CHEVROLET RACING IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES

INDIANAPOLIS 500

INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA

TEAM CHEVY POST RACE RECAP

MAY 29,2022

O’WARD PUTS CHEVROLET ON PODIUM 

ARROW MCLAREN SP SHINES FOR CHEVROLET IN 106^TH RUNNING OF INDIANAPOLIS 500

INDIANAPOLIS – (MAY 29,2022) Pato O’Ward battled to the very end in search of his first Indianapolis 500 win. The driver of the No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet has finished sixth, fourth and now second in his three races on the famed 2.5-mile oval in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

He battled the last 25-laps of the race with eventual race winner Marcus Ericsson, veteran Tony Kanaan  as well as teammate Felix Rosenqvist when the red flag flew for a crash scattering debris across the track. When the track returned to yellow, O’Ward lined up behind the leader, and battled for the lead. It became a five-car shuffle with O’Ward scoring a strong runner-up finish, with Kanaan in third and Rosenqvist in fourth.

In front of a near-record crowd, the Chevy banner flew near the front of the field from the drop of the green. From the outside of the front row, Rinus VeeKay, No. 21 Bitcoin Racing Team with Bitnile Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet, battled with fellow front row starters until a single-car incident in turn two on lap 38 put the young driver out of the race. 

Callum Ilott, No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet, started 16^th and methodically was working his way up through the field to be halted on lap 68 by a crash very similar to VeeKay’s. Ilott walked away uninjured, but retired from the race.

Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin suffered a similar fate as VeeKay and Ilott, as the back of his No. 3 Pennzoil Chevrolet, stepped out in Turn Four ending his day as he had worked is way to the top-10 after starting in 26^th position.

Conor Daly, No.20 Bitnile Ed Carpenter Chevrolet, finished sixth, Santino Ferrucci, No.23 Palermo’s Screamin Sicilia Dryer and Reinbold Racing Chevrolet finished 10^th to give Team Chevy four of the top-10 finishers.

OTHER TEAM CHEVY FINISHERS AS FOLLOWS:

11.                Juan Pablo Montoya’

12.                JR Hildebrand

13.                Josef Newgarden

15.                Will Power

17.                Kyle Kirkwood

19.                Ed Carpenter

23.                Sage Karam

26.                Stefan Wilson

27.                Dalton Kellett

29.                Scott McLaughlin

32,                Callum Ilott

33.                Rinus VeeKay

CHEVROLET DRIVERS IN TOP-10 IN POINTS

2^ND               Pato O’Ward

4^th                 Will Power

5^th                 Josef Newgarden

7^th                 Scott McLaughlin

9^th                 Felix Rosenqvist

Next on the calendar is the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix on Belle Isle Presented by Lear on June 5, 2022

TEAM CHEVY QUOTES

JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 SHELL CHEVROLET, TEAM PENSKE: 

“It was another heartbreaking day around here. I’m not sure what happened in our pit stop that ultimately did our day in. We had a stall and it looks like somehow I got stuck in second gear instead of first gear. I’m not sure if that’s on me or not and not sure why that happened. WE will have to analyze the data. If that’s on me, I feel terrible. We have a great team and we did a great job all month. I felt like we were fighting for it all day long. I think we could have run in the top five. I am disappointed for our partners Shell and Chevy. We will assess it and come back stronger the next time around.”

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN, NO. 3 PENNZOIL CHEVROLET, TEAM PENSKE: 

ARE YOU OKAY?

Yeah, just a bruised ego and the Pennzoil Chevy is a bit dented and stuff. We were having a rip of a run there and had made our way into the top 10 and just caught a big puff of wind and spun out and boom.”

UNBELIEVABLE PROGRESS IN THOSE FIRST TWO STINTS AND YOU JUST CARVED THROUGH THE PACK AND YOU AND HELIO WERE MAKING SOME IMPRESSIVE PASSES THROUGH THE FIELD

“Yeah, it was awesome following him. I had a really good restart in one of them and a bad restart in one, but we really settled into a good rhythm and had a good couple of changes. We ended up being right there in the top 10 or their abouts but unfortunately you get caught up one time. I felt like I was on top of things, but it just caught me up.”

ARE YOU FEELING OKAY, ANYTHING WITH THE HIP, LEGS, NECK?

“Yeah, I am a little sore, but I got checked out and I am good. But you know, its hard to come out straight away after a shunt like that and that is why this place is so scary, and why we love it. I will be back stronger and better next year.”

DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE UNLOCKED A LOT MORE KNOWLEDGE FOR PACE AT THIS PLACE?

“Oh yeah, for sure. I felt like I was making passes today that I had not made before, and I was really confident with things. I was feeling really good, so I am gutted for everyone because they gave me a good car this weekend and I am gutted that I didn’t finish it off.”

DALTON KELLETT, NO. 4 K-LINE INSULATORS CHEVROLET, AJ FOYT RACING:

PATO O’WARD, NO. 5 McLAREN CHEVROLET, ARROW McLAREN SP:“First of all, I’m really proud of the team. They gave me a really good car. I was so happy with the handling and we executed everything perfectly. We hit the fuel perfectly, we made no mistakes, and positioned ourselves perfectly to have a shot at it.

“We got done with that last pit stop, Felix undercut us, I then stopped and started to catch up with him, but Marcus [Ericsson], out of nowhere, came out with some insane speed. He got past me like I was standing still then caught Felix within two laps. I knew when the restart happened I would have one shot, I’d have to go flat and it still wasn’t enough. So sadly, they had the faster car. We need to do a better job to beat them, but I’m really proud of the job we did today, it’s my best result in the Indianapolis 500. It’s a tough pill to swallow after a good race.”

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 6 McLAREN CHEVROLET, ARROW McLAREN SP:

“Today was a good day. I’m a little disappointed, I felt like we should have had a little bit more. We struggled a little bit with the car in the long runs but overall I’m happy. We passed like 19 cars today, had a lot of fun and raced a lot of people. When you start so far back, you just run out of laps. I want to thank everyone at Arrow McLaren SP for the hard work. They have come a long way since last year, which is really exciting.”

FELIX ROSENQVIST, NO. 7 VUSE McLAREN CHEVROLET, ARROW McLAREN RACING SP:

“Like always, there’s mixed feelings at Indy if you don’t win the race, but it was a good day. I think this was a huge statement for us as a team to be able to be up there all race, all month with the GP as well. It’s a totally different energy in the team to previous years, I think we’re gaining confidence, and we saw that in the middle of the race, when we came in to pit in P8 and came out in P4. That got me so pumped. I feel like that was a turning point for us, when we prove that we can make up four places in the pits, in the biggest race in the world, that’s super cool.

“The team, along with our partners Chevy, did a great job all month to give me a great car. I’m really happy for everyone in the team. Obviously I wanted more, but we’ll build on this and try and get some wins over the rest of the season.”

JR HILDEBRAND, NO. 11 HOME FOR OUR TROOPS CHEVROLET, AJ FOYT RACING:

WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON CHEVROLET, TEAM PENSKE:

“When the car doesn’t work on an oval, it’s the worst day you can have. We slowly got it together, I would say the last two stints when the car was a lot better and drivable. But by that time, we had lost so much track position, it was just trying to salvage what we could.”

EARLY ON YOU HAD THE STALL DEPARTING THE PIT LANE AS WELL

“Yeah, that didn’t help but we only lost five with that.  You know, it never helps, and its my bad on that one.  Yeah, that is just one of those days that you white knuckle it for a long time because its pretty intense when a car is loose on an oval. Its very tough. Terrific job by the team and all the guys to just hang in there. We were 15^th with some of the contenders who were back there, so not as big of a loss as it could have been.”

KYLE KIRKWOOD, NO. 14 ROKIT CHEVROLET, AJ FOYT RACING:

CONOR DALY, NO. 20 BITNILE CHEVROLET, ED CARPENTER RACING:

“Ed Carpenter Racing did a great job all month. We knew we could run up front in the BitNile Chevrolet and we got there. The strategy is exactly what we wanted. We got a little lucky with the first yellow, but we passed cars when we needed to. Once we got to the front, we could run there, we could stay there, and that was the goal. I really enjoyed racing with Scott (Dixon). The guys up front are smart, respectful, and I just enjoy it. It was just fun to have a shot at it. I’m thankful to be here and have a 6th.”

RINUS VEEKAY, NO. 21 BITCOIN RACING TEAM WITH BITNILE CHEVROLET, ED CARPENTER RACING: WAS INVOLVED IN A SINGLE CAR ACCIDENT ON LAP 38 IN TURN TWO DAMAGING THE CAR SIGNIFICANT ENOUGH TO WITHDRAW FROM THE RACE:

WHAT HAPPENED? ARE YOU OKAY? “I’m okay, physically. The car just got loose in turn two and I was a passenger from that point on. I really felt like we had a car to fight for the win, or at least get a lot of points.  Big sorry to the team and rveryone who were cheering us on because it could have been a nice day.”

HOW WAS THE TRACK?

“It wasn’t like practice, definitely lacking in grip. We made a change during our pitstop and it was definitely better, but that snap just caught him off guard. It is very unfortunate.”

SANTINO FERRUCCI, NO. 23 PALERMO’S CHEVROLET, DRYER & REINBOLD RACING:

YOU WERE FAST IN THE BEGINNING

“Yeah, our car was phenomenal in the beginning, and we felt great. Our Chevy was fantastic and hats off to the crew. I mean we were the best car on pit lane. We passed so many cars in the pits and these guys did a phenomenal job. I am just upset that we started to lose the car near the end of the race in the final two stints, when we needed it most.  We will go back and check it out but damn, for an Indy-only team I am very proud of these boys.”

SAGE KARAM, NO. 24 AES INDIANA CHEVROLET, DRYER & REINBOLD RACING:

INVOLVED IN AN ACCIDENT AT THE CHECKERED FLAG 

STEFAN WILSON, NO. 25 DRAGONSPEED/CUSICK CHEVROLET, DRAGONSPEED/CUSICK MOTORSPORTS:

ED CARPENTER, NO. 33 ALZAMEND NEURO CHEVROLET, ED CARPENTER RACING:

“It just wasn’t our day. we came in with high hopes and just didn’t quite have enough. Early on we were okay, we were getting good mileage. Those first two yellows, we missed the lottery and lost a little track position because we had still been out on track. The guys did a good job in the pits, but we got shuffled back in line. The balance was tough once you got as far back as we got, and we just couldn’t recover from that lost track position and that was that. We’ll come back again next year and try again.”

CALLUM ILOTT, NO. 77 DYNAMIC EDGE CHEVROLET, JUNCOS HOLLINGER RACING: INVOLVED IN A SINGLE-CAR ACCIDENT ON LAP 68 AND RETIRED FROM THE RACE.

 PATO O’WARD PRESS CONFERENCE

THE MODERATOR: We’ll start with the driver of the No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP, Pato O’Ward, coming home a career-best second in the Indianapolis 500.

Pato, I can tell you’re still thinking about the last couple laps. What did you make of the day, coming home second?

PATO O’WARD: Yeah, first, of really proud of the team. They gave me a really, really good car. I was so happy with the handling. We did everything perfectly. We did the fuel perfect. No mistakes were done. We positioned ourselves perfectly to have a shot at it.

When we got done with that last pit stop, Felix undercut us, then when I pitted and started catching up to him, then Marcus out of nowhere just came out with insane speed. Got by me like I was standing still. Got up to Felix I think within two laps, passed him like he was standing still, left him. I got to Felix finally. I passed him. I had nothing for him. I said, I need a yellow to try and have a shot.

Tony was also really quick coming behind me. I know he was catching me faster than what I was catching Marcus. When the restart happened, I said, I have one shot, I have to go flat, and still wasn’t enough.

Sadly, they have the faster car. We need to do a better job. We need to come back next year and give it hell again. I’m proud of the job we did today. It’s my best result in the 500. It’s a bit of a tough pill to swallow after such a long race, doing everything correctly.

Q. Pato, how big of a reward is this for you given the season you’ve had so far this year but also going into Detroit next week?

PATO O’WARD: Yeah, I love Detroit. I think we’ve had a great month. Very, very, very good result for us to get our championship in good position again.

Yeah, Detroit, I love going there. I’m excited to go. Yeah, for the rest of the championship…

Q. Pato, the last two laps were pretty exciting. Ericsson was defending really close down to the pit wall and everything like that. Do you think it was a little too much weaving on the frontstretch?

PATO O’WARD: I’ll leave that to the race directors.

Q. If you had another lap or two, do you think you would have gotten another run on him?

PATO O’WARD: Too fast in the straight. Maybe if I would have timed it a little bit better. I really don’t think I could have done it much better. I did enough to what we had been doing all race.

But, yeah, at the end I was surprised with how much more pace they had in a straight line with quite a bit more downforce. I was just trying to time it as good as possible.

Obviously the weaving helped him. Staying on the inside helped him. I got alongside him, but we all know how that ends up in the last lap. No way he would have backed off.

Q. What did you think about the decision to red flag it and try to give the fans a finish?

PATO O’WARD: I think that’s okay. Obviously I wanted it because there was no way I was going to get caught. Tony was probably going to catch me before I would catch Marcus and get by me pretty easily, just like he did.

I was happy with it (smiling).

Q. Pato, obviously you spoke about it being a little bit bitter this week for you at the end. Can you talk about how difficult the car was to drive in the conditions? How much on the edge were you?

PATO O’WARD: Yeah, especially this last stint, the car was hairy out of a few moments. That was the only way for me to have a shot. That was the only way for me to have a shot because I knew they were going to pull out something from their back pocket. I knew it.

I think we were one of three cars that was really trim. Yeah, like whenever we practiced and we put the wicker on with everybody else, I said, no, this is turtle slow. We need to trim out and we risk it. I will make sure I don’t put the car in the wall.

But it was hairy. At the end it was tough. The red flag really helped me cool down the rear tire.

PATO O’WARD: I was loose. That was the only way. Without that I would not even have had a chance.

Felix wasn’t as trim as I was and you saw how much more he needed. I kind of had the step up, but then we both didn’t have that bigger step that we needed.

These guys had the better car. They did the better job. They had the better package. We need to work. That’s just the only thing we can kind of look at. Come back next year and give it a run again.

Q. You alluded to maybe you were missing something.

PATO O’WARD: Yeah, want to guess (smiling)?

Q. Is that something you can fix?

PATO O’WARD: I sure as hell will do everything in my power to find more. We need to do a better job and just be better.

It’s frustrating because I think they’ve done a great job, the team has done a great job, but not enough, not enough. So, yeah, work to do for next year (smiling).

Q. With two laps to go, restart, the Indy 500 victory is right there in front of you, all you got to do is pass this guy. What is it like in the cockpit, in your head, to have that kind of shot and come up short?

PATO O’WARD: You clinch. You clinch a lot every corner (smiling), yeah (smiling).

Q. That’s it?

PATO O’WARD: You go flat and you hope to God the car doesn’t snap.

Q. Pato, I think everybody knew coming in the Ganassi cars were the strongest. Were they even a little bit better than you were expecting?

PATO O’WARD: No, I don’t think they were better, especially in traffic. I think my car was the best and I was the most comfortable with it. Yeah, like, in a train of three or four cars, five, six, no one stood a chance against me.

Out front, not so much.

Q. It sounded like you’re satisfied with the way your team executed. Everybody talks about this race is so much about not what you do on race day but the prep. Did the team take a step today in how you performed but still need to take another step?

PATO O’WARD: They did a phenomenal job. They gave me such a good car. The way that we worked all month, just getting comfortable with it, knowing that there’s that little part of you has to be a little bit uncomfortable for the thing to do good in traffic, which is what you need. Most of the race usually is in traffic.

But, yeah, I was so happy with it. I was super, super happy with it, better than what I was last year. Yeah, I’m so proud with what the team gave me. I’m sure Felix is, as well.

Q. Pato, you finished sixth in 2020, then fourth last year, second this year. What has been the last couple years, how has that pushed forward? What have you done to keep moving forward?

PATO O’WARD: Every year not really doing much different. Just knowing a little bit more of how this race usually unfolds and how much to give in certain parts of the race.

It’s such a such a long race. We positioned ourselves to really open our strategy windows. Yeah, I think you got to do the race, right, to just keep gaining experience like this guy. He’s got I think 17 more than me or something.

PATO O’WARD: Three.

PATO O’WARD: Okay, 18.

I think every time you do laps around this place you learn. It’s the race where you learn as you go. You don’t go out and go balls to the wall. If you do, you’re going to put it in the wall. It’s a race of a lot of patience, but it’s a race where you have to be really smart and you have to be thinking a lot of different things.

Yeah, it’s definitely a race that’s different to any other. We keep getting better and better, so I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished so far.

Q. Pato, finished second. You’ve had a really nice turnaround the last month or so. Sitting there looking pretty unhappy. Does it suck to be second?

PATO O’WARD: Does it suck to be second? Well, I definitely know we didn’t suck. I think it’s a great result for all of us, a great result for our championship.

Yeah, it’s a tough pill to swallow whenever the team does everything correctly in such a hard month to achieve something like this. We’ve been working for this not just all month but the whole off-season. They gave me a car that was fantastic. Felix had the same. I’m not sure where Juan Pablo was. I don’t know where he was at in terms of happiness.

They gave us all really, really good cars. It’s also up to us to see how much can we be comfortable with in order to make it go as fast as possible.

My car, the 5 group, was the riskiest of them all because I wanted to win this freaking race. We trimmed out like anybody else in the grid, at least like any other top 10 car. It’s just frustrating when not even that is enough.

Q. Juan finished 11th. Only one other Chevy was in there between the Arrow McLaren SP. What does that feel like for the team to come out here and really carry the Chevy banner?

PATO O’WARD: We’ve got work to do. We need to get on with working right now. This is when it starts. We need to come back next year with something that’s better because it’s not good enough.

Q. Pato, on the restart, that was the only restart of the day where the leader wasn’t able to get past. Marcus took some aggressive moves to try to break the draft. Is that about the only way that works? Usually the guy in second has a pretty good head of steam into turn one.

PATO O’WARD: Yeah, I had a really, really good run on him. He was a lot more — the weaving was a lot more aggressive than what it usually is. Last year, I was in Tony’s spot looking at Palou and Helio. They were a lot more gentle with it.

PATO O’WARD: Thanks, man.

Lakeville, CONNECTICUT – May 29, 2022 – Cameron Lawrence reminded everyone why he’s a threat on the Trans Am circuit with a steady drive from P11 on the grid to a podium third place finish. It was a thrilling race made all the more exciting by a sudden downpour partially through the race distance. Cameron was one of the most sure footed drivers on the track and guided the No. 6 Franklin Road Apparel Showtime Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro to the third step of the podium. He was understandably delighted, especially as the 25 points he picked up for his second podium of the season put him provisionally with 115 in the Driver’s Championship; a gain of one place as he leapfrogs Mike Skeen who finished P14. He also gained valuable ground on Championship leader Rafa Matos as the battle for the title tightens up. Cameron qualified for Round 6 of the 2022 Trans Am presented by Pirelli Championship season in P11 with a time of 52.417 and then made relentless progress once the lights went green. He used all his experience to pick his way through the crowded field to claim third spot, only to see young rookie Evan Slater slide by as Cameron gave way to lapped traffic. There was another twist in the tale though as Tyler Kicera, who was running second, slipped back allowing Cameron to claim the prestigious third step on the podium. “The weather made for an exciting race, strategy also came into play, and it played right into our hands! It was mandatory to start on wets, the track was damp and drying quickly,” said Franklin Road Apparel supremo Ken Thwaits after the race. “Rain, however, was coming and we decided to not give up track position and stay out on our wet tires. To make matters worse we lost a cylinder in the engine. Fortunately, Cameron did a great job today and we did our best to keep him informed and motivated! I believe this was a fantastic achievement for him and for the whole team in our first season together. I can’t wait for Mid Ohio now!” In a change to previous schedules, highlights of the racing from the weekend can be seen at 12:00 AM ET (midnight) on Friday, June 3, where it’s billed as the 2022 Trans Am TA2 presented by Big Machine Spiked Coolers: Lime Rock CT. A repeat showing at 4:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. Fans can find the Franklin Road Apparel Trans Am clothing here: https://www.franklinroad.com/search/trans+am/ Visit the team’s website for Showtime Motorsports showtimemotorsports.net. Learn more about the Showtime Motorsports team partner, Road Apparel, at franklinroad.com and keep up to date with the Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli at gotransam.com. #GoTransAm Check out and Like Showtime Motorsports’ Facebook page: facebook.com/showtimemotorsp/ and @ShowtimeMotorsp on Instagram. About Showtime Motorsports:The Showtime Motorsports brand includes Ken Thwaits’ racing team and racecars, and an outstanding classic Camaro collection. Showtime Motorsports brings together a dynamic staff who employ diverse talents and share a passion for cars, racing and caring for clients like they are our own family members.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (May 29, 2022) – It was a night of firsts as Progressive American Flat Track enjoyed an epic evening of racing at the Mission Red Mile I presented by Indian Motorcycle of Lexington in Lexington, Kentucky. Following 14 minutes and two laps of nail-biting action in front of the massive Red Mile crowd, Mission SuperTwins presented by S&S Cycle rookie Dallas Daniels (No. 32 Estenson Racing Yamaha MT-07 DT) officially added his name to the exclusive list of premier-class Main Event winners. But prior to Daniels’ exhilaration, it was heartbreak for teammate JD Beach (No. 95 Estenson Racing Yamaha MT-07 DT). Beach had established himself the rider to beat in the lead-up to the Main, but he was unlucky to be forced out by mechanical issues a couple minutes into the race. That left reigning champion Jared Mees (No. 1 Indian Motorcycle/Progressive Insurance FTR750), Daniels, and Mission Production Twins Challenge entrant James Rispoli (No. 43 Wally Brown Racing/Haversack KTM 890 Duke) to battle it out in the lead pack. The trend of heartbreak continued a couple of minutes later when the machine of Bronson Bauman (No. 37 Latus Motors Racing Harley-Davidson XG750R) dumped oil on the circuit while running fourth, forcing a red flag stoppage near half-distance. The race resumed with Mees, Daniels, and Rispoli sitting 1-2-3, and Brandon Robinson(No. 44 Mission Roof Systems Indian FTR750) joining the lead group in fourth. While Rispoli took a peak on a few occasions, it was Mees and Daniels who traded back first and second for the remainder of the contest. Mees lined up Daniels and made what he hoped would be the race’s decisive maneuver entering Turn 3 for the final time. He pulled it off perfectly and seemed destined to keep his perfect Red Mile streak intact, right up until the final moment when Daniels blasted by at the stripe to steal away the win by 0.008 seconds. The victory was not only Daniels’ first in the premier class, it was also Yamaha’s first on a Mile going all the way back to Kenny Roberts’ legendary victory aboard the TZ750 at the 1975 Indy Mile. Daniels also became the first rookie to win in the premier class since Mikey Rush won at Daytona in 2007 and the first rookie to win on a Mile since Scott Parker did so at Indy in 1979. “I can’t believe I won a Grand National,” Daniels said. “I’ve been dreaming of this my whole life. It’s been a long road for me and the team. Those guys have worked their butts off. It’s been a long road since they started, and I know this is so rewarding for them. “Taking my dad on that victory lap… I’ve been talking about that since I was like eight years old. We did it… It’s awesome!” Rispoli held on for third to become the first Mission Production Twins Challenge rider to land on the Mission SuperTwins podium and add to what was already an incredible debut for the WBR KTM. Robinson came home fourth, followed by another Mission Production Twins Challenge pilot in Ben Lowe (No. 25 Mission Foods/Roof Systems Yamaha MT-07) to complete the top five. Jarod Vanderkooi (No. 20 Mission Roof Systems Indian FTR750) was sixth, followed by an uncharacteristically quiet Briar Bauman (No. 3 Indian Motorcycle/Progressive Insurance FTR750). Davis Fisher (No. 67 Bob Lanphere’s BMC Racing Indian FTR750), Jesse Janisch (No. 33 Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson XG750R), and Robert Pearson (No. 27 Rackley Racing/John Franklin Indian FTR750) rounded out the top ten. Mission Production Twins presented by Vance & Hines If anyone forgot just how dominant James Rispoli (No. 43 Wally Brown Racing/Haversack KTM 890 Duke) was at times when he won the 2020 Mission Production Twins presented by Vance & Hines championship, he provided a most compelling reminder on Saturday night. Rispoli made his return to the class at the Red Mile to debut the WBR KTM 890 Duke and did so in style. He not only made the bike a winner, he did so in runaway fashion, leading from start to finish. The only rider who even managed to keep him honest was Jesse Janisch (No. 33 Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson XG750R). Janisch clung on behind him just outside the draft, but he never managed to present a realistic challenge to Rispoli’s position at the front. After claiming the win, Rispoli said, “The Wally Brown Racing team has a wealth of experience. They’re smart guys. We took the common sense route and they built a phenomenal package. KTM built a great platform, but these guys found a way to get that horsepower to the ground. I’m so pumped. I’m stoked to return to Mission Production Twins, and to win? I’m stoked.” While Rispoli may have had a drama-free run to victory, the battle for the final spot on the podium was most entertaining. A tight five-rider pack made up of the returning Michael Rush(No. 15 Hellipower Racing/Las Vegas Harley-Davidson XG750R), Ryan Varnes (No. 68 Schaeffer’s Motorsports/Rausch Fuel & Oil KTM 890 Duke), Ben Lowe (No. 25 Mission Foods/Roof Systems Yamaha MT-07), Cory Texter (No. 1 G&G Racing/Yamaha Racing Yamaha MT-07), and Nick Armstrong (No. 60 Competitive Racing Frames/Lessley Brothers Yamaha MT-07). Among a great deal of shuffling, points leader Armstrong systematically made his way from seventh to third, but went off the groove and dropped right back to seventh, erasing all his hard work. Defending champion Texter did what he does and emerged late as he and Lowe scrapped for third over the final two laps. Ultimately, Texter took the position by 0.122 to further a three-race podium streak. However, he’s still three points back of Armstrong in the championship chase after Armstrong clawed his way back up to fifth at the flag. Varnes finished sixth with Rush taking seventh, a welcome result in his return ride after suffering a serious leg injury in last year’s finale. Parts Unlimited AFT Singles presented by KICKER Combining the Parts Unlimited AFT Singles presented by KICKER class and a big Mile racetrack is typically the recipe for an ultra-tight pack war. Saturday’s showdown was no exception. As many as eight riders were in with a shot for victory deep into the race before a couple of them went off the groove, leaving a six-rider shootout on the race’s final lap. The on-form Morgen Mischler (No. 13 American Honda/Progressive Insurance CRF450R) did his best to control the chaotic affair from the front and it paid off with a 0.053 seconds margin of victory. While Mischler regularly traded the lead with teammate Dalton Gauthier (No. 79 American Honda/Progressive Insurance CRF450R) for much of the contest, the final sprint came down to him, title rival Kody Kopp (No. 12 Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 450 SX-FFE), and Trent Lowe (No. 48 Mission Foods/Al Lamb’s Dallas Honda CRF450R). Mischler opened the final lap in the lead and made the most of his Honda’s horsepower to just fend off his challengers. The win was Mischler’s first ever on a Mile as he continues to increasingly prove himself a well-rounded title contender. He said, “The puzzle pieces are fitting, and I see us just getting better with everything the team has been putting into it. For me, it’s just a matter of me doing my job.” Despite just missing out on the win, Kopp continues to lead the championship on the strength of an early season that has seen him finish no worse than second. Kopp’s teammate Max Whale (No. 18 Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 450 SX-FFE), finished off the podium for the first time this season with a fourth-place effort. Gauthier, who is dealing with a partially torn ACL and MCL finished fifth, while Trevor Brunner (No. 21 Estenson Racing Yamaha YZ450F) finished sixth, just 0.420 seconds off the win, despite being forced to start from the back of the pack after using a provisional start to earn a spot in the Main. The Mission Red Mile I will premiere on FS1 on Sunday, June 5, at 10:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. PT, including exclusive features, cutting-edge aerial drone and onboard footage, and expert commentary. Next Up: Progressive AFT will be back on track at the Red Mile today to conclude the Mission Red Mile doubleheader. Gates will open for fans at 3:00 p.m. ET/12:00 p.m. PT with Opening Ceremonies scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m. ET/4:00 p.m. PT ahead of the evening’s Main Event program. Secure your tickets now at https://store.americanflattrack.com/ebooking/ticket/view/id/3723/. You can catch the livestream of all the weekend’s racing activities on FansChoice.tv. FansChoice.tv provides free-to-view livestreaming of Practice and Qualifying. FansChoice.tvsubscribers will then be able to watch the drama unfold from Opening Ceremonies through the Semis, Main Events, and podium celebrations. FansChoice.tv offers two subscription options, granting unlimited access to premium AFT content. Monthly subscriptions start at just $7.99, while a six-month subscription is available for $44.99.

Wheatland, MO (May 28, 2022) – Chris Ferguson emerged from a great battle for the lead in the 30th Annual Lucas Oil Show-Me 100 Presented by ProtectTheHarvest.com on Saturday night at Lucas Oil Speedway. Winning the first dirt late model crown jewel of his career, Ferguson is taking the record $50,000 payday back to North Carolina. The 30th Annual event was the richest first-place prize ever offered for the event co-sanctioned with the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series and the Lucas Oil MLRA. With 12 laps to go, the top seven drivers were on the same straightway when Ferguson went to the outside of Jonathan Davenport trying to pass him for the lead. Davenport made contact with Ferguson that sent Davenport spinning, bringing out the Stop Tech caution with 88 laps complete. On the restart Ferguson, who had started in tenth, pulled away for the win becoming the 18th different driver to win the sports first crown jewel event of 2022. Ricky Thornton, Jr. led four laps in the race but finished second earning a $20,000 payday for his SSI Motorsports Team. Defending series champion Tim McCreadie ran third after starting 17th. Jimmy Owens, a four-time Show-Me 100 winner was fourth and Chad Simpson, the Allstar Performance fastest qualifier for the weekend was fifth. Ferguson, who won at Wheatland in his first appearance at the “Diamond of Dirt Tracks” in the 2020 Diamond Nationals methodically worked his way through the field to put himself in contention for the win. “I don’t know what to say, I am speechless. God is so great he put me in this situation. That was awesome, that was amazing. I am so thankful to be here for this. You fans are the best, thank you all for everything.”  “JD got kind of stuck behind those lap cars. I found a groove about a half-car-length out from everybody else. I rolled him (Davenport) in one and two and got door-to-door with him. I think we both got in hot, and we hit a little bit. It knocked the steering wheel out of my hand, but I was able to grab it back and keep the lead and I guess he didn’t make out so well.” “I hated it for him. I think we may have had a little better car than him. That was a heck of a battle. All the people that don’t realize our cars are fast that showed them we are. For a long-time I have dreamed of being at this level. I feel like I can drive good enough to get it done.”  Thornton Jr, the reigning Dirt Track World Championship winner was close to picking up the second crown jewel event of his career, came home in second. “We came really close. It kind of stinks to run second, but we will take it. Congrats to Fergy on the win. He was really good, especially late. We had a really good car yesterday and that put us in a good starting position for tonight. I really wanted to pick up the win for Scott Coleman of Big River Steel, he was here, but we will definitely take a second.”    McCreadie, who was seeking his first Show-Me 100 victory passed the most cars during the race to round out the podium in third. “We went with a different tire combination, maybe me and two other guys in the field had it. When I pulled out on the front stretch, I thought we were in trouble. I knew I couldn’t really get off the brown, so I just tried to drag the left sides through the brown as good as possible. I didn’t want to overheat the tires. On the restarts I was amazing for 6 or 7 laps then I would fade so I would like to have had a few more restarts. My crew did a great job I am just the guy who gets to drive it.” The winner’s Team Zero Race Cars entry is powered by a Clements Racing Engine and sponsored by Diff-Tran Machining, Live Oak Aesthetic and Family Dentistry, K&K Trucking, Carolina Roofing and Gutters, The Racing Warehouse, Heckles’ Plumbing, Schaeffer’s Racing Oil, and Fox Racing Shox. Completing the top ten were Kyle Bronson, Hudson O’Neal, Payton Looney, Ashton Winger, and Scott Bloomquist. Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Race Summary 30th Annual Lucas Oil Show-Me 100 Presented by ProtectTheHarvestSaturday, May 28th, 2022Lucas Oil Speedway – Wheatland, MO FAST Shafts B-Main #1 Finish (15 Laps, Top 2 Transfer): 1. 1S-Jeremy Shaw[1]; 2. 3S-Brian Shirley[2]; 3. 56-Tony Jackson Jr[3]; 4. 86-Kyle Beard[4]; 5. 11-Spencer Hughes[5]; 6. 90-Brian Rickman[6]; 7. 12-Scott Crigler[15]; 8. 65-Jon Binning[14]; 9. 45-Kylan Garner[8]; 10. 65H-Dewaine Hottinger[10]; 11. 23-John Blankenship[11]; 12. 18P-Shannon Parker[9]; 13. 50C-Kaeden Cornell[7]; 14. 14M-Reid Millard[12]; 15. (DNS) 7J-Jay Fields UNOH B-Main #2 Finish (15 Laps, Top 2 Transfer): 1. 15L-Payton Looney[1]; 2. 97-Cade Dillard[4]; 3. 2S-Stormy Scott[5]; 4. 18J-Chase Junghans[2]; 5. 7W-Cole Wells[7]; 6. 18D-Daulton Wilson[6]; 7. 10J-Joseph Joiner[14]; 8. 3-Brennon Willard[10]; 9. 10-Jacob Magee[9]; 10. 50K-Kayden Clatt[11]; 11. 04-Tad Pospisil[3]; 12. 22H-Daniel Hilsabeck[13]; 13. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[8]; 14. 6H-Al Humphrey[15]; 15. (DNS) 10W-John Willard DirtonDirt.com B-Main #3 Finish (15 Laps, Top 2 Transfer): 1. 1T-Tyler Erb[3]; 2. 18-Shannon Babb[2]; 3. 21XXX-Neil Baggett[4]; 4. 93-Mason Oberkramer[9]; 5. 7-Ross Robinson[8]; 6. 11K-Jon Kirby[10]; 7. 78S-Steve Stultz[12]; 8. 1X-Aaron Marrant[7]; 9. 98-Ben Schaller[6]; 10. 14W-Dustin Walker[15]; 11. 36-Logan Martin[5]; 12. 9J-Joseph Gorby[11]; 13. 32S-Chris Simpson[14]; 14. (DNS) 157-Mike Marlar; 15. (DNS) 26-Glen Powell Midwest Sheet Metal Show-Me Challenge Finish (20 Laps, Winner Can Elect to Transfer): 1. 56-Tony Jackson Jr[1]; 2. 18J-Chase Junghans[4]; 3. 21XXX-Neil Baggett[2]; 4. 3-Brennon Willard[14]; 5. 90-Brian Rickman[7]; 6. 45-Kylan Garner[16]; 7. 14W-Dustin Walker[21]; 8. 10-Jacob Magee[17]; 9. 98-Ben Schaller[18]; 10. 11K-Jon Kirby[9]; 11. 78S-Steve Stultz[12]; 12. 18D-Daulton Wilson[8]; 13. 7W-Cole Wells[6]; 14. 86-Kyle Beard[3]; 15. 93-Mason Oberkramer[5]; 16. 12-Scott Crigler[10]; 17. 10J-Joseph Joiner[11]; 18. 65-Jon Binning[13]; 19. 50K-Kayden Clatt[20]; 20. (DNS) 1X-Aaron Marrant; 21. (DNS) 65H-Dewaine Hottinger; 22. (DNS) 23-John Blankenship; 23. (DNS) 22H-Daniel Hilsabeck; 24. (DNS) 36-Logan Martin 30th Annual Lucas Oil Show-Me 100 Presented by ProtectTheHarvest Feature Finish (100 Laps):

Race StatisticsEntrants: 63Lap Leaders: Jonathan Davenport (Laps 1-9); Johnny Scott (Laps 10-11); Jonathan Davenport (Laps 12-62); Ricky Thornton, Jr. (Laps 63-66); Jonathan Davenport (Laps 67-88); Chris Ferguson (Laps 89-100)Wrisco Feature Winner: Chris FergusonArizona Sport Shirts Crown Jewel Cup Feature Winner: Chris FergusonBrandon Ford TV Challenge Feature Winner: Chris FergusonMargin of Victory: 3.042 secondsStop-Tech Cautions: Kolby Vandenbergh (Lap 24); Brian Shirley (Lap 44); Jonathan Davenport (Lap 88)LOLMDS Provisionals: Spencer Hughes, Ross RobinsonMLRA Series Provisionals: Chris Simpson, Tad PospisilLOLMDS Emergency Provisionals: Daulton WilsonMLRA Emergency Provisionals: Stormy Scott, Trevor GundakerBig River Steel Podium Top 3: Chris Ferguson, Ricky Thornton, Jr., Tim McCreadiePenske Shocks Top 5: Chris Ferguson, Ricky Thornton, Jr., Tim McCreadie, Jimmy Owens, Chad SimpsonOptima Batteries Hard Charger of the Race: Tim McCreadie (Advanced 14 Positions)Midwest Sheet Metal Spoiler Challenge Point Leader: Brandon SheppardHot Rod Processing Most Laps Led: Jonathan Davenport (82 Laps)Sunoco Race for Gas Highest Finisher: Ricky Thornton, Jr.O’Reilly Auto Parts Rookie of the Race: Ashton WingerDirty Girl Racewear Fastest Lap of the Race: Jonathan Davenport (Lap 2 – 15.957 seconds)DirtonDirt.com Tough Break of the Race: Jonathan DavenportOuterwears Crew Chief of the Race: Bryan Conard (Chris Ferguson)ARP Engine Builder of the Race: Clements Racing EnginesMiller Welders Chassis Builder of the Race: Bloomquist Race CarsDirt Draft Fastest in Hot Laps: Jon Binning (15.650 seconds)Time of Race: 43 minutes 51 seconds

Shark Racing’s Jacob Allen & Logan Schuchart Made it a Three-Way Battle

WAVERLY, OH – May 28, 2022 – For more than four decades, the Haudenschild name has been gracing victory lane all throughout the great state of Ohio. The only difference between now and 1980 is that the next generation is the one doing the winning now.

The passing of the torch from father-to-son continued on Saturday night as Sheldon Haudenschild earned his third World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series win in his home state. The Wooster, OH fan favorite is following in the footsteps of his legendary dad, Jac, who scored 11 of his 72 career wins within state lines.

It was only fitting that Jac himself was in-person to witness his boy deliver a big-time performance at Waverly’s Atomic Speedway, located a little more than two hours south of Wooster. The win upped Sheldon and Stenhouse Jr. / Marshall Racing to four victories in 2022, tied with Carson Macedo and Jason Johnson Racing for the most on tour through 22 of 77 races.

His 26th career World of Outlaws win was a good one, too, as Haudenschild was forced to fend off the Shark Racing duo of Jacob Allen and Logan Schuchart. Both Hanover, PA gassers were making their first-ever appearance at the Atomic 3/8-mile, but no signs of inexperience were on display as the #1A and the #1S brought the heat onto Ohio’s favorite son.

Officially, Sheldon led 27 of 30 laps in the Series’ long-awaited return after a 13-year absence from the track. Allen, who continues to piece together a spectacular season, led Laps 18-20 and hounded Haudenschild throughout the closing stages in front of a packed crowd.

“That was such a blast,” Haudenschild told a standing-room only crowd at Atomic. “I love the Shark boys, and man they were on it tonight. I knew the 1A and 1S would be there with a track like this and sure enough they gave me everything. Getting back home to Ohio is so much fun. The track crew did an amazing job. I know it wasn’t ideal to start the night, but they brought it back to life and gave us a great place to race.

“I can’t thank my guys enough for how hard they’re working. [Kyle] Ripper, Stephen [Hamm-Reilly] and Jakob [Weaver] are the reason this boat turns around and goes so fast.”

Earning his first DIRTVision Fast Pass Dash win of the year, Haudenschild earned the right to start pole position alongside Lockbourne, Ohio’s Cole Duncan. The Atomic ace to his outside was chasing his first-career win with the Series, but the NOS Energy Drink #17 is who won the race into turn one.

Things got intense at the halfway mark when traffic became a factor and allowed the Shark duo of Allen & Schuchart to tighten things up. Allen used a brief lapse to sneak by the #17 and lead three circuits before more traffic allowed Haudenschild to get right back by him.

It was never out of question, though, as Allen & Schuchart both kept it close in the final laps with traffic still impacting Haudenschild’s drive out front. The #17 eventually survived all challenges, but only with the margin of victory at 0.430-seconds.

“I knew I had to limit my mistakes in traffic and I still made a couple. but I was able to get my momentum back when Jacob got me,” Haudenschild added. “The lappers were tough to negotiate tonight. I really needed to stay up on the banking to keep my speed rolling. You can be up one night and down the next against these guys, so we’ll enjoy this one and hopefully build on it next week.”

Finishing second with a last-lap, last-corner pass on his uncle was Logan Schuchart aboard the Shark Racing, DuraMAX Oil, Drydene Performance Products #1S. It’s his fifth top-five finish in seven races since unloading a new Triple-X Chassis.

“It’s always really fun when you can race so clean, but so hard with guys like that,” Schuchart said. “I’ve never been to Atomic before tonight, but this place was really cool, raced great, and we got to see a packed crowd. Ohio fans never disappoint. We put this new Triple-X together before Bristol and we’ve been up front almost every single night. That goes to show how hard my guys Ron [Helmick], Todd [Berkheimer], my grandfather [Bobby Allen], and Bill [Klingbeil] are working.

Rounding out the podium in third place and continuing his spectacular season was Jacob Allen in the Shark Racing, Pells Tire Service, Low-E Insulation #1A. He led led three laps in the closing stages, but ultimately lap traffic is what cost him his third win of the 2022 season.

“That was a blast,” Allen said with a joy. “You have Haud’s son and Bobby Allen’s son. He’s up top, I’m on the bottom. Both of our dads are down here on the frontstretch, that is pretty awesome. I want to win and I had a good shot, but putting on races like that is just so much fun. If I can’t win I’m glad to share the podium with an awesome group like this.”

Championship leader Brad Sweet extended his advantage with a fourth place result in the Kasey Kahne Racing, NAPA Auto Parts #49. Ohio’s own Cole Duncan finished fifth to score his fifth career top-five result with the World of Outlaws.

Closing out the top-10 at Atomic was Cale Thomas with a career-best sixth, David Gravel in seventh, Donny Schatz in eighth, Kraig Kinser in ninth, and Kasey Kahne with his first top-10 finish of the season.

UP NEXT (Mon) – The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series will keep the Memorial Day tradition alive with a Monday night under the lights at Indiana’s Lawrenceburg Speedway up next. After that, next weekend takes the Series to the Dakotas with stops at River Cities Speedway in Grand Forks, ND on Friday, June 3 and then Huset’s Speedway in Brandon, SD on Sunday, June 5. Fans can BUY TICKETS HERE, or watch every lap LIVE on DIRTVision.

NOS Energy Drink Feature Results (30 Laps) – 1. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild [1][$10,000]; 2. 1S-Logan Schuchart [4][$6,000]; 3. 1A-Jacob Allen [5][$3,500]; 4. 49-Brad Sweet [6][$2,800]; 5. 22-Cole Duncan [2][$2,500]; 6. 101-Cale Thomas [9][$2,300]; 7. 2-David Gravel [10][$2,200]; 8. 15-Donny Schatz [14][$2,100]; 9. 11K-Kraig Kinser [12][$2,050]; 10. 9-Kasey Kahne [8][$2,000]; 11. 5T-Travis Philo [19][$1,600]; 12. 41-Carson Macedo [15][$1,400]; 13. 83-James McFadden [21][$1,200]; 14. 49X-Ian Madsen [7][$1,100]; 15. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss [11][$1,050]; 16. 7S-Robbie Price [17][$1,000]; 17. 11-Buddy Kofoid [13][$1,000]; 18. 5-Spencer Bayston [3][$1,000]; 19. 97-Greg Wilson [22][$1,000]; 20. 8D-Josh Davis [20][$1,000]; 21. O8-Brandon Conkel [24][$1,000]; 22. 20G-Noah Gass [23][$1,000]; 23. A79-Brandon Wimmer [18][$1,000]; 24. 4-Danny Smith [16][$1,000]. Lap Leaders: Sheldon Haudenschild 1-17, 21-30; Jacob Allen 18-20. KSE Hard Charger Award: 5T-Travis Philo[+8]

NEW Championship Standings (After 22/77 Races): 1. Brad Sweet (3,046); 2. Sheldon Haudenschild (-48); 3. David Gravel (-52); 4. Carson Macedo (-54); 5. Logan Schuchart (-88); 6. Donny Schatz (

Marshalltown, IA driver Leads Final 11 Laps En Route to Victory

HARTFORD, OH– May 28, 2022 – A feeling of déjà vu hit Ryan Gustin as the laps wound down Saturday at Sharon Speedway. A position he knew all too well. 

Nine months ago, at the same venue, “The Reaper” battled 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Champion Kyle Larson for the lead, ultimately settling for second. 

Only 12 laps remained Saturday night, and again, he found himself in second. However, this time, he wouldn’t let that nine-month heartbreak last any longer.

As race leader Shane Clanton clicked off Lap 48, Gustin swung his Rocket Chassis underneath the “Georgia Bulldog,” pulling even off Turn 2. 

That’s when the Marshalltown, IA driver saw his opportunity to pass the former champion.

Gustin dove under Clanton in Turn 3, getting every ounce of momentum he could to swing in front of the 2015 Series champion to take the lead—one he wouldn’t relinquish. 

In the final 10 laps, he pulled away to capture his first career World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Model Series win worth $20,000.

Gustin’s confidence rose when he saw Sharon Speedway return to schedule this year, knowing it may be his best chance to win. 

“It feels awesome, man,” Gustin said. “I definitely didn’t want to wait this long, but it definitely feels good, especially to win 20-grand.

“I knew if we had a shot anywhere, it was going to be [Sharon Speedway]. We were really good last year, and we put a 100 percent identical setup on it, and [the car] was good tonight too. I think we definitely got something figured out at this place.”

A caution with 22 laps to go in the Feature allowed Gustin to get closer to Clanton, who had almost a full straightaway lead. 

While the yellow bunched the field back together, Gustin wasn’t sure what would happen in the race’s final third.  

“I knew we just had to give her hell there,” Gustin said. “There weren’t many laps left, and we had to go.”

Clanton settled for second, his third top-five in his last four World of Outlaws races. 

The Zebulon, GA driver believes he’s moving closer to his first Series victory of the season. 

“Our confidence is up,” Clanton said. “Our cars are good. We’re just taking it race by race and hopefully pick one up or two.”

Four-time Series champion Josh Richards finished third, his fourth podium in the last five races. The Houston, OH driver took the lead from Max Blair early in the race before a caution negated the pass.  

However, Richards wasn’t sure if he could’ve held on. 

“I felt like I was going to slide Max into [Turn 3] for the lead,” Richards said. “I don’t know if we could’ve held on or not. I was fighting steering down into [Turn] 1 a little bit, so it was a handful at the end.

“Shane and Ryan both did a great job as they could turn better through that stuff and keep their speed up. But we’re still happy for the night that we had, and with the year we’ve had, we’ll take it; we have to build on it.”

Series points leader Dennis Erb Jr. finished fourth, extending his points lead to 106 points ahead of Max Blair, who finished sixth.

The finish continues the Carpentersville, IL driver’s consistent runs in 2022 on a night he felt track position was vital.

“Track position meant a lot there,” Erb said. “I had a couple of chances to get up in there, but we weren’t able to get up there. We’ll just take what we got here and go on to the next one.”

Devin Moran from Dresden, OH, rounded out the top five.

Ryan Gustin felt a weight lifted off his shoulders in Victory Lane, a needed breakthrough on his World of Outlaws journey. He hopes the win is a feeling of déjà vu he can return to many times throughout the rest of his career.

UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws CASE Late Models head to Tri-City Speedway in Granite City, IL on Friday, June 3. 

May 28, 2022

Harrison Burton and his No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Mustang are set to start Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway from the inside of row nine.

Burton took that spot with a lap at 180.814 miles per hour in qualifying Saturday evening.

His speed in qualifying substantially bettered his time from practice earlier Saturday with a lap at 178.253 mph, which he ran on the third of 25 laps ran in the session.
 
The Motorcraft/Quick Lane Mustang was eighth best in speed on a 10-lap-consecutive run. Burton averaged 176.566 mph during his first 10 laps on the track. 
 
This weekend, Burton and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team are honoring the late U.S. Air Force Capt. Jason Ramsey from South Boston, Va., as part of the 600 Miles of Remembrance program. That effort is part of NASCAR’s Memorial Day weekend recognition of those who lost their lives in service to the United States of America.
 
The Coca-Cola 600 is scheduled to start just after 6 p.m. eastern with TV coverage on FOX.
 
Stage breaks are set for Laps 100, 200 and 300.

NASCAR CUP SERIES

CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY

COCA-COLA 600

TEAM CHEVY POST-QUALIFYING NOTES

MAY 28, 2022

WILLIAM BYRON LEADS CHEVROLET IN COCA-COLA 600 LINEUP AT CHARLOTTE

Three Camaro ZL1’s to Start in Top-10

TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-20 QUALIFYING RESULTS:

POS.   DRIVER

5th     WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY PATRIOTIC CAMARO ZL1

8th     TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 CHEDDAR’S SCRATCH KITCHEN CAMARO ZL1

9th     ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY PATRIOTIC CAMARO ZL1

12th   DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 COMMSCOPE CAMARO ZL1

13th   CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA CAMARO ZL1

16th   AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS / TRACKER CAMARO ZL1

20th   JUSTIN HALEY, NO. 31 LEAFFILTER GUTTER PROTECTION CAMARO ZL1

TOP-FIVE UNOFFICIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS: 

POS.  DRIVER

1st     Denny Hamlin (Toyota)

2nd    Kurt Busch (Toyota)

3rd     Christopher Bell (Toyota)

4th     Kyle Busch (Toyota)

5th     William Byron (Chevrolet)

·       Group A Qualifying – Round One: Alex Bowman led Chevrolet as the third-fastest lap in round one of qualifying, advancing his No. 48 Ally Patriotic Camaro ZL1 team to the final round of qualifying.

·       Group B Qualifying – Round One: William Byron, No. 24 Liberty University Camaro ZL1, was third; and Tyler Reddick, No. 8 Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen Camaro ZL1, rounded out the top-five in round one to advance to the final round of qualifying.

·       Final Round: After a final single-car, single-lap run for the top-10 fastest cars, William Byron led Chevrolet on the speed charts, locking-in a fifth-place starting spot for tomorrow’s Coca-Cola 600. Tyler Reddick qualified eighth and Alex Bowman qualified ninth to round out the Team Chevy top-10, giving Chevrolet three Camaro ZL1’s in the top-10 of the starting lineup. 

·       Kyle Larson, No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL1, did not post a qualifying time following body damage sustained during Group A practice after recording the fastest lap of the session. 

NASCAR CUP SERIES CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY COCA-COLA 600 TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT MAY 28, 2022 KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM Camaro ZL1, met with the media in advance of this weekend’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Press Conference Transcript: TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT KIND OF WHAT THAT RACE MEANS AND JUST THE OPPORTUNITY TO TAKE HOME THAT TROPHY AFTER WHAT IS TRADITIONALLY A VERY LONG NIGHT?“Yeah, it’s definitely one of the most prestigious races on our calendar, so it’s one that you circle as a driver every year that you want to win. I was fortunate enough to have a great car last year and win all of the stages and the race too. An awesome trophy, an awesome vintage Coke machine that you get, the ring, all of that kind of adds into the prestige of the event and makes you want to win it even more. Hopefully we can do it again this year. Another thing too, visiting the Arlington National Cemetery was a neat honor that I got to do a few weeks ago. They’ve done a really great job with this event and building it over such a long time now into one of the biggest races on the schedule. So, glad to be here and glad to have another opportunity to chase a win.” AMONG YOUR 10 WINS LAST YEAR, WHERE DID THE 600 RANK WITH IT BREAKING THE ALL TIME WINS RECORD FOR HENDRICK AND IT BEING YOU’RE FIRST CROWN JEWEL?“It was definitely up there. I think as you mentioned there was a lot of reasons why this event was up there on my list of wins. I think the main reason why I think it was so big was getting win 269 for Rick (Hendrick). I knew it was really special to him and I think all of us drivers were putting pressure on ourselves to win it for him. That made it special. I wouldn’t say it’s my first Crown Jewel, because I’ve won the All-Star Race in 2019 I think here, and I’d say that was probably my first real big win. It was awesome getting to celebrate here with the team and all that. It was definitely one of the probably top three or four wins we had last year.” FOUR OF THE LAST EIGHT RACES, FOUR OF THE WINNERS HAVE COME FROM THE POLE. WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT HERE TO WIN THE POLE THAT YOU GUYS ARE COMPETING FOR TODAY?“Yeah, I don’t know. I think just shows you have to have a fast car, I guess. Yeah, the teams at least I guess that sticks out to me would be myself winning last year and then Truex dominated one year in probably even more dominating fashion. I think it’s just your team’s got to be on it all race long. You have to have a fast car to go along with it. That’s kind of unique that you come from the pole because you would think that a super long race like this it wouldn’t matter as much as another. Typically, this place you can kind of pass on, but maybe it’s gotten a little bit harder to pass I feel like the last few years. When they put the PJ1 down and stuff like that it kind of made it really fast paced and hard to pass. This weekend so far it seems like they didn’t put as much resin down, so it seems like the groove is widened out again, which is great. Hopefully that means we will be able to race like the Xfinity cars just did earlier today.” HOW ARE YOU FEELING AFTER THE FLIP ON WEDNESDAY?“I’m fine.” GOOD, GOOD. ON A HAPPIER NOTE, WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER THE MOST OUT OF YOUR WIN AT SONOMA AND BEING ABLE TO GET A WIN IN FRONT OF YOUR HOMETOWN CROWD?“That was great. Always love going out to Sonoma, maybe because it’s home or really close to home. Even if it wasn’t, you know Sonoma’s such a beautiful, Napa Valley is such a beautiful place. We usually go out early and spend it as vacation and do some wine tours. Since I am from out there you get to see some friends and make new friends. Then you get to race in front of all those people. Last year, getting the win was special. Getting to celebrate in victory lane with a lot of our friends, getting to see some old, not old, drivers that I used to race sprint cars with that I don’t get to see often anymore. Our friends camp there, so we’ll go eat food with them before the races and stuff. It’s just a fun kind of relaxing weekend for me. Good to be at home.” DO YOU THINK THE RACING THERE WILL BE MORE AGGRESSIVE LIKE IT WAS IN COTA WITH THIS NEW CAR?“I’m not sure. I think it will be a typical kind of Sonoma race. It just lacks a lot of grip, so I feel like it’s hard to be extremely aggressive there. COTA’s got more grip. More grip and higher speeds, so you can be more aggressive with bigger braking zones. I think you could watch any Sonoma race and it would probably be a lot like that one.” AS THE CHAMPION YOU SORT OF HAVE A BIGGER VOICE IN TERMS OF NASCAR AND THE CARS. WHAT IS YOUR EVALUATION OF THE NEXT GEN CAR AND FOR YOU AS A DRIVER, WHAT ARE SOME THINGS THAT YOU MAY NEED TO GET A LITTLE BETTER WITH? OVERALL, HOW HAS THE CAR PERFORMED IN YOUR OPINION?“I don’t know. I felt like I really enjoyed the cars early in the year and I think you know the intermediate style tracks stuff was really exciting early on in the year. I don’t know if that’s because people’s set ups were different and stuff like that. Maybe now maybe everybody’s narrowed down what’s good. It seems like the racing’s been really hard to pass lately. Hard to pass, hard to make runs. There’s been exciting finishes and stuff, but I haven’t really been that excited about the racing the last couple of months. I still think every week your teams are trying to develop their stuff and get better and better and maybe the races will get more competitive again. It’s a stock car, so they’re heavy and lazy. The dirty air’s been the biggest issue I feel like to me anyways. I don’t know if the other manufacturers struggle with it but feel like we’ve struggled in dirty air worse than it seems like most have. We’re working hard and we’ll keep fighting to get better.” WHEN YOU’VE WORKED WITH YOUR SON OWEN ON HIS RACING, IS THERE ANYTHING FROM THAT THAT YOU PULL THAT YOU CAN TAKE AWAY AND SAY THAT CAN ACTUALLY HELP ME?“I don’t think so. No, we flew with Kyle Busch a couple of weeks ago and we were joking with him, and I guess he tells Brexton (Busch) to do as I say and not as I do. I could do as Kyle Busch says and not as he does(laughing). That could go further for me, I guess.” I WAS TALKING TO KYLE ABOUT THIS THOUGH AND HE SAID HE WAS TALKING TO BREXTON ABOUT RESTARTS. HE WAS KIND OF EXPLAINING HOW TO DO SOMETHING AND THEN BREXTON LOOKED AT HIM AND SAID YOU DON’T DO THAT ON A RESTART SO WHY SHOULD I. I’M JUST CURIOUS IF THERE’S ANY MOMENTS LIKE THAT EXCHANGE?“Not that I can think of yet. That’s a good question, but yeah, I don’t know. I feel like Brexton’s at a different level than my son is right now. I’m sure as Owen gets more experience, yeah I think he could teach me some things. After my races I’ll ask him what should I have done different, even if I’ve won a race or crashed like I did the other night. I just like to hear his opinion. Mainly to see if he’s really paying attention while I’m out there on the track. He does. He offers his opinions and sometimes I agree with him and sometimes I tell him that he’s wrong. It’s fun having you’re kids get older and pay attention to your racing and offer some advice.” YOURSELF, KYLE BUSCH, HARVICK, BOWYER, THERE’S A GROUP OF YOU GUYS WHO’S SONS ARE NOW IN RACING. IS IT INTERESTING KIND OF WATCHING THIS NEXT GENERATION OF YOUNG KIDS KIND OF WORK TOGETHER AS THEIR DADS COMPETE ON THE RACETRACK?“Yeah, a little bit. I don’t know, I mean I think it’s definitely cool. It’s a good thing that Millbridge has going. Obviously, it’s in the perfect region for that. There are so many more other people than us, you know Kyle Busch, myself and Clint Bowyer. There’s mechanics, crew chiefs, engineers, all that other drivers or past drivers that have their sons or daughters into racing. It’s a great little thing they have over there and it’s cool to see. For me just makes me kind of reminisce on the memories I had at Cycleland Speedway growing up. Just playing with my buddies, that kind of stuff. Building memories is the cool thing that I take away from us going to Millbridge. Whether they all grow up to be racecar drivers or not, they’re all just making memories right now which is great at their age.” IN THIS PRACTICE SESSION THAT YOU GUYS ARE ABOUT TO HAVE, ARE YOU GOING TO WASTE ANY TIME TRYING TO SEE WHAT THE BOTTOM LINE IS LIKE? OR ARE YOU JUST GOING TO GO STRAIGHT TO THE TOP SINCE THE TRUCK RACE AND THE XFINITY RACE THAT SEEMS TO BE THAT FASTEST WAY?“I don’t know. We’ll see. I think typically the first lap you kind of drive under the limit, so naturally that kind of takes you to the bottom of the track. I mean, yeah, I plan on probably running the bottom for you know a lap or two. Really, you can kind of get a sense of how your car is handling right in those first couple of laps and probably chase it up the track. It’s been good to see the other cars up to the wall, because it gives us more racing groove. I’m sure we’ll try to move around a lot.” YOU CAN WIN A DIRT 30-LAP DIRT RACE AND YOU CAN WIN A 600-MILE STOCK CAR RACE. WE CAN SEE THE DIFFERENCES IN THOSE TWO THINGS. WHAT IS SIMILAR ABOUT THOSE TWO THINGS FOR YOU AS A DRIVER?“I think it’s all similar to me. I feel like the 600 last year I ran as hard as I could every lap. I felt like even though I won all the stages and won the race, it wasn’t we didn’t cruise for 600-miles and win the race. I was fighting off William (Byron) for a lot of it, fighting off Chase (Elliott) for a lot of it. Lost the lead to them both a couple of different times. We’d get it back through green flag cycles. From what I remember, last year’s race I ran like it was a 30-lap race the whole time. I’m sure all of us in the field are like that. With the stages, I feel like that’s really kind of been the way ever since we’ve had stages. You have a bunch of little races within the race. It’s hard to pass too, so you’re running really hard, trying to either pass the guy in front of you or hold off the guy behind you. I mean there’s moments where you give and take, which there would be also in a 30-lap race. Maybe it’s just a corner, but it all feels the same to me. I feel like I run hard all the time. I feel like everybody in this Cup Series runs really hard all the time.”

NASCAR CUP SERIES

CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY

COCA-COLA 600

TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT

MAY 28, 2022

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA CAMARO ZL1, met with the media in advance of this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Press Conference Transcript: 

CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAYS HAS NORMALLY BEEN REALLY GOOD FOR HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS. WHAT IS IT ABOUT THIS PLACE AND THIS RACE THAT SETS YOUR TEAM APART? HOW ARE YOU PREPARING FOR THIS RACE?

“Obviously, we’re in a bit of a new era now with this car. They had a pretty solid grasp on this event for many years. I watched Jimmie (Johnson) win a lot of these races. Kasey Kahne was really good here at Charlotte (Motor Speedway) throughout his time at Hendrick Motorsports. And even prior to and on down the list. 

I think now, things are different. But it’s a new opportunity to try and still be good here and get some good results. We were really fast here last year. That doesn’t really mean anything now. It’s kind of a fresh start. So, looking forward to that. We tested a lot here through the winter, which everyone did. We kind of used this place as our testing grounds, I guess so to speak, throughout the winter and the development of this car. I think a lot has changed since we did that testing and hopefully our cars drive better than it did here in December. But we’ll see.”

IN THE XFINITY RACE, NOAH GRAGSON FINISHED FOURTH AFTER FALLING TWO LAPS DOWN AND ON SEVEN CYLINDERS. HAVE YOU EVER HAD THAT HAPPEN TO YOU AND STILL HAVE A STRONG CAR? 

“No, I don’t think so. That’s a super unique circumstance. Typically, when you break one, they all break eventually; or at least that’s been my experience with engine issues. 

I’m not super surprised by that. I think this place gets hot and slick. It’s not like you’re just holding it wide open the whole lap, so you have some ability to potentially carry more throttle than the next guy. So if you are down on power, you could potentially make up some time in the corner that would typically hurt you down the straightaway. If you have a really good driving car, I can totally see that being feasible and obviously he did, so that’s really cool.”

YOU’VE ADMITTED THAT YOU’VE KIND OF STRUGGLED WITH THE NEW CAR. WE’RE HALFWAY THROUGH THE REGULAR SEASON, SO I’M GUESSING YOU’RE GETTING A LITTLE MORE ACCUSTOMED TO IT. AS GOOD AS YOU ARE ON ROAD COURSES, WHAT DO YOU ANTICIPATE WITH THIS CAR WHEN WE GO TO SONOMA (RACEWAY)?

“Yeah, that’s a great question. I’m still learning. There’s just a lot of little details that I’m still trying to become accustomed to, feel good about and have enough experience to know what I want in the car. I think that was something where we got to a point with the old car where I could almost identify what part of the car I needed to work better, and I haven’t really gotten there with this car yet. Hopefully I will, at some point, be able to help my guys and be able to steer us in a better direction as time goes. 

As far as the road course thing goes, I thought COTA was very similar to what we’ve had. The shifting is a little different. The car does drive a little different here and there, but it’s still road racing and I thought that it showed that throughout the event. I think it will be much like Sonoma (Raceway) of the past; a heavy stock car on four tires turning right and left. I don’t know, we’ll see. But I don’t think it will be much different.”

HOW TUNED IN AND INTERESTED WILL YOU BE KEEPING TRACK OF HOW JIMMIE (JOHNSON) DOES TOMORROW IN THE INDIANAPOLIS 500?

“I’m super intrigued and I’m excited for him. I think he has a legitimate shot at it, from what I’ve kind of kept up with. His performance at Texas (Motor Speedway) I think impressed a lot of people. I wasn’t super surprised by that, just with as good as he is on ovals and how much oval experience that he has. So, I think that’s really cool. 

Like I said, I feel like he’s got a shot at the win tomorrow. I’m going to try and keep up the best I can. I feel like our day is always getting kind of busy when that race is going on, or at least when it starts to wind down. It starts to get really good when we’re starting to do sponsor stuff. I’ll try to keep up with it. Hopefully he’s in the running and if so, I might be late to one or two obligations if Jimmie is leading that thing coming down to the end.”

LEADING THE POINTS AS WE START TO GET THROUGH THE REGULAR SEASON AND GETTING CLOSER TO PLAYOFF TIME, DO YOU START PAYING ATTENTION TO THAT REGULAR SEASON CHAMPIONSHIP BATTLE WITH THE ADDED BONUS POINTS?

“Well, it’s worth three wins, right? So, it’s a very big deal. Anything you can do to hedge your bet and having bonus points is just bettering your odds to making it to Phoenix (Raceway). Those points are on the table for everybody at the beginning of the season. We’ve wanted them every year. It’s not just because you’re leading the points that you want them more. We want them all the time. My want for those 15 points is unchanged today versus years past or any other circumstance. We’d love to have them. I think that does nothing but help you, and we’d love to win more races in the process of trying to get there.”

DO YOU THINK ABOUT IT MORE AS THE REGULAR SEASON WINDS DOWN?

“I don’t know that it does you much good. They offer stage points at the end of stages and if you get them, you did good. If you don’t, then you’re probably losing ground. And if you don’t finish good, you’re probably losing ground there too. 

I want to do good all the time. Not to be obvious and boring, but I want to do well all the time. If you’re doing good, you’re going to get rewarded for it, and that comes through stages. This race gives out a lot of stage points with having an additional stage in it too. It’s a big weekend for that.”

NASCAR CUP SERIES

CHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAY

COCA-COLA 600

TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT

MAY 28, 2022

TY DILLON, NO. 42 BLACK RIFLE COFFEE COMPANY Camaro ZL1, met with the media in advance of this weekend’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Press Conference Transcript:

BEING A BORN AND BRED HERE IN KIND OF THE CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA AREA, TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT JUST, I KNOW SOMETIMES WE REFLECT ON YOUR MEMORIES ON COMING TO THIS RACE, WHAT DOES THIS COCA-COLA 600 MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND MEAN TO YOU?

“It means a lot. First of all being able to be home, racing in our backyard it’s a 40-minute drive from the house over here, which is always great. Then you have so many friends and family that get to come see what you do and be a part of the weekend is always special. Charlotte Motor Speedway to me is so much of my life was started and created here. So many special things that mean so much. I mean first time ever making a lap in a racecar was on the track right outside the jumbotron back there on the backstretch, the little quarter mile in a bandolero. From that moment whatever is in the blood, it lit up and knew I was in love with racing cars. A few years later I was here for the Summer Shootout, and we parked beside a family called the Cary family that had driven down from Washington state. I think I was 13 or 14 and they had a daughter that was 13 or 14 who is now my wife. Met my wife here at this track when we were little and have got to bring my kids now. So, this is a very special place. The only thing is I haven’t got to victory lane in the big cars. I’ve won everything. I’ve won at the dirt track. I’ve won at the little track. I’m ready for my shot here in the big victory lane.”

JUST TALK TO US ABOUT THE NEW TEAM. DO YOU FEEL YOU’VE GOTTEN A CHANCE TO GET ACCLIMATED, GET A GOOD RAPOR WITH YOUR CREW CHIEF? JUST TALK ABOUT HOW COMFORTABLE YOU’VE GOTTEN A CHANCE TO GET WITH YOUR NEW TEAM.

“Yeah, we’re certainly growing. I think I underestimated a little bit of how much not having practice with the new team was going to be harder than I expected. My first four years with Germain, we were able to grow a lot. Those practice sessions and time at tests you’re able to grow so much with your communication. Getting things going this year and just kind of getting that marriage between Jerame (Donley) and I and our engineers and our specific 42 team, has taken a little bit longer. We’ve been able to capitalize on a lot of the help from GM and Chevrolet being in the simulator together. Those moments that we’ve had to, even though it’s a computer simulation, we’re able to work on our dialogue. I’m able to take time and have a little bit longer discussion about what I’m looking for, why I want that and why I say certain things and what that might mean compared to what he hears. Those things have been taking leaps and bounds, and our consistency and our speed has been growing with that. So, it’s been very exciting and we’re putting in four to eight hours a week together on simulators after racing. We all want it on our 42 team. We’ve got a lot of young, hungry guys. It’s part of maturing together that we are growing in and it’s coming together nicely and we’re working on getting to the speed of our teammate. Erik (Jones) has had a good start to the year, and we want to get to where they are and hopefully push them a little bit further too. I think we are getting really close. Even though we didn’t have the result last week at the Open, we were right there on those guys racing with them and the 3 and the 8 kind of our technical alliance cars. That’s where we want to be is around those guys and pushing them forward too. We’re moving the right direction. Our team is really, really grinding hard and getting everything, we can. These qualifying practice days are it is a mad house for us. You know you get 15 minutes on track. You’ve got about five minutes to debrief and make changes and then you go run one lap that’s your fastest lap all weekend and it’s just super quick. A lot of things happen, so we’re learning how to make it through today on these Saturdays and have a good debrief to lead into a good Sunday. Those things just take time and we’re working hard. We’re not satisfied until we’re winning races.”

WHAT’S LIFE LIKE AT GMS RACING COMPARED TO WHAT YOU THOUGHT MAYBE GOING IN TO WHAT YOU’VE ACTUALLY ENCOUNTERED?

“At Petty GMS so much has changed, because it was GMS and it was just three or four of us when we came here for the initial ROVAL test. Those guys put in so many hours just to get that one car to the track. Then a couple of weeks later we’re Petty GMS, two car team. Then, trying to get those two cars and two teams to the track and everybody is new and hiring people. We’re so fresh, especially my team. My lead engineer is in a new role for the first time. My crew chief is a first time crew chief. I’m probably myself and the car chief have the most experience doing the job that we’re doing at where we’re at. The good thing is with our team is we’re all young and hungry and motivated. We won’t take where we are at now and not progress. It’s been fun, it’s been fun being a part of the energy in this team. Maury Gallagher gives us everything we need to go out and race. Mike Beam is a great leader between the teams to make sure that we’re focused on the thing that matters and that’s gaining speed and what do we need to do to get faster each week.”

WE’RE AT TIME OF YEAR WHERE EVERYBODY’S KIND OF LOOKING AHEAD INTO NEXT YEAR A LITTLE BIT, YOU’RE DEAL WITH GMS, ARE YOU GOING TO BE BACK THERE NEXT YEAR?

“I hope so. We’re still talking and there’s a lot of things that we have to kind of go through behind the scenes as far as conversations, but I think everybody is fairly happy with the progress of what’s going on. My focus is on me and doing my job and leaving no excuse to be back. Hopefully it all shakes out. I really love the people that I am working with and the opportunity that I’m getting. Results always help that too.”

I KNOW IN THE PAST YOU’VE TALKED ABOUT HOW THE STRUGGLES YOU’VE HAD AND TRYING TO KEEP YOURSELF GOING. WHERE ARE YOU RIGHT NOW? WE’RE HALFWAY THROUGH THE SEASON, YOU’RE KIND OF GETTING ACCLIMATED AS A FULL-TIME DRIVER AGAIN.

“First of all, I like that question. I appreciate asking deep, deep questions. Me personally, I think I’ve kind of gone up and down a little bit throughout this year. I think at the beginning of the year, I kind of lost a little bit of focus of just handling things I can control, not worrying about results and just focusing and resetting every week on the things that I need to work on. I have a real close friend who’s pretty much my personal trainer and driver coach and therapist each week. I think it’s a good idea for everyone to have one of those. It’s Blake Koch. Him and I work every week, whether he’s putting things in perspective or being honest with me about what we need to work on. We spend a lot of time together focusing on me being the best driver that I can. I have fallen in love with the work of what I do and that’s become really fun for me and making it joyful to show up to the racetrack every week focused on things that I can improve on, and not so worried about the results of what the board says. I know as long as I put in the hard work and I’m enjoying what I’m doing the results will come. It’s starting to show and we’re getting faster and faster each week. For me, I am in a good place and I’m excited to be doing what I’m doing.”

WE ARE HALFWAY THROUGH THE REGULAR SEASON NOW, YOU’VE ALREADY MENTIONED THAT YOUR RESULTS DON’T MEAN ANYTHING TO YOU AT ALL, BUT WHERE I THINK YOU’RE 26^TH IN POINTS RIGHT NOW AND WE HAVE THE 13 RACES LEFT. WHERE DO YOU WANT TO BE COME PLAYOFF TIME IF YOU CAN’T WIN? WHAT’S IT GOING TO TAKE FOR YOU TO FEEL LIKE YOU’VE BEEN SUCCESSFUL THE SECOND HALF OF THE REGULAR SEASON?

“I wouldn’t say the results don’t matter anything to me, but I try not to make them the main focus of my week or weekend. This sport can be very depressing because all we really want to do is win each week. You’ve got to focus on the things that you can improve on. One of the things I do is I don’t look at points, so you’re the one kind of informing me on that. I just want to see where we want to improve. We’ve got to show obvious improvement. If we’re running on track 20th to 24th right now, I hope by the second half of the season we’re running 18th to 14th, somewhere in that range. You want to see improvement. I want to continue to get better as a team and make sure our communication, my crew chief and I we feel better about how we communicate the second part of the year than we are right now. I think we’ve just got to focus on growth. We are a very new team. There’s obviously high expectations from what Erik’s (Jones) done. He’s done such a good job, him and Dave (Elenz). Those guys have a lot of experience, Dave from the Xfinity side winning championships and his whole team has been together, so we’re trying to manage that with building a new core of guys with the 42 team and just focus on growth. I know that’s what our owner and Mike Beam want to see out of us. We’re getting there and we’re progressing. We have had some really high moments at Bristol and some of these short tracks. Our obvious place needs to be the mile and a half’s where we just need to gain speed. I really feel like our communication is getting to a point where I’m starting to get the things I need to feel inside the car. I’m a driver who is aggressive my nature when given a car that I feel like I can drive to the level of aggressiveness I want to. If not, I’m going to make sure I bring the car home and get us a good finish. Sometimes that doesn’t always equate to the high highs all the time, but I know when we get to where I’m hitting the car where I feel what I want to feel, we’re going to be very aggressive and go to the front. I’m looking forward to those moments.”

Sheldon Creed and the No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet Overcome Pit Road Penalty to Capture Top-10 Finish

8th

18th

15th

“Gosh, what a bounce back from yesterday’s practice session and qualifying. I started off a little free again today in my No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet and then once my team got me tuned up, I could run the fence and kind of move around where I wanted. I thought I was a little tight center exit to go and compete at the end, probably with the top three or four. All of the adjustments my team made throughout the day were all steps in the right direction. I wish we wouldn’t have had that uncontrolled tire penalty and then I blew a right front getting into the wall. But after all that, to still finish eighth, I’m pretty happy with it.” -Sheldon Creed

Austin Hill and the No. 21 Alsco Uniforms Chevrolet Ran Up Front, Showed Speed at Charlotte Motor Speedway

14th

20th

8th

“We made gains on our Alsco Uniforms Chevy Camaro all day. It seemed like the track rubbered up and kind of got tight. All of the adjustments we made were a positive all the way through Stage 2. I got to the point where I was really tight trying to put throttle down, and I couldn’t run the fence like I wanted which is where the speed was today. You had to be able to run there to make time. I thought we were going to get a solid finish, somewhere around sixth or seventh. It’s been a while since I sped on pit road, I was pretty mad at myself about that. It takes a whole team effort to run well and on the money stop, the driver messed up. Track position was huge so I was trying all I could to get in as hard as I could, get a good stop, and then maybe jump ahead of one or two guys. It was a frustrating day for sure. We had a better racecar than that and should have finished somewhere in the top 10. We’ll go back and keep building and try to do a better job next time of managing my entry speed.” -Austin Hill

5/27/2022 – Alex Nieten) Lebanon, OR… A NARC Fujitsu General Sprint Car win has been a long time coming for Willie Croft.

Since winning the 2018 Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial, the Colfax, CA native had made 48 series starts and earned 10 top-three finishes over that span, but none of them were atop the podium. He’d led laps, just not the final one.

In start number 49 since that 2018 triumph, the narrative changed course. Croft delivered a masterful drive and dominated NARC’s first ever appearance at Willamette Speedway, leading all 30 laps on Friday night to claim the second race of the Fastest Four Days in Motorsports.

“I can’t believe it’s been four years,” a jubilant Croft said of ending the NARC winless drought.

The win marked his ninth career with the series and also his third consecutive podium after a second-place effort at Petaluma last weekend and a third-place result Thursday night at Southern Oregon Speedway.

Croft led the field to green of the 30-lap Fujitsu Feature with Colby Copeland alongside. Croft kept his car glued to the tacky bottom groove as Copeland ripped the topside looking for a run in the early laps.

Copeland built enough momentum on a couple of occasions where it appeared he may pull alongside Croft, but the bottom proved too dominant, and Copeland eventually settled in behind Croft after a few circuits. The race’s first yellow flew on lap six for a slowing Brian Boswell just as the leaders were entering traffic.

On the restart Croft pulled strongly ahead, and behind he and Copeland, Justin Sanders and Dominic Scelzi traded the third-place position before Scelzi finally claimed it. Another yellow flew with 22 laps to go for debris on the front stretch.

The restart provided more of the same story as Croft powered ahead and Copeland looked to keep pace while Scelzi and Sanders resumed their tussle for a podium position.

“It feels really good to be able to run with Scelzi, Sanders, and Copeland, just all the guys who are so fast on a week in, week out basis,” Croft said of his performance throughout the race.

The leaders entered thick traffic inside of 15 laps to go, and on a track where the bottom was the preferred line, making the correct moves was vital. And that’s exactly what Croft did as he made a key move to sneak around Billy Aton, giving him a comfortable lead and a clearer path toward the checkered flag.

“I didn’t really want to go high,” Croft said of handling traffic. “I went high around one guy, and I spun the tires really bad, skated out of the groove. And I figured if I did that, the next guy is going to do that trying to get by me, so I was just going to roll the bottom and let them get in there, get tight, slide up a little bit, and let me poke under them because I could rotate really nice.

So, that’s what I did with Aton. He gave just a little bit of an opening, and I put two wheels in the grass and passed him.”

That move ultimately proved to be the winning one as Croft drove away in his Holey Smokes BBQ/Amerikote Powdercoating No. 29 and won by more than three seconds to erase the four year NARC winless drought.

“This feels good,” Croft said. “I’m super happy to win up here in Oregon. I’ve won Medford. I’ve won here, and I’ve won Elma (Grays Harbor Raceway), which we’re at tomorrow, so I’ve got a lot off confidence… I’m a small team. We’re trying hard. We’ve got a little momentum going, and it feels good.”

Dominic Scelzi claimed the runner-up spot in his Red Rose Transportation/Whipple Superchargers No. 41 after Copeland got severely out of shape on the final lap, dropping to 10th at the finish. While Scelzi’s four-race win streak may have concluded, he kept his podium streak to begin the NARC campaign going. Scelzi has been in the top-three in all of the first seven NARC races.

“I’m just happy to be up here in the Pacific Northwest,” Scelzi said. “It’s fun what the NARC series is doing here.”

And completing the podium was Justin Sanders in the Farmers Brewing Co./Mittry Construction No. 2X. It marked his second straight night of earning a podium in his debut at a track after a second-place effort Thursday at Southern Oregon Speedway. The Aromas, CA native continues to hope for a little more luck in his dash positioning.

“It was good, but it’s a product of the dash draws,” Sanders said of his finish. “That’s like seven dashes in a row of starting sixth, and tonight was big for track position.”

Completing the top-10 was Shane Golobic, Bud Kaeding, Tanner Holmes, Max Mittry, Tyler Thompson, Mitchell Faccinto, and Colby Copeland.

FUJITSU GENERAL USA FEATURE (30 laps): 1. Willie Croft 29 2. Dominic Scelzi 41 3. Justin Sanders 2X 4. Shane Golobic 17W 5. Bud Kaeding 69 6. Tanner Holmes 18T 7. Max Mittry 2XM 8. Tyler Thompson 7 9. Mitchell Faccinto 21 10. Colby Copeland 16A 11. Joel Myers Jr. 83V 12. Sean Becker 22X 13. Billy Aton 26 14. Shane Forte 26F 15. Logan Forler 2L 16. Brian Boswell 35

HOOSIER TIRE LAP LEADERS: Willie Croft 1-30

SWIFT METAL FINISHING HARDCHARGER: Shane Golobic 9th to 4th

ARP FAST QUALIFIER (16 Cars): Justin Sanders 11.284 (New Track Record)

BROWN AND MILLER RACING SOLUTIONS HEAT ONE (8 laps): Myers Jr., Sanders, Croft, Golobic, Mittry, Becker, Faccinto, Forte

KIMO’s TROPICAL CAR WASH HEAT TWO (8 laps): Kaeding, Scelzi, Copeland, Thompson, Holmes, Forler, Aton, Boswell

SUNNYVALLEY “POWERED BY BACON” TROPHY DASH (6 laps): Croft, Copeland, Scelzi, Sanders, Myers Jr., Kaeding

Wheatland, MO (May 27, 2022) – Johnny Scott and Jonathan Davenport put on a spirited battle for the race lead on Friday night at Lucas Oil Speedway. Scott and Davenport officially traded the lead six times during the 40-lap Tribute to Don and Billie Gibson, Show-Me 100 founders, in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series and Lucas Oil MLRA sanctioned event to kick off the 30th Annual Show-Me 100 weekend. For Scott, the current MLRA points leader, it was his third win in that series in 2022 and his first career in Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series competition. The 32-year-old New Mexico resident took the lead for good on lap 32 from Davenport and pulled away for the victory. Davenport finished in second followed by Jimmy Owens, Hudson O’Neal, and Ricky Thornton Jr. Davenport grabbed the lead at the start of the main event, but a quick caution for Chris Ferguson halted the action with one lap scored. On the restart Davenport led Scott until lap 14 when Scott took his first lead of the race. On lap 16 Davenport bounced back to take the point, but Scott wasn’t done as the two raced through traffic with Scott regaining the lead on lap 18. Scott’s lead was short-lived as Davenport, the 2015 Show-Me 100 winner vaulted back in front on lap 23. It appeared as if Davenport would have clear sailing to the checkers, but Scott changed his line which allowed him to chase down Davenport and pass him for the final time on lap 32. Scott pulled away for a 2.446 second advantage at the finish. Scott now joins his twin brother Stormy as a Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series winner and was breathless in Lucas Oil Victory Lane. “There towards the end I needed to move my line up in three and four. It was rough on the bottom, and I couldn’t get through there anymore. I saw JD was getting though the top in three and four pretty good, so I went up there and started reeling him in pretty good. I started diamonding one and two and I just started to hit my marks from there.” “This win is huge. I have been out for the last month after hurting my back. I just want to thank my sponsors and crew for sticking with me. Hopefully we can keep this going and get a big win tomorrow night, I am gassed right now.” Davenport, the three-time Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series National Champion took the runner-up position at the end. “He (Scott) did a great job there. I was just trying to find the smoothest way around the racetrack. The track had a whole lot of character tonight. My team gave me a good car again tonight. I just couldn’t hang on like he could. He was a little bit better than us. The top was definitely the fastest line, we just struggled a little bit in the middle.” Owens, a four-time Show-Me 100 winner came from seventh to round out the podium. “We have been struggling with this car, but it’s been a good car. We are just learning what to do with it, I feel like we have made some leaps and bounds with this car this weekend and here in the last week.” The winner’s Longhorn Chassis is powered by a Clements Racing Engine and sponsored by Mesilla Valley Transportation, Rancho Milagro Racing, Eagle Moon Hemp Farms and Lab, Big Deal Car Care, Ed and Trudy Healy, Top of the World Ranch, Slicker Graphis, and Race Ranch Clothing Company. Completing the top ten were Ashton Winger, Kyle Bronson, Garrett Alberson, Kolby Vandenbergh, and Chris Ferguson. Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Race Summary The Tribute to Don & Billie GibsonFriday, May 27th, 2022Lucas Oil Speedway – Wheatland, MO Allstar Performance Time TrialsFast Time Group A: Chad Simpson / 15.068 seconds (overall)Fast Time Group B: Jonathan Davenport / 15.260 seconds Penske Race Shocks Heat Race #1 Finish (8 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 157-Mike Marlar[2]; 2. 20-Jimmy Owens[3]; 3. 71-Hudson O’Neal[6]; 4. 25-Chad Simpson[1]; 5. 11-Spencer Hughes[5]; 6. 86-Kyle Beard[9]; 7. 45-Kylan Garner[7]; 8. 65-Jon Binning[8]; 9. 12-Scott Crigler[10]; 10. 14M-Reid Millard[11]; 11. (DNF) 32S-Chris Simpson[4] Summit Racing Equipment Heat Race #2 Finish (8 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 1ST-Johnny Scott[2]; 2. 89-Ashton Winger[1]; 3. 0-Scott Bloomquist[4]; 4. 40B-Kyle Bronson[5]; 5. 56-Tony Jackson Jr[3]; 6. 50C-Kaeden Cornell[8]; 7. 90-Brian Rickman[6]; 8. 65H-Dewaine Hottinger[7]; 9. 18P-Shannon Parker[9]; 10. 23-John Blankenship[10]; 11. 7J-Jay Fields[11] Simpson Race Products Heat Race #3 Finish (8 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 91P-Jason Papich[2]; 2. 1-Brandon Sheppard[1]; 3. 39-Tim McCreadie[5]; 4. 18-Shannon Babb[4]; 5. 04-Tad Pospisil[3]; 6. 97-Cade Dillard[6]; 7. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[7]; 8. 7W-Cole Wells[9]; 9. 14W-Dustin Walker[10]; 10. 6H-Al Humphrey[8] Ohlins Shocks Heat Race #4 Finish (8 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 49-Jonathan Davenport[1]; 2. 15V-Kolby Vandenbergh[2]; 3. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[8]; 4. 3S-Brian Shirley[6]; 5. 10-Jacob Magee[5]; 6. 2S-Stormy Scott[4]; 7. 18D-Daulton Wilson[7]; 8. 3-Brennon Willard[11]; 9. 10W-John Willard[10]; 10. 22H-Daniel Hilsabeck[3]; 11. 50K-Kayden Clatt[9] Wrisco Industries Heat Race #5 Finish (8 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[1]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce[3]; 3. 18J-Chase Junghans[4]; 4. 21XXX-Neil Baggett[6]; 5. 58-Garrett Alberson[2]; 6. 1T-Tyler Erb[5]; 7. 36-Logan Martin[8]; 8. 9J-Joseph Gorby[7]; 9. 78S-Steve Stultz[9]; 10. 26-Glen Powell[10] Lucas Oil Heat Race #6 Finish (8 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 21-Billy Moyer Jr[2]; 2. 15L-Payton Looney[3]; 3. 22F-Chris Ferguson[4]; 4. 1S-Jeremy Shaw[1]; 5. 1X-Aaron Marrant[5]; 6. 7-Ross Robinson[9]; 7. 11K-Jon Kirby[7]; 8. 98-Ben Schaller[6]; 9. 93-Mason Oberkramer[8]; 10. 10J-Joseph Joiner[10] FAST Shafts B-Main #1 Finish (10 Laps, Top 2 Transfer): 1. 40B-Kyle Bronson[2]; 2. 25-Chad Simpson[1]; 3. 56-Tony Jackson Jr[4]; 4. 86-Kyle Beard[5]; 5. 11-Spencer Hughes[3]; 6. 90-Brian Rickman[8]; 7. 50C-Kaeden Cornell[6]; 8. 45-Kylan Garner[7]; 9. 18P-Shannon Parker[12]; 10. 65H-Dewaine Hottinger[10]; 11. 23-John Blankenship[14]; 12. 14M-Reid Millard[13]; 13. 7J-Jay Fields[16]; 14. 65-Jon Binning[9]; 15. 32S-Chris Simpson[15]; 16. 12-Scott Crigler[11] UNOH B-Main #2 Finish (10 Laps, Top 2 Transfer): 1. 3S-Brian Shirley[2]; 2. 18-Shannon Babb[1]; 3. 04-Tad Pospisil[3]; 4. 97-Cade Dillard[5]; 5. 2S-Stormy Scott[6]; 6. 18D-Daulton Wilson[8]; 7. 7W-Cole Wells[9]; 8. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[7]; 9. 10-Jacob Magee[4]; 10. 3-Brennon Willard[10]; 11. 50K-Kayden Clatt[15]; 12. 10W-John Willard[12]; 13. 22H-Daniel Hilsabeck[14]; 14. (DNS) 6H-Al Humphrey; 15. (DNS) 14W-Dustin Walker DirtonDirt.com B-Main #3 Finish (10 Laps, Top 2 Transfer): 1. 1S-Jeremy Shaw[2]; 2. 58-Garrett Alberson[3]; 3. 1T-Tyler Erb[5]; 4. 21XXX-Neil Baggett[1]; 5. 36-Logan Martin[7]; 6. 98-Ben Schaller[10]; 7. 1X-Aaron Marrant[4]; 8. 7-Ross Robinson[6]; 9. 93-Mason Oberkramer[12]; 10. 11K-Jon Kirby[8]; 11. 9J-Joseph Gorby[9]; 12. 78S-Steve Stultz[11]; 13. 26-Glen Powell[13]; 14. 10J-Joseph Joiner[14]

(5/26/2022 – Alex Nieten) Central Point, OR… Entering the 2022 West Coast racing season one of the biggest questions was if Dominic Scelzi would replicate his 2021 “dream season” or if he’d “wake up.”

Well, it doesn’t appear he plans on waking up anytime soon.

Scelzi rolled to his fourth consecutive NARC Fujitsu General Sprint Car win and 19th overall in front of a packed house at Southern Oregon Speedway on Thursday night. With the victory, he became the first series winner in the Pacific Northwest since 2012 as the Oregon track kicked off the Fastest Four Days in Motorsports. It also marked his sixth consecutive podium to begin the season as he continues to extend his early season point lead in a bid for back to back championships.

“I love racing in Oregon,” Scelzi said. “It’s my first win in Oregon, and it looks like we’re going to have to come back every year.”

Scelzi started the race in second as pole sitter, Mitchell Faccinto, led the field to green. The leaders quickly got spread out early on and entered traffic on lap five. A tense moment for the leaders occurred on the sixth circuit as T.J. Winningham spun, forcing them to take evasive action and bringing out the race’s first caution.

On the next restart the leaders again became spaced out, and just as slower cars began to close the margin between Faccinto and Scelzi, the yellow again flew for Steven Snawder who slowed to a stop in turn four.

The green flag flew with 20 to go, and while the action toward the front was limited, battles were fierce throughout the field as a collection of cars jockeyed for spots in the top-10.

Scelzi pursued Faccinto as the duo navigated traffic. Scelzi matched Faccinto’s every move, passing each slower car just as quick as Faccinto to ensure he couldn’t escape.

With just 11 laps to go heartbreak struck Faccinto. The race-long leader to that point smacked the wall out of turn two, which immediately shredded his right-rear tire. Faccinto limped the Tarlton Motorsports machine back to the pits and came back equipped with a new right-rear. The issue handed the top spot to Scelzi

“I felt like I was kind of closing in on him (Faccinto),” Scelzi commented. “I was starting to diamond off of (turn) four and felt like I was closing in. I was trying to bide my time until we got to traffic. I was lucky I wasn’t too close because I think I’d have got into him there off of (turn) two. He just got right and got into the wall, unfortunate for him. They were really good. I can’t tell you I was going to pass him, but I feel like we were every bit as good as the 21. Sometimes you take a little luck.”

As the laps dwindled, Shane Golobic and Willie Croft waged war for third as Scelzi appeared to be headed toward an easy win as Justin Sanders trailed him. Then on the final lap Golobic’s left-rear tire shredded bringing out the yellow once again and necessitating a green white checkered.

Sanders got a decent jump on the restart and took a peek to Scelzi’s inside entering turn one but couldn’t quite make it work. Scelzi drove his Red Rose Transportation/Whipple Superchargers No. 41 across the line to take the checkered flag with a 1.425 second advantage.

As an added bonus, Dominic completed a night of winning for the Scelzi family.

“My brother (Gio) won by like 47 days at Selinsgrove (PA) tonight,” Scelzi said with a smirk. “I couldn’t let him outdo me.”

Sanders brought the Farmers Brewing/Mittry Construction No. 2X home second, equaling his best NARC finish of the year. The Aromas, CA native felt a long green flag run could’ve resulted in him parking in victory lane at night’s end.

“No yellows, I think,” Sanders said of what he needed to win. “I was terrible on those restarts. My car would just lay right. I was tight for about 10 laps and just couldn’t get a good run going. When I had a long green flag run I was actually able to pull up to those guys.”

Completing the podium was Willie Croft, his second straight top-three after his runner-up last weekend at Petaluma.

“I was like Justin and Dominic, just running the high side on the restart and getting tight,” Croft said of his night. “So, I wanted to go to the bottom just to try it, and I got side by side with Shane and actually, I believe, got by him at one point, but he got me back. I knew his tire was going down. I thought he was going to make it, but obviously it blew out in front of me.”

The remainder of the top-10 included Bud Kaeding, Colby Copeland, Tanner Holmes, Joel Myers Jr., Logan Forler, Max Mittry, and Garen Linder.

FUJITSU GENERAL USA FEATURE (30 laps): 1. Dominic Scelzi 41 2. Justin Sanders 2X 3. Willie Croft 29 4. Bud Kaeding 69 5. Colby Copeland 16A 6. Tanner Holmes 18T 7. Joel Myers Jr. 83V 8. Logan Forler 2L 9. Max Mittry 2XM 10. Garen Linder 22 11. Mitchell Faccinto 21 12. Jared Hood A1 13. Shane Golobic 17W 14. T.J. Winningham 9T 15. Billy Aton 26 16. Jake Wheeler 21W 17. Tyler Thompson 7 18. Steven Snawder 12

HOOSIER TIRE LAP LEADERS: Faccinto 1-19, Scelzi 20-30

SWIFT METAL FINISHING HARDCHARGER: Bud Kaeding 11th to 4th

ARP FAST QUALIFIER (18 Cars): Dominic Scelzi 11.490

BROWN AND MILLER RACING SOLUTIONS HEAT ONE (8 laps): Croft, Golobic, Scelzi, Aton, Thompson, Snawder

KIMO’s TROPICAL CAR WASH HEAT TWO (8 laps): Forler, Faccinto, Copeland, Mittry, Wheeler, Winningham

DIRT.TRAVEL CLUB HEAT THREE (8 laps): Holmes, Sanders, Kaeding, Myers Jr., Linder, Hood

SUNNYVALLEY “POWERED BY BACON” TROPHY DASH (6 laps): Faccinto, Scelzi, Sanders, Golobic, Holmes, Croft

CHEVROLET RACING IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES 100TH INDIANAPOLIS 500 INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY TEAM CHEVY MEDIA DAY QUOTES MAY 26, 2022

JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 SHELL CHEVROLET, TEAM PENSKE HOW HAS THE MONTH OF MAY BEEN TREATING YOU, SO FAR? “Great to see everyone on here. Feeling good, feeling positive. I’m excited for this weekend. Let’s see what unfolds.”WHAT ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS FOR SUNDAY? OBVIOUSLY, YOU GOT SAVED BY A LIGHTNING BOLT FROM HAVING TO RE-QUALIFY FOR A SECOND TIME ON SATURDAY; BUT IT WASN’T FAST ENOUGH FOR THE TOP-12. “Yeah, I’m really excited about the race. I think we have a strong car; I really do. It’s been a pretty steady month for us with the Shell Fuel Rewards Vehicle. Team Chevy has really had a good step-up for us this month, similar to what we’ve seen at most tracks we’ve gone to this year. We’ve had great performance from Team Chevy and we expect no different in the race. We fell a little short in qualifying, unfortunately. I think on one hand, I’m disappointed we weren’t able to show more of our potential. I really felt we had a large improvement over last year. The hand we were dealt was certainly not favorable, timing-wise. It was just one of those days where, unfortunately, timing meant a lot and you really had to maximize and perfect your first run. We didn’t quite perfect our first run and that ultimately ended up biting us and pulling us out of that Fast 12 group. So, I don’t think we showed our entire potential, but hopefully we can rectify that in the race coming up this weekend.”ANY SHORT-COMINGS OR ADVANTAGES THAT YOU SEE FROM EITHER MANUFACTURER AT THIS POINT? “Yeah, that’s a good question. I see where you’re coming from. I think it’s a full 360, to be honest. We’re looking at improvements in all areas: overall power, power and drivability together, and then fuel mileage. You need all of them, really. At the end of the day, you need all of them to be at their best to compete against our competitors. I think we’ve made performance gains in all areas. We’ve seen that across the board in the previous races leading up to the (Indianapolis) 500; and I think for the 500 specifically, it’s a similar case. “It’s just a matter of where does that ultimately all stack up compared to Honda. I think It’s hard to say when you’re not in the actual race. There is a lot that takes place in practice, whether it’s fuel loads or engine mixtures. You just don’t have a complete read on where you ultimately are. But judging off of history and the races leading up to it this year, I think we’ve made an improvement in all areas and hopefully that is going to be enough to make our day simpler on Sunday compared to last year.”WHEN YOU LOOK AT THIS RACE ON SUNDAY, IT LOOKS LIKE WE’RE GOING TO HAVE A HOT ONE. HOW DO YOU SEE WHERE YOU NEED TO BE WITH YOUR CAR? “Yeah, handling is going to be a premium. There’s no doubt. When the track temperature comes up, that’s when things get tricky. I think we’re in a good spot, I really do. I feel very positive about our car. We haven’t had a lot of hot days in testing. When we were here for the open test, it was cool and perfect and it was like that for most of this month. We had one day that probably represents more closely to what the race will be and that was last Tuesday. It was definitely more difficult. The car was trickier to drive; it was more on the edge. You were worried about the rear a lot more. So, I think that brings in the conversation about degradation and how do you manage that. It will definitely put a premium on handling – looking out for the tires, making sure you have minimal degradation. That’s probably more important than your outright car speed or your fuel mileage. I think it will be interesting to see how that transpires, but that’s the stuff we’re looking at for the weekend.”ON WINNING THE INDIANAPOLIS 500 IN THE YEAR THAT YOU CELEBRATED THE BIRTH OF YOUR CHILD AND HAVING THIS INTERESTING EARLY PART OF THE SEASON: “Yeah, it would be great timing, no doubt. But unfortunately, we don’t get to choose these things. They either happen or they don’t. Sometimes the timing can be just perfect. I don’t know what the future is going to hold. We’ve been in a good spot. Personally, I’ve been very fortunate. My wife and our family have been in a very fortunate position. Everybody is happy and healthy and that’s all I can really wish and hope for. How it’s all going to come together on Sunday, I don’t know. I don’t have the answer for that. I’m just doing the best job I can, like always, and hopefully it works out.” SCOTT McLAUGHLIN, NO. 3 PENNZOIL CHEVROLET, TEAM PENSKE“I think Team Chevy has done an awesome job bringing us the power this year for the 500. We have great engines and great power against the Hondas. As a team, I think we didn’t take the same step forward that they have in terms of performance. But I have full faith in what we have underneath the hood with fuel mileage, drivability, in pit lane and all that sort of stuff to make decent headway from where we are. It’s not where we want to qualify. Certainly our racecar feels really strong and has been helped with the increase in power and fuel mileage from Chevy this year. I’m excited. I certainly think a Chevy can win the Indy 500 this year, and I hope that’s me.”HOW HAS YOUR MONTH OF MAY BEEN GOING? “It’s great to be back. The month of May has been wild with ups and downs, lots of rain and lots of good weather. That’s the May in Indy and what it’s all about. I can’t wait for Sunday. I think we have a pretty handy race car on our hands and I think we can do some damage from 26th.”ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING THE SPEEDWAY FULL OF FANS? “It’s something that I’m really looking forward to. I had the experience of last year with the quarter-crowd or whatever it was. I remember talking to (James) Hinchcliffe and (Graham) Rahal on the grid before the intros – they were on my row – and I said, ‘Geez, boys, there’s a lot of fans out there.’ And they said that’s nothing, wait until next year when it’s full. I’m starting to feel that vibe. The festivities, the Snake Pit and seeing how big this town is around this time of the month is exciting.”EMOTIONALLY AS A DRIVER, THAT HAS TO GET TO YOU? “I’ve never competed in something as big as this. It will be a new thing for all of us, even though last year was 130-something thousand people. As a driver, it’s a big deal and such a big moment for families. It’s very exciting.” QUALIFYING DIDN’T REALLY PLAY OUT THE WAY YOU WANTED. TALK ABOUT YOUR EXPECTATIONS FOR SUNDAY. “That was obviously disappointing to us on car 3. I think 15th would have been a lot better than 26th, but at the same time we know that Indy is a huge race and it takes a lot more than just a qualifying position to have a good one. Things can go your way and things can’t. You just have to make sure you make it as perfect a day as you can. Things didn’t work out our way in qualifying. We had a pretty solid car, but I felt like conditions at the time maybe weren’t favorable for us. But I still don’t think we would have made the jump we need to for qualifying. There’s been a lot of hard work at Penske, but we just missed it a little bit. We’ll be OK. We’ll get that speed eventually. We know our race car is good and that’s what pays at the end of the day.”WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO YOUNG DRIVERS ASPIRING TO THEIR DREAMS? “I think New Zealand punches above its weight with how good our series is bringing up young talent. We have a great pool of talent. You can learn a ton with the tracks down south before you go overseas, so don’t rush that process and then hopefully bigger and better things will come in your career.”ARE THERE THINGS YOU HAD FIVE YEARS AGO THAT CHANGED AS YOU’VE GOTTEN OLDER? “I think I’m just a different driver. I think I’m at the peak of my career. I’ve had to learn a whole different discipline as far as where I’m at with my driving and learning aerodynamics and how to race a very powerful car. Yes, I am a better driver but I’m a bit of a more diverse driver. I’m racing on ovals now, street courses. I think that’s what is cool about INDYCAR is that it allows you to grow as a driver and have a huge amount of different tracks that you have to be good at to win the championship. I’m really enjoying that challenge.”SUNDAY IS GOING TO BE HOT, WHICH SEEMS TO SUIT YOUR AGGRESSIVE STYLE TO MOVE FORWARD. “I actually wanted it to be hotter. I think it suits us from the perspective of that we can follow closer than a lot of other cars and I feel like our tire degradation is pretty good. I’m fully expecting a solid race. I just need to be smart. You know, 26th is a long way back, but at the end of the day it’s a long race and things can change. For me, it’s just trying to get through the first stint. If I can pick my risks, I will, or if I have to risk a bit more early, I will. I have no doubt we can win this race and we have the speed to. One thing that has been really good for me this month is that once we get to the front and battle with (Alex) Palou or Pato (O’Ward), in practice we hold our own. I feel if we get to the front, we’ll be able to stay there and fight.”DO YOU HAVE MARKERS OF WHERE YOU WANT TO BE AT CERTAIN PARTS OF THE RACE? “We have strategy goals that we’re still working on, where we’re going to be. If we need to move forward a bit quicker and be more daring with the car setup and the downforce levels, we can definitely trim out if we need to.”ARE YOU CONFIDENT YOU CAN RETURN TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP HUNT? “This is a massive race for the championship. It’s early days to really worry about it, but this is an important deal to at least get some points on the board. I want a solid race, and this could really set up your championship as it did for (Alex) Palou last year.” DALTON KELLETT, NO. 4 K-LINE INSULATORS CHEVROLET, AJ FOYT RACING “Everything has been going alright and going smoothly so far today. Monday obviously was a tough day for the No. 4 K-Line crew, but we’ve got the car back together. Our mechanics and engineers have been working hard to get everything sorted if we get to go out tomorrow and then Sunday.”THIS IS YOUR THIRD 500. WHAT YOUR ROUTINE? IS IT GOOD TO GET AWAY FROM THE TRACK OR DO YOU WANT TO STAY IN RACE MODE THE WHOLE TIME? “I think it was nice to get out and disconnect a little bit. It’s important to find those brief moments throughout the month that you read a book, go for a walk with the dog or whatever where you can just get away. It’s easy to get locked in and be tense moving forward with the race ahead.”INAUDIBLE: “It’s hard at Indy because there’s so much before. At some point before we go out for the driver intros, I like to get dressed early, do a warmup with all that on and get my body loose and ready. Throughout the day, I try to get a couple of brief moments to take a couple of breaths, close my eyes and just make sure I’m in the right mindset for the race.” PATO O’WARD, NO. 5 McLAREN CHEVROLET, ARROW McLAREN SP“We’re in the Indy 500. If you’re not here to win, then what are you doing here? I think we’re starting in a great position. I’m happy with my race car. I think the team has given all three of us a great shot at having a great race. That’s what we want to do; we want to do a great race, we want to be there at the end and fight for the win and just have a great, clean race for all of us.”WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT A GOOD RESULT SUNDAY BEING A GATE FOR YOU FOR THE FUTURE? “It’s a huge race, the most important race for all of us in our calendar. I try not to think about that. It’s obviously a race that everybody in the paddock wants to win. It’s a wish that everybody in the paddock wants to accomplish in their career, in their life. It’s something that always crosses your mind because you want it so bad. You have to treat it like another race and execute when the opportunities come and make sure you’re there at the end to take advantage of all the work that you’re going to be doing all race to position yourself for a good result.”WITH ALL THE CRAZY WEATHER WE’VE HAD, DO YOU THINK YOU NEEDED MORE TIME FOR PRACTICE? “No, I’m ready to go to the race. Even if we do get some running in on Friday or Saturday it’s going to be useless because it’s going to be 30 degrees colder than what it is going to be on race day. You’re going to learn nothing. You’re going to be ‘Oh, my car’s great,’ and you get to the race and say, ‘What happened to it?’ Well, the sun did. It would have been great to have another day with temperature similar to race day, but we really haven’t had that chance until race day. So, I think everybody’s got what they got and I’m really happy with my race car.”HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR STARTING SPOT? “I feel great; it’s my best starting spot in the Indy 500. I think we’re in a great spot to do a really good race. It’s such a long race where it’s all about doing your pit stops correctly, hitting your marks. The guys have to be making the right calls on the strategy, but it’s crazy to think that you know what the strategy is going to be like on a 500-mile race. I think it’s all about keeping it clean, taking care of your car, being aware of your surroundings, and once the closing stages of it start and you see what strategies are going on, then I think you can be a bit more aggressive on certain things. But as soon as you start the race, it’s all about keeping it clean, being smart with your position with your car and making sure you get your car into a window where it’s drivable and you’re comfortable with it.”IS IT REASSURING TO HAVE YOUR TEAMMATE BESIDE YOU? “I think it’s really good that we have both cars in the same row. I think the biggest thing there is being aware of who’s around you and don’t get too excited on certain things because it is 200 laps. I remember last year I lost two positions on the start, but if you get the first pit stop sequence right you can move up 10, 12 positions in track position. So, I think we came out fourth. I have no idea how. We were right where we wanted to be for the rest of the race. I think there’s a huge emphasis on how smooth you can do those pit stop sequences. I really think that’s where you make or break your race. As good as your car may be, if you’re in a train of 10 you aren’t passing anybody until somebody has a moment or somebody doesn’t time a tow correctly and has a mistake. But if no one is making a mistake, you aren’t getting by anybody. If you’re in the first three or four, yes. Other than that, you just need to wait for someone to make a mistake or get them on the pit stop sequence.”HOW TO YOU FEEL ABOUT CHEVY’S FUEL MILEAGE? “We’ve been running in the pack and going through mixtures. I’m really happy with where we stand. It’s hard to know where people are when you’re fuel saving and they are full power. I think we’re in a really good place and we’re trying to get the balance of the car as strong as possible to make sure we can attack the last few laps.”HOW DO YOU SEE THE GRID WITH PEOPLE STARTING IN THE FRONT WITHOUT A LOT OF EXPERIENCE AND OTHERS WHO IT DIDN’T WORK OUT FOR STARTING AT THE BACK? “I think that’s what makes the 500 such a different race than everything else. It’s great to be starting up front and you don’t have all that dirty air and it makes your life easier. But just because you’re starting halfway in the pack, you have a good race car you’re going to be in the front halfway through the race. That’s the point when the race starts to pace out, when the passing becomes easier just because you don’t have dirty air from 15 different cars. Obviously, yellows have a lot to say where strategies go. There are so many factors that you can’t control. But what you can is make sure you have the opportunity take it and if you don’t be patient with it.”IS STAYING PATIENT TOUGH TO DO? “It’s tough to do, but I think at the end of the race there’s one thing on your mind if you’re up there and that’s you need to be aggressive because other people are going to be really aggressive. But at the start of the race, you have to be aware of who’s around you. I think it’s important not to treat the start of the race not like a practice, but you also can use start of the race in trying to make your car better for the end. There are certain things you can move around in the car, the team can help you with front or rear wing. There are things you can do to try to position yourself even better for the end of the race and I think that’s the most important thing.”IS IT TOUGH TO HAVE A MENTAL PICTURE OF WHERE YOU ARE IN THE RACE? “I usually let the team deal with it. But if you’re running up front you know. I’m usually pretty aware of where we stand, but I just drive.”HOW DIFFICULT IS IT FOR YOU TO KEEP FOCUS AND CALM BEHIND ANOTHER CAR? “You just need to make sure you’re in a position to get the position or be aggressive with it if someone makes a mistake. When will they make the mistake? Will they make a mistake? You never know. You get to a point where as much as you’d love to be passing people when you’re in a train of six or seven cars, you’re not going to. You dial down, save fuel and open windows for the team and just be ready for an opportunity.”IN PAST YEARS THERE HAS BEEN A FAVORITE. IS THAT THE CASE THIS YEAR OR ARE THERE TOO MANY PEOPLE WHO COULD WIN? “I think there are so many cars that could win the race and with it being such a long race, you never know who takes the risk on strategy. There are going to be cars that are off-strategy, and they can get lucky and it works out for them. I just think it’s a race that you can’t guess who’s going to win.” JUAN PABLO MONTOYA, NO. 6 McLAREN CHEVROLET, ARROW McLAREN SP“Things are really good. We have a good car. Compared to last year, we have good pace. I’m pretty excited. We have a great potential. It’s going to be a tough race starting from where we’re starting, but it’s not impossible. I’m up for the challenge. With the way the car is driving and handling, I feel like have a shot. Of course, things need to go your way. You can normally get away with one mistake early in the race, and I think we made our mistake already in qualifying. For sure we have to have a good race and good execution all day to give ourselves a chance.”DID YOU COME AWAY FROM MONDAY WITH CONFIDENCE IN THE CAR RUNNING TRAFFIC? “I think Monday a lot of people fooled themselves in running a lot of downforce for a cool racetrack. If you look at the forecast for Sunday, it’s going to be a hot race. So everyone who ran high downforce on Monday will have a lot less downforce Sunday. I feel like we did the homework we needed to do and executed the way we needed to execute, so I’m pretty happy.”WORKING WITH FELIX ROSENQVIST AND PATO O’WARD: “It’s been a lot of fun. We always have a good laugh, we always tease each other and push a lot of buttons.”HOW EUROPEANS VIEW THE INDY 500: “A lot of race fans in Europe to pay attention. They enjoy watching. If you go on Sunday night at Monaco around the boats, 90 percent of the boats have the Indy 500 on. So people do pay a lot of attention. It’s exciting and a fun race. It’s a cool day of motorsports, to be honest.”YOU HAVE A CHANCE TO WIN THREE INDY 500s WITH THREE DIFFERENT TEAMS: “I don’t think about it too much. I just want to give myself a shot at winning the race. It’s not because it’s the first win or the third win. I don’t feel you should come to a race if you don’t want to try to win it. I’m not going to say yes to come and do an event if I’m not willing to put everything on the line to win it.”ON THE INDIANAPOLIS 500 BEING SPECIAL: “It’s one of the cool races you want to do. It’s an event you want to do like going to Le Mans or being able to do Monaco. To be able to it as a one-off is really cool. For Monaco you have to be in F1 to do it. For Le Mans, you pretty much have to run the WEC to do it. This is one of the cool things about Indianapolis that you can do it as a one-off event.”PROGRESSION OF PATO O’WARD: “I think everyone saw that Pato was a little emotional at the beginning of the year, and right now he’s in an up-cycle. So I think mentally he’s in a very good place right now. I think it’s important for him to understand instead of being up or down to be more level. That would really help. When he’s up, he’s very fast and hard to beat.” FELIX ROSENQVIST, NO. 7 VUSE McLAREN CHEVROLET, ARROW McLAREN RACING SP“It just feels like I’m way more prepared this year. Second year with my team and second year with my same teammates at IMS with Pato (O’Ward) and Juan Pablo (Montoya). I think we make for a good combo.”DO YOU FEEL LIKE THE THIRD WHEEL IN THE PATO AND JUAN PABLO BROMANCE? “I feel like I’m the dad between those two, especially Juan. He’s like an 18-year-old. I’m looking after him, making sure he’s on time for all his appointments and engineering debriefs and all that. It’s good.”WHAT ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS FOR SUNDAY STARING P8? “I think there are a lot of people who can win this race. Some of it comes down to luck and circumstances, but I definitely feel we’re ready to have a really good race. We’re starting eighth, which I think is right where you want to be. You want to be in the top-10 for this race, especially in the beginning when all the crazy stuff is happening to settle into the race. If we can be better than that at the beginning, then I think we’ll be really solid. We felt good in traffic. I think that’s the main thing we’ll be focusing on is our race car in traffic. I think we’ve been able to follow cars a little bit closer than most. There are some cars out there that look strong and maybe a little stronger than us, but we have one more practice to try to figure something out. I can’t promise that I’m going to win, but I feel a lot more ready than any other year I’ve been here.”IS THERE ANY WAY YOU AND PATO CAN HELP JUAN GET A BETTER RACE CAR GOING INTO SUNDAY? “Qualifying and race are very different things. Qualifying didn’t work out well for Juan. I think there was some stuff behind that happened. I don’t think he was really that slow. I think he’ll be good in the race. He’ll be up there in race trim. He has some cars to pass. We work well together, and we try to help each other. We have long meetings after each session where the three of us talk about our cars – what was good and not good. I feel at this point we know each other so well we can really implement that at an engineering level and understand what each of us wants from our cars. Even when someone else is testing something we know it’s going to work on our car. He’s got the best help he can have, and we do also. We’re ready to go.”HOW DOES JUAN’S EXPERIENCE HELP YOU PARTICULARLY THIS YEAR? “Whenever Juan is talking in a debrief or something, you always listen carefully. Obviously, he’s known for being honest and he doesn’t really care if he hurts someone’s feelings saying what he thinks – which is good. I think I’m the other way; I tend to be too nice, and I don’t want to upset anyone. I think that’s taught me a few lessons as well. Pato is probably somewhere in the middle. The three of us really get along well. Even if we tend to have fun outside the car, once we’re working we’re switched on and we get somewhere with the car setup once we’re out on the track for all three of us to benefit.”HOW CONFIDENT ARE YOU WITH THE CAR AND TEAM AFTER SUNDAY’S QUALIFYING? “Our qualifying position is probably around where we are in race trim. We’re in the upper field but we’re not in the best yet. We still have some time to figure out how to make the car a little bit quicker in traffic. We have a solid top-10 car right now and I think if you can survive the first couple of stints in the race, being top-10 you have as good a shot as anyone to win the race. That’s what we’re aiming for. I feel well-prepared this year. I feel a bit more calm than normal. Somehow, it’s felt a bit easier this year and I’m ready for the task in a different way. And I think it’s because I’m with the same team, same car, same teammates. Everything is sort of an extension of last year. I think we have a good shot. We have to execute and not have mistakes like I did last year in the race when I had a speeding penalty that kind of put us on an off-strategy. We’ll try to stay on the winning strategy this year.” JR HILDEBRAND, NO. 11 HOME FOR OUR TROOPS CHEVROLET, AJ FOYT RACING“Frankly, it’s been a little bit challenging for us. The weather and the conditions changing as much as they have hasn’t given us as much time as we would have liked on track. And I’m sure everybody could say the same. Speaking for us, we could have used more time earlier to get ahead of some of the things that we felt after last year that we needed to address, so by losing some of the time that we did we were kind of pushed into and through qualifying to continue to work through a bit of a program experimenting and learning some of the things on the car that we felt like we needed to understand a little better to try to get ourselves where we think we need to be on race day. We’ve continued making progress and that’s kind of the name of the game. We’re looking forward to getting a little more practice time. As always, just looking forward to the race. It’s going to be warm; it’s going to be tough. I’m always ready for it to be a tough day out there and persevering through it, and hopefully we’ll have something that we can challenge at the front with.”YOU HAVE TWO TEAMMATES IN DALTON (KELLETT) AND KYLE (KIRKWOOD). DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU’VE TAKEN ON A TEAM LEADER ROLE? “At a place like this, for sure. I’m the one bringing the most experience. I think what that amounts to in these kinds of situations is to provide a little perspective with what we’re dealing with. Kyle, in his rookie year, he got one day on track and then a rainout and then crazy wind while trying to get prepared for qualifying, so basically, he didn’t get any legit qualifying feel from the car before you have to stick a run on Saturday. That’s not an easy situation to get through. So, just trying to do what I can to provide context and perspective to what we’re working with on the car and where I think it is relative to where it can be and a basis for how hard you can push this right now and what should you be tolerating with handling in certain conditions. Those guys have been pros this month and we have Ryan Briscoe in the Foyt garage working with Dalton, so that’s been helpful for me having another driver that’s got his eyes on track and watching the cars go round and providing his own perspective. Altogether, it’s a pretty good group.”GETTING A CHANCE TO RACE AT TEXAS THIS YEAR, HOW HAVE THE NUANCES BEEN DIFFERENT FOR YOU THIS YEAR? “Just having a little more continuity with the group has been helpful. I’ve been lucky the last bunch of years that even one-off programs I’ve been able to create a little gravity around my programs and have a group that’s worked together in the past. This year is different from that perspective working with a more full-time crew. Some new faces for me, but they definitely have had more time to work together and that we’ve been able to get a race under our belts before coming to the 500 has helped a lot. The same thing with the engineering staff. It definitely feels like when we showed up here there’s less familiarization going on. We’re just getting in the car and getting rolling. My program last year with this squad came together pretty late, so just having a year working with the same guys – Larry (Foyt) and Scott Harner – helps. Everybody knows more of what to expect. I think it gives us more confidence that we can roll into race day not being a half a step behind.”ARE YOU HAPPY WITH YOUR RACE CAR AFTER MONDAY’S RUNNING OR DO YOU STILL HAVE A LOT OF WORK TO DO? “If you were going to race in conditions like it was on Monday, everybody would feel OK with how the conditions were, where the track temps were. Like a lot of teams, we were trying to trim and expose the car a little bit more to try to figure out if it’s hot how the car is going to feel. A bit of an unknown. We felt OK on Monday. There have been some general handling characteristics in our package that we’ve been working on, and we know we still have a ways to go, and the temps will just expose those thigs more. We’ll be making use of whatever practice remains.”WHAT DO YOU EXPECT WITH THE HIGH TEMPS ON RACE DAY? “Outside of getting the handling of the car for those conditions, which I think is going to be super important come race day because the track temps are going to be up and that’s just going to be a defining factor for cars that end up being at the front toward the end of the race, those are going to be some of the best cars over the stint more when the conditions are lousy when they are not. From a driving perspective, it’s going to be finding that right balance between patience and assertiveness given situations throughout the race. That’s always what it takes to be in the mix for the win at Indianapolis from any starting position on the grid, any scenario during the race. It’s rare that you have a winner that hasn’t been among the best doing that on that day. That’s something we’ll try to work on.” WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON CHEVROLET, TEAM PENSKE“I’m really looking forward to the race. I think we have good race cars. I think we have to have a good day with no mistakes and good pit stops. That’s what we’ve done all year – been very consistent and not really made mistakes. We haven’t necessarily been the quickest every time on the track or even in pit lane, but we have been is consistent. Let’s see what that brings us Sunday.”TALK ABOUT YOUR MONTH OF MAY: “It’s definitely in a way better position than I was last year, especially our starting position. I feel like the racecar has been really good. It’ll be interesting Sunday with the temperature. It’ll show who are the good and bad cars. We’ll have to wait and see how that all plays out. In tough conditions the other day, I felt my car was pretty good.”ENTERING THE INDY 500 LEADING IN INDYCAR POINTS: “Strategy-wise, you may not take bigger risks early on in the race. But if you have a chance to win, you’re going to take that chance. I keep forgetting I’m the points leader, to be honest! It’s just not something I’m thinking about.”YOU SEEM MORE RELAXED THIS YEAR. IS THERE SOMETHING YOU CHANGED IN THE OFFSEASON? “No, I wouldn’t say so. I’ve had so much experience now. You know what wins championships. I feel like I was that way last year; we just had some big points losses with a brake failure here. The car wouldn’t start and we kind of gave away a win at Detroit. Toward the end of the year, we just had a bad run. I think what changes is that if you’re in a good points position earlier in the season, it takes away that feeling of having to do something exceptional to dig yourself out of a hole. So the mentality changes a little. You preserve a bit more. When you’re 100 points out, you’re more willing to take a risk on strategy and more willing to take a risk on track, which can lead to even worse results. That hasn’t been the case with me, to be honest. Everything is clicking well with the team. We had a bad year last year. We went away to do a lot of development and are executing.”STARTING 11TH IS AT THE UPPER HALF OF THE GRID, SO DO YOU GO INTO THE RACE WITH A COUPLE OF PLANS OR GO BY THE SEAT OF YOUR PANTS? “We’ll have a strategy meeting Saturday and have a pretty loose plan to start. It never, ever goes as planned. I think there will be many analysts looking at how this thing can play out, just depending on where the yellows fall. It seems like it should be a pretty clean race considering the level of teams and drivers know. But it also can go the other way where no one has sort of witnessed bad crashes so they aren’t being a little bit conservatives in making some certain moves. I think if you see a few nasty crashes in the month you’re like, ‘Whew… man, I don’t want to do that.’ You can never predict a race. I’ve got enough experience to understand how these things go and what to do in certain situations.”DOES THE CAR CHANGE A LOT FROM WHEN YOU START ON FRESH TIRES AND WHEN YOU’RE AT THE END OF A FUEL STINT? “It does. On an 80-degree day, there will be degradation. It will be tougher and you’ll definitely get slower. You can run out of adjustments, and that’s a bad feeling to end up loose. When you come in, you have to reset everything. You’ll have a bit of history in understanding which way it goes so you can be more ahead of it.” KYLE KIRKWOOD, NO. 14 ROKIT CHEVROLET, AJ FOYT RACING“It’s amazing. The car just seems like it is built for this place with the stagger in the tires and how well INDYCAR has done in honing this car for driving it around this track is so cool. I never thought that any kind of car in this world could be this stable around a track doing 230 or 240 mph. It’s been a lot of fun this entire month. It’s gone by very fast even though we’ve been here for three weeks with the Grand Prix and even before that when we came here to test in April. It’s gone by super-fast and it’s been a lot of fun. There are only two more days of driving left, which is bittersweet.”ON WORKING WITH JR HILDEBRAND AND DALTON KELLETT AHEAD OF FIRST INDY 500: “Both JR and Dalton are very knowledgeable. They’re both engineers. They both understand the car super-well. What’s been interesting the entire month is that whenever we make a change together, we always have the same comments. So we always together want the same exact car, which has been really nice. JR is the one who has the most experience out of all the team members here, so he’s been a huge help with the driving side and what I want from the car. I’ve been fortunate to be teamed up with him.”DRIVING FOR A.J. FOYT AT THE INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY: “He gets excited for this race. When he comes here, he’s a much different person than I’ve seen him the entire rest of the year. He came to Texas and our test at Sebring, and this is the event he cares about. He sees all his fans here. He’s 87 years old and he still wants to win this race as much as I would or he would want to back in the ‘60s. It’s cool to be around him. I’m seeing how big of a legend he is and was back when he raced through all his fans and being here the whole month.”FINALLY RACING AT INDIANALPOLIS FOR THE FIRST TIME: “Finally I’m here! The Freedom 100 was supposed to happen the year I was (in Indy Lights) in 2020 and everything got pushed back. We didn’t got to the Freedom 100 in 2021. April was the first time I had ever been around the Speedway in any sort of car – or even walked it! – was in an IndyCar. That’s the way Roger (Penske) wants it, right? I understand that. The IndyCar is built for this place. I understand that this should be the only thing going around this place. It’s not cool to watch NASCAR go into Turn One and brake, but it’s cool to see IndyCars do 240 mph through Turn One flat-out. It’s been a long time coming, but it’s made this opportunity and time even more sweet with that time that I’ve had to wait.”WHAT WILL YOU BE HAPPY WITH AT THE END OF SUNDAY? “That’s situational. It just depends on how the race goes and how cautions play and everything like that. Being far back where we are, we’re likely to go off-strategy pretty early. But it’s going to be situational. If we feel like we have a fast racecar and we can make passes happen, then obviously I’m going to make passes happen. If we don’t feel like we can make passes happen, then I’ll go into the mindset of saving as much as possible and beating everyone on strategy. That’s kind of the name of the game when you’re that far back in the field. As you saw in testing, once you get six of seven cars back or even four cars back, it gets tough to pass people. It’ll be a tough position to be back there but hopefully the guys in the pits will make me look good!”ABLE TO GET HELP FROM RYAN BRISCOE? “He’s been here the entire year with us, which is awesome. He’s still a driver and could still get in one of these cars and show his stuff. Having JR, Dalton, Ryan and even Stefan Wilson – who is now sitting in our engineering room – we have a wealth of knowledge. I’m the true rookie here and I’m trying to get everything I can from them. It’s been a lot of fun working with them. We all have similar comments on what we want from a car and what setup changes we do. We all went in separate directions with cars and we’ve all came back to exactly the same car, which has been cool during the seven or eight days we’ve been on track.”DRIVING THE NO. 14 AT INDIANAPOLIS: “Driving anywhere around this place in the 14 is special. It’s a legendary number and A.J. has done so much with that number. I’ve come to realize how special it is as the month has gone on. When I started watching INDYCAR, I was probably five, six or seven years old… the 14 wasn’t a really big deal when I first started watching it. But know that I know the history of the team and the history of the number, coming to such a historic event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway has really opened my eyes as to how special it is. I’m honored to drive it.” CONOR DALY, NO. 20 BITNILE CHEVROLET, ED CARPENTER RACING“We have the greatest event in the world coming up! I am very excited for it, our car is fantastic. We’ve done what we needed to do, we’ve got the right car. I feel very confident we’ll be able to move forward. We’re going to have a long day ahead of us, coming from mid-pack, but a lot of other really quick drivers are coming from mid-pack as well. Excited to get this No. 20 BitNile Chevy towards the front and join my teammates! Hopefully, we’re looking at an Ed Carpenter Racing 1-2-3 finish at the Indy 500. Who’s going to win? We don’t know, but I hope it’s me!” HOW’S THE MONTH OF MAY GOING FOR THE 20 CAR? “Fantastic. It’s going great. We’ve had a strong month. Qualifying went a bit awry for us, which is fine. A similar thing happened to us last year. I also am probably not the strongest qualifier here, clearly. I think much better racer here at this track and we have a fantastic racecar yet again. Honestly, I think some of the changes that we made for qualifying going back on those really helped us for the race setup. It was a good road to go down. I think I would much rather be happier in race trim than qualifying trim, because we have to do 200 of those laps rather than four for qualifying.”HOW CONFIDENT ARE YOU IN YOUR CAR AFTER MONDAY’S PRACTICE? “I feel really good, honestly. I think we go into this race at maximum confidence. The team has built some fast racecars, clearly. I think we have done a smart job in not trying to get ourselves outside the box, because we know that when we come here that we have a good setup, we have a good car. Obviously, the conditions have been probably the most challenging that I’ve ever experienced here at an Indy 500. The wind is doing more to the car, the temperatures did more to the car because of the track surface. It’s very, very interesting. We kind of have a lot of decisions to make if we don’t get Carb Day tomorrow. Who’s going to be the bravest? Who’s going to run the least downforce and who’s going to run the most? Who is it going to work out for? So, we will see.ALL THE BAMBOOZELMENT THAT HAS HAPPENED IN THE BUS LOT DURING THE MONTH, DO YOU HAVE PRIME SUSPECTS? “At this point, I don’t even care anymore. We’re focused on the race and all those idiots who decided to mess with my life better be on their guard. We’ll see what happens.”OBVIOUSLY, IT’S A LONG RACE. WHAT DO YOU DO TO MAKE SURE THAT YOU DON’T MAKE EITHER A MISTAKE OR YOU DON’T LOSE TRACK OF SOMETHING? “For sure. I think there’s a couple parts of this race… you know, the track gripping up as the race goes on. It’s easy to get ahead of yourself on how much front wing are you going to have to take out. Last year, we were adding front wing because I was deep in the pack. Then we ended up leading and the thing was really loose. We know that we are going to go to the front. That’s our plan. When we get there, how’s the car going to be set up? Have we over-adjusted for ourselves? Have we not? Obviously, the car is going to be very different if you’re running 16th, 17th compared to the lead. You do mention cruising. There was a lot of cruising around when I was leading the race and we were just driving around like no one was passing me. I was dying to get passed. I was hoping someone was going to pass me, just so we could kind of keep the pace of the race up and get a better fuel strategy position. These things happen. We can see that again this year or we can see a lot more changes for position, depends on who’s out front. There’s a lot that I’ve learned over the years at this race, and we’re prepared to use all those lessons this year for sure.” RINUS VEEKAY, NO. 21 BITCOIN RACING TEAM WITH BITNILE CHEVROLET, ED CARPENTER RACING“I am very, very excited for the Indy 500. It’s going to be a great race! I’m starting from the front row again, second year in a row. It’s pretty cool! I think we have a race-winning car. It’s going to be a long race and many things can happen, but we’ve done everything we can to be prepared. The ECR car is great and my Chevy power is amazing!”ON STARTING ON THE FRONT ROW FOR SECOND STRAIGHT YEAR: “I’m very happy with the car. Ed Carpenter Racing and Chevy put down a very fast car for qualifying. I think we’re even better in race mode compared to qualifying so I’m very excited. It should be a very good race. Hopefully we get the luck we need.”EXPECTATIONS FOR YOUR THIRD INDY 500? “It’s going to be a hard race. Everyone is very, very matched. The Ganassi cars are very fast but I think we have a fair chance of winning the race. I’m very excited. It’s going to be a nice battle and of course people need to be lucky with strategy and everything going your way. Our team really knows what we’re doing. We can stay out front all race and then maybe turn it up a notch at the end.”PROGRESSION AS A DRIVER OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS: “When I was a rookie, I drove as a rookie sometimes. But now I think I’ve proven to be very consistent, at least in Indy 500 qualifying. I had a good race last year but at the end it didn’t work out and we had a little bit of bad luck. I think this year I have the experience to do what I need to do at the end of the race. We should be seen as a contender to win the race not just on pace but with experience.”DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU’RE HONED IN ON FINDING YOUR OWN SETUPS? “When we really started practicing at Indy, I like to let Ed go out first because he has so much experience. Really this whole month, I’ve focused more on myself with my engineer. On Monday at pit out, I told Ed I tried something with my tools in the car, and he told me that was actually pretty smart! Maybe I’ve given him a tip for the first time in the 500!”ARE YOU COMFORTABLE WITH A POTENTIALLY HOT RACE? “I’m very comfortable. We’ve had some hot practices in the last week. I feel very good with the car. I feel I can pass, and I’m comfortable with experimenting and trying different stuff. I’ve never felt this good with the car.” SANTINO FERRUCCI, NO. 23 PALERMO’S CHEVROLET, DREYER & REINBOLD RACINGHOW HAS YOUR MONTH OF MAY BEEN GOING? “The Month of May has been good, so far. It’s treated us well; can’t complain.”SAGE KARAM WAS HERE EARLIER AND HE WAS TALKING ABOUT HOW YOU GUYS GO BACK TO GO-KART RACING; HOW YOUR FAMILY BOUGHT A TRACK AND HOW YOU GUYS USED TO RACE TOGETHER AS KIDS. BUT YOU’VE NEVER REALLY RACED TOGETHER IN THE SAME CLASS UNTIL YOU GUYS GOT TO INDYCAR. NOW, YOU GUYS ARE TEAMMATES. WHAT’S THE MONTH BEEN LIKE WORKING WITH A GUY YOU KNEW WHEN YOU WERE SIX YEARS OLD? “Yeah, honestly it’s been pretty easy working with Sage. We’ve always driven somewhat similar cars… INAUDIBLE… It’s been fun. It kind of takes us back to the old days when we were kids running together across the country. I’m pretty ecstatic about it. I can’t wait to get going. Hopefully we run some practice tomorrow and get the pit stop competition in. I’m a little nervous with the weather.”TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE PIT STOP CHALLENGE. DRYER & REINBOLD RACING HAS BEEN A TEAM THAT’S USUALLY IN THE PIT STOP CONTEST AND THEY’RE USUALLY A TEAM THAT GETS TO THE FINALS. IS THAT SOMETHING YOU’RE LOOKING FORWARD TO; BEING A PART OF THE PIT STOP COMPETITION? “Yeah, I’m super excited. I love drag racing. I love the fact that we get to drag race into the box. I know the guys have been practicing on the pit stops. I’m excited to let those guys have a little competition for themselves. I just have to do my job, which is launch the car, stop the car and launch the car again. I have the easy part of the day. They are the ones that are hopefully going to win us the challenge. I think our first team we go up against is actually Felix (Rosenqvist), so it will definitely be a good challenge.”OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS, YOU’VE SHOWN UP IN SEVERAL PART-TIME, ONE-OFF ROLES IN INDYCAR AND HAVE BEEN SUPER FAST AND STRONG. WHAT WOULD IT TAKE TO GET YOU BACK INTO A FULL-TIME RIDE; AND IS THAT SOMETHING YOU’RE INTERESTED IN? “Yeah, we’ll see. I’d like to be back full-time in INDYCAR. Obviously, I’ve been running some stock car stuff, as well. But sponsorship is a big part of it here. There are a lot of drivers that have a lot of sponsorship behind them. To be honest with you – I thought, like everybody else, I was going to be in the No. 45 car for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. But like I said, things just didn’t fall our way. I think this year, there will be a lot of changes and people we will be moving around. So, hopefully a good opportunity will come from that.”HOW MUCH HAS YOUR PREPARATION FOR THIS RACE CHANGED? TO GO FROM THE DALE COYNE YEARS, TO THE RAHAL SITUATION, AND NOW YOU’RE HERE WITH DREYER & REINBOLD RACING – HOW DO YOU FEEL YOUR PREPARATION HAS BEEN DIFFERENT THIS TIME AROUND? “The biggest thing for me this year is actually running Texas (Motor Speedway). I haven’t been able to get an INDYCAR race under my belt before the 500 because last year, I just did the (Indianapolis) 500; and then I did Mid-Ohio, Detroit, Nashville and I don’t remember if there was one more or not. Not having ran anything else on ovals other than the 500 here definitely kept my mind busy with road courses. But coming here, it’s been super relaxed, honestly. Having Buddy (Rice) has been the greatest thing; just having a former winner in your ear. It was just like having JB in my ear back when I was driving for Dale (Coyne); and it was just very relaxing and very easy to deal with in that respect. We’re just going to take it one day at a time. The goal is to get into the top-10 and ride it until end.”IT ALMOST FEELS LIKE THIS GROUP KIND OF FITS YOUR PERSONALITY A LITTLE BIT BECAUSE YOU’VE SEEM TO HAVE GOTTEN ACCLIMATED TO THEM VERY QUICKLY. “Yeah – it’s different being in a high-stress environment needing to perform because as a driver, I know I need to perform. But I think the team knows that the car is good. We’ve put on a great show already. We’ve already had a ton of press around it. The icing on the cake is that Dennis (Reinbold) just wants to win the race. He doesn’t really care about finishing second, third, fourth, fifth or sixth. It’s ‘win the race at all costs’ for us. And as a driver to hear that – we can go out and do whatever we want, as long as we win the race and Dennis is happy; where most car owners are ‘take care of this, take care of that. Don’t do this, don’t do that’. Dennis only cares about winning this thing. He doesn’t care about all the little things. And that’s why I think the car has run so well, in my opinion. I think they’re some of the best-built race cars I’ve seen here. It’s definitely one of the best race cars I’ve had here; and hopefully with Sage and I in the cars this year, we can do some damage.” SAGE KARAM, NO. 24 AES INDIANA CHEVROLET, DREYER & REINBOLD RACING“It feels good to not start 31st, but also, I was like kind of bummed because I feel like we had more in it. We’re starting 22nd and I feel like we could have done better than that. I just kind of missed it on the first run there, was too late on downforce. When I did get to go back out after the rain, the wind changed, and I think that kind of slowed the track down as you saw with Scott’s run. Scott McLaughlin that is, not Dixon. Dixon is by no means slowed down this month (laughing).”WORKING WITH SANTINO (FERRUCCI), I KNOW YOU GUYS GO WAY BACK TO THE KART TRACK BACK WHEN YOU WERE PROBABLY FIVE OR SIX YEARS OLD. WHAT’S IT BEEN LIKE WORKING WITH HIM AS A TEAMMATE THIS MONTH? “Santino’s family ended up buying Oakland Valley Race Park in New York, which is where I grew up racing go-karts. I grew up racing there every weekend with Marco (Andretti) for many years before I actually met Santino. Then when his family took over the track, I was still continuing to go up there. We ended up traveling the country together racing in Stars of Karting and WK. We both had some success in go-karts, and he was always a bit younger than me, so when he was running like junior sportsman I was running junior. This was kind of toward the end of our karting careers. I went the old American route and did the Mazda Road to Indy at the time and he did the European route. We ended up kind of going our separate ways and weren’t ever really on track again with each other until he came back to America to do some INDYCAR stuff with Dale Coyne. Now we’re teammates at the 500, which is pretty cool. Just two kids growing up racing at a go kart track in New York end up being teammates at the Indy 500 and having Marco up there as well. So now we have three people in the Indy 500 that came from that go-kart track. You know, I’m starting next to Marco. Marco is a good friend of mine, but yeah Santino has been a good teammate for me. We push each other. We definitely want to get the best and the most out of the car. I think what’s good with Santino is that we have a very similar style in what we want in the car. So, we’re constantly searching for those things that I know if I like it he’s going to like it. He’s doing some things out there that if there’s something he finds that I’m probably going to like, so it makes the whole process and program go a lot smoother through the month.”OBVIOUSLY, YOU HAVE SHOWN IN THE PAST THE ABILITY TO START FROM THE BACK AND WORK YOUR WAY THROUGH TRAFFIC AND GET INTO THE TOP-10, GET TO THE FRONT. WHAT WAS YOUR CAR LIKE MONDAY? “I saw this pretty cool Tweet the other day that was in the Aero Screen era at the Indy 500. Me and Santino had passed the most cars and you know, being on the same team and everything I think we’re going to be a pretty exciting duo to watch on Sunday. I think our cars are very good. Basically, we rolled off the trailer with what I left off with last May and it was back in that ballpark that I really, really enjoy driving. We just kind of started fine-tweaking that and I’d say going into this 500 is probably the best shot I’ve ever had at this race. Is it going to be hard to pass? Absolutely. You know, there’s other things you can do: pit strategy, in and out laps and pit stops and stuff that I have a lot of confidence in my team that we can make up the spots we need to make up early in the race to put me in a position that by halfway or the last quarter of the race it becomes a lot easier. The more you move up, the easier it becomes to follow in traffic. You mentioned Monday… Monday was really good for us. I think I was eighth on the charts and the car had really good speed on its own, which people might think, ‘Why does that matter now that qualifying is already done with?’ You’re going to see a lot of guys that will pit early, or pit late and those out laps and sucking up to the group is going to be pretty ginormous. You need a car that can still do a pretty decent time on its own. Our car was good with that and then obviously the traffic, I think our car gets better as the run goes on and it seems like a lot of other cars started to kind of fade away a little bit as the run went on. That was our strong point last year and that was one thing I really wanted to have in the racecar this year, was a car that was good on Lap 30 not necessarily good on Lap 3. I think the team’s nailed that. Looking forward to it.” STEFAN WILSON, NO. 25 DRAGONSPEED/CUSICK CHEVROLET, DRAGONSPEED/CUSICK MOTORSPORTS“It’s so great to be back at Indianapolis and competing in the biggest race in the world once again. I’m back with Team Chevy, and it’s symbolic for me, the Wilsons share something in common with the Chevrolets: we both are among the four pairs of brothers to have led laps here at Indianapolis. The Chevrolet engine has been perfect all month for me, and we made some big gains with the setup of the car in Monday’s practice, so starting 33rd I’ll be looking to move forward early on Sunday.”BEING HERE AND RACING IN THIS EVENT, IS IT MORE REWARDING NOW GIVEN WHAT YOU’VE GONE THROUGH THAN MAYBE THE FIRST OR SECOND TIME? “Yes and no. I think it’s so challenging and every year, I think it gets harder to make it back here. There are so many quality drivers out there. The field is so big already that the opportunities are so few and far between. I just don’t take it for granted that I’ll be able to come back. Each one feels like it could potentially be my last.“At the same time, it motivates me. I’ve got to make the most of the opportunity that I have right ahead of me. It might not be the best opportunity. It might not be the best situation, but I have to make the most of it and try and build my resume up so I can increase my chances of coming back here.”DID YOU THINK THAT WAY THE FIRST TIME? “When I did it the first time, I was just taking it all in. I still had that same gratitude to be in this race, but I had not experienced the trials and tribulations that I’ve experienced the last couple of years of trying to make it back here. So now, like I said, I just don’t take it for granted because I’m here this year; and I know that on Monday, it’s another year of work to get back here. I’m focused on this year, but in the back of my head, it’s a big task and big challenge ahead to make it back here for the future.”HOW LONG BEFORE THE ANNOUCEMENT THAT YOU GUYS MADE THAT YOU WERE DOING THIS RACE DID YOU ACTUALLY KNOW YOU WERE DOING IT? “A week if that. We essentially got our deal squared away probably either the last day of April or May 1st; somewhere around there that it was solidified and set that we knew we were coming.”YOU TWEETED AT SOME POINT THAT – ‘IF YOU KNEW ALL THE CRAZINESS..’. DID YOU KNOW AT THAT POINT? “Oh, I was trying. But at that point, no I still thought it was probably unlikely that it was going to happen. All the stuff I had heard that was going on behind the scenes – everyone is talking and there were probably eight guys that didn’t make it. There were probably eight other guys that had backers and were trying to put something together and had parts of the puzzle, as well. And we were just amongst that group. I felt like we were maybe ahead of them and I felt like we were always kind of ahead of him. But you never know because it’s almost a competition just to be in the seat. They’re working on stuff. They’re constantly trying to improve their chances of getting the ride. So, you just don’t know where they’re at. “Stuff that I had heard was going on and some of these other deals that were being done – it’s just like, ‘Wow, you could really make a reality TV show about this’ (laughs). It was entertaining just to be a part of it. I was like ‘Wow, you have to be kidding me. I cannot believe this is going on’. I’m like the general public would eat this up because it’s that entertaining. You might hurt some feelings with all the stuff going on, but it sure would be an entertaining docuseries or show for people to see all that’s going on.I try to work and operate with honor. That’s my MO – I’m very honest. I’m going to always shoot people straight, but that’s not always the case around here. It was definitely entertaining to hear all of the stuff that was going on.”IS IT THE EXISTING TEAMS NOT WANTING TO EXPAND ANYMORE TO EITHER NOT DISTRACT OR NOT POTENTIALLY BUMP OUT THEIR OWN ENTRIES? “I’m not sure it was the concern of bumping out their own entries. There are really five elements to the (Indianapolis) 500 program. You have to have the budget. You have to have the car, equipment, engine and the crew. And it’s just trying to assemble all five of those pieces together that was so difficult this year because a lot of the teams had already stretched themselves to add full-time entries and there was just no crew available. “You look other series around the United States and they’re all expanding their grid size. They’ve all got a massive car count and each one of those cars is being operated by crew people that otherwise would be available for any team to go hire. So, that was just a big stumbling block. Teams were just unable to add cars. I was kind of ahead of the curve. I was doing the numbers back in November or December, being like ‘I didn’t get to 33 here. I feel like we’re missing one’. I was talking to everyone – I was talking to Roger (Penske) and I was talking to Jay (Penske). I was like ‘Hey, all I need is an engine and we’re good.’ Andretti has the crew that we ran last year. That was the goal for me; but at that time, Honda wasn’t able to release an extra engine. So, that sent me the Chevrolet route and I’m really thankful. Chevrolet has been a really good home for me. They’ve been so accommodating and really welcomed me into their family.”DID YOU GET THE FEELING THAT THERE WAS GOING TO BE ONE ENGINE AND WHOEVER GOT EVERYTHING TOGETHER FIRST WOULD GET IT? “It was just a case of getting those five elements together, like we talked about. It was all about that. Whoever was able to get to those five first became the 33rd. We knew we had the budget. We knew with DragonSpeed, that gave us the crew. We had the Chevrolet engine. And then it was the case of just getting the final bits of equipment and the car.Again, there was sort of a shortage on the car front, as well. So, we’re thankful for A.J. Foyt Racing for offering up their road course car for Tatiana to let us use that. It’s not ideal. You would love to have a speedway car that’s prepared for running here at Indianapolis, but it’s what we’ve got and we’re making the best of it.”IS THE CREW ABLE TO TRY TO MODIFY IT TO MAKE IT MORE OF AN OVAL CAR? “Yeah, it’s an oval car; it’s just missing some of that massaging that makes it super slick through the air and super low drag that a lot of these teams spent many, many months and lots and lots of dollars in resources on getting it that way.”IF IT’S HOT ON SUNDAY, MAYBE THAT WON’T BE SUCH A BIG DEAL? “Yeah, on Sunday I think it’s going to come more down to the handling of the car and the setup. When it gets hot, we’ve already seen it – it becomes so slick here. The tarmac with the sealant on it has made it a dark color, and it heats up quicker than it did in the past. So, if you see temperatures in the 80s or hotter than that, it’s going to be a really difficult and really challenging race I think.” ED CARPENTER, NO. 33 ALZAMEND NEURO CHEVROLET, ED CARPENTER RACING“It is Indy 500 time! It has been a great week and a half of preparation for ECR. I know that myself and the No. 33 Alzamend Chevrolet group are feeling very confident. We’ve done all the work needed to go out and have a great shot at this on Sunday. Hopefully, we can execute and be drinking milk at the end of the day!”ON THE MONTH OF MAY: “I’m feeling pretty good about how the month has gone as a whole. I think we’ve had really good preparation coming in. Things have gone pretty smooth throughout in prepping for all things race and qualifying and running in different conditions. We’re feeling quite prepared.”AS AN OWNER, ARE YOU DISAPPOINTED NOT TO BE ON THE FRONT ROW BUT HAPPY THAT YOU DO HAVE ONE WITH RINUS VEEKAY? “When you make it to that point, you’re always hoping for the best whether it’s a pole or front row. We moved past it pretty quick. Everyone was a little disappointed when we got back to our engineering room. It was like, ‘Look guys… this is great. We can have 15 minutes to be upset about could have, would have, should haves. After that, let’s get focused on the race again.’ We’re in a great position being third and fourth to go out and do what we’re here to do, which is to win the Indy 500.”DEVELOPMENT AND PROGRESSION OF RINUS VEEKAY: “It’s interesting. I think people still view him as a guy is going to be fast but not be a factor. That’s pretty hilarious because if he’s been anything around here, he’s been consistent. He’s had things happen that have kept him from being in the fight at the end. Day-to-day, in the conditions, year, qualifying or race, he’s been strong in everything that we do here at Indianapolis. He’s definitely matured and isn’t just relying on us anymore. He’s showing more and more leadership skills and confidence all the time in what he needs and how he prepares. When I evaluate what it’s going to take to win this race and the short list of guys you’re going to have to beat, he’s on that list without a doubt.”WHERE DOES THIS OPPORTUNITY TO WIN THE RACE RANK COMPARED TO YEARS PAST? “We won’t truly know that until we get on track Sunday because there are still decisions to be made and a race to execute. From a preparation standpoint and what I’ve been feeling out of the car on all the different practice days, I feel like we have a great opportunity in front of us for not only myself but also for Rinus and Conor. With Rinus and I starting in the front, hopefully we’ll have a little bit of an easier path to stay there and make the execution plan a little more simple than what it’s going to take for Conor to get up front and join us. But I think all three of our cars have the ability to have what it takes to win this race.”IS IT EASIER TO MANAGE ED CARPENTER THE DRIVER OR ED CARPENTER THE TEAM OWNER? “All I’m doing right now is driving. I’ve pretty well disconnected from all my other responsibilities for this whole month really or at least the last two-and-a-half weeks. So that’s enjoyable to be able to focus on one thing. I’ll get back involved in things come June, but they both have their own challenges and rewards. At the end of the day, I would say the ownership side of things is harder because you’re responsible and there are more people that are looking to you and reliant on you to accomplish things and get things done. It’s harder and more complicated than driving a car. It’s more of a simplified process and focus.”SIGNIFICANCE OF RUNNING THE 33 – SIZE OF THE FIELD AND MAX VERSTAPPEN’S NUMBER FOR DUTCH FANS: “I’m not a superstitious guy but since we’ve announced that I’d be running 33, there have been a lot of coincidences I’d say. It’s been 33 years since I started racing. It’s the 33rd wedding anniversary for my parents. I guess we’ll see if that has any luck to it come Sunday night.” CALLUM ILOTT, NO. 77 DYNAMIC EDGE CHEVROLET, JUNCOS HOLLINGER RACINGYOUR FIRST INDY 500, SECOND OVAL RACE EVER. HOW’S THE EXPERIENCE BEEN THIS MONTH? “Very intense. In a way is such a long two weeks, but in another way it just goes by so quickly and you’re thinking, ‘Oh we missed a bit of time there, we missed a bit of time there.’ Overall, it’s an incredible experience. So many dedicated fans from the beginning. So much fine-tuning in the car. It’s been really special.”COMING OFF YOUR FIRST TOP-10 FINISH IN THE GRAND PRIX, WHAT KIND OF MOMENTUM DID THAT GIVE? “Definitely a lot. I think it’s really nice to be able to start ticking off some of the things that I wanted to do this season. The top-10 being one of them and then the justified top-10. We definitely have the pace for it and a little bit more. The month of May is a special one and the oval’s definitely very different, but it’s great and all the guys are really excited. They are really motivated. We are bringing some spirit with us.”HOW ARE YOU LIKING THE WHOLE EXPERIENCE OF THE INDY 500 AND IS IT LIKE ANYTHING YOU’VE EVER PARTICIPATED IN BEFORE? “There’s not much that compares to this. The little bits that I can take from various places, but the big word I’m going to use is tradition. Lots of tradition everywhere. I’ve learned that any (inaudible) on why we’re doing this or (inaudible) is that word tradition. So, no that’s really special because when you know the history behind it and everything that’s involved with it you really interesting to be there. Coming from Europe, I love that big guys, the heroes here like A.J., Rick Mears. I never really knew about them before, so it was like a whole discovery process to learn and understand why they’re so special and what this race means. From my side, yeah it has been a discovery process and it’s been really interesting.”WHEN YOU’RE IN EUROPE AND YOU’RE GOING THROUGH THOSE RANKS AND YOU HEAR ABOUT THE INDY 500, WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE RACE? “My first watching of it live, not at the track, but live on TV was 2016 with Alex Rossi. That was quite special for me because I’ve watched him in Europe in GP2 and F1. I didn’t really… I still couldn’t contemplate what it was as a race. I was like, ‘Wow that’s super special. What a strange race this is in the way it unfolds.’ Coming here and having done the ovals and understanding how the racing works and all the complexities to it and then the kind of luxury that you get on the day, it’s makes it really interesting and something so special. I think I would be able to answer that a bit better afterwards.”YOUR BACKGROUND IS NOT OVAL SO I ASSUME TEXAS IS YOUR ONLY OVAL YOU’VE RACED SO FAR. HOW DO YOU EVEN GET READY FOR THIS? “Just by studying, learning, driving, trying things, failing at things. Taking everything as it comes. Every session is a learning session, good or bad. Texas, I finished the race; we weren’t quick at all but I finished the race. I had some good moments and bad moments, but at the end of the day I got the experience from that. Yeah, there’s nothing from Europe that prepares me for this at all. It’s super exciting and I’ve got a real appreciation for it now. I still need to get a bit more used to it. I find the testing sometimes a bit tedious because of the risk versus reward in some ways. Especially for me, from Europe. The racing is fun, it’s good fun.”

Batavia, OH (May 26, 2022) – The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series 2023 Georgia/Florida Speedweeks will run from January 25th through February 11th, with visits to four historic tracks (Golden Isles Speedway, Bubba Raceway Park, All-Tech Raceway, and East Bay Raceway Park) over 17 days, with three practice nights and 13 nights of racing action. Action will get underway on Wednesday, January 25th, with an open practice at Golden Isles Speedway, in Brunswick, GA. After Kyle and Amber Bronson took over ownership for the 2022 Season at Golden Isles, they decided to up the ante during the 2023 speedweeks with teams competing for $10,000 on January 26th, $12,000-to-win on January 27th, and on January 28th a record setting amount for Golden Isles Speedway, $25,000-to-win. Momentum continues to Bubba Raceway Park, the oldest continuously running racetrack in the state of Florida, for two nights of racing in Ocala, FL. Sunday, January 29th and Monday, January 30th teams will vie for a pair of $10,000-to-win events. Teams then take the action back North approximately one hour, to Lake City, FL. All-Tech Raceway has a practice on Thursday, February 2nd followed by two nights of racing, starting on Friday, February 3rd paying $12,000-to-win while Saturday, February 4th will show a top prize of $15,000. From there, speedweeks will wrap up at the famed “Clay by the Bay”, East Bay Raceway Park, in Tampa, FL with an open practice on Sunday, February 5th, followed by six nights of racing. Monday and Tuesday, February 6th and 7th, teams will compete for $5,000-to-win. Wednesday, February 8th and Thursday, February 9th will see drivers gunning for $7,000 in top prize money. Friday, February 10th, the stakes get higher with teams competing for the $12,000 paycheck. As an end to the week, on Saturday, February 11th, teams will be competing for $15,000-to-win. 2023 Lucas Oil Speedweeks Schedule:

Speedweeks Purses:$5,000 To Win: 1. $5,000, 2. $3,000, 3. $2,000, 4. $1,500, 5. $1,000, 6. $800, 7. $750, 8. $700, 9. $650, 10. $600, 11. $550, 12. $500, 13. $500, 14. $500, 15. $500, 16. $500, 17. $500, 18. $500, 19. $500, 20. $500, 21. $500, 22. $500, 23. $500, 24. $500 = $23,050 $7,000 To Win: 1. $7,000, 2. $3,500, 3. $2,000, 4. $1,500, 5. $1,400, 6. $1,300, 7. $1,200, 8. $1,100, 9. $1,000, 10. $950, 11. $900, 12. $850, 13. $800, 14. $750, 15. $725, 16. $700, 17. $700, 18. $700, 19. $650, 20. $625, 21. $625, 22. $600, 23. $600, 24. $600 = $30,775 $10,000 To Win: 1. $10,000, 2. $5,500, 3. $3,500, 4. $2,700, 5. $2,500, 6. $2,300, 7. $2,200, 8. $2,100, 9. $2,050, 10. $2,000, 11. $1,600, 12. $1,400, 13. $1,200, 14. $1,000, 15. $950, 16. $925, 17. $900, 18. $875, 19. $850, 20. $825, 21. $800, 22. $800, 23. $800, 24. $800 = $48,575 $12,000 To Win: 1. $12,000, 2. $6,000, 3. $3,500, 4. $2,800, 5. $2,500, 6. $2,300, 7. $2,200, 8. $2,100, 9. $2,050, 10. $2,000, 11. $1,600, 12. $1,400, 13. $1,200, 14. $1,100, 15. $1,050, 16. $1,000, 17. $1,000, 18. $1,000, 19. $1,000, 20. $1,000, 21. $1,000, 22. $1,000, 23. $1,000, 24. $1,000 = $52,800 $15,000 To Win: 1. $15,000, 2. $6,500, 3. $3,500, 4. $3,000, 5. $2,500, 6. $2,400, 7. $2,300, 8. $2,200, 9. $2,100, 10. $2,000, 11. $1,600, 12. $1,400, 13. $1,300, 14. $1,200, 15. $1,050, 16. $1,000, 17. $1,000, 18. $1,000, 19. $1,000, 20. $1,000, 21. $1,000, 22. $1,000, 23. $1,000, 24. $1,000 = $57,050 $25,000 To Win: 1. $25,000, 2. $10,000, 3. $6,000, 4. $4,000, 5. $3,500, 6. $2,700, 7. $2,500, 8. $2,300, 9. $2,200, 10. $2,100, 11. $2,000, 12. $1,900, 13. $1,800, 14. $1,700, 15. $1,600, 16. $1,500, 17. $1,500, 18. $1,500, 19. $1,500, 20. $1,500, 21. $1,500, 22. $1,500, 23. $1,500, 24. $1,500 = $82,800 Track Information:Golden Isles SpeedwayPhone Number: (912) 386-0061Location: 101 Speedway Drive, Waynesville, GA 31566Website: www.gisdirt.com Bubba Raceway Park – Ocala, FLPhone Number: (352) 622-9400Location: 9050 N.W. Gainesville Road, Ocala, FL 34482Website: www.bubbaracewaypark.com All-Tech RacewayPhone Number: 386-754-7223Location: 1024 SW Howell Rd, Lake City, FL 32024Website: www.alltechraceway.com East Bay Raceway ParkPhone Number: (877) 457-5611Location: 6311 Burts Road, Tampa, FL 33619Website: www.ebrp.co

Richard Childress Racing at Charlotte Motor Speedway … Richard Childress Racing has racked up 12 points-paying victories on the oval at Charlotte. The team has eight wins in the NASCAR Cup Series, led by four by Dale Earnhardt (a sweep of both races in 1986 plus Coca-Cola 600 wins in 1992 and 1993). Kevin Harvick won twice for RCR, claiming 600-mile victories in 2011 and 2013. Jeff Burton (2008 fall race) and Austin Dillon (2017 Coca-Cola 600) also won at Charlotte with the Welcome, N.C.,-based team.  Xfinity Series at Charlotte … Richard Childress Racing has also found success in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Charlotte with five victories, most recently with Tyler Reddick in the 2019 ALSCO Uniforms 300. Austin Dillon swept both spring and fall races in 2015. Jeff Green gave RCR its first NASCAR Xfinity Series victory in 2002 (spring) while Jeff Burton won in 2007 (fall).  Introducing the Carolina Cowboys … Driven by the same passion for performance that guides his race team, Richard Childress’ latest endeavor brings Professional Bull Riding to the Carolinas. The Carolina Cowboys represent Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in the PBR Team Series, an elite new league featuring the world’s top bull riders competing in games beginning in Summer 2022. The team is operated by Richard Childress Racing with 2018 Daytona 500 Champion Austin Dillon serving as General Manager.  Meet Carolina Cowboys coach, PRCA World Champion and Bull Riders Ring of Honor Recipient Jerome Davis, along with newly-crowned PBR World Champion Daylon Swearingen, rising star Mason Taylor, Beadreaux Campbell and Cannon Cravens at the Carolina Cowboys display in the Charlotte Motor Speedway Fan Zone on Saturday, May 28 from 5:30 – 6 p.m. ET. Don’t miss the Carolina Cowboys inaugural “Cowboy Days” Home Stand September 9-11 at Wake Forest’s Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Tickets are on sale beginning Monday, May 30 at PBR.com and Ticketmaster. Catch the Action … The Alsco Uniforms 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway will be televised live on Saturday, May 28 beginning at 1:00 p.m. ET on FS1 and will be broadcast live on the Performance Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.  Follow Sunday’s Action at Charlotte … The Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway will be televised live on Sunday, May 29 beginning at 6:00 p.m. ET on FOX and will be broadcast live on the Performance Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

This Week’s Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Off Road Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 at Charlotte Motor Speedway … Austin Dillon earned his career-first win in the NASCAR Cup Series with a victory in the Coca-Cola 600 in May 2017. A native of North Carolina, Dillon has competed in 13 NASCAR Cup Series races at his hometown track, earning four top-10 finishes, including a sixth-place result last year. He is a two-time winner at the track in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Dillon grew up watching races at Charlotte Motor Speedway from his grandfather’s condo, which overlooks the racetrack. Tracker Off Road … Dillon’s No. 3 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 prominently features TRACKER ATVs, a game-changing new line of all-terrain vehicles and side-by-sides offering breakthrough performance, service and value in the off-road industry. TRACKER OFF ROAD was born out of a powerhouse partnership formed between Bass Pro Shops and TRACKER founder Johnny Morris and Textron Specialized Vehicles, bringing together the undisputed world leader in boating with a global leader in innovation and technology.  Bass Pro Shops … Bass Pro Shops is North America’s premier outdoor and conservation company. Founded in 1972 when avid young angler Johnny Morris began selling tackle out of his father’s liquor store in Springfield, Missouri, today the company provides customers with unmatched offerings spanning premier destination retail, outdoor equipment manufacturing, world-class resort destinations and more. In 2017 Bass Pro Shops acquired Cabela’s to create a “best-of-the-best” experience with superior products, dynamic locations and outstanding customer service. Bass Pro Shops also operates White River Marine Group, offering an unsurpassed collection of industry-leading boat brands, and Big Cedar Lodge, America’s Premier Wilderness Resort. Under the visionary conservation leadership of Johnny Morris, Bass Pro Shops is a national leader in protecting habitat and introducing families to the outdoors and has been named by Forbes as “one of America’s Best Employers.” Bass Pro Shops has a long relationship with NASCAR, dating back to 1998. For more information, visit http://www.basspro.com/. Welcome Coca-Cola, Arby’s Foundation, and Folds of Honor … As a Coca-Cola Racing Family driver, Austin Dillon and Richard Childress Racing are proud to partner with Coca-Cola and Arby’s Foundation to highlight the amazing work Folds of Honor does for families of those who’ve sacrificed their lives for our country. To learn more about Folds of Honor, visit https://foldsofhonor.org/. 600 Miles of Remembrance … Dillon and the No. 3 team will participate in 600 Miles of Remembrance on Memorial Day Weekend. Dillon’s name will be replaced on his race car windshield header with the name of a fallen military service member for the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The No. 3 team will feature Chief Warrant Officer Navy SEAL Scott Adam Stout, who died in the line of duty on July 2, 2021. Double Duty … In addition to competing in Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600, Dillon is scheduled to race in the NASCAR Xfinity Series on Saturday afternoon. The race is live on FS1 on Saturday, May 28 at 1 p.m. ET. AUSTIN DILLON QUOTES:You’ve had three top-10 finishes in the Coca-Cola 600 in the last three races there. Is Charlotte Motor Speedway a track that your team is circling this year as one of your potentially best races where you can lock in a win? What has made the No. 3 team so strong there?“I don’t know what it is about Charlotte Motor Speedway. I’ve always had success there. I enjoy the track. I understand what it takes to be fast there in a race car and I have a feel for it. Obviously, I won my first Cup race at Charlotte, so I definitely circle it every year as a place where we go and compete well at. Last year, we were really fast. One of our pit crew members went down leading into that race, so we kind of struggled on pit road that week. I’m really excited about it and taking the Next Gen car there. We did get one test there this off season when it was really cold outside. I’m always excited to go to Charlotte. It’s a good place for me.” Looking beyond the racing and the event of the weekend, there’s been so much change in the NASCAR Cup Series schedule and so much innovation. What do you see as the benefit of keeping something like the Coca-Cola 600 a crown jewel event on the NASCAR Schedule? Or do you think they should take it off the schedule at some point?“I hope they never take the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Memorial Day weekend off the schedule. To me, it’s an iconic weekend – being Memorial Day weekend and seeing all the different military branches represented, and getting to honor the men and women that protect our country. I always get excited for that race – the national anthem, the show that goes on before and really paying homage to all of those that have fought for this country. To me, I hope it doesn’t change. It is a crown jewel. Being 600 miles, your preparation changes a little bit because you know you’re going to be in the race car for such a long period of time. I think it’s a very special race and I hope it never goes away.” I think there is a feeling that RCR is strong this year at this point of the season, but looking at what you did last year compared to this year at this time, the stats are fairly similar. How much has changed? Are you guys really that much stronger?“We were pretty strong last year and we kind of got overlooked because we didn’t make the Playoffs. We were a consistent team all of last year. This year, I do feel like we’ve had way more opportunities to win races. I think the disappointing part is that we’ve had bigger catastrophes at the race track, like getting wrecked at Phoenix Raceway and finishing 21st in that race, getting wrecked at Atlanta Motor Speedway coming to a stage end for a possibility of top-three points there, and blowing up at Daytona International Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway.We didn’t have those types of bad days at this point last year. We had a couple more average days, but we’ve also had some bigger days with two second-place finishes at Auto Club Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway and a third-place finish at Martinsville Speedway. We’ve definitely had more opportunities to win than last year. My teammate, Tyler Reddick, has two or three second-place finishes, as well. If you look at the total of it, we’ve done a good job and should be in victory lane at this point. That’s the disappointing part – I feel like we’ve had some really close calls and not been able to capitalize. That’s why you see us where we’re at in points. I feel confident that we can go to Victory Lane this year and I think it will happen.”

This Week’s Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 at Charlotte Motor Speedway … Reddick will make his fourth Cup Series start at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday evening and his third Coca-Cola 600 appearance. His first start at the track came in 2020 when he started fifth and finished eighth. Most recently, he started 15th and finished ninth last season in the 400-lap, crown jewel event. In the Xfinity Series, Reddick has four starts with one win (2019), two top fives and three top 10s. He led 110 laps in those starts and completed 99.8 percent of laps attempted.  Reporting Live from Pit Road … Although Reddick isn’t pulling double duty behind the wheel of a race car this weekend, you will be able to catch him live on pit road as part of the Driver’s-Only Broadcast for Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Reddick will be right in the middle of all the action, reporting from pit road alongside Team Penske’s Austin Cindric. While you’re cheering on RCR’s Xfinity Series program, be sure to tune in and get all the information from Reddick. 600 Miles of Remembrance … Reddick and the No. 8 team will participate in 600 Miles of Remembrance on Memorial Day Weekend in conjunction with NASCAR Salutes. Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen is debuting a patriotic paint scheme for this weekend’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Reddick’s name will be replaced on the windshield of his race car with the name of a fallen service member. The No. 8 team will feature SP4 Tristan. Albert F. Tristan, who was born in Monterrey, Mexico on March 26, 1949, and emigrated to Dallas, Texas in November 1955. He enlisted in the U.S. Army on February 17, 1969. Tristan became a naturalized U.S. citizen on May 7, 1969. Tristan was killed in action in the Republic of Vietnam on July 6, 1970. During his active career, he won awards such as the Purple Heart, Bronze Star, Silver Star, Combat Infantry Badge, and Army Commendation Medal. Albert’s nephew, Salomon, works at the Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen in Arizona and submitted his uncle’s name. Similar to the story from Saving Private Ryan, Salomon’s father was drafted into the war after his brother but was sent home upon Albert’s death. Salomon and other Tristan family members still wear POW bracelets in his honor, acknowledging they owe their lives to Albert’s sacrifice. Salomon’s father is still alive and is overjoyed to see his brother honored this way.  About Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen … Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen is the homestyle casual dining restaurant where guests always Get a lot. For not a lot™. The restaurant offers a variety of scratch-made meals and generous portions served up in a warm, welcoming atmosphere – all at an unbelievable price. After being welcomed with a signature Honey Butter Croissant on the house, guests can enjoy signature entrées like hand-breaded Chicken Tenders, Homemade Chicken Pot Pie and Fall-off-the-Plate Baby Back Ribs. Cheddar’s operates more than 170 restaurants in 28 states and employs more than 15,000 friendly and passionate team members. For more information or to locate the nearest restaurant, visit Cheddars.com. Fans can like or follow Cheddar’s on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. When Tyler Wins, You Win Tenders! … Like Reddick, Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen is hungry for his first Cup Series win to come in 2022. So, all season long, when Reddick crosses the finish line first in the Cup Series and grabs the checkered flag, all NASCAR fans will win a FREE No. 8 Special Chicken Tender Platter at Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen the Monday following the race with the purchase of an adult entree. Offer is valid both dine-in and To Go. See cheddars.com/offer/race-day for full details. TYLER REDDICK QUOTES:You’ve had some strong runs at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the past, how do you approach this race every year?“The Coca-Cola 600 is always one of the most special races we run every season. The track is really fun to race on and it always provides really exciting racing for the fans. I got to test at Charlotte Motor Speedway earlier this season in the Next Gen car and it was a good opportunity for our team to learn how the new car runs on the surface. I pushed it pretty hard during testing and ended up spinning a couple times, but I think that helped me realize how to best prepare for this weekend’s race. It’s such a long race and the weather can really impact the track, too.” The Coca-Cola 600 is a crown jewel event and is our sport’s way of celebrating Memorial Day, what does it feel like getting to race in the event?“It’s honestly a really big honor to get to race in the Coca-Cola 600. NASCAR does such an amazing job of honoring our military and making it a special experience for people attending the race and viewing at home. It’s always a really special gift getting to carry the name of a fallen soldier on our windshield and the moment of at the completion of Stage 2 continues to be a special moment. I’m looking forward to the race and honoring Albert F. Tristan and his family and friend all weekend long and I hope to park it in Victory Lane for them.”

This Week’s Whelen Engineering Chevrolet Camaro SS at Charlotte Motor Speedway … Sheldon Creed will be making his first Charlotte Motor Speedway start in the NASCAR Xfinity Series on Saturday afternoon. He made three NASCAR Truck Series starts at Charlotte with a best finish of fifth place in 2020. Creed is 15th in the NXS series drivers standings, 93 points outside of the top 10.  About Whelen … Whelen Engineering is a family-owned company with a pioneering spirit and a passion to protect the lives of those who protect and serve others. The company mission is to provide industry-defining safety solutions around the world, while creating a community of problem-solvers who are inspired to push boundaries and continue our legacy of delivering ground-breaking innovation. As a global leader in the emergency warning industry, Whelen has been trusted to perform since 1952, when George Whelen III invented the first rotating aviation beacon. Whelen now encompasses two state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in Connecticut and New Hampshire with over 750,000 square feet of engineering and manufacturing space and the largest design staff in the industry. Every part of every Whelen product is proudly designed and manufactured in America. We embrace quality as our foundation, we celebrate innovative engineering in every product we produce. SHELDON CREED QUOTES: How important is it to run well and do well at Charlotte? “It’s going to be important for us. We want to run well in front of our hometown crowd. It’s a track that I’ve always ran well at. You always want to run well at Charlotte because a bunch of people are in town for the race. I’ve led a lot of laps at Charlotte but never won so hopefully we can contend for a win. I’ve always liked Charlotte because it’s super technical and I’m looking forward to this weekend.” Have you found that Charlotte is temperature sensitive and changes a lot?“Charlotte is probably the worst for temperature changes and it’s a completely different racetrack throughout the day. Sometimes you can feel really good about your car and there are other times when you’ll have the same setup and not feel good about it at all.”  Is there a particular area of the track where the car has to perform well?“The most important thing is if you can get into Turn 3 over the bumps and get to the line on the bottom. Staying on that line through Turns 3 and 4 is also super important. A good way to pass is to be able to run the bottom late in a run through Turns 1 and 2. That’s pretty important when the spray comes in.”

This Week’s Alsco Uniforms Chevrolet Camaro SS at Charlotte Motor Speedway … Austin Hill will be making his second Charlotte Motor Speedway start in NASCAR Xfinity Series competition on Saturday afternoon, having competed in the 2020 spring event at the 1.5-mile speedway. Hill has five Truck Series starts at Charlotte, racking up three top-10 finishes (best finish was sixth in 2019). He scored a fifth-place finish last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. He used his fifth top-five of the 2022 season to move up to ninth in the NXS driver standings, a gain of one position.   About Alsco Uniforms … Alsco is a fifth-generation family-owned and -operated uniform company founded in 1889 and recognized by the prestigious Hohenstein Institute for having invented the uniform rental industry. Celebrating over 130 years of business, Alsco provides uniform laundry services and other products that keep businesses clean and safe to all kinds of customers in the healthcare, automotive, industrial and hospitality industries. With more than 180 locations and 20,000 employees, Alsco provides laundry rental services to more than 355,000 customers in 14 countries, which makes Alsco Uniforms the largest uniform company in the world. Visit www.alsco.com to learn more about how Alsco Uniforms is the industry’s best kept secret.  AUSTIN HILL QUOTES:What is your mindset heading to Charlotte this weekend?“Charlotte is just a very tough racetrack to get around. The bumps are really rough and it seems like every year the bumps get worse. Trying to figure out how to position your car over the bumps means a lot throughout the race and trying to figure that part out is crucial. If you go through the bumps and your cars gets upset it makes for a very long day. There are things that I need to learn as a driver to get around Charlotte a little bit better. I felt like on the Truck side we ran decent but we never had a truck that could go win.” How do you adapt to the track changing so much at Charlotte?“Early in the run, if your car is working well, you can run the bottom or maybe one lane off the bottom. As the run goes and as you’re losing grip in the tire, you’re probably going to have to be right up against the fence or right down on the bottom with the left-side tires right on the line. It seems like the middle of the racetrack gets greasy and it’s no man’s land once you get laps on the tires, so I think we’re going to see similar things when we go to Charlotte that we’ve seen in the past. Whoever can get their car to maneuver the best and be able to run the bottom, middle or top is going to be the guy to beat for the win.”

May 26, 2022

For many American race fans, the enduring images of Memorial Day weekend are the checkered flags at marquee events across the globe and of cemeteries full of white crosses marking the graves of American service members who made the ultimate sacrifice for the country they loved.

This year there is another image that gives the weekend a more somber tone – American flags flying at half-staff in honor of the children and teachers who died in Tuesday’s massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. The victims of the horrific school shooting will be on the minds and hearts of participants and fans at this weekend’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the third major race of the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend.  It follows the Formula One race in Monaco early in the morning, along with the Indianapolis 500, which runs just prior to the 600.
 
Continuing a tradition begun years ago, the NASCAR race cars in the 600 will carry the names of fallen service members as part of the track’s 600 Miles of Remembrance program.
 
The No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Mustang driven by Harrison Burton will carry the name of U.S. Air Force Captain Jason Ramsey of South Boston, Va.
 
Ramsey was one of 33 who died Sept. 13, 1997, off the coast of Namibia, Africa, when an Air Force C-141 was involved in a mid-air collision with a German Tupolev 154. Reports stated that the C-141 had just delivered U.S. Soldiers and mine-clearing equipment from Ft. Bragg in North Carolina to Windhook Field, Namibia. 
 
Ramsey was one of the pilots of the C-141.
 
An Air Force investigation found that the German plane was flying at the wrong altitude, causing the crash. 
 
In his younger years, Ramsey was friends with Burton’s parents Jeff and Kim Burton.
 
“Jason Ramsey was the son of Ron and Marie Ramsey,” Kim Burton said. “Ron was the high school football coach in my hometown of South Boston, and Marie worked for years with my Mom and Dad in my father’s medical clinic.” 
 
“Jeff and I attended high school with Jason, and his parents were good friends with my parents.”
 
After graduating high school in 1988, Ramsey attended the U.S. Air Force Academy, where he graduated in 1992.
 
He graduated from Flight School at Reese Air Force Base in Lubbock, Texas. At the time of his death he was assigned to the 13^th Airlift Squadron based at McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey.
  
“As a family, we are so pleased to be able to honor Jason and the service and sacrifice he made for our country,” Kim Burton said. “It is important to our family and to our hometown to keep Jason’s memory alive and to let Jason’s parents Ron and Marie know that we won’t ever forget their son.”  
 
“Harrison will proudly carry Jason’s name with him this weekend.”
 
Practice for the Coca-Cola 600 is set for Saturday at 7 p.m., followed by qualifying at 7:45.
 
Sunday’s 400-lap, 600-mile race is scheduled to get the green flag just after 6 p.m., with TV coverage on FOX.
 
Stage breaks are set for Laps 100, 200 and 300.

 

Former Formula One Champion Enters Aug. 21 Watkins Glen Race

Concord, North Carolina – Trackhouse Entertainment Group’s PROJECT91 today announced that 2007 Formula One World Champion Kimi Raikkonen will drive the No. 91 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in the NASCAR Cup Series race on the road course at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International on Aug. 21.

Raikkonen becomes the first driver to join the team’s PROJECT91 program announced Tuesday by Trackhouse Founder and Owner Justin Marks. PROJECT91’s goal is to expand the organization’s international reach by fielding a NASCAR Cup Series entry for renowned international racing drivers. Trackhouse Racing – a division of Trackhouse Entertainment Group – now fields the No. 99 and the No. 1 Chevrolets with drivers Daniel Suárez and Ross Chastain. Kimi Raikkonen

Raikkonen and Marks made the announcement on the team’s social media channels this morning. “Kimi Raikkonen is the driver I first had in mind when we created PROJECT91,” said Marks who won the Rolex 24 as well as a NASCAR Xfinity Series race as a driver. “Kimi is a world-renowned driver with a tremendous amount of talent and fan following. We have had long discussions, and like us, he is already hard at work preparing for Watkins Glen.”

PROJECT91 plans to bring Raikkonen to the team’s race shop in Concord, North Carolina for preparations. Darian Grubb, winner of 23 Cup races and the 2011 champion crew chief, will lead Raikkonen’s team.

“I wasn’t looking to race again, but Justin came to my home in Switzerland and convinced me how serious he was about putting together a top-notch program,” said Raikkonen. “This will be fun, but it’s something I will take very seriously. I know how competitive the NASCAR Cup Series is and it will be a big challenge.”Raikkonen retired from Formula One in 2021 after competing with the Sauber, McLaren, Ferrari, Lotus and Alfa Romeo teams since he started in 2001. The native of Espoo, Finland won 21 races and stood on 103 podiums in his F1 career. His Formula One highlight came in 2007 when he won the F1 World Driving title for Scuderia Ferrari. This will not be his first venture in the NASCAR world. He competed in the Xfinity and Truck Series races at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May 2011.Marks said Raikkonen’s entry at Watkins Glen is the only PROJECT91 race planned for 2022 but expects more races in 2023 with additional drivers.