CHEVROLET RACING NTT INDYCAR SERIES INDIANAPOLIS 500 INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEEDWAY INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA TEAM CHEVY DRIVER ZOOM CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET AUGUST 10, 2020
SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, MET WITH MEMBERS OF THE MEDIA ON A ZOOM CALL. FULL TRANSCRIPT:
Q. Simon as we’re headed into the month of August, qualifying coming up on the horizon as the defending pole winner and the defending Indy 500 winner, what are your thoughts? PAGENAUD: Yes, it is finally time to get to Indianapolis. This been my number one priority for several years now and it’s it’s an honor to come back being the reigning champion is a very special feeling. It’s obviously a mythical race the biggest race in the world in a lot of people opinion. But in my opinion for sure and coming here being the defending champion just allows you to you know, feel a lot less personal pressure just allows me to be a lot more focus on doing the right thing and not worrying about the result and I do believe when you don’t worry about result things come together better. So so I’m very excited about this this chance to go back to the Speedway and and just focus on on the performance and being in the moment. So very excited the team’s been preparing really well as you know, anyways, I called Team Penske the speed lab and they’re very impressive at building racecars with a lot of speed and that’s what you wanted to Speedway. So huge confidence going in. We don’t know what tomorrow is about that’s for sure but obviously we have really good foundation and an amazing team behind us or for three drivers actually for all four with Helio (Castroneves), so it’s exciting to get back to to the speedway and it’s August but it feels like May, so I can’t wait to be there actually tomorrow great. 
Q. What is the Indy 500 going to be like without fans? Talk about how much you’ll miss having them around. How different will it be for you? PAGENAUD: Well, yeah, it’s you know, it’s been a big news last week and it but I felt very sad for the fans and felt very sad for Roger Penske as well, you know who is passionate about the race and he’s been doing so much work at the Speedway to please the fans and to make it an even more impressive event that you know, he’s my team owner but it’s also the series owner and the speedway owner. So it felt sad for him that you know, it was going to be a different race here. But you know, we have the chance to display what we do and display it in the best manner with NBC Sports Network and you know we’ve with that a an amazing race last year with Rossi and hopefully there is a battle that’s just as exciting for the fans but it definitely is going to feel different the energy is going to be different. It’s going to feel flat. No no reason, but to to think differently it won’t feel as energetic. It won’t feel like like, you know, it’s like it’s it’s going to be very different but it is the biggest race in the world and the fastest race in the world been very excited to get going and to please people with this competition. That’s really what I’m looking forward to right now.
Q. With all the simulation I wanted to ask you about whether your four driving syles between the four you guys have they gotten further apart because of the additional demands of the aero screen or have you actually come closer together? How close are you form setups? PAGENAUD: Well, I don’t think it’s changed all that much in terms of delta between each other. I think we’re all trying to figure out what the car needs and as a team, I think we all working to try and understand how we could make the tires with the best way this added weight to the car and it certainly added stress to the tires and obviously as you can imagine on a Speedway with this kind of speed the centrifuge all forces when you add weight to the front of the car changes the behavior around the corner or the radius of the car around the corner. So those are things that we all noticed and we’re going to have to work with it in the next few days. The fact that it’s a condensed schedule is a bit stressful because we don’t know what to expect very much yet. So it’s we’re going to have to make decisions quickly and be sure that it’s the right decision. Because we won’t have as much time as usual to go back to the pads and set the car up precise me, so it would be be more like a Pocono weekend. It’s going to be a yeah, it’s going to be a some interesting but still I think it hasn’t really changed all that much. It’s just about who hits the set of the best.
Q. Simon what has been the most difficult for you this season? PAGENAUD: I think it’s the unexpected quite frankly Ricardo. It’s you know, we don’t know what tomorrow is about. We don’t know, you know, like a week ago. We were racing in Mid, Ohio and all of a sudden we’re not and you know you prepare yourself. You can regimen of training nutrition hydration preparation for an event and then it has been canceled. It’s it’s not easy to switch your mind to the next thing when you had a goal in mind but for Indianapolis personally Ricardo, it’s my number one goal and he always has been since 2016 end of 2016. That’s my number one goal and that’s my main focus every year. So that’s the race. I look forward to the most that honestly we work with the most focus on and I know it’s happening this weekend and the next one. I’m very excited about it. So just want to get there and get going strap in my car and get to feel good to feel what it’s like.
Q. You talked about how little time you may get in the car that might be compounded by the weather forecast for this week. Unfortunately, whether sort of forecasted for every day, so how much time do you feel like you need in the car to really feel comfortable for qualifying and just kind of setting yourself up for success in two weekends?PAGENAUD: I don’t quite know yet, but I think you’re right. I think you know, we all know that there’s change to thunderstorms a mile to the preparation. But at the end of the day, you know, it’s going to be the same for everybody. So, you know, the best is going to win and that’s that’s key to the keys right there the keys to being the best. So every decisions we’re going to make we’re gonna have to make sure that it’s the right one to me. I put even more emphasis on the communication with my engineer understanding what my teammates are trying also to try to understand the whole process. But at the end of the day, I need to focus on exactly what I need and and clear-cut decisions. That’s really all it’s all about. And if we have very little testing and be the same for everybody we all going to end up racing at the end and you know, it’s I welcome my experience up to this point. I think I think experience could be a big help this year. 
Q. How is the extended wait to defend the 500 affected your stress and or anticipation level and how you approach the first how you approach the first few months of the season.PAGENAUD: Yeah, it’s it’s been a long wait. That’s for sure the anticipation I would say. Yeah, it’s been a serious anticipation on my part just because I love that race. I love the event and I want to go back. I just want to it’s my favorite race and not only because I want it is my favorite race. It’s the favorite feel I get throughout the entire year in the race car, and I’ve learned to learn and learn to love it and it  sucks when you don’t get to do what you love. So, you know, I was very worried we weren’t going to race this year. So I’m relieved that we are going to get to race, but it’s a pain that we won’t have any fans. That’s for sure. But we get to do what we love we get to show what we love once again, and to me to me, that’s everything so I go I can’t wait for tomorrow wake up get to the airport and and then talk to my engineer tomorrow afternoon.
Q. Last year you had the whole month of May to really build up some momentum and get into a rhythm. Just the disjointed part of this season make it difficult for you to sort of find anywhere them or build momentum will feel really confident. Heading into start on Wednesday.PAGENAUD: It is different for sure. Its up and downs and up and downs. It’s a bit of a roller coaster this year. You know, I thought going into Mid-Ohio. I felt some sort of momentum going and I was like, that’s perfect timing just before Indy and it suddenly stopped and it was it was abrupt. I did not expect that. I wasn’t ready for it to be canceled quite frankly. It took a few days for me, to stop training on the simulator for a road course and just switch to oval but but thankfully like I said earlier and many times. It’s my number one priority is always been Indy. So that’s the one I’ve been looking forward to the most and if there was only one race this year that I would be okay with just being Indy. So, you know, it’s it is a different year. It’s kind of weird quite frankly. I don’t have the right words probably but it’s just a roller coaster up and down emotions.
Q. How much is mental preparation? How much does that play into this?PAGENAUD: To me plays a lot. It is what helps me calm down, you know, like for example, this is rollercoaster of emotion. I’ve done a lot of work trying to make things, you know stable and trying to know where I’m going mentally speaking and trying to influence my subconscious as much as possible. So yes to me, I believe 85% of the drivers performance is is the mental side of things. So I work a lot on that and it’s been working well for me so far.
Q. Simon good afternoon, my friend wanted to ask you about the opportunity to take the Borg order to France in your trip home after winning the 500 last year. What was your biggest takeaway from that? Is there a moment from that trip that still sticks with you here A year later. PAGENAUD: Yes. Yes a lot of moments actually, but the first one that came to my mind is those pictures and seeing the Borg with the Effel Tower in the background, you know, we had a huge press conference with all the media coming to see the Borg Warner in a nice hotel and we chose that hotel because it had the Effel Tower in the background and it was such a weird photo because the Borg Warner is not supposed to be in France. So it’s you know, first of all, it was awesome that Borg Warner and IndyCar wanted to do that for me as a champion. It was a very special great gesture and taking it to my hometown. So just so you know just to Picture This we’re talking about 6,500 people. That’s my hometown it from one end to the other hand of the tail. It’s two minutes by car. That’s it. And you know, and you know, I know everybody so and you know everybody from school. I know everybody from the hospital and everybody from the grocery store the the flow people. I mean, it’s just incredible and everybody were just so excited about it that I sign autographs for more than four hours. It was awesome. So it’s just the fact that you know, there’s a my world here in the US and I’ve been very welcome here and my career has taken off here in the US and been very blessed and I was able to take my world in the US to my world in France and to combine them were very emotional moments. Very emotional.
Q. You are one of eight former winners in this year’s race having that designation of being a winner for the rest of your life. How important to you is that distinction going into, you know, coming back to the track. PAGENAUD: its massive its massive. It’s you know, I actually had a conversation with Haley my wife last night. I was like, you know, it’s you know, it’s those moments when you just relax, you sit on the couch. And you say Hey, you know, I feel really good going in this year because I don’t have that pressure of knowing if I ever will put my name on that race or if I will have a chance to experience winning it so, you know when you’ve done it, it’s such a relief. It’s such a satisfying knowledge, you know, it’s it’s looking back at what you’ve done and your trophies and knowing that you’ve climbed the highest peak in racing. So to me, that’s very special. It’s it’s a chance also now to raise a lot more free so I can just focus on myself a lot more and not worry about the outcome as much and to me it’s always been something. I think it’s for any athlete is something difficult to do to be able to part the outcome and not think about it while you’re race and I think that athletes that struggle to do that struggle more than others. So now I don’t have to worry about this at all. I can just go forward and that’s that’s that’s something I’m really excited about. 
Q. Why don’t guys often win back-to-back 500 you don’t see that real often and second part of that is why will you?PAGENAUD: I would answer to the first one is that just as hard as it is to win it once you know, it’s not because you want it once that you’re going to win it twice and it’s not because you’ve won it that you’re entitled to win it again, and I think you know, we all say it but that race does seem to choose a winner. Now you can do everything you can to win it. You can you know, make sure that you put everything in order. That you can make all the right decisions and bring your A-game on that day that you can do all that stuff. But at the end of the day something might take it away from you and it is the way it is. It’s only once a year. So all I can tell you Brant is that it is probably very hard to do it, especially consecutively. It’s probably almost impossible, but I believe in my chances and you know, I’m not thinking too much about last year. I’m just trying to go into this race. And like I said earlier just making sure that we iron everything and we don’t leave any details any stone unturned. That’s really my main focus this year and make sure that the race car suits me so I can do something like I showed you I can do last year. So that’s really my goal.
Q. What is the feeling going into the Indianapolis 500 this year with Roger owning the track .  PAGENAUD: I’m very proud to know Roger quite frankly. I think he’s a he’s a monument of racing is a monument of business in general and him, you know, I think it’s just the story. That he has is just incredible. If you think about the first time we all went to the Indy 500 and if you ever thought about buying the speedway and if you end up doing it in your life is quite an incredible, but it’s that kind of man. You know, he’s that kind of man that can do the impossible. You can make it happen and I’m very proud to be going to Speedway as as his driver as as my car owner. I would say and I want to make him proud by winning. Frankly, I would like to be the driver to win his first Indy 500 as a team or as an owner of the speedway, but like I said, there’s a lot ahead of us just very excited about the future of IndyCar and the Speedway and have seen firsthand. Some of the Improvement is made to the Speedway. It’s very unfortunate. The fans are not going to see it because there’s a lot that has been done already and enhancement of the places is going to be incredible in the future. So very very excited for the fans to see what it’s like in the future.
Q You will miss the crowd in this Indy 500. PAGENAUD: Yes. Yes. It’s you know last year. I said it that’s I use the energy of the crowd is, you know, I’m a very very spiritual person as pragmatic as I can be with the race car. I am a very spiritual person for those who know me personally, they will tell you that but I I use the energy of the crowd to prepare me and give me give me wings. This year will be different, you know test sessions are not that exciting when there’s no fans in in the grandstand. But but the exciting part is to drive the race car at this track and when you know the history of the place when you know, the previous winners and the stories that have been going on for more than a century and you’re part of that. So so, you know as a driver, I just feel blessed I get to go back and I get to race it. It’s it’s quite quite a great feeling

Racer’s Edge Acura NSX GT3 Evo Goes Flag-To-Flag For Sunday Sonoma Win
Trent Hindman and Shelby Blackstock lead every lap in dominant Sunday victory
Racers Edge Acura NSX GT3 Evo wins poles for both Somona GT events

SONOMA, Calif. (August 9, 2020) – The Racers Edge Motorsports #93 Acura NSX GT3 Evo showed its power on a sunny Sonoma weekend as the Silver Class driver pairing of Trent Hindman and Shelby Blackstock won Sunday’s SRO Motorsport GT series race in wire-to-wire fashion.

The striking red-and-white Acura NSX ruled Friday qualifying, winning the poles for Saturday’s and Sunday’s races around the 2.499-mile Sonoma Raceway. The team used the top starting spot to take a huge lead in Saturday’s race before a penalty blunted its charge, but there was no such drama on Sunday as Hindman and Blackstock dominated all 51 laps.

Hindman led Sunday’s event and was running away from the field before the driver change window opened up, only to see the advantage erased by a lengthy caution period for contact between two GT Sports Club competitors. Undaunted, Hindman sprinted away from the field on the Lap 13 restart and built a sizeable lead heading into the mandatory driver change pit stop.

A flawless driver change saw the Racer’s Edge team widen its advantage over the Mercedes of Colin Braun, and Blackstock spent the rest of his afternoon expanding the lead on his way to the checkered flag. The victory was the third of the year for the #93 team and its first since it swept the opening weekend at Circuit of the Americas.

Unfortunately, a pit-lane issue ended the team’s run to Victory Lane in Saturday’s opener. Having held the lead from the drop of the green flag, the team pitted too early to make its mandatory driver change, resulting in an 87-second penalty. The miscue dropped the team to sixth in the final results, although the duo did earn a victory in the Silver class.

The Racer’s Edge team played one car short this weekend in Sonoma as the defending series Pro/Am champion #80 Acura NSX GT3 Evo driven by Martin Barkey and Kyle Marcelli was unable to compete due to complications with travel restrictions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. The team is hoping to be back in action for Rounds 7 and 8.

The win this weekend is the fourth in six GT World Challenge races for the Acura NSX GT3 Evo, which won team championships in both IMSA GTD and the SRO GT World Challenge series in 2019. The car, sold and supported by HPD in North America, runs in both Sprint and Endurance racing competition around the world.

Social media content and video links from this weekend’s Acura Motorsports activity at Sonoma Raceway are available on HPD’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/HondaRacingHPD) and on Twitter at (https://twitter.com/HondaRacing_HPD). 

Next
The GT World Challenge Series will journey back across the country for Rounds 7 and 8 of the 2020 season, which take place at the 4.048-mile permanent road course at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, August 28-30.

Quotes
Trent Hindman (#93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 Evo): I am really proud to be part of this Racer’s Edge Motorsports crew. They gave us a fantastic Acura NSX GT3 and Shelby did a hell of a job in the race and with the qualifying.” 

Shelby Blackstock (#93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura NSX GT3 Evo): “We WON race 2!! Every part of today’s race was executed to perfection! Started from the pole, Trent [Hindman, starting driver]
had a killer first stint, the Racers Edge Motorsports team produced an amazing pit stop, getting our total pit delta down to .8 of a second! Thank you boys!! Let’s keep it going!”

BATAVIA, OHIO (August 10, 2020) – On Wednesday, August 12th, race teams will vie for a $12,000 top prize in the 34th Lucas Oil Annual Ralph Latham Memorial – Presented by E3 Spark Plugs, to kick off four days of competition at Florence Speedway. 

Pit gate opens at 3 PM EDT, on Wednesday, for the Ralph Latham Memorial, 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.  In addition to the Lucas Dirt Series, Modifieds will also have a complete show with a 20 lap A-Main paying $1,000-to-win.

With five back-to-back winners in the event’s history, last year’s Series Champion, Jonathan Davenport looks to add his name to that list.

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

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. Track and Event Information:Florence Speedway
Phone Number: 859-485-7591Location: 12234 US Hwy 42, Walton, KY 41094Directions: I-75 to exit 180, then 9.2 miles SW on US 42Website: www.florencespeedway.com

Florence Speedway Tire Rule:August 12thLeft Rear/Fronts – Hoosier Rib (28.5) 1350Right Rear – Hoosier (29.0) 1350 NRM, (29.0) 1350 NRMW, (92) LM40*Must use the same set of 4 tires for Time Trials, Heat Races, and B-Main.*For the A-Main, competitors may use 2 new rear tires.*Flat tire must be replaced with a used tire of the same compound and construction to retain starting position.

NASCAR CUP SERIES GO BOWLING 235 AT THE DAYTONA ROAD COURSE DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT August 10, 2020
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE, met with media via teleconference, and discussed the challenges for the new Daytona Road Course race without any on-track practice, the benefits utilizing iRacing and the Chevrolet simulator to prepare, his opinion of the new Choose Rule, racing at Bristol, and more. Full Transcript:
A LOT OF THE CHATTER IS ‘WHAT’S WRONG WITH CHASE ELLIOTT’, BUT YOU HAVE THREE STRAIGHT TOP-10’S, SO ARE YOU STRUGGLING, OR NOT?“Well, at least there’s chatter about us. I guess that’s better than not. Yeah, I think we’re struggling a little bit, for sure. I think on one hand, historically the Pocono, Indy, Kentucky, and Texas tracks have been, I would say, historically poor for me, personally. Maybe not from a stat sheet or whatever in some cases, but I think those tracks have been a problem a little bit in the past. So, I’m not as surprised to struggle with those places. But certainly, I thought we would do a little better at Kansas and thought we would be maybe a little better at Michigan. I feel like our success came early there at Michigan. We had some really good runs there in my rookie year and then in that second year. But really, since then I feel like we’ve even struggled there.
“So yes, I do. I feel we’re not performing as we should. Not performing as we expect. Not performing to our full potential, you know? Whether that’s me or whatever it is, I certainly expect more of all of us, myself included. So yes, I think we’re off.”
LOOKING AHEAD TO BRISTOL, THAT’S MORE OF AN EQUALIZER WHEN IT COMES TO RACE TRACKS, BEING A SHORT TRACK, NOT AS MUCH AERO INVOLVED. DO YOU HAVE A LOVE/HATE RELATIONSHIP WHERE YOU’VE LED A LOT OF LAPS BUT HAVEN’T ALWAYS GOTTEN THE FINISH THAT YOU DESERVE; AND YET YOU DID WIN THE ALL-STAR THERE?  ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO GOING TO THE NIGHT RACE AT BRISTOL NEXT MONTH?“Yeah, I’m definitely excited to go to Bristol. Coming off a win there is great. And like you said, I feel like we’ve had some really good runs there in the past; not always the results to show it, but yeah, I look forward to going. I do think that even the short track side of things I think it can exploit all of your struggle spots, whatever that may be. For whatever reason, the All-Star race went really well, and that’s really, I feel like, been the only race that we’ve performed like I know we can; heck, over the past month and a half. So yeah, I’m looking forward to going there although we all know that a good run there in the past does not guarantee you a good run next time. But I’m certainly looking forward to trying again.”
LOOKING AHEAD TO THIS WEEKEND AT THE DAYTONA ROAD COURSE, WITH THE 2020 SCHEDULE BEING CRAZY AND THE RESTART AND EVERYTHING ELSE, WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO OUT OF THIS PARTICULAR WEEKEND IN A FIRST-TIME RUN ON A ROAD COURSE AT DAYTONA?“I think this weekend is going to be a big time challenge for everyone. I think the one guy that I look at that really has a leg up is Kyle (Busch), having come off that 24-hour event (Rolex 24) this year. In fact, I think if we all knew that we were going to be doing this road course, you probably would have seen all of us trying to get in that 24-Hour race this year to go and do it. But you never know with things like that. I think it’s going to be a challenge. I think it’s going to be a fun challenge for everyone. I’ve never entered a race like that where you literally just have no idea what to expect. Road racing, in my opinion, is a lot about brake-markers and a lot about visual aids and these nuances around the track that you can see with your eyes to help with your hands and your feet do the right things at the right times. Heck, I have no idea where I need to stop on Turn 1 on Sunday; or (Turn) 2 or (Turn) 3 and all the way back around to the Start/Finish Line.
“So, I think that’s going to be super, super difficult for everybody. And it’s going to be one of those things where you have to creep up on it and it’s a hard guess. You know, we can run in the SIM’s and iRacing and all those things until we’re blue in the face. But ultimately that doesn’t, in my opinion, give you the visual aids that you need to do the right things at the right times. The only way to get that is (with) laps around the race track and 65 laps is not really a ton of time to figure those things out. So, learn and learn fast and try not to make any big time mistakes in doing it.”
YOU ARE ONE OF THE DRIVERS ON SATURDAY DURING THE MICHIGAN RACE THAT USED THE CHOOSE RULE TO YOUR ADVANTAGE. CAN YOU TAKE US THROUGH THE PROCESS OF HOW YOU MADE DECISIONS AND WHAT YOU THOUGHT OF EVERYTHING AND ANY TWEAKS THAT NEED TO BE MADE GOING FORWARD?“I think the rule is good. I thought that it opened up options. To me, the biggest thing about it is the way you come off pit road doesn’t determine your destiny, which I think is the right thing. It eliminates the games leaving pit road. And too, I think in a lot of ways, it almost puts a little more stock in your pit stop because although it doesn’t necessarily determine whether or not you’re going to be odd or even, but it does allow to pick ahead of a car or two if you are able to beat those people off of pit road. So, it doesn’t take any of the importance out of having a fast pit stop because choosing before the next guy is still important, but it does allow you to pick. And, I think if things work out for you, great. And like I’ve said before, if you choose the wrong lane, there’s nobody else to blame it on but yourself. So, I think that’s really the way it should be, and I like that we’re doing that now.
“And, I can’t say that I had some super-smart, genius way, of picking lane, but on a couple of those restarts there, it worked out and I had the right pusher. Brad (Keselowski) gave me a great push there on Saturday. That was why we got the lead. And then out front, obviously Kevin (Harvick) was still very fast. Do I think he was going to be really hard to hold off those last 10 or 11 laps? Absolutely. But it gave us an option that we might not have had otherwise.”
WITH SO MUCH CONTRACT TALK THIS PAST WEEK AND ESPECIALLY THE TALK ABOUT WHO IS GOING TO END UP IN THE NO. 48 CAR, WHO DO YOU PERSONALLY WANT TO SEE REPLACE JIMMIE JOHNSON NEXT YEAR IN THAT CAR?“I’d love for Jimmie to stay. How about that? I think Jimmie is a great guy and I enjoy having him as my teammate; so, I’m lobbying for him.”
HOW MUCH TIME HAVE YOU GOTTEN ON THE SIMULATOR ON THE DAYTONA ROAD COURSE OR HAVE YOU DONE ANY IRACING OR GOTTEN ANY SORT OF PRACTICE WHATSOEVER? AND WHAT CONCERNS YOU ABOUT THE COURSE, GOING IN COLD?“I think a lot of it I mentioned there at the beginning; so, I don’t want to double-up on the same comments. But, pretty much everything I said there to start. I’ve run some laps on iRacing. When I messed around with it on iRacing, it didn’t have that chicane there on the front straightaway, which they added; or I guess it’s there and will be there for the race weekend. So yeah, I’m planning on going to the Chevy SIM this week and just try to get some laps. I really think you have to be really smart about how you take that information and apply it to real life because although you can make laps, and maybe get yourself familiar with the course, those visual aids on IRacing or the Chevrolet SIM, are never going to be exactly right.
“The sponsor logos change on the wall every time you go. You might have a section of grass that isn’t green, or it is dead, that you might use as a brake point. All those things are just so dynamic that I think it’s hard to take that to a simulator to real life. So, when I go to the SIM, I’m going to just try to take a super step back, like generalized approach, and try to learn the big things about the course and the layout; but I think it’s going to be really hard to fine tune. And I almost think you’re better off not trying to fine tune because I would rather have no information than to gather wrong information going into an event like that cold turkey.”
ON THE DAYTONA ROAD COURSE REPLACING WATKINS GLEN THIS YEAR, WHAT’S YOUR TAKE ON NOT GOING TO THE GLEN SINCE YOU’VE WON THERE THE PAST TWO YEARS?“Obviously we’ve had a good couple of years up there so it would have been nice to go back and try again. But ultimately, I get it. And, I’m glad to see that they’ve put a road course on the schedule that was feasible and an option to do. So, I certainly don’t have anything bad to say about it, honestly. I understand the reasoning behind it and I appreciate NASCAR’s flexibility in being able to change things up and get a road course on the schedule in place of a road course. It’s really, honestly, about all we could ask for, I think. And, I think it will be a really big challenge for all the drivers which, I think, is good. We’re supposed to be challenged and we’re supposed to be the top of our sport of stock car racing. So yeah, I don’t see anything wrong with it.”
WILL YOU REACH OUT TO ANY OF THE GUYS WHO HAVE RACED THE ROLEX 24 TO TRY TO GET SOME IDEAS AND SOME HINTS OF WHAT TO DO? THEY ALL SEEM TO SAY THE BIGGEST ISSUES WILL BE IN THE BRAKING ZONES.“Yeah, I think so. And, I think we need to exploit the Chevrolet-side of things with the Corvette program and the Cadillac programs that they do there on the IMSA-side of things. We have a lot of access to that. So absolutely. I plan on doing that some. Those cars are very different from our cars and they are very high-performance and stop way better and corner faster and all those things, so it is different. But, road course racing, I think, we’ve seen guys come over from that world and come to stock car racing and have a lot of success because I think a lot of the fundamentals of road racing are probably, although I’ve never driven one of those cars, but seeing how they’ve come over and had success, I would have to think they are fundamentally similar in braking and when to be on the brakes and when to be off the brakes and when to do the max braking and when to not, I think are probably all a similar mindset. It’s just going to be your distances and your gaps and things are going to be way different. So just kind of figuring that out, I do think they can offer some good insight to maybe little things around the race track that we can use to our advantage.”

BROOKLYN, MI – August 10, 2020 – Ford Performance and Roush Yates Engines won at Road America with Austin Cindric and swept the double header at Michigan International Speedway with Kevin Harvick. Cindric’s win marked his fourth win in the 2020 season and the ninth win for Ford Performance in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Harvick’s wins marked three in-a-row in the NASCAR Cup Series for Stewart-Haas Racing and six in-a-row at MIS for Ford Performance teams and Roush Yates Engines.

“What an incredible weekend!” said Doug Yates, President and CEO of Roush Yates Engines. “The weekend started off with an impressive run and win by Austin Cindric at Road America then ended with Kevin Harvick sweeping Michigan! Winning at Michigan has always been special for our team and the Ford family. It feels great to be able to keep the Heritage trophy in Dearborn.”

The NASCAR Cup Series had an action-packed weekend with a double header at Michigan International Speedway. Harvick dominated on Saturday afternoon, winning both stages and the FireKeepers Casino 400. Harvick‘s fast Ford Mustang was out front the majority of the afternoon, leading a race-high 92 of the 161 laps.

As the laps wound down, the competition began to heat up. There were five restarts in the final 30 laps, including an overtime finish, that forced Harvick, “The Closer”, to close out the win just 0.284 seconds in front of Ford Performance teammate Brad Keselowski.   Ryan Blaney also had a strong day, leading 27 laps, top five finish in both stages, and finishing P4. Joey Logano led 18 laps while finishing P8.

“This was just an awesome car to drive today,” Harvick said. “I think the confidence is high when we come to Michigan anyway. It‘s a race track that‘s been really good to us and for whatever reason just fits our style of cars, everything we do with our cars at Stewart-Haas Racing.”

Sunday’s Michigan race was more of the same, with Harvick winning stage two and the race. Harvick led a race-high 90 of 156 laps. This was his sixth victory of the season, his fifth at Michigan and the 55th of his Cup Series career, tying him with Rusty Wallace on the series’ all-time win list.

Harvick had to hold off a hard charging Denny Hamlin in the closing laps of the Consumers Energy 400 on Sunday. “It was a big challenge.” said Harvick. “Our Busch Light Apple Ford Mustang got really tight there in three and four. I could run really good through one and two still, but I was just tight on that other end all day. So, I’ve just got to thank all my guys. They did a great job all weekend on pit road. Great pit calls. Just got to thank Haas Automation, Mobil 1, Hunt Brothers, Jimmy Johns, Fields. Everybody who helps put this No. 4 car on the track and everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing and Roush Yates Engines for awesome power underneath the hood this weekend.”

For Sunday’s race, Logano finished P5, Aric Almirola P6, and Matt DiBenedetto had a great run, finishing P7. Clint Bowyer also led 43 laps while winning stage one.

On Saturday afternoon the NASCAR Xfinity Series took on Road America, a 4.048-mile road course in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. Cindric dove into Turn 1 taking the lead after the green flag dropped and led the opening eight laps before cars were called to pit road due to lightning in the area. After more than an hour of delay, teams returned to their cars.

The entire race was filled with ever changing weather conditions that made pit road strategy crucial. Heavy rain showers during the race forced teams to change to rain tires, but once the sun came out it was a race back to the slick tires.

The race win came down to a three-lap shootout between Cindric and AJ Allmendinger. Cindric came out on top, achieving his fourth win of the year while leading a race high of 19 laps. Chase Briscoe fought hard and was in contention to win all day while finishing P3, his sixth top-five in the last seven races.

Ford leads all manufacturers with 13 NASCAR Cup series wins and nine Xfinity series wins. Stewart-Haas Racing and Harvick lead the owner and driver points standings in NCS and Cindric along with Team Penske lead the owner and driver points standing in the NXS.   Both the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity series will head to Daytona International Speedway to run the road course for the first time ever! Reference the full 2020 schedule on Roushyates.com.  27 CHAMPIONSHIPS – 401 WINS – 357 POLES!

August 9, 2020

A late-race charge following a pit stop propelled Matt DiBenedetto and his No. 21 NewFordTech.com Mustang to a seventh-place finish in Sunday’s Consumers Energy 400 at Michigan International Speedway. It was DiBenedetto’s seventh top-10 finish of the season, and coupled with the seven points he earned from a fourth-place finish in Stage One, he now has a 57-point cushion in the Playoff standings with four regular-season races left before the start of the Playoffs.

DiBenedetto started Sunday’s 312-mile race from sixth place as the line-up was set by a partial inversion of the finishing order from Saturday’s race at Michigan, where he finished 15^th.

Taking advantage of the track position he started with and some major overnight adjustments to the NewFordTech.com Mustang, DiBenedetto quickly drove up to third place then ended the first 40-lap Stage in fourth place, earning seven points.

In Stage Two he dropped out of the top 10, finishing in 12^th place, but was soon back in the top 10. He raced his way back up to third place but had dropped back to 10^th place when the race’s final caution flag flew with 19 laps remaining.

DiBenedetto was one of two drivers in the top 20 to head to pit road, and he fell back in line in 19^th place then moved up six spot by taking the less-preferred inside line when it came time to choose. When the green flag dropped to start a 15-lap dash to the finish, DiBenedetto used his skills in traffic on restarts to quickly gobble up seven more positions before eventually losing one, which left him in seventh place.

DiBenedetto said he and crew chief Greg Erwin could never get the NewFordTech.com Mustang handling just like he wanted, but they kept working at it and made the most of the day.

“We were really struggling [Saturday], and our team worked super-hard and made some good improvements so we could at least run further up there,” he said. “We didn’t play a lot of defense all day and had to drive the thing for all it was worth…

 “We hung tough. We had a monster restart there at the end and were able to drive our way up there and get a good finish.
 
“It felt really good to get to go on offense there at the end.”
 
DiBenedetto said he likes NASCAR’s new choose rule, which has been implemented at tracks other than road courses and superspeedways. It lets drivers choose which lane they will be in for restarts.
 
DiBenedetto said that after studying the way the choosing works, he’s decided to let his spotter Doug Campbell make the call on which lane to choose.
 
“It puts a lot of pressure on Doug, but I feel better with that decision in his hands,” he said.
 
DiBenedetto also said he’s cautiously optimistic about his Playoff chances but knows there is a lot of racing left in the regular season.

“You always want more points,” he said. “I feel good about how we’ve been running. We’ve been racking up some solid points, but you never know what can happen in these races.
 
“If we keep on doing what we’re doing, hopefully the rest will take care of itself.”
  
DiBenedetto and the No. 21 team return to work next Sunday for the first-ever Cup Series race on the road course at Daytona International Speedway.
 

Comes at Dodge NHRA Indy Nationals Presented by Pennzoil

·        Third-seeded Ron Capps takes Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) HEMI-powered Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car to winner’s circle at the Dodge NHRA Indy Nationals presented by Pennzoil

·        Capps’ win at Indianapolis is the first of his 26-year career at Lucas Oil Raceway and was the only remaining track where he hadn’t yet come away with a trophy

·        Ninth consecutive Funny Car final round appearance for a DSR Dodge SRT Hellcat entry dating back to September 2019

·        DSR is now one wally trophy away from an unprecedented NHRA milestone 350 national event wins

·        No. 1 qualifier Tommy Johnson Jr. takes the lead in Funny Car standings despite disappointing quarterfinal loss

·        DSR Dodge fleet of Funny Cars now 1-2-3-4 in the championship points race

·        No. 3 qualifier Leah Pruett drives Mopar Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye dragster to a third semi-final appearance of the year and is third in battle for Top Fuel championship title

Aug. 9, 2020, Brownsburg, Ind. – There was only one track in Ron Capps’ storied 26-year career where a national event victory had eluded him, but the Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) veteran Funny Car driver finally checked the historic Indianapolis dragstrip off that list by driving his HEMI-powered Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat to the winner’s circle at the Dodge NHRA Indy Nationals presented by Pennzoil. 

“Leave it to 2020 to get my first win at Indianapolis,” said Capps of the emotional and long-awaited victory. “For a driver to be able to say that he’s won at every track on the (NHRA) circuit is pretty incredible and it shows you the talent that I’ve had around me since I started my career.”

“For Dodge to jump in and to win a Dodge race for them and Pennzoil, means something,” adds Capps. “This is hallowed ground and I really started to wonder if I would ever win here. It may not be the U.S. Nationals, but maybe we broke the yolk. This is still a place that has so many great memories and such a great rich history.”

After qualifying third, Capps drove his HEMI-powered ride through eliminations with wins over Tim Wilkerson, Blake Alexander, and Bob Tasca, earning lane choice along the way over his final round opponent, J.R. Todd and then his first win of the year. It was Capps’ first final round appearance since his 2019 win at Brainerd.

Capps’ 64th career Funny Car victory, second only to John Force (151) on the all-time win list, was earned at the third Indianapolis-based event since the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Mello Yello Drag Racing Series’ returned to racing following a four-month hiatus due to the on-going pandemic, and saw the 2016 world champion bounce back from a pair of disappointing first-round losses to DSR teammates in the first two events. 

“The last two weeks were hard with these two races here,” says Capps who jumped up two positions to fourth place in the championship points battle. “After the break, we came back and knew that we were on limited time to make a run in the points. We came back from the hiatus and I didn’t get a whole lot of laps in the car. We didn’t get to do a whole lot of testing like some other teams did. The one saving grace is that I’ve got a great team and (Rahn) Tobler gives me a great car so that helped. I just haven’t had a whole lot of confidence mainly because we haven’t had a whole lot of runs. We’ve been knocked out first round so this helped me a bunch. This was a feel good weekend on many different fronts; my confidence is back and Tobler found his racecar.”

With the win, DSR extends a streak of nine consecutive final round appearances for one of their Dodge Charger SRT Hellcats that dates back to September 2019 (Charlotte), and puts the team just one victory away from an unprecedented NHRA milestone of 350 national event wins. 

The DSR Dodge Charger foursome is also now 1-2-3-4 in the Funny Car championship points standings with each driver having earned a Wally (trophy) of their own this year to date (and one rain postponed final (Indy 2) between Matt Hagan and Jack Beckman yet to be run during the U.S. Nationals.)

Taking over the lead in the championship chase from teammate Beckman is Tommy Johnson Jr. who came into race day with a win (Phoenix) and his second No. 1 qualifier position in three races aboard his MD Anderson Dodge, but fell short of adding more points to his lead after a quarterfinal loss to Paul Lee.  

Seeded second for eliminations, Hagan and his Mopar Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye remain third in the standings after a first round win over Beckman but encountering a setback in the quarterfinals with a loss to Bob Tasca. 

After advancing to the final round of eliminations in three of four national events this season, Beckman’s difficulties in qualifying put him at a disadvantage for the first time this year with a 15th place on the eliminations ladder. His first-round loss dropped him into second place in the Funny Car championship battle from his position as points leader which he had held since the start of the season.

In Top Fuel competition, Leah Pruett drove her demon-red, black and chrome Mopar Dodge SRT Hellcat Redeye dragster from a No. 3 seeded position on the eliminations ladder through to a semifinal match up against Steve Torrence after victories over Shawn Langdon and Pat Dakin. It was her third semifinal appearance this season and while she is still chasing a win this season, Pruett is third in the Top Fuel rankings.

The next scheduled events on the ever-changing calendar are the NHRA Southern Nationals, slated to take place in Atlanta, Ga, on Aug, 28-30, followed by the prestigious NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis on Sept. 3-6.

NOTES and QUOTES: 

Jack Beckman, Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car

(No. 15 Qualifier – 4.621 seconds at 179.90 mph)

Round 1: (0.045-second reaction time, 4.293 seconds at 219.01 mph) lost to No. 2 Matt Hagan (0.066/3.993/296.50

“I’ve never been done on Sunday at 10:40 in the morning. It’s a surreal feeling with an early start to get beat first round. We’re not gonna ‘woulda, coulda, shoulda’ this. We pushed hard both qualifying runs and it was just a little too aggressive. It put us in the unenviable position of running a teammate who had qualified good and had better data than us. That’s drag racing. On a perfect day, you beat four people and they hand you a trophy and it’s damn near impossible. We will pick up the pieces for our next race. I’m not sure when and where that is. These are unprecedented times. We will be back to the form we were in late last year and early this year and we will make an absolute run at that championship.”

Matt Hagan, Mopar Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car  
(No. 2 Qualifier – 3.982 seconds at 320.81 mph)
Round 1: (0.066-second reaction time, 3.993 seconds at 296.50 mph) beat No. 15 Jack Beckman (0.045/4.293/219.01)

Round 2: (0.087/4.881/195.17) lost to No. 7 Bob Tasca (0.074/4.034/311.70)

“We still had a really good race weekend. We qualified No. 2 and went some rounds and took out (Jack) Beckman, the points leader. We definitely closed the gap to the top and the DSR Funny Cars are still 1-2-3 and (Ron) Capps had a good day. The points are tight. We have a strong car and sometimes it gets hot and greasy and we make a lot of power and it can be more challenging to reel that in. The crew did a great job, again. (Crew Chief) Dickie (Venables) continues to do a great job running this car and we put on a great show for our partners at Dodge and Mopar and Pennzoil this weekend at the Dodge Nationals, and we’ve had a hell of a streak dating back to last season. We have a consistent and fast race car and I’m ready to go whenever they tell us to come back.”

Tommy Johnson Jr., MD Anderson Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car
(No. 1 Qualifier – 3.976 seconds at 318.54 mph)

Round 1: (0.084-second reaction time, 3.955 seconds at 322.81 mph) beats No. 16 Alexis DeJoria (0.088/4.363/209.92)

Round 2: (0.070/4.689/178.50) lost to No. 9 Paul Lee (0.092/4.140/270.70)

“That was very surprising. I wasn’t expecting that second round. We’ve had such a flawless race car going down the track each lap and it caught me off guard when it pulled them loose out there. It seemed like it was on a good run and just drove into smoke. It’s both surprising and frustrating, but you can’t get too disappointed. You lick your wounds and move on, learn from this and be better. We’ll figure out why and address that. To qualify No. 1 again and come out of here with the points lead is a positive.”

Ron Capps, NAPA Auto Parts Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car
(No. 3 Qualifier – 3.987 seconds at 317.05 mph)  
Round 1: (0.078-second reaction time, 4.056 seconds at 273.61 mph) beat No. 14 Tim Wilkerson (0.086/4.413/203.25)

Round 2: (0.069/3.990/320.51) beat No. 6 Blake Alexander (0.088/4.036/318.99)

Round 3: (0.045/4.065/316.30) beat No. 7 Bob Tasca (0.089/9.713/77.18)

Round 4: (0.065/4.110/294.63) beat No. 5 J.R. Todd, (0.074/10.318/80.06)

“This track makes you run it. This is not the kind of track where you roll up to it, stab the gas and go straight down the track. It’s got little nuances that make it really unique. You look at the Indy 500 and there’s things some drivers master and you look at Daytona and there’s things that some drivers have mastered there. You really have to know this track. Rahn Tobler and I work really well together through those nuances. Both lanes have different things that you have to prepare for and they can certainly hurt you.  

“First round, the car moved around on me and that was the reason it smoked the times at the other end but we got lucky. In the final round it did the same thing and started moving me around a little bit and it spun a bit and that’s the reason we ran a 4.11 otherwise we should have run a 3.99 again. We’ll take the win. It was live TV and we didn’t get to warm the car up. We just got up there, strapped in and had no time to think about anything.

“This trophy is going to my wife who has been coming to this racetrack with me for 26 years and has ridden that emotional roller coaster with me getting close and not winning. On top of it her birthday is always at the Indy (U.S. Nationals) race and all those years she’s rod along with me and seen the emotional wreck I’ve been not winning and knowing how much it means to me, I just called home and she was crying. It just means so much to us.”

Leah Pruett, Mopar Dodge//SRT Top Fuel Dragster  
(No. 3 Qualifier – 3.840 seconds at 318.02 mph)   
Round 1: (0.074-second reaction time, 3.749 seconds at 325.53 mph) beats No. 14 Shawn Langdon (0.055/3.839/304.19)

Round 2: (0.133/3.829/313.07) beats No.10 Pat Dakin (0.066/3.905/312.71)

Round 3: (0.084/3.861/316.60) loss to No. 14 Steve Torrence (0.078/3.819/320.51)

“Another semifinal finish here in Indy for this Dodge Redeye team. We grabbed some points during qualifying and we keep advancing along with the top cars. Unfortunately, we brought a knife to a gun fight in the semis. There was more out there on the track then we anticipated. We’ll regroup and we have a ton of momentum with this team. We got Cory’s (McClenathan) car on track this weekend. Wherever our next race is at, I feel like we’ve got a very good race car. The car is doing what we ask it to. Our DSM parts and pieces are performing well. We need to make the right steps and keep charging hard.”

Austin Dillon and the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Off Road/E-Z-GO Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 Team Overcome Challenges to Earn Strong Top-10 Finish at Michigan

8th   31st  17th

“It was a good day for our Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Off Road/E-Z-GO Chevrolet team. We had to start last after going to a backup car and we were issued a pass-through penalty on lap one for making unapproved adjustments on pit road. Despite the challenges, we stayed on the lead lap in Stage 1, which just shows how fast our Chevy was today. The race played out pretty similar to yesterday with strategy and the call to take fuel-only on our last pit stop. We were digging at the end of the race, moving from outside the top 15 to eighth. I thought we had something for seventh, but we just ran out of laps. It feels good to work as a team to overcome what we had to and to finish the race as the first Chevrolet in the field. Thanks to Johnny Morris and Bass Pro Shops, Tracker Off Road and everyone at Textron and E-Z-GO for their support.”-Austin Dillon

Tyler Reddick and No. 8 Chevrolet Accessories Team Showcase Teamwork at Michigan International Speedway

24th   3rd   18th

“We fought hard today at Michigan International Speedway, but our No. 8 Chevrolet Accessories Camaro ZL1 1LE was a challenge during the race. We fired off extremely tight, which made it hard to move around and run the bottom like I needed to be able to do. My crew chief, Randall Burnett, made some good adjustments during the race that helped loosen me up, but we just needed a little bit more today. We’ll definitely look back at this weekend as a team to see what we can learn from it and regroup for next weekend.” -Tyler Reddick

NASCAR CUP SERIES CONSUMERS ENERGY 400MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY TEAM CHEVY RACE NOTES & QUOTES AUGUST 9, 2020
TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL FINISHING RESULTS:POS.   DRIVER8th       Austin Dillon, No. 3 Dow Mobility Science Camaro ZL1 1LE9th       Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 1LE10th     Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1 1LE11th     Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Fueling Futures Camaro ZL1 1LE12th     William Byron, No. 24 Axalta Camaro ZL1 1LE     TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL FINISHING RESULTS:POS.  DRIVER                                                                     1st       Kevin Harvick (Ford)      2nd      Denny Hamlin (Toyota)3rd       Martin Truex, Jr. (Toyota)4th       Kyle Busch (Toyota)5th      Joey Logano (Ford)
TUNE-IN:The NASCAR Cup Series season continues on Sunday, August 16th at Daytona International Speedway with the Go Bowling 235 At the Daytona Road Course at 3:00 p.m. ET. Live coverage will air on NBC, MRN, and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.
TEAM CHEVY NOTES & QUOTES:
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW MOBILITY SCIENCE CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 8th“It was a good day for our Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Off Road/E-Z-GO Chevrolet team. We had to start last after going to a backup car and we were issued a pass-through penalty on lap one for making unapproved adjustments on pit road. Despite the challenges, we stayed on the lead lap in Stage 1, which just shows how fast our Chevy was today. The race played out pretty similar to yesterday with strategy and the call to take fuel-only on our last pit stop. We were digging at the end of the race, moving from outside the top 15 to eighth. I thought we had something for seventh but just ran out of laps. It feels good to work as a team to overcome what we had to, and to finish the race as the first Chevrolet in the field. Thanks to Johnny Morris and Bass Pro Shops, Tracker Off Road and everyone at Textron and E-Z-GO for their support.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 9th“We struggled to get the Mountain Dew Chevy dialed in today. It was pretty tight, and we just weren’t able to improve the handling. We squeaked by with a top-10 finish. All in all, it was a decent weekend, but we have some work to do.”
MATT MCCALL, CREW CHIEF, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 10thAnother top-10 finish to roundout a doubleheader weekend. Our Monster Energy Chevy was a little bit better on the short-run speed today, which helped us on some of those restarts. We’ll continue to work hard still to be better to contend for wins. We need to stay focused in trying to turn these top-10 into top-five finishes.” 
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY FUELING FUTURES CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 11th“We put up a good fight today. Track position was important, and we fought the balance most of the day. I’m looking forward to the road course and both Dover races.”
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 12th“Hard fought day for us at Michigan today and this weekend overall really. After this weekend we came out of Michigan with a bit larger of a points gap than we started which is good. Hopefully we can go on to the road course at Daytona and keep building that point buffer. I think we’re really good at road courses so hopefully we can run well there despite it being an unknown. I’m looking forward to it though and the challenge it will bring. I will definitely be doing a lot of iRacing this week to get ready for it.”  
TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 18th“My GEICO-Germain Racing guys did a good job this weekend. We made adjustments from yesterday to today and it definitely improved the handling. At the end there, it took our Camaro ZL1 1LE about three laps to come in and then it started rolling. We ran our fastest lap of the race in the final 10 laps, so I think if we had a few more, we would have finished even better. I’m happy to leave with a top-20 finish though. I’m looking forward to the Daytona Road Course next week.”
BUBBA WALLACE, JR., NO. 43 VICTORY JUNCTION CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 21st“Well, today wasn’t as good as yesterday, obviously. Our Camaro just kind of lacked a little bit in overall speed and overall grip. I couldn’t really find it throughout the race, so the restarts didn’t go our way there, towards the end. I kept getting trapped and everything. I guess we used all of our eggs on the first day. All-in-all, it was a solid day coming out of Michigan. A good points day, a good points swing for us. We’ve still got a lot of work to do to climb up the ladder, but we’re heading in the right direction from the last couple of races. So, progress is showing. On to the Daytona Road Course.”
TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 CHEVY ACCESSORIES CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 24th“We fought hard today at Michigan International Speedway, but our No. 8 Chevrolet Accessories Camaro ZL1 1LE was a challenge during the race. We fired off extremely tight, which made it hard to move around and run the bottom like I needed to be able to do. My crew chief, Randall Burnett, made some good adjustments during the race that helped loosen me up, but we just needed a little bit more today. We’ll definitely look back at this weekend as a team to see what we can learn from it and regroup for next weekend.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 CHEVYGOODS.COM/ADAM’S POLISHES CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 36th“That was not what we wanted or needed today. It was just unfortunate events. Greg (Ives) and the guys made great adjustments from yesterday and got the car pretty good. We battled some snug conditions, but the team made great adjustments on pit road. Obviously not the way we wanted to end the double header weekend. We will learn from this and move on to next week.”

CHEVROLET RACING IN NATIONAL HOT ROD ASSOCIATIOn DODGE NHRA NATIONALS LUCAS OIL RACEWAY AT INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA SUNDAY, AUGUST 9, 2020Second Straight Pro Stock Win for Chevrolet in Indy
• Jason Line claims first No. 1 qualifier position of the season, the 57^th of his career • Jeg Coughlin, Jr. extends point lead after scoring his second victory of 2020
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (August 9, 2020) – Jeg Coughlin, driver of the JEGS.COM/Elite Motorsports Camaro, grabbed his second win of the 2020 season and extended his Pro Stock point lead after four events for the division.  Coughlin, who will be retiring from full-time competition at the conclusion of the season, holds a 44 point lead over Jason Line who is also retiring at the end of the year. 
In the final round, five-time world champion Jeg Coughlin Jr. drove past nephew Troy Coughlin Jr. in the championship round with a 6.680 at 206.92 in his JEGS.com Chevrolet Camaro. The victory was the 65th in his career.
“I’ve loved having Troy Jr. coming with us week in, week out and I knew I would have my hands full with him in the finals. We’ve been pretty good and what a weekend. We’re going to celebrate and we’re looking forward to getting to the next race.”
Jason Line and teammate Greg Anderson both fell in the semis and remain second and fourth in the standings respectively. Defending Pro Stock champion Erica Enders red-lighted in the quarterfinals and her run was disqualified. She still sits third in the point standings, 77 back of her teammate Coughlin Jr.
PRO STOCK:
JASON LINE, SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT CHEVROLET CAMARO SS, (No. 3 qualifier, fell in the finals): “It was just an unfortunate ending to what was a very promising day. You don’t expect to have days like today, but sometimes, it happens. When it does, you just have to put it behind you as soon as you can. It wasn’t all bad – we got both of the Summit Racing Chevy Camaros to the semifinals. The good news is that it really makes you look forward to the next race and getting another chance to win the trophy for Ken Black and Summit Racing.”
GREG ANDERSON, KB RACING, SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (qualified 2^nd, fell in the semis): “Well, I seemed to have broken the transmission on the burnout. Rookie mistake. Somehow I got it in the wrong gear at the wrong time and ripped the teeth right out of fourth gear. I knew my only chance was if Jeg red-lighted or didn’t make it down the racetrack. But obviously he made it down and got to fourth gear and there was nobody home.  I knew it coming in and it’s a heartbreaker. Unfortunately, that would have been a good race and looks like it would have been very close at the finish line. Rookie mistake, 59-year old rookie mistake.” 

 INDIANAPOLIS, IN (August 9, 2020) — Today Terry McMillen and the AMALIEⓇ Motor Oil Top Fuel team started a race with a brand new perspective. For the first time in the veteran driver’s career McMillen was the No. 1 qualifier. The AMALIEⓇ Motor Oil XTERMIGATORⓇ Top Fuel dragster was up to the task and his Rob Wendland tuned Top Fuel dragster continued to show it is one of the top race cars on the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series. McMillen knew he had a great race car but he also knew that winning four rounds of racing would be a tough order no matter where he started in the qualifying ladder.

“Honestly, I tried to block the fact I was the No. 1 qualifier out of my head. I didn’t want that on my mind and because you start thinking about that and you get yourself in trouble,” said McMillen. “I just ran it like a normal race day. I didn’t care who was in the other lane. We just looked at every situation and ran our race. Whether we won or lost we were going to run on our terms. The No. 1 spot other than the prestige and finally checking that off our bucket list there was no distraction on race day.”

McMillen’s first round opponent was Lex Joon who continues to build a competitive Top Fuel team. The AMALIEⓇ Motor Oil XTERMIGATORⓇ Top Fuel dragster stepped up and made another strong pass 3.799 seconds to get the win. The win moved McMillen into the second round against fellow championship contender Billy Torrence. In the quarterfinal match-up McMillen took a single for the win after Torrence experienced an issue after his burnout and was shut off by the NHRA starter.

In the semifinals McMillen took out Mello Yello point leader Doug Kalitta in one of the closest races of the day. McMillen got the jump off the starting line and never trailed in the race. Both dragsters began hazing the tires but McMillen was able to hold on and get the win advancing to his first final round since the Dallas FallNationals in 2018.

The final round, McMillen’s ninth of his career, was a showdown with the two-time Top Fuel world champion Steve Torrence. McMillen’s Amalie Motor Oil Top Fuel dragster was looking to pick up its first win since he took the title at the U.S. Nationals almost two years ago. Unfortunately McMillen lost concentration for a millisecond and it was a costly mistake.

“I just flat lost concentration on the starting line and it cost us,” said McMillen. “This race car is just stout. Ever since we brought it out it has been good. We have been taking it to the shop and reworking a couple things on it and make it better. Every time it goes down the track we learn something new. You can’t complain it is a great car. The driver just cost us.”

Even though McMillen did not pick up his third career win the driver from Elkhart, Indiana has confidence and momentum heading to the biggest race of the year.

“You have to take away that we have a great race car. We have a good team behind that car led by (crew chief) Rob Wendland. That final round I was the weak link. The round before that I was the one that saved it. It is a give and take team effort. Ultimately the biggest positive out of today is we have a wicked good car and the driver just screwed up in the final round in the place you should never screw up. There is no one to blame but me.”

“We are immensely motivated. We had a good car two weeks ago and lost in the semifinals because we put a different blower on it.  It was down on blower boost. You look at our team and we are just going rounds and it was the quickest car two weeks ago. It was the number one qualifier at Indy3. That is a statement. On race day it wasn’t necessarily the quickest car but it was probably the most consistent car,” added McMillen.  

INDIANAPOLIS (Aug. 9) — Five-time Pro Stock champion Jeg Coughlin Jr. earned a little breathing room in the Mello Yello championship points standings Sunday with a solid victory at the Dodge NHRA Indy Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis. Coughlin, a veteran of 451 Pro Stock races, beat nephew Troy Coughlin Jr. in the final in what was just Troy Jr.’s second start in the category. Entering the race just eight points ahead of Jason Line, Jeg Jr. now has a 44-point edge against his chief challenger. Jeg Jr. also stretched his advantage over teammate and reigning Pro Stock champion Erica Enders from 15 to 77 points. “Had a helluva day with a really special ending; I couldn’t be happier,” Jeg Jr. said. “We were third-best through qualifying with Rickie (Jones, crew chief) trying a few little things Saturday, but went back to our tried-and-true set-up today and got the job done, despite not having the best car on the property today. We just worked at it and kept our heads down and here we are now with another trophy. “That final with T.J. was quite a treat. The two of us have spent countless hours bench-racing through the years and we’ve had some moments where we’ve actually raced at the sportsman level, but this one was the biggest so far. I looked out the window and thought, I’d better be ready because he had the better car in the semifinals and he had lane choice. “There was a part of me pulling for him to win. It was an echo of the start of my Pro Stock career when I won in just my second start and I can tell you I get more excited watching him win rounds than I do for myself. But in the end, we had to stay focused and do what we needed to do to stay in the points lead. We just don’t know what the future holds.” Jeg Coughlin Jr.’s JEGS.com Elite Motorsports Camaro In the four NHRA Pro Stock races that have taken place this year, Jeg Jr. has two wins and a runner-up result. He also won $75k at the 75K Drag Illustrated World Doorslammer Nationals, a non-sanctioned event held in early March. Jeg Jr.’s race day started with a pedestrian victory against Val Smeland, with the JEGS.com Elite Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro carrying him to a 6.618 at 206.39 mph ahead of Smeland’s 6.662 at 206.35 mph. He then survived a much closer contest against Elite Motorsports teammate Alex Laughlin, whom he beat with a 6.649 at 206.13 mph to Laughlin’s 6.665 at 206.16 mph. On the other side of the ladder, Troy Jr. opened with a win against Kyle Koretsky by posting a 6.637 at 205.69 mph in his JEGS.com Elite Motorsports Ford Mustang to Koretsky’s 6.645 at 206.67 mph. The race wasn’t as close at the ETs suggest with Troy Jr. earning a huge .033-second advantage at the starting line. He then dismissed Enders, who fouled out with a -.004 red-light start. “We had a better car than we showed is qualifying,” said Troy Jr., referring to his 13th-place starting slot. “We left some on the track in Q2 with a little tire shake but my crew chiefs Rick Jones and Mark Ingersoll went to work and got the car to respond. Plus, Robert Freeman came over and helped on clutch. He’s one of the best in the sport. “Everyone on this team did their best all day and we just lost the tires in the final. It was hot and we knew we needed to give it everything to try and beat Uncle Jeg so we were pushing hard. We still gained a ton of data.” The real turning point of the day came in the semifinals when Jeg Jr. and Troy Jr. beat Elite Motorsport’s biggest rivals, Greg Anderson and Line, respectively, when both of the KB Racing drivers failed to complete their runs under power.  Troy Coughlin Jr. That setup the all-Coughlin, all-JEGS, all-Elite Motorsports finale, which Jeg Jr. won with a 6.680 at 206.92 mph. In the next lane, Troy Jr. rattled the tires at the start of the race and was forced to shut off his engine. “Today hasn’t really settled in yet,” Troy Jr. said. “It continues to be an honor and a privilege to race in this class with the Elite team and for us to get to the final in just my second race speaks volumes about the talent (team owner) Richard Freeman has assembled here. “It was pretty surreal racing Uncle Jeg in the final. He’s a six-time world champion who I consider the best to ever race Pro Stock and I just wanted to give him our best. “When we got to the staging lanes I wished him good luck and he told me we needed to go up there and put on the best show possible for the fans. We both love the sport so much and he’s always told me to make sure you have some fun. We did today, for sure.” In the past, Jeg Jr. twice beat his brother Troy Coughlin Sr. in the two Pro Stock finals in which they faced one another. Troy Sr. is Troy Jr.’s father. Up next for both drivers is the 66th annual Denso Spark Plugs U.S. Nationals, Sept. 3-6, at Lucas Oil Raceway.

Kevin Boehm takes HPD Civic Si to a season-best second in Sunday’s TCA race
Victor Gonzalez scores a pole, two runner-up finishes in TCR
C.J. Moses puts his Civic Type R TCR on the podium Sunday

SONOMA, Calif. (August 9, 2020) – Less than a month after restarting their season in Virginia, the teams and drivers of the TC America series travelled across the country for three rounds of spirited battle at picturesque Sonoma Raceway this weekend. All three Civic race cars available from Honda Performance Development – the Type R TCR, Type R TC and Si – were represented in this weekend’s races in California.

The Honda Civic Type Rs doing battle in the TCR class earned four podium results over the weekend’s three races, paced by a triple-podium effort by Victor Gonzalez. The VGMC Racing owner/driver started his weekend with a pole-winning effort in qualifying for Friday’s race, and put together his best weekend of the season with a pair of runner-up results followed by a third-place run on Sunday. For the second straight event, the Touring Car teams ran three races this weekend, as the series continues to hold make-good events for the loss of events cancelled earlier in the season.

DXDT Racing’s C.J. Moses earned a podium in Saturday’s TCR event with a third-place run, with the podium finishes bookended by a pair of fourth-place runs.

Kevin Boehm had a strong finish to a good weekend in the TCA class as he took his Boehm Racing HPD Civic Si to the lead early in Sunday’s finale. After yielding the lead, Boehm battled Tyler Gonzalez throughout the last half of the race, pressuring the Copeland Motorsports driver and coming up less than a second short to settle for a season-best second-place run.

Jonathan Newcombe had a steady weekend in the VGMC Racing Civic Si, following a pair of sixth-place runs with a solid fourth-place effort in Sunday’s race. In TC action, Tazio Ottis and Ruben Iglesias each earned eighth-place results in their HPD Civic Type R racers Friday and Saturday respectively. The TC class did not run on Sunday.

HPD has three ready-to-race Civic models for touring car competition. The line starts with the affordable and reliable Civic Si TCA race car, then leads to the Civic Type R TC racer that puts legendary Type R performance on track, and culminates with the no-compromise, championship-winning Civic Type R TCR race car. Our unparalleled trackside support at every level from HPD engineers is a unique benefit that no other manufacturer can offer. Find out more about these cars and our touring programs at: https://hpd.honda.com/Motorsports/Touring.

Honda Racing social media content and videos from Sooma Raceway are 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
The Touring Car teams will journey back across the country for another triple-header at its next stop, which takes place at the 4.048-mile permanent road course at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, August 28-30.

·       Tommy Johnson Jr. earns No. 1 qualifier position at Dodge NHRA Indy Nationals presented by Pennzoil aboard his Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) MD Anderson Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat

·       Johnson leads a trio of DSR Dodge Charger SRT Hellcats made up of No. 2 qualifier Matt Hagan and No. 3 qualifier Ron Capps 

·       DSR Top Fuel driver Leah Pruett qualifies third with her Mopar Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye livery and sits second in points

August 8, 2020, Brownsburg, Ind. – Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) driver Tommy Johnson Jr. kicked off the Dodge NHRA Indy Nationals presented by Pennzoil by driving his MD Anderson Dodge Charger right to the top of the Funny Car timing sheet at Lucas Oil Raceway to earn his 20^th career No. 1 qualifier position. Johnson led a trio of HEMI®-powered DSR Funny Cars made up of No. 2 qualifier Matt Hagan and No.3 qualifier Ron Capps at the third Indianapolis-based National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Mello Yello Drag Racing Series event since the season resumed in July after a four-month hiatus.

On his first pass of the weekend, Johnson posted a 3.976-seconds run at 318.54-mph, a time that held up through both Saturday qualifying sessions, to earn his second No.1 qualifier honor of the restarted season. He’ll face Alexis DeJoria as his first round opponent in eliminations. 

“We have a really solid race car here at Indy,” said Johnson, who sits second in the Funny Car points battle behind DSR teammate Jack Beckman after a win at the Arizona Nationals early in the year, along with a runner-up and semifinal finish at the first two Indianapolis races in July. “Three races here and we’ve been No. 1, 2 and No. 1 again. That gives you a ton of confidence going into race day knowing you have such a good car. Now if we can just turn these No. 1 qualifying positions into a win. We’ve gone rounds at these first two Indy races, the only thing left on the plate is a win.”

Hagan, who is once again showing off a demon-red, black and chrome livery on his Mopar Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye, qualified second and hopes to drive his way to a third consecutive final elimination round appearance and a second win to help him move up from his third place position in the championship standings.

In the last national event, Hagan advanced to a final round elimination against Beckman that was postponed due to rain until the U.S. Nationals next month. The two are paired up again on Sunday, this time for a first round match-up after Beckman hazed the tires on both his run to qualify 15th.

Capps rounds out the trio of qualified Dodge Charger entries as the third-seeded Funny Car and will have lane choice over No. 14 qualifier Tim Wilkerson.   

In Top Fuel qualifying, Leah Pruett followed up her No. 2 qualifier performance from the previous event with the third quickest run of the day to earn two bonus points. She did it aboard her DSR dragster which, for a second event, featured a fierce-looking Redeye livery, similar to Hagan’s, to promote the July reveal of the 2021 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye, the most powerful and fastest mass-produced sedan in the world. Pruett sits second in the Top Fuel championship standings and hopes to add a few more points by making her way through a few rounds of eliminations, starting with No. 14 qualifier, Shawn Langdon.

Qualifying highlights will be broadcast on FOX Sports 1 (FS1) on Sunday, Aug. 9, from 11 a.m. -1 p.m. ET. Elimination rounds at the Dodge NHRA Indy Nationals presented by Pennzoil begin at 10 a.m. (ET) on Sunday, Aug. 9, while television coverage will air on the FOX national network from 1-4 p.m. (ET) and will include LIVE final round action. 

NOTES and QUOTES: 

Jack Beckman, Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car

(No. 15 Qualifier – 4.621 seconds at 179.90 mph)

Qualifying 1:  4.707 sec./170.43 mph 

Qualifying 2:   4.621 sec./179.90 mph

“This is what’s exciting about one day of qualifying and only two runs. When you give teams four runs, the cream typically rises to the top. With just two runs, some of the big teams stumble during qualifying and then you see some real interesting first round matchups. We made it far enough that I think we can make a couple of adjustments and be in great shape for tomorrow. Would we rather have qualified higher and got bonus points, of course. We didn’t intentionally qualify 15th, but we still have a car that can win tomorrow.”

Matt Hagan, Mopar Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye Funny Car  
(No. 2 Qualifier – 3.982 seconds at 320.81 mph)
Qualifying 1: 3.982 sec./320.81 mph 

Qualifying 2: 4.457 sec./199.29 mph

“It’s obviously a tough round tomorrow with (Jack) Beckman and it seems that we’ve been racing our teammates a lot in the first round lately. With just two qualifiers, it’s tricky. We were in that position last week trying to get in the show on Q2 and that makes it tough. It’ll be a good race. We were supposed to race Beckman in the finals here a few weeks ago before it rained. Tomorrow at 10 am it will be cool and fast and it’s anybody’s ball game.”

Tommy Johnson Jr., MD Anderson Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car
(No. 1 Qualifier – 3.976 seconds at 318.54 mph) 
Qualifying 1: 3.976 sec./318.54 mph 

Qualifying 2: 4.141 sec./244.12 mph

“We have a really solid race car here at Indy. Three races here and we’ve been No. 1, 2 and No. 1 again. That gives you a ton of confidence going into race day knowing you have such a good car. Now if we can just turn these No. 1 qualifying positions into a win, and we’ve gone rounds at these first two Indy races, the only thing left on the plate is a win.”

Ron Capps, NAPA Auto Parts Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car
(No. x Qualifier – 3.987 seconds at 317.05 mph)  
Qualifying 1: 3.987 sec. /317.05 mph

Qualifying 2: 4.061 sec./305.77 mph

“We couldn’t wait to get back here for the Dodge Indy Nationals presented by Pennzoil because the last few weekends here we just haven’t had much luck. Off the trailer, (crew chief Rahn) Tobler and the guys did a great job. We unleashed with a 3.98 and ended up third. We went back there for the second run and tried to improve a little bit. The ladder was already looking a little nutty where you had some really good cars that hadn’t run well in qualifying and that’s just a product of two qualifying runs. We just have to focus on making those two runs as good as possible, so you don’t end up running a strong car like one of our DSR teammates in the first round. We qualified well and race a really good car in Tim Wilkerson. It’s going to be hot, humid, and all that fun, exciting stuff this NAPA team loves, but Wilkerson is also very good in those types of conditions.”

Leah Pruett, Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye Top Fuel Dragster  
(No. 3 Qualifier – 3.840 seconds at 318.02 mph)   
Qualifying 1: 3.887 sec./314.68 mph

Qualifying 2: 3.840 sec./318.02 mph

“Continuing on with the momentum from the last Indy race, our fierce Redeye Top Fuel dragster is in good shape, and in a good position for a very strong Sunday. We qualified No. 3, made two consistent runs, and we’re chipping away at getting more power and keeping it hooked up. We’ve got a healthy-running car right now, and we’re definitely in our groove zone. We’ve got a tough competitor first round with Shawn Langdon, and as I’ve said before, it’s one round at a time on race day. We’ll start early in the morning, and I’m most definitely looking forward to it. It’s the Dodge Nationals and we’re in the Dodge Redeye, and we’re going to charge our way through the field tomorrow.”

August 8, 2020

Matt DiBenedetto and the No. 21 NewFordTech.com Ford team came away from Saturday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway with a 15^th-place finish that allowed them to remain in contention for a Playoff berth.

DiBenedetto enters Sunday’s second half of a double-header at Michigan 15^th in the Playoff standings with a 40-point cushion. The top 16 teams will start the 10-race, season-ending, championship-deciding Playoffs after five more regular season races.

DiBenedetto and the NewFordTech.com Mustang started Saturday’s 312-mile race from 15^th place but struggled early with a loose handling condition. 

Crew chief Greg Erwin and the No. 21 crew made adjustments on early pit stops, then had to deal with tight handling conditions.
 
But as the race, a relatively short one by Cup Series standards, reached the latter stages, DiBenedetto began to work his way forward, moving from outside the top 20 to 15^th at the finish.
 
Eddie Wood said the team was able to make the most of a day that didn’t look promising at the beginning.
 
“They struggled with a really loose car at the start but got it better towards the end,” he said. “Track position is important at Michigan, and we never had any all day.
 
“But in the end, Matt, Greg and the team did a good job of competing with the drivers we’re battling for a Playoff spot.”

DiBenedetto and the NewFordTech.com team moved to within one point of Clint Bowyer, who holds the 14^th spot in the Playoff standings and are 24 points ahead of William Byron, now in the 16^th spot.
 
With the line-up for Sunday’s Consumers Energy 400 set by an inversion of the top 20 finishing positions from Saturday’s race, DiBenedetto will start the race from sixth place.
 
The green flag is set to fly just after 4:30 p.m. with TV coverage on NBCSN.
 

31st   18th  18th

“Well, not the result we were hoping for today at Michigan International Speedway, but the good news is we have another shot at it tomorrow afternoon. We started off too free but once Justin Alexander and the team were able to tighten up the No. 3 Dow MobilityScience Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 we were really good. At the end of the race, we were loose, sliding around four-wide when another car ran us over from behind. It ruined our top-10 finish. We’ll pull the backup out and go get them tomorrow.”-Austin Dillon

Tyler Reddick and No. 8 Chevrolet Accessories Team Earn Top-20 Finish at Michigan International Speedway Despite On-Track Issues

18th    14th    16th

“We had speed in our No. 8 Chevrolet Accessories Camaro today at Michigan International Speedway, but we just seemed to get caught up in other people’s messes all day. I was able to move up into the top 10 early in the race, but the No. 19 made contact with us when he had a tire go down, which gave our Chevrolet some left rear damage. It felt like we had a tire going down shortly after that, so we were forced to pit under green for fresh left-side tires. We had to fight hard to get our lap back and did, but then our right-rear tire went down and we had to pit to repair that under green as well. Somewhat luckily for us, that tire issue happened close to the end of Stage 2, so we were able to get our lap back with the wave around, stay mostly on sequence with the leaders and really get back in the game. We were making some progress after that and were inside the top 20 when we got some additional right front damage from another on-track incident, so we had to hit pit road one more time for slight repairs. Luckily, we didn’t lose a lap.  We avoided a couple late-race accidents to pick up a few more spots but didn’t quite get to where we wanted to be today. Good news is that we get another shot at it with our No. 8 Chevrolet Accessories Camaro tomorrow.” -Tyler Reddick

NASCAR CUP SERIES FIREKEEPERS CASINO 400 MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY TEAM CHEVY RACE NOTES & QUOTES AUGUST 8, 2020
TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL FINISHING RESULTS:POS.   DRIVER7th       Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 1LE9th       Bubba Wallace, No. 43 Victory Junction Camaro ZL1 1LE10th     Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1 1LE12th     Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Fueling Futures Camaro ZL1 1LE14th     William Byron, No. 24 Axalta Camaro ZL1 1LE     TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL FINISHING RESULTS:POS.  DRIVER                                                                     1st       Kevin Harvick (Ford)2nd      Brad Keselowski (Ford)3rd       Martin Truex, Jr. (Toyota)4th       Ryan Blaney (Ford)5th      Kyle Busch (Toyota)
TUNE-IN:The NASCAR Cup Series season continues on Sunday, August 9th at Michigan International Speedway with the Consumers Energy 400 at 4:00 p.m. ET. Live coverage will air on NBCSN, MRN, and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.
TEAM CHEVY NOTES & QUOTES:
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 7th“We had a strong restart there at the end of the race from the inside lane. When that next caution came out, I just didn’t see it playing out the same way twice, so I chose to go to outside lane. Our NAPA Chevrolet was just tight all day and the team worked hard to try and get it dialed in – they had a solid day on pit road. I think we learned a few things today that we can hopefully use tomorrow.”
BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 VICTORY JUNCTION CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 9thON A COUPLE OF THOSE FINAL RESTARTS, I THOUGHT IT MIGHT BE A POTENTIAL WIN. WERE YOU THINKING WHEN YOU HAD THAT SHOT ON THE SECOND ROW, WE MIGHT BE ABLE TO PULL THIS OFF BECAUSE YOU MADE A BOLD MOVE TO THE MIDDLE?“A solid day for us and our Victory Junction Chevrolet. I appreciate everybody back at the shop. I know this whole COVID-19 deal has been tough. I haven’t been able to go to the shop and show my appreciation and how much they really work and make our cars better week in, and week out. So, it’s been fun. We’re in the middle of ‘silly season’ right now, so my mind is there, it’s here. So, to come out with a solid top-10 finish is positive. We’ve got a lot of work to do. I was not happy with the car, but I think that’s the racer mentality. I don’t know if (Kevin) Harvick, (race winner) was happy about his car, either. We always strive to be better, but all in all, it was a solid day. The choose rule. Good job, NASCAR. That was fun. That was cool. It brought be back to the shootout days. I didn’t tick as many people off as I did at the shootout today, so it was all good.” 
THESE RUNS ARE GREAT, RIGHT? ARE THEY EVEN BETTER WHEN HEY, YOU GET TO TURN AROUND AND DO THIS AGAIN IN LESS THAN 24 HOURS TOMORROW?“Absolutely. The race distance is a lot of fun. It’s something to look at, too, for sure. But man, say a prayer for us. Everybody say a prayer for us. There’s a big deal on the line right now and this could only help so much. I have yet to check my phone to see the status of it, but this will send us over the top if we can get it done. So, it’s been a lot of hard work off the race track for my team and everybody involved, to make things better. And that’s what we’re trying to do. So, putting solid runs together and having awesome restarts all thing, this is only going to help the effort. So, I’m definitely smiling.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 10th“With a shorter race we had a bunch of variables today, including a lot of restarts. When the spotter says, four and five-wide, and we didn’t get damage, I will take that any day. Our Monster Energy Camaro was really reliant on clean air, once we got back in traffic it was really a struggle for us, but we were able score points in the first two stages and battle back for another top-10 finish at the end. We know that we can do better, and we’ll get a chance to do that tomorrow”.
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY FUELING FUTURES CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 12th“We had a fast Ally Chevy all day, but restarts hurt us. It was up and down all day fighting traffic and weird things happening on the restarts. We are going to talk tonight and get a better plan for tomorrow. It’s a long day for these team guys but we will be ready.”
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 14th“It was a tough day for our No. 24 Axalta team. We worked hard to improve the handling of our Axalta Chevy as the day went on. Luckily we’ll get another chance at it tomorrow and we’ll hopefully get a better result and stay in the playoff hunt.”
TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 CHEVY ACCESSORIES CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 18th“We had some good speed in our No. 8 Chevrolet Accessories Camaro today at Michigan International Speedway, but we just seemed to get caught up in other people’s messes today. I was able to move up into the top 10 early in the race, but the No. 19 made contact with us when he had a tire go down, which gave our Chevrolet some left rear damage. It felt like we had a tire going down shortly after that, so we were forced to pit under green for fresh left-side tires. We had to fight hard to get our lap back and did, but then our right-rear tire went down and we had to pit to repair that under green as well. Somewhat luckily for us, that tire issue happened close to the end of Stage 2, so we were able to get our lap back with the wave around, stay mostly on sequence with the leaders and really get back in the game. We were making some progress after that and were up inside the top 20 when we got some additional right front damage from another on-track incident, so we had to hit pit road one more time for slight repairs but didn’t lose a lap. We were able to avoid a couple late-race accidents to pick up a few more spots but didn’t quite get to where we wanted to be today. Good news is that we get another shot at it with our No. 8 Chevrolet Accessories Camaro tomorrow.”

4th    6th  10th

“We earned a hard fought top-five finish for our RCR No. 21 Ruedebusch.com Chevrolet team today at Road America. We faced a little bit of adversity towards the middle part of the race when we had slick tires on a wet race track. That was a little bit sketchy, but luckily the call ended up being the right one. We got our track position back and put ourselves in a really good position at the end of the race. I’m really proud of Andy Street and everyone at Richard Childress Racing. This was a great day for us with a fourth place finish. I’m looking forward to my next couple races and hopefully we can go out there and steal a win.”-Kaz Grala

CHEVROLET RACING IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES INDIANAPOLIS 500 INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEEDWAY INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA TEAM CHEVY DRIVER ZOOM CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 U.S. SPACE FORCE CHEVROLET AUGUST 7, 2020
THE MODERATOR: We’re joined today by the driver of the No. 20 U.S. Space Force Chevrolet for Ed Carpenter Racing, Ed Carpenter.Ed, thanks for taking the time to join us.ED CARPENTER: Thank you.
THE MODERATOR: Big announcement for the team today with the United States Space Force coming on. How did it come about and how excited are you to have their colors on your car?ED CARPENTER: First off, it’s very exciting. Real honor to be able to represent the U.S. Space Force, the newest branch of our armed forces.It came together pretty quickly. It’s a result of having a relationship with the Air Force already with Conor’s car for the road and street courses, Indianapolis. We’ve been working with that group.At this point there’s a lot of overlap between the two branches. They announced the Space Force December 20th of 2019, and kind of over the next year and a half they’re going to be standing up their operations from there.Albeit in COVID time, they were looking for a unique way to spread the word about everything that they’re doing. Things fell into place pretty quickly.
THE MODERATOR: It is August, although it kind of feels like May. How excited are you to get a chance to race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway?ED CARPENTER: Always excited to get to the Speedway. It’s definitely going to be a different feel this time around for a number of reasons. It’s August, even though like you said it feels like May. It’s going to be pretty quiet. We’ve gotten some experience with that.It will be more drastic of a change at Indy. We’re bummed that we’re not going to have our friends and fans, everyone that supports us all the time, to be able to be there with us. Grateful at the same time that we still get a chance to go out and race in the greatest race in the world.
THE MODERATOR: I know you mentioned the tie-in with the Air Force, the Space Force. Conor gets pretty competitive about things. Is there going to be some sort of in-team rivalry between the Space Force and Air Force?ED CARPENTER: I think a little friendly rivalry is healthy. At the end of the day we’re on the same team just as the Air Force and Space Force are on the same team. We’re all here for the same reason.I’m sure it’s going to be a lot of fun.
THE MODERATOR: We’ll take questions from the media.Q.It’s often been said that INDYCAR drivers and test pilots and astronauts kind of share the same traits character-wise. When you’ve been on your pole runs at Indy, did you almost feel like you were in a lot of ways driving a rocket ship?ED CARPENTER: I don’t know that I’ve ever thought about it exactly that way. I can see where we probably have some similarities in our makeup and how we’re wired. I think not everyone’s willing to go out and put themselves in uncertain situations, willing to risk everything to go out and do your job. Similar in that regards.But you could say that for a lot of professions, whether it’s firefighters, police officers. A lot of people put themselves in compromised situations to do what they love to do.
Q.Do you think this is also a great way to raise awareness for what the Space Force really is? When you think of all the satellites for communications, weather satellites, stuff on the computer, if any of those satellites were compromised in any way, think of all the havoc that would cause, that this is something to help create awareness to explain why there’s a need for such a force?ED CARPENTER: Yeah, 100%. It’s obviously the newest branch. A big part of what we’re doing is to raise awareness and I think to educate everyone of what the purpose of the Space Force is.What you said is right. All of our daily lives we’re relying on things that are happening in space from satellites, to GPS, to this Zoom call. It’s a competitive environment up there. For the safety of our nation and our allies and our prosperity as a country, what’s happening up there is important. It’s important for people to understand that.They’ve have a force within the Air Force that’s looked after this. One of the biggest tie-ins between what they’re doing with Space Force and our racing program, why they went the route of standing up the new branch was really to make a more lean, agile, fast solution to make sure we withhold our advantage in space and carry that forward into the future. I think that’s a great tie-in to INDYCAR and what we’re all about, as well.
Q.As an Indianapolis guy, as someone who loves this event, this race, I’m wondering what you think it will be like without fans and if you think it will change the atmosphere either leading into the race or actually on race day?ED CARPENTER: Yeah, I mean, this will be my 17th attempt at the 500. You meet new people every year. You see the same people every year. Over that time you develop relationships that are centered around standing outside of your garage in Gasoline Alley.It stinks, it sucks that we don’t get to share that passion we all have that is the Indianapolis 500. Unfortunately it’s the reality we’re in right now.I think this is the best that we can do unfortunately. Without a doubt it’s going to be a different environment. I was at the Speedway this morning when we were doing our announcement. Most of us in this call have been out there when it’s essentially empty, whether it’s early in the morning or late at night. That’s what it’s going to be like for the most part on race day. You’re going to be missing the sounds and a lot of the sights and colors.For sure I’ve thought about it. It’s going to be a different morning, different lead-in to the race. After 16 of them, you have a cadence and anticipation for the buildup. That’s all going to be different this year.But one thing I have learned for me personally from Texas, having no fans, Iowa being very limited, even from previous 500s, you take all that in, it’s a lot of the buildup, excitement, it makes it special, creates a lot of anxiety. When we strap in the cars and put our helmets on and start racing, for me anyway, whether it’s a full house or empty house, you’re so focused on what’s in front of you, doing your job, everything else disappears anyway.I’m confident it’s not going to affect the type of show we put on or the excitement and how aggressive we are fighting for an Indy 500 win. It’s still going to mean the same thing. We’re just not going to have our fans to celebrate with after the fact.But it’s going to be historic.
Q.Cole Pearn, how did you get to him? How did you get him to come back to the U.S.? What can he bring to the organization?ED CARPENTER: It was pretty simple really. We’d had a relationship with Justin Taylor in the past. He engineered JR’s car full-time when he was with us. He was with us with Ed Jones for our partial last year. We kind of were planning on him coming back to help us.With the ever-fluid situation from COVID, plans were constantly evolving and he couldn’t commit due to other sports car stuff in Europe. We were just sitting around the shop brainstorming some new options just to try to make sure we were bringing in somebody that we felt like would bring something to our team, to our engineering room. We were just kicking the tires.Peter Craik, who is my engineer, worked with Cole at Furniture Row. I texted Pete, Hey, do you think there’s any chance Cole would be interested in coming and being a part of Indy? He was like, I don’t know, text him. He texted him. Cole was like, Yeah, I’m interested in talking about that. That’s pretty much how it happened.
Q.Even though stockcars and INDYCARS are completely different, do you think it will be a smooth adjustment for him?ED CARPENTER: I’m confident that it will be. I believe when you bring in smart and talented people that have a work ethic, they’re going to figure it out. We don’t have a lot of time when we get to Indy. Still a lot more time than we have elsewhere.He’s been working hard to get integrated before he was here. Now that he’s here, there’s a lot that’s different but a lot of the processes are the same. Some of the language is different.I think we’ve all seen from Cole that he’s definitely putting in the work to do it, getting prepared. I feel like Conor is getting excited about it the more time they spend together. He has a lot of support around him with the rest of our group, how we shuffle people around in support roles for Indy with our third car.He’s a smart guy. I think you saw Penske have success bringing Brian Kampe over for a long time in their INDYCAR program. When you have smart people, they’re going to figure it out and adapt quickly.A lot of what we’re doing at Indy is making decisions in the moment, having a good process. I think we all feel like Cole has all of those traits.
Q.With no fans at the Indy 500, there seems to be this contingent of the old guard that says you shouldn’t have an Indy 500 with no fans. Graham Rahal addressed that and said he was once in that camp, but the long-term viability of INDYCAR teams, the choice between no fans and no race, you have to have a race. Can you address that from a team owner perspective.ED CARPENTER: It’s an awful situation to be in. I talked to someone about this back when Roger made the comments that we just won’t run the race without fans. I was asked a question if I would be open to doing it without fans. It’s something that I don’t want to have happen. I would love for our fan base to be there.But it absolutely is critical to run the race. Far and away it’s what makes and breaks our season as teams. It’s the most important event to our partners. It 100% sucks not having fans there and not even being able to have the experience with our partners in full being there. But it’s necessary.We’ve got to look at all the hard decisions now of what we have to do to be in a position to have fans in 2021. It’s critical for the health of the teams that we have this race to make sure we have teams back here next year.That sounds a little dramatic, but that’s the reality. We live in not only a very volatile world right now, but our industry and motorsport in general, it’s not an easy business to operate. When you lose your marquee event, it’s a lot different than looking at losing Portland on the schedule or Barber. They’re in totally different atmospheres as far as the importance to us and our partners.It sucks that we had to be in this position. I feel terrible for Roger Penske right now. But he’s doing an outstanding job leading our series and doing his best to help our teams through this difficult situation we’re in.
Q.The economic realities, Mid-Ohio kind of postponed in terms of when it comes back. There’s been some discussion about how many races do teams need to satisfy sponsors. Is that something you’re concerned with at all? Do you need a certain number of races to keep all the payments coming in?ED CARPENTER: It’s a moving target. I think we’ve been pretty blessed as a team with the level of commitment of our partners and their understanding of COVID-19 and the impact on our schedule, our contracts.It’s a situation where there’s so — all of it is out of our control, out of the series’ control, the promoter’s control. At the end of the day is there a firm number I can give? No. But definitely every one that we lose, it does make it harder to continue having those conversations.I think everyone’s as confident as you can be right now with what we have in front of us with what’s remaining on the schedule. Things are so fluid, it changes day-to-day, let alone week-to-week. We just have to take it as it comes.Right now the focus is on the 500 and maximizing this month to the best we possibly can given the situation, take it from there.
Q.You’ve had this relationship and been close with Sarah Fisher in the past. Given that relationship, the fact this will likely be the first 500 since 1999 that we haven’t had a female driver in the series, what your emotions or general feelings are of losing the momentum we’ve had in getting more women involved in the sport in general from a driver’s perspective?ED CARPENTER: Yeah, I hadn’t actually thought about that streak being broken. I won my first race driving for Sarah. Her team provided me a really good opportunity kind of at a crossroads in my career. I’m forever thankful for that. We were partners for a season or two.Yeah, it’s kind of crazy. I fully expected Pippa to be a part of this year’s race with the support and base that she’s built up. She’s definitely a popular driver in the series. It’s an unfortunate situation that there won’t be a female starting. I think we’ve had a lot of success and seen a lot of talented women racing in INDYCAR, specifically the Indy 500.I think it’s less of a situation of not having a woman. It’s tough for a lot of people to make it happen right now regardless of your gender. It’s a disappointment. I’m sure that we’ll see Pippa or someone new coming back in the future.
Q.You’ve obviously started the season at the 500 in the past. This year you got to do a few ovals. Will that make things a little bit easier, especially with the condensed schedule?ED CARPENTER: It doesn’t hurt. I think at the end of the day with the way with the flow and cadence of your typical month of May, I’ve never felt disadvantaged at any moment in the years that that’s been my first race of the season.Indy is so unique, has its own challenges, comes with its own pressures and stresses. The amount of practice time even in a condensed format, there’s still plenty of time for drivers that it’s their first race to get plenty of pit stop practice in, to prepare for all the things you need to be prepared for.I’m happy that I’ve been able to start my season, come in feeling like you’re slightly more up to speed with the team. Indy is so different at this point with these cars relative to Texas and Iowa that it’s not like there’s a ton of carryover from those events.Indy, it’s its own beast. When you do have to start there, I don’t think it makes it that big of a deal.
Q.We go to Indy each year expecting for you guys to contend for front row at the very least, generally pole. With the changes in the car specification this year, the Aeroscreen, do you feel Ed Carpenter Racing is at that level to again be contending with Penske, from your observations compared with previous years?ED CARPENTER: I hope so. All my guys would tell you, like, sitting here on a Friday less than a week out from being in the car, I’m always a bit paranoid about what our speed is going to be, what our performance handling is going to be. I’m definitely more of a pessimistic person than an optimist. I’m always a little paranoid at this stage in the game that my nightmares are going to come true and we have a terribly slow racecar.Outside of my paranoia, I feel really strong about the work the team has put in in the off-season. I feel like we’ve made some gains within our own building to improve ourselves. I always have confidence in what Chevrolet is going to bring to the table for Indianapolis.Hopefully we’ve done a good job and we’ll be in position to compete and have a fast car on both weekends of August, as I’m calling it.
Q.Obviously you have Rinus in the team this year, a rookie driver in there. You were quite outspoken about Texas, the advice you’d given him there, him not following it. From a general perspective, you have so much experience at Indy, you’ve had a lot of success there, what are the key things you try to drill into Rinus ahead of the event in terms of driving?ED CARPENTER: To be honest, I was definitely hard on him in Texas. We’ve made a lot of progress since then. He’s had a rough season. Haven’t had things fall our way. He had a good race going at Iowa when he had his incident with Colton, which was just one of those things that’s unfortunate. He didn’t do anything wrong.I feel like he’s really made a lot of progress in Texas. We have spent a lot of time talking about Indy, done quite a lot of work in the simulator, preparing him as much as we can from everything he’s going to experience from weather, to what ROP is going to look and feel like.I haven’t worked with a rookie in a long time, but I give him the same type of advice that I’ve given other drivers that haven’t been there before or in a while. In a lot of ways I just take them through my process, things that I focus on, things that they need to be careful of, how we need to approach different situations whether it comes to looking forward to qualifying and trimming out or working with traffic with race setup stuff, what he needs to be thinking about, how he eases himself into that.We’ve put a lot of effort into it. I’m optimistic, even though I told you I’m a pessimist, that he’s prepared. I’m confident in our group and the people that are behind him and that will be on his stand that they’ll manage him in an efficient manner.
Q.What are your expectations of Rinus? What do you think he’s done well enough in line with your expectations in the Indy 500?ED CARPENTER: I think it’s really hard to put huge expectations on him. It’s been a pretty terrible year to come into this sport as a rookie. We’ve seen them all shine at moments, but we’ve seen rookies all make mistakes as well. With how limited testing has been, the schedule changes, how that affects your preparation, it’s been hard on us old guys. It definitely I think is harder for the younger guys to be mentally prepared to adapt to all that.As I’ve been telling Rinus, my number one goal for him everywhere we go, it will be no different at Indy, is to complete every lap that he can, run every lap of the race, then incrementally step his goals up from there.One thing that we also believe is he’s an extremely talented driver. His natural ability is way up there with some of the best guys I’ve been around. So really it’s more just helping him not try to get there too fast, make good decisions with his progression. If he’s able to do that, if we’re able to do that together, there’s no reason why he can’t be a factor come August 23rd.We’ve got to take it one day at a time and maximize each day, limit mistakes to build momentum over the course of our time there.
Q.How beneficial is it to you to have Conor Daly in the car when you have a rookie at the 500?ED CARPENTER: Yeah, I mean, it’s been great having Conor on the team. I would say one of the bright spots of quarantine and COVID was the amount of time that Conor and I have been able to spend together. We’ve trained together this entire time through quarantine. We kind of committed to keeping each other safe through this whole time. We’ve spent a ton of time together, really gotten to know each other well. He’s definitely an asset to the team.Although he’s been a journeyman, he’s got a lot of great experience. He had a great month of May last year with Andretti. I think we’re all excited to have him in one of our cars, have another experienced voice in the room to help make us all better, myself included. Definitely Rinus has two experienced guys, so hopefully at the end of the month we’ll all feel like each of us has helped the other. That’s the intent.
Q.Helio Castroneves has expressed an interest in coming back full-time next season. Is he someone you might consider next year?ED CARPENTER: I would never rule it out. I think Helio is an amazing talent. I’m not going to knock a guy for his age, being old myself. We’re similar in age, although I think he’s a couple years older than me.I know that the passion is still there for him. It wasn’t his decision fully, I don’t think, to be a full-time sports car driver at this point. His heart has been in INDYCAR the whole time. I’ve had friendly discussions with him just as a friend over his time in sports cars.If there’s an opportunity, I would 100% be in interested in working with a guy like Helio. I know he wants to add his name to the list of four-time winners. He’s going to be motivated for that for a while.
THE MODERATOR: That will wrap up our video conference with Ed Carpenter. We’ll thank him for his time today and wish him the best of luck next week at the oval.ED CARPENTER: Thanks, everyone, for joining today. Hope we get to at least see some of you from a distance out there.

NASCAR CUP SERIES MICHIGAN DOUBLE HEADER MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT AUGUST 7, 2020
TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 CHEVY ACCESSORIES CAMARO ZL1 1LE, met with media via teleconference and discussed his outlook for this weekend’s Michigan races, the new Choose Rule, the importance of preparing for the upcoming race at Daytona for both the new road course and the heat and more, making it into the Playoffs and more. Full Transcript:
YOU ARE STARTING 14th FOR THE FIRST RACE AT MICHIGAN. CAN YOU WALK US THROUGH ABOUT HOW YOU ARE PREPARING FOR THE WEEKEND RACES AT MICHIGAN AND YOUR MINDSET HEADING INTO THEM?“For us, for these next six before the Playoffs start, it’s very important that we manage everything to the best of our ability. So, we’ve got to run good and we can’t afford to make costly mistakes to take us out of the race. So, we just have to be very thoughtful with everything on the race track and every strategy call has to be with a purpose because every single matters immensely right now and will continue to matter as these races wind down to the cutoff.”
DOES THE CHOOSE RULE BENEFIT YOU MAYBE MORE THAN OTHERS SINCE YOU LIKE THE HIGH SIDE AND MIGHT BE ONE TO TRY IT MAYBE A LITTLE BIT MORE AT CERTAIN TRACKS?“I don’t know if it actually does benefit me because the people that will want to start on the top lane will start up there. So, we’ll be able to take advantage of it at times as somebody isn’t necessarily going to push the issue at some of these race tracks that line up on the outside. I know you can take advantage of that so. I don’t know how much it really changes it. It might make the restarts a little bit more difficult for me to gain positions that I’ve been able to gain before. But you know, maybe not. We’ll see. It’s a rule that everyone was kind of on board for and really kind of pushing for with how the racing has kind of been with these low-horsepower cars. The top is so dominant on restarts and getting in somebody’s right rear quarter panel is pretty much end game for the car on the inside. I’m glad we’re changing it. It’ll probably be a little confusing a few times as first, especially the further you are back within the field. It gets more and more challenging to count the cars of who is going where. But it’ll be a fun new challenge. Me and my spotter had fun with it at Bristol even though we didn’t have a good run there. But I think it’s going to be good for our racing and it’ll make it more interesting too.”
DO YOU HAVE MUCH EXPERIENCE WITH IT IN LATE MODELS?“We didn’t really have any of that in Dirt Late Model racing. We had a very similar restart setting, or restarts would be set a very similar to how the Cup series is except the lead car has his own lane to himself. So you can kind of use both lanes to get a better launch than the rest of the field. So, I’ve never really done anything like this before that I can remember. But we’re still going around the same race tracks. Once they’re set it’ll be very similar to what they already are, but you’ve got to make one more decision in the race car as a driver and as a team. So, it will be a new challenge.”
WITH SILLY SEASON UPON US, CAN YOU STAY WHAT YOUR STATUS IS AT THIS POINT WITH RCR IN REGARD TO 2021 AND ALSO WHAT DOES THE LANDSCAPE LOOK LIKE FOR A YOUNG DRIVER LIKE YOURSELF?“Well it’s definitely always concerning regardless of age when you’re 24 years old and you’re getting replaced in the Cup series or in any kind of racing. But, it’s part of it. It’s unfortunate. But that’s the world we live in. There are comers and goers and there’s always somebody coming up through the ranks that is going to have a shot at something. So, I’m glad I know where I’m going to be next year. I’m going to be with RCR. So, I’m not necessarily allowing the pressure to come off by any means. We still want to make the Playoffs. We still want to run really good this year. We want to beat the other drivers that are competing for Rookie of the Year. So, it’s not going to take away my aggression any, knowing that for the first time in a while I guess, in my racing career, knowing that I’m going to be in the same place is nice.”
IN PREPARATION FOR THE DAYTONA ROAD COURSE RACE, PERHAPS WITH IRACING, HAVE YOU HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO TAKE ANY LAPS THERE YET AHEAD OF TIME?‘Yeah, it’s pretty much all you’re really going to have to go off of is iRacing or simulation. For me, it’s through Chevrolet. We’ve been able to use the simulators that they have and for a guy like me who has never made a lap around the Daytona road course, I have no idea what I’m getting into for the most part. Even with how the Cup cars brake and race on a road course themselves, it is tough because I have no background in a Cup car on a road course. From my understanding the brakes are a little bit better. Some things are a little bit different and are better for the drivers. You can be more aggressive, I think. I’ve got nothing to go off really other than help from A.J. Allmendinger, who helped me a lot last year in the Xfinity stuff. He’s worked with Randall Burnett (crew chief) in the past and helped me get up to speed, especially when he was running the Kaulig cars for them. I have other good friends (like) Austin Cindric and other drivers who have run this course in the past that I know well too, that I’ve been able to bounce some ideas off of, too.”
COMING TO DAYTONA, HOW ARE YOU PREPARING FOR THE HEAT IN AUGUST? IT’S 100 PERCENT HUMIDITY AND 100 DEGREES AND YOU CAN’T ESCAPE FROM IT“Yeah, I think this year and the way we’ve gone about making up these races has kind of been, in a way, conditioning us for that. But, at the same time it could be wearing us down in that one last extremely hot race that we have this year. So, none of us really know what to expect. It’s going to be extremely hot and you don’t want to spare any expense or time putting into hydration. That’s going to be extremely important for that race. You just don’t know how taxing it’s going to be on you, on your car, or on anything; and you have to be on your toes at all times, especially on a road course. You can’t afford to make mistakes. You wheel-hop once and your day could be done, or you significantly damage your car. Like I mentioned earlier, every point matters and every spot matters. Going into that race we’ve just really got to be on our game and make sure that we don’t have too many adult beverages at dinner with the lady throughout the week, or whatever it is, and just really focus on hydrating and cutting out the fun beverages that you normally have at dinner.”
WHEN YOU STARTED THIS YEAR, DID YOU EVER THINK THAT YOU WOULD BE COMPETING FOR A PLACE IN THE CHASE AGAINST JIMMIE JOHNSON?“I thought we had the capability of making the Playoffs, but I didn’t really foresee Jimmie having the bad luck and struggles that he’s had. The speed has definitely been there. We’ve seen it at times. But unfortunately, you have to capitalize when you do have it and unfortunately for him and his team, he hasn’t. And then he missed the race at Indy. So, he’s had the deck stacked against him for sure this year. I thought we would be battling to get into the Playoffs, but I didn’t think it would be against him, for sure.”