CHEVROLET RACING IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES IOWA INDYCAR 250S DOUBLEHEADER IOWA SPEEDWAY NEWTON, IOWA TEAM CHEVY POST RACE PODIUM ZOON CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPTS FOR BOTH RACES JULY 19, 2020
RACE ONE: Simon Pagenaud, No. 22 Menards Team Penske Chevrolet, winner coming from last on starting grid to Victory Lane and Oliver Askew, No 7 Arrow McLaren SP, third place finisher-first NTT INDYCAR Series podium
RACE TWO: Josef Newgarden, No. 1 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet, winner from pole-third win at Iowa, and Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, second place tying his best finish on the fast .875 oval
THE MODERATOR: Welcome, everybody, to our video news conference with the podium finishers from tonight’s race. We’re joined by the third-place finisher Oliver Askew of Arrow McLaren SP. Oliver finishes third. It’s his career best finish in the NTT INDYCAR Series. Oliver, took tires there late in the end and came through the field to score that podium and pass a lot of cars. Talk about the race tonight. And we’ll welcome Simon into the call. It’s Simon’s 15th career win in INDYCAR, his first win of 2020 and his first win at Iowa Speedway. Simon’s most recent win before tonight came at Toronto in 2019. Congratulations. You started 23rd, just the seventh guy to start 23rd or worse in an INDYCAR race and come all the way to win:
OLIVER ASKEW: Yeah, I don’t think I’ve had so much fun in a race car on an oval, on any racetrack in my life. Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet absolutely came to life since the track started to get a bit cooler and once the sun completely went down, and yeah, I just had so much fun out there. We were able to run the second lane about halfway through the race and I felt really good up there, as well.Without that second yellow I thought that we would have been in really good shape for finishing one-two with Pato and I, and we’ll try to do it tomorrow.I kept asking my timing stand what position we were in, and they would never tell me, they just told me to just keep my head down once we put on that fresh set of tires in the last stint, and I found myself fighting in third place with Rossi, and it was just an absolute blast up there.THE MODERATOR: You started pretty much mid-pack; how difficult was it to do qualifying and then start in the back and then kind of be patient and work your way until the car came in?
OLIVER ASKEW: Well, luckily qualifying doesn’t mean so much, as we saw today, and tomorrow we’re going to be starting in about the same spot. I was kind of worried the first stint didn’t really go very well. We got stuck in one groove and kind of burnt off the right front tire, so that forced us to pit a little early, which ended up helping us, I think. We jumped a lot of cars on that next stint, and that’s when we found ourselves running in the top 5 with Pato. Just an overall super strong day for the team.Q.Could you give us your perspective on what happened on the restart that got waved off? Colton Herta apparently was unaware that it was waved off? Were you aware? And apparently Pato went early. Can you give us your perspective on what happened?
OLIVER ASKEW: I don’t think — well — yeah, I can’t really speak for Pato. It didn’t seem like he went early. I don’t know why it was waved off. I thought it was waved off because there was contact. I didn’t know it got waved off for (indiscernible) waved off. But yeah, I haven’t seen the incident, so I can’t really comment on it. I was told in my ear that it was waved off right away.
Q.Oliver, McLaren when they put this team together decided they were going to go with two young guys, yourself, the Indy Lights champion from last year, and Pato O’Ward, the champion from the year before. It really seems the two of you are both getting to the same level of progress on the racetrack. How do you view the progress and the way that the two young guys are working with this team and the fact that the strategy that the team put in choosing both of you seems to be paying off very well?
OLIVER ASKEW: Yeah, I think it’s such a good environment right now. Pato and I get along really, really well and we have a lot of experienced personnel on the team. We have Robert Wickens who has recent experience with this car, who I’ve been able to lean on quite a bit over the past couple races. The more seat time I get in this car, the more I understand the ins and outs of INDYCAR, the better I seem to be and the more confidence I have in the car. It was good to put Road America behind us. That was not a very good weekend for myself, and hopefully this can be the start of a good rest of the year.You know, had a pretty good run on Simon. I probably should have gone in a bit deeper. I just didn’t really — yeah, I didn’t pull that move off that well, and I think it was really my only opportunity. He seemed to be a little bit better for the last 10 laps. Sort of 40 to go, 30 to go, I thought our car was really strong, but huge congrats to him. They did a fantastic job, and it was good to see him in Victory Lane.
Q.Oliver, this is your first podium. Based on the revised schedule would you have picked this soon or this track to get a podium?
OLIVER ASKEW: Well, I think this is the third podium in a row for Arrow McLaren SP here, so traditionally we’ve had really good cars and we knew that going in, but I kind of waited for the race to come to us. We made some good calls in the beginning of the race to jump a lot of traffic and ended up running one-two with Pato, which was awesome. I think without that yellow, we would have been in better shape, but that second yellow we would have been in better shape. To be on the podium here, it’s fantastic. My first podium on INDYCAR. Good to get that off my back and under my belt.Yeah, looking forward for tomorrow. Probably one of the funnest races I’ve done in my life. I’m happy I’ll be able to sleep in. I’m happy that these races aren’t during the day because that would be pretty brutal physically. So yeah.
Q.Does this change your goals for the rest of the year? Does it reset everything and now the expectations are higher?
OLIVER ASKEW: No, I don’t think so. The goal is for every weekend that we come across is just to do our best and execute, and that’s what we did today. As long as we keep our heads down and keep executing, we should be in good shape in the future.
Q.Simon, did you think you needed to get by Alex Palou at the end there?
SIMON PAGENAUD: Yeah, that was really trouble, to be honest, at the end, the traffic. Alex was doing a great job with his car and I was really strong on the bottom with a charging Scott behind me. That’s always kind of a stressful situation. But I also had to save some fuel to make it to the end. I used him to go fast on the straightaway, but at the end I was trying to press the issue a little bit and I found some things to try to get by, but when tires are used up, it’s a lot more difficult. You’re sliding around a lot more. Certainly not easy when you’re the leader. I didn’t want to throw away the race three laps to go, and I had a big moment three laps to go, so I was trying to force the issue. It worked out.
Q.Obviously it’s the first race of the new scoop on the aeroscreen, so I was wondering how you found it in the cockpit and whether you think it’s something that helped tonight and whether it’ll help moving forward, as well.
SIMON PAGENAUD: Yeah, personally I thought this was an added layer of airflow into the cockpit. I thought it was great handling as long as everybody runs it. Obviously as long as everybody runs it, you’re not going to feel something different. It’s my opinion the more air, the better. Obviously tonight was not too hot, so you’re not supposed to be hot in the race car. It’s under yellow that it gets actually the hottest, but if it was during the day, it would have been tougher. However, it’s an improvement, and INDYCAR is really on it.
OLIVER ASKEW: Yeah, I kind of echo what Scott said. I don’t think I’ve ever been so dirty getting out of the car in my life, which means that it’s been moving some air into the cockpit. I haven’t done a back-to-back, so I can’t really say if it’s an improvement, but props to INDYCAR car for making the effort for sure.
Q.I don’t know if you’ve had time to look at the Colton Herta crash yet with Rinus VeeKay or if you’ve seen the footage, but I wondered if you felt reassurance now we’ve got the aeroscreen in place; when you see crashes like that happening do you feel a bit more safe as a driver to know that safety device is there?
SIMON PAGENAUD: Yeah, personally that was my first thought. I saw two cars flying behind me pretty high. My first thought was thank God we’ve got the aeroscreen. Again, I’ve been in big favor of the aeroscreen for safety. Unfortunately being around what happened to Justin was really tough, really tough for everybody. Obviously being there and seeing it happen was extremely hard, so I’m so glad that INDYCAR is doing everything they can to be the pioneer into a new level of safety, and I welcome it.OLIVER ASKEW: Yeah, I haven’t seen the incident, so I can’t comment too much on it.
Q.Oliver, first career INDYCAR podium, looks like you and the team are really starting to find your legs out there. Could you take me through the last few laps trying to get past Rossi. And did I hear you, the team wasn’t telling you your position towards the end?
OLIVER ASKEW: Yeah, I kept asking what position we were in, and I kept asking where third place was, and they just kept telling me to keep my head down. They knew that I would catch him eventually. They were just trying to keep me focused on the task at hand. Yeah, awesome day for the team for sure. I feel great. Now we just need to focus on tomorrow and try to get another couple places better.
Q.Trying to get past Rossi there towards the end, was that a bit of a challenge for you at all, trying to get past Rossi?
OLIVER ASKEW: No, I was on much fresher tires than him, and I think it was Sato that just got around him, so that put him in a bit of dirty air, and he lost some momentum. You know, we were catching him from a long ways back. I think we were good from the start of that last stint.THE MODERATOR: Oliver, Scott, we appreciate your time. Congratulations on the podium finishes, and we’ll see you tomorrow night, and good luck.
Q.Simon, starting 23rd there when your car just wouldn’t cooperate there on the qualifying grid, can you kind of maybe tell us a little bit more about what actually happened there, and how does having to start in last there kind of change your mindset going into the start of the race?
SIMON PAGENAUD: Yeah, we had some sort of a turbo pressure issue, so the car wouldn’t start, a problem that’s really rare. Luckily we were able to fix it because we didn’t get to qualify we could fix it thanks to INDYCAR because obviously the new schedule made it so you have the impound rules, but we were able to fix it per the regulation, and it is what it is. I’ll tell you what, unfortunately it’s an engine issue, but Chevy won the Indy. So what can you say? You have to be fortunate about the situation you’re in sometimes, and sometimes there’s going to be outside factors you can’t control, but this team, as you see, is able to always bounce back, and I think that’s the strength, and that’s what’s impressive to me.Obviously definitely not the qualifying we wanted because I think we had a car for both poles, so tomorrow we’re going to have, again, a lot of work to do, but actually starting at the back allows you to learn really early on about lane usage, tire wear. So I think I started really aggressive and dialed it back a little bit afterwards, so that was a different approach to some of the races I’ve been starting at the front on ovals. Interesting for sure, but yeah, just very fortunate that my team had a great strategy, were able to lay down some fast laps in pit sequence and get to the front.
Q.Certainly it’s been the case for you the last four races where you’ve been able to storm up to the front from toward the back, but why especially with this race and this track do you feel like starting position really wasn’t a big factor, not only for you but for all the podium finishers tonight?
SIMON PAGENAUD: Well, I think tire deg, which is great for racing and a desire from Firestone to create better racing, the fact that we have added weight on the car creates tire degradation. So when you have tire degradation, the better cars show better on long runs, and then you’ve got good cars on short runs, and that creates a difference. So I think that’s why the racing was so good, and that’s why you saw people cycle from the back to the front and vice versa. But also pit sequence was big today. There was a big game to play there. I’m sure tomorrow a lot of people will catch up on it, but yeah, we were able to kind of play a very aggressive game on pit stops and pit sequence, and that just worked out better than anywhere else for sure.But here when you put new tires on and you’re doing obviously 19 seconds a lap and the others are doing 22 seconds a lap, that’s three seconds gained. So if you can do several laps like that, it’s a lot of time when it’s only a 19-second lap.
Q.How early in the race did you realize you were riding a rocketship?
SIMON PAGENAUD: It’s interesting because all of a sudden they said, you’re the leader. I’m like, they’ve got it wrong, there’s no way I’m the leader. I know we’re fast, but I didn’t think I passed everybody. I realized at the start we were really strong. I realized on long runs we were really strong, but we short pitted, and then I passed a lot of people during the pit sequence. So I didn’t get to see the cars I passed, but all of a sudden they’re telling me that (indiscernible) is for position, Josef is for position, I’m like, wow, we’re right there in the mix, we’re right there for the win, and that was early in the race, too. I think that was by lap 80. So pretty early on we were right back in it.From there I just kept my head down really. I just kept pushing. I just kept attacking and I just kept listening to the race car and what we needed to keep going. We didn’t have to make any changes at the end. It was just a matter of being on the right tire at the right time. Glad it didn’t go yellow at the end there, that would have thrown a big curve ball.
Q.And also your engineer Ben Bretzman said after the race that races like this when you’re starting last and you know you have a good car, you just go for it. It makes the strategy that much more simple. Do you believe that it was like that tonight?
SIMON PAGENAUD: Well, yeah. We are in a situation this weekend where we’ve got nothing to lose. We’re starting last. We’ve got a really good car. We’ve got to go for it. The only thing is I don’t want to crash the car because it’s a good car, you know.That’s the only thing in the back of my mind. You want to be there at the end to play for good position. Certainly did not expect, quite frankly, to win the race today, but I certainly put as much effort as I could to go get it. Yeah, it was certainly one of my best overall races, yeah, but INDYCAR will always top it.
Q.Are you going to do it again tomorrow night?SIMON PAGENAUD: Hey, I never give up. If by now you don’t know this, I’m going to go to bed, I’m going to rest, and then tomorrow morning I’m going to put the knife between my teeth and I’m going from last to first.
Q.Simon, you mentioned all the dust; how disturbing was that, or was it only after they put a lot of speedy-dry down?
SIMON PAGENAUD: Listen, I’m struggling with heat in the car, so whatever INDYCAR is doing to provide airflow, I’m happy. I’ve driven on dirt; it doesn’t bother me. I am dirty, yes; I understand what they’re talking about. But to me it’s more important to get some airflow.
Q.So you’ll take the dirt over the air?SIMON PAGENAUD: Absolutely, absolutely.
Q.Simon, obviously a great win for you and Penske, but some more struggles today with your car in qualifying and Will Power had a problem on his pit stop that resulted in his left front wheel coming off. Does your win today sort of show if Team Penske can put all this stuff that has plagued you guys the first four weeks behind you, you have a chance at winning every week? Do you have any thoughts on the frustrations there about why Penske has sort of had these uncharacteristic problems on execution?
SIMON PAGENAUD: Well, it’s an interesting question. I think it’s a very unprecedented time. I think everybody is having to adjust massively like we are right now doing this videoconference.I think for the team it’s a big adjustment. We used to work a certain way. We used to meet at the shop. I haven’t been to the shop since St. Pete, for example. You know, I used to go there every Monday and sit down with my engineer, with my crew and give them a pep talk and so forth. Team Penske is being very, very cautious on the guidelines of COVID-19. They take it very seriously. We have 550 people on the race team. It would be quite dramatic if we were to have the virus spread within the shop, so they’re taking a huge amount of precautions, and rightly so. I’m obviously a hundred percent behind. It requires us to change our method.Does it have anything to do with what’s been happening? I think it’s just INDYCAR racing in general. There’s a lot of action. The weekends are very compact. Obviously what happened today to us was one problem — I don’t even remember having a mechanical problem in my career at Team Penske. At the end of the day, like I said earlier, you’ve got to be fortunate about what you have and who you drive for, and we’ll bounce back from this and we’ll recover, so that’s what we do.
Q.Do you guys still feel like — Dixon finishes second again tonight. You make a little bit of progress and are chipping away, but is he still pulling away?
SIMON PAGENAUD: He’s a strong man. Dixon when he gets in this position is when he’s at his best. We’ve got to find a way to make him trip. But I’ll tell you what, this is what’s fun about competition. You want to beat the best, and he’s certainly on a roll. His team found the right setups at the beginning of the season. It doesn’t mean it’s going to be the case every day; he qualified 17th today. Obviously he raced really well, but he always does that.But there will be better days for us and worse days for him. We just have to capitalize when he has bad days, as long as his bad days are not second. But we can’t control it. If he does an excellent job, then good for him, but we’ve just got to do everything we can to execute, like I said, and stay up front.
Q.Last time we spoke, you had gone from 20th to second. This time last to first. Does this mean you won’t qualify from here on out?
SIMON PAGENAUD: That’s funny. No, I love qualifying. That’s the thing. It’s one of my favorite exercises. It’s so much fun to be able to put it together on that one lap, and honestly I got the pole here last year, I got the pole in 2016, as well. I was looking forward to try to get two poles here in one weekend.We certainly had the car for it. But at the end of the day, like I said, it’s racing. Sometimes there are mechanical issues. We didn’t crash out of the race. We scored maximum points. Can’t be mad at that. Can’t be mad at anything. Can’t be mad at Chevy at all. These things happen, and I’m 100 percent behind everybody. I make mistakes, too; it’s just — but that was not a mistake, that was a simple mechanical failure. But like I said, I don’t remember having had a mechanical failure in my six years with Penske, so it’s okay. We bounced back, and tomorrow we’ll try to do the same.
Q.Talking about tomorrow, looking at the track, it’s extremely bumpy, it’s very hot, especially in the cockpit for you guys. How do you recover from a race like this to be ready for tomorrow?SIMON PAGENAUD: Yes, that’s a hot topic, and it’s not a play on words actually. It’s a hot topic. I’ve personally done a lot of research on the body, heat and how to treat the athlete the best way to recover, to prepare. I can’t tell you all my secrets because I don’t want the drivers to use my — what I think I have an edge on, but there’s definitely been a lot of research done trying to get a little bit of an advantage. I don’t know if I do, but I know that originally I’m someone that’s very sensitive to heat, and so far it’s not bothering me, so I think we’re doing a good job.But very happy we’ve got more air coming into the cockpit now. Really want to thank INDYCAR for caring about the drivers’ opinion after Indy. It was so hot, so difficult to be 100 percent the entire race.
THE MODERATOR: We welcome Will Power in. Second-place finisher in tonight’s INDYCAR Iowa 250. First 1-2 finish for Penske since 2017. How satisfying is it to you after a couple frustrating races? And we welcome in the winner of tonight’s Iowa INDYCAR 250 Race No. 2, Josef Newgarden from Team Penske. It’s career win 15 for Josef, his third win at Iowa Speedway, his first since he won at Iowa in 2019.
 WILL POWER: It’s just good to have a normal race. Really good just to have a normal race. Obviously very frustrating start to the year, as it has been for the last six years. I don’t know what I got to do. A hundred points out. Who cares? Just going to go try to win races.
Q.A question about the preparation you went through from day one to two. Talk about the specific things you were doing to make sure you were prepared for today’s race and how it actually went.WILL POWER: Physically it was pretty hot at the end of the race. Had too really wheel it tonight. Normally I never 9indiscernible) in a race. This is the first time I felt it. I didn’t really sleep last night because I was so frustrated with what happened.Yeah, good day. Good day. Obviously way out in the points. If Dixon will finish in the top five every race, won’t be a race. Be very tough to beat him.
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: To answer your question, it felt great to shake off the pole jinx. I was pretty fired up yesterday. Felt like we had a winning car that slipped away from us. Was really determined that we could come back here and get it right today. Thought everyone did an amazing job.Tim is always on it when he’s calling the race. The boys in the pits are always executing for me. Just had a good run. No unlucky cautions tonight, which was great. Finally able to get the Hitachi car back into Victory Lane. Very happy about that. Very pumped to be with Chevy, have their support, great package underneath us.
Q. Josef, talk about how frustrated you were last night, to come back and have a day like you had today, leading over 200 laps, a great performance with the Firestone tires.
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Tricky. It was a tricky night with the tires. Firestone is such a great provider for us. We never have any major issues, no big concerns, no troubles.Yeah, feels good after a night like yesterday just being so frustrated. I felt like we were a bit unlucky with the yellow. Without a doubt just took us out of the race pretty much completely, getting trapped a lap down. Trying to keep the bad luck away from us hopefully going forward now for the rest of the season.
Q.Josef, how much of the frustration you felt stemmed not only from how close you felt like you were on Friday night, but how much of that was close calls, not having been to Victory Lane since Iowa last year?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It’s probably a bit of both. So frustrated after the GP, catching the unlucky yellow, then having sort of the engine issue at Road America when it looked like we were going to seal up something on Saturday there.Just another yellow flag that was wrong place, wrong time last night. I think all of those three compounded into some frustration of not being able to capitalize on good days.
Q.Will, you’ve come close several times this year. You were frustrated about some bad luck. What has been the most frustrating part about starting really relatively strong with a handful of podiums so far this year and not coming away with a win?
WILL POWER: What’s frustrating? It’s frustrating when you’re so quick and you keep getting screwed by yellows and INDYCAR because the pits close. That is the most frustrating, annoying thing in history. It’s such a bad rule. It should be changed. It should have been changed this year, and hasn’t.Otherwise I would have won a race. Otherwise Josef Newgarden probably would be right up there in the championship, too. Dixon wouldn’t have gotten that freebie win.That’s what I say about the season, man. Screw that bloody stupid closing the pits on yellow crap.
Q.Josef, what is it about Iowa that’s leading you to have so much success here?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I don’t know. I’ve spent my whole career studying the great Will Power. I’m a huge fan of Will. I respect him greatly. So I think all that work studying him has made me strong here at Iowa.But I don’t know. Honestly, I have no idea. I like short-track racing. I would take 10 short tracks if we could get them on the year. If I knew what it was, I’d bottle it, take it everywhere with me.We’ve always had good cars here. I think that’s why me and Will were 1-2, we had good cars. Certainly challenges by McLaren tonight. We can’t rest on what we did today. Got to be better next year. Good racecars, good teams, makes a big difference around here.
Q.Still your favorite short oval?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I would say so, yeah. I was really excited to go to Richmond this year. It was a shame we weren’t able to make that happen with the situation going on in the world. Yeah, I would say probably currently it is my favorite short track.
Q.Will, obviously you’re frustrated with some of the logistics and the rules. How do you keep your passion for the sport positive so you don’t get frustrated? How do you keep it so you keep that love and keep wanting to race?
WILL POWER: Yeah, I mean, just have normal races where it’s just strange, abnormal things don’t happen. Like just have straight-up, normal races, be able to use the pace that I have. That would be awesome. That would be just so good.Or you could totally change the tactic and just qualify horribly and do a bad job. The way the rule is right now, end up at the front. You kind of have to take which one you want to do. I’ll take the working hard and trying to be good.
Q.Do you think the frustration would get to a level that you would switch series, go drive somewhere else?
WILL POWER: No. They just need to change the rule. They need to make it fair to people who put a hard, good effort in, spend a lot of money to be at the front, not to get screwed and basically get a drive-through because a yellow falls at the wrong time. Just a horrible rule.There’s a solution for it, but they don’t want to change it. They should change it. Just a terrible rule.
Q.Josef, how excited was your chief engineer being from the state of Iowa with taking this victory home from the pole?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, Travis Law. He’s an incredible chief mechanic. We have great chief mechanics on our team across the board. Travis has done an amazing job for us.He obviously likes coming here because it’s home turf. A little different, normally he has some family members around. Didn’t have that this year with COVID-19. But nonetheless, I think a win here is a big deal for him. It’s a big deal for all of us because of that.Just like last year how we got pretty excited to be able to have a fast car, same thing this year. Wants to make sure we do a great job. He does that everywhere. But everybody would feel it’s a little more special in your home state.
Q.You mentioned a lot of people have been talking about sand and debris in the cockpits. What is the heat situation like? How is that getting in there?
WILL POWER: Yeah, actually I did notice when I got out of the car, there was sand all over my suit. It was hot. I have to say, it was hot and humid. I could have done with more air in my helmet, for sure.JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I’ll jump in and say, too, because we’ve been asked a lot about this. Look, at the end of the day, how do we judge the Aeroscreen? First off, they’ve honestly done an amazing job. The series has knocked it out of the park for pretty much most areas with this Aeroscreen.Are there some things that we still need to be better at, like airflow, pulling debris out of it, like the sand that you spoke about, especially on a gritty track like Iowa? Sure, we still have areas to improve. I think INDYCAR is listening, trying to do as much as they can in the pandemic situation. It’s been a tough year to make progress on anything I think anywhere in the world. But they’ve done a very good job.This Aeroscreen is very good. It’s very, very close to being perfect all around. The airflow quality has been a little lacking. We’ve made it a little bit better with every step. We still have a little bit more to go.There’s some grit that still comes inside the car, which is kind of the nature of an INDYCAR. We spew a lot of sand. We blast it up from the car. We’re swirling a lot of air on the track with the way these cars are designed.These things that need to be improved slightly, I think we’re going to get there. Overall I think I want to say that INDYCAR has done a great job with the screen.
WILL POWER: Thanks to Verizon and Chevy. Seriously, Chevy did a great job. You need to go out, people, and buy Verizon phones or get signed up with Verizon because, let me tell you, the service is amazing. How is that, Newgarden?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Unbelievable (laughter).
Q.Talking about the scoop, the cooling issues, was today a pretty significant step forward with the scoop or were there different things that you’d like to see added to it to improve the cooling?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I think they need to do some different things. Look, Road America, no issues for me. Absolutely zero issues. Texas, zero issues. The Indy GP, it’s too hot.I think some of the issues they’re running into is we’ve been trying to force air in, but we’re not getting air out. I think the main issue now is trying to extract air from the cockpit. Is it a terrible environment? No, it’s not a terrible environment. Is it ideal? It’s not ideal. Just kind of in the middle right now of quality as far as the airflow.The reason I went through that is because it depends on the track and it depends on the temperature outside. If it’s a cooler day like at Road America, it’s a long straightaway, you don’t pick up as much grit from the racetrack like you do here at Iowa, there’s not any big problems.I don’t think anyone had major issues at Road America. It’s on days like the GP of Indy where it’s 95, 98 degrees out, it’s too hot, you’re not getting enough airflow in at that point.I think what we’re going to find here it’s not getting more air into the car, it’s more pulling air out of it. Yeah, there’s still things that need to be better. I think that’s what we need to work on.I wasn’t a big fan of the scoop this weekend. I didn’t think that was a positive. But that’s also okay. We test things like that to see if it is a positive or not. My opinion is it wasn’t the right direction. I think we need to do something different.
Q.Hinch was saying on the broadcast he ran into you at the hotel last night, you were still so angry you couldn’t form words. When was the last time you’d been that angry after Friday’s night’s race? Was it the race itself, the effect of the whole season?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Probably the last time I was that angry was qualifying here in 2019. I felt like we were going to qualify on the pole. We qualified third just due to a small miscalculation. It just frustrated me so bad.Look, I’m competitive. You want to be perfect every time on the track. When you feel like you have either a car to put on pole or a car to win the race, it doesn’t materialize, it eats me up inside. You wouldn’t believe it. I couldn’t even sleep last night I was so angry.It is both, to your question. It’s a combination of the season has been so unkind for multiple events leading up to this weekend, then it happened again last night. Really just last night overall. I was just mad about both of those things.I felt like when is the tide going to turn? When are we not going to get these odd engine issues, whatever it’s going to be. We have to have a smooth day where if we’re a first or second place car, we’re going to be able to secure that result.Finally tonight we were able to break through that odd streak that we had.
Q.Dixon has five top fives now in six races. The season is almost half over. Does it feel like the championship is slipping out of reach here?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Not yet. Fortunately not yet. Look, these days I think you have to accept that this is racing, right? There are years where I’ve had tremendous fortunes over other people when they’ve had misfortunes. I think right now you’re seeing that Scott has the lucky end of the stick.It’s hard to predict when that’s going to happen. You never know when you’re going to get things going your way or they’re not going to go your way. You got to really work to stay on track.When you’re in a situation like we’ve been in where things are not going our way, you just have to keep with the same process, keep doing the same things. It’s inevitable that it’s going to turn around. You’re eventually going to get out of this odd cycle where things are not coming your way.I think a lot of it is not down to decision making that we’re doing. I think we’re putting ourselves in as good of a position as we can. We’re just for whatever reason missing it here or there. That’s when you start talking about luck. I hate to use the word ‘luck’ but it is part of racing.Dixon has had a great start. I think we’ve given him a lot of layups already. A couple of his wins were complete layups from us. He is smart, so he is going to take them.Hopefully we can get a couple on the back end. If they hand us some layup, we’re going to try to put it in the basket, no problem, as well.
Q.You’re going into August with Mid-Ohio, the 500, Gateway. Describe the endurance these guys have put up with and now getting the much-needed rest.
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It’s been grueling, totally grueling for our boys, boys and girls, on all the teams. You just can’t underestimate the amount of effort that’s being put in. These people are getting up at 4 a.m. in the morning on a Friday, traveling here, working all day on Friday, not getting out of the track until 1 a.m. in the morning. That’s almost a 24-hour shift, okay?You can’t make mistakes. You’re running a race at the same time in that 21 hours that you’re up for a constant amount of time. They’re doing an unbelievable job, absolutely unbelievable.I think the drivers have a hard time right now, too. But there’s nothing that compares to what the personnel and the mechanics are going through.Look, they’re grinding it out, doing what they can. They do it because they are passionate, they love racing, they want to do it for nights like tonight because they want to race. They have a lot of heart and soul without a doubt. It takes a tremendous amount of effort to do what they’re currently doing on these doubleheaders.This rest coming up for them is going to be very welcome, like you said.
Q.Regarding the championship race, Dixon’s lead, coming as close as you did last night, did you almost enter today feeling this was a must-win of sorts to stay in this race?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: No, no, no. It’s still too early. We’re not talking like there’s two or three to go as far as race events. So no.We just did the same thing, but we went aggressive. We went as aggressive as we could, did the same program. We knew that eventually all this was going to kind of turn around from a luck standpoint.I didn’t feel the pressure that we had to win to stay in the championship. It was just, hey, let’s go secure a win. We should have won last night, so let’s get it done tonight. That’s purely what the attitude was.Q.How much did the back-to-back doubleheaders take it out of you as the driver? You look a little thinner than normal. How has the toll been on you?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It was very tough. Without a doubt, I was pretty fatigued towards the end of this race. I don’t know how to describe it, but like the last 50 laps I felt like I was just starting to feel it a little bit. I was really having to work to concentrate.These aren’t endurance events where you kind of backpedal a bit with the car, take it easy. You are flat out, knife to your throat for 250 laps. That’s how you drive these cars.So to do that two nights in a row in a grueling environment. INDYCAR is honestly a grueling environment. It’s been a little bit more grueling with the Aeroscreen, but it’s always been that way. It’s always been tough.It was very difficult. I think for anyone in this race tonight, they had their work cut out for them. It was definitely a little more fatiguing than Road America. Road America you have a little more time on the straights to catch your breath. This was tough.If they end up doing doubleheaders at other events, what is going to be coming our way, they’re tough to get through. You have to be physically ready for it.
Q.On the Penske eight wide, pretty impressive considering it’s the one time this season where everybody at Team Penske is running everywhere, every series on two different hemispheres.
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It’s amazing what they’re doing, it really is. I think probably, what is it, 10, 15 years ago, probably just 10, Penske was not running this many cars. They didn’t have this many drivers, all this activity going on. They’re doing so much nowadays.It’s just amazing to see how they perform. They excel at every category they run in. That’s very difficult to do. They make it look simple. But it’s really not.They got a polished machine. It’s a lot of years of history. It’s just a tremendous amount of work from Roger and everyone that makes it happen, Tim Cindric, to make sure all themes teams are in sync and working together.Like I say, they make it look effortless. It’s unbelievable how they keep the performance up on all the teams.

NASCAR CUP SERIESTEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY O’REILLY AUTO PARTS 500 TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT JULY 19, 2020
AUSTIN DILLON, CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1 1LE SCORES VICTORY AT TEXAS Third Victory for the Camaro ZL1 1LE in 2020 
FORT WORTH, TX (July 19, 2020) – Austin Dillon adds his name to the record books by winning the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway in his No. 3 Bass Pro Shops / Tracker Off Road Camaro ZL1 1LE, his first win of 2020 and third career victory in the NASCAR Cup Series (NCS).  Holding off the field with three stellar late-race restarts, Dillon led Chevrolet to its fourteenth trip to victory lane in NASCAR’s premier series at Texas Motor Speedway and the third win for the Camaro ZL1 1LE in the 2020 season. The victory, Chevrolet’s 789th all-time win in the NASCAR Cup Series, also secures Dillon’s spot in the Cup Series Playoffs. 
Dillon led the bowtie brigade and Richard Childress Racing to a 1-2 finish, with teammate Tyler Reddick, No. 8 Cat Oil & Gas Camaro ZL1 1LE, posting a Cup Series career-best second place finish in his series debut at the 1.5-mile Texas oval. This is the first time since the 2011 Talladega event that Richard Childress racing has finished 1-2 in the NASCAR Cup Series. The win is the 109th NCS triumph for Richard Childress Racing. 
Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1 1LE, came across the finish line in the eighth position to round out the Team Chevy top-10. 
Joey Logano (Ford) was third, Kyle Busch (Toyota) was fourth, and Kevin Harvick (Ford) rounded out the top-five finishers of the race. 
The NASCAR Cup Series season continues on under the lights at Kansas Speedway with the Super Start Batteries 400 Presented by O’Reilly Auto Parts on Thursday, July 23rd, at 7:30 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on NBCSN, NBC Sports Gold app, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. 
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS / TRACKER OFF ROAD CAMARO ZL1 1LE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT: THE MODERATOR: We’ll roll into our post-race press conference with our race winner, Austin Dillon. Thank you for joining us after a quick visit to the care center.           Take us through the final laps. Not only a win but a Playoff spot as well. How did you approach the final laps?             AUSTIN DILLON: I just had to have confidence that in the moment we had a car that had potential. It didn’t really run well in traffic. Justin and I both talked about what kind of happened in Kentucky with Cole, the way they ran.           If you can get the track position at some point, you can be fast. You saw when we got out front, we had a hot rod. Got to thank all the partners: Bass Pro Shops, American Ethanol, Dow, Coca‑Cola.           But the call was the win, the call that Justin made. I asked him for something. Our car was fading. I thought Tyler, his car was a little better coming down the stretch. He had kind of caught me, but we had track position on him. I said, Man, I got to have something to finish this race off.           He said, All right, we’re taking lefts.           Lefts had freed my car up all day. I was tight. When we put the lefts on, it was the call we needed to go on and win the race.           It came down to just some restarts, not screwing up, making it happen when it counted on those restarts, getting through the gears, timing them. I had some good pushing. My buddy Kurt Busch gave me a good push that first one. Joey Logano was also a lot of help down the stretch.             THE MODERATOR: We’ll go straight into questions for Austin.            Q. Did you just need some fluids? How are you doing?AUSTIN DILLON: Yep, I got a couple IVs in me, feeling great. I felt great once I kind of got in the air‑conditioning. I was kind of wanting to come back out. I gave it all. I left it all out there. At least I can say that. Left it all out on the track.           Yeah, I feel great. The infield care center did a great job of taking care of myself. Kurt Busch, too. Kurt is okay. We’re actually flying back together so it worked out okay.            Q. Did you think you’d be able to survive that number of restarts with people having fresher tires behind you?AUSTIN DILLON: Yeah, you know, I didn’t think tires were as big of an advantage, at least my car. Every time we put on four, we really struggled. We were just better on two. I felt like I could keep up with the competition better on two.           The restarts, as far as that went, I knew if I had a good push, I knew I could dictate when everything happened. I had good pushers with Kurt and Joey, like I said. The last one, I timed it perfect. Switched it up where I was in the restart box when I went. It gave me a gap to kind of put dirty air on everyone behind me.            Q. You’ve won two pretty big races in the past. That was on a superspeedway and fuel mileage. Does this mean any more because you had three restarts to earn it?AUSTIN DILLON: Hell yeah, it does. We took it from them. That feels good. I’ve said it to my grandfather. I said, Man, the two races we won were fuel mileage and one was the Daytona 500, it played out. Either way we had to make it happen. So they’re both big wins in my career.           This one, once again, we had to make it happen multiple times on older tires. That was pretty cool. Feels great.            Q. Why do you think you don’t get the credit you deserve from fans? Do you think you deserve more credit from fans?AUSTIN DILLON: I don’t know. It’s okay, man. Sports are sports. You got to have someone you don’t like. Maybe it’s just my background, where I come from. But I got a lot of people that love me, too. It doesn’t bother me at all really. They can either get on the bandwagon and love me… It’s okay. It’s part of sports. Haters are going to hate sometimes, but we’ll be all right.            Q. We heard from your crew chief about the late race call to take two tires. He was very surprised you were the only ones to take two tires. Were you just as surprised to find yourself at the front of the field?AUSTIN DILLON: Yeah, I was pleasantly surprised. It’s a good thing when you see no one in front of you. I saw my teammate. I knew he was on fuel‑only strategy. He had a good car there late like I said.           But I felt like our left sides were going to give us the edge on him. Was able to make it stick on the bottom. That’s kind of what pulled it out for us.           What a call by Justin. I mean, he’s done a great job all year of putting us in good positions when it comes to track position. All three of my Cup wins are with Justin. Love the guy. I can’t thank him enough for everything he’s done for me and my family.           He’s been putting great products out there. He deals with me. I’m not the easiest individual in the world to deal with. I can get cranky from time to time. It’s just because I’m passionate and I’m a grinder. I feel like I can go out there and compete week and week out with these guys.           This was a huge win for our company, RCR, ECR, everybody that supports us. It was really cool.           It was nice to also have the ball in my court, you know what I mean, to dictate the end of the race.            Q. Nobody can take away you’ve won a couple of major races. When you reference talking to your grandfather about maybe not having earned it in the traditional sense, how much does that weigh on a driver? Were those things that gnawed at you a little bit because of what those races were?AUSTIN DILLON: You stay patient. You have faith. I have faith. Faith can really take you a long way. I’m not saying there wasn’t a lot of ups and downs during that time period. You go through peaks and valleys.           Have you to be able to have a good support system. My wife, my family always believed in me. I couldn’t get there without that. You know what I mean? Without the friends and the family, I would definitely have let it weigh on me. I don’t know how many races it’s been in between. I think somebody said it earlier, it was a pretty big number from Daytona to now.           You just stay diligent. I put a lot of work in during the pandemic to get in good shape. Didn’t look like it after the race, but I’ve been working my tail off in the car. I left it all out there.           But all the work, all the effort, the continued thoughts. You got to think positive, know that it’s going to turn around and come your way. I know I can do this. I’ve done it in the Xfinity Series, Truck Series, won outright in those multiple times. It’s the same guys, just more of them.           Those other wins feel just as good as this one, but there’s definitely an edge to this win. It feel goods.            Q. You talked about how you nailed it on the last restart. You haven’t led much this season. There’s no practice. You’re not getting track time. Maybe it’s been months since you led a restart in a race. How do you hit it and not spin the tires?AUSTIN DILLON: Kind of like riding a bike. I’ve been in that situation before. I’ve been given a lot of shit actually from all my friends about restarts, how I restart for a long time. I don’t ever want to let them down.           I had some dang good restarts at Kentucky from, like, eighth. I’ve always told them, Man, give me something I can drive and I can restart. I definitely made mistakes throughout the past. But I feel like in the right situations, I make it happen.           That was one of those situations where I had to clutch it. I had to make it work. I chose the bottom all three times. My spotter and Justin wanted it the second time. I didn’t feel real great about it the second time. It showed because I was a little late. It kind of backed everything up. Joey gave me a good push to get me going, which helped.           That last one I was thinking top, top, the whole last lap. Coming to the green, I said, I’m going to dictate this race from wherever I start. I chose the bottom. I thought our car was turning better than what Reddick was at that point. I chose that bottom. Just changed up, I made a different move than what I had been making on the restart.           I think it kind of threw a curve ball at the guys. That gave me that little bit of jump that I needed to be able to put dirty air on their nose going into turn one.            Q. How are you a different driver and how is RCR a different team going into the Playoffs this year?AUSTIN DILLON: As much as I hate to say it, I’ve got a lot of experience now in the Cup Series. For a long time I was looked at as kind of a young gun. I still feel young. The biggest thing is I’ve had to step up in the role that I’m in.           You bring Tyler in, who has absolutely crushed it from the Xfinity Series with two championships, brought something to push me. I think that’s something that everybody needs, is competition. I can’t thank him enough for all the competition he’s brought to our company. You got to have that.           When I first came in the Cup Series, I thought I was going to have Kevin Harvick as my teammate. He left. Me and Newman started our deal out. Newman was really great for a long time. Daniel was unlucky last year. We didn’t have what we needed last year, I feel like. Reddick was on fire.           Bringing him in, it really kind of changed the dynamic this year as far as the competition goes. Got to hand it to my grandfather. He’s made some great calls on putting the people in the right places. Even though I’ve argued with him multiple times on it, I got to give it to him. He does a good job. That’s why he’s the legend that he is.            Q. This is the first time since 2011 that RCR finished first and second in a Cup race. How much do you think that will mean to the people in Welcome?AUSTIN DILLON: Huge. Run a family organization back at home, at RCR. It’s so awesome. When you cross those railroad tracks, there’s a sign when you come in there. I can’t wait to get home because I know what it’s going to say on that sign: RCR goes 1‑2, and the 3 team brings home a victory at Texas.           That’s my favorite thing to do, home to all the hard‑working employees that have believed in me, those people matter the most to me. Our fans are huge, but also our employees that dig in and build these great racecars for us.            Q. You’re in the Playoffs now. Tyler is 14 points out. What does he have to do over the next eight races to get in?AUSTIN DILLON: I already seen a lot more maturity this year out of Tyler than I figured was going to be there, truthfully. As aggressive as he was in the Xfinity Series, I didn’t know how he would fare throughout those long races.           He’s taken care of his equipment. That’s a big part of it. I feel like if he takes care of his equipment, he obviously has enough talent in the cars to do it. It’s hard to start in that group from 13 to 24 to get the stage points. That’s the hardest point that him and Randall are going to have to focus on moving forward is getting track position at some of these places to give him opportunity.           He can win anywhere he goes. He has that talent in him. I wouldn’t be surprised next week at Kansas if both of us have another shot with what we’re bringing to the track. We got to do a really good job, like we did today, putting ourselves in situations where we are leading the race and we can take that opportunity to the next level.           I have no doubt that Tyler is going to be a winner in the NASCAR Cup Series.            Q. We’ve heard from a lot of drivers that it’s been a while since they won, they start hearing things, phantom vibrations. Was anything going through your head on those final laps when you had those guys behind you?AUSTIN DILLON: Only thing going through my head was the damn car was really hot (laughter).           The second to last restart, when that caution came out, I kind of had gotten tight into three. I don’t know if it was just because I was giving it all I had there at the end. That caution came out. I’m sure a lot of people were hoping it would go green right there. I think it was good for us. It cooled our tires back down, allowed me to fire it back in there that green‑white‑checkered.           No, I didn’t have any of those phantom vibrations. That was a good thing. You definitely start questioning them. The questioning thing is, like, you don’t want to give it away by choosing the wrong lane. That was my biggest thing. Don’t choose the wrong lane, inside or outside.           At the end, either way you have to make the move on your own. You dictate the start because you’re the leader. Doesn’t matter top or bottom, I knew what I had to do. I was able to make it happen.            Q. They showed Whitney on TV. Have you talked to her?AUSTIN DILLON: I FaceTimed her. She was holding Ace. Mother‑in‑law was there. It was just elation. They’re super happy, super pumped. Can’t wait to get home. Praise the Lord, it meant a lot to our whole family.            Q. Short week heading to Kansas. Since 2016 your results haven’t been what you would expect at Kansas. Talk about coming off of this win, the momentum going into that race.AUSTIN DILLON: Yeah, it’s another mile‑and‑a‑half. Our cars have competed well on mile‑and‑a‑half’s. Tyler had a pretty good run. It was his first Cup start there last year. Justin was crew chiefing him. We have some data from that run.           We weren’t bad in that race. We kind of gave it away in certain areas. We’re executing much better this year than what we were last year. Execution is a big part of it. I’ve studied some of the guys like Brad Keselowski who don’t always have the best car but makes it happen when it counts. They constantly are battling for track position even if they don’t have the best car.           We’re trying to do more of that and put ourselves in more situations, putting yourself up front so you’re comfortable running up there, make your own race at the end.            Q. You have had a couple opportunities to race in front of fans in recent weeks. This was the first event in the state of Texas to have fans. What was the moment like for you to be able to interact with fans?AUSTIN DILLON: Felt really good. I think it would have been awkward without them. That’s why I parked it right in front of them and let them smell that smoke, the burnt rubber. Everything I did was for those fans. I think they loved it.           I also gave the flag away to a little kid. He had a Kyle Busch shirt on. I told him he needed to get a new shirt. Hopefully I transferred him over (smiling).            Q. This whole stretch up until the last two weeks, it was the guys top eight in points winning races. You and Cole now have won races. Do you think it’s fortuitous timing or something we can see more of?AUSTIN DILLON: You saw Tyler up there with me at the end. There’s another guy in that area of points. A lot of disadvantages when it comes to the stages and points side of it. I also puts you in advantage to take chances when it counts. That’s what we did. It worked out for us.           You got to be aggressive in this sport to win races. I’ve kind of noticed that a lot of the great guys that are doing it. We were aggressive with our call. We maintained our position and won the race.            Q. Your teammate obviously has been one of the sources of inspiration for a lot of people. Strong rookie year. Where do you see his future in this sport?AUSTIN DILLON: I think he’s super talented. I think he’s going to be great for RCR for a long time. He’s only going to get better I feel like. He’s got a lot of potential. He shows it week in and week out. He’s not afraid to change lanes.           Definitely pushes me, shows me some things from time to time. I think I can show him every now and then a couple things.            Q. When your former competition on the cusp of the Playoff picture, William Byron and Jimmie Johnson had some problems today, did that change the way you and the 3 changed things up a little bit?AUSTIN DILLON: We didn’t start off real great truthfully our first run. We were bad off, made some adjustments. Never felt like we were out. We’ve had this saying on our car all year: FIDO, forget it and drive on. It’s been good for us. Even when we’re struggling, it’s FIDO, start over.           It was from a military guy that came and spoke to our company at the beginning of the year. I took that and used it. Even when we’re struggling, we kind of never are out of the fight. That was big today because I think with, like, 60 to go, I needed that saying FIDO because I came on the radio and said, We’re not good. We had the track position but we couldn’t hold it. He gave me better track positions. It was like, All right, I got to make it happen, do what it takes.             THE MODERATOR: Austin, we appreciate you joining us, especially after you made a trip to the care center. Best of luck in Kansas.             AUSTIN DILLON: Love you guys. JUSTIN ALEXANDER, CREW CHIEF, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS / TRACKER OFF ROAD CAMARO ZL1 1LE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT: 
THE MODERATOR: Justin, take us through those last few laps, what it was like from atop the box, especially knowing that you were battling with your teammate as well.             JUSTIN ALEXANDER: Yeah, it was nerve‑wracking to say the least. We kind of had a good lead there about 15 to go. A caution came out. Every time a caution comes out, anything can happen. Especially battling with Tyler, he’s so good. He’s been good all day. He went to the back for a little bit, but came back up to the front.           Those last couple restarts, just nerve‑wracking. Anything can happen. We believed in Austin. He did such a good job the previous one. Just kind of hold‑your‑breath moment. We got through. Austin did a heck of a job. Can’t say enough about everyone on this team.             THE MODERATOR: We’ll start with questions for Justin.            Q. Joey Logano told us the tire that was used today wore but the car never slowed down. The only thing that affected it were the heat and balance. Did you notice those characteristics? If so, how did that influence your strategy on the final pit stop?JUSTIN ALEXANDER: Yeah, I think he’s absolutely right about that. If you watch lap times, we never really fell off any. Sometimes it would get a little faster towards the end of runs. That definitely played into our strategy.           Definitely what he said, really you’re ‑‑ the tires did wear, left side wear was a little bit of an issue. We had to deal with that. Obviously balance. When you take left versus rights, it changes the balance of the car. Definitely we fought that all day along with everyone else.           I think at the end, when we came down there to pit, it made sense to me to take two, or even none. Really, usually you would fire off slower on four tires. For us, we’d been firing off really good on two. We took lefts. Our car was a little bit tight at the time, so lefts freed us up, which definitely helped the handling of the car and let Austin do what he needed to do.            Q. Would you consider today’s win an upset?JUSTIN ALEXANDER: An upset? No. I think it depends in what terms you’re talking about an upset. The last time we were in Victory Lane with Austin was in 2018. It’s been a while since we’ve been in Victory Lane.           I think some people don’t give Austin enough credit. They think he may not be good enough to win races. They don’t give this team enough credit. From that perspective I do think we’re a bit of an underdog to some of these teams, bigger teams. In that respect, yeah, maybe it is a little bit of an upset.           We didn’t back into this win. We didn’t fluke win. It wasn’t a fuel mileage deal. We went up to the front, raced them at the end. The car had every bit of speed we needed to win this race. Our cars have had a lot of speed all year. It’s really about execution. We did put it all together today.            Q. Did the fact that you kind of needed a win to get in the Playoffs, did that affect your strategy calls at the end of the race?JUSTIN ALEXANDER: No. I would have made those calls regardless of whatever we needed. Like I said, four tires for us actually fired off slower than two tires. For me it was a no‑brainer. Two tires, two left side tires, freed our car up which is what we needed at the time. For me it was a real easy call.            Q. How often have you been in the shop during this period? Joey Logano mentioned he thought it was more challenging when you’re down because you don’t have all the time at the shop to massage the cars. How have you handled this?JUSTIN ALEXANDER: It’s certainly different times we live in today. That changes what we do. We do get to the shops. Our road crews, we do go in at nights after everyone is gone. The place is cleaned. We go in for a few hours a couple times a week.           I do get to look at the cars, massage on the cars, kind of final them. The guys at the shop do a wonderful job of prepping the cars for the most part. We just kind of go in there and fine‑tune on them.           It’s been different. I think it’s been good for us, this schedule. Not having practice, I don’t mind it at all. I think we’ve unloaded fairly well most races. The races we haven’t, we’ve been able to adjust and get the car where we needed it.           With all the tools and resources we have at RCR, I do feel like the way we’re running right now does benefit us a little bit.            Q. Did it just become evident from the start you were faster with two tires than four? How do you go through the learning process when you don’t have all the practice notes?JUSTIN ALEXANDER: I think we use history. We look at what happened here last fall, some of the things that happened. It was kind of similar to last fall here, even with a little bit of a different tire.           Definitely just for us, when we put four on a handful of times today, it took a while, 20 laps for the car to come in for us. It may not have been like that for everyone. Definitely our car. We did do two multiple times today. We knew how it was going to fire off, what the handling was going to be with us. For us, it was kind of a no‑brainer.            Q. When you made the call, did you think you’d be able to survive three or four restarts? Did you think you were going to be toast?JUSTIN ALEXANDER: You never know. I really didn’t know. I really thought more guys would do two. I was really surprised only one other guy did two. I think Tyler did fuel only. The rest did four. I was expecting not to be on the font row for that first restart. I was shocked when I saw the guys doing what they did.           Sometimes four tires work for other guys better than two. Those guys made those calls, which was best for their cars. Definitely it’s tough to survive one restart let alone three. Austin did a fantastic job getting out, going through the gears good, clearing the guys through one.            Q. When this aero package debuted, you had speed from the get‑go. You had difficulty translating it on race day. When the season started, you seemed to have made a lot of progress. Do you feel the break and the protocols since impeded your progress or do you think you could have even been better at this point?JUSTIN ALEXANDER: It’s hard to say. It’s definitely the new body this year has really helped us out. I can’t say that the break in the protocol has helped or hurt us really. Every team is kind of working a little bit differently. Everyone is trying to make their cars better.           We definitely took off really well to start. We’ve really been fast a lot of weeks, honestly. We haven’t had finishes to show for it. Had some incidents that have happened, some other things. I really feel like we’ve had all the speed we need in these racecars since Daytona this year.           I really don’t think we’ve gotten any worse relative to the competition to be honest. We just kind of put it all together today.            Q. Austin always is looking to improve himself. How much do you think this win will help his overall confidence and momentum?JUSTIN ALEXANDER: I think a huge boost of confidence to anybody, not only the driver but to everybody on this team, everyone in this organization. It just shows you’re capable of winning and you have what it takes to win versus all these other teams.           But definitely, especially all the restarts, knowing we have speed in the racecars, it certainly just gives you that. Especially Austin, it’s going to give him a lot of confidence going forward.           We’re not too far away from the Chase. It’s not bad to be on kind of a little bit of upward momentum streak right now. It’s good for the whole team. It takes a little pressure off of us on trying to race our way in on points. Sometimes that can get you a little stirred up.           Now we can just go out and focus on what we got to do to improve our team, improve the execution throughout the weekend, be ready for the Chase.            Q. RCR has been fairly forward thinking as far as embracing the technology. A recent example is the documentary about artificial intelligence, Pit Row products you used. Andy Petree has been forward thinking. You have embraced that. The example in that video was a race at Richmond where Pit Row was recommending certain strategies, and it looked like the team followed a couple of things, but diverged from the strategy at the end. Compared to that example today, just in general this year, how are you interacting with these products, as far as artificial intelligence in general, how does that help you and what have you learned from it?JUSTIN ALEXANDER: Yeah, it’s a tool that we definitely use every race day. We actually use it throughout the week in some instances. But certainly on race days. Technology has really kind of gone crazy in the last few years. The things that we can do now, prediction models, a lot of this stuff is statistics, statistics based.           Can’t thank Pit Row and their product enough. Certainly we use it, like I said, on a weekly basis it. It helps us. Helps me call races. Certainly we definitely used it today.             THE MODERATOR: Justin, those are all the questions we have for you. Thank you so much for joining us.             JUSTIN ALEXANDER: Thank you very much. RICHARD CHILDRESS, TEAM OWNER, RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:  THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Richard Childress. How was that, having to watch that from home?             RICHARD CHILDRESS: I wasn’t at home. We have a command center at the race shop. That’s where I’ve been watching the races. That’s where all of our engineers and everyone calls the race from. They actually made the call from the command center to do what they did to both cars.           It was pretty cool to be in there, watch how everything works. I’ve been watching all the races there. They probably won’t let me come back to another race for a while now (smiling).             THE MODERATOR: We’ll roll into questions.            Q. Today might mean more because Austin picks up his first win in 88 Cup Series races. How proud are you of the developments Austin has made since last year?RICHARD CHILDRESS: I mean, it’s great. Chevy did a great job giving us a really good car. Having Tyler right there to work with, he has a teammate that he’s really working good with. To see both those guys racing for the win. I was hoping they didn’t wreck each other. It was pretty cool to see RCR in the front.            Q. How crucial was it to reunite Austin with Justin Alexander?RICHARD CHILDRESS: It’s great. I’ve always believed strongly in Justin from day one. He believes in Austin. Austin believes in him. That’s what you got to have. You look back at all the greats throughout the time. I look back to the Earnhardt years with the crew chiefs he had, Chad and Johnson, the different people, how they worked together. That’s what Austin needed, was someone like this to work with.            Q. This is the first 1‑2 finish for your organization since 2011. What does this day mean for the organization and for you?RICHARD CHILDRESS: It means a tremendous amount because we’ve struggled, and everyone knows that, but Chevy has really worked hard and put together a great car for us. To be able to go out and be able to win in a Chevy and be 1‑2 today, it meant a lot.           RCR and ECR, we’ve got so many partners that stuck with us through the whole thing. To be able to have them bring the win home, a second‑place finish for Cat, it’s just amazing.            Q. Have you even been to a race since the season resumed? You were probably at the Charlotte race because you were in the condo. Have you just been stuck at home? What has that been like?RICHARD CHILDRESS: I really, really miss the people around the racetrack, the fans. That’s my biggest miss. And the racing. But, yeah, it’s different. I went there and seemed like it was one more that I went somewhere. That was the big one, was Charlotte. I was there for both of those races.            Q. What was that like to be there with nobody there?RICHARD CHILDRESS: It was different. It’s really different. It’s great. My phone has been blowing up. I got over 200 texts, my voice mail is full. That means a lot of folks are watching us, people that I didn’t even realize were watching races.           To give them live entertainment, for NASCAR to be the first to bring live entertainment back, it’s great. The fans are loving it.            Q. Why do you think Austin is not given the credit that he deserves as a driver?RICHARD CHILDRESS: You know, I don’t know. I think you get in the 3 car behind Dale Earnhardt, people think your granddaddy gave you this. He earned it no different than Ty Dillon. They had to earn their right to drive their cars. I think that may be a little bit of it.           We didn’t give him the cars he needed. I never forget ’98 when Dale Earnhardt came and said, I want to retire, it’s me.           I said, No, it isn’t, Dale. We haven’t given you the cars.           We haven’t gave him the cars he really needs until this year. Tyler Reddick will win a race before the year is up.            Q. You just mentioned Tyler Reddick. Coming into the year with consecutive Xfinity titles. Talk about where you see Tyler this year.RICHARD CHILDRESS: Just his attitude, what he brings, the pep he’s got in his step. He and Austin have a really good relationship. I think that helps Austin, as well.           Austin drives awesome being competitive. Now he’s got somebody that is going to push him. Both of them are going to do well, for sure.            Q. Over the last 26 laps and multiple restarts, either Tyler or Austin had to hold off Joey Logano and Kyle Busch. What was going through your head? At any point were you trying to give advice subconsciously to Austin the final laps?RICHARD CHILDRESS: It was a nail‑biter, for sure. When we had that big lead there, when Austin jumped out there and got him a good lead, then the caution come out. Wow, man, we didn’t need that. Had to restart. Did good. He had three restarts and was able to maintain and win the race.           Tyler was right there with him. That showed that both of them had cars that were capable to go. For him to beat the best of the best today, that shows where RCR is with both of our drivers.            Q. Obviously this year without the practice due to the pandemic, do you feel your teams have benefited maybe from a little bit less of that practice? Do you feel you need that back?RICHARD CHILDRESS: No, I think actually the fans like it. If you look, with the amount of technology that every team has today, the majority of the teams, the technology is right there for everyone to come out and run really good. We’ve missed it a time or two, but we’ve been able to adjust back in. Just like today, we were a little off at the start, but we came right back in and were able to pull it off.            Q. Do you feel with Austin’s win now putting him into the Playoffs that this team is capable of making that deep run?RICHARD CHILDRESS: We sure plan on it. We’ve talked about it, talked about it all year. We think with everything that’s going on, it depends on how the stages and everything run, we feel we can be right there for the win at the end of the day.           First you got to get in. That was one goal. Next you got to make it to the next round. Eve time you got to make it to the next round. I think if we get there to the final four, we may have a great chance.            Q. It’s been a while since you’ve gone to the next round. Ryan Newman since you’ve really been a contender. What is going to make this team a contender after all these years matching Gibbs and Hendrick and everybody else?RICHARD CHILDRESS: I think this year Chevy has gave us a lot better racecar. We got a lot better racecar than we’ve had in the past. I think that’s going to be the difference this year than in the past.            Q. You mentioned you were in the command center for the final moments of the race. You mentioned technology. Andy Petree has been forward thinking with trying new stuff. Based on recent documents, you have used artificial intelligence from Pit Row. As an old‑school racer, what has been your view of that and how has it helped your organization?RICHARD CHILDRESS: I got to go back to Eric Warren. Eric is a doctor. Andy had a lot to do with it. But we had this put in place, Eric wanted to put it in. We wanted to race Ryan Newman with it.           Today Pit Row and all the technology called for what to do with both teams there at the end. It definitely paid off for us. Pit Row has been a great thing.           I really enjoy it. I can actually see a lot more right there than I can at the racetrack actually, keep up with what every other car is doing. We can listen to every other car. We know where they’re at, know their strategy, when they have to pit, how far they can go. It’s Formula 1‑type technology. It’s really working great.            Q. In addition to things like the new body, do you believe that has helped you this year and the last couple of years to get ahead?RICHARD CHILDRESS: Ask me that one more time.            Q. With you being early adopters of that, technology building up, has that been something that has helped you get up front?RICHARD CHILDRESS: I think it really helps us as far as knowing what our cars are doing and what some of our competition is doing. But I think the key to it is we’ve got a lot better car this year than we’ve had in the last several years. Not that the cars were that bad, but this car is closer to what the other manufacturers that we’re racing is doing. 

NASCAR CUP SERIESTEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY O’REILLY AUTO PARTS 500 TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTES JULY 19, 2020
TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:POS.   DRIVER1st      AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS / TRACKER OFF ROAD CAMARO ZL1 1LE2nd     TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 CAT OIL & GAS CAMARO ZL1 1LE8th      KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE12th    CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE14th    BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 CASH APP CAMARO ZL1 1LE 
TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS: POS.  DRIVER1st      Austin Dillon (Chevrolet)2nd     Tyler Reddick (Chevrolet)3rd      Joey Logano (Ford)4th      Kyle Busch (Toyota)5th      Kevin Harvick (Ford) The NASCAR Cup Series season continues at Kansas Speedway with the Super Start Batteries 400 Presented by O’Reilly Auto Parts on Thursday, July 23, at 7:300 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on NBCSN, NBC Sports Gold app, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES (INCLUDING TYLER REDDICK PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT):AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS / TRACKER OFF ROAD CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Race WinnerIT’S BEEN 88 RACES SINCE AUSTIN DILLON GOT TO DO THIS – CELEBRATE WITH A WIN IN THE CUP SERIES. MAYBE THIS ONE A LITTLER SWEETER. YOU HAD TO DO IT ON THREE DIFFERENT RESTARTS WITH GUYS LIKE KYLE BUSCH, JOEY LOGANO AND KEVIN HARVICK BEHIND YOU. AUSTIN, THERE’S FANS THERE CHEERING YOU ON. HOW ABOUT THAT?“Not bad for a silver spoon kid, right? I’ll take that. Have to thank everyone at RCR, ECR, Bass Pro Shops. Tyler Reddick, he raced me clean. 1-2 for RCR – this has been coming. We’ve had good cars all year. Justin Alexander and my whole crew. I got my baby Ace back home and my wife, I love them so much. I’m just so happy – thank god.” WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE FOR RCR? WE STARTED THE DAY ASKING YOU ABOUT THE CUT LINE. NOW, YOU’RE ABOVE THE CUT LINE AND IN THE 2020 PLAYOFFS. “To tell you the truth, it means a whole lot. Just for the family, for everybody, all of our partners. Truthfully, I’m out of breath right now. I’m about to go down, I need a drink. That was fun.” HOW ABOUT BEATING THE BEST IN THE BUSINESS? THREE STRAIGHT RESTARTS YOU HAD TO DO. YOU HAD TO EARN THIS ONE AUSTIN! “Yeah, I had to change it up a couple of times. Definitely had to earn it. I changed it up. I waited the second one and I went on the last one. So, it worked out for me good.” TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 CAT OIL & GAS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 2nd“What a great day for Richard Childress Racing. This organization is working so hard and to have a 1-2 finish like we did is incredible. It felt like we had everything happen to our No. 8 Cat Oil and Gas Chevrolet, but strategy was king today. We had good speed overall and earned some stage points at the end of the first stage, but we got shuffled back for the majority of the second stage when we took two right side tires. That really messed with the handling of our Chevrolet and trapped us a lap down for a while. There were a couple major wrecks later in Stage 3 that we were able to miss and that helped us get our lap back to be able to contend at the end. My crew chief, Randall Burnett, made a great call to take fuel only during the caution with about 30 laps to go and that put us up front for those final restarts with our teammate, Austin Dillon. We really couldn’t ask for much more than what we got today. One spot better would have been great, but the recovery this No. 8 Cat Oil and Gas team made today was huge. We’re racing for the big picture of making the playoffs, so we have to race smart. Days like this will help us get there.”
YOU GO FROM 41 BACK OF THE CUTLINE, TO 14 BELOW NOW, ENTERING THE NEXT RACE. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE TODAY?“It was not strategy in our Cat Oil & Gas Chevrolet. We had good speed in our Chevrolet ZL1 1LE, but we just couldn’t get our Camaro back in contention after we took right-sides (tires). It really shifted the balance of our Camaro. That just put us behind, and we had to catch a few breaks. Some cars got collected in carnage. We avoided it, but you can’t ask for much more than we got there. Me and my teammate (Austin Dillon) on the front row there in those last couple of restarts and you know, he’s done this a little bit longer than I have, and I’m a little rusty. I haven’t been on the front row in a while and he just snookered me those times. Kyle (Busch) was doing a really good job of pushing me, but that last one I put us in a big deficit and I just couldn’t get back out of it.” WAS IS GOING THROUGH YOUR MIND THAT YOU REALLY WANT THIS BUT MAN, THIS IS MY TEAMMATE AND THIS LOOKS GOOD TO RC?“Well, I knew it was going to be important. There was one restart where I probably could have went to his inside and I just wanted it to be between us. I didn’t want to bring other cars into it and make sure we could fight it out. We just got the restarts that kept giving us the opportunities. Unfortunately, we just couldn’t get it done today. But, hats off to the No. 3 and all those guys. They’re working hard. It gets one RCR Chevrolet to the playoffs and now we’re below the cutline. We’ve got to keep fighting. If we can keep running like this, we won’t have to worry about points.” KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 8th“We had one of our best points days so far this season with the Monster Energy Camaro. We scored stage points in the first and second stages, followed by another top-10 result. I really battled a loose handling car all day, it was really difficult on the restarts and short-runs, so I really had to work my butt off there at the end with all the cautions”. BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 CASH APP CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 14th “A top-15 day for the Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 Cash App Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE team at the Texas Motor Speedway – a long, hot day that’s for sure. Proud of the efforts from our team. Cash App was on the car for the first time, so that was cool. We got Cash App a really good first finish. I thought we had a chance there. If that last caution had not come out, we maybe could have held on for a top-10 finish. But all-in-all, a great effort. Good bounce back from our last two weeks and we’ll just keep pushing to get our cars better. Shoutout again to Cash App for jumping on-board. Being a part of the sport, how cool is that? Get them their first top-15 finish and go onto the Kansas Speedway. We’ll see what we got there.”
MATT KENSETH, NO. 42 MCDONALD’S MCDELIVERY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 18th“The results unfortunately don’t show it, but the No. 42 team worked really hard today to get the McDonald’s Chevy in a position to be competitive. We started the race way too loose and it was really hard to make any passes with the car handling that way. Chad (Johnston) and the guys kept working on it, and the handling got much better during the second stage, which allowed us to race up to just outside the top-10 at the end of the second stage. We were in a good spot to start the final stage, but got some damage that affected the handling when we were caught up in that big wreck on the frontstretch. We worked as hard as we could following the damage to make the most of our day, so, proud of the team for all the effort today.” ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 CHEVYGOODS.COM / ADAM’S POLISHES CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Sidelined by accident on lap 318; Finished 30th“That was not the way that we needed to finish Texas. We struggled some, but overall, our ChevyGoods.com/Adam’s Polishes team was good today. Our team worked really hard on the car today and the changes during our pit stops. We were in the wrong place at the wrong time, but we will move on to Kansas this week.” TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 35th“I bummed the way today ended for my Germain Racing team. Our GEICO Camaro ZL1 1LE was really good. We battled being loose at the start of a run, but it would get better and better as the laps clicked away. My guys worked extremely hard to turn this car around from Kentucky and we were putting ourselves in position to have another solid finish. My car jumped out on me under the No. 24 and I hate it for William and his guys too. I had a little damage on the left rear and just wasn’t expecting the car to jump out on me like that. We will rebound and get after it in Kansas on Thursday. On to the next one.” WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Sidelined by damage sustained in an accident on lap 250; Finished 37thYOU STARTED THE DAY 15TH OUT OF 16 DRIVERS TRYING TO MAKE IT INTO THE PLAYOFFS. NOW, HOW TOUGH WILL THESE NEXT EIGHT RACES BE WILLIAM?“Honestly, it’s going to be tough. We just have to find speed first. We’re not really running good at all and we’ve got to figure that out. Obviously, the 13 (Ty Dillon) got up into us there and took us out, but we were pretty far back anyway. Thanks to Axalta and everybody on the team. We’ve just got to figure it out and figure it out quick before the fall.”
TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 CAT OIL & GAS CAMARO ZL1 1LE, PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT: THE MODERATOR: Thank you for joining us, Tyler. As excited as I’m sure you are for an RCR victory, it’s probably a little disappointing to come up a little bit short. Take us through the last few restarts, what was going through your mind.             TYLER REDDICK: Well, it’s just one of those deals where it’s risk versus reward. For us, to race against my teammate, as much as it’s my responsibility to win for this Cat Oil and Gas Chevrolet, I don’t want to take a win opportunity away from either RCR car.           Just trying to race as hard as I can without getting the 3 in a position where he lifts, slides up, makes me lift, the cars behind us have an opportunity there to win that race.           I just tried to do it as best as I could. I’m not going to lie, he did a really good job in the restart zone of keeping me from getting into a rhythm, being able to work with the 18 behind us, who is one of the best. Had me all jacked up. Kyle couldn’t give me the pushes that he was wanting to give me for himself to battle with the 3. Just got to continue to work on that.           A lot of these restarts throughout the year, we’ve been in mid pack, we haven’t had the opportunity to play with that on the front row. Just came down to that launch. That’s something that I didn’t do a great job of during the last couple restarts.             THE MODERATOR: We’ll take questions for Tyler.            Q. You’re really in the thick of this Playoff race now. Does that change anything you’ve been doing? Do you have to be more conservative going forward? How do you approach these races as the homestretch comes?TYLER REDDICK: This further cements what I really pressed to my team before starting this race. We have nine races. We have 42 points to make up. Hopefully we can make up more than that. Seems like we already did that one race.           Now it’s about beginning to press and try to be in position to win these races, but not go all in and take a top five day and crash out and lose all those points.           We got to keep being aggressive like we are to get up there with strategy call. Randall Burnett did a great job. Had a fast car. Made some bad adjustment on it. Hurt us, lost a lap. We were in dire situations, two laps down at times.           Between catching the right breaks, getting our car back where it was at the beginning of the race when we had good pace, what it took to get our Caterpillar Oil and Gas Chevrolet back up there. It allowed us to take fuel only at the end, really mix it up, and really put my teammate right next to me. It was between us.            Q. Do you feel this was a little bit of an upset for you guys going 1‑2 or have you been strong enough this year that if you got yourself in position you could do this?TYLER REDDICK: Well, it’s been really difficult. I mean, last two races I’ve drawn 24th. It makes it really hard to get that track position. The pit stall you get isn’t the greatest. The odds are kind of stacked against you at the beginning of the day.           The guys that are in the top 12 in points, they draw pits from the race before. You get what I’m saying? They get the track position at the beginning. It helps them get the race going.           If your car is off a little bit, you make a small mistake, it can really upset the outcome of your race in general. Yeah, we got up there and we stole some track position at the end. Austin and I had good pace on our cars when we had track position. That’s the name of the game at tracks like that that are repaves, have a little bit of age, but the tire falloff isn’t quite there. That’s what makes track position king.            Q. What can this do for the organization?TYLER REDDICK: Hopefully push it in the right direction. We’ve been looking for validation for a long time, what’s the right way to go, which direction we need to take our cars and team. It’s been really hard to search and find that with how much the track position plays into the handling of your vehicle.           Today we saw the capability of both of these cars. Once you got our Chevrolets in that better track position, clean air, it showed itself.           It’s going to be a big confidence booster for myself, Austin. It is going to push the guys back at the shop, the men and women back at the shop, to work hard to give us fast racecars, from the upper management all the way down.           A nice little uplift to take us into the next race Thursday at Kansas, a good track for me.            Q. How challenging was it with the tires? Did that play any role in the difficulty in firing off and doing what you wanted on restarts?TYLER REDDICK: It was my understanding the 3 was on no tires like we were. But it’s possible he took two. There’s a lot going on there.           You know, it’s possible it hurt the initial takeoff. Austin was really able to eat some ground on me there, really execute well there. Maybe that was some of it. I’m not going to make excuses and say it was.           I got to do better. I got to really focus on the things that could have potentially taken away from this race, what can we do to change them from hopefully keeping it from happening in the future.           All in all, great day for our team.            Q. Unofficially you’re about 14 points out of the final Playoff spot. How significant is that with the number of races left at this point going into a Kansas, track you feel good about?TYLER REDDICK: We’re not where we need to be at. But with eight races, 14 more points to get, having Austin locked in I think could be a benefit to us. We just got to keep running races like this.           We’re not going to get lucky every single day, every single outing we have, get cars caught up in messes that we stay out of. We will continue to stay vigilant and keep our Caterpillar Oil and Gas Chevrolet out of those messes, keep finishing these races.           Name of the game, we were two laps down at one point. We never gave up. We had some luck go our way. We had some things fall at the right time and it got us back into the game.            Q. Can you talk about how intense it was dealing with the heat today, how hard it was? Also what kind of goes into hydrating and training?TYLER REDDICK: It’s just your preparation of the week, the week leading in. Just taking the thought, maybe I should drink a little bit of water. Especially if you’re outside doing yard work, working on cars, whatever it might be that you do. Being outdoors, rehydrate your body, keep that replenished.           A little bit harder than I expected. Once you’re in it, you’re kind of stuck with what you got. You can bring some fluids, bring some bags of ice. It can help. You really have to stay on top of it going into the race.           A little harder than I expected. We got some cautions at the right time and whatnot that kind of cooled it back down rather quickly. I’d say the last hundred laps weren’t too bad at all.             THE MODERATOR: Tyler, we appreciate your time. We wish you the best of luck later this week in Kansas.             TYLER REDDICK: Thank you all very much.

Austin Dillon and the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Off Road/E-Z-GO Chevrolet Team Score First Win of 2020 Season and Secure Playoff Position at Texas Motor Speedway

“Wow! I’ll take that. I have to thank everyone at RCR, ECR, Bass Pro Shops, Tracker Off Road and E-Z-GO. And to Tyler Reddick, he raced me clean.  A 1-2 finish for RCR – this has been coming. This is huge for the RCR family and all of our partners – Chevrolet, Dow, American Ethanol, Symbicort, RigUp and Coca-Cola. We’ve had good cars all year. Thank you to Justin Alexander and my whole crew.  Truthfully, I’m out of breath right now. That was so much fun. I changed up my restarts a couple of times. We definitely had to earn it. I waited to go on the second restart and I went on the last one. So, it worked out good for me. I’m so excited to get back home to my wife, Whitney and our new baby, Ace to celebrate with them! I’m just so happy; thank you God. To tell you the truth, it means a whole lot to win.”  -Austin Dillon

Tyler Reddick and the No. 8 Cat Oil and Gas Team Power Through to Career-Best Second-Place Finish

“What a great day for Richard Childress Racing. This organization is working so hard and to have a 1-2 finish like we did is incredible. It felt like we had everything happen to our No. 8 Cat Oil and Gas Chevrolet, but strategy was king today. We had good speed overall and earned some stage points at the end of the first stage, but we got shuffled back for the majority of the second stage when we took two right-side tires. That really messed with the handling of our Chevrolet and trapped us a lap down for a while. There were a couple major wrecks later in Stage 3 that we were able to miss and that helped us get our lap back to be able to contend at the end. My crew chief, Randall Burnett, made a great call to take fuel only during the caution with about 30 laps to go and that put us up front for those final restarts with our teammate, Austin Dillon. We really couldn’t ask for much more than what we got today. One spot better would have been great, but the recovery this No. 8 Caterpillar team made today was huge. We’re racing for the big picture of making the Playoffs, so we have to race smart. Days like this will help us get there.”-Tyler Reddick

July 19, 2020

Matt DiBenedetto and the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang had the speed to race in the top ten and contend for a win at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday. 

But after dodging several earlier incidents, including one on Lap 220 in which he had to drive part of the way into the grass to avoid spinning cars around him, DiBenedetto’s No. 21 Mustang received damage when a rookie driver made an unexpected move to pit road.

DiBenedetto wound up with a disappointing 17^th-place finish, but remains in 12^th place in the Cup Series standings. That allows him to be among the drivers who draw for the top 12 starting spots for Thursday night’s race at Kansas Speedway. And he’s now 51 points ahead of 17^th place in the Cup Series standings, with eight regular season races remaining before the top 16 drivers start the 10-race Playoffs.

DiBenedetto ran in the top 10 for most of Sunday’s 500 miler, finishing 11^th in the first Stage and 13^th in the second, but moved into the top five as the third segment of the race began to unfold.

He pitted from the lead with 43 laps remaining and was poised to rejoin the top five when that round of green-flag pit stops cycled through.

But with 24 laps to go, and several leaders yet to pit, contact at the entrance to pit road sent DiBenedetto back to the crew for repairs, which kept him from taking the wave-around at that point.

DiBenedetto and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane crew continued the battle, and were in the free pass position when the caution flag flew with 16 laps remaining.

He rejoined the field in 19^th place and regained two more spots to finish 17^th.

“Obviously we were hoping for more, but it could have been a lot worse,” Eddie Wood said of his team’s result at Texas. “Matt drove a smart race. [Crew chief] Greg [Erwin] made good calls from the pit box, and the pit stops were really good.”

“Because some of those around us in the points standings had troubles too, it wasn’t as damaging as it might have been.”

Wood said he remains optimistic heading into the upcoming races.

“When a car has the speed ours has had in the past few races, things have a way of working out for the good,” he said. “Our team will move on to Kansas and get back to work there.”
 

·        All-Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat final between Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) teammates Matt Hagan and Jack Beckman at Lucas Oil NHRA Summernationals rescheduled to take place during the U.S. Nationals in September

·        Hagan advanced to final round for second consecutive event, while Beckman has done the same in three of four events this season

·        Three DSR Mopar Dodge//SRT- sponsored Funny Cars atop Funny Car points standings with Beckman, Tommy Johnson Jr., and Hagan

·        Leah Pruett drives Mopar Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye dragster to a semi-final appearance at Lucas Oil Raceway to remain second in Top Fuel points

·        Pruett and Mark Pawuk both took Challenger Drag Pak to eliminations appearance in first Factory Stock Showdown of the year

July 19, 2020, Brownsburg, Ind. – Another national event Funny Car win was within sight as the second All-Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat final round showdown in as many weeks had Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) teammates Matt Hagan and Jack Beckman set to go head-to-head at the Lucas Oil NHRA Summernationals, when the skies opened up above the Indianapolis drag strip and spoiled the day. 

Hagan, coming off an event win last week in another all-Mopar final against teammate Tommy Johnson Jr., worked his way through eliminations after qualifying 13^th and was headed back into a battle for the Wally trophy with a new red, black, and chrome SRT Hellcat Redeye livery. For his part, after qualifying sixth, Beckman was poised for his 66^th career and third final round appearance in four races this season, and was looking to add to the pair of wins he already had under his seatbelt in the Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat.

The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Mello Yello Drag Racing Series has rescheduled the rained-out final to take place during the U.S. Nationals Sept. 3-6., at Lucas Oil Raceway.

To get to the finals, Hagan defeated DSR teammate Ron Capps, JR Todd and Bob Tasca, while Beckman sent Chad Green, Tim Wilkerson and DSR teammate Johnson Jr. home early.

No. 2 qualifier, Johnson Jr. began his day with wins over Bob Bode and Cruz Pedregon for a semifinal round match against Beckman. Johnson, who earned a Wally at Phoenix earlier this year, had the early lead but saw his 4.027 second run overshadowed by Beckman’s 3.969 to move on to the final. Johnson however remains second to Beckman in the Funny Car standings.

The Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat of Ron Capps had a solid qualifying performance that put the DSR driver No.4 on the ladder and gave him lane choice over his first round opponent. Unfortunately, for a second week in a row, that first round pairing was against a DSR teammate and last week’s race winner, Hagan. While Capps’ 3.967-sec./ 324.59-mph run was the third quickest of the round, it wasn’t enough to oust Hagan and his 3.931 sec/321.58 mph effort.

In Top Fuel competition, No. 2 qualifier Leah Pruett and her red-hot Mopar Dodge SRT Hellcat Redeye dragster looked solid throughout the weekend and early elimination rounds with first round victory over Lex Joon and a hole shot to beat Billy Torrence to advance to a semifinal appearance against Justin Ashley. Misfiring cylinders ended her hopes of beating Ashley but still put Pruett in second in the Top Fuel rankings.

Pruett pulled double duty this weekend joining Mark Pawuk for some SAMTech.edu NHRA Factory Stock Showdown action. The pair took their Mopar Dodge Challenger Drag Paks to their first elimination round runs of the year in the first of eight FSS events this season.

Sporting a fresh new livery on his Empaco Equipment Mopar Dodge Challenger Drag Pak, 12th-seeded Pawuk lined up next to No. 5 qualifier Arthur Kohn in the opening round, but his 8.135 second elapsed time run at 169.85 mph wasn’t quite enough to beat his opponent’s 8.057 sec. /170.88 mph pass to move on to the next round.

A similar fate awaited Pruett who, from her 16^th place qualifying position on the ladder, drove her Angry-Bee themed Mopar Challenger Drag straight down the lane to post a 8.200 second E.T. at 168.07 mph but wasn’t able to challenge No. 1 qualifier Chris Holbrook’s 7.980 sec./ 174.55 mph pass.

The pair will get back in their drag paks next month at the second FSS event of the season, scheduled to take place at the NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway (Aug 28-30).

Next on the updated 2020 NHRA schedule will be a third consecutive national event to take place at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis, replacing the previously slated 32nd edition of the Dodge Mile-High NHRA Nationals at Bandimere Speedway near Denver, Colo., on Aug 7-9. The Dodge-sponsored event, which boasts the longest continuous sponsorship in the NHRA and one of the longest in all of motorsports, has been postponed due to pandemic-related issues, but hopes to be rescheduled for a later date this season.

NOTES and QUOTES: 

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

(No. 6 Qualifier – 4.059 seconds at 299.66 mph)

Round 1: (0.076-second reaction time, 4.032 seconds at 310.77 mph) beats No. 11 Chad Green (0.159/4.323/293.86)

Round 2: (0.061/3.991/317.72) beats No. 3 Tim Wilkerson (0.069/4.009/316.82)

Round 3: (0.074/3.969/321.65) beats No. 2 Tommy Johnson Jr. (0.062/4.027/309.56)

Round 4: To be completed at U.S. Nationals vs No. 13 Matt Hagan

“In a lot of ways these races will have a little asterisk next to them, what’s not going to be different is the trophy. It’s the exact same size as every other Wally we’ve earned. It’s going to mean just as much. We’re going to work just as hard for it. Whether we run tonight, tomorrow or in three weeks it really doesn’t matter to me. We have a car and a team that can adjust. We struggled in qualifying and they worked hard and figured it out. The car came around and we’re in another final round and someone is getting a trophy. I don’t care when they run it, we’re gonna run our tails off.”

Matt Hagan, Mopar Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car  
(No. 13 Qualifier – 4.275 seconds at 283.73 mph)
Round 1: (0.087-second reaction time, 3.931 seconds at 321.58 mph) beat No. 4 Ron Capps (0.070/3.967/324.59)  

Round 2: (0.097/3.949/323.81) beat No. 5 JR Todd (0.069/4.028/317.19)

Round 3: (0.078/3.946/324.36) beat No.1 Bob Tasca (0.062/4.010/320.13)

Round 4: To be completed at U.S. Nationals vs No. 6 Jack Beckman

“We were on a roll today coming off the win last weekend. We have a beautiful car with the red chrome Hellcat Redeye. It’s definitely one of my favorites in the 12 or 13 years I’ve been with DSR. I’d love nothing more than to put it in the winner’s circle for Dodge and Mopar and then the rain rolled in. You never know what will happen for weather and I’m glad we have lane choice, but Jack’s (Beckman) car is really good. That’s a strong team. All of the DSR cars are. We’re ready to go. No matter if we race tomorrow or in three weeks, I have all the confidence in Dickie Venables and this team.”

Tommy Johnson Jr., MD Anderson Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car
(No. 2 Qualifier – 4.017  seconds at 300.86 mph)

Round 1: (0.084-second reaction time, 4.123 seconds at 278.06 mph) beats No. 15 Bob Bode (no time)

Round 2: (0.052/3.979/317.57) beats No. 7 Cruz Pedregon (0.058/5.902/118.04)

Round 3: (0.062/4.027/309.56) lost to No. 6 Beckman (0.074/3.969/321.65)

“It was another good weekend for this MD Anderson Dodge team and we’re just keeping our momentum going. Another solid qualifying effort and some more round wins. We just didn’t have enough in the semis against (Jack) Beckman, but I’m very happy with how our team is performing. (Matt) Hagan’s car is running great and it’s shaping up as a three-way DSR Funny Car battle for the championship and I’m glad we’re a part of it. It’s fun. We’re getting quite a bit of data for racing here and in hot, humid conditions and that will continue to benefit us during these summer months. We get a few weekends off and the team needs that before we get to go after that Wally trophy here at Indy in three weeks. “

Ron Capps, NAPA Auto Parts Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car
(No. 4 Qualifier – 4.054 seconds at 312.86 mph)  
Round 1: (0.070-second reaction time, 3.967 seconds at 324.59 mph) lost to No. 13 Matt Hagan (0.087/3.931/321.58)

“We had a really great hot rod and were really happy with how we ran in qualifying. Sometimes with luck of the draw you end up racing Matt Hagan and (crew chief) Dickie Venables first round and that is just how it goes. You know when you pull up to the line they are going to swing at it, so we had to swing right back, and we did. It was a great run. The NAPA guys and (my crew chief) Rahn Tobler did a great job getting our car ready. Our run would have beaten just about any other car in that round with us running third-lowest E.T. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t the run we needed today. We have shown as a team that we can run with the best, and I’m really looking forward to getting back here in three weeks.”

Leah Pruett, Mopar Dodge//SRT Top Fuel Dragster  
(No. 10 Qualifier – 3.934 seconds at 306.33 mph)   
Round 1: (0.073-second reaction time, 3.820 seconds at 316.97 mph) beats No. 15 Lex Joon (0.065/4.104/242.71)

Round 2: (0.044/3.818/314.46) beats No.10 Billy Torrence (0.080/3.793/320.36)

Round 3: (0.102/4.530/171.62) lost to No. 14 Justin Ashley (0.055/4.049/237.09)

“I do feel that we have the best horse on the property between qualifying well and going rounds on Sunday. Unfortunately, we had a couple of holes (cylinders) out early against Justin (Ashley) in the semis and we kicked the belt off. They had issues too, so that makes it a bit tougher. What works best is when the crew chiefs, team and me are on the same page and I felt we were today. I will say this is the best-looking Top Fuel car on the property. I’m excited for the Hellcat Redeye colors to run again, and we’ll keep picking up momentum and building on what we’ve learned the last two weekends and be ready to go in three weeks.”

Factory Stock Showdown 

Leah Pruett, Mopar Challenger Drag Pak  
(No. 16 Qualifier – 8.146 seconds at 168.32 mph)   
Round 1: (0.077-reaction time, 8.200 seconds at 168.07 mph) lost to No. 1 Chris Holbrook (0.041/7.980/174.55)

“No matter what category you’re in, one day of qualifying with just two hits is a challenge. We got our two DragPaks qualified and we had to race the No. 1 qualifier (Chris) Holbrook. We tuned for the changing air and weather conditions. The package that we currently have is making it challenging to turn on win lights. We’re working very hard to change that, but in the interim we’re doing the best job with what we can. The result is that win lights will be hard to find. This is a very different class than Top Fuel where we can see progression from run to run. This particular class, progression happens on the dyno, at the shop, in making laps and with rule changes. We know that we don’t have an upper hand and it speaks a lot for Dodge and Mopar and our team to be fighting this fight and it’s a difficult run. We do see the light at the end of the tunnel and we know we can achieve what we have in the past with these Drag Paks.”

Mark Pawuk, Empaco Challenger Drag Pak  

(No. 12 Qualifier – 8.078 seconds at 170.28 mph)  

Round 1: (0.048-reaction time, 8.135 seconds at 169.85 mph) lost to No. 5 Arthur Kohn (0.033/8.057/170.88)

“It’s great to be back behind the wheel of our Empaco Challenger DragPak this weekend here at Indy. We qualified in a very tough field. We left well, but unfortunately we’re struggling to keep up. We’re going to keep working hard to find a way to create more power and see what we can do to be more competitive. It was awesome to see fans in the stands with everything going on with Covid. It’s nice to be out at the track and I can’t wait to make more laps at Atlanta and Indy in late August.”

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INDIANAPOLIS, IN (July 19, 2020) — What a difference one day made for Terry McMillen and the AMALIEⓇ Motor Oil Top Fuel team. After two tough runs in qualifying at the NHRA SummerNationals in Indianapolis, McMillen’s team rolled into race day as the No. 12 qualifier and facing a first round match-up with the winningest Top Fuel racer ever, Tony Schumacher. The AMALIEⓇ Motor Oil XTERMIGATORⓇ Top Fuel dragster was up to the task and not only advanced from the first round raced to a semifinal finish and a jump in the Mello Yello point standings. McMillen moved up to No. 9 in the points and is just six points out of seventh place.   “I think everything on that car was gone through with a fine tooth comb last night,” said McMillen, from his lounge at the end of the day. (Crew chief) Rob (Wendland) had the chance to look as some other things. We found a couple different spots that we needed to tickle differently. We did that and from then on it has been fast.”   The opening run today for McMillen and the AMALIEⓇ Motor Oil XTERMIGATORⓇ Top Fuel dragster was one for the ages. McMillen never trailed in the race, grabbing a string line advantage and posting low ET for the event. His winning elapsed time of 3.765 seconds at 320.66 mph propelled him into a second round match-up with three-time Top Fuel champion Antron Brown.   “You can walk back after that run with your chest sticking out a little bit,” Rob Wendland, McMillen’s crew chief. “(Hall of Fame crew chief and Wendland mentor) Austin Coil would let me look at runs. He told me what he liked about me was I looked at all the bad runs not the good ones. I knew I needed to know why it did something. If you figure that out that is a good mentality for tuning. Seeing your plan come together is very gratifying. We have been working to get to that run for a long time. It was showing us something but it was really hard to figure out. I kind of thought we were being too big of wimps with it and it was the right call,” Rob   In the second round McMillen again brought a strong race car to the starting line. Both drivers launched aggressively but it was McMillen and his Amalie Top Fuel dragster getting to the stripe first.  Another strong run of 3.796 seconds which was again the quickest run of the quarterfinals set him up against T.J. Zizzo.   “The environment we are racing in is totally different,” said McMillen. “We don’t have four qualifying shots where you get to throw a home run shot on Friday night and move all the way to the top of the ladder. Everybody has had to make some adjustments to get the car down the track. You have to make sure you are qualified because race day doesn’t happen if you aren’t in. We came out on race day ready to roll and man, what a weekend.”   In the semifinal with a SummerNationals final round appearance on the line McMillen came up just a tick short. McMillen left the starting line first and was right beside Zizzo the entire length of the track but his performance fell off slightly, slowing his dragster to a respectable 3.891 second pass at 310.13 mph but it wasn’t enough for Zizzo’s 3.837 second run at 319.67 mph. While his day was wrapped up one round too soon for his taste McMillen has a ton of confidence moving forward with the rest of the season.   “The way I look at it right now any time we go to the starting line we are a threat. We can outrace any car out there on any given day. E3 here it just didn’t work our way. We dropped a hole early but we still ran a 3.89 which is pretty stout. There is just a little more fine-tuning and we will have it. The team and Rob did an amazing job. It was just the matter of getting the chemistry right with the parts and the team and we just went out there and made it happen. We made some statements today,” added McMillen.   Qualifying Results Q1: 4.017 sec, 257.58 mph; Qual. 10 Q2: 6.311 sec, 100.25 mph; Qual. 12 Bonus Points: 0   Race Results E1: Terry McMillen, Elkhart, Ind., Amalie Motor Oil dragster, 3.765, 320.66 mph def. Tony Schumacher, Austin, Texas, Global Electronic Technology/Toyota, 4.447, 195.25 mph   E2: Terry McMillen, Elkhart, Ind., Amalie Motor Oil dragster, 3.796, 321.96 mph def. Antron Brown, Brownsburg, Ind., Matco/Global Electronic Technology, 3.927, 308.35 mph   E3: TJ Zizzo, Lincolnshire, Ill, Rust-Oleum dragster, 3.837, 319.67 mph def. Terry McMillen, Elkhart, Ind., Amalie Motor Oil dragster,3.891, 310.13 mph   Terry McMillen Racing based in Elkhart, Ind., is a Top Fuel drag racing team competing in the NHRA (National Hot Rod Association) Mello Yello Drag Racing Series. The team was founded in 2007 and has shown remarkable determination and dedication. McMillen won the prestigious Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals in 2018 and has qualified for the NHRA Countdown, the end of season playoffs, in 2017 and 2018. Throughout his career with longtime sponsor AMALIE® Motor Oil McMillen has raced to eight final rounds including a career best five finals in 2018.

WHEATLAND, MO (July 18, 2020) – Payton Looney became just the second driver from Missouri to win the Lucas Oil Show-Me 100 – Presented by ProtectTheHarvest.com on Saturday Night at Lucas Oil Speedway. The 26-year-old from Republic, Missouri earned $20,000 for his richest career win in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series and Lucas Oil MLRA co-sanctioned event.Looney and Shanon Buckingham swapped the lead back-and-forth in the early going. Looney led the first seven circuits of the race, until Buckingham forged ahead on lap eight. Buckingham was out in front until lap 22 when Looney passed him for the top spot. After the only caution of the race on lap 28 Looney pulled away from Buckingham and led the rest of the way to become the 14th different winner this year on the LOLMDS tour. Kyle Strickler made up ground late on Looney using the top line of the track. Strickler got to within 1.67 seconds of Looney at the finish line. Buckingham came home in third. Chris Ferguson got around Ricky Thornton Jr. to claim the fourth finishing position. Thornton, Jr. rounded out the top five. Looney was joined by his family in Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the biggest win of his racing career before his home state fans. “I was fading really bad,” said Looney. “I was just kind of a sitting duck or whatever you want to call it. I guess I burned up my right rear. I don’t know I haven’t even looked at the tires yet.  Once it cleaned up and I went to the bottom like that, I just can’t park like those other guys can. They can go in and get stopped and get going better than I can. I need to be able to use the racetrack and get momentum. That’s what I kind of did early on. I was just riding around out there, and then I saw Shanon get by me. It didn’t really change anything I was doing. I just kind of ran my race a little bit. Once that top kind of cleaned up I knew I could circle back by him.” “My guy was giving me signals and I knew what kind of lead I had. I was content to ride around the bottom behind Bronson in the closing laps. It just all worked out. I have changed my mindset a lot this year. I have put a lot of pressure on myself. I have a beautiful wife and kids. There are always more races, but this one is special,” said Looney. He now joins the 1999 winner, Terry Phillips, as the only winners of the crown jewel event from the Show-Me State of Missouri. Strickler’s late race heroics almost paid off, but he fell just short of the biggest win of his late model career. “First off, this in an absolutely amazing facility. This is the first time I have been here, and I am sure I will be back. I just needed a little more on the top. I think those guys up front with me burned it up a little too much. So much of this is patience. Being a modified guy, we don’t get too many 100-lap races. To bounce back after last night at Tri-City and the misfortune we had there feels good.” Buckingham was impressive all race long. He stayed in the top three the entire distance, leading to the third-position payday. “I guess I am a little more of a finesse driver. When I first started racing, we didn’t have the money to tear stuff up and knock down the walls. My dad always said bring it home in one piece so you can race next week. I think I learned that way and I think I erred on the safety side too much. This track just suits me. I like the slick and I like momentum racing where the right foot makes the difference.” The winner’s Capital Race Car is powered by a Cornett Racing Engine and sponsored Atnip Express, Atnip Motorsports, Duvall Electric, and Swift Springs. Completing the top ten were Rick Eckert, Jimmy Owens, Tyler Erb, Tanner English, and Chad Simpson.
Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series 
Race Summary 
Lucas Oil Show-Me 100 – presented by ProtectTheHarvest.com
Saturday, July 18th, 2020
Lucas Oil Speedway – Wheatland, MOLucas Oil Time Trials
Fast Time Group A: Payton Looney / 15.537 seconds (overall)
Fast Time Group B: Chad Simpson / 15.629 seconds 

Penske Race Shocks Heat Race #1 Finish (10 Laps, Top 4 Transfer):  1. 15L-Payton Looney[1]; 2. 22F-Chris Ferguson[5]; 3. 00-Jesse Stovall[2]; 4. 1ST-Johnny Scott[4]; 5. 40B-Kyle Bronson[7]; 6. 21-Billy Moyer Jr[9]; 7. 2S-Stormy Scott[6]; 8. 50X-Kaeden Cornell[11]; 9. 93-Mason Oberkramer[8]; 10. 91P-Jason Papich[3]; 11. 59-Garrett Alberson[10]

FK Rod Ends Heat Race #2 Finish (10 Laps, Top 4 Transfer):  1. 8-Kyle Strickler[2]; 2. 1T-Tyler Erb[1]; 3. 20-Jimmy Owens[5]; 4. 81E-Tanner English[3]; 5. 1-Earl Pearson Jr[8]; 6. 49-Jonathan Davenport[4]; 7. 57-Mike Marlar[7]; 8. 16-Tyler Bruening[10]; 9. 9-Devin Moran[6]; 10. 1X-Aaron Marrant[9]; 11. (DNS) 53-Andrew Kosiski

Simpson Race Products Heat Race #3 Finish (10 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[3]; 2. 1C-Chad Simpson[1]; 3. 25-Shane Clanton[4]; 4. 39-Tim McCreadie[6]; 5. 1V-Will Vaught[5]; 6. 21M-Billy Moyer Sr[2]; 7. 3W-Brennon Willard[10]; 8. 32B-Cody Laney[9]; 9. 12C-Scott Crigler[11]; 10. 6H-Al Humphrey[12]; 11. 22H-Daniel Hilsabeck[7]; 12. 58-Jeremiah Hurst[8]

Ohlins Shocks Heat Race #4 Finish (10 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 50-Shanon Buckingham[1]; 2. 75-Terry Phillips[3]; 3. 15V-Kolby Vandenbergh[2]; 4. 0E-Rick Eckert[4]; 5. 14-Josh Richards[5]; 6. 91T-Tony Toste[10]; 7. 12D-Doug Drown[6]; 8. 15D-Justin Duty[8]; 9. 78S-Steve Stultz[11]; 10. 21F-Johnny Fennewald[9]; 11. 14M-Reid Millard[12]; 12. 71-Hudson O’Neal[7]

Tiger Rear Ends B-Main #1 Finish (12 Laps, Top 3 Transfer):  1. 1-Earl Pearson Jr[2]; 2. 21-Billy Moyer Jr[3]; 3. 49-Jonathan Davenport[4]; 4. 40B-Kyle Bronson[1]; 5. 93-Mason Oberkramer[9]; 6. 2S-Stormy Scott[5]; 7. 57-Mike Marlar[6]; 8. 50X-Kaeden Cornell[7]; 9. 1X-Aaron Marrant[12]; 10. F15-Jeremy Conaway[15]; 11. 91P-Jason Papich[11]; 12. 59-Garrett Alberson[13]; 13. 9-Devin Moran[10]; 14. 16-Tyler Bruening[8]; 15. 53-Andrew Kosiski[14]

FAST Shafts B-Main #2 Finish (12 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 14-Josh Richards[2]; 2. 21M-Billy Moyer Sr[3]; 3. 1V-Will Vaught[1]; 4. 32B-Cody Laney[7]; 5. 15D-Justin Duty[8]; 6. 12D-Doug Drown[6]; 7. 91T-Tony Toste[4]; 8. 78S-Steve Stultz[10]; 9. 21F-Johnny Fennewald[12]; 10. 12C-Scott Crigler[9]; 11. 3W-Brennon Willard[5]; 12. 22H-Daniel Hilsabeck[13]; 13. 14M-Reid Millard[14]; 14. 6H-Al Humphrey[11]; 15. (DNS) 71-Hudson O’Neal; 16. (DNS) 58-Jeremiah Hurst

July 19, 2020 Jim Allen

(July 18, 2020) Watsonville, CA, By Jim Allen … Four-time NARC King of the West Fujitsu Racing Series champion Kyle Hirst held off Justin Sanders in a fierce sprint car battle to score a stout $5000 payday in Saturday’s 10th Annual Howard Kaeding Classic at Ocean Speedway.

Hirst, piloting the famed Williams Motorsports number 0 Maxim for only the second time, become the only three-time winner of the race named in honor of a West Coast racing legend.  The 88-year old Kaeding was in victory lane to greet the winner of this year’s edition which was staged in front of an empty grandstand.

Hirst, who started on the pole of the 30-lapper after claiming the Sunnyvalley Bacon dash, was the class of the field for the first 10-laps despite three caution flag restarts.  From that point on, it was a no holds barred open wheel scrimmage through lapped traffic with Sanders and Friday night winner DJ Netto.  Sanders and Netto made contact with the defending NARC-KWS champion bringing out the caution flag at the halfway point.

Once action resumed on the racy quarter mile oval, Hirst and Sanders turned up the heat and battled inches apart lap after lap.  Sanders, steering the North County Plastering/Alkaline 88 sprinter, actually took the lead briefly on three occasions negotiating through slower cars, but Hirst answered each challenge with moves of his own.  Hirst held on to win by .626 seconds.  Sanders pocketed $3,000 for his runner-up performance.

“He made me work for it,” admitted a winded Hirst in victory lane.  “I like racing with Justin and it got really tight a couple of times in lapped traffic.  I have to thank this team for giving me a great car.”

Indiana’s Spencer Bayston, who started 15th in the 24-car grid in the Tarlton Motorsports KPC, methodically sliced his way through the field and picked off Mitchell Faccinto on the white flag lap to earn the final podium position.  Bayston also claimed the Swift Metal Finishing hardcharger award.

Faccinto’s efforts came aboard the Western Metal Company KPC.   Two-time series champ Tim Kaeding rounded out the top five aboard the Bates-Hamilton R&B Company Maxim.

Blake Carrick, Shane Golobic, Andy Forsberg, Ryan Bernal and Sean Becker were the next five to cross the checkered.

DJ Netto was the class of the 32-car field in qualifying, clocking a 12.041 second run.

Heat race wins were captured by Willie Croft, Chase Johnson, Shane Golobic and Bud Kaeding.  Joey Ancona won the 12-lap semi.

NEWTON, IOWA TEAM CHEVY RACE 2 NOTES & QUOTES JULY 18, 2020
TOP CHEVROLET UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS: POS.   DRIVER1^st       JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 1 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET2^rd       WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET4^thSIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET6^th       OLIVER ASKEW, NO. 7 ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET
TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:POS.  DRIVER1^st      Josef Newgarden (Chevrolet)2^nd      Will Power (Chevrolet)3^rd       Graham Rahal (Honda)4^th       Simon Pagenaud (Chevrolet) 5^th     Scott Dixon (Honda)
Josef Newgarden conquerors Iowa Speedway for third time leading 214 of 250 laps; first driver to win at Iowa from poleChevrolet drivers capture four of top-six finishing positions in sweep of Iowa doubleheader
NEWTON, IOWA – Josef Newgarden shook off the disappointment of an ill-timed caution during Race One on Friday night to take advantage of starting on the pole and finish in Victory Lane in tonight’s Race Two of the Iowa INDYCAR 250s. 
Between the green flag and the checkered flag, the two-time and defending NTT INDYCAR Series champion, driving his favorite No. 1 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet, led 214 of 250 laps to become a three-time winner and the first to win from the pole. His other victories at the .875-mile oval came in 2016 and 2019. 
Following in Newgarden’s tire tracks at the finish was teammate Will Power. Power was credited with leading once for two laps behind the wheel of his familiar No. 12 Verizon Chevrolet.  
Last night’s winner Simon Pagenaud, No. 22 Menards Team Penske Chevrolet, who again was the last car on the starting grid, came home in fourth.
Giving Team Chevy four of the top-six finishers was Rookie-of-the-Year contender Oliver Askew finished sixth in his No. 7 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet.
Graham Rahal (Honda) completed the podium.
Pagenaud leaves Iowa second in the standings, 49 points behind the leader.. Newgarden is third, followed by Pato O’Ward in fourth and Power in fifth,
The NTT INDYCAR Series season continues August 9th at 1:30 p.m. ET with the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio in Lexington, Ohio. Live coverage can be found on NBCSN, the INDYCAR Radio Network, Sirius 211, XM 205, IndyCar.com and on the INDYCAR MOBILE APP powered by NTT DATA.
TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES:
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 1 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – Race WinnerAFTER LAST NIGHT, TO COME OUT HERE AND WIN THIS ONE FROM THE POLE, HOW GOOD DOES THIS ONE FEEL?“It feels really good. I don’t know what we’ve got to do to keep the bad luck off of us, but hopefully this is a start. Our guys did an amazing job yesterday. I was so disappointed for them because I felt like they had the winning car. They put in the work and we just weren’t able to get rewarded for it. I was so determined to come back today. I think everyone was determined to come back and have a really good race. And we just ran hard. We ran hard all day. I’m so proud to be powered by Chevrolet. I felt like we had the package to beat: fuel mileage, durability, we had the power. And then to have Hitachi back on, they’ve been a good luck charm for us. Thanks to Hitachi. Thanks to everybody at Team Penske back at the shop. I’m just thrilled we were finally able to get this monkey off our back.”
YOU ARE THE FIRST DRIVER AT IOWA TO START ON POLE AND END UP IN VICTORY LANE. YOU MADE IT LOOK EASY“I heard that stat. I don’t think I’ve been on pole here before. So, I was sitting there thinking you know, we can do that. I don’t know why we can’t convert from pole. It’s just kind of a silly stat, I guess, that’s kind of run through to this point. I knew we had speed. I felt totally confident. When Tim’s (Cindric) is on my stand and I have my guys doing pit stops, I have complete confidence we can win any race that we go into. That stat wasn’t bugging me.”
WHAT CAN THIS DO FOR YOU IN PROPELLING THIS TEAM FORWARD AS THE SEASON PROGRESSES?“Well, we needed to. It would have been nice if we could have had a couple of the finishes where we thought we should have been. I think at Road America, we had a winning car on Saturday. I wasn’t able to secure that. We had a podium to slip away at the GP. I knew we needed a win and we need another one to come soon enough, too. It’s not going to be just one. We’ve got to be able to put consistent finishes on the board.”
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – Finished 2^ndAFTER A COUPLE OF ROUGH RACES, HOW GOOD DOES IT FEEL JUST TO PUT A SOLID NIGHT TOGETHER?“Yeah, it feels good to have a solid day. I’ve got to thank Verizon and Chevy for all the support. And, yeah man, we would have loved to have the win, of course; but it’s seeming like if you did a good job in the series, you just get screwed. So, I’m glad for once we actually get a good result out of it. So, soldier on. I’m exhausted.”
WHAT’S THE STORY ON YOUR ICE BATH LAST NIGHT?“It made me feel good. It’s so bloody hot in these cars now. Man, I’m going to need one after this one. I look forward to trying to have a good rest of the season. I don’t know what it is I have to do to have normal races like (Scott) Dixon and (Simon) Pagenaud. Even if those guys qualify last, they end up at the front. Maybe I just try less and be a much worse driver and I think I’ll do way better.”
WHATEVER IT TAKES, RIGHT?“Yeah, that’s what it seems like.”
SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – Finished 4^rdYOU ARE THE HARD-CHARGER FOR THE WEEKEND, NO DOUBT ABOUT THAT. WE’VE SEEN THE DRIVERS GET OUT OF THEIR CARS JUST EXHAUSTED. HOW EXTRA TOUGH WAS YOUR JOB AS MANY CARS AS YOU HAD TO PASS?“Yeah, it was a tough weekend, and certainly a dramatic one. But we prevailed. I want to thank Team Penske and Menards and Chevy for giving me the horsepower going forward. We weren’t quite as hooked-up today. I’m not sure why. I actually think we went the wrong way in the adjustment in the pit stop and from then, we had to do quick speed stops, so we didn’t make any changes. Maybe we didn’t have the outright pace, but overall first and fourth is pretty good when you start last in both races. So, I’m pretty pleased with the results and it seems like the championship is shaping up, so it’s pretty exciting right now.”
AFTER QUALIFYING YESTERDAY, THE OUTLOOK WAS LIKELY MORE GRIM THAN OTHER WEEKENDS. SO, IS IT A FEELING OF RELIEF OR JUST SATISFACTION OVERALL THAT YOU GUYS WERE ABLE TO DO WHAT YOU DID THIS WEEKEND?“Well, it’s satisfaction from a preparation standpoint. We just showed everybody in the paddock that you have to count on us no matter what happens. So, that’s the mark of a champion team. And, that’s what you want to do. That’s what you want to show every weekend. You want people to fear you. I’m pretty sure they feared us today. We’ll re-group again and go to Mid-Ohio.”
OLIVER ASKEW, NO. 7 ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET – Finished 6^thA THIRD AND A SIXTH AT A PLACE THAT HAS BEEN DEEMED CHALLENGING, BUT YOU TOOK TO IT LIKE A DUCK TO WATER. HOW DID YOU FIGURE IT OUT?“Yeah, you can’t complain about two top-10’s and especially our first podium after yesterday. It was hard to sleep after all the adrenalin. But we just had to focus and get back to it today. I was really proud of everyone at Arrow McLaren SP and Chevrolet and everybody involved with this team. I know Pato (O’Ward) had a really good shot there at a podium and a win, so we’re definitely on the right track. Two podiums in two race weekends for us with really quick cars. I’m just really looking forward to the next couple of races. Hopefully we can keep this momentum going and really have a good run at the rookie of the year championship.”
TONY KANAAN, NO 14 BRYANT AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET – Finished 11th“All in all, I think it was a positive weekend for us. We definitely have a much more competitive car. We’ve been running in the top 10 every single race with one of these cars, so really happy. Very emotional weekend for me yesterday giving the command. It was kinda like, I never had done that, so it was kind of mixed feelings and it was really cool to do it, but also it’s something really coming to an end. Today we had a great race. We ran in the top eight all day long. The tire strategy we played a little bit of a gamble and it worked so I was really happy. I was a lot more comfortable today in the car. You know, doing this race is like one weekend, four weekends off…it’s kinda weird to me. I’ve done 17 races in a row for 23 years so I think this is a good lead for Indy. We’re going to have a normal “Month of August” in Indy, so I’ll be in the car every day so hopefully we’ll go for the big win because that’s what my boss wants. Thanks to Bryant, Firestone, Chevy and the whole Foyt team for the opportunity. Let’s go to Indy!”
PATO O’WARD, NO. 5 ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET – Finished 12^th“Yesterday, I think we started off the weekend well. In the second race, the best way to sum it up is ‘what could have been.’ We had the pace, we were strong, I made up positions to be fighting at the front. In the end, it was not meant to be for us, but we’re going to continue pushing to finish strong at Mid-Ohio.”
CONOR DALY, NO. 59 GALLAGHER CARLIN CHEVROLET – Finished 13^th“Tough night for us. The No. 59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet was really strong all race and even after we came out on the wrong side of Ed’s yellow, we were still pushing up at the front running pretty consistently in the top three. We made a strategy call there at the end to stay out under the yellow and wait to take tires until about 35 to go. Unfortunately, in tonight’s race it just wasn’t the right strategy and we didn’t move forward like we thought we would. I’m gutted for the team because the car was great and had serious podium potential, but we just had some bad luck. Obviously I’m still feeling good about our pole from yesterday, but it would’ve been really nice to come away with a top-three finish this weekend.”
CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 4 TRESIBA AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET – Finished 16th“Another tough night here at Iowa Speedway for the No. 4 Tresiba Chevrolet. The guys did a great job in pit lane – they’ve done that all year. It’s nice to rely on that coming down pit lane to pick up ties and spots, but we just struggled a little bit. I struggled with grip. I struggled with balance. Felt like I drove pretty hard, but we had a lot to learn and a lot to look at heading into the next race at Mid-Ohio and the big one at Indy.”
RINUS VEEKAY, NO. 21 SONAX ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET – Finished 17th“Yesterday, the car felt amazing. I could pass whenever I wanted and tires would stay good for a long time, at least 80 laps. I struggled with that tonight. I just didn’t have the pace to charge through the field. Still, we were doing well, closing back in on the Top 10 after a bad start. Then, at the second pit stop, the car got down on the ground with three wheels on it. We had trouble restarting the car and lost about three laps. That was a bummer. We are very unlucky at the moment, but let’s hope it will switch around soon. Mid-Ohio is coming up soon and that’s been a good track for me. I’ve won races and had a very good test with ECR last year, so I can’t wait to try again there.”
ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 U.S. AIR FORCE ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET – Contact with the wall; sidelined on Lap 113 – Finished 23rd“I caught a group of guys that were stacked up two-wide in front of me. I had Charlie (Kimball) on the inside and I just went into Turn 1 a little too hard. I got more understeer than I thought, got up into the marbles and couldn’t get it back. I am so disappointed that I made that mistake. The U.S. Air Force Chevrolet was really hooked up tonight. We struggled so much last night but felt like we really showed something tonight. I’m not sure what hurts worst, the poor performance last night or messing up a good result tonight. On to the next one.”

HEBRON, Ohio (July 18) – One day after winners were crowned in the Division 3 Lucas Oil Series event, JEGS Speedweek remained at full speed as the fields were set for the annual JEGS SPORTSnationals race.  Saturday’s packed schedule at National Trail Raceway included qualifying and elimination rounds for Top Alcohol Dragster, Top Alcohol Funny Car, Comp, Top Dragster and Top Sportsman. Also on the docket was the opening round in Super Comp, Super Gas, and Super Street drivers, plus class eliminations for Super Stock and Stock drivers. Reigning world champion Megan Meyer and De l Cox Jr. emerged as the respective top qualifiers in Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car, two categories making their first SPORTSnationals appearance since 1985. Meyer drove to a 5.225-second elapsed time and also won her first-round race. She’ll be joined in the semifinals by Jackie Fricke, Mike Bucher, and Josh Hart. Cox drove his Chevrolet Camaro Funny Car to a 5.518-second pass to lead Top Alcohol Funny Car. Like Meyer, Cox also emerged as a winner from Round 1 and is joined by two-time world champion Sean Bellemeur, Drew Hales, and Chris Foster in the final four.  The low qualifiers in Comp, Super Stock, and Stock included Greg Kamplain, Andy Kronenbitter, and Bill Dyer.  Kamplain won the first of his eight national event titles at the JEGS SPORTSnationals in 1983. Kronenbitter topped a field of 95 Super Stock entries in his ’08 Cobalt while Dyer drove his ’10 Cobra Jet Mustang to the qualifying lead in Stock over a huge field of 139 drivers. Zach Sackman, a winner at last weekend’s NHRA Nationals in Indianapolis, took the qualifying lead in the Vortech Superchargers Top Dragster class with a run of 6.128-seconds. In Vortech Superchargers Top Sportsman, Boyd Beyer is the top qualifier at 6.461 seconds. Team JEGS driver Mike Coughlin, a four-time SPORTSnationals winner, is also solidly in the Top Dragster field with his supercharged dragster. Coughlin drove to a competitive 6.174 to earn the No. 4 starting spot. Coughlin nailed down three-straight SPORTSnationals wins in 2005-2007, and won again in 2009. He’s also got five wins at National Trail Raceway, his home track. A trio of JEGS machines entered eliminations in Super Comp on Saturday with Troy Coughlin Jr., Paige Coughlin, and Makenna Brown each piloting their familiar JEGS.com dragsters. While Troy Jr. suffered a tough loss, Paige and Makenna moved on to Sunday’s final elimination rounds.  The JEGS Speedweek event has been a huge success with upwards of 650 entries for the double-header race that features both a Division 3 Lucas Oil Series race and the JEGS SPORTSnationals. The event will conclude at 8 a.m. Sunday with final eliminations resuming.

CHEVROLET RACING IN NTT INDYCAR SERIESIOWA INDYCAR 250S DOUBLEHEADER IOWA SPEEDWAYNEWTON, IOWATEAM CHEVY WINNER’S QUOTE – JOSEF NEWGARDENJULY 18, 2020
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 1 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – Race WinnerAFTER LAST NIGHT, TO COME OUT HERE AND WIN THIS ONE FROM THE POLE, HOW GOOD DOES THIS ONE FEEL?“It feels really good. I don’t know what we’ve got to do to keep the bad luck off of us, but hopefully this is a start. Our guys did an amazing job yesterday. I was so disappointed for them because I felt like they had the winning car. They put in the work and we just weren’t able to get rewarded for it. I was so determined to come back today. I think everyone was determined to come back and have a really good race. And we just ran hard. We ran hard all day. I’m so proud to be powered by Chevrolet. I felt like we had the package to beat: fuel mileage, durability, we had the power. And then to have Hitachi back on, they’ve been a good luck charm for us. Thanks to Hitachi. Thanks to everybody at Team Penske back at the shop. I’m just thrilled we were finally able to get this monkey off our back.” YOU ARE THE FIRST DRIVER AT IOWA TO START ON POLE AND END UP IN VICTORY LANE. YOU MADE IT LOOK EASY“I heard that stat. I don’t think I’ve been on pole here before. So, I was sitting there thinking you know, we can do that. I don’t know why we can’t convert from pole. It’s just kind of a silly stat, I guess, that’s kind of run through to this point. I knew we had speed. I felt totally confident. When Tim’s (Cindric) is on my stand and I have my guys doing pit stops, I have complete confidence we can win any race that we go into. That stat wasn’t bugging me.” WHAT CAN THIS DO FOR YOU IN PROPELLING THIS TEAM FORWARD AS THE SEASON PROGRESSES?“Well, we needed to. It would have been nice if we could have had a couple of the finishes where we thought we should have been. I think at Road America, we had a winning car on Saturday. I wasn’t able to secure that. We had a podium to slip away at the GP. I knew we needed a win and we need another one to come soon enough, too. It’s not going to be just one. We’ve got to be able to put consistent finishes on the board.”

CORVETTE RACING AT SEBRING: Gavin, Milner Lead Corvette C8.R Sweep • Garcia, Taylor finish second in pole-winning No. 3 Corvette• Chevrolet, No. 3 Corvette take GTLM Championship leads• Twelfth class victory at Sebring for Corvette Racing• 61st 1-2 team finish in program history

SEBRING, Fla. (July 14, 2020) – Corvette Racing went 1-2 at Sebring International Raceway as Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner took a GT Le Mans (GTLM) victory in the Cadillac Grand Prix for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship on Saturday. The No. 4 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R took a 0.480-second victory over the pole-sitting No. 3 Corvette of Jordan Taylor and Antonio Garcia – class winners two weeks ago at Daytona. It was the 12th victory for Corvette Racing at the 3.7-mile, 17-turn road course in central Florida, and the result moves Chevrolet into the GTLM Manufacturer’s Championship lead after three races. The team also won its 101st race in IMSA, 109th in program history and finished 1-2 for the 61st time. Gavin won for the seventh time at Sebring, and Milner took his third victory at the circuit. The two Corvettes ran second and third early but took control of the race following the first pit stop just past the half-hour mark. Two GTLM competitors collided in the pitlane, and the C8.Rs emerged 1-2 with Taylor leading Gavin. They continued that formation until the midway point of the race when the Corvettes stopped a lap apart from each other. Fuel-saving by Gavin during his stint allowed Milner to take the lead as the No. 4 C8.R went a lap longer than the team car. Garcia entered the race about three seconds back from Milner as the pair made their final stops separately about 20 minutes later. Garcia closed the gap to Milner over the final 20 minutes but not enough to overtake the No. 4 Corvette. The Garcia/Taylor duo did, however, leave Sebring with the GTLM Driver’s Championship lead, as did the No. 3 Corvette in the Team standings. Saturday’s victory also came on the one-year anniversary of the 2020 Corvette Stingray production car’s public debut. It is the road-going counterpart to the C8.R. Corvette Racing returns to competition July 31-August 2 at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis.

OLIVER GAVIN, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – GTLM RACE-WINNER: “It’s been an amazing day. Thanks to Corvette Racing and Tommy for doing a wonderful job to bring the car home at the end. It was the strategy and pit stops that made the difference. Our guys did an outstanding job throughout the race. Our Corvette C8.R has really come alive in the last two races. It was a great result for the No. 3 Corvette to get the 100th victory in IMSA for Corvette Racing at Daytona. For us to get No. 101 and my 49th in IMSA is fantastic. A great day. I do want to dedicate this win to a great friend of mine who passed away just before Daytona – Nick Moss, who supported me throughout all my career. He came to Le Mans with me 15 times and was an amazing, amazing friend. He passed away after a long battle with cancer, and I want to dedicate this win to him.” HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT SETTING UP FOR A SPRINT RACE FOR SEBRING INSTEAD OF 12 HOURS?“It’s a far shorter timespan so you may go more aggressively on your brakes. You’re also not having to factor in that night finish or how the track is going to evolve. You have a very short window where the track is going to improve or not. It’s a tight window. We focused on that. These races are happening very, very quick. You hardly have time to get the cars ready between sessions. Just before the start, our guys were thrashing away to make some changes that in the end made our car really good and led us to standing here talking to you. We have them to thank for that, for making all those changes and the guys working in the engineering room going over all the numbers. This is still a brand new car and we are really trying to learn as we go. It’s a phenomenal car and we want to win more and more. Bring on Road America.” DID YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENED TO THE PORSCHES?“It was only after the race that people started talking to me about it. The guys didn’t mention it to me. I just saw that one of the Porsches had left missing its front bumper. It was all of us trying to leave together and there wasn’t enough room. I was already in the fast lane and had priority.”

TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – GTLM RACE-WINNER: “It’s an amazing achievement to get 100 wins and now 101. The success of this team is incredible, and to be a small part of that is obviously an honor. It took us awhile to get 100 so it’s nice to get over the hump to get 101 and not have to talk about that one! Today was all about strategy and not making mistakes. It looked like we were going to have a pretty good race with the Porsches. It was all pretty close but then all fell apart there as far as that goes. In the end, it was left to myself and Antonio and of course Jordan and Olly at the start. Olly in the end really made the race for us with saving fuel and having a bit better pit stop and get out in front of the 3 car. That was pretty much the end. Antonio got pretty close there at the end. He was there for sure. The plan was with a couple laps to go once he got there, it wasn’t worth throwing away a win and 1-2 finish for Corvette Racing. So he was probably a little bit nicer to me than he could have been! But it was an awesome day. It’s great to drive with Olly and it’s an incredible achievement for him to get 50 IMSA wins. We’ll work on that in the upcoming races.” HAD THE PORSCHES NOT HAD THEIR INCIDENTS IN PITLANE, HOW CLOSE OF A RACE WOULD IT HAVE BEEN?“It was looking like it was going to be very, very close pace wise. I think you saw that in the pitstop as well. We all came in together and we were all going to leave together. It looked like with all the strategy details, it was going to be a close race whether it was on fuel mileage or tires or whatever. They have been fast all season and continue to be quite quick. We’ll for sure have some work to do to find an advantage somewhere if we can and ultimately not make mistakes throughout the race. We saw today how one small one can ruin your race. We’ll have to be extra vigilant about no pitlane incidents or making mistakes on the track…. those little details that aren’t so sexy in some way but that’s what makes the race for you in the end.”

ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – SECOND IN GTLM: “After going so long without winning race before Daytona, I really wanted another one today. But this was a great result for Corvette Racing with the 1-2 finish and the championship lead. It was a great job by everyone on the team – the crew and engineers. Things went the way for Oliver and Tommy today, and they did a good job managing their race and their fuel. I think we can all be happy with the performance of the team and the Corvette C8.R. We have shown good pace the last two races and have gathered a lot of data both in the dry and in the wet. That’s the main thing for us as we go further in the season. All in all, it was a good weekend.”

JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “Another great day for Corvette Racing. I had to start with the P2 cars, and there were a couple of slow guys in their field. A couple of cars got by me at Turn Two or Three. But the Corvette Racing guys got us back out front and we were able to pull a big gap in that second stint to the Porsches and BMWs. Congratulations to Olly and Tommy on the win. They did a great job with the strategy. A 1-2 team finish for the Corvette C8.R and the points lead for me and Antonio is nothing to be disappointed about. WHAT DID YOU SEE ON THE FIRST PIT STOP?“I knew it was going to be messy pitting under yellow because everyone gets stacked up. I think even the 4 car got stuck behind me trying to leave, and then when I saw the Porsches leave they knocked into each other. It’s super tight. The competition in GTLM is so close; to make passes on track is difficult so a lot of times you have to make it happen in the pits. We’ve got the best group at Corvette Racing to get us out front.”

·       Leah Pruett qualifies second in the fiery new-look Mopar Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye Top Fuel dragster at Lucas Oil NHRA Summernationals 

·       Tommy Johnson Jr. follows up runner-up finish last weekend with No. 2 qualifying position in his MD Anderson Dodge Charger SRT Funny Car at Lucas Oil Raceway

·       Matt Hagan looking to repeat last week’s winning performance with new Mopar Dodge SRT Hellcat Redeye-themed Funny Car in second of two back-to back NHRA national events in Indianapolis

·       Pruett and Mark Pawuk return to Factory Stock Showdown competition behind the wheel of their Mopar Challenger Drag Paks 

July 18, 2020, Brownsburg, Ind. – Coming off a Funny Car event win last weekend at Indianapolis, Don Schumacher Racing’s (DSR) contingent of Mopar Dodge SRT-sponsored entries came back firing on all cylinders to earn a pair of No. 2 qualifying positions at the Lucas Oil NHRA Summmernationals, as National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Mello Yello Drag Racing Series competition returns to the “Crossroads of America” as part of the new rescheduled season plan. 

DSR Top Fuel pilot Leah Pruett showed off a new demon-red Hellcat Redeye paint-scheme by putting her Mopar Dodge Charger SRT second on the Top-Fuel eliminations ladder, while Funny Car driver Tommy Johnson Jr. came close to repeating his top qualifying effort from last week, eventually settling into the No. 2 spot going into Sunday’s competition.

Johnson Jr.’s second qualifying run of 4.017 seconds at 300.86 mph took him to the top of the timing sheets, and while it looked like he might repeat last week’s performance as top qualifier, Bob Tasca bumped the MD Anderson Dodge from the No. 1 spot later in the session. As No.2 qualifier, Johnson Jr. will face Bob Bode as his first round opponent.

DSR teammates Ron Capps and Jack Beckman, winner of the 2020 season opening event, both secured lane choice for their opening rounds of eliminations with their No. 4 and No. 6 positions respectively in qualifying. Beckman will see Chad Green in first round action.

Capps, who was second quickest in the first qualifying session, will be paired up with DSR teammate Matt Hagan, winner of last week’s E3 Spark Plugs NHRA Nationals. With the shortening of qualifying to just two sessions with the new season schedule, Hagan had little room for error to make the field after a difficult first run, but safely put his new-look Mopar Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye in the show on his final pass no put him .

Top Fuel No.2 qualifier Pruett earned bonus points for her Mopar Dodge SRT dragster by posting runs that put her in the top-three on the timing sheets in both sessions. She’ll see Lex Joon in the first round of eliminations. 

Pruett will have two opportunities to fight for a Wally on Sunday as she pulls double duty this weekend by getting back into her Mopar Dodge Challenger Drag Pak for Factory Stock Showdown action.

Factory Stock Showdown

The SAMTech.edu NHRA Factory Stock Showdown (FSS) class took to the track for the first time this 2020 season with Pruett, the 2018 champion in the category, and Mark Pawuk get behind the wheel of their Don Schumacher Motorsports-prepared Mopar Dodge Challenger Drag Paks. Both drivers return aboard the same factory-built vehicles with which they finished the 2019 season (at Dallas), when Pruett qualified second and reached the final while Pawuk qualified ninth. 

Looking to build off those results, the pair both qualified their Mopar muscle cars for Sunday eliminations. Pawuk qualified 12th on the strength of his first run at 8.078 sec/170.28 mph and will face no. 5 qualifier Arthur Kohn. 

Pruett’s second elapsed time run of 8.146 sec. /168.32 mph put her 16^th on the eliminations ladder and will see her matched up with No. 1 qualifier Chris Holbrook.

Elimination rounds at the Lucas Oil NHRA Summernationals begin at 9:45 a.m. (ET) on Sunday, July 19, while television coverage will air starting at 12 p.m. (ET) on the FOX national broadcast network and will include LIVE final elimination round action.

NOTES and QUOTES: 

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

(No. 6 Qualifier – 4.059 seconds at 299.66 mph)

Qualifying 1: 4.059 sec/299.66 mph

Qualifying 2: 6.485 sec/113.08 mph

“If you’re going to go one for two in qualifying, this weekend we did it the right way. We unloaded with a good run and then we took a shot and missed it, but that’s ok. We know how to back up from that tomorrow. Last weekend when we missed it on the first run, you go up for the last qualifying session biting your nails and it’s too much stress before race day. Once again, we have a great car and it looks like there will be great competition out there tomorrow. The three cars I fear most all say DSR and the (Bob) Tasca car with DSR parts. We have to beat a lot of good cars and if we can do that, they’ll hand us the trophy.”

Matt Hagan, Mopar Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car  
(No. 13 Qualifier – 4.275 seconds at 283.73 mph)
Qualifying 1: 5.147 sec./145.42 mph

Qualifying 2: 4.275 sec./283.73 mph

“With just two qualifying shots, it’s far more nervous when you get up there to the water box. I’m sure plenty of drivers felt that stress level last weekend like we did today. Dickie Venables did what we needed to do to get in the show and we get to race tomorrow. A hot, greasy race track is always tricky to navigate. We have this awesome brand new paint scheme with the chrome red Hellcat Redeye scheme and it’s a beautiful car. It looks fast and we have to make it fast and we’ll end up in the winner’s circle again.”

Tommy Johnson Jr., MD Anderson Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car
(No. 2 Qualifier – 4.017  seconds at 300.86 mph) 
Qualifying 1: 4.572 sec./186.41 mph

Qualifying 2: 4.017 sec./300.86 mph

“This two-run qualifying deal puts a lot of pressure on the teams. It’s interesting to see everybody have trouble on the first run and that puts a lot more pressure on that Q2 run to get in the show. To come out and go from fifteenth to No. 1 and end up second is great. Hats off to (crew chiefs) John (Collins) and Rip (Reynolds) and this team. We have a good race car, just trickier track conditions than we saw last weekend. It will probably be trickier tomorrow with the heat, but that 4.01 in the last session was solid and that sets us up for a good race day.”

Ron Capps, NAPA Auto Parts Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Funny Car
(No. 4 Qualifier – 4.054 seconds at 312.86 mph)  
Qualifying 1: 4.054 sec./312.86 mph

Qualifying 2: 4.440 sec./200.26 mph

“Obviously, it’s a tale of two weekends. We were so disappointed in ourselves for not qualifying better last weekend and putting ourselves in the position of having to run the No. 1 qualifier who was our teammate Tommy Johnson. Today, we finished the first session as the No. 2 qualifier. We tried to push it in Q2, we wanted to go for the pole, we thought we could run a mid-3.90 and that was the time to try it. Unfortunately, we didn’t think the position we were in was going to lands us with a round one matchup with our teammate Matt Hagan. That’s a tough car right now, they’re coming off a win and running great. We start earlier in the morning so the first round will give us the best conditions we’ll see all day. It’s going to be triple digits with the heat index, and usually, the NAPA team is really good in those conditions. First-round is going to be really tough, like a final round, but I’m confident in my team and we’ll go up there and do our best.”

Leah Pruett, Mopar Dodge//SRT Top Fuel Dragster  
(No. 10 Qualifier – 3.934 seconds at 306.33 mph)   
Qualifying 1: 3.850 sec./314.31 mph

Qualifying 2: 3.889 sec./311.34 mph

“What I love about racing are the constant challenges that are thrown at you. Todd and Neal, have been putting in the extra efforts on Cory’s dragster, and I had to qualify in Factory Stock (Showdown) with the Dodge DragPak for our first race this weekend in that class. Everything about this operation is elevated this weekend running 10 cars. It’s great to see more fans here today and this has to be one of the humidest races we’re ever run. It’s feels like Florida more than Indy. We’re looking forward to race day, another early start and we’re planning on building on last weekend and going more rounds.”

Factory Stock Showdown Notes & Quotes

Leah Pruett, Mopar Dodge Challenger Drag Pak  
(No. 16 Qualifier – 8.146 seconds at 168.32 mph)   
Qualifying 1: 9.491 sec./104.71 mph

Qualifying 2: 8.146 sec./168.32 mph

“Just like race cars do, sometimes they have a couple of issues. Ours happened to be in the belt power strain, and luckily, we tested yesterday and thought we almost had it cured. We broke a belt on Q1, and it created a very high-pressure situation of leaving just one qualifying attempt to get in the field and I’m very proud of (crew chief) Kevin Helms, Terry Snyder, and this entire Mopar crew for getting this car down the track. We made a moderate Q2 run to get in the show, which made for some scary times, living on the edge, but we thrive on that. Mark’s (Pawuk) car is running well, and we’re going to pick it up from there. I have a really heavy matchup, No. 1 versus 16, and (Chris) Holbrook is not one to take lightly. We came here to compete, and you’re going to see some good competition tomorrow.”

Mark Pawuk, Dodge Challenger Drag Pak  

(No. 12 Qualifier – 8.078 seconds at 170.28 mph)  

Qualifying 1: 8.078 sec/170.28 mph

Qualifying 2: 8.201 sec./168.56 mph

“What I love about racing are the constant challenges that are thrown at you. Todd and Neal, have been putting in the extra efforts on Cory’s dragster, and I had to qualify in Factory Stock (Showdown) with the Dodge DragPak for our first race this weekend in that class. Everything about this operation is elevated this weekend running 10 cars. It’s great to see more fans here today and this has to be one of the humidest races we’re ever run. It’s feels like Florida more than Indy. We’re looking forward to race day, another early start and we’re planning on building on last weekend and going more rounds.”

IMSA WEATHERTECH SPORTSCAR CHAMPIONSHIP SEBRING INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY CADILLAC GRAND PRIX OF SEBRING GTLM WINNER QUOTES JULY 18, 2020

SEBRING, Fla. (July 18, 2020) – Corvette Racing went 1-2 in at Sebring International Raceway as Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner took the GT Le Mans (GTLM) victory in the Cadillac Grand Prix for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship on Saturday. The No. 4 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R took a 0.480-second victory over the pole-sitting No. 3 Corvette of Jordan Taylor and Antonio Garcia – class winners two weeks ago at Daytona. It was the 12th victory for Corvette Racing at the 3.7-mile, 17-turn road course in central Florida, and the result moves Chevrolet into the GTLM Manufacturer’s Championship lead after three races.

OLIVER GAVIN, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – GTLM RACE WINNER: “As always, Corvette Racing did an amazing job in the pitlane to get us out in front of the Porsches on the first stop. I don’t know what their deal was. It was a good job between Jordan (Taylor). I tried to save as much fuel as possible to try to hand the car over to Tommy to finish off and give him the best chance of leapfrogging the 3 car in the pitlane. It’s a great 1-2 for Corvette Racing and a great way to follow up the team’s win at Daytona.””Getting Win No. 100 and 101 means everything. Everyone at Corvette Racing and Team Chevy has been working so hard, and we can’t thank them enough. The Corvette Stingray road car was launched a year ago today, so to win this race is absolutely phenomenal.”

TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – GTLM RACE WINNER: “It was close there at the end. Olly did a great job of saving fuel and that allowed us to get out ahead of the 3 car. It was a great strategy from Chuck (Houghton, race engineer) and great pit stops from Brian (Hoye, car chief) and the whole crew. To have these Corvette C8.Rs in as good as shape as they were after the long break is a testament to everyone on this team.”

28th    10th  9th

“We had an extremely fast Death Wish Coffee Chevrolet today at Texas Motor Speedway. We were really good early in the race, but struggled to get track position. My crew chief, Andy Street, made a great strategy call to have us pit prior to the end of stage two. That allowed us to stay out and take the lead for the beginning of the final stage. I battled really hard on older tires to keep the lead and then had to give it up because we started over heating from a piece of debris on our grill. Once we got back in the dirty air, I made a mistake by getting too high in the PJ1, which led to us knocking down the wall. Once that happened, we struggled with a bad vibration for the remainder of the race. With 10 laps to go, something broke and I hit the wall again, which ended our day. I hate it for all my Richard Childress Racing guys and Death Wish Coffee. It’s definitely not how we wanted to finish. However, I’m super proud of the speed we brought again and I know it’s just a matter of time before we can put it all together.”  -Anthony Alfredo

IMSA WEATHERTECH SPORTSCAR CHAMPIONSHIPSEBRING INTERNATIONAL RACEWAYCADILLAC GRAND PRIXGTLM POST-QUALIFYING QUOTESJULY 18, 2020

SEBRING, Fla. (July 18, 2020) – Corvette Racing claimed its second consecutive pole position in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship as Jordan Taylor turned in the best GT Le Mans (GTLM) qualifying time for the Cadillac Grand Prix on Saturday in the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R. Taylor’s best effort was a 1:55.634 (116.436 mph) lap for his first career GTLM pole in the Corvette that he shares with Antonio Garcia. Oliver Gavin was just behind in the No. 4 Corvette that he drives with Tommy Milner – only 0.381 seconds off the lead C8.R.  Garcia and Taylor delivered Corvette Racing’s first victory with the mid-engine C8.R and the team’s 100th win in IMSA two weeks ago at Daytona, a race in which Gavin was the fastest qualifier just ahead of Taylor. The Cadillac Grand Prix at Sebring is set for 5:30 p.m. ET today with live race television coverage on NBC Sports Network, NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports App. IMSA Radio will broadcast the race on IMSA.com, which also will host live timing and scoring.

JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – GTLM POLE WINNER:“This one was a little bit unexpected. At Daytona, we thought we would have pace because we were there for the Roar and the Rolex 24, and had a lot of data to go by to improve the C8.R. Coming here was a big unknown. We did two of testing in February, but it was private testing so we didn’t know how quick everyone else would be, and where our strengths and weaknesses would lie. There is limited practice time here again, but we had a couple days on the simulator where we worked on a few things. This morning to be honest, we were a little off the pace and bouncing around a little. The Corvette Racing guys made a lot of big changes for qualifying, and the Corvette was super nice to drive. It’s my first pole with Corvette and first one of the No. 3 C8.R, so that’s special to do it at a historic track like Sebring. I’m excited but the race is going to be a much different story with the what type of weather might come later on today.” TALK ABOUT THE MOMENTUM OF THE TEAM RIGHT NOW.“It’s great to be up front and now trying to follow up our first win. I think everyone was down during the quarantine time – stuck at home and stuck in the shop and hoping all our work would pay off. Now we’ve proven it at Daytona with the win and it’s gotten everyone excited and showing on the track how much work we’ve done. There’s a lot of good momentum and we hope to carry it on throughout the season.”

OLIVER GAVIN, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – QUALIFIED SECOND IN GTLM: “It’s positive result for the team to have both Corvettes up front and get another 1-2 in qualifying. Due to the lack of dry running, both cars went different directions for qualifying to try and learn more in time for the race this evening. Our car was good for a couple laps and I thought there might have been more in it, but the balance just started to go away. It seemed Jordan really managed to nail it and get that lap together for pole. Hats off to him and everyone at Corvette Racing for another good day. We’ll try to carry that forward into the race. The weather will play its part, but we don’t know how or when. We’ll be ready for whatever is thrown at is.”

FORT WORTH, TEXAS JULY 19, 2020
Race #18: TexasOriginally slated to be a March appearance for NASCAR’s premier series, the revised NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) schedule continues on with the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday, July 19th. The 334-lap, 500-mile race at the 1.5-mile Texas oval now marks the 18th race on the tour. 
With NASCAR continuing to take steps in the return of guests to its events, the Texas Motor Speedway event will play a part in the process. With the state allowing 50 percent capacity, the Texas oval grandstands and camping will be open to race fans, subject to social distancing requirements and additional safety measures in place. The NASCAR race weekend will be the first major league sports event in the state of Texas to be open to fans since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. 
BOWTIE BULLETS·       Chevrolet has made 13 trips to victory lane in NASCAR’s Premier Series at Texas Motor Speedway. Other statistics of note for the bowtie brand’s history at the 1.5-mile oval include 68 top-five’s, 162 top-10’s and 4,265 laps led.
·       Victories by current Chevrolet drivers include: Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1 1LE, with 7 wins (2007, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 sweep and 2017), Matt Kenseth, No. 42 McDelivery Camaro ZL1 1LE with 2 wins (2002 and 2011), and Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1, with one win (2009). 
·       Of the 38 NASCAR Cup Series events that have been held at Texas Motor Speedway, four different manufacturers have led the field to the green from the pole position, with Chevrolet leading the way capturing 15 poles. Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1 1LE, leads active drivers in NCS Busch Pole Awards at Texas with three (2015, 2017, 2018).  
·       Chevrolet team Hendrick Motorsports sits on top the leaderboard in NCS wins by teams at Texas Motor Speedway with nine trips to victory lane. 
TEXAS RECORDBOOKCareer Chevrolet driver, Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1 1LE, is no stranger to topping the leaderboard in statistics and his history at Texas Motor Speedway does just that. Of his 33 starts in NASCAR’s premier series at the speedway, Johnson leads the series in wins making seven trips to victory lane – a winning percentage of 21.2%. Three NCS drivers in history have captured consecutive wins at Texas, with Johnson leading the way with three (2014 Playoff race and the 2015 sweep). Johnson also leads the series in runner-up finishes with five, top-five finishes with 16, and top-10 finishes with 22 in his career. Of the 81 different drivers that have led laps at Texas Motor Speedway, Johnson tops the leaderboard by leading 1,152 laps thus far. He’s also captured the current title of series-best in fastest laps run with 728 and laps in the top-15 with 7,185.  STARTING LINEUPThe format for this weekend’s NCS event continues on as a one-day show with no practice and no qualifying. Owner points and a random draw have again set the starting lineup. Here are Team Chevy’s top-20 starters:
3rd      Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1 1LE8th      Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 1LE12th    Alex Bowman, No. 88 ChevyGoods.com/Adam’s Polishes Camaro ZL1 1LE13th    Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Kroger Camaro ZL1 1LE14th    Bubba Wallace, No. 43 Cash App Camaro ZL1 1LE18th    William Byron, No. 24 Axalta Camaro ZL1 1LE20th    Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1 1LE
TUNE-INNBCSN will telecast the 334-lap race live at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, July 19th. Live coverage can also be found on the NBCSports Gold App, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
QUOTABLE QUOTES:CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 L1E – 4th IN STANDINGS“Texas is a hot place. This time of year, I think everywhere is probably going to be hot, it always is. From the hydration standpoint, that’s always important. Preparing to sweat a lot is another big thing. As far as the track goes, I don’t expect the racing to look a whole lot different just because it’s hot. I think it will be really similar to what we’ve seen there in the past. The repave has been a big-time struggle for us. We just need to settle in and try to find some consistency and get going a little better. It’s such a unique place now with the ends being so different and how you want to configure your car.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 CHEVYGOODS.COM/ADAM’S POLISHES CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 9th IN STANDINGSBOWMAN ON WHAT MAKES TEXAS DIFFERENT. “Texas is different because since they reconfigured it, it’s just really tricky down in turns one and two. In turns three and four, you’re just wide open. Turns one and two are just really flat and different. It’s not the normal 1.5-mile track shape. It started widening out there in the fall and hopefully it continues to move in that direction this year.”
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 14th IN STANDINGSBYRON ON HIS SUCCESS AT TEXAS.“I don’t know why I’ve always been so good at Texas Motor Speedway other than it’s one of the tracks I’ve raced at the most in my career. We always bring fast cars which definitely helps especially with the amount of grip the track has. I would say it’s just a bit of luck that Texas just suits me. I really like that place and it seems to like me as well. Hopefully we will have a good run there this weekend.” AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER/E-Z-GO CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 16th IN STANDINGSTELL US ABOUT RACING AT TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY AND HOW IT DIFFERS FROM OTHER 1.5-MILE TRACKS, SUCH AS KANSAS SPEEDWAY? “Texas Motor Speedway is a bit different from Kansas Speedway in that it has two different ends. You have one end that’s very banked and has high speeds, and then you have a hard end where you have to get turned and get back on the gas. Texas Motor Speedway just has so much grip now. It’s quite a bit different, and the banking has changed a lot from the old track to the new track. I really like Texas and am looking forward to getting there. It’s going to be really important to run well and to have a good finish because we are still battling to make it into the Playoffs. Our cars have been strong on 1.5-mile tracks this year, and we will look to some of that speed to try and get the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER/E-Z-GO Chevy into Victory Lane.” TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 CAT OIL & GAS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 17th IN STANDINGS“Texas Motor Speedway is a fun place to race and a track I’ve come close to winning at in the past in the other series, but always seem to come up one or two spots short. So, I’m really looking forward to this weekend and competing in my first NASCAR Cup Series race there this Sunday with our No. 8 Cat Oil and Gas Chevrolet. Texas is a little similar to Kansas Speedway, where you can have a lot of balance changes in your car during a run. You have to manage your car and its changes during a run really well in order to be successful there. Moving around throughout a run will also still be important at Texas, and we’ve seen the PJ1 open up a couple lanes in the past, so we should be able to put on a good show this weekend.”
TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 27th IN STANDINGS“I’m really looking forward to Texas. The hot weather on this track surface is going to be interesting. It is going to take a good car with a lot of grip to be successful. We had a great GEICO Camaro ZL1 1LE in Kentucky that we are now turning around to use at Texas on Sunday. Hopefully our Germain Racing team can keep the momentum rolling from the really fast race car we had last weekend.” 
MATT KENSETH, NO. 42 MCDELIVERY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 28th IN STANDINGS“Texas will be a big challenge this weekend. Day race, in Fort Worth, in the middle of July… you know it’s going to be a really hot and slick race track. Conditions are going to be extremely hot inside the car as well. Like most of the mile-and-a-half tracks we go to these days, track position is going to be extremely important. I feel we’ve made gains over the past few weeks and think if we execute well we can put our McDonald’s McDelivery Chevrolet in the mix on Sunday.” 

GRANITE CITY, IL (July 17, 2020) – Tyler Erb took the lead on lap 22 and then went on to pick up the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series victory on Friday Night. Tri-City Speedway’s “NAPA Know How 50” marks Erb’s second win at Tri-City Speedway. Billy Moyer Jr. recorded his best LOLMDS finish, coming home in second. Moyer, Jr. led the first 21 laps until Erb passed him for the lead. Jonathan Davenport crossed the finish stripe in third, followed by Shane Clanton and Tyler Bruening. Moyer Jr. started alongside Kyle Strickler on the front row and then survived what was once a three-car battle for the lead until Strickler went spinning into the infield, ending his night with front suspension damage. Moyer, Jr. then held the point until Erb got by him three laps from the halfway mark. Erb quickly stretched his lead over Moyer, Jr. as he went unchallenged to the checkers. Erb visited Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the second time this season, ninth of his career and said patience was a key to his win. “I knew that surviving out front was going to be half the battle. When we took off, I knew we had a really good car. I expected the track to come back the way it did. They had it rolled in really nice when we started. I almost took the lead when that caution came out. I knew when I was in second to just keep following Billy, he was a hand full tonight until an opportunity presented itself. He had a good car tonight and was going to be tough to beat. Congrats to him and JD on their finishes tonight,” said the 23-year-old Texas racer. Moyer, Jr. was glad about a podium finish to end the night, “I just didn’t judge lapped traffic right. All-in-all to run second here is great, it’s one of my best tracks. I love racing in the St. Louis area. The Lucas Oil Series and the track did a great job on the track considering how much rain they had here a few days ago. Thank you to Marshall Green and everyone at Capital Race Cars. I have never had this great of help from anyone on the chassis-side. We will be contending for wins hopefully for a long-time to come.” Davenport finished third. “It was tough to pass lapped cars. I moved around early on and gained some spots. I think Randall [Edwards], Erb’s crew chief saw me and moved him up the track. I got going pretty good and got by Junior. I felt like I was a little bit better than Junior, but it got hard to pass.  A third-place finish here is good, we have had some pretty bad luck so to get a podium finish feels good for sure.” The winner’s Best Performance Motorsports Rocket Chassis is powered by a Durham Race Engine and sponsored by is sponsored by Roberts Bee Company, First Class Septic, Franklin Enterprises, Industrial Resourcing Group, and Valvoline. Completing the top ten were Rick Eckert, Devin Moran, Johnny Scott, Tim McCreadie, and Josh Richards.

TEAM CHEVY RACE 1 NOTES & QUOTESJULY 17, 2020
TOP CHEVROLET UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS: POS.   DRIVER1^st       SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET3^RD      OLIVER ASKEW, NO. 7 ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET4^thPATO O’WARD, NO. 5 ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET5^th       JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 1 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET 8^th       CONOR DALY, NO. 59 GALLAGHER CARLIN CHEVROLET
TOP SIX UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:POS.  DRIVER1^ST      Simon Pagenaud (Chevrolet)2^nd      Scott Dixon (Honda)3^rd       Oliver Askew (Chevrolet)4^th       Pato O’Ward (Chevrolet)5^th      Josef Newgarden (Chevrolet)From last to first, Pagenaud claims victory in Iowa Race OneChevy drivers claim four of top-five finishing positions
Newton, Iowa – Simon Pagenaud sat quietly poised in his No.22 Menards Team Penske Chevrolet, set to be almost last car to qualify for both races of the NTT INDYCAR Series Doubleheader at Iowa Speedway. But a problem with the fueling system prevented the car from firing, so Pagenaud did not qualify and had to start dead last (23^rd) for the first of the two 250-lap races. He will also start last in Race Two. 
But in his usual cool manner, the 2016 Series’ champion worked in sync with his team and when the checkered flag flew, it was Pagenaud that took his bright yellow Chevrolet to victory lane. He led twice for total of 83 laps. 
Scoring his first NTT INDYCAR Series podium is third place finisher Oliver Askew, No. 7 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet. Askew started 14^th in the 23 car field. 
Scott Dixon (Honda) completed the podium.
Askew’s teammate, Pato O’Ward, brought his No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet in fourth. 
Josef Newgarden, who will start on the pole of Saturday night’s 250-lap race, finished fifth. Newgarden started second and grabbed the lead early, and would be credited with leading twice for 68 laps. But the team’s strategy was shuffled when a long caution flag scrambled the field on lap 144. 
The caution was caused when teammate Will Power made contact with the backstretch wall, and at the restart a two-car crash kept the field under caution for 26 laps. Team Chevy driiver Rinus Veekay, No. 21 Sonax Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet was involved in the accident but emerged uninjured.
Pole sitter Conor Daly, No. 59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet, finished eighth to give Chevrolet five of the top-eight finishers. 
NBCSN will telecast Race 2 of the IOWA INDYCAR 250’s Doubleheader live at 8:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, July 18. Live coverage can also be found on the INDYCAR Radio Network, Sirius 211, XM 205, IndyCar.com and on the INDYCAR MOBILE APP powered by NTT DATA.
TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES:
SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – Race WinnerFROM WORST TO FIRST! IS THERE A BETTER WAY TO NOTCH YOUR FIRST WIN HERE AT IOWA?“Wow, this place is tough! What a night! What a day for us. First of all, it was an amazing group effort from the whole Team Penske to recover from Road America. I made a mistake. We unloaded really well. This morning was a lot of fun. Qualifying was disheartening, but these guys never give up and that’s what this team is all about. It’s amazing to get the Menards car to be shining here in Iowa is awesome. So, I’m really proud for John and everybody at Menards and Chevy. Obviously, we had the horsepower and the fuel conception, but most importantly, I can’t believe it. I have to re-watch the race. How did I get there? I don’t know. The last 50 laps were certainly a lot of tension. A lot of tension. When (Scott) Dixon is chasing you, you’d better hit your marks.”
TAKE US THROUGH THAT AND HAVING THE FIVE-TIME CHAMPION BREATHING DOWN YOUR NECK AT TIMES AND TRYING TO STRETCH THE FUEL AND KEEP HIM IN YOUR REAR VIEW MIRROR AND DEALING WITH LAPPED TRAFFIC, HOW DID YOU DEAL WITH ALL OF THAT?“Yeah, it’s certainly not easy with lapped traffic. I knew we had a really good car on long runs, so that was really my chance. I was really keeping up with the tires and they behaved really well. I was a little worried about the (Arrow) McLaren guys because they pitted for new tires, and new tires were so much speed, so I was a little worried. In the end, I had my hands full. Thanks for everybody at Team Penske and everybody who supports us. It was an amazing team effort.”
YOU’RE GOING TO DO IT ALL AGAIN TOMORROW NIGHT, STARTING FROM THE REAR. DO YOU HAVE IT IN YOU?“I do, I do. I never give up. If I’ve got to do it again, I’ll do it again. This we certainly a pretty cool win on an oval. Indy will always be the top, but this one was pretty cool, too.”
OLIVER ASKEW, NO. 7 ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET – Finished 3^rdWHAT A NIGHT IT WAS FOR YOU IN PICKING UP YOUR FIRST CAREER PODIUM. TALK ABOUT THAT TEAM STRATEGY ON PURE OFFENSE WITH THOSE TIRES LATE IN THE RACE. WHAT WAS THAT LIKE?“I wish you could see my smile right now (wearing a mask). This Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet absolutely came alive once the track started to get cooler. We were really, really good on new tires and when they were very used. So, if that yellow didn’t come out at the restart, I think we would have had a really good shot at finishing at least one-two with Pato (O’Ward) and I. We’ll get at them again tomorrow. Honestly, that’s probably one of the most fun races I’ve ever done in my life. Hats off to everybody at Arrow McLaren SP and thanks to everybody who showed up tonight and watched at home, my family. It was an awesome night.”
THIS WAS NO EASY TRACK TO COME TO TERMS WITH. AND WHILE YOU HAVE RACED HERE ONCE BEFORE EARLIER IN YOUR CAREER, YOU SAID IT WAS GOING TO BE LIKE LEARNING A WHOLE NEW TRACK IN THE NTT INDYCAR SERIES. HOW DID YOU COME TO GRIPS WITH IT SO QUICKLY?“Well, I think a lot of it comes down to preparation and spending some time in the Chevy simulator. I was here four years ago but the track feels a lot shorter and smaller now running in INDYCAR. I love this track and can’t wait to get back out there tomorrow.”
MAYBE SOME OF THAT SPEED CAME FROM YOUR NEW DO, A LITTLE BIT SHORTER?“Yeah, it might be a little more aero-efficient and a bit of weight reduction, and it’s a bit cooler in the car, too. Maybe I should keep it short.”
PATO O’WARD, NO. 5 ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET – Finished 4thIF NOT FOR THAT PIT STOP THERE THE LAST TIME YOU CAME DOWN, YOU MIGHT HAVE BEEN RIGHT UP THERE CHALLENGING. BUT YOU HAD A FAST CAR. HOW WOULD YOU EVALUATE THE DAY OVERALL?“Yeah, I think you said it. Arrow McLaren SP gave us fantastic cars. We were really up on the pace. Unfortunately, that last pit stop really put us some time behind and it made us fight harder, but I’m super happy for my teammate, and his first INDYCAR podium. We’re going to be pushing for one-two tomorrow. We’ve got very fast cars and these guys deserve a win. So, hopefully we can give it to them tomorrow. But I’ve got a race under my belt at Iowa. What a fun race! What a cool race! It’s definitely one of the craziest ones I’ve ever done.”
YOU FOUGHT HARD TO GET TO A POSITION WHERE YOU’RE CONSISTENTLY CONTENDING FOR WINS AND OBVIOUSLY LAST WEEK AT ROAD AMERICA YOU HAD A STRONG SUNDAY. TONIGHT, ANOTHER STRONG NIGHT. HOW EXCITING IS THIS FOR YOU?“Oh, for sure. I have so much faith in the group of guys that are behind me that are engineering these cars. They are way smarter than me. My job is to drive the car. Honestly, they’ve given me great cars everywhere. We’ve been out of the box very fast. We need to continue doing that and our pre-race conditions need to keep improving and I know we’re going to be up there fighting for wins and podiums. I think we’re making big strides. Last weekend was a big step. Today was a great result for the team but we’re close to that first win and I hope it comes soon.”
HOW VALUABLE WAS TODAY JUST FROM A LEARNING PERSPECTIVE?“The stints are so long. It’s really good to just kind of get a feel for what the car is going to start doing after 40 or 50 laps. And yeah, obviously it’s up to the guys to do the strategy and my job is to listen to instructions and push, push, push. But, I’m so happy for Simon (Pagenaud). Great job on his part and Scott Dixon as well, and my teammate there. It’s a great result for the team, but I want three positions there!”
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 1 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – Finished 5^thYOU LED 68 LAPS TONIGHT AND THERE WAS PERHAPS A SLOW STOP AND AN UNTIMELY CAUTION, BUT WHERE DID THIS ONE ULTIMATELY GET AWAY FROM YOU GUYS?Multiple points. The caution was certainly was the nail in the coffin. Without sounding too over-confident, I think we had the car to beat tonight, hands-down. So, it’s frustrating. I’ve got to be honest, I’m so angry about the way that this all transpired. Some of it is just bad luck. The yellow coming out when it came out, you can’t predict that stuff. You weigh out the pros and cons when you’re trying to go long, when you’re trying to go short on your pit windows. And, I can’t fault my guys. I think they did a great job. I had a rocket ship. I mean, I had a car above, in my opinion. I’m sad that we weren’t able to put our car in Victory Lane because I felt like we had that potential. But, like I said, I’m very proud of my guys. They always do a great job for me. I think it’s just chalked up to bad luck tonight. I’ve got to try and make-up for it tomorrow.”
AND YOU’LL BE STARTING ON THE POLE FOR TOMORROW’S RACE“Yeah hey, look, all you can do is go forward. This is racing. Some days the racing gods shine down on you and some days they don’t. And today they definitely didn’t, but that’s how it works. You’ve got to take the good days when you get them and accept the bad days when you have them. We’ll try to regroup for tomorrow. But Chevy has done a great job for us. We had the package to beat tonight in my opinion and having Hitachi’s support always means the world. So, we’ll try again tomorrow and try to get ‘em.”
CONOR DALY, NO. 59 GALLAGHER CARLIN CHEVROLET – Finished 8^th“It was definitely a rollercoaster of a day for us. Obviously, we were so excited to win the pole for tonight’s race in the No. 59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet. That’s just such a major accomplishment for myself and this team. We’ve all been working so hard and the guys gave me a great car to qualify, so I was pretty excited that I was able to get that pole. We started the race tonight okay, but just really struggled with keeping the rear underneath me and trying to figure it out as we went. It was just tough and we just didn’t have the pace that we needed. The yellow really killed us. Some people just got so lucky with that, but unfortunately it didn’t fall our way. We chose to extend the last stint and make the tires last, but it was really tough driving absolutely to the limit on older tires and trying to hold people off there at the end. It was tough end to the day, but it was seriously awesome to get the first INDYCAR pole for both Carlin and myself and I’m looking forward to tomorrow night’s race where we’ll start up front again in third.”
ED CARPENTER, NO. 20 U.S. AIR FORCE ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET – Finished 15^th“This has always been one of my favorite tracks, but I don’t remember ever having as difficult of a night here. I was excited to run the U.S. Air Force colors and want to do a good job for them. I’m embarrassed about the performance tonight. The good thing is we have another chance tomorrow, so long as it’s not a repeat. It was pretty brutal. It’s hot in the cars, it’s uncomfortable and with a poor performance, I am pretty disappointed.”
CHARLIE KIMBALL, NO. 4 TRESIBA AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET – Finished 17th “I think it was a disappointing night for both AJ Foyt Racing cars. The No. 4 Tresiba Chevrolet was not what I wanted to feel underneath me but I know the engineers will do really good work making it better tonight. I felt like everyone did a good job with what we had. Today was busy, practice, qualify and straight into the race—especially racing what you qualify. We had to compromise on gears, ride heights and setups and stuff but it was the same for everyone and we just didn’t maximize it. But we’ll review it and be ready to go for another 250 laps tomorrow night.”
TONY KANAAN, NO 14 BRYANT AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET – Finished 18^th“It was a shame. I think we had a consistent car but the tire deg for us was more than other people, so we need to figure out what’s causing it. It’s on the setup. We’re pretty decent halfway through the stint and then the car will fall off really quick and in one of those I got loose, and not to spin I went wide, got in the marbles, brushed the wall a little bit, so that cost us 18 laps, but track position is really important so we have that for tomorrow. [starts 8^th] I think we have overnight to think about it and another hour session tomorrow to try to make the tires last a little bit longer and then go from there. I truly believe we have a top 10 car for tomorrow.”
RINUS VEEKAY, NO. 21 SONAX ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET – Sidelined on lap 157 in accident with Colton Herta – Finished 20^th “There was nothing I could have done. I had a good start, but I was told it was a no-start so I went off the throttle. I think the other car was too late getting that information, I really don’t know. I got hit, that’s clear. It’s very tough. We could have gone for a podium or a win today. We’ve got to go for it tomorrow. I’m happy that we’ll have a Take 2.”
WE BET YOU’RE VERY GRATEFUL FOR THAT AERO SCREEN WHEN COLTON HERTA WENT OVER YOU“Yeah, I’m very happy; especially with the safety. I stepped out. I saw the whole row. So yeah, the screen was destroyed. Thank you to INDYCAR for the great safety and let’s go for it tomorrow.”
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – Sidelined on Lap 143 with left front wheel issue – Finished 21^stYOU HAD A BIT OF A WILD RIDE WHEN THE WHEEL CAME OFF. WHAT WAS THAT EXPERIENCE LIKE?“Obviously, the front just took off straight into the wall. Yeah, not a good feeling.”
YOU HIT THE WALL AND IT WAS THE LEFT FRONT THAT CAME OFF. YOU SAID THIS HAS BEEN A SEASON SO FAR WITH A LOT OF PROMISE AND YOU JUST HAVEN’T LIVED-UP TO THE POTENTIAL. THIS LOOKS LIKE ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF THAT“Unbelievable. I don’t know what I’ve got to do. It’s so, so, so frustrating. It’s just unbelievable. I don’t know what to say. The guys will get it back together and we’ll have another shot at it tomorrow.”
WE’VE JUST SEEN A COUPLE EXAMPLES OF THE AERO SCREEN AND YOURS IS ONE OF THEM WITH THAT WHEEL COMING BACK OVER THE TOP OF YOU. WHAT DOES THAT SAY ABOUT THE ADDITION OF THIS SAFETY IMPLEMENT?‘Man, I’ll tell you, you can’t thank INDYCAR enough for everything that they’ve done, safety-wise with that aero screen and inside the aero screen. It’s just a tremendous job and it’s better than any other series that have implemented something like it. A very, very good job.”