Media Availability Quotes:
You have had some really good finishes recently. Is there one area in the team where you feel like you guys have improved at the end of this season? “Seems like the speed has been relevant. Shane (Van Gisbergen) made a comment after practice yesterday that, unfortunately, that his car felt like a midseason car, which was not good. Definitely early spring or spring and early summer, in my opinion, were definitely not good times for us as a group. And, we don’t want to have our car handling like that again. So, yeah, I think we all three struggled last night. More often than not the last couple of months, we’ve been definitely better than we were the first couple months of the season. So just speed in general, has been better. Ross, coming into this season, there were lots of questions about the updated Chevy body, and it would be a major difference for everyone. Thirty-seven races into it, how did it kind of live up to expectations? “Big difference than what we expected. I’d say at the start of the season, just flat out, did not live up to expectations. A lot of work has gone in since the first time we put this car on track. At the beginning of the season, at these downforce tracks, and we have come a long way. It’s pretty cool to see from my literal, physical seat in the car, how, from the first time we pulled on track with it, the most glaring thing for me is if you look at the hood, it’s got a, call it the power bulge. The center of the hood is raised and ever since that hood has gone on it, from the beginning to now, it’s incredible how, for it to be the same car, how much better it’s driving now. Supposed to be very, very small percent different coming into the season and it was not. So, still wrapping our heads around what it needs and what we want to get, you know, what it takes to get what we want out of it, but, yeah, we’ve come a long way. A lot of different shapes to get there.” And then obviously like with the kind of competition changes behind the scenes, do you guys still feel, I guess, more confident heading into next season that you’ll have a better overall grasp on this new body and what to expect at all these different tracks? “Well, no matter what, I think it’s human nature, if you get to do something again, you’re going to learn from your mistakes, whether you make the right decisions or not, that’s up to us, but with Justin Marks, living and breathing Trackhouse NASCAR right now, that’s what we need. It’s great to have him. You know, he’s making the decisions now that you’ll see the results next year. And that’s what that’s what we need. We need our leader and we’ve got him. He’s all cylinders go right now.” Might we expect anything on the number 1 team? And if there’s nothing concretely in the works right now, what changes do you feel like you want to see to get the one back to where it was kind of a couple seasons ago? “I worked a long time to get to where I’m at, and I’m really happy and have a lot of things right. Obviously, we want to go faster. Like, if we don’t go faster on Sundays, I won’t be doing this a whole lot longer because you have to perform and we all know that. That’s what we all fell in love with as kids, racing. It doesn’t matter if you’re playing flag football, soccer, or racing cars at a young age if you catch that bug of competition, then you’ll do whatever it takes. And that goes for every position in the Cup Series. Everybody that walks into that garage in the morning and walks out the end of whenever the garage closes, has that addiction. And I know that word, you mean a lot of bad things, but in this line of work, you better be addicted. You better be just wanting to outwork the car next to you in the garage. You want to outwork the guy or girl that you want to go take their job. Like it’s a competition-based sport. So whatever Justin Marks and Trackhouse decide to do, you know, as far as all the spots at Trackhouse, there’s a couple hundred job positions that the company employs. And yeah, whatever they decide to do, as long as they keep me driving, I’m here for it. Ross, what insight can you share of… the progress and the effort that Connor (Zilisch) put in this year, going through a rookie season and just you being a teammate, like what you saw from him as he navigated the challenges of making this adjustment? “Yeah, big, big changes. You saw him crashing on lap single digit at the beginning of the year. I mean, when you look at….I just saw the stat this week of laps completed and you look at what Denny’s (Hamlin) done versus Connor, I mean, I’m right towards the bottom as well. So, yeah, you look back at those early races and he didn’t even didn’t even get a shot to feel the tracks. I mean, did practice qualifying and wouldn’t have a great Saturday and then would get in the race, all that dirty air. The car takes a bad bounce, something happens, and he crashes. I mean, that was early, and then through the summer, I saw where he would have the same opportunity to crash, and he would make it through that corner and live to fight another corner. And then live to at least put a second set of tires on. And he didn’t give himself that opportunity early in the year. So, yeah, it was a lot of early race exits for him. So, yeah, that’s the biggest thing I’ve seen is like, he learned to catch these cars and they’re so different than anything else that we, any of us, most of us, have ever raced. I will say I think that they are more similar to the prototype cars that he’s driven as far as underwings and general size of the tire and sidewall, but yeah, just making it to that first pit stop, that changed early summer.” During the week, how much was he leaning on those around him like you, for instance? I mean, did you work closely with him, even if it was just to, like, tell him to keep his head up or what was that relationship like of helping him through those moments where he’s admitted it was very rough mentally for him to find motivation and deal with, you know, coming into a season where he’s not the guy to beat, which he’s had so much of that in his career. “He’s got a great group around him, both inside our four walls at Trackhouse, but at Chevy, at the GM Tech Center, and then his family has raised him to be older than his actual age. So, um, you know, a lot of credit to his parents, I don’t know how they did it, because I can just tell you when I was 19, I was not nearly as mature. And if there’s a reason that Justin Marks and I knew each other back then, not that Justin was owning teams back then, we were competitors, but he would have never hired me at 19 and he went and hired Connor and put him over at JRM and then brought him into the Cup car – right away. So, I think that Connor’s maturity, for 19, it’s just not fair to be that way. I’ll be honest. And then the group at Chevy and at Trackhouse. He’s got enough good people around him. Upstairs at GM and downstairs that continued to prep with him week in, week out, but, he’s going to be okay.” Ross, in what ways are you proud of yourself for continuing to show up in a difficult season? “I’m not proud. More probably embarrassed for how the season has been. This is not….it’s not okay. Maybe by now it’s, it’s pretty equal on seasons of like, where we are 19th in anything: practice, qualifying, race points, whatever – would be a success. There were times where I’d come down here and on Friday, in the Truck Series, race for a championship, and on Sunday, be happy with, like, 30th. Like, a top 30. Just call it you know, 30th. And where on Friday we were racing the win or the championship. So, you know, I’m pretty calloused to losing. I’ve lost a lot in my life and learned how to find the victories in the losses. Not okay at this level, not, not proud. Not something I’ll sit on a rocking chair and tell anybody about in 40 years. No. I don’t I don’t think 2026 is going to be a Cup Series season other than it was another step to get to wherever we’re going to get to. But no, I don’t use the word proud at all.” “I mean, no, I was raised to just get up and go to work. So, that’s what my dad and granddad did, and they told me about my people like my great granddad. Like, that’s just what we did farm-wise, and there’s no option. Like there’s just work and yeah, this was just a working year. Just keep putting the boots on, keep going to work, and something to be proud of. It’s really something I’d rather not talk about once the good times come again. And I believe we’ll work to get there. There’s no guarantees. There’s no way to know that it’s going to get great again. There’s no way to know we’ll win again, but if we do, I don’t think I’m talking about ‘26. I’ll answer questions about it, but I’m not bringing it up.” In reference to the whole Carson Hocevar thing that’s going on right now. Wasn’t too many years ago, you were the young, aggressive, sometimes criticized for being over aggressive guy. Can you comment about what that was like at that time and also whether you feel like you’ve changed your driving style as a result? “Yeah, I never got parked in the Cup Series, so I can’t speak to that, but we all want more out of Carson, and he’s got a group around him that clearly has made their decisions to do that. I bet on Jeff Dickerson every time. Jeff was a big part of getting me into the Ganassi 42 O’Reilly car. I mean, heck I think he was involved, but at least his, one of his guys, David Erickson, was the one that was paying me to drive. They would pay me five-hundred bucks and let me tow my own truck. So, I bet on what they see and what the decisions they make. They gave Carson his opportunity when Corey (Lajoie) got into the nine, they let Carson drive their car. So, they put Carson in the car and they can take him out. I’ll side the Jeff every time. As far as I go, you know, when I look back at all that, I built some, I’ll use the word, I don’t know why, calloused. I’ll use it twice in one sitting here, but, you know, some of my friendships and relationships that were just, I’d say just like surface level really, grew deeper and calloused over to be like, okay, if we made it through that, we’ll make it through a lot. You know, there’s a lot that’s always, ever since then, that’s been made about Hendrick, like Rick Hendrick, and the phone call we had and like, you know, I laughed because there was only two people on that phone call. And the way it went was so inspiring to me. Because he could have said anything. But the fact that he encouraged me to race, and, like, we had a meaningful conversation that, honestly, it was in the morning, and I remember walking outside, and I was right after Darlington, and I was like, ‘wow, I can run through a brick wall right now’. Like Rick Hendrick just gave me that kind of a motivating talk. To go drive and go race, and so it’s unfortunate that we slowed down. I mean, I cannot drive a slow car fast. I just, there’s no way else around it. Like all of my teammates, we’ve slowed down. In fact, then, Daniel (Suarez) and I were so fast, almost every week, and that was early on in Gen 7. And it’s just so unfortunate that the timing lined up that way because people, they truly believe. I have people come up to me all the time and believe that I purposely am driving in a way to drive slower and to drive cautiously. And I’m like, I don’t know how you think that’s possible in the Cup Series. I mean, I am driving into the corner, through the center of the corner, off the corner as fast as I can. And I’m not the best driver out here. I have to put in more work. It’s not fair how good Carson is, how good Larson is. These other guys that I race against because I have to put in…..I see when they do, I train with some of them, and I see the work they put in; physically, mentally, like, prep wise, and I’m just like, ‘man, if I could just be that good’, like, wow, I’m jealous, honestly. And so it’s just, I let it roll off my shoulder though. When the cars, when we get them, where we want to be and back to where we have been, where you’ve seen Trackhouse be, it will be fun times again. And like I said, I just, I’m not okay with 18th in points, Shane and I be in within 30 of each other or something. Like over the course of the year, the 97 and the 1 car are within 30 points of or something of each other. So, yeah, it’ll come back around I believe. I get up every day and work that way and same as Carson. He’ll be back next year and there’ll be incidents. There will be incidents with the 1 car along the way, and I can’t wait for my front bumper to be torn up again. And say that.” |
Devin MoranRUNNER-UP
Brandon Sheppard2026 NATIONAL CHAMPION
Hudson O’Neal3RD PLACE
Wood Brothers Racing and the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane team head to Homestead-Miami Speedway for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship race celebrating a milestone 25-year partnership with Motorcraft while preparing to close out their two-year run with driver Josh Berry, who delivered the organization’s historic 101st victory.To commemorate the silver anniversary of the partnership, the No. 21 Ford Mustang Dark Horse will carry a special 25th anniversary Motorcraft decal on its hood this weekend.Jon Wood, a third-generation member of the Wood Brothers family who serves as team president and co-owner, reflected on the significance of the longstanding relationship with Motorcraft, which ranks among the longest-running partnerships in NASCAR history.“Our relationship with Motorcraft is something our family takes a tremendous amount of pride in,” Wood said. “When you look at how much this sport has changed over the last 25 years, it really puts into perspective how special it is to have a partner that has been with us through so much of our history.“We’ve celebrated some great moments together, and the relationships we’ve built with the people at Ford and Motorcraft mean just as much to us as the success we’ve shared on the racetrack. We’re grateful for their continued commitment to our race team and look forward to building on that in the years ahead.”Sunday’s season finale also marks Berry’s final race behind the wheel of the iconic No. 21 Ford before Jesse Love takes over driving duties in 2027.“We’re certainly appreciative of everything Josh has contributed to Wood Brothers Racing over the last two seasons,” Wood said. “Bringing home our 101st victory at Las Vegas last year was a special moment for our team in our 75th season, and Josh will always be a part of that history.“Our focus now is on finishing the season strong at Homestead and closing out the year on a positive note.”Berry and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team enter the season finale with momentum following a strong stretch of performances that includes a pair of fourth-place finishes at Charlotte and Martinsville, an 11th-place result at Phoenix and a 12th-place finish at Talladega.Practice at Homestead-Miami Speedway is scheduled for Friday at 5:30 p.m. ET, followed by qualifying Saturday at 2:30 p.m. Both sessions will air on truTV.Sunday’s 400.5-mile, 267-lap race is scheduled to take the green flag shortly after 3 p.m., with live television coverage on NBC.Stage breaks are scheduled for Laps 80 and 165.