Day one of qualifying for the 104^th running of the Indianapolis 500 has come to close with Team Chevy rookie Rinus Veekay ready to do battle in the Fast Nine Qualifying at 1:15 p.m. Sunday afternoon. 
The driver of the No. 21 Sonax Ed Carpenter Chevrolet led the 17 Chevy powered in the five hour and 50 minute session that set positions 10-33 in the starting field and gave the nine fastest of the day a shot for the coveted pole on Sunday. 
At 19 years old, Veekay showed the maturity and calm of a veteran to secure the sixth fastest time driving for Ed Carpenteer, one of the most successful qualifiers at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Veekay had the benefit of the best leadership and guidance a rookie could ask for in lining up to make a run for his first Indy 500. 
Two-time and defending NTT INDYCAR Series champion Josef Newgarden, No, 1 Shell V-Power Team Penske Chevrolet will start 13^th; Pato O’Ward, No.5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet starts, Carpenter put his No. 20 U.S. Space Force Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet in 16^th position and Conor Daly, No. 47 U.S. Air Force Ed Carpenter Chevrolet will roll off 18^th. On Sunday, Veekay and the other eight drivers will have a 30 minute practice session in the morning to give the teams and drivers a look at the track characteristics before the pole qualifying. After the Fast Nine Shootout, there will be an all-field practice from 3:30 to 6:00 p.m., the last time the cars are on track until Happy Hour on Carb day, Friday, August 21, 2020.  DRIVER QUOTES:NO. 1 JOSEF NEWGARDEN, SHELL V-POWER TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:“Judging from yesterday, the hotter it got, the more difficult it was for everybody. This early draw here was certainly beneficial for us and others that got it today. I think that was pretty much where are our car was today. We could practice for a touch more, but I think we were pretty close to our limit. It’s just great to be here. I’m just pumped we are running the Indianapolis 500. I can’t say thanks enough to Roger, everyone at IMS for making this happen. We are going to put on an amazing show next weekend. I think we are going to have a good car to race with for Shell V-Power Nitro and Team Chevy.”
NO. 3 HELIO CASTRONEVES, PENNZOIL TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:“Being on the second page (of the time sheet) isn’t what you want, but we are working on it. We are going to find out if we can find a little bit and if not, we race the Pennzoil Chevrolet from there and we have a very good car. We’ve all been really happy with the cars in race trim. You hate to start that far back as you need to pass a lot of cars and use some strategy, but it can be done from there. I’m just excited to run in another Indy 500 and do our best to put on a show for all the fans watching at home.” NO. 4 CHARLIE KIMBALL , TRESIBA AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET: “It was a challenging run for the No. 4 Tresiba Chevrolet but the A.J. Foyt Racing guys have been good all week. I know the car is good in race trim. We just have to figure out exactly what happened in those four laps. Got pretty busy in turn four on lap four, so it’s about a four-lap average here unfortunately – not one or not two. We’ll work on it, figure out what’s going on and be better for tomorrow (practice).” NO. 5 PATO O’WARD, ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET:”I think it was positive toward the end of the day. I think we started the day a little confused based on where we had ran yesterday. We fixed it for the afternoon. We improved a few spots, but didn’t have enough for the Fast Nine. Every time you improve a few positions, it is positive. We should look back and be happy with our last run because of the heat. We will start working on the race car now. Excited to see what Arrow McLaren SP and Chevrolet can do next week.” NO. 7 OLIVER ASKEW, ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET: “My first qualifying at the Indianapolis 500 was pretty exciting. First run ended up being our quickest, unfortunately, we weren’t able to go quicker. It looks like we are stuck in 21st right now. Probably the most frightening four laps of my life, but that’s what Indy 500 qualifying is all about. Looking forward to putting the race setup back on, because I feel like Arrow McLaren SP have a much more competitive package in race trim. Looking forward to the rest of the week.”  NO. 12 WILL POWER, VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:“I’m not sure what else we could do out there today, I was wide open the whole time. We will see where we end up and just focus on the race and get back to race mode as a team. We will keep the focus on that for tomorrow’s practice and work on the driveability of our car. This will be the furthest back I’ll probably ever started here, but you can win from anywhere in this race. It will be a long day, but we have a good Verizon 5G Edge Chevrolet. The guys have worked hard and I appreciate the effort. We will continue to work on the racecar and have some fun next weekend.” NO. 14 TONY KANAAN, ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET: “Well, a little bit disappointing. I think we could have been in the top-15 but the car was pretty comfortable. We concentrated a lot on the race setup and the car is actually pretty decent in race trim so just a few more cars to pass but, all in all, the temperature didn’t help us. Of course we would have like to drawn an earlier (qualifying) number but that’s just the luck of the draw, so it is what it is, but we’re ready for next weekend.” NO. 20 ED CARPENTER, U.S. SPACE FORCE ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET:    “Today was a day of mixed emotions. I’m very happy for Rinus and the ECR team for once again prepping fast cars. Chevrolet gave us great power today and we had a chance! We gave it all we had, but at least we have one car in the Fast Nine Shootout. I was really hoping to have the U.S. Space Force car up there, but this is the Indy 500 and you can win from anywhere! That’s still the mission.” NO. 21 RINUS VEEKAY, SONAX ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET: “Pretty good day at the office! I was lucky yesterday with the draw and had a good run this morning. Fourth driver out and I think the temperature really helped us. We put some really good laps down and stayed super consistent. I was kind of shocked by the 231.7 on the first lap. Very pleased with that! Being the only Chevrolet driver in the Fast Nine is also something to feel good about. Tomorrow is another day. It almost feels like the hardest part is over, the waiting is so hard! Tomorrow we can just go and qualify! For the race, everything is going to be different, but we have a good racecar. I’m very confident.” NO. 22 SIMON PAGENAUD, MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:“I wasn’t what we wanted out there at all with the Menards Chevrolet, but this place treats you like she wants to treat you and you have to respect that. We had a perfect experience last year, but this year it is a little harder so we have to work for it. It was an eventful qualifying session for sure. Certainly way too much sliding around, and certainly not fast enough either. If we start where we are, we have a great racecar for the race. What bothers me the most is I wanted a fast time, and at Team Penske, that is what we expect. So we will just have to work on it and make it better for the race next Sunday.” NO. 24 SAGE KARAM, WIX FILTERS DRYER REINBOLD RACING CHEVROLET:“This isn’t what we wanted, obviously. Around lap 2 we ended up blistering a tire and that made the car pretty loose. I just stayed flat (on the throttle) and made the best of it. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough today. We missed the first lap speed because the car didn’t fell off that badly. We wanted a few more mile per hour on lap one. We have started in the back before and worked our way up. We are going to focus on how to make the race car platform better. Our race setup is definitely more comfortable than the qual setup. And our DRR WIX team is real good in the pits as well. I know this race is going to come down to track position. In laps and out laps are going to be huge. Obviously, pit stops are extremely important. I’ve never worried about my pit crew. Despite being an Indy-only crew most of the time, they work year-around on pit stops in the shop. We always pick up positions on pit stops. If we get are in position to improve on the track, I know that the crew will gain us spots in the pits too.” NO.41 DALTON KELLETT,  K-LINE USA AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET:“Alright just finished my first qualifying run at Indy. Really excited, really happy that we got that solid run in. Went off the order third, so the track was nice and cool. The car felt great for all four laps. It was good to get lots of practice in the heat yesterday when it was slippery, moving around but I ended up getting a solid platform for this morning after a couple changes. Looking at the times maybe we could have been a bit more aggressive on our mechanical balance, but we’ve really had the focus this week for the race which is what we’re looking ahead for and devoted most of our time to so I think being conservative in qualifying was always our plan. But very happy to get that run in and looking forward to practice on Sunday.” NO. 47CONOR DALY, U.S. AIR FORCE ED CARPENTER RACING CHEEVROLET: “Not the day we wanted to have here! After yesterday, we knew our car was a challenge to drive in the heat. The time of day where we drew to qualify was quite hot. I had a bit of a loose moment on the last lap, which really didn’t help the four-lap average. We went out later in the day and improved a little bit, but it was just really challenging in the heat. We know the U.S. Air Force Chevy is a going to be a good racecar, though. Ed (Carpenter) and I are starting from the same row and we can definitely move forward from there.” NO. 59 MAX CHILTON, GALLAGHER CARLIN CHEVROLET: “All things considered, I’d say I’m pleased with how our day of qualifying ended. We drew a low number in the draw yesterday, so we didn’t even get out to do our first qualifying run until about two hours into the session when the track was at its hottest. We just didn’t have it on our first run and I’d say we didn’t maximize the setup we had for the conditions at the time of day we were running. We weren’t happy with where we ended up and both the team and myself felt like there was definitely more in the car, so the guys went back and quickly looked through the data to see what direction we needed to go to make another attempt. The guys made some changes to the car and we went back out with about 40 minutes to go in the session, which was obviously the right call as we averaged almost a mile and a half quicker and moved up two spots and into the row ahead of where we’d been. I’ve said it from the beginning, but I really feel that we have a good race car and I’m looking forward to hopefully working my way up to the front.” NO. 66 FERNANDO ALONSO,          RUOFF ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET: “The speed was not there yesterday in practice and today in qualifying. We know that so we just wanted to put in a solid run in for qualifying with no mistakes and execute the best we could. I think we achieved that and I’m happy with that. The No. 66 Ruoff Mortgage Arrow McLaren SP car was feeling great today. I think we have a good race car because the first few days we were on the competitive side. The starting place for the race is not changing our hopes for next Sunday. All our focus now is on the race. This place offers a lot of possibilities even for the people starting at the back and we will be looking to take that possibility next week.” NO. 67 JR HILDEBRAND,  SALESFORCE DRYER REINBOLD RACING CHEVROLET:“I wasn’t psyched about being the last qualifier today. We know how the track gets later in qualifying and, after 115 or 120 degrees track surface, it starts to get really slick out there. We knew that after Friday’s practice in the afternoon and it was 127 on my qualifying run today. The car feels good in race trim but once we started trimming out the car, we have been struggling. It’s a bum draw for sure today. The crew guys have been working super hard to improve our cars throughout practice and qualifying. I felt good about the first lap in the heat with a 228.5 (m.p.h.) but the conditions were different in turns one and two from three and four. I did have a big moment on the second lap in turn one. The focus now is on the race and I feel that our setups are good. We’ll try to improve on some of those settings in Sunday afternoon practice. If we have a good car in the race, we can move up. It’s 500 miles after all.”  NO. 81 BEN HANLEY, DRAGON SPEED USA CHEVROLET                       IANAP

• Marco Andretti fastest as Honda drivers claim top five speeds in first-round qualifying
• Honda drivers claim eight of “Fast Nine” final qualifying positions, 11 of top 12 overall
• Final Qualifying for 104^th Indianapolis 500 takes place Sunday

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (August 15, 2020) –  Honda drivers and teams dominated first-round qualifying today at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  Led by Marco Andretti and the Andretti Autosport team, the manufacturer claimed eight of the fastest nine qualifying runs today, making them eligible for Sunday’s “Fast Nine” shootout to set the first three rows of the starting grid and the coveted pole position for next weekend’s Indianapolis 500.

Led by Marco Andretti’s four-lap run of 231.351 mph, Andretti Autosport drivers swept the first four positions on the provisional grid, with Ryan Hunter-Reay, Alexander Rossi and James Hinchcliffe rounding out the top four.  Championship leader, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon, ended the day fifth after “waving off” a very fast last-minute run.  Rookie Alex Palou was seventh for Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh; while the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing duo of Graham Rahal and Takuma Sato rounded out the “Fast Nine”.  Four different Honda-powered teams will all have at least one driver in tomorrow’s pole shootout.

Despite lining up 28^th [a result of Friday night’s blind qualifying draw] – and therefore with the disadvantage of a far hotter track than his principal opponents – Andretti delivered the first 232mph lap en route to the fastest qualifying run of the day.  Hinchcliffe and Palou also impressed with their runs coming in the less favored heat of mid-afternoon.

Positions 10 through 33 were locked-in today, with Colton Herta, Marcus Ericsson and Spencer Pigot filling out the fourth row of the starting grid for Honda.  Felix Rosenqvist will start in the middle of the fifth row, 14^th, for Chip Ganassi Racing; with Zach Veach in the middle of row six and Meyer Shank Racing’s Jack Harvey in the center of the seventh row.  Santino Ferrucci will start to the inside of Harvey after qualifying 19^th today; while James Davison rounds out the 15-driver Honda field and will start 27^th.

Honda Racing social media content and videos from practice and qualifying from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is available on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/HondaRacingHPD) and on Twitter at (https://twitter.com/HondaRacing_HPD).  Produced by the CoForce Digital Media, YouTube video packages can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV.  

Next

Final qualifying, for today’s nine fastest qualifiers will determine the coveted pole position and set the first three rows of starters for the August 23 Indianapolis 500.  Live television coverage of final qualifying begins on NBC at 1 p.m. EDT Sunday.  Coverage on the NBC Sport Gold app begins at 10 a.m. EDT.

The 104^th running of the Indianapolis 500 takes place on Sunday, August 23, with live television coverage on NBC starting with pre-race festivities at 1 p.m. EDT.

Quotes

Marco Andretti (Andretti Autosport Honda) Fastest in opening-round qualifying today: “Man, when it all comes together, it’s beautiful.  The balance was great. Honda really ‘brought it’ this year, so thanks to them. Now we’ve got to do it one more time tomorrow [in final qualifying for today’s top nine]. “The ‘roll-off’ speed of the Honda, the team and car they put together, has been really impressive.  When you roll off [the transporter] with speed, that’s always the first hurdle at Indianapolis. When you get over that, then it’s about fine tuning and circumstances [such as weather], so hopefully we are on the better end of things.”

Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) Championship leader, fifth fastest today in first-round qualifying: “I didn’t know if our first attempt would be good enough to keep us in the ‘Fast Nine’. We were fairly conservative on balance and overall downforce. As we got through the hotter parts of the day today it got harder for the drivers to hold on to the cars when they were this trimmed out, but we improved from sixth to fifth [with a second run in the afternoon]. I don’t think you want to go fastest today because that means tomorrow you’ll go last in the hottest part of the day. I’m pretty happy though with the PNC Bank and always proud to be powered by Honda.”

Ted Klaus (President, Honda Performance Development) on today’s first-round qualifying results: “Well, we are honestly a little surprised at exactly how things played out today — pleasantly surprised, You’ve got Andretti Autosport, Chip Ganassi Racing, Dale Coyne Racing, and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing all represented [in the Fast Nine].  Our group at HPD always do a great job, so I don’t want to take anything away from them. The high-boost formula has never been run in qualifying [at Indy] and I think IndyCar gets kudos [for introducing it]. We made the car safer with the Aeroscreen, and now we’ve made them faster, which is a win-win. The teams have been very gracious to us this year, saying they’re proud to be powered by Honda; and I just throw it right back at them, that we’re proud to power them. I think the collaboration and cooperation between the teams and HPD –  pushing each other – has been the biggest difference. The result is we’ve been a little bit faster. I think it would be unfair to the teams and how much work they’ve put in to say, ‘It’s just because we found a little power.’ It’s a whole bunch of little things, all stacked on top of each other. It’s definitely satisfying to watch it come to fruition in qualifying.”

Union, KY (August 14, 2020) – Chris Ferguson sits on top of points after the first round of heats at Florence Speedway for the Sunoco North South 100 before rain showers caused the postponement of round two heats.The first heat in round one would see Shane Clanton charge from the third starting spot to take the win.  Mike Marlar, winner of Thursday night’s North-South Shootout, came from the inside of row number three to take the runner-up spot behind Clanton as sixth starting Josh Richards was third. The second heat in round one was a terrific battle for the lead as Chris Ferguson emerged from his seventh starting position to claim the victory. Kent Robinson started from the pole and ran second to Ferguson. First time Florence visitor, Ross Bailes charging from his 10th starting position to claim third at the finish. The third heat in round one would see the first pole sitter claim a win as Tim McCreadie lead all the way for the win. Former Florence Speedway track champion, Jason Jameson ran second with eighth starting Billy Moyer Jr. passing several cars to finish in third. The fourth heat in round one saw LOLMDS Rookie-of-the-Year contender Tyler Bruening take the victory after roaring to the lead on the opening lap. Bruening pulled away for a dominating victory over current LOLMDS Championship Points leader Jimmy Owens, who finished second after starting sixth. Devin Moran advanced two spots during the race to come home in third. The fifth heat in round one would see four-time Series Champion Earl Pearson Jr. lead wire-to-wire to pick up the victory. With his Florence Speedway debut this week, Ricky Thornton Jr. finished second in the final heat of round one. Dale McDowell roared from the inside of row number five to take third spot at the checkers.

Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series 
Race Summary 
Sunoco Race Fuels North/South 100 – presented by Lucas Oil
Friday, August 14th, 2020
Florence Speedway – Union, KY

Penske Race Shocks Round 1 Heat Race #1 Finish: 1. 25-Shane Clanton[3]; 2. 157-Mike Marlar[5]; 3. 14-Josh Richards[6]; 4. 76-Brandon Overton[10]; 5. 32-Bobby Pierce[1]; 6. 25Z-Mason Zeigler[8]; 7. 56C-Colton Horner[7]; 8. 7W-Ricky Weiss[9]; 9. 1G-Devin Gilpin[11]; 10. 11R-Josh Rice[4]; 11. 13W-David Webb[2]

FK Rod Ends Round 1 Heat Race #2 Finish: 1. 22F-Chris Ferguson[7]; 2. 7R-Kent Robinson[1]; 3. 1B-Ross Bailes[10]; 4. 20B-Todd Brennan[5]; 5. 0-Scott Bloomquist[8]; 6. 94M-Jason Miller[6]; 7. 8-Kyle Strickler[4]; 8. 49-Jonathan Davenport[11]; 9. 17D-Zack Dohm[9]; 10. 81E-Tanner English[2]; 11. 79-Kyle Hardy[3]

Simpson Race Products Round 1 Heat Race #3 Finish: 1. 39-Tim McCreadie[1]; 2. 12J-Jason Jameson[3]; 3. 21-Billy Moyer Jr[8]; 4. 11J-Drew Armstrong[2]; 5. 2S-Stormy Scott[6]; 6. 50-Shanon Buckingham[11]; 7. 18D-Daulton Wilson[4]; 8. 17ST-Shannon Thornsberry[5]; 9. 83-Scott James[9]; 10. 21P-Kirk Phillips[10]; 11. 17T-Tim Vance[7]

Ohlins Shocks Round 1 Heat Race #4 Finish: 1. 16-Tyler Bruening[4]; 2. 20-Jimmy Owens[6]; 3. 9-Devin Moran[5]; 4. 1T-Tyler Erb[8]; 5. 71-Hudson O’Neal[7]; 6. 49G-Billy Green[2]; 7. 1M-Connor Meade[1]; 8. 51M-Joey Moriarty[3]; 9. 18L-Trevor Landrum[9]; 10. 33J-Jesse Lay[10]

Sunoco Race Fuels Round 1 Heat #5 Finish: 1. 1-Earl Pearson Jr[1]; 2. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[4]; 3. 17M-Dale McDowell[9]; 4. 40B-Kyle Bronson[8]; 5. 28X-Tyler Carpenter[7]; 6. 22L-Skyller Lewis[10]; 7. 21H-Robby Hensley[5]; 8. 32S-Chad Stapleton[3]; 9. 20C-Tristan Chamberlain[2]; 10. 8A-Curt Addison[6]

CHEVROLET RACING NTT INDYCAR SERIES INDIANAPOLIS 500 INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEEDWAY INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA TEAM CHEVY PRACTICE DAY THREE FAST FRIDAY DRIVER QUOTES AUGUST 14, 2020
DRIVER QUOTES:
NO. 1 JOSEF NEWGARDEN, SHELL V-POWER TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:”Tricky day for us from an ultimate speed standpoint.  I think we still have a good opportunity to show well tomorrow and fight to get in the last part of the fast nine.  I think a pole run will be toough for us, but we have to put ourselves as far forward as possible. Then we have to work in the race car and I think we can make anything happen in the race. I have a lot of confidence in Team Chevy and all of our partners. i think we’ve got what it takes to have a solid performance tomorrow and like I said, put ourselves in good position for the race.”
NO. 3 HELLIO CASTRONEVES, PENNZOIL TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET: “It was a very rough day today for the No. 3 Pennzoil Chevy. We definitely will continue looking at our teammates setups and continue work for tomorrow. We’re going to keep fighting and we’ll see what happens.” NO. 4 CHARLIE KIMBALL, TRESIBA AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET:“Well it’s Fast Friday and that means we get to go fast. It was pretty challenging I think for everybody today. The track temps came up, the ambient temps came up, the wind picked up and when you’re hanging and Indy car out at over 230 miles per hour it’s a handful, it can be around here especially, but the No. 4 Tresiba Chevrolet team here at A.J. Foyt Racing I think did a really good job to maximize the car we had. We had some pretty big challenges early in the day but we made some big improvements and came out better at the end of the day so as a team I think we have a little more confidence going in to tomorrow, but tomorrow’s just the first battle. It’s next Sunday we’re really working towards.” NO. 5 PATO O’WARD, ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET:”Today was even more of step forward than yesterday for the No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet. Today was all about qualifying running to get ready for tomorrow. The goal is obviously going to be to get into the Fast Nine. I think we have made some good changes and we are very happy with where we are at to start the day off tomorrow in qualifying.” NO. 7 OLIVER ASKEW, ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET:”I don’t think we were able to show our true pace today. We did most of our qualifying sims in the heat of the day which isn’t ideal but we expect the conditions to be the same for tomorrow’s qualifying. Really depends on where we get in the random draw for where we go out tomorrow. That’s going to dictate a lot of everyone’s performance for their first run tomorrow in qualifying. I think we rolled out with a really good car this weekend. We haven’t really changed much so that shows all the hard work from the Arrow McLaren SP team is paying off so far. Looking forward to laying it all out tomorrow and showing everyone what we really have.” NO. 12 WILL POWER, VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET: “I think we found a better setup at the end so I feel a little more comfortable going into the first run of qualifying in the Verizon 5G Edge Chevy. It’s going to be very tight. I really hope we can make it into the top nine but there are so many fast cars, it will be difficult.” NO. 14 TONY KANAAN, ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET:“Difficult day. I was really hopeful that yesterday, since we had such a great day, that today with the increasing of boost we were going to be competitive and we struggled today. I think a lot of the teams did, too. I think the temperatures didn’t help but we have a lot of work to do tonight. Still an awesome day to be at the track, still an awesome day to run 230 plus miles per hour. I mean it had been a while that I haven’t done that so, we’ll see what’s going to happen tomorrow. It’s going to be interesting. We have a lot of work to do.”
NO. 20 ED CARPENTER, U.S. SPACE FORCE ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET: “Today was not the day I was hoping for, to be honest. I felt really good yesterday in race setup and with our speed. The conditions were very tough today. I was hoping we were going to be able to contend for the pole in the U.S. Space Force car. I don’t know if that’s in the cars this year, but we’ll certainly give it our best shot. The good thing is Rinus (VeeKay) was fairly happy. Those guys were clearly the best in the ECR stable. He was completing more four-lap runs than I was and was a little quicker too, so we’ll lean on what they did. We’ll put out best foot forward. One thing I do know, conditions are going to be tough tomorrow. I saw a lot of people struggling today and it’s definitely going to come down to the fourth lap. I’m going to rely on my experience and hopefully put us in a pretty good spot, knowing that we still do have a good racecar.”  NO. 21 RINUS VEEKAY, SONAX ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET:“A good day! The SONAX car is doing pretty well in qualifying trim. Most of the best times were this morning, but we actually improved in the hottest part of the day when the track temp was over 130 degrees. I think that shows good speed. We seemed to be one of the most consistent cars out there. I also drew a good starting position. I was super nervous, I haven’t been that nervous in a long time! Qualifying number four! Tomorrow’s going to be different, you never know what’s going to happen. I know one thing, I’m going to have a good car. ECR’s known for that.” NO. 22 SIMON PAGENAUD, MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:”Tough day today. It was really hot and really slick out there. It’s not really showing our pace because we got on track late, and the temperature was already up. I think we have more pace than we are showing on the time charts. Certainly not what we showed in race pace. It is good to have a good car for race day, that is reassuring, but I am going for pole position. I want to be fast and we need to find some speed.” NO. 24   SAGE KARAM, WIX FILTERS DRYER REINBOLD RACING CHEVROLET:“Conditions deteriorated as the day went on. But it’s the same for everyone and Saturday looks to be similar weather. Looks like Honda rolled out a pretty good unit for qualifying. I still feel really good about our race pace right now. I know Chevy will do everything they can overnight, but it looks like the Honda cars might have a bit of an edge right now. From our perspective, I feel very good about how the team has worked together. Sage and I have been communicating well too. We haven’t found the ‘sweet’ spot for qualifying and we’ll try some things in the morning. It will be tough for everyone and I will try to stick the best number I can when it’s my turn.” NO.41 DALTON KELLETT, K-LINE USA AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET: “Just finished up my first Fast Friday. I feel like I can finally breathe now. It was a long day of qualifying runs. Felt like we have a pretty good car in us for the four lap average. We played around with various trim levels and we were working on mechanical balance, so I think we’ve got a good compromise between outright speed and also just having the car for the entire four laps. It’s my first time going into qualifying at Indy. With my previous experience in (Indy) Lights in the Road to Indy it’s only two laps for qualifying so that four lap run does feel like it takes a long time and you really have to work your tools, work your weight jacker during the run to stay ahead of whichever way the car is going but the team’s been doing a good job and we drew third for qualifying order tomorrow so looking forward to getting on track early.” NO. 47 CONOR DALY, U.S. AIR FORCE ED CARPENTER RACING CHEEVROLET: “Results wise, today looks great. We’ve had a really consistent week up front in the Top 10, which is nice. Today was a struggle though, for sure, especially in the afternoon. It’s tough to see where each engine manufacturer ended up and who had what in the chamber. We’re obviously going to work with our Chevrolet guys and give it the best shot we can. Hopefully, we can all put our heads together and come up with something great for tomorrow. We want to give the U.S. Air Force car a good run!” NO. 59 MAX CHILTON, GALLAGHER CARLIN CHEVROLET:“It was another day of our speed not properly reflecting where we feel we are in terms of the time charts. The guys did a great job getting a new engine in the No. 59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet late in the day yesterday and because of that we had to spend most of the morning, which was when the track was at its quickest, shaking the car down and working through our setup. Once it got so much hotter later in the afternoon, we just couldn’t get the car where we wanted it no matter what changes we made. We found a little more speed again at the end of the day and were able to close out the session on a decently high note, but just with all of the variables going against us we weren’t able to show the true speed of the car.” NO. 66 FERNANDO ALONSO, RUOFF ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET: “Today was a good day. I think after yesterday’s issue, the team did a very good job overnight and the car was ready in the morning. So, we maximized the number of laps we had available today and the number of sets. Because we saved some in the previous day so we had more today so it was a very good test day for us today and useful information. Let’s see tomorrow what the speed of the car is.” NO. 67 JR HILDEBRAND, SALESFORCE DRYER REINBOLD RACING CHEVROLET:“Conditions deteriorated as the day went on. But it’s the same for everyone and Saturday looks to be similar weather. Looks like Honda rolled out a pretty good unit for qualifying. I still feel really good about our race pace right now. I know Chevy will do everything they can overnight, but it looks like the Honda cars might have a bit of an edge right now. From our perspective, I feel very good about how the team has worked together. Sage and I have been communicating well too. We haven’t found the ‘sweet’ spot for qualifying and we’ll try some things in the morning. It will be tough for everyone and I will try to stick the best number I can when it’s my turn.” NO. 81 BEN HANLEY, DRAGON SPEED USA CHEVROLET         

• Marco Andretti quickest in final full practice day prior to Indianapolis 500 qualifying
• Honda drivers claim nine of top ten lap speeds in “Fast Friday” session
• Qualifying for 104^th Indianapolis 500 begins Saturday

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (August 14, 2020) – The final full day of practice prior to qualifying action this weekend saw Honda drivers claim nine of the top-ten speeds in “Fast Friday” action at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with Marco Andretti leading the field with a best lap of 233.491 mph.

The combination of cool morning temperatures and increased turbocharger boost for qualifying resulted in a dramatic increase in speeds, with 22 of the 33 drivers topping 230 mph during the day.  Scott Dixon made an impressive late-afternoon qualifying simulation run to vault to third on overall speed and second in the “no tow” list of single-car runs.

Heading the “no tow” list was Ryan Hunter-Reay, who also posted the fourth-fastest overall speed, 232.124 mph, a lap during a simulated qualifying run in the cooler late-morning temperatures.  Spencer Pigot rounded out the top five for Honda, while Alex Palou was once again the quickest rookie, and sixth fastest overall.

Behind the top six, Honda drivers also claimed the seventh through 10^th overall positions as well. James Hinchcliffe ended the day seventh, followed by Takuma Sato, Alexander Rossi and Marcus Ericsson.  On the “no tow” speed chart, the fastest six today included Hunter-Ray, Dixon, Rossi, Andretti, Ericsson and Hinchcliffe.

Honda Racing social media content and videos from practice and qualifying from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is available on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/HondaRacingHPD) and on Twitter at (https://twitter.com/HondaRacing_HPD).  Produced by the CoForce Digital Media, YouTube video packages can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV.  

Next

Qualifying, to set the 33-car starting field for the August 23 Indianapolis 500, will take place tomorrow and Sunday, with live television coverage on NBC at 3 p.m. EDT Saturday and 1 p.m. EDT Sunday.  Coverage on the NBC Sport Gold app begins at 11 a.m. EDT on Saturday, and 10 a.m. EDT Sunday.

Quotes

Marco Andretti (Andretti Autosport Honda) Fastest in practice today: “Fast Friday was good, especially with the top speed of the day, thanks to a great effort from Honda and the whole U.S. Concrete/Curb team. We seem to be looking good on ‘no-tow’ speeds as well [4^th].  Although we still have a few things to work out. I wanted to end the day with [faster] runs than we did.  But we just need to nail tomorrow and the #98 car has enough speed for the Fast Nine [to be eligible for Sunday’s pole qualifying session].” 

Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) Third fastest today: “I hope things keep going in this direction. I’m always proud to be powered by Honda and HPD, and hope this is some indication that we have the upper hand on power this year. It’s always tough here at Indy, and the race is obviously where it counts. The PNC Bank car is good right now and we’re trying to get some more balance, so that’s kind of where we’re at. We were second or third most the day on the no-tow speed report for outright speed, so we hope that ends up holding true.”

Richard Childress Racing at the Daytona International Speedway Road Course …  Continuing to navigate through an unprecedented 2020 season, Richard Childress Racing will compete at the Daytona International Speedway Road Course for the first time this weekend. In order to prepare for the new challenge, RCR Cup Series drivers Austin Dillon and Tyler Reddick have spent significant time preparing with their teams in the Chevrolet simulator.  Earl Bamber, who will make his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut this weekend under the RCR banner, has competed on the configuration seven times, earning four podium finishes in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Series.  Richard Childress at the Daytona Road Course … Richard Childress competed at the Daytona Road Course as a driver in 1969 when he drove his 1968 Camaro to a 13th-place finish in the Citrus 250. Childress went on to compete on the Florida road course a total of five times, racing in the NASCAR Grand Touring Division and NASCAR Grand American Series. He finished in the top 10 in three out of the five races, with a best result of eighth in 1970.  COVID-19 Relief … Own a piece of history by participating in an auction and sale of Richard Childress’ personal collection of memorabilia. All proceeds will assist COVID-19 relief efforts. Thousands of rare, hard-to-find and exclusive items from Richard Childress’ 50+ years in NASCAR are up for bid or sale. Visit https://www.ebay.com/str/RichardChildresscollection.Catch the Action … The NASCAR Xfinity Series UNOH 188 at the Daytona Road Course will be televised live Saturday, August 15, beginning at 3 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network and will be broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.  The NASCAR Cup Series GoBowling 235 at the Daytona Road Course will be televised live Sunday August 16, beginning at 3 p.m. ET on NBC and will be broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

This Week’s American Ethanol Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 at Daytona International Speedway… Dillon, the 2018 Daytona 500 Champion, has earned race wins at Daytona in both the NASCAR Cup Series and the NASCAR Xfinity Series. However, this weekend features a new road course configuration for NASCAR at Daytona and will mark his first attempt at the track.  Delivering Performance on and Off the Racetrack… Austin Dillon races on Sunoco Green E15 fuel made with 15 percent American Ethanol. Ethanol is the most effective and least expensive source of octane available and it also burns cleaner and cooler than gasoline. All those factors mean that ethanol helps drive peak engine performance whether you’re in a racecar or on your way to the grocery store. And, ethanol helps keep our air cleaner and our environment healthier by reducing toxic and greenhouse gas emissions. Learn more about why ethanol is the smart choice for your engine, your wallet and our environment at americanethanolracing.com. Playoffs Bound … Dillon survived three late-race restarts at Texas Motor Speedway to earn the win in the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops/E-Z-GO/Tracker Off Road Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, securing a spot in the 2020 NASCAR Playoffs. His teammate, Tyler Reddick, finished a strong second to create a 1-2 finish for Richard Childress Racing. AUSTIN DILLON QUOTES:How do you prepare for the Daytona International Speedway Road Course as a driver who has never competed on that configuration before?“I’ve been working on the simulator to prepare for the race. We’ve all been putting a lot of hours in leading up to the race. You can get some information from watching former races at the track in other series and seeing past 24 Hours of Daytona races, but overall there are some differences because stock cars drive differently and there is an added chicane. It’s an American Ethanol race, and I can’t wait to get out there in that green No. 3 car. I’m looking forward to the race. Some of the guys are going to have a little bit of an advantage because they’ve raced there before, but a lot of us have not and it will be a fun test. We’re just going to go out there and give it our all and see what we come up with.” Will it be helpful having all three NASCAR series competing at the Daytona Road Course this weekend?“I think it will be interesting having NASCAR Cup Series cars out on the track. It will be good to get to see the NASCAR Truck Series and the NASCAR Xfinity Series on the track before us so we can see how rubber gets laid down and where speed is made.” Walk us through a lap at the Daytona Road Course …“It all starts in Turn 1. Obviously, blending onto the track right past the area where we would normally be leaving pit road if we were competing on the oval configuration, that we are all used to. You’ve got a sharp left there, a quick back and forth, and then to another hard right-hander. That slow section through the middle of the track is going to be key, I think. The cars that get through that the best are going to be your best cars of the weekend. Also getting onto the big track in Turns 1 and 2 seems to be where a ton of the speed is carried since that is the longest straightaway. There’s a little section on the back that’s not there for the 24 Hours of Daytona race. It’s a chicane that you approach when you come off of Turn 4. You have to get slowed up really quick for it before the start finish line. It seems like a really fun road course compared to what we usually run. It’s kind of spread out. There are a lot of left-hand turns, which I like because that’s what I’m used to. So we will get there and take what it gives us.”

Tyler Reddick and the No. 8 Cat App Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE at Daytona International Speedway …This weekend, Tyler Reddick and the NASCAR Cup Series will be making the series’ debut on the Daytona International Speedway Road Course configuration. Reddick has two wins and two pole awards across NASCAR’s three national touring series on Daytona’s oval configuration. About the Cat App … For Cat customers, having access to information about your equipment anywhere, anytime is critical. The Cat App delivers simplified, streamlined data directly to mobile devices. This helps customers monitor machine location and health, react faster to fault codes and maximize uptime. It’s a mobile equipment management tool that gives them an easy way to monitor their entire fleet, request parts and service, and connect with their Cat dealer from the work site. The Cat App tracks exact location, machines’ operating hours, health and utilization data. It’s an on-the-go equipment management solution to be used out in the field in conjunction with my.cat.com for more capability when you’re in the office. And it allows customers to get the most from their equipment by moving an under-utilized asset to precisely where it is needed most. Designed for machine owners worldwide, Cat App users can choose from 35 different languages. You can download the Cat App here. Watch the Race with Cheddar’s … Don’t miss out! Cheddar’s is offering 15% off all To Go orders with the offer code RACEDAY placed on 8/16 and every Cup Series race day for the remainder of the 2020 season! Whether you’re watching the race on a Sunday afternoon or on a weekday under the lights, watch with all your Cheddar’s favorites for 15% off. Terms & conditions apply, visit cheddars.com/offer/race-day for full offer details. TYLER REDDICK QUOTE:Knowing that NASCAR has not run on Daytona International Speedway’s Road Course before, how are you preparing for the weekend? “I’m very excited about the possibility this weekend brings for me and the No. 8 Cat App team. I’ve been taking advantage of Chevrolet’s simulator they have available to us to help get familiar with the course and start learning where passes could potentially be made on Sunday. The Chevy simulator has helped me a lot with road courses in the past. That has always been a style of racing I’ve found challenging, but I think that by using the simulator a lot last year, I was a lot closer to where I wanted to be heading into those weekends. I’m hoping to reach the same level of preparation this year by just making lap after lap on the simulator and practice hitting my marks every time. I’ve also leaned a lot on AJ Allmendinger again. He has worked with my crew chief, Randall Burnett, a lot in the past, and he helped me a lot last year too with the road courses. Randall also has a really good idea on how to set up our Chevrolets for road courses, so I’m confident he has a plan on where he wants the car to be before we even reach the track this weekend. But overall, I’m really looking forward to this weekend. There is just a lot of possibility out there to make up points on the other drivers we’re on the Playoff bubble with, and we’ll need to capitalize on that.”

This Week’s No. 21 KCMG Chevrolet Camaro at Daytona International Speedway … Road course ace Earl Bamber will make his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut in the seat of the No. 21 KCMG Chevrolet Camaro for Richard Childress Racing this weekend at the Daytona International Speedway Road Course. Although new to NASCAR, the New Zealand native has competed at the 3.56-mile road course seven times, earning four podium finishes in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Series. About KCMG … KC Motorgroup Ltd. (KCMG) is an international motorsport services group established in 2007 by Dr. Paul Ip. The group, with its headquarters located in Hong Kong, has operations reaching across Europe and the Asia Pacific region. KCMG operates closely with many partner companies and racing organizations around the world to provide unrivalled Motorsport Services, Equipment, Team Management and quality distributorship in the Automotive Industry. 2013 saw KCMG become the first Chinese outfit ever to race at the world famous Le Mans 24 Hours in its 90-year history and participate in the FIA World Endurance Championship. The Hong Kong-based team later on took an historic LMP2 victory at Le Mans and was Vice Champion in FIA WEC in 2015. With years in the motorsport industry, KCMG has been involved in a wide range of Formula, GT and Le Mans prototype endurance racing series across the globe. For more information please visit www.kcmg.com.hk or email info@kcmg.co.hk. EARL BAMBER QUOTES:What does it mean to you to be making your NASCAR debut this weekend for Richard Childress Racing?“It’s a really proud moment for me. It’s been a long time in the making to finally make it on the grid, and it’s also a really cool event to be at the Daytona Road Course. Since this is the first time NASCAR is racing there, it levels the playing field for everyone as well. I’m really looking forward to just rolling off in our No. 21 KCMG Chevrolet and seeing what NASCAR is all about. I’ve been spending a lot of time on the simulator, so now it’s time to just go racing.”  What do you anticipate will be the biggest differences in a NASCAR Stock Car compared to the cars you are more accustomed to racing? “Everyone talks about the weight of the cars. Obviously for us, we’ll have a heap more power in the stock car as well, which I can’t wait for. I’m going in there with an open mind to feel it out and see what it’s like. I think I’ll love it. In the end, it brings a lot more back on the driver with everything we’ve got to do inside the cockpit, so I’m looking forward to it.”

TEAM CHEVY ADVANCE GO BOWLING 235 AT THE DAYTONA ROAD COURSE DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA AUGUST 16, 2020
RACE #23 – DAYTONA BEACH, FLFor the first time in the history of the NASCAR Cup Series (NCS), the inaugural Go Bowling 235 at the Daytona Road Course is set to debut on Sunday, August 16th at the famed Daytona International Speedway (DIS). It becomes the 23rd of 36 races on the NCS 2020 circuit.
The event was positioned in lieu of the original road course date at Watkins Glen International in upstate New York, which was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The historic road racing weekend, Aug. 14-16, begins on Friday, August 14 with the ARCA Menards Series race at 5:00 p.m. ET, followed by the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at 3:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, August 15, and is capped with a Sunday doubleheader on August 16, featuring NASCAR’s RV & Outdoors Truck Series at 12:00 p.m. ET and the Go Bowling 235 NASCAR Cup Series feature race at 3:00 p.m. ET.
While the 65-lap Go Bowling 235 will run on the same road course layout as the Rolex 24 At Daytona, North America’s premier race for sports cars, it will feature an added twist. The traditional ribbon of asphalt out of Turn 4 will sport a new chicane that transforms the design into a 14-turn, 3.61-mile, high-banked tri-oval/infield road course, which is unique to all motorsports. With NASCAR having curtailed practice sessions during the COVID-19 pandemic, the racing promises to be exciting and intense.
BOWTIE BULLETSAlthough the Daytona Road Course is uncharted territory for the competitors, and there are no prior statistics, Chevrolet has shown success at other road courses currently on the NCS tour with a total of 31 victories, more than any other manufacturer:           Watkins Glen International – 2.45-mile, 7-turn road course = 19 Wins           Sonoma Raceway – 2.52-mile, 12-turn road course = 11 Wins           Charlotte Roval – 2.28-mile, 17-turn road course = 1 win
Current active Chevy drivers with road course wins include:Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 1LE = Two wins at Watkins Glen (2018, ’19), and one at the Charlotte Roval (2019)Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1 1LE = One win at Sonoma Raceway (2011)Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1 1LE = One win at Sonoma Raceway (2010)
Road Course Records:Chase Elliott remains the youngest road-course winner (22 years, 8 months, 8 days) of all time in the NCS. If he wins at the Daytona Road Course on Sunday, Elliott will become the most recent driver with three consecutive road-course race wins.
Chevrolet driver, Jeff Gordon, holds the record for most consecutive road-course wins with six (1997-2000).
PLAYOFF PICTURE:With 22 races in the books and just four left in the regular season, the chase to making the Playoff cutline is on. The top-16 in the standings at the end of the regular season will have a chance to compete for the title of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series Champion. As the points stand heading to Daytona weekend, five slots in the top 16 in the standings are occupied by Team Chevy drivers. 5th      Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 1LE8th      Alex Bowman, No. 88 Axalta Camaro ZL1 1LE9th      Austin Dillon, No. 3 American Ethanol Camaro ZL1 1LE13th     Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1 1LE16th     William Byron, No. 24 Liberty University Camaro ZL1 1LE           Three Team Chevy Camaro ZL1 1LE drivers have secured their spots in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs with wins captured this season so far: Alex Bowman’s win at Auto Club Speedway, Chase Elliott’s victory at Charlotte Motor Speedway and Austin Dillon’s recent trip to victory lane at Texas Motor Speedway.
TAKING THE GREEN:The starting line-up procedure has been adjusted by NASCAR for the remainder of the 2020 season. A combination of finishing position from the previous race (weighted 50%), rank in team owner points standings (35%) and the fastest lap from the previous race (15%) are used to set the lineup at each race.  Here are Team Chevy’s top-20 starters:
7th       Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 1LE8th       Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1 1LE10th     Austin Dillon, No. 3 American Ethanol Camaro ZL1 1LE11th     Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1 1LE13th     William Byron, No. 24 Liberty University Camaro ZL1 1LE16th     Matt Kenseth, No. 42 Clover Camaro ZL1 1LE18th     Tyler Reddick, No. 8 Cat App Camaro ZL1 1LE19th     Bubba Wallace, No. 43 Victory Junction Camaro ZL1 1LE
TUNE-IN:NBC will telecast the 65-lap, 3.61-mile Go Bowling 235 at Daytona International Speedway live at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, August 16th. Live coverage can also be found on the NBC Sports Gold app, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
QUOTABLE QUOTES:
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 5th in Standings:“I am super excited just to go somewhere new. Obviously, I’ve enjoyed Watkins Glen these past couple of years. We have a new challenge ahead with the DAYTONA Road Course. I think the biggest thing is not having any practice. I think it is going to be exciting but it’s also going to be really hard for the guys that have never made a lap there before. I think it’s going to give a pretty big advantage to those who’ve run the 24-hour race and have made any laps on that track. I’ve never made a lap. I don’t even know what turns are where. I’m going to get on iRacing and try and make some laps just to familiarize myself with the track. I’ve watched the 24-hour race, but I’ve never really paid a ton of attention to it. It’s going to be really difficult for people like me who have never seen it.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 10th in Standings:“With unprecedented times here in 2020, I think the call from NASCAR to make this unprecedented move is brilliant. With Watkins Glen not able to host a race in upstate New York, and to have the road course available for us down in Daytona; with no practice and no qualifying and just jumping straight into the race, why not? We’ve done everything in 2020 so far to overcome all these hurdles. I think the fun-factor this weekend has got everybody’s anxiety-level up; but also the challenge that’s right in front of us because it’s basically a wild card-style race, where you could see a driver and a team that don’t normally make the Playoffs, punch their ticket.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 11th in Standings:“The good thing about this weekend is that none of the drivers really know what to expect. It is really more of a level playing field. We have been in the simulator this week just trying to learn more about the configuration and speeds in the corners. I think we have some strengths that we can bring from the ‘roval,’ so we just need to capitalize on that on Sunday.”
GREG IVES, CREW CHIEF, NO. 88 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 10th in Standings:“We are preparing the best way we know how for the DAYTONA road course. It is going to be strange, but we are doing the same thing we did when we were preparing to go to the ‘roval’ for the first time. We went into that race thinking there would be a lot of cautions, especially going into Turn 1 for the first time, but everything was good. Main difference here is at the ‘roval’, we had practice.”
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 14th in Standings:Byron on racing at the Daytona road course:“I am a bit more optimistic on how this race is going to turn out. I was at Daytona for the 24-hour race this past year. I feel like even that time gives me a good idea of what the track looks like and what the car needs to feel like based on the things I heard and saw. I know some guys have made laps on that road course in sports cars, which may give them a bit of an advantage. There are simulation tools though that I can use to prepare and get better for this race. I’m just really excited about this race overall.” Byron on his style of road course racing:“When it comes to road course racing, I feel like I try to find a nice balance between aggression and consistency. When I need to make fast laps, I am super aggressive by using the curbs, getting as much as I can out of the apex of the corners and using aggressive braking to pass guys. Once the race kind of goes on and the pace mellows out though, I settle in and work more on consistency lap after lap. If you just constantly push, push, push, it is extremely hard on the tires. You have to push when you’re trying to pass someone and then set your own pace from there.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 16th in Standings:“I am so excited for this weekend at Daytona. I have a lot of reps (repetitions) and a couple thousand miles on this on this track from competing in the seven Rolex races I’ve been able to compete in, and I also did a July 4th six-hour race there – so bring it on. The challenges of this track – there will be some really high speeds and then the chicane off of four will change that to some degree. It’s going to be a balance of aero efficiency on the straightaways and mechanical grip for the tight little infield section. It’s going to be really interesting for those who have never taken a lap on this track. “I hope we can make something happen over the next four races and get into the playoffs. I’m very optimistic we can make something happen. I will know if I don’t make the playoffs that I left it all on the track, this team gives 100% and we can all sleep at night knowing that.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 AMERICAN ETHANOL CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 17th in Standings:“I’ve been working on the simulator to prepare for the race. We’ve all been putting a lot of hours in leading up to the race. It’s an American Ethanol race and I can’t wait to get out there in that green number three car. I think it will be interesting having NASCAR Cup Series cars out on the track. It will be good to get to see the NASCAR Truck Series and the NASCAR Xfinity Series on the track before us so we can see how rubber gets laid down and where speed is made. There’s also a little section on the back that’s not there for the 24 Hours of Daytona race. It’s a chicane that you approach when you come off of Turn 4. You have to get slowed up really quick for it before the start finish line. It all starts in Turn 1. Obviously, blending into the area right past the area where we would normally be leaving pit road if we were competing on the oval configuration that we are all used to. You’ve got a sharp left there, a quick back and forth and then to another hard right-hander. That slow section through the middle of the track is going to be really key, I think. The cars that get through that the best are going to be your best cars of the weekend. Also getting onto the big track in Turns 1 and 2 seems to be where a ton of the speed is carried since that is the longest straightaway.
“I’m looking forward to the race. Some of the guys are going to have a little bit of an advantage because they’ve raced there before, but a lot of us have not and it will be a fun test. We’re just going to go out there and give it our all and see what we come up with. It seems like a really fun road course compared to what we usually run. It’s kind of spread out. There’s a lot of left-hand turns, which I like because that’s what I’m used to. So, we will get there and take what it gives us.”
TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 CAT APP CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 18th in Standings:Knowing that NASCAR has not run on Daytona International Speedway’s road course before, how are you preparing for the weekend?“I’m very excited about the possibility this weekend brings for me and the No. 8 Cat App team. I’ve been taking advantage of Chevrolet’s simulator they have available to us to help get familiar with the course and start learning where passes could potentially be made on Sunday. The Chevy simulator has helped me a lot with road courses in the past. That has always been a style of racing I’ve found challenging, but I think that by using the simulator a lot last year, I was a lot closer to where I wanted to be heading into those weekends. I’m hoping to reach the same level of preparation this year by just making lap after lap on the simulator and practice hitting my marks every time. I’ve also leaned a lot on AJ Allmendinger again. He has worked with my crew chief, Randall Burnett, a lot in the past, and he helped me a lot last year too with the road courses. Randall also has a really good idea on how to set up our Chevrolets for road courses, so I’m confident he has a plan on where he wants the car to be before we even reach the track this weekend. But overall, I’m really looking forward to this weekend. There is just a lot of possibility out there to make up points on the other drivers we’re in the Playoff bubbles with, and we’ll need to capitalize on that.”
BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 VICTORY JUNCTION CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 20th in Standings:With road courses, you guys like a lot of creature comforts in there that are different than the ovals. Can you explain how you’re going to get to that without having any laps on track, and really feel like you’re ready to race when the green goes?“I don’t know if any of us are going to feel like we are ready to race the DAYTONA Road Course. It is going to be an exciting race for sure. I am glad our Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE is not on the front row for this one to drive-off in there and find my marks. And, I don’t want to be like Brad (Keselowski) at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval two years ago and overshoot the corner. We just have to be mindful. This is the most time I have spent preparing for a road course and going to the SIM. I’m actually heading-up to jump on the SIM immediately after this press conference. I am preparing myself for as much as I can to be ready for putting corners together. It’s crazy how, just from watching the 24 Hours of Daytona, you learn which way this track goes. Obviously, turning left immediately after the start/finish line, and going through the infield there. Then you visualize, like man, I used to park here in the road course parking lot. So, it’s going to be cool to racing all around that. It will be exciting for the fans. But again, I have tried to spend so much time prepping for this; so hopefully it works out for Richard Petty Motorsports in the end.” We were supposed to be at Watkins Glen International this weekend. What’s your take on not going to The Glen this year?“I’m alright with it. It has not been one of my best race tracks. But I think this, with everything going on with COVID-19, I know NASCAR has been up to their necks in trying to figure-out what the schedule is going to be. I definitely don’t envy them right now. But kudos to them for coming-up with an alternative. And it’s something new. It’s new for NASCAR. I know the road course has been around for years and years. We have been able to watch that on TV right before our season kick-off at Daytona (International Speedway). For us to go in there with no practice, I remember when I was asked ‘we need a solid answer if you’re okay with no practice.’ And I was like, okay, what does everybody else think about this? The final verdict was no practice. Drive-off into Turn 1 and figure-out where you go after that. It will be cool. It’ll be a different alternative to definitely have fans tune-in for that and to be able to watch all the action on NBC. None of us really know what to expect. But, to have a good race and try to continue on momentum from there. Like I said earlier, I have prepped a lot; a lot more than I have in the past to be good here and be successful here. Hopefully it goes hand-in-hand.” TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO FOR YOUR BOAT CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 27th in Standings:What is your outlook going into the Daytona Road Course for the first time?“I’ve always felt really good going to road courses, especially in the Truck and Xfinity Series. Sonoma and Watkins Glen have been tougher to adapt to in the Cup Series, because there is so much experience by teams at those tracks. So anytime we go to a new place or specifically a new road course, I welcome the challenge where we are all in the same unique situation.”
Have you been able to prepare for the chicane at all?“It will definitely be challenging to adapt to that corner. I’ve spent time on the simulator these past couple of weeks, so while we don’t know what it will feel like in an actual race car, that gets our GEICO team as close as we can. But then again, everything is new, so it’s just a matter of managing your day and not getting yourself in trouble early. You need to be able to attack the corners and go for it at the end of the race. It’s going to be a race full of adapting. Some guys will pick it up quickly based on experience and then some drivers will hopefully learn throughout and be in contention by the end.”
MATT KENSETH, NO. 42 CLOVER CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 28th in Standings:“With the Daytona Road Course coming up, there are a lot of unknowns. A lot of people have never raced there before. Some of us have raced there, but it’s been many, many years ago, and a lot of things have changed since then; plus, a different chicane coming off Turn 4. So, we’ve been using the Chevrolet simulator a lot just to go out and get some reference points and try to get somewhat of a feel for it and get some good visuals, and kind of know where the corners are and the braking zones and some of the tough spots and all that. So, I think all the Chevy drivers have been there quite a bit to try and get a feel for it. Hopefully that’ll give us a little head start on getting there and hopefully make us more competitive when they drop the green flag.”

UNION, KY (August 13, 2020) – Mike Marlar passed race leader Brandon Overton on the final lap to win Thursday Night’s Sunoco North-South Shootout at Florence Speedway. Marlar’s late race dramatics earned him his first Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series win of the season. He became the 16th different driver to win on the tour this year. Overton finished .529 seconds behind Marlar at the checkers. Zack Dohm closed on the top two in the final laps to take third with Jimmy Owens and Tim McCreadie completing the top five drivers. In a race slowed by only one caution flag, Owens was dominate for most of the race until Overton and Marlar caught him with five laps to go. Overton squeezed by to take the lead on lap 47 but a daring last lap pass propelled Marlar by Overton to pick up his first-ever late model victory at Florence. Marlar was elated in Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the 14th time in his career. “I knew there was a little patch around the outside and I didn’t want to do a crossover move. I was afraid we would rub, and I really didn’t want to pass him [Overton] down there like that. With the way everybody was racing there at the end I just took advantage of what was happening. We rubbed a little bit earlier in the race. You never want that stuff to happen. It was an awesome race.” “We took off a little bit there in the spring, but have been back for about a month now. I have to thank my car owner Ronnie Delk and my crew guys, Josh and Jerry and Little Brian with Integra Shocks and Derek and Nick Jones with Rockets Convenience Fuels. We have always enjoyed coming to Florence. We have run second so many times here in a late model. We’ve had success in a modified at Florence but have never won here in a late model. When you race with the Lucas Oil Series it’s the best competition in the country. Racing is a humbling sport and whenever you win it is always nice.” Overton came up just short of his fourth LOLMDS win of the season. “I had a tire going down at the end.  That was just good hard racing with Mikey, yes we rubbed a little bit, but we were both going for the win.  We changed a lot on the car from last night. We haven’t run with these Lucas tire rules for a while it’s totally different than what we have been used to recently. We really picked it up tonight and we came close.” Dohm ended up rounding out the podium in Victory Lane. “I wish we had about ten more laps. We’re going to get one of these Lucas Oil races soon if we keep running like we have. This Longhorn Chassis has been spot on. We have been able to pick up some good wins recently and we would like to get that big check on Saturday for sure.” The winner’s Rocket Chassis is powered by a Cornett Racing Engine and sponsored by Delk Equipment Sales, Rockets Convenience Plus, Brucebilt Performance, PPM Racing Products, and Can-Am Automotive. Completing the top ten were Josh Richards, Stormy Scott, Tyler Erb, Dale McDowell, and Josh Rice.

• Scott Dixon, Honda lead the second day of practice for next weekend’s race
• Takuma Sato, Marco Andretti complete top three sweep for Honda
• Honda drivers led by Jack Harvey also dominate “no tow” speeds

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (August 13, 2020) – Taking advantage of a healthy “tow” from several cars on track ahead of him, Scott Dixon took his Chip Ganassi Racing Honda to the top of the time sheets Thursday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the final hour of practice for next weekend’s Indianapolis 500.  Dixon became the first driver this week to top 226 mph as speeds increased around the famed 2.5-mile Brickyard oval with his one-lap speed of 226.102 mph.

After leading the way for most of the day, Takuma Sato ended second quickest at 225.693 mph, with Marco Andretti rounding out the top three for Honda and Andretti Autosport with a lap of 225.249 mph.  Alex Palou led the rookie contingent and ended the day fifth overall with a speed of 224.971 in his Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh Honda.  Colton Herta made it five Honda drivers in the top six with a best lap of 224.648 mph.

Jack Harvey ran 13^th-overall with a speed of 223.828 mph in his Meyer Shank Racing Honda, but led the field in “no tow” speed, for laps without cars in front to assist straight-line speed.  His lap of 222.124 mph led another Honda sweep of fastest “no tow” speeds, with Colton Herta second at 221.895 mph and his Andretti Autosport teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay third at 221.777 mph.  Fastest in opening day practice on Wednesday, James Hinchcliffe posted the fifth-fastest no tow lap of 221.241 mph.

Honda Racing social media content and videos from practice and qualifying from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway will be available on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/HondaRacingHPD) and on Twitter at (https://twitter.com/HondaRacing_HPD).  Produced by the CoForce Digital Media, YouTube video packages can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV.  

Next

Practice activities at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway continue tomorrow with “Fast Friday”, the final full day of practice prior to qualifying on Saturday and Sunday, to set the field of 33 starters for the August 23 Indianapolis 500.

Quotes

Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) Fastest in practice today: “We had a pretty decent day.  We kind of got lost at the start, but we think we found the issue with that.  Once we came back on track around mid-day, the PNC Honda was really fast, and a lot easier to drive.  It also seems to be pretty good in traffic.  Tomorrow the [turbocharger] boost gets turned up [for the final day of practice and qualifying] and it’s going to be a big jump.  I expect to see some pretty big speeds tomorrow, especially in tows.  Everyone will be trying to get a clean [no traffic or tow] lap [to simulate qualifying conditions], but that’s going to be tough to find.”

Takuma Sato (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda) 2^nd fastest: “I think I’m pretty happy going into ‘Fast Friday’ tomorrow. We have a strong Honda engine, so if you can have a good [chassis] balance, then you can trim [downforce] and gain a lot of lap speed. But it will be highly unlikely you can trim [the downforce] all the way down. I expect now we’ll go at least the same speed, or faster, than last year into Turn One. It’s going to be challenging.”

CHEVROLET RACING NTT INDYCAR SERIES INDIANAPOLIS 500 INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEEDWAY INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA TEAM CHEVY PRACTICE DAY TWO RECAP WITH DRIVER QUOTES AUGUST 13, 2020INDIANAPOLISINDIANAPOLIS – Day two of practice for the 104^th running of the Indianapolis 500 has been competed as the 17 Chevy powered cars worked on their race asetups. With Fast Friday next on the schedule, the focus will turn to qualifying as the boost is upped to the level utilized on Saturday and Sunday qualifying to set the starting line-up. Unfortunately, there was one on-track single car incident. Fernando Alonso made contact with the wall with less that two hours left in practice. The team will have a car prepped and ready to go on Friday for the two-time Formula One champion. Until the incident, Alonso was the fastest Chevy for the second consecutive day.
Practice continues from 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Friday for all drivers, with live coverage on INDYCAR Pass on NBC Sports Gold. Cars will receive increased turbocharger boost – generating extra horsepower and higher speeds – on “Fast Friday” practice in preparation for Crown Armed Forces Qualifying Weekend on Saturday and Sunday, which will set the field for the race Sunday, Aug. 23. DRIVER QUOTES:NO. 1 JOSEF NEWGARDEN, SHELL V-POWER TEAM PENSKE” CHEVROLET:“”It was another good day. No drama, which is good. This place is all about keeping up with the schedule. It is very easy to get lost running so many miles, so many sets of tires. The Shell car is pretty fast. Team Chevy has done a great job for us o far. I am excited to turn up the boost tomorrow. To see how fast we can go. That’s where we have to shift our focus. These first two days were about the race. Tomorrow is about qualifying. We will see how we are there.” NO. 3 HELLIO CASTRONEVES, PENNZOIL TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:“It was another great day of developing the No. 3 Pennzoil Chevy. We worked again on the race setup and running a bit more in traffic. We feel great. We feel really strong. We know tomorrow there’s going to be a lot more horsepower and so we will turn our focus to that so when we get to Saturday we are ready.” NO. 4 CHARLIE KIMBALL, TRESIBA AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET:“Solid day of work here at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I think we still have some things to work on on the race car as well as getting ready for qualifying. Tomorrow we get more horsepower, more boost and get ready for Fast Friday and qualifying, but the first two days have gone really well. Really pleased with the Tresiba Chevy crew for AJ Foyt Racing. These guys have done a great job preparing the car and continuing to keep it up to spec, so I feel really positive going into the weekend as well as next weekend.” NO. 5 PATO O’WARD, ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET:“I think today we made some really good strides. We’ve been really working on the race car, and we have made some very good, positive improvements. I think it was a good day knowledge-wise for me and setup-development for race day. Tomorrow is Fast Friday, so time to turn up the engines and see how fast Arrow McLaren SP and Team Chevy can go.” NO. 7 OLIVER ASKEW, ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET:“We are still building up to it. We ended up top 10 on the timing board, but that doesn’t really mean anything to us. Those are just tow laps that people get. The most important thing is that the car feels good in traffic. I think we have a good baseline now. I’m looking forward to qualifying trim tomorrow, the extra boost. We are completely in qualifying mode now. We can look back on the experience today when we put the race setup back on Sunday afternoon. Ultimately on Friday, I think it is a really important day to put finishing touches on the car. I’m very confident that Arrow McLaren SP and everyone on the engineering staff is going to look at all the data and make sure we have the best possible package on race day.” NO. 12 WILL POWER , VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:“We went through a few different philosphies and changes. I think we’re in a good spot. I look forward to getting out there tomorrow and seeing how we are speed-wise for qualifying to see where we stack up. We’re going to run qualifying runs tomorrow for the Verizon 5G Edge Chevy and will just keep working at it to find more speed.” NO. 14 TONY KANAAN, ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET: “It was a good day. I mean we were trying to find the perfect balance for the perfect race car which – finding perfection – it’s tough sometimes, so we made big changes. Changes that take an hour, an hour and a half to go back and forth and if they go right, it’s good but if they go wrong, you don’t have time to go back and it’s one of those days. But I was pretty pleased with our basic setup. We’re just trying to reach the next level so that’s in the books now. We’re going concentrate for qualifying tomorrow and Saturday then we’ll go back and revisit on Sunday. SO now it’s turning on to qualifying mode and see what’s going to happen tomorrow.”
NO. 20 ED CARPENTER, U.S. SPACE FORCE ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET:“All in all, it was a much better day than yesterday! It was one of those day where you almost need to ignore the speed charts when everyone is getting a big tow to put up a number. We made a lot of progress on race running with how I feel in traffic and doing long runs. That was productive. Still not totally sure what speed we have in the U.S. Space Force Chevrolet, but we’ll sort that out tomorrow! There’s room for improvement, but overall I’m pleased with the progress from yesterday to today. We’re heading in the right direction!”        NO. 21 RINUS VEEKAY, SONAX ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET: “We had a really good second day of practice! We got in a lot of real traffic running before Fast Friday. I’m looking forward to that! Extra power! The SONAX Chevy felt really good. Yesterday, I was fast on my own but struggled a little bit in traffic. Today, we ended the day on a high. It felt amazing. I could really pass people and move my way through the pack. The ECR team made incredible progress. We’re strong, we’ll see how tomorrow goes!” NO. 22 SIMON PAGENAUD, MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:“It was a great day. We went through a roller coaster of emotions when we couldn’t get the balance the way we wanted. We reset ourselves to where we were happy and then made a slight adjustment with it and I am extremely happy now. We had a great run in traffic – a good run and it feels like it should feel. So I am very excited for race day. I know other people will catch up, but we are ahead of the program right now. That is a big positive. I am super happy to represent the team well with the equipment I have. That is where I wanted to be today.” NO. 24 SAGE KARAM, WIX FILTERS DRYER REINBOLD RACING CHEVROLET:“We tried some changes overnight and some things worked but others didn’t. We had a good car Wednesday when we finished up. And we went back to those settings in the middle of the day. And then made more changes in the right direction. The WIX Filters Chevy felt good at the end today. We didn’t get to do everything we wanted to today, but the car felt strong on that last run. We weren’t concerned about lap times today. We didn’t get in big drafts, just got comfortable in the race car. On Friday, we’ll crank in more boost and power for qualifying. It will be interesting on Friday with the extra horsepower. Fast Friday is a day that a lot of the drivers aren’t too sure about with their cars. Since we started today with certain settings, we didn’t get to complete all of the changes we wanted. We’ll probably work on those changes on Friday morning and then move onto qualifying setups. Overall, I’m happy with the direction of the race car.” NO.41 DALTON KELLETT, K-LINE USA AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET: “We had a great day working on our race setup. We’ve just been chipping away slowly at how we want the balance and downforce level to be for race running. At the end we did a couple long runs and keeping with the pack. The car feels pretty racy, feels pretty quick. I think across the three teams everyone’s pretty happy so all in all I’m pleased with how the day went. We didn’t do any qualifying runs, we’re saving that for tomorrow so we’ll have to see how it goes when we crank up the boost and trim things out tomorrow. It’s going to be exciting. Looking forward to my first Fast Friday!” NO. 47 CONOR DALY,U.S. AIR FORCE ED CARPENTER RACING CHEEVROLET:“Today was another step forward for us. Cole (Pearn, engineer) and I are figuring out what I need and what he wants to do. We’re definitely close to where we want to be, but that becomes a difficult area to work in. Cole doesn’t have the experience yet and I really don’t have the experience to know exactly what we need. We’re trying to mess around with some things and figure out what we can do next to make it even better. I like where the U.S. Air Force Chevy is at. It’s fast. We don’t want to out-engineer ourselves, we’re going to keep our heads on straight and keep on trucking.” NO. 59 MAX CHILTON,GALLAGHER CARLIN CHEVROLET:”We started out our second day of testing for the Indianapolis 500 fairly strong. We were one of the first cars out on track when practice opened this morning and we had some really solid no-tow times, but we had an engine issue after about an hour of running that greatly reduced our time on track. We went back to the garage and had to change the engine, but the guys did a great job getting the No. 59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet back out this afternoon before the session ended. Even with the issues today, the car felt really good when we went back out at the end of the day and I’m actually feeling pretty good about where we are heading into Fast Friday.” NO. 66  FERNANDO ALONSO, RUOFF ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET:ALONSO WAS INVOLVED IN A SINGLE CAR INCIDENT LATE IN PRACTICE: “We just lost the grip of the car and at this place, the walls are very close. Just the way it is, unfortunately it happened again today. Hopefully it just happens today and not on Sunday, August 23. You learn every lap you do around this track and we will learn from this one. Hopefully tomorrow we can start again. It has been going okay, more or less, so far this week so hopefully we can keep it up the good work and have no more issues. I didn’t check but it shouldn’t be too bad. I will rely on the Arrow McLaren SP team and we will be fine.” NO. 67 JR HILDEBRAND, SALESFORCE DRYER REINBOLD RACING CHEVROLET:“There was a lot of stuff for us to get through in just one day. We might check back in on a couple of things in the morning before moving towards our qualifying setups. Additional added turbo boost will throw some wrinkles in the items for Friday. I think if the conditions are good, cooler, I think the speeds will be really high. The weather looks a little dodgy for Friday. All in all, I feel really good about the way the guys have the car going. It’s not easy with our little two-car draft compared to Andretti with six or seven cars together. But we knew we needed to be smart today with the proper things we worked on. We know we have a little bit more to work on and there were not many cars that could drive around people today. That might be the expectation for the race too. The strategies might be go fast early on a stint and then hold on or take a consistent run through a whole stint. I’m not sure how you handle it right now. With the August heat conditions, the new aeroscreen and the new Firestone compounds, there are a lot of variables right now. But we’ll learn more throughout the weekend. I feel pretty good right now with the race settings.” NO. 81 BEN HANLEY,DRAGON SPEED USA CHEVROLET                    

· Alex Bowman Q&A Session· Jordan Taylor Q&A Session(Transcripts available below)· Chevrolet Simulator B-roll (individual shots)· Chevrolet Simulator B-Roll(Bowman, Taylor Together)

CHARLOTTE, NC (Aug. 13, 2020) – With the first NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) race at the all-new Daytona International Speedway Road Course set to unfold on Sunday, one of the many tools that Team Chevy drivers used to prepare is Chevrolet Racing’s Driver-in-the-Loop (DiL) simulator, located just outside of Charlotte, NC. Much more than just a game, Chevy’s DiL is a proven, high fidelity and very immersive system used by professional race teams, which gives a visual of a specific track and then replicates how that track feels to the driver.

In Team Chevy spirit, Alex Bowman, who drives the No. 88 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE for Hendrick Motorsports, and Jordan Taylor, who campaigns the No. 3 Corvette C8.R with teammate Antonio Garcia for Corvette Racing, were together this week at the Chevy DiL to discuss the completely new challenge that awaits.  Although the upcoming 65-lap Go Bowling 235 will run on the same road course layout as the Rolex 24 At Daytona, North America’s premier race for sports cars, it will feature an added twist. The traditional ribbon of asphalt out of NASCAR Turn Four will sport a new chicane that transforms the design into a 14-turn, 3.57-mile, high-banked tri-oval/infield road course, which is unique to all motorsports. With NASCAR having curtailed practice sessions during the COVID-19 pandemic, preparation is key. Bowman, with two career NCS wins to his credit and who formerly served as an integral part of the simulation and on-track testing programs for Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet, collaborates with Taylor. He and Garcia lead the GT Le Mans (GTLM) category of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with two victories in the new mid-engine Corvette C8.R. Among them was a win at the IMSA WeatherTech 240 at Daytona – the Corvette C8.R’s first win and Corvette Racing’s 100th in IMSA competition.

CHEVROLET RACING INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTSALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 AXALTA CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1 1LEYOU ARE VERY FAMILIAR WITH THE CHEVY SIMULATOR, MAYBE MORE THAN ANY OTHER DRIVER. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT WORKING ON IT WITH JORDAN TAYLOR AND DID IT HELP?“It’s been a lot of fun today. I definitely learned some things that made me quite a bit faster and picked up some speed. Hopefully we get to the race track and I say, ‘Man that really helped a lot and worked really well.’ It’s always interesting to see how the simulator correlates to the real racetrack, what carries over and what doesn’t. Without going somewhere, it’s hard to know how it is going to correlate but we’ll find out Sunday afternoon.” YOU WERE HERE ON MONDAY AS WELL, BUT TODAY YOU WERE WITH JORDAN.  WERE THERE ANY PARTICULAR THINGS THAT JORDAN WAS ABLE TO HELP WITH THAT YOU DIDN’T KNOW OR SEE MONDAY?“Jordan really helped with entry to Turn Five. His entry in there was quite different than how I was approaching it. Some of the braking zones were a little bit different. Then some line stuff and some rain stuff as well. Having his knowledge is super helpful. He’s a really good guy and I really appreciate his help. The rain will be the biggest thing. I have absolutely no clue what I’m doing in the rain, so being able to have an idea of what to expect there is a big help.” WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS FOR HOW WILD OR TAME THIS RACE IS GOING TO BE THIS WEEKEND?“You have 40 racecar drivers who are going to try and keep it tame, but it will probably get pretty wild. The Roval is kind of its own animal. It gets pretty wild, and I think we’ll have more of that at the Daytona Road Course. It’s so different than anything else we’ve done. No one has many laps there; a couple of guys have some races. But for the most part we have no laps there. Going in there without practice is going to be pretty wild.”

JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.RYOU ARE WORKING WITH SOME OF THE HENDRICK DRIVERS AT THE CHEVY SIMULATOR.  ARE THERE ANY SPECIFIC ELEMENTS TO THIS TRACK YOU ARE HELPING THEM WITH?“Mostly letting the guys know some of the little nuances that come with the Daytona Road Course. When you look at it on a track map, it looks pretty basic but each corner has little tricks that can help you. They’re going into this race with zero practice and zero laps on this track, so they need as much preparation as they can get. From my side, I bring some experience from that track that I can give him – little tips that maybe would take them a session or two to figure out. Hopefully they can hit the ground running when they show up for raceday.” YOU OBVIOUSLY HAVE DRIVEN THE CORVETTE C8.R ON THE CHEVY SIMULATOR ON THIS TRACK. WHAT WAS THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE WITH THE CAMARO ZL1 1LE ON A LAP AROUND THERE?“The two cars are very different. The Corvette C8.R is designed more for this type of racing where the Cup car is obviously designed for the ovals. So when it comes to a road course, it doesn’t handle that quite as well with braking performance, traction and overall grip level. From a driving point of view, it was fun to drive both. It was eye-opening to see what the Cup guys go through on a road course. They really have to throw it around a bit. There are no driver aids so it’s all up to them on how they get around there. There aren’t too many similarities in driving style, but the way you drive the track is going to be similar – the tendencies, the trail-braking, which curbs you want to use and which ones you want to avoid.” THIS RACE IS 325 MILES AS OPPOSED TO 24 HOURS OF RACING THAT YOU GUYS NORMALLY DO ON THE DAYTONA ROAD COURSE. WHAT KIND OF RACE DO YOU EXPECT FOR THE CUP DRIVERS? “The NASCAR Cup race will be exciting. Having no practice and when the green flag drops, it’ll be exciting to see what happens on those first few laps. Looking at our 24-hour race, it’s about survival and it will be the same thing for them. It will be about surviving to get to the end just because no one has experience there. They’re going to have to be a little easy at the beginning, but maintaining decent track position will be key. It’s going to be a tough track to pass on. After that last pit stop, you’re going to be want to be as far up front as possible to maintain track position.” CORVETTE RACING WILL BE PART OF AN IMSA WEATHERTECH SPORTSCAR CHAMPIONSHIP RACE AT THE CHARLOTTE ROVAL FOR THE FIRST TIME IN OCTOBER. DO YOU FORSEE AN OPPORTUNITY FOR A LITTLE BIT OF A ROLE REVERSAL AND LEARNING THAT TRACK FROM THE CUP DRIVERS?“It would be great to have them come back to the simulator and help us prepare for the Charlotte Roval. None of us on the sports car side have driven the new course there, and they’ve had a couple races in the past. It would be nice to get some feedback from them and some tips and tricks they’ve learned the last couple of years. The Hendrick guys have had a lot of success there with Chase (Elliott) winning and I think Alex was top-three there a couple years running in qualifying. They know how to go quick around there. When we go there for the first time with our Corvette C8.R, they can definitely show us a few things.”

NASCAR CUP SERIES GO BOWLING 235 AT THE DAYTONA ROAD COURSE DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT August 13, 2020
KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE, met with media via teleconference and discussed the challenges of the 2020 season in general, the focus of the team, how no practice has been an added factor, his thoughts on the upcoming Daytona Road Course race, and more. Full Transcript:
WE ARE COMING INTO THIS WEEKEND AT THE DAYTONA ROAD COURSE, MAKING HISTORY. HOW EXCITED ARE YOU TO BREAK IN THIS ROAD COURSE IN A NASCAR CUP SERIES CAR?“With unprecedented times here in 2020, I think the call from NASCAR to make this unprecedented move is brilliant. With Watkins Glen not able to host a race in upstate New York, and to have the road course available for us down in Daytona; with no practice and no qualifying and just jumping straight into the race, why not? We’ve done everything in 2020 so far to overcome all these hurdles. I think the fun-factor this weekend has got everybody’s anxiety-level up; but also the challenge that’s right in front of us because it’s basically a wild card-style race, where you could see a driver and a team that don’t normally make the Playoffs, punch their ticket.”
HOW DO YOU LOOK AT YOUR CHANCES THERE? YOU ARE A SEASONED VETERAN. A WHEEL MAN. YOU HAVE SIX TOP-10 FINISHES IN THE LAST EIGHT ROAD COURSE RACES.“I look at this the same way as all through this year. The challenges are so different and the factors of all of these things that we’re looking at for the first time, reminds me of when I was making my first start at Sonoma in a Southwest Tour car, part of NASCAR’s ladder system back in the day. And I was so intimidated by it. I didn’t know what to expect. And my team owner said hey, just try to stay on the asphalt and you’ll be okay. You know, that’s a lot of what we’ve been trying to juggle in 2020. Just keep it simple and you’ll be in position for better things to happen. So, it’s going to be a good challenge. There are probably only going to be two pit stops. And there’s not going to be much that you’re going to change on the car. So, you’ve just got to keep all four tires on the asphalt. Don’t flat-spot them. And don’t wear out the rear tires too quickly with all the horsepower.”
EVERYBODY KNOWS HOW MUCH YOU LOVE TO RACE AND HOW MUCH YOU ARE FOCUSED ON WINNING, BUT IT SEEMS LIKE THIS YEAR YOU’VE GOTTEN SOME PATIENCE. YOU SEEM SO UPBEAT EVEN IF YOU HAVEN’T HAD A RECENT WIN. WHERE DOES ALL THAT COME FROM? IT CERTAINLY PLAYS OUT WELL FOR THE REST OF THE SEASON TO HAVE THAT KIND OF ATTITUDE.“There are quite a few factors. Most importantly, my wife Ashley. She’s a very patient person and somebody that has a nice sense of calm around her. And when the season started off and then we had this delay, we’ve really had to hunker down and protect ourselves and be in this bubble together. And that’s the challenge that 2020 has brought us. And then once racing resumed, with all the craziness and not know what to expect, no practice. We need to build up our points base. If we can build up our points base and get some solid top 10’s under our belt, that’s going to give us a cushion when we get in these summer months, when and if we are back to practice or qualifying or crazier things can even pop up. So it’s just been about consistency this year. Even just being that leader at Ganassi right now with Kyle Larson’s incident earlier this year and trying to get Matt Kenseth up to speed, and just trying to be that stable ground. And it’s been a challenge for me to do that; I enjoy it.”
I WAS INTERESTED TO HEAR YOU SAY TWO PIT STOPS. DO YOU FEEL LIKE PEOPLE WILL RACE THIS ON FUEL MILEAGE? OTHERS SEEM TO THINK TIRES ARE GOING TO BE SO IMPORTANT. YOU’D HAVE TO PIT AT THOSE STAGE BREAKS AND THEN POTENTIALLY ONCE DURING THE FINAL STAGE.“Yeah, that’s our first instinct; in talking with (crew chief) Matt Mccall, is to spend the least amount of time on pit road. That’s how road course races are won. But, with stage points being available and possibly a stage win, we’ll see how that plays out. I’m on a conference call later this afternoon to really go through what we’ve learned on the simulator and what they’ve learned from their modeling on lap time drop-off and then that leads to fuel mileage. So, we don’t quite have all the answers just yet, but again you’ve just got to be ready for anything. Who knows?”
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR SEASON AS A WHOLE? YOU ARE KIND OF SOLID, POINTS-WISE, IN THE PLAYOFFS, BUT HAVEN’T NECESSARILY BEEN CHALLENGING UP-FRONT. ARE YOU PLEASED? WHERE DO YOU THINK THE TEAM NEEDS TO MAKE CHANGE TO CHALLENGE FOR MORE TOP 5’S?“I feel like we’ve had a season that I never would have expected, of course with the situation we’re all in. But with the top 10’s that we’ve accumulated with the No. 1 car, I think we’re tied for third most. But we’re missing those top 5’s, and missing those laps led. It’s so hard to break through right now against (Kevin) Harvick, (Denny) Hamlin, (Brad) Keselowski; (Ryan) Blaney should have more wins right now.
“And we had a good opportunity at Texas. We came down pit road. We knew we needed two tires or fuel only and we got beat off pit road by RCR. Both the No. 3 (Austin Dillon) and the No. 8 (Tyler Reddick) behind us and they came out ahead of us. And that put us in that sucker hole of position three on those restarts towards the end and we just didn’t quite have the muscle to get by those guys. So, we were close. We’ve been in position a couple of times, but we haven’t been in position enough. So, we’ve just got to keep chipping away at what we believe is our weak areas. Some of that’s pit road and some of that’s the short run speed.”
CONSISTENTLY, YOU CAN TAKE A 15TH PLACE CAR AND GET A TOP 10 FINISH OUT OF IT. WE’VE SEEN THAT THIS YEAR. YOU’RE ALSO OLD-SCHOOL ENOUGH TO HAVE WORKED ON CARS AND UNDERSTAND CARS. DOES THAT ABILITY THAT YOU HAVE, AND YOUR BROTHER HAS, HELPED YOU AT TIMES WHEN THERE IS NO PRACTICE. KYLE (BUSCH) HAS REALLY RELIED ON PRACTICE IN THE PAST. HAS YOUR SKILL LEVEL HELPED YOU EXECUTE TO A HIGHER LEVEL THIS YEAR?“Well, it’s actually something that Kyle, my little brother, and I are confused about. We’ve been flying together a lot and talking together a lot because we are in our own bubble as a family, and we’re still very puzzled. I mean Kyle Busch is the defending champion of NASCAR and doesn’t have a win yet. I don’t have a win yet. And the only thing that we’ve been able to look at each other and just stare right into each other’s eyes and go, you know what? We miss practice. We miss that feel in the car to know that this is not the right way to go; this is the right way to go. And we haven’t been able to capitalize on that with no practice. So, it’s been tough. It’s a challenge. But yeah, I know what it takes to set the pre-load and the sway bar and as far as different movement in the rear end with yaw, it’s again, just got to find the right combination while the race track is rubbering in. Some of these race tracks, we’re the first series to hit the track, and then sometimes we’re the last group to hit the race track and it’s all rubbered in and different. So, lots of variables and that’s where you’ve got to find that perfect combination.”
TRADITIONALLY, YOU’VE BEEN SIGNING ONE-YEAR DEALS WITH GANASSI. AS CRAZY AS THE PANDEMIC HAS MADE LIFE IN GENERAL, HAVE YOU HAD ANY DISCUSSIONS YET WITH CHIP AS TO WHAT YOUR FUTURE MIGHT LOOK LIKE?  “No, no discussions at all. I’m very happy with where things sit and the trajectory of where things will be in 2021, and we’ll go from there.”
EVEN WITH THE PANDEMIC IN MIND, WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE TO RUN DAYTONA WITH NO PRACTICE OR QUALIFYING WHEN DRIVERS HAVE NOT RUN THIS COURSE?“Yeah, it’s going to be pretty wild. Just driving a little bit on iRacing and the simulator with Chevrolet, having a mindset of driving the car at 80 percent pace has seemed to have provided the most stability in laps times and in as far as tire wear and just finding a rhythm. That’s the key thing. You have to find a rhythm and we’re all going to be doing it as they drop the green flag and as there are 39 other cars around us and who knows? Thunderstorms are in the forecast and we may as well throw rain tires on our cars in 2020 just to say we checked that off the box.”

Aug 13, 2020 | Featured, Julie Nataas, Race Results, Rachel Meyer

Rachel Meyer and Julie Nataas competed at the 2020 NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series North Central Regional event in Indianapolis this past weekend and had a record-breaking weekend, including taking home the event win and runner-up.

The Randy Meyer Racing Team entered the Indy Summer Spectacle event with Rachel Meyer behind the wheel of the NGK Spark Plugs dragster, only the second time in 4 years that Rachel has driven the Top Alcohol Dragster normally driven by Megan Meyer. Rachel ran a quick 5.22 ET at 280 mph for the opening session of qualifying, the first time for Rachel to reach the 280 speed. Her teammate, Julie who was driving for VP Racing Fuels, had severe tire shake in the first session and had to click it off early. Julie went on to run a 5.34 ET during the second session to make the 8-car field.

Rachel solidified her lead in qualifying with a 5.17 ET at 285.5 mph during the second session, setting a new personal record for both time and speed, and she is now the fastest female and second fastest driver in the entire NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster class.

“It was awesome. It was a rush, I loved how excited it made me feel after every pass driving this car and I was even more excited after that pass. Going down the track I knew it was on a great pass.,” Rachel said.

Both girls did not improve in the third session, and headed into first round from the first and sixth positions. Rachel got the win over David Jordan running a 5.26 ET at 279 mph, the quickest and fastest pass of first round, and Julie also got the win over Shawn Cowie running a 5.38 ET before winning against Duane Shields in the semi-finals with an improved 5.29 ET.

UNION, KY (August 12, 2020)  – Jimmy Owens continued his solid 2020 racing season by picking up the victory in the 34th Annual Ralph Latham Memorial race on Wednesday at the Florence Speedway. It was Owens’ fourth win in one of the track’s most prestigious races. The current Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Championship Point Leader extended his lead to 400 points over second place with the win. Clanton wound up in second followed by Ricky Weiss who finished third. The Optima Batteries Hard Charger of the Race, Tim McCreadie, came from 19th to finish fourth. Hudson O’Neal debuted with the brand-new PCC Race Team, came home in fifth. Owens was dominant in the first 36 laps of the race that went caution free until back-to-back cautions flew for debris on the track and then a multi-car accident involving several drivers. Clanton, in his first season with the LOLMDS now has three runner-up finishes in 2020. Owens’ margin of victory over Clanton was 0.643 seconds. In Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the 8th time this season and 72nd time in his career, Owens extended his point lead over Jonathan Davenport, who finished 14th in the final rundown. “We knew we had a really good car at the start of the night. To kick off the weekend like this is a big morale booster for the team.  It’s just an awesome deal. We have had good steady consistent runs this year. We’ve got some good momentum for the rest of the week now.” Clanton finished second to Owens in the Clash at the Mag in June, took the runner-up spot again to the 3-time series champion. “I was just saving some tires and was hoping for a caution early on. We got a good restart there and got by him [Owens], but I just couldn’t get all the way back to the top in time to stay there. It’s tough to come to a place where you’ve struggled so much. We have changed a lot of things in the two weeks and it seems to have helped.” Weiss charged through the field to finish in third. “I just put the guys behind in qualifying. We were able to salvage a good night out of it. Coming from the back we just had too much ground to make up. That caution sure helped, but we learned a lot for the rest of the weekend.” The winner’s Ramirez Motorsports Rocket Chassis is powered by a Vic Hill Racing Engine and sponsored by Reece Monument Company, Tommy Pope Construction, Boomtest Well Service, General Tire, Red Line Oil, Ohlins Shocks, Champion Spark Plugs, and Midwest Sheet Metal. Completing the top ten were Tyler Erb, Mike Marlar, Scott Bloomquist, Kyle Bronson, and Brandon Overton.
Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series 
Race Summary 
Ralph Latham Memorial
Wednesday, August 12th, 2020
Florence Speedway – Union, KY

Lucas Oil Time Trials
Fast Time Group A: Devin Moran / 15.454 seconds (overall)
Fast Time Group B: Jimmy Owens / 15.591 seconds 

Penske Race Shocks Heat Race #1 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 9-Devin Moran[1]; 2. 25-Shane Clanton[3]; 3. 11R-Josh Rice[2]; 4. 2S-Stormy Scott[4]; 5. 40B-Kyle Bronson[6]; 6. 33J-Jesse Lay[7]; 7. 1B-Ross Bailes[5]; 8. 20C-Duane Chamberlain[8]; 9. 626-Brian Mullins[9]

FK Rod Ends Heat Race #2 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 22F-Chris Ferguson[1]; 2. 49G-Billy Green[6]; 3. 76-Brandon Overton[2]; 4. 39-Tim McCreadie[4]; 5. 21-Billy Moyer Jr[5]; 6. 12J-Jason Jameson[3]; 7. 56C-Colton Horner[8]; 8. (DNS) 18D-Daulton Wilson; 9. (DNS) 83F-Jensen Ford

Simpson Race Products Heat Race #3 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 71-Hudson O’Neal[1]; 2. 0-Scott Bloomquist[2]; 3. 7W-Ricky Weiss[6]; 4. 94M-Jason Miller[4]; 5. 28X-Tyler Carpenter[7]; 6. 51M-Joey Moriarty[3]; 7. 1V-Vic Hill[5]; 8. 17T-Tim Vance[8]; 9. (DNS) 11J-Drew Armstrong

Ohlins Shocks Heat Race #4 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 20-Jimmy Owens[1]; 2. 17D-Zack Dohm[4]; 3. 1T-Tyler Erb[2]; 4. 49-Jonathan Davenport[5]; 5. 25Z-Mason Zeigler[7]; 6. 22L-Skyller Lewis[8]; 7. 28-Mike Simpson[9]; 8. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[3]; 9. (DNS) 81E-Tanner English

MyRacePass Heat Race #5 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 14-Josh Richards[2]; 2. 157-Mike Marlar[1]; 3. 17M-Dale McDowell[4]; 4. 18L-Trevor Landrum[5]; 5. 83-Scott James[3]; 6. 79-Kyle Hardy[6]; 7. 21H-Robby Hensley[7]; 8. 20B-Todd Brennan[8]; 9. 8A-Curt Addison[9]

Sunoco Race Fuels Heat Race #6 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 50-Shanon Buckingham[3]; 2. 8-Kyle Strickler[2]; 3. 1-Earl Pearson Jr[1]; 4. 32-Bobby Pierce[4]; 5. 1M-Connor Meade[7]; 6. 16-Tyler Bruening[5]; 7. 21P-Kirk Phillips[8]; 8. 32S-Chad Stapleton[6]

Tiger Rear Ends B-Main #1 Finish (12 Laps, Top 2 Transfer):  1. 39-Tim McCreadie[2]; 2. 40B-Kyle Bronson[4]; 3. 2S-Stormy Scott[1]; 4. 21-Billy Moyer Jr[5]; 5. 33J-Jesse Lay[7]; 6. 56C-Colton Horner[11]; 7. 1V-Vic Hill[12]; 8. 28X-Tyler Carpenter[6]; 9. 12J-Jason Jameson[8]; 10. 1B-Ross Bailes[10]; 11. 17T-Tim Vance[15]; 12. 626-Brian Mullins[16]; 13. 20C-Duane Chamberlain[13]; 14. 94M-Jason Miller[3]; 15. 51M-Joey Moriarty[9]; 16. (DNS) 11J-Drew Armstrong; 17. (DNS) 83F-Jensen Ford; 18. (DNS) 18D-Daulton Wilson

FAST Shafts B-Main #2 Finish (12 Laps, Top 2 Transfer): 1. 49-Jonathan Davenport[1]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce[3]; 3. 25Z-Mason Zeigler[4]; 4. 83-Scott James[5]; 5. 16-Tyler Bruening[9]; 6. 79-Kyle Hardy[8]; 7. 1M-Connor Meade[6]; 8. 21H-Robby Hensley[11]; 9. 21P-Kirk Phillips[12]; 10. 28-Mike Simpson[10]; 11. 20B-Todd Brennan[14]; 12. 32S-Chad Stapleton[15]; 13. 8A-Curt Addison[17]; 14. (DNS) 81E-Tanner English; 15. (DNS) 18L-Trevor Landrum; 16. (DNS) 22L-Skyller Lewis; 17. (DNS) 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr

• James Hinchcliffe leads Honda top-four sweep in first day of practice
• Marco Andretti, Scott Dixon and Ryan Hunter-Reay complete top four for Honda
• First of three practice days prior to Indianapolis 500 qualifying this weekend

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (August 12, 2020) – James Hinchcliffe led the way in “Opening Day” practice at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, heading a Honda sweep of the top four speeds in the first day of track action in preparation for the 104^th running of the Indianapolis 500.  Hinchcliffe’s Andretti Autosport teammates Marco Andretti and Ryan Hunter-Reay ended the day second and fourth, respectively, while Scott Dixon slotted into third in his Chip Ganassi Racing Honda.

Running a partial-season program in 2020, Hinchcliffe posted an average speed of 224.526 mph around the 2.5-mile Indianapolis oval in the second of two “full field” practice sessions to top the time charts for the day.  Dixon led the morning session with a speed of 224.047, which ended up as third-fastest on the day.  Hunter-Reay, third overall at 223.341 mph, also led the “no tow” rankings with a traffic-free lap of 220.725 mph.

Jack Harvey ran seventh-overall with a speed of 223.178 mph in his Meyer Shank Racing Honda. The only Honda-powered rookie in the field, Alex Palou, completed all four phases of the required “Rookie Orientation” by mid-day, and went on to record the 8^th-fastest overall speed of 223.128 mph in the full-field afternoon session as Honda drivers claimed six of the top eight positions on the speed chart for the day.

Practice activities at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway continue through Friday, with qualifying action to set the field of 33 on the historic 2.5-mile oval scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.

Honda Racing social media content and videos from practice and qualifying from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway – and 104^th running of the Indianapolis 500 on August 23 – will be available on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/HondaRacingHPD) and on Twitter at (https://twitter.com/HondaRacing_HPD).  Produced by the CoForce Digital Media, YouTube video packages can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV.  

Quotes

James Hinchcliffe (Andretti Autosport Honda) Fastest in opening-day practice: “It’s always nice ‘rolling off the truck’ here with a car that has good pace. Huge credit to everybody at Honda and Andretti Autosport; we’ve got a bunch of quick cars. It’s got good single-car pace, it has good pace in traffic. You can’t ask for much more for a first day. We have a lot of work to do still. There are lot of things we want to change and get through. Each car [in the six-car Andretti team] has got their list of things [to try]. But today was a nice, clean start for us.”

Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) 3^rd fastest: “We had a decent start in the No. 9 PNC Bank Honda. We were trying to get through some [setup choices] that we have on the list [to test]. It’s a pretty extensive list, especially with the condensed schedule. It’s a totally new car for me this year with [engineer] Mike Cannon and with a few off-season projects. I definitely think the team and Honda are going in the right direction. First practice, we’re just trying to get the car comfortable in traffic.  So far, that seems to be pretty good. The aeroscreen, when we first tested it, seemed to affect the car a little different aerodynamically. I’d say today it actually felt more normal. No real difference [from the previous full open cockpit], and the vision is good.”

August 12, 2020

Matt DiBenedetto and the No. 21 Menards/Dutch Boy team, like all their peers in NASCAR’s Cup Series, will be in uncharted territory this weekend as the series races for the first time on the 14-turn, 3.6-mile road course at Daytona International Speedway.

Like most other races in COVID-19 pandemic times, there will be no practice or qualifying prior to the start of Sunday’s 65-lap Go Bowling 235.

DiBenedetto, who will start the race from ninth place, has had some strong runs on road courses throughout his career. He said he is looking to capitalize on his road-course skills, while being mindful of his position in the Playoff standings. With four regular-season races left to run before the start of the championship-deciding Playoffs, DiBenedetto has a 57-point cushion over the cutoff line.
 
“I’ve always had the approach of trying to race smart, especially this weekend,” he said. “You don’t want to make any stupid mistakes, so racing smart will be very key, especially on a new race track a lot of us are unfamiliar with.”

He said that in many ways his approach to the Daytona road course race is no different than for other tracks.
 
“I’ve been called patiently aggressive,” he said. “I think that’s maybe a cool and good description that I like and try to live by,” he said. “I guess that’s sort of my style – be smart and be aggressive when you can when it counts and drive hard.”
 
DiBenedetto said he, crew chief Greg Erwin the rest of the Menards/Dutch Boy crew have learned a lot about each other despite the external challenges they’ve faced this year. He says that’s starting to pay off.

“The first part of the year we as a team were really kind of getting acclimated with each other,” he said. “All the COVID stuff that made it a little tougher because of no practice and no qualifying and all that.
 
“But we’ve gotten into a good rhythm. We’re working together great, so the strength of our team is definitely there.”
 
The Go Bowling 235 is set to get the green flag just after 3 p.m. on Sunday with TV coverage on NBC.

NASCAR CUP SERIES GO BOWLING 235 AT THE DAYTONA ROAD COURSE DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT August 12, 2020
BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 CAMARO ZL1 1LE, met with media via teleconference regarding today’s announcement of a multiyear sponsorship with Columbia Sportswear, which enlists Wallace as a brand ambassador and includes a primary sponsorship of the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Chevrolet. Other topics discussed were the important things in his future, getting prepared for the Daytona Road Course race, how the team has progressed from a year ago, and more. Partial Transcript:
DOES THE SPONSORSHIP WITH COLUMBIA SPORTSWEAR MEAN THAT YOU’RE STAYING AT RPM? WHAT IS THE BREAKOUT BETWEEN IT BEING A PERSONAL SERVICES DEAL AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR RICHARD PETTY AND FOR COMPETITION?“We’re in the middle of Silly Season still and for both parties, my team and RPM are still trying to figure out ways to finalize deals and get everything together. This definitely solves a big piece of the puzzle and working together. So, nothing’s set in stone yet. It’s still all being worked out and ironed out. Hopefully we’ll have that announcement coming soon.”
WHAT IS THE BREAKOUT REGARDING PERSONAL SERVICES?“It’s a two-part way. It’s definitely a personal services of mine, and also bringing funding to the race cars to allow us to keep being competitive and keep racking those top 10’s and putting together those good runs. We have four races left to the Playoffs, a big hill to climb, but this is definitely going to knock us up a notch to go out there and compete and give it our all.”
WHEN YOU LOOK AT TRYING TO DECIDE YOUR FUTURE, WHAT’S IMPORTANT TO YOU? IS IT MONEY? IS IT STABILITY? IS IT LOYALTY? WHAT ARE YOU CONSIDERING?“All those things considered the first thing is to deal with RPM. I can’t believe it has already been three years. And the first thing I said is it feels like family. And, to this day, I feel like family; and that’s been very important to me. It’s easy to kind of get caught-up in just being a driver and showing up at the race track and getting the job done and going home and it’s kind of a wash and repeat. And here, its family. It’s being in contact with everybody and part of the team. It’s obviously being close with Richard. You have that family aspect. That goes along with that I’m a family guy. I love my family here, so to have that feel is definitely important. And, obviously you want to be competitive. I came into this sport wanting to win races and be a household name on the track, so we have a lot of work to do as a team and together, to get there. So again, we’re figuring out all our options and figure out the best solution for both of us to go out and be competitive on the race track.”
YOU TOLD NBC SPORTS THAT YOU HAVE A CONTRACT OFFER FROM CHIP GANASSI RACING. WHAT IS THE DECIDING FACTOR BETWEEN GOING WITH THEM AND GOING WITH RPM OR LOOKING AT OTHER ORGANIZATIONS? AND, WHAT IS YOUR DEADLINE?“Yeah, my deadline is usually I think the Thursday or Friday before climbing in the car at Daytona. So, we’re well ahead of that deadline right now. And so, it’s good to be having these conversations and all options that are on the table, again, we’re still in the heart of it and in the thick of it. But, we’re working out everything as we go.”
WITH ROAD COURSES, YOU GUYS LIKE A LOT OF CREATURE COMFORTS IN THERE THAT ARE DIFFERENT THAN THE OVALS. CAN YOU EXPLAIN HOW YOU’RE GOING TO GET TO THAT WITHOUT HAVING ANY LAPS ON TRACK, AND REALLY FEEL LIKE YOU’RE READY TO RACE WHEN THE GREEN GOES?“I don’t know if any of us are going to feel like we’re ready to race. So, it’s going to be exciting for sure. I’m glad I’m not on the front row for this one to drive off in there and find my marks. And, I don’t want to be like Brad at the Roval two years ago and overshoot the corner. So, we just have to be mindful. I’ve spent, this is the most time I’ve spent preparing for a road course and going to the SIM. I’m actually heading up to jump on the SIM immediately after this call. I’m just trying to prep myself for as much as I can to be ready for putting corners together. It’s crazy how, just from watching the 24 Hours, you kind of learn which way this kind of track goes. Obviously turning left immediately after the Start/Finish Line, going through the infield there. And then you kind of visualize, like man, I used to park here in the road course parking lot. So, it’s going to be cool to kind of be racing all around that. It’ll be exciting for the fans putting it all together. But again, I’ve tried to spend so much time prepping for this; so hopefully it works out for us in the end.”
IS THERE ONE THING YOU NEED TO GET RIGHT IN THE COCKPIT, YOU PERSONALLY, EVERY TIME?‘I think as long as we’re comfortable and usually my guys do a top-notch job, an A+ job, every time of not really having mistakes. I know without practice it’s easy to forget something. But each and every week I show up and the belts are the same, the steering wheel height is the same, seat mounts, everything is the same. My guys do a great job back at RPM, so we’re all good.”
WHAT IS YOUR FEELING ABOUT WHERE THE TEAM STANDS NOW COMPARED TO A YEAR AGO AT THIS TIME? HAVE YOU SEEN MORE CONSISTENCY THAT YOU’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR?“Yeah, yeah, for sure. I think we are leaps and bounds ahead of last year. And, I think that’s important to build off of. I remember an old-school motto was ‘suck less than your last race’. So, that’s how we kind of went about it. And then, moving forward this year and having Jerry (Baxter, crew chief) come in and have Jerry learn the ins-and-outs of the Cup series has been very important and very influential and positive for us. Making those bold strategy calls, stay out, take two tires, whatever it may be to keep us in the game; even talking with the pit crew. They are appreciative of Jerry and how he keeps them in the game. Whether if we have a bad day and we’re fighting a penalty lap, and taking strategy there; or, it’s like Vegas earlier this year when we were running 20th with about four or five (laps) to go, stayed out, and ended-up sixth. It’s just those types of things that produce good racing and good momentum, and we’ve carried that. You look at Michigan, we had a really good car and a really solid weekend. Sunday didn’t go as well as Saturday, but still, having those little highlights of success like you mentioned continue to build momentum for us moving forward. So, we’ve got some tough races coming up on the schedule, but with the team behind me right now, we’re ready to tackle anything.”
FOR THE SEASON AS A WHOLE, HOW HAS YOUR SPONSORSHIP INTEREST COMPARED THIS YEAR VERSUS IN PAST YEARS? ARE YOU GETTING YOUR CHOICE OF SPONSORS AND COMPANIES AND HOW ARE YOU MAKING THOSE DECISIONS?“Yeah, I’ve been in racing and motorsports for 17 years now. And we may not have been looking for sponsorship right off the bat, but I’d say ever since 2010, a good ten years now, we’ve been looking for sponsorship. I was always told when, and they’ll come. And we won a couple, we won a few in the Truck Series and still fighting sponsorship issues. I haven’t won much since then. But we’ve been doing things. We’ve been winning off the race track. I think that’s helped being much bigger than an athlete, standing up for human beings. It’s something that we often don’t get to do just because we’re put on a pedestal. With the spotlight that I put myself into, being vocal about what’s going on the world, has created opportunities for new partners. Look at Columbia here. A brand new partner, a part of the sport, a part of RPM, a part of the Bubba Wallace brand. We’re doing good things off the race track that helps our on-track performance. So, we will just continue those ways. This doesn’t even compare to how the little bit of sponsor momentum we’ve had in years past. This is an incredible opportunity for me; one the best years in my racing career from that standpoint. We’re building up on a great future here, getting these partnerships and deals in place; to set the team, the partner, and myself up for great success and we’ll continue to do that.”
OVERALL, HOW ARE YOU DOING RIGHT NOW? YOU’VE CERTAINLY GONE THROUGH A LOT. EVEN SIX WEEKS AGO YOU WERE TIRED, HAVING GONE THROUGH THE WRINGER OF THE ROLE OF ACTIVISM, AND NOW THERE’S STILL THE COMPETITOR ASPECT GOING ON AND NOW WITH YOUR FUTURE. THERE IS A LOT ON YOUR SHOULDERS. HOW ARE YOU HANDLING IT?“I definitely feel a lot more upbeat. Like I said, there’s a lot of positive momentum on our side. Big things being worked on behind the scenes like this (Columbia Sportswear) that we’re excited to share with people. It’s part of it. You go through the wringer. It makes you a better person at the end of the day. Maybe it’s a new outlet for you to explore, like I said about being outspoken about things that are going on in the country and in the world, and you want to be a part of it. And that’s how I’ve felt. I didn’t know what to expect. You know me, I’m always just the ‘do it and figure out everything after’; and so that’s just a part of Bubba Wallace in everyday life and we’ll continue to go on. I’m always ready for whatever is thrown at me. I try to handle it in the best way I can. I’ll get beat-up and worn down about it and you’ll hear about it because I wear my heart on my sleeve. But all in all, we’re refreshed. We got that week off and had a great vacation, Amanda and I, we tried to decompress and turn off my phone and just get away. It was a good to refresh and refocus on what we need to do on the race track as well as off the race track.”
HAS THERE BEEN A LOT OF TALK AS FAR AS SOCIAL ACTIVISM THAT YOU’RE INVOLVED IN THAT WE DON’T SEE ON A DAY-TO-DAY BASIS? DO YOU FEEL LIKE BEHIND THE SCENES THAT THERE IS STUFF GOING ON IN THE INDUSTRY WHERE PEOPLE ARE TAKING WHAT THEY SAID A MONTH OR TWO AGO AND TRYING TO PUT WORDS INTO ACTION?“Yeah, for sure. I had a great lunch with Brandon Thompson and NASCAR Diversity Affairs there, and we were talking some really good things of how we can just make our sport better for everybody. Diversity training is coming into place and we’re trying to get that going. And that’s going to be a lot of fun and a good process to see how it works out. From the sports-side, good things are coming. And from the personal side, as well, I’m excited to be still working out and getting my foundation up and running and having my sister be a part of that. So, I know we’re basically right on the goal line of finalizing things up with that. To be able to dive into the communities, the conversations that we’ve had, we’ve even had them with Columbia about my foundation. It’s just so tough with COVID-19 going on right now, to really be in-person and reach out to the communities to get them, whether is a part of the sport or just educate them on things that are going on in the world. So, there are a lot of good things away from the race track, away from racing, that deal with the issues that go on in the world that are being worked out as well.”
WE WERE SUPPOSED TO BE AT WATKINS GLEN INTERNATIONAL THIS WEEKEND. WHAT’S YOUR TAKE ON NOT GOING TO THE GLEN THIS YEAR?“I’m all right with it. It hasn’t been one of my best race tracks. But I think this, with everything going on with COVID, I know NASCAR has been up to their necks in trying to figure out what the schedule is going to be. So, I definitely don’t envy them right now. But kudos to them for coming up with an alternative. And it’s something new. It’s new for NASCAR. I know the road course has been around for years and years and being able to watch that on TV right before our season kick-off at Daytona. So, for us to go in there with no practice, I remember when I was asked about hey, we need a solid answer if you’re okay with no practice. And I was like, okay, what does everybody else think about this? The final verdict was no practice. Drive off into Turn 1 and figure out where you go after that. So, it’ll be cool. It’ll be a different alternative to definitely have fans tune-in for that and to be able to watch all the action on NBC, so it’ll be cool. None of us really know what to expect. But, to have a good race and try to continue on momentum from there. Like I said earlier, I’ve prepped a lot; a lot more than I have in the past to be good here and be successful here. So, hopefully it goes hand-in-hand.”

INDIANAPOLIS, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2020 – A Torch Red 2020 Corvette Stingray coupe will serve as the Official Pace Car for the 104th Indianapolis 500 presented by Gainbridge, continuing Chevrolet’s tradition of leading the field to the green flag. The Pace Car will be driven by GM President Mark Reuss.This year, the race will be held outside of May for the first time – Sunday, Aug. 23 – with live NBC coverage at 2:30 p.m. (ET). This marks the 17^th time a Corvette has served as the Pace Car, starting in 1978, and the 31st time a Chevrolet has led the field dating to 1948 when a Fleetmaster Six convertible held the honor. No other brand or vehicle has served as the “500” Pace Car more often than Chevrolet and the Corvette, respectively. “It’s truly an honor to have the opportunity to be behind the wheel of the mid-engine Corvette Pace Car at such a historic race as the Indy 500,” said GM President Mark Reuss. “The 2020 Corvette Stingray is the result of a close collaboration between the Corvette Racing and production engineering teams, setting a new benchmark for supercars around the world.” The Torch Red 2020 Corvette Stingray Pace Car features:·       All-new mid-engine LT2 6.2L V8 engine·       8-Speed Dual Clutch transmission·       Z51 performance package·       Corvette accessory spoiler and ground effects package·       Carbon Flash exterior accents and badge package·       GT2 Bucket Seats·       Unique Indy 500 Livery With 495 horsepower, the Torch Red Corvette Stingray can accelerate from 0-60 in 2.9 seconds, capable of 194 mph. It has been named MotorTrend Car of the Year for 2020. “This is a continuation of our outstanding partnership with Chevrolet,” Indianapolis Motor Speedway President J. Douglas Boles said. “We’re so grateful for all that Chevrolet has contributed to the success of our events. The Torch Red 2020 Corvette Stingray is a world-class machine rich with speed, performance and excitement, perfectly suited to pace the ‘500’ field.” Chevrolet has a storied history at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Chevrolet was founded in 1911, the year of the inaugural 500-mile race, and company co-founder Louis Chevrolet, along with brothers Arthur and Gaston, competed in early Indy 500s. Arthur competed in the 1911 race and Gaston won in 1920. Nine drivers with Chevrolet engines have combined to win “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” 11 times, with Rick Mears, Emerson Fittipaldi, Arie Luyendyk, Al Unser Jr., Helio Castroneves, Tony Kanaan, Juan Pablo Montoya, Will Power and most recently Simon Pagenaud driving to Victory Lane with bowtie power. Pagenaud won the 2019 Indianapolis 500 from the pole driving the No. 22 Menards Team Penske Chevrolet. In 2018, Ed Carpenter won the pole and Power the race in Chevrolet-powered machines. Josef Newgarden won last year’s NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship driving the No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet. Pagenaud finished second in the standings. Visit IMS.com for more information about this year’s schedule. The race will be televised live on NBC for the second consecutive year, with the pre-race show starting at 1 p.m. The Pennzoil INDYCAR Radio Network will provide live coverage of the race to its affiliates and on Sirius 211, XM 205, indycar.com and the INDYCAR Mobile App powered by NTT DATA. 

CHEVROLET RACING NTT INDYCAR SERIES INDIANAPOLIS 500 INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEEDWAY INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA TEAM CHEVY TEAM ZOOM CONFERENCE DRIVERS AND LEADERSHIP TRANSCRIPTS ARROW MCLAREN SP DRIVER AND LEADERSHIP TRANSCRIPT AUGUST 12, 2020
ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET DRIVERS FERNANDO ALONSO, PATO O’WARD AND OLIVER ASKEW JOINED ORGANIZATION LEADERSHIP ZAK BROWN, SAM SCHMIDT, TAYLOR KIEL AND GIL DE FERRAN ON ZOOM MEDIA CALLS IN PREPARATION FOR THE INDIANAPOLIS 500. FULL TRANSCRIPT:
THE MODERATOR: Fernando, back at Indianapolis, lots of preparation leading into this, then obviously was delayed because of the pandemic. How excited are you to be back in Indianapolis, a track you have a really special connection with?FERNANDO ALONSO: Definitely very excited. I think it’s going to be a little bit different without fans. Yeah, for me it’s going to be the first race with empty grandstands. I know the guys have been racing lately with no fans. It’s going to be a shock I’m sure on race day.But, yeah, looking forward. I think we did a nice preparations with the circumstances, we didn’t have any test day, any simulator or anything like that, compare other 500s.At the same time I saw a very well-prepared, organized team, very hungry of success, doing something good this month. Looking forward. Yeah, tomorrow first day on the car.
THE MODERATOR: Oliver, this is an oval track you’ve had some success at, winning the Freedom 100 last year. How does the Road to Indy prepare you for racing in your first Indianapolis 500? How excited are you to get out for your first practice tomorrow?OLIVER ASKEW: Yeah, the Road to Indy has been tremendous for my career and many others in this paddock racing at the 500 this year. My experience last year at the Freedom 100 is enabling me to go into this next couple weeks having somewhat of an understanding of the track. Obviously we’re going to be going a lot quicker. It seems to have helped me so far this year at a lot of the tracks, having experience at these circuits we go to in INDYCAR.Like Fernando said, Arrow McLaren SP has been putting in so much work for this race. I think we’re going to have three really fast cars this weekend and next weekend. Really looking forward to the experience.
THE MODERATOR: We’ll go ahead and open it up to questions.Q. Fernando, how dramatic of a difference does, say, 13 months make? Last year everything that could have gone wrong did. Now you’re on a team that’s among the top teams in the INDYCAR Series, a teammate fourth in the standings. You probably have three cars that are capable of winning the Indianapolis 500. How big a difference is that for you to be able to compare and contrast this year opposed to last year?FERNANDO ALONSO: Well, hopefully you’re right and we are fast enough that we can compete for the win. At the moment one day before the practice, we have optimistic feeling last year and we have optimistic feeling this year as well.I think we need to wait and see where we are on the speed of the pace of the car. But, yeah, it makes a difference the team itself, how Arrow SP is well-prepared, the experience in the series. Is going to be a big difference compared to last year that we were not prepared enough for the challenge.I’m with reasonable confidence that there’s going to be a good event for us. But we take it step by step. We know there are a lot of things to do from our side. We will miss some experience. All three drivers, we’re rookies for the 500. We need to rely and we need to work very close to the team and learn every day, make it step by step, concentrate a little bit more on the race this year.Qualifying, we are already 53 cars. Maybe that eases the pressure and stress on the first couple of days, and we can concentrate on race day.
Q. How impressed have you been with the season that Oliver and Pato have had so far?FERNANDO ALONSO: I was very impressed definitely. I think I was watching all the races from TV with attention because I knew that the test day we had in April was canceled. The simulator days that we had programmed were canceled. I knew it was very limited time for me on the car before the 500. I wanted to know how the team was performing every weekend.I mean, was very impressive what both did. I remember the Indy GP, Oliver was super fast, on pole. Then Pato with the points he achieved every Sunday. Probably even more that skip away in some unlucky moments. I knew that they are very talented, very brave.Is going to be a huge boost for the team to have these two young drivers, talented drivers, bringing fresh ideas, fresh in terms of car performance, and I’m looking forward to work with everybody.
Q. Who is your engineer? Are you working with Craig Hansen? He’s been a bit of a wizard in his career with Sebastien Bourdais.FERNANDO ALONSO: Yeah, he’s the man.
Q. He’s going to be the guy you work with the whole month?FERNANDO ALONSO: Yeah.
Q. Fernando, you mentioned how impressed you’ve been with the start of Pato and Oliver’s seasons so far. How important, given the fact you mentioned you haven’t maybe had a whole lot of seat or simulator time, lost a day of practice, how important was it for you being able to get up to speed and them having as much success as they have had so far this year for the engineers and the team, the data, to make sure the cars are ready when you unload?FERNANDO ALONSO: Well, as you mentioned now, it is a huge challenge. I’m aware of that. I’m aware of maybe not being among the favorites because we lacking the experience of the 500. The team is not new, but this collaboration is only a few months in the way.I think it’s going to be things that we need to learn within days, in the practice, into qualifying, and next week. Personally, yeah, I was following the races, tried to learn as much as I could from home, tried to ask the engineers what may surprise me watching television and I didn’t understand completely on Mondays, they were trying to help me with understanding. I was making questions why we did that, why we didn’t stop here, there. It was a constant communication.At the same time I was training at the simulator at home. I think these couple of months of pandemic, of the virus, make huge step on eSports, things that I was very active, like the Le Mans Virtual that has been the biggest racing sporting event to date. Not only I have been busy preparing the race, because I joined the team with Barrichello and some other friends, but stakeholder of motorsport games who put on these great event with many technical challenges. At the end more than 14 million viewers, which is an amazing thing for the E gaming.Right now, talking to you, even in INDYCAR, why not in the future to have this great event with motorsport games to have also individual 500 with another 14 or 20 million viewers because this race is something unique.
Q. Oliver and Pato, we haven’t gotten on track yet, but do you have a sense yet of specifically how adding Fernando to the engineering, all the other aspects of the infrastructure that you have already thrived under so far, how that will make a difference and improve things for you over the next couple weeks?PATO O’WARD: Yeah, I think it just raises the game for everybody. One, having a driver with Fernando’s caliber is huge, not just for the team but for Oliver and I that we’re learning. He’s got so much experience with so many different cars. Even though we’re all rookies, the experience that we’ve had in the past definitely will help in many different ways.I think there’s lots of experience behind the team. We know that we’re going to have very good cars. Like Fernando said, we have to wait and see exactly where we’re going to fall. But I think we all have faith in what the team is going to give us. We know that they’re going to give their best to give us the tools to ultimately try and win the Indy 500. That’s all the work that has been going into it the past lots of months. In us drivers, as well, we’re looking forward to it.I think it’s a really cool thing to have him here, but as well as just someone that knows what he’s doing, having an extra car out there to test different things definitely helps us use our time more efficiently.OLIVER ASKEW: It continues to amaze me the amount of knowledge and the personnel that we have on this team right now, especially this weekend with three cars now. There’s some new people, people who have been more involved than they have been in the past.Yeah, as Pato said, it’s going to be really fun to have Fernando on the team. We both looked up to him for a long time. We look forward to experiencing how he works, his work ethic around the engineers and throughout these next couple weeks. It’s going to be interesting for us. I’m sure we’re going to learn a lot from him.
Q. Fernando, apart from Dakar, our best opportunity to see you compete this season has been in eSports events. How important has the whole sim racing become, especially in a year like this when the fans can’t get to these events like Le Mans and Indy?FERNANDO ALONSO: Well, as I said before, I think this virus shows how important is sim racing and how important became the eSport world. I think not only drivers, but fans, promoters, sponsors, different series, they’ve been enjoying a growth of maybe three or four years, even 10 years, only in two or three months. That shows many people it was a good timing to open the eyes of an unlimited possibility that we have with the eSports and the gaming.I’m happy that many people discover this direction. As I said before, especially in the iconic races, the Le Mans 24 hour, when I saw that 14 million people watched the race, 55 country, 200 top drivers from the real world were competing, I think that opens the door for many, many possibilities.The Indy 500, as I said before, should be one of those embracing this thing because I think the fans love the show. You see things, teammates, there are another atmosphere inside the virtual world that I think the fans love that.
Q. Fernando, we know how meticulous you are in your preparation. The big change this weekend is likely to be the Aeroscreen. What have you been able to learn from the team and the data you’ve gathered so far? What can you say about the Aeroscreen, how it will affect the racing next weekend?FERNANDO ALONSO: On the personal side, I only try last weekend on the seat of the factory, they put it on the car. I had a first look at it. It seem okay on the driving visibility and things like that.My teammates, I think the overall comment of INDYCAR, it gets quite warm in the car, quite hot. The ventilation is not the same. They are trying to figure out the ways to improve that. Hopefully we see some improvements and updates for this weekend.Then, yeah, on the car itself, there are some downsides in terms of the aerodynamics, in terms of drag. But is the same for everyone. We just need to adapt to that.In a way it’s a challenge for the engineers as well, this 500. Even if the car starts the same as last year, I think they still need to find and balance this Aeroscreen implementation. We are ready to work on that. We all start from zero in a way. Let’s see if we can find the best direction as soon as possible.
Q. How are you approaching the event mentally this year? You signed the deal with Renault to go back to Formula 1. Are you approaching this as the last chance for a little while to try to win the race? Do you think it’s possible in the future you can keep coming back?FERNANDO ALONSO: It’s a good question. I think I approach the race, as you said, knowing the next two years is going to be impossible to come. I will have to miss qualifying weekend if I wanted to do so. I will not be any more with McLaren next year in F1. That will not work either. I know at least for two years I will not be here.Look, this is the way it is at the moment. I’m here ready to enjoy the event, ready to give my best, and help the team as much as I can. Let’s see in the future what are the possibilities. If you eventually win one day the race, maybe that opens the possibility for different things.
Q. Fernando, with everything going on because of COVID-19, it’s no secret that INDYCAR does give its fans generous access to the drivers in the pit area, paddock, which can be a shock to those not native to the series. Do you think having a quieter track, empty track, will make it easier to focus on getting the job done, maybe lift some pressure off your back?FERNANDO ALONSO: No, I don’t think so. I think it was the magic part of the 500, the fans, around the garages, the interaction you have with them. I will miss a lot that part. Especially the race is here in the U.S., they are all very special. Racing at Daytona, Sebring, there is always this close contact with the fans. That will be really missed.It’s not releasing the pressure. Probably my life outside the car will be a little bit easier so I don’t need to run away. Sometimes I can go to the bathroom with no tight phone cameras pointed at me. Apart of that, I think when you close the visor and you are racing, it will be the same pressure.As I said, being in this huge place with these huge grandstands, not having a full, packed grandstand on Sunday is going to be a little bit difficult. But we will put a good show on television where we will make somehow big thanks to the fans and celebrate with them even on a distance.
Q. Regardless of what happens come August 24th, let’s fast forward to the day after the 500, what’s next for you? Is it as simple as putting on the Renault suit and carrying on?FERNANDO ALONSO: Look, last year when I stopped F1 in 2018, then 2019, last year, it was too much. It was too active. I was racing from January, the 24 Hour of Daytona, then Sebring, then was testing, then Spa, 24 Hours of Le Mans, Indy, the preparation of the car. I had the full attack season.This 2020 I wanted to relax a little bit. Doing the Dakar in January, then full focus on the Indy 500. The second part of the season just relax, charge the batteries. 2021, coming back to F1, I knew it could be very demanding.Arrive the virus, then we have a quiet season more than we wanted, everybody. But in my case I just planned to do the Indy 500. Is what I’m doing. But from Monday, 24th, is going to be again quiet season preparing myself physically, mentally, couple of simulator days with Renault, maybe attending two or three Grand Prix just to see how they work on track. But, yeah, quite easy second part of the year.
Q. Fernando, seven months without competing. How are you fit and mental? With this seven months, the challenge is more difficult than the Dakar?FERNANDO ALONSO: Has been long time, yes, without sitting in a racecar. But I think everybody is struggling with that. We were missing our racecars even if you are on a normal drive or just one event driver. I don’t think that I have a huge disadvantage there.Physically I’ve been training a lot. I’ve been a little bit sick March, April. Yeah, I used that time to get recover well and have a lot of bicycle and gym, try to do things on the lockdown.Then on the preparation, on the challenge, I don’t think that is more difficult than Dakar because that was a completely unknown territory for me. Every kilometer is new. You have to adapt to different things that obviously I was completely rookie. Here I have disadvantage, yes, compared to the others. I’m not as experienced as some others. I know that. But this race is so special that sometimes the place choose who is going to win that Sunday.I’m confident that we do things well, maybe luck goes to our side this time. There are many factors here, many yellows, many things that may happen in the race that are out of your control. So you have to be there.I think the Indy 500 is such a special race that you have to keep trying because eventually one day you will get everything right.
Q. What is your reaction to no fans in the stands at the 500? How have you been mentally and emotionally preparing for the 500 without that energy from the fans this year?PATO O’WARD: I think in a way we’ve had a chance to see fans in Road America. I don’t think we’ve had like a full blackout season. But in Road America I was telling the team, my family and everything, whenever you get there, the energy of having fans is so much better. You see the people are, like, super happy to be there. You feel the energy. You feel everything. Whenever it’s closed doors, it’s so different.So I think for the guys that have seen the Indy 500 or I guess raced in it for many years before this year, I’m not going to be able to really compare, but I know that the 500, it is the event to be at in terms of amount of people, the energy, just everything.I know once race day comes, everything is empty, we’re definitely going to miss it, for sure.OLIVER ASKEW: I feel pretty calm about this next couple weeks. We have way more preparation now than we’ve had over the past couple races where we pretty much show up and roll out of the trailer and go racing.This is going to be more of a traditional approach, more of what I’m used to. We can take our time a little bit. I’m just looking forward to seeing how these next couple weeks come to us and learning as much as possible.Like I said earlier, I’ve had some experience here in Indy Lights in the Freedom 100. For the fans, the fans made that day and that event complete. I think that’s what made that day probably the best racing day and experience I’ve ever had in my life.Having fans here this year would definitely have topped that for the Indy 500. We know that everyone is watching at home. We’re looking forward to putting on such a great show for them.
Q. Pato, first time at Indy 500, how does it feel to be the first Mexican driver in so many years?PATO O’WARD: It’s very humbling, to be honest. I think it’s a really cool opportunity to be able to try and do the best for my country, for my people, as I’ve always tried in every single race that I compete in.It’s going to be really nice to be representing Mexico. Hopefully we give a good race and a good show for everybody back at home and to all the fans watching.Q. Being a rookie at the 500 can be intimidating. How does it feel to be a rookie, being teammates with someone like Fernando Alonso? What would be his role with you during these two weeks?OLIVER ASKEW: Being a rookie here can definitely be daunting. With the extra boost this year, I think it’s an extra 50 horsepower, so we’re going to be quite a lot quicker than the past. We’re expecting the corners to be a little bit more difficult. I’m sure we’re going to have to run a little more downforce in qualifying than years past.But, yeah, I’m glad that this year we’re able to run a couple more ovals before the Indy 500. Traditionally the Indy 500 would be the first oval of the year. I think that’s definitely helped the rookies. Texas and Iowa in their own ways are a little more difficult than this track. This track brings its own challenges.For Fernando, like I said before, it’s an absolute honor to have him on the team. I know we’re all really looking forward to working with him. Just, yeah, really glad he’s able to race here with us. I’m sure he’s going to lead the team and teach us a lot, Pato and I, quite a bit. Yeah, looking forward to the next couple weeks with him.
THE MODERATOR: Welcome to the Arrow McLaren SP pre-event press conference. We have the leadership of the team here. We have Sam Schmidt, co-owner of Arrow McLaren SP. We have Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren Racing. We have Taylor Kiel, managing director of Arrow McLaren SP. Gil de Ferran, sporting director of McLaren Racing and working with INDYCAR program.Why don’t we go ahead and start off with Sam. We’re a few months later than usual getting ready for the Indy 500, but what does it mean to you after the year we’ve had to finally be ready to race at Indianapolis?SAM SCHMIDT: What a relief. Very disappointing that we can’t (indiscernible) heartbeat of Indy 500. This is an epic 104-year history. We have to have it. It’s part of our blood. It’s what makes it breathe. This race is the reason I’m here as a team owner, period.We’re looking forward to doing it. Yes, our guys are pretty much meeting (indiscernible) at this point especially without having the ability to have on-track testing.The team is amped up. We’ve had an extra three months to prepare these cars. Yeah, can’t wait to get to the track tomorrow and be fully immersed in the process. I wish fans could see what Roger has done because he’s done a phenomenal job around here.
THE MODERATOR: Zak, this is almost a year in the making, Arrow McLaren SP getting to the Indy 500. What does it mean to McLaren to be back at the track and have another shot ate the this year with Fernando?ZAK BROWN: We’re very excited, extremely excited to be back. The combination of Arrow McLaren SP, it’s great to be back for a variety of reasons. Obviously last year didn’t go according to plan. We did that with Fernando. It’s good to be back with him. I think we’re coming back in a much more competitive environment, teaming up with SP. Equally as excited about Pato and Oliver, our collective three-driver lineup is exciting as any driver lineup out there.I think everyone in Indianapolis, we got a bunch of people out from England, a lot of great partners, new partners. As Sam said, disappointed we’re not able to do it in front of live fans, but very happy we’re able to do it. I know there will be millions of people watching around the world.I’m looking forward to getting out next week. I think Gil is there with a fresh haircut (laughter). Let’s go racing.
THE MODERATOR: Taylor, obviously not been a normal season by any means. The team has worked hard to adapt to the circumstances. Once again we have another thing to adapt to with a slightly condensed schedule. What is the team doing to prepare and get ready to be on track tomorrow?TAYLOR KIEL: Yeah, we’ve obviously been working very hard under the ever-changing conditions. It seems like things change day-to-day. Kudos to the team. They’ve been very flexible throughout the entire process. We’ve had to adapt our ways of working down to the bare basics.We’re certainly putting the time in, are prepared and ready to go. Indy 500 in August is certainly unique, but what isn’t here in 2020? We’re just excited to be here. We feel good. We feel ready to go. We’re ready to race.
THE MODERATOR: Gil, you’ve kind of overseen on the technical side the strategic partnership between arrow SP and McLaren, forming Arrow McLaren SP. How has that led us to where we are today getting ready for the Indy 500?GIL de FERRAN: I think, like Taylor touched on, also Zak, this has been a huge amount of effort from people on both sides of the Atlantic. It’s nice to be here now. You can’t see me smile with the mask, but it’s nice to be here now with all the uncertainty behind us, getting ready to go.Certainly putting two very diverse groups of people together, there is a lot. I think we need to learn about each other. We knew that from the beginning. This is certainly a role that we working together. So far if I was to assess how things are going and looking back at the results this season, I would say things are going fairly well.We got to be humble. We got to realize that we got a lot of very strong competitors here. Just keep our heads down, our feet to the ground, tackle these next few days here in practice one by one.
THE MODERATOR: We’ll open it up to questions.Q. Zak and Gil, in a lot of ways what a difference a year and three months makes. Last May we were here, the McLaren effort wasn’t able to get into the race. Now the Arrow McLaren SP finally has a driver in fourth place in the INDYCAR standings. You probably have three drivers capable of winning the Indianapolis 500. Contrast and talk about how different it is to be on a team this year that has the kind of tools that you have.ZAK BROWN: As the guys said, it’s extremely competitive, so we’re very excited. I think we do have three cars that should be capable of winning the race. That being said, it’s so competitive I think you can broaden that to 15 cars, maybe even as much as half the field.That being said, we got bit pretty hard last year. Let’s make sure we have good practice, good qualifying. We do have two rookies in addition to a guy who hasn’t done it a lot, as great as he is.I think we do need to kind of keep our head down. I think if we do the right things and everyone executes, we can have three cars there at the end. For that basis, it’s super exciting.GIL de FERRAN: Yeah, to me it’s clear when we started talking even last year to the guys here in Indianapolis, the depth of the talent here and the experience was very apparent to me. There’s no question that it’s been a positive thing for us to be in this partnership. It’s been all good.As you said, we have two rookies that are doing fairly well. We have a few podiums already this year. One of the guys is in fourth place. This is not about counting or chickens, it’s about the road that we’re on together. There’s still a long way to go here.
Q. Zak, the effort from Alonso’s perspective, to be able to come over here at a highly unusual time, continent to continent. What is he able to do to keep himself in race shape?ZAK BROWN: Yeah, Fernando, as we all know, is an immense talent. I’ve not seen someone more prepared to go motor racing as far as how they go racing. Talked to Fernando earlier. He knows he needs to be there at the end. I think he’ll take quite a methodical approach as he does to the race, be well-prepared. I don’t have any concerns over Fernando’s ability to step in and get with the program.GIL de FERRAN: If I might add, I think Zak touched on it, but Fernando is all about preparation. He has been that way ever since I met him. He send me a text the other day: I just spent eight hours on a bicycle (laughter). He’s fully prepared I think physically and mentally.
Q. Zak, how beneficial is it for you as a team and personally having Fernando back in Indy, given that you have two relative rookies in the series?ZAK BROWN: Yeah, I think it’s great to have him back. While he doesn’t have a tremendous amount of experience around Indianapolis, he has a tremendous amount of experience, as we’ve been speaking about, his approach to a race weekend.I think what Oliver and Pato will learn from Fernando is how he approaches a race. I’m sure they’ll learn something about Indianapolis itself, but it will be more of his experience of what a two-time world champion and all the things he’s accomplished, how he approaches a race weekend.Our rookies are rookies. The more experience they can get, the better. So I think the combination of the driver lineup, plus their speed and competitiveness, should make it exciting. Looking forward to Taylor and Gil and the whole team putting these three cars out there this week.
Q. Taylor, how has McLaren helped in the preparations for the race this year? Obviously Schmidt Peterson Motorsport is the side of the operation that has the oval experience. From an outsider’s perspective, it’s not blatantly obvious what McLaren are actually bringing to the equation. What has been going on behind the scenes between the two? I’m sure the engineering prowess.TAYLOR KIEL: Gil, you take that and I can expand on it.GIL de FERRAN: I can. However, I got to be careful with what I say because we don’t want to give away our secrets.I think to your point, what we bring mostly to the table is depth of engineering. Ultimately we have a lot of systems and technologies that have been developed over many decades across in the UK. I think a lot of these technologies are also applicable to frankly any form of motorsports, but particularly here in INDYCAR. We are walking, as I said, on a long road together trying to lift the tide here.TAYLOR KIEL: I think we’ve touched on it before, but I think I’m a huge proponent of new thoughts, new ideas, different ways of looking at solving a problem. I think our two organizations have come together and meshed really well to solve problems that we face every day but with a new outlook and some fresh perspective. I think that in itself has been a huge help for us here in 2020.
Q. Zak, what have you seen through the start of this INDYCAR season that has either most encouraged or most satisfied you as far as the results that you guys have gotten from this partnership with McLaren from a year ago to now?ZAK BROWN: Yeah, I think there’s a lot that we’re pleased with how it’s going. It’s ultimately producing results on the track. As the guys were just speaking about, COVID, when we started integrating our know-how and technologies to Taylor and the team, we were also finishing a season getting ready to test and trying to do that on the fly. It’s not that easy.I think when COVID put the brakes on things, one of the things that it did benefit us is I think it gave an opportunity for our two teams to get to know each other and collaborate in a slower environment, if I want to I guess call it that. I’m very pleased with that.The relationship that I have with Sam and Ric, the owners of Arrow McLaren SP, is great. Ashleigh, who runs the commercial side, working alongside Phil, our partners are happy. We’ve brought quite a few partners to the table. It’s quite a nice effort that’s come together really well at the start of the year which is not an easy thing to do.To have almost won a race, podiums with both drivers, more good weekends than bad weekends, here we are at Indy, couldn’t be more pleased with where we are from when we got started.
Q. Taylor and Gil, how important has it been to have so much success both in the qualifying process and in actual race, from both Pato and Oliver heading into this weekend being able to provide Fernando with data, the added plus of having so much early season success from those two guys?TAYLOR KIEL: I mean, our pace out of the box so far this year has been good. There’s still room for improvement there. But I think kudos to Oliver and Pato for being able to get on the horse and ride right away under extremely difficult circumstances.They’ve certainly been impressive, but also likewise it takes a great team behind you to make that happen. Our engineering staff, our mechanics, everybody that gets these cars to the racetrack, have done a phenomenal job. Likewise operationally pulling in the McLaren group, being able to work out the kinks very early so we could hit the ground running has been a massive help.Yes, it is hugely important for us to be able to unload the cars and hit the track quick, especially with the way the schedules are. I expect no different here at Indianapolis. I think that Fernando is going to bring a level of expertise and being able to close that feedback loop that we haven’t had in quite some time.I’m excited to see all of that work together here in about 24 hours.GIL de FERRAN: Yeah, I was thinking about it when everybody was talking. Look, I’m pleasantly surprised with our performance. I don’t know if you recall, but when this whole thing started, I was very aware of the fact that we’re on a long journey here. We signed two rookie drivers with very little experience in INDYCAR, but they’ve clearly shown a lot of potential and a lot of talent. Certainly my expectations personally were quite a bit lower than where we’re at today.I’ve been pleasantly surprised. Both guys have shown a great deal of speed. As Taylor said, our integration has been getting certainly from my perspective very high marks.Also, as usual, we see it, we talk a lot about opportunities for improvement. There’s still plenty of them. In time hopefully we will tackle. There’s still a long road ahead of us. But I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the performance of the drivers and the results that we’ve been getting so far.
Q. Sam, your impressions about Fernando? You have the chance to know him in previous years. Now your relationship with him is different as one of your drivers. How do you describe him, his way of working and approaching the race?SAM SCHMIDT: (Indiscernible) engineering staff, pit stop winners last year, we’ve been building for this moment for quite some time. Somebody you know is a true professional, two-time world champion. That says it all. It’s a great opportunity for these two young guys to be able to ride on his coattail for about 10 days.I’m happy to be here for this time period in every way, whether we’re running it without fans, the way we’re running the program, et cetera. We had a conversation, a couple conversations, in 2017 in passing. I don’t know him that well. What we’ve seen in just a few days is (indiscernible) approaching this race like he wants to win. I can’t wait to see him in action.
Q. Gil, do you feel with Fernando’s vast experience, also two years of attempting to race at Indy, your role as adviser for him is still crucial or do you feel your work this year will be more focused towards getting Pato and Oliver comfortable?GIL de FERRAN: Well, I guess I established the relationship with Fernando, now your point goes back to 2017. There’s no way that will go away because once you establish a good relationship, the guy is your friend and that’s it, end of story.I think from a professional perspective, I’m planning to be on his radio. The relationship there, it’s a little bit different. But if I step back for a second, to be quite honest with you, I’ll be equally happy if any of our three drivers did well this race.Certainly within the team there’s no favorite. I think Taylor can attest to that. Very open environment. We discuss everything. Every lesson, every piece of information, wherever it comes from, to make sure we lift the team.Taylor is on Pato’s radio, I’ll be on Fernando’s radio. We’re a team here. If one or three of our three drivers do well, we’ll all be happy.
Q. Zak, the point about how much it’s changed the infrastructure of McLaren to have you guys increasing your participation in this race, how many people actually are dedicated to the INDYCAR side of the things back at the MTC?ZAK BROWN: As Gil has said, I think we want to be a little bit careful with giving too much detail. What I would say is it’s a good, strong handful of fully dedicated, 100% INDYCAR, that have their own space at the MTC, then they have a variety of tools and additional people they can pull on.At the end of the day what we’ve provided is additive to Arrow SP before it became Arrow McLaren SP, which is exciting. When we first came in in ’17, we teamed up with Michael. Other than a little bit of influence from the team, primarily from Gil from a relationship, Michael ran that effort. We feel like we’re definitely much more hands on in this effort, which is great.We’re racers. We want to go racing. Have a lot of people over there with a variety of accents, primarily British. It will be good. I’m looking forward to seeing it all, as I’ve not been to an INDYCAR race yet. I’m very much looking forward to seeing it live myself.
Q. Zak, looking at obviously what transpired the last two years, now coming into this season, can you take me through some of the lessons that were learned from what happened last year, what you’re going to be doing with those lessons learned for this season?ZAK BROWN: Yeah. Obviously I think I’ve spoken quite a bit about it. I think the biggest lesson we learned is don’t do what we did last year. I don’t want to rehash, but there were a lot of obviously mistakes that you make when you don’t qualify for a race. You’ve got to get it pretty wrong for a team like McLaren and a driver like Fernando Alonso to not make the show.Really it was a lot of little mistakes, predictable. Saw a lot of them, unfortunately didn’t kind of react fast enough, that ultimately compound.If I look at the end result, it really started with our first test, which we have a variety of issues at that we should have had enough time to be well-prepared for. Then when we had these issues, we didn’t respond to them quickly enough, urgently enough.When you don’t solve those issues, you continue to have them, a car gets crashed, you don’t have your spare ready for a variety of reasons, all of which has been documented in some silly headlines, unfortunately. They’re not quite as silly. There’s an explanation behind each one went wrong, but we got it wrong.I think teaming up with Sam and Ric and the team, a lot of these rookie mistakes we made, they’re as well-prepared, as you said, especially oval experience, INDYCAR team.I think that’s the biggest mistakes we made, is we came collectively almost as a bunch of rookies, and that didn’t work well. I think we’ve come in in a much better way, long-term view to the sport. That’s what we’re doing differently, without getting into the finer details of each item.
Q. Gil, the team obviously extremely strong this season in INDYCAR. You spoke about being on the radio with Fernando. Bringing a guy like Fernando Alonso into a team like this with two young, up-and-coming drivers, tell me what you think Fernando might be able to bring and offer these young drivers.GIL de FERRAN: Well, look, I guess the way I think about this is if I was in that position, right? I guess I was a driver once upon a time. I would say, having had for example the opportunity to work with Sir Jack Hewitt for many years, it was something that was hugely beneficial, particularly early in my career.Being a complete racing driver is not just about how fast you can go. There are many, many, many, many things that you have to learn how to do well to be able to win championships on a consistent basis and race year after year, which is something that Fernando has done pretty much his whole life.In my mind, I think it was Zak that said it earlier, seeing how I think Sam and Taylor also touched on it, a guy that has had such an accomplished career, seeing how he goes about his business, not just steering to the right, to the left, how you touch the brakes, so on and so forth, but every aspect of being a racing driver, I think it can only be a positive.I can’t see how they couldn’t come out of this experience better than they were before.
Q. What has been the biggest takeaway assuring that this year’s 500 will go much better?GIL de FERRAN: I’ll touch on that.Look, I guess the fact that we’re here today in a partnership with a team that has over 50 people and have been doing this for many, many years now. They have won races before, has a great deal of talent and experience within their roster should tell you everything that you need to know.I think Zak touched on this at the end of his previous answer on this topic. That’s it really. I’m not too sure there’s much more to say than that.
Q. Zak, Fernando had an unfortunate exit from the 500 last year. Is he extra determined to have more success to getting in there this season?ZAK BROWN: Yeah, I think Fernando is as dedicated as ever in his desire to win the Indy 500. I think that he’s getting back to Formula 1 next year will mean that potentially this is the last time he has to win the Indy 500 in the near future, therefore he’s never wavered during this time of COVID, is the race on, off, what date. He cleared his calendar post Paris-Dakar to come compete and hopefully win the Indy 500.He’s been very focused on that. He’s excited to get back in the car this week.GIL de FERRAN: I have a question for you, Asher? Are you racing yet?ASHER: I have my second win my last race, so yeah.GIL de FERRAN: Congratulations. In a few years, we’ll talk, okay?ASHER: Okay.
Q. Gil, even though you’re in the technical area, you have two young drivers now, you’re bringing a Formula 1 champion into the Indy 500, seeing what you’ve been doing this year, I feel you are top contenders to win this race. Will you let them race, let him disregard team orders?GIL de FERRAN: Thank you for being as confident as you are. Have to focus on doing well and prepare well for the race.Look, hopefully these preparations will go well. If we’re in a position in the front, we have all drivers involved, I think the policy is usually the same: you have to let them race, but race with respect. I think people want to watch a 500 that is hard fought. That’s what this race is all about, whether it’s between teammates or not.You seen that in the past. I can’t remember exactly where, I think it was between Will and Montoya when they were teammates. They were fighting all the way till the end. That is what the 500 is all about. For me, I think the drivers understand that, they respect each other, and hopefully if we’re in this position, which would be very nice, those certainly are my thoughts.
Q. Gil, following last year, the moment you turned around and walked away from Indy, what would you say is the first or biggest decision you had to make to make sure nothing like that happened again?GIL de FERRAN: Well, look, nothing is guaranteed in life, either successes or failures. I always go through this review process in my own head with everything that I do, frankly. Something I’ve been doing for many years, is to analyze everything we do on a daily basis. In my mind, that’s the only way you can move forward, even within the operations and engineering, whatever task is at hand. I think you always have to review very carefully.Ultimately that was a very painful one that we had to review. But we grouped everyone together, we talked about it, dissected in every single way that you can possibly imagine. I think we became stronger because of it. We learned our lessons. As Zak mentioned earlier, this eventually led to this partnership.
Q. Zak, Lando Norris is massively popular, had some success in the virtual races. Any possibility that he could come over to INDYCAR?ZAK BROWN: Lando, it’s great racing with him. He loves other forms of motorsport. He’ll drive anything. He’s one of those guys.I think realistically, given how early he is in his F1 career, how unlikely it is that there won’t be a scheduling conflict between Monaco and Indy, because they need to be two weeks apart, not one week apart. I think on that basis, unfortunately he’s probably years away.I think he’d love to do it. I think he’d be great at it. I think he’s got a lot of time. He’s very young still to come over to Indy. We shouldn’t get our hopes up for the next first half of this decade, but who knows thereafter. He’s got a long way to go in his career.
Q. Has he shown any interest?ZAK BROWN: He’ll race anything. If I called Lando tomorrow and said, Do you want to do the Indy 500? He’d say yes. Logistically we want to be able to get that to work out. Yeah, it’s very clear Lando likes everything from karts to INDYCARS to sports cars to Formula 1 cars. No doubt he’d like to do it.THE MODERATOR: Thank you, everybody, for joining today.

BATAVIA, OHIO (August 11, 2020) – The stars of the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series will be at Florence Speedway, competing in three separate events, over four days. After Wednesday’s Ralph Latham Memorial, the Sunoco North/South Shootout – Presented by Lucas Oil will take place on Thursday, August 13th, paying $10,000-to-win, as a prelude to the 38th Annual Sunoco North/South 100 – Presented by Lucas Oil on August 14th-15th, paying $50,000-to-win.

Florence Speedway is also excited to announce a bonus for Thursday August 13th’s North/South Shootout, a $2,034 fast time award in memory of Doug Lee. Lee was a big supporter of racing locally and his friends have come together to give this award in his honor. 

Series drivers, along with local and regional standouts, will compete in two rounds of heats on Friday with passing points being awarded for the heats to set the stage for Saturday’s B-Mains and North/South 100. The 30-lap, $2,000 to win non-qualifiers race will cap off the weekend. Open Wheel Modifieds will also be in contention each day. 

Thursday’s North/South Shootout will see the pit gate open at 3 PM EDT, with the main and back gates opening at 5:30 PM EDT. On track action will get underway at 6:30 PM EDT, with hot laps and time trials, racing set to begin at 7:30 PM EDT.  
On Friday, for the prelim night of the Sunoco North/South 100, the pit gate opens at 3 PM EDT, while the main and back gates open at 5:30 PM EDT. Hot laps start at 6:30 PM EDT, with racing one hour later, at 7:30 PM EDT. The pit, main, and back gates will all open at 3 PM EDT for Saturday’s North/South 100. Hot laps are set to begin at 7:00 PM EDT, with racing at 7:30 PM EDT. 

Advance tickets for the Ralph Latham Memorial, Sunoco North/South Shootout, and/or the Sunoco North/South 100, are available at: http://florence.getmytix.net/tickets

For decades, Sunoco’s fuels have been associated with racing excellence. As the largest manufacturer of racing gasolines in the world, Sunoco has a 40-year track record of winning performances. With an expanded product line, Sunoco offers drivers more choices than ever before. To find your nearest dealer visit www.racegas.com and use our fuel finder to locate Sunoco HCR Plus or any of the other blends that fit your needs. You can also call 800-RACEGAS to speak with an engineer to help you decide on which one of our blends is best for your application. For the performance your engine is designed to deliver, consistently choose Sunoco Race Fuels. For more information, visit: sunocoracefuels.com  Jimmy Owens leads the Lucas Oil Championship Standings heading into the weekend. Jonathan Davenport currently trails Owens by 300 points. Rounding out the top five are: Josh Richards in third, Tyler Erb in fourth, and Tim McCreadie in fifth.