Erb scores first win of 2021 at Circle CityIt’s the Illinois driver’s seventh career Morton Buildings Feature win INDIANAPOLIS, IN– JUNE 4, 2021 – Any time a driver steps into the cockpit, they know racing is about peaks and valleys. Veteran racer Dennis Erb Jr. climbed the mountain Friday at Circle City Raceway to earn his first World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Feature win of 2021. While the Carpentersville, IL driver was $10,000 richer at the end of the race, he was forced to climb back up after losing the lead.  Erb led the first 25 laps of the Feature before Ryan Gustin powered around him on the outside for the top spot. But when it looked like Erb’s shot at Victory Lane was gone, a yellow flag gave “The One-Man Band” new life. Erb and Gustin raced side-by-side for four laps on the restart, wrestling back-and-forth for the lead. That’s when Erb slid up in front of Gustin coming out of Turn 4 and reclaimed the lead for good with eight laps to go. He was relieved in Victory Lane after battling through 40 laps. “Everything held together,” Erb said. “We lost the lead for a little bit, but I knew I could get right back in it. We had a good car going through the [track] but man we had to work for it.” It’s the seventh Morton Buildings Feature win of Erb’s career, tying him for 20th all-time with Brian Birkhofer and Jonathan Davenport. Gustin, the top rookie of the race, crossed the line third after losing a spot to three-time and defending champion Brandon Sheppard on the final restart with six laps left.Even though “The Reaper” was frustrated with the outcome, he knows re-starts are part of the sport. “We really didn’t need that caution because we didn’t take off very well,” Gustin said. “But you live and die by [restarts] and that’s part of racing. Eventually the win’s going to come so we have to just keep digging.”Gustin’s misfortunes on restarts played into Brandon Sheppard’s favor. The reigning champion took advantage of the inside lane to earn a second-place finish. “I knew [the outside] was about done up there,” Sheppard said. When [Gustin] chose the top, I knew I had to hit my marks and stay down there as good as I could, and I hung on for second.”Sheppard extended his point lead with his runner-up finish—40 points ahead of Chris Madden, who finished ninth. Pennsylvania driver Max Blair crossed the line fourth, and Frank Heckenast Jr. finished fifth.UP NEXT: The Most Powerful Late Models on the Planet travel to Plymouth Speedway in Plymouth, IN on Saturday, June 5. The Series will run a 40-lap, $10,000-to-win Feature for the second straight night. Morton Buildings Feature (40 Laps)-1. 28-Dennis Erb [2][$10,000]; 2. 1-Brandon Sheppard [4][$6,000]; 3. 19R-Ryan Gustin [5][$3,500]; 4. 111-Max Blair [6][$2,800]; 5. 99JR-Frank Heckenast [7][$2,500]; 6. 99B-Boom Briggs [3][$2,300]; 7. 0E-Rick Eckert [9][$2,200]; 8. 21-Billy Moyer [1][$2,100]; 9. 44-Chris Madden [12][$2,050]; 10. B1-Brent Larson [20][$2,000]; 11. 16-Tyler Bruening [13][$1,600]; 12. 32-Bobby Pierce [10][$1,400]; 13. 93-Pancho Lawler [11][$1,200]; 14. 7-Ricky Weiss [17][$1,100]; 15. 97-Cade Dillard [8][$1,050]; 16. 21N-Logan Nickerson [14][$1,000]; 17. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain [16][$1,000]; 18. C9-Steve Casebolt [15][$1,000]; 19. 11T-Trevor Gundaker [18][$1,000]; 20. 11H-Spencer Hughes [22][$1,000]; 21. 24-Ryan Unzicker [19][$1,000]; 22. 24B-Jared Bailey [21][$1,000] Hard Charger: B1-Brent Larson[+10]Qualifying Flight-A –1. 99B-Boom Briggs, 13.254; 2. 21-Billy Moyer, 13.309; 3. 20RT-Ricky Thornton, 13.358; 4. 97-Cade Dillard, 13.443; 5. 0E-Rick Eckert, 13.48; 6. 93-Pancho Lawler, 13.488; 7. 99JR-Frank Heckenast, 13.626; 8. 7R-Kent Robinson, 13.651; 9. 83-Scott James, 13.654; 10. C9-Steve Casebolt, 13.67; 11. 16-Tyler Bruening, 13.741; 12. 24B-Jared Bailey, 13.833; 13. 24-Ryan Unzicker, 14.069; 14. 13-Brayton Laster, 15.611; 15. 43-Kody Marsee, 15.727; 16. 7-Ricky Weiss, NT; DNS. 42-Chad Finley, NTQualifying Flight-B-1. 1-Brandon Sheppard, 13.282; 2. 157-Mike Marlar, 13.302; 3. 19R-Ryan Gustin, 13.348; 4. 28-Dennis Erb, 13.414; 5. 21N-Logan Nickerson, 13.447; 6. 111-Max Blair, 13.524; 7. 32-Bobby Pierce, 13.643; 8. 44-Chris Madden, 13.834; 9. 11T-Trevor Gundaker, 13.981; 10. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain, 13.984; 11. B1-Brent Larson, 14.12; 12. 11H-Spencer Hughes, 14.59; 13. 14W-Quentin White, 14.966; 14. 1CJ-Casey White, 15.781; 15. 14B-Britan Godsey, 21.834; DNS. 11-Gordy Gundaker, NT

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

NASCAR CUP SERIESTOYOTA/SAVE MART 350SONOMA RACEWAYTEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPTJUNE 4, 2021
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE, Teleconference Transcript IT’S BEEN A REALLY BIG WEEK FOR HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS WITH THE WIN IN CHARLOTTE AND A LOT OF CELEBRATING. WHAT’S IT BEEN TO BE A PART OF ALL THAT?“Yeah, for sure. Really for the last couple of weeks, and all year, the atmosphere at Hendrick Motorsports has been pretty amazing. Lately, this week, has been really special. Sunday night was really special getting all of us together in Victory Lane and getting some photos and all that was really cool. To see Mr. Hendrick finally get to be number one on the all-time wins list was really special and I’m really glad to have been a small part of it.”
WITH HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS BEING AS STRONG AS IT IS ACROSS THE BOARD RIGHT NOW, HOW MUCH COMPETITION AMONG THE TEAMS IS THERE, AND IF SO, HOW DO YOU BALANCE WANTING THE COMPANY TO DO WELL AS A WHOLE AND WANTING TO INSERT THE NO. 48 AS THE TOP TEAM IN THE STABLE?“Your teammates are kind of your benchmark sometimes and you always want to beat those guys. You see that in really any type of motorsports. It’s really the only sport where you’re going directly against your teammates sometimes. Always want to run the best we can and beat everybody, right? I think Charlotte was a struggle for us. I was shocked we finished fifth. We really struggled with our race car. But it’s great to see the entire company be so strong. I know we were pushing extremely hard trying to be 1-2-3-4 at Charlotte. That would have been really special to kind of add to that night. But William (Byron) and I came up one spot short. It’s been really good. I think the inner-team competition is really friendly, especially at this point in the year. It’s only pushing us all to be better. It’s not like, a tearing each other down, type of competition. It’s like we’re racing each other for wins and the four teams are definitely pushing each other to get faster and faster.”
HOW MUCH MORE CONFIDENCE DO YOU HAVE GOING TO SONOMA?“Yeah, going to a road course, I’m going to need the fastest pit crew on pit road to make up for my lack of road course skills. It’s great to have them. They’ve been so strong all year. Strategy is really key at Sonoma. There’s a big balance between Stage points and just trying to finish the race the strongest you can. Just trying to balance that and being a good shot to try and go win that thing. The last time we were there, we were really fast in practice. I drove off the race track, like around, in qualifying and kind of ended up 12th. And then during the race we had a power steering failure. I’m excited to get back there because I feel like that’s a road course that I can be really fast at and try to get Hendrick Motorsports another win.”
LOOKING AHEAD TO THE ALL-STAR RACE, WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT IT BEING IN TEXAS? IT LOOKS LIKE A LONG SET-UP IS NOT GOING TO HELP YOU AT ALL THERE.“It’s going to be interesting. To be honest, I’m so focused on Sonoma this week that kind of had forgotten about it until you said that. Going for a big payday there. We’ve been strong there in the past, but I guess the rules are a little bit different for that deal. Strategy is going to be key in trying to be out front. We all know how fast it goes at that place, so just trying to that the right way. We have a really fast pit crew. Like I said, I haven’t really looked at how the Stages play out, or the segments, but hopefully our pit crew gets us out first there at the end and we can drive away from them.”
LOOKING AHEAD FROM SONOMA, IS THERE ANYTHING YOU FEEL LIKE YOU CAN LEARN THIS WEEKEND THAT YOU CAN APPLY TO ANY OF THE REMAINING ROAD COURSE RACES THIS SEASON?“Yeah, I think any time we go to a road course I’m trying to learn how to be a better road course racer, honestly. I feel like if you look at our race cars at Hendrick Motorsports and I feel like we have some of the best road course cars in the garage. On the No. 48 side of things, I just need to continue to learn and improve. I don’t have a road course background. I don’t have a ton of experience. I really just ran a couple of Xfinity races, and then when I got to Cup. So, just trying to continue to improve and continue to get better at all of them and build confidence to be able to attack these places.”
WHAT’S THE TOUGHEST PART OF ROAD COURSE RACING FOR YOU? IS IT LIKE BRAKING OR SHIFTING?“All of the above (laughs). I feel like some places, the place I feel like the places that people haven’t been, and they don’t have the huge notebook at, like the first year we went to the ROVAL, we’ve been really fast there. But you know when we go to Watkins Glen or Sonoma, where these guys have been going forever, it’s hard to catch up. Just trying to really like just being confident in attacking the race track. I feel like I get pretty worried about messing up and just trying to make it to the end and end up with a solid top-10. We do that, for the most part. But just confidence in attacking the rack track.”
JEFF GORDON IS A MASTER AT ROAD COURSES. DO YOU LEAN ON HIM OR ANYBODY ELSE FOR ADVICE?“Yeah, for sure. My first year at Hendrick I especially leaned on Jeff a lot. It’s always changing, right? The cars have changed a little bit. Jeff was so good at these places. Chase (Elliott) is extraordinary at these places. I feel like Kyle (Larson) and William (Byron) don’t get the credit they deserve because they are both super good at road courses as well. Hendrick Motorsports has three really good road course racers and then me. But I’m going my best to catch up.”
DOES CHASE ELLIOTT GIVE YOU ANY OF HIS SECRETS?“I think Chase doesn’t think he has any secrets. I feel like it comes really naturally to him. So, I’m extremely jealous that it comes as naturally to him as it does because he is so good. Not that he’s not working hard to be that good, but it’s like it doesn’t seem as difficult for him as it is for me to go as fast. Yeah, I’m just trying to learn from him. It’s hard to hide secrets these days, just with the way the data is and everything. I’m just trying to dissect that and learn from him.”
KYLE BUSCH WAS ASKED AFTER THE CHARLOTTE RACE, WHERE HE THINKS JGR RANKS AGAINST HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS. HE BASICALLY SAID KYLE LARSON AND THE NO. 5 TEAMARE A 10 AND WE’RE A SEVEN. DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU’RE A LITTLE BIT MORE AHEAD BECAUSE PEOPLE CAN’T PRACTICE AS MUCH AS IN PREVIOUS SEASONS?“I don’t know. I feel it’s just the way the sport goes. We’ve seen it in the past. You’ve watched teams dominate. When I got to Hendrick Motorsports in 2018 it was ugly for us for a while. It’s great to be a part of and it’s been a lot of fun. I think we’re the best we’ve ever been since I’ve been there. And that makes going to the race track fun. You have a chance to win each and every week. But at the same time, it comes and goes. We’ve got the best in the world trying to catch us. We’ll just have to wait and see how the season plays out, but it’s been great to be a part of it this year.”
IT’S BEEN TWO YEARS SINCE THE LAST CUP RACE AT SONOMA. DO YOU EXPECT THE TRACK TO BE ANY DIFFERENT THAN WHAT IT’S BEEN, AND WILL IT AFFECT THE SET-UP OF THE CAR OR NOT?“I think the biggest difference for us is just going back with the low downforce package. When we were there in 2019, the cars had the big splitter and the big spoiler and all that stuff. Going back without that, with less downforce on the car, it’s going to change quite a bit.  We haven’t been to that track configuration with low downforce so, the first time through the carousel without downforce and all that stuff. Just trying to predict, obviously with no practice, so hopefully we nail it right. But I’ve spent a lot of time in the simulator trying to get it dialed in and hopefully we’ll be solid.”
HAS THERE BEEN ANY EXTRA SPECIAL PREPARATION FOR SONOMA LIKE SIMULATOR TIME OR LOOKING AT FILM FROM PRIOR YEARS?“I wouldn’t say extra. It’s my job to be the most prepared I can each and every week. I feel like the team does the same thing. They are trying to be extremely prepared every week. Yes, I’ve been in the simulator a lot. Yes, I’ve watched a lot of film and all that stuff. But we do that every week. It’s the same everywhere we go. We don’t leave any stoned unturned just trying to figure everything out and be as prepared as we can be. It’s a lot of hard work, but that’s kind of the norm at Hendrick Motorsports.”
CONCERNING THE RECENT HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS DOMINANCE, YOU ARE DOING THIS IN AN ERA WITH MINIMAL PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING. AND YET YOU ARE DOMINATING THE CIRCUIT. HOW PROUD OF YOU THAT WITHOUT FULL NORMALCY AND PREPARATION, THAT AS A TEAM, YOU ARE DOING THIS?“I’m extremely proud of everybody at Hendrick Motorsports, from top to bottom. Everybody has worked really hard and had a couple of rough years. Last year I’ve been really strong and then to be able to fire off this year like this has been incredible. I’m just proud of everybody from the chassis shop, fab shop, engine shop, guys that sweep the floors, everybody. Everybody is giving it their all and it’s paying off. It’s cool to see, and I’m just proud of everybody in the organization.”
YESTERDAY, GM AND CHEVY BROKE GROUND ON THE NEW CHARLOTTE TECHNICAL CENTER AND SAID THEY ARE GOING TO HAVE THREE DRIVER-IN-THE-LOOP SIMULATORS WHEN IT OPENS NEXT YEAR. HOW MANY DO YOU GUYS HAVE RIGHT NOW THAT YOU’RE USING WITH CHEVY?“We just have one. So yeah, the added simulators are definitely going to help us. Having it closer and right now, it’s a big balance between all the Chevy teams to get time in there. So having more opportunities to be in there more I think is a big gain. Being closer to us is a gain. I’m excited for that. I think it’s great. It’s awesome what Chevrolet is doing and their commitment to the sport; obviously they are a huge piece of why Hendrick Motorsports has been so strong lately. All the Chevy teams are working extremely well together. And to have that kind of backing and support from Chevrolet is awesome.”
HOW DO YOU DIVIDE TIME TO USE THE SIMULATOR? DO YOU HAVE TO BOOK TIME WITH CERTAIN TEAMS AND DRIVERS?“Yeah, I don’t know exactly how it works. I kind of just get told hey, this is when we’re going in. But my understanding of it is that yeah, obviously you’ve got to book ahead of time and have shared time between teams and organizations and different race teams going in there. So yeah, I think that’s probably one of the bigger things about having multiples of them is just being able to be in there a little bit more.”

Fargo Native Hungry for First World of Outlaws Win of Season in Home StateFARGO, ND – June 3, 2021 – For the first of three times this season, Donny Schatz is racing on his home turf this weekend.The Fargo, ND native is leading the charge to River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, ND tomorrow night. The 3/10-mile oval located is just over an hour away away from his residence in West Fargo and has become his personal playground over the years in World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series competition.The 10-time Series champion has dominated, winning 12 of 26 Features at the short track. His successes have spurred from his early days of growing up on the North Dakota tracks in the early 1990’s.”I think you can attribute the success to everything from all of the laps to the confidence of being home,” Schatz said on his success at the track. “It’s always been a place that I’ve enjoyed going to ever since I first started racing in 1993. It’s a shorter track and the racing is really good. You can make things happen in a hurry and it’s still that way today.More than anything, it’s just nice to be home for the 43-year-old. However, the potential of his 300th career victory coming in his home state isn’t lost on Schatz.”It’s pretty exciting for me on all fronts,” Schatz mentioned on being back at home. “Anytime you can get in the state of North Dakota, it’s got this really upbeat feeling. I hope it’s a win for us. We could really use a win no matter where it’s at right now. There were a couple of times I thought ‘oh man, I’m gonna win #300 at Haubstadt of all places,’ but here we are. It’s a great opportunity to get that win at my home track.”Overall, the 2021 season to this point has been a bit of a letdown. Schatz himself will admit that.”It’s been anything like the way we wanted it to go, clearly, “Schatz admitted. “We’ve had DNF’s, we’ve had terrible runs, and they’ve put us in a bad position. It was to be expected in a way, though. We didn’t get the laps we needed last year with this engine and then throw all of the changes that happened over the fall and winter on top of that. We’ve worked through some of the same problems twice since changing engines builders.”Albeit winless, Schatz has still pieced together a solid campaign. Through the first 27 events, his Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing, Carquest #15 sits fourth in the standings. They’ve led 89 laps, recorded seven podium appearances, 15 top-five results, 19 top-ten finishes.The biggest change in their program has been the constant research and development of the new Ford Performance Stewart 410 (FPS410) engine.”It’s tough to develop something like a new engine while you’re going to the races every night and trying to reach your own goals, take care of your sponsors, keep your guys motivated, and everything that comes with running for a championship,” Schatz spoke on the challenges of developing the FPS410.””It’s easy for someone like a Brian Brown or someone who doesn’t run the Outlaws full-time to go back and reset when things aren’t good,” Schatz elaborated. “They can home and re-group and do all of these things to back going. You don’t have that luxury when you race with the World of Outlaws. There is no reset button on the road.”Slowly, but surely, Schatz and TSR are getting back to where they feel they belong, though. Since a rough spell throughout April, Schatz has rebounded with 12 top-tens in 14 races, including three runner-up results. They’ve clawed their way back from seventh-to-fourth in the title hunt with another 56 races remaining.”I think at one point we were like 220 points out of the championship and we’ve cut that down by almost 100 points,” Schatz proudly said. “We haven’t really been all of that strong either, sure we’ve been consistently in the top-ten and there have been issues for others, but that’s where you have to start. You have to crawl before you can walk, and you have to walk before you can run.The resiliency Schatz and his crew are building is something he believes will be crucial come later in the season, when he hopes to contending for his 11th World of Outlaws championship.”It may not look like it today, but this could pay off down the line in say two months,” Schatz said on the challenges they’ve faced. “That’s when this tough, resilient part of the season will shine through. I hope it’s in the middle of a championship battle. It’s all the nature of the beast. Sometimes we have to work through things we don’t want to, and that’s what we’re doing.”The beginning stages of that pay off could come tomorrow night, when Schatz is back at River Cities. He’ll be the favorite to watch as he chases his 13th win at the track, his first of the season, and the 300th of his World of Outlaws career.Following Friday’s North Dakota stop,  Schatz and the rest of the Outlaws will head to Granite City Speedway in Sauk Rapids, MN on Saturday night, where Schatz is also a two-time winner.Schatz will also return to North Dakota again in August, following the 60th running of the NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals pres. by Casey’s General Stores. He’ll get another crack at River Cities Speedway on Friday, August 21, and then a chance at Red River Valley Speedway in West Fargo on Saturday, August 22.Fans who can’t make it to the track can catch all of the action on DIRTVision with the annual Platinum FAST PASS subscription for $299/year or the monthly FAST PASS subscription for $39/month.Photo – Trent Gower

The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink® Sprint Car Series is brought to fans across the country by many important sponsors and partners, including: DIRTVision (Official Live Broadcast Partner), Drydene (Official Motor Oil), Hoosier Racing Tire (Official Tire), iRacing (Official Online Racing Game), Morton Buildings (Official Building), NOS Energy (Official Energy Product), SIS Insurance (Official Insurance Provider) and VP Racing Fuels (Official Racing Fuel); contingency sponsors include ARP (Automotive Racing Products), Cometic Gasket, COMP Cams, KSE Racing Products (Hard Charger Award), MSD and Slick Woody’s (Quick Time Award); manufacturer sponsors include FireAde, Intercomp, K1 Race Gear, and Racing Electronics.Founded in 1978, the World of Outlaws®, based in Concord, NC, is the premier national touring series for dirt track racing in North America, featuring the most powerful cars on dirt, the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series and the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series. Annually, the two series race nearly 140 times at tracks across the United States and Canada. CBS Sports Network is the official broadcast partner of the World of Outlaws. DIRTVision® also broadcasts all World of Outlaws events over the Internet to fans around the world. Learn more about the World of Outlaws.

July Begins with Independence Day Spectacular at Wisconsin’s Cedar Lake on July 2-3NEW RICHMOND, WI – June 3, 2021 – There’s no better way to celebrate America’s birthday than with The Greatest Show on Dirt.Next month, the annual tradition of the Independence Day Spectacular rolls on with July 2-3 dates at Wisconsin’s Cedar Lake Speedway for the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series.Marking the 41st event of a grueling 82-race schedule, the stop at the Cedar Lake 3/8-mile will officially bring the Series to the halfway mark on the 2021 season.BUY TICKETS HERE (7/2-3)The second of three Wisconsin tracks on the schedule this year, Cedar Lake’s Fourth of July showcase will follow a trip to Beaver Dam Raceway on June 19 and precede a night at Wilmot Raceway on July 10.

Through 45 previous appearances at the New Richmond, WI facility, 19 different winners have made their way to victory lane with nine drivers claiming multiple wins. Slammin’ Sammy Swindell leads all drivers with seven scores to his credit, but 10-time Series champion Donny Schatz (5 wins) could equal him with a weekend sweep next month.

Schatz went five years between a pair of wins in 2009 and 2014 at the oval, and now it’s been another five years since his most recent win at Cedar Lake in 2016. His recent consistency, albeit winless, has helped propel the Tony Stewart Racing, Carquest, Ford Performance #15 back to fourth in the championship standings through 27/82 events.

Another active driver with plenty of winning experience at Cedar Lake is Brad Sweet. The two-time and defending World of Outlaws champion has dominated the track lately, winning four of the last six events all within the last three years. In 2020, The Big Cat swept the weekend which aired live on CBS Sports Network and paid him a cool $40,000.

The Grass Valley, CA native currently leads the championship chase in pursuit of his third-straight World of Outlaws title. His Kasey Kahne Racing, NAPA Auto Parts #49 has been stout this season, collecting nine wins in the first 21 races. They’ll have another 12 events in the month of June to build some more momentum ahead of Cedar Lake’s July opener.

“I don’t know what exactly it is, but something has clicked for us at that place,” Sweet spoke on his Cedar Lake prowess. “We’ve always run really well there even before we started winning, but it’s like we found that little edge and it’s put us over the top since. It’s a great place to celebrate the Fourth of July, especially with a win.”

Other full-time drivers with wins at Cedar Lake include Sheldon Haudenschild (2019) and Logan Schuchart (2016). Both are already multi-time winners this season and hopeful to extend those numbers in the

David Gravel leads the way among notables looking to breakthrough for their first triumph at the track. The Watertown, CT native has finished second on six occasions, a streak he hopes to snap next month with his Big Game Motorsports #2. They currently sit second int he championship chase with four victories behind Sweet.

Carson Macedo, who is currently positioned third in points, led more than half of last year’s Cedar Lake event before falling to finish a track-best of third. We’ll see if his move to the Jason Johnson Racing #41 can ultimately guide him to Cedar Lake glory.

Also chasing their first Cedar Lake wins is the trio of Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year contenders: Aaron Reutzel, James McFadden, and Brock Zearfoss.

Fans who can’t make it to the track can catch all of the action on DIRTVision with the annual Platinum FAST PASS subscription for $299/year or the monthly FAST PASS subscription for $39/month.

CEDAR LAKE WINNERS:
7 wins – Sammy Swindell
5 wins – Donny Schatz
5 wins – Steve Kinser
4 wins – Mark Kinser
4 wins – Brad Sweet
3 wins – Dave Blaney
3 wins – Kerry Madsen
2 wins – Craig Dollansky
2 wins – Bobby Davis Jr.
1 win – Sheldon Haudenschild
1 win – Logan Schuchart
1 win – Joey Saldana
1 win – Tim Kaeding
1 win – Jason Meyers
1 win – Paul McMahan
1 win – Brooke Tatnell
1 win – Danny Lasoski
1 win – Stevie Smith
1 win – Jac Haudenschild

Richard Childress Racing at Sonoma Raceway… In 73 starts at the 10-turn stadium course, Richard Childress Racing owns a storied history with two wins (with Dale Earnhardt in 1995 and with Robby Gordon in 2003), one pole award (Earnhardt, 1995), 14 top-five and 26 top-10 finishes. The Welcome, N.C.,-based team has led 140 laps at Sonoma Raceway, completed 7,623 of the 7,670 laps contested (99.4 percent) and has recorded just one DNF since the NASCAR Cup Series made its debut at the track in 1989.
Richard Childress Racing at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course… In 23 NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at the 2.258-mile road course, Richard Childress Racing has accumulated nine top-five finishes, 12 top-10 finishes, one pole award, led 72 laps and averages a starting position of 10.8 and finishing position of 11.2. The Welcome, North Carolina, organization has completed 1,817 laps of the 1,827 (99.5 percent) that they have competed at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Catch the Action… The NASCAR Xfinity Series’ Mid-Ohio 170 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course will be televised live Saturday, June 5, beginning at 1 p.m. ET on FS1 and will be broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.  The NASCAR Cup Series’ Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway will be televised live Sunday, June 6, beginning at 4 p.m. ET on FS1 and will be broadcast live on the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. 

New 130,000-square-foot facility to open in early 2022

CONCORD, N.C. – General Motors broke ground today on the new Charlotte Technical Center, a 130,000-square-foot facility that will expand GM’s performance and racing capabilities. Additionally, the center will accelerate strategic knowledge transfer between motorsports and production vehicle development.

Representatives of Chip Ganassi Racing, Richard Childress Racing and Hendrick Motorsports joined GM for the groundbreaking at the complex in Concord. The site was selected for its proximity to partner racing teams and major technical suppliers. The new technical center will support racing efforts across all series in which GM competes.  The facility is a $45 million investment for GM and is scheduled to open in early 2022.  “After more than a year of unprecedented challenges for everyone, we reevaluated our plans and found we could expand the footprint and scope for the Charlotte Technical Center to make it an even greater resource,” said Jim Campbell, GM U.S. vice president of Performance and Motorsports. “This new location and larger facility is a clean-sheet design, tailored for technology development and collaboration with our racing teams and technical partners.”

Construction has begun on the new facility. A previously announced site was repurposed by GM Defense for production of the new Infantry Squad Vehicle, a light and agile troop carrier developed for the U.S. Army.  The center’s location, in the heart of one of the nation’s racing hubs and near colleges and universities, will provide more opportunities for GM to recruit top talent in the fields of software engineering, computational science, electrical engineering and other technical skill sets. “The new Charlotte Technical Center will expand GM’s engineering footprint in the epicenter of racing in the United States, and will improve our engineering speed and capability in both the racing and production environments,” said Jim Danahy, GM vice president of Global Safety, Systems and Integration. “It will be a strong hub for the racing and production engineering teams to collaborate, share resources and learn together, delivering better results more quickly both on the racetrack and in our production vehicles.”  Development technologies often make their way from the racing world to production vehicles. A combination of virtual simulation and physical testing is used to meet the quick development time frames for motorsports teams. The testing methods used in racing, along with frequent competition, provide valuable training experiences for GM production vehicle engineers.  The new technical center will feature advanced virtual tools, including three state-of-the-art Driver-in-the-Loop simulators, aero development and other software-enabled vehicle modeling technology that will enable faster analysis and iteration. The facility will expand GM’s capacity to process, analyze and leverage vast amounts of data, allowing its racing and engineering teams to optimize designs earlier in the development process while simultaneously delivering greater first-time quality.

General Motors (NYSE:GM) is a global company focused on advancing an all-electric future that is inclusive and accessible to all. At the heart of this strategy is the Ultium battery platform, which powers everything from mass-market to high-performance vehicles. General Motors, its subsidiaries and its joint venture entities sell vehicles under the Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac, Baojun and Wuling brands. More information on the company and its subsidiaries, including OnStar, a global leader in vehicle safety and security services, can be found at https://www.gm.com.

Team Chevy NASCAR Cup Series Owner Quotes: Richard Childress, Owner, Richard Childress Racing: “Chevrolet is taking a big step in creating a best-in-class technical center to further increase resources and collaboration. Having a central hub for vehicle simulation, aero development and engineering support in the heart of NASCAR is going to make us even stronger. It’s so important to stay on top of technology and Chevrolet is making a key statement on their commitment to performance with this groundbreaking today.”  Chip Ganassi, Owner, Chip Ganassi Racing:“The new technical center that GM is building shows a real commitment to their racing programs and partner teams in particular. All the new technology, tools and equipment will allow us to collaborate more effectively and efficiently across all three series that we partner with them on – NASCAR, IMSA and Extreme E.” Rick Hendrick, Owner, Hendrick Motorsports: “Hendrick Motorsports has raced with Chevrolet since we opened the doors in 1984,” said Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports. “I’ve never seen them more committed to our sport and to the performance of their partner teams than they are today. The investment General Motors is making right here in the Charlotte area sends a clear message about the importance of auto racing to their brand and their passion for competing and winning at the highest levels. We share Chevrolet’s commitment and take immense pride in partnering with them on and off the racetrack.”

NASCAR CUP SERIESTOYOTA/SAVE MART 350SONOMA RACEWAYTEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPTJUNE 3, 2021
RESEND TO CORRECT CAR NUMBER
GREG IVES, CREW CHIEF, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE Teleconference Highlight: THIS WEEK, ALL THE TALK HAS BEEN ABOUT 269 WINS FOR HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS AND THAT GREAT ACCOMPLISHMENT. YOU’VE BEEN WITH HENDRICK FOR QUITE SOME TIME. HOW MANY OF THOSE VICTORIES HAVE YOU PERSONALLY BEEN INVOLVED WITH?“Yeah, I’ve been at Hendrick Motorsports since 2004; 17 years now. I took a little bit of time and went over to Junior Motorsports for two years but was still employed by Hendrick Motorsports. I don’t know how many of those wins I was part of but I’m fortunate to have my whole career be at one company and to be able to add to that total as a crew chief and engineer and a crewman, as well. It’s been a blessed career that I’ve had. Mr. Hendrick makes it a really great place to work. We hope not to stop at 269 and continue the success that we’ve had this year.”
HOW MUCH HAS YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH ALEX BOWMAN DEVELOPED OVER THESE FEW YEAR? IT SEEMS LIKE YOU ARE HITTING ON ALL CYLINDERS THIS YEAR. TALK ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE AT HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS. YOU ARE STILL ABLE TO SALVAGE TOP-5 FINISHES WITH A CAR THAT ISN’T UP TO HIS LIKING.“As far as Alex goes, he’s a very easy guy to get along with. I don’t want to put simple as being a bad word to use because he loves race cars, he loves cars, and he likes driving cars and racing them. So, whether it’s a Sprint Car or a Cup car or whatever he has in his garage from a classic truck or whatever he has. Understanding that and being able to connect on that level is very easy for me. I do like cars. I love racing. Generally, in that relationship, you don’t have to work very hard to make it happen and to communicate on a level that we both understand. I really enjoy the progress and the relationship we’ve been able to grow over the course of the last three or four years. I know when he filled in for Dale (Earnhardt, Jr.) there and was kind of maybe thrown in there and maybe forced a little bit in a situation where he might have not maybe been as comfortable as he is now. I’m very thankful for our relationship as it continues to grow.
“On our race cars, we’ve been able to take cars that maybe weren’t race-winning cars; maybe not even top-5 cars and be able to finish in the top-5 with them and/or go out there and win with them. And that’s truly Alex Bowman coming into his own as a driver and understanding his capabilities and where the limits are with our equipment. Charlotte, I don’t think we could have won that race. We didn’t have a top-5 car due to certain circumstances, but we took a 10th place car and finished fifth with it, and that’s a credit to the team, the pit crew, and Alex saying hey man, that’s okay. I’ll get it from here. And we’ve been trying to work on that over the course of him becoming the leader of the team. You kind of know when he’s there when we had a penalty at Richmond and he says hey, it’s okay. We’re going to drive to the front and pass them all again. That’s his maturity and that’s him growing as a driver and the leader of this No. 48 Ally team.’
WITH NO RACE AT SONOMA LAST YEAR AND THE HIGH DOWNFORCE, WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT TO PREPARE?“We’re kind of going back a little bit to 2018. Even back to the days when we had Dale and had some success there at that track. The ROVAL, the Daytona Road Course, COTA, we all kind of ran really well there. I think Sonoma adds a different dynamic to what road courses we’ve been running on. I wouldn’t say we’re adjusting the set-up differently, but we have a different concept going to Sonoma that we think is going to work for that place. The high falloff. The change to the course. Adding the carousel adds a different dynamic we have to adjust on, and we only have notes on that from the high downforce. So yeah, I look forward to getting out there. Alex sometimes doesn’t give himself enough credit as a road course driver, but I feel like he does a great job and gives the feedback he needs for me to make adjustments to get him where he can win the race.”
THIS WILL BE YOUR THIRD ROAD COURSE RACE OF THE YEAR. WILL YOU BE ABLE TO PREDICT WHAT HAPPENS IN THE NEXT THREE ROAD COURSES?“You never really can predict the unfortunate circumstances. But what I do see, is that we have a great foundation of set-ups at Hendrick Motorsports. We have a great team of drivers that lean on each other to extract speed and you never want to be the fourth guy at the company crossing the finish line. And we were that at the 600. Even though it was fifth, we didn’t feel too good about it. That little self-driven determination is sometimes worth more time than an adjustment on a race car. Looking at the Pro-Invitational at Chicago yesterday, it’s looking like more and more road courses are on the horizon. And whether you’re good at them or not, you had better figure out how to get better at them. I’m looking forward to just keeping improving.”
I ALSO ASKED CLIFF DANIELS THIS QUESTION. AFTER THE COKE 600, KYLE BUSCH WAS ASKED WHERE HE THOUGHT JOE GIBBS RACING STACKED UP AGAINST HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS. HE SAID IF KYLE LARSON AND THE NO. 5 TEAM ARE A 10 RIGHT NOW, WE’RE A SEVEN. HOW DO YOU THINK THAT’S BEING RECEIVED AT HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS?“Yeah, it’s pretty funny how we race in circles and sometimes that’s a trend of performance, right? You look back a couple of years ago and Joe Gibbs won a multitude of races, probably half of them in a year. I remember the No. 24 and No. 48 doing that back in the mid-2000’s. You think that’s going to carry on for the rest of your life and it doesn’t. At some point, Hendrick Motorsports isn’t going to be as dominant, and it was that in the near past. A fifth place at the Coke 600 for the No. 48 team would have been a win a couple of years ago. I’ve been in the situation before of winning races and a lot of races and championships and many in a row. It’s tough being on top because your mind wants to tell your body and your heart that it’s okay to just be complacent. Not that anybody is in that state, but when things become easy sometimes you take the easy road. I know, as the leader of our company with Chad (Knaus) and guys like Cliff and Alan (Gustafson) and Rudy (Fugle) and myself, that’s generally not going to be the case.”
WITHOUT AS MUCH PRACTICE NOW, DO YOU THINK IT’S HARDER TO CATCH WHERE YOU GUYS ARE?“By the time you get 50 minutes of practice to adjust here and there, I don’t think it’s necessarily makes you deficient on how you catch up, or more efficient, however you want to say it. It can help a little bit. Any time the drivers are in the car and going around the race track, you’re going to learn. But so are we, so it comes down to your resources, which are your people, your tools, and how you execute, I can argue either way if you want to take one side, I’ll take the other and we can debate it out. But I think with practice we’re going to be fine and without practice we’re going to be fine. We’ve just got to go execute it, make mistakes, and learn from them.”
WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES OF SONOMA RACEWAY FOR A CREW CHIEF?“Well, the new one is the carousel, right? Ultimately, the carousel is a high-speed left-hander that Sonoma really never had. You had Turn 1. You maybe had something in the ess. You had those higher speed lefts were minimal. Now you have the carousel, where it’s kind of off camber. It’s just kind of an awkward turn for the drivers to navigate and getting tight-off there and setting up for a really big braking and passing zone has definitely added some more difficulty to Sonoma. It has taken away some heavy braking zones into Turn 4 and Turn 7, where you typically get wheel-hop and those types of things. It gets a little wide, and then quickly narrow going into Turn 7. So, there’s just a lot of different nuances. And then you need to worry about the tire fall-off, right? You don’t need to stop before a Stage. You really just are playing that tire strategy game the whole race. The whole thing. Yes, it’s difficult to win at Sonoma. I remember when Jimmie (Johnson) won his first time there. It took a mistake by another driver for him to win. So, no matter if he did everything right, it comes down to one guy making a mistake, maybe not yourself, to win that race. So, it’s a difficult race track and a fun place to go. Flying out there is difficult sometimes, too, just how long it is. But generally, Sonoma is unlike most places we go as far as road courses. You can only tie in a very small amount of set up from other tracks that we’ve been at already.”
WHAT HAS THE RELATIONSHIP BEEN LIKE WITH CHAD KNAUS AS COMPETITION DIRECTOR?IT SEEMS LIKE THESE PAST FEW WEEKS THAT HE HAS REALLY HELPED GET HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS TO ANOTHER LEVEL WITH THESE TOP-5 RESULTS.“There’s no doubt that Chad has a high influence in racing, right? That’s his passion. Anybody that has a passion is going to make an impact, especially when they go from the track to the shop. That’s usually the highest disconnect as far as when you go into the shop area is, what do the race teams endure when you get to the race track. Chad has been able to help the guys at the shop to be able to say hey, this is what we need to do to get better. This is what the guys need when they show up t the shop on Monday, the state that the cars are in, and what they need to be able to work on. They don’t need to be completing race cars. They need to be detailing them out. There’s a lot of things that definitely go into it all. He always has a plan and executing a plan is one of his biggest assets and we’re very thankful for that.”

aThe Greatest Show on Dirt Visits River Cities Speedway & Granite City SpeedwayGRAND FORKS, ND – June 2, 2021 – We checked out the East Coast and the “Corn Coast” of Indiana, now it’s off to the Northern Tour.This weekend, the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series visits North Dakota and Minnesota for the first time this season as a busy month of June begins for The Greatest Show on Dirt.Up first, we’re heading to Schatz-ville AKA River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, ND on Friday, June 4. It’s a track that 10-time Series champion Donny Schatz has mastered, and a track where he’d love to claim a monumental milestone victory at.Following that, the Outlaws return to Granite City Speedway in Sauk Rapids, MN on Saturday, June 5. Defending champion and current points leader Brad Sweet is the most recent winner at the track, but his Kasey Kahne Racing #49 has been feeling the heat from David Gravel and Carson Macedo lately.They’re two tracks proven to produce epic racing when the traveling Outlaws come to town.RIVER CITIES TICKETS (6/4) GRANITE CITY TICKETS (6/5)Here are some of the top storylines to follow this weekend:HOME SWEET HOME: For the first time this season, Fargo’s Donny Schatz heads home to his native state of North Dakota. The 10-time Series champion leads the World of Outlaws to River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, ND on Friday night for the first of three appearances in The Peace Garden State in 2021.Over his 25 seasons as a full-time World of Outlaws driver, Schatz has ruled River Cities like none other. Out of 26 trips to the 3/10-mile oval, Schatz has won 12 of them. That’s a stunning 46% winning percentage when it comes to his home track. It’s also the site of his first-ever Sprint Car win from back in 1994.The stage is set perfectly for Schatz to contend for his first win of the World of Outlaws season at the Grand Forks facility, located just over an hour from his Fargo residence. On Saturday, the Series heads to Granite City (MN) Speedway where Schatz has taken two of four Features contested at the track.“BEST DIRT TRACK”: Previously, River Cities Speedway proudly boasted the @BestDirtTrack handle on their Twitter account. The Grand Forks, ND faithful love their racing and will stick to their guns that they’ve got one of the best tracks in the whole country. World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Announcer Johnny Gibson agrees, calling it his personal favorite.Watch just about any World of Outlaws show at River Cities and you’ll quickly see why. Need a quick example? Take a look at last year’s trip to the bullring. Kyle Larson stole the win from Logan Schuchart in the final corner, a move that stunned the entirety of everyone in attendance and those watching on DIRTVision.EVERY POINT MATTERS: There’s no playoff and no chase when it comes to the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series. It’s a grind of 80+ races from February to November, meaning every single race and every single point matters on every single night. With that pressure comes the importance of not only minimizing your losses, but also capitalizing on your opponents mistakes.Brad Sweet, who currently leads the points in pursuit of his third-straight championship, is coming off a whirlwind night at Lawrenceburg (IN) Speedway on Monday. The Kasey Kahne Racing, NAPA Auto Parts #49 crashed big in Heat Race competition and rolled out the backup. They salvaged their night with a 24th-to-7th charge and extended their points lead through 27 of 83 races.Opposite of Sweet is Big Game Motorsports #2 driver David Gravel (-66) and Jason Johnson Racing #41 pilot Carson Macedo (-90). Both combatants have taken advantage of Sweet’s rough six-race streak (8.3 average finish) and narrowed the gap. They’ll get another shot on Friday night at River Cities, where Sweet has never won, but then it’s on to Granite City where The Big Cat is the most recent victor.TURNING OF THE TIDE: It’s been a tale of two streaks for Logan Schuchart and Aaron Reutzel. Since the Series left Williams Grove, where Schuchart suffered a massive crash and Reutzel took down the $15,000 Morgan Cup, both of their fortunes have reversed.Schuchart, who earlier this season led the points until a rough spell hit the Shark Racing #1S, has since rebounded with five-straight top-ten finishes including his second win at Bridgeport and a second-place run at Lawrenceburg.For Reutzel, it’s been the exact opposite. He’s been consistent all year in the Roth Motorsports #83, but since his Williams Grove win has experienced his worst four-race run of the year. Accidents at Bridgeport, Attica, Sharon & Lawrenceburg has sent the Clute, TX native falling from fourth-to-seventh in the points.BUCKLE UP: This weekend’s Northern Tour is only the beginning of a massive month of June. A total of 12 nights of racing await The Greatest Show on Dirt this month. Following River Cities and Granite City, the Outlaws visit Knoxville (IA) Raceway for the first time this season.A triple-header at 34, Dubuque & Beaver Dam from June 17-19 then leads into THE SHOWDOWN, a weeklong affair with more than $600,000 on the line in the Huset’s 50 (June 21-22) and the Jackson Nationals (June 24-26).This Week at a Glance – When and WhereFriday, June 4 at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, ND Saturday, June 5 at Granite City Speedway in Sauk Rapids, MNOn the Internet World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series Twitter – @WorldofOutlaws Instagram – @WoOSprint Facebook – Facebook.com/WorldofOutlawsSprintCarSeries YouTube – Youtube.com/WorldofOutlaws DIRTVision – DIRTVision.com – Platinum annual FAST PASS for $299 or monthly FAST PASS for $39/monthAround the Turn: Following this weekend, the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series will head for The Sprint Car Capital of the World, Knoxville, Iowa. A two-day show at Knoxville Raceway on Friday & Saturday, June 11-12 will be crucial for teams in preparation of the 60th running of the NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Nationals pres. by Casey’s General Stores on August 11-14.NOS ENERGY DRINK FEATURE WINNERS (10 Drivers): 9 wins – Brad Sweet, Kasey Kahne Racing w/ Mike Curb #49 4 wins – David Gravel, Big Game Motorsports #2 3 wins – Sheldon Haudenschild, Stenhouse Jr. Marshall Racing #17 3 wins – Carson Macedo, Jason Johnson Racing #41 2 wins – Aaron Reutzel, Roth Motorsports #83 2 wins – Logan Schuchart, Shark Racing #1S 1 win – James McFadden, Kasey Kahne Racing w/ Mike Curb #9 1 win – Brent Marks, Brent Marks Racing #19M 1 win – Dave Blaney, Dave Blaney #10 1 win – Kyle Larson, Paul Silva #57FEATURE LAPS LED (19 Drivers): 202 laps – Brad Sweet 151 laps – Sheldon Haudenschild 91 laps – Aaron Reutzel 89 laps – Donny Schatz 88 laps – David Gravel 68 laps – Logan Schuchart 47 laps – Carson Macedo 31 laps – James McFadden 27 laps – Sam Hafertepe Jr. 25 laps – Kyle Larson 19 laps – Tyler Courtney 17 laps – Brent Marks 10 laps – Jacob Allen & Brock Zearfoss 3 laps – Ian Madsen 1 lap – Kasey Kahne, Kraig Kinser, Brandon Spithaler, Dave BlaneySLICK WOODY’S QUICKTIME AWARDS (12 Drivers): 7 QuickTimes – David Gravel 4 QuickTimes – Sheldon Haudenschild 2 QuickTimes – Brad Sweet, James McFadden, Aaron Reutzel, Logan Schuchart, Cory Eliason, Sam Hafertepe Jr. 1 QuickTime – Carson Macedo, Danny Dietrich, Anthony Macri, Giovanni ScelziDRYDENE HEAT RACE WINNERS (24 Drivers) 13 Heat Wins – David Gravel 10 Heat Wins – Aaron Reutzel 9 Heat Wins – Carson Macedo 8 Heat Wins – Sheldon Haudenschild 6 Heat Wins – James McFadden, Logan Schuchart 5 Heat Wins – Donny Schatz 3 Heat Wins – Brock Zearfoss, Ian Madsen, Brian Brown, Giovanni Scelzi, Sam Hafertepe Jr. 2 Heat Wins – Jacob Allen, Kasey Kahne, Kraig Kinser, Jason Sides, Brad Sweet, Kyle Larson 1 Heat Win –  Danny Dietrich, Hunter Schuerenberg, Tyler Courtney, Lance Dewease, Anthony Macri, Brandon SpithalerPODIUM FINISHES (21 Drivers): 14 Podiums – Brad Sweet 8 Podiums – Carson Macedo, Sheldon Haudenschild 7 Podiums – Donny Schatz, Logan Schuchart 6 Podiums – Aaron Reutzel, David Gravel 5 Podiums – Brent Marks 3 Podiums – James McFadden, Giovanni Scelzi 2 Podiums – Cory Eliason, Lance Dewease, Anthony Macri 1 Podium – Kraig Kinser, Danny Dietrich, Tyler Courtney, Justin Peck, Brian Brown, Anthony Macri, Dave Blaney, Kyle Larson, Sam Hafertepe Jr.2021 World of Outlaws Sprint Car Schedule & WinnersNo. / Day, Date / Track / Location / Winner (Total Wins) 1. Fri, Feb. 5 / Volusia Speedway Park / Barberville, FL / Brad Sweet (1) 2. Sun, Feb. 7 / Volusia Speedway Park / Barberville, FL / Logan Schuchart (1) 3. Fri, March 5 / Volusia Speedway Park / Barberville, FL / Carson Macedo (1) 4. Sat, March 6 / East Bay Raceway Park / Tampa, FL / Aaron Reutzel (1) 5. Fri, March 12 / Magnolia Motor Speedway / Columbus, MS / Sheldon Haudenschild (1) 6. Sat, March 13 / The Rev / Monroe, LA / David Gravel (1) 7. Fri, March 19 / Cotton Bowl Speedway / Paige, TX / Sheldon Haudenschild (2) 8. Sat, March 20 / Cotton Bowl Speedway / Paige, TX / Brad Sweet (2) 9. Sat, March 27 / Lake Ozark Speedway / Eldon, MO / Brad Sweet (3) 10. Fri, April 2 / I-55 Raceway / Pevely, MO / Brad Sweet (4) 11. Sat, April 3 / I-55 Raceway / Pevely, MO / Brad Sweet (5) 12. Fri, April 9 / Kokomo Speedway / Kokomo, IN / James McFadden (1) 13. Sat, April 10 / Tri-State Speedway / Haubstadt, IN / Carson Macedo (2) 14. Fri, April 22 / Bristol Motor Speedway / Bristol, TN / David Gravel (2) 15. Sun, April 24 / Bristol Motor Speedway / Bristol, TN / David Gravel (3) 16. Thur, April 29 / Jacksonville Speedway / Jacksonville, IL / Brad Sweet (6) 17. Fri, April 30 / I-70 Motorsports Park / Odessa, MO / Brad Sweet (7) 18. Sat, May 1 / I-70 Motorsports Park / Odessa, MO / Brad Sweet (8) 19. Sat, May 8 / Eldora Speedway / Rossburg, OH / Brent Marks (1) 20. Sat, May 8 / Eldora Speedway / Rossburg, OH / Sheldon Haudenschild (3) 21. Wed, May 12 / Lincoln Speedway / Abbottstown, PA / Brad Sweet (9) 22. Fri, May 14 / Williams Grove Speedway / Mechanicsburg, PA / Carson Macedo (3) 23. Sat, May 15 / Williams Grove Speedway / Mechanicsburg, PA / Aaron Reutzel (2) 24. Tues, May 18 / Bridgeport Speedway / Swedesboro, NJ / Logan Schuchart (2) 25. Fri, May 21 / Attica Raceway Park / Attica, OH / David Gravel (4) 26. Sat, May 22 / Sharon Speedway / Hartford, OH / Dave Blaney (1) 27. Mon, May 31 / Lawrenceburg Speedway / Lawrenceburg, IN / Kyle Larson (1)

June 2, 2021

The last time Matt DiBenedetto raced at his home track, Sonoma Raceway, he scored the first-ever top-five finish of his Cup Series career.

He finished fourth in the 2019 while driving for Leavine Family Racing, but hasn’t raced at Sonoma since then because the race was moved in 2020 as NASCAR adjusted its schedule to deal with the pandemic.

Now, DiBenedetto and the No. 21 Menards/Knauf Insulation team is headed back to Sonoma for Sunday’s 350-kilometer run over the original 12-turn, 2.52-mile course, which was brought back in 2019 after NASCAR used a shorter route from 1998-2018.

NASCAR rules for the race mandate the 750-horsepower engine package combined with a low-downforce aero set-up.
 
DiBenedetto, who will start from 17^th place after NASCAR set the starting line-up using a formula based on recent performance, said he’s anxious to pick up where he left off at Sonoma two years ago.
 
“I finished fourth the last time I was there,” he said. “It’s a fun road course.”
 
“It’s completely opposite of Watkins Glen. It’s technical, worn out, low speed, etc.”
 
And he gets to race in front of some home folks as the track is about two hours southwest of his home town of Grass Valley. He also has relatives that live even closer to the track.
 
“A home-state race is fun,” DiBenedetto said. “Some of my family usually comes to that race since they live not far from there in Lincoln.”
 
“So this race is a special one.”
 
There will be no practice prior to the start of Sunday’s 90-lap Toyota/Save Mart 350, which is set to get the green flag just after 1 p.m. (4 p.m. Eastern Time) with TV coverage on FOX Sports 1.
 
Stage breaks are set for Laps 20 and 40.
 

 Hello and good day, after a year long of not much racing and getting rained out the 1st race we finally got 2 races in over the weekend finally
Our 1st race was at Limaland motorsports park on Friday night with a great field of cars for opening night and beautiful weather We drew early to qualify and did not qualify well,but that put us in the 2nd heat starting 6th and finished 5th,That put us starting deep in the field starting 20th in the feature We got to running up to 11th on a horrible track conditions only to have us put back to 17th under a caution as the scoring people could not see and did not know where to put some cars in the line up and that kinda screwed us but went to finish 14th they say? we really should of had a top 10 finish
 Our 2nd night of racing was at the famous Eldora Speedway for family fun night And with a larger field of cars  We drew late to qualify and ended up 15th quick out of 28 cars, We started on the Pole position of the 3rd heat race and finished 3rd and that got us qualified for the feature  And we would be starting in the 12th position We was up running in the 8th position and was probably gonna finish 7th or 8th and we had a late race caution with 4 laps to go  and did not have the best restart and we finished 11thSo for being the 1st weekend out this year we brought the car home in one piece and regroup and we will move on to the big weekend of this weekend with 3 races scheduled in a row,We will be at Limaland Motorsports Park on Friday night, Wayne County Speedway on Saturday night, and Waynesfield raceway for the 1st Ronnie Kahle memorial race paying $12000 to win Again I thank everyone for their continued help and support and hope to see at the races of a great day !!!! Thanks Tim

Next Races

Bandimere Nat Topeka Div.

Topeka Nat
Brainerd Div/Nat
Bowling Green Div. Aug 27-29 US Nationals Sep 1-5

July 16-18 July 22-25

Aug 13-15 Aug 18-22

The Time Slip

Volume 10, Issue 1

Race Update

May 2021

The beginning…

With the crazy February winter storm in Houston, plans to pick up the Super Stocker in NC and test at Bradenton, Florida were delayed. Bill couldn’t get home from work for several days as flights into Houston were cancelled. This left Brenda and Charlie (new puppy) to deal with the snow, ice, loss of power and water, frozen pipes, and frozen pool equipment. Once Bill was able to get home, the damage accessed and patched, plans were made to leave, as soon as the roads cleared.

Thankfully, the first road trip with Charlie was a success as he loved traveling. For a young puppy, he experienced several states between Texas and North Caroline before arriving at KB Racing on a Sunday afternoon. Dallas Glenn was kind enough to move his golf tee time and open the shop so the Super Stocker could be loaded into the trailer. Charlie really liked Dallas, and Dallas quickly became Charlie’s favorite Pro Stock Driver! Once the rig was loaded, Bradenton, Florida was the next stop to test both cars. The Stocker had a new The Joie of Seating custom seat and the Super Stocker had chassis adjustments done over the winter.

Testing at Bradenton

Testing was challenging given all the changes to both cars; however, the result was good data and seat time for Brenda. Unfortunately, on the last pass in the Stocker, the pinion in the rear end sheared an entire tooth. This meant bypassing the Belle Rose track and heading home instead, of directly to the divisional race.

Belle Rose

With minimal time at home, the rear end gear was changed, and the rig was back on the road heading east to Belle Rose. The detour home
caused a late arrival to the track and a missed qualifying run.
With the new Line Performance engine, the Stocker was able to

secure the AA/SA Class Win. Eliminations resulted in a first- round loss in Super Stock due to a spin off the line and a third- round loss in Stock.

April, 2021 issue of the National Dragster

www.BrendaGrubbsMotorsports.com bdgrubbs@aol.com

Gainesville

After Belle Rose, the rig headed to the Baby Gators and the Gatornationals. At the Baby Gators, Brenda secured another AA/SA Class Win. Unfortunately, first round .001 and .004 red lights in both cars ended Brenda’s weekend at the Divisional.

The Gatornationals were extremely disappointing. After first round, numerous Stockers were given reruns due to a timing system error. Brenda and Jeff Taylor were both on the rerun list but were never notified as they were in staging for first round of Super Stock, and their reruns were cancelled. The Super Stocker exited in round three.

Southern Sportsman’s Showdown

After the Gators, the rig headed North to the Southern Sportsman’s Showdown. The race was a lot of fun and hopefully, there will be more events in the future. Brenda went rounds at each race.

The Houston Divisional

The Stocker went out first round and the Super Stocker second round.

Southern Nationals

The Southern Nationals and the Atlanta Dragway hold great memories for Bill and Brenda. Years ago (1995), at the Southern Nationals, Bill asked Brenda’s Dad permission to marry her. Over the years, Brenda has enjoyed success bracket racing and winning two NHRA Divisional Events. While Brenda didn’t have any luck this year, she will cherish the great memories and will miss Atlanta Dragway.

Charlie’s favorite memory of Atlanta Dragway is getting his new golf cart

The Plan

The Super Stocker needs additional tweaking. It continues to experience intermittent spinning issues off the line causing the car to be unpredictable. Bill has tried everything to get this car working. During events the resulting frustration often bleeds to the entire racing program. After the Southern Nationals, a difficult decision was made to pause the racing schedule and get the car working properly. Because of this decision, the Dallas Double Divisional and the Tulsa Divisional were removed from the schedule and additional races have been added in later in the year.

Brenda’s most recent article on Stock Eliminator driver, Anne Towes “Never Too Late” was featured in the April, 2021 issue of National Dragster. An article featuring a Super Comp racer is being written now and next up will be a husband and wife race team.

Inside Line Promotions – FRESNO, Calif. (June 1, 2021) – Dominic Scelzi is excited to pilot a sprint car for Mark Dobmeier during five races this month.

Scelzi will make his debut with the No. 13 team this weekend during World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series shows on Friday at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, N.D., for the Gerdau Presents the 1 ^st Leg of the Northern Tour and on Saturday at Granite City Motor Park in Sauk Rapids, Minn., for the GMC Select Dealers of Minnesota Presents the World of Outlaws.

“I’m really excited and very thankful for Mark and the Dobmeier Family for trusting me with representing their race team for five nights,” he said. “I haven’t run with the Outlaws all year. It’s the longest I’ve gone not racing with the Outlaws. I’m looking forward to getting back racing with those guys for a couple of nights. It’ll give an opportunity to see where I stack up. I’m having the best year of my career and I’d like that to show in the results.”

Scelzi finished 11^th during his lone start at River Cities Speedway last year. He placed a career-best ninth there in 2019 when he hustled from the 18^th starting position. Scelzi garnered the Hard Charger Award for passing the most cars that night.

“I love River Cities Speedway,” he said. “It’s one of my favorite tracks in the country. We’ve had some good runs there and passed a lot of cars. It seems like it’s always racy. Mark has won so many events there and his race cars are really fast. I have high hopes and I feel confident with how we’ll be when we unload.”

Saturday will mark his debut at Granite City Motor Park.

Scelzi returns to the Dobmeier ride June 20-22 at Huset’s Speedway in Brandon, S.D., for the first three nights of THE SHOWDOWN. The spectacle begins on June 20 with the $6,000-to-win Chuck Zitterich Tribute. The ensuing two nights are World of Outlaws shows during the Huset’s 50, which pays $30,000 to win the finale.

“It’s another one of those places that’s on my list of favorite tracks,” he said. “I really enjoy it. We’ve run second there twice now and had good opportunities to win. You want to win every race, but I want to compete to win these races. You want to roll in there, time in good and hope that everything goes smooth so we can represent Buffalo Wild Wings and Dobmeier Racing well.”

Scelzi charged from 14^th to second in early May during his only visit to Huset’s Speedway this season. He also placed 11^thand seventh, respectively, during a pair of World of Outlaws races at the track last year.

SEASON STATS –

24 races, 9 wins, 19 top fives, 23 top 10s, 23 top 15s, 23 top 20s

UP NEXT –

Friday at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, N.D., for the Gerdau Presents the 1^st Leg of the Northern Tour and Saturday at Granite City Motor Park in Sauk Rapids, Minn., for the GMC Select Dealers of Minnesota Presents the World of Outlaws with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series

MEDIA LINKS –

Website: http://www.GaryScelziMotorsports.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DominicScelzi41

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Scelzi41

SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT – Fuel Delivery Services, Inc. 

Based in Stockton, Calif., Fuel Delivery Services, Inc., is a premier bulk transporter of refined petroleum products. For more information, visit http://www.FuelDeliveryServices.net .

“Fuel Delivery Services, Inc., has been a partner of ours since the first year we began racing sprint cars,” Scelzi said. “They supply a lot of product for our family business as well. We’ve been fortunate to work with them for more than a decade.”

Scelzi would like to thank Scelzi Enterprises, Red Rose Transportation, Inc., Whipple Superchargers, Red Line Oil, Roth Motorsports, NAPA Auto Parts, Todd Jorgensen, Schoenfeld Headers, FK Rod Ends, Brown & Miller Racing Solutions, Auto Meter, K&N Filters, Sparco, Allstar Performance, Meridian Steel, Kenny’s Components and Worldwide Bearings for their continued support.

Madden, Sheppard, Bruening and more prepare for first two-track weekend

INDIANAPOLIS, IN– JUNE 1, 2021 – Racing history in Indiana is usually reserved for the Indianapolis 500. But as the calendar turns to June, the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Models have their own chance to make history in the Hoosier State.  

This weekend is the only time the Series will visit Indiana in 2021, with a pair of 40-lap $10,000-to-win Morton Buildings Features. 

Friday, June 4, The Most Powerful Late Models on The Planet travel to Circle City Raceway for the first Late Model race in track history. The Series will be joined by the United CC Modifieds, and Pro Legends. 

On Saturday, June 5, the World of Outlaws Late Models will make their first appearance at Plymouth Speedway in Plymouth, IN. The DIRTcar UMP Modifieds and 4-cylinders are also on the card. 

Six Live Races, Special Programming, New Shows and Seasons Featured This Month on the Motorsports Network

The month of June means temperatures are rising and so are the number of live race telecasts featured in MAVTV’s broadcast schedule. A total of six events across two professional race series are scheduled to air live on the motorsports network this month, beginning with first moto coverage from Thunder Valley Motocross Park for round two of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship on Saturday, June 5 at 3:00 pm ET. Round three of the Pro Motocross series returns to MAVTV on June 19. Live first moto coverage airs at 1:00 pm ET.   Supersport racing fans are also in for a treat this month with two days of live MotoAmerica Supersport coverage from Wisconsin’s Road America on June 12 at 3:00 pm ET and June 13 at 2:00 pm ET. MAVTV continues its live Supersport coverage on June 26 at 5:00 pm ET and June 27 at 4:00 pm ET. Live broadcasts for stop number four of the MotoAmerica series come from Ridge Motorsports Park.   Sundays in June will belong to the Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals on MAVTV. Tune in every Sunday at 9:00 pm ET to re-watch the world’s most elite drivers battle for a chance at winning the coveted Golden Driller award.   FIA Pure Motorsport makes its MAVTV debut on June 5 at 7:30 pm ET. The action-fueled show features unique disciplines and championships such as Truck Racing, Karting, Drifting, Cross Country, Dragster and many more.     New episodes from Racer TV’s off-road, ATV, and amateur motocross race coverage air on MAVTV June 2 at 6:30 pm ET. Fans of grassroots automobile racing can catch new episodes of Short Track America, featuring some of the most significant events in dirt and paved racing, on June 6 at 5:00 pm ET.

MAVTV is now available to more viewers than ever before. With a total of 220 providers across cable, satellite, telco, and digital broadcast platforms, including AT&T U-verse, Charter/Spectrum, DIRECTV, Fios by Verizon, FuboTV, Youtube TV, Mediacom, and many more, the country’s premier motorsports network is seen in more than 30-million households.   Race fans who don’t have MAVTV should contact their local cable, satellite, or other subscription service provider to get details on how to add it to their channel lineup. A full list of providers, shows, and scheduled broadcasts can be found by visiting www.MAVTV.com.

MAVTV’s digital subscription service, MAVTV Plus, will also feature various live races from multiple disciplines this June, along with access to MAVTV’s vast library of motorsports content. The MAVTV Plus app is available for download on all major mobile and streaming devices and can also be accessed via web browser at www. MAVTVPlus.com.

MAVTV Broadcast Schedule:June 2021DateSeriesEvent / VenueTime (ET)June 2Racer TV 6:30 pmJune 5LIVE: Pro MotocrossThunder Valley3:00 pmJune 5FIA Pure Motorsport 7:30 pmJune 6Short Track America 5:00 pmJune 9Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals 9:00 pmJune 12LIVE: MotoAmerica SupersportRoad America3:00 pmJune 13LIVE: MotoAmerica SupersportRoad America2:00 pmJune 16Lucas Oil Chili Bowl Nationals 9:00 pmJune 19LIVE: Pro MotocrossHigh Point Raceway1:00 pmJune 26LIVE: MotoAmerica SupersportRidge Motorsports5:00 pmJune 27LIVE: MotoAmerica SupersportRidge Motorsports4:00 pmLIVE event broadcast schedule is available at https://www.mavtv.com/shows/#live-events

Larson Beats the Best of NASCAR and World of Outlaws within 24 HoursLAWRENCEBURG, IN – May 31, 2021 – Making history is all that Kyle Larson knows how to do.This weekend, he did just that; Beating the beat Stock Car drivers in the world and the best Sprint Car drivers in the world within a 24-hour span at two tracks 500 miles apart.It started on Sunday evening, when “Yung Money” cashed in for a dominating crown jewel victory at Charlotte Motor Speedway’s Coca-Cola 600. The Team Hendrick driver crossed the finish line for his eighth career NASCAR Cup Series win at 10:27pm.Less than 24 later, at 10:15pm on Monday night, Larson found victory lane again at Lawrenceburg Speedway. Only this time it was aboard the Paul Silva owned #57 for his 21st career World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series win.He conquered the best on pavement, and the best on dirt. It was the first time in the history of Motorsports that a driver has topped both the NASCAR Cup Series and the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars in consecutive days.”It’s really cool to win that [NASCAR] Cup race last night and then come here in a totally different race car, totally different atmosphere and get it done again,” Larson spoke on his remarkable accomplishment. “I think it shows that I’m in such great equipment all around from the #5 Hendrick Cup car, Paul Silva’s #57 right here, and even the Late Model with Kevin Rumley. It’s been a lot of fun lately.”Larson’s path to a popular win at the Lawrenceburg, IN 3/8-mile wasn’t exactly easy.Yes, the Elk Grove, CA native did tear apart dirt racing with 46 total triumphs last year, 12 of those against the World of Outlaws. However, it’s been much more of a struggle since the 2021 season started. Larson and Silva went 0-for-6 through Bristol, Jacksonville, I-70, and Williams Grove. They didn’t just not win, they didn’t even make it on the podium up to this point.That all changed in Monday’s Memorial Day Spectacular; an event Larson considers the true start to his summer slate in Silva’s Finley Farms #57.”I’ll be honest, we’ve really been struggling this year in the #57,” Larson admitted afterwards. “Lawrenceburg is always at the right point in the season for us to get going, though. Hopefully this moves us forward in the right direction.”Starting from the outside pole of the 35-lap NOS Energy Drink Feature, Larson took the green flag with Aaron Reutzelalongside him on pole position.Reutzel of Clute, TX bolted to the initial lead and paced the opening 10 circuits aboard the Roth Motorsports #83. The duo ran through lap traffic until Larson got the best of him on Lap 11 and slid by with an inside move through turns three and four.Larson led from there to the finish, but it didn’t come without challenges. Reutzel was mighty cutting away at his advantage with less than ten-to-go when one slip on the cushion sent his #83 for a wild flip on Lap 28 and removed him from the running.Logan Schuchart, who set Slick Woody’s QuickTime and won his Team Drydene Heat Race, was next in line and got the closest of all to the rear bumper on the #57. If it weren’t for Larson’s presence of mind to peep the DIRTVision big screen down the backstretch, Schuchart quite possibly could’ve stolen the win away.Ultimately, Larson beat Schuchart to the line by 0.764-seconds for the $10,000 score.”I actually snuck a look at the big screen and saw Logan right behind me there at the end, so I changed it up a bit,” Larson mentioned on the final laps. “I wasn’t sure what to do, so I just tried to take some of his air away. Lawrenceburg is such an awesome track. It’s so technical with all the waves, holes, and a thick cushion. I hope all the fans had as much fun as I had driving.”Closing out the podium at Lawrenceburg was Logan Schuchart of Hanover, PA and Sheldon Haudenschild of Wooster, OH.It was a career-best finish at the high-banked track for both the Team Drydene #1S and the NOS Energy Drink #17.”We might have to take that big board down soon.” Schuchart joked. “He’s a smart driver, though, I knew he either heard me or saw me coming. My heart said to fly it across the middle, but my brain told me the opposite. We’ve never had a top-ten here, so a second-place run is pretty good too.””I don’t know that I even needed much more from the car tonight,” Haudenschild thought. “We were good, it was just about surviving this one. I’m just glad we can keep putting this NOS Energy Drink #17 up here on the podium.”Buddy Kofoid of Penngrove, CA drove the Swindell SpeedLab #39 to a career-best fourth-place finish from tenth. Closing out the the top-five and matching his season-best of fifth-place was Kerry Madsen in the Tony Stewart Racing #14.Rounding out the top-ten was Kraig Kinser in sixth, Brad Sweet in a backup car from 24th-to-seventh, Donny Schatz in eighth, Carson Macedo in ninth, and Lachlan McHugh of Australia finishing tenth in his World of Outlaws debut.UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series has three days off to make the 15-hour haul west. This weekend, The Greatest Show on Dirt visits River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, ND on Friday and then heads to Granite City Speedway in Sauk Rapids, MN on Saturday.NOS Energy Drink Feature (35 Laps): 1. 57-Kyle Larson [2][$10,000]; 2. 1S-Logan Schuchart [4][$6,000]; 3. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild [3][$3,500]; 4. 39-Buddy Kofoid [10][$2,800]; 5. 14-Kerry Madsen [14][$2,500]; 6. 11K-Kraig Kinser [6][$2,300]; 7. 49-Brad Sweet [24][$2,200]; 8. 15-Donny Schatz [8][$2,100]; 9. 41-Carson Macedo [7][$2,050]; 10. 101-Lachlan McHugh [16][$2,000]; 11. 71-Spencer Bayston [12][$1,600]; 12. 2-David Gravel [5][$1,400]; 13. 91-Cale Thomas [9][$1,200]; 14. 9-James McFadden [23][$1,100]; 15. 18-Cole Macedo [18][$1,050]; 16. 19AZ-Tanner Thorson [20][$1,000]; 17. 21BP-Brinton Marvel [17][$1,000]; 18. 49D-Shawn Dancer [15][$1,000]; 19. 83-Aaron Reutzel [1][$1,000]; 20. 19-Paige Polyak [13][$1,000]; 21. 4X-Bradley Ashford [22][$1,000]; 22. 2C-Wayne Johnson [11][$1,000]; 23. 55-McKenna Haase [21][$1,000]; 24. 1A-Jacob Allen [19][$1,000]. Lap Leaders: Aaron Reutzel 1-10, Kyle Larson 11-35. KSE Hard Charger Award: 49-Brad Sweet[+17]NEW Championship Standings (27/83 Races): 1. Brad Sweet (3,792); 2. David Gravel (-66); 3. Carson Macedo (-90); 4. Donny Schatz (-152); 5. Sheldon Haudenschild (-156); 6. Logan Schuchart (-194); 7. Aaron Reutzel (-224); 8. Kraig Kinser (-460); 9. James McFadden (-552); 10. Brock Zearfoss (-574).Photo – Trent Gower

The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink® Sprint Car Series is brought to fans across the country by many important sponsors and partners, including: DIRTVision (Official Live Broadcast Partner), Drydene (Official Motor Oil), Hoosier Racing Tire (Official Tire), iRacing (Official Online Racing Game), Morton Buildings (Official Building), NOS Energy (Official Energy Product), SIS Insurance (Official Insurance Provider) and VP Racing Fuels (Official Racing Fuel); contingency sponsors include ARP (Automotive Racing Products), Cometic Gasket, COMP Cams, KSE Racing Products (Hard Charger Award), MSD and Slick Woody’s (Quick Time Award); manufacturer sponsors include FireAde, Intercomp, K1 Race Gear, and Racing Electronics.Founded in 1978, the World of Outlaws®, based in Concord, NC, is the premier national touring series for dirt track racing in North America, featuring the most powerful cars on dirt, the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series and the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series. Annually, the two series race nearly 140 times at tracks across the United States and Canada. CBS Sports Network is the official broadcast partner of the World of Outlaws. DIRTVision® also broadcasts all World of Outlaws events over the Internet to fans around the world. Learn more about the World of Outlaws.

Seven-time champion Matt Sheppard collects $13,500 NAPA Super DIRT Week qualifier at Lebanon ValleyDominant Stewart Friesen’s chances go up in smoke after Matt Sheppard’s late-race pass, Mat Williamson and Marc Johnson fill out the podium WEST LEBANON, NY – As the fog descended on The Valley in the closing stages of the 100-lap Mr. DIRT Track title, Matt Sheppard’s winless streak lifted as he crossed the line ahead of a charging Mat Williamson and Marc Johnson. Stewart Friesen led most of the race after jumping pole-sitter Kevin Root for the lead. Friesen stayed at the point until 20 laps to go. Sheppard, who had been charging through the field from 10th, got around Friesen on his way to the $13,500 payday. Sheppard, from Waterloo, NY, came into the night’s racing without a win on the tour in 2021.His lack of a stop in Victory Lane this year was not for a lack of speed. The #9S took both Billy Whittaker Cars Fast-Time Awards during this Memorial Day Weekend’s doubleheader at Weedsport Speedway and Lebanon Valley Speedway. “The track was just weird enough for us that it suited our style tonight and this car was really good off the trailer,” said Sheppard. “Things just went our way.”The temperatures were cool and the air was heavy with humidity which ended up throwing many of the drivers for a loop including the regulars.Friesen was out in front for the first 80 laps of the race as Sheppard picked his way through the top third of the field. A caution came out with 19 to go when Peter Britten took a hard tumble in Turns 1 and 2. Fortunately, the Queensland, Australia native was able to climb out of his race car and walk away.During the red flag period, the fog began to settle into “The Valley”. “I lost all visibility the last 15 laps,” Sheppard noted. “I could see the wall on the outside so I tried to stay as close to it as I could without hitting it. I knew Williamson was behind me there but I was just trying to look where my own car was going.”Nothing was easy about the win. Sheppard pulled the 10th starting position in the redraw which gave him an uphill climb.But he and the #9S team were up to the task. It was a long green-flag run that gave Sheppard his edge to pass the #44. Soon after Sheppard got around Friesen, smoke began to show from under the hood before going completely up in flames. The long green-flag run was the key, however. “Once I got some tire heat the car was pretty good,” said Sheppard. “I made a lot of my moves on the bottom but it also felt pretty good on the top too. I was fighting the tires when we started having those restarts at the end. I didn’t really like how they felt after a caution. I’d go to the bottom and the tires were spinning. When we had the long greens I felt like I was really good. That’s when I did all my damage.”Runner-up and last night’s winner Mat Williamson was locked in top five battles for all 100 laps on the high banks against the likes of Friesen, Sheppard, and Lebanon Valley hero Andy Bachetti. “It was an attrition race,” Williamson noted. “I felt like at the end we had one of the best car. I was reeling Stewie [Friesen] in but the cautions killed us. We were there. We had a good enough car for second and it was hard-earned. Matt was good at the beginning on the long runs and that’s what won it.”Including last night’s win, Williamson had a 1.5 average finish for the Memorial Day Weekend doubleheader. “I had to drive my car so freaking hard,” Williamson said. “That made it hard to be consistent. I’d put together 3 or 4 laps and I’d catch him and then overdrive the corner. We just had to race so hard. The track was different than any other time all year. We’ll take a second place to get back in points.”The Buzz Chew Racing #88 was there at the end running in Sheppard tire tracks. The championship race is wide open once again and Williamson is poised to get back to the top. Marc Johnson’s calm approach to racing at high speed and high-intensity tracks paid off with a third-place finish against the Series stars. “My guys and I looked forward to this since it was announced,” Johnson noted. “We were hoping to run well and we put it on the front stretch with the top 3. I am so happy for my guys and my sponsors.”The odd weather created a surface that was difficult to predict but very racy. “With these track conditions, I was just taking it lap to lap,” said Johnson. “Seeing out there with the fog and the dew made it tough. We just took it lap by lap.”Not only did the P10 redraw work out for Sheppard but since it was the lowest position he could pull, the #9S gets a free tire courtesy of Hoosier Racing Tire. Erick Rudolph picked up back-to-back Hard Charger awards. This time Rudolph made up 15 positions to finish an impressive sixth. Next on the Series schedule is the Horsepower 100 at Albany-Saratoga Speedway on Tuesday, June 22. Be sure to follow the Super DIRTcar Series on social media to stay up to date. Check us out on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Feature (100 Laps)9s-Matt Sheppard [10][$13,500]; 2. 88W-Mat Williamson [3][$5,000]; 3. 3J-Marc Johnson [6][$2,500]; 4. 5H-Chris Hile [17][$1,800]; 5. 55B-Brett Haas [13][$1,600]; 6. 25R-Erick Rudolph [21][$1,400]; 7. 35M-Mike Mahaney [15][$1,300]; 8. 99L-Larry Wight [16][$1,200]; 9. 2RJ-Ronnie Johnson [19][$1,100]; 10. 2L-Jack Lehner [14][$1,000]; 11. 98H-Jimmy Phelps [5][$800]; 12. 22F-Mark Flach [20][$700]; 13. 4R-Kevin Root [1][$600]; 14. 28M-Jordan McCreadie [18][$575]; 15. 91D-Billy Decker [12][$550]; 16. 115-Kenny Tremont [24][$525]; 17. 43M-Max Mclaughlin [8][$500]; 18. 44F-Stewart Friesen [2][$500]; 19. 4B-Andy Bachetti [9][$500]; 20. 21A-Peter Britten [4][$500]; 21. 83X-Tim Sears [25][$500]; 22. 99S-Kolby Schroeder [11][$500]; 23. 74H-JR Heffner [7][$500]; 24. 35L-LJ Lombardo [28][$500]; 25. 11A-Kyle Armstrong [22][$500]; 26. 20H-Brett Hearn [23][$500]; 27. 22W-Brandon Walters [26][$500]; 28. 88Jr-Olden Dwyer [27][$500]Hard Charger Award: 25R-Erick Rudolph[+15]PHOTO: Mark Brown

The Super DIRTcar Series is brought to fans by many important sponsors and partners, including: DIRTVision (Official Live Broadcast Partner), Hoosier Racing Tire (Official Tire), SIS Insurance (Official Insurance Provider), VP Racing Fuels (Official Racing Fuel), Chevy Performance Parts, iRacing (Official Online Racing Game) and NAPA Auto Parts. Contingency sponsors include: ARP (Automotive Racing Products), ASI Race Wear, Bicknell Racing Products, Billy Whittaker Cars & Trux, Cometic Gasket, COMP Cams, Drydene, Fox Factory, MSD, and Wrisco (Exclusive Racing Aluminum); along with manufacturer sponsors, including: FireAde, Intercomp, and Racing Electronics.

May 31, 2021

Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, NASCAR’s longest race, seemed especially long for Matt DiBenedetto and the Menards/Masterforce Tools team. DiBenedetto and the No. 21 team never seemed to find the combination they needed to be competitive and wound up 18^th, two laps behind the leaders. 
 
“Our Menards/Masterforce Tools Mustang was lacking speed and handling,” DiBenedetto said. “It was very edgy to drive….We were just struggling all night.”

DiBenedetto qualified 22^nd and ran outside the top 20 for much of the first two 100-lap Stages, although he did lead two laps during a cycle of green-flag pit stops.

He and the team got a break near the end of the second Stage when the caution flag flew for Kurt Busch’s blown engine. That allowed him to take the wave-around, and he was able to nurse his worn tires and hang on to the lead lap until the end of the Stage when he pitted for fresh tires and fuel. 

In the third Stage, DiBenedetto raced inside the top 20 and ran as high as 13^th before ending that segment in 19^th place.

In the final 100 laps, he ran in the free-pass position for a time, but fell back as the laps wound down.

DiBenedetto said that even as he and the Menards/Masterforce Tools team faced challenges on the race track, they were able to honor the memory of Marine Sgt. Jeremy E. Murray, who had hoped to make the Marines his career, but was killed on Nov. 16, 2005, at age 27 while on his third deployment to Iraq.

Sgt. Murray was honored by the Menards/Masterforce Tools team as part of NASCAR’s 600 Miles of Remembrance program.

“Honoring those who made the ultimate sacrifice to their country is what this Memorial Day weekend is all about,” DiBenedetto said. “That’s important to my family, especially since I have a brother in the military, and it’s important to our race team.”

DiBenedetto and the Wood Brothers team remain 17^th in the Cup Series standings heading into next weekend’s race on the road course at Sonoma Raceway.
 

: Williamson makes impressive charge to win at WeedsportWilliamson breaks out of slump to win Heroes Remembered 100 at Weedsport Speedway over Billy Decker and Stewart FriesenWEEDSPORT, NY – Mat Williamson surprised himself Sunday night by turning his Super DIRTcar Series season around with a win at a track he’s traditionally struggled at. The reigning champion earned his first Super DIRTcar Series win of 2021 at Weedsport Speedway after passing Billy Decker with 15 laps left to win the Heroes Remembered 100. With a last-lap pass on Justin Haers, Stewart Friesen took third place.  Williamson, from St. Catharines, ON, hasn’t hidden from his recent struggles on the tour after notching only one top five in the first four points races of the season. “We’ve been disappointed with our start,” Williamson noted. “I haven’t had a good year. We struggled in Florida and then had a big win in Pennsylvania. We had passed Stewie [Friesen] and we felt like we were on top. He sets the bar very high. Then we came back up north and got our rear ends handed to us.”Like the 2021 season, Weedsport has not been particularly kind to Williamson and the Buzz Chew Racing team. “We’ve had success here in the 358,” Williamson said. “We’ve had some top threes and top fives. But we always struggle here. When we run third in a Series race it’s because we started on the pole and that’s not good.”But tonight, Williamson reminded himself why he is among the elite drivers in the Super DIRTcar Series.“Tonight we passed Stew [Friesen], Matt [Sheppard], Billy [Decker] and Jimmy [Phelps]. Those are four very good cars so we’ll take that any day of the week,” he said.Williamson was on a mission throughout the 100-lap Feature in his #88 machine, battling tooth and nail for both position and to get through lapped traffic.  The first 83 laps of the Feature went caution-free. During that time, outside pole-sitter Billy Decker took the lead from Jimmy Phelps and proceeded to lap the field up to 10th position, leaving Williamson, Friesen, Phelps and Haers just trying to keep him in view. Decker outdueled Phelps in the opening laps running side-by-side. Then it was all lapped traffic for 60 straight laps. Few could navigate the pack like “The Franklyn Flyer.”“It was a lot of fun,” said Billy Decker, driver of the #91 Gypsum Racing Big Block. “It looked like it was going to be a one-groove race track but it was wide, racy, and fun. I hope the fans enjoyed it. We’ll take second and go on to The Valley.” “Money Mat” Williamson benefited from having a different setup than Decker to claim the $7,500 check.“We were very tight,” Williamson said. “I couldn’t roll the bottom. Billy [Decker] was a little bit freer than us and he could roll the bottom. But that’s kind of what won us the race. In clean air, I had to be really good. In traffic, I had to be smart about where I was going to go.”Decker knew when the late-race caution flew that he was in the sights of some hungry, talented drivers. If the race had gone 100 laps without a caution, the #91 may have won by more than half a track length. Unfortunately for Decker, the Lap 83 caution was the last thing he needed. “The times picked up after that restart,” Decker noted. “We picked up three-tenths of a second but Williamson picked up a full second. It was a little strange there but we had a great race car nonetheless.”An exciting last-lap pass awarded driver Stewart Friesen, from Sprakers, NY, third place. The #44 found its way to the top lane early on but more out of necessity than design. “We were halfway decent but we just missed it a little for the Feature,” Friesen said. “We were fast out of the box tonight but we made some changes and I don’t think we went in the right direction. We’ll put that in the notebook for next time. We were lucky to get that last caution which scuffed the tires up a little bit to get the seal out of them and get rolling on the top. We salvaged a third.”Friesen started fourth and was in constant battles with the rest of the top five. However, he could not get the Halmar Racing Big Block Modified to hold the bottom to put pressure on the top two. “We weren’t able to roll the middle like Decker and Williamson,” Friesen said. “When I went down there I would just skate and slide. I didn’t plan to run the top because I overheat the tires and the seal over and I dropped back. Which is what happened. I had to live and die by the top.”The early going showed Friesen fading a little after getting around Matt Sheppard for third but he never fell completely out of reach. “It was awesome to be back here at Weedsport with fans in the stands,” Friesen said. “It’s a great event for the speedway and we’re happy to be New York racing. Justin Haers, in the #3 Big Block Modified, had an epic battle with Friesen in the closing stages while racing on a flat left front tire. “I noticed my left front was flat with about 30 laps to go and that was not a good feeling,” Haers said. “It was my fault. I got too low and clipped the jersey barrier with the left front.”Haers was a threat to win but with a flat left front, it was all he could do to hold off the #44 and did so until the final lap. “Before the flat, I thought I was coming back to Mat [Williamson] in second,” he said. “I could have raced with the top three. Who knows if I had been on the outside for the last restart maybe I would have been in contention at the end. We’ll take fourth.”Friesen nearly knocked the walls down trying to find a way around Haers.“I knew Friesen was back there,” Haers said. “I figured he was trying to set me up. Going down the backstretch I had the wheel turned all the way to the left and I had to be really careful to not drive in too hard or not hard enough. The car would either shoot left and spin me out or shimmy right up the race track. It was doing a lot of weird stuff. Every single guy in the pits has driven with a left-front flat. They know what it’s like.” Mike Mahaney had a mix of good and bad fortune. First, he placed second in his Heat Race and made the top 12 redraw. Then he drew 12th, which comes with a free Hoosier Racing Tire. From there the #35 Adirondack Auto Big Block was on the move and possibly even coming for the leaders late in the race when a battery cable failed while pacing under caution and forced him to settle for a 23rd place finish.Matt Sheppard was the Billy Whittacker Cars Fast-Time Award winner after clocking the fastest lap out of 43 Super DIRTcar Series Big Block Modifieds at Weedsport. He ended the night seventh. Next up: Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, NY for the $13,500-to-win Mr. DIRT Track 100 on Memorial Day, Monday, May 31.Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Plus bookmark SuperDIRTcar.com for news, features, standings, and more. Also, be sure to tune in on DIRTVision.com if you can’t make it to the track. Feature (100 Laps)1. 88W-Mat Williamson [5][$7,500]; 2. 91D-Billy Decker [2][$4,000]; 3. 44F-Stewart Friesen [4][$2,500]; 4. 3H-Justin Haers [6][$1,800]; 5. 98H-Jimmy Phelps [1][$1,600]; 6. 99L-Larry Wight [10][$1,400]; 7. 9S-Matt Sheppard [3][$1,300]; 8. 32CC-Max Mclaughlin [7][$1,200]; 9. 25R-Erick Rudolph [16][$1,100]; 10. 21A-Peter Britten [11][$1,000]; 11. 111D-Demetrios Drellos [14][$800]; 12. 5H-Chris Hile [9][$700]; 13. 27J-Danny Johnson [19][$600]; 14. 2L-Jack Lehner [21][$575]; 15. 32R-Ronnie Davis [15][$550]; 16. 42P-Pat Ward [18][$525]; 17. X-Chad Phelps [23][$500]; 18. 28M-Jordan Mcreadie [25][$500]; 19. 83X-Tim Sears [8][$500]; 20. 33J-Robbie Johnston [17][$500]; 21. 4R-Kevin Root [27][$]; 22. 22W-Brandon Walters [28][$]; 23. 35M-Mike Mahaney [12][$500]; 24. 15R-Todd Root [13][$500]; 25. 84T-Gary Tomkins [22][$500]; 26. 17D-Marcus Dinkins [26][$500]; 27. 20T-Tyler Trump [24][$500]; 28. 19F-Tim Fuller [20][$500]PHOTO: Nick Graziano

The Super DIRTcar Series is brought to fans by many important sponsors and partners, including: DIRTVision (Official Live Broadcast Partner), Hoosier Racing Tire (Official Tire), SIS Insurance (Official Insurance Provider), VP Racing Fuels (Official Racing Fuel), Chevy Performance Parts, iRacing (Official Online Racing Game) and NAPA Auto Parts. Contingency sponsors include: ARP (Automotive Racing Products), ASI Race Wear, Bicknell Racing Products, Billy Whittaker Cars & Trux, Cometic Gasket, COMP Cams, Drydene, Fox Factory, MSD, and Wrisco (Exclusive Racing Aluminum); along with manufacturer sponsors, including: FireAde, Intercomp, and Racing Electronics.

Team Chevy Takes 4 of the Top-Five; 6 of the Top-10CONCORD, NC – (May 30, 2021) – The NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) annual Memorial Day weekend event brought Kyle Larson his second victory of the year when he powered his No. 5 MetroTech Camaro ZL1 1LE to victory lane in the 62nd Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. In dominating fashion, Larson swept all three stage wins and led a race-high 327 laps en route to his eighth-career victory in 238 starts in NASCAR’s Premier Series.  The 28-year-old Hendrick Motorsports driver’s trip to victory lane in one of NASCAR Cup Series’ crown jewel events gives Chevrolet its third consecutive win and sixth win overall on the season, bringing the Bowtie Brand’s all-time win record to 801 victories in the NASCAR Cup Series. The triumph gives Hendrick Motorsports its 21st win at the 1.5-mile Charlotte oval, the most of all active teams at the track.  It was a milestone victory for the Chevrolet team, as Larson’s triumph gives Hendrick Motorsports its record-breaking 269th all-time NASCAR Cup Series win. The feat tops Petty Enterprises’ NCS all-time win record and gives Car Owner, Rick Hendrick, and Hendrick Motorsports the prestigious title as the winningest team in NCS history, one of stock car racing’s greatest achievements.  “On behalf of everyone at Chevrolet, congratulations to Kyle Larson, the No. 5 Camaro team and Hendrick Motorsports on this monumental victory at Charlotte Motor Speedway,” said Jim Campbell, U.S. Vice President of Performance and Motorsports. “This milestone is a testament to the talent, hard work and dedication by everyone, past and present, that have contributed to Hendrick Motorsports’ success in becoming the winningest organization in NASCAR Cup Series history. We are so proud of our partnership with Hendrick Motorsports, and that all 269 wins have been in a Chevrolet. We look forward to many more.” Larson led a strong Team Chevy showing, with the Bowtie Brand capturing six of the Top-10 positions in the final running. The historic victory was celebrated by Larson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammates, Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 1LE, in second; William Byron, No. 24 Liberty University Camaro ZL1 1LE, in fourth; and Alex Bowman, No. 48 Ally Patriotic Camaro ZL1 1LE, rounding out the Top-Five. Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Dillon, No. 3 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Off Road Camaro ZL1 1LE, finished sixth; and Tyler Reddick, No. 8 Alsco Uniform’s Camaro ZL1 1LE, crossed the line in ninth to give Chevrolet six of the Top-10 in the final running order of the 400-lap/600-mile event.    The NASCAR Cup Series season continues next weekend as the Series heads west to Sonoma Raceway for the Toyota / Save Mart 350 on Sunday, June 6, at 4 p.m. ET. Live coverage will air on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 METROTECH CAMARO ZL1 1LE, PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT: 
THE MODERATOR: We’re joined by Kyle Larson, winner of tonight’s Coca-Cola 600 and driver of the No. 5 MetroTech Chevrolet.
Q.Kyle, have you ever had just kind of a car like that and a dominating performance like that in NASCAR?KYLE LARSON: I would say a few times. Probably more so — like Vegas I think was a much more dominating car. I think Kansas was. My car was really, really good. I didn’t have many complaints tonight, but I just think with the grip in the track and all that, my teammates were just as good as I was.It was much harder to fight them off than say it was in Vegas or Kansas or things, other races like that.Even when I was at Ganassi I had some races where it was probably easier throughout the whole race. I can think of Darlington, whatever year that was, where this one I felt like I was on defense for most of the race.
Finally in that final stage I was able to kind of stretch out and relax a little bit, but for most of the race I didn’t really relax at all.
Q.Kind of the string of second-place finishes, does that pop into your mind at all near the end of this race, like gosh, just don’t let something happen and me finish second again?KYLE LARSON: No, I mean, not really. Honestly all I’m thinking about the last 20 is just like, just don’t be a caution because I don’t want to have to be a strategy game, do we stay out, do we pit, anything like that. I just kind of wanted to cruise to the checkered flag.
No, I’m not thinking about the second-place finishes at all when I’m out there. I’m more just trying to think ahead of — hopefully it stays green and we get to the checkered like we did, but if not what do I need in my car to be better if we do pit. I had a big lead, so I’m like, well, let’s try and take care of my tires as much as I can just in case we have a restart and we stay out.
No, I’m not thinking about oh, gosh, let’s not finish second when I have a 10-second lead.
Q.I’m curious your take on the lap traffic tonight. It seemed like there was really a much larger disparity tonight between the leaders and the lap traffic. What was your take on that?KYLE LARSON: I mean, for the most part, most of the cars we lapped were pretty easy. I could catch them in okay spots and get runs in the corners. But it was as you got to the faster cars, that’s about when my front tires were pretty wore out and I was tight. It made it difficult to get runs and pass them.I got stuck behind the 10 a couple different times and maybe somebody else one other time. That really allowed the guys in second to close on me because I was just stalled out and making things were by trying to get aggressive to pass.
With this package and us running up in the PJ1, it was just kind of narrow up there and you’re just a little bit stuck in their dirty air.
Yeah, but it seemed like usually about the time where I would catch traffic and be struggling, that’s usually in the run where we would get to pit and put fresher tires on and get spread out again, so it worked out.
Q.You were battling your teammates most of the night. Was there ever a point even when Chase and William passed you, was there ever a point where you didn’t necessarily feel in control of the race or even when they got by you did you feel like you had the car to be able to get back to them and get around them?KYLE LARSON: Well, when Chase got by me early, I was like, uh-oh, this is not good. But when I ate him up getting to the commitment line for the green flag stop and took a large chunk of that out and came out the leader, I knew I had something in my advantage to be able to beat them guys.
And then when William passed me, he was way faster than I was. He was way faster than Chase was. But my goal when he passed me, he kind of stretched out a little bit, my goal was just to inch closer to him for when we got to the green flag stops because I knew I could do a better job than him on the green flag stop, and that’s what I was able to do.
We gained a lot of time. I think we pitted a lap earlier than him. I did a good job coming to the commitment line, our pit crew did a great job on the stop, and I was able to edge him out down the backstretch when he blended up. That carried us to the third stage win, and that No. 1 pit stall really helped for our pit stops and beating cars off for the caution stops.
It all just worked out really well, and qualifying on the pole I think really helped our race tonight.
Q.Multiple wins, the consistency, really the level of dominance you’ve had, was this the kind of season that you expected to have coming to Hendrick Motorsports or have you surprised yourself a little bit?KYLE LARSON: I did not expect to be this good. I had hoped to. It’s still early in the year, but I don’t know, I knew I would be good. Chase Elliott won the championship last year, and Jimmie had one of the fastest cars every race. They just kind of had some issues, and they didn’t get the finishes that they quite deserved. I had that in the back of my mind and thought, well, if Jimmie had the fastest car, maybe we would still continue to have one of the fastest cars this year, and Cliff and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports, they’ve probably gotten their stuff even better toward the end of the year, and it’s been awesome to see. Like looking at the scoreboard we had four cars in the top 5 is pretty dang cool.
Q.Kyle, what does Rick Hendrick mean to you?KYLE LARSON: He means a lot. I think we all in this room have a lot of respect for Rick Hendrick and a lot of you probably don’t even know him, just like myself really before this year. I had obviously — he said hi to me in passing and things like that, but I’ve always had a lot of respect for him, and then now getting to see firsthand the level of respect that everybody has for him and how they all love to work for him, I think it just shows how great of a person that he is and how great of a leader, too.
I think there’s just a lot to be learned off of him. He’s got a lot of experience in the business world, too, to get him to where he’s at and build the empire that he’s built today.
He means a bunch to me, and I definitely love having him at the racetrack, love having him around. He came to our competition meeting a few weeks ago, and I thought that was really cool, that our owner was sitting through an hour and a half competition meeting with us when he could have been doing a lot of other things on a Monday afternoon than he was that day. But he was there to support us, and I think that says a lot about him.
Q.You’ve had some really strong runs at some of the playoff tracks. What this organization has done the last few weeks has been remarkable, but it’s also come at tracks that aren’t going to be playoff tracks. With all the success or some of the things that you guys have done, how do you carry that through because the playoffs still are several months away and a lot of things can change? How do you look at what you’ve done but what you still have to do to be a true title contender?KYLE LARSON: Yeah, definitely. I honestly don’t even know what the schedule is for the playoffs off the top of my head. I mean, yeah, I guess this track isn’t in the playoffs.
I don’t know, in my experience in the Cup Series, too, a lot of times, and you see it a lot, the team that’s the best throughout the regular season isn’t the team that always is the best throughout the playoffs and wins the championship. I think we all know that at Hendrick Motorsports, and I think that’s why we continue to not settle with where we’re at.
There’s no denying that we’re the most dominant team, organization out there right now, but that could easily change in a couple months. I think I’ve seen it in my career, so I’m happy that we’re this good, but I’m not thinking it’s going to be a cake walk to the Final Four or anything like that just because nothing is easy in this sport, and every week these teams are getting better and better.
We’ve got to continue to get better, as well.
Q.Sort of a follow-up, you haven’t been at Hendrick Motorsports very long, but I wondered what have your impressions been of working with this organization and how in general it has helped you to have the kind of season that you’ve had this year?KYLE LARSON: Yeah, I mean, it’s an amazing place. Everything about the compound there at Hendrick Motorsports just down the street is perfect. Everything down to the way they mow the lawn. It looks amazing.
I think it just — they put a level of effort into everything and pride in everything. That’s why we — I don’t think it’s a surprise to anybody that our cars are this good. He’s built such an amazing empire, and everybody there loves to work there, too. I think that’s the most important thing. They all respect him — I mentioned it earlier, but they all respect him and love to work for him and want to do a good job for him that results follow.
I don’t know if — it’s probably hard for Mr. H to have a few thousand employees probably, and I’m sure they all love working for him. That’s hard to do. I don’t think there’s probably another race team out there that everybody that works there loves their boss. But I feel like at Hendrick Motorsports it’s that way, and I think because of that, the results follow because everybody is putting 100 percent of their effort in, and us four drivers get to be a part of that and go out there and have some fun on the weekends.
Q.You mentioned a couple times battling your teammates tonight. What is that like as a driver when week after week it seems on a consistent basis, at least lately, some of your toughest competition is facing your own teammates?KYLE LARSON: Yeah, it’s a great problem to have when we’re all battling each other for the win. We’ve done a great job of racing each other hard but yet not putting each other in a bad spot, either. We all want to see each other succeed for Rick, and we all work great together during the week and even on the weekends when we’re racing. Like I said, we’re racing hard but we’re racing with respect.
I thought we were going to have another one, two, three, four finish tonight, but Kyle had other plans for that and messed that up. No, it was a great night, and it’s been a great few weeks really for this team.
Q.What makes this driver lineup at Hendrick work?KYLE LARSON: I’m not sure. I think — it’s not just us drivers. I think it’s everything that’s — it’s the whole team. I think it’s our crew chiefs, our engineers, everybody at the shop that has hands on our cars. I don’t know.
I think at least for me, and I think all of us teammates are like this, I think we’re pretty open with each other. I don’t think any of us hide anything. I know I don’t. I’m not afraid to ask — I don’t know anything about cars, but I’m not afraid to ask somebody why they’re driving like this or how that helped them, and they’ve asked me the same questions, and I give them a 100 percent honest answer.
I think when you’re honest with each other and want to help each other out, it just makes the whole program better. I’ve always taken a lot of pride in being a good teammate, and I think my other three teammates are the same way.
We’re young, but we’re hungry. We love what we’re doing, and we want — like I said, we want to see each other succeed for our whole organization.
Q.Alex Bowman mentioned after the race that one of the biggest keys for him with the four of you is how you guys all sit down with Chad Knaus in his new role this year. How has that helped you and the other three, as well?KYLE LARSON: Yeah, so it’s a little unique because I never got to see Chad Knaus in the crew chief role and I didn’t get to see kind of how their competition meetings were run before, but when I am sitting in that competition meeting room and he’s running it, you get to see why he is how he is and how he probably — he takes everything very seriously, and he dives in deep to everything. He’s very thoughtful and thinks deeper than I’ve ever been around anybody. He thinks about a lot of, like I said, deep things that I would never even think would be a thing.
I think it just shows how his mind is on racing and how to be faster, how to make all four of us faster every day of the week. He’s a great leader, and I think the same as Mr. H, everybody has got a lot of respect for him, and I think his role now probably fits him perfectly for where he’s at in his career and with everything he’s already accomplished. He’s definitely doing a great job.
Q.As remarkable as your off-season, so to speak, was last year away from NASCAR, can you imagine where your career would be right now without Rick Hendrick stepping in?KYLE LARSON: No, I don’t know, I can’t imagine — I would hope if I wasn’t racing Cup, I would hope it was going as good right now as it did last year. But I don’t know, I haven’t had to think about that.
Q.Has Rick transformed your life at this point?KYLE LARSON: Oh, yeah, for sure. Right now I’d be twiddling my thumbs in Indiana waiting to race at Lawrenceburg tomorrow, which I’m going to do anyways, but yeah, it’s much different.
But no, I mean, I was happy doing what I was doing last year, but I always had the goal of getting back to the Cup Series and didn’t really think it was a realistic thing throughout the summer. Even when I was winning a lot I just kind of accepted that this was my life and I was going to have a blast doing it and wasn’t going to regret anything at that point.
No, it all kind of came together, and yeah, for sure it’s transformed my life. Getting back into the Cup Series and getting a second opportunity at the highest form of American auto racing is something that I don’t think normally happens. Just very thankful for it and want to take full advantage of it.
Q.It’s time for you to come home now to Sonoma. You’ve got some massive momentum coming in. What are you expecting next week when you come back home and do you have any plans to spend time with family, friends? What are your plans when you come out here?KYLE LARSON: Yeah, I’m going to come out early and kind of spend it as a vacation a little bit and then race on Sunday. Yeah, I’m excited to get out there and drink some good wine. I haven’t really had wine in a while. I get to go do that, eat some good food and hang out with friends, see some of my family. Yeah, Sonoma is a fun place, fun racetrack, a track that I’ve honestly struggled. I’ve qualified really well at but struggled in the races. Yeah, I hope that’ll be a different story now being with HMS.
Yeah, excited to get home. I love the West Coast, the best coast, and yeah, getting excited to go out there.
THE MODERATOR: Kyle, thanks for joining us. We look forward to seeing you at Sonoma next weekend.
CLIFF DANIELS, CREW CHIEF, NO. 5 METROTECH CAMARO ZL1 1LE, Press Conference Transcript: 
THE MODERATOR: We’re now joined by Cliff Daniels, the race-winning crew chief from tonight’s Coca-Cola 600.
Q.Cliff, your team swept all three stages in addition to winning the race. What’s it mean to have a points day like that? Does it mean a lot right now or is it not the biggest thing in the world considering how early in the regular season it is?CLIFF DANIELS: Yeah, that’s a good question. Points are always of concern for us. The more playoff points you can carry into the playoffs is always going to be those tokens in the bank that you never know if you’re going to need.
I can’t say that I expected we were going to get them all the way we did today, so that was really cool that that happened, and yeah, the competition is so tight right now, thankful that the Hendrick Motorsports cars are running as good as we are. The Chevrolets are fast, but Denny is still out there with a really big points lead, and those guys have a had a strong year, so always keeping our eye out for maximizing stage points, maximizing stage finishing positions, and certainly it worked out today.
Q.Cliff, have you prioritized specific racetracks over others?CLIFF DANIELS: Really no, because everywhere we go with Kyle right now and even for the next 10 or 15 weeks is a new race for us every week. I’ve never been to any of these places with Kyle before, so every week is a new week, and the foundation of the notebook that we’re trying to build, thankful that the year has gone the way it has, but we still have a lot of building to do.
Sonoma is a bit of a different style road course than the ones that Hendrick Motorsports has been good at the last few years. Our last trip at Sonoma really wasn’t that great, so we’ve dug into some old notes for Sonoma as an example. So the same prep that we put into Charlotte for this week we’ve got to take to Sonoma next week just because we don’t have a great recent history of our cars running good there, so we’ve really got to make sure we show up strong.
Q.Green flag pit cycles, huge for you tonight. Huge for you all of this year. You are actually defending front-running spots on green flag stops at a considerably higher clip than you did last season. Have you noticed that? And what is driving that large of an improvement?CLIFF DANIELS: Yeah, a couple things. Our pit crew, we went through a bit of a building process last year. One of our guys actually stepped away at the end of the year and we got a new jack man in so we had to do some work just getting our team kind of up to speed and working together, and now those guys are just lights out. They do a phenomenal job. They’re a great working group together. The camaraderie is strong.
So knowing that one of our strengths is physically pitting the car, the guys do such a good job, I’m actually excited when I see a green flag pit cycle come around because I know that’s one of our strengths.
And then we study a lot maximizing pit-ins, and Kyle is really good at that. He’s great at deep braking zones and figuring out how to get the car whoa’d up when it’s moving around and it’s all over the place. It’s kind of natural for him.
With that, those two pieces, and then timing is another big thing, understanding the falloff in a race, do you pit early, do you pit late within the cycle, and we’ve had to brush up a good bit on our own understanding of that last year to what we’ve taken this year. So many different factors, and it’s all kind of coming together okay.
Q.What have you learned about Kyle Larson that you didn’t know at the start of the season?CLIFF DANIELS: Obviously one of the biggest things that I’ve learned, and this is going to sound really obvious to say, he spends so much time reading a dirt track for all of these races that he goes to. He watches every series that ends up on track, and he really studies what’s going on with the racetrack.So for us, the more I can give him information on what I anticipate for our pavement surfaces going into a weekend, whether it’s PJ1, clouds versus sun, temp changes, things like that, that’s something that’s just very natural for him, and again, that’s what he spends a lot of his time doing to make him good on the dirt tracks. So again, it may sound obvious to say, but that’s probably the biggest thing.
Q.Can you give me a sense of perspective certainly with your experience with the 48 team in years past you guys often were dominant throughout the season. You guys certainly there have been some ups and downs but certainly been about as strong as anybody throughout the season. There’s still a long way to go to the playoffs. The challenge in trying to remain a strong team with still three, four months or so before the playoffs even begin and still several more months before the championship race, what is the challenge and how does that compare from your experiences when you guys were the 48 and you guys kind of steamrolled everybody?CLIFF DANIELS: Yeah, there was a few things that stood out. It’s been several years, and I was fortunate, Chad Knaus, obviously the champion that he is speaks for itself, but something that I kind of learned from the experiences with the 48, I think it was 2015, we started out strong, we won I want to say like four of the first ten races or something like that, and we were really pushing exceptionally hard at the beginning of the year. It’s not like we got comfortable, but burnout and exhaustion kind of come into play in the middle of the year, so it was tough to sustain that, and that kind of showed up.
So we learned from those experiences of kind of how to balance ourselves more, make sure you have the right foundation for just building your car every week to go race, and there’s a process to that.So now we’ve learned through the ups and downs of the last three or four years with the 48 team how to respond to adversity and not let the momentum swing really shift you too far, just kind of narrow up that window, and make sure that we have a path in place where we’re balanced enough. Home life is still very important for all the guys working on our team, but we spend a lot of time at the shop and we spend a lot of time together. So making sure we have the right balance of the home time, the family time for those guys, and then when we’re at work, get all 10 of the tenths that we’re trying to get. Not nine, not 11, but make sure we’re operating at 10 tenths, and hopefully the path that we have now and what we’ve built is sustainable, and I think the path that’s gotten us to this point of the season has been exactly what I just described, and I don’t plan on changing it anytime soon.
Q.With as strong as you guys have run the last few weeks as an organization, for as great as it’s been, the last three races have not been playoff tracks, and the races with the playoff tracks it’s been some ups and downs. From my perspective not being the mechanical and in your shoes, I would partially question the value of the success what it means the last three weeks because how much carries over from here, how much will carry over from Dover in particular. How do you view that, or what is important with being so dominant at the last few races when these haven’t been playoff tracks, and I wonder what really is going to carry over or have the potential to carry over?CLIFF DANIELS: Yeah, I think it’s a valid question. Darlington we had a strong run at the end of the race, but we weren’t as good as we needed to be for the playoffs, so that was the first of our second-place-finish runs. We took a pretty different approach from Darlington to Dover that if Darlington hadn’t had have happened, we wouldn’t have taken to Dover. So then we took that to Dover, ran really strong. That’s going to carry over to Nashville, and I think that what we learned from Dover and hopefully what we learned from Nashville, yes, completely different racing surfaces, yes, it sounds crazy to draw some of these parallels that I’m making, I think just with the 750 package in general, we did learn and improve from Darlington to Dover and again hopefully we take that to Nashville, that I think can help us for a place like Darlington.
As one example, Kansas comes back around, we led a lot of laps at Kansas, didn’t work out for us. Vegas is a playoff track. Hopefully that bodes well. We passed the whole field three times after speeding on pit road and starting in the back in Phoenix, right, and Phoenix hopefully will be a good race for us.So I totally understand where you’re coming from, and hopefully a race like Kansas or Phoenix where it didn’t work out for us, we can capitalize come that time, and then I think our program needed a little bit of an upgrade in the 750 area at a bigger track, which again, we learned from Darlington and took some of that to Dover and improved. We’ve just got to keep it going.
Q.When you talk about the success at Darlington, I guess that gave you the freedom at Dover to do something that you might not have been more comfortable with to kind of expand the boundaries?CLIFF DANIELS: Yes and no. We didn’t really expand anything, we just kind of went about what we were doing a different way because all of our cars ran kind of middle of the top 10, back half of the top 10 during the day at Darlington, and we improved our cars by the end of the day and obviously took a big chunk out of Martin’s lead, but we weren’t good enough to really make a statement, if that makes sense. In Dover we made more of a statement there.
It was just kind of going about what we thought of the 750 package a different way. Like there was nothing new, there was nothing outlandish, okay, from what we think this balance should have been, we were off, so let’s go about the balance a different way.
Q.When Kyle was still a teenager, people came up with the name “Young Money.” The people in the dirt world were telling me you have a once-in-a-generational talent coming your way, and I don’t think he ever had the opportunity to showcase what his true talent was in the Ganassi equipment. I guess my question to you is now that you have somebody — even though he’s approaching 30 but somebody you can work with and kind of mold into what you want to be, what’s the next step for you and Kyle and the No. 5 team?CLIFF DANIELS: I think really just to continue to deepen our connection, our friendship, our working relationship. Obviously with the challenges of all the COVID protocols, we’ve been very respectful to that and we just haven’t had a ton of time to spend together. At a racetrack he kind of does his thing and we do our thing and we’ve had the garage separated from the motor home lot and things like that for a while.Now that things are starting to open up, hopefully it’ll give us an opportunity just to continue the path that we’re on of learning each other and deepening that relationship.
So I think the sky really is the limit for him. We know how talented he is in any car that he gets in. There is some things that he tries to avoid thinking when there’s a lot of second-place finishes that line up. He tries not to be too hard on himself and I’ve been able to kind of tap into some of that with him and help him with that. So yeah, it’s been a great journey so far. Still a lot of learning and growing to do, and I’m certainly excited about it, and I think there’s a lot of potential for both of us.
Q.He’s a pretty Zen dude, but somebody like you that has a mechanical engineering background and he admittedly knows nothing about cars whatsoever, how do you find that balance?CLIFF DANIELS: When I first started racing, I think it was ’98 or ’99, I did not know a whole lot about my race car, so there were certain things that I looked for as a driver that have kind of stuck with me before I knew much, and then thankful to my parents and my dad, taught me a lot, and I really got heavily involved in our cars, and by the time I was 16 I was setting up my own cars myself and doing a lot of the work on them myself, but it always stuck with me the things that remember paying attention to as a driver when I didn’t think I knew a whole lot.
Then take that experience, yes, the mechanical engineering degree to really help add some of the principles and equations and foundation behind that, to now when Kyle and I talk and we talk about a dirt race or we talk about a Cup race, my experiences growing up and as a driver really help me to just cut some of the race car talk and cut some of the engineering talk and just kind of talk to him not necessarily driver to driver but I can speak his language a bit more and understand what he’s saying a bit more than just tying a number to it or tying car talk to it, if that makes sense. So that’s actually been cool for me to tap back into some old experiences when I drove, and I think it’s helped us communicate more along the lines of what he’s either trying to say or what he needs out of the car.
Q.What did you compete in?CLIFF DANIELS: Anything from Bandoleros to Legends cars to NASCAR Whelan All-American Series late models. Did that for quite a few years. I think I quit racing full-time probably ’08 or ’09 and graduated school in ’10.
Q.I was wondering if you could talk about Tyler Monn in his first 15 races with Hendrick Motorsports and how well he’s fit into the mold of the 5 team.CLIFF DANIELS: Yeah, Tyler is a young guy who actually came to us, it’s going to sound weird to say, with a lot of experience, and he never had a shot on a bigger team in the Xfinity Series, Cup Series. But he’s been running — been racing many years with guys that are lower budget teams and get lapped during the race, but he has such a solid work ethic and he’s really put it on himself to learn and adjust how to run at the level that we’re running now, and I think his past experiences of just running on the teams that aren’t up front every week really taught him a lot.
I give a lot of credit to him for what he put on his back to learn and really to operate at a very high professional level when he got on our team, and he’s a great teammate, he’s a great friend. He’s done a really good job. He does a great job with Kyle on the radio staying calm in all situations, whether it’s intense traffic with lap cars or racing for the lead. A lot of credit to Tyler. He’s done a great job, and we’re very thankful to have him on our team.
Q.Kyle was in here just a little earlier and he talked about the role of Chad Knaus and how he’s really led team meetings and things like that, but he said he couldn’t really comment on just how much of a difference that is for him and his role because he had no previous experience. You obviously have a lot of experience with Chad, working with him over the years. Can you just give a little bit about how much Chad has played a part in the uptick and performance this year now that he has a hand in all four cars?CLIFF DANIELS: Yeah, it’s been great, honestly. Chad, again, his record as a crew chief speaks for itself. Absolutely phenomenal. Now in this role he really understands how to make the rubber meet the road. Even from kind of a higher level management position, he can see if things are slipping through the cracks, he can see if there’s struggles that we need help with, whether it’s on the technical side, engineering side, car side, whatever it is. His influence I think is seen throughout.
He and Jeff Andrews make such a good combination together because Jeff is so good at seeing everything and really helping connect all of the different departments within our company, and again, Chad is so good at pushing everyone on the car side and the engineering side to make sure we are making the best product to the racetrack, and very thankful to have that leadership from him.
THE MODERATOR: Cliff, thanks for joining us this evening. Congratulations on the win and we’ll see you next week in Sonoma.

NASCAR CUP SERIESCHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAYCOCA-COLA 600TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTESMAY 30, 2021

TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:POS.   DRIVER1st      KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 METROTECH CAMARO ZL1 1LE 2nd     CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CMAARO ZL1 1LE 4th      WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1 1LE5th      ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY PATRIOTIC CAMARO ZL1 1LE6th      AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER OFF ROAD CAMARO ZL1 1LE9th      TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 ALSCO UNIFORMS CAMARO ZL1 1LE  TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS: POS.  DRIVER1st      Kyle Larson (Chevrolet)2nd     Chase Elliott (Chevrolet) 3rd      Kyle Busch (Toyota)4th      William Byron (Chevrolet)5th      Alex Bowman (Chevrolet)
The NASCAR Cup Series season continues next weekend at Sonoma Raceway for the Toyota / Save Mart 350 on Sunday, June 6 at 4 .m. ET. Live coverage can be found on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTES: KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 METROTECH CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Race WinnerYOU SWEPT TONIGHT! WHAT IS THE EMOTION, NOT ONLY TO WIN THE COKE 600, BUT TO CLOSE IT OUT, DOMINATE A RACE, AND GET IT DONE?“Yeah, it feels good. It was not easy. I felt like I had to fight off William (Byron) and Chase (Elliott) a lot. It kind of worked out there in that last run. The No. 43 (Erik Jones) had to pit and pulled out in front of me, and I just towed with him for a while and stretched my lead out. We had a good car there in that last run. Awesome! It feels great to be the guy to help Mr. Hendrick break that record, finally. This is awesome. We haven’t seen this many fans in forever. Thanks to all you guys for coming out. I hope we put on a good show. Thanks to MetroTech, Chevrolet, HendrickCars.com, and everybody who allows me to drive this No. 5 car. And thanks to my No. 5 team tonight, too. They were great tonight. My pit crew did awesome. We had awesome pit stops, especially on the green flag stops, too. That really allowed us to get the win tonight.” YOU KICKED IT OFF THIS YEAR WITH A BRAND NEW TEAM AND A BRAND NEW ORGANIZATION FOR YOU. HALFWAY THROUGH THE SEASON, YOU ALREADY HAVE TWO WINS. WHAT IS IT LIKE? HOW CAN YOU DESCRIBE WHAT THIS TEAM IS DOING RIGHT NOW AND WHAT MR. HENDRICK HAS?“When I got to talking to Ricky Stenhouse last year, I was like I think I’m going to end up in the No. 5 or the Hendrick cars and he was like, you’re going to be really good in that thing. And I was like, I don’t know. But it’s been better than I could have ever imagined. For us to lead as many laps as we have this year and contend for as many wins as we have, and now to get our second win at a Crown Jewel event, too, it feels great. I’m just very lucky that Mr. Hendrick was able to put together a deal for me. It’s just awesome. I’m living a dream, for sure.” CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 2nd“I’m just happy for the boss (Mr. Rick Hendrick); happy for Kyle (Larson), Cliff (Daniels, crew chief), and everybody on the No. 5 team. They’ve been kicking ass since February and they deserve to win. Rightfully so. They did a great job tonight; ran a great race and made no mistakes and the best car won. I’m proud of Hendrick Motorsports. I feel like everybody, like I’ve been saying, is just pulling in the same direction and it’s really showing. I’m just proud of our company and excited as the No. 9 team, specifically, for more opportunities ahead, and to try and get a little better and see if we can’t get it dialed in.” WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 4thBYRON ON RACING CHASE ELLIOTT:“It was hard racing. I was trying to get second there and cost myself third. With this package, you just have to get the side draft at the perfect spot. I feel like we just missed where that was. We just didn’t have quite enough. Congrats to the No. 5 (Kyle Larson, race winner) guys. They were lights out. We’ll go to work and try to get that.” TALK ABOUT THE HENDRICK MILESTONE. WHAT’S IT LIKE TO BE PART OF THE HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS ORGANIZATION. “It’s awesome. We are bringing really fast cars right now and I feel like it’s really fun to be at Hendrick Motorsports right now. We’ve just got to work, on the No. 24 team, just a little harder to get the little bit more than we need. But we’re really close. We can do it at times during the race. We just can’t put it all together. I feel like we probably should have finished third tonight. We finished fourth, but we’ll take that.I thought we were really good. It’s just hard to get the lead and I feel like if we could have kept the lead, we could have maybe won. We just never did. We were good enough to win but it just didn’t quite happen.” ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY PATRIOTIC CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 5th “Hats off to Greg (Ives, crew chief) and the Ally 48 team on making really good adjustments to get us where we needed to be and get us in the top-five. So cool for Hendrick Motorsports to be the all-time wins leader now. Our Ally Camaro was a handful all night, but glad to get a top-five out of it.” BOWMAN ON THE HENDRICK MILESTONE:“It’s really cool to be a small part of it. Four of those (wins) were from us, so that’s pretty neat and pretty special. We want to add a lot more to that list, but it’s cool to be a small part of it.” AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER OFF ROAD CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 6th“I am so proud of everyone on the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops / TRACKER Off Road team. We had some adversity today, but this RCR team rallied to get over everything and put together something at the end to be proud of. The Coca-Cola 600 is a long, grueling night and a lot of it is just about who can have a clean race. We didn’t have the cleanest of races, but we rebounded well. We earned stage points in every stage tonight, and did a great job of keeping up with adjustments as the track changed. Even when we fell back in the running order we kept our cool, didn’t give up, and were able to drive back into the top-10. Everyone did a great job. If we keep bringing cars like this to the track, we will win races. The most important part of the night was riding with Chief Special Warfare Operator David A. Fegyo on the windshield header and honoring our military with a patriotic Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet.”
TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 ALSCO UNIFORMS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 9th“The No. 8 Alsco Uniforms Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE was stout tonight and had a lot of speed all race long. I fired off the night a little tight but with an air pressure adjustment on our first stop, it loosened right up and stayed loose for most of the day. Our car transitioned really well from night to day, and a large part of that was thanks to my team making the correct adjustments to keep up with the changing track conditions. I started to get a little too free during the last half of Stage 3, but the team was able to walk back our adjustments enough to get me in a good spot balance-wise for the remainder of the night. We had a really good points night and earned valuable Stage points in every Stage tonight, which will be a huge help to keeping us moving up in the standings. We ran in the top-10 almost the entire night, which is a big feat during the Coca-Cola 600. I’m really proud of my team and hope we made Army Staff Sergeant Brian Piercy’s family and friends proud tonight as well.” RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 KROGER/COTTONELLE CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 12th“That was a solid night for us in the No. 47 Kroger/Cottonelle Chevrolet. Starting on the front row was really great for us and everyone at JTG Daugherty Racing and from there we just struggled being really loose on the long run then building tight in traffic as the sun went down and we got into the second half of the race. We got trapped by a lap car at the end when I think we were definitely catching cars for position at the end, but 12th is still really strong for us and a step back in the right direction after a few rough weeks. I’m looking forward to keeping up the momentum next week at Sonoma.” DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 CAMPING WORLD CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 15th“Our car was good. We were missing a couple adjustments at the beginning, but we were able to get it better there at the end. We just never got the caution that we needed.” ERIK JONES, NO. 43 PETTY’S GARAGE CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 16th“We had to come back in at the end, but we were able to fix the vibration. The No. 43 Petty’s Garage Camaro ZL1 1LE was pretty decent all day. We had our best speed at the end, we just got behind there with the extra pit stop. Solid day – it was a better 1.5-mile track for us than we have the last few, so hopefully it’s a step in the right direction.”  ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 42 ADVENTHEALTH CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 37th“Just really disappointing to have issues so early in the longest race of the year. Unfortunately, it just turned into a long test session for us. Thankful to have AdventHealth on the car this weekend, and sorry we couldn’t have a better result for all of the guests that they had join us today.” KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 GEARWRENCH CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 38th “Not much more to say other than we are just on an extremely tough streak of bad luck. The car lost power steering and I saw the oil pressure drop, not much warning of any issues. We thought we made repairs to carry on, but apparently the damage was done and forced us out of the race early.” RICK HENDRICK, TEAM OWNER, HENDRICK MOTORSPORTSTHIS IS WIN NUMBER 269 FOR YOU, THE ALL-TIME WINNINGEST OWNER IN NASCAR HISTORY. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? IT’S ALMOST AN OVERWHELMING STATISTIC.“It really is. Number one, Richard Petty is the king of NASCAR. He’s done so much for this sport. Man, this is so awesome. All I can think about was the first win and all the drivers. I want to thank every driver that’s ever driven, that won a race; and the ones that didn’t win. But it’s unbelievable. I can’t really get it in my brain right now, because I just thought – something’s going to happen, something’s going to happen. But man, what a good job they did tonight. I’m just looking forward to the rest of the year. I’m glad 269 is over. I’m glad it’s over.” JEFF GORDONWHAT A NIGHT FOR HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS“I’ve been a part of Hendrick Motorsports as a driver for all the years and have seen the dominance, but even I am just blown away by how strong this organization is through all four cars right now. Congratulations to Rick Hendrick, Hendrick Motorsports, and Kyle Larson, and also Cliff Daniels.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE, Press Conference Transcript: THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet, who finished second in tonight’s Coca-Cola 600.
Q.Chase, I’m curious your take on the lap traffic. It seemed like the closing rates tonight were pretty significant. A lot of them looked like you guys used them for picks. What was your take on the lap traffic tonight?CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, I mean, it was — I felt like pretty — as bad as I hate to say this, pretty normal here in the last couple years, so I wasn’t super surprised by any of it, to be real honest.
Q.Did you feel like NASCAR needed to make any calls regarding any penalties for minimum speed, or do you think that minimum speed needs to be addressed moving forward at this point?CHASE ELLIOTT: Man, I can’t answer that. I really try hard to stay out of the official calls. That typically doesn’t get me anywhere good, so I’m not sure.
Q.When it comes to where Larson was better, Byron said that it just seemed like the 5 was stuck to the track. Was that something that they could have done differently at the shop? Could you guys have adjusted to get closer to him, or was it just out-and-out better tonight?CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, great question. He definitely did a better job for sure. I thought he did the best job driving and being able to make pace and not abuse his tires each run. Yeah, best driver, best car won tonight. There’s no doubt.I think for us, we just look ahead, and I’m excited for more opportunities. That’s all you can do when you get beat is look ahead and be excited for another chance.
Q.Is it frustrating for you at all now that you’ve come so close in two straight Coke 600s and just haven’t gotten to Victory Lane yet?CHASE ELLIOTT: I mean, no. Obviously I would love to win, like anybody would, but we didn’t last year and we didn’t this year, and that’s just what it is, so onward.
Q.What does it feel to be a part of Hendrick Motorsports during this historic time in their NASCAR history, and how does it feel to be a part of the 269 wins, the record that was set tonight?CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, just super proud of everybody. I’ve said this over the course of the last couple weeks. Mr. Hendrick has changed a lot of lives I feel like throughout the course of his career and what he’s meant for motorsports I feel like goes without being said. He’s changed my life, and for that I feel like he deserves to be on top. I’m a little biased, but I feel like he does.I feel like he treats people with a lot of respect and integrity, and he just goes about his business like someone should. He’s a great role model to a lot of employees, not just in motorsports but across the automotive group side of things, and there’s a reason he is a successful man in not only business but in life.He deserves to win. He deserves to be on top, and I’m glad to see him be there.
Q.What sort of impact has Mr. H left on your life personally, and how does it feel to vindicate the trust he put in you when he put you in first the 24 car and now the 9 car moving forward?CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, for sure. Like I said, he’s offered me opportunities I would have never had otherwise, and that’s really, not to be short, but that kind of sums it up. If he hadn’t done what he did and stuck with me and wanted to give me a chance, I don’t think I’d be sitting here. It’s pretty much as simple as that.
Q.When we watched the race, the package seems to be, I don’t want to say slower, but it seems a little different than in years past. Was the passing a little more difficult? Help fans understand how hard it is mentally to be out there and trying to be on the ragged edge of speed for the entire 400 laps.CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, I mean, it’s always hard to pass. We’ve had multiple different packages, and it’s always hard to pass. Until we learn how to defy physics, it’s going to be hard to pass. That’s just what it is. I don’t think that’s ever going to change. But I do think the best drivers and the best teams tend to find their way to the front of these races, even with it being so hard to pass. That’s why we race. It’s a challenge, and we all embrace that challenge. We play within the rules that we are given, and I’m sure the rules are going to change a bunch over time and continue to change, and it seems like every time they change, the better guys and the better teams tend to always find their way back to the front, and I don’t think that’ll ever change.
Q.Mentally how tough is it to be out there for that 400 laps being on the ragged edge the entire time.CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, actually I feel really good. I feel like the race went by really fast. What time did we start, 6:30? It was over about 10:30. I thought it was quick. Felt good.
Q.Chase, you and Kyle raced pretty hard when you were together on the track, and even coming down pit road at one point he got to your inside. Where is the line there of racing your teammate hard but not — what’s acceptable, what’s not acceptable?CHASE ELLIOTT: I don’t know, I thought it was all good. We were racing hard and racing for the lead of the Coca-Cola 600. Yeah, I didn’t see anything wrong with anything that happened tonight.
Q.That was enjoyable.CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, was it fun to watch? There you go.
Q.I wanted to ask, how much does it become a mental battle when your teammate is so strong and you guys are a top-2, top-3 car and you just can’t get there and really do anything with it?CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, just keep pushing. We absolutely got beat tonight, no question. They did a better job, as I said before. The only thing you can do is just look for more opportunities, be excited for another chance, and fortunately we have that next week, next Sunday, and the Sunday after that. We’ll just try to get a little better and me do a better job, us communicate better as a team, execute better, and try to have a better result.
Q.You led a lot of laps here last year in the races. Were you as good tonight as you were last year and Kyle Larson was just better?CHASE ELLIOTT: That’s so hard to honestly really compare year to year in my opinion. Just things change, and the cars sometimes drive a little different. So I couldn’t give you a fair assessment on that.Kyle was definitely better tonight, and that was the only thing that mattered today, currently, here in 2021. I don’t know how to compare it to last year, but we were — yeah, I don’t know. Good question.
Q.Does it feel like almost a friendly boxing match between the two of you at Hendrick right now?CHASE ELLIOTT: Well, I think we’re all just trying to maximize the opportunities. This is a sport that comes in waves. It’s a roller coaster. There’s going to be good times, there’s going to be bad times.I hope we’re always this good and always this competitive, but I think the law of averages would tell you that that’s not going to last forever, so I think we all want to try to take advantage of the opportunities that we have right now as a company and continue to challenge ourselves to be better because our competitors are getting better, they’re pushing harder. We need to make sure we’re not just happy with where we are, we’ve got to get better, too. We’ve got to push, because May isn’t — that’s not when we hand out the big trophy. We need to make sure we’re on our game when it counts.
Q.Obviously you won the last road course, wet Circuit of the Americas. Talk about what you’re expecting next week at Sonoma Raceway?CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, Sonoma has been a place that I haven’t done a very good job at I don’t feel like. It’s been a pretty big challenge. Looking forward to getting there, looking forward to another shot. It’s been a couple years — yeah, two years since we’ve been there. Been a little while, but looking forward to getting back and having another chance.
THE MODERATOR: Chase, thanks for joining us today. Congratulations on the second place tonight and we’ll see you at Sonoma.