| NASCAR CUP SERIES DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY DAYTONA 500 TEAM CHEVY OEM PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT FEBRUARY 17, 2023 |
| Jim Campbell, U.S. vice president of performance and motorsports for Chevrolet, was part of a panel discussion that met with the media along with representative peers from Ford and Toyota on Friday am. The following is the transcript from Campbell’s portion of the interview: WHAT’S NEW FOR YOU HEADING INTO 2023 AND WHAT ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWAD TO WATCHING? “Yeah, 2022 was a big year obviously for the series with the new car and for Chevy a lot of success with the Cup car with 19 wins, 24 wins with Xfinity and a couple of manufacturer’s championships. But we didn’t win the driver’s championship as these guys took that position, so obviously some goals ahead for this year. We have a lot of long time teams with Hendrick Motorsports and Richard Childress Racing, and then Trackhouse coming from the Ganassi side. Great partners and just great to see the extensions with Alex Bowman, Daniel Suarez and Ross Chastain. Obviously, we now have a lot of young drivers that are hitting their stride. We kind of turned our driver lineup over, over the past five or six years and the young drivers are now coming back from multiple years and hitting their stride. Obviously adding Noah Gragson, welcoming AJ (Allmendinger) back to the Cup Series and then bringing two of the winningest drivers in the series and ones that know a couple of things about championships in Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch. So, its going to be an exciting year. On the Truck Series side, KBM, Kyle Busch’s truck team is now going to be a great addition and we have some really terrific drivers coming into that series. Xfinity as well. Looking forward to the season and I have a couple of my colleagues here, Jim Danahy, our VP of Engineering and Eric Warren who is our director of all our NASCAR programs. I am not sure if Pat Suhy is here, he is probably in the garage right now.” REGARDING DEVELOPING HYBRIDAZATION, ELECTRIFICATION “I think the guys kind of said it but low carbon fuel is something we are working across many of the series on. In every series we are working on what are those steps to hybridization or are they going to do some testing in the electrification space. We have a lot to learn, as we do on the production side. In IMSA, we are running in the GTP category and we have a hybrid, in INDYCAR we have a hybrid coming next year, and I think every series has a hybrid consideration and I think there is going to be some testing in the EV space where we are really going to learn. And we do have to learn, not only technically, but from a market facing and fan side. So, that’s where we are at and obviously as a company we have a foot in both camps and we have an amazing portfolio of internal combustion engine vehicles. And we are introducing a whole host of EVs. We have the Bolt and Bolt EV and we have the Silverado EV work truck, which will start in production in March, and we have a Blazer EV and Equinox EV. We will bring the retail truck for the Silverado in November, the RST, which we showed. We have a lot of great internal combustion engines, so we have a foot in both camps and we just have to work with the series and the teams around when is the right place to bring that in, plus the sustainable fuel. The low carbon fuels are important.” REGARDING THE PIT STOP STRATEGY IN THE DUELS LAST NIGHT AND YOUR REACTIONS TO THAT “I would just say that at this speedway, one thing is for sure, drafting with others is the only way to stay in the pack and winning. If you want to do it on your own, you are going right to the back as we know. You saw different manufacturers drafting with one another and you saw moments when the manufacturers kind of got together. You have to draft, I think to stay up near the front. That is the key. And obviously the Duels kind of showed two things, we didn’t win either of them, but we did show speed I believe, particularly in the second one. Obviously in the qualifying we got a couple of guys on the front row, so there is some speed there. We do have to work together to some degree. Whether its your own manufacturer teammates or others, you do have to have people to draft with to get to the front.” CHEVY HAS HAD SUCCESS AT THE BIG TRACKS LATELY, BUT NOT THIS RACE, IS THERE A MESSAGE OR A HUNGER TO YOUR TEAMS TO CLOSE THE DEAL AT THIS PLACE “Oh, for sure. We have won this race 24 times and the last time we won it was with Austin Dillon in 2018 as you know, and with that said, Chevy drivers won 3 of the 4 speedway races. Both Talladega races and then Austin won the transfer race at Daytona. So we won 3 of the 4 there and we won both of the Atlanta races, however you want to categorize the Atlanta track. We have shown that we can do it, but we have got to do it here. You are exactly right, so we are definitely hungry for that. This is the weekend to go from 24 to 25 if we can get organized and get it done.” REGARDING A SALARY CAP FOR TEAMS “Not much more to add. The details matter and this is right now between the teams and the series. If it ends up going that way, the details matter.” HOW ARE THINGS IN THE SUPPLY CHAIN FOR YOU AS OPPOSED TO LAST YEAR? “Better. Its better, but there are still some stress areas. It’s better than it was a year ago, but broadly speaking, the same comment would go for our overall automotive business. Last two years very tight, two years ago was chips for semiconductors, very tight. Last year was chips and other supply chain considerations where we got some pinch points. Its getting better, but its not completely normal and I would say the same thing goes for the racing side.” HOW MIGHT F1 INVESTMENT IMPACT ANYTHING WITH YOUR CUP TEAMS AND RELATIONSHIPS THERE AND WHAT YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO PROVIDE? “I would say for us, we are early in the process. Just this past week we submitted our expression of interest to the FIA, so there are a number of steps before we would be considered to be in the series. So, we still have a ways to go on our side, but this would be complimentary and we use performance and racing as a place to really learn on the track and develop employees. Obviously, you get the benefits on the business side as well because when you win races you lift the opinion of the brand. So, I would just say we are early in the process, but this would be complimentary and we believe in the platform as a way to bring value to our company, but also to promote our brands and driver business.” GIVE US YOUR IMPRESSION OF DANIEL SUAREZ AS A DRIVER PRO AND A PERSON “We really value what Daniel has brought to Trackhouse and Chevrolet. He got his first win the Cup Series with Trackhouse and Chevy and I love what he is doing in bringing new fans to the sport and he does it every day through his social media efforts. He does it at select tracks where he invites friends in who have never been to the race, and as a result, we have a chance to grow the sport. I love what he is going and thrilled that he had an extension announcement with Trackhouse. Love what he is doing and I think what you will see when we introduced the Blazer EV, last year, if you saw it in the introduction video that we did, Daniel Suarez is there. And you will see him in the way that we introduce and promote our vehicles that are coming to market. So, love Daniel and all of our drivers. We want to use all of our drivers in a way to build excitement, enthusiasm and interest in not only our performance on track but what is happening back in the showroom and market. Daniel is a great example of that. Going back to the question on driver development, I think Chase Elliott was signed at 14 by Rick Hendrick. I don’t think he bought him from anybody else and that was a straight hire at 14. I remember getting the call from Rick when he signed him and he has gone on to do some great things. We do have a lot of seats in the Chevy fold, which is great. A lot of drivers who are driving everywhere in the series are coming to Chevy, because we have opportunities as you go up. So we will probably see 63% in the Cup side and somewhere around two-thirds in the Xfinity Series. So for drivers that want to move north, we have got opportunities for them. And in addition, I don’t know if you caught last night, but a woman named Katie Hettinger, don’t know if you know her. She won at New Smyrna in a pro late model in the World Series of Asphalt, first female winner, with Chevy. She is one of our development drivers that Eric and Jim have in our program. Watch for Nick Sanchez out of Rev Racing and obviously now coming to the Truck Series now with Danny Stockman and KB and that team. Rajah Caruth, with GMS, he was pretty quick yesterday in practice, so we are excited. There is more to do for sure, but I am really excited that Chevy has a lot of seats and drivers that want to go north in the series.” |