Batavia, OH (June 27, 2022) – Celebrate family, Independence, and Freedom with four days of racing action at three facilities. The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series will visit Florence Speedway on Thursday, June 30th, Portsmouth Raceway Park on Friday, July 1st, and Muskingum County Speedway on Saturday and Sunday, July 2nd and 3rd. On Thursday, June 30th, race teams will vie for a $15,000 top prize in the postponed 36th Annual Ralph Latham Memorial at Florence Speedway in Union, KY. The pit gate will open at 3:00 PM ET on Thursday, with the main and back gates opening at 5:30 PM ET. Hot laps begin at 6:30 PM ET with time trials to follow. In addition to the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, Modifieds will compete for $1,500-to-win. With five back-to-back winners in the event’s history, a local fan favorite, Josh Rice hopes to up that number to six. Tickets are available online at https://florence.getmytix.net/tickets or by calling the track office at (859) 493-0034. On Friday, July 1st, Portsmouth Raceway Park will host the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series for the annual Independence 50 presented by Able Air with a complete program of: Time Trials, Heat Races, B-Mains, and a 50-lap, $12,000-to-win main event. The Modifieds and Limited Late Models will serve as support divisions on Friday at the Portsmouth, OH track. The pit gate will open at 2:00 PM at Portsmouth Raceway Park. The general admission gates will open at 4:00 PM, with on-track action beginning at 7:00 PM. The Elite Munitions Freedom 60 will be the largest weekend in Muskingum County Speedway history with two days of action from the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, on Saturday and Sunday in Zanesville, OH. Saturday’s program will feature three – 20 lap qualifying features paying $3,000 each to the winner, that will line up Sunday’s B-Mains and 60-lap, $30,000-to-win A-Main event. The pit gate opens at 2:00 PM ET with the general admission gates opening at 4:00 PM ET and on-track action beginning at 7:00 PM ET on both days. In addition to the edge of your seat action produced by the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, Saturday will also feature Open Wheel Modifieds, Sport Mods, and Mod Lites. Modifieds, Mod Lites, and Four-Cylinders will serve as support classes on Sunday. Muskingum County Speedway will also have the largest display of fireworks the area has to offer on Sunday. Advanced tickets may be purchased at: https://www.myracepass.com/events/383907/tickets/ The Championship points battle is really heating up as the reigning series champion, Tim McCreadie has been slowly chipping away at Brandon Sheppard’s point lead over the last few weeks. With only 10 points separating third and fourth, Tyler Erb and Ricky Thornton Jr, Earl Pearson Jr isn’t far behind in fifth. Ashton Winger currently leads the battle for the O’Reilly Auto Parts Rookie of the Year with Garrett Alberson just 60 points behind. Track 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 Portsmouth Raceway ParkPhone Number: 740-354-3278Location: 25648 State Route 73, West Portsmouth, OH 45663Directions: 0.5 mile south of US 52 on SR 73, then right just before bridgeWebsite: www.portsraceway.com Muskingum County SpeedwayPhone Number: 740-754-9199Location: 7985 Frazeysburg Road, Dresden, OH 43821Directions: I-70 to exit 155, then 10.1 miles north on SR 60 (WSR)Website: www.muskingumcountyspeedway.com Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Purses:Florence Speedway Thursday Purse: 1. $15,000, 2. $6,500, 3. $3,500, 4. $3,000, 5. $2,500, 6. $2,400, 7. $2,300, 8. $2,200, 9. $2,100, 10. $2,000, 11. $1,600, 12. $1,400, 13. $1,300, 14. $1,200, 15. $1,050, 16. $1,000, 17. $1,000, 18. $1,000, 19. $1,000, 20. $1,000, 21. $1,000, 22. $1,000, 23. $1,000, 24. $1,000. = $57,050 Portsmouth Raceway Park Friday Purse: 1. $12,000, 2. $6,000, 3. $3,500, 4. $2,800, 5. $2,500, 6. $2,300, 7. $2,200, 8. $2,100, 9. $2,050, 10. $2,000, 11. $1,600, 12. $1,400, 13. $1,200, 14. $1,100, 15. $1,050, 16. $1,000, 17. $1,000,18. $1,000, 19. $1,000, 20. $1,000, 21. $1,000, 22. $1,000, 23. $1,000, 24. $1,000. = $52,800 Muskingum County Speedway Saturday Purse (x3): 1. $3,000, 2. $1,500, 3. $1,000, 4. $800, 5. $700, 6. $600, 7. $500, 8. $400, 9. $350, 10. $300, 11. $300, 12. $300, 13. $300, 14. $300,15. $300 = $10,650 Muskingum County Speedway Sunday Purse: 1. $30,000, 2. $15,000, 3. $7,000, 4. $6,000, 5. $5,000, 6. $4,500, 7. $4,000, 8. $3,500, 9. $3,000, 10. $2,500, 11. $2,300, 12. $2,200, 13. $2,100, 14. $2,000, 15. $1,800, 16. $1,700, 17. $1,600, 18. $1,550, 19. $1,500, 20. $1,500, 21. $1,500, 22. $1,500, 23. $1,500, 24. $1,500 = $104,750 Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Tire Rules:Florence Speedway – June 30thLeft 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-Mains.*For the A-Main, competitors may use a new right rear tire.*Flat tire must be replaced with a used tire of the same compound and construction to retain starting position. Portsmouth Raceway Park – July 1stLeft Rear/Fronts – Hoosier Rib (28.5) 1300Right Rear – Hoosier (29.0) 1300 NRM, (29.0) 1300 NRMW, (29.0) 1425 NRM, (29.0) 1425 NRMW*Must use the same set of 4 tires for Time Trials, Heat Races, and B-Mains.*For the A-Main, competitors may use a new right rear tire.*Flat tire must be replaced with a used tire of the same compound and construction to retain starting position. Muskingum County Speedway – July 2ndLeft Rear/Fronts – Hoosier Rib (28.5) 1300Right Rear – Hoosier (29.0) 1300 NRM, (29.0) 1300 NRMW*Must use the same set of 4 tires for Time Trials, and A-Mains.*Flat tire must be replaced with a used tire of the same compound and construction to retain starting position. Muskingum County Speedway – July 3rdLeft Front – Hoosier Rib (28.5) 1300Left Rear/Right Front – Hoosier Rib (28.5) 1300, (28.5) 1425Right Rear – Hoosier (29.0) 1300 NRM, (29.0) 1300 NRMW, (29.0) 1425 NRM, (29.0) 1425 NRMW*For the B-Mains, competitors may use 4 new tires.*For the A-Main, competitors may use 4 new tires.*Flat tire must be replaced with a used tire of the same compound and construction to retain starting position.

Hell Tour returns to old venues Red Hill, Benton and Paducah

SUMNER, IL – June 27, 2022 – Another six-race-week is on the docket for the third week of competition in the 37th DIRTcar Summer Nationals Hell Tour.

Loaded with annual staple venues and the return of some old favorites, the Late Models and DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals competitors will be tested with a variety of track sizes and rigorous travel schedule over the next six days.

Multi-State Week schedule

Tuesday, June 28 – Red Hill Raceway (Sumner, IL)
Wednesday, June 29 – Benton Speedway (Benton, MO)
Thursday, June 30 – Fayette County Speedway (Brownstown, IL)
Friday, July 1 – Paducah International Raceway (Paducah, KY)
Saturday, July 2 – Clarksville Speedway (Clarksville, TN)
Sunday, July 3 – Lincoln Speedway (Lincoln, IL)

Tickets for each event will be available at the gates on race day. If you can’t make it to your favorite track, watch all the action live on DIRTVision – online at DIRTVision.com or with the DIRTVision mobile app.

Here are the drivers to watch for and the storylines to follow this week:

POINTS TAKE SHAPE – After eleven-straight races through the first two weeks, four-time and reigning Summer Nationals Late Model champion Bobby Pierce maintains a 90-point lead in the standings over Jason Feger. Pierce, of Oakwood, IL, skipped the World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Model Series’ appearance Sunday night at Jacksonville Speedway to prepare for the upcoming Multi-Sate Week, indicating a potential run for his fifth tour championship.

Jason Feger, of Bloomington, IL, has taken over second in points after posting one of his best finishes of the season Saturday against the Outlaws at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55, chasing winner Dennis Erb Jr. for most of the 55-lap finale before Pierce passed him late. Ryan Unzicker, of El Paso, IL, has dropped to third in points, most recently passing 14 cars in his drive from 23rd to ninth against the World of Outlaws Saturday night in Pevely. Both drivers are projected to be on the roster during Multi-State Week.

Fellow four-time Summer Nationals champion Brian Shirley boosted himself to fourth in points after notching back-to-back victories, starting with the Illinois-Iowa Week closer at Sycamore Speedway on June 19 and winning again two nights later at Missouri’s Springfield Raceway. Shirley, of Chatham, IL, and the Bob Cullen Racing team are expected to be in attendance throughout Multi-State Week.

COOLING OFF – For the first time since September 2020, Nick Hoffman has finished second or worse in two consecutive Summit Modified Features.

The four-time and defending champion from Mooresville, NC, was bested by winner Rick Conoyer and runner-up Will Krup in Friday’s portion of the St. Louis Firecracker Faceoff at I-55 and broke a camshaft in the engine while coming to the checkered on Saturday, leaving him with a DNF in 16th-place.

However, he still holds a giant lead in the standings, 131 points ahead of second-place Kyle Steffens. With seven wins in nine starts, he’s now only five wins away from maxing-out his win total for the fourth-straight year, as only a driver’s best 12 finishes are taken into account in championship points.

GUESS WHO’S BACK – He’s been out of action for the past three seasons, but this week, National Dirt Late Model Hall-of-Famer Terry English returns to the seat of a DIRTcar Late Model this Friday and Saturday night.

Terry, the 2002 DIRTcar Late Model national champion and father to 2021 Hell Tour regular Tanner English, will pilot a 2016 Rocket XR1 Chassis in the Summer Nationals shows at the newly reopened Paducah International Raceway (July 1) and Clarksville Speedway (July 2). The car has sat in their Benton, KY, shop since Tanner competed with it in the 2019 Gateway Dirt Nationals but has since been revitalized and adorned with Terry’s famed No. 96 decal on the door panels.

Terry has five Summer Nationals victories to his credit – his most recent coming at Illinois’ Highland Speedway on June 17, 2008.

OLD FRIEND – This week, the Summer Nationals will see a familiar face return to the Late Model roster.

2021 DIRTcar Late Model Rookie of the Year Ashton Winger, of Hampton, GA, is expected to start his week with the Summer Nationals Tuesday at Red Hill Raceway and follow it up with a visit to Benton Speedway in Missouri on Wednesday.

Winger completed the entire 2021 Hell Tour schedule with his own equipment but will bring the G.R. Smith-owned Gambler Transport Motorsports Rocket XR1 #89 to the track this week – a car he’s been at the controls of since the racing season began in January.

WHAT’S OLD IS NEW – Three of the six tracks on the docket this week have not hosted a Summer Nationals race in at least nine years.

Red Hill Raceway’s grand re-opening takes place this Tuesday, June 28, with the Summer Nationals and Summit Modified stars in attendance at the revived facility in Sumner, IL. No race car of any type has graced the dirt of the 3/8-mile oval since the last time it hosted competition in 2004 (officially closed in 2005), but Midwest racing promoter Jeremy Sneed has since purchased the property and put life back in it, now ready for its first Summer Nationals show since 2000.

Benton Speedway in Benton, MO, sat dormant from 2014 until last fall, when owner Rob Russell reopened the property for racing once again. The Late Models are scheduled to make their first appearance at 3/8-mile oval for the first time since 1997 on Wednesday, June 29, while the Modifieds will make their debut.

Paducah International Raceway in Paducah, KY, hosted a Summer Nationals event every year from 1996-2013. The half-mile oval was later closed in 2016 and again in 2018 but has since reopened under new owners Adam and Brittany Elliot, who have breathed new life and a weekly racing program back into the track. The track is set to host its 19th Summer Nationals event and fourth Summit Modified event this Friday, July 1.

Lexington, OHIO – June 27, 2022 – The Showtime Motorsports Franklin Road Apparel team enjoyed mixed fortunes at Mid Ohio on Sunday with rookie driver Tyler Ankram scoring a highly creditable P15 on his first visit to the track in the No. 4 Chevrolet Camaro. Teammate Cameron Lawrence in the No. 6 car endured the misfortune of rough contact during the race.  Round 7 of the 2022 Trans Am presented by Pirelli Championship season could only be described as a messy race with numerous cautions and two black flags, with the Franklin Road driver missing out on a top ten finish. Al Unser Jr. in the commentary box noted that cautions breed cautions and while Misha Goikhberg appeared to leave the door open for Cameron to pass, he slammed it shut when the former Champion made his move.   “We put a lot of work in here with TA2 this weekend and the result was a rough race,” said Franklin Road supremo Ken Thwaits. “Once again Cameron and Misha had contact during the race. [The damage] starts from the left all the way to the back of the rear quarter panel. I don’t get it.” “We were ninth and cruising at the halfway mark but that was it for us. We made this trip, did all the preparation and our team puts in every ounce of effort to perform on track. These events in the race are pushing the boundaries of racing incidents.” “Tyler Ankrum’s goal was to learn the track because he’s coming back here to race Trucks. He learned what to do and he learned what not to do. We ended up 15th after a spin so mission accomplished for him. They’re happy and it’ll be guns blazing when they get in their NASCAR Truck race here.”   In spite of not getting a clear run in qualifying, Cameron nevertheless maintained his customary speed to put himself in P11 on the grid in a time of 1:25:516 while debutant Tyler Ankram put the No. 4 car in P20 with a time of 1:26:375. We also got a chance to look ahead to next weekend’s action at Road America where Ken has an awesome surprise for fans. He went on, “For Road America, Paul Menard will be back! We will unveil the new black and yellow No. 5 car this week. From the TA side we’re pretty stoked with what we did yesterday. Our biggest goal has been to get to Tomy Drissi and we did that. Every race is different and I don’t take anything for granted but yesterday we just out ran him.”   This year there is terrific television coverage of the Trans Am racing and the details are as follows:   TV BROADCAST: TA2 – Jul 02, 7:30p.m. ET on CBS Sports Network TA2 (Encore Presentation) – Jul 03, 11:30 a.m. ET on CBS Sports Network TA/XGT/SGT/GT – Jul 03, 2:00p.m. ET on CBS Sports Network TA/XGT/SGT/GT (Encore Presentation) – Jul 04, 1:00 a.m. ET on CBS Sports Network Fans can find the Franklin Road Apparel Trans Am clothing here: https://www.franklinroad.com/search/trans+am/ Visit the team’s website for Showtime Motorsports showtimemotorsports.net. Learn more about the Showtime Motorsports team partner, Road Apparel, at franklinroad.com and keep up to date with the Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli at gotransam.com. #GoTransAm Check out the Showtime Motorsports Facebook page: facebook.com/showtimemotorsp/ and @ShowtimeMotorsp on Instagram.

1 MONTH ALERT: World of Outlaws to make rare July Port Royal stop before Summer NationalsPORT ROYAL, PA (June 27, 2022) – The World of Outlaws versus PA Posse battle continues this summer with a rare July stop at Port Royal Speedway and then the Champion Racing Oil Summer Nationals at Williams Grove Speedway.The record stands at 1-1, so far, this season with World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series competitor Jacob Allen’s win at Lincoln Speedway and PA Posse member Brent Marks’ Morgan Cup victory.There will be three more rounds of their battle in one week with Port Royal on Wednesday, July 20 and the two-day show at Williamson Grove on Friday-Saturday, July 22-23. One driver could leave the week $40,000 richer with Port Royal paying $10,000-to-win and the doubleheader at Williams Grove paying $10,000-to-win on Friday and $20,000-to-win on Saturday.The race at Port Royal will also be a milestone event as it’ll be the first time since the half-mile track’s Series debut in 1979 that it will host a July World of Outlaws race.WORLD OF OUTLAWS @ PORT ROYAL – Wednesday, July 20 Track: Port Royal Speedway To Win: $10,000 Location: Port Royal, PA Track Record: 14.866 sec. set by Brian Brown on 10/18/18 Last Winner: Spencer BaystonTickets: https://bit.ly/3xXfdYFNotables: The last time the World of Outlaws visited Port Royal Speedway, Spencer Bayston, driving for Pennsylvania-based CJB Motorsports, brought everyone in the house to their feet with a dominating victory. It was his second career Series win and his first with CJB in just his fourth start with the team. The Lebanon, IN driver has already proven this season he’ll be a threat to defend that win, having already picked up two victories, including one at the half-mile Bristol Motor Speedway.Ten-time Series champion Donny Schatz, driver of the #15 Sprint Car for Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing, has the most Series wins of all drivers at Port Royal with four. His last win at the track was in 2019. Since 2019, Anthony Macri, of Dillsburg, PA, has established himself as king of Port Royal, picking up 19 wins in total at the track. However, he’s yet to win there against the World of Outlaws. If he can pull off a win this year, it would be his first Series win overall.CHAMPION RACING OIL SUMMER NATIONALS @ WILLIAMS GROVE – Friday-Saturday, July 22-23 Track: Williams Grove Speedway To Win: $10,000 (Friday) / $20,000 (Saturday) Location: Mechanicsburg, PA Track Record: 16.111 sec. set by Shane Stewart on 10/2/20 2021 Winner: Brent MarksTickets: https://bit.ly/3OpDNZnNotables: Brent Marks, of Myerstown, PA, holds two significant win records entering this year’s Champion Racing Oil Summer Nationals. He is the defending Summer Nationals winner and is the most recent World of Outlaws winner at Williams Grove, having won the Morgan Cup in May – being the lead competitor for the PA Posse.Two rising World of Outlaws stars who have recently become aces around the half-mile paper clip-shaped track are Carson Macedo and Sheldon Haudenschild. Macedo picked up two Series wins at the track last year, including one at the National Open. And Haudenschild won the opening night of the Summer Nationals last year. Both have already been two of the biggest trophy collectors this season with Macedo currently having six wins and Haudenschild currently having eight – including a crown jewel win at the Huset’s High Bank Nationals.Like with Port Royal, 10-time Series champion Donny Schatz has the most Series wins at Williams Grove of all active drivers (21). Behind him is PA Posse star Lance Dewease with 14, but overall the Fayettville, PA driver has more than 100 wins at the track.Current Series points leader Brad Sweet will continue his hunt for his first win at Williams Grove.If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch all the action from both tracks live on DIRTVision – either online or by downloading the DIRTVision App.

June 27, 2022

After a long day – and night – of racing at Nashville Superspeedway Harrison Burton and the No. 21 DEX Imaging Mustang crossed the finish line of the lightning- and rain-delayed Ally 400 in 25^th place.

Burton lined up 26^th for the start of the 300-lap, 400-mile race on the 1.3-mile concrete oval. He was running 27^th when a lightning strike brought the cars to pit road on Lap 41.

When racing resumed, he ran as high as 21^st before ending the first 90-lap Stage in 23rd place. 

Back under green, Burton broke into the top 20 just past the 100-lap mark and was running 19th when the caution flag flew for rain at Lap 119. 

The skies cleared briefly, and Burton was running 22^nd when lightning and then rain led to a caution flag at Lap 140 and eventually a red flag.

When other drivers ahead of him made pit stops just before racing resumed, Burton stayed on the track and moved to 10^th for the restart.

He was able to hold most of the ground he gained by the team’s strategy move and ended the second Stage in 14^th place. 

For a time in the third segment of the race Burton ran among the top 15. As a round of green-flag pit stops kicked off at Lap 248, the DEX Imaging team elected to run long. Burton moved up to ninth place as other ahead of him made stops, but the caution flag that the team needed to make the strategy work flew one lap too late.

Just as Burton was making his stop, the caution flag flew for a loose wheel on the track and he was relegated to 26^th place with 30 laps to go.

He was unable to recover from the setback and finished 25^th.

Burton and the No. 21 team will return to Road America for the Kwik Trip 250 on July 3.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (June 27, 2022) – Chase Elliott and the No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 team are leaving Nashville Superspeedway with the coveted custom guitar trophy in hand after taking the checkered flag in the rain delayed Ally 400. The second win of 2022 for the Georgia native didn’t come without a fight. With an issue on pit road forcing Elliott to come from deep in the pack early in the race, Elliott’s team was able to quickly get their Chevrolet-powered machine dialed back in as a front runner in the final stage. With pit strategy playing a vital role throughout the race, Alan Gustafson (crew chief) chose track position during the final late-race caution, giving Elliott a front row spot for the restart with four laps to go. In a battle with second-place Kurt Busch to the end, it was the No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 that came out on top marking Elliott’s 15th-career victory in NASCAR’s premier series. 

“Just so proud of our team,” said Elliott “We kind of had a setback there about halfway and we were able to get our NAPA Chevy dialed back in and get back in the mix. We were able to work on it a little bit after the penalty and got it going a little better. My team just stuck with it. Thanks to everybody at Hendrick Motorsports. They have been working really hard over the winter and through the spring to keep up. The engines have been running great and obviously great support from Chevrolet.”

The win at the 1.33-mile Tennessee concrete oval is the ninth trip to victory lane for the Camaro ZL1 in the season’s 17 points-paying races; a number that is more than double its manufacturer competitors. The winningest brand in NASCAR, Chevrolet leaves Nashville Superspeedway with 823 all-time NASCAR Cup Series wins. Chase Elliott entered the race weekend on top of the NCS driver points standings; and with a win and his now 11th top-10 finish this season, the Hendrick Motorsports driver continues to hold the top spot for the 13th-consecutive week with a 30-point lead over fellow Chevrolet driver Ross Chastain. 

Elliott led a strong bowtie presence in the top-five of the race that kicked off the 10-race stretch to the end of the series’ regular season. Elliott’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Kyle Larson, posted his seventh top-five finish thus far this season, driving his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL1 to a fourth-place finish. Ross Chastain rounded out the Team Chevy top-five in fifth, giving the No. 1 Jockey Camaro ZL1 its eighth top-five finish of 2022 on Trackhouse Racing’s home turf. 

The NASCAR Cup Series season continues next Sunday, July 3, at Road America with the Kwik Trip 250 presented by JOCKEY Made in America at 3 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on USA Network, the NBCSports Gold App, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 – PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:

THE MODERATOR: We’re going to continue now with our post-race press conference for today and tonight’s Ally 400. We’ve now been joined by our race winner, Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. Congratulations on the win, Chase. We appreciate you spending some time with us.

Q. How tough was it to maintain your focus during all those stops and starts and delays?

CHASE ELLIOTT: You know, it wasn’t too bad. I feel like we’ve had that a good bit over the last few years since they implemented the lightning thing. I didn’t think it was too difficult.

Q. How special is this considering your closeness to Nashville, your dad racing at the fairgrounds?

CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, look, I wish we were at the fairgrounds, for example, but I’m glad we’re at least in the market. This is a cool town. It’s a great place to be. It’s a great place to race. It’s a town that I think embraces us, and we embrace the people that are here, and they stuck it out. Heck, the crowd was still pretty good I thought for it to be 11:00 at night or whatever and having started this thing six or seven hours ago.

Yeah, I thought we had a good crowd. Appreciate everybody sticking around, and it is close to home for me, so — it’s hard to win anywhere, but when you win kind of close to home like that, it is pretty special.

Q. What about after last year’s disappointing race?

CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, I think the biggest thing was we just struggled here last year, so to have a struggle race here a year ago and then to be able to come back and be as competitive as we were in the second half of the race, I am the most proud of that piece of the puzzle, I think.

Just to kind of reset and be able to reevaluate and get back going the right direction here.

Q. I know you were talking relative to the fairgrounds a couple years ago saying snoozefest here, but you’ve been through a couple of races here now. How do you feel like this track has stacked up as far as that, especially tonight?

CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, I didn’t think the race was terrible tonight. At least we could get up off the bottom and move around, which I thought was encouraging. I was even more surprised that we still moved up after the sun went down. I thought at that point it was going to be really one lane, and it really wasn’t. You could still be in at least a couple different lanes. It was way more racy than I thought it would be.

But it still doesn’t mean I prefer this over the fairgrounds and what that could be.

I don’t want people to get a sour taste about that. It’s just that racetrack and the history of that racetrack and its location is just something that we’re never going to replicate again. For the most part all these facilities that we have are 45 minutes to an hour outside whatever said market is we’re trying to reach. If it’s Michigan or here or Atlanta is 30, 45 minutes south of the city. All these places we go, Homestead is an hour outside Miami. All these places we go you’re drawing from an area that is 45 minutes to an hour away. With the fairgrounds you’d be drawing from an area that is 15 blocks away or so.

Correct me if I’m wrong on that, but it’s a hell of a lot closer than it is here, and that’s just not something that in today’s society, you’re never going to build a racetrack in a city like that again. That’s why I think as an industry we need to take advantage of that. We don’t need to let that place die. I know they built that big soccer stadium right next door, but use that as positivity because the infrastructure is now there to house all the people. Now they have ideas and ways to get people in and out.

It’s too good of a place, too good of an opportunity for us to not be utilizing that in my opinion. I think it would be the best location and best event of the year if they could pull that off.

Q. Was your fear at the time that since you were going to be racing here that you may not be racing there, when actually it is possible you might?

CHASE ELLIOTT: Yes, for sure. I still worry about that a little bit. But it sounds like they’re at least working on it. Unfortunately I can’t do a ton other than just voice my support for it.

I understand all the different sides of the puzzle there, and I respect that. But selfishly for us, I think it would be a great event.

Look, they’re already racing there. Folks seem to be doing just fine with the races that are going on, and you’d be talking about one big event there a year for us to come and be a part of it.

I think the positives outweigh the negatives, and I think there’s a way to be respectful in doing so of the folks that live in the area and be able to do it in a positive light.

Q. Chase, is it enjoyable to win a race where you have some problems, you kind of go off the radar screen, the JGR cars led 250 of 300 laps, so they were kind of going, all right, one of us is going to snag this thing and then you end up winning. Is it fun to win kind of off the radar?

CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, look, it’s fun to win regardless I feel like. But yeah, I was really proud of a couple things. One, proud of having the past month and a half, two months that we’ve had been horrendous. I’ve crashed about 10 times and we’ve had a lot of stuff happen to end up having bad finishes, and you never want that, especially when it’s — well, any time, whether it’s in a string of races or not, you don’t want that, period. So proud to be able to bounce back from a really rough stretch.

And then proud to have struggled as bad as we did — as bad as we were at the beginning of the race, to be able to adjust on it, take advantage of the opportunities we had to try to fix it and then to hit on it and be able to execute on it after we hit on it to be able to finish the event strong is not an easy thing to do.

Our team I feel like they do a great job when everybody is pulling in the same direction and is executing and doing their jobs to the best of their ability. I feel like we’re as good as anybody, and tonight I felt like they really show cased their talents, not just on pit road with their pit stops being really solid but Alan and Tom making really good adjustments and just staying on top of everything, so it was a good team win.

Q. As far as the points, you got stage points, you obviously get a big chunk for winning. You’re now plus 30 over Chastain, 31 over Blaney, 47 over Kyle. How do you look at that gap with nine races to go?

CHASE ELLIOTT: Well, I mean, I feel like no gap is safe. We had a pretty big one there at one point, and that can go away in a hurry.

Look, you just have to keep bringing strong race cars to the racetrack. You have to keep putting yourself in position to win. When you’re battling up front and you have shots to win, the points thing is going to take care of itself. You might be faced if you can achieve the first part of that, you might be faced with a situation here or there where you have to decide whether or not you want to get stage points or whether or not you want to try to go for the race win, and those things are — that’s just part of the world we live in now with stages.

But more so on road courses, I guess, than anything. The best way to look at it is just trying to be fighting for wins, and if we’re doing that, I think the points thing will kind of take care of itself.

Q. The restart where you picked up like five positions in like a half a lap or a lap, I asked Alan about that and he said that was the point at which I thought we’ve got the car to win this race, we’ve got to win this race. Your perspective on that, and when you made that move did you know that was when you had the car to win?

CHASE ELLIOTT: I felt like — honestly there, I felt like our balance was good at least when we had our penalty and we went to the back, and I was able to run some different lanes that I had not had the ability to run prior to that. When that ability showed up for me, I thought, okay, now I think we’re in the ballpark.

Then as the race went on, the restart thing, like you put anybody in the right situation and you can look like a hero. I don’t think there’s anything special I did. You can take a car that isn’t balanced as well as what ours was tonight and have the right lane choice and the right guys get bottled up at the right time, and you pass three or four of them.

So I don’t necessarily think that was the turning point for me. I feel like it was more just a balance thing and feeling like we had got it really close. Then from there just trying to execute and have good restarts up front and have good pit stops.

Q. You can give yourself some credit, though. It looked like a video game type move.

CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, it worked out. I feel like a lot of guys do that when people get bottled up off the corner and you have a head of steam. The lanes just kind of opened up for me, so it wasn’t anything spectacular on my end. I just kind of went where the options were.

Q. Following up on the points thing, beyond just having the lead in the points standings, you’re also now tied for playoff points lead with Byron and Chastain with 13 playoff points. Do you feel like you’re positioned pretty well? With all this talk about guys are going to fall out in the first round who we’re not expecting, it seems like you’re getting a little bit of a cushion.

CHASE ELLIOTT: Well, you want more than that for sure. I don’t think any cushion is safe in the playoff thing unless you have six or seven wins like some guys have over the last couple years. At that point then you’re probably feeling much better about it.

But I don’t think two and just a couple stage wins is going to give you the confidence to make dumb decisions in the beginning of the playoffs.

Look, I think everybody is vulnerable when the playoffs start. Especially as the rounds progress. We have seen guys with those big cushions not make the last round. So I don’t think anything is guaranteed. You certainly want to hedge your bet in that direction as much as you can, and every win helps that, every stage win helps that. That’s something I want to achieve.

We’ve never really put ourselves in a position like that to where we have a big cushion and we’re able to kind of cruise through rounds. I feel like we’ve always had to scratch and claw for each found, which is fine, and I’m okay with that, but it would be nice to rack up some wins and hedge your bet more so for a potential bad day or something out of your hands.

Q. Chase, now that we’ve had two races in Nashville, where exactly does this race rank among the competitors in terms of races that are coveted and the drivers want to win? Obviously Nashville doesn’t really have the recent history in NASCAR since there was a long gap between 1980s and last year, so it’s not necessarily like the Southern 500, the 600 in Charlotte, what have you, but it’s pretty quickly become a destination race. There’s a lot of hype around it. Obviously the market is big, kind of like Las Vegas is almost. Obviously everyone also wants the Gibson guitar when you win this race. Where exactly does it rank?

CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, I mean, I think it just depends on what your personal thoughts are on the city or whatever, but I’ve enjoyed coming to Nashville. It’s been one of my favorite towns for a number of years. I have raced at the fairgrounds and had some special memories over there.

Yeah, it’s special to me because of that. But I don’t really know where it ranks amongst everyone. For me, every win is important and special to me because they’re really hard to get. I don’t take any of them for granted, so they’re all big in my opinion. They’re too hard to win to not appreciate them in a pretty high regard.

Q. Before the 2022 season you had zero wins on concrete. Now you won at Dover and Nashville. What with the Next-Gen setup and concrete tracks have you kind of found that you’ve found this recent success on concrete tracks?

CHASE ELLIOTT: You know, to be honest with you, I don’t know that it has anything to do with the Next-Gen thing. I feel like we’ve had good runs in the past at Bristol and Dover, and not necessarily here, but at least at Bristol and Dover, to where we’ve had shots at winning and haven’t.

But look, you get the right day, the right circumstance and the right car balance and everything goes your way, you can — I feel like our team can have a shot. Fortunately today was that way for us and we were able to get it done.

Q. How much say, thought, anything, do you have in staying out or pitting on that last caution?

CHASE ELLIOTT: I mean, I let Alan do his thing. He lets me do my thing, so I’m going to let him do his and just have confidence in that. It doesn’t do me any good to not.

When I start questioning his decisions, I feel like is when we start going down a road that is not favorable for success. He has had a lot of respect for me and let me do my job and let me approach things a pretty unique way and kind of be me, so I’ve always respected him in return and let him do his thing and just had confidence in whatever that decision is.

Q. When you walked in he was answering a question about how he keeps the team motivated and the driver motivated during those long weather delays. He said because the car had been so off at the start that the team was no problem, but that he did need to have a talk with you. What do you do during the delays, and how did that talk go between the two of you?

CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, it was straightforward. I think really we just talked about our balance, honestly. We just talked about where we were at the start of the day, what we did in practice on Friday, how we landed in the position we landed in to start the event, why we chose that and why it wasn’t working.

We tried to diagnose that to the best of our abilities, make a decision on which way we wanted to go, and we did that, and fortunately it was the right decision.

Just had dialogue about the car. I feel like when you get in those situations or whatever it may be, look, if it’s not going to make you go any faster it’s probably not worth talking about. Talking about those things and how we ended up where we did is a fruitful thing to do in that time period.

That’s what we did. I think probably what a lot of people do. It wasn’t anything spectacular or really special, but we were able to just kind of talk through some of that and go back in a direction that worked for us, and unfortunately the condition changing and our adjustments ended up in a really good spot.

Q. Did you feel okay or were you like, today is terrible?

CHASE ELLIOTT: No, I felt okay. At the beginning of the race, no. I felt like we were really, really off. Then after we had our penalty, like I was — I’m sorry, yeah, whatever it was. Yeah, our extended stay on pit road, how about that. We started in the back. So after we started in the back and I was able to run some different lanes that I hadn’t been able to do throughout the day, at that point I felt like, okay, we have something to work with again, our car is driving like I remember it driving on Friday, and from there we just kind of went to work and tried to execute the event the best we could.

Q. After the race, Kurt Busch was really beating himself up about the last restart. He said he kind of went soft. He said he wished he had thrown some fenders. Were you surprised that he didn’t mix it up, or could he have even mixed it up in that position?

CHASE ELLIOTT: I feel like you’re always going to look back and want to do something a little different. But I feel like Kurt and I raced each other with a lot of respect. Obviously we’re going for the win; we’re going to be aggressive. I thought he was. We went off into Turn 1 and we were both sliding up the track and then at that point I was able to get — I got position on him off of 2, and from there I was just trying to manage my lanes, and if he was going to go in a lane that I thought might be really advantageous to him I probably would have shut it off on him anyway.

No, I thought we raced each other with respect, raced hard, and on those restarts when that one guy gets free, it’s going to be very difficult for that second-place guy to time up a run without a mistake or something on a short run like that to the end.

I thought he did a good job, and it was respectful from my end. I don’t know what else you could really ask for there.

Q. With about 40 to go on that restart with the 18, you were on the inside, he chose the outside. He had the lane choice, and you were able to get by him. What were you able to do or can you take me through that, and what worked for you at that point to be able to take the lead and control the race at that point?

CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, the 18 did it to the 19, the restart prior to that. I felt like the opportunity was there to do it, if the circumstances go your way, and fortunately they did. Once we got the lead there, it was just trying to control my gap to him, run my race, manage my tires the best I could and not lose the lead. Then hope that a caution didn’t come out. I hate that it did, but it did, and fortunately it worked out for us.

Q. Then after that last caution before the pit stops, were you already thinking of what you would be doing, and I’m assuming you would have taken the high side and had the 18 on the inside? If he had stayed out it would have been the two of you on the front row again; were you already thinking about how you would have played or would you have gone to the outside for the restart?

CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, I was thinking the outside. I felt like there was a difference in used tires versus fresh tires. I got the lead from him on fresh tires. He got the lead from Martin on fresh tires, too, so that was the reasoning in why I did what I did.

Q. How surprised were you to see those cars pit behind you then?

CHASE ELLIOTT: I wasn’t. Typically they’re going to do the exact opposite of what you’re doing. I feel like everybody gave Alan a lot of crap for the 600 a few years ago or whatever, but those people behind you are going to do the exact opposite of what you do. I don’t know why that doesn’t get through everyone’s head, especially at a racetrack that has some tire wear. You’re in a very vulnerable position at that point. And two, like if the caution had come out two or three more times, we probably wouldn’t have won because those guys would have kept cycling themselves forward.

So you get a caution twice and before you get the white flag, and next thing you know you’re sitting with a guy right behind you with four fresh tires with one lap on them, so then at that point you’re wishing you pitted.

Those situations are just impossible to get right. You knowing how the outcome is going to go is absolutely — it’s unachievable, so you try to make the best decision you can make and hope the cards go your way.

Q. How comfortable are you feeling with this car? Certainly we’ve seen nobody has really been able to be consistently strong too many weeks. Obviously you had five straight top 10s at one point which is the longest streak of the season. What’s your comfort level with this car and trying to build the consistency, and how are you dealing with it when it’s different as opposed to past year when you had a higher comfort level?

CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, I think the difference is that the line to get it right is more thin than I think it has been in the past. So just finding comfort in living in a tighter tolerance is difficult to do.

Even though some days you might be comfortable, it’s still really easy to step outside that. Look at Charlotte. I felt like I was not being very aggressive, and next thing you know I made a mistake I hit the wall and our day is over. It wasn’t like at that point in time you’re trying to do anything crazy in a 600-mile race, or at least I didn’t think I was, and you can get yourself in a lot of trouble in a hurry in these things. Just trying to figure out where you can live and live there comfortably, how to ratchet up your performance at that right time if that is something inside your car that you can pull out of it, and if it’s not, taking what’s there for you and not driving over your head, because like I say, this thing is pretty unforgiving in a lot of ways.

ALAN GUSTAFSON, CREW CHIEF, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 – PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:

THE MODERATOR: We’re now going to roll into our post-race press conference here at Nashville Superspeedway, and we’ve been joined by today’s winning crew chief Alan Gustafson for today’s Ally 400. Alan, before we roll straight into questions, it has been a long day. From a crew chief standpoint you guys had a lot of things to navigate, from lightning holds to actual rain and red flags and then just the racing part of it. Just from your seat today, tell us a little bit about what that looked like before having the opportunity to celebrate with your team in Victory Lane.

ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, I think for us we were super optimistic coming in. We had a pretty good car on Friday practice and qualified decent and had some track position. I felt good about it and didn’t start the race very good, and the car wasn’t driving great.

I had a lot of work to do and started to work on the car, then had a pit stop issue which kind of got us behind but ultimately helped because we had an opportunity to work on the car a little bit more and from then on I think the car was in a good position and driving really well so we were able to make up ground.

The rain delays and lightning delays, certainly there’s nothing we can do about that. We just had to work through it and stay focused and use that to our advantage to have a plan to move forward and execute.

Yeah, once we got back through that rain, our car was really good and competitive, and we executed well.

I think from then on, it was kind of the tale of two races for us. We were the Bad News Bears at the start and then at the end we got it right and were really good.

Q. My question is with the tire wear, how did it wear comparing the day part of the race to the night part of the race, and how much did that influence your call to stay out for Elliott?

ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, the tire wear wasn’t really an issue for us. Our tire wear was good. The falloff was less certainly at night. You could see the lap time falloff was less, and that played into the end.

I think regardless in that circumstance, we were probably going to stay out, but certainly the fact that the falloff was less as the track cooled down contributed some.

Q. What was the penalty for?

ALAN GUSTAFSON: Did we get a penalty?

Q. That’s what Chase keeps saying.

ALAN GUSTAFSON: No, I think we just went to the back on our own accord.

Q. You had a long — made some changes on pit road?

ALAN GUSTAFSON: Well, we had the potential loose wheel so we backed him up in the stall, tightened the wheel to make sure it was okay and obviously we were going to be at the back at that point in time so we came in and worked on the car a little bit more handling-wise, chassis-wise.

Q. He said you guys were able to make a lot of changes during the rain —

ALAN GUSTAFSON: We had changed — I can’t remember if — I thought that pit stop issue was before the rain. It was before the rain. No, we had made all of our changes to that point, and then ultimately never got too much chance to show it. We went to the back and we were like 16th at the rain delay.

Q. So he’s completely confused —

ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, a little bit but we won’t call him out too bad.

Q. So you guys stay out, all the guys racing for the win come in. Did the nine other guys staying out put the separation —

ALAN GUSTAFSON: Absolutely, yeah, that was the difference. I think the 18 for sure — the 19 was really good. The 18 was really good. The 18 was really fast on the short runs, so if he lines up anywhere near us on new tires it’s game over.

Yeah, he just — my expectation was he wasn’t going to get that close and I felt like there was going to be tough — there typically is, there’s enough chaos in front of you that you just can’t go anyway, so that’s what we were hoping for.

Ultimately there was — I guess you said nine or whatever, ten, there were — when I saw, there was four or five legit good cars, guys that weren’t going to be easy to pass. When I saw that, I felt better.

You never know.

But then you can’t just say, oh, Kyle. You’ve got to switch your focus to Kurt. He’s no slouch; the guy is a great race car driver. He just won at Kansas, and that team has been doing really well. So you’ve got Kurt and you’ve got Kyle Larson and Ryan, all those guys super good drivers and good teams. Had to execute regardless.

Q. You get points in both stages, you get some more playoff points with the win. You’re still in position of course to get the 15 for the regular season championship. What does this win do in moving towards that goal, other than not getting the stage wins you kind of got everything tonight.

ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, that’s the position we’re in right now. I think most of the guys, whatever, the 12 certainly that have won are focusing on that. That’s kind of the key now is to get as many playoff points as you can so you position yourself as best as possible when it reracks because anything can happen. There’s still a lot of time between now and then.

We’re obviously working to win every race, but when you’re there, yeah, the points are — points and playoff points are the focus.

Q. Is that a goal to the point where that’s part of your strategy planning every week, or do you just stay on offense and just hope for the best?

ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, I wish it was a bit more glamorous, but that’s kind of what I try to do every week. If you’re leading the points or wherever you’re at, you’re trying to win, and you’re trying to win stages and you’re trying to lead laps and have the best car possible.

Yeah, are we in a position to maybe take a few more gambles now than we would have if we were somebody else? Certainly, but I don’t think it’s significantly different.

Q. Alan, I don’t mean to drudge up bad memories when you’re kind of riding the high of a victory —

ALAN GUSTAFSON: Of course you don’t. So let’s not do it. Next. Are you going to ask me about Charlotte?

Q. Yes. So you know what the scenario was. Was that in the back of your mind when that caution came out and you had to make the decision whether to stay out and hope everyone else behind you — hope enough other drivers stayed out and be able to stay out front or come in and risk everyone else staying out?

ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, I mean, it’s how you — anything you do in life is based on your experiences, right, everything you do. So certainly that factors into the decisions I make. Unfortunately the bad ones are the ones that always get brought up, but all the good ones factor into my decision making process, too.

I don’t know, did I think about Charlotte? Do I think about Charlotte? Do I get reminded about Charlotte? Yes, I do, unfortunately. Was it a huge influence on what we had to do here? Not really.

Q. Were there any other times in the past where you elected to stay out and it worked out? Just so we don’t keep drudging up bad memories.

ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, a lot of them. I can’t think off the top of my head. Probably the coolest one was with Mark Martin at Loudon, whenever that was.

Q. 1832?

ALAN GUSTAFSON: I don’t know, there’s certainly ones that I’ve stayed out and won. I won a race with Kyle at Phoenix staying out, so yeah. I could go through the Rolodex here, but there’s quite a few that’s happened. I won Dover with Chase staying out. How about that one? We’ve got a few.

Q. There was a restart where Chase passed like five cars in half a lap. Can you give us your perspective on that?

ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, I felt like that was kind of the moment in the race I was like, all right, we should win this race. Ultimately I didn’t feel like we were going to pass the 19 — sorry, 18 and 19 at the time on equal ground, so I wanted to get off sequence with them there, and when I did, not as many people pitted as I had hoped so we were a little bit further back, and he got back to what you’re referencing, fourth or fifth, in no time. I was like, this gives us a huge advantage.

I think it’s a testament to how good the 19 was. It really took us a long time to pass him, but then certainly we got past him, were able to track Kyle down in pretty quick order there. Yeah, that was a big deal. Restarts typically aren’t our forte and our strength, and Chase did an amazing job of that, and that was really kind of the first indication — I knew we were getting better, you just don’t know how good you are because we weren’t really in the best track position, and that was the first indication, I was like, all right, this thing is pretty good.

Q. Chase isn’t really known for that kind of aggression. Did that take your breath away a little bit?

ALAN GUSTAFSON: As far as, yeah, you’re like, here we go. Like you said, he’s not conservative at all, but he’s just a guy, he’s a very calculated driver and doesn’t put himself in bad positions. When I knew he had that much confidence in the car, then I knew it was that good.

Q. I know you’ve talked about points, but this gives you 13 playoff points and you’re tied with Byron and Chastain now for first, which I know is — you’ve still got nine races to go in the regular season, but where does that position you? Does it give you some confidence for the championship hunt?

ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, I just think it’s too early. Look, it’s good. You want to be the best at everything. You want to be the first in all the metrics that matter, and certainly that’s what we strive to do. But it’s just early. It’s just a long way to go. I don’t know that the landscape is right now how it’s going to be. We’ve just got to keep winning, accumulating points and put ourselves in the position to score as many points as possible and try to win the regular season and just stack them up. You don’t know. Certainly the Gibbs cars have been running a lot better, and who knows where it’s going to go in the future. We’ve just got to do everything we can to stay on top.

Q. I know it was in comparison to the fairgrounds when you had fears of a snoozefest here. What kind of racing do you feel like this track has given you guys, and was tonight exciting in that way?

ALAN GUSTAFSON: I like boring races that we lead every lap, so I’m probably the wrong guy to ask. That’s up to you guys to decide. I want to make it as boring as I possibly can.

Q. There’s been so much talk about this car can go to widely variant types of tracks compared to what you guys used to do. Obviously you won at Dover, you win here at concrete. Was this the same car? Were things able to carry over or was this a car that was run on the Bristol dirt or something?

ALAN GUSTAFSON: I have no idea to be honest with you. I don’t know. They’re all — we don’t look at them the way we used to and categorize them for certain types of tracks. It very well could have raced anywhere. I have no idea.

Q. Do you feel you are — where do you feel you are in understanding this car and able to calculate what to do in terms of adjustments or look ahead as opposed to just trying to react?

ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, I mean, it’s still early. We’re still learning things. I feel like we came here with a little bit different philosophy from what we’ve been running. We had the off weekend to kind of work through it, so this isn’t our typical package. It’s slightly different. It’s fairly different from Dover. I don’t know if it was better or worse, but it ran well.

Yeah, I think everybody — my fear is everybody, there’s not a ton of adjustment in the car, so everybody is going to kind of drive down into the bottom right corner. It’s just eventually everybody is going to get to a very, very similar place through experience and guys that are good at what they do.

I don’t know that we’ve tapped everything, all the opportunity to get the car to drive good or get an advantage, so we’ll keep working on it, but I hope that we can keep opening up new ways to get performance out of the car, because if not I think everybody is going to get pretty close pretty quickly.

Q. Is it too early to see trends, or is everything just bouncing from week to week and nothing makes sense yet?

ALAN GUSTAFSON: Well, I think everybody can draw their own trend line they want to. To me it’s not — just like there was tonight, there’s probably a legit pick your number, eight or so cars that can win the race, and the team that executes that the best and puts themselves in position at the end wins. I don’t feel like there’s really been a dominant car in a race all season really that I can think of.

Q. With the two long delays, how do you keep the team motivated and focused and the driver, as well?

ALAN GUSTAFSON: So the team, we just kind of came off a rough start, so everybody was pretty honed in. You just feel like you had just taken a beating so you were pretty much ready to avenge that.

For Chase, I felt like I needed to instill a little confidence in him that the car was improving and we were getting where we wanted to be. It didn’t take much, but I talked to him a little bit and just said, hey, with the way the car is driving, the way the lap times are and as ground as we made, even the restart when we went to the back before the rain delay, we had made some pretty good ground. I was like, look, we’ve got a really good shot here. We’ve got to stay focused. He’s pretty easy. It’s not hard.

But yeah, I didn’t want him to — I know he’s in the car and driving hard and things happen and it’s super easy to get frustrated and super easy to think things are going to go bad, and where he’s at obviously based on what he’s talking about he doesn’t know the whole story all the time.

I just wanted to make sure that he knew that hey, I was pretty confident we were going the right direction, we were going to be in position to do what we needed to do.

Q. He said on Friday he was saying how (indiscernible) uses his positive thinking —

ALAN GUSTAFSON: I love that. We talked about that a little bit today.

Q. He does not think he’s a positive thinker, so how is it not hard for you to rebuild his confidence?

ALAN GUSTAFSON: I don’t feel like I was rebuilding his confidence. I was just basically trying to say, hey, we’re not going to screw it up anymore, go do your job. That was kind of it. So my philosophy as a crew chief has always been the same. My goal is to always make the driver the weak link. If he’s the weak link, then I’ve done my job, the team has done their job.

With him it’s not an easy thing to do because he’s a pretty strong link and obviously other guys that I’ve worked with. So that’s what I try to do. That was a little bit more of what I was describing is I was trying to say to him, hey — the word I was going to use I’m not going to use. We’re done messing up and we’re going to get after it, so stick with us, bring your A game, all will be good.

THE MODERATOR: Alan, thank you for spending some time with us. We appreciate it. You are free to go.

The New Berlin, IL driver earned his 79th Series triumph, passing Josh Richards for most wins all-timeJACKSONVILLE, IL– JUNE 26, 2022 – In 2012, Brandon Sheppard etched his name into the World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Models history books—claiming his first Series win at Belle-Clair Speedway behind the wheel of his family-owned #B5 car. Behind the wheel of that same car, 10 years later, Sheppard earned himself another piece of World of Outlaws glory.  The New Berlin, IL driver, led the final 13 laps of Sunday’s Wild Man Kelly Classic at Jacksonville Speedway to earn his 79th career Series win—breaking the tie with Josh Richards for most wins all time. It’s a celebration the “Rocket Shepp” wouldn’t forget, as he rose from his car in Victory Lane, raising two fists into the air as the crowd let out a thunderous roar. After finding previous success at the track, Sheppard knew he’d have a car to beat at his home state venue. “Our car has been really good at Jacksonville every time we come here,” Sheppard said. “I’ve won the past two DIRTcar Summer Nationals races here. So, we were definitely excited to get the B5 out. “To break it out and win means the world to me and my family. There are so much and so many people that go into the B5 behind the scenes. It means the world to me to win, and to get the record in the B5 is pretty awesome.” Sheppard started fifth in the 40-lap Feature and slowly worked his way through the field, passing Shane Clanton for second on a Lap 19 restart.  He inched his way closer to Babb each lap before throwing a slider in Turn 4 to beat the Illinois veteran to the start-finish line—a pass worth $10,000. “I was really getting through both corners a little better than he was,” Sheppard said. “I showed him a little bit of the nose in the bottom of [Turns] 1 and 2 and pressured him a little bit.  “Then I got back up on top, and he bobbled once in 1 and 2, and I got close, and then he bobbled in three and four, and then I was able to get a good run and slide him. It was an awesome race.”   `            `Babb settled for second after leading the first 27 laps. The Moweaqua, IL driver, stated he had a good car, but the bobble in Turns 3 and 4 cost him his chance at a victory.  “It was just a good pass on [Sheppard’s] part,” Babb said. “I bobbled and opened the door for him, and he took advantage of it.  “It’s always a lot of fun coming here to Jacksonville to race with them guys. We were just pleased to death to be on the front row and lead some laps. We definitely haven’t had the best start to this year, but we’re getting things rolling, and it’s going upwards.” Clanton rounded out the podium, his fourth World of Outlaws top five of the season. While the Zebulon, GA driver, came up short for the win, he stated he had fun racing up front with Sheppard and Babb.  “This place is pretty fun to drive that cushion like that,” Clanton said. “Actually, you can run up on the wall a little bit. Overall, it was a good night, just didn’t quite have enough.” Tanner English, Sunday’s Fox Factory Hard Charger, finished fourth after starting 12th. While he stated he’s happy with his top-five finish, he knows the importance of putting an entire night together. “I dug myself a hole in Qualifying and I just had to dig out of it all night,” English said. “We had a good Heat Race. I was probably one of the only cars to pass anybody in the Heat Race. I don’t know how many people we passed [in the Feature] but it was a bunch. The car was pretty good, but like I said I just need to qualify better.” Jason Feger finished fifth, his third top five finish of the weekend. The Bloomington, IL driver worked his way through the field, before fading after something broke on his car.  “We don’t get to race here very much, but it seems we put on one heck of a show,” Feger said. “It was a little top dominant, and I had a really good car early, but right before the Lap 27 yellow, something was going on, and I couldn’t figure it out. “We had a piece of body bracing get loose, and it was underneath the right rear tire. I can’t believe it messed me up that bad, but it slowed me up just enough to where I was hanging on out there.” Dennis Erb Jr. finished ninth, extending his points lead for the third time this weekend. He leads by 148 points over Max Blair, who finished 11th.  Brandon Sheppard’s triumphant Victory at Jacksonville Speedway is a moment he’ll cherish for the rest of his career, celebrating with family and friends in Victory Lane. Sunday proved no matter what car he’s driving, a win on an Illinois bullring goes through the “Rocket Shepp.” UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws CASE Late Models kick off their Northern swing with a trip to River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, ND on Friday, July 15.  If you can’t make it to the track, watch all the action live on DIRTVision – either online on with the DIRTVision App. CASE Construction Equipment Feature (40 Laps): 1. B5-Brandon Sheppard[5]; 2. 18-Shannon Babb[2]; 3. 25-Shane Clanton[1]; 4. 81E-Tanner English[12]; 5. 25F-Jason Feger[10]; 6. 11-Gordy Gundaker[3]; 7. 19R-Ryan Gustin[8]; 8. 15D-Justin Duty[16]; 9. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[15]; 10. 1-Josh Richards[17]; 11. 111V-Max Blair[7]; 12. 89-Ashton Winger[11]; 13. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[6]; 14. 21-Billy Moyer Jr[9]; 15. 99B-Boom Briggs[14]; 16. T6-Tommy Sheppard Jr[22]; 17. 77-Preston Luckman[20]; 18. B1-Brent Larson[21]; 19. 15-Kolby Vandenbergh[18]; 20. 38J-Jake Little[13]; 21. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[23]; 22. F1-Payton Freeman[19]; 23. 18M-Jimmy Miller[24]; 24. 3S-Brian Shirley[4] FOX FACTORY HARD CHARGER: Tanner English [+8].

The World of Outlaws Case Construction Late Model Series is brought to fans across the country by many important sponsors and partners, including: Case Construction Equipment (Official Construction Equipment), DIRTVision (Official Live Broadcast Partner), Hoosier Racing Tire (Official Tire), iRacing (Official Online Racing Game), SIS Insurance (Official Insurance Provider) VP Racing Fuels (Official Racing Fuel); contingency sponsors include Arizona Sport Shirts/Gotta Race, ARP (Automotive Racing Products), Cometic Gasket, COMP Cams, Fox Factory (Hard Charger Award), MSD, My Place Hotels, Penske Racing Shocks, Quarter Master, Slick Woody’s (Quick Time Award), Swift Springs, and Wrisco–Wieland Metal Services (Exclusive Racing Aluminum); along with manufacturer sponsors, including Dirt Car Lift, Capital Race Cars, Behrent’s Performance Warehouse, FIREBULL, Integra Shocks, Intercomp, K1 Race Gear, Racing Electronics, Reliable Painting, Rocket Chassis, and Sea Foam.Founded in 1978, the World of Outlaws®, based in Concord, NC, is the premier national touring series for dirt track racing in North America, featuring the most powerful cars on dirt, the World of Outlaws NOS® Energy Drink Sprint Car Series and the World of Outlaws Late Model Series. Annually, the two series race nearly 140 times at tracks across the United States and Canada. CBS Sports Network is the official broadcast partner of the World of Outlaws. DIRTVision® also broadcasts World of Outlaws events over the Internet to fans around the world. Learn more about the World of Outlaws.

Austin Dillon and the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops / TRACKER Off Road Chevrolet Team Dig Hard to Earn Top-15 Finish at Nashville Superspeedway

14th

20th

14th

“We got in a deficit early today at Nashville Superspeedway, but this Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Off Road team climbed our way out of it. We were too loose to start the race, and that got us behind in Stage 1. We went a lap down but earned our lap back. From there, crew chief Justin Alexander made some great strategy moves to gain track position. Unfortunately, by the time we got up front our Chevy was too tight in the same places on the track that we were too loose earlier in the race. On a restart with four laps remaining, we knew that there would be a high likelihood of crashing. I just hugged the bottom of the track and dug. We raced from 18th to 14th. We were still just too tight at the end to make anything else happen.  It’s not what we wanted, but we dug hard.” -Austin Dillon

Tyler Reddick and the No. 8 3CHI Chevrolet Team Finish 18th at Nashville Superspeedway

18th

16th

13th

“We finished on the upside today at Nashville Superspeedway, especially considering how our day was going to go with the damage that we got right before halfway. Our 3CHI Chevrolet had a high capability in it, and we saw that early on. Our race was looking very promising in Stage 1, but we made mistakes along the way. Our restarts in the first half of the race today put us behind, and ultimately played a roll in us running into the back of the No. 23 car on pit road. The damage we had from that collision put us in a very tough spot for the rest of the race, so to get an 18th-place finish out of our day with how it was looking mid-race, we should be satisfied. We’ll take it, move on, and get ready for Road America.” -Tyler Reddick

NASCAR CUP SERIES NASHVILLE SUPERSPEEDWAY ALLY 400TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES & QUOTES JUNE 26, 2022   TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:POS.   DRIVER1st      CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL14th      KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1 5th      ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 1 JOCKEY CAMARO ZL1 11th    ERIK JONES, NO. 43 FOCUSFACTOR CAMARO ZL1 14th    AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS / TRACKER OFF ROAD CAMARO ZL1 15th    DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 TOOTSIES ORCHID LOUNGE CAMARO ZL1  TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS: POS.  DRIVER1st      Chase Elliott (Chevrolet)2nd     Kurt Busch (Toyota)3rd      Ryan Blaney (Ford)4th      Kyle Larson (Chevrolet)5th      Ross Chastain (Chevrolet) The NASCAR Cup Series season continues next Sunday, July 3, at Road America with the Kwik Trip 250 presented by JOCKEY Made in America at 3 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on USA Network, the NBCSports Gold App, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.                                                                                                                                           TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTES:TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTES:CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 – Race WinnerWHAT WERE YOU THINKING WHEN THAT LAST CAUTION CAME OUT?“I was figuring that it was coming, but was hoping not. Ryan (Blaney) gave me a great shove and I appreciate him doing me a solid there in getting us out front. Just so proud of our team because we kind of had a setback there about halfway and we were able to get our NAPA Chevy dialed back in and get back in the mix. It was a long day, a fun day. Thank you guys so much for hanging out. Just so proud of our team. We have had a pretty rough month and month-and-a-half, so just nice to get going back in the right direction. Getting a win is always huge, but to do it in a really cool city like Nashville is even better. Looking forward to that guitar.” HOW DID THIS CAR COME TO LIFE AFTER THE RAIN DELAY?“We were able to work on it a little bit after the penalty and got it going a little better. My team just stuck with it. Thanks to everybody at Hendrick Motorsports. They have been working really hard over the winter and through the spring to keep up. The engines have been running great and obviously great support from Chevrolet. I look forward to getting home and seeing my family; seeing mom and dad and hopefully enjoy it this week. These things are hard to come by and you have to enjoy them. You never know when or if ever you will get another one. So, super thankful and looking forward to next week.” KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 4thEARLIER IN THE RACE YOU DIDN’T SOUND LIKE YOU HAD A LOT OF SPEED IN IT. WHAT DID YOU GUYS DO TO IT? THAT WAS AMAZING. “It was definitely better once the sun went down. I don’t know whatever changes they made to it, so proud of my guys for working hard and persevering. Didn’t have a lot of things work out for us there as we got caught a lap down and we had to take the wave around and drove from twenty-something to 10th there before the last caution. We stayed out and netted out a top-five. So proud of my No. 5 HendrickCars.comteam and proud of Chase Elliott too. That’s great for Hendrick Motorsports and everybody there. Everybody has been working hard and trying to figure out how to go faster and they were definitely the best of the four of us all weekend. Cool to see that he closed it out.” THIS WEEK YOU HAD TO WORK REMOTELY WITH CLIFF (DANIELS). DID THAT WORK OUT WELL OR WERE THERE ANY HICCUPS WITH THAT AND DID YOU HAVE A CHANCE TO CATCH UP WITH HIM DURING THE DELAY?“Yeah, all of us were virtually on together in the hauler and tapped into where he was, and we can talk. Adam and Kevin did a great job this weekend in leading this team. As far as Cliff, it really shows you how well he has prepared our team to face moments like we will these next four weeks. Everything I think ran really smooth. I am not sure how it went behind the wall with the crew and stuff, but from my seat it seemed like it went pretty smooth. I am sure there will be things we will tweak on and make even smoother, but I was overall pleased for the first time in my Cup career without my primary crew chief.” ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 1 JOCKEY CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 5th YOU CAME DOWN AND GOT SOME TIRES AND YOU CAME BACK TO THE SAME SPOT YOU WERE WHEN YOU HIT PIT ROAD. TAKE US THROUGH YOUR NIGHT. “An incredible night for the No. 1 Jockey Chevrolet Camaro. Trackhouse Racing brought two incredibly fast cars and that was the right call to pit, but we just didn’t know that 10 people were going to stay out. If a few less stay out, we have got a shot. We got through traffic the best of all of us that pitted, so proud of that and proud of the effort. Incredible job on pit road tonight by our pit crew in picking up spots each and every stop all night. We just needed a little more to run with those top four, but we were definitely a top-five car. In the Cup Series, that is all I can ask for.” ERIK JONES, NO. 43 FOCUSFACTOR CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 11th“We definitely had our ups and downs today, but nice to rebound and get an 11th-place finish. We fought the handling of our FOCUSfactor Chevy early in the race and I felt like we were making the right adjustments to have a good day before the rain delay. Once we restarted, after 10-15 laps, the handling would go away and it was just hard to drive. We’ll keep learning and working to get better. Overall, a good finish that we’ll take with us in to next week at Road America.” AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER OFF ROAD CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 14th“We got in a deficit early today at Nashville Superspeedway but this Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Off Road team climbed our way out of it. We were too loose to start the race, and that got us behind early. We went a lap down but earned our lap back. From there, crew chief Justin Alexander made some great strategy moves to gain track position. Unfortunately, by the time we got track position our Chevy was too tight in the same places on the track that we were too loose earlier in the race. On a restart with four laps remaining, we knew that there would be a high likelihood of crashing. I just hugged the bottom of the track and dug. We raced from 18th to 14th. We were still just too tight at the end to make anything else happen. It’s not what we wanted, but we dug hard.” ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY MUSIC CITY CAMARO ZL1 – Sidelined by damage sustained in an accident on lap 51; Finished 36th “It’s frustrating to not be able to finish the Ally 400. Greg (Ives, Crew Chief) and everyone on the No. 48 team works so hard on these race cars and it’s unfortunate I wasn’t able to go compete for a win. We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time today. Greg threw the kitchen sink at the car and then we made two laps before getting wrecked, so it was tough to not be able to see if we would have found something on that stop. Huge thank you to everyone at Ally for putting on a great event this weekend. Ally goes all in on what they do and I’m glad they are all in on the No. 48 team.” TEAM CHEVY QUICK NOTESStage One:·       42 laps into the NASCAR Cup Series Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway, the race went under red flag conditions due to a lightning hold. ·       Following resumption of the race, a caution flew on lap 51 for an accident involving Alex Bowman. The No. 48 Ally Music City Chevrolet team brought their Camaro ZL1 to the garage for repairs, but expiration of the DVP clock forced Bowman to be done for the day. ·       Under that same caution, William Byron brought his No. 24 Valvoline Camaro ZL1 to the garage with steering issues. The No. 24 Chevrolet team was able to make repairs to his Camaro ZL1 and return to competition. ·       The 90-lap stage one saw two Chevrolet drivers score stage points in the top-10:Kyle Larson, No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL1 (6th)Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 (8th) Stage Two: ·       Precipitation brought the caution out on lap 119, with pit strategy coming into play throughout pit road. In that round of pit stops, the No. 8 3CHI Chevrolet pit crew gained Tyler Reddick four spots on pit road, the most of the top-10. ·       Another lightning hold and rainfall brought the race to its second red flag at lap 138. The race was under red flag conditions for two hours, eight minutes and 35 seconds. The 300-lap race restarted at the halfway point with 150 laps to go. ·       Team Chevy Stage Two Top-10: Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1Kyle Larson, No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL1Ross Chastain, No. 1 Jockey Camaro ZL1 Post-Race Notes: ·       The win is Elliott’s 15th-career victory in 238 NASCAR Cup Series starts. ·       It also marks the sixth win of 2022 for Hendrick Motorsports; and the organization’s 286th all-time in NASCAR’s premier series.  ·       Elliott is now the fifth driver this season to become a repeat winner. ·       Elliott’s triumph is the ninth of the season for the Camaro ZL1, more than double its manufacturer competitors. ·       The winningest brand in NASCAR, Chevrolet now has 823 all-time NASCAR Cup Series victories.

NASCAR CUP SERIES

NASHVILLE SUPERSPEEDWAY

ALLY 400

TEAM CHEVY RACE WINNER NOTES & QUOTES

JUNE 26, 2022

CHASE ELLIOTT CAPTURED CHEVROLET’S NINTH WIN OF 2022 AT NASHVILLE

Camaro ZL1 Takes Three of the Top-Five

Chase Elliott and the No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 team scored their second win of 2022 at Nashville Superspeedway. 

·       The win is Elliott’s 15th-career victory in 238 NASCAR Cup Series starts. 

·       It also marks the sixth win of 2022 for Hendrick Motorsports; and the organization’s 286th all-time in NASCAR’s premier series.  

·       Elliott is now the fifth driver this season to become a repeat winner. 

·       Elliott’s triumph is the ninth of the season for the Camaro ZL1, more than double its manufacturer competitors. 

·       The winningest brand in NASCAR, Chevrolet now has 823 all-time NASCAR Cup Series victories.

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1, Race Winner Quick Quote: 

WHAT WERE YOU THINKING WHEN THAT LAST CAUTION CAME OUT?

“I was figuring that it was coming, but was hoping not. Ryan (Blaney) gave me a great shove and I appreciate him doing me a solid there in getting us out front. Just so proud of our team because we kind of had a setback there about halfway and we were able to get our NAPA Chevy dialed back in and get back in the mix. 

It was a long day, a fun day. Thank you guys so much for hanging out. Just so proud of our team. We have had a pretty rough month and month-and-a-half, so just nice to get going back in the right direction. Getting a win is always huge, but to do it in a really cool city like Nashville is even better. Looking forward to that guitar.”

HOW DID THIS CAR COME TO LIFE AFTER THE RAIN DELAY?

“We were able to work on it a little bit after the penalty and got it going a little better. My team just stuck with it. Thanks to everybody at Hendrick Motorsports. They have been working really hard over the winter and through the spring to keep up. The engines have been running great and obviously great support from Chevrolet. I look forward to getting home and seeing my family; seeing mom and dad and hopefully enjoy it this week. These things are hard to come by and you have to enjoy them. You never know when or if ever you will get another one. So, super thankful and looking forward to next week.”

Avedisian Leads All 30 Laps in CB Industries #84 to Beat Crouch/Denney/McIntosh

JACKSONVILLE, IL – June 26, 2022 – In her 43rd attempt, Jade Avedisian finally broke the barrier and claimed her first-career National Midget victory on Sunday night at Jacksonville Speedway.

The 15-year-old rising star has enjoyed success with USAC and POWRi, but her most memorable moment to date now belongs with the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota. The Clovis, CA native earned the outside pole of Sunday’s Feature and dominated the whole thing, leading from start to finish in the CB Industries #84.

Climbing out of the car to a standing ovation from the Jacksonville, IL crowd, the young lady was left speechless following the biggest win of her career.

“I don’t even know what to say right now,” Avedisian thought. “I was telling myself please just don’t plug it in the fence on that last lap. I can’t thank this team enough for never giving up on me. I tore u a lot of stuff this week, but we’re walking away with a big win. This is a surreal feeling. I’ve always wanted to stand on top of a Midget and celebrate like that.”

In controlling all 30 laps of Sunday’s show, Avedisian joins Gavan Boschele and Taylor Reimer (pending a Cannon McIntosh appeal) as the first three winners in the brief history of the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota.

Brenham Crouch of Lubbock, TX recorded his Xtreme Outlaw career-best with a second-place finish aboard the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports #97. He started on the pole of the 30-lapper, but fell to second off the start and found himself enamored in a race-long war with Cannon McIntosh for the runner-up bid as they allowed Avedisian to sneak away.

Also earning his first podium finish with the Xtreme Outlaw Midgets was Jacob Denney, who drove the Mounce/Stout #61 to an impressive third-place effort in his debut effort with the Series.

Cannon McIntosh, who is currently appealing the penalties assessed from his Millbridge victory, capped off his Illinois SPEED Week championship with the POWRi National Midget League by finishing fourth at Jacksonville. Local hero Jake Neuman of New Berlin, IL closed out the top-five in his Xtreme Outlaw debut.

Rounding out the top-10 on Sunday was Zach Daum of Pocahontas, IL, Bryant Wiedeman of Colby, KS, Joe B. Miller of Millersville, MO, Kaidon Brown of Sydney, NSW, and Jace Park of Overland Park, KS.

Xtreme Outlaw Midget Feature Results (30 Laps) – 1. 84-Jade Avedisian; 2. 97-Brenham Crouch; 3. 61-Jacob Denney; 4. 08-Cannon McIntosh; 5. 3N-Jake Neuman; 6. 9M-Zach Daum; 7. 01-Bryant Wiedeman; 8. 51B-Joe B. Miller; 9. 97-Kaidon Brown; 10. 87-Jace Park; 11. 25K-Taylor Reimer; 12. 08X-Trey Gropp; 13. 56-Mitchell Davis; 14. 7U-Kyle Jones; 15. 83-Dominic Gorden; 16. 5-Gavan Boschele; 17. 19M-Ethan Mitchell; 18. 26-Chance Crum; 19. 72J-Sam Johnson; 20. 40-Chase McDermand; 21. 21K-Karter Sarff; 22. 21E-Emilio Hoover; 23. 06-Rylan Gray.

UP NEXT (August) – The inaugural Xtreme Outlaw campaign will take a summer break before resuming with the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 on August 5-6.

at NHRA Summit Racing Equipment Nationals

• Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) Top Fuel pilot Leah Pruett drove her Dodge Power Brokers dragster to their strongest eliminations performance of the season to date by advancing to the semifinals at the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Summit Racing Equipment Nationals near Norwalk, Ohio
• From her 15th place starting spot on the eliminations ladder, Pruett upset No. 2 qualifier Justin Ashley and beat No. 7 Steve Torrence on her way to her first semifinal appearance of the season
• With this weekend’s performance, Pruett and the Dodge Power Broker dragster moved into the Top Fuel championship standings’ top-ten as the team prepares for the western swing that begins in Denver, Colorado, with the Dodge Power Brokers Mile-High Nationals July 15-18.
• TSR Funny Car pilot Matt Hagan qualified his Dodge Power Brokers Charger SRT Hellcat among the top-five positions on the eliminations ladder for a ninth time this season 
• Hagan’s second quarterfinal finish of the year wasn’t quite enough to keep him atop the Funny Car points standings but he remains in second place x points behind rival and event winner Robert Hight within 
• Defending Funny Car winner at Norwalk, Cruz Pedregon qualified his Snap-on® Tools Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat in the top half of the eliminations ladder for the tenth time this season and advanced to his team’s eighth quarterfinal appearance of the year

June 26, 2022, Norwalk, Ohio — Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) Top Fuel pilot Leah Pruett recorded her strongest performance of the season to date aboard her Dodge Power Brokers dragster with a semifinal appearance at the 15th annual National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Summit Racing Equipment Nationals near Norwalk, Ohio, the tenth of 22 Camping World Drag Racing Series events this season.

After four qualifying runs put her 15th on the ladder, Pruett kicked off eliminations by upsetting No. 2 qualifier Justin Ashley with her quickest pass of the weekend. She lined up her Dodge Power Brokers dragster against Steve Torrence in the quarterfinals, was quicker on the launch, and put in another solid run to stay ahead of her competitor at the finish line with a 0.0172-second margin of victory to advance.

Pruett’s opponent for her first semifinal appearance of the season was No. 3 qualifier Mike Salinas who had the slight advantage off the start as she lost traction right at the hit of the throttle. While disappointed by the loss, her performance this weekend put her back into the top-ten in the Top Fuel standings and has her looking forward to getting her 11,000 horsepower Dodge//SRT HEMI®-powered machine back on track in July for the first of three western swing events that begin with the Dodge Power Brokers Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway.

In Funny Car action, the category points leader heading into the weekend, TSR driver Matt Hagan, qualified his Dodge Power Brokers Charger SRT Hellcat among the top-five positions on the eliminations ladder for a ninth time this season. His lap of 3.917 seconds at 329.91 mph put him fifth on the qualifying timesheet and set up a first round match-up with No. 12 seed Tim Wilkerson. 

Looking to repeat his 2018 winning performance at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park, Hagan staged his HEMI-powered Funny Car next to No. 12 seed Tim Wilkerson for the opening round and made a solid pass to advance while his opponent lost traction at the start.

The Dodge Power Broker Funny Car moved on to the quarterfinals where Hagan faced off against No. 4 qualifier Bob Tasca III, but saw his ride lose traction early in the run which brought the day to an earlier end than has been the case after advancing to the final round six times in ten events this season to date. The quarterfinal result, combined with Hagan’s closest championship rival Robert Hight’s eventual event win at Norwalk, meant a drop to second place in the standings but just 21 points behind the new points leader.

Winner of last year’s Funny Car Wally trophy at Norwalk, Cruz Pedregon was looking to defend that performance as he qualified in the top-half of the Funny Car eliminations ladder for a tenth consecutive event this season by taking his Snap-on® Tools Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat for a 3.960 seconds lap to put him in the eighth spot. Pedregon also earned an extra bonus point in qualifying for recording the third quickest elapsed time lap in the first session of the weekend.

In his opening elimination round pairing with No. 9 seed Chad Green, Pedregon hit the throttle first and never looked back with a 3.972-second lap that wasn’t far off his qualifying time. That set up a quarterfinal battle against No. 1 qualifier Ron Capps in which Pedregon’s 3.982 sec./323.50 mph run wasn’t quite enough to beat his opponents 3.974/327.59 winning effort. The team’s eighth quarterfinal performance of the season keeps Pedregon fifth in the Funny Car standings.

The NHRA returns to action July 15-18 near Denver, Colorado, where Dodge//SRT and Mopar will mark their 33rd season as title sponsors of the Dodge Power Brokers Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway, the longest continuous event sponsorship in motorsports history.

ADDITIONAL NOTES and QUOTES:

Leah Pruett, Dodge Power Brokers Top Fuel Dragster 

(No. 15 Qualifier – 3.862 seconds at 313.58 mph)

Round 1: (0.058 -second reaction time, 3.776 seconds at 327.98 mph) defeats No. 2 Justin Ashley (0.050/3.852/317.49)

Round 2: (0.062/3.798/325.61) defeats to No. 7 Steve Torrence (0.075/3.802/327.51)

Round 3: (0.076/6.062/135.36) loss to No. 3 Mike Salinas (0.063/3.822/296.89)

“Advancing to the semifinal was a long time coming and it didn’t come easy. Even though we were consistent in qualifying with our 0.86’s, we kept trying to go faster and the car was going slower. This entire year, the car has been very conversational and very reactive to what we ask it to do. This whole weekend, it was not cooperating. We were trying to throw more at it and it kept slowing down. It hung on there through the first two rounds. I’m very proud of all of my guys bolting this Dodge HEMI together. They are quality men with quality parts and great decision making skills. I’m proud of myself for being up on the wheel. 

“My takeaways are yes, we get excited about some round wins, but we didn’t get overzealous. We are highlighting how we got to this point and we will also be highlighting why we smoked the tires in the semifinal. We didn’t think we were too far over center, but we got a better handle on going rounds. Being in the top ten right now, we are good at clinching onto what we know and moving forward with momentum. We will do the same thing with the points. This was very needed on all parts – for morale, attitudes and performance of the car. It was an awesome weekend to do it in our Dodge Power Brokers dragster as we brokered it to the semifinal.”

Matt Hagan, Dodge Power Brokers Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car  

(No. 5 Qualifier – 3.917 seconds at 329.91 mph) 

Round 1: (0.070-second reaction time, 3.948 seconds at 322.65 mph) defeats No. 12 Tim Wilkerson (0.058/8.509/104.92)

Round 2: (0.064/4.876/173.45) loss to No. 4 Bob Tasca III (0.046/3.941/327.27)

“Having qualified fifth this weekend, we had a good race car. We are just trying to gather more data in the heat. Dickie Venables (crew chief) always has a great handle on what he’s doing and the decisions to make next. I know he’s always got a great game plan. Once we get out to Denver, we’ll be doing the Dodge Drive Event on Wednesday and Thursday, so we’ll have a long and productive weekend to start the western swing. 

We’ll be changing up our entire combination and use the one we had last year when we won at Bandimere. We will take what we learned here and tuck it away until we get to another hot race track with similar conditions and we can apply the knowledge we learned this weekend in the Dodge Power Brokers Funny Car. All in all, it’s tough when you’ve been on such a roll to go out in the second round a couple of times in a row, but that is drag racing. We will keep digging and growing and building our data to move forward.” 

Cruz Pedregon, Pedregon Racing Snap-on® Tools Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat

(No. 8 Qualifier – 3.960 seconds at 281.30 mph) 

Round 1: (0.063-second reaction time, 3.972 seconds at 316.75 mph) defeats No. 9 Chad Green (0.117/4.056/302.55)

Round 2: (0093/3.982/323.50) loss to No. 1 Ron Capps (0.038/3.974/327.59)

NHRA CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS STANDINGS:

Following the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Bristol Dragway

FUNNY CAR (season wins in parentheses)

1.   Robert Hight 929 (4)

2.  Matt Hagan (Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat): 908 (3)

3.  Ron Capps: 829 (2)

4.  John Force: 655

5.  Cruz Pedregon (Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat): 561

6.  Bob Tasca III: 517

7.  J.R. Todd: 509

8.  Alexis DeJoria: 490

9.  Tim Wilkerson: 443

10. Chad Green: 408

TOP FUEL (season wins in parentheses)

1.  Mike Salinas: 821 (3) 

2.  Brittany Force: 809 (3)

3.  Steve Torrence: 712 

4.  Justin Ashley: 711 (2)

5.  Austin Prock: 513

6.  Josh Hart: 509 

7.  Shawn Langdon: 467 

8.  Clay Millican: 462

9.  Doug Kalitta: 459

10. Leah Pruett (Dodge Power Brokers): 417

DodgeGarage: Digital Hub for Drag Racing News

Fans can follow all the NHRA action this season at DodgeGarage, the one-stop portal for Dodge//SRT and Mopar drag-racing news. The site includes daily updates and access to an online racing HQ, news, events, galleries, available downloads and merchandise. For more information, visit www.dodgegarage.com.

@DodgeMoparMotorsports on Instagram

The @DodgeMoparMotorsports Instagram channel continues to share content capturing Dodge//SRT Mopar drivers on the track. Fans can see action from the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series and NHRA Sportsman grassroots racers, competing in classes such as Factory Stock Showdown, Stock and Super Stock, as well as additional motorsports series.

NORWALK, OH (June 26, 2022) — Josh Hart and the R+L Carriers Top Fuel team had a breakout weekend at the NHRA Summit Equipment Nationals racing to a runner-up finish, jumping to sixth place in the Top Fuel point standings and building much needed momentum as the tour heads to the back half of the season. Hart powered his 11,000-horsepower R+L Carriers Top Fuel dragster to the No. 4 position on the qualifying ladder on the strength of his 3.744 second Friday night qualifying pass. Hart parlayed that excellent position into wins over Spencer Massey, Austin Prock and Brittany Force on race day before dropping a close final to points leader Mike Salinas.

In his third career final round and first final of the 2022 season Hart felt that his R+L Carriers team needed to get back to the basics and take a page from their success last year.

Josh Hart final round with R+L Carriers Top Fuel dragster, photo by Auto Imagery

“I would say we have definitely turned a corner,” said Hart, who also has two semifinal finishes this season. “I am just going back to what I did last year and just trying to have fun. I believe all good leadership comes from the top. The owner of R+L Carriers told me I was forgetting an important thing. I was forgetting to have fun. That is what we did this weekend. We went out and had fun.”

The first round win over Massey was secured before Hart hit the throttle with Massey jumping the tree and red-lighting. The R+L Carriers dragster made its second quickest run of the weekend with a solid 3.756 second pass to get its first win light of the day.

In the quarterfinals Hart with a great light and the power to hold on for a hole shot win. His 3.813 second pass got him to the finish line stripe first against Prock’s quicker 3.808 run. Hart’s stellar .038 reaction time was the difference maker. Prock had the lead at half track, but then he dropped a cylinder and Hart drove back around him for the win. It was the first time Hart and Prock had faced each other in eliminations and the win moved Hart to the semifinals against Prock’s teammate Force.

Fans outside Josh Hart pits area during Norwalk Nationals, photo by Auto Imagery

Once again Hart grabbed a starting line advantage and never trailed for the win. Hart made his quickest pass of race day to reach his third career final round. The 3.750 second pass gave the driver from Ocala, Florida, lane choice over Salinas. The back-to-back wins over Prock and Force did not phase the independent team owner.

“I don’t care who is in the other lane,” said Hart. “It is easy to get wrapped up on the big names with unlimited budgets. We are not quite there yet. I just have to run my own race and do my thing in my lane.”

Shortly after the semifinal runs a short rainstorm blew through Norwalk delaying racing and Hart’s momentum for approximately three hours. The NHRA Safety Safari did a masterful job of prepping the track for the finals and Hart versus Salinas closed out the professional show. A fourth win light would have moved Hart into fifth place in the Top Fuel point standings. Salinas was first off the line and he posted a 3.706 second run against Hart’s 3.786 second effort.

While Hart did not collect the win his weekend was a success considering how impactful the time he spent with representatives from R+L Carriers was. In addition to having the R+L Hometown Showcase mobile display on site Hart hosted hundreds of R+L employees and guests at the track.

“We had over 400 people here through R+L Carriers. It was just a great weekend signing autographs and talking to them about career opportunities. It has been amazing,” said Hart. “It is kind of a blessing and a curse (to have so many guests). That stuff doesn’t bother me. I was very blessed to have those people around me and it actually calms me down. With R+L Carriers it is a genuine product that everyone uses so it is easy to talk about it.  Really believe in the product.”

Hart and the R+L Carriers team are only four points out of fifth place as the tour heads to Denver, Colorado for the NHRA Mile High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway.

Qualifying Results

Q1: 3.888 sec, 299.80 mph; Qual. 10

Q2: 3.744 sec, 322.58 mph; Qual. 4

Q3: 4.403 sec, 184.77 mph; Qual. 4

Q4: 3.823 sec, 315.49 mph; Qual. 4

Bonus Points: 0

Race Results

First Round

Josh Hart, Ocala, Fla., R+L Carriers dragster, 3.756, 323.50 mph def. Spencer Massey, Haltom City, Texas, Commercial Metal Fabrication dragster, DQ - red-light 

Second Round

Josh Hart, Ocala, Fla., R+L Carriers dragster, 3.813, 323.66 mph def. Austin Prock, Pittsboro, Ind., Montana Brand dragster, 3.808, 321.81 mph

Semifinals

Josh Hart, Ocala, Fla., R+L Carriers dragster, 3.750, 328.94 mph def. Brittany Force, Yorba Linda, Calif., Monster Energy dragster, 3.783, 329.02 mph

Final Round

Mike Salinas, San Jose, Calif., Valley Services, dragster, 3.706, 333.58 mphdef. Josh Hart, Ocala, Fla., R+L Carriers dragster, 3.783, 325.37 mph

Camping World Drag Racing Series Top Ten – Top Fuel

1. Mike Salinas                                          821

2. Brittany Force                                      809

3. Steve Torrence                                     712

4. Justin Ashley                                         711

5. Austin Prock                                         513

6. Josh Hart                                               509

7. Shawn Langdon                                   467

8. Clay Millican                                          462

9. Doug Kalitta                                          459

10. Leah Pruett                                         417

NORWALK, Ohio (June 26, 2022) – Robert Hight and the AAA Ohio Chevrolet Camaro SS team take over the points lead with their fourth win of the season Sunday at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park. Brittany Force and the Monster Energy Flav-R-Pac Chevy dragster had a semifinal appearance while Austin Prock with the Montana Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist dragster and John Force with the PEAK / BlueDEF PLATINUM Chevy had quarterfinal exits. Coming in as the No. 3 qualifier making his 90th career final round appearance, Robert Hight defeated Bob Tasca III for his 57th career victory, first at Summit Motorsports Park. The AAA Ohio Chevy would rally to a 3.944-second pass at 327.51 mph for Hight’s fourth win of the season bettering Tasca’s 3.962 at 330.63. “This is big. I’ve never won here. We come here almost every year and race in Night Under Fire, a huge match race where the Badder’s pack in all the fans. I’ve won that thing a lot, but I could never get it done here for the National event,” said Hight who has been to six of 10 final rounds this season. “I think this is awesome being able to cross this one off and get the points lead, it’s big. I am so proud of this AAA team. They have worked so hard. AAA Ohio and everybody behind us, Chevrolet, Cornwell Tools was here with us. I’ve had so much fun this weekend and we’ve had a great time, and I’m not ready for it to end.” En route to the finals, Hight would defeat Jim Campbell in the first round with a 3.903-second pass at 326.24 mph to Campbell’s 4.093 at 311.85. The win set Hight up to run against Alexis DeJoria who would go 4.651 at 175.71. Hight would lay down a solid 3.997 at 311.92 mph. In the semifinals, Hight would have a strong side-by-side drag race against J.R. Todd. Hight would prevail with another quality run at 3.890-seconds at 328.06 mph sending Todd and his 3.916 at 329.75 home. Hight and the AAA Chevy now have a 21-points lead over Matt Hagan in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series points standings. Brittany Force and the Monster Energy team came into race day in the No. 1 position and kept up their consistency in the first round running 3.774-seconds at 310.20 mph to pick up the win over Kyle Wurtzle when he ran into trouble to run only 8.548 at 87.22. Against Tripp Tatum in the second round, Force would take the Monster Energy dragster to a 3.765 pass at 329.75 mph bettering Tatum’s 3.810 at 318.47. In the semifinals Force would lineup with class rival Josh Hart. Hart would run the second quickest pass of race day at 3.750-seconds at 328.94 mph and the Monster Energy dragster would come up shot with a 3.783 pass at 329.02 mph. “Overall, our Monster Energy team had a good weekend at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio. We earned our third No.1 qualifier of the season, set both ends of the track record with a 3.666 at 333 mph run, and made a semi-final round appearance on raceday,” Force said. “We have a couple weeks off to reset and get ready for the Western Swing. We kick it off starting in Denver and then head to Sonoma and Seattle. We plan to keep the rhythm we’ve held all year and get back in another winners circle.” John Force and the PEAK Chevy continued to improve on their performance from qualifying in the first round of eliminations. The BlueDEF Camaro would lay down the best run of the event at 3.878-seconds and 333.41 mph while his competitor Bobby Bode ran a 4.121 at 244. 96. In the second round, Force’s Chevy Camaro Funny Car would put a hole out at the step hindering the BlueDEF car to run only 4.154 seconds at 271.52 mph falling short to J.R. Todd’s 3.953 at 329.34. “Not a bad weekend for this PEAK Chevrolet team. We picked up quite a few qualifying points and we were strong through qualifying, even today, race day, we looked good,” Force said. “We dropped a cylinder out there, not sure why, but we’ll get it figured out and move onto the Western Swing. Good weekend for Robert and AAA over there getting the win and Brittany with Monster and Flav-R-Pac going No. 1. The Prock kid, they are pulling it together, he’s hard on himself so he’ll work at it and that Montana Brand team will be good.” Austin Prock and the Montana Brand / RMT dragster started race day with a solo run after Clay Millican broke on the starting line. Prock would handle the Joe Barlam and Rahn Tobler tuned dragster to a 3.836-second run at 256.65 mph after shutting off early. In the second round, Prock would face eventual runner-up Josh Hart. Hart would win on the starting line with a .038-second reaction time to Prock’s .063. Hart would cross the line at 3.813-seconds and 323.66 mph to get the holeshot win over Prock’s 3.808 at 321.81. “We made good progress today on our Montana Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist car and I messed it up. I was .063 on the tree and got picked off,” Prock said. “Definitely pissed for my guys. They’re doing a great job and we just can’t seem to get it done. I’ll go to work to try and improve to make sure this doesn’t happen again. Looking forward to the Western Swing here in a few weeks.” The NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series continues at Bandimere Speedway for the Dodge Power Brokers NHRA Mile-High Nationals July 15-17. -30-

AUSTIN PROCK, 26, Montana Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist DragsterQualifying:5th; 3.745-seconds; 328.78 mphBonus Qualifying Points:0Race Results: Beat Clay Millican; Lost to Josh HartBRITTANY FORCE, 35, Flav-R-Pac / Monster Energy DragsterQualifying:1st; 3.666-seconds; 333.08 mphBonus Qualifying Points: +7 (quickest Q1 & Q2, 3rd quickest Q3)Race Results: Beat Kyle Wurtzel, Tripp Tatum; Lost to Josh HartJOHN FORCE, 73, PEAK / BlueDEF PLATINUM Chevrolet Camaro SSQualifying:2nd; 3.903-seconds; 330.15 mphBonus Qualifying Points: +10 (quickest Q1&4, 2nd quickest Q2&3)Race Results: Beat Bobby Bode; Lost to J.R. ToddROBERT HIGHT, 52, AAA Ohio Chevy Camaro SSQualifying:3rd; 3.907-seconds; 327.59 mphBonus Qualifying Points:0Race Results: Beat Jim Campbell, Alexis DeJoria, J.R. Todd, Bob Tasca III

SUMMIT MOTORSPORTS PARK IN NORWALK, OHIO JUNE 26, 2022 Chevrolet teams capture victories at Norwalk• Robert Hight grabs Funny Car points lead with fourth victory of 2022• Erica Enders extends Pro Stock points lead with fifth win of the season

NORWALK, Ohio (June 26, 2022) — Chevrolet drivers Robert Hight and Erica Enders helped their championship aspirations with victories in the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals.  Hight, driving the the AAA of Ohio Chevrolet Camaro SS, takes over the Funny Car points lead with his fourth victory of the season, while Enders extends her Pro Stock lead to 105 points with her series-leading fifth win of the year. “I think its awesome and I am so proud of this team,” said Hight after the win. “They have worked so hard. It shows we are legit here and here to win. But, you know what, we have two weeks to get ready for Denver and go out there and try to sweep the swing. And that is exactly what this Auto Club team is going to try to do.” Hight defeated Bob Tasca in the finals while his teammate John Force fell in the second round after dropping a cylinder. Force, the No. 2 qualifier in the PEAK/BlueDEF Platinum Camaro SS, extended his NHRA record with his 4,000th career elimination round win. In Pro Stock, Enders met Elite Motorsports teammate Aaron Stanfield in the finals for the fourth time this season. She has won three of those meetings.  “I go back to the old days and remember how long this journey has been,” said Enders, driver of the Melling Performance/Elite Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro SS. “This is my 18th year in Pro Stock. I’m sure some of the viewers are sick of seeing this Melling Performance Chevy Camaro in the winner’s circle, but we went seven years winless.” In Top Fuel, Brittany Force made it to the semis in the Monster Energy/Flav-R-Pac Chevrolet dragster before falling to Josh Hart in a tight drag race and surrenders the point lead. John Force Racing teammate Austin Prock fell in the second round after losing a cylinders. The Constant Aviation Factory Stock Showdown final was a classic face-off between David Barton in his Chevrolet COPO Camaro and Bill Skillman. Barton came up a blink short at the final and heads into the next round second in the standings. The battle for the Factory Stock Showdown world championship will continue Labor Day weekend at the U.S. Nationals.

Chevrolet teams will prepare for the annual Western Swing – three consecutive weekends of racing – starting July 15-17 at Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, Colorado. Brittany Force was the No. 1 qualifier in Top Fuel in the 2021 event. Pro Stock did not compete at Bandimere Speedway last year. FOX will telecast eliminations at 4 p.m. ET July 17.

CHEVROLET FROM THE COCKPIT TOP FUEL:BRITTANY FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, MONSTER ENERGY/FLAV-R-PAC CHEVROLET DRAGSTER: ““Overall, our Monster Energy team had a good weekend at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio. We earned our third No.1 qualifier of the season, set both ends of the track record with a 3.666 at 333 mph run, and made a semi-final round appearance on raceday,” Force said. “We have a couple weeks off to reset and get ready for the Western Swing. We kick it off starting in Denver and then head to Sonoma and Seattle. We plan to keep the rhythm we’ve held all year and get back in another winners circle.” AUSTIN PROCK, JOHN FORCE RACING, MONTANA BRANDS/ROCKY MOUNTAIN TWIST CHEVROLET DRAGSTER: “We made good progress today on our Montana Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist car and I messed it up. I was .063 on the tree and got picked off,” Prock said. “Definitely pissed for my guys. They’re doing a great job and we just can’t seem to get it done. I’ll go to work to try and improve to make sure this doesn’t happen again. Looking forward to the Western Swing here in a few weeks FUNNY CAR:JOHN FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, PEAK/BLUEDEF PLATINUM CHEVROLET CAMARO SS: “Not a bad weekend for this PEAK Chevrolet team. We picked up quite a few qualifying points and we were strong through qualifying, even today, race day, we looked good,” Force said. “We dropped a cylinder out there, not sure why, but we’ll get it figured out and move onto the Western Swing. Good weekend for Robert and AAA over there getting the win and Brittany with Monster and Flav-R-Pac going No. 1. The Prock kid, they are pulling it together, he’s hard on himself so he’ll work at it and that Montana Brand team will be good.” ROBERT HIGHT, JOHN FORCE RACING, AAA OF OHIO CHEVROLET CAMARO SS: “I think its awesome and I am so proud of this team. They have worked so hard.  AAA and everybody behind us, Chevrolet, Cornwell Tools was here with us.  AAA of Ohio this weekend was a big deal. They love coming out here to the races, and there were some new faces.  It shows we are legit here and here to win. But you know what, we have two weeks to get ready for Denver and go out there and try to sweep the swing. And that is exactly what this Auto Club team is going to try to do. “This is big. I’ve never won here. We come here almost every year and race in Night Under Fire, a huge match race where the Badder’s pack in all the fans. I’ve won that thing a lot, but I could never get it done here for the National event.  I think this is awesome being able to cross this one off and get the points lead, it’s big. I am so proud of this AAA team. They have worked so hard. AAA Ohio and everybody behind us, Chevrolet, Cornwell Tools was here with us. I’ve had so much fun this weekend and we’ve had a great time, and I’m not ready for it to end.”  PRO STOCK:ERICA ENDERS, ELITE MOTORSPORTS, MELLING PERFORMANCE CHEVROLET CAMARO: “I go back to the old days and remember how long this journey has been. This is my 18th year in Pro Stock. I’m sure some of the viewers are sick of seeing this Melling Performances Chevy Camaro in the Winner’s Circle, but we went seven years winless. I drove for multiple teams and struggled to find money. But I finally found a home here and these Elite Motorsports guys believe in me – more than I do sometimes. I don’t have to question where they stand and I’ll tell you what as a driver it clears my mind and makes me question nothing. I could not be more proud of these guys. And thanks again to Melling Performance. We are going to Jackson, Michigan, tomorrow to see the Melling family and all their great employees, and we get to take them some badass hardware to show them I am just so proud.”

Wayne Taylor Racing’s Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor Win Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen with late-race pass
Oliver Jarvis and Tom Blomqvist lead large portions of the six-hour endurance contest, and complete Acura 1-2 sweep in their Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05
Fourth 1-2 finish of 2022 for Acura in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition 

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (June 26, 2022) – For the fourth time in seven races in the 2022 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Acura led the way today at the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen, scoring a 1-2 finish, with the Wayne Taylor Racing duo of Filipe Albuquerque and Ricky Taylor in their Acura ARX-05 scoring their third win in the last four races.

Tom Blomqvist and Oliver Jarvis completed the Acura 1-2 sweep with a second-place finish in their Meyer Shank Racing ARX-05.

The two Acura teams traded the lead repeatedly during the first half of today’s race at Watkins Glen International Raceway in upstate New York, after the WTR team elected to go “off strategy” early in the race. As a result, each Acura team would turn the lead over to the other during their respective stops.

MSR appeared to get the upper hand in the contest in the fourth hour, exiting the pits ahead of WTR, and maintaining that lead until severe weather in the Watkins Glen area forced race officials to halt the contest with 90 minutes remaining. When the race resumed with just over 20 minutes to go, Albuquerque in the Wayne Taylor Acura was able to draft past Blomqvist’s ARX-05, and would maintain a narrow advantage to the checkers.

The result moves Wayne Taylor Racing, Albuquerque and Taylor to the top of the IMSA driver and team championship standings, with MSR, Blomqvist and Jarvis just 17 points back in second. The fourth win in seven races moves Acura to the top of the season-long Manufacturer standings; and also to the top of the top of the Michelin Endurance Cup, after three of four long-distance races on the schedule. MSR, Blomqvist and Jarvis also lead the endurance cup title chase for teams and drivers.

Acura NSX GT3 Evo22
In the production-based GTD class, the #66 Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 driven by Till Bechtolsheimer, Mario Farnbacher and Kiffyn Simpson made up a number of positions in the opening hour in that hands of Bechtolsheimer, but was soon forced to go behind the wall with a mechanical issue and eventually retired.

Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen Acura Race Results
1st overall – #10 Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque, Wayne Taylor Racing Acura ARX-05 DPi
2nd overall – #60 Tom Blomqvist and Oliver Jarvis, Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05 DPi
16th GTD – #66 Till Bechtolsheimer, Mario Farnbacher and Kyffin Simpson, Gradient Racing Acura NSX GT3 Evo22 [did not finish]

DPi Manufacturers’ Championship Drivers’ Championship (after 7 of 10 rounds)

1. Acura 2,590 1. Filipe Albuquerque, Ricky Taylor 2,399
2. Cadillac 2,566 2. Tom Blomqvist, Oliver Jarvis 2,382
   3. Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn 1,956

Michelin Endurance Cup Manufacturers’ Endurance Cup Drivers’ (after 3 of 4 rounds)

1. Acura 41 1. Tom Blomqvist, Oliver Jarvis 30
2. Cadillac 40 2. Filipe Albuquerque, Ricky Taylor 29
   3. Tristan Vautier, Richard Westbrook 28

Quotes
Filipe Albuquerque (#10 Wayne Taylor Racing ARX-05) Race winner, on his late-race pass for the victory: “It was crazy. I had to save fuel, so therefore I could not warm up the tires and the brakes before the restart. So, I had to restart with cold tires and brakes. I knew this [going into the “bus stop” chicane at the end of the long uphill Watkins Glen back straight] was the one and only shot to overtake [Tom] Blomqvist. I just put my foot down and we ended up side by side and I just ‘sent’ the car into the corner. It went over the curb and it ended up working.”

Tom Blomqvist (#60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05) Finished second: “It’s definitely a tough way to finish, especially after we were so strong all weekend. They [the WTR Acura] had an advantage all week in the first sector [of the track]. They were running less wing that we were, so they were quick there. It just meant we were vulnerable in our restarts. That time [the final restart], he was just a little bit closer. They were also way less on fuel, so they weighed like 15-20 kilos lighter, which also helped them. Luck was on their side today, but we had a perfect race. I mean, the team did a fantastic job for such a long race. We’ve had the quickest car all weekend long, but things didn’t fall our way. Obviously, I’m extremely disappointed for the team, who have been working hard all week. Thankfully, not long until the next [race].”

Lee Niffenegger (Program Manager, Honda Performance Development) on today’s 1-2 finish at the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen: “It is a fabulous 1-2 at Watkins Glen, and our first prototype win here with the Acura ARX-05. Fantastic driving and fuel saving by both of our teams to finish first and second and hold off the competitors to collect vital manufacturers’ championship points. Both Wayne Taylor Racing and Meyer Shank Racing executed all race long, great driving, great pit stops—really important in a six-hour race. We’re so happy to have gone 1-2 in both the Rolex 24 to start the year and now here at Watkins Glen. It’s a great testament to Acura speed and reliability to dominate at these endurance events.”

Fast Facts
Prior to today’s 1-2 result and first overall win, Acura Motorsports has recorded five previous class victories at Watkins Glen, including three consecutive Camel Lights wins (1991-93) and GTD victories in 2017 and 2019.

Acura’s initial Watkins Glen success came in 1991, with Parker Johnstone taking the Comptech Acura Spice SE90P to the Lights class victory. In 1992, Johnstone teamed with Dan Marvin to repeat as Camel Lights class winner. Acura’s third consecutive class win came in 1993, as Bob Earl and Bob Schader paired up for the victory in their Brix Racing Acura Spice SE91P.

Katherine Legge and Andy Lally took their Meyer Shank Racing Acura NSX GT3 to the GTD victory in 2017, marking the second consecutive race win for the pair that season and the second-win worldwide for the then-new NSX GT3 race program. Two years later, Mario Farnbacher, Trent Hindman and Justin Marks combined to claim GTD honors in 2019 for Meyer Shank Racing in their NSX GT3.

Next
The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship next heads north of the border to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, outside of Toronto, for a two hour, forty-minute race on Sunday, July 3, with live network TV coverage on NBC and live streaming on NBC Peacock.

Acura Motorsports social media content and video links from Watkins Glen International Raceway can be found on Instagram (www.instagram.com/hondaracing_hpd), Twitter (twitter.com/HondaRacing_HPD) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/HondaRacingHPD). Additional features and long-form videos can be found on the Honda Racing/HPD YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV).

NORWALK, OH (June 26, 2022) —- Camrie Caruso and the Kings of Vapor Chevrolet Camaro team were looking to add a Pro Stock national event win to their record to go along with the Top Alcohol Dragster win the 2022 rookie tallied in 2019 at Summit Motorsports Park. This weekend during the NHRA Summit Equipment Nationals Caruso and the Kings of Vapor Camaro once again had Titan Racing Engine power on display running to the No. 7 qualifier position. Her two best qualifying runs 6.582 and 6.667 seconds had the 24-year-old driver from Denver, North Carolina positioned to go rounds on race day.

Caruso’s first round match-up with Fernando Cuadra was a rematch of the Houston SoringNationals opening round where Caruso took the win as the No. 1 qualifier and raced to a runner-up finish. Today she recorded her second win light over Cuadra immediately as he jumped the tree and redlit. Caruso still cut a solid .041 light and powered down the track with a great 6.641 second run. It was her second quickest pass of the weekend and gave her lane choice over Kyle Koretsky in the quarterfinals.

Camrie Caruso, Kings of Vapor Chevrolet Camaro, photo by Auto Imagery

Both young drivers are in the thick of the Pro Stock Top Ten points and Caruso was looking for her second semifinal appearance of the season. She once again was consistent off the starting line with a .041 reaction time combined with another good run from the Kings of Vapor Camaro tripping the finish line lights 6.676 seconds after she hit the throttle. Koretsky was nearly psychic off the line with a .007 reaction time and that was enough to get the win light. While Caruso continues to develop as a driver, races like the today only serve to motivate her.

“I am giving it my best every run,” said Caruso, who only has two first round losses this season. “This Kings of Vapor Camaro was great all weekend. Getting the first round win was important because it really helps us in the points. Kyle had a great light. I am happy my race car is consistent, and we are qualifying really well. We are a young team and I am looking forward to getting to the Western Swing. We are going to do some testing before the race in Denver and we will be ready for the Mile High Nationals.”

Marc Caruso Camrie Caruso’s father points to Camrie before her run, photo by Auto Imagery

Caruso will be announcing a new sponsor for the Western Swing to add to the marketing partners supporting the Caruso Family Racing endeavor. The young driver is involved in all aspects of her team from building transmissions to driving to closing marketing deals. This season Caruso has built marketing partnerships with a host of companies including GESI, Right Trailers, Powerbuilt Tools, Sand Haulers of America, NGK Spark Plugs and VP Racing Lubricants.

“Our marketing partners are as important as win lights to be honest,” said Caruso. “We are trying to give them as much exposure on the track and with the fans as possible. Going rounds on races that are broadcast on FOX nationals is huge for our young team. We are building a marketing program that will support this race team but also build business to business relationships.”

The Caruso Family Racing Chevrolet Camaro will be back in action in during the Western Swing starting with the NHRA Mile High Nationals, July 15-17. 

Qualifying Results

Q1: 21.382 sec, 37.22 mph; Qual. 19

Q2: 6.582 sec, 205.69 mph; Qual. 7

Q3: 6.677 sec, 207.69 mph; Qual. 7

Q4: 15.341 sec, 50.02 mph; Qual. 7

Bonus Points:  0

Race Results

First Round

Camrie Caruso, Denver, NC, Kings of Vapor Chevrolet Camaro, 6.641, 206.54 mph def. Fernando Cuadra, Leon, Mexico, Corral Boots Camaro, DQ – red-light

Second Round

Camrie Caruso, Denver, NC, Kings of Vapor Chevrolet Camaro, 6.676, 205.54 mph def. Kyle Koretsky, Fairless Hill, Penn., Lucas Oil/KPK Construction Chevrolet Camaro, 6.677, 205.54 mph

Camping World Drag Racing Series Top Ten – Pro Stock

1. Erica Enders                             814

2. Aaron Stanfield                       709

3. Kyle Koretsky                           562

4. Dallas Glenn                            476

5. Greg Anderson                        459

6. Mason McGaha                       435

7. Camrie Caruso                         422

8. Deric Kramer                            376

9. Matt Hartford                          340

10. Bo Butner                              337

 About Camrie Caruso/Caruso Family Racing
Camrie Caruso is a third-generation driver with Caruso Family Racing. The 23-year-old Pro Stock rookie is following the career path of her father, former Pro Mod racer Marc Caruso and her grandfather, “Papa Joe” Caruso, who competed in Super Gas, Top Sportsman, and Pro Mod. Racing a Chevrolet Camaro with power provided by Titan Racing Engines Caruso will race the full NHRA Camping World Series schedule as she chases Rookie of the Year honors and her first world championship. She first got behind the wheel of a race car when she was eight years old competing in the NHRA Junior Dragster League. She has continued to move up through the NHRA competition classes for over a decade rising to Top Alcohol Dragster as well as Elite Top Dragster and Pro Outlaw 632 in the PDRA. Caruso has a Finance degree as well as a Marketing degree from SUNY Empire State College. In 2018 she was recognized by Drag Illustrated magazine as a 30 Under 30, drag racing personality. When she is not at the track, she is handling the marketing for Titan Racing Engines.

NORWALK, OH (June 26, 2022) — After back-to-back final round appearances including a win last weekend on Father’s Day at the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals championship contending driver Justin Ashley and the Phillips Connect Toyota Top Fuel dragster powered by Vita C Energy were upset in the open round at Summit Motorsports Park. The No. 2 qualifier was strong through two days of qualifying and rolled into race day with momentum and confidence. Facing Leah Pruett and her Tony Stewart Racing backed dragster Ashley was looking for his fifth win light in a row and third win of the season.

Cooler conditions blanketed the track as the Summit Equipment Nationals unfolded in front of a packed house. The 2020 NHRA Rookie of the Year and four-time finalist this season grabbed a starting line advantage and was on the way to adding another round win to his 5-3 head-to-head record against Pruett when his dragster surprisingly slowed as it crossed half-track. When Ashley crossed the finish line with an elapsed time of 3.852 seconds the drop off in performance was attributed to tire shake and Ashley giving his 11,000 horsepower Phillips Connect dragster a quick pedal. 

Phillips Connect Toyota Top Fuel dragster powered by Vita C Energy, photo by Ron Lewis Photography

“It was a little bit of a weird run,” said Ashley. “It put a hole out (dropped a cylinder) at the hit and it got out there and started shaking. It was in between the need to pedal and not pedal. I slapped it quickly and then got right back on the throttle. We didn’t accomplish our objective today, but we continued to learn and get better. Our hats off to Leah’s team, they did a better job.” 

The art of pedalling a race car is something that cannot be practiced away from competition so Ashley takes the positive from today’s experience even if the outcome was less than desirable. The third-year driver after talking with crew chief Mike Green and reviewing the data knows now pedalling was not the answer.

“From a broader perspective it was a successful weekend in many ways,” said Ashley. “The car ran very well during qualifying and we made great use of the Lucas Oil hospitality area throughout the weekend. Now we can take the car back to the shop and get ready for 

With two weeks off Ashley and his Phillips Connect team will gear up for the Western Swing. The three-race gauntlet will be a prime opportunity for the driver who is No. 4 in the Camping World Drag Racing Series point standings to highlight his marketing relationships with 

Auto Shocker, Lucas Oil, and KATO Fastening Systems to a host of west coast fans. 

Qualifying Results

Q1: 3.829 sec, 325.14 mph; Qual. 4

Q2: 3.707 sec, 330.96 mph; Qual. 2

Q3: 9.301 sec, 66.67 mph; Qual. 2

Q4: 3.840 sec, 325.77 mph; Qual. 2

Bonus Points: +2 (2^nd quickest of Q2)

Race Results

First Round

Leah Pruett, Lake Havasu City, Ariz., Dodge SRT dragster, 3.776, 327.98 mph def. Justin Ashley, Phillips Connect Toyota dragster powered by Vita C Energy, 3.852, 317.49 mph

Camping World Drag Racing Series Top Ten – Top Fuel

1. Mike Salinas                            821

2. Brittany Force                          809

3. Steve Torrence                        712

4. Justin Ashley                           711

5. Austin Prock                             513

6. Josh Hart                                   509

7. Shawn Langdon                       467

8. Clay Millican                            462

9. Doug Kalitta                             459

10. Leah Pruett                            417

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY (June 26, 2022) – In this weekend’s Mid-Ohio Trans Am by Pirelli race CD Racing duplicated its Memorial Day Lime Rock Park sweep of the top two steps of the podium. But this time it was Matthew Brabham, again subbing for Humaid Masaood, who climbed onto the top step and hoisted the winner’s trophy. The first 75 miles of the 100-mile sprint race were as exciting and competitive as any in the series’ 57-year history. A blanket could virtually have covered the first three cars – Brabham’s #21 allgram Ford Mustang, Dyson’s #20 ALTWELL Ford Mustang and the pole-winning #2 Chassis/STEEL-IT Weaver Dodge Challenger of NASCAR regular (and Trans Am rookie, but Mid-Ohio veteran) Kaz Grala.   At the green flag (which at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for safety reasons is unfurled mid-way down the back straight) Brabham, who had started on the front row alongside Grala, made a bold move to take the lead through the first corner, with Dyson tucking into third place from his second-row starting spot. Brabham led the first lap, but Grala used the Dodge’s prodigious horsepower to blast past Brabham on the long back straight the next lap. “This was actually our pre-race strategy,” Brabham said, following the race. “I was supposed to race Kaz hard, using up my tires to make Kaz wear out his, while Chris was saving his tires for the end of the race, when it would count.” No Team Orders And everything was going according to plan. At the three-quarters mark Brabham slipped past Grala for the lead and Dyson pulled up on the Challenger’s back bumper – just as the line to the Dodge’s oil overflow tank failed, spilling oil and filling Grala’s cockpit with smoke. Grala had no chance to get safely back to the pit and abandoned his car next to the track – unfortunately, at a dangerous location.   By the time the stricken Challenger was removed to a safe location the race had entered its final laps.  “My guys came on the radio and said Matty was asking if he should let me by on the restart,” Dyson said later. “I said no, he should go for it. Let’s go racing and have some fun. Just, if I’m faster, don’t block me. I didn’t want two wrecked cars. My tires were in better shape, and I think had the race run green all the way, I would have gotten by him.” Indeed, Dyson was significantly faster and had caught Brabham after the race restarted with 5 tours remaining and was challenging his teammate for the win when a backmarker spun into the gravel, necessitating another caution. This meant a green-white-checker one-lap shootout would decide the race. Brabham managed to get a better jump on the restart and the team cars crossed the line astern, a scant .379 seconds apart.  “Matty got a good enough restart and around here, with just one lap, there was just not enough time to challenge him,” Dyson said afterwards. “But he did a stunning job again for the team this last weekend. Matty’s broad array of winning racing experience in everything from IndyCars to Super Trucks, makes him a superb competitor. In a teammate you can’t ask for more. I’m thrilled for the team today.” Despite failing to win for just the second time this season, Dyson left Mid-Ohio with an expanded series title point lead. His closest challengers, Ken Thwaits and Tomy Drisi, finished fourth and fifth, respectively.On To WisconsinRound 8 of the Trans Am season runs over the July 4th weekend at Elkhart Lake, Wisc., on the classic four-mile Road America circuit. 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No. 01 V-Performance Cadillac DPi-V.R earns podium finish in endurance race

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (June 26, 2022) – The No. 01 V-Performance Academy Cadillac DPi-V.R withstood an incident-filled first half and a dash to the finish following a second-half red flag for lightning to secure third place in the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen at Watkins Glen International.

Co-driven by Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande, the Cadillac Racing entry followed its win at Detroit with another solid performance.  The red flag flew with 86 minutes left in the six-hour race on the 3.4-mile, 11-turn road course, and the cars remaining from the 48-entry field took the green flag with 21 minutes left. “A solid day for the 01 Cadillac. It was set up right, we did everything we had to give ourselves a chance,” said Bourdais, who challenged for second in the final turns and finished 2.267 behind the winning No. 10 Acura. “Everybody on the team did a great job and we’ll just keep digging.”

The No. 02 Cadillac Accessories DPi-V.R, co-driven by Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn, placed fourth in the seventh round of the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship and third of four races in the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup. Pipo Derani, Olivier Pla and Mike Conway overcame an early pit road penalty to finish fifth in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R on the 3.4-mile, 11-turn road course. Seven-time NASCAR Cup champion Jimmie Johnson co-drove the No. 48 Ally Cadillac DPi-V.R with Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Rockenfeller to sixth place. The No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R, co-driven by Tristan Vautier, Richard Westbrook and Loic Duval, incurred wing assembly damage in an on-track incident involving an LMP3 car with two hours left and finished seventh. Cadillac Racing teams venture north for the 2-hour, 40-minute Chevrolet Grand Prix on July 1-3 on the 2.459-mile, 10-turn Canadian Tire Motorsports Park course. It’s the first back-to-back race weekend of the IMSA season and will be the first stop at the track in to Bowmanville, Ontario, since 2019. NBC will telecast the race at 3 p.m. ET July 3. “We’re now moving on to CTMP. Looking forward to another high-speed track. We’ll take the trophy and take it from there,” van der Zande said. Spectators and the TV audience got an early look at the 2023 CT4-V Series Blackwing Watkins Glen Track Edition, which served as the DPi pace car. Track Editions, which are inspired by Cadillac racing success at iconic IMSA racetracks, will be fully revealed at the end of July on cadillac.com. Sebring International Raceway and Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta will also be represented.

Cadillac Racing from the cockpit No. 01 V-Performance Academy Cadillac DPi-V.R (third place)Sebastien Bourdais: “We were trimmed out, but we’re not just quite as fast as those guys on the fast, sweeping tracks. It’s a little frustrating. You do everything right. We’re winning the battle of the Cadillacs, but unfortunately it’s just not quite enough to win the race. We’ll keep digging and see what we can do next week in Canada. (The race) was very broken up for everyone at the beginning (with the caution flags) and then Renger had a very solid triple stint in the middle of the race, which had to be hard with the heat and everything. He hung in there and kept it in contention the whole time. As it is often here, it’s a game of track position. We never really got it.” Renger van der Zande: “I did three stints in a row, which around here is OK with a yellow but I had zero yellows, so it was very intense. It was like an endurance race to the max and when I came out, I was dizzy because of the high loads and being in the car for more than two hours. I enjoyed it. I think the Cadillac ran really well. Let’s move to the next race and take this result as a positive.” No. 02 Cadillac Accessories Cadillac DPi-V.R (fourth place)Alex Lynn: “Fairly uneventful race for us with a P4 finish. It was a tight race. I think we were pretty quick, but those other three cars were just a bit quicker than us. Congratulations to the sister car on the podium.” Earl Bamber: “We definitely had the two best Cadillacs fighting all day long for the podium. We’ll look forward to Mosport and hopefully, another good track for us. It was a really great job by everyone at Chip Ganassi Racing and can’t wait to get to Canada.” No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R (fifth place)Olivier Pla: ““I think we couldn’t do much more than we did today. We’re going to go to Canada and try to get a better result.” Pipo Derani: “We did what we could with what we had. It was a difficult race for us. We had to fight back from a penalty. But it is what it is. We’ll fight hard the next time around.” Mike Conway: “They (Acuras) are fast and good on fuel. They were tough to beat today. But we did our best. It’s unfortunate we didn’t quite have enough. It was a tough one. At least we got some points, which is good for the team.” No. 48 Ally Cadillac DPi-V.R (sixth place)Jimmie Johnson: “It’s great to be back in the Ally Cadillac. I was just trying to be smart; we’ve had a hard time getting to the finish. With the car count being so high, just taking my time, being easy out there. (About wearing glasses while driving): That’s being 46 (years old). Welcome to 46; it’s coming for you.” No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R (seventh place)Richard Westbrook: “It’s been a tough weekend for us chasing balance and the pace of it. Then I got whacked in the rear. He obviously didn’t see me. I was fully past him because he hit me in the rear wing. But it’s part and parcel to racing at The Glen, six hours, lots of traffic. It’s a shame because it put us back. We need to fight to get our pace back, which we had earlier in the season. We’re going to regroup and come back stronger. We never stop striving to improve. After having such a strong quarter of the year, it’s mentally challenging. I have full faith that we’ll get back to where we need to be.” Tristan Vautier: “It seems to be the same. The car seems to be better when the temps go down. You can look at the races this year – Laguna Seca, Sebring at night and Daytona – we were good and here we struggled until it got cooler after the red. We have to figure out a wider window of operation and then we’ll be there.” Loic Duval: “We didn’t have the pace this weekend so you’re always on the back foot. It’s always harder to fight when you don’t have the pace. We tried to do something with the strategy because we came in with the lead in the endurance championship. We had a contact with an LMP3 car, and we had to change the rear end that put us two laps down. After the rain it was cooler and we picked up some pace to stay with the guys. This is something we have to look into. On to the next one for the guys.”

About CadillacA leading luxury auto brand since 1902, Cadillac is growing globally, driven by an expanding product portfolio that features distinctive design and technology. More information on Cadillac appears at www.cadillac.com. Cadillac’s media website with information, images and video can be found at media.cadillac.com.