, Dixon His Sixth Drivers’ Championship at St. Petersburg Season Finale
Scott Dixon secures his sixth INDYCAR Drivers’ Title with third-place finish in Florida
Honda wins ninth Manufacturers’ Championship, and third consecutive title, with seven race wins and 15 additional podium finishes in 14-race season

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (Oct. 25, 2020) – Honda today claimed its ninth INDYCAR Manufacturers’ Championship – and third consecutive title – as Scott Dixon scored the 15th podium finish for the company this season and succeeded in earning his sixth Drivers’ title, highest among all active drivers and trailing only the legendary A.J. Foyt in career championships won.

For Honda and Honda Performance Development, the company’s North American racing division, today’s result marks the first championship “three-peat” of titles in the 27-year history of HPD. Entering Indy car competition in 1994, Honda won its first manufacturers’ title in 1996. Additional championships followed in 1998-99, 2001, 2004-05, and 2018-19.

Dixon’s championship is the 17th for a Honda-powered Indy car driver, and the 11th with multi-manufacturer competition. Now a Honda Indy car team owner, Jimmy Vasser won Honda’s first drivers’ title in 1996. Other Honda-powered Indy car champions include Alex Zanardi (1997-98); Juan Pablo Montoya (1999); Gil de Ferran (2000-01); Tony Kanaan (2004); Dan Wheldon (2005); Sam Hornish Jr. (2006); Dario Franchitti (2007, 2009-11); and Dixon (2008, 2013, 2018, 2020).

Today’s 100-lap season finale took place in hot and very humid conditions, resulting in a brief, light rain shower with approximately 20 laps remaining. Pole qualifier Will Power led the opening five laps, but was soon passed by Andretti Autosport’s Alexander Rossi, who went on to lead a race-high 61 laps before ending his day with wall contact on Lap 74.

Other Honda-powered race leaders included Colton Herta, Graham Rahal, James Hinchcliffe and Alex Palou. But shortly after Rossi’s crash, Herta also slid off course, leading to an 11th-place finish. Just moments later, Hinchcliffe was the next to fall victim to the tricky conditions, spinning in the final turn and then colliding with fellow Honda driver Jack Harvey as he attempted to rejoin the circuit. Both would have to pit for repairs, dropping them out of the lead pack. Palou’s fuel gamble came up this a few laps shy of a podium finish, as his late stop for a splash dropped him to 13th at the checkers.

Meanwhile, after starting 11th – and needing only a top-10 finish to clinch the title – Dixon methodically worked his way to the front, moving into third on Lap 80. Combined with four wins during the 14-race season, the podium result was more than enough for Dixon to claim the title.

Next
Sunday’s race concludes Honda’s championship-winning 2020 NTT IndyCar Series. The 2021 season gets underway March 7, with a return to the Florida Gulf Coast for the next running of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

Honda Racing social media content and videos from the season-ending Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg are available on Instagram (www.instagram.com/hondaracing_hpd), Facebook (www.facebook.com/HondaRacingHPD) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/HondaRacing_HPD).  

Quotes
Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) Started 11th, finished third; has won his sixth INDYCAR Drivers’ Championship: “It’s all the team. I can’t thank everybody on this team enough. Obviously, [team owner] Chip [Ganassi], [race directors] Mike [Hull] and Barry [Wanser]; and everybody involved – Honda. I’m proud to be powered by Honda and what they’ve been able to pull out this year. They nailed it. Big thanks to everybody. My family – I’m glad my [daughters] and [spouse] Emma are here. I can’t thank everybody enough. PNC Bank, two out of three years (as champion) – that’s pretty good going.”
 
“It’s never just one thing or one person. For me, it’s about the team effort. We had a lot of [internal] changes in the offseason. And we know next year is going to be the same, but huge thanks again to everyone on the team. Now we’re going to have a beer.”
 
Ted Klaus (President, Honda Performance Development) on today’s season-ending race, Honda’s ninth – and third consecutive – Manufacturers’ Championship and Scott Dixon’s sixth Drivers’ Title: “Thank you ‘Team HPD’. Every one of you played an important role in this historic achievement, throughout the off-season and all through this year. You executed against adversity, and never lifted off the throttle. We dominated the Indianapolis 500 and brought home the drivers’ and manufacturers’ championships, and that is an enormous accomplishment. To our partner teams, INDYCAR and our competitors: job well done in 2020, thank you all. We will celebrate tonight, but our next goal is to bring even more Honda power to the NTT INDYCAR SERIES in 2021.”

CHEVROLET RACING IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIES FIRESTONE GRAND PRIX OF ST. PETERSBURG STREETS OF ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA JOSEF NEWGARDEN AND RINUS VEEKAY TEAM CHEVY POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPTS OCT. 25, 2020

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JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 1 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – RACE WINNER, AND RINUS VEEKAY, NO. 21 SONAX ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET – INDYCAR ROOKIE-OF-THE-YEAR POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT: THE MODERATOR: We’ve been joined by our new 2020 Rookie of the Year, Rinus VeeKay. Lots of news for you today. It was announced you have a new deal for next year staying where you are. And with taking the green flag, you became the Rookie of the Year. Talk to us about your day today.RINUS VEEKAY: Yeah, first of all, very happy with my achievements for getting the Rookie of the Year. Also very happy to stay with ECR next year. Great team, really a team that helps me to get better and better, prepare throughout all the season.Yeah, today was tough. We started with really good speed at the start. Yellow kind of threw me, the first one. Got into the pack, yeah, tangled up early, unavoidable. It happens. It’s a street course. I’m not the only one that had a rough day.We had the speed. I know we will be good at the season opener next year.  THE MODERATOR: We’ll go ahead and take questions from the media for Rinus.Q. Do you think you could have won? At one point you had the undercut on Josef towards the start of the race. If things had gone your way, do you think you had the pace to win that today and that was a lost victory or would it have been tough coming with the undercut towards the end of the race?RINUS VEEKAY: It’s never easy. Everything has to go into your favor. The way it looked pace-wise, I was kind of saving a little bit of tires. It was looking very good.Then, yeah, after that first caution, went downhill pretty quick anyway. If that didn’t happen, I think the podium was still possible, even having to go through the pack. We really had the speed.It was tough, but I think, yeah, my second podium could have been a fact today. Going to have to wait a few months until I can do it over. Q. The news this morning that you’ll be returning to Ed Carpenter. Have you spoken to any other teams? Could you give us a little bit of background about the decision you made to stay with Ed?RINUS VEEKAY: Yes, I’m very happy to stay with ECR. Everyone kind of agrees that the way we work together was great this year. Everyone agreed to keep going for another season. Everyone was happy with how we’re doing. I think I have a really good team of guys surrounding me. I’m very happy about this year. I think we can, yeah, go for even more podiums and hopefully win this next season. THE MODERATOR: We’ve been joined by our race winner, Josef Newgarden, and second place finisher in the championship. A few fun facts about Josef before we get started. It is his fourth win of 2020. He also became the third straight back-to-back winner at St. Pete, having won last year’s race as well. Sebastien Bourdais did that in ’17 and ’18. Juan Pablo Montoya did that in ’15 and ’16.Tell us about your day, Josef, the mixed emotions you must be feeling.JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, it’s very bittersweet the way this all wrapped up. I was a little bit somber coming into this weekend, to be honest with you, I think just because of the fact that we knew we didn’t control our own destiny. We knew going into the weekend that we didn’t have control over it. The only thing we could do was to take care of what we could control and try to win the race. If you win the race, it gives you the best opportunity to maybe win the championship.It’s tough. It’s tough to get to this point, to look at the year, some of the things we’ve come back from, certainly how close we got, then to fall short. At the end of the day we did. We fell short. Just wasn’t good enough.I think all we can do is shake our competitor’s hand, tell Scott great job, tell his team great job, and come back next year and hit him harder. That’s all we can really focus on at this point. That’s what I’m going to focus on.Proud of what we did today. It was a really hard race. Tough to get right at the end with all the cautions. The tires were very tricky to drive after the warmup and the caution laps. Happy to get a win out of here. So proud of my team. They were just on it all year. I don’t think I would change one thing that we did. I don’t see how we could change one thing that we did. They were perfect all season in my eyes. Just short.I guess a decent way to go into the off-season with another victory and to hold our head up high. THE MODERATOR: Rinus, we’ll let you go before we continue with questions for Josef. Congratulations on your Rookie of the Year.RINUS VEEKAY: Thank you very much. THE MODERATOR: We’ll continue with questions for Josef.Q. Lap 79, pass for the lead. You pick off two guys on the restart. How cool was that? What do you recall of that? How much did you realize once you were in the lead, all of a sudden you looked in your rearview mirror and there’s Scott in third, you go, Man, that ain’t going to be enough?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I wasn’t really looking back most of the race, to be honest with you. I did see him there at the end. I could see he was in the mirrors and lurking. I knew they were pitting when we would pit, which is the smart thing to do. They just shadowed us all day, which is really the smart play.We couldn’t control them. We knew that. We knew that going into the weekend. It’s the most disheartening thing, you can’t control the outcome. All you can control is winning the race, hoping that something falls your way. We didn’t have a lot fall our way this year. I was hoping today may be the day.Like I said, I was looking forward most of the day. All we could do was control what we were doing, where our car was, trying to win the race. That’s all I focused on. Once we got to the lead and made the pass, I was pretty happy. Just hoping things shook out for us, just trying to finish off and keep in the lead till the end. Q. From your viewpoint, the pass for the lead on the restart, take us through that.JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It was really tricky today. I mean, I would be surprised if it wasn’t noticeable on TV how difficult it was on those restarts. There was a lot of pickup. The tires were extremely cold. We were struggling with the pace car to go quick enough was part of the problem. We couldn’t keep temperature in the tires and brakes. Trying to get going again with all the pickup on the tires was really tough.I knew on that restart Herta was one of the worst to get going with tire warmup. He seemed to struggle the most of anybody almost. I saw Palou kind of go for a pass on him. I knew on the inside it was going to be really tough to pull that off.I tried to position my car in the middle of them, just wait for an opportunity for them to open the door slightly. That door just kind of half opened. I kept my line very tight to try to squeeze both of them, try to be a bit smoother on throttle, try to get the most out of it on cold tires. It wall really all I could do. It was just enough to get around those guys on the outside. After that I was just trying to hold everybody back. Q. You end the season with four victories. That’s tied for the most of any driver this year. How important is that to you?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I’m really proud of it, for sure. I’m glad to get another win. I hate to harp on the past. I don’t want to be in the business of making excuses. I think we could have won six or seven races this year, to be honest with you. On one hand I’m really proud. I think we’ve had phenomenal racecars. Team Chevy has given us pretty much everything you can ask for. Great engine performance, great partnerships as always. I’ve always had good races with Hitachi on the car. I don’t know why that is. They seem to be a good luck charm specifically for us this year.I’m disappointed. We could have won six or seven. I don’t know that I would change much about what we did this year. I don’t know that I’d ask our team to do much different. We sit down and analyze everything, I don’t know that we missed steps very often. We got bit a couple times being in the wrong place, wrong time. As far as our decision making, I was really proud of pretty much what we did all year. Q. I know you mentioned about specific points in your race. I was curious to know if at any point was the team telling you where Scott was? How did you wrap your head around that? How did you maintain focus on the race?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: No, didn’t get much info. Wasn’t important, to be honest with you. Again, we couldn’t control that. We just had to focus on winning the race. That’s all I worked on.I just looked forward, sort of knew the situation around me. Was more intimate with what was going on in front, directly in front of me. That’s all I focused on. I wasn’t really told where Scott was, what they were doing. I could see them setting up in the pits every time I came in. I noticed that. Figured they would do that. If it was on the flip side, we would do the same thing. If we were behind them in the race, we pretty much would mirror them if we were in their shoes.I honestly wasn’t focused on them because it didn’t matter. Anything I was doing compared to them just didn’t matter. We had to win. Scott wasn’t the guy we were racing. We were focused on the other competitors. Q. At any point were you worried about the competitors at all because that pass you made for the lead on Alex, it was pretty tight?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, it was very tight. I mean, I can’t express enough how difficult it was on the restarts. It was like being on ice for like two laps. Let alone just the first corner, it was like that the entire two laps just to get going.We were tiptoeing it. I was trying to be a little bit more ginger than those guys on the throttle, keep the car pinched on the apex in turn one as they pushed two-wide. I was on the clean stuff a little bit better. Gave me a better drive on the outside.Even then I was wide myself in the next corner and about went into the wall. It was just tough, tight corners. I knew for us, we had to go for the win. It was our only chance to win the championship. I wasn’t trying to be overly aggressive but I was being aggressive as I possibly could to win the race. Q. Do you attribute any of the incidents today from what you could tell to tough racing in a season finale with guys going all out? What contributed most to all the on-track incidents we saw today?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Just hard racing. St. Pete, end of the year, first street course of the year. I think everyone was trying to make the most of it. That’s part of it.The other part of it was just the difficulty on restarts. The tires were so cold, they were susceptible to pickup in a really bad way this year for whatever reason. I think it made it hard for us. In some ways it made it exciting for all the racing.That whole combination of being the only street course of the year, last race of the season, people were going for it. It was in tough conditions that they were doing it. Q. You mentioned this felt bittersweet for you. How would you characterize what the last 10, 15 laps felt like knowing you were leading the race, have a good chance to win, also knowing that Dixon was right there?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I was just pushing. I was hustling the car, driving as hard as I could, trying to enjoy myself. I really enjoyed the race conditions, love driving a full race. It’s my favorite part of the weekend.I was pushing as hard as possible, trying to go as fast as I could, enjoying that process. I love that. It’s my last chance at it for this year until we get back going again next year.Just doing what we always do, keeping the rhythm, try to finish the race. I’ll let the team tell me what happened when we’re done. Q. Your mindset going into the off-season now, is it easier for you knowing you couldn’t have really done anything different this year or does that make it more difficult for you from a mental aspect?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I’m torn. I’m so torn with this season. On one hand, like I said, I take pride in the fact that I don’t think we did much wrong this year. I really don’t. If you look back at it, the one thing that I could nitpick is maybe we should have been on it a little better in a couple qualifying sessions. Yesterday would have been a key example of that where we may have miss stepped in quallie trim or didn’t capitalize.As far as race day, the decision making we did for a complete season, we finished every lap. We had the potential to win six or seven races on merit, in my opinion. It just didn’t pan out.A lot of the days where we should have been on the podium or should have won a race, they didn’t fall our way. I’m extremely proud of that fact, that I don’t think we would have done much different. When we analyze the whole year, we’re not going to point to this mistake or that mistake. There just was not a lot of them, really any at all. It almost makes it that much harder.You look at the gap that we were at five races to go, 117 back. You look at how much we clawed back for the season finale, to be beat by so little, that’s what makes it bittersweet.On the one hand I’m happy about a hard performance, but sad about the way the whole thing turned out. Q. Was it important for you to go down swinging, to do everything you could do?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Hell, yeah. Yeah. Look, I show up to win every race, like any of these guys. If you don’t have that mindset, I don’t know what you’re doing here. I’ll always preach that.We went for the win today. Yeah, maybe there’s some days you’ll say we don’t be as risky on strategy, we might pull back a bit on that approach. We gave it everything we had. We tried to win the race. That was our only focus.Whether we win the championship or not, we want to have a great race day, we want to represent our partners and win the race. That’s what we did. We showcased Chevrolet, showed we had the best engine this weekend. Showed off Hitachi, our beautiful car. At the end of the day we won the race but it wasn’t enough for the championship. That’s okay. You’re going to get that.We shook our competitor’s hand, told them good job, will come back next year. Q. Is it fair to say or categorize this victory, the big bold move for the lead, would it be fair to categorize those as characteristics of you, who you are as a person and race car driver?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I don’t know. I definitely put my heart out there today. I think people saw that I’ll do everything I can to put us in a position to win races or win championships. I’ve done that ever since I’ve started driving an INDYCAR. I think if there’s anything to say about our performance today, you can definitely draw that.I’ve tended to be more measured I think over the last couple years of my career. Specifically at Team Penske I think my approach has been more letting things come to us using our inherent speed and skill sets of our people to maximize the race better than other people.Whereas today, you know, the only way to win this race was to just win it. You couldn’t rest on just letting it come to you. I mean, you had to go and take it. The only way we’re going to win this championship was to go and take the win. I certainly took that approach from my driving style today. I put it all out there. I knew we had to take a victory.Once you get to that point and you’re in the lead trying to win the race, fate wasn’t in our hand. We just had to wait for something to come our way. Unfortunately it just didn’t today. THE MODERATOR: We’ll let Josef go. Thank you, Josef, for joining us. I know it’s tough with the situation. Congratulations on your win and we’ll see you here again in March. Maybe you can make it three back-to-back-to-back wins.JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Cheers. Thank you, everyone, for covering our series. I know it’s been a hard year. Appreciate all the effort even with the difficulty. We’ll see you guys back here next year. Hopefully it’s a little bit more normal. Enjoy your off-season.

CHEVROLET RACING IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIES FIRESTONE GRAND PRIX OF ST. PETERSBURG STREETS OF ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA JOSEF NEWGARDEN WINS TEAM CHEVY RACE RECAP WITH DRIVER QU0TES OCT. 25, 2020

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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (Oct. 25, 2020) – Joseph Newgarden did what he needed to win the NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship, but so did Scott Dixon. Newgarden, driving the No. 1 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet, won the Firestone Indy Grand Prix to lead a 1-2 Chevrolet finish in the 14-race season finale. But Newgarden had to settle for the runner-up position in the final standings.  Pato O’Ward, driving the No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet, earned his fourth podium of the season with a second-place finish. Sebastien Bourdais finished fourth in the No. 14 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet. Simon Pagenaud, No. 22 Menards Team Penske Chevrolet, finished sixth, and Charlie Kimbal, No. 4 Tresiba AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet finished eighth to give Chevrolet five of the top-eight finishers.  Dixon finished third to wrap up his sixth championship.  Newgarden, who also won the 100-lap race on the 1.8-mile, 14-turn St. Petersburg temporary street circuit on the way to winning his second NTT INDYCAR SERIES title in 2019, earned four race victories this season. This was his 18th career INDYCAR victory – all behind the wheel of a race car powered by 2.2 liter, twin turbocharged, direct injected V6 Chevrolet engine. The 2021 NTT INDYCAR Series season will return to the Streets of St. Petersburg for the season opener on March 7, 2021.  TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL FINISHING RESULTS:POS.   DRIVER1st      JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 1 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET2ND    PATO O’WARD, NO. 5 ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET4TH     SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS, NO. 14 AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET6TH     SIMON PAGENAUD NO. 22 MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET8TH     CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 4 TRESIBA AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET12TH   MAX CHILTON, NO. 59 GALLAGHER CHEVROLET15TH   RINUS VEEKAY, NO. 21 SONAC ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET16TH   OLIVER ASKEW, NO. 7 ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET17TH    CONOR DALY, NO. 59 GALLAGHER CARLIN CHEVROLET 22ND  SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN, NO. 3 SHELLV-POWER NITRO+ CHEVROLET24TH   WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET           TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL FINISHING RESULTS: POS.  DRIVER                                                       1st      Josef Newgarden (Chevrolet)2nd     Pato O’Ward (Chevrolet)3rd      Scott Dixon (Honda)4th      Sebastien Bourdais (Chevrolet)5th      Ryan Hunter-Reay (Honda)  TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES: JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 1 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – RACE WINNER:“Congrats to Scott (Dixon) and his guys on his crew. It’s big time to win six championship so I’m sure they’re thrilled. They were great competitors. It’s bittersweet. On one hand, I really don’t know what I’d do different this year and I don’t know what I’d ask my guys to do different. They were flawless – fastest in the pits all year long and they were rewarded for it earlier this weekend by Firestone. I’m extremely proud to drive for my team – not just my car but all the Team Penske cars combined, all the engineers, all the mechanics. They’re an incredible crew that puts in a lot of work. We just came up short and that’s all it is. We just weren’t able to get it done but we’ll reset and we’ll hit ‘em harder next year and I promise you we’ll be in the fight. Thank you to Hitachi and Team Chevy. You know Team Chevy was the engine to beat today and I think all year long so big credit to them. We were just a little short on points but we’ll come back harder next year.” PATO O’WARD, NO. 5 ARROWMCLAREN SP CHEVROLET, FINISHED 2ND:“I’m so proud of Arrow McLaren SP and myself for what we accomplished this year. Our win will have to wait. We came in second place in the season finale, just five points short of third place in the championship. We have lots to be proud of. I’m really grateful for the opportunity that I got. I think we showcased that we are a force to be reckoned with and we are going to be pushing next year to give these veterans a harder time. Hopefully, bring it to the last race and win this championship.” SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS, NO. 14 SEXTON AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET – Finished 4TH:“Well, what a race. I’m super happy for the 14 team AJ Foyt Racing and Chevrolet. Those guys were on the cusp the whole time and we were fighting for a million dollars today. We had things under control and then it seemed to slip away and finishing fourth in some pretty incredible situations there at the end with a car that was legitimately fast so really happy that we could finish the season on a high like that and looking forward to 2021.” SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – Finished 6TH: “That was a good finish for the Menards Chevrolet. It was survival of the fittest out there today. At one point, I said on the radio that there could be many, many more cautions and there was. We just couldn’t get in a race rhythm. But we were able take advantage of all those other people’s mistakes and put ourselves in position to have a good finish. All weekend, the car was really good – I think it was better than even sixth where we finished. But I’m pretty excited to build upon this for next year. All-in-all, good weekend. It was also good to see the fans back at the track. We finished St. Pete, just a few months after the fact.” CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 4 TRESIBA AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET – Finished – 8TH: “Well today the Grand Prix of St Petersburg was a success for A.J. Foyt Racing. For us the No 4 Tresiba Chevrolet coming from a not optimum qualifying in 20th all the way through to eighth, so much credit goes to the guys in pitlane—great pit stops. They’ve had great pit stops all year—they’re in the top 10 as far as the pit stop championship among all the teams in pitlane. So much credit to them, credit to the engineers here and at home working to make the car better and better. Just had to put the laps in at the end. Got a little tight a couple of times, banged off a few people but that’s street racing in INDYCAR. It’s nice to have a double top-10 to finish out 2020 which has been tough, strange and challenging in so many ways.” MAX  CHILTON, NO. 59 GALLAGHER AJ FOYT CHEVROLET, FINISHED 12TH “That felt like the longest INDYCAR race I’ve ever done apart from the 500. It was just unbelievably long and challenging. The tires were the hardest we’ve ever used and I don’t think I was the only one struggling with them. There were multiple good drivers spinning out and crashing during the race. We didn’t have the pace all day, but then we sort of lucked in to a good bit of strategy. I was fired up, but we just couldn’t get the tire temps up. Every time I exited the last corner I got eaten alive. Apart from that I held my position, so I kind of feel like we had a top-10 taken away from us. I can honestly say that I gave it 100% and did my best and the guys did a great job in the pits. It’s disappointing to not get a top 10 here this weekend, because that was our target but we were able to come from the back and make up 12 spots so we’ll take that as a massive positive into the offseason.” RINUS VEEKAY, NO. 21 SONAX ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET – Finished 15TH:“I am officially Rookie of the Year! I am very happy with that. Everything we didn’t want to have happen in the race happened, though. We were super quick, but the first yellow kind of screwed us. I was in the pack after that. Scott McLaughlin spun to the inside and I was there, I couldn’t go anywhere. After that, it was just about bringing the car home without and damage and getting the points. I think another podium was a possibility, we had such a fast car! We have to wait a few months until we come back, but we’ll give it another shot! I am looking forward to being back – not as a rookie!” OLIVER ASKEW, NO. 7 ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET – Finished 16TH: “We had a really strong weekend up until the second half of the race. We were heading for a top 10 finish until I got taken out. It’s a bummer we couldn’t get a positive result in our final race with Arrow McLaren SP but I think I showed the rest of the series what I can do. I want to thank the entire team for all the hard work they have put in this year and support they have given me.” CONOR DALY, NO. 20 U.S. AIR FORCE ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET – Finished 17th: “I am definitely guilty of making a big mistake under yellow. Rinus came out of the pits quite quick right in front of us and everyone just stopped all of a sudden around the next corner. When the tires were cold, they were like ice. As soon as they locked up, I had nowhere to go. The U.S. Air Force Chevrolet was really fast, which was good. We made some great progress on the race set up. Even after the contact, the car was still fast so that was really encouraging.” SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN, NO.3 SHELL V-POWER NITRO+ TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – Finished 22nd:“Best day of my life except for my wedding. The Shell V-Power Nitro+ INDYCAR was going really well then I just made a move trying to block Marco. Then I felt like I made a half of a rear lock, but I’m not exactly sure. Cold tires caught me out a little bit. But I had a lot of fun today,” WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – Finished 24th:“I just lost it. Just lost it. My rear bottomed, and had a moment. Earlier it didn’t downshift for some reason. It did it a couple of times. Then I started downshifting really early. I don’t know what happened. I have a feeling I made a mistake by putting that vent on the top. That loses performance and downforce. I should have run it in warm-up. It wasn’t bad out there with the vent obEn so I wouldn’t have had those issues. The downshift, I don’t know what that was. Very strange. It just didn’t go down gears on that corner to fourth or third and that is how Rossi got me, and then Herta attacked all for position. Just frustrated with me making a mistake and hitting the wall. The car got loose and very frustrating. I shouldn’t be the only one crashing. My bad for putting us out of the race. Bad situation.”

HOUSTON (Oct. 25) — A strong runner-up result at Sunday’s 33rd annual Mopar Express Lane NHRA SpringNationals presented by Pennzoil lifted five-time Pro Stock world champion Jeg Coughlin Jr. into a tie for second place with Jason Line, just 55 markers behind leader Erica Enders. There is only one race left, but since it awards points and a half, Coughlin is still very much alive in the title chase. “We’re definitely giving it a go in these late stages of the season,” Coughlin said. “We made up some good ground today and, of course, we wanted to capitalize a little more there in the final but we had some mechanical issues that prevented us from turning on a fourth win light.”

Five-time Pro Stock world champion Jeg Coughlin Jr.

The points could have been even better for Coughlin if he had pulled off his 66th career victory but his JEGS.com Elite Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro stalled a few times as he warmed up for a tense final-round race against Aaron Stanfield. Nevertheless, Coughlin left first on his young rival but ultimately didn’t have enough for Stanfield’s 6.535 at 211.03 mph, crossing himself in 6.611 at 207.53 mph. “For some reason the car didn’t want to start when we were in the waterbox before the final,” Coughlin said. “Fuel injection is a little different but we finally got it to fire and I did a short burnout to at least give us a chance. I let the clutch out on time but it shutoff right away, and even though it picked back up, it kept doing that all the way down the track. Just some sort of gremlin in there we need to find.” Coughlin’s three round wins on the day were very memorable, with miniscule holeshot victories over Greg Anderson in the semifinals and Matt Hartford in Round 1. Enders eliminated herself when she squared off with Coughlin in the quarterfinals with a -.006 red-light start. With each elimination round victory in Vegas worth 30 points, Coughlin now finds himself less than two rounds behind Enders, the reigning world champ who shares the Elite Motorsports pit with Coughlin. Entering the race he was more than four rounds back of Enders and three behind Line, who lost in Round 1 Sunday. Enders lost to Coughlin in Round 2.

Jeg Coughlin Jr.’s JEGS.com Elite Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro

“We didn’t have a moment to relax all day,” Coughlin said. “We got by with a holeshot win in Round 1 against last weekend’s winner, and then had to face Erica. I figured it would be a knock-down, drag-out affair because we always race straight-up and we go hard against one another. In the end, neither of us made great runs but she had gone just a little red so we got the ‘W.’ “The race against Greg was a true grudge match. Once again, I got a little head-start and we were glued together all the way down the track. I got the win by just a few thousands and I was actually chuckling under my helmet because Greg and I have had so many races like that in our careers. It was a relief to get by him.” The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway would seem to be the perfect place for Coughlin to rise to the occasion. He’s previously won five events at the famous facility, having earned Wally trophies there in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2008 and 2009.  “We’re gonna need a little help to win the championship, and certainly, I’m not wishing anything bad on Erica, or Jason, for that matter, but as witnessed today anything can happen,” Coughlin said. “If we have a repeat of this race we might be able to complete this dream scenario.”

Troy Coughlin Jr.

Troy Coughlin Jr., Jeg Jr.’s nephew who is competing in Pro Stock for the first time this year, registered a huge upset of the higher-qualified car of Deric Kramer by posting a 6.555 at 209.26 mph to Kramer’s 6.574 at 209.98 mph. He then experienced some trouble at the starting line in a Round 2 race against Stanfield when his JEGS.com/BENMIT Elite Motorsports Ford Mustang crept through the staging lights before the green light flashed, causing him to foul out.

CHEVROLET RACING IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIES FIRESTONE GRAND PRIX OF ST. PETERSBURG STREETS OF ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA ROOKIE OF THE YEAR- RINUS VEEKAY FROM ED CARPENTER RACING OCT. 25, 2020

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Chevrolet powers VeeKay to Rookie of the Year awardEd Carpenter Racing driver impresses in first NTT INDYCAR SERIES season DETROIT (Oct. 25, 2020) – An eager 19-year-old driver impressed NTT INDYCAR SERIES owner/driver Ed Carpenter during auditions on a tight street circuit and a flowing road course in August and November 2019. Carpenter, an 18-year veteran, noted quick lap times but more importantly Rinus VeeKay’s adaptability in handling the 1,700-pound race car with Chevrolet’s powerful 2.2-liter, V-6 direct-injected, twin-turbocharged engine behind his back. Soon after the fall test at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, VeeKay was named the full-season driver of the No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet, and his impressive first NTT INDYCAR SERIES season validated the team principal’s initial assessment. Highlighted by a pole start that led to a third-place finish in the INDYCAR Harvest GP on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in early October and a fourth-place starting position for the Indianapolis 500, the native of Hoofddorp, Netherlands, has earned the 2020 INDYCAR Rookie of the Year Award. The award is based on points for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES Drivers’ Championship earned at each event. The winner receives a $50,000 bonus. “On behalf of Chevrolet, congratulations to Rinus VeeKay and Ed Carpenter Racing on winning the 2020 NTT INDYCAR Series Rookie of the Year title,” said Robert Buckner, INDYCAR program manager, Chevrolet. “It was a very challenging year to be a rookie driver in this series. “Rinus is a standout talent and everyone at Team Chevy has enjoyed watching his confidence grow along with his accomplishments. From being the top Chevrolet qualifier at the Indy 500 to a pole and podium in Race 1 of the INDYCAR Harvest GP weekend, we couldn’t be more proud. Thank you to Rinus, Ed Carpenter, Tim Broyles and everyone at Ed Carpenter Racing for this achievement and your continued partnership.” VeeKay is the third rookie of the year award winner in a Chevrolet-powered race car in Indy car competition, and first since Stefan Johansson (Bettenhausen) in 1992. Eddie Cheever (Ganassi) in 1990 also was a recipient.  “Rinus has really shown a ton of growth this season. His ability to learn on the fly and natural speed makes it clear that his future is bright. It’s only a matter of time before he climbs the top of the podium,” said Carpenter, who had his eye on the Dutch driver since 2017 when VeeKay started his U.S. racing career on the first step of the Road to Indy ladder. VeeKay claimed 16 wins and 36 podium finishes in 48 races in the three series, earning the 2018 Pro 2000 Championship Presented by Cooper Tires title and finishing as championship runner-up in the other two series. “To step up from USF2000 to the NTT INDYCAR SERIES in three years is really special,” VeeKay said. “It all pays off. Keep pushing and never give up. It’s not always easy, but if you give it everything you have, and if you have the talent, you will get there, in any way possible.” VeeKay continued to impress out of the gate this season. In his second race, he registered a fifth-place finish after starting 18th. Six weeks later, VeeKay became the fastest and highest-qualifying teenager in the 104-year history of the Indianapolis 500 with a four-lap average speed of 230.704 mph on the 2.5-mile oval. Arie Luyendyk, who 30 years earlier recorded the first of his two Indy 500 victories, was among the first to greet his countryman after his 20th-place finish in “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.” “I noticed his talent a few years ago,” Luyendyk said. “Rinus has a natural speed, really impressive.” Less than a week later, VeeKay followed with sixth- and fourth-place finishes on the 1.25-mile World Wide Technology Raceway oval, advancing a combined 22 positions from his starting spots. Returning to the IMS road course in early October, VeeKay drove the No. 21 Chevrolet to the pole position – the first for Ed Carpenter Racing on a road/street course — for the INDYCAR Harvest GP and earned his first podium finish. “I get a car that goes around quickly, and that makes the job easier,” he said of giving the team its 21st podium. The Rookie of the Year award is “a very nice achievement,” said VeeKay, who will continue to drive the No. 21 Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet in the 2021 season. “I feel like an entirely different driver than I was at the beginning of the year,” he said. “The team has been so patient with me and given me every opportunity to learn as much as possible. I can’t wait to have that same amazing support next year. I am really looking forward to doubling my knowledge and not being a rookie.”

Beckman Takes Infinite Hero Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat to No.1 in Qualifying at “Mopar Express Lane NHRA SpringNationals Presented by Pennzoil” 

• Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) driver Jack Beckman drove his Infinite Hero Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car to his first No.1 qualifier position of the 2020 season at the Mopar Express Lane NHRA SpringNationals Presented by Pennzoil near Houston
• DSR Funny Car drivers are 1-2-3-4 in the standings and locked in a tight battle for the crown with just eight rounds of eliminations left in the 2020 season
• Opening round of Sunday’s Mopar Express Lane SpringNationals will have important championship implications for Beckman and DSR teammate Ron Capps as they will face-off against each other
• Funny Car points leader Matt Hagan heads into eliminations as No. 2 qualifier aboard his Pennzoil Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat at Houston Raceway Park
• Leah Pruett will start from No. 6 position in her black and yellow Pennzoil Top Fuel dragster
• Mopar Drag Pak of Mark Pawuk qualifies No.2 for Factory Stock Showdown

October 24, 2020, Baytown, Texas – Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) pilot Jack Beckman drove his Infinite Hero Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car to his first No. 1 qualifier position of the 2020 National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Drag Racing Series season at the Mopar Express Lane SpringNationals Presented by Pennzoil held at Houston Raceway Park.

Beckman dislodged teammate Matt Hagan and his Pennzoil Synthetics Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat from the provisional top spot on the Funny Car timing sheets with a 3.884-second elapsed time run at 328.14 mph to earn his 28^th career No.1 qualifier position. It also provided Beckman with bonus points to keep him within three markers of the championship lead in second place as they head into the penultimate national event elimination battle of the season.

With just eight rounds of eliminations left in the 2020 NHRA season, the DSR Funny Car drivers are 1-2-3-4 in the standings with Hagan, Beckman, Tommy Johnson Jr. and Ron Capps respectively locked in a savage battle for the championship title. Beckman and Hagan have been trading places atop the standings multiple times over the last two months with Johnson and Capps close behind. The DSR stable is also chasing a win to extend their record streak of 12 consecutive victories that began in October of last year.

The first round of Sunday’s Mopar Express Lane SpringNationals will have important championship implications for Beckman and Capps. The two will meet in the opening round after Capps had two unsuccessful attempts to put in a clean qualifying pass that left him 16th on the ladder. With Capps sitting fourth in the standings, upsetting the No. 1 qualifier could provide the driver of the Pennzoil/NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat the chance to advance and fight for his fifth win at the venue and remain in championship contention. A round win by Beckman would eliminate Capps and set him on course to add to his category-leading three wins in nine events.

Hagan, for his part, also added three bonus points to his championship total with the quickest run of the first session posting a 3.907 sec./327.74 mph pass and heads into Sunday as No. 2 qualifier and points leader with two wins. He’ll line up his yellow and black Pennzoil and Mopar Express Lane paint-schemed Hellcat against Dave Richards in the first round.

Third in the Funny Car standings, Tommy Johnson Jr. earned a bonus point aboard his MD Anderson Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat for setting the third quickest lap of Q2 with a 3.973 sec./ 317.94 mph pass. He’ll be matched with Jim Campbell for the opening round.

From her third place spot in the Top Fuel standings, Leah Pruett is looking to keep her black and yellow Pennzoil dragster in championship contention after qualifying in the top half of the eliminations ladder. She posted the sixth quickest elapsed time run with a solid second lap of 3.767 seconds at 324.20 mph to give her lane choice over 11^th seed Lee Callaway to start the day.

Earlier this month at the Mopar Express Lane NHRA Midwest Nationals near St. Louis, weather conditions delayed and shortened Factory Stock Showdown (FSS) qualifying, then ultimately forced the cancelation of elimination rounds. The NHRA opted to carry-over the showdown to this weekend with the addition of two qualifying session at Houston Raceway Park. While Mark Pawuk and his Empaco Equipment Mopar Drag Pak came into this event as the provisional No.1 qualifier, he just missed holding onto it but still put in two solid laps with 7.840 sec. and 7.865 sec. 

Pawuk, who currently sits second in the FSS championship behind Aaron Stanfield, will start from the No. 2 position on the eliminations ladder with the 7.814 se. /175.48 mph run posted in Q1 (St. Louis) and will face-off against Lindsay Wheelock.

Pawuk’s DSR Mopar Drag Pak teammate Pruett, will also take her place on the eliminations ladder based on the 7.955 sec./172.32 mph qualifying time set at St. Louis which put her No.11 with a first round match-up with John Cerbone.

NHRA elimination rounds at the Mopar Express Lane NHRA SpringNationals Presented by Pennzoil will begin at 10 a.m. local time on Sunday, Oct. 25, with the television broadcast on FS1 beginning at 2 p.m. Eastern featuring live coverage of the final rounds.

ADDITIONAL NOTES and QUOTES: 

Jack Beckman, Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car
(No. 1 Qualifier – 3.884 seconds at 328.14 mph)
Qualifying 1: 4.093 sec./ 242.58 mph

Qualifying 2: 3.884 sec./ 328.14 mph

“If we beat four people tomorrow, they’ll hand us another trophy. I didn’t ever think, with 17 cars here, that (Ron) Capps would be the No. 16 qualifier. I’m going to have to go talk to those guys and see if they’ll block for us tomorrow. I don’t think (Rahn) Tobler and Ron (Capps) will have anything to do with that. I’m happy. We knew we are going to have to earn this. I’d rather take it from the No. 1 spot because Matt (Hagan) had a four point lead coming in. He stretched that out Q1 and now we tighten that back up a little bit. The streak of the Don Schumacher (Racing) cars is awesome, but it’s also ulcer inducing because it’s always one of our cars next to us when we go to the late rounds. Four win lights tomorrow is what we need.”

Matt Hagan, Pennzoil Mopar Express Lane Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car  
(No. 2 Qualifier – 3.907 seconds at 327.74  mph)
Qualifying 1: 3.907 sec./327.74 mph 

Qualifying 2: 7.053 sec./92.91 mph

“We’re going to race our race tomorrow. It will be what it will be and the cards will fall the way they fall. We were still pressing to go out and run good in Q2. I think the left lane is a little worse than the right (lane) and you want to have lane choice tomorrow. I’ll try to be shallow and it seems like a lot of reaction times are off during qualifying and mine seem ok so I’ll try to continue that tomorrow on Sunday and keep lane choice and try to have a long day tomorrow. We’re here in Pennzoil country and we want to sell Pennzoil oil and Shell gas and do well for those who support us.”

Tommy Johnson Jr., MD Anderson Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car
(No. 6 Qualifier – 3.973 seconds at  317.94 mph)

Qualifying 1: 3.973 sec./ 317.94 mph 

Qualifying 2: 3.986 sec./ 320.13 mph

“We’d like a bit more out of these qualifying runs, especially that second lap, but again at the same time we have good, solid, consistent car. It’s been very consistent making full runs in both lanes. Rarely do we see a track where lane choice may be critical, but I think tomorrow, when it’s going to be warmer, it might be critical. There’s definitely a favorite lane here. We have to keep the performance up, keep lane choice, put up four consistent runs and go to the winner’s circle and stay in this championship hunt.”
 
Ron Capps, Pennzoil NAPA Auto Parts Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car
(No. 16 Qualifier – 5.295 seconds at 136.44 mph)
Qualifying 1: 5.295 sec./ 136.44 mph

Qualifying 2: 8.463 sec./ 79.20 mph 

“I wasn’t aware that we were 16th until (FOX reporter) Amanda Busick told me at the end of the track. You know, it’s so difficult with just two qualifying runs. We need to try some things with some new parts we had built at our DSR shop and there’s really no time to do that on Sunday, so we have to try to implement those when we can during qualifying. I’m always confident we can win from any position. Unfortunately, we have to race a teammate first round in Jack Beckman. At this point, teammates don’t matter on Sunday morning as everybody is still fighting for a championship. I never would want to run our NAPA/Pennzoil car in the first place. Tonight, Rahn Tobler is going to work on getting the car back to what he’s comfortable with and we’ll go up there and run the best we think we can run down that lane and if they beat us, they beat us. Hopefully we’ll turn the win light on and try to do that a few more times on Sunday and try to get a win.”

Leah Pruett, Pennzoil Mopar Top Fuel Dragster  
(No. 6 Qualifier – 3.767 seconds at 324.20 mph)

Qualifying 1: 5.136 sec./ 132.78 mph 

Qualifying 2: 3.767 sec./ 324.20 mph

“I love living the truth and showing that the ‘Proof is in the Pennzoil’ and coming to the Pennzoil proving grounds and displaying the most intense, fastest accelerating vehicles in the world. We finished qualifying strong with a good Q2 lap. We had some software issues and driver issues on Q1. It’s always good when the car and team are on together. If they’re ever going to be off, it helps when they’re off together. We moved on and were first out in Q2 and laid down a very solid number at 3.76 to put us solidly in the field. We like what the outlook looks like for Sunday. But it is one run at a time and it’s so cool to see all the Shell employees that are here and it’s great for us to get to show off a great product. We feel good about eliminations. We felt like our momentum in Dallas got halted a little, but we were able to find and resolve the issue and that’s the key for this weekend and we’re very excited for our potential success.”

Mark Pawuk, Empaco Equipment Mopar Drag Pak– Factory Stock Shootout
(No. 2 Qualifier – 7.814 seconds at 175.48 mph)

Qualifying 1 (in St. Louis):  7.814 seconds /175.48 mph 

Qualifying 2:  7.840 sec./174.41 mph 

Qualifying 3:  7.865 sec./173.03 mph

“There’s been a bunch of cars running in the low to mid (7.)80s this weekend. We lost the No. 1 spot from St. Louis by three thou (thousandth of-a-second), but we ended up No. 2. Not too bad going into tomorrow. We need to keep going rounds and stay No. 2 in the points. If the driver does his job and the car stays consistent, anything can happen. I set the Pro Stock record here in 1990 and won my first NHRA Pro Stock Wally here at Baytown in ’92. Let’s hope some of that good luck carries over to tomorrow.”
 
Leah Pruett, Mopar Dodge Challenger Mopar Drag Pak – Factory Stock Shootout 
(No. 11 Qualifier – 7.955 seconds at 172.32 mph)
Qualifying 1 (St. Louis):  7.955 seconds at 172.32 mph)

Qualifying 2:  7.960 sec./167.61 mph

Qualifying 3:  7.978 sec./170.19 mph

“There was a little bit of strategy going into this very eclectic race. Having a quick time of 7.95 that put us into the field and knowing the car count allowed us to try some things and we did that. Sometimes you find some beneficial things and other times you realize that wasn’t the right move. It’s very rare that you have availability to do that during qualifying and we were able to do that. There was one thing we missed during the week because of a shipping error that did not allow for a part to arrive and that was something else we wanted to try here at Houston. We got a good solid second lap and that sets us up for some hard eliminations tomorrow. We’re counting down the days of ‘El Bandito’ in the Factory Stock (Showdown) competition and I can’t wait to give it everything we got as we prepare for the next chapter of the Drag Pak in 2021.”

Anthony Alfredo and The No. 21 Maestro’s Classic Chevrolet Team Score Season Best Third-Place Finish at Texas Motor Speedway

3rd   18th  10th

“Our No. 21 Maestro’s Chevrolet fired off really well to start the race. We were able to quickly make our way inside the top-10 after starting in the 18th position. The biggest issue we fought throughout the race was just being a little too tight through the center and on exit of the corner. My crew chief, Andy Street, did a great job keeping up with the track and making adjustments throughout the race. One of the biggest things I’ve learned this year is just to be patient. Thankfully, we were able to put ourselves in position at the end and that is all you can really ask for. I’m just very thankful for everyone at Richard Childress Racing and ECR because they have no quit and it definitely showed today. It’s been a privilege to drive these fast RCR Chevrolets and an honor to work with this organization. To score my best career finish and the best finish for the entire No. 21 team this season in my last start is pretty special. I really wish we could have caught the No. 9 car, but we just kind of stalled out and the No. 20 car ended up passing both of us. Nevertheless, I am extremely proud of my team and thankful to be in this position.”   -Anthony Alfredo

STREETS OF ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING RECAP WITH QUOTES AND TRANSCRIPTS OCT. 24, 2020

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ST. PETERSBURG, FLA (OCT 24,2020) – Will Power did what Will Power does on the Streets of St. Petersburg—he won the NTT P1 Award. It is the ninth time for him on the 1.8-mile/14-turn temporary street course. Driving his familiar No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, Power posted a lap of a minute and 01.0369 seconds/106.165 MPH to capture his fifth pole of the season and 62nd of his career. Power now sits just five  behind all-time pole winner, Mario Andretti. Power’s pole is the 99th for Chevrolet in INDYCAR since the manufacturers return to competition in 2012. Pato O’Ward also power his Chevrolet into the Firestone Fast Six. The driver of the No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet will start six for th in tomorrow’s 100-lap race. Title contender Josef Newgarden qualified the No. 1 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet in eight. His competition for a third title will start 11th. Remainder of the Firestone Fast Six are Alexander Rossi, Colton Herta, James Hinchcliffe and Jack Harvey. Schedule for tomorrow’s season finale is:  Sunday, Oct. 2510:40-11:10 a.m.: NTT INDYCAR SERIES warm-up, NBC Sports Gold2:27 p.m.: “Drivers, start your engines”2:30 p.m.: NBC on air2:32 p.m.: Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg (100 laps/180 miles), NBC (live) The NTT INDYCAR SERIES season finale will also broadcast live on Pennzoil INDYCAR Radio Network affiliates, Sirius 211, XM 205, IndyCar.com and on the INDYCAR Mobile app powered by NTT DATA. DRIVER QUOTES: WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, POLE WINNER:“It is so good to have Verizon back on the pole. Very, very good laps, both of the last two. The other guys had fre:sh tires so I thought okay we’ll see. We’ll see what they’ve got. I hustled the heck out of it. I was very very happy to get pole, I have the same approach everywhere I race, I lo7TH =ve my craft and try to get the max out of it. We are going to do our best to get a good race pace from the start and get Chevy in Victory Lane.” PATO O’WARD, NO. 5 ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 6TH: “The practice wasn’t great for us but we made our way back to the front part of the field during qualifying. The No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet is starting on the third row so we can try and win the race from there. It’s going to be tough to pass and pit stop wiST.ndows aren’t going to be as big as they used to be, because the race is ten laps shorter. I think if we have a good, consistent race and good pit stops, we should be in contention in the end.” SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS, NO. 14 AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 7TH:  “A much better start to the weekend here in St. Petersburg compared to our starting positions obviously in Indy, so really proud of the group on the 14 car. It’s still touch and go, you never know what you’re going to get, but it all worked out today. We’ll get P7 out of qualifying and start there tomorrow so looking forward to it and thanks for everybody’s support.” JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 1 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 8TH: “I definitely had a lot of slides out there and just wasn’t clean. I think if we had put together one clean lap, it would have been enough to transfer. We just didn’t do the job. It makes out job for tomorrow a little harder, but we are still going to go for the win with the Hitachi Chevy boys! We can win from eighth, made it a little harder, but we can do it. I have full confidence that my Hitachi guys and Team Chevy have given us what we need.” RINUS VEEKAY, NO. 21 SONAX ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET QUALIFIED 9TH: “That was a little stressful between sessions! I had a really good lap to advance. In Round 2, I made a little correction in the las corner which cost me about a tenth of a second. I think I could have made it if that didn’t happen, but that’s racing! Starting 9th is still pretty good! I’m happy with the SONAX Chevy and I cannot wait to send it tomorrow.” OLIVER ASKEW,  NO. 7 ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 10TH: “I haven’t been in an Indy car in a bit over a month, so I was a bit rusty. But it was great to be back here at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. Big shoutout to everyone at INDYCAR and Green Savoree for making this event happen. To have it as a season finale is pretty incredible. It’s a home race for me, and I’ll have some family out here tomorrow that I hope to put on a good show for them and Arrow McLaren SP in my final race.” SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 DXC TECHNOLOGY TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 12TH :“I’m sure happy. The Menards Chevrolet has been really good all day long. We’ve made some big improvement, which is encouraging for 2021. In that last session, Dixon was in front of me the whole run. So we were stuck behind him and I had to do my laps. I’ve just not been on the right side of the stick this year in qualifying. We had a car fast enough for the Fast Six no question, but Dixon was the slowest car on the track.” CONOR DALY, NO. 20 U.S. AIR FORCE ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 14TH:  “Obviously an interesting qualifying session for us! We thought we were in, we didn’t know we were in, we didn’t know we were out and then we were out. We’re starting 14th which is okay. We need a little but more out of the car and I need to deliver the right information to help us get there. We can have a good day tomorrow, for sure. We just have to stay in the fight, move forward and use some good strategy. We have definitely made progress with the U.S. Air Force Chevrolet and I am looking forward to tomorrow!” CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 4 TRESIBA AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 20TH”: “It’s nice to be back with fans and nice to be back at St. Pete. It feels strange to be ending the season here and running our last qualifying of the year instead of our first qualifying of the year. It is nice to be back at a street circuit because that’s one of the places where INDYCAR really shines. Man, it’s really tight here at St. Pete. We were just within a couple tenths of advancing the No. 4 Tresiba Chevrolet into the top 12, I think it was something like .3 of a percent we were off – really small – but there is definitely room to improve the car and we’ll do that overnight and be ready to go racing tomorrow. There’s always a little bit of chaos that seems to happen here at St Pete and we’ll just be ready to take advantage of it.” SCOTT McLAUGHLIN, NO. 3 SHELL V-POWER NITRO+TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, QUALIFIED 21ST: “We were probably better than where we ended up. But I stuffed up my red tire lap – I just need to get used to the grip. It was nice in practice because I had a lot of black tire runs but only got one on the red and it was the same in qualifying. I’m not making any excuses, with a little more time we will be ok. I’m disappointed with myself, but it is what it is. It’s tough to learn on a road course and learning the space around you. I’m used to knocking mirrors off on a wall, not necessarily my tire. We are just pushing trying to find our limits in a fast forward motion. I just need to thank everyone with Shell V-Power Nitro, Team Penske and everyone. We will have a go at it tomorrow.” DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPTS:POLE WINNER WILL POWER TRANSCRIPTTHE MODERATOR: Will, it is your ninth pole at St. Pete, your 62nd pole overall in your career. You are now within five of tying Mario Andretti. It is your fifth pole of the year. Obviously a great day for you. Tell us about your run.WILL POWER: It was a typical very tough qualifying session, the first few rounds. Made some slight changes. The car wasn’t perfect at first. It does take a long time to turn on, so you could not do it like last year on your first lap. Your second and third lap are really the best laps on the tires. Kind of played around with that a little bit.Yeah, I mean, when I saw what Colton did on blacks in the first round, I saved some reds. I thought this is going to be really tough. But when I went out in the second round and made the car a bit better, made a mistake. I said, Okay, we’re kind of close. Then I went all out in the Fast Six to get the most out of the car. It was enough.Yeah, really, really happy with it. I thought we played it very well strategy-wise. Just very determined to win the race tomorrow, I really am. I really want to convert that pole into a win and finish on a high.I know we’re, what, whatever points away from Colton. It will be nice to be third in the championship, but for me it’s more about finishing with a win. I’ll be aggressive to do that. We’ll see how we go. Q. We heard from Alex Rossi, he talked about the physicality of what it was like out there doing several laps. Looking at tomorrow’s race, very hot, very physical, what do you have to do tonight to prepare yourself for that challenge tomorrow?WILL POWER: Yeah, I mean, you’ve got to hydrate very well. I think I would consider adding that scoop to the top of the roll. I think it’s actually a drag, a downforce loss. It does hurt the performance a bit, but it gets so hot in there, so physical, I just wonder if physically you’d be way better off with it. Maybe I’ll try that in warmup tomorrow.Q. I know you want to win the race. Of course you have a teammate that wants to win a championship. If for some reason Scott Dixon is way down in the line, Josef is only one position away from getting a championship, has that ever crossed your mind what you might do?WILL POWER: Yeah, it has. I mean, obviously if that’s the situation, I would let him go.Q. Next year you’re going to have a teammate from New Zealand, Scott McLaughlin. Being your two countries are close together, any rivalry?WILL POWER: I’m sure that he wants to come in and beat me and everyone else because he’s a tough competitor. But he’s a lot younger, he has a pretty good future ahead of him. He’s in the right team. I think he’ll do real well, I really do.Yeah, I mean, no different to the rivalry that I have with Scott Dixon. He’s a Kiwi, too, yeah.Q. You’re only five poles away from Mario Andretti. What would that mean to you if you were able to break that record? That’s stood for a long time.WILL POWER: That would mean a lot. That would be a great achievement for me personally, to be up there with a name like Mario Andretti. It’s something that I just love about racing, is when you get to absolutely get the most out of the car in one lap. That’s qualifying.To be at the top of the list for that would almost sum up my career, I guess, as far as being the speed that I have, maybe not the championships. Certainly a lot of race wins, as well.Q. You’re now back to a four-car team. How do you kind of look at that, how it’s going to play out with a new guy coming in?WILL POWER: Yeah, I mean, we’ve obviously been there before. It’s more information. Obviously Scott is going to be in a learning year, kind of understanding qualifying, how the races go. I think this will give him a good head start this weekend.Yeah, I feel like it’s four pretty strong drivers. I mean, yeah, I’ve been there before. I know how it is. Engineering office gets pretty busy. Yeah, should be good.Q. You’re going to get some old favorites back from a crew side coming from the IMSA side. How important will that be to have them back with an INDYCAR program?WILL POWER: Yeah, it’s actually a good influx of really good people. It will just help on the engineering side of things. Obviously you’ve got a bigger crew to pick from as far as crews.Yeah, all positives really when you add another car.Q. What is your karting schedule going to look like this season?WILL POWER: Karting? I was going to race a club race next weekend but then I realized I’m testing a couple days after, so probably shouldn’t risk it. Yeah, I love the karting. No Vegas this year, unfortunately. They called that off.Q. Where is your mindset in terms of this being the last race of the year with the circumstances of how this season has gone with COVID? What would it mean for you to finish on a strong note this weekend?WILL POWER: It would be amazing to win the last race of the season, it really would. It would really make this year worthwhile for me. I would feel very good about it. Get to go on vacation feeling good about the finish of the year.Super determined about converting the pole into a win. Obviously circumstances are going to play out. I’ll do the best job I can. That’s all I can do. See if we can get the car well so it lasts really well over a stint.Yeah, that’s the plan. It’s been a trying season, I’ll have to say, the beginning of it. We’re knocking on the door every weekend, so we have to, we have to come into next year with very solid pit stops and solid races and we have to get ourselves in a championship position so we’re not in a hole having to dig ourselves out the whole way. It’s just been too many years we’ve done that.That’s a huge focus of mine going into next year.THE MODERATOR: We’ll let Will Power go and focus for tomorrow’s race.CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENDER JOSEF NEWGARDEN TRANSCIPTTHE MODERATOR: Thank you for joining us. We are at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg post qualifying video conference. We are joined by Josef Newgarden.Josef, qualifying didn’t work out the way you wanted, but you’ll start eighth, three spaces ahead of Scott Dixon, who you’re chasing in the championship chase tomorrow. Tell us how your qualifying went and what your expectations are for tomorrow.JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Certainly not what we wanted on our side. I felt like we took a swing for Q2. Our Q1 run was pretty good. I was pretty happy with it for the most part. Felt like we chipped away on the next couple runs, a couple things to get us more competitive. Felt like we were there, but we just wanted to probably be aggressive and try to get even further up. I think we ended up probably going the wrong way with our adjustments.Kind of a scrappy qualifying in Q2. Unfortunately that puts us eighth. Not a terrible spot to start, but not where we wanted. We wanted to be closer to the front, top three, top five group.A little more work to do for tomorrow, but feel positive about our Hitachi car, think Team Chevy has done a good job this weekend. Good confidence that we have something to attack with.THE MODERATOR: We’ll take questions for Josef.Q. How happy are you to have Will Power up front? Being a bit of a rear gunner for you as you make your way to the front of the field.JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I don’t know that it’s really relevant for us. I mean, we needed to be up front on a day like today. He did a great job. I felt like we were capable of being up there, too. Not sure I feel really one way or the other about him being up there. It was more about we needed to be up there.I don’t think he can help us from that position, nothing like that. We just got to put our work in for tomorrow now.Q. Case of every man for himself tomorrow?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I don’t know that Will is going to be able to help us do anything when we’re sitting eighth. That’s just the way it goes.Q. In terms of the race tomorrow, is it going flat out, see what happens?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, we need to look at everything. I’m not sure yet what our plan will be. I think it will be a pretty aggressive race for most people as far as running pretty hard on fuel. I don’t think you’ll see a ton of fuel save. But there’s options there, big options. We’ll see what everyone decides to do at the end of the day.Q. How do you think Scott McLaughlin got on?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Really good. Obviously first qualifying session for him. Not a lot of track time. I thought he was really good in the first session, seemed to adapt quick. I don’t know, I haven’t seen his run. I don’t even know what happened in qualifying. Could have been a lot of different things that pushed him back.He’s going to be just fine. Just him getting going today.Q. In regards to what happened out there today, was it a direction that you went in with the team that went the wrong way or do you feel maybe a lack of running on Fridays may have contributed today?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: No, we had a really poor Q2 right from the jump of Q2. On the black tires I was half a second slower than I was in Q1. The adjustments that we did in between didn’t seem to really pan out.It’s disappointing. I think if we just had our form for Q1, we would have been okay. We took a swing at it and it was the wrong way to go. It’s one of those deals. You try sometimes, sometimes you try the wrong way.Q. In regards to the whole weekend, do you like the two-day weekend or would you want something longer?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I love the three-day weekends personally. I’ve always enjoyed that. For me, I do enjoy more days. Also for the process of how you work, your kind of workflow of sifting through information, the way you prepare to roll into a weekend, how you kind of manage an event, I’ve always liked the three-day format.If we don’t ever go back to that, it’s not a big deal. We’ll adapt, run this way. I think we’ve been okay on this format this year for the most part. If I had a preference, I like the three day, but we’ll see what ends up getting decided for the future.Q. I want to know what is the mindset that you will use now? You have to reset everything? How do you focus on your goal?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Same as always. If this was any other weekend, we’d be doing the same thing. It’s disappointing we qualified eighth, but it’s not the worst position. We have a little more work to do. We’re going to focus on what strategy we can implement, being good at the start, manage a really good race that hopefully can produce a win. It’s as simple as that. We’re going to treat the as any other.Q. Do you think it’s something about the yellow flags always happens in the race could help you?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It would be beautiful if it helped us for once. We have not had help from yellows this year. But it is possible. You can have a yellow ruin your race, you can a yellow really help your race. Tomorrow if a yellow flag decides to help us, I’m not going to complain about it. I think it would be good for some payback for the year.Q. Do you go in with an aggressive strategy? Do you expect Scott to go with a very conservative strategy?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Hard to say with Dixon what they’ll do. For us, I think we’ll treat it as normal when we’re trying to win a race. We try to win every race. I don’t know how to spin it differently. We do the same thing every time.We’re going to focus on what’s the best strategy for us with where we’re sitting in eighth. How can we manage the race better than the people around us with the fuel usage, all that. When is the right time to push and not push.I don’t think it will be more aggressive or less aggressive than what we normally are. We’re just going to try to charge the front. It would have been nice to be in the top three, top five. Top eight, we’re not too far back. It just makes it a little bit harder.Q. What were you thinking during the lengthy delay while they sorted out the scoring?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It was painful. It was hard to understand what was going on. Yeah, we were just sitting there waiting. I still don’t know a lot of details. I know they were kind of working through yellow flags and penalties, all that stuff. It was a long wait, that’s all it was for everybody.

Alexander Rossi qualifies second in St. Petersburg for final INDYCAR race of 2020
Honda’s Colton Herta, Jack Harvey and James Hinchcliffe also advance to the “Fast Six” final qualifying round
Championship leader Scott Dixon to start 11th

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (Oct. 24, 2020) – Alexander Rossi and Andretti Autosport led the way for Honda today in qualifying for Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, final race in the 14-round 2020 NTT INDYCAR Series season.

Rossi’s fast lap was just over a tenth of a second off the pole-winning time of Will Power, while his Andretti Autosport teammate, Colton Herta, will start third. Meyer Shank Racing’s Jack Harvey qualified fourth, with James Hinchcliffe making it four Hondas in the top five in his Andretti Autosport machine.

Championship leader Scott Dixon, who can clinch his sixth INDYCAR title tomorrow, will start 11th, as Honda also seeks its ninth, and third consecutive, Manufacturers’ Championship. Sunday’s championship-determining, 100-lap Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, starts at 2:30 p.m. EDT, with live network television coverage on NBC.

Alexander Rossi (Andretti Autosport Honda) second-fastest qualifier: “I think we got better in every round of qualifying. We started the weekend strong in practice, so I think that’s a huge difference maker on these weekends when you only have the one practice session. It’s a really good effort for the team to do the ‘off-line’ [pre-race setup] development – we haven’t been to a street course yet this year, so for Honda and Andretti Autosport to have three cars in the top six is a testament to that. I think we just have to keep chipping away at it and we’re in a good position to go and get that first win [of 2020] tomorrow.”

Steve ‘Baggsy’ Biagioni and the SB Motorsport team had the chance to

showcase drifting at the highest level.

Goodwood Motor Circuit set the stage last weekend for their 2020 stopgap
event from the Festival of Speed, named Goodwood Speedweek. Baggsy
coming back to Goodwood for his 5th consecutive year, he was ready to bring

the smoke show for the fans.

Speedweek brings the greatest elements of the Festival of
Speed and Revival, combined into one unmissable online event. Broadcast
over all 3 days live on YouTube and ITV/ITV4 television channels, reaching

millions at home.

Usually hosted at the Goodwood Estate, Festival Of Speed see’s over
300,000 visitors over the four day event. Plus the livestream reaches millions
of viewers worldwide, so the new Speedweek layout was set to be huge!
Wednesday the 14th, the team arrived early to Goodwood to create their set
for the 5th instalment of the Mission CTRL: Navara R Livestream, coming to
you live from the second floor of the Jackie Stewart Pavilion, inside the circuit.
With over 100,000 collective views already, we were stoked to be able to
bring you closer to the action before the Speedweek event even kicked off!
If you missed it, you can check out the livestream using the link below.
There was no question to what vehicle Baggsy should bring to the event.. it
had to be the fire breathing #LSXR35, fitted with the Liberty Walk V2
bodykit, LSXR V8 engine and Rotiform LHR wheels wrapped
with Accelera PHI 2 tyres, ready to be smoked.

Thursday 15th, Media day. All the Driftkhana drivers were asked to participate
in an on track media shoot, where the Goodwood media team created
awesome tracking content for their promotional intro video for the event. It
was cool to see the variety of machines all on track at once!
Over the duration of the weekend, three ‘Driftkhana’ sessions were
scheduled for drivers to showcase their skill on an all new
custom Drift and Gymkhana style circuit layout, split into two catagories –

RWD & AWD.

Drivers list below:

Rear Wheel Drive:
Steve ‘Baggsy’ Biagioni
Martin Richards
James Deane
Axel Hildebrand
George Barclay
Kevin Quinn
Paul Smith
All Wheel Drive:
Vaughn Gittin Jr
Rhys Yates
Manfred Stohl

For all the weekend highlights, check out the official Goodwood Road and
Racing Youtube, alternatively if you don’t feel like watching through all 8 hours
of livestream – you can watch the Driftkhana highlights below.
“The Driftkhana may appear to be the ultimate hooliganism, with lots of tyre
squeal and clouds of smoke, but the precision required for a winning score is

off the scale.”

Sunoco UK were also in attendance at Goodwood Speedweek, keeping us

fuelled and ready for the event ahead.

On the Sunday and straight after the track action, Baggsy was asked for an
interview by Goodwood themselves, at the Racecourse Members Club. This
was huge, considering the only other interview that day was Sir Jackie

Stewart.

Check out Baggsys YouTube for his Speedweek vlogs, and many more

videos.

“From 16 – 18 October 2020, we ran a new, one-time-only interactive
entertainment experience, behind-closed-doors. We may not have been able
to welcome the typical crowds of thousands to the Festival of Speed or the
Revival, but millions of fans still experienced the virtual thrills of SpeedWeek
by streaming the event from home. Dermot O’Leary, Rory Reid, Siân
Welby and Mark Webber presented the live stream, which was filled with
wheel-to-wheel racing in some of the world’s most valuable and historic cars,
fast-paced feats and extraordinary celebrations, with celebrities joining to host

special moments from around the world.”

Baggsy – “What a fantastic event! Massive thank you to all involved, the staff,
marshals, media and the amazing fans. It’s an honour to be back at

Goodwood putting on a show for you guys with the new custom Driftkhana

layout on the circuit “

⁣

“It’s been an awesome weekend drifting with my good friends, meeting new
drivers and teams, even being able to talk tech about vehicles i’d never even

dreamed of being around.”

“Hopefully we’ll be back next year on the hillclimb for 2021 Festival of Speed.

But for now, it’s been awesome!”
www. baggsyboy.com

TEAM CHEVY ADVANCE AUTO TRADER ECHO PARK AUTOMOTIVE 500 TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY OCTOBER 25, 2020

TEXAS: RACE #34With just two more chances for drivers to secure their spot in the Championship Four, the Playoff battle heightens as NASCAR’S three national series head to Texas Motor Speedway for race two of three of the Playoffs’ Round of Eight. The NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) 334-lap, 501-mile Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500 at the 1.5-mile Texas oval will be the second appearance by NASCAR’s premier series thus far this season and the 34th stop on the tour’s schedule. The weekend’s event will mark the NCS’s 40th race at Texas Motor Speedway, with Richard Childress Racing and Team Chevy’s, Austin Dillon, returning as the most recent NCS winner at the track’s July event earlier this season. 
It’s a jam-packed two-day event in the Lone Star State, with three NASCAR Playoff races over two days of action. The weekend gets started with an appearance by the NASCAR Xfinity Series with the O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 on Saturday, October 24th, at 4:30 p.m. ET. Day two of events consists of a rare NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series and NASCAR Cup Series doubleheader, starting with the SpeedyCash.com 400 for the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series on Sunday, October 25th, at 12:00 p.m. ET. The day is capped off with the NASCAR Cup Series Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500 at 3:30 p.m. ET. 
Fans will have the opportunity to view Sunday’s Playoff doubleheader action in-person. The July NASCAR Cup Series event at the Texas Motor Speedway was the first major league sporting event in the state of Texas to be open to spectators since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. 
ROUND OF EIGHT: RACE TWO  Since the track’s addition into the Playoff schedule during the 2005 season, Texas Motor Speedway has been the host of the eighth race in the 10-race stretch. The 1.5-mile Texas oval is one of only two tracks that have been positioned as the eighth event, joining Phoenix Raceway (2004).  With three Team Chevy drivers in the Round of Eight fighting for a position in the Championship Four, here are where the Team Chevy drivers currently sit in the Playoff standings going into the second of three races, including key statistics at Texas Motor Speedway:  Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hooters Give a Hoot Camaro ZL1 1LE – 5th in Standings (4,074 points)Victories: 3 (Charlotte Motor Speedway, Daytona Road Course, Charlotte Road Course)Top-Fives: 13; Top-10’s: 20; Laps Led: 858; Average Finish: 12.1Stage Wins: 9At Texas: Top-Five’s: 2; Top-10’s: 5; Average Finish: 11.111 (fifth-best) Alex Bowman, No. 88 Acronis Camaro ZL1 1LE – 6th in Standings (4,055 points)Victories: 1 (Auto Club Speedway)Top-Fives: 5; Top-10’s: 13; Laps Led: 396; Average Finish: 15.2Stage Wins: 4 At Texas: Top-Five’s: 1; Top-10’s: 1; Average Finish: 25.6 Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1 1LE – 8th in Standings (4,009 points)Victories: 1 (Las Vegas Motor Speedway)Top-Fives: 6; Top-10’s: 17; Laps Led: 142; Average Finish: 13.9Stage Wins: 1 At Texas: Wins: 1; Top-Five’s: 3; Top-10’s: 22; Average Finish: 14.5.16 BOWTIE BULLETS:·       Victories by active Team Chevy drivers at Texas Motor Speedway include:Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Designed by Noah Sweet Camaro ZL1 1LE, with 7 wins (2007, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 sweep and 2017)Matt Kenseth, No. 42 McDonald’s Camaro ZL1 1LE with 2 wins (2002 and 2011)Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1, with one win (2009)Austin Dillon, No. 3 DOW Sullair Camaro ZL1 1LE, with one win (2020)
·       Of the 173 drivers that have competed in a NASCAR Cup Series event at Texas Motor Speedway, Chip Ganassi Racing and Chevrolet Driver, Kurt Busch, leads the series in starts with 35 in his career. 
·       25 different NASCAR Cup Series drivers have sat on the pole at Texas Motor Speedway, with Chip Ganassi Racing and Chevrolet driver, Kurt Busch, leading the series with three (Spring 2015, Playoffs 2017, Spring 2018). His 2017 and 2018 NCS Busch Pole Awards make him just one of three drivers to win consecutive poles at the track. Of the four different manufacturers to win a pole at the 1.5-mile Texas oval, Chevrolet leads the way with 15. 
·       Chevrolet has made 14 trips to victory lane in NASCAR’s Premier Series at Texas Motor Speedway. Other statistics of note for the bowtie brand’s history at the 1.5-mile oval include 70 top-five’s, 165 top-10’s and 4,292 laps led.
·       Chevrolet team, Hendrick Motorsports, leads the NASCAR Cup Series pole award and win categories, with seven poles and nine trips to victory lane. 
·       Through the 10-race NASCAR Cup Series Playoff stretch thus far, Hendrick Motorsports Chase Elliott and Alex Bowman lead the way in top-10 finishes with five each. 
·       Heading into his final race in his full-time NASCAR Cup Series career at Texas Motor Speedway, Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet driver, Jimmie Johnson, tops the leaderboard in a variety of categories in his 34 career starts:o  Johnson leads the series in victories at Texas Motor Speedway with seven (2007, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 sweep, 2017). o  Johnson is one of just three NASCAR Cup Series drivers to score consecutive wins at the 1.5-mile Texas oval. o  Johnson leads the series in runner-up finishes at Texas Motor Speedway with five, top-five finishes with 16 and top-10 finishes with 22. o  Johnson leads the series in number of laps led at Texas Motor Speedway with 1,152, giving him a laps led percentage of 10.6% at the track throughout his NASCAR Cup Series career. 
LOOKING TO GO BACK-TO-BACKThe NASCAR Cup Series returns to the 1.5-mile Texas oval for the second time this season. Earlier this season, Team Chevy saw its fourteenth trip to victory lane at Texas Motor Speedway when Austin Dillon scored his first-career victory at the track in his No. 3 Camaro ZL1 1LE. The win was celebrated by his teammate, Tyler Reddick, No. 8 Camaro ZL1 1LE, who posted a Cup Series career-best second place finish in his series debut at the track. It was the first time since the 2011 Talladega event that Richard Childress Racing finished 1-2 in NASCAR’s premier series. 
STARTING LINE-UP:For the remainder of the 2020 NCS season, the starting lineups will be determined by a competition-based formula, combining the following metrics from the previous race event: 15% of a fastest lap time position, 25% of the driver’s final race finish position, 25% of the owner’s final race position and 35% of the Owner points position.  Here are Team Chevy’s top-20 starters for Sunday’s Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500: 4th      Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hooters Give a Hoot Camaro ZL1 1LE5th      Alex Bowman, No. 88 Acronis Camaro ZL1 1LE8th      Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1 1LE11th    William Byron, No. 24 Liberty University Camaro ZL1 1LE12th    Austin Dillon, No. 3 DOW Sullair Camaro ZL1 1LE18th    Bubba Wallace, No. 43 Door Dash Camaro ZL1 1LE19th    Tyler Reddick, No. 8 Clark Pipeline Services Camaro ZL1 1LE TUNE-IN:NBCSN will telecast the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 50 at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday, October 25th, at 3:30 p.m. ET. Live coverage of the 501-mile, 334-lap event for race two of three for the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Round of 8 can also be found on the NBC Sports Gold app, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. 
QUOTABLE QUOTES:CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 HOOTERS GIVE A HOOT CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 5th IN STANDINGS“Texas is just a different animal since the repave and I feel like we had some great runs there. I love going to Texas before they repaved it and just felt like I had a nice feel of the racetrack and I knew what I wanted. It was a very, kind of natural thing for me for whatever reason. I kind of lucked into that I guess, but man after the repave it’s been a struggle. I feel like it’s one of our worst tracks as a team and Texas is a bad place to struggle because if you make it to the Round of 8 it’s a track that seems like it’s always right there at the tail end of the season. It’s an important track to have a good performance at that can propel you to a potential final four run. Those types of struggles at a track like that, where it falls in the playoffs is not ideal so I hope we can get a little better out there.” ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 ACRONIS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 6th IN STANDINGS“We had a good run in Kansas last weekend and captured stage points which is what we needed to do. The points don’t look good in our situation, so we really need to go to Texas and have a strong car from the start. Hendrick Motorsports’ Intermediate program is definitely strong, and I know that this No. 88 team has been working hard on our Texas Camaro. Last time Acronis was on our car we ran really well in Dover, so hopefully we can get the job done for them this weekend.” AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW SULLAIR CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 10th IN STANDINGSTELL US ABOUT RACING AT TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY AND HOW IT DIFFERS FROM OTHER 1.5-MILE TRACKS, SUCH AS KANSAS SPEEDWAY? “Texas Motor Speedway is a bit different from Kansas Speedway in that it has two different ends. You have one end that’s very banked and has high speeds, and then you have a hard end where you have to get turned and get back on the gas. Texas Motor Speedway just has so much grip now. It’s quite a bit different, and the banking has changed a lot from the old track to the new track. I really like Texas and am looking forward to getting there. Our cars have been strong on 1.5-mile tracks this year, and we will look to some of that speed to try and get the No. 3 DOW Sullair Chevy into Victory Lane.” YOU WON AT TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY IN JULY. HOW DOES THAT CHANGE YOUR MINDSET GOING INTO THE RACE THIS WEEKEND? “I think our team remains just as hungry as ever to get back to Victory Lane. My RCR team has been really strong on mile-and-a-half tracks this season, and I know that we have everything we need to try and back up our performance from July. We’re going to attack from the opening green flag.”
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 12th IN STANDINGS“With both ends of Texas being different you have to find a compromise some on your handling instead of focusing on one set of turns over the other. I think in (turns) 3 and 4, speed makes the biggest difference through there. When you’re in (turns) 1 and 2 it’s more about the handling of your car but still having good speed out of 2 so you can get down the backstretch and set up your entry to turn 3 with a good pace. It’s a lot different of a race track than we’re used to and compared to how it was. Now it’s very unique and makes for an interesting challenge especially as the race progresses.” JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY DESIGNED BY NOAH SWEET CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 18th IN STANDINGS“The biggest change at Texas over the years is new reconfiguration. The new asphalt has made the racing more single file. I love how supportive the market is of the racing venue – I love the Dallas, Fort Worth area, we have really good friends there and usually our stay is extended. The best memory I have is when I was able to duel with Matt Kenseth. Matt and I had nothing to gain, I knew I had a good car and so I went after it knowing Matt would race me clean and he wouldn’t make a mistake. It was certainly an exciting finish and although Matt probably didn’t like the outcome, it was one of my most memorable battles for a win.” TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 CLARK PIPELINE SERVICES CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 19th IN STANDINGSWHAT IS THE BIGGEST LESSON YOU TOOK AWAY FROM TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY EARLIER THIS YEAR WHEN RCR FINISHED 1-2? “Well, the way we went about that race is now out in the open and everyone knows how we did it, so I’m not sure that strategy will work when we go back this weekend. We’ll have to come up with something a little different this time. Texas is going to be a little bit like Kansas in the way that you have to take all the track position you can get and not make mistakes. The people you pass once are going to then understand where you were better than they were, so if you have to pass them a second time around they’ll know how to defend against you. That’s what makes it so hard racing in the Cup Series. Everyone is so smart about it. We’re going to need a really solid race in our No. 8 Clark Pipeline Services Chevrolet to be able to grab a good finish this weeke

CHEVROLET RACING IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIES FIRESTONE GRAND PRIX OF ST. PETERSBURG TREETS OF ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA TEAM CHEVY ADVANCE WITH QUOTES OCT. 24-25, 2020

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RACE 14 AND FINAL OF 2020 NTT INDYCAR SERIES: DETROIT (Oct. 23, 2020) — After almost a seven-and-a-half-month wait, the Chevrolet powered teams and drivers in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES face the challenges of the 1.8-mile, 14-turn St. Petersburg temporary street circuit for the final race of the 2020 season. Team Chevy driver and reigning series champion Josef Newgarden, No. 1 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet, sits 32 points down to Scott Dixon in his pursuit of a third title. While Newgarden is facing a challenge to overcome the difference, it is not out of the realm of possibility for the Nashville native.  “Feeling good. Ready to go,” said Newgarden, who has recorded three victories. “I feel like we’re definitely prepped and ready to rock for the weekend. Just going there to try to win the race. That’s really all I can do. “I love on the fact sheet, I saw this put out, it was like 20,000 scenarios, 1% of the scenarios means we can win the championship. You’re saying there’s a chance and that’s all we need. It’s going to be an exciting weekend. We’ll see how it shakes out. We’re just going to go into our thing, see where everything lands at the end of it.” Newgarden has the history on the streets of St. Pete to back up his confidence. In 2019, he started second on the grid and won the race. In eight starts, he has stood on the podium twice. He has finished 86% of the possible laps, and led several times for 60 laps. Meanwhile, Rinus VeeKay, No. 21 Sonax Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet, will clinch the INDYCAR Rookie of the Year Award by taking the green flag for the 100-lap/180-mile race. The title is the first for Ed Carpenter Racing, and only the third for Chevrolet since the award began in 1979, the previous two coming in 1990 and 1992. A first-time addition to the Chevrolet team roster will be three-time Australian SuperCar Champion Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Shell V-Power Nitro+ Chevrolet from the Team Penske stable. After testing at Circuit of the Americas in the spring, McLaughlin was ready to make his debut much earlier in the season. But the COVID-19 pandemic forced his schedule to be substantially altered. FAN VIEWING AND LISTENINGNBC Sports Gold livestreaming: Saturday’s NTT INDYCAR SERIES practice session at 10:55 a.m.ET and Firestone Fast Six qualifying at 3:05 p.m.ET will stream live on INDYCAR Pass on NBC Sports Gold, NBC Sports direct-to-consumer livestreaming product. Qualifying will also broadcast tape-delayed on NBCSN at 8:00 p.m. ET Sunday pre-race warm-up will stream live NBC Sports Gold starting at 10:40 a,m, ET. The race will broadcast live on NBC at 2:30 p.m. ET Sunday, Octoer 25. Pennzoil INDYCAR Radio Network broadcasts: All NTT INDYCAR SERIES practice, qualifying and races are broadcast live on Pennzoil INDYCAR Radio Network affiliates, Sirius 211, XM 205, IndyCar.com and on the INDYCAR Mobile app powered by NTT DATA.  AT-TRACK SCHEDULE (ALL TIMES LOCAL)Saturday, Oct. 2410:55 a.m.-12:55 p.m.: NTT INDYCAR SERIES practice #1, NBC Sports Gold3-4:20 p.m.: Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg qualifying (Three rounds of knockout qualifications), NBC Sports Gold (live); NBCSN (Tape delayed at 8 p.m.)4:25 p.m.: NTT P1 Award Presentation (pit lane)Sunday, Oct. 2510:40-11:10 a.m.: NTT INDYCAR SERIES warm-up, NBC Sports Gold2:27 p.m.: “Drivers, start your engines”2:30 p.m.: NBC on air2:32 p.m.: Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg (100 laps/180 miles), NBC (live) BOWTIE BULLETS: Chevrolet drivers have won six of the eight races held on the Streets of St. Petersburg since 2012 – Josef Newgarden won in 2019, and picked the win in tthe Indy Lights Series in 2011Josef Newgarden is second in points, 32 points behind leader; Will Power is fourth in the standings, Pato O’Ward is fifth in points, and Simon Pagenaud is eighth in the standingsOliver Askew will return to the No. 7 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet, Sebastien Bourdais will be in the No. 14 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet and Scott McLaughlin in the No.3 Shell V-Power Nitro+ Team Penske Chevrolet Power is the second all-time INDYCAR pole winner with 61 (behind only Mario Andretti with 67).Rinus VeeKay won the St. Pete Indy Lights race 2019, and Pato O’Ward won the Indy Lights race in 2018Since returning to INDYCAR manufacturer competition in 2012, Chevrolet has amassed 88 wins in 148 races—59.4% along with six Manufacturer Championships and six driver championships. Bowtie drivers have earned 98 poles and started in the No. 1 position on the INDYCAR grid 103 times QUOTABLE QUOTES: ROB BUCKNER, CHEVROLET RACING ENGINEERING PROGRAM MANAGER FOR THE NTT INDYCAR SERIES:  “We made it to the finale. It has been an at times difficult season, but also have had some very rewarding results. We head to the Streets of St. Pete with Josef Newgarden fighting hard for another championship, and Rinus VeeKay ready to clinch the INDYCAR Rookie-of-the-Year title. I am so proud of the cooperative efforts from our technical partners and all of the Chevrolet powered teams to keep moving the ball forward through some trying moments, logistical difficulties and always following the strictest of protocols to keep everyone as safe as possible during this pandemic. We are all looking forward to the positive possibilities ahead in 2021.” FROM THE COCKPIT: JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 1 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:  “It really all comes down to this weekend. It’s been a year where the No. 1 Hitachi Chevrolet and our team have been through a lot, from success to dealing with mistakes to just the victim of bad timing. But none of that matters headed into this weekend. We either win the championship or we don’t. My Hitachi Chevy team has put everything they have into this season, and they plan to keep working hard through the race weekend. It’s going to certainly be a tough battle with Scott Dixon this weekend because he has been so strong and consistent all year. We can’t afford to make mistakes, so strategy and execution will be critical. We feel really good with the momentum we have right now, but you can never count out a guy like Dixon. I’m also excited that Scott McLaughlin will be joining us this weekend for his first-ever INDYCAR race. He was so fast at the spring training test at COTA earlier this year, so it’s going to be really great to see how he does in the mix for a race.” SCOTT McLAUGHLIN, NO. 3 SHELL V-POWER NITRO+TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET: “I’m super pumped to finally get a crack at my first INDYCAR race. Feels like it’s been years since I was part of spring training, but due to COVID-19, we had to hold off. But hey, sometimes the best things are definitely worth the wait. It’s a dream come true to be running an INDYCAR race for Team Penske and Roger (Penske), especially coming off of such a successful Supercars season. I’ve been trying to get to know my team as well as possible virtually for a few months now, so it’s been great being able to see everyone in person and work with them. I spent some time last week running in the simulator as much as I could and spent some time at the race shop, as well, to prepare for this weekend. It was a quick turnaround from Bathurst since I flew to Charlotte immediately after, so I’ve definitely been moving at a fast but really exciting pace just to get to this weekend. The Shell V-Power Nitro+ Chevy team is such a talented group, so I feel like I’m going to be a quick study and learn a lot really fast.” CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 4 TRESIBA AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET: “I’m excited for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg as we got some good preseason running at Sebring on the street circuit tire, so we have a baseline to evolve heading to Florida. To succeed, we are going to have to maximize that baseline and follow the track as it rubbers in during practice. It’s hard to pass and while qualifying is always important, it becomes critical on a street circuit. Having had experience with the car and me all year, the team at AJ Foyt Racing has been working hard to make sure we finish the year on a high note. Typically, as the first race of the year, St. Pete usually feels a bit like the first day of school, but this year it’s going to be where INDYCAR crowns a champion and be the last day of school!” PATO O’WARD, NO. 5 ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET: “I’ve been waiting for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg for a while. It’s a venue that I really enjoy going to, not only because the track is cool but because the whole city is very enjoyable, as well. I’m really looking forward to closing out the season with a strong result. I want to thank everyone involved who made my first full season in INDYCAR an incredible one: everyone at the Arrow McLaren SP, Arrow Electronics, McLaren, INDYCAR, Chevrolet, all of our other amazing partners, and most importantly — the fans.” OLIVER ASKEW,  NO. 7 ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET:“I appreciate all the support Arrow McLaren SP has given me through this difficult time. I would like to thank Dr. Billows and the INDYCAR Medical Team, as well as Dr. Collins and the UPMC Sports Medicine Concussion Program, for their advice and care, which allowed me to take the time I needed to fully recover and prepare for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES finale. I’m looking forward to a strong finish to the season in St. Pete.”WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:“Indianapolis was incredible. Winning the pole and the race just brought so much good energy to the Verizon Chevy team. It’s a shame we had so much bad luck and made some mistakes earlier this season, but we’ve been getting stronger since Mid-Ohio, and I think the team has really come together. We’ve been out of contention for the championship for a few races now, so we are fully focused on just getting more race wins. St. Pete is such a technical street course, so it can be really fun to race. Actually, it will end up being the only street race we raced on in 2020. We’ve had some races this year with fans, and I’m glad we’ll have a good number of fans back at St. Pete. I’m also looking forward to Scott McLaughlin joining us to race at St. Pete. He’s been working hard preparing for the weekend while also having just won another Supercars championship in Australia. He was really fast at the COTA test, so I think he will be really strong this weekend even though it’s his first INDYCAR race. It’s really going to be a fun weekend.” SEBASTIEN BOURDAIS, NO. 14 AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET: “Quite excited for the Firestone GP here in St. Pete, as it’s always great to run in front of friends and family at home. It’s definitely a race that we’re quite a bit better prepared for than the Harvest Indy GP but still kind of keeping the expectations in check. You never know what comes around the corner. I hope what we learned about the No. 14 Chevrolet at Sebring will transfer well for the St. Pete track. We’re looking forward to a good weekend. The weather’s going to be nice, and we’ll keep learning and hope to have some good successes.” CONOR DALY, NO. 20 U.S. AIR FORCE ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET: “It’s pretty hard to believe my first street course with Ed Carpenter Racing will be in October. It has been a decade since I last won in St. Pete in the Pro Mazda championship, which is wild to think about. Love the track, love the city, love the event. We obviously want to finish strong for the U.S. Air Force, Chevrolet and all of the incredible people that have worked so hard for us all year long. I’m very excited to get down there and get going.” RINUS VEEKAY, NO. 21 SONAX ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET: “It will be so nice to come back to St. Petersburg. We are finally returning after being there earlier this year, but we were not able to race. Hopefully, I can secure my Rookie of the Year title; it will be a very nice achievement. I am really looking forward to the race. First street course race of the season as the last race, that’s very cool. I’ve always had good races in St. Pete in the Road to Indy, and I cannot wait to hustle around there with an Indy car.” SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 DXC TECHNOLOGY TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:“I cannot wait for St. Petersburg. First off, we are ecstatic to host our fans back at the racetrack and continue to give them the best racing there is. We finished on a high note in Indianapolis GP with my No. 22 Menards Chevy crew being fastest on pit lane on day one and collecting the fastest lap of Race 2. The new weekend format has been very difficult, with less practice and less chances to get the right balance on the car. I’m ready to take on the challenge again with spirit. St. Petersburg is a street course that I really enjoy, as street courses are my specialty. We will give a 100 percent and attempt to execute on the last race weekend of 2020.” MAX CHILTON, NO. 59 GALLAGHER CARLIN CHEVROLET: “It’s crazy to think that we’re heading back to St. Pete, where it all started, to finish out the 2020 season. I love racing on the streets of St. Petersburg, and I’m so thankful that everyone at INDYCAR and the track could work together insuch a difficult situation to bring us back for the finale. It’s a really physical track and the race itself is so demanding, but then at the end of the day, the Firestone Grand Prix is always a great one, not only for us as drivers but also for the fans watching at home and in person. We’ve made some big strides forward as a team, and I’m really hoping we can close out this season with a top-10 finish.” Chevrolet INDYCAR Series Statistics Chevrolet has recorded six NTT IndyCar Series Manufacturer Championships since returning to manufacturer competition in 2012.Chevrolet earned six consecutive CART Manufacturers’ Cup championships from 1988-93.Chevrolet has recorded 12 driver championships, including four in the past five years and six total since returning to INDYCAR competition in 2012 with the2.2 liter V6 twin turbocharged direct injected engineChevrolet has recorded 198 wins in Indy-style racing, including USAC, CART, Indy Racing League and IndyCar Series since 1965. The first victory for Chevy power was Bobby Unser in the 1966 Pikes Peak Auto Hill Climb.Chevrolet has 88 wins in 148 races(59.4%) in IndyCar Series races since returning to manufacturer

Batavia, OH (October 22, 2020) – The 10th Annual Optima Batteries Silver Doller Nationals – Presented by K&N Filter from I-80 Speedway in Greenwood, NE is on MAVTV Motorsports Network, tonight at 9 PM EDT, with a re-airing at 12 AM EDT. 

The 101-lap Silver Dollar Nationals A-Main saw four different leaders among the 46 entrants vying for a win. The eighth different winner in ten Silver Dollar Nationals said, “I had it in the back of my mind that I was going to wait as long as I could to get to the top of the track. I knew I was abusing my equipment up there. I hit the wall a few times off of two. It was a crazy race.” The broadcast will include driver interviews, in-car cameras, and various technical segments.

Owned and operated by Lucas Oil Products, MAVTV Motorsports Network is a television network deeply rooted in the automotive world. MAVTV is available to over 35 million homes on U-verse, DIRECTV (channel 214), Fios by Verizon, Vidgo, TIKILIVE, fuboTV, YouTubeTV, Spectrum, and other nationwide providers. MAVTV will broadcast 5 live events and 34 original tape-delayed airings. To find a full list of providers, visit: mavtv.com/get-mavtv/providers.

The entire 2020 Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series TV schedule can be found on the series website at: www.lucasdirt.com/schedule/tv-schedule/.

NASCAR CUP SERIES TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY AUTO TRADER ECHO PARK AUTOMOTIVE 500 TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT OCTOBER 22, 2020 

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 HOOTERS GIVE A HOOT CAMARO ZL1 1LE, met with media via teleconference to discuss his outlook going into the second race of the Playoffs’ Round of Eight at Texas Motor Speedway, the preparation that goes into the Playoff races, what he’s taken away from the 2020 season, and more. Transcript:  CHASE, YOU START FOURTH IN THE HOOTERS GIVE A HOOT CHEVROLET, WHICH SOUNDS LIKE A GOOD START. YOU’RE FIFTH IN POINTS; DOWN EIGHT FROM THE CUT-OFF LINE OF FOUR. HOW ARE YOU LOOKING AT THE WEEKEND?“Yeah, I’m looking forward to it. Texas is a challenge, for sure. It’s nice to have a good starting spot, which is certainly helpful, and hopefully we can try to keep our track position. That’s a very tough place to pass and make a lot of ground since they re-configured it. Yeah, I think that will be nice. Hopefully, we can keep the track position and move forward.” 
DO YOU GIVE A HOOT ABOUT THE EIGHT POINTS BELOW THE CUT-OFF LINE? DO YOU GIVE A HOOT ABOUT THAT OR IS IT JUST POINTS, YOU’VE GOT TO GO WIN AND YOU KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO KIND OF THING? “Yeah, I mean to be honest, I feel like I’ve really worried about the points situation less this year than I ever have before. It matters, don’t get me wrong – it’s not that I don’t care. It does matter, but I just think the more that you understand that winning is paramount and that’s the only guarantee that moves you on. And also, realizing that if you make the Final Four, you’re going to have to go win that last race. So, I’m just really a big believer in feeling comfortable in that moment and just trying to thrive in the situation of having to win, and I think that’s how we need to treat these last two races in this Round. Ultimately, if you’re not winning races at this level, you’re not going to win the championship anyways. So, that’s how we have to approach it and I feel good about that.”
THIS HAS BEEN ONE OF THE MOST UNUSUAL, IF NOT THE MOST UNUSUAL, SEASON IN NASCAR HISTORY. YOU GUYS HAVE GOTTEN SO MUCH DONE, SO MUCH GOOD DONE. WHAT’S THE BIGGEST LESSON YOU’LL TAKE AWAY FROM THIS 2020 CAMPAIGN AND WHAT HAS BEEN THE ASPECT THAT WORKS BEST?“There’s a lot of things, I think, this year. I don’t want to take up too much of your time, but yeah, I think there’s a lot of things that we’ve learned as an industry. The amount of time we’re spending at race tracks I feel like is maximized for the drivers and teams, and we’re still putting on the same great race on Sunday. So, that to me is the biggest thing that this bad situation, obviously with all that’s going on in the world, led to a simplified version, I guess, of what we had with really no negative effect of the actual product on Sunday. I do think there was a complexity that had gotten so complex through greed and money. Just like money drives everything, so over the years, things just kind of got carried away and carried away to the point where I’m not sure it could sustain and I think we learned lessons this year that can really help this deal not only last for a very long time, but I think grow in the right direction that racing should.” 
YOU MENTIONED THE RE-CONFIGURATION AT TEXAS BEING A PROBLEM. I’M ASSUMING YOU’RE REFERRING TO TURNS ONE AND TWO, NOW BEING 20 DEGREES AS COMPARED TO THE THREE AND FOUR OF 24 DEGREES. IS THAT THE PART OF THE TRACK THAT GIVES YOU THE BIGGEST PROBLEM?“To be honest, I feel like I’ve had my struggles on both ends of the race track. I don’t know that it has as much to do with the banking re-configurations. Maybe, just the fresh asphalt. I don’t really know exactly what it is. One and two has certainly been a struggle, but we’ve had our problems at the other end of the race track, too. So, I guess the combination between that and the track surface being new, Goodyear having to bring a really hard tire – something in that whole realm of change has not suited me well in the past, unfortunately. I think for me, just focused on trying to look forward and not bring those bad vibes to Texas this weekend I think is a big piece of improving. Just having a better mindset and looking forward to another opportunity there.”
WANTED TO LOOK AHEAD A WEEK – MARTINSVILLE. YOU’VE RAN WELL THERE, THE ORGANIZATION HAS RAN WELL THERE. JUST DESCRIBE THE IDEA OF HAVING AN OLD-SCHOOL, SHORT TRACK BE KIND OF A DECIDING FACTOR OF WHO MAKES THE CHAMPIONSHIP FOUR AND WHO DOESN’T. “Yeah, it does. I think Martinsville is certainly a place that deserves to be on the schedule and I think it deserves to have an important place on the schedule. Where it’s been placed in this final 10 races over the last – it’s been right there towards the end of the season for a long time. It’s been a deciding factor of who makes the Final Four every year since this format was implemented, if I’m not mistaken. So, it’s always been important and I think rightfully so.” 
YOU TALKED LAST WEEK ABOUT TEXAS, SINCE THE RE-PAVE, HAS KIND OF BEEN A STRUGGLE FOR YOU. WHEN YOU SEE THE PLAYOFF FORMAT COME OUT AND THE ROUND THREE CUT-OFF RACE BE MARTINSVILLE, DOES THAT GIVE YOU A LITTLE BIT OF CONFIDENCE FOR THE FACT THAT – HEY, IF I GO THERE AND I HAVE TO HIT A HOME RUN, I KNOW I’M CAPABLE OF THAT?“Yeah, I think we’re capable of running good everywhere. So, that’s really where my mindset is. I hate to just say – OK, yeah we’ve had good runs at Martinsville, so we’re just going to count on that one. That’s not how you have to go about this. And also, as great as it is to know that we’ve had some good runs at certain race tracks, past success doesn’t equal future success. It never has and I don’t think it ever will. You can still go to a place that has been good to you and struggle. We can go to Martinsville next week and be terrible. That’s just racing and that’s just the way it is. So, I think for us, just to look at an event because we’ve had a couple of decent runs there in the past and put all our eggs in that basket is not wise.”
YOU’VE ALSO BEEN THERE WHERE CERTAIN THINGS HAPPEN DURING THE RACE BECAUSE SO MUCH WAS ON THE LINE. WITH EVERYBODY BEING SORT OF PACKED IN AND AROUND THAT CUT-OFF LINE, DOES JOEY LOGANO WINNING LAST WEEK AND KIND OF LEAP-FROGGING, IT MAKE PACK A BUNCH OF GUYS INTO A VERY, VERY SMALL BASKET GOING INTO THAT RACE. “Yeah, I mean it certainly can. We don’t know what the points situation is going to look like until we get through Texas. Yeah, I’m sure no matter what it looks like, there’s going to be guys that have to win just like there always is and guys who are flirting around the line. So, that’s just a product of three-race rounds, a product of the reset and a product of how this format is. Regardless of whatever happens this weekend, I’m sure it will be an exciting event to watch.”
WITH SO MUCH ON THE LINE IN THE PLAYOFF RACES, HAVE YOU CHANGED AT ALL PREPARATION-WISE? WITH NO PRACTICE, TOO, ARE YOU STUDYING ANYMORE NOTES, WATCHING ANYMORE FILM OR DOING ANY MORE MEETINGS?“Honestly, our approach has been the same as its always been when we had a bunch of practice. And I think for us, I feel like we are just trying not to re-invent the wheel and just do our thing, which I think there’s something to that. Something to be said for that and not trying to out-smart ourselves. Say we have our meeting on Monday, right, and on Wednesday, I have a thought or I have an idea, Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) has an idea, or one of our team members has an idea – we all reach out to each other and get on another call and discuss it. But if we feel good about our meeting on Monday and feel like we’re ready to go, I’ll go through my regular prep for the event, they will as well, and I’ll see them on Sunday morning.”
HOW MUCH TIME IS THAT PREP? ARE YOU SPENDING ONE OR TWO HOURS A DAY? IS IT FOUR OR FIVE HOURS A DAY? IS IT EIGHT HOURS A DAY?“That’s tough – I think it’s hard to put a number on it. I’m the kind of guy where I might watch certain things at certain time. But also, I feel like I might be riding down the road and have a thought pop in my head and I’ll start down a rabbit hole of thinking – what I think caused this or what I think we need to do better and why. So, it’s hard for me to put a timeframe on that because I feel like my mind is always kind of thinking about it and when you have those good ideas or something that makes sense in your head, something that you can explain easily, I try to pass those things along. And it’s really just kind of an open dialogue all the time, I guess, is kind of how we approach it. So, it’s hard to put an exact number on that.”
WHEN YOU GUYS GO TO MARTINSVILLE NEXT WEEKEND, THERE’S GOING TO BE LIMITED FANS THERE. THERE WEREN’T FANS WHEN THE CUP SERIES WAS THERE EARLIER THIS YEAR. AFTER GOING THROUGH THIS SEASON, WHAT’S BEEN THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE IN TERMS OF HAVING FANS AND NO FANS, EVEN THOUGH THERE’S GOING TO BE LIMITED FANS? “Having people back at a smaller number, I think, is better than no one being there, for sure. So, ultimately, I think it’s all a step in the right direction and a direction we need to get back in, in my opinion. I don’t know how long we can sustain going to race tracks and nobody being there. This is an entertainment industry, ultimately, for TV broadcasters, ticket sales and everything else. We’re lucky that TV has become what it has over the years – how easily accessible it is to everybody’s phones now. If we want to watch a sporting event, it’s going to be on somewhere, right? So, we’re very lucky to have that because otherwise, I’m not sure we would still be doing what we’re doing. Whenever the tracks, the sanctioning body and all the higher-ups that make those decision feel like it’s a good time to bring people back, I’m sure they will in full capacity. And until then, we’ll enjoy the crowds of whatever they let in.”

NASCAR CUP SERIES AUTO TRADER ECHO PARK AUTOMOTIVE 500 TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT OCTOBER 22, 2020
KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE, met with media via teleconference and discussed last Sunday’s race at Kansas, his expectations for the Texas race, his mindset, and more. Full Transcript:
YOU HAD SUCH HIGH HOPES, AND THEN ENGINE FAILURE. EMOTIONALLY, HOW DID YOU COME OUT OF THE RACE IN KANSAS?“That’s just part of the emotions and the ups and downs and everything that goes into NASCAR Cup racing. You prepare all week, all month, to build a car that’s going to take you to the next level in this Round of 8 at Kansas just didn’t turn out all that well for us with the engine failure. The things that led up to all of that, it’s just part of racing. Everybody prepared at the highest level at Hendrick Engines and of course, at Chip Ganassi Racing. And we just didn’t have the luck to get to the end of that race and to have a shot at winning.”
EVERYBODY WHO KNOWS KURT BUSCH KNOWS THERE’S NO GIVE-UP IN YOU AND THE MONSTER ENERGY TEAM. YOU ARE DOWN IN POINTS. HOW DO YOU LOOK AT IT?“I look at it as I like Texas better anyway (laughs). We’re going to gas-it-up-hard at Texas. We ran really well there the last few races together as a unit at Chip Ganassi Racing. And what’s great is we were in position at the Spring race, actually it was a race in the Summer months of July, when Austin Dillon won; we were on the same pit sequence as he was; we took two tires just as he did, and he beat us off pit road. So, we were that close at having a shot at winning earlier this year. And so that gives us good motivation and good vibes and good feel to know that we’re close; and now we have to execute here in November to do the right things to win with cooler track temps.”
LOOK AHEAD A WEEK TO MARTINSVILLE AND THE APPROPRIATENESS OF HAVING AN OLD SCHOOL SHORT TRACK BE THE RACE THAT DECIDES WHO GETS TO RACE FOR A CHAMPIONSHIP ULTIMATELY“Yeah, you look at it as a wild card. That’s how I see it. We’ve had the race at the ROVAL as a cutoff, we’ve had Talladega in years past as a restrictor-plate, wild card, cutoff race. And so, Martinsville is a track where you’re going to see all the front-runners running up front. Some are going to gamble on tires and have to race with elbows out and to move guys out of the way. And heck, you could be running third and the leaders take each other out and you get an invite to the championship round. There are going to be so many variables and so many wide-open chances for Martinsville; that’s why NASCAR chose to put that track as the cutoff.”
GOING BACK TO TEXAS, YOU HAVEN’T FINISHED OUTSIDE THE TOP 10 THERE SINCE 2016. AND ALSO, THROWING OUT LAST WEEK, YOU’VE BEEN FAIRLY CONSISTENT ON 1.5-MILE TRACKS THIS YEAR. DOES THAT MAKE IT A BIT EASIER TO RE-FOCUS YOURSELF AFTER LAST WEEK?“We felt like we had two solid bullets in the chamber, at Kansas and Texas with this Round of 8. Martinsville, we’re not all that bad, either. The Ganassi team has helped me run better at that track. And so, we just have to adapt. Those new right-side tires that we’re going to have that was the same right-side that we won with at Vegas. It’s what everybody raced with at Kansas last week. And those are those things that you have to adapt to with no practice. And then what you have to do to win. It’s understanding all the little things that make up big differences.”
IN LIGHT OF YOUR ENGINE FAILURE LAST WEEK, IS ANYTHING GOING TO BE DONE DIFFERENTLY TO THE ENGINE THIS WEEK AT TEXAS SINCE IT’S A SIMILAR-SIZED TRACK?“I don’t believe so. As far as them, at Hendrick Engines, going through all the diagnostics and researching what had happened; there are still so many little details that have to add-up to what the final result was at Kansas. So, there’s just normal preparations; and in my mind, gassing it up as hard as we can for Texas because second place isn’t going to cut it at the end of the day. And so, if there’s a chance to go with something big, of course I’ve got my arm up as high as it can go; and I know that everybody will make the right decisions together on what we need to win at Texas.”
TALKING ABOUT MARTINSVILLE BEING A WILD CARD, GIVEN THERE IS SO MUCH AT STAKE, IF YOU’RE IN A POSITION WHERE YOU’VE GOT TO DO SOMETHING THAT MAYBE YOU MIGHT NOT WANT TO DO, DO YOU HAVE TO KIND OF PREPARE YOURSELF FOR THAT?“Yeah, for me, I’m already past that line. I’m not even going to think about it. I’m going to do it. I feel like all the goodwill I’ve built up with other drivers, my position of being a veteran in this sport, and knowing what it takes to win a championship, I’ve put all the puzzle pieces in place. And we just have to have those puzzle pieces fit together seamlessly. And some of those are decision out on the track where you can’t hesitate. You just have to go. And, that’s where we’re not going to back down. It doesn’t matter who it is. We’ve got Matt Kenseth out there on the Ganassi side helping and other Chevy guys that aren’t in it. We’ve got to go up against these Toyotas and these Fords and these powerhouse teams, and we’re not looking at any kind of ill side effects, we’re going for it. And so that’s the tone and the mood for the No. 1 Monster Energy Chevy team.”
ON THE EMOTIONS OF LAST WEEK, HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN TO FANS HOW IT FEELS TO HAVE THE HIGH OF WINNING A RACE AND MAKING YOUR WAY INTO THE PLAYOFF ROUNDS AND THEN HAVE SUCH DEVASTATION DELIVERED IN THE OPENING RACE OF THE NEXT ROUND?“It’s difficult to put it all into words. It’s a roller coaster, for sure. Everybody tuning in and watching, our social media following, different texts from friends and family members; it takes you on that ride even when the race is over. Over 500 texts were on my phone after winning Vegas. There were only about 50 after an engine blow (laughs). You can see just in that, how people want to react with a tough situation versus the enjoyment. And when you’re riding that roller coaster, and you’re at the top, everything looks great from up there. And then when you take the ride down and you hit that g-force at the bottom and you have that sinking pit feeling in your stomach, that’s exactly what an engine failure feels like. And yet, you’ve got to bounce back quick. That’s what Mark Martin told me early-on in my career. You’re going to have the highs. You’re going to have the lows. You’ve got to draw a line in the middle and get back there as fast as you can.”
CHEVROLET HAS THREE CARS IN THE ROUND OF 8. WHAT’S BEEN THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE THIS YEAR WITH CHEVY COMPARED TO LAST YEAR?“I think the small things are making big differences. The re-evaluation of the Camaro, the understanding of this 550-horsepower package and how you have to have every horsepower on the dyno counting toward your effort on race weekends. It seems like the wind tunnel time and the work back and forth between all Chevy teams, with Hendrick and Richard Childress Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing and even JTG, it feels like the wind tunnel stuff has been shared more so, and the engine data; and even just with the collaboration of racing on restrictor-plate races, we’ve done a better job in all categories. So, it’s not one thing that’s made a difference. I think it’s just chipping away at having more darts hit the dartboard.”
USUALLY BY THIS POINT IN THE SEASON, YOU’VE HAD A LONG YEAR WITH WEEKENDS FILLED WITH PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING AND RACING. THIS YEAR IS DIFFERENT WITH THE PANDEMIC LAYOFF. HOW DO YOU FEEL MENTALLY AT THE END OF THE SEASON? DO YOU FEEL LESS FATIGUE AND BETTER GOING INTO THE FINAL THREE RACES?“Yeah, I feel like there’s always that mindset of how to manage the time and how to manage the season and when to peak, so to speak, with all elements. With no practice and no qualifying, days such as Friday and Saturday that are opened up, that’s when you pour all of your energy toward that Sunday and getting the best out of the car all through the stages and through the race and try to win. And then for us at Chip Ganassi Racing, the win at Vegas a couple of weeks ago, we’re still on a hot air balloon ride. It feels great to be up there, and that’s where we want to stay. There could be ten races left this year. We’re still going to go after it just as hard.”

CHEVROLET RACING IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIES FIRESTONE GRAND PRIX OF ST. PETERSBURG STREETS OF ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE OCT. 22, 2020

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN No. SHELL V-POWER NiTRO+ Team Penske ChevroletPress Conference Transcript

THE MODERATOR: Good morning, everybody. Welcome to today’s NTT INDYCAR Series media news conference. We’re joined by the driver of the No. 3 Shell V-Power NiTRO+ Chevrolet for Team Penske, also the three-time Australian Supercars champion, Scott McLaughlin. Scott, welcome into the call. Welcome to the INDYCAR Series. SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: G’day, Arni. Thanks very much, mate. It’s all a bit weird when you’re saying it like that. I’m just used to Shell V-Power Racing. Now I’m adding the NiTRO on the end of it. A little bit weird but very excited. THE MODERATOR: It’s been a pretty eventful week for you. Last week you were at Mount Panorama getting ready for the Great Race, the Bathurst 1000. You have tested the car now at a track that you’ve probably never seen. How excited are you for your INDYCAR debut?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Very excited. I think it’s a great opportunity. I obviously never thought I’d get a chance this year due to the nature of the beast with COVID, all that sort of stuff.I’ve driven the car before, which gives me a little bit more confidence heading into St. Pete, that I sort of know what to expect from a car perspective. Never been on a street track in an INDYCAR. I know it’s very bumpy. The feeling inside the car with the bumps and stuff, it’s going to be a lot different.I’ve got a lot to learn, but I’m excited for what’s ahead. Excited to see what everyone is like, meet some of the media, meet some of the fans, see how the schedule goes like on the weekend. I’m really excited, really excited. THE MODERATOR: A few years ago you came to Indianapolis to be a guest of Mr. Penske at the Indy 500. When you came to that race, did you think that INDYCAR was ever an option for you, being a guy who has raced with a roof over your head for most of your career?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I’ve always been an INDYCAR fan. I said that from the start. I’ve always been a Scott Dixon fan due to the Kiwi connection. It’s a bit weird now, I have to work out who I’m going for now that I’m at Team Penske.Look, it’s certainly been a transition that has happened pretty fast. I know I probably initially didn’t think that Roger and Tim would think I’d be ready for an INDYCAR, sort of consider me, just because of my touring car roots, having a roof over my head.They put the proposition to me about a year and a half now. I have haven’t looked back since. I’ve always been interested it. I love the Indy 500, watch it all the time. Back in Australia it’s a massive thing. The connection with Will and Scott Down Under is big.For me, it was always a cool thing to be a part of, but never thought I could be because I’ve been in a touring car for most of my career. THE MODERATOR: You did three tests this winter. Seems like it was years ago, but it was in 2020. It’s been quite a while since the COTA test where you placed third on the time sheets. With all that’s been going on with COVID and travel restrictions, being in Australia in the Supercars bubble, what have you been able to do to prepare yourself for single seaters?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I’ve been training a lot. I definitely lost some weight just to be a little bit lighter for the INDYCAR. Weight is obviously a big thing. All year my body clock is going crazy because I’ve been watching INDYCAR in Australia at sort of 3 a.m., 4 a.m. our time.It’s been good to get to know how some guys race, how the teams work, how the pit stops and the cautions work, just little things you can pick up with the coverage. The coverage that NBC does is amazing, the way that INDYCAR gets it to Australia is so cool. I’ve been able to, yeah, really enjoy that part.From a driving perspective, at the Indy 500 I sort of was listening in to Helio’s radio. They are my crew guys, the 3 car. They are all of my pit crew, my engineers. They’re all very similar. It was nice to have an idea and an introduction to how everyone talks, gets through the race weekend. THE MODERATOR: What kind of expectations do you have for the weekend?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: It’s a hard one. Like, I just want to do every lap I can, do every pit stop I can. It’s a massive learning thing. I’ll go there, I’ll drive the car as fast as I can within my comfort level, which my comfort level will be a lot lower than some.Look, yeah, I’m fully expecting this will be the toughest challenge of my career, but I’m looking forward to it. THE MODERATOR: We have quite a few media on the line. We’ll take questions.Q. You said you listened to Helio’s radio during the 500. How did you have that hookup?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: It’s amazing technology now. I had basically the Microsoft Teams program. I couldn’t talk obviously. I just had the communication between the team to Helio, again the strategists.That was a cool, cool thing for me to understand, not only just how they talk to each other, but also understand the race more. I think I’ve watched the Indy 500 for a long time, but probably haven’t gone behind the scenes like that, fuel codes, lots of stuff. Still got a lot to learn, but it was a nice introduction. Q. Your schedule this past week, you had a big race on the weekend. What was your travel like?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, it’s been pretty wild. I did the race on Sunday in Australia, Saturday your time. I basically jumped on a plane straightaway. Bathurst is about two hours west of Sydney. I flew quickly to Sydney, spent the night in Sydney, then flew 10:30 a.m. Monday morning to America, to California, then California to Charlotte. That was Monday night.I went straight to the simulator that night. I did basically a four- or five-hour session on the simulator. It was probably the best thing for my jet lag. I feel amazing now because I stayed up. Went back to the simulator on Tuesday, plus seeing the guys, a little bit of a seat fit here and there.The last couple days, Wednesday and Thursday, it’s just been seeing everyone, getting acquainted with the team a bit more. Everyone has sort of taken a couple days off before St. Pete. Myself and my wife, we’ve sort of just been having a look around, hanging out, staying safe. Now we head to St. Pete tonight. Q. Are you tired?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Thankfully I’m good. I had a great sleep last night. I was probably a little bit tired yesterday. You get to about one or two and it starts hitting you. I was feeling pretty good. I feel pretty good now. Had one of my best sleeps. That was good. Q. What interests you about INDYCAR? Why do you want to do this?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: For me it’s one of the most competitive series if not the most competitive series in the world. You look at the closeness, how different the winners can be up and down the field. It’s an all-around package. You can race on road courses, ovals.For me it’s a fresh start with being an open-wheeler, very different to what I’ve had before. I guess, yeah, it’s a different experience. If I’ve got the opportunity to be able to do it, I’ve got to grab it with both hands. Q. Have you accomplished everything that you can accomplish?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: In Australia, yeah, for sure. I’ve done everything I wanted to achieve. I wanted to win at Bathurst and a championship. Thankfully I won three championships and one Bathurst. I moved my way up the ranks in terms of the wins and stuff like that, poles. I’ve done everything I wanted to achieve. If it did come to the point where I was moving on from Supercars, I would be satisfied.At the same time that series leaves you wanting more, as well, especially when you have a race like I did at the weekend at Bathurst. It wasn’t my best race. It’s one of those races that you love so much but hate just as much as well because it’s such a wild card. It leaves you wanting more. Q. Roger Penske was on the NASCAR channel a couple nights ago, talked about your debut. He described this more like it’s almost less a tryout and more a confirmation of whether you want to do INDYCAR. He said it’s about you deciding if you want to do this full-time, the team will make a decision over the next 30 days about that. Can you explain your perspective on that? Do you feel like this is more about feeling out if this is what you want to do next year and beyond?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, for me, yeah, for sure. I think it’s an opportunity to learn and understand what goes into it. COTA was good in some ways where I understood the car, I understood how to sort of get some time out of the car, out of the race car.When you’re doing one lap by yourself, it’s a lot easier than when you’re put with 23 other drivers heading down to turn one. I’m fully expecting a new challenge when I get into the racing side of things with in-and-out laps, pit stops, all that sort of stuff.I think there’s still a lot of things that I haven’t come across that I need to learn and need to understand before I actually make a decision, as a team.Like I said, this is an opportunity. It’s something that I’m just going to go in like a sponge, soak everything up, see what comes out of it. I’m pretty confident that I’m going to like the series, I’m going to like the cars, I’m going to like everything. There wouldn’t be a reason why I wouldn’t be here.It’s cool that I’m able to have that support from Roger, the team, Tim, to allow me to be able — I’m 27 years old, try to achieve stuff overseas, accomplish dreams. To have that support, it’s a pretty cool thing for a person who drives for someone. Q. Josef Newgarden said if you finished top 10, that would be a great result. If you finished top five, that would be amazing. If you were to do that Sunday, are we talking about you being in the INDYCAR Series next year?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I think if I finish top 10, I’ll be doing cartwheels, going crazy (laughter).I think, look, it depends on what goes on. I’m fully expecting a tough battle. I might have a great, great experience running last. I don’t know. It’s not going to change how I feel or whatever. I’ve got a lot to learn. I’m fully expecting I could be last.At the end of the day, as long as I get a good feel for the category, a good feel for the cars, we’ll be all right. Q. Scott Dixon was saying it’s almost unheard of that somebody could come from where you came, other side of the world, to here. Do you feel that way, you’re pinching yourself a little bit?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, look, it’s a dream come true. As a young person, you join the sport or you join the sport as a hobby with your mum and dad. Thankfully I was lucky to turn it into a profession Down Under. I achieved a lot of my dreams, like I said, winning Bathurst, winning a championship.Then to have the opportunity to drive with a world class organization that’s got so many opportunities elsewhere to further my career… When I initially signed with Roger, that was a part of my thought process, was I wanted to potentially expand the horizon if I wanted to.I’ve always been a person once I have ticked a box, I want to go to another spot and tick another box and whatever. Never want to stop and be content.Like I said, this is the biggest challenge of my career. Yeah, I can’t believe I’m here, especially with COVID right now. Seriously, looking forward to meeting a lot of people, yourselves, like I said, the fans, other drivers, getting to know them not just through the computer screen like I was with the INDYCAR Series on iRacing. It was a bit different.It’s certainly a very proud moment for me, my family. My family are a bit funny because they’re getting up at 4 a.m. to watch me race this week. It’s a bit different. It’s going to be cool. It’s going to be very cool. Q. Your mentality from a competition standpoint. Coming from Supercars one weekend straight into an INDYCAR, how much of a challenge is that for you? Are you the kind of driver that as long as you’re in a race car you’re really just fine?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, it’s a bit of both. I’m not going to lie, it’s a big challenge. There’s a lot of different things I have to learn. Even on the simulator Monday, Tuesday, I had a couple bad habits and stuff, not trusting the aerodynamics of the race car, something you really can’t do in a Supercar.Yeah, I’ll literally race a wheel barrel if I can. I don’t care. I’ll race anything. It’s one of those deals where, yeah, I’ve certainly got a lot to learn. It’s a challenge.Even coming to St. Pete on a street circuit, the car will handle a lot different than what I’m used to over bumps and stuff. A Supercar, you do a Supercross jump, no drama, you wouldn’t even feel it. In regards to the INDYCAR, it’s the complete opposite.Certainly got a lot to learn. I’ll race anything, like I said. Just adapt to how I go.Q. You said in preparation for this you’ve lost some weight. What is your training regimen? How much weight did you shed getting ready for this?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I was a bit fat for Supercars anyway. I needed to lose some weight regardless, if it was an INDYCAR deal or not.I worked pretty hard. I started a little diet, intermittent fasting. I really found a benefit out of that. Certainly shed a lot of kilos. See, kilos, I’m not talking pounds at the moment.For me, a lot of high-intensity training, weights, but high repetition. A lot of cardio. Yeah, just trying to gear me up. The INDYCAR is very strenuous with no power steering, a few other things. That’s a bit I had to learn, beef up my shoulders a bit more.For me, I need to be competitive when I come here. I want to be competitive, especially when I get to St. Pete. For me to be competitive, I needed to lose some weight, get my weight down. I didn’t want to be one of the heavier guys. Definitely still going to be because I’ve always been a bit bigger, but definitely better than it was. Q. You talked you always looked up to Scott Dixon. Your perspective on what it means to you to be able to race against him this weekend as he’s going for a sixth championship, which is crazy.SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, the guy is unbelievable. He doesn’t get enough credit in New Zealand either. New Zealand is full of rugby. Motorsports takes a bit of a backseat.What he’s done, even with five championships, to be going for his sixth is phenomenal. Very excited. I can’t explain at COTA at the test the way the pit lane order worked. Scott was actually behind me, his pit box was right behind me. Rolling out on one of the sessions there, he passed me on the out lap because obviously I was a bit slower. It was surreal.Yeah, I have a tremendous amount of respect for him. I have a tremendous amount of respect for a lot of the drivers. Scottie has always been someone that in New Zealand is just an icon. What he’s done with Indy 500s, now five-time champion, going for his sixth. To be racing him and still be in his era is pretty cool. Probably personally a cool moment for me. Q. You said you were happy to be here especially during COVID. Did you have any restrictions you had to go through to get here from Australia?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, Australia is a bit more strict in regards to traveling. I had to apply for an exemption to leave the country. I left because of work. I made sure that I got that. Karly, my wife, thankfully fell on that, too.Yeah, it wasn’t too bad, but it was enough that we couldn’t book the flights till we got a travel exemption. That all happened quickly because my calendar came out in Australia and said Bathurst was my last race. Gave us sort of enough time to prepare this car for the race, get some partners onboard in Shell-V, NiTRO+. Yeah, it’s been pretty (indiscernible) but we’re here now. Q. Was the exemption to get out of Australia, not to get into the U.S.?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, to get out of Australia. I have an ESTA just to get into America. Normal travel visa. Yeah, Australia, the travel exemption. Q. You’re a pretty self-confident guy, but is there an intimidation factor as well? I think Mark Donohue was the last guy to make his INDYCAR debut for Team Penske. I’m not trying to pile on the pressure there.SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: No dramas (laughter). He went all right, didn’t he? Q. Yes, he did. We were at COTA for the test. You said you’d drive a wheel barrel if it had the Team Penske logo on the side. Do you think that does ramp up the pressure, Team Penske, he has to perform well straightaway? Is that intimidating for you?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I think I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t feeling some pressure, but it’s probably from myself more than anything. I’m pretty hard on myself in regards to where I’m at in terms even on the simulator. I was a little bit slower than the guys. Most people would be pretty happy still where I was, but I wasn’t. I wanted to be closer than I was, which wasn’t far.Yeah, there’s probably I wouldn’t say intimidation but there’s an unknown there. I’m excited to see how I fare in a racing situation because I haven’t had that before. Like I said, it’s going to be a lot different.But I trust my ability. I trust what I can do in a race car. I trust the process that Team Penske have put me on. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think I was ready and they wanted me to do it. That gives me already a lot of confidence in the process, what goes on.Yeah, probably the only thing I’m just getting used to is dealing with the media, dealing with other things in the team. It’s a lot bigger than what I’m used to. That other stuff has probably been the harder part. Q. Tell me a little bit about whether you’ve chatted to Scott and Will so far this week. Who will be your race engineer?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: No, I think I’ve texted Scottie, obviously seen Will a couple times in the shop the last little bit. Not a huge amount. I’ve sort of been just working with my guys a little bit.My engineer would be Jonathan Diuguid, Helio’s engineer. The guy calling my strategy is John Bouslog. It’s going to be a team full of experience, worked with Helio for a long time, someone I can really feed off of.In terms of talking to Scottie and Will, they’ve been really cool. I spoke to Rossi and Hinch, Conor Daly. Conor Daly, we play video games together, so it was pretty funny. I have a little bit of a relationship there.Yeah, I have to say everyone has been really nice. Even when I went to COTA, it was a very welcoming feel within the drivers. They seemed all like really nice, cool people. Obviously they’re competitors, we all want to beat each other. At the same time credit to them for welcoming a new person to the series. Yeah, just saying hello, whatever. It’s quite easy not to. It’s been good. Q. You’re an attacking type of driver, lap of the gods, lap of the century. How many cars are you going to pass on the first lap on St. Pete? How many do you aim to pass?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I just don’t want to rip a corner off. Let’s just say that. Get through, keep my front wing on, don’t piss off anyone. As long as I get out of here with no enemy, I’ll be happy (smiling).THE MODERATOR: Appreciate everyone’s participation. Scott, we thank you for your time this morning and wish you the best of luck this weekend at St. Petersburg.SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Thanks guys. Thanks for coming on.

CHEVROLET AT HOUSTON What: Mopar Express Lane NHRA SpringNationals presented by PennzoilWhen: Friday, Oct. 23-Sunday, Oct. 25Where: Houston Raceway in Baytown, TexasTV: FOX will telecast eliminations live at 2 p.m. ET Oct. 25                                                                                      Chevrolet contenders aim to make inroads into Pro Stock titleEnders, Line and Coughlin enter penultimate race of season

DETROIT (Oct. 22, 2020) – Skill, experience and confidence are among commodities that the three National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Pro Stock championship contenders share entering the penultimate race of a truncated season.
The Mopar Express Lane NHRA SpringNationals presented by Pennzoil this weekend in suburban Houston will be another fight to the finish for Chevrolet drivers Erica Enders, Jason Line and Jeg Coughlin Jr., who have recorded a combined 11 Pro Stock titles.
Enders, driver of the Melling Performance/Elite Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro SS, holds a 31-point lead over Line and is 93 points clear of Coughlin. The reigning series champion regained the top spot in the standings last weekend at Dallas by virtue of a victory over Line’s Summit Racing Equipment Chevrolet Camaro SS in the weather-delayed St. Louis final and a semifinal appearance in the regularly-scheduled event.
“St. Louis was where everything changed for me last year. It was the first race that we won, and we were able to parlay into a championship,” said Enders, a three-time winner this season. “It was just a huge move. To win in my home state, I’m just so proud of my guys.”
Line then fell in the second round to Coughlin in the Dallas eliminations.
“Every round counts, and we’re coming close to the end of this season and our last chance at earning a fourth Pro Stock championship,” Line said. “A win in Houston would go a long way toward that.”
Coughlin, who won two of the four races to start the season in the JEGS.com/Elite Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro SS, saw his fortunes turn quickly with a pair of first-round exits in September. He rebounded with a semifinal appearance at Dallas.
“Erica and Jason are out there a bit but we can’t control what they’re doing so we’ll just get super aggressive and try to earn as many points as possible,” said Coughlin, who earned his first Pro Stock victory in 1997 at Houston. “If the JEGS.com Elite Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro is the last car left on race day, we’ll know for sure we’ve earned more points than everyone else, so that’s the goal.”
Aaron Stanfield will aim for his third successive SAM Tech.edu NHRA Factory Stock Showdown victory this weekend in a Janac Bros. Chevrolet COPO Camaro. Stanfield, of Bossier City, Louisiana, is among the COPO Camaro standout drivers entered in the event that was postponed Sept. 27 because of inclement weather and poor track conditions in Madison, Illinois.FOX will telecast eliminations live at 2 p.m. ET Oct. 25. 
CHEVROLET FROM THE COCKPIT
PRO STOCK:
ERICA ENDERS, ELITE MOTORSPORTS, MELLING PERFORMANCE/ELITE MOTORSPORTS CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (points leader; three-time winner this season; holds track Pro Stock speed record, set in April 2013): “(Winning the delayed St. Louis final last week at Dallas) was really huge. When it’s all on the line and our backs are against the wall, my guys perform every time, and I can’t speak highly enough of them. It is a big step in the right direction and by no means is it anywhere close to over, but I’m excited to be in the (points) lead.”
JASON LINE, KB RACING, SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (second in points; won at Indianapolis in July; announced that 2020 would be his final season behind the wheel): “”I have a couple of wins in Houston, but it’s been a while since I’ve seen the inside of the winner’s circle there. I’d like to see it one more time before my time as a Pro Stock driver is over, and I think our silver Summit Racing Chevy could get the job done this weekend. Every round counts, and we’re coming close to the end of this season and our last chance at earning a fourth Pro Stock championship. A win in Houston would go a long way toward that.”
GREG ANDERSON, KB RACING, SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (runner-up at last event; three-time winner at track; holds track Pro Stock elapsed time record, set in April 2018): “We came so close last weekend with our Summit Racing Chevy, and we’d like to leave Texas with a Wally. We’ve got one more chance at that before we head to Vegas to finish off the season, and we have every opportunity to get that trophy if we capitalize on the good car that we have right now. I have to do my job, and the guys have to keep giving me the top-notch car they gave me last Sunday in Dallas. If we have the whole package, we’ll be unstoppable.”
JEG COUGHLIN JR., ELITE MOTORSPORTS, JEGS.COM/ELITE PERFORMANCE CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (two-time winner this season; four-time winner at track; third in points): “We need a perfect scorecard from here on out to even have a glimpse of hope. Fortunately, we made a lot of progress in Dallas and the final two races left on the schedule both take place at tracks where we have historically done very well so we feel good about finishing strong.” 
MATT HARTFORD, HARTFORD RACING, TOTAL SEAL CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (most recent winner on circuit for third career win; fourth in points): “To hold the first ever Camping World Wally in Pro Stock, that never gets forgotten. For me, it’s just incredible. It wasn’t an easy road (to win Oct. 18), but we’ve had a good car all year long. It’s incredible for the Total Seal car to have another Wally.”
BO BUTNER, JIM BUTNER AUTO, STRUTMASTERS CHEVROLET CAMAROS SS (earned initial Pro Stock victory at Houston in 2017): “It would really take a miracle to win the championship with our car, but we can win a race or two to close out this year. It’s still inside of us, wanting to win, and that keeps us motivated these last two races. I’m especially looking forward to getting to Houston, because that’s where I won my first Pro Stock race three years ago. Maybe we can get to the winner’s circle there again one more time in a Pro Stock car.”
ALEX LAUGHLIN, LAUGHLIN MOTORSPORTS, HAVOLINE CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (won at Gainesville on Sept. 27 for fourth career victory; fifth in points): “This year, I didn’t know how many races we’d have with all these COVID issues so I’m grateful to have a win right now. As challenging as it is to race Pro Stock, and to keep our car out there, I can promise you one thing; it keeps you humble.”

Richard Childress Racing at Texas Motor Speedway … Richard Childress Racing has a storied history at Texas Motor Speedway that includes two NASCAR Cup Series wins with Jeff Burton (1997) and most recently with Austin Dillon (2020). The Welcome, NC organization has earned five NASCAR Xfinity Series wins with Kevin Harvick (2001, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2012)  and two NASCAR Truck Series wins with Jay Sauter (1999) and Ty Dillon (2013). RCR 1-2 Finish at Texas … Richard Childress Racing scored a 1-2 finish with drivers Austin Dillon and Tyler Reddick earlier this season at Texas Motor Speedway. The victory clinched Dillon’s fourth career NASCAR Playoffs berth and Reddick’s runner-up finish was the rookie’s best career finish in the NASCAR Cup Series to date.  Catch the Action … The NASCAR Xfinity Series O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 at Texas Motor Speedway will be televised live Saturday, October 24, beginning at 4:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network and will be broadcast live on the Performance Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.  The NASCAR Cup Series Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 500 at Texas Motor Speedway will be televised live Sunday, October 25, beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network and will be broadcast live on the Performance Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

This Week’s Dow Sullair Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE at Texas Motor Speedway … Austin Dillon heads into this Sunday’s 500-mile NASCAR Cup Series race as the defending race winner. He punched a ticket to the 2020 NASCAR Playoffs with a win at Texas Motor Speedway in July, crossing the finish line first over his teammate, Tyler Reddick, to produce a 1-2 finish for Richard Childress Racing. Overall, Dillon is an accomplished driver at Texas Motor Speedway with 31 starts spread out across NASCAR’s Cup, Xfinity and Truck Series. He has even competed virtually at the track on iRacing. The Welcome, North Carolina driver has earned pole awards in all three of NASCAR’s national touring series while competing at Texas Motor Speedway and has led laps in four of his 15 Cup races there.Dow brings a science and engineering crew who is driven by limitless curiosity to the RCR Team …Austin Dillon and the RCR team are again supported by Dow’s materials science expertise and technologies this season. Backed by the power of data analysis and virtual modeling, Dow develops and manufactures high-performance components and materials custom-made for the No. 3 car. Dow and RCR’s partnership has expedited innovation and shortened testing time in the automotive industry by recreating in the lab one of the most extreme environments – the racetrack. After 7 years of collaboration, Dow scientists and RCR engineers are continuing to work together to make the No. 3 car faster, safer and more precise. Stay up to date with Dow’s exciting developments at www.dow.com/sports and follow us on twitter @DowSports & @DowNewsroom. About Sullair … Since 1965, Sullair has developed and manufactured air compressors with proven reliability and wear-free durability. Sullair is globally recognized as a leading manufacturer of air compressors for use in manufacturing, oil and gas operations, food processing, construction and more. Customers around the world keep their compressors running optimally with a full line of aftermarket parts, fluids and services. AUSTIN DILLON QUOTES:Tell us about racing at Texas Motor Speedway and how it differs from other 1.5-mile tracks, such as Kansas Speedway?“Texas Motor Speedway is a bit different from Kansas Speedway in that it has two different ends. You have one end that’s very banked and has high speeds, and then you have a hard end where you have to get turned and get back on the gas. Texas Motor Speedway just has so much grip now.  It’s quite a bit different, and the banking has changed a lot from the old track to the new track. I really like Texas and am looking forward to getting there, especially since we are the defending race winners. Our cars have been strong on 1.5-mile tracks this year, and we will look to some of that speed to try and get the No. 3 Dow Sullair Chevy into Victory Lane.” You won at Texas Motor Speedway in July. How does that change your mindset going into the race this weekend?“I think our team remains just as hungry as ever to get back to Victory Lane. My RCR team has been really strong on mile-and-a-half tracks this season, and I know that we have everything we need to try and back up our performance from July. We’re going to attack from the opening green flag.”

Tyler Reddick and the No. 8 Clark Pipeline Services Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE at Texas Motor Speedway … Tyler Reddick has one NASCAR Cup Series start at Texas Motor Speedway, having finished second at the track to teammate, Austin Dillon, earlier this year. Reddick also has five NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at the 1.5-mile speedway, with his best finish of second coming in both October 2018 and March 2019. The driver also has six starts, one pole award and four top-five finishes at the 1.5-mile speedway in the NASCAR Truck Series. About Clark Pipeline Services … Clark Pipeline Services is a multi-million dollar company based in the heart of Eagleford Shale with over 10 years of experience in large and small diameter pipe with zero accidents. Clark Pipeline Services is a Civil Construction and Energy Construction Company dedicated to the service and safety of their clients. Clark Pipelines Services can provide superior quality, time savings, unmatched services and environment protection while completing successful projects. Learn more at  clarkpipeline.com. TYLER REDDICK QUOTE: What is the biggest lesson you took away from Texas Motor Speedway earlier this year when RCR finished 1-2?“Well, the way we went about that race is now out in the open and everyone knows how we did it, so I’m not sure that strategy will work when we go back this weekend. We’ll have to come up with something a little different this time. Texas is going to be a little bit like Kansas in the way that you have to take all the track position you can get and not make mistakes. The people you pass once are going to then understand where you were better than they were, so if you have to pass them a second time around they’ll know how to defend against you. That’s what makes it so hard racing in the Cup Series. Everyone is so smart about it. We’re going to need a really solid race in our No. 8 Clark Pipeline Services Chevrolet to be able to grab a good finish this weekend.”

This Week’s No. 21 Maestro’s Classic Chevrolet Camaro at Texas Motor Speedway … Anthony Alfredo will make his final start of the season for Richard Childress Racing this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. Alfredo led laps earlier this season at Texas Motor Speedway before an on-track incident ended his day early. He also has two career starts in the NASCAR Truck Series at the 1.5-mile racetrack. In eight career NASCAR Xfinity Series starts on 1.5-mile racetracks, Alfredo has five top-10 finishes. He recorded his best finish of fourth at Homestead-Miami Speedway in June. About Maestro’s Classic … Maestro’s Classic is more than a Beard Care Products Brand. It is a movement in masculinity, with a nod to love, hard work, strength and creativity. Maestro’s Classic shines a light where others don’t…on its supporters. We celebrate the integrity of man and honor his commitment to family, community and craft while shaping the bearded path for the next generation of young men. We have designed a line of beard care products that are Undeniably Good™ and will assist in Crafting a Better You™ in beard care. Visit https://www.maestrosclassic.com/ to shop our products today. ANTHONY ALFREDO QUOTES:You were able to drive to the front and lead laps last time you were at Texas Motor Speedway. What is it about Texas that seems to fit your driving style?“I’m honestly not really sure. Texas Motor Speedway is a fast and challenging racetrack with two completely different sets of corners. It’s hard for me to pinpoint exactly what it is that seems to fit my style so well. I just really enjoy these tracks with high speeds. Texas is so unique. It’s hard to get the balance right for both corners, but my Richard Childress Racing team always does such a great job unloading fast Chevrolets. I’m just excited to go back to a track where we competed at earlier this year. Hopefully, we can get up front again and get the job done this time in my last start of the season.”  This weekend will be your last start of the season in the No. 21 Chevrolet for RCR. Overall, do you feel like you have met your expectations, while running a limited schedule this year? “Absolutely. I definitely feel like I have met my own and everyone else’s expectations and maybe even exceeded some. With that, I am never satisfied. Every time I achieve a goal or reach an expectation, I always set the bar higher for myself. I just want to go out and win this weekend because we have proven we have the speed and I know we can do it as a team. We have the people, the equipment, and all the means necessary to do so and I’d love for us to put one together. I think a win would just be an incredible way to cap the season off and hopefully help set us up for next season.”

October 22, 2020

Matt DiBenedetto and the No. 21 Menards/Richmond Water Heaters team head to Texas Motor Speedway hoping to avoid the bad luck that ruined a promising day for them at Texas back in July.

In that race, DiBenedetto was poised for a strong finish when he was collected by a rookie driver who made a sudden move to pit road from the outside groove.

DiBenedetto salvaged a 17^th-place finish, but he’s still thinking about that good finish that got away as he heads back to the Ft. Worth track for Sunday’s AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 500.
 
“We had a really fast car at Texas earlier this year and got wiped out by the lap car while running fourth,” DiBenedetto said, adding that the positives from the summertime Texas race far outweigh the negatives. “I feel great going back.”
 
The 1.5-mile Texas track is similar to intermediate-length ovals at Las Vegas, where he finished second in both races there this year, and Kentucky Speedway, where he finished third in the Cup circuit’s only appearance at that track. 

 “The mile-and-a-half tracks are strong for our Menards/Richmond Water Heaters team,” he said. “And this weekend we will have great notes from the first Texas race to go off of.”
 
DiBenedetto is scheduled to start 14^th in Sunday’s 500-miler, which is set to get the green flag just after 3:30 p.m. with TV coverage on NBCSN.

CHEVROLET RACING IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIES FIRESTONE GRAND PRIX OF ST. PETERSBURG STREETS OF ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENDER PRESS CONFERENCE OCT. 21, 2020

Josef Newgarden No. 1 Hitachi Team Penske ChevroletPress Conference Transcript

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the NTT INDYCAR Series video conference. It is our last race of the season and we are joined by Josef Newgarden, who drives the No. 1 Chevrolet for Team Penske. As we head into the weekend, it is the 15th consecutive season that the battle for the Astor Challenge Cup will be decided in the final race. It will also be the first time that it has been decided at St. Pete, which is exciting. There are over 19,872 different scoring possibilities for both title contenders. THE MODERATOR: Josef, you have three wins on the season. You are tied for top fives, but you have actually won the last time we were in St. Pete, which is something that Scott hasn’t been able to do yet. Tell us about your mindset going into the weekend. JOSEF NEWGARDEN: We’re excited to get back to a street course. It’s been a while. We haven’t been able to do that yet this year. That’s going to be a change-up for the entire field with the new Aeroscreen.Feeling good. Ready to go. Just had a great call with everybody a couple hours ago. I feel like we’re definitely prepped and ready to rock for the weekend. Just going there to try to win the race. That’s really all I can do. I love on the fact sheet, I saw this put out, it was like 20,000 scenarios, 1% of the scenarios means we can win the championship.You’re saying there’s a chance and that’s all we need. I don’t know, it’s going to be an exciting weekend. We’ll see how it shakes out. We’re just going to go into our thing, see where everything lands at the end of it. THE MODERATOR: It’s funny you mention that. Before we put it out the other day, I said, Do we really want to put 1% on there? I was told that looked better than the actual amount of chances you have. We were trying to help you out on that.JOSEF NEWGARDEN: You’re right, there’s a chance, anything could happen, this is why we race, right? Anything can happen. I like how the 1% looked better than the number you could have put up (laughter  It is what it is. THE MODERATOR: We’ll take questions.Q. Tell me how excited are you for the race this weekend, that we’re actually getting to go to St. Pete, but also we’re going to have fans there as well. Josef talk to me a little bit about your season, where your mind is at going into the race this weekend.JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I’m excited, just like Scott. It’s kind of fitting that we come full circle this with. It was odd to be there at the beginning of the year when everything fell apart, not just in INDYCAR but the world really. To be able to finally come back and run the race is great. To have some fans there is fantastic. Hopefully have a little bit of energy.It’s obviously different having the fans, the way they’re able to be into the track, social distancing, masks, all that. It’s going to be a different energy, but somewhat to have energy back is really pleasing to see.Great effort by everybody. Like Scott mentioned, a lot of people to put this together the whole year without knowing we were going to have that. Just thankful we’re able to go back there and race this season. I think it’s going to be a really fun time in October. It’s a different ending for us than we’ve seen in INDYCAR.We’re all pumped. Team is ready. Feel good. We’ll go to try to have a great weekend. Q. Can you tell me what the remember about being in St. Pete the first time, anything that stood out in that weird period of you thought you were going to race, then you weren’t going to race? Also, if you could talk about what this season has felt like, some fans, no fans, canceled events, et cetera.JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It’s been a tough year. Showing up to the racetrack in the conditions that we’ve seen this year, it’s hard. I think just from an event standpoint, you don’t have the energy of the fans and the crowd. That’s really what makes INDYCAR racing what it is. I think it makes sport what it is.It’s fantastic, we have an amazing partner in NBC. To be able to showcase the events still through broadcast is great. The atmosphere at the track has been, yeah, I think tough in a lot of ways. Hopefully we can continue to work back to our old normal. I think you need that in sport. You got to have that energy to feed off for everybody, make it what it is.Earlier in the year at St. Pete, it was an odd lead-up to the event. You have so much buildup over four or five months for the season to kick off, you always want to have a good first weekend. There’s a lot of pressure and anxiety, some nerves going into that first event.I just remember when the NBA postponed, I don’t even remember how they announced it, I think they said they were canceling the season. As soon as that happened, people were speculating there’s no way we’re going to run this weekend. You saw the trickle-down effect from everywhere in the country. Didn’t take long for everything else to follow suit.It was just a strange time to be involved in. Q. Josef, you’re inside Team Penske. The effort that’s come from Roger to get this season complete, are you surprised by what he’s accomplished?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Definitely not surprised at the effort. I don’t know anyone in the world that has more energy or enthusiasm than Roger Penske. There’s just nothing that’s going to stop him when he’s leading the charge on something, he’s going to maximize everyone’s capabilities around him and make the most of the situation.I think we’re all pretty thankful that Roger has been in charge to lead us forward. I think they’ve done a tremendous job. I’m certainly not surprised to see that. They’ve done everything possible. They did everything possible to run the 500 with a limited amount of fans.I think if people knew the energy that was put in, the constant evolution they had to work through. The world was changing every day, every week. They’re constantly keeping up with it, trying to make it work, trying to make it work. The same from the INDYCAR Series the entire season. A tremendous amount of effort.Yeah, not surprised. There’s a lot of great people working in the series, certainly at Penske. Thankful we had a year. You’ll take this over nothing, without a doubt. Hopefully we can just keep getting better next year onwards. Q. Josef, when you know you have to likely win, when you’re going into a race in the end of the season, you’re kind of the attacker instead of defender, do you anticipate this race feeling any different? Do you feel freer than you have been in ’17 and ’19 defending?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I think for us, I don’t feel the pressure so much on our end. You probably normally don’t when you’re pursuing versus trying to hold someone off. I’m surprised we’re here, to be honest. It almost makes it more disappointing looking at the year now that we’ve clawed back to this point. We were in such a deficit, there was such a hill. We’ve reduced the hill, without a doubt, but it’s still a mountain to climb. It’s going to be a very hard task for us to try to win the championship.I don’t think there’s a ton of pressure. I’m just really proud of what we’ve come back from this year, some of the adversities we’ve had to work through. But as far as the approach, answering that specifically, I mean, honestly for us, we don’t change our approach. I’ve never really changed my approach.When you do start to get yourself in a tough situation is when you start trying to compensate, or if you’re trying to play to a certain level or you’re trying to drive the car to a certain speed, that’s when you can overcomplicate things and create more issues than just trying to go out and maximize the potential of the car.If we have a fifth-place car on the weekend, you can only force so much. For me, it’s all about calculated risks, getting the most out of the weekend. For us, that needs to be a win. If it’s not there, I’m not going to take a sixth-place car and try to pass five guys in front of me. I’ll probably end up in the wall doing that. I don’t see the approach changing for us very much. Q. Scott McLaughlin, what has been your impression of him in his lead-up to making his debut? What do you anticipate him being able to do?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It’s going to be really fascinating to see how he handles this challenge. This is going to be an enormous task for Scott. He’s really, really good. We already know that. You could see that a mile away. I think we all admire his strengths around the Super Car side. I think he’s a great racer overall, doesn’t matter what car you put him in.As far as INDYCAR specifically this weekend, he doesn’t have a lot of time. This is a very abnormal St. Pete weekend. Normally you have three practices, an hour apiece, maybe about two and a half hours total. He’d have an overnight to kind of understand things and make sure to distill it down to useful information for him, review in a longer time period.He’s got to work on the fly. He’s never been to this track. He’s never really driven the car on a true street circuit. It’s an enormous task. If he finishes in the top 10, it’s a great weekend. If he finishes in the top five, it’s an amazing weekend. Who knows, maybe he goes and wins the race. Very possible for someone like him. Q. Josef, what do you admire about Scott and what he’s done over his career? Scott, what do you admire about Josef, what he’s done so far?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I mean, I think for me, I’ve got a tremendous amount of respect for Scott, without a doubt. He’s one of the best that we’ve seen in the INDYCAR Series. But I think in racing overall. I wouldn’t limit it to just our championship. I think he’s a world class driver that’s very diversified and has an incredible amount of accomplishments over a long period of time.He’s been consistent throughout his whole career. He’s just always there. He’s very dependable and very capable in any situation, which is why I think he’s had such success.Yeah, I’m happy to compete against him. I want to kick his butt this weekend. I have a tremendous respect for him. If we don’t have enough to beat him, we’ll shake his hand, his team’s hand, say great job, try to beat them next year.They’re one of the toughest to beat, and specifically Scott is one of the toughest to beat because he’s so consistent and dependable. I respect that a lot about him. That’s a key quality he’s had throughout his career. Q. Josef, do you feel there was a certain point in the season when this championship chase really turned in your direction?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I mean, I think you got to look to race two at Gateway, was kind of the final time it came back around to us. This trend has thankfully gone the right way from there. It kind of ebbed and flowed. The first three races were just bad because Scott racked up so many points so quickly, then we kind of were ebbing and flowing for a little while. We’d have a good race, then a weird race. The points would go up and down.The point where the trend has reversed was Gateway race two. That’s what we’ve been working towards. We’re going to try to continue that trend through St. Pete. We need another really good weekend. Q. Can you remember how good your street course setups were back in Sebring in February? Are you confident they’re strong? Once we learned St. Pete was back on the schedule, when did your teams say, Right, we need to go focus on that again, that’s going to be the championship decider?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I agree. It’s hard to know until you actually really get to the weekend. We were in the same position back in March where we’d all tested, we’d all been on the tire that we were going to run on the weekend. But it’s not a true street course track condition that you’re testing on. You don’t know how it’s going to apply to each specific street course that you go to.I guess I could say I felt like our street course car took a massive step in 2019. We were all pretty happy, I know I was very happy with our street course package in 2019. Tried to carry that through with the Aeroscreen, modify it a bit for the differences.I don’t think it’s changed our outlook. Running this whole year with the Aeroscreen, running a lot of road courses, I don’t think it’s changed our outlook on what we want to do going into St. Pete. I think our plan, what we had, is a lot of what we’re probably going to stick to.The good news is we had already done a ton of work. We were ready to go run St. Pete. Now we’re just going to try to apply that.THE MODERATOR: Thanks to Josef for joining us today.