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ELIMINATIONS POSTPONED AT NHRA NEW ENGLAND NATIONALS

EPPING, N.H. (June 05, 2023) – Due to inclement weather, the balance of the 2023 NHRA New England Nationals will now be run as part of this weekend’s NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway.
The first round of eliminations from Epping in Top Fuel and Funny Car will now take place during the second qualifying round in Bristol at 8 p.m. ET on Friday.
The second round of eliminations will run during the third qualifying session at 2 p.m. on Saturday. The semifinals will run between qualifying sessions on Saturday, with the finals of the NHRA New England Nationals in Top Fuel and Funny Car slated to run during the final qualifying session at 5:30 p.m. ET on Saturday. In both nitro categories, the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge will run concurrent with the semifinals and finals on Saturday in Bristol, as a driver in each class will win twice on Saturday.
AUSTIN PROCK, 27, Montana Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist dragsterQualifying:7th; 4.075-seconds; 239.27 mphBonus Qualifying Points:0 BRITTANY FORCE, 36, Monster Energy / Flav-R-Pac dragsterQualifying:11th; 4.907-seconds; 149.88 mphBonus Qualifying Points:0 JOHN FORCE, 74, BlueDEF PLATINUM Chevrolet Camaro SSQualifying:9th; 6.623-seconds; 96.42 mphBonus Qualifying Points: 0ROBERT HIGHT, 53, AAA / Cornwell Tools Chevy Camaro SSQualifying:5th; 4.624-seconds; 186.74 mphBonus Qualifying Points:0

chevy racing–nhra–epping post race

CHEVROLET IN NHRA 2023 NHRA NEW ENGLAND NATIONALS NEW ENGLAND DRAGWAY EPPING, NEW HAMPSHIRE TEAM CHEVY RACE UPDATE JUNE 5, 2023 WEATHER WINS IN EPPING FOR CHEVROLET NHRA TEAMS WITH NEW ENGLAND NATIONALS TO BE COMPLETED AT BRISTOL  EPPING, N.H. (June 5, 2023) – Facing adverse weather conditions and battling a tough track, the Chevrolet nitro teams of John Force Racing, with the Top Fuel drivers of Brittany Force and Austin Prock, along with Funny Car drivers John Force and Robert Hight battling out the now postponed NHRA New England Nationals in Thunder Valley at Bristol Dragway this coming weekend. With only two attempts at qualifying for New England Nationals due to weather, Austin Prock, driver of the Montana Brand/Rocky Mountain Twist Chevrolet Top Fuel dragster, qualified No. 7, and will face Steve Torrence. Qualifying No. 11, Brittany Force, driver of the Monster Energy / Flav-R-Pac Chevrolet Top Fuel dragster, will face Josh Hart. In Funny Car, John Force, driver of the BlueDEF PLATINUM Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car and 16-time NHRA Champion, qualified No. 9 in Epping and will race against Tim Wilkerson at Bristol. Robert Hight, driver of the AAA Northern New England / Cornwell Tools Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car and two-time winner this season, qualified No. 5 in the tricky conditions and will face Alexis DeJoria in Round 1. Running the New England Nationals during qualifying for this weekend’s NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals, Round 1 will take place during Q2 on Friday, with Round 2 running during Q3. Semifinals will run between Q3 and Q4 on Saturday, with Q4 then doubling as the Final round of the New England Nationals. “Really tough conditions, weather was not on our side, or anyone’s really,” Hight said while reflecting on the shortened qualifying sessions and event weekend. “Another set of tricky conditions, but this Montana Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist team managed to stay in the top half of the field,” noted Prock. “If all goes as planned, we have the potential to have a great points day. I’m excited to get the first round started.” Reflecting on his qualifying runs, J. Force said “On that last run, it rattled on me, so I pedaled it. It got back to the middle and I thought I was okay. Then it took a left on me. I should have caught it, that’s my job. Hopefully we can get it together and be ready to take this BlueDEF Chevy some rounds.” Discussing the difficult race weekend, B. Force said “Epping has been a bit of struggle this weekend. We lost a qualifying run to rain and the two session we did get, our car struggled David Grubnic and this entire Monster Energy / Flav-R-Pac team are incredible and know I we can turn things around.” The NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals qualifying and the postponed NHRA New England Nationals finals from Bristol Dragway will air Friday, June 9 at 7 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1 (FS1). Saturday qualifying, along with Rounds 3 and 4 air on FS1 Sunday at 12:30 p.m. ET. The Thunder Valley Nationals eliminations then air Sunday at 7 p.m. ET on FS1.

Honda Ridgeline Off-Road Race Truck Wins Baja 500

June 5, 2023 — ENSENADA, Baja, Mexico

  • Honda Ridgeline again captures Class 7 honors in Baja
  • Second Ridgeline off-road racing victory of 2023, and sixth Baja 500 win

The Honda Off-Road Racing Team returned to Baja California this weekend, and added another Class 7 victory in the 55th running of the Baja 500 off-road race.

The impressive result was the second consecutive class win for the Ridgeline Off-Road Race Truck this season, following a Class 7 victory, for V6-powered unlimited race trucks, at the Mint 400 in March, and the sixth victory for the Ridgeline in the Baja 500.

Starting and finishing driver Ethan Ebert – along with Richard Glasczak who piloted the middle stint —  took an early Class 7 lead and remained in command throughout the 470-mile loop contest that started and ended in Ensenada, Mexico, on the Baja peninsula.

Quotes
Jeff Proctor (team owner Honda Off-Road Racing Team) won Class 7 for unlimited V6 Trucks: “The race went really, really, well. This Honda Ridgeline is so tough, we had no issues out there all day.  It was just a flawless race.  Baja is always a test of man and machine, but [starting and finishing driver] Ethan [Ebert] managed the race so well; as did Richard [Glasczak, middle stint driver]. I’m just really happy for this whole Honda Off-Road Racing Team.”

Ethan Ebert (driver Honda Baja Ridgeline Race Truck) Starting and finishing driver: 
“We tagged a few bushes on our way [to the win], but it overall it was really good. We got over all the rocks we needed to get over and everything held up, so that was good. Our Baja Ridgeline brought us all the way here with no issues.” [Ebert started and drove to Mile 210, then from Mile 440 to the finish. Richard Glasczak drove from Mile 210-440).

Fast Facts

  • This is the sixth Baja 500 class victory for the Honda Baja Ridgeline in eight races.  Honda has also recorded three class wins in the Baja 1000.
  • The Honda Off-Road Racing program began in 2015 with a class win in the Baja 1000.  The Honda Baja Ridgeline has gone on to record 16 class victories in 36 races.

Next
The next race for the Honda Off-Road Racing Team will be the Best in the Desert’s August 16-20 Casey Folks Vegas to Reno point-to-point race in Nevada, the longest off-road race held in the USA.  The race is expected to see the debut of the new, third-generation Honda Baja Ridgeline Race Truck.

KYLE BUSCH TAKES THIRD WIN OF 2023 AT WWTR

NASCAR CUP SERIES WORLD WIDE TECHNOLOGY RACE WAY ENJOY ILLINOIS 300 PRESENTED BY TICKETSMARTERTEAM CHEVY POST-RACE REPORT
Chevrolet’s Series-Leading Ninth NCS Win of the 2023 Season
·       The win is Busch’s third NASCAR Cup Series win of 2023 – tying fellow Team Chevy driver William Byron’s series-leading win record for the season. 
·       Busch now sits at 63 victories in 657 career starts in NASCAR’s premier series.·       The victory is Chevrolet’s first NASCAR Cup Series win at World Wide Technology Raceway – coming in just the series’ second appearance at the 1.25-mile oval.  ·       The winningest manufacturer in NASCAR Cup Series history, Chevrolet now sits at 842 all-time wins in NASCAR’s premier series. ·       Chevrolet swept the NASCAR doubleheader race weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway with Grant Enfinger and the No. 23 GMS Racing Silverado RST team taking the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win. 
MADISON, IL (June 4, 2023) –  Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch drove Chevrolet to it’s series-leading ninth NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) win of the 2023 season at World Wide Technology Raceway. The victory came after Busch powered his No. 8 3CHI Camaro ZL1 through a series of five late-race restarts and an overtime finish to collect his third win of the season in NASCAR’s premier series. 
The Team Chevy driver proved to be a contender for the triumph throughout the race weekend – also checking off his first pole win of the season. Leading the field to the green flag, the 38-year-old Las Vegas native went on to finish in the top-two in both stages – including a win in the opening stage. Busch took the lead from Team Chevy driver Kyle Larson on lap 184 and went on to lead the last 60 circuits en route to the victory. Busch is now the second driver in NASCAR’s premier series to notch three victories this season – joining fellow Team Chevy driver William Byron on that elite list. 
Busch’s victory capped off a winning weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway for Chevrolet. Part one of the NASCAR doubleheader race weekend at the 1.25-mile oval saw Grant Enfinger and the No. 23 GMS Racing Silverado RST team drive the manufacturer to the victory in Saturday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event. The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season continues at Sonoma Raceway with the Toyota / Save Mart 350 on Sunday, June 11, at 3:30 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
KYLE BUSCH, NO. 8 3CHI CAMARO ZL1 – Race Winner QuoteKyle Busch starts from the pole. Had a lot of work in the middle to get there, Kyle, but you complete the perfect weekend.“Yeah, absolutely. That was pretty awesome. Man, to sit on the pole, lead a lot of laps and have my guys do such a great job today was pretty phenomenal for us. Great for RCR. Just win, baby!  Thanks to Team Chevy, appreciate 3Chi. Don’t forget, guess what, the No. 8 special – free chicken tenders at Cheddar’s on Monday! All the fans go out and celebrate with us. We’re going to have a great time with this one. This one is pretty cool.”

TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 RESULTS:POS.   DRIVER1st      Kyle Busch, No. 8 3CHI Camaro ZL14th      Kyle Larson, No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL17th      Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Freeway Insurance Camaro ZL18th      William Byron, No. 24 Axalta Camaro ZL1  TOP-FIVE UNOFFICIAL RESULTS: POS.  DRIVER1st      Kyle Busch (Chevrolet)2nd     Denny Hamlin (Toyota)3rd      Joey Logano (Ford)4th      Kyle Larson (Chevrolet)5th      Martin Truex Jr. (Toyota)
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE QUOTES:AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 GET BIOETHANOL CAMARO ZL1Sidelined by damage sustained in an accident in the final stage. Finished: 31st “It’s just an unfortunate continuation to our season. It was the closing laps of the race and we were well on our way to a top-10 finish. The No. 2 car just flat out took me out. He right reared us and it ended our race. It’s unfortunate. We’ll regroup and give it all we have for Sonoma Raceway next weekend. I want to congratulate my teammate and the entire No. 8 team on the win. The No. 3 team will get over this hump.”

KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1 Finished 4thYOU GUYS WORKED ON THIS ALL DAY LONG. I KNOW FOURTH ISN’T EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT ANY WEEK, BUT THIS HAS TO FEEL PRETTY GOOD. “It does, it does. I want to be upset with fourth after running second there the last little bit of the race and having a shot to lineup on the front row for a green-white-checkered. For a lot of the day, I thought I was going to run 20th on back. Huge thank you to Cliff Daniels (crew chief) and everybody on the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy team for making the right adjustments. I don’t know if we were still amazing, but the strategy calls were perfect and at the right time and the late cautions fell at the right time. I think the car would have been fine had we just ran those last 50 laps under green. 
Proud of the effort today. It’s been a couple tough races. We’ve been so good all year long and the last few have been pretty bad and we’ve had to work on it quite a bit. The team got us in a place where we could contend for the win, so you can’t ask for much more than that. Thank you to HendrickCars.com, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet, Valvoline – everybody that helps on this car. It’s a whole team effort. And congrats to Kyle (Busch). It was fun chasing him down. I wish I would have done a better job. When I was the leader, I hadn’t been at the front all day, so I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know where people were running on restarts and I didn’t know how hard they could go. I just got kind of caught off guard and lost the control.”

CARSON HOCEVAR, NO. 7 SCHLUTER SYSTEMS CAMARO ZL1 Broken brake rotor during Stage Two forced the No. 7 Camaro ZL1 team to retire early from the race. Finished: 36th What a day you had going. How would you assess your first time in a Cup car today up to that point? “I thought it was great. I had a blast. Just so thankful for the opportunity. I don’t have a job for next year. I know Al Niece and Cody Efaw wants me to run for them and I will forever run a race or however many. But man, I’m just so thankful that they gave me the opportunity – the opportunity to drive a Xfinity car and now driving a Cup car. I was running 16th.. just so surreal for the first time ever. I thought we were going to have a good day and be in a good spot for Schluter Systems, Celsius, Spire Motorsports, Ryan Sparks and the No. 7 Chevy team. Hopefully that call for a Cup ride isn’t the only one I get in my life.” 

JUSTIN HALEY, NO. 31 LEAFFILTER GUTTER PROTECTION CAMARO ZL1 Finished: 16th“It was an up-and-down day for this No. 31 LeafFilter Gutter Protection team. We fired off tight in traffic, and it was just hard to pass. My crew chief, Trent Owens made some really good strategy calls and we had positive adjustments all day, despite a couple pit-road mishaps. We had another good Chevrolet hot rod, and we will take a 16th-place finish after a hard fought day.” 

RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 NOS ENERGY DRINK CAMARO ZL1Sidelined by damage sustained in an accident in the final stage. Finished: 32nd“Our No. 47 NOS Energy Drink Chevy was really good all day. We kept our track position just like we wanted to. We got stage points and I felt like we had a top-eight or so car, which was a big difference from last year. Obviously we’re striving to be better everywhere. We had a really good streak going of really good runs. It looked like the No. 2 (Austin Cindric) just, for some reason, right-reared the No. 3 (Austin Dillon) and took both of us Chevy guys out, so that’s a bummer. We definitely had a top-10 car today.”

DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 FREEWAY INSURANCE CAMARO ZL1 Finished: 7thYOU HAD A STRONG RUN AND RAN AROUND THE TOP-TEN ALL DAY LONG.“Yeah, the entire weekend was very solid for us. We barely missed the second run in qualifying and really, we missed it because of me and not because of the car. The car was capable of advancing. In the race, the car was strong right away. I can’t thank enough everyone at Trackhouse Racing, the No. 99 team, everyone at Freeway Insurance, and all the people that help us have a strong performance on the track.It was fun today and we really needed this as a team. We needed a result that we deserved, and I felt like lately it’s been a little difficult on us when it comes to that. Today, I felt like we deserved a top-10 or top-five and we came home seventh, so we will take it.”
YOU GUYS HAVE MOMENTUM GOING INTO SONOMA WHERE YOU WON LAST YEAR.. THAT HAS TO MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD“Definitely, man. Every time we head to a road course, whether it’s Sonoma (Raceway), or somewhere else, I am excited. I feel at home and I am excited to go back to a place where we had great memories last time and hopefully we can repeat it.”
KYLE BUSCH, NO. 8 3CHI CAMARO ZL1 – Race Win Press Conference Transcript
THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by the winner of tonight’s NASCAR Cup Series race, Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.We’ll go right to questions.
Q. Out-dueling Larson on several late race restarts, where does this win do you feel like ranks among maybe some of your best driving performances?KYLE BUSCH: Yeah, no, I mean, I guess I had a lot of experience of doing the same stuff last year, and unfortunately didn’t make the most of it there at the end and get the win last year. Was able to do it this year just racing against a few of those guys. Larson was up there, Denny was up there, Blaney, all the guys that were fast all day. So I knew it wasn’t going to be easy.Just the restarts kind of went our way. We were able to get through on the outside on that one and push Larson out, then he took bottom of three and four, I was able to carry the momentum around the high side to take the lead. That was really important. I think that was kind of the key moment of us being able to win today. Being able to control the rest of the restarts for the rest of the race.
Kyle is one of the best. It’s good to be able to sit up here and race hard with him, being a Team Chevy partner. He gave me great respect, I appreciate that. That will be given back down the road.
Q. Did you anticipate this level of success so early when you made the move to RCR?KYLE BUSCH: I’m sorry, one more time.
Q. Did you anticipate this level of success so early?KYLE BUSCH: Yeah, no, we’ve had some really good runs. We’ve had three wins obviously, which is great. But we’ve also had some of the dismal days as well. We’ve had peaks and valleys so far this year.
We just got to find the greater planes, if you will, and level this thing out a little bit. It’s great to be able to score a win here in St. Louis for Randall’s hometown, that’s really good. So the team is really on a high. The whole organization has been really fighting hard, doing a great job.Everybody back at RCR, at the shop, ECR, the engine shop, has been doing great. Just been so welcoming and really cool to be able to go out there and succeed for them and to give them back what all the hard work they’re putting in is doing.
Q. Do you kind of feed off of that? It’s like after what you went through last year with Gibbs, to go someplace that just so thoroughly wanted you there, and they’re feeding off of your talent and your success, it just has to pull an organization in the right direction.KYLE BUSCH: Yeah, I mean, it all kind of stems, too, on the horse you’re riding, right? We were horrible at the All-Star Race. That was probably our worst roll. Being able to come out here and have a good run at a short track, although it was still the normal aero package, if you will. But just goes to show that we’re really putting our head down and digging in and trying to figure out what it’s going to be able to take to get me comfortable to make me fast, right?
You got to have a good horse to ride. So far this year we’ve had a few. Guys have been doing a great job. Last week at Coke 600, we were fast as well. I think I kind of hurt the car a little bit when I spun out. We still drove back to second. Didn’t have anything for the 12. Was a great night for us. Just continuing to show good speed each week.
Q. Now you’ve won in the Cup, Xfinity Series here at Gateway. Is it now a goal to win in the Truck Series?KYLE BUSCH: Depends on the rules and regulations and stipulations of locking me out. This was a triple truck challenge race. I can’t run in those. It’s a matter of being able to open up the playbook to have more races to choose from. It’s limited on which ones I’m allowed to go do.Years ago I was slated to run a late model race or something, I think it got canceled or something. I don’t know what it was. Didn’t get a chance to do that one either, but that would have been fun.
Q. You led the most laps in both races here, two different teams, two different makes. Is there anything in particular at this track that you feel you’ve figured out or…KYLE BUSCH: Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know what that really is. I’ve been fast here back in the Xfinity days when I raced with JGR, and the Hendrick days I think we had top five runs here, something like that. This has always been a good place for me. Always fun to come out to Gateway and the St. Louis area and have a good race.
Not sure exactly what it is or what makes me run well here. It’s a fun place to race, so you just go out there and attack it and enjoy it.
Q. On this day 12 years ago, you and Richard had your physical altercation. Richard said he’s put it behind him, you guys have moved on, he’s been proud to have you as part of his team. Wanted your thoughts of how you’ve grown and learned from that, now being a part of this team, to not only be the leader of this team but the face of the biggest threat for the championship?KYLE BUSCH: Yeah, I mean, people change. People grow up. Whatever happens. The relationship that I have now, and the effort that’s gone into securing me, to get me to go to RCR, the discussions and talks that happened there. Obviously being able to get there and have some really strong runs, winning right out of the gate at Fontana was big for us, a good morale booster. Just proves them right, right? Gives them greater satisfaction in me being part of the team.It’s been fun to have that group around. They know when we go to places, we struggle at places, that we all want to get better, right? I could do a better job most of the time. Randall and the guys can do a better job as well.
We just all continue to strive and work hard and bounce off of each other in order to make sure we can come out and have the best possible stuff every time we hit the racetrack.
Q. Tell us about your thoughts of having Braxton in the car going around. A big smile on his face.KYLE BUSCH: It was. Thank you. Braxton is a huge fan of mine, a great supporter obviously. It’s really fun when your son is there to kind of celebrate and have a great time, being able to jump the wall and come out. I was shocked when he got there. Asked the NASCAR guys if he could go for a ride. We did that in 2009 when I won the championship. That’s a moment we will never forget. We will cherish that one forever. It was really fun, really cool.
Did it again today. Tried to accelerate down the backstretch to give him a little bit of pull on the race car. The rear tires were smoked, so all it wanted to do was spin out. Thankfully I kept it straight.
We had fun. He likes that. So one of these days I’m sure he’ll be reaching for the pedals himself.
Q. This is looking ahead. You led 54 laps last year at Nashville, couldn’t close the deal. Hendrick’s won the last two races. Being part of the key Chevrolet groups, does that give you additional data that might help you win when you go back there in two or three weeks?KYLE BUSCH: Certainly I would like to think so. I think the 8 car there last year was decent. Not as good as the Hendrick 9 or the 18 where I was. Like you said, we weren’t quite able to close out the deal.
It would be nice to go back there and lean on some of those notes. That’s been a key thing for us to be able to do. It didn’t necessarily bode well at the All-Star Race. Maybe we showed them what not to do. Here this weekend, we were able to excel and we had the good stuff this weekend, if you will.
Look forward to all the weeks ahead, kind of this final stretch before the Playoffs.
Q. (No microphone.)KYLE BUSCH: It is, but it’s nowhere near the same. Entirely different racetrack. Concrete surface, banking in the corners. Corners more similar, one, two, three, four. So yeah. Fun track, though.
Q. I’m not sure if this is a buzz kill or not. Did you have any concerns about brakes? Was there a big concern or you have a bunch of red flags at a track you don’t have a lot of data on, guys are pushing it, we should have expected some of that today?KYLE BUSCH: Yeah, I obviously don’t know what package they ran. I’m sure they would run the short track package here for brakes.
I never felt any vibration, never had any issue, never had any long pedal or nothing with mine. I was confident in our stuff and what we had going.
I felt like that was actually a really strong suit for me today, was on the brakes, get in the corner, get whoa’d up in time for the rest of the corner.

RICHARD CHILDRESS, OWNER, RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING; and RANDALL BURNETT, CREW CHIEF, NO. 8 3CHI CAMARO ZL1 – Race Win Press Conference Transcript
THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by our race-winning team owner, Richard Childress, team owner of Richard Childress Racing.
RICHARD CHILDRESS: It’s great to be back in the winner’s circle and come here and see all the great media folks that come here and help our sport be what it is today.
Q. You said over the radio after Kyle took the checkered flag, there’s no one I’d rather have in that position than you. What has he meant to the organization?RICHARD CHILDRESS: Well, he’s helped us all around. Number one, he’s winning races, showing we can win races. He’s helped Austin a whole lot. Austin has had some really good runs. He had drove up to about 10th until the 2 car wrecked him in there on purpose, sort of a payback.But you know, Kyle has been really — he’s such a pleasure to work with. Everybody says, man, how y’all going to get along. Same question they asked me about you and Dale won’t last six months. We lasted 20 years. I want to keep Kyle there, and hopefully we can end his career when he gets ready to.
Q. Was there any concern with your organization with brake rotors when it started to creep in there with a few of the cars? I think we had four broken rotors today?RICHARD CHILDRESS: You’re talking about breaking rotors?
Q. Yeah, the brake rotors were breaking and there were four broken rotors today. Was there any concern among the RCR cars?RICHARD CHILDRESS: Yeah, I was really concerned on the 3 because he’s really hard on the brakes. Kyle didn’t seem to use it that much, and Austin quit using his a whole lot there at the end. These long straightaways, they have so much time to cool off, and then you get them so hot in the corner — here comes Randall Burnett, the winning crew chief, from local boy from right here in Missouri, St. Louis.
I hope that answered your question.
Q. Mr. Childress, three wins in the first 15 races of the season. From your perspective when was the last time it felt like RCR was this dangerous, to be a winner on such a regular basis?RICHARD CHILDRESS: You know, we won a lot with Harvick, won a lot with Earnhardt. Our plans is to win a lot with Kyle, and not only be a contender for that championship. If we make the Final Four, we’ll have a shot at winning it for sure.
Q. Richard, I know it’s been a short time, but was that the best race you’ve seen Kyle drive for you?RICHARD CHILDRESS: You know, anytime he gets in the car, I think he drives a really great race. Anytime we can give him a car capable of winning, he’s going to win with it. I think he just did a great job today.
Those last three or four or however many it was restarts, I felt they were pretty tough, but I knew he would be able to do his job.
Q. For Randall, following up on the brake rotors, did you have any concerns, and is it just something that — red flags and not a lot of data on this track, makes that more challenging?RANDALL BURNETT: I think people probably came back — I think teams last year came here a little more conservative last year not knowing, and I think we all took data from that and went home and looked. We get options on heavy-duty rotors or light-duty rotors, so we can choose that, and we can obviously choose how much cooling we run to them.Like Richard said, it’s kind of a tough place because the straightaways are so long and you’re off the brakes for such a long time, and then you apply them really hard at the end of the straightaway, so the cycles of getting really cool down the straightaways and then really spiking up the heat, it takes a toll on the rotors.
We were fortunate enough with the 8 car, we were kind of in the top 5 most all day long, and when you get back further a little bit in the pack, too, and have to work your rotors harder, using brakes, racing people a lot harder, those things happen.
I’m sure everybody will take a look at that and try to understand what happened with those cars.
Q. Richard, 12 years ago this was the day when you and Kyle got into the physical altercation. Talk about how you’ve seen him grow and mature, kind of evolve in the sport, and now racing for you and putting you as probably one of the top teams to be the threat for the championship this year.RICHARD CHILDRESS: Yeah, we put that totally behind us. We talked about it. That was one of the first things we talked about. That’s history. We’ve both grown a lot. I know I’ve grown up. I’ve grown older, but I’ve grown up, too. There’s an old song out there, I’m still growing up but I’m getting older.
Q. Randall, winning in your home track here in St. Louis, you being a St. Louisan, do you have any initial memories of being here at Gateway and all the tremendous improvements Gateway has made?RANDALL BURNETT: Yeah, I was here, I was still in St. Louis, living here when this place — it used to be a road course here and part of the dragstrip was a road course, and I actually raced karts on that track a handful of times, and then they built this place, and I’d come watch INDYCARs when they would come, any events they would come here. So we always came over for that when I was a kid.
I was fortunate enough to run some shifter karts here on this track through the road course on the infield and then part of the big track.
It means a lot to me to come home. I moved away from here when I was about 20 years old and moved to Charlotte to do what I’m doing, to go race, and I did some driving down there and grew up racing go-karts here with my mom and my dad, off Telegraph Road at Woodman Raceway Park, the St. Louis Karting Association my father and some of them built down there for us to have a place to even go race.
To come home and win here, it means a lot. It’s a pretty big deal for me.
Q. Randall, can you look at just the first 14, 15 races and have an idea or a sense what the potential is for that team?RANDALL BURNETT: I think we’ve got a lot of potential. I think we’ve got a lot to clean up, too, and we talk about it repeatedly. We’ve had some really fast cars and taken ourselves out of races with some mistakes and things like that, me and Kyle, and our whole group have talked about it, and we know we’ve all got to clean it up on our end, especially if we’re going to compete for the championship.
We are fast with this intermediate package. We’ve struggled really bad on the short tracks, haven’t got the feel for him of what he needs in a car on a short track yet, so that’s one of our biggest hindrances right now I would say as a team to be where we really want to be.
But really proud of this 8 bunch. They dig in hard. Great group of guys, great group of racers, and Kyle has fit right in with them. He’s done a great job of adapting over here and lent plenty of insight on his side to how to make things better, as well, so we’re all working together towards that.
RICHARD CHILDRESS: I want to say one other thing. Chevy has really supported us a lot, and I don’t think we could do what we do today without all the support — all the manufacturers support the teams, but I feel like Chevrolet gets behind us stronger than anybody else, all the three key partners.
Thank you all. 
TEAM CHEVY RACE HIGHLIGHTS:
Stage One·       Kyle Busch and the No. 8 3CHI Camaro ZL1 team led the field to the green in today’s Enjoy Illinois 300 Presented by TicketSmarter at World Wide Technology Raceway – Busch’s first NASCAR Cup Series pole win of the 2023 season. 
·       With just three laps in the books, the race was brought under red flag conditions for a lightning hold – lasting 1:45:10. 
·       Once the race resumed, Stage One continued caution-free with polesitter Busch taking the green-white checkered flag at the stage end – his first stage win of the season. 
·       Team Chevy Stage One: Top-10 1st      Kyle Busch, No. 8 3CHI Camaro ZL17th      William Byron, No. 24 Axalta Camaro ZL18th     Ross Chastain, No. 1 Moose Fraternity Camaro ZL110th    Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Freeway Insurance Camaro ZL1
Stage Two·       The first round of pit stops took place during the stage break with crew chief Randall Burnett calling Kyle Busch to pit road for four tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment. Winning the race off pit road, Busch elected the outside lane of the front-row to take the green for Stage Two. 
·       In his first career NASCAR Cup Series start, Team Chevy’s Carson Hocevar was running in the 16th position when a broken brake rotor brought the No. 7 Schulter Systems Camaro ZL1 team’s day to an early end. 
·       Busch and the No. 8 3CHI Camaro ZL1 team led Bowtie brand to the end of Stage Two in the second position. Six Team Chevy drivers collected stage points in the stage: 2nd     Kyle Busch, No. 8 3CHI Camaro ZL14th      William Byron, No. 24 Axalta Camaro ZL15th      Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Freeway Insurance Camaro ZL16th      Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 NOS Energy Drink Camaro ZL19th      Ross Chastain, No. 1 Moose Fraternity Camaro ZL110th    Kyle Larson, No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL1
Final Stage ·       During the stage break, the lead pack hit pit road for the next round of scheduled pit stops. William Byron pit from the fourth position for four tires and fuel with the No. 24 Axalta Camaro ZL1 team picking up two spots on pit road for a front-row restart position. 
·       Byron quickly powered his No. 24 Axalta Camaro ZL1 to the lead on lap 149. Holding onto a strong gap in front of second-place, a timely caution fell allowing the No. 24 team to address a concern of a possible right-front tire going down. 
·       Crew chief Cliff Daniels opted a pit strategy for track position, calling Kyle Larson down pit road for a two-tire only stop. The No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL1 team picked up seven spots on pit road to lead the field back to the green with 58 laps to go. ·       With four fresh tires, fellow Team Chevy driver Busch quickly contended Larson for the lead, ultimately taking the top position with 55 laps to go. 

Burton Finishes 23rd In Enjoy Illinois 300


June 4, 2023


Harrison Burton and the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick came away from Sunday’s Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway with a 23rd-place finish.

Burton started Sunday’s race from 14th place and moved up one spot in the early going before the race was stopped after just six laps due to lightning in the St. Louis area where the track is located. 

After a delay of nearly two hours, the green flag was displayed again, and Burton remained in the top 15 for the remainder of the first 45-lap Stage, ending that segment in 15th place.

Returning to the track after a stop for two fresh tires and fuel, the No. 21 Mustang was posted in 12th place for the restart. 

A long green flag run worked against the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team and Burton finished the second Stage in 24th place.
 
In the third and final segment of the race, he worked his way back into the top 20, then stayed out when the caution flag – and the red flag – flew for a wreck by Noah Gragson.
 
That moved him up to 15th place with just under 40 laps left to run. Burton stayed among the top 20 but was shuffled back after a restart with 15 of the scheduled 240 laps left to run.
  
When a late wreck set up an overtime finish, Burton pitted from 27thplace for fresh rubber and gained four spots over the final two laps to finish 23rd for his eighth top-25 finish in 15 races this season.
 
Next up for Burton and the Wood Brothers team is a trip to the road course at Sonoma Raceway for next Sunday’s 110-lap race on the 1.99-mile track.
 

KYLE BUSCH TAKES THIRD WIN OF 2023 AT WWTR

NASCAR CUP SERIES WORLD WIDE TECHNOLOGY RACEWAY ENJOY ILLINOIS 300 PRESENTED BY TICKET SMARTER TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE REPORTJ UNE 4, 2023

Chevrolet’s Series-Leading Ninth NCS Win of the 2023 Season
·       The win is Busch’s third NASCAR Cup Series win of 2023 – tying fellow Team Chevy driver William Byron’s series-leading win record for the season. 
·       Busch now sits at 63 victories in 657 career starts in NASCAR’s premier series.·       The victory is Chevrolet’s first NASCAR Cup Series win at World Wide Technology Raceway – coming in just the series’ second appearance at the 1.25-mile oval.  ·       The winningest manufacturer in NASCAR Cup Series history, Chevrolet now sits at 842 all-time wins in NASCAR’s premier series. ·       Chevrolet swept the NASCAR doubleheader race weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway with Grant Enfinger and the No. 23 GMS Racing Silverado RST team taking the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series win. 
KYLE BUSCH, NO. 8 3CHI CAMARO ZL1 – Race Winner QuoteKyle Busch starts from the pole. Had a lot of work in the middle to get there, Kyle, but you complete the perfect weekend.“Yeah, absolutely. That was pretty awesome. Man, to sit on the pole, lead a lot of laps and have my guys do such a great job today was pretty phenomenal for us. Great for RCR. Just win, baby!  Thanks to Team Chevy, appreciate 3Chi. Don’t forget, guess what, the No. 8 special – free chicken tenders at Cheddar’s on Monday! All the fans go out and celebrate with us. We’re going to have a great time with this one. This one is pretty cool.”

TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 RESULTS:POS.   DRIVER1st      Kyle Busch, No. 8 3CHI Camaro ZL14th      Kyle Larson, No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL17th      Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Freeway Insurance Camaro ZL18th      William Byron, No. 24 Axalta Camaro ZL1  TOP-FIVE UNOFFICIAL RESULTS: POS.  DRIVER1st      Kyle Busch (Chevrolet)2nd     Denny Hamlin (Toyota)3rd      Joey Logano (Ford)4th      Kyle Larson (Chevrolet)5th      Martin Truex Jr. (Toyota)

The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season continues at Sonoma Raceway with the Toyota / Save Mart 350 on Sunday, June 11, at 3:30 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE QUOTES:KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1 Finished 4thYOU GUYS WORKED ON THIS ALL DAY LONG. I KNOW FOURTH ISN’T EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT ANY WEEK, BUT THIS HAS TO FEEL PRETTY GOOD. “It does, it does. I want to be upset with fourth after running second there the last little bit of the race and having a shot to lineup on the front row for a green-white-checkered. For a lot of the day, I thought I was going to run 20th on back. Huge thank you to Cliff Daniels (crew chief) and everybody on the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy team for making the right adjustments. I don’t know if we were still amazing, but the strategy calls were perfect and at the right time and the late cautions fell at the right time. I think the car would have been fine had we just ran those last 50 laps under green. 
Proud of the effort today. It’s been a couple tough races. We’ve been so good all year long and the last few have been pretty bad and we’ve had to work on it quite a bit. The team got us in a place where we could contend for the win, so you can’t ask for much more than that. Thank you to HendrickCars.com, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet, Valvoline – everybody that helps on this car. It’s a whole team effort. And congrats to Kyle (Busch). It was fun chasing him down. I wish I would have done a better job. When I was the leader, I hadn’t been at the front all day, so I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know where people were running on restarts and I didn’t know how hard they could go. I just got kind of caught off guard and lost the control.”

CARSON HOCEVAR, NO. 7 SCHLUTER SYSTEMS CAMARO ZL1 Broken brake rotor during Stage Two forced the No. 7 Camaro ZL1 team to retire early from the race. Finished: 36th What a day you had going. How would you assess your first time in a Cup car today up to that point? “I thought it was great. I had a blast. Just so thankful for the opportunity. I don’t have a job for next year. I know Al Niece and Cody Efaw wants me to run for them and I will forever run a race or however many. But man, I’m just so thankful that they gave me the opportunity – the opportunity to drive a Xfinity car and now driving a Cup car. I was running 16th.. just so surreal for the first time ever. I thought we were going to have a good day and be in a good spot for Schluter Systems, Celsius, Spire Motorsports, Ryan Sparks and the No. 7 Chevy team. Hopefully that call for a Cup ride isn’t the only one I get in my life.” 

ERIK JONES, NO. 43 BOMMARITO.COM CAMARO ZL1 Finished: 18th“Just an up-and-down day for the No. 43 Bommarito.com Chevy team. Didn’t end up how we wanted it to go, but we’ll go to work and get the car a bit better. I thought we had good speed, just didn’t have things go our way. We’ll work on it and hopefully go to Sonoma (Raceway) and have a solid day.”

RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 NOS ENERGY DRINK CAMARO ZL1Sidelined by damage sustained in an accident in the final stage. Finished: 32nd“Our No. 47 NOS Energy Drink Chevy was really good all day. We kept our track position just like we wanted to. We got stage points and I felt like we had a top-eight or so car, which was a big difference from last year. Obviously we’re striving to be better everywhere. We had a really good streak going of really good runs. It looked like the No. 2 (Austin Cindric) just, for some reason, right-reared the No. 3 (Austin Dillon) and took both of us Chevy guys out, so that’s a bummer. We definitely had a top-10 car today.”

DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 FREEWAY INSURANCE CAMARO ZL1 Finished: 7thYOU HAD A STRONG RUN AND RAN AROUND THE TOP-TEN ALL DAY LONG.“Yeah, the entire weekend was very solid for us. We barely missed the second run in qualifying and really, we missed it because of me and not because of the car. The car was capable of advancing. In the race, the car was strong right away. I can’t thank enough everyone at Trackhouse Racing, the No. 99 team, everyone at Freeway Insurance, and all the people that help us have a strong performance on the track.It was fun today and we really needed this as a team. We needed a result that we deserved, and I felt like lately it’s been a little difficult on us when it comes to that. Today, I felt like we deserved a top-10 or top-five and we came home seventh, so we will take it.”
YOU GUYS HAVE MOMENTUM GOING INTO SONOMA WHERE YOU WON LAST YEAR.. THAT HAS TO MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD“Definitely, man. Every time we head to a road course, whether it’s Sonoma (Raceway), or somewhere else, I am excited. I feel at home and I am excited to go back to a place where we had great memories last time and hopefully we can repeat it.”


TEAM CHEVY RACE HIGHLIGHTS:
Stage One·       Kyle Busch and the No. 8 3CHI Camaro ZL1 team led the field to the green in today’s Enjoy Illinois 300 Presented by TicketSmarter at World Wide Technology Raceway – Busch’s first NASCAR Cup Series pole win of the 2023 season. 
·       With just three laps in the books, the race was brought under red flag conditions for a lightning hold – lasting 1:45:10. 
·       Once the race resumed, Stage One continued caution-free with polesitter Busch taking the green-white checkered flag at the stage end – his first stage win of the season. 
·       Team Chevy Stage One: Top-10 1st      Kyle Busch, No. 8 3CHI Camaro ZL17th      William Byron, No. 24 Axalta Camaro ZL18th      Ross Chastain, No. 1 Moose Fraternity Camaro ZL110th    Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Freeway Insurance Camaro ZL1
Stage Two·       The first round of pit stops took place during the stage break with crew chief Randall Burnett calling Kyle Busch to pit road for four tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment. Winning the race off pit road, Busch elected the outside lane of the front-row to take the green for Stage Two. 
·       In his first career NASCAR Cup Series start, Team Chevy’s Carson Hocevar was running in the 16th position when a broken brake rotor brought the No. 7 Schulter Systems Camaro ZL1 team’s day to an early end. 
·       Busch and the No. 8 3CHI Camaro ZL1 team led Bowtie brand to the end of Stage Two in the second position. Six Team Chevy drivers collected stage points in the stage: 2nd     Kyle Busch, No. 8 3CHI Camaro ZL14th      William Byron, No. 24 Axalta Camaro ZL15th      Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Freeway Insurance Camaro ZL16th      Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 NOS Energy Drink Camaro ZL19th      Ross Chastain, No. 1 Moose Fraternity Camaro ZL110th    Kyle Larson, No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL1
Final Stage / Post-Race Notes·       During the stage break, the lead pack hit pit road for the next round of scheduled pit stops. William Byron pit from the fourth position for four tires and fuel with the No. 24 Axalta Camaro ZL1 team picking up two spots on pit road for a front-row restart position. 
·       Byron quickly powered his No. 24 Axalta Camaro ZL1 to the lead on lap 149. Holding onto a strong gap in front of second-place, a timely caution fell allowing the No. 24 team to address a concern of a possible right-front tire going down. 
·       Crew chief Cliff Daniels opted a pit strategy for track position, calling Kyle Larson down pit road for a two-tire only stop. The No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL1 team picked up seven spots on pit road to lead the field back to the green with 58 laps to go. ·       With four fresh tires, fellow Team Chevy driver Busch quickly contended Larson for the lead, ultimately taking the top position with 55 laps to go. 

Honda Rules in the Motor City – Palou Wins Detroit Grand Prix

June 4, 2023 — DETROIT, MI

  • Alex Palou scores his second win in three races; extends his championship points lead
  • Honda increases edge in Manufacturers’ Championship
  • Chip Ganassi Racing places all four Honda entries in the top 10

It was Honda power ruling the day in Detroit, with Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou scoring his second NTT INDYCAR SERIES victory in three races and extending his championship lead to 51 points Sunday at the Detroit Grand Prix. 

Palou now holds more than a full-race win’s-worth of points over his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Marcus Ericsson; and extends Honda’s Manufacturers’ title lead to 22 points over rival Chevrolet.

Other Honda Cars finishing in the top-10 today included Palou’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Scott Dixon, fourth; Marcus Armstrong, eighth; and Ericsson, ninth—as well as Kyle Kirkwood for Andretti Autosport. 

Kirkwood made an incredible recovery drive to sixth after being hit in the rear on lap one and losing his rear wing. He would restart 26th after the incident, and moved up 20 positions in the 100-lap event to cross the line sixth. 

Detroit Grand Prix Honda Race Results                        

1st Alex Palou  Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
4th Scott DixonChip Ganassi Racing Honda
6th Kyle KirkwoodAndretti Autosport Honda
8th Marcus Armstrong-RChip Ganassi Racing Honda
9th Marcus EricssonChip Ganassi Racing Honda
11th Colton HertaAndretti Autosport Honda
12th Devlin DeFrancescoAndretti Autosport Honda
13th Simon Pagenaud Meyer Shank Racing Honda
16th Christian LundgaardRahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
17th Jack HarveyRahal Letterman Lanigan Honda
19th Helio CastronevesMeyer Shank Racing Honda
22nd Sting Ray Robb-RDale Coyne Racing with RWR Honda
23rd David MalukasDale Coyne Racing with HMD Honda  Did not finish [contact]
24th Romain GrosjeanAndretti Autosport Honda                    Did not finish [contact] 
25th Graham Rahal Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda         Did not finish [contact]

R – Rookie

NTT INDYCAR SERIES Manufacturers’ Championship (unofficial, after 7 of 17 rounds)

Honda 575 points
Chevrolet  553 points

NTT INDYCAR SERIES Drivers’ Championship Standings (unofficial, after 7 of 17 rounds)

1. Alex Palou, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda  273 points
2. Marcus Ericsson, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda -51
3. Josef Newgarden, Team Penske -70
4. Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda-79
2. Pato O’Ward, Arrow McLaren -82

Quotes
Alex Palou (#10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) race winner, his second win of 2023; maintains his lead in the Drivers’ Championship points standings after seven of 17 races: “The #10 Ridgeline Lubricants car was on point today. Honda gave us everything we needed today in fuel mileage and all the power. I am super proud of the job we did. It was tricky at the end with those tires, I couldn’t really get them up to temperature. We had a [gearbox] issue that was probably my fault, but I am proud that we got it back and got another win this year! It’s still too early [to think about the championship]. We’ll keep focused on the next few races—there’s a few that I really love coming. We’ll keep on pushing!”

Scott Dixon (#9 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) finished fourth: “A bit of a frustrating day, because we should’ve finished first or second.  The car was really fast; the Honda fuel mileage was super easy to get and the driveability was great. I think we had a lot more pace than the two cars finishing just ahead of us.  I should’ve used more OT (overtake) after the last pit stop to get past Will [Power].” 

Kyle Kirkwood (#27 Andretti Autosport Honda) finished sixth after recovering from opening-lap contact: “It was a fantastic comeback for the #27 Autonation Honda and our crew.  We crushed it when it mattered.  We were all the way back in 26th after getting hit in an incident that wasn’t our fault. So we dealt with damage the entire race, but we still had a really fast race car, and fast pit stops.  We were one of the fastest cars out there.  So it was a good day all-in-all, based on how we came back to P6 at the end.”

Wayne Gross (Manager of Trackside Services, Honda Performance Development) on today’s Honda victory at the Detroit Grand Prix: “A really good day for Honda and HPD.  Winning from the pole, our sixth in seven races, and our fourth win of the year, and leading both the Manufacturers’ and Drivers’ points.  Congratulations to Alex Palou and the entire CGR organization; and thanks to everyone at HPD. It’s been a long and hard few weeks, coming off the back of Indianapolis and here in Detroit.  So it will be good to have a bit of a breather next weekend!”

Fast Facts

  • Honda continues to lead the 2023 NTT INDYCAR SERIES Manufacturers’ Championship, with four victories and six poles in the first seven races this season. Honda currently has an unofficial 22-point advantage (575-553) over rival Chevrolet. The company is seeking its fifth NTT INDYCAR SERIES Manufacturers’ Championship in the last six years in 2023.
  • Honda drivers leave Detroit ranked first, second and fourth in the INDYCAR Drivers’ Championship points standings.  Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou leads the title fight with 273 points; followed by teammates Marcus Ericsson is second with 221 points and Scott Dixon fourth with 194.
  • Honda drivers and teams now have won seven of the last 10 NTT INDYCAR SERIES events run in Detroit.

Next
After four consecutive weekends of action, the NTT INDYCAR SERIES now takes a one-week break before resuming at the National Park of Speed, Wisconsin’s Road America, for the June 16-18 Sonsio Grand Prix.

TEAM CHEVY TACKLES TRICKY TRACK TO EARN TWO PODIUM FINISHES ON THE STREETS OF DETROIT AS THE NTT INDYCAR SERIES RETURNED IN THE CHEVROLET DETROIT GRAND PRIX

CHEVROLET IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES

CHEVROLET DETROIT GRAND PRIX

DETROIT, MICHIGAN

TEAM CHEVY POST RACE REPORT

JUNE 4, 2023

TEAM CHEVY TACKLES TRICKY TRACK TO EARN TWO PODIUM FINISHES ON THE STREETS OF DETROIT AS THE NTT INDYCAR SERIES RETURNED IN THE CHEVROLET DETROIT GRAND PRIX

  • Chevrolet notched two podium finishes on the streets of Detroit, the first event in downtown Detroit in 32 years, at the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix.
  • Will Power, driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Chevrolet, finished second, while Felix Rosenqvist, driver of the No. 6 Arrow McLaren INDYCAR Chevrolet finished third.
  • Today’s two podiums from Power and Rosenqvist gives Chevrolet their 295th podium since 2012 in the 2.2 liter V6 twin turbo direct injected era.
  • Today’s second and third place finish also gives Chevrolet their 10th and 11th podium finishes in seven events so far during the 2023 NTT INDYCAR Series season.
  • Rookie Agustin Canapino, driver of the No. 78 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet, finished 14th on the streets of Detroit, surviving the wild event and showcasing his progress in INDYCAR.
  • Pato O’Ward, driver of the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, faced an early end on the tricky streets of Detroit track, after hitting the Turn 9 barrier on Lap 43.
  • Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Callum Ilott faced an early end to his race, with an on-track incident on the first lap taking him out of the event.

DETROIT (June 4, 2023) – Proving both exciting and tricky from green flag to the checkered flag, Chevrolet raced to two of three positions on the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix podium in the hometown event for General Motors.

As the race returned to the streets of downtown Detroit for the first time in 32 years, Will Power, driver of the No. 2 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, finished second, and Felix Rosenqvist, driver of the No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, finishing third.

Discussing his race day and the tight racing that occurred, Power reflected on the 100-lap event saying, “It was a great day. Had a good strategy there with the red tires and tried everything to get (Alex Palou). Unfortunately, I didn’t know (Scott) Dixon was on my inside. I didn’t see the replay. I hope I didn’t do any damage to him and affect his race. Great day for the Verizon Chevy. Would love to get one step up on the podium.”

Also discussing tight racing with Arrow McLaren INDYCAR teammate Alexander Rossi, driver of the No. 7 Chevrolet, Rosenqvist noted “It was tight at the end, maybe a bit too tight for comfort. Unfortunately, we were in the situation now with Arrow McLaren that we’re fighting each other at the front almost every weekend. It’s a good problem to have, let’s say. Obviously, we don’t want to put each other into the wall or anything, but we raced each other really hard a couple of times, me and Alex (Rossi) all season.”

Further discussing the first event underneath the shadows of General Motors World Headquarters in over three decades, Rosenqvist said, “They did an awesome job here with this race at the waterfront in Detroit. I think it was a good show for the fans. They put this together in a pretty short time, so I’m just super happy to be part of this race.”

Up next for the Team Chevy drivers and teams is the Sonsio Grand Prix of Road America Sunday, June 18. With 55 laps, or 220.55 miles, determining the winner in Wisconsin, the race broadcast airs live Sunday starting at 1 p.m. ET on USA Network. Additional coverage is streamed by Peacock, and also with radio coverage from INDYCAR Radio and SiriusXM Channel 160.

TEAM CHEVY TOP-10 RACE RESULT:

Pos.  Driver

2nd    Will Power

3rd     Felix Rosenqvist

7th     Scott McLaughlin

10th   Josef Newgarden

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING (QUOTES)

Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Chevrolet at Team Penske:

“I’ll be honest I’m ready to get to Nashville, hang out with Kota and Ashley and rest for a couple days. It’s been a long week where I wasn’t able to fully tune into the team. For us to come here – a brand new circuit, make the Firestone Fast Six and have a shot at a top-five finish shows the makeup of this Hitachi Chevy team. It got a little rough out there at times and we were on the receiving end of it, but you’ll have that on a street course. That stuff always comes back on you, like it did later in the race. Aside from all that, to see what kind of event this city just put on is incredible. There will be key learnings that are taken away to make it better for the future, but everyone involved should be thrilled with how the first year came off.”

Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Chevrolet at Team Penske:

“The incident with Grosjean basically destroyed our day. Getting into turn 1 – pit exit is a little bit awkward, but he just drove straight for the apex. I was already committed, braking as deep as I could, and he just drove straight to the apex. I had nowhere to go. It’s the duty of all of us to get out of that area cleanly and I don’t think he cared where I was and turned across my nose. It is what it is. That Gallagher Chevy was fast. We hammered through those last few restarts. I think we started 12th and came through to seventh. It was definitely a reasonable recovery but overall, pretty gutted with the day.”

Will Power, No. 12 Chevrolet at Team Penske:

“It was a great day. Had a good strategy there with the red tires and tried everything to get (Alex Palou). Unfortunately, I didn’t know (Scott) Dixon was on my inside. I didn’t see the replay. I hope I didn’t do any damage to him and affect his race. Great day for the Verizon Chevy. Would love to get one step up on the podium. Seconds aren’t what you look back on when you lose a championship. You had to be aggressive (today) to keep position and get position. This is IndyCar these days. So tough, so many good drivers. You fight for every inch.”

Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Chevrolet at Arrow McLaren INDYCAR:

“Well, I got into the marbles when I had to get by Santino (Ferrucci) because if (Alex) Palou would get us we were going to go a lap down. My push-to-pass was disabled, as expected, because we were lap down. I was pretty boxed in as to what I could do, and it was either race over or trying to get passed but ended up being raced over. It is what it is. Honestly, our race went upside down on that pitstop and all downhill from there. We’ll move on to Road America.”

Felix Rosenqvist, No. 6 Chevrolet at Arrow McLaren INDYCAR:

“I mean, I was on the inside and (Alexander Rossi) squeezed me quite a lot on the first apex. I had to run into him otherwise I was going to clip the left wall, and on the exit, you’re just racing out of the corner. I think I was a fair bit ahead, so he played it hard on entry and I played it hard on exit. So I think it was fair. We’ll discuss it. It’s never optimal to do that with teammates, but if you race hard, you have to race hard back. It’s all good. It’s always tough out there in IndyCar. I shouldn’t be ashamed of being elbows out. I think it was all fair play. It’s tough. Obviously, I don’t want to race teammates too much, it’s never fun, but that’s the way it is. That’s IndyCar.”

“It was tight at the end, maybe a bit too tight for comfort. Unfortunately, we were in the situation now with Arrow McLaren that we’re fighting each other at the front almost every weekend. It’s a good problem to have, let’s say. Obviously, we don’t want to put each other into the wall or anything, but we raced each other really hard a couple of times, me and Alex (Rossi) all season. Unfortunate and good at the same time but I was happy to see he didn’t fall back too much in the field. He was struggling a bit after the restart and we were quite a bit quicker. I was on the inside, and he gave me not enough room on the entry, and you know I think he played it hard on entry, I played it hard on exit so it was kind of fair, I’d say. We, obviously, don’t want to have that situation. It’s something we’ll talk about internally.”

“That was a hell of a race, I’ve got to say. They did an awesome job here with this race at the waterfront in Detroit. I think it was a good show for the fans. They put this together in a pretty short time, so I’m just super happy to be part of this race. Arrow McLaren, we were up there fighting for the podium again, so it’s just phenomenal.”

Alexander Rossi, No. 7 Chevrolet at Arrow McLaren INDYCAR:

“I mean, it’s tight. We all knew it was going to be chaotic around here, but I think the race went on very well from our side. Starting 13th, we had a hole to dig ourselves out of. The team did a great job from a car setup standpoint, strategy was great stops were great. We kind of inherited second when there was a bit of a melee, and then we just ended up kind of back where we started. So, we struggled to switch tires on restarts, we’ll look into that. And yeah, taking our top-five and move on to Road America.”

“I mean, I really enjoyed this whole weekend. You know, I think, you know, the city of Detroit and Penske Corp and GM did an amazing job with this facility and the fan turnout was amazing. So I know there was a lot of kind of suspicions going into it, but I thought it was a good race. In certainly next year, we’ll have a better idea of what we need to do to be better but you know, I think that was another classic IndyCar race and hopefully everyone enjoyed it.”

Conor Daly, No. 20 Chevrolet at Ed Carpenter Racing:

“After sorting through some of that chaos at the beginning of the race, we weren’t bad. We were trying to run with Rinus (VeeKay) but had to switch to the other strategy pretty quickly. We just lost out a little bit on some of the strategy side of the race. At the end, the car was good enough to make some moves on some people and try to improve our position. Not the most fun racetrack, but we salvaged something today. This is one of of our better street course finishes in a while, so that is good.”

Rinus VeeKay, No. 21 Chevrolet at Ed Carpenter Racing:

“I worked pretty hard and was in the Top 10 quite a bit. On the last restart, I was hit from behind and lost momentum. I had to go on the defense there and got too many marbles on my tires, then I couldn’t turn anymore. It was tough. I struggled to keep my car on the track, which I did, but it was only enough for P18. There was way more in the car. I am very bummed. I learned a lot and it is nice to have a weekend off before Road America.”

Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 Chevrolet at AJ Foyt Racing:

“Very uneventful day for us in the 14 Chevy. Brake bias adjuster broke probably first or second stint. Just got locked out at 63 percent. Nothing I could do, just lost all front grip, calipers got hot, pedal got really long. So it just made it for a difficult day. Just need to regroup after this weekend and figure out where our car is at and move on to Road America.”

Benjamin Pedersen, No. 55 Chevrolet at AJ Foyt Racing:

“Pretty eventful day. Honestly, it was looking really good. We were on track to likely get into the top-10. Unfortunately got caught up in a collision with other cars with some tricky circumstances that happened on the track that were out of my control, and ultimately led up to a bit of collisions. We’ll look into why that happened, but we were able to get the car restarted and going right away. The team did a great job recovering, and making changes right away in pit lane. P20 in the end, ahead of quite a few guys who are around me in the championship, so we’ll move up a little more. It’s a little bittersweet today, because we had very good pace. We’re coming forward with the set up, we just need a little luck to come our way. On to Road America testing and the next event.”

Callum Ilott, No. 77 Chevrolet at Juncos Hollinger Racing:

“Pretty premature end to our race. I feel quite bad. Just misjudged it on the last part of the braking. The cars in front, unfortunately it was Kyle (Kirkwood), and I clipped his wheel and took off. To be fair, I wasn’t carrying too much speed compared to him, but as soon as I hit the wheel, it took off. Big shame. Sorry to the team and to Kyle (Kirkwood). I think we would have had a good result. The car was quick. I felt quick in warm up, so big shame but you live and learn, and on to the next one.”

Agustin Canapino, No. 78 Chevrolet at Juncos Hollinger Racing:

“We did a great race today. I’m really happy and for the guys, the team, that was really good racing because we crashed on Friday, and now we finish P14. Doing really good, a lot of good overtakes, fighting with some guys at the top teams. I’m really happy for the rest of today.”

FELIX ROSENQVIST, NO. 6 ARROW MCLAREN CHEVROLET, and WILL POWER, NO. 12 TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – End of Day Press Conference:

THE MODERATOR: We are joined now by the second-place finisher and last year’s winner of this event, Will Power.

Second podium of the season for you. Some craziness there at the end. Pleased with your podium today?

WILL POWER: Yeah, very satisfied. Good strategy. I mean, starting on the blacks, everything played out as we thought. I guess we were worried when the yellow came. Everyone packs up. But then we got a yellow again, so that kind of helped us. We had 10 laps to push hard. I got Palou on the restart. Then they went off, he got me back. Yeah, I couldn’t get him. I tried everything.

I think my one chance was when Dixon got into me a little bit, I was trying to switch back and get a run, get him into four. Apart from that, yeah, the next restart was in third so I didn’t have another shot at him.

Very good job. Man, you’re never looking back on seconds as a bad day. Although the guy I was needing to close points to was the guy that won. We limited the damage.

THE MODERATOR: Consistency was your key last year, too.

WILL POWER: Yeah, that’s why I kick myself for the tiniest mistake at Indy. Caught me a chance to win. Just got the wall. That was a big chunk of points.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Will Power.

Q. Was that one of the most aggressive drives you’ve had in the last couple years? When you were coming up through the field, it was pretty fierce.

WILL POWER: Yeah, I mean, no, pretty measured moves. But yeah, I was never going to do something that I didn’t feel was going to be pulled off. I’ve been around too long to try that.

Yeah, we’re in the situation to be aggressive. That’s why we start on blacks. We’re too far back to try to play conservative. We’ve got to attack every chance. That’s why I’m trying to do as hard as I can right now.

Q. Went up on two wheels there. It was obvious what you were trying to do. What comes over you guys going into a turn like that with a race on the line?

WILL POWER: For me, it was just trying my absolute best to get Palou in a clean way. I wasn’t going to do any sort of dive bomb.

Yeah, as it gets down to it, depending on who’s in the game, obviously Palou had the most to lose because he’s leading by a chunk, but there’s a few guys in there that don’t have as much to lose. I was one of ’em. I’m thinking in my head I’ve got to try to get this guy, if I can, to limit the damage.

Q. Do you ever think, We put on a heck of a show?

WILL POWER: Yeah, I did. I said it coming up the elevator, It’s a pretty good race from the outside. Some pretty big moves in there from people. I can’t imagine what it was like back in the pack. Looked like it was a great race.

THE MODERATOR: Also joined by the third-place finisher, Felix Rosenqvist. First podium of the season, fifth of his career.

Felix, great way to finish out this weekend for you.

FELIX ROSENQVIST: Yeah, that was an awesome race. I have to say, I was really impressed what GM and Chevy have done to make this happen. There was some criticism to start the weekend, but it all played out really nicely. I have to say it was a fun racetrack, it raced really well.

That long straightaway, we picked a low downforce option and we were able to pass on cars at the end of the straight. Yeah, it was awesome. I thought it wasn’t going to be a lot of passing, but it raced super well. Big thanks to GM and Chevy.

Yeah, good race. I thought it was good to be back on the podium. It’s been a while. We’ll take that.

THE MODERATOR: We’ll continue with questions.

Q. Will, when you won last year at Belle Isle, you used the alternates on the last stint of the race. What was the reason you went for the alternates the second stint this time around?

WILL POWER: Yeah, to protect from losing too much ’cause if they happen to go off badly, you have a full stint, the last stint was going to be the longest because you’re always going to pit on the early side and save fuel for the chance of getting caught by a yellow and the pits are closing, you’re done, everyone’s got you. That was the reason.

Try to minimize the amount of laps basically.

Q. Felix, how great is it you have the momentum coming in now going into Road America?

FELIX ROSENQVIST: I think we needed it. We’ve been pretty much up there every weekend. We had three DNFs which hurt.

It seems this year in the championship a lot of the top runners have had tough races as well. I think we can recover if we keep the momentum going.

It’s nice. I think all the boys and girls on the 6 car, Arrow McLaren, really deserved it. We’ve been up there sniffing for a long time. Hasn’t worked out.

It was a fun race. Felt like we were just quick all through it. We went up every stage of race. We were in a position where we could maybe win it in the end. Yeah, it was a bit dicey on the restarts in the end. The second to last there, Dixon went wide. I had to grab the clutch. I think Will had the same. That potentially could have cost us a bit.

I’m happy to finish on the podium after all the close calls.

Q. Felix, the thing with Rossi at the end. You have been racing around each other all year. A thing at Toronto. Have you talked to him before? How do you work through it?

FELIX ROSENQVIST: I mean, we race hard, but I think we also race fair. Obviously we like each other. We don’t have any intentions to put each other in the wall.

But, yeah, it was tight. I think the move wasn’t really high-risk. I was completely alongside him into three. Yeah, just gets tight, man. It’s so close. He squeezed me a little bit on entry, I squeezed him a little bit on exit.

Yeah, I think it’s a good problem to have. The Arrow McLaren cars have been up there every race. You’re going to find yourself in a situation where you’re fighting teammates. I think it’s something we’ll discuss internally if we can manage it differently. Obviously there were no team calls on this one, which is cool. They let us battle it out on the track.

I think Will can explain how it works when you have a lot of good cars at the front. It’s good problems to have.

Q. Will, can you give us the entire Flavor Flav story, how he got your T-shirt?

WILL POWER: I was just sitting and talking to Roger and Tim yesterday. No, we were watching an interview of Kevin Lee, an interview of Flavor Flav. I said, If he’s here, he’s got to come over.

I got to meet him. Then he came on to my truck. He had the Will Power shirt on. His girlfriend had the same. A couple of my boys from Toowoomba said, You have made it. We all listened to Public Enemy in the ’90s. Flavor Flav was someone I thought I would never meet.

He is the most (indiscernible) dude you will ever meet. I thought he was going to come to the podium. I think if I won, he would have.

Pretty cool experience. Pretty cool to put it on your personal Facebook. All your friends that you went to school with, This man is big-time, he’s hanging out with Flavor Flav.

I sat next to Ice-T at dinner. I have also had dinner with Slash from Guns N’ Roses. No one cares about race cars or I won the Indy 500, it’s like, You had dinner with Slash, you know Flavor Flav.

Q. Did he buy the T-shirt?

WILL POWER: I think he went to the (indiscernible) and bought the T-shirts.

Q. Do you have a favorite Public Enemy song or album?

WILL POWER: I said this morning to Flavor Flav, People today are going to have to fight the power. That’s what I said. It was true. They have to fight the power.

Q. (No microphone.)

WILL POWER: Yeah, he lives here. Should get Eminem. I’m more of a ’90s rap guy. If I met Eminem, that would be epic. If I could meet Ice Cube or Snoop Dogg in Long Beach. Why doesn’t someone bring them to Long Beach? Maybe they should have an Ice Cube day. It would be dope.

Q. (No microphone.)

FELIX ROSENQVIST: I’m older than you think (smiling). I’m 10 years older than Pato, nine maybe. I’m getting there.

THE MODERATOR: This is your wheelhouse? Something you understand?

FELIX ROSENQVIST: Yeah.

Q. The fact that you said it needs to be discussed internally, you’re racing for position at the end of the race, racing for a victory. What is there a reason to discuss?

FELIX ROSENQVIST: I don’t know. I mean, we’ll talk about it. As I said, I didn’t think committing to the move was high risk. I wouldn’t want to do it high risk. With a teammate, you never want to.

Yeah, we’ll talk about it. We’ll get through it. Alex is a good dude. As I say, we’ve been fighting each other before, and a lot this year. We’ve pretty much been around each other all season.

Yeah, we’re probably going to keep doing it.

Q. He squeezed you going in, you kind of squeezed him going out, but nobody hit the wall.

FELIX ROSENQVIST: Yeah, I mean, I think he actually hit the wall, but I think he got out in the marbles. I think it’s a good thing he was able to get back in.

I have to say, I pretty much didn’t have any more room on entry. I was just trying to not go into the wall on apex. After that, I just tried to get out of the corner as quick as I can, give him the room he needed.

As I say, we’ll talk about it. No biggie. I’m just happy we both finished up front, so…

Q. People criticized this track. When did it become apparent to y’all it turned into a pretty good racetrack? Did it become apparent yesterday or in the race?

WILL POWER: Yeah, like second session you started to like it, like the challenge of it. Yeah, racing perspective, having that long straight with the hairpin is definitely good. I think next year if they resurface the second half of the straight you would have more passing. It was tough to go on the outside.

FELIX ROSENQVIST: Yeah, I think the track really came alive during the race. It seems like this track, every session the track goes more slippery. As you do more laps it gets grippier and grippier, more than other street courses.

I thought during the race it really came alive. It was cool. The steering was heavy, you’re carrying a lot of speed. Even on full tanks, we were doing like qualifying lap times.

This is cool, you’re doing some good corner speeds. You have to be so focused. Bouncing between the walls, it’s insane how much effort goes into it mentally to do a hundred laps out there, especially when you have to race other guys around you.

I think it was a cool challenge and awesome show for everyone.

Q. You said it got really grippy. We also saw a couple drivers that got a hair offline, found themselves in the wall. Was it that slick out there because of the marbles or that much different based on what had built up?

FELIX ROSENQVIST: If you go out there, it’s not fun. You don’t want to be offline there.

But I think surprisingly on the braking, the inside line was really good. We have some tracks like St. Pete, if you do a dive bomb into one, you just go straight because there’s so many marbles. Actually here was fairly clean.

I don’t think the fact that we all like swerved left on the straight was actually good for the marble pickup, allowed you to do some good passing.

CORVETTE RACING AT LE MANS: Setting the Stage

Test Day sessions provide positive steps toward upcoming 24 Hours LE MANS, France (June 4, 2023) – Corvette Racing went through its paces Sunday to wrap up its preparations for the 24 Hours of Le Mans with six hours of running around the famous 8.5-mile track.
All three Corvette drivers – Nicky Catsburg, Ben Keating and Nico Varrone – cycled through the No. 33 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R in the pair of three-hour test sessions. It was the only track time for the Corvette trio and the rest of the 62-car field for next weekend’s Centenary celebration of Le Mans.
Catsburg turned in the Corvette’s best time and placed the C8.R 14th among the 21 entries in the GTE Am category. He, Keating and Varrone arrived at Le Mans with two wins in three races and the Drivers Championship lead in the class.
The morning session was a little difficult with time spent in the garage to correct a mechanical problem. In contrast, the afternoon running was smooth sailing. Keating got valuable seat time to familiarize himself with the C8.R in Le Mans trim after a baseline run by Catsburg to tune the car for his teammates.
The No. 66 Ferrari was the fastest car in class across both sessions. The first official practice and qualifying sessions are Wednesday.
The 24 Hours of Le Mans is scheduled for 4 p.m. CET / 10 a.m. ET on Saturday, June 10. MotorTrend and MotorTrend Plus will provide both live television and streaming coverage, the latter beginning with Wednesday’s opening practice. Radio Le Mans will stream audio coverage of free practice, qualifying and the race. 
CORVETTE RACING MEDIA INFORMATION
Corvette Racing media information in both English and French is updated and available ahead of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Materials include, Le Mans race advance and quotes, Corvette Racing stats and figures, Corvette Racing racecar comparisons, Corvette Racing Fast Facts and driver biographies
NICKY CATSBURG, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “We had some small mechanical issues in the morning that we solved quickly. Right now everything feels pretty normal. We are getting the car in the window again. I feel like the track is a little different than last year so balance-wise it is a little different, but we are working on it. The Corvette feels good. It seems like the Ferraris are a bit too fast for us right now, but in general we can’t complain too much. We are getting back up to speed with everything, so I am quite happy.”
BEN KEATING, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “It’s amazing how quickly the Test Day goes. The lap is so long that you never get that many laps in. We had slow zones and safety cars in the morning and afternoon, and each of those take about 30 minutes out of your day. This morning, I think each one of us got three to four laps. In the afternoon, I had the luxury of doing two stints, and I loved it. I still feel like I’m learning and getting better and better. It was a big benefit to me in order to learn how to find lap-time in this car and this track. I feel good about the times I ran and that I will continue to improve. I’m looking forward to watching video of not only my driving but also the driving by Nicky and Nico. It was a very successful Test Day, I’d say. We had a nice recovery this afternoon from the morning. I’m looking forward to getting a start on the real race week!”
NICO VARRONE, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “It was a tough day in the way red flags worked and the new safety car rules that the organizers were trying. So we lost quite a lot of green-flag track time. In my case, I think I did five laps total so that’s not so many. Luckily I know the track from Road to Le Mans and this race last year. So it is a different car, different team and different setup. I’m getting comfortable and things were quite OK. It was a positive day for us. We still have a few things to work on. We weren’t strong in low-speed and mid-speed corners, but this is nothing that we cannot improve. Now the engineers have all the data and info from today to work from and get the car ready for Wednesday.”

Cadillac at Le Mans: Test day provides direction

Three Cadillac V-Series.R racecars combine for 157 laps in the first time on circuit
LE MANS, France (June 4, 2023) – For the first time in 17 weeks – and the first time ever outside the U.S. — the three Cadillac Racing V-Series.R racecars were rolling together on the same racecourse.
The Circuit de la Sarthe is the scene and the 24 Hours of Le Mans is the backdrop.
The Nos. 2 and 3 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R and No. 311 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R participated in Sunday’s test sessions totaling six hours. They combined for 157 laps without incident or down time on the 8.47-mile (13.629 kilometers) circuit.
By its name, test day provides the opportunity for manufacturers in the 16-entry Hypercar field to get a set-up baseline in preparation for qualifying practice June 7. The top eight cars in the 60-minute session advanced to Hyperpole qualifications June 8.
“We are excited to have this test day to take advantage of as much on-track as possible to gather real-world data with these new cars because no one can test on the circuit until they come to the Le Mans event,” GM sports car racing program manager Laura Wontrop Klauser said. “We have each of the three cars on different test plans so that we can maximize the amount of information that we can gather for the program. It also gives the opportunity to test all the equipment that runs behind the scenes.
“Cadillac races as one team. Team members of all three cars are working to support each other, and that is how we’re able to divide and conquer three separate test plans, analyze the information and come back as one unit and select the best choices for everyone for the race.” 
Eight of the nine drivers saw seat time. Scott Dixon, who was competing in the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix, will join No. 3 Cadillac V-Series.R teammates Sebastien Bourdais and Renger van der Zande for free practice June 7.
Most recently, the three Cadillac V-Series.Rs were together on the same racetrack for the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona in late January. The No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R then began its full-time FIA World Endurance Championship Hypercar schedule, while the two other new-for-2023 Cadillacs continued with their IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship calendar.
The centenary 24 Hours of Le Mans has reunited the teams for Cadillac Racing’s return after a 21-year absence.
Earl Bamber, No. 2 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R: “There was lots of learning across all three cars and Cadillac Racing. I thought we got through the test items really well and now it’s a matter of combining all the information that we have learned from the 311, the 3 and the 2 and see what we can bring later this week. The competition is tight and looks strong. We have some homework and hopefully we’ll be right up there.” 
Sebastien Bourdais, No. 3 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R: “Every car was on a different platform and trying different things, evaluating tires. I think we got a decent amount of data and references to get an idea of where we’re going with this new Cadillac. We have a lot of data to go through and try to understand what exactly works and does not and how we can improve. And from there we’ll probably chase lap times more. Honestly, I feel like the balance of the car is good, so it’s been a good start.”  Pipo Derani, No. 311 Whelen Engineering Cadillac V-Series.R: “It’s great that we had the test day with the new car and the first time with the team here as well. There is a lot to learn. I think it was a positive first day. We were able to get through some of the things that were unknown to us as a team and in the end we came out with a lot of information. So, it’s a good start for our Le Mans program.”

DAUMINATION: Zach Daum Passes Gavin Miller Late for Sweep of Wayne County

Miller gives up lead to Daum late after contact with wall, retains second in points standings

WAYNE CITY, IL (June 3, 2023) – He came into the weekend winless on the season with a wrecked racecar at the shop and the frustration building. Three days later, and Zach Daum is headed home with back-to-back Feature wins and a sweep of the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota action at Wayne County Speedway.

Daum, the defending Series champion from Pocahontas, IL, filled the open seat at Oklahoma-based Trifecta Motorsports for the weekend – after a hard crash in his own car last week at Millbridge Speedway – and brought the team their first national Midget series victory Friday night. But he wasn’t done there, coming back the very next night and capitalizing on Keith Kunz Motorsports prospect Gavin Miller’s slip while leading in the closing laps to take the win and his third career Series triumph.

“This one feels just as good as last night did,” Daum said. “Last night, we had to earn it. Tonight, we got a little bit lucky.”

Similar to Friday night, Daum started on the front row of the 30-lap Toyota Racing Feature, but drifted back to third in the opening laps while Series points leader Cannon McIntosh paced the field out front. After losing a slide-job fest with Karter Sarff, who wrestled the lead away on Lap 9, McIntosh slipped back into second and gave it up to Daum six laps later.

“I couldn’t really run [the top lane] consistently,” McIntosh said. “I just pushed the nose quite a bit, and Daum was running the bottom, being patient. He just waited on mistakes and was able to get to the lead.”

When Sarff bobbled on the cushion one lap later, Daum was there to take advantage. He crossed the stripe with the lead at the halfway point, but Miller was mounting his charge behind him.

Miller, 16, of Allentown, PA, had dropped back as low as seventh at one point after taking the green but had worked his way up into the top five before the halfway point. Lap 16 may have been his best, however, as he passed four cars in the matter of one 12-second lap, ripping right through the middle and the top to advance to second.

Now, only Daum was ahead of him. In four laps, Miller had caught Daum and zipped around him on the open top side to claim the lead on Lap 19. A quick caution displayed that same lap restacked the field with 11 laps left. That’s when Miller hit the jets and took off.

At its height, Miller has amassed a gap of two full seconds over Daum as he continued to hammer the top side, lap-after-lap. As the laps began to wind down, Miller could see his first national Midget Feature win drawing closer, and then – contact.

Miller carried a full head of steam in to Turns 3-4, slipped over the small berm and hit the outside retaining wall, nearly stalling the car from the impact. Daum raced into the lead down the frontstretch as Miller was trying to keep his wheels turning, and the cation flag waved.

“It was about to stall, and I got on the gas again and felt it go forward a bit,” Miller said. “Just went in too hard.”

Daum had squeaked by Miller and completed Lap 27 before the yellow was thrown, making him the leader for the final restart. Miller was blended back into the field and restarted second, now left with only one chance to save his best career race.

“I figured if he was going to make a charge, he was going to make a charge,” Daum said. “I knew there was only a handful of laps left, so he was going to have to make some perfect laps to get around me.”

Try as he may, however, Miller was unable to make up the ground he needed to retake the lead as Daum crossed underneath the checkers to bag the victory.

“[Miller] drove a good race – he just made a couple mistakes, and it cost him,” Daum said.

Though it was a sour ending to what could’ve been a big first win, Miller did not hang his head over second place – tying the runner-up finish he had one week prior at Millbridge.

“It’s just disappointing,” Miller said. “I know everyone wants to win, but you’ve just got to want to win more. You’ve just gotta go out there and drive your hardest every single time.

“It’s gonna come one of these days.”

McIntosh came home third, collecting his eighth podium finish in ten Series races. He had a good car early on but was unable to find the speed he’s been accustomed to having at the end of races.

“I didn’t really have anything on the restart for them, so I just fell back to third and couldn’t make up any ground,” McIntosh said.

UP NEXT

The Xtreme Outlaw Midgets head into a summer break period and return to competition Friday, July 21, at Doe Run Speedway in Doe Run, MO. Tickets will be available at the gate on race day. If you can’t be there in person, stream all the action live on DIRTVision.

ABBREVIATED RESULTS (view full results)

Feature (30 Laps): 1. 7U-Zach Daum[1]; 2. 97-Gavin Miller[5]; 3. 08-Cannon McIntosh[4]; 4. 5G-Gavan Boschele[7]; 5. 97K-Cooper Williams[20]; 6. 5-Chase Briscoe[13]; 7. 21K-Karter Sarff[2]; 8. 23-Kevin Thomas Jr[9]; 9. 40-Chase McDermand[3]; 10. 2X-Landon Brooks[17]; 11. 71-Jade Avedisian[8]; 12. 25K-Taylor Reimer[6]; 13. 31K-Kyle Beilman[19]; 14. 08X-Ricky Stenhouse Jr[11]; 15. 3N-Mitchell Davis[15]; 16. 17B-Austin Barnhill[18]; 17. 26-Chance Crum[16]; 18. 19AZ-Hayden Reinbold[10]; 19. 19M-Ethan Mitchell[12]; 20. 86-Shane Cottle[14]

COPELAND PARKS IT AT PLACERVILLE: SCORES BIG NARC WIN AT DAVE BRADWAY JR. MEMORIAL

(6/3/23 – Ben Deatherage) Placerville, CA … Colby Copeland scored the biggest NARC 410 Sprint Car Series victory of his career by winning the $5,000 Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial feature event at Placerville Speedway. Copeland captured the lead on the 14th circuit of the 40-lap contest to earn his fifth career NARC win and first with the tour at Placerville.

“This is definitely one we had marked on our calendar, so it’s awesome to accomplish this and get this one,” commented an ecstatic Copeland in victory lane.  “It’s no secret that I’m not the best at Placerville. 

The main event fired off with the Farmer’s Brewing/Mittry Construction #2X Maxim of Justin Sanders seizing the top position.  Sanders set a frantic pace and led the 24-car highspeed freight train into lap traffic until the caution appeared on lap seven.  On the restart, Copeland shadowed the leaders every move before making a well-timed pass on the bottom groove coming out of the fourth turn on the 14th-lap.

Copeland hit some hefty traffic himself, but the third and final yellow waved on the 21st circuit for Sanders, who stopped with a muffler issue. On the restart, the Jim & Annette Van Lare-fielded Van Lare Steering Repair/Bianchi Farms/NOS Energy Drink #5V Helix created a significant gap over track points leader Michael Faccinto. Despite Copeland getting boxed in slower traffic during the last few circuits, the sixth starting Faccinto was unable to capitalize.  Copeland’s winning margin was .0692 seconds.

“It’s tough because we get to start celebrating, and then we start tearing up for Jim (Van Lare), the car owner who lost his dad last week,” continued Copeland.  “(Jim) worked his butt off this week to get the car ready to come to the Bradway, and I told him, ‘Man, I know your dad would want us at Placerville. Don’t sit at home. You can’t be upset, let’s go racing!’ he said, ‘Yeah, you’re right,’ and it was pretty obvious he was with us on this one and got us to victory lane tonight.”

With lap money and bonuses, the Copeland and Van Lare team pocketed almost $8,000 for their efforts.

Faccinto finished a NARC career-best second with his performance in the F&F Racing/C&H Motor Sports #X1 Maxim for car owners Alan Bradway and Steve Tuccelli. Shane Golobic put the Matt Wood Racing/NOS Energy Drink #17W KPC in third for the second straight year at the Bradway race. Tanner Carrick’s CVC Concrete/Conti Trucking #83T Maxim was fourth, after starting tenth, over fifth finishing Bud Kaeding in his Kaeding Performance/Alviso Rock/Al’s Roofing Supply #69 Maxim.

“I can’t say enough about this F&F team.  We’ve had some fun this year, and a win is coming,” stated Faccinto. “This is only our third 410 race, so we’re clicking well, and obviously, Placerville is our home track. I was hoping for a little more lapped traffic with Colby, but he did a good job nonetheless.”

Golobic stated in his interview, “Colby kind of ran away with it, so hats off to him, and I’m glad he got the win.  A NOS Energy Drink teammate getting the win is really cool. It was a little frustrating race for me; I feel we couldn’t quite get into the race for the lead.  But good job to Faccinto and the whole #X1 team. I know this race means a lot to them, and I’m really happy for Jim Van Lare because of the rough week for him. I guess if you’re going to have two guys ahead of you, it’s some pretty cool stories for them both.”

The balance of the top ten consisted of 11th starter Kaleb Montgomery, 12th starting Sean Becker, Justyn Cox from 14th, Kalib Henry, and NARC championship point leader Corey Day.

Stephen Ingraham was the Williams Roofing Hardcharger Award winner after charging from 24th to 15th.

Nick Parker and Jake Morgan flipped earlier in the heat race competition, and both were uninjured.

 A-FEATURE (40 laps): 1. 5V-Colby Copeland [1]; 2. X1-Michael Faccinto [6]; 3. 17W-Shane Golobic [5]; 4. 83T-Tanner Carrick [10]; 5. 69-Bud Kaeding [3]; 6. 3-Kaleb Montgomery [11]; 7. 7B-Sean Becker [12]; 8. 42X-Justyn Cox [14]; 9. 17-Kalib Henry [4]; 10. 14-Corey Day [9]; 11. 41-Dominic Scelzi [17]; 12. 37-Michael Pombo [16]; 13. 51-Shane Hopkins [21]; 14. 88N-DJ Netto [18]; 15. 93-Stephen Ingraham [24]; 16. 83V-Dylan Bloomfield [13]; 17. 2L-Logan Forler [23]; 18. 94TH-Kyle Hirst [15]; 19. 29-Willie Croft [7]; 20. 46JR-Joel Myers Jr [19]; 21. 83SA-Isaiah Vasquez [22]; 22. 88A-Joey Ancona [20]; 23. 2X-Justin Sanders [2]; 24. 92-Andy Forsberg [8]

 METTEC TITANIUM LAP LEADERS:  Justin Sanders 1-13, Colby Copeland 14-40

 WILLIAMS ROOFING HARDCHARGER: Stephen Ingraham (+9) 24th to 15th

ARP FAST QUALIFIER (29 Cars):  Michael Faccinto – 10.662 seconds

BROWN AND MILLER RACING SOLUTIONS HEAT ONE (10 Laps): 1. 17-Kalib Henry [2]; 2. 14-Corey Day [1]; 3. 42X-Justyn Cox [6]; 4. 94TH-Kyle Hirst [3]; 5. X1-Michael Faccinto [4]; 6. 83SA-Isaiah Vasquez [5]; 7. 115-Nick Parker [7]

KIMO’s TROPICAL CAR WASH HEAT TWO (10 Laps): 1. 17W-Shane Golobic [1]; 2. 83T-Tanner Carrick [2]; 3. 83V-Dylan Bloomfield [3]; 4. 41-Dominic Scelzi [5]; 5. 92-Andy Forsberg [4]; 6. 51-Shane Hopkins [6]; 7. 2L-Logan Forler [7]

BEACON WEALTH STRATEGIES & RAYMOND JAMES FINANCIAL HEAT THREE (10 Laps): 1. 29-Willie Croft [2]; 2. 2X-Justin Sanders [4]; 3. 3-Kaleb Montgomery [1]; 4. 88N-DJ Netto [5]; 5. 46JR-Joel Myers Jr [3]; 6. 26-Billy Aton [6]; 7. 12J-John Clark [7]

LIFELINE USA HEAT FOUR (10 Laps): 1. 69-Bud Kaeding [1]; 2. 5V-Colby Copeland [4]; 3. 7B-Sean Becker [2]; 4. 37-Michael Pombo [3]; 5. 88A-Joey Ancona [5]; 6. 93-Stephen Ingraham [6]; 7. 4-Burt Foland Jr. [7]; 8. 7-Jake Morgan [8]

SUNNYVALLEY “POWERED BY BACON” TROPHY DASH (6 Laps): 1. 5V-Colby Copeland [3]; 2. 2X-Justin Sanders [2]; 3. 69-Bud Kaeding [1]; 4. 17-Kalib Henry [5]; 5. 17W-Shane Golobic [4]; 6. X1-Michael Faccinto [6]; 7. 29-Willie Croft [7]; 8. 92-Andy Forsberg [8]

KAEDING PERFORMANCE B-FEATURE (12 Laps): 1. 51-Shane Hopkins [2]; 2. 83SA-Isaiah Vasquez [1]; 3. 2L-

BESTING THE BIG O: Carson Macedo Rolls to Victory in World of Outlaws Ogilvie Debut

tThe 27-year-old collects his third win of the season and takes over the points leadOGILVIE, MN (June 3, 2023) – After a 19-race gap between his first and second wins of the season, Carson Macedo had no intentions of waiting as long for a third.Aside from a couple missteps here and there, Macedo and his Jason Johnson Racing crew’s consistency hasn’t slipped this year. But while the podiums and top fives have been nice, they want to win.And win is exactly what they did on Saturday night as the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars made their debut at Minnesota’s Ogilvie Raceway for The Wagamon Brothers Presents The ‘Big O’ Showdown. The Lemoore, CA native took the lead on the opening lap from the outside-pole starting spot and went on to display how fast his Albaugh #41 was. Macedo held off one challenge from Logan Schuchart and mastered traffic on his way to a margin of victory of nearly five seconds – his second triumph in the last four races.“My guys did an incredible job,” said an ecstatic Macedo. “This thing was a dream to drive. I knew I was in pretty good shape. I was trying to pace myself in lap traffic and not do anything stupid… I had an idea of where other guys were and was just trying to pace my race as best as I could. Hats off to Philip Dietz, Clyde Knipp, and Nate Repetz. They gave me a hot rod there.”Macedo now owns 31 career World of Outlaws victories. He’s also the winner of the two most recent Series races in Minnesota after topping last year’s Jackson Nationals finale. And perhaps most importantly, Macedo’s recent consistency – 2.6 average finish in last seven races – has vaulted him back atop the point standings.The race began with Logan Schuchart leading the field to green from the pole. The driver of the Shark Racing #1S drifted across the track in front of Macedo in the opening set of corners, and Macedo darted underneath him as they rocketed down the backstretch.Macedo was able to pull ahead in the early going, but behind him battles broke out all over the 3/8-mile oval. A gaggle of cars including Schuchart, Gio Scelzi, Spencer Bayston, David Gravel, James McFadden, and more threw haymakers and crossovers as they swapped spots all throughout the top 10.A major wrench was thrown in the World of Outlaws championship chase when an early caution saw Tim Estenson spin and collect both Brad Sweet and David Gravel. Sweet entered the night atop the points with Gravel tied with Macedo for second only two points behind “The Big Cat.”Sweet rejoined after quick trip to the Federated Car Care Work Zone while Gravel didn’t make it back on track in time for the restart. Fortunately for him, the caution flew again prior to the next lap being completed, allowing him to rejoin on the lead lap.On the restart, Schuchart took one more big swing at Macedo with a slider in Turns 1 and 2. He managed to clear him but couldn’t hold back Macedo’s run down the backstretch as he returned the favor in Turns 3 and 4.“I’m thankful I went back to the bottom on the restarts,” Macedo said. “That one restart Logan got a really good start next to me and was able to slide across, but it just broke his momentum enough to where I was able to square him up and get off the corner in front of him again.”After Schuchart’s challenge, Macedo escaped and began to open up his advantage as the laps waned. Behind him, the brawl for positioning continued and intensified as time ticked away. Up front, it was all Macedo as he claimed the checkered flag with a 4.9 second advantage to notch his third win of the season and reclaim the points lead.“It’s not going to be easy,” Macedo said of chasing a title. “Those two (Sweet and Gravel) are incredibly good, and there’s a lot of good cars in the field. We’ll just keep plugging away and work on the process. That’s the main thing.”Logan Schuchart managed to arise with the runner-up spot after partaking in a wild battle with many competitors inside the top five. The result marked his first appearance on the podium since his win at Eldora in early May and his fifth of the season. The Hanover, PA native is up to 125 career World of Outlaws podiums and came away satisfied with the effort.“Happy to get back on the podium,” Schuchart said. “We struggled a little bit on the restarts getting going. I just felt like I couldn’t get back to the top and get going as good as I needed to. The few times I started right behind Carson I didn’t want to follow him right into the corner. I felt like I had to stick the bottom in (Turns) 1 and 2 or slide up in front of him. In the Dash, I could run through the bottom and up to the top and really stick the car. I tried it a few times during the Feature and just backed it the whole way across the track.”A huge charge on the final circuit saw Donny Schatz surge from fifth to claim the final step on the podium. He and his Tony Stewart/Curb Agajanian Racing team continued to flex their recent muscle with a seventh top three in the last 11 races. While Schatz was happy to get a strong result, he felt a little uncomfortable in the car during the main event.“They just kind of pulled over and went, and I just went the other way,” Schatz said of his final lap rise to third. “I just struggled all race, just cannot get the balance. I just stuck so hard on the right-rear (tire). We fought it all night. We’ve kind of been fighting it the last couple nights, but we got a respectable finish out of it.”Gio Scelzi and James McFadden completed the top five.For the second time in the last three races, Sheldon Haudenschild claimed the KSE Hard Charger. After winning the Micro-Lite Last Chance Showdown, Haudenschild wheeled the Stenhouse Jr./Marshall Racing #17 from 19th to seventh in the Feature.Macedo’s lead in the standings is 10 markers over Sweet, who recovered to finish sixth after his trip to the Work Zone. Gravel is 22 points behind Macedo after salvaging an 11th.Macedo began the night by collecting his fourth consecutive Simpson Performance Products QuickTime and his Series-high ninth of the season.CASE No.1 Engine Oil Heat One was topped by Carson Macedo (99th Heat Race win of career). NOS Energy Drink Heats Two and Three were claimed by Donny Schatz (515th of career) and David Gravel (224th of career).UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars head to Knoxville Raceway for a pair of nights (June 9-10) at “The Sprint Car Capital of the World.” For tickets, CLICK HERE.If you can’t make it to the track, catch all of the action on DIRTVision.RESULTS:NOS Energy Drink Feature (30 Laps): 1. 41-Carson Macedo[2]; 2. 1S-Logan Schuchart[1]; 3. 15-Donny Schatz[5]; 4. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[7]; 5. 83-James McFadden[8]; 6. 49-Brad Sweet[4]; 7. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[19]; 8. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[11]; 9. 5-Spencer Bayston[3]; 10. 7S-Robbie Price[10]; 11. 2-David Gravel[6]; 12. 1A-Jacob Allen[12]; 13. 13-Mark Dobmeier[15]; 14. 20G-Noah Gass[17]; 15. 7-Brooke Tatnell[14]; 16. 9-Kasey Kahne[9]; 17. 6-Bill Rose[16]; 18. 199-Ryan Bowers[20]; 19. 105-Cody Ihlen[13]; 20. (DNF) 17M-Zach Omdahl[24]; 21. (DNF) 14T-Tim Estenson[18]; 22. (DNF) 8-Jack Croaker[23]; 23. (DNF) 11M-Brendan Mullen[21]; 24. (DNF) 2K-Kevin Ingle[22]

SHIRLEY STRIKES BACK: Brian Shirley Wins Fourth USA World 50 at Paducah

Chris Madden drives from 13th to 3rd, extending his points lead to 40

PADUCAH, KY – June 3, 2023– For the second consecutive night, the battle to the World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Model Series checkered flag came down to Brian Shirley and Kyle Bronson. But this time, it was Shirley who came out on top.   

The Chatham, IL driver inherited the lead from Bobby Pierce on Lap 34 and held off Bronson to earn his first Series win of 2023 Saturday at Paducah International Raceway.  

Bronson, the pole sitter, jumped out to the lead early in the race, with Pierce chasing him down.  

The “Smooth Operator” kept the pressure on until Bronson jumped the cushion in Turns 1 and 2, allowing Pierce to sneak his Longhorn Chassis underneath the #40B on Lap 21.  

Pierce held on through several restarts and started to pull away until he made contact with the Turn 4 wall on Lap 33.  

That contact led to a flat right rear tire, ending his chances for a second win in three days and handing the lead to Shirley with 16 laps to go. 

When the race resumed, Shirley held off Bronson and Dennis Erb Jr. through Turn 2, allowing him some breathing room. 

But once the Brandon, FL driver cleared the defending champion, it was another battle between best friends—this time for $15,000. 

Bronson used the outside line to close on Shirley, cutting the lead to three car lengths with five laps to go.  

However, as the two approached the lap car of Dustin Walker, Shirley snuck by the #14W on the top while Bronson got caught behind him on the bottom, losing both his momentum and his chance to win. 

Shirley held on from there, scoring his fourth USA World 50 victory at Paducah and seventh World of Outlaws Late Models triumph. 

“I’ve been lucky enough to win this race a couple of times,” Shirley said. “For them to bring it back; The history in Kentucky, to have a big race in Kentucky is really cool.  

“All in all, it’s just really good for my team. My car owner, he puts a lot of money and a lot of effort into this race team. So, to get the win for them and all the sponsors that do help us is huge and lets them know that we’re really working hard.” 

Despite multiple flat tires appearing throughout the race, Shirley only worried a little. Instead, he was focused on the checkered flag, hoping it would be his night. 

“I was definitely a little nervous, but at the end of the day, it’s going to boil down to whether it was my night,” Shirley said. “I was out there, and I was thinking about it a little bit, and I was kind of messing up. So, I was like. You know what? You’ve got 15 laps to go, do the best that you can do, and if it’s your night, it’s your night.” 

Bronson held on for second, his third consecutive World of Outlaws podium. 

“I feel like we put the wrong tires on,” Bronson said. “And I zigged when I should’ve zagged when we caught that lap car late in the race, and that would’ve been my option to slide him there.  

“It’s good when we can come here and run second and leave frustrated. Overall, we’re happy with our weekend. Three podiums in three days, and that’s what it takes to get back going in the points.” 

Series points leader Chris Madden finished third after starting 13th.  

The Gray Court, SC driver said he would’ve liked to go with a different tire combination but decided based on his starting position. 

“We had to make sure we got a few cars on the restarts and get ourselves in position and just maintain,” Madden said. “If I had started up front, I would’ve done a different tire combination, but starting where I did, I did something to help me on restarts because, in big places like this, you’re not just going to pull out and pass somebody.” 

Madden’s podium helped extend his points lead to 40 points over Bronson, Nick Hoffman, and Pierce, who are tied for second. 

Hoffman crossed the line fourth, his third consecutive top five, and four-time Series champion Brandon Sheppard rounded out the top five.  

Bobby Pierce bounced back to finish eighth.  

Brian Shirley and Kyle Bronson battled for a checkered flag for two straight nights, with each of them coming out on top once. But on Saturday, Shirley stood tall and has bragging rights the next time they compete with the World of Outlaws. 

UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws CASE Late Models head to 81 Speedway on Friday and Saturday, June 23-24, including a $30,000 finale. Then, the Series heads North to Nebraska for a trip to Off Road Speedway in Norfolk, NE on Sunday, June 25. 

 If you can’t make it to the track, watch all the action live on DIRTVision – either online on with the DIRTVision App

CASE Construction Equipment Feature (50 Laps): 1. 3S-Brian Shirley[5]; 2. 40B-Kyle Bronson[1]; 3. 44-Chris Madden[13]; 4. 9-Nick Hoffman[7]; 5. B5-Brandon Sheppard[11]; 6. 25F-Jason Feger[19]; 7. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[10]; 8. 32-Bobby Pierce[3]; 9. 11-Gordy Gundaker[8]; 10. 19R-Ryan Gustin[14]; 11. 96V-Tanner English[2]; 12. 97-Cade Dillard[4]; 13. 1ST-Johnny Scott[15]; 14. 25-Shane Clanton[6]; 15. 54-David Breazeale[9]; 16. 36-Logan Martin[16]; 17. 14W-Dustin Walker[24]; 18. 31-Kye Blight[21]; 19. 99-Dylan Thompson[17]; 20. 54D-Dane Dacus[18]; 21. B1-Brent Larson[12]; 22. 18-Matt Cooper[22]; 23. 30-Todd Cooney[23]; 24. 99G-Hunt Gossum[20] FOX FACTORY HARD CHARGER: Jason Feger [+13] 

Burton To Start 14th at WWT Raceway


June 3, 2023


Harrison Burton and the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Mustang are set to start 14th in Sunday’s Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway. 

Burton turned a lap at 135.927 miles per hour to secure his third-straight top-15 start, continuing a string that includes races at Darlington and Charlotte.

His qualifying speed represented a significant gain from practice earlier on Saturday where he was 31st on the speed chart with a best lap at 134.188 mph, which he turned on the fifth of the 21 laps he ran in the session.

He was 23rd fastest among drivers who ran 10 or more consecutive laps, posting an average speed of 133.242 mph from the ninth to the 18th lap he ran.

Sunday’s 300-mile, 240-lap race is scheduled to get the green flag just after 2:30 p.m. Central Time (3:30 p.m. Eastern Time) with TV coverage on FOX Sports 1. 

Stage breaks are planned for Laps 40 and 140.

 

BROWN REACHES MILESTONE WITH LATEST NO. 1 QUALIFER

Ron Capps leads the Toyota Funny Car contingent from fourth

EPPING, N.H. (June 3, 2023) – Antron Brown earned his first no. 1 qualifier of the year at Epping on Saturday. The weather conditions forced the cancelation of the final qualifying session, but Brown and his team capitalized on the first two sessions – earning five of the six bonus points. For Brown, it is his 50th no. 1 qualifier in Top Fuel competition. Shawn Langdon had a strong run as well to the second qualifying spot. 

In Funny Car competition, Ron Capps led Toyota in qualifying as he earned the fourth qualifying position. 

Toyota Post-Qualifying Recap

NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series

New England Dragway

Race 7 of 21

TOYOTA TOP FUEL QUALIFYING POSITIONS

NameCarQualifying PositionFirst Round Opponent
Antron BrownMatco Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster1st (3.729)BYE
Shawn LangdonBounty Hunter Kalitta Air Toyota Top Fuel Dragster2nd (3.738) T. Schumacher
Steve TorrenceCapco Contractors Toyota Top Fuel Dragster8th (4.191)A. Prock
Justin AshleyPhillips Connect Toyota Top Fuel Dragster10th (4.807)D. Mercier
Doug KalittaMac Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster12th (6.711)L. Pruett

TOYOTA FUNNY CAR QUALIFYING POSITIONS

NameCarQualifying PositionFirst Round Opponent
Chad Green*BondCoat Ford Mustang Funny Car1st (4.100)J. Campbell
Ron CappsNAPA Auto Parts Toyota GR Supra Funny Car4th (4.483)B. Tasca
J.R. ToddDHL Toyota GR Supra Funny Car8th (6.374)C. Pedregon
Alexis DeJoriaBandero Tequila Toyota GR Supra Funny Car10th (6.816)R. Hight

(*non-Toyota driver)

TOYOTA QUOTES

ANTRON BROWN, Matco Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster, AB Motorsports

TF Qualifying Result: 1st

How does earning your 50th No. 1 feel to you?

“It feels really good today. What made it feel so good is how our team was so good to adapt to all of the different conditions. Friday, we were no. 2. We dropped a hole early, so we missed out on being no. 1 there. We were still able to get two bonus points, which adds up, because we are tied for sixth. Today, we are able to bounce back and be one of the few cars that made it down because the track got super tight, super good, but there was no give. We had to try to make the car give; Brian (Corradi), Mark (Oswald), Brad (Mason) and all of the Matco, Lucas Oil boys – they are good at adapting in positions like that. The hard part is we never have run in conditions like that, so you had to get the right power level, back it down. We went for a safe run to get down, so we could prepare, because we knew the conditions were going to be like this tomorrow on race day, so we can make laps, so we can get down, and pick at it and make it better and better each lap. The track was good enough to run mid-to-high 60s, if you hit it right, but you can hit it so wrong, like a lot of other teams did. That being said, just super proud of my guys, it makes me feel good to see where we are at and that we can adapt to so many different circumstances.”

It has been since 2017 since your last number one. Have you been thinking about it?

“Our main focus throughout this whole journey that we’ve been on is to constantly get better. We never really harped on qualifying. We always try to qualify good, but I cannot tell you when there have been times when we go up there and we say ‘hey, we’ve got this thing on mean and we are going for no. 1. It’s either going to smoke the hoops or we are going no. 1.’ I could never say that. We were always progressing to get better and be a top five to top three qualifier. That has been our goal. We have been achieving that each different race – even the last race. I think we qualified number five or something like that. We’ve just been working on that steadily, getting better and better, and pick up those bonus points. We were the quickest Q2 and the second quickest or third quickest of Q3 at our last race. Our main focus is to be at the top of the heap once we get to races. This race fell in the spot where we made the right adjustments where we were able to be number one and we picked up five bonus points this weekend out of two rounds of qualifying. Our whole focus is to get better like that because qualifying sets you up for a good spot but doesn’t mean you are going to win the race. We won three races last year, and we already won a race this year, so we just want to qualify in the right spot to give us the best chance and we want to get better. Do we want to qualify no. 1 a lot more? Heck yeah, but we just have to keep working to know how we got there and just not throw shots at it.” 

RON CAPPS, NAPA Auto Parts Toyota GR Supra Funny Car, Ron Capps Motorsports

FC Qualifying Result: 4th

What are your thoughts on the weekend so far?

“These are conditions that we saw this weekend are not what you think you would see the New England Nationals, this time of year. This is probably the most adverse conditions that we’ve seen in the first round of the 2Fast2Tasty Challenge. That is why I’m always bragging about our team and how well they adapt to everything. This is some of the most extreme conditions the nitro cars have seen. I love this kind of stuff being thrown at teams and drivers. We couldn’t finish the 2Fast2Tasty, and conditions are going to be pretty close to the same on Sunday or whenever we have to run the race. Luckily, this track is a great surface. It kind of goes into the whole vibe of this track. It’s old school. You feel like you’ve gone back in time when you come here, so in a way this fits the mold of being at this raceway.”

QUALIFYING WRAPS FOR JOHN FORCE RACING AS RAIN SHORTENS DAY TWO AT NEW ENGLAND DRAGWAY

EPPING, N.H. (June 03, 2023) – Weather impeded competition on day two of the NHRA New England Nationals. Top Fuel dragster and Funny Cars only had one attempt at New England Dragway on Saturday with drastically cooler conditions than they saw Friday.
Robert Hight and the AAA Northern New England / Cornwell Tools Chevrolet Camaro SS team will start from No. 5 with teammate John Force and the BlueDEF PLATINUM starting from No. 9. In Top Fuel, Austin Prock and the Montana Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist dragster team are No. 7 while Brittany Force and the Monster Energy / Flav-R-Pac dragster team are No. 11.
Hight and the AAA Chevy ran into trouble early in their Saturday afternoon run. The AAA Camaro lost traction with at the hit to coast to 12.960-seconds and 64.61 mph. They’ll start from No. 5 based on their Friday afternoon 4.624 to race against Alexis DeJoria.
“Really tough conditions, weather was not on our side, or anyone’s really,” Hight said. “Hopefully we get something in tomorrow, would really like to get this AAA Chevy into the winners circle here at Epping. I’ve never won here before and I’d like to check it off the list. We’ll see what happens with the weather and how the cards play out.”
Austin Prock and the Montana Brand / RMT team shook the tires on their Saturday attempt. Prock would try to pedal the dragster but wouldn’t be able to get back traction to record only 6.404 seconds at 116.64 mph. Prock and the Montana Brand team claim the No. 7 qualifying spot off their 4.075 pass at 239.27 from Friday and will take on Steve Torrence in the first round.
“Another set of tricky conditions, but this Montana Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist team managed to stay in the top half of the field,” Prock said. “We’re looking forward to Sunday, if all goes as planned, we have the potential to have a great points day. I’m excited to get the first round started.”
John Force and the BlueDEF Chevy had a little extra on the line during their qualifying attempt on Saturday. Racing in a rematch of the Route 66 Nationals semifinals, Force was not only looking for a quality run down New England Dragway but a win over Tim Wilkerson in the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge. Force would have to pedal the BlueDEF Camaro but would end up crossing the centerline for a disqualification. He will start race day from No. 9 thanks to a 4.623-second pass at 96.42 mph and race against Wilkerson.
“On that last run, it rattled on me, so I pedaled it. It got back to the middle and I thought I was okay. Then it took a left on me. I should have caught it, that’s my job,” Force said. “We’ll see how tomorrow goes, hasn’t been great so far. Hopefully we can get it together and be ready to take this BlueDEF Chevy some rounds.”
Brittany Force and the Monster Energy team had some excitement during their run. Racing for a win over Clay Millican in the first round of the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, the Monster Energy dragster lost traction at the hit and Force would pedal it coming up short with a 4.024-second pass at 278.69 mph to Millican’s 3.899 at 310.98. She’ll start race day from No. 11 off of her 4.907 pass at 149.88 form Friday to run against Josh Hart.
“Epping has been a bit of struggle this weekend. We lost a qualifying run to rain and the two session we did get, our car struggled. Today, we pushed for the #2Fast2Tasty Challenge and it shook, I pedaled it but we still couldn’t get around Clay,” Force said. “Going into race day in 11th but things can always change on race day. David Grubnic and this entire Monster Energy / Flav-R-Pac team are incredible and know I we can turn things around tomorrow.”
The NHRA New England Nationals at New England Dragway continues with Sunday eliminations now slated to begin at 10:00 a.m. Television coverage will be aired on FOX Sports 1 (FS1) Saturday at 9:00 p.m. ET, with eliminations Sunday at 12:30 p.m. ET.
-30-
AUSTIN PROCK, 27, Montana Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist dragsterQualifying:7th; 4.075-seconds; 239.27 mphBonus Qualifying Points:0 BRITTANY FORCE, 36, Monster Energy / Flav-R-Pac dragsterQualifying:11th; 4.907-seconds; 149.88 mphBonus Qualifying Points:0 JOHN FORCE, 74, BlueDEF PLATINUM Chevrolet Camaro SSQualifying:9th; 6.623-seconds; 96.42 mphBonus Qualifying Points: 0ROBERT HIGHT, 53, AAA / Cornwell Tools Chevy Camaro SSQualifying:5th; 4.624-seconds; 186.74 mphBonus Qualifying Points:0

Alex Palou on Pole for Honda, Chip Ganassi Racing at Detroit Grand Prix

June 3, 2023 — DETROIT, MI

  • Palou scores second-consecutive NTT INDYCAR SERIES pole of 2023
  • Honda power takes four of six Firestone Fast Six final qualifying spots
  • Chip Ganassi Racing qualifies all four cars in top 11 positions

It was Alex Palou on top of qualifying for the second race in a row, this time at the all-new Detroit Grand Prix downtown street circuit aboard his #10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. The pole marks his second-consecutive P1 starting position, following his pole qualifying run at the Indianapolis 500 last month. 

In addition to Palou, three other Hondas made it to the Firestone Fast Six in NTT INDYCAR SERIES knockout qualifying:  Romain Grosjean for Andretti Autosport, and Palou’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Scott Dixon and Marcus Ericsson. Honda powered four of the fast six starters, and seven of the top 12. 

This weekend’s Detroit Grand Prix marks the first downtown race since 1991 and the first-ever at the new configuration of the downtown circuit. 

Detroit Grand Prix Honda Qualifying Results

  • 1st Alex Palou                          Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
  • 3rd Romain Grosjean            Andretti Autosport Honda
  • 4th Scott Dixon                         Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
  • 6th Marcus Ericsson                 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
  • 8th Simon Pagenaud                Meyer Shank Racing Honda
  • 11th Marcus Armstrong-R           Chip Ganassi Racing Honda
  • 12th Kyle Kirkwood                    Andretti Autosport Honda
  • 17th Devlin DeFrancesco            Andretti Autosport Honda
  • 18th Christian Lundgaard            Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda   
  • 21st David Malukas                    Dale Coyne Racing with HMD Honda
  • 23rd Helio Castroneves              Meyer Shank Racing Honda
  • 24th Colton Herta                       Andretti Autosport Honda
  • 25th Jack Harvey                       Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda    
  • 26th Sting Ray Robb-R               Dale Coyne Racing with RWR Honda
  • 27th Graham Rahal                    Rahal Letterman Lanigan Honda

R – Rookie

Quotes
Alex Palou (#10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) pole qualifier, first Indy car pole on a temporary street circuit: “We started on used alternate tires, but they didn’t feel very good, so switched right away to our second set.  It feels good [to have two consecutive poles].  We’ve had a great car all weekend, all year really, so qualifying was just about maximizing everything we had.  It’s a crazy track, tight and short.  It’s going to be tough tomorrow in the race, but we’ll try to make it happen.”

Romain Grosjean (#28 Andretti Autosport Honda) qualified third: “Not too shabby, we mainly tried to stay out of trouble, and get the [quick] laps in when it mattered the most.  I did make a mistake on my second set of tires.  I hit the wall coming out of Turn 3 and that cost me a bit of time.  But we have a very good car. All of us – me and my teammates – have been fast. A lot’s going to happen in the race tomorrow, so it’s going to be all about being in the right time and the right place.  Hopefully that will be us.”

Fast Facts

  • This is Honda’s sixth pole in seven rounds of the 2023 NTT INDYCAR SERIES, and the second of the season for Alex Palou, who also qualified on the pole for the Indianapolis 500 (his career first Indy car oval track pole).
  • The other Honda-powered pole winners this year include Christian Lundgaard at the Grand Prix of Indianapolis; Kyle Kirkwood at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach; and Romain Grosjean at both St. Petersburg and Barber Motorsports Park.
  • Honda returns to Detroit having won six of the last nine NTT INDYCAR SERIES events – all previously run on a temporary street circuit at Belle Isle Park.
  • Honda’s most recent victory in Detroit came in 2021, when Ericsson recorded his first INDYCAR victory in Saturday’s opening race of a doubleheader weekend.

Where to Watch
Television coverage of Sunday’s Detroit Grand Prix starts at 3 p.m. ET on NBC.  Complete, flag-to-flag race coverage also will be available on NBC Peacock, the INDYCAR Radio Network, and SiriusXM INDYCAR Nation (Channel 160).

CHEVROLET INDYCAR AT DETROIT: TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING RECAP

CHEVROLET IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES CHEVROLET GRAND PRIX OF DETROIT DETROIT, MICHIGAN TEAM CHEVY FIRESTONE FAST SIX REPORT JUNE 3, 2023 SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN LEADS TEAM CHEVY IN CHEVROLET DETROIT GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING, STARTS SUNDAY’S RACE ON THE FRONT ROW IN SECOND Scott McLaughlin, driver of the No. 3 Chevrolet at Team Penske, led the Chevrolet teams in the Firestone Fast Six to finish second with his lap of 1:02.1592, and will start from the front row for tomorrow’s Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix on the streets of Detroit.Only 0.300 separated NTT P1 Pole Award winner Alex Palou and the Bowtie brand driver of McLaughlin.McLaughlin’s Team Penske teammate Josef Newgarden, driver of the No. 2 Chevrolet, joined him to battle it out for the pole award in the Firestone Fast 6.Team Penske’s Will Power and Arrow McLaren INDYCAR’s Felix Rosenqvist transferred from Group 1 in Round 1 to the top-12.McLaughlin, Arrow McLaren INDYCAR’s Pato O’Ward, and Newgarden transferred from Group 1 in Round 2 to the top-12. TEAM CHEVY TOP-10 QUALIFYING RESULT:Pos.  Driver2nd    Scott McLaughlin5th     Josef Newgarden7th     Will Power9th     Felix Rosenqvist10th   Pato O’Ward WHAT THEY’RE SAYING (QUOTES):Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Chevrolet at Team Penske:“Just didn’t quite have the pace in the Gallagher Chevy, but look, we’ll have plenty of pace tomorrow in the race. I think we’re already good on tires. I love this track to be honest. A lot of fun. First Detroit Grand Prix and a lot of energy here, so really excited for what’s ahead. Full credit to Alex (Palou) and his team – great job. We’ll see. It’s going to be hard on the outside into (Turn) 1 and into 3, but we’ll just put the elbows out and see what we get coming out of three.” Will Power, No. 12 Chevrolet at Team Penske:“We didn’t think we had another lap. We started the lap. No, that wasn’t (a miscommunication). It was my mistake. I made a little mistake into there, aborted the lap, and the realized that is my last lap. And then we had another shot at it. We certainly had the pace. Seventh ain’t bad. It’s on the inside. It’s pretty bumpy there on the out, the other side. But yeah, we’ll see. You don’t know how these races are going to go. It’s a pretty wild track. Sometimes it doesn’t matter where you qualify. It’s all good, it’s all good. The Verizon Chevy crew has done a great job all month. I made a little mistake in Indy and I made a little mistake there. Just a super competitive series.” If you had to look at the race tomorrow, how do you think it will play out?“I don’t know. Sometimes you think it’s going to be yellow and it doesn’t. I would say it’s going to be pretty hectic. We think like Nashville potentially.” Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Chevrolet at Arrow McLaren INDYCAR:“A bit disappointing. We felt really good in practice, and just, we couldn’t go faster for some reason. We’ll look into it. We probably missed a little bit on pressures, or tire warm up, but yeah, we definitely didn’t have a ½ second in there.” What do you think this race will be tomorrow? Will it have the chaos everybody is predicting?“I think it’ll be about survival, yeah. Is it going to be as crazy as Nashville? I don’t know. Does it have the potential to be as crazy as Nashville? Absolutely. I think tomorrow is all about survival. I think it’ll be tricky with the blend line where it is, and when the yellows fall, people taking it or not taking it, I think it’ll be definitely interesting.” Felix Rosenqvist, No. 6 Chevrolet at Arrow McLaren INDYCAR:“The car was quick. Maybe not as quick as some, but I think we didn’t execute. I didn’t feel happy with my lap. I kept making mistakes in Turn 2 and Turn 7. I just didn’t really get the proper corner and, you know in this field if you want transfer, you can’t be doing that? I’m a bit disappointed with myself and just wasn’t really vibing with a car, too many mistakes. Something we have to work on. But anyways, starting P9 is, you know, top-10 is not too bad. Don’t want to be in the back, don’t want to be P15 or be 20th. So that’s good. I think anything can happen here, especially with strategy and stuff and short-term planning and we’ll open up for some interesting strategies. We’ll see where we can go from there.” Alexander Rossi, No. 7 Chevrolet at Arrow McLaren INDYCAR:“It’s disappointing to miss it by that much. On that last lap there, I brushed the wall out of Turn 2, so that for sure cost us as well. It’s disappointing. I feel like the Arrow McLaren Chevy has been good this weekend. Practice 2, we didn’t really get a read on anything so went into qualifying a little bit guessing. We should have transferred. Unfortunate, but we’ll just have to make up for it tomorrow.” With traffic, and the course overall, is this one of the toughest and most challenging qualifying sessions of the year?“No, I don’t think so. I just think it’s going to be tougher for everyone, not just me. With really not having a Practice 2 to get an understanding the car. That’s what makes this one challenging, but it’s a joy to drive this track. Everyone has done a really good job to get it to the level it is at.” Conor Daly, No. 20. Chevrolet at Ed Carpenter Racing:“It’s our best street course qualifying this year so that’s a good step forward for us. When you’re fighting Alex Rossi right there, we’re in good company. We just haven’t had any clear laps all day. So the entire first session, I never did one lap where I got to go fast through (Turns) 6 and 7, so that was the first time I got to feel what the grip increase has been like. The team gave me a great step forward of grip and balance for this session which was nice. We feel like we can work from there. It’s going to be crazy tomorrow, and hopefully you can just stay out of the chaos.” Rinus VeeKay, No. 21 Chevrolet at Ed Carpenter Racing:“The 1,000th of a second is not pace, that’s just a little bit of speed, more speed in one corner or hitting a bump differently. I mean, it’s so tight, it’s not pace-representative. We should have the pace to transfer. It was hard getting everything out of the tire because yesterday the track was so much different when we ran greens (alternate) and also this morning, there was more traffic than actual clean laps. Pretty proud of the effort, though. It’s good to be that close to advancing, and especially to those guys. Pretty happy, car felt pretty good so good job to the guys coming to a new track. We’ll pass some guys tomorrow.” Looking at that and on paper, it seems this team is trending the right way on road and street courses. Do you feel that way?“Yeah, we’re trending in the right direction. It’s been a tough season, but I think there’s a lot of positive energy from the (Indianapolis) 500, though the race could’ve ended a bit differently. Proud of the guys. It’s a long season to go and they put a lot of effort in. We’re going upwards.” Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 Chevrolet at AJ Foyt Racing:“I don’t think it’s bad, we just have a lot to learn with the damping, I think. I think we know that, which is good. It’s good and bad; it’s good because we know where to look, and it’s bad because it’s really hard to adjust on a race weekend. We’re working really hard. We closed the gap now down to half, with three seconds off yesterday we’re down to 1.5. This race is going to be interesting. I don’t know necessarily how much pace you’re going to need because you could have a race like we had in Nashville in 2021. Just work hard into morning warm up and see what we’ve got.” You’re in a unique pit stall, first one in on driver’s right. Is that going to be a disadvantage for you tomorrow?“It’s a huge disadvantage regardless. The whole right side of this pit lane, you have to go under the pit limiter to make the turn, so everybody is checking up. The pit start zone is way too late for us. I’m already in neutral when I come around that corner, so I’m going about 25 mph coming around there, and everybody else who’s going to the left side’s got to be on the limiter in 40. Assuming we don’t get run over in the race tomorrow, hopefully we’ll have a good one.” Benjamin Pedersen, No. 55 Chevrolet at AJ Foyt Racing:“Tremendous recovery in qualifying. We’ll start P19. Definitely the best the car has felt since we showed up. We rolled out of the truck pretty far out of the window, but managed to get ourselves back in honestly a very good car. Qualifying felt very good on my part with nailing every lap. It was the best we could get out of it. We’ll keep improving. We always seem to find even more pace for the race. It’s going to be an exciting race tomorrow.” Callum Ilott, No. 77 Chevrolet at Juncos Hollinger Racing:“We’ll have to look after this. It’s just so tight, this session was very close to get in it. I felt like I put in a good time, but I guess it’s just not enough. We got four clear laps in two practices, which is kind of a waste. Otherwise, it’s alright. We’ve worked with it. I think we have a good car. Seems competitive here, just missing a little bit.” Agustin Canapino, No. 78 Chevrolet at Juncos Hollinger Racing:“A good day. Qualifying with no problems. Of course we want more, but anyway, it’s a good job for the team, Ricardo (Juncos), and the car. Thanks for the for the job from yesterday. The practice was insane, in qualifying it was okay, but I think the track is really tricky, and we have a really difficult race tomorrow.” SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN, No. 3 Team Penske Chevrolet – End of Day Press Conference:THE MODERATOR: Wrapping up qualifying. Currently joined by Scott McLaughlin. First front row start of this 2023 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season.
How was your qualifying session? Pleased with it?
SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, yeah. Full credit, Alex, that was a bad-ass lap, man. Good job on the older tires there.
Pretty happy with P2. I’ve had a pretty average month of May in my standards. Nice to bounce back here in Detroit. New track. Rebound with a P2 to start tomorrow.
But see how we go.
THE MODERATOR: All of a sudden your attention turns towards tomorrow, what it may look like. Who knows, right?
SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, you don’t know. It is what it is. Same for everyone. Hopefully just everyone, cool heads prevail, but you just never know.
Yeah, we’ll go in with the same aggression, see how we come out. It’s not the track I’m worried about, it’s just the outside. Everyone on the outside line, it’s going to be interesting.
We’ll be all right. With the track, there’s been a lot of noise I’ve seen in Twitter, from other drivers and stuff. At the end of the day this is a new track, new complex. I think what everyone has done to get this going, like the vibe is awesome. Belle Isle was getting old. We had to do it.
Yeah, first-year problems. It’s always going to happen. It’s just going to get better from here. The racetrack for the drivers is a blast. We don’t even know how it races yet. Everyone is making conclusions already. They probably just need to relax and wait for tomorrow. I just had to get that in. Sorry.
THE MODERATOR: At least we know how you feel.
SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah (smiling).
THE MODERATOR: We’ll take questions.
Q. Curious, with the 1.7 mile lap, how many times are you playing with the tools, brake bias?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Not much at all. In the practices, yes, because you’re trying to get a balance, a feeling. But once you’re out there, sort of wheeling, trying to figure out where your car is, trying to maximize that lap from what you’ve learnt in the first two practices, for me, I’m just locked in trying to do a lap, dealing with what we did.We made changes during the session that made the car better. I don’t think I was a P2 car to start the session, and we ended up P2. I think we made some really good changes between Q1 and Q2.
Q. (Indiscernible)?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I think a lot of it’s going to come down to your right foot, controlling that more than anything. It’s going to be a lot of patience, looking at the tires. Like I said, that’s a lot of self-control in that department.
Q. Pit lane was a talking point. Through two days, what is your assessment about that?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I have no idea at the moment. We’ve rolled out after a couple red flags together. At the end of the day there’s a blend line. Gets to the point that dash line at the front, if you’re not in front of the car that’s behind you or beside you, you should get out of it. If there’s any gentlemen in this field, which I highly doubt, you can probably back off and let the other guy in front of you be okay.
But I think, yeah, it’s always going to be self-control, self-discipline. Like I said, they’ve done a very good job. It’s a very good pit lane, it’s just tight, it’s different. Who knows till the race.
I think it will be eventful for the fans. We’ll just have to figure it out.
Q. Was there any extra preparation or things you did special for this weekend? Very good so far.SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, no, the same. New track, so… For me, Belle Isle, I actually felt very good there last year. I just got screwed by a few red flags, whatever. Same old, same old. Stupid story.
This weekend is just a new track. Just prepare like I would go anywhere else. Yeah, feel very good.
Q. From practice on Friday to qualifying, how much did you have to flip the setup to perfect it?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: We went back to our practice one setup. I was hoping it was going to work, and it did.
Q. If you watched the INDY NXT race, what kind of prediction do you have for tomorrow?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I watched it. I watched all of it actually. It was carnage. At the same time what’s exciting for me is if you got a fast car, you can make moves. You can come through.
It’s going to be all that tire life, tire life is going to be key. One thing that’s good about this track, it’s a lot of stop-start corners. If you get better runs than others, use the push to pass, I think it’s going to race similar to Nashville.
Everyone says we crash a lot in Nashville. I think it’s going to race very well. It’s just going to be up to us with the etiquette of the drivers to leave it up to us and figure it out along the way.
I think it’s going to race very similar to Nashville. Looking at it, there’s going to be a lot of passes, I think opportunities. Hopefully I only have to make one.
Q. Do you have to remember where you are at every moment on this track? With the bumps and stuff, how tough is that to keep that concentration along with racing?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I have Google maps in my steering wheel (laughter).
No, you just follow the walls. You don’t hit the walls, you just follow them.
I feel like the first practice session, we did a lot of simulator stuff beforehand, so I already had the numbers and stuff down pat. I think now it’s knowing where the bumps are. 
There’s bumps on the track you haven’t felt before, you won’t feel till the race, they will feel different with old tires and fuel.
Tomorrow is about attrition. It’s about making no mistakes, good pit stops and hopefully a fast car.
Q. From the simulator work you did to practice and qualifying, what was the biggest surprise?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: How good the simulator actually is, yeah. What we learnt on the sim, we rolled here with that car. Like I said, we went back to our baseline car for the start of qualifying. I’m pleasantly surprised. Yeah, it was nice.
Q. With Chevy being the presenting sponsor, how much pressure does that add to you?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Look, it’s an important race for Chevy. World headquarters. I’ve always said it, I always put more pressure on myself than anyone could put on me. It’s not just Chevy, it’s Roger Penske. Home race. A lot of partners here this weekend. I’m sponsored by a very big company that has a massive presence here, Gallagher, with Detroit Tigers. It’s a big town for them.
Doesn’t change how much I want to win this race or the pressure to win every race that we go out in.
Q. I wanted to know by comparison to yesterday, has the track evolved? Rubbered up? Still very much a concrete surface?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: In places there’s low grip, for sure. Potentially where you could pass tomorrow is low grip. Anything off the line right now. That will rubber up pretty quick. Yeah, it’s taking a lot of rubber. Even from practice to qualifying, after the INDY NXT race, it already took a ton of rubber, as well.
It’s nice, though, ’cause the first session I felt like it was pretty green. It was hard to get a bearing. But now that rubber is going down, it’s turning the racetrack into a lot of fun. It’s a great racetrack to lay a lap down. It was a blast.

Busch, Chevrolet Tops Qualifying for Pole Position at WWTRT

NASCAR CUP SERIESWORLD WIDE TECHNOLOGY RACEWAYENJOY ILLINOIS 300PRESENTED BY TICKETSMARTERTEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING REPORTJUNE 3, 2023



Team Chevy’s Fifth NCS Pole of 2023
·       Kyle Busch (No. 8 3CHI Camaro ZL1) posted a lap of 32.80 seconds, at 137.187 mph, in the final round of qualifying to capture the pole position for tomorrow’s Enjoy Illinois 300 Presented by TicketSmarter at World Wide Technology Raceway.  
·       The pole win is Busch’s first of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season, and his 33rd career pole in NASCAR’s premier series. 
·       This marks Chevrolet’s fifth NASCAR Cup Series pole of the season; the manufacturer’s first NCS pole at World Wide Technology Raceway; and its 739th all-time in NASCAR’s premier series (series-best). 
·       FS1 will broadcast the NASCAR Cup Series Enjoy Illinois 300 Presented by TicketSmarter on Sunday, June 4, at 3:30 p.m. ET. Live coverage can also be found on the MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. 
TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 STARTING LINEUP:  POS.   DRIVER1st      Kyle Busch, No. 8 3CHI Camaro ZL17th      William Byron, No. 24 Axalta Camaro ZL18th      Ross Chastain, No. 1 Moose Fraternity Camaro ZL1  TOP-FIVE UNOFFICIAL STARTING LINEUP:  POS.  DRIVER1.        Kyle Busch (Chevrolet)2.        Ryan Blaney (Ford)3.        Denny Hamlin (Toyota)4.        Kevin Harvick (Ford)5.        Martin Truex Jr. (Toyota)
KYLE BUSCH, NO. 8 3CHI CAMARO ZL1 – Pole Winner QuotesTAKE US THROUGH YOUR POLE-WINNING LAP HERE AT WORLD WIDE TECHNOLOGY RACEWAY? “Yeah, it was a really good lap for us – being able to qualifying number one, get the number one pit selection for tomorrow and that’s hopefully going to pay really good dividends for our No. 8 3CHI Chevrolet team. Being able to hit turns one and two, it seemed like that’s where a lot of the speed was today. But overall, the whole lap has to be put together. I feel like the adjustments we were making and the feedback I was giving to Randall (Burnett, crew chief) and the guys, they did a good job of being able to get me what I was looking for and make it better as we went. We saved the best for last there on that last run.” IT’S YOUR FIRST POLE SINCE PHOENIX RACEWAY IN 2019. HOW SIGNIFICANT IS THAT FOR YOU AND TO DO IT FOR RCR?“It is. I haven’t necessarily been known as a great qualifier lately, apparently. Claire was telling me I had 33 career poles and I was like – wow, is that it? She was like, that’s a lot, and I’m like, no – I’ve been here a lot longer than you realize.  But all-in-all, being able to get a pole here with Richard Childress Racing, Team Chevy and everybody on this No. 8 team is good for us and just try to get some momentum rolling. Our short track stuff hasn’t been the greatest this year so far, but this isn’t the short track aero package here this weekend, so that might pay dividends hopefully for us to just have a better day than what we anticipated. Just excited to have the guys pumped up and raring to go, and knowing that their hard work is paying off.” LAST YEAR WAS THE FIRST TIME THE NASCAR CUP SERIES RACED HERE AT WORLD WIDE TECHNOLOGY RACEWAY. WHAT HAVE YOU GUYS LEARNED FROM LAST YEAR TO THIS YEAR, AND WHAT ARE YOU EXPECTING FOR SOME OF THE BIGGEST CHANGES FOR THE RACING ACTION TOMORROW?“Yeah, whether good or bad, I think we’ll find out. Last year, there was still some leftover resin from the previous year, so we were able to move up the race track; kind of get into that and use that for some speed and have some different lines you can kind of maneuver through. It didn’t seem like any of that was coming true today, so I’m anticipating a bottom race and a lot different than what it was last year. So it might be a little bit tough to pass. But overall, I hope I’m wrong; it widens out and we can put on a great show for the fans that are coming out here to sit in this heat and packing the house. It’ll be a good one.” YOU MENTIONED THE TRACK – IT’S TRICKY BUT YOUR CREW CHIEF GREW UP JUST DOWN THE ROAD AND RACED PLENTY ON THIS TRACK. DO YOU SEE THAT AS ANY TYPE OF ADVANTAGE, AS FAR AS THE THRILL TO WIN? DO YOU WANT TO WIN FOR HIM MAYBE JUST A BIT MORE?“I don’t care where we’re at.. I want to win any week. Anytime you can get one, I’ll take one. Certainly, anytime you have a home game, it certainly makes it a lot cooler. Being from Las Vegas, anytime we go out there, it’s almost like the Daytona 500. It’s just a big deal. You want to run good in front of your hometown crowd and at a race track that you remember racing at as a kid or a young guy, and I think Randall (Burnett) is the same way. Working with him and being a part of this team and his leadership that he’s brought the last few years to this team, but also with me being new this year, has been really good and really fun. I’m hoping for the best for us for tomorrow, and being able to lead the field to the green will be a good start to that.” CONGRATULATIONS ON THE WINS AT DOE RUN THIS WEEK. WAS THAT THE FIRST TIME YOU AND BREXTON (BUSCH) WON ON THE SAME NIGHT? “Thank you. No – we won the first time together with him in a junior sprint and me in a micro in Arizona at Adobe Mountain Speedway. So that was the second time.” NASHVILLE WAS ONE THAT KIND OF GOT AWAY FROM YOU LAST YEAR. HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT THAT AND WHAT WOULD YOUR STRATEGY BE GOING FORWARD?“Yeah, looking forward to Nashville (Superspeedway). It was one that I felt like did get away from us. We were really good through much of the race. We actually had trouble in qualifying; had to start in the back and drove through the field. We got up to the front and got up to the lead. We led for a little bit and then out of nowhere, Chase Elliott and the No. 9 team came on really strong there the second-half of the race and was able to get by us. They were better than us there at the end. I just wish we were able to adjust on our car to keep the speed that we needed when it got to true nighttime so that we were able to prevail. But just didn’t work out for us there – we pitted late, took tires and that was absolutely not worth it. We didn’t make up any ground on that last restart.  So definitely would like to go back there and change fortunes with that. Thankfully I’m with the No. 8 Chevy team this year, where we can look at some of what the No. 9 was doing and what they did to make their stuff better and go from there.”