 CHEVYGOODS.COM/ADAM’S POLISHES CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 4th IN STANDINGSBOWMAN ON BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY: “Bristol is strong track for us, but you have to have good track position. It’s tough to bounce back if you get down on track position, but this No. 88 team is great at figuring out exactly what we need here. We have had some decent finishes here in the past, so I know that we can do that again on Sunday.” GREG IVES, CREW CHIEF FOR THE NO. 88 CHEVYGOODS.COM/ADAM’S POLISHES CAMARO ZL1 1LEIVES ON BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY: “Bristol is a strong track for the 88 team. We have had our struggles with the flatter short track, but that does not include Bristol. We hope to continue to build our momentum this Sunday and execute all race long.” JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 16th IN STANDINGS“Bristol is going to be very complicated, in my opinion the biggest issue is going to be the track. When that track is green and has no rubber on it, is very low on grip. With the traction compound on the bottom lane , it needs traffic to work it in. So, to show up cold turkey with the setup required to be competitive for the first stage is going to be way different than the setup you will need to win the race. It’s going to be a tough challenge on the teams, pit road is going to be important, and minimal adjustments during a pit stop are key since we are short manned over the wall. In order to raise the track bar, change the wedge or pull a spring rubber it takes so long – and unfortunately, we will probably need adjustments like that as the race wears on. From a technical standpoint – this race is going to be the most difficult so far. The car will have to have some adjustability built in.” TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 ALSCO UNIFORMS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 17th IN STANDINGSBRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY IS KNOWN FOR BEING A TOUGH TRACK. HOW DO YOU FEEL ENTERING YOUR FIRST CUP SERIES START THERE WITH NO PRACTICE OR QUALIFYING? “It’s going to be tough on Sunday. Bristol is one of the toughest tracks to go around when it doesn’t have rubber and heat on it. I’ve ran Truck races there through my career, and when we’re one of the first ones on the track, that first hour of practice, you can’t really learn much. The traction compound is slick – you go down in there to try to use it and you almost spin out. You run the middle, and that’s about it. Man, the first hour or so of practice you can’t get up in that either because it’s slick, and you almost wreck. I remember the first time they put traction compound down at Bristol, I went out for practice and I was in the middle of it, so we were OK. But I wanted to try the bottom, so I went down there, got loose and couldn’t go anywhere. I realized that wasn’t going to work, so I went up to try to use the top and I drove it straight into the fence. Given that experience, I’m worried that the start of Sunday’s race is going to be very chaotic. I don’t know how that’s going to go. There’s only one groove, and we’re going to be starting double-file, so that’s going to be very interesting.” WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 18th IN STANDINGS“The race at Bristol will probably bring the biggest unknowns during all of this with it being a short track, fast and a rhythm track. I had good runs going last year; we just needed some luck. I also had success there in iRacing during the time off so hopefully some of those trends and knowledge of the track will carry over. You need to be good at running the top groove there – it is really important. You also need to be patient when running the bottom and running in the PJ1 (track compound). It’s a dynamic track for that reason and you always have to be on your toes for sure. Hopefully we can get a good starting spot there and run up front to avoid some of that.” RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 KROGER CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 20th IN STANDINGS“I feel really good about Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway in our Kroger Camaro. JTG Daugherty Racing has had some really good runs at short tracks such as Bristol in the past, and we have some similar setups for how I like to race short tracks versus what’s been run before. The feel that I have in this race car is better than any that I have had in my Cup cars throughout my career. I know I saw that in our race at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Thursday night where I could put my car where I wanted to and it did a lot of the things that I was asking it to. It’ll definitely be different at Bristol knowing that our first ‘out of breath’ lap will be the first lap of the race. Normally we get that in practice, but it will be the same for everyone. The biggest unknown is the top groove that would get rubbered up in practice, and won’t before the race. It’ll be nerve wracking, but we’ve had a couple second-place finishes at Bristol and I’m looking forward to bringing our momentum from Charlotte to Bristol this weekend and continue moving forward.” BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 VICTORY JUNCTION CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 23rd IN STANDINGS“It takes a lot to be successful at the Bristol Motor Speedway. You have to have the awareness; I think that is probably the biggest thing. You get a hundred laps in, you are sunk-down in the seat, and you can’t really see what is ahead of you. If you are in the entry of Turn 1 and there is a crash off of Turn 2, you have to be ready for it and the spotter has to be on top of it. “It is really a team effort when you go to the Bristol Motor Speedway. The team has to have a good set-up. It goes back to awareness. You just have to be capable of putting yourself in the right spot at the right time. When the groove starts to move up, you have to be able to move up and be competitive. Richard Petty Motorsports has always been good at the bottom and once it moves to the top – we’ve never been super great. So, our team will have to work on that. You have to be able to adapt really well.” JERRY BAXTER, CREW CHIEF FOR THE NO. 43 VICTORY JUNCTION CAMARO ZL1 1LE “We have the Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 Victory Junction Camaro ZL1 1LE ready to go. We’ve been showing pretty consistent speed over the last few events, so that’s a good thing. Going into Bristol Motor Speedway, that’s one of Bubba’s favorite tracks, so we’re looking forward to getting the Richard Petty Motorsports Chevrolet a good finish this weekend.” RYAN PREECE, NO. 37 BUSH’S BEANS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 30th IN STANDINGS“Bristol Motor Speedway is a track that I always circle on the schedule for us. I’ve obviously had a lot of success there, winning in the Xfinity Series as well as in the Modified Series. It’s no secret that our 2020 season has been hindered by bad luck. We’ve had some pretty fast cars and running where we want to be, and just haven’t been able to finish it off with things that have been out of our control. Without any practice, we have to expect the unexpected. The VHT compound can make the bottom groove really slippery to start, but putting 40 cars out there at once might speed that process of bringing in the top lane and bottom lane up a little bit. I think the field has been a lot closer since we returned to racing, with everyone on one playing field of just lining up and racing. Our random draw hasn’t left us with the greatest starting position, but we have 500 laps to figure it out and move our BUSH’S Beans Camaro to the front.” 

May 29, 2020

Last fall at Bristol Motor Speedway, Matt DiBenedetto, having learned just days before that he would be a free agent in 2020, turned in a performance that won the hearts of fans both at the track and across the NASCAR nation.

Although he relinquished the lead after holding the top spot for 93 laps late in the race and wound up in second place, the crowd cheered loud and long as he was interviewed for the TV and radio broadcasts.
 
In those interviews, DiBenedetto, who finished second, vowed to remain in the Cup Series and said he had faith that some top-tier team would hire him and be glad to get him.
 
“I just want to stick around and keep doing this for a long time to come,” DiBenedetto said on that hot August night. “I love it. I love the opportunity. I’m not done yet.”

 “Something will come open. It’s going to happen. I’m here to win. Something’s going to come open.”
 
Turns out he was right. The Wood Brothers hired him to drive their iconic No. 21 Ford Mustang.
 
“That Bristol race was the turning point in Matt’s career,” Eddie Wood said. “I remember how well he ran and how the fans were supporting him. When Paul [Menard] decided to retire and we talked with him about who would take over the car, Matt’s name was the first one that came up for us and Paul.”
 
Now DiBenedetto, who already has matched his Bristol finishing position with a second-place run at Las Vegas earlier this year, is returning to Bristol with a No. 21 REESE/Draw-Tite Mustang that is expected to be capable of once again contending for a win on the half-mile concrete oval.
 
Wood said he’s optimistic about the team’s prospects this weekend.

“Bristol is Matt’s best track,” he said. “And we’ve had some fast cars up there lately.”

 “The biggest thing is getting to the end of the race without getting involved in someone else’s mess or your own mess.
 
“It’s the hardest race we run to survive to the finish. It’s so fast and the cars run so close. Things happen fast.” 
 
Wood also said he and his family team are excited to have the No. 21 Mustang carry the universally known REESE and Draw-Tite brands, which have been providing heavy-duty and custom hitches and towing equipment since their inceptions in 1952 and 1946.
 
 “We had REESE and Draw-Tite on the car for the iRacing event at Bristol a few weeks ago, and we were proud of that, but it’s a much bigger deal to represent them in a real Cup race,” he said. “We always enjoy working with companies like ours that have long histories.”
 
Sunday’s Food City presents the Supermarket Heroes 500, for which there will be no practice or qualifying, is set to start just after 3:30 p.m. with TV coverage on FOX Sports One.
 

May 29, 2020

After a promising start to Thursday’s Alsco Uniforms 500-kilometer Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Matt DiBenedetto and the No. 21 Menards/Richmond team struggled with a loose handing condition for the remainder of the race and wound up with a 15^th-place finish.
 
DiBenedetto started fourth when the line-up was set using a modified inversion of the finish of Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600, where he finished 17^th.

On the start of Thursday’s 208-lap race, he pushed pole-sitter William Byron into the lead going into Turns One and Two then passed him for the lead down the backstretch.

He led the next nine laps then retook the top spot on the 11^th lap for a total of 10 laps led. It was the second-straight race he’s been out front, the first being the six circuits he led in the Coca-Cola 600.

After losing the top spot DiBenedetto continued to keep pace with the front-runners and ended the first 55-lap Stage in third place, collecting eight Stage points.

But from then on to the finish, the loose handling conditions persisted, hampering his progress in a race that ended with a 59-lap green-flag run to the finish.

“The car got really loose, and with it being a short race we never really got a handle on it,” DiBenedetto said. “We worked on the car, but it just wasn’t responding to the adjustments we made.
 
“But it was good to lead the race, and the Stage points helped make our day not too bad. They saved us a little.”
 
DiBenedetto remains 11^th in the Cup Series standings as and the No. 21 team head to Bristol Motor Speedway, one of his best tracks and where he finished second last fall driving for another team.
 
“I’m ready to go to a short track and get away from these mile-and-a-half tracks for a weekend,” he said.
 
Sunday’s Food City presents the Supermarket Heroes 500, for which there will be no practice or qualifying, is set to start just after 3:30 p.m. with TV coverage on FOX Sports One.
 

NASCAR CUP SERIESBRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAYSUPERMARKET HEROES 500TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPTMAY 29, 2020
RYAN PREECE, NO. 37 BUSH’S BEANS CAMARO ZL1 1LE, met with media via teleconference and discussed the season thus far, how the hectic schedule has been for him, his expectations at Bristol this coming Sunday, and more. Full Transcript: YOU’VE BEEN A BUSY MAN HERE THE LAST COUPLE OF WEEKS. PLEASE WALK US THROUGH THIS CADENCE OF RACING MULTIPLE TIMES A WEEK AND HOW THAT HAS IMPACTED YOU. DO YOU ENJOY IT?“I enjoy it to be honest with you. I like the Sunday-Wednesday, or Sunday-Thursday thing that we’ve been doing. It’ nice, even on the bad days, to not have to wait very long to get back in the race car or get back to the race track.
“Yesterday wasn’t exactly our strongest day. On our side, we, honestly, I thought the 600 was going to be good but with just pit strategy, we ended-up getting caught a lap down somehow, and then had to get off-sequence and lost more track position. But, we had a good race car, so I was looking forward to getting there (again). We struggled yesterday so that made for just a long day. But, looking forward to Bristol this Sunday. That’s somewhere that I’ve been circling on the calendar since we started the season. So, I’m excited to get over there. Our 2020 season has been, I would say, hindered by a lot of bad luck. We’ve had some pretty fast race cars and running where we want to be, and just haven’t been able to finish it off with just things that are out of your control. So, we’re going to try and control the things we can and keep moving forward.”
WHAT DO YOU EXPECT AT BRISTOL?  WILL IT BE ANY DIFFERENT DUE TO NO PRACTICE AND NO QUALIFYING?“You kind of have to expect the unexpected, to be honest with you. With the VHT compound, the bottom lane, in the past is really slippery for the first five or ten minutes of practice. With 36 or 40 cars out there, that might speed up the process. But, I think the racing is going to be really good. I think the field has been a heck of a lot closer over the course of these past few weeks just because it doesn’t give many people to fine-tune. You’ve got what you’ve got. You can only do so much on pit stops. So, I think the racing this weekend should be really good.”
TALK ABOUT YOUR HISTORY AT BRISTOL. YOU TOOK HOME THE $100,000 PRIZE IN XFINITY AT BRISTOL AND TRIGGERED A EARLY WRECK AT ‘VIRTUAL’ BRISTOL IN 2020. WHAT’S YOUR HISTORY AT BRISTOL AND WHAT DO YOU THINK?“I’ve won there in a Modified also, so I enjoy racing Bristol. I enjoy short tracks. The throttle, the brake, whatever it may be, there are so many different tools that you can do as a driver to try and help some speed or long-run stuff at short tracks. So, I enjoy going to them. And Bristol is the fastest half-mile there is and just everything happens so quick. Obviously we aren’t going to have very much track position just because of the random draw and where we are in points right now (30th in standings), but we’ve got 500 laps to figure it out and move forward.”
RICKY STENHOUSE, JR. HAD A GOOD RUN LAST NIGHT AT CHARLOTTE. HE HAS A COUPLE OF TOP-FIVE’S THIS YEAR. HOW DO YOU FEEL LIKE THE ADDITION OF HIM THIS SEASON HAS AFFECTED JTG DAUGHERTY RACING?“Oh, I think they’ve had their races where they’ve been really good, right? I would say between Ricky and (Brian) Pattie (crew chief), they’ve definitely brought some of their superspeedway stuff over and last night they were really good. So, that was really good for JTG. I will say that this new Chevrolet body has been a huge addition, too. And the hours that all the guys over there that are putting into the wind-tunnel time has really paid off, also. The black cloud in the room right there is we’ve had some really good runs going and just unfortunate stuff we’ve got to cleanup on our end, some pit stops have killed us on track position and we’ve had a couple of motors blow up. So, we’re looking forward to putting these first eight races behind us and moving forward and trying to get into a rhythm and knocking off some good runs.”
LAST NIGHT WHEN EVERYBODY WAS FOUR-WIDE ON A RE-START, YOU WOUND UP GOING THROUGH THE ASTROTURF IN THE INFIELD. DID YOU THINK YOU WERE IN IRACING FOR A MINUTE? THAT LOOKED PRETTY CRAZY.“Yeah, I don’t know. I know the driver turned left when he probably shouldn’t have. So, I was thinking about that this morning. Next time that happens, I think you just end up hooking the guys because you end up putting yourself in a bad situation to avoid a wreck and it ends up damaging your own car so you end up paying the price. Next time you just sit there and let them turn themselves.”
THE MODIFIED TOUR WAS SCHEDULED TO GET UNDERWAY THIS PAST WEEKEND AT SOUTH BOSTON BUT DIDN’T GO BECAUSE OF WEATHER. WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FRIENDS OVER THERE BEEN SAYING ABOUT THEIR STOPPAGE RIGHT NOW?“It is what it is right now. At the end of the day, I don’t think some of these guys want to race with a reduced purse, which is understandable. When you show up to do some of those races, you understand that there’s a possibility that you aren’t going to make money, so losing that much more sometimes can be tough to swallow. But, I know those guys want to get racing soon so hopefully they can get back to normal soon and go racing.”
WILL YOU TAKE RISKS TO WIN, CONSIDERING WHERE YOU’RE AT IN POINTS?“Should we? Absolutely. Will we? For sure. At this point, I don’t know. Does anybody know what you’ve got to do for some good luck or whatever? I mean, yesterday, we were able to get some track position. We weren’t handling the way we wanted to, but we were working at it. And every time we came in, if we came in at the end of a stage in 17th or 18th, we’d come out 26th. And a restart doesn’t go your way trying to pass cars isn’t extremely easy. So, I would say yes, we are willing to take plenty of risks.”
DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU’RE ON THE BRINK OF THINGS TURNING AROUND? WHAT ARE YOU THINKING NOW AT THE START OF THE SEASON?“I would say every race. At Darlington, we were really good, to be honest with you. Honestly, we were really, really good. And I see it turning around. It’s just not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. We’ve just got to keep our heads up and keep bringing the best possible piece we can and keeping out of trouble and execute. Everybody has to execute at this level. That’s what it comes down to. If you have a bad stop or whatever it may be, and you lose track position on that last restart or stage, trying to make that up is so difficult. You guys see that on TV. So, I think we’re right there. Hopefully Bristol can be the week to turn it around. We’ve got BUSH’S Beans on the car, which I’m excited about. And I’m looking forward to getting this monkey off the back.”
WHEN YOU WERE RUNNING THREE AND FOUR WIDE AT CHARLOTTE, IS THAT SOMETHING THAT’S CHARLOTTE-SPECIFIC, OR DO YOU THINK YOU’RE GOING TO SEE SOME MORE RESTARTS LIKE THAT AT BRISTOL?“I don’t think you’re going to see three or four wide at Bristol. I think if you see three or four-wide at Bristol, you’re probably going to see a big wreck. So, I think it’s 1.5-mile-specific with this package. Restarts, if you get a good lane and you’re able to keep a run going and get to the top, which the top is typically the best spot to be, you’re going to pass some cars. So, Bristol, this weekend, I would expect two-wide, maybe three-wide, possibly, if you’re a daredevil, but that’s about it.”
IS PICKING THAT UPPER LANE GOING TO GIVE YOU THE BEST ADVANTAGE?“Yeah, I think the top. Once the VHT wears off, it’ll be the place to be.”

NASCAR CUP SERIESCHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAYALSCO UNIFORMS 500TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPTMARCH 28, 2020
CHASE ELLIOTT PUTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE IN VICTORY LANE AT CHARLOTTETeam Chevy Takes Three of Top-Five Overall
CONCORD, N.C. (MAY 28, 2020) – Chase Elliott collected his first win of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season in his No. 9 Kelley Blue Book Camaro ZL1 1LE in the midweek Alsco Uniforms 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the fourth since the sport resumed racing on May 17th.  His last win was at the Charlotte Roval in September 2019.
The victory was Elliott’s seventh in 157 NASCAR Cup career starts, and his first victory and fifth top-10 finish in 29 races at Charlotte Motor Speedway. It also marked the second win for the Camaro Zl1 1LE in 2020, Chevrolet’s 46th win at the Charlotte venue, and 788th in NASCAR’s premier series.
Ricky Stenhouse, No. 47 Kroger Camaro ZL1 1LE finished fourth in the 208-lap race, and Kurt Busch, was fifth in his No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro Z1 1LE, to give Team Chevy three of the top-five finishing positions. Austin Dillon was eighth in the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Off Road Camaro Zl1 1LE.
Hendrick Motorsports teammates, Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1 and William Byron, No. 24 Axalta Camaro ZL1 1LE, finished 11th and 12th^, respectively.
Additionally, Hendrick Motorsports leads the NASCAR Cup Series in wins at Charlotte with 20: Jimmie Johnson (eight), Jeff Gordon (five), Darrell Waltrip (two); plus Ken Schraeder, Terry Labonte, Casey Mears, Kasey Kahne, and Chase Elliott with one each.
To round out the top five overall, Denny Hamlin (Toyota) finished second and Ryan Blaney (Ford) was third.
The NASCAR Cup Series season continues at Bristol Motor Speedway with the Supermarket Heroes 500 on Sunday, May 31st at 3:30 p.m. ET. Live coverage will air on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE INTERVIEWS:CHASE ELLIOTT and ALAN GUSTAFSON, NO. 9 KELLEY BLUE BOOK CAMARO ZL1 1LE
THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by the winner of tonight’s Alsco Uniforms 500 and that is Chase Elliott. Congratulations on winning the race. Walk us through that run tonight.            CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, appreciate it. It was just ‑‑ we battled hard and finally got our car good enough there at the end. I’m not sure that we had it exactly perfect, but the guys did a great job making good adjustments and good pit stops there to put us in a position, and I think the race going long played into our favor as compared to what Kevin had to work with. Just had some good fortune and things went our way. Just appreciate all our partners for sticking with us. Finally good to get a Kelley Blue Book win. That’s our first win together, so hopefully many more.            Q. After Sunday, was there any worry on your part that maybe Alan just didn’t have confidence in you?CHASE ELLIOTT: That’s probably about the dumbest question you’ve ever asked me.            Q. Does the fact that you have strong cars, does that alleviate any concerns of, oh, well, if a decision doesn’t go your way or if you make a mistake or if somebody makes a mistake, as long as you have fast cars you’re going to continue to win races?CHASE ELLIOTT: I think the biggest thing is if we can continue to put ourselves in position and give ourselves chances and we do a good job at controlling the things that are in our control, that’s all we can ask for. We can’t control when a caution comes out two laps to go and you’re kind of in a lose‑lose situation there. We’ve got to keep doing things that are in our hands and keep doing those well.            Q. You spoke to it a little bit in your interviews, but just the feeling of oh, my gosh, what’s going to go wrong, how do you keep focused on what you’re trying to do in the car those final laps when you’re like, oh, my gosh, what’s going to happen?CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, I mean, honestly, it really just keeps you grounded, to be completely frank, especially after Sunday. You’re just kind of waiting on something to happen. It just kind of keeps you grounded, and the fact that it’s never over until it’s over, we’ve been reminded of that quite a lot, and that’s a lesson I’m never going to forget.            Q. Do you have any sense of if the caution ‑‑ were you thinking, okay, if the caution does come out I’m definitely staying out here this time or anything like that?CHASE ELLIOTT: I think it just depends. We can “what‑if” it to death, but until you’re put in that situation ‑‑ that was a longer run there at the end than we even had on Sunday, so who knows. I mean, when the caution comes out late like that, you’re going to have takers and not, and it’s all just about the numbers as to who does and who doesn’t. I can’t answer that. It’s hard to tell.            Q. I wonder how you’re feeling physically after running all these races?CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, good question. I feel really good. I feel like I tried to stay biking and doing things throughout those two months off, and honestly coming back and going back to Darlington where it was hot and then coming into the 600, it kind of just threw us back right to the wolves, and I think that was really a good thing just to really get some hot races and some long races in right off the bat and just jump right to it. I feel good, and I’m certainly tired, it’s been a long week, but I’m going to rest these next couple days and get ready for Bristol.            Q. I wonder with this workload if the size of Hendrick Motorsports is a benefit and you guys having so many people and it’s showing in your preparation and how you guys are showing up at the racetrack?CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, I mean, I think all of our employees at HMS from top to bottom have been really working hard throughout the off‑season. But again, we’re still very early in the year, and I challenge all of the people at HMS, myself, the road crew, the pit crews to stay hungry because the season is very long, a lot of racing left, and we just need to keep pushing. No reason to get content right now.            Q. Chase, you were running well even before the pause of the season, and now you’ve been ‑‑ you’ve had the strong run here. Is it as much a continuation or do you feel like you guys have gotten better just in the last two weeks?CHASE ELLIOTT: To be honest, I feel like it’s been a continuation from the beginning of the season. I feel like all the same contenders are contending now as to who was contending before the break, so I still feel like ‑‑ I almost get the sense that we’re still working on some of the parts and pieces and cars that we had before we had two months off, so I’m really curious to see how these next two weeks progress because people are going to get better, and I think some of the things they’ve been trying and working on they’re actually going to have time to implement to their cars. We have to stay hungry and stay after it.            Q. What are you curious to see?CHASE ELLIOTT: Who’s fast and who’s not.            Q. What was the conversations like with Alan in the immediate aftermath of Sunday and through the next couple days?CHASE ELLIOTT: You know, look, I mean, I feel like at the end of the day, he has to make decisions on the spot. I feel like we were in a lose‑lose position there on Sunday, so it’s not his fault that the caution came out with two laps to go, and when you’re in a position like that you have to make a decision and stick with it. I’m not going to question him. I don’t fault him. It’s not his fault; it’s just one of those things where you’ve got to make a gut call and go with it, and heck, we drove back to third. I just don’t see how you can look back at that and say he did something wrong because that position is a super hard one to be in. It’s a good one to be in, right, because you’re leading the race, but also a really tough one to be in at the same time.            Q. Did you kind of give him a pep talk or anything or explain what you just explained now to him?CHASE ELLIOTT: No, he’s been doing this way longer than me, so he knows.            Q. Chase, with the races you’ve run this week, the 600, the truck race, then tonight, the rain delays, postponements, how do you get your mindset into making the transition from a late week race into Bristol on Sunday for a short track?CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, just get ready. 500 laps at Bristol is a really physical event. We’ve raced a lot throughout this week. I’m tired, and I want to rest tomorrow and Saturday and get ready to go. It’s going to be a tough one on Sunday, especially in the afternoon.            Q. Chase, kind of bouncing off of the previous question, when we talk about momentum, normally you have a full week to enjoy a race win like this. Does it help to go to Bristol only a couple days later to carry the momentum or would you rather enjoy the victory a little bit more?CHASE ELLIOTT: I mean, that’s tough. You know, I don’t know that it matters. To me a win is a win. Those five bonus points are five bonus points, and the sticker on top of the car is still going to be there. I think it’s all ‑‑ I don’t really know that it matters. I’m just excited that we’ve been performing well, and ultimately I want to just have a shot to win each and every week. That’s our goal as a team. Whether we do or not is one thing, but to just have a chance to be in position is the goal, so we need to stay after that goal.            Q. How much of a benefit was it for your confidence to come back and win Tuesday night and kind of immediately shake the sting of Sunday? Did that do anything to help you maybe come into this race with a little bit of a fresher mind?CHASE ELLIOTT: Like I said Tuesday, I don’t know that Tuesday made up for Sunday. It was certainly good. It never hurt anything to come over here, perform and have a good run like that. But it definitely didn’t fix it. I think we were hungry and wanted to get back and try again.            Q. Rain delay aside, what did you think of the length of tonight’s race both in time and mileage wise?CHASE ELLIOTT: I think it’s great. I think it ups the intensity. I think you have to have your car driving really well from the start, and if it doesn’t, you have to make those big swings early. I feel like it just ramps up the intensity and everything that comes with that. Just the clock is ticking and you don’t have a lot of time to do much of anything.   THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by the crew chief of the No. 9, Alan Gustafson. Please walk us through tonight’s victory from your perspective.            ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, so with the invert we certainly started a little further back than we wanted to, and you know, short stages and a lot of cautions near the start, it was just kind of hard for us to work our way through there, and we did eventually, and kind of got in the top 5, and once we got up there we could figure out what kind of car we had. Our car I don’t think was quite as fast as it was the other night and a little bit too free, so we suffered there a little bit and tried to improve it, and I think we got it better. Had a loose wheel, an unfortunate caution to get the loose wheel fixed, and at the end there, Chase made some adjustments, we adjusted on the car and he was able to pass Kevin to win the race. It was a great day for us.            Q. Alan, how much does having fast cars help kind of heal any either frustration and everything over what happened on Sunday?ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, a lot. I mean, a lot. Having an opportunity to win is a huge thing, and we’ve had a lot of opportunities to win. It’s obviously been pretty well‑documented that we didn’t do that as much as we would have liked, and knowing we could come here with a good car and a chance to win again and put ourselves in that position again and overcome it was good. I mean, if the race on Sunday night, if that was really the only shot we had all year, we hadn’t had cars that had speed to win, it would have been even that much more devastating, but we’ve had really good cars. Yeah, it worked out.            Q. Chase didn’t indicate that he felt this way, but I was curious whether you were concerned that he might feel like you wouldn’t have confidence in him to be able to kind of stay out on old tires and win.ALAN GUSTAFSON: Oh, no. No, no, I have the utmost confidence in him. I think he’s the best driver out here, and he’s showing it. That situation was ‑‑ there’s a lot of factors that went into it, and our struggles earlier in the race probably influenced me more than I should have let it, and it didn’t work out.           We’re also assuming that we stay out and we win the race, so it’s tough. It’s just a tough situation.           Q.       Can you walk us through what those hours and days since Sunday night were like for you, your own personal experience and taking the heat from the call and everything that went into that?            ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, I don’t know, it obviously wasn’t a great feeling. You know, I don’t base my self‑worth on other people’s opinions or if I’m doing a good job based on what other people say, but certainly I’m a human being, too, and when you get that many rocks thrown at you, it doesn’t feel great. But yeah, it was a long couple days, but at the end of the day, you’ve just got to look past it and move on.            Q. As a crew chief after you have a race like Sunday, does it shake your confidence at all? Does it make you doubt yourself at all?ALAN GUSTAFSON: No. No. I think you have to be a little bit hard‑headed to do this job, and you have to find a way to improve, and just you have to kind of shake it off. Professional sports are super fickle, and one day you’re good and one day you’re terrible, and you just get used to that.            Q. What was the conversations like with Chase Sunday night and then the next few days afterwards?ALAN GUSTAFSON: Chase and I, we were always in lockstep on all those decisions. I have the most confidence in him, and I feel like he does in me, and we never ‑‑ I mean, we certainly felt that on Sunday. I think both of us did. Not only for ourselves but for all the guys at the shop and everybody that works so hard and for NAPA and for HMS and for Mr. Hendrick and Kelley Blue Book, all our sponsors, we felt bad, but we certainly knew that we just had to move past it.            Q. Obviously with the new social distancing protocols and guidelines, this is the first time that you got to react to a race win with those in place. I saw you were kind of giving some air high‑fives to some people in the pit box, walking down pit road. What has that been like adjusting to that and then tonight not really being able to celebrate physically with your team?ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, I mean, it’s tough because that team camaraderie, that’s really the best part of our sport, and I think that’s my favorite thing is working together with a group of guys and overcoming adversity and then being able to celebrate that together and enjoy that accomplishment together.           You know, look, it’s still a great feeling, but certainly you miss that intimacy and you miss that ability to high five and kind of go through that. But certainly it’s a small price to pay. There’s a lot of people in a lot worse positions than we are. We’re fortunate to be here. We’re fortunate to be able to do what we love to do, and it’s not ideal, but it’s really good.            Q. Alan, could you talk a little bit about what the feeling is right now at Hendrick Motorsports where you guys have been consistently talked about as having the fastest cars, considering everything that’s gone on the last few years, and then you guys being able to capitalize on that by going to Victory Lane?ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, I mean, we’re really excited and proud, and we’re happy with our Chevy Camaro. The thing is a rocket ship, and we appreciate all the work that’s gone into it. It’s fun to race, and we feel like we’ve got a really competitive car.           It’s not been easy. We’ve had to work through split shifts and social distance circumstances and all types of ‑‑ the things that everybody has had to go through with COVID, and it’s been tough. That’s something I’m really proud of, not only Hendrick Motorsports but certainly the 9 guys ‑‑ there’s a group of guys on the 9 team that typically go on the road, and ultimately they can’t go on the road anymore based on the roster, so those are the guys who are working tirelessly at the shop to prepare these cars, so everybody back there is doing an amazing job, and to bring cars like this to the track is a true testament to their ability, and I’m really proud of that and super proud of everybody at HMS. We’ve all stuck together. We’ve all fought through it. We’ve not had the years we wanted the last three or four and we’ve stuck together and kept fighting and kept fighting, and now I think we’re getting to a position where we can contend.            Q. Have you had enough races this season where you can say how much the change to the Chevy body has contributed to the effort this year?ALAN GUSTAFSON: Well, I certainly ‑‑ that’s a contributing factor, and a lot of hard work at the shop and a lot of work in the off‑season and a lot of collaboration and all those things, a lot of collaboration with Chevrolet and all those things have paid off to put us in a really good position and in a spot where we can really compete.            Q. Alan, when we talked during the pause, you had said that you kind of thought that what happened the first part of the season would probably carry over to the first few races early on because of the challenges of getting equipment and updating stuff for teams. That seems to have played out. Will there be a point where you’re going to see teams make a challenge, or how much more difficult is it in this season and this unique season to try to catch up?ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, it’s a great question. I mean, I think it’s going to unfold. I certainly feel like we’ve raced some really competitive teams. The 4 car and the 18 car and the 22 and whoever else, the 19 and all those guys, they’re going to work hard, and they’re not going to be down for long. They’re going to be improving, and we’ve got to do the same thing. We’ve got to continue to improve and continue to get better on and off the track and execute better in all facets of what we do.           It’s a very interesting dynamic. I can’t say that any of us have gone through this, and we don’t know ultimately what’s going to transpire. But I certainly think that there’s certainly room for everyone to improve, and I have every expectation that our competitors will.            Q. Is that going to come up maybe in the next month when there’s not 16 races in 12 days seemingly?ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, I think right now you’re going to see a lot of just being able to execute and bring quality cars and do the ‑‑ I want to say basic, not that it’s basic, but do the fundamental things that we take for granted. The teams that can do that well are going to be successful, and then once we transition more back to a normal situation, I do think that then there probably will be a bigger opportunity to work on performance enhancements.            Q. Alan, seeing Chase win the truck race on Tuesday night, did that do anything to help erase any lingering sting or tension from Sunday night? Obviously I know it doesn’t fix what happened Sunday, but did seeing Chase win that race do anything for you and the team?ALAN GUSTAFSON: Not really. I enjoyed it. I thought it was great. I thought the whole bounty and Kevin putting it up and Chase racing it and Kyle putting his best effort into it was very entertaining. You know, it’s no surprise that certainly two of the best guys in our sport, and I’d argue two of the best guys on the planet driving race cars were doing that and had a good race. It was entertainment. Happy for Chase. It was a cool thing. As always, he handled himself really well and did an amazing job. It was more fun.           I mean, it certainly doesn’t hurt to laugh and there was some funny circumstances in there, but yeah, it was good entertainment.            Q. With having shown the speed at the intermediate tracks and the restrictor plate tracks, how much confidence does that now give you going into the first short track of the season at Bristol?ALAN GUSTAFSON: None really. I love Bristol. It’s a great track. It’s a lot of fun. But it’s got its own unique challenges, and it’s got its own unique circumstances. I don’t really feel like there’s much from any of the tracks that we’ve raced that’s going to correlate to Bristol. It’s its own animal. I’m excited to get there and race it, and the dynamic of the track changing and rubber and the grip compound and no practice and all that’s going to be ‑‑ it’s going to be significant there. That’ll be a pressure cooker. It’ll be fun.            Q. Alan, kind of following off of something you alluded to from an earlier question, you mentioned you guys have to keep pushing forward and keep trying to find speed. In this environment and really with how tight the top of the field is right now, how tough is it as a team when you’re sitting on top or close to the top like you guys are? How tough is it to not get complacent and keep reaching for more, keep trying to find those extra tenths?ALAN GUSTAFSON: It’s not hard. It’s not hard. You’re only as good as your last result, and as soon as you think you’re in a position that you’re going to be better than everyone else, you’re going to get knocked down pretty quick. I’ve been through it enough in my career that this is the pinnacle of motorsports; there’s too many good people to think that you’re going to be able to walk through the park and just stroll along. You’ve got to work.            THE MODERATOR: Alan, congratulations on the win. Good luck on Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway.            ALAN GUSTAFSON: Thank you. Appreciate everybody for sticking around. 

NASCAR CUP SERIESCHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAYALSCO UNIFORMS 500TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTESMARCH 28, 2020
TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:POS.   DRIVER1st      CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 KELLEY BLUE BOOK CAMARO ZL1 1LE 4th      RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 KROGER CAMARO ZL1 1LE 5th      KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE 8th      AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER OFF ROAD CAMARO ZL1 1LE11th    JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS: POS.  DRIVER1st      Chase Elliott (Chevrolet)2nd     Denny Hamlin (Toyota)3rd      Ryan Blaney (Ford)4th      Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (Chevrolet)5th      Kurt Busch (Chevrolet) The NASCAR Cup Series season continues at Bristol Motor Speedway with the Supermarket Heroes 500 on Sunday, May 31, at 3:30 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on FS1, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES: CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 KELLEY BLUE BOOK CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Race WinnerWHEN VICTORY SEEMED RIGHT THERE, NOBODY SNATCHED IT AWAY FROM YOU TONIGHT. AFTER WHAT YOU’VE BEEN THROUGH, HOW GOOD DOES IT FEEL TO BE STANDING HERE?“It feels awesome. Man, it was a tough week, for sure. We’ve had some tough losses, but that deal on Sunday night was a heartbreaker. It’s not the Coca-Cola 600, but any win in the Cup Series is really hard to get, and I really appreciate everybody at Hendrick Motorsports across the street, Chevrolet, and everybody at the shop have been working really hard. Kelley Blue Book, NAPA, Hooters, Mountain Dew, all our partners that have made this happen – I just appreciate it. I appreciate my team. Alan (Gustafson) made a great call there at the end to get it tuned up and, luckily, the run went long and I think that fell in our favor.” WHAT WERE THE LAST FIVE LAPS LIKE?“I was just waiting for the caution to come out, to be honest with you. I thought either the caution was going to come out, I was going to break something or I was going to crash. Just after the last couple of weeks, I just thought surely it wasn’t going to go green until the end. Just glad it did and glad we’re hopefully back on the right path.” RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 KROGER CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 4th“That was a really solid night for our Kroger Camaro ZL1 1LE. I knew we had good speed in our car from the Coca-Cola 600 the other night, we just weren’t able to put the whole race together. We worked really well together and I was happy with the handling the majority of the night. Brian (Pattie) made some really good adjustments that allowed us to make passes and make aggressive moves to gain track position and hold it during the final green flag run. This is exactly the type of momentum we need heading into one of my favorite tracks – Bristol Motor Speedway – this Sunday.” KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 5th“Not a bad run! A top-five at Charlotte (Motor Speedway) on a Thursday night. Thanks to Matt McCall and all the guys on this Monster Energy team. We changed a few things our car to learn as much as we could, without practice and without testing. We tried some different things and it raced differently. The car handled loose all night, but we were able to bring home a top-five. We just need to fine-tune a little bit here and there. Thanks to Monster Energy, Chevrolet, GEARWERENCH and everyone else on this effort. That puts us solidly up in the points; moving forward there will be a random draw for the starting line-up, if you’re in the top-12 you have a shot at starting on the pole. We’re making steady progress and had good stage points tonight.” AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER OFF ROAD CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 8th“Eighth place – it’s what we deserved in the Coca-Cola 600 too. It’s crazy you run 900 miles and we were an eighth-place car all 900 miles of it I feel like. But we had spurts where we were really fast, top-five at times. Justin (Alexander, Crew Chief), the pit crew, my spotter Brandon, everybody did a great job. It was fun; fun on the restarts. I was just a little too free tonight. It was good on the long runs because it was free, but the first ten laps if you don’t get going, you lose a couple of spots and you’re done. We needed to have a little better take off speed. We’ll keep working. Bristol’s next – loving all these miles in a short period of time. It’s a lot of fun!” WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 12th“It was a rough night after we got that damage. We really never were the same after that. Obviously, we never had track position or the speed. We could get the handling to be okay but it would really fall off hard on the long run. It was just never the same, but the guys did a good job fixing it, trying to get us back up to the front. The pit crew was phenomenal. We restarted eighth on that last run and ran 10th^h for a while. To finish 12th is not bad after getting that damage. I feel like we got a couple more spots than maybe we should have, which is great. We’ll go on to the next race, execute and have a smooth race hopefully.” TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 OKUMA CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 14th“Man, what an up and down night for our No. 8 Okuma Chevrolet team, but we were able to grab a top-15 finish out of it. Our car was so tough to manage balance-wise tonight. For the first two stages of the race, it was too tight in the entry and exit of the turns but way too loose in the middle, which made it really hard to trust the car as we went into the corners of the track. The adjustment my team made on that final stop of the race was the best one of the night and allowed me to race up through the field and into the top 15. We just lacked some long run speed tonight stay up there and battle within the top 10, so that’s something we’ll go back and look at to improve on for future intermediate tracks like this. It’s been fun racing in our backyard of Charlotte over the past week, but I’m looking forward to moving on to Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday.” MATT KENSETH, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 23rd“Another tough night for the Credit One Bank Camaro. We had a flat tire early in the race, but managed to get the lap we lost back, then had a loose wheel later in the race which forced a pit stop under green. The penalty for the commitment violation when we pitted for the loose wheel certainly added to the rough night, but we kept doing all we could to gain back as many spots as possible before the end of the race. The handling on the car improved some throughout the night, but we just got too far back with the bad breaks to be able to do much more. A tough race, but better days ahead for our team.” TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 27th “Our GEICO Hump Day Chevrolet was actually pretty good handling wise tonight. It drove well over the bumps, which was an area we struggled with on Sunday, so Matt (Borland) and the guys definitely improved our setup. Unfortunately, from the moment I pulled off pit road before the green flag, I didn’t have any power steering. We tried to fix it under caution, but when we couldn’t diagnose the problem on pit road, I had to tough it out. The pit crew had solid stops all night long and I really think we would have had a strong run tonight if it wasn’t for the power steering issue. When we get back to the shop, we will figure out what the problem was and move forward to Bristol.” ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 CHEVYGOODS.COM/NOCO CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 31st “That didn’t end the way we imagined. We had a great car and led some laps and got our fourth stage win of the season. I just got in the wall there at the end and it really hurt the right side. At that point, there isn’t really much we can do. We will finish one of these things here soon. It is a quick turnaround to Bristol on Sunday, but I’m ready for it.” BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 WORLD WIDE TECHNOLOGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Sidelined due to mechanical failure; Finished 37th“I know there are a lot of questions to be answered. Obviously, our Richard Petty Motorsports team is frustrated. First thing, hats-off to the guys for bringing an outstanding Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. The Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 World Wide Technology Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE had a lot of speed – a big improvement from Sunday. We’ll hold everyone accountable, including myself, as a team would do for the problems that we are having right now. It takes a team effort to figure out our struggles. “If it’s bad luck, it’s bad luck. We’ve got to shake it and the best way to do that is to show-up to the next race with our heads held high and keep that chip on our shoulder. We’ll get to the root of our problem and continue to bring a fast race car to the track. We’re showing big improvements and that’s really all we can ask for. But we’ve got to clean-up some stuff. Like I said, if it’s internally, we’ll fix it. If it’s dumb luck, then you’ll have that. On to the Bristol Motor Speedway.”

Austin Dillon and The No. 3 Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Off Road/E-Z-GO Chevrolet Team Cap Off Strong Charlotte Motor Speedway Run with Top-10 Finish

“We finished eighth in the Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Off Road/E-Z-GO Chevrolet. A top-10 finish is what we deserved in both this race, and in the Coca-Cola 600 this past Sunday. It’s crazy. We’ve run 900 miles at Charlotte Motor Speedway over the past few days and we were an eighth-place car for all of it. We had spurts where we were really fast – top five at times. Justin Alexander, the pit crew, my spotter Brandon, everybody did a great job. It was fun. I had fun on the restarts, and we were able to pick up some Stage points. We were just a little too free tonight. It was good on the long runs because it was free, but during the first 10 laps if you didn’t get going you would lose a couple of spots.  We needed a little better take off speed. We’ll keep working. Bristol Motor Speedway is next. I’m loving it. A lot of miles in a short period of time.” -Austin Dillon

Tyler Reddick Forges to 14th-Place Finish with Okuma Chevrolet at Charlotte Motor Speedway

“Man, what an up and down night for our No. 8 Okuma Chevrolet team. We worked hard and we were able to grab a top-15 finish. The biggest challenge was managing the balance tonight. For the first two stages of the race, we were too tight on entry and exit of the turns and way too loose in the middle. It made it really hard to trust the car as we went into the corners of the track. The adjustment my Richard Childress Racing team made during the final stop of the race was the best one of the night and allowed me to race up through the field and into the top 15. We just lacked some long run speed tonight to stay up there and battle within the top 10. That’s something we’ll go back and look at to improve on for future intermediate tracks. It’s been fun racing in our backyard of Charlotte over the past week, but I’m looking forward to moving on to Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday.”-Tyler Reddick

 Elkhart, IN (May 28, 2020) — Since the postponed AMALIE® Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals Terry McMillen has been staying busy in his race shop with crew chief Rob Wendland but in his down time he has let his family go to the dogs. The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series has been on hiatus since mid-March and McMillen along with his wife Cori and son Cam have been fostering puppies for a Northern Indiana organization, Homeward Bound Animal Welfare Group. The McMillens already have three dogs and a cat so bringing additional puppies into their family only seemed like a logical idea.

“When we got back from Gainesville, our dog sitter Jen Schwartz, who runs the organization, asked if we wanted some puppies to play with for a couple of days, and it has turned into a constant cycle of fostering,” explained Cori McMillen. “We have had about 15 puppies since we started this. We typically have two puppies at a time.  If one gets a home, then she brings me another that same day.”

Now as an additional commitment to the organization McMillen Racing is auctioning a replica crew shirt designed by ProThings, die-cast dragster, cap and visor all signed by Terry McMillen. The auction launched today on eBay, click here to see auction, with all proceeds going to Homeward Bound Animal Welfare Group.

“Fosters are the backbone to the rescue. The more fosters we have, the more dogs we can rescue,” said Jen Schwartz Founder and Director of Homeward Bound Animal Welfare Group. “I have known the McMillen family for a few years, so when they offered to foster, I was thrilled.  With their family fostering two puppies at a time, it gives me the ability to put more focus into rehabilitating dogs with more serious medical conditions.  I know they are enjoying time with the puppies, so it’s definitely been a win-win situation.” 

Throughout the down time the McMillens have been busy fostering and comforting each puppy they receive. The ability to house multiple animals has made a huge difference and also creates a busy atmosphere at home.

“Our job is to help them transition into home life, since they have never been in a home environment.  We only foster puppies and it has worked out great, because she needed someone to help fostering puppies specifically. The puppies fit best into our lifestyle since we have three dogs and a cat of our own, so bringing an older dog in with an unknown background could cause conflicts.  Our dogs just ignore the puppies,” added McMillen 

Homeward Bound is a non-profit organization that does not receive state or federal funding in turn they rely on fundraising and private donations. They have rescued over 6,000 dogs with the help of a small group of volunteers who are dedicated to helping pets out of less than perfect situations and getting them into their forever homes

“They don’t have a brick and mortar building so, they rely on fosters.  They will take in any dog that needs a home no matter the age or medical condition. They take dogs that are in kill shelters in Indiana and in other states, so that they have a chance at a life.  They also get puppies that are actually puppies from breeders but are considered ‘reject’ puppies that for whatever reason, usually because of a physical or medical condition, can’t be sold to pet stores.  If Homeward Bound didn’t take them, they would either be put back into the breeding cycle or euthanized,” added McMillen. 

Terry McMillen Racing based in Elkhart, Ind., is a Top Fuel drag racing team competing in the NHRA (National Hot Rod Association) Mello Yello Drag Racing Series. The team was founded in 2007 and has shown remarkable determination and dedication. McMillen won the prestigious Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals in 2018 and has qualified for the NHRA Countdown, the end of season playoffs, in 2017 and 2018. Throughout his career with longtime sponsor AMALIE® Motor Oil McMillen has raced to eight final rounds including a career best five finals in 2018.

TAMPA, FL (May 27, 2020) – Brandon Overton squeezed by race-leader Tyler Erb coming off turn four winning the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series event for the second night in a row. With the wild night of racing, East Bay Raceway Park lived up to its reputation on Wednesday Night. In a thrilling ending to the series’ Reopening Tour, Overton came out of nowhere to edge Erb, denying the Texan [Erb] his first Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series win of the season. Mason Zeigler made it a three-car tussle in the closing laps as he finished third after regaining the lead momentarily until Erb got back around him after the two made contact coming out of turn four on the white flag lap. Zeigler was followed by Jimmy Owens and Devin Moran. Owens was awarded a $5,000 check from Riggs Drilling Solutions as the Tennessee racer topped the Reopening Tour points the last two weeks of racing at Golden Isles and East Bay. The tour resumed its 2020 racing season for the first time since February and is looking forward to welcoming back fans in June. Erb quickly moved from his third starting spot to take the lead on the opening lap. Erb was then hounded by Zeigler, who started fifth and took the lead away from him on lap six. It would be the only lap that Zeigler would officially lead as Erb regained the top spot a lap later. Erb then battled through lapped traffic opening up some distance between himself and the second and third-place runners Zeigler and Overton. In the final 15 laps Zeigler and Overton went back-and-forth in the race behind Erb. Zeigler then caught Erb in the final handful of laps but slipped back to third after contact with Erb. Overton then got by Zeigler and caught Erb on the final lap as the two raced to the checkers with Overton barely edging out the Texan at the finish line. Overton was elated in his third trip to in Lucas Oil Victory Lane in his career at East Bay and his sixth career series win, in what turned out to be a fast and furious race. “When I got into third, I saw Tyler and Mason racing each other so hard. I was trying to bide my time and I figured let them burn their stuff up and maybe I would come back to them,” said the 29-year-old from Evans, Georgia. “That strategy worked out in our favor, I got to move around a lot when I was behind them. That is what helped me win the race in three and four when I got back under Tyler. That was a heck of a race. My crew busted their tails all week and we have a really good car under us. Thanks to David and Eric Wells for putting me in top notch equipment. I just want to make them proud.” Erb led 38 of the 40 laps and looked to be in control of the race until the last five laps, as first Zeigler and then Overton made for an exciting finish. “I could hit three and four just right for a long time, but in the last ten laps or so I was just kind of hanging. When Zeigler drove across one and two and I lifted, and I turned underneath him in three and four and he didn’t lift, that kind of got us bottled up. I was trying to get my momentum built up and I saw Brandon got underneath me in two and I beat him into three and four and I couldn’t slow down fast enough like I needed to, and he beat me to the line.” Zeigler was looking for third career win at East Bay but came home in third. “The car was good, the longer the race went on the better I felt like we were getting. I was just waiting and watching the flags in the last ten laps and just waiting for the right time and I took the lead there and I should have protected my line more, it is what it is. I should have got down a little further. We’ll take a third, so we had a good finish.” The winner’s Wells Motorsports Longhorn Chassis is powered by a Clements Racing Engine and sponsored by Allstar Concrete, Crossfit Overton, Big Dog Stump and Tree, R.W. Powell, Convenient Lube, Top Notch Graphics, Penske Shocks, Dirt Mafia, EZ Go, and Sunoco Race Fuels. Completing the top ten were Rick Eckert, Tim McCreadie, Tanner English, Stormy Scott, and Hudson O’Neal.
Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series 
Race Summary 
GEICO East Bay Nationals – presented by Brandon Ford
Wednesday, May 27th, 2020
East Bay Raceway Park – Tampa, FL

Lucas Oil Time Trials
Fast Time Group A: Jimmy Owens / 14.541 seconds 
Fast Time Group B: Brandon Overton / 14.265 seconds (overall)

Penske Race Shocks Heat Race #1 Finish (10 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 20-Jimmy Owens[1]; 2. 25Z-Mason Zeigler[3]; 3. 9-Devin Moran[5]; 4. 21-Billy Moyer Jr[6]; 5. 50-Shanon Buckingham[2]; 6. 311-Ken Monahan[4]; 7. 20B-Todd Brennan[8]; 8. 3S-Brian Shirley[7]

FK Rod Ends Heat Race #2 Finish (10 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 1T-Tyler Erb[2]; 2. 25-Shane Clanton[3]; 3. 81E-Tanner English[1]; 4. 40B-Kyle Bronson[6]; 5. 49-Jonathan Davenport[4]; 6. 89-GR Smith[5]; 7. 33J-Jeff Mathews[7]

Simpson Race Products Heat Race #3 Finish (10 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 76-Brandon Overton[1]; 2. 39-Tim McCreadie[2]; 3. 6S-Blake Spencer[4]; 4. 16-Tyler Bruening[3]; 5. 111-Steven Roberts[6]; 6. 71-Hudson O’Neal[7]; 7. F15-Jeremy Conaway[5]

Ohlins Shocks Heat Race #4 Finish (10 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 0E-Rick Eckert[1]; 2. 14-Josh Richards[3]; 3. 2S-Stormy Scott[2]; 4. 1-Earl Pearson Jr[4]; 5. 7-Ross Robinson[6]; 6. 29-Larry Grube[5]; 7. (DNF) 91S-Blake Naylor[7]

Tiger Rear Ends B-Main #1 Finish (12 Laps, Top 6 Transfer): 1. 49-Jonathan Davenport; 2. 7-Ross Robinson; 3. 89-GR Smith; 4. 50-Shanon Buckingham; 5. 33J-Jeff Mathews; 6. 71-Hudson O’Neal; 7. 20B-Todd 

DELAWARE, Ohio (May 21) — It’s always a thrill to buy a new vehicle. It’s dramatically more so if you have the chance to actually drive your new vehicle right off the assembly line. That’s exactly what six-time world champion drag racer Jeg Coughlin Jr. got to do in 2018 when he purchased a new Jeep that was assembled in Toledo, Ohio. “It was truly an amazing experience and made that particular Jeep very special to me,” Coughlin said. “I was the first butt in the seat, as they say, and I feel a real connection to my Jeep. I keep it down in Florida, where it’s the perfect cruiser for the beach.” Coughlin’s special opportunity to visit the Jeep Plant at the Chrysler-Toledo Assembly Complex came from his professional relationship with Mopar and a long-standing offer from former Plant Manager Bruce Schabeck. Coughlin competed in a Dodge Avenger and a Dodge Dart in the past, winning the 2013 Pro Stock title in the HEMI-powered JEGS.com/Mopar Avenger. “With the Toledo plant just a few hours away Bruce set up a deal where we could go up and have a tour of the facility the same day my Jeep was being assembled,” Coughlin said. “We actually started the process with our friends at Coughlin Jeep in Marysville. Although we share the same name, we aren’t related, but they are good friends and great people. We’ve done a lot of business there through the years. “As you may imagine, it takes a ton of coordination to order a vehicle the way you want it and then have it come to life before your eyes. We were able to follow the build through the entire process, from the initial plans and scheduling of when all the specific components would come together on through to the build itself.” It actually takes less than one full day for a Jeep to be built. Coughlin was alerted to the day his Jeep would be assembled so he headed north to watch it happen. He was greeted by Jeep’s JK/JT Quality Center Manager Chad Kamm, a drag racer himself who regularly competes in a 23T Altered at nearby Milan Dragway.  “We arrived with about three hours of the build left,” Coughlin said. “Chad took us straight to the assembly line and found my Jeep. It had just reached the point where the body panels were being installed. We watched as they installed the drive-train, the seats, a lot of trim, and the door pieces. It’s incredible to see the professionalism and the coordination of all these different parts coming together right before your eyes. “I’ve been fortunate to see a lot of factories and assembly lines for all kinds of things through the years but this one was just mind-boggling. You could certainly feel the pride the workers there had in what they were doing and in the units they were producing each day.”  During his visit, Camm allowed Coughlin to drive a Jeep Rubicon through the elaborate testing grounds outside, where the full capabilities of the machine are revealed in actual practice. “Until you drive those things to their limits it’s hard to fully appreciate what they can do,” Coughlin said. “The turns they can make, the angles they can traverse, the climbing abilities of that vehicle; it’s all quite remarkable. They can handle way more than you would ever think to take them through in a normal day.”  After having some extracurricular fun, Camm made sure Coughlin was ready at the end of the assembly line at the right moment. “At the very last station they put 12 gallons of fuel in the tank in about four seconds,” Coughlin said. “Then it came forward and they allowed me to jump in there, fire it up, and drive it off the assembly line.  “I’ve always been a fan of Jeeps. I had a couple when I was younger and my friends and I would go ‘Jeeping’ through the woods and what-not. But I don’t know if any Jeep experience can beat that feeling right there. “They also allowed me to write a personal note to all the workers who had touched my Jeep on its way through the plant, which was really neat. I added a photo of our championship-winning Dodge from 2013 and a huge ‘Thank you’ to each of them.”

Inside Line Promotions – TUCSON, Ariz. (May 27, 2020) – Giovanni Scelzi captured a pair of top-10 finishes last weekend during his first time at a new track and with a new team.

Scelzi made only his eighth and ninth starts in a pavement late model during a two-day show at Tucson Speedway, where he piloted a super late model for Nascimento Racing.

“I want to thank everyone at Nascimento Racing as well as Bill McAnally Racing for the opportunity,” he said. “We made gains throughout the weekend and moved forward in each feature. I’m learning more with each lap I get on pavement.”

The action began on Saturday when Scelzi qualified eighth quickest. He advanced a position to finish seventh in a heat race. That lined him up on the inside of the fourth row for the main event.

“We qualified decent and ran decent for most of the race,” he said. “I got up to fifth about halfway, but got tight toward the end of the race. We fell to sixth with about 30 laps to go and that’s where we finished.”

Scelzi timed in 13^th quickest and finished sixth in a heat race on Sunday before he rallied from his 13^th starting position into the top 10 twice.

“I think track position was pretty crucial,” he said. “We got up to around eighth midway, but had an issue and had to go to the work area under caution. We got back out and rallied from the back up to eighth by the end of the race.”

Scelzi has now earned a top-10 result in eight of his nine pavement late model starts.

He is scheduled to return to sprint car competition on June 6 at Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa, where he will make his debut driving for veteran owner Guy Forbrook.

TEAM CHEVY ADVANCEALSCO UNIFORMS 500CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAYCONCORD, NORTH CAROLINA MAY 27, 2020

ROUND TWO AT CHARLOTTE:The NASCAR Cup Series continues its quest of five Cup races in a 14-day span with a return trip to Charlotte Motor Speedway on Wednesday evening, May 27th, at 8:00 p.m. ET with the Alsco Uniforms 500. The event under the lights at the 1.5-mile North Carolina oval will be the series’ second mid-week race in 36 years as NASCAR continues with its revised schedule.  BOWTIE BULLETS:·       Chevrolet leads all manufacturers with 45 all-time wins in NASCAR’s premier division at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
·       Following Kurt Busch’s recent pole in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600, a Chevrolet has sat on the pole 34 times at Charlotte Motor Speedway. 
·       To-date, Chevrolet has scored 206 top-five’s, 415 top-10’s and has led 14,128 laps around the North Carolina oval in NASCAR Cup Series events.  ·       Career-Chevrolet driver Jimmie Johnson, piloting the No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1 1LE, leads the series in wins with eight victories at the oval (2003 summer, sweep in 2004, sweep in 2005, 2009 playoffs race, 2014 summer, and 2016 playoffs race). He also leads all active drivers in top-five finishes at Charlotte, totaling 16 in his career. 
·       Hendrick Motorsports leads the NASCAR Cup Series in wins at Charlotte Motor Speedway by taking Chevrolet to victory lane 19 times. 
TEAM CHEVY FRONT ROW:With no qualifying to set the field, the starting lineup for Wednesday’s race is based on the finishing result’s from Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600.  Starting positions 1 through 20 will be set by an inversion of the top-20 finishers in the May 24th event, putting William Byron, No. 24 Axalta Camaro ZL1 1LE, in the pole position. Hendrick Motorsport’s teammate, Alex Bowman, No. 88 ChevyGoods.com/NOCO Camaro ZL1 1LE, will start alongside Byron to make up the front row. This is the third time this season that a pair of Camaro ZL1 1LE’s takeover the front row starting spots and will lead the field to the green.  The starting order for the remainder of the 40-car field reflect the finishing positions of the Coca-Cola 600.  IN THE REARVIEW MIRRORLeading into race #8 of the season at Charlotte, Team Chevy has 1 win, 3 poles, 733-laps led and two drivers in the top-five in the points standings. Hendrick Motorsport’s Alex Bowman, No. 88 ChevyGoods.com/NOCO Camaro ZL1 1LE, currently sits third in points standings, with one victory to secure his spot in the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. Thus far this season, Bowman has three stage wins and has led 318 laps, the most in a single season in his NASCAR career. Accompanied by his teammate, Chase Elliott, No. 9 Kelley Blue Book Camaro ZL1 1LE, is fourth in the points standings. In seven-point races, Elliott has captured an impressive three top-five and four top-10 finishes.  Tyler Reddick, No. 8 Okuma Camaro ZL1 1LE, has taken his rookie year by storm. Currently leading the rookie standings, Reddick has scored two top-10 finishes in the last three races and leads the NASCAR Cup Series in green flag passes with a total of 844.  TUNE-IN:In compliance with the pandemic guidelines, the Alsco Uniforms 500 will run without spectators, but you can view the live competition on Wednesday, May 27th, at 8:00 p.m. ET on FS1. Live coverage of the 208-lap, 312-mile race can also be found on PRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. QUOTABLE QUOTES:ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 CHEVYGOODS.COM/NOCO CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 3rd IN STANDINGS“We were strong on Sunday and don’t have the finish to show that. This ChevyGoods.com/NOCO team has put together some fast cars this season and I know that what we unload on Wednesday will be just as good. We have a notebook from Sunday’s race and hopefully we can go back out and put on a good show for everyone at home.” CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 KELLEY BLUE BOOK CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 4th IN STANDINGS“The last two weeks have been really tough. I feel like we have put ourselves in really good positions as a team, we’ve made good decisions and we’ve made good adjustments on the cars throughout these races. Those are things you don’t always get right. I think that’s what is frustrating to me, it’s a hard thing to make all the right moves, the right decisions and get the car driving exactly like you want it. When you have those days, those type of runs and those type of cars you want to make the most of it. I think that’s where the frustration is the worst for me, knowing that stuff isn’t forever. It’s not something you get right all the time. We’ve had two opportunities get away. I think that’s the hard thing to swallow. The silver lining is we’ve been running well and that’s encouraging, we’ve just got to keep doing it. It’s still early in the season.” WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 17th IN STANDINGS“The track should be pretty consistent to what we experienced during the 600 with that race being largely run at night. I’m looking forward to being able to build on the setup we had and the foundation we built during the 600. I thought it was a pretty decent starting spot to build off of, and if we make a few minor tweaks we’ll be even better. I also think starting up front will be a great asset. We saw in the 600 that clean air was so important, so this will be our chance to have it and remain up front hopefully. I’m really looking forward to it and I think it’s going to be a really good race based on the racing we’ve seen there the last couple days.” BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 WORLD WIDE TECHNOLOGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 20th IN STANDINGS“Charlotte Motor Speedway round two coming-up. It’s redemption time for Richard Petty Motorsports. Looking at our debrief data from Sunday, we know we brought a really fast Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE to the track. Our Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 United States Air Force (USAF) Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE was pretty decent all night until we ended-up having some bad luck with things that were out of our control. I have faith in our team to button everything up and bring another brand-new, fast Chevrolet to go out and compete in Wednesday’s Alsco Uniforms 500. We’ll go out and give it our all, and come back with a couple of changes to get through Turn Three and Four, that was our struggle point. All-in-all, we’re still hitting on some really good notes right now and continuing to build on that momentum. We’ll see what we’ve got!” JERRY BAXTER, CREW CHIEF OF THE NO. 43 WORLD WIDE TECHNOLGOY CAMARO ZL1 1LE “We have a brand new Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 World Wide Technology (WWT) Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE for Wednesday’s Alsco Uniforms 500 at the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway.”“In Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600, our team showed some good speed. Everything was rolling along, and we ended-up having a parts failure. The new Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE for Wednesday – we will take what we learned, and we’ll go on and hopefully run as good as we did at the second Darlington (S.C.) Raceway race.” 
RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 KROGER CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 24th IN STANDINGS“It’s so great to be back on a normal cadence of racing. I thought the Coca-Cola 600 went alright for us. We had good speed at the beginning of the race, but had a left rear wheel loose that forced us to pit early and we got caught a couple laps down. The cautions just didn’t fall our way to be able and get our laps back. While the 600 is unique in terms of it being the longest race of the year, I think it gave us some good momentum and notes that we can build on for Wednesday night’s race – which is essentially half the distance as Sunday. It took a little bit longer than I think we were going to for that top groove to come in, but I think with the Xfinity Series and Truck Series races this week, it’ll really help rubber the track up and give us a few more lane options. I like racing at Charlotte Motor Speedway and think we can really put a solid race together in our Kroger Camaro ZL1 1LE on Wednesday.”
RYAN PREECE, NO. 37 COTTONELLE CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 30th IN STANDINGS“I’m very curious to see how the shorter race will play out on Wednesday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway. We didn’t start out the Coca-Cola 600 where we wanted to in terms of our setup and handling, but as the race went on Trent (Owens, crew chief) made some really good adjustments and I felt like we had a car that should have been contending at the front as the race went on. We pit just about two laps too early in the final stage before a caution came out that would have given us the Lucky Dog spot and put us back on the lead lap. We’ve got a good starting point for Wednesday night’s race and I’m looking forward to seeing what we can put together in our No. 37 Cottonelle Camaro ZL1 1LE.” 

TAMPA, FL (May 26, 2020) – Brandon Overton finally fought off several tough challengers as he went to Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Victory Lane on Tuesday Night at East Bay Raceway Park. Overton held the lead for the first 12 laps of the 40-lap main event. Jonathan Davenport shot around him on a restart and led for three circuits, but Overton never gave up and recaptured the lead on lap 16 as he went on for his first Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series win of 2020.Davenport had to fight off repeated challenges from Jimmy Owens to hold on to the second spot at the end. Owens came home third to notch his sixth consecutive top five finish. Shane Clanton stayed in the mix the entire distance taking fourth at the finish. Kyle Bronson earned the Optima Batteries Hard Charger of the Race coming from 18th to finish in fifth.Overton was the Performance Friction Brakes Pole Award recipient of the main event and took the lead at the start of the race over Owens and Davenport. Overton was cruising along until a caution on lap 12 slowed the action. On the restart Davenport went to the outside lane, passing both Owens and Overton to take over the lead.Overton came right back three laps later to regain the lead for good, as he had to battle heavy traffic in the closing laps with cars running three-wide in front of him. In the end, he was able to reach the checkers first for his fifth career Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series victory and his second-ever at East Bay.With the win the 29-year-old Georgia native becomes the fifth different winner in five races of the series’ reopening tour. Overton had led the previous two Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series races, but a shorted-out coil wire and a broken flywheel knocked him out of contention for the win both times.”I was definitely concerned about lapped traffic at the end. That is the problem about leading here, JD rolled me on that restart, but you just don’t know where to go. It just all worked out for me near the end and they [traffic] were where I needed to be, and I was just trying to be patient. I tried to get as close to them as I could without hitting them and I just held on. Thanks to crew for working all day on the racecar after it was torn up last night. My car owner David Wells is here. It’s always good to get a Lucas Oil win for David and Eric [Wells].”Davenport, the three-time and reigning series champion moved closer to Tim McCreadie in the championship points race with his second-place run. “I was trying to find every inch on the racetrack, and I think I just overheated my left rear tire after the last caution. That is when the car got really loose. We got lucky when we got the lead, but I went back to the bottom and I left the door open for him [Overton] to get back around me.”Owens maintains third in the championship points with yet another podium finish for the Tennessee racer.  “We had a really good race car all night long. On that first take-off, the outside was just a little crumbly and we had to run on the bottom quite a bit. I ran a lot of laps on the bottom and then I decided to go to the top. I also made a bad lane choice on that last restart. Everybody’s crew has been working hard and everybody has had their ups and downs, that is just a part of it.”The winner’s Wells Motorsports Longhorn Chassis is powered by a Clements Racing Engine and sponsored by Allstar Concrete, Crossfit Overton, Big Dog Stump and Tree, Penske Shocks, Dirt Mafia, Sunoco Race Fuels, Convenient Lube, and EZ Go.Completing the top ten were Tim McCreadie, Josh Richards, Earl Pearson Jr., Devin Moran, and Tanner English.Owens leads the Riggs Drilling Solution points heading into the final night at East Bay on Wednesday. He leads davenport by 70 points in the chase for the $5,000 first place prize.Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series 
Race Summary 
GEICO East Bay Nationals – presented by Brandon Ford
Tuesday, May 26th, 2020
East Bay Raceway Park – Tampa, FL

Lucas Oil Time Trials
Fast Time Group A: Brandon Overton / 14.546 seconds 
Fast Time Group B: Jimmy Owens / 14.495 seconds (overall)

Penske Race Shocks Heat Race #1 Finish (10 Laps, Top 4 Transfer):   1. 76-Brandon Overton[1]; 2. 25-Shane Clanton[2]; 3. 50-Shanon Buckingham[3]; 4. 14-Josh Richards[5]; 5. 3S-Brian Shirley[4]; 6. 1-Earl Pearson Jr[7]; 7. 20B-Todd Brennan[6]; 8. 311-Ken Monahan[8]

FK Rod Ends Heat Race #2 Finish (10 Laps, Top 4 Transfer):  1. 49-Jonathan Davenport[4]; 2. 0E-Rick Eckert[1]; 3. 1T-Tyler Erb[3]; 4. 9-Devin Moran[2]; 5. 25W-Allen Weisser[6]; 6. 7-Ross Robinson[5]; 7. 1V-Vic Hill[7]; 8. (DNS) 29-Larry Grube

Simpson Race Products Heat Race #3 Finish (10 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 20-Jimmy Owens[1]; 2. 16-Tyler Bruening[3]; 3. 111-Steven Roberts[5]; 4. 33J-Jeff Mathews[2]; 5. 40B-Kyle Bronson[6]; 6. 71-Hudson O’Neal[7]; 7. 91S-Blake Naylor[8]; 8. 25Z-Mason Zeigler[4]

Ohlins Shocks Heat Race #4 Finish (10 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 39-Tim McCreadie[1]; 2. 81E-Tanner English[2]; 3. 6S-Blake Spencer[4]; 4. 21-Billy Moyer Jr[3]; 5. 89-GR Smith[5]; 6. 2S-Stormy Scott[6]; 7. F15-Jeremy Conaway[7] 

Tiger Rear Ends B-Main #1 Finish (12 Laps, Top 3 Transfer):  1. 3S-Brian Shirley[1]; 2. 1-Earl Pearson Jr[3]; 3. 7-Ross Robinson[4]; 4. 25W-Allen Weisser[2]; 5. 1V-Vic Hill[6]; 6. 20B-Todd Brennan[5]; 7. (DNS) 311-Ken Monahan; 8. (DNS) 29-Larry Grube

FAST Shafts B-Main #2 Finish (12 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 40B-Kyle Bronson[1]; 2. 2S-Stormy Scott[4]; 3. 89-GR Smith[2]; 4. 91S-Blake Naylor[5]; 5. 71-Hudson O’Neal[3]; 6. F15-Jeremy Conaway[6]; 7. (DNS) 25Z-Mason Zeigler

May 26, 2020 | Featured, Megan Meyer, Race Results

2019 Top Alcohol Dragster winner, Megan Meyer, cruised to victory this weekend at the Keurig Dr Pepper Lone Star Nationals presented by Driven Automotive Protection at the Texas Motorplex. Megan was the first winner of a motorsports race in the state of Texas since every major sporting event was postponed or cancelled in early March due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Central Lucas Oil Regional event was able to be held after many weeks of conversation between the Texas Motorplex ownership team and Governor Greg Abbott’s office.

After the first day of qualifying, Megan and her sister, Rachel Meyer, sat atop the Top Alcohol Dragster field in the first and third spots, respectively. In the second session on Friday Megan made the quickest pass of the session, 5.270 seconds at 275.45 mph and held on to the top qualifying spot in a crowded field of Top Alcohol Dragsters. In the final Top Alcohol Dragster qualifying session, Rachel jumped to the top spot posting a pass at 5.240 seconds at 272.12 mph. However, Megan reclaimed the No. 1 qualifier in the next pair of dragsters with an event quickest and fastest run of 5.165 seconds at 277.32 mph, to claim the low qualifier bonus money.

The Meyer sisters sat first and second, respectively, going into the opening round of eliminations for prize money and valuable Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series points that contribute to the prestigious JEGS AllStars race later on this year. Rachel was defeated by Dean Dubbin, who was trying to pass her up for the second spot in the AllStars race but fell short to the Meyer sisters. Dean’s 5.416 second pass was enough as Rachel slowed to 5.472 seconds in the heat of the day.

Megan took out Buddy Domingue in the first round in her NGK Spark Plugs powered nitro-dragster when she ran him down with a winning elapsed time of 5.318 seconds to his 5.387 seconds. Her run was the quickest pass of the first round and set up semifinal race with No. 4 qualifier James Stevens. In the semis Megan was nearly perfect off the starting line with a .006 reaction time and combined that with the quickest run of eliminations, a 5.242 second pass.

In the final round she avenged a first round upset loss by her sister Rachel to Dean Dubbin outrunning the racer from Minnesota to the victory. Her winning time of 5.198 seconds was the quickest of eliminations.

“It was such a long, exhausting, fun weekend in Texas,” said Megan. “I think this was the perfect event to restart the NHRA season. The teams wore masks on the starting line, we maintained distance in the staging lanes, and we’re already spread apart by 9′ trailers in the pits. Thankfully spectators were allowed to come watch on Saturday and we got to meet a few friendly faces. This Randy Meyer Racing team wouldn’t be the same without my crew guys. We have the best parts money can buy, but without the camaraderie we have, we wouldn’t be successful. They pushed through the heat and late nights to make 6 test hits, 3 qualifiers and 3 rounds in 3 days.”

The team will take a two-month break before their next outing in Columbus, OH for their next Lucas Oil Regional event. Megan and Rachel are currently first and second in the Central Regional series, and second and third, respectively, in the NHRA National standings.

Myatt Snider Rallies from Late Race Incident to Score Top Ten Finish in Richard Childress Racing’s No. 21 TaxSlayer Chevrolet at Charlotte Motor Speedway

10th    17th   15th

“What a wild night! I can’t thank my crew chief, Andy Street, and all my Richard Childress Racing guys enough for preparing such a fast TaxSlayer Chevrolet for me. I drove about 180 perfect laps and made a mistake with about 20 laps to go, which unfortunately damaged our TaxSlayer Chevrolet. Despite our damage, we never gave up and were able to fight our way back to a top ten finish. I’m really excited for the speed we are bringing to the racetrack and can’t wait to slay it next week at Bristol Motor Speedway.” -Myatt Snider

Inside Line Promotions – ELDON, Mo. (May 25, 2020) – Dominic Scelzi produced his first feature victory of the season on Sunday evening to cap a busy holiday weekend.

Scelzi led the majority of the ASCS Sooner Region and ASCS Warrior Region event during his debut at Lake Ozark Speedway, recording his first win of the year during what has been an unimaginable start to 2020.

“Rolling into this season back in February my goal was to win 10 races,” he said. “Right now I just cracked 10 races that we’ve raced. There’s no certainty of anything. To be able to get a win during a pandemic and in a time they aren’t allowing a full capacity of fans, it was very different. But it was meaningful to be able to get a win right now.”

Scelzi powered from fifth to second place during his heat race to earn a spot into the feature redraw.

“We’ve been changing some stuff around to help us out in the moisture,” he said. “We’ve struggled getting a balance when the track has grip. Earlier Sunday we changed motors and knew there were quite a few storms coming. We left late and pulled into the track at the drivers meeting. It was waiting on the weather all night wondering what was going to happen. We drew the No. 36, which started me fifth in our heat race. Halfway through the heats it started raining. I only had two heats before mine so the track had some grip for my heat. We went fifth to second, which was great.”

Scelzi pulled the No. 1 during the feature redraw to garner the pole position for the 40-lap A Main.

“I got the jump and led the first half right around the bottom,” he said. “As the bottom got slower we had to move around. The middle and top were dirty. There wasn’t a defined line. Sam (Hafertepe Jr.) got by me on Lap 24. I got my wing back and ran the middle and top in turns one and two and the bottom in turns three and four. We were able to run him back down and take the lead on Lap 30. From there on it was pretty thick traffic to the end. I was able to put a handful of cars between us. It was special to be able to pass someone like Sam, who is one of the top 360 racers out there.”

The victory tied a bow on a weekend that also featured a World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series doubleheader at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 in Pevely, Mo. A whopping 61 competitors entered the event.

“On Friday we made good laps in qualifying, but didn’t have mile per hour; we just didn’t have speed,” he said. “With 60-plus cars that put us in a non-qualifier. It was tough to pass and we finished fourth. That put us in the C Main and we drove from 11^th to sixth. I didn’t feel like we were off car-wise; we just didn’t have the speed we needed.”

Scelzi improved his results on Saturday, qualifying eighth quickest in his group and placing fourth in a heat race to lock into the A Main.

“I felt like we were decent in qualifying and we were really good in the heat,” he said. “I raced hard for third, but couldn’t get by him. They reworked the track before the main event and we were just really tight. About midway through the race we had dropped back some and I felt like we were in a position where we didn’t want to tear up equipment so we pulled off early.”

Next up for the team is a World of Outlaws doubleheader at Lake Ozark Speedway this Friday and Saturday.

KESELOWSKI WON THE CROWN JEWEL, COCA-COLA 600    CHARLOTTE, NC – May 25, 2020 – Brad Keselowski won the crown jewel, Coca-Cola 600, last night for the first time in his career while capturing Ford’s 690th all-time win in NASCAR Cup Series competition. The win also marked the Ford Mustang’s fourth win of the season in seven starts.

“Congratulations to Roger, Brad, Jeremy, and the No. 2 crew,” said Doug Yates, President and CEO of Roush Yates Engines. “Brad and the team made a last-minute strategy call and it paid off big time. It was a long night, but our teams continued to make adjustments in order to be in position to win at the end. We are blessed to live in this country and honor all the brave men and women that are no longer with us.”

Keselowski started in the back of the field and gradually worked his way up to the front at Charlotte Motor Speedway, in a battle with Chase Elliott at the end. A late race caution came out causing the race to go into overtime. Keselowski and crew chief, Jeremy Bullins chose to gamble and stay out on older tires, as Elliott elected to pit for fresh tires. On lap 404, Keselowski lined up in front of Alex Bowman on the inside line, next to veteran Jimmy Johnson and led eight cars that stayed out on older tires. With a great push, Keselowski was able to get out front, in the clean air to surge ahead of Johnson and take the checked flag by .293 seconds.

“It means a lot to me, but I can’t help but think about the Reep family and Donovan,” Keselowski commented in a post-race interview. “I know the race ran really late, but Memorial Day is about a lot more than racing, but we’re glad to be able to do cool things like racing because of the freedom provided by those willing to make the sacrifices. It’s the Coke 600 and this leaves only one major left for me, the Daytona 500, so we’re checking them off. I know they’re really happy because Miller Lite goes with Memorial Day, but I’m happy for Ford and everybody who just works their butt off at Team Penske. The pit crew at the end, the yellow right before the last lap, had a blazing stop to get us up front and put us in position. All these things just came together, and I’m tickled to death. It’s a little overwhelming to be honest.”

Over the course of the stretched out 607.5 mile race, the Ford Mustangs led 54 out of the 405-laps, led by Stage 3 winner Joey Logano with 26 laps, followed by Team Penske teammate Keselowski with 21, Matt DiBenedetto of Wood Brother’s Racing led six, and John Hunter Nemechek from Front Row Motorsports with one.

Ford Performance finished with four Ford Mustangs in the top-10: Keselowski (P1), Ryan Blaney (P3), current driver points leader, Kevin Harvick (P5), and Chris Buescher in (P10).

To those that have served and made the ultimate sacrifice for our great country, God Bless and Thank you. In remembrance of Memorial Day, SSGT Donovan Reep, was honored on Keselowski’s No. 2 Ford Mustang, in addition all NASCAR Cup teams honored a service member.

NASCAR returns to Charlotte tonight with the Xfinity race and on Wednesday, May 27th for the Alsco Uniforms 500 Cup race. Reference the full 2020 schedule on Roushyates.com.  27 CHAMPIONSHIPS – 385 WINS – 357 POLES!  *Photos courtesy of NASCAR Media & Getty Images

About Roush Yates Engines   Roush Yates Engines is a leading-edge engine development company based in Mooresville, NC consisting of two state-of-the-art facilities – Roush Yates Engines and Roush Yates Manufacturing Solutions, a world class ISO 9001 / AS9100 certified CNC manufacturing facility. The company’s core business includes designing, building and testing purpose-built race engines.   Ford Performance in partnership with Roush Yates Engines is the exclusive engine builder of the NASCAR FR9 Ford V8 engine and Ford Mustang 5.2L V8 engine, used in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge series.   With an unparalleled culture of winning and steeped in rich racing history, Roush Yates Engines continues to follow the company’s vision to lead performance engine innovation and staying true to the company’s mission, provide race winning engines through demonstrated power and performance.   3 Series – 22 Teams – 81 Races

May 25, 2020

Matt DiBenedetto and the No. 21 Menards/FVP team had an up-and-down day in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway before ending up 17^th at the finish.

The day started on the down side as the Menards Mustang was super loose in the first qualifying session held since the Cup Series resumed racing following a 10-week halt due to the coronavirus. DiBenedetto lost control and bounced off the wall, forcing the team to pull out a back-up Mustang.

That meant he had to start the 600-mile marathon from the rear of the pack.

The drop of the green flag was the start of an upswing for DiBenedetto and the Menards/FVP team. He made up 16 positions before the caution flag flew at Lap 20.

By Lap 30 he was up to 15^th place and was running there on Lap 49 when the race was halted for 68 minutes due to rain.

Back on the track, DiBenedetto continued to struggle with a loose handling condition and dropped to 20^th place, so when the caution flag flew just after Lap 100 for the end of Stage One, he headed to pit road for a series of adjustments to the No. 21 Mustang. 
 
He returned to the track and passed several cars, but at the end of Stage Two was running 23^rd, one lap down.
 
Throughout most of the third 100-lap Stage, DiBenedetto ran in the free-pass position and finally was able to rejoin the lead lap when the caution flag flew at Lap 277 for a spin by Matt Kenseth. 
 
Back on the move forward, he finished the third 100-lap Stage in 15^th place.
  
A call to take just two tires on the pit stop at the end of the Stage propelled DiBenedetto into the lead, and he led Laps 304-306 under the caution flag and restarted as the leader.
 
He led three more laps once the green flag flew again before the drivers who took four tires overtook him.
 
DiBenedetto ran mostly in the top 10 over the final 100 laps. He was in 11^th place when the caution flag flew with two of the scheduled 400 laps remaining for a blown tire by William Byron.
 
That sent the race into overtime.
 
DiBenedetto stayed on the track while other pitted for fresh tires, so he restarted seventh for the green-white-checkered-flag run to the finish.
 
But the final two laps didn’t work out in his favor, and he wound up 18^th at the finish. He picked up one spot when the car of apparent runner-up Jimmie Johnson was disqualified for failing a post-race inspection.
 
Eddie Wood said he was proud of his team’s efforts throughout the day on Sunday.

 “They never gave up,” he said. “We went from having to go to a back-up car to losing a lap to leading the race.

 “We were able to honor Major Lucas Gruenther as part of the 600 Miles of Remembrance, and the sport as a whole did a nice job of honoring all the servicemembers who gave the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

 “And we congratulate Brad Keselowski, Jeremy Bullins and Team Penske on their well-deserved victory.”
 
DiBenedetto and the No. 21 team, now 11^th in the Cup standings, return to Charlotte Motor Speedway on Wednesday night for a 500-kilometer (312-mile) race that will be broadcast on FOX Sports One. 
 

Strong Stage Points Day for Austin Dillon and the No. 3 Coca-Cola Chevrolet Team in Season’s Longest Race

“The Coca-Cola 600 is one of my favorite races of the year because Charlotte Motor Speedway is my home track, and there is nothing that compares to racing on Memorial Day weekend and honoring our military. I feel so honored to be able to race this weekend for Chief Special Warfare Operator Eric F. Shellenberger with a very patriotic Coca-Cola paint scheme. I feel really good overall, physically, which is a good thing after a 600-mile race. We ran in the top 10 all night, and earned Stage points at the conclusion of Stage 1, Stage 2 and Stage 3. We had a really solid No. 3 Coca-Cola Chevrolet. We ran up front in the top five, and we ran some of the fastest times of the race. I’m bummed that we ran that strong all night long and then gave it away at the end. When the caution flag came out at the end of the race, we decided that if a couple of cars pitted we were going to stay out. I actually said that if all of the cars stayed out, I was going to pit. Not all of the cars stayed out, though. I thought more would stay out. In hindsight, we probably should have came in and got two tires. The No. 18 car was running one position in front of us, came and got two and ended up fifth. You just never know. If you get the outside it makes a difference. My teammate, Tyler Reddick, got the outside and ended up being able to maintain. I should have known. We were too tight at the end of the race. I drove the wheels off of it, and when the caution came out we were just a little overconfident. We wanted another good finish. It worked for us at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. All in all, we had a top 10 car. We ran eighth to ninth on average all night long. It was still a good effort, and I’m excited about having the chance to come back here for a mid-week race on Wednesday. We have good cars at RCR. We have proven that we can run up front. We just have to get those finishes.” -Austin Dillon

Tyler Reddick Earns Top-10 Finish in First Coca-Cola 600 with Alsco Uniforms Chevrolet Team

“Well, the longest night of racing is in the books. I’m proud of the effort our No. 8 Alsco Uniforms Chevrolet team gave tonight. We fought hard all night to make our car better, and we took a gamble at the end, which almost paid off for us. The track just didn’t do quite what I hoped it would do tonight, but we still found a way to get a top 10 out of the race. We fired off really strong tonight and had a shot at the pole in qualifying. After the brief rain storm, it was tough to get the balance nailed down to where we needed it to be. I was too loose in Turns 1 and 2 but then too tight in Turns 3 and 4. We tried a lot of different adjustments and strategy calls to try to adjust the handling, and hit on something during that second to last caution of the night. Randall Burnett and my team were able to get our car loosened up just enough for me to run up through the field from 15th to 10th. From there, we decided to stay out and go for it on that green-white-checkered, and almost got a top-five finish out of it. I learned a lot tonight that I think we can take into account when we return to Charlotte Motor Speedway on Wednesday to help with our long run handling and speed. This is definitely a finish we can build on. 400 laps and 600 miles are done, and we’ll be ready to come back on Wednesday night. It was an honor to have SGT. Norman L. Tollett’s name above my windshield tonight, and I hope we made his friends and family proud.”-Tyler Reddick