Friday’s Ticket Can Be Used for Saturday’s Show in PevelyPEVELY, MO – April 15, 2022 – With weeklong rain, afternoon showers, and another line of forecasted storms throughout the evening have forced the cancellation of Friday’s World of Outlaws race at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55. The Series is still set for a Saturday, April 16 date at the Pevely, MO 1/4-mile.Those who purchased a ticket in advance to Friday’s event at I-55 will receive a face-value credit to their MyDirtTickets.com account to be used towards any World of Outlaws race such as Saturday’s show, or any other race available at WorldofOutlaws.com/tix.If credit to your account does not work for you, then you have until May 15 to request a refund. For more details email tickets@dirtcar.com if you have further questions. CLICK HERE for a refund request.Following this weekend at I-55, the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series will continue rumbling through the Midwest with stops at Tri-City Speedway in Granite City, IL on Friday, April 22, and Tri-State Speedway in Haubstadt, IN on Saturday, April 23. Fans can BUY TICKETS HERE, or stream every lap LIVE on DIRTVision.For the latest on the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars, make sure to follow on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, and at www.WorldofOutlaws.com.

Richard Childress Racing at Bristol Motor Speedway … In 181 NASCAR Cup Series starts at the concrete Bristol Motor Speedway, Richard Childress Racing has scored nine wins, 35 top-five, and 71 top-10 finishes. 2021 marked the first year that RCR competed on the track’s dirt configuration.  Follow Sunday’s Action in Bristol … The Food City Dirt Race at Bristol Motor Speedway will be televised live on Sunday, April 17 beginning at 7 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 Camaro ZL1 at Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt … Dillon has one previous NASCAR Cup Series start on the Bristol Motor Speedway dirt track configuration, finishing 21st in the inaugural event last season.  Winner, Winner … Dillon has won at Bristol Motor Speedway on both the paved and dirt configurations. In addition to winning a NASCAR Xfinity Series race at the track in August 2016 (paved), Dillon was among the first drivers to compete on the track’s dirt surface in 2021. He won two features and a heat race in dominating fashion in a 604 Crate Late Model for Corey Hedgecock Racing. An Ace on Dirt … Dillon first began racing dirt late models in 2006 as the natural progression in his career after starting out in legend cars and bandoleros. Under the tutelage of Shane and Dale McDowell, notable dirt racing victories include the All-Star Shootout at the Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway (May 2009 and May 2007). 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/. Double-Duty … In addition to competing in this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway, Dillon is scheduled to race in the NASCAR Truck Series for Young’s Motorsports on Saturday, which airs live on Saturday, April 16 at 8 p.m. ET on FS1. Dillon is the 2011 NASCAR Truck Series Champion and a seven-time winner in the series. AUSTIN DILLON QUOTES:Do you circle the dirt race at Bristol Motor Speedway on your calendar as one of the most anticipated races of the season for your team?“I’m excited to get the new Next Gen Chevy to Bristol Motor Speedway to see how it runs on the dirt, especially with the independent rear suspension. It’ll be fun to have something a little bit different. There was a test last week and it looked pretty fun. I was hoping they would take the windshields out of the cars, but it was a little late in the game to make that decision. Maybe they will be able to do it the next time around, because then we could have a little bit of a happier track. It won’t be so dry.” What are you doing to prepare for the Bristol Motor Speedway dirt race?“I talked to my good buddy Dale McDowell. He was influential in my dirt racing career growing up and helped teach me how to race on dirt. Dale won a $50,000 to win late model race at Bristol a couple of weeks back, so I’ve been picking his brain on what he thought about the track and what we need to be good. A lot of what Dale has told me aligns with the asphalt track that we run at Bristol. He mentioned that it gets tight off Turn 2 and that it’s a different radius than Turns 3 and 4. When you look at an overview photo of Bristol, it looks the same on each side, but that’s not the case. In Turns 3 and 4 you have a lot more exit room, and it’s always been that way. Turns 1 and 2 are rough and it’s a little bit tighter on exit to Turn 2. You need a car that is able to rotate off of Turn 2. The track characteristics are similar to what you see when you’re running the asphalt track, but it’s going to be a different compound on the track. I love the dirt stuff, so it will be fun. I’m running the NASCAR Truck Series race, too, so it will be good to get a little bit more experience with the track and the transitions it takes. I’m looking forward to seeing how it turns out.” Did you learn anything in the Bristol Motor Speedway dirt race last year that you can carry over to this year’s race?“I had a blast doing it last year, even though we really weren’t that good. I probably took too much on myself as a dirt racer trying to crew chief the car. I think this time we’re just going to let the crew chief do his job and crew chief and I’ll stick to driving the car to see how that turns out.” Is the Bristol dirt race especially fun for the teams ?“Bristol Dirt is a fun race for the mechanics, crew chiefs and engineers because it’s just a fun way to race to bring everything back to your short track roots and have the chance to work on the cars during the breaks. Everyone is slinging stuff and trying to find some speed and exploring ways to improve the car in ways that you wouldn’t normally get to go about it when you’re at a normal NASCAR race. I’ve always enjoyed this event because it feels more like an exhibition, but we get points and the chance to make the NASCAR Playoffs so we want to run well and try to keep this streak of top-10 finishes going, and maybe even come home with a W.” Is there anything you do differently to prepare for racing on dirt?“You start sealing up your helmet a little bit more than you would any other weekend because it’s pretty dusty with it staying as dry as it does on the dirt. Anything you can do to clean the windshield off. Some people change their steering wheel. Mine is going to stay the same. I started off the race last year with a smaller steering wheel in practice but ended up going back to my regular wheel that I use every weekend. The rack should help the steering. With this car being as quick with the steering, It should help. I’ve always thought having quick steering on dirt is a good thing so that you can catch it and drive it a little bit differently.”

This Week’s 3CHI Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 at Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt … The NASCAR Cup Series returns to the Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt this weekend for the second time in history. The inaugural dirt race at the Bristol, Tennessee 0.533-mile dirt track had 10 cautions for 39 laps and a five lead changes. Reddick finished seventh in the race after starting 27th. Reddick grew up dirt racing and has an extensive background on dirt. He’s raced mini sprints, midgets, dirt late models and sprint cars. He became the youngest person to qualify on the pole for the World 100 at Eldora Speedway and became the youngest winner at the East Bay Winter Nationals and in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. Although it’s a completely different race on dirt, Reddick has three Cup Series starts at Bristol Motor Speedway. He has a best finish of fourth from 2020. Visit the 3CHI Display at Bristol Motor Speedway … 3CHI invites everyone to come visit their display this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway for samples, swag and the opportunity to win prizes. Tyler Reddick is also scheduled to visit the 3CHI display on Sunday at 2:50 p.m. ET. Come join the fun and get an autograph from the driver of the No. 8 3CHI Chevrolet! 3CHI Blazes the Trail for Another Industry First … 3CHI and Richard Childress Racing created another first with their partnership for the 2022 NASCAR season. 3CHI began with roots as a CBD producer and quickly became a pioneer in science-based hemp and cannabis innovation. The company was the first to commercially develop and market Delta 8 THC, and today, 3CHI is an industry leader with unsurpassed product quality and purity as verified by top independent labs and benchmark organizations. 3CHI products are sold in a majority of the United States, and the company produces and markets a variety of gummies, tinctures, lotions, edibles and vape products. All 3CHI products meet federal requirements for full legal compliance, with a commitment to promoting responsible adult use. See 3CHI.com for more information.  TYLER REDDICK QUOTES:How does a driver prepare for a Cup Series race on dirt?“I come from a dirt background, so this race really brings me back to my roots. It’s a cool race because the teams get the chance to work on the cars during the breaks. You’ve got teams trying all kinds of things to improve the car in ways that we don’t get to on a typical race weekend. It’s going to be really dusty so we will be focused on visibility and the steering. We’ve been brainstorming what setup will be the best for us. Some guys change their steering wheel and some don’t. This race feels so different than our usual race weekends, but points matter and your finish matters so I’m excited to get out there and get us points and a W on dirt. As a driver, what are your thoughts heading back to the Bristol Dirt event for the second year?“We want an entertaining race. We want to make dirt racing look good. We don’t want to make dirt racing look bad; we don’t want to make ourselves in the sport look bad either. Eldora was able to put on some really great races. As a dirt racer myself growing up, just the thought of having dirt back at Bristol and having other dirt cars out there in itself is really a huge deal for me. That’s something I never thought I’d see in my lifetime, just only able to hear stories about it from the drivers that got to do it. So being a part of it is really cool. It is really, really important for it to be a good race from my perspective being more of the dirt background. We don’t want to make dirt racing look bad. It’s always been really good.” What does having a good race at Bristol Dirt mean to you?“Well, it could mean a number of things but certainly you’ve seen with asphalt races and dirt races, I’ve seen a lot of good dirt races where the leader has been checked out by half a lap and he’s just running his tail off, bouncing off the fence, doing absurd things in the race car that should not be possible. And when you see guys being able to do stuff like that on dirt or on asphalt, in my opinion, watching somebody be able to physically see them driving their tail off, I think that’s what makes a good race or having a good battle for the lead. Having the cars being hard to drive on dirt, which I’m sure they will be, or getting into each other and having accidents and all that sort of stuff, I think it is important because the cars are going to be hard to drive. I hope they will be. It’s important to see us in the car driving our tails off, wheeling the steering wheel and really having to work for it lap after lap.”

TEAM CHEVY ADVANCE FOOD CITY DIRT RACE BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY BRISTOL, TENNESSEE APRIL 17, 2022

RACE #9 – BRISTOL ON DIRTThe Next Gen Camaro ZL1 has now been in competition on a superspeedway, intermediate track, road course and short track; but this weekend will serve for a variety of new for Chevrolet drivers and teams. For the second-straight year, “The Last Great Colosseum” of Bristol Motor Speedway has been converted to a dirt track for the NASCAR Cup Series’ (NCS) return to the dirt for just the second time since 1970. The 250-lap Food City Dirt Race will be contested under the lights on Sunday, April 17, the second of just four night races on the 2022 schedule for NASCAR’s premier series.  Coming off the first win for the new Silverado RST since its competition debut at Daytona International Speedway, Chevrolet drivers and teams look to carry that momentum to the first of two dirt races on the 2022 schedule for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS). The 150-lap Pinty’s Truck Race on Dirt will take the green on Saturday, April 16, at 8 p.m. ET. The series will return to the dirt in June, taking on the famed half-mile of Knoxville Raceway for the second-consecutive year. The trip to the .533-mile Tennessee short track will see a unique format for the race weekend. On-track action kicks off on Friday, April 15, where both the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will each participate in two, 50-minute practice sessions. Saturday will bring four, 15-lap qualifying heat races for each series that will determine the starting lineup for their respective main events.  The inaugural NASCAR Cup Series race on the Bristol Motor Speedway dirt saw a strong showing by the bowtie brand with six Chevrolet’s finishing in the top-10, led by notable dirt track racer and World of Outlaws sprint car team owner Ricky Stenhouse Jr. The JTG Daugherty Racing driver is one of just eight drivers to have won in NASCAR’s premier series, as well as the USAC Silver Crown, National Sprint Car and National Midget Series.  DOING THE DOUBLEThe highly anticipated race weekend will see two Team Chevy NASCAR Cup Series stars pull double-duty. Coming off its first win in just three starts in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, Spire Motorsports will be fielding the No. 7 Silverado RST entry again this weekend, this time with 2020 NCS Champion Chase Elliott behind the wheel. This will mark the first appearance by Elliott in the series this season and his 17th all-time NCWTS race in his career. During his tenure in the series, the 26-year-old Georgia native has recorded three wins, 11 top-five’s and 13 top-10’s.  Also making the crossover will be Team Chevy’s Austin Dillon, who will be piloting the No. 20 Silverado RST for Young’s Motorsports. Dillon is no stranger to success in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, picking up wins in each of the five seasons he has competed with the series, as well as the championship title in 2011. Bristol will be Dillon’s 72nd-career start in the series and his first since 2019. Of those starts, Dillon has captured seven wins, 24 top-5’s and 48 top-10’s.  The NASCAR Cup Series will also see a couple of familiar Team Chevy faces from the NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) in the field this weekend. JR Motorsports driver, Justin Allgaier, will make his first NCS start of the year this weekend behind the wheel of the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Camaro ZL1. The NXS standout has made two previous starts in the No. 77 Chevrolet, both during the 2021 season. The 35-year-old Illinois native has made 79 starts in his career in NASCAR’s premier series. Fellow JR Motorsports teammate, Noah Gragson, will also return to the series to pilot the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Camaro ZL1. His trip to Bristol will mark the second of 14 races he will be running for Kaulig Racing during the 2022 NCS season.  BYRON CLOCKS IN TWICEA trip to Martinsville Speedway turned into one to remember for Chevrolet driver, William Byron, who brought home two coveted grandfather clocks following his wins in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and the NASCAR Cup Series. The race weekend for the 24-year-old North Carolina native started out behind the wheel of the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Silverado RST, making his 26th all-time start in the NCWTS. With qualifying canceled due to rain, Byron was forced to start deep in the field in the 32nd position. Showing his speed early, Byron wheeled his Chevrolet-powered machine to the lead during the final stage, leading a race-high 94 laps to capture his 8th-career NCWTS victory. The triumph also marked the first victory of 2022 for the new Silverado RST, which made its competition debut at Daytona in February.  Byron carried that momentum onto the NASCAR Cup Series, where he qualified 5th in his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Camaro ZL1, making it his fourth top-10 starting spot in 2022. The Chevrolet driver went on to record runner-up finishes in both stage one and two, with a stellar pit stop performance by the No. 24 Chevrolet team giving Byron the top position to start the final stage. Never looking back, Byron went on to lead a race-high 212 laps en route to his second victory of 2022 in NASCAR’s premier series, making him the first driver thus far this season to become a repeat winner.  Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Chase Elliott, also showcased his speed throughout the 400-mile race, sweeping both stage victories and leading 185 laps. Combining Byron and Elliott’s laps in the lead, Hendrick Motorsports reached the record of 10,000 laps led at Martinsville Speedway, making it the first time an organization has accomplished this feat at any track in NASCAR history. Byron’s victory was Hendrick Motorsports’ 27th NCS win at the .526-mile paperclip, all recorded behind the wheel of a Chevrolet-powered machine.

ALL-NEW CHEVROLET SILVERADO ZR2 TO MAKE PACING DEBUT Chevrolet will be pacing both the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series to the green at Bristol Motor Speedway with the all-new Chevrolet Silverado ZR2 making its debut as a pace vehicle. The latest addition to Chevrolet’s pickup lineup, the Silverado ZR2 marks the first time the off-road trim is being introduced to Silverado. Knowledge gained from off-road racing through the desert makes the new Silverado ZR2 a supremely capable and confidence-inspiring truck, well-suited for controlling the field on the dirt at Bristol this weekend.

Chase Elliott gives a first look of the first-ever Chevrolet Silverado ZR2 pace truck.

The race-proven Chevrolet Silverado ZR2 Pace Truck features: ·       Standard 6.2L V-8 engine, delivering 420 horsepower and 460 lb-ft of torque, mated with a 10-speed automatic transmission. ·       Silverado-first application of Multimatic 40mm DSSV spool-valve dampers, plus 33-inch off-road MT tires. ·       Specific off-road chassis and suspension calibrations, including Terrain Mode, which allows one-pedal rock crawling. ·       New high-approach steel front bumper designed for off-road strength, durability and clearance that enables an improved 31.8-degree approach angle compared to other Silverado off-road models. ·       Chevy “flow-tie” emblem for increased air flow.  BOWTIE BULLETS·       Heading into the ninth race of the 2022 season at Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt, Chevrolet leads all manufacturers in NASCAR Cup Series wins (5), top-five’s (23), top-10’s (36), laps led (1,184) and stage wins (9).   ·       Six Team Chevy drivers have combined nine NASCAR Cup Series stage wins:Tyler Reddick 2 – (Fontanax2)Alex Bowman 1 – (Las Vegas)Ross Chastain 1 – (Las Vegas)William Byron 2 – (Phoenix)(Atlanta)Daniel Suarez 1 – (COTA)Chase Elliott 2 – (Martinsvillex2) ·       With its 40 NASCAR Cup Series Manufacturer Championships; 33 NASCAR Cup Series Driver Championships; and 819 all-time NASCAR Cup Series wins, Chevrolet holds the title of winningest brand in NASCAR. ·       Chevrolet leads in the driver points standing in both the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series. Chase Elliott took over the top spot in the NCS standings with a 3-point advantage over second; and AJ Allmendinger continues to lead in the NXS standings by 20 points. The bowtie brand also sits atop both the NCS and NXS manufacturer points standings.  FOR THE FANS:·       Fans can visit the Team Chevy Racing Display in the Fan Midway at Bristol Motor Speedway. ·       Fans can check out an assortment of Chevrolet vehicles at the Team Chevy Racing Display including: Corvette Z51, Camaro ZL1, Blazer RS, Equinox Premier, Silverado 1500 Trail Boss, Silverado 2500 LTZ, Tahoe RST, Traverse Premier Redline.  ·       The Team Chevy Racing Display will also feature the first-ever Chevrolet Silverado ZR2.  TEAM CHEVY QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSIONS AT THE DISPLAY:Friday, April 15·       Carson Hocevar and Lawless Alan: 1:30 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.·       Dean Thompson and Kris Wright: 1:45 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. ·       Kaz Grala and Spencer Boyd: 2:00 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.·       Blaine Perkins: 2:15 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.  Saturday, April 16·       Grant Enfinger and Jack Wood: 1:00 p.m. – 1:15 p.m. ·       Derek Kraus and Colby Howard: 1:15 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. ·       Matt DiBenedetto: 2:00 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.·       Ty Dillon: 3:30 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.·       Erik Jones: 3:45 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.  Sunday, April 17·       Tyler Reddick: 1:15 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. ·       Alex Bowman: 4:00 p.m. – 4:15 p.m. ·       Ricky Stenhouse Jr.: 4:15 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Chevrolet Display Hours of Operation: ·       Friday, April 15: 12:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. ·       Saturday, April 16: 12:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. ·       Sunday, April 17: 12:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. TUNE INFOX will telecast the NASCAR Cup Series 250-lap Food City Dirt Race live at 7 p.m. ET Sunday, April 17. Live coverage can also be found on PRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. FS1 will telecast the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series 150-lap Pinty’s Truck Race on Dirt live at 8 p.m. ET on Saturday, April 16. Live coverage can also be found on MRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.  QUOTABLE QUOTESROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 1 ADVENT HEALTH CAMARO ZL1 WHAT DID YOU LEARN IN THE BRISTOL DIRT RACE LAST YEAR AND CAN YOU APPLY ANYTHING THIS YEAR?       “Going through practice and getting into the race was an experience and it was a highlight. I crashed out in the race last year, unfortunately. The two best dirt racers in the field, the Nos. 20 and 5 crashed into each other and I piled in. I wish I could’ve run the rest of that race. I had an awesome experience and learned a ton. I’ve been going to school to learn how to dirt race – how to read the dirt, what has grip, what does moisture look like, what’s the blue groove, what’s slicked off – I don’t know all of those terms. Fortunately for me, a lot of the No. 1 team guys are old dirt racers, sprint car guys that came over because of Kyle (Larson) to be on the No. 42 team and are now on the No. 1 team. I work with (Tyler) Reddick, (Alex) Bowman, Larson and Josh Wise. Between those four guys, they’ve forgotten more about dirt racing than I have ever learned, so I’ll lean on them a lot. I’m used to dirt, but it has been on a tractor.” DO YOU HAVE MUCH DIRT EXPERIENCE FROM GROWING UP? “I never did any dirt racing growing up. I did the Truck race at Eldora in 2019 and that’s really it. The only other dirt race was the Bristol Cup race last year. I just did Millbridge a couple of weeks ago. I didn’t do it for Bristol in particular, just more for pure dirt racing knowledge and being around people and seeing how the groove changes.” AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS / TRACKER OFF ROAD CAMARO ZL1DO YOU CIRCLE THE DIRT RACE AT BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY ON YOUR CALENDAR AS ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED RACES OF THE SEASON FOR YOUR TEAM? “I’m excited to get the new Next Gen Chevy to Bristol Motor Speedway to see how it runs on the dirt, especially with the independent rear suspension. It’ll be fun to have something a little bit different. There was a test last week and it looked pretty fun. I was hoping they would take the windshields out of the cars, but it was a little late in the game to make that decision. Maybe they will be able to do it the next time around, because then we could have a little bit of a happier track. It won’t be so dry.” WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO PREPARE FOR THE BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY DIRT RACE? “I talked to my good buddy Dale McDowell. He was influential in my dirt racing career growing up and helped teach me how to race on dirt. Dale won a $50,000 to win late model race at Bristol a couple of weeks back, so I’ve been picking his brain on what he thought about the track and what we need to be good. A lot of what Dale has told me aligns with the asphalt track that we run at Bristol. He mentioned that it gets tight off Turn 2 and that it’s a different radius than Turns 3 and 4. When you look at an overview photo of Bristol, it looks the same on each side, but that’s not the case. In Turns 3 and 4 you have a lot more exit room, and it’s always been that way. Turns 1 and 2 are rough and it’s a little bit tighter on exit to Turn 2. You need a car that is able to rotate off of Turn 2. The track characteristics are similar to what you see when you’re running the asphalt track, but it’s going to be a different compound on the track. I love the dirt stuff, so it will be fun. I’m running the NASCAR Truck Series race, too, so it will be good to get a little bit more experience with the track and the transitions it takes. I’m looking forward to seeing how it turns out.” DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING IN THE BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY DIRT RACE LAST YEAR THAT YOU CAN CARRY OVER TO THIS YEAR’S RACE? “I had a blast doing it last year, even though we really weren’t that good. I probably took too much on myself as a dirt racer trying to crew chief the car. I think this time we’re just going to let the crew chief do his job and crew chief and I’ll stick to driving the car to see how that turns out.” IS THE BRISTOL DIRT RACE ESPECIALLY FUN FOR THE TEAMS? “Bristol Dirt is a fun race for the mechanics, crew chiefs and engineers because it’s just a fun way to race to bring everything back to your short track roots and have the chance to work on the cars during the breaks. Everyone is slinging stuff and trying to find some speed and exploring ways to improve the car in ways that you wouldn’t normally get to go about it when you’re at a normal NASCAR race. I’ve always enjoyed this event because it feels more like an exhibition, but we get points and the chance to make the NASCAR Playoffs so we want to run well and try to keep this streak of top-10 finishes going, and maybe even come home with a W.” IS THERE ANYTHING YOU DO DIFFERENTLY TO PREPARE FOR RACING ON DIRT? “You start sealing up your helmet a little bit more than you would any other weekend because it’s pretty dusty with it staying as dry as it does on the dirt. Anything you can do to clean the windshield off. Some people change their steering wheel. Mine is going to stay the same. I started off the race last year with a smaller steering wheel in practice but ended up going back to my regular wheel that I use every weekend. The rack should help the steering. With this car being as quick with the steering, It should help. I’ve always thought having quick steering on dirt is a good thing so that you can catch it and drive it a little bit differently.” KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1LARSON ON RACING ON DIRT AT BRISTOL EARLIER THIS YEAR: “I think running the dirt late model at Bristol a few weeks ago just helps me get eyes on the track to see what’s different. It’s a temporary track and it’s never going to be exactly the same as it was the year before. Getting to run some laps to see how the dirt transitioned throughout the night was helpful and hopefully it pays off this weekend.” CLIFF DANIELS, CREW CHIEF, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1DANIELS ON CHALLENGES OF PREPARING FOR BRISTOL DIRT RACE: “Probably one of the hardest things is having Kyle Larson in your car knowing you have the highest expectation to live up to – which is a great thing. The other big thing in dirt racing that doesn’t get as much attention is what we have to do to make sure the car is durable and will last the whole race – like the right cooling to the proper systems in the car – like gear cooling and engine cooling. That’s step one. Step two, of course, is to have a fast car and to tune on it correctly during the race to be there at the end.” TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 3CHI CAMARO ZL1 HOW DOES A DRIVER PREPARE FOR A CUP SERIES RACE ON DIRT? “I come from a dirt background, so this race really brings me back to my roots. It’s a cool race because the teams get the chance to work on the cars during the breaks. You’ve got teams trying all kinds of things to improve the car in ways that we don’t get to on a typical race weekend. It’s going to be really dusty so we will be focused on visibility and the steering. We’ve been brainstorming what setup will be the best for us. Some guys change their steering wheel and some don’t. This race feels so different than our usual race weekends, but points matter and your finish matters so I’m excited to get out there and get us points and a W on dirt.”  AS A DRIVER, WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS HEADING BACK TO THE BRISTOL DIRT EVENT FOR THE SECOND YEAR? “We want an entertaining race. We want to make dirt racing look good. We don’t want to make dirt racing look bad; we don’t want to make ourselves in the sport look bad either. Eldora was able to put on some really great races. As a dirt racer myself growing up, just the thought of having dirt back at Bristol and having other dirt cars out there in itself is really a huge deal for me. That’s something I never thought I’d see in my lifetime, just only able to hear stories about it from the drivers that got to do it. So being a part of it is really cool. It is really, really important for it to be a good race from my perspective being more of the dirt background. We don’t want to make dirt racing look bad. It’s always been really good.” WHAT DOES HAVING A GOOD RACE AT BRISTOL DIRT MEAN TO YOU? “Well, it could mean a number of things but certainly you’ve seen with asphalt races and dirt races, I’ve seen a lot of good dirt races where the leader has been checked out by half a lap and he’s just running his tail off, bouncing off the fence, doing absurd things in the race car that should not be possible. And when you see guys being able to do stuff like that on dirt or on asphalt, in my opinion, watching somebody be able to physically see them driving their tail off, I think that’s what makes a good race or having a good battle for the lead. Having the cars being hard to drive on dirt, which I’m sure they will be, or getting into each other and having accidents and all that sort of stuff, I think it is important because the cars are going to be hard to drive. I hope they will be. It’s important to see us in the car driving our trails off, wheeling the steering wheel and really having to work for it lap after lap.” CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 KELLEY BLUE BOOK CAMARO ZL1ELLIOTT ON RETURNING TO THE BRISTOL DIRT FOR THE SECOND YEAR: “Last year, I think we got pretty fortunate to run where we did. We had a lot going on there at the end of the race and were kind of hanging on. This year, I think is just going to be a completely different ball game with this car. Being able to adapt quickly is going to be the key, because I think this year is going to be different than last. Whoever hits on that quickly and figures out what it’s going to take to be fast is likely going to be rewarded for it.” ELLIOTT ON RACING AT NIGHT AT BRISTOL: “I think it’s a great thing moving this event to night. I think it’s going to help with a lot of the issues we had, keeping some moisture in the track hopefully and then obviously keeping the dust down. I think everything we learned last year has been a great tool of how to go about it this season. It seems like we’re doing all the right things and hopefully it can be a good show. I think it has a lot of potential.” NOAH GRAGSON, NO. 16 CHEVY TRUCK MONTH CAMARO ZL1“I’m really looking forward to racing at Bristol this weekend in our No. 16 Chevy Truck Month Camaro. There are a few unknowns going into the weekend with the new car, but I think with practice and the heat races, that will give us a good amount of track time to get a feel for everything. Our goal is to keep the car in one piece for the whole race and be there at the end.” WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1BYRON ON HIS THOUGHTS RACING ON DIRT THIS WEEKEND: “Even though we raced there last year, this weekend’s race is still a pretty big unknown with the Next Gen car. We ran well last year, but other than watching the videos from the test that NASCAR had a little while ago, it’s hard to know how this new car will race on dirt. I know NASCAR looked at making some changes to the car, but I’m not biased either way. We’ll all be in the same situation when we get there and it will be all about how you manage the heat races to set you up for the actual race on Sunday. My hope is that the dirt late model race on Thursday may help me get up to speed a little bit faster so we can start fine tuning during practice at Bristol on Friday.”  RUDY FUGLE, CREW CHIEF, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1FUGLE ON HOW THE TEAM WILL PREPARE TO RACE ON THE DIRT THIS WEEKEND: “I’m really excited to get back to Bristol. William (Byron) did a good job there last year, especially for not having much experience on dirt. I grew up around it, so we tried to lean on that a bit more last year. Now we’re going to try a blend of last year’s car and the Next Gen car. We have some notes from the NASCAR test that they did last week. The difference with dirt racing, though, is how fast the track conditions change. They change just about every lap. How much rain that comes through this week will play a factor and then how the track is prepped plus how they handle all 36 trucks being there before our race. Those are things that simulation can’t predict, you just have to go off of history and experience. It’s a little old school, which I like.” JUSTIN HALEY, NO. 31 LEAFFILTER GUTTER PROTECTION CAMARO ZL1“I’m excited to do some dirt racing, which is my bread and butter. I was able to race my dirt modified car at Bristol a few weeks ago and was able to get some track time. I think the NEXT Gen car will be pretty fast and have a good amount of grip. Hopefully we can all put on a good show for the fans.” RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 KROGER / IRISH SPRING CAMARO ZL1 “We weren’t the fastest in practice at the dirt race at Bristol (Motor Speedway) last year, but I was really happy with our No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet. I felt like it did everything it needed to do to be fast in the race and it showed when it came down to crunch time. We had a shot at winning. We were running down the No. 22 (Joey Logano) for the lead when the checkered came out. I feel really good about my guys and our team. We know what we need in our race car and I’m looking forward to getting to Bristol (Motor Speedway) and getting back on the dirt. I don’t race as much dirt as (Kyle) Larson or (Christopher) Bell do on a weekly basis, but I did grow up doing just as much as they did. I enjoy racing dirt. It’s a challenge and it’s something different. It kind of shakes things up for the Cup Series. We’ve had two really disappointing weekends at Richmond (Raceway) and Martinsville (Speedway). We’re still scratching our heads trying to figure out what it is in our race cars that’s not liking the short tracks. We’ve changed several things from Phoenix (Raceway), to Richmond and to Martinsville, and we still can’t figure out exactly what we need on those short tracks. I’m definitely glad to get to a different short track, with Bristol (Motor Speedway) being something totally different than what we’ve been racing the last few weeks.  We’ve got Bristol and then Talladega (Superspeedway) coming up after that. We’d really like to have a strong showing this weekend at Bristol; put ourselves in position to try and get a win, really turn our season around and carry that momentum into Talladega.”  ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 BOWMAN ON HOW HE IS APPROACHING THE BRISTOL DIRT WITH THE NEXT GEN CAR: “There are a lot of new challenges with the Gen-seven car. The car is designed to look like a streetcar and has parts that are similar to the production car, so it makes it tough to take it on dirt. The guys at Hendrick Motorsports do a great job of putting together really fast cars and giving me what I need to be competitive every week. We don’t have any notes for the event, but I think some of the changes to even, like making it a night race, will help us put on a better show for the fans. Hopefully, we can get another win this year and take home another cool trophy.” GREG IVES, CREW CHIEF, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1IVES ON RACING AT THE BRISTOL DIRT LAYOUT WITH THE NEXT GEN CAR: “Last year, I feel like we had a great car. Alex (Bowman) was complimentary of the car. We had a mechanical issue that took us out of contention but feel we had a shot to win. Obviously, this year we have an entirely new car and new tire package, but the goal is still the same – we want to go to Bristol, have a solid race, and win at ‘The Last Great Colosseum.'” DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 TOOTSIES ORCHID LOUNGE CAMARO ZL1ARE YOU READY FOR BRISTOL? “I am a lot more ready than I was last year. It was funny, all the guys with dirt experience seemed to struggle last year and the drivers who dirt racing was something new to seemed to do better.I don’t know if that will continue. Those guys are pretty smart and will figure it out. It’s going to be a lot of fun and the fans should see a really good show Sunday night.” HOW IS LIFE AT TRACKHOUSE RACING?“It has been such a pleasure to be on this journey with Trackhouse Racing from the very beginning. I have seen the plan grow from something that was only on paper to a strong organization of two cars working together. I enjoy working with Ross (Chastain) and his crew chief Phil (Surgeon) and the entire No. 1 team. We share a lot of information and really try to help each other. At the same time we are very competitive. We want to try to keep pushing each other to get better. It’s been a lot of fun and really looking forward to keep pushing ourselves.” GRANT ENFINGER, NO. 23 CHAMPION POWER EQUIPMENT SILVERADO RST“I like when we take the Truck Series to the dirt. Our race at Bristol last year was a little different than what we had experienced with some of the past dirt races. Notably, tire wear was a big deal last year and we were mostly running the bottom. This year, we have a little harder tire and they’ve changed the track a little. I know Charles will have some adjustments built into our Champion Power Equipment Chevy for the changing conditions. I feel like our team is starting to click now, and Bristol is a great opportunity for us to contend for a win.” JACK WOOD, NO. 24 CHEVYLINERS.COM SILVERADO RST“I think that racing at Bristol on dirt is something that a lot of drivers dread because it’s not what they are used to. I only have one dirt race under my belt in last year’s race at Knoxville, but over the past twelve months I’ve had the opportunity to test some dirt modifieds and micro sprints, so I am looking forward to it. My No. 24 Chevy Liners team and I are going to stay open-minded all weekend and see what we can make of the opportunities ahead of us.” Chevrolet NASCAR Cup Series Statistics Manufacturers Championships:Total (1949-2021): 40First title for Chevrolet: 1958Highest number of consecutive titles: 13 (2003-15) Years Won: 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2021 Drivers Championships:Total (1949-2021): 33First Chevrolet champion: Buck Baker (1957)Highest number of consecutive titles: 7 (2005-11)Most Recent: Kyle Larson (2021) Years Won: 1957, 1960, 1961, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2020, 2021 Event Victories:Record for total race wins in single season: 26 (2007)                2022 STATISTICS:                                                                                                    Wins: 5Poles: 2Laps Led: 1,184Top-five finishes: 23Top-10 finishes: 36Stage wins: 9Tyler Reddick (Fontanax2)Alex Bowman (Las Vegas)Ross Chastain (Las Vegas)William Byron (Phoenix), (Atlanta) Daniel Suarez (COTA)Chase Elliott (Martinsvillex2) CHEVROLET IN NASCAR CUMULATIVE STATISTICS:Total Chevrolet race wins: 819 (1949 to date)Poles won to date: 725Laps led to date: 242,520Top-five finishes to date: 4,161Top-10 finishes to date: 8,591                                                                                                          Total NASCAR Cup Wins by Corporation, 1949 to Date:                    General Motors: 1,153           Chevrolet: 819           Pontiac: 154           Oldsmobile: 115           Buick: 65            Ford: 813                                                                    Ford: 713           Mercury: 96           Lincoln: 4            Fiat Chrysler Automobiles: 467           Dodge: 217           Plymouth: 191           Chrysler: 59            Toyota: 163

 

‘The Most Powerful Late Models on the Planet’ invade legendary Ohio track April 22-23

WAVERLY, OH – April 13, 2022– The dictionary defines aggressive as someone with determination or forcefulness. Those words perfectly describe Atomic Speedway Promotor Charlie Vest and his approach to running the track. 

The World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Models returns to the Ohio facility on April 22-23 for the first time since 2018. It’s an event Vest and his team is excited for, one of the many events involving a premier national series.

Those events feature the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars, Xtreme Outlaw Sprint Cars presented Low-E Insulation, Super DIRTcar Series Big Block Modifieds, and the Atomic Outlaw Invasion by The Most Powerful Late Models on the Planet.   

However, like most of the country, Mother Nature has impacted the start of the season at Atomic, including last month’s postponed Super DIRTcar Series Rumble in the Hills event. 

“We can’t wait to get racing in general,” Vest said. “The awesome thing about it is to have that quality of racing back-to-back this early in the season, and everyone is chomping at the bit both fan-wise and driver-wise to come race.

“We’re begging for it, we’re begging to get everybody back in the stands, and the quality of the World of Outlaws this early is kind of a preview of everything else we have going on with World Racing Group.”

Atomic Speedway is the only track other than Volusia Speedway Park to hold an event for every premier series this season. Vest and his team hope the Outlaw Invasion brings momentum back to the speedway after a couple of successful events in 2022.  

“I feel like we haven’t really got any momentum,” Vest said. “It’s kind of like getting two laps and a caution, and then two laps and a caution. I’m just excited. I just wish Mother Nature would start taking her meds and having a better attitude towards life, so maybe we can get some sunshine.”

The last time the World of Outlaws Late Models visited the Buckeye State venue in 2018, Tyler Erb swept the weekend, bringing fans to their feet with a last-lap pass on eventual Series champion Mike Marlar. Since that visit, track officials have made some changes to make a more enjoyable experience for the fans.

“The biggest thing is we’ve tried to streamline our entry,” Vest said. “So, from a fan perspective, we’ve tried to add some more ticket windows; that way, everyone’s not waiting. We’re adding additional exit points as far as point of sale and concessions, so you get your food a bit faster.”

The fans won’t only notice the improvements at the facility, but the drivers and teams, too. After the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series raced there in March, Vest received feedback from drivers, helping put the track on the best path toward success. That includes not replacing the wall that recently came down.  

“Obviously, with the wall deciding it didn’t want to be there anymore, that’s been a massive positive for us this year,” Vest said. “The feedback so far has been really good. The guys just like the fact there’s some escape ability at Atomic now. 

“We also removed some of the inside wall just because we liked the way it raced a little better. As expensive as things are and as tough as things are for the drivers, the least amount of wear and tear or tearing up your vehicles you could do, the more likely we are to have a better show.” 

Those changes weren’t only made to improve the racing, but also to enhance safety.

“Anywhere we had walls that were exposed that are impact spots, we’ve put the EPS foam in which everyone’s feedback on that was great,” Vest said. “We’ve also added fencing and catch fence, so there’s a fence all the way around the wall in [Turn 3] to [Turn 4].”

Vest realized when he took over the reins of the track that despite the need to make changes, he couldn’t change too much. He understood the need to build off the positives of the track’s history.

“It’s been such a good racy place you don’t want to change it too much,” Vest said.  “You have to leave it for what it is and really just take advantage of the positives that are there and make them stronger and make them better.”

The mentality Vest takes at Atomic may be aggressive, but it’s only because of his love of the sport. He wants to make sure everyone who comes to the facility has the best experience possible when they walk through the gates.

“I love being at the track, and I love providing a service, and that’s kind of what I think our mentality is like,” Vest said. “It may be an odd mentality, but we want to provide that service to the drivers, the teams, the fans, and our employees.

“We have to make it fun because most of the people are at the track because they love it.” 

The World of Outlaws CASE Late Models return to Atomic Speedway April 22-23 for the Outlaw Invasion—the first trip to the track since 2018. 

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

April 13, 2022

Harrison Burton and the No. 21 DEX Imaging team, along with their Cup Series peers, are set to spend the Easter weekend racing on the dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway.

For the second-straight year, the high-banked, half-mile oval has been covered with red clay for a series of events, including this weekend’s Food City Dirt Race for the Cup Series.

Although racing on dirt is uncommon nowadays for the elite NASCAR series, Brian Wilson, crew chief on the DEX Imaging Mustang, is looking forward to the experience.

“Bristol on dirt will be a fun and great challenge,” Wilson said. “Harrison is really excited, and I know the team is as well.”
 
Burton and Wilson both are rookies with no previous experience racing Cup cars on clay, and they will be competing with a Next Gen Mustang that hasn’t been raced on dirt. But Wilson said he and the team won’t be without the benefit of experience.

“With our teammates through the Penske alliance we have strong notes to build from with [Joey] Logano’s win last year,” Wilson said. “We’ll work to adapt those notes to the Next Gen car in our two practice sessions and heat race to be prepared for the main event on Sunday.”
 
One of the challenges of dirt racing is anticipating how the clay will change as the track, which is watered prior to the races, dries out.

Last year’s race – and the practices and qualifying races this year – will be run in the daytime, but Sunday’s main event isn’t scheduled to start until after 7 p.m. 
 
That which means a good bit of the main event will be run after the sun goes down. 

Wilson said that will figure into his strategy. 
 
“We expect that the night race will help keep some moisture in the track as the race goes on,” he said. “Adapting to those changing conditions is what dirt-track racing is all about, so that’s where our focus has been this week.”
 
Two practice sessions are set for Friday afternoon, the first beginning at 4:05 Eastern Time and the second at 6:35. TV coverage is on FOX Sports 1.
 
The four 15-lap qualifying races, which will set the starting line-up for Sunday, are scheduled to start at 6 p.m. on Saturday and will air on FOX Sports 2.
 
The 250-lap main event is scheduled to get the green flag just after 7 p.m., with FOX carrying the broadcast.
 
Stage breaks are set for Laps 75 and 150.

 

Brad Sweet & Sheldon Haudenschild Have Won 8 of Last 10 in PevelyPEVELY, MO – April 13, 2022 – The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series visits one of the most consistently exciting venues in all of America this weekend – Pevely, MO’s Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55.In preparation for the intense Ironman 55 (August 5-6), The Greatest Show on Dirt is given a spring doubleheader to get the juices flowing at the 1/4-mile bullring. The winged warriors will be joined by the POWRi Midgets this Friday & Saturday, April 15-16 with another open-wheel-only pairing for race fans.BUY TICKETS: Package – Friday – SaturdayHere’s what to watch for this weekend:TWO HORSE RACE: Lately, it’s been all about Brad Sweet and Sheldon Haudenschild at I-55. The two superstars have combined to win eight of the last 10 World of Outlaws events in Pevely with each scoring four wins along the way. Both drivers, who each swept a weekend at the track last year, enter this go-round with a chance to leave as the winningest driver in Pevely.Aboard the Kasey Kahne Racing, NAPA Auto Parts #49, Sweet brings a 40-point lead into the weekend as he continues to command the standings with his fourth consecutive Series championship on the line in 2022. The Grass Valley, CA native only has one win to his credit through 13 races but looks to change that this weekend as he backs up his spring sweep of last year’s I-55 event. The Big Cat has finished on the podium in eight of the last 10 races at I-55 and holds an impressive 5.5 average finish since becoming a full-time Outlaw in 2014.Aboard the Stenhouse Jr. / Marshall Racing, NOS Energy Drink #17, Haudenschild comes into the weekend as the reigning Ironman 55 champion. After winning two of the first four races, the Wooster, OH native has slipped to a 9.2 average finish over the last nine races as he remains fifth in the standings. He’ll have a golden chance to get back on track and earn a Series-best third win this weekend at arguably his best track on tour.BACK ON TRACK: For four championship hopefuls, this weekend’s I-55 double offers the opportunity to return to form and collect some crucial momentum as the Series continues to head east.David Gravel of Watertown, CT rebounded properly from a 13th-place run at Devil’s Bowl with his sixth podium of the season at Lake Ozark last week. In four appearances at I-55 last year in the Big Game Motorsports #2, DG finished 8th, 6th, 3rd & 6th. He’s hoping to nab his first Pevely win since 2016, but more importantly, get that third win of 2022 and build some confidence in his camp.Carson Macedo of Lemoore, CA has fallen back to third in the standings following a tough 16th-place effort the Jason Johnson Racing #41 at the Jason Johnson Classic. Historically, I-55 has been kryptonite for Macedo with only two top-five finishes (both 5th) through 11 starts at the bullring. The good news, though, is that both of those results came last year with Philip Dietz on the wrenches, so the 25-year-old is certainly finding speed in Pevely.Donny Schatz of Fargo, ND was trending upward with back-to-back podiums of third and second before a 12th-place finish at Lake Ozark on Saturday. The 10-time Series champion is without a doubt the most experienced driver at I-55, starting 50+ Features with two wins and 43 top-10 finishes on his resume. He was on his way to a third win at the track last year when a mechanical issue stopped his Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing, Ford Performance, Carquest Auto Parts #15.James McFadden of Alice Springs, NT, AUS is on a rollercoaster ride with recent runs either providing top-five results or finishes completely outside the top-10. The Roth Motorsports #83 pilot currently sits sixth in the standings with his first win of the year still on the line entering this weekend. In the Series’ most recent appearance at I-55, the Australian nabbed a career-best second at the track in the Ironman 55 last August.SPRING PEAKING: For another four full-time World of Outlaws competitors, they’re entering I-55 on the heels of a season-best performance and looking to get a streak going.Jacob Allen of Hanover, PA brought a smile to Sprint Car fans worldwide when he returned to victory lane at Lake Ozark on Saturday. The Shark Racing #1A pilot did it in spectacular fashion, completing a pass on Brady Bacon with three laps left and earning his second career victory in the form of a perfect night. It ended a 104-race drought since his first win in 2020, and his speed throughout all of 2022 says it could be much quicker until his third win comes.Logan Schuchart of Hanover, PA followed his Shark Racing teammate with a fourth-place finish, matching his season-high in the DuraMAX, Drydene Performance Products #1S. It hasn’t been a dream start to the season for the former championship runner-up, but Schuchart and his crew haven’t stopped putting in the work. I-55 this weekend could be a turning point considering his recent success at the track with 10 top-five finishes in his last 12 starts.Spencer Bayston of Lebanon, IN has shown immense speed all season long in the CJB Motorsports #5. The leading Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year contender has been on the verge of winning his first race of 2022 for more than a month now, but things just haven’t fallen into place. They almost did on Saturday night when the 23-year-old banked a season-best second-place at Lake Ozark. He’s a former POWRi Midget winner at I-55 but owns a World of Outlaws best of 9th at the track.Brock Zearfoss of Jonestown, PA equaled his season-high of sixth-place on Saturday at Lake Ozark thanks to another NOS Energy Drink Heat Win and DIRTvision Fast Pass Dash appearance. He’s excited for a return to I-55 this weekend, a place where he earned one of his five World of Outlaws top-five finishes in May of 2020.THIS WEEK AT A GLANCEFriday & Saturday, April 15-16 at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 in Pevely, MOOn the Internet World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series Twitter – @WorldofOutlaws Instagram – @WoOSprint Facebook – Facebook.com/WorldofOutlawsSprintCarSeries YouTube – Youtube.com/WorldofOutlaws DIRTVision – DIRTVision.com – Platinum annual FAST PASS for $299 or monthly FAST PASS for $39/monthCURRENT CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS (13/82 Nights): 1. 49-Brad Sweet (1,786 PTS); 2. 2-David Gravel (-40 PTS); 3. 41-Carson Macedo (-54 PTS); 4. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild (-70 PTS); 5. 15-Donny Schatz (-110 PTS); 6. 83-James McFadden (-116 PTS); 7. 18-Giovanni Scelzi (-120 PTS); 8. 1S-Logan Schuchart (-138 PTS); 9. 5-Spencer Bayston (-156 PTS); 10. 1A-Jacob Allen (-190 PTS).NOS ENERGY DRINK FEATURE WINNERS (9 Drivers): 2 wins – Carson Macedo, Jason Johnson Racing #41 2 wins – David Gravel, Big Game Motorsports #2 2 wins – Sheldon Haudenschild, Stenhouse Jr. / Marshall Racing #17 2 wins – Giovanni Scelzi, KCP Racing #18 1 win – Brad Sweet, Kasey Kahne Racing #49 1 win – Donny Schatz, Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing #15 1 win – Jacob Allen, Shark Racing #1A 1 win – Brent Marks, Murray-Marks Motorsports #19 1 win – Kyle Larson, Kevin Kozlowski #57FEATURE LAPS LED (17 Drivers): 71 laps – David Gravel 58 laps – Brad Sweet 55 laps – Giovanni Scelzi 30 laps – Carson Macedo 27 laps – Brent Marks 26 laps – Sam Hafertepe Jr. 25 laps – Donny Schatz 23 laps – Spencer Bayston 21 laps – Brady Bacon 17 laps – Kyle Larson 13 laps – Cory Eliason 10 laps – Sheldon Haudenschild 9 laps – Dominic Scelzi, Brady Bacon 8 laps – James McFadden 3 laps – Brian Brown 1 lap – Corey DaySLICK WOODY’S QUICKTIME AWARDS (9 Drivers): 3 QuickTimes – Carson Macedo 2 QuickTimes – David Gravel, Jacob Allen 1 QuickTime – Aaron Reutzel, Cory Eliason, Sam Hafertepe Jr, Brad Sweet, Giovanni Scelzi*, James McFadden * Denotes New Track RecordHEAT RACE WINNERS (19 Drivers): 5 Heat Wins – David Gravel 5 Heat Wins – Brad Sweet, James McFadden, Jacob Allen 4 Heat Wins – Giovanni Scelzi 3 Heat Wins – Carson Macedo 2 Heat Wins – Sheldon Haudenschild, Brock Zearfoss, Kraig Kinser, Aaron Reutzel, Tyler Courtney, Cory Eliason 1 Heat Win – Donny Schatz, Spencer Bayston, Sam Hafertepe Jr, Dominic Scelzi, Kerry Madsen, Rico Abreu, Corey DayDIRTVISION FAST PASS DASH APPEARANCES (28 Drivers): 9 Dashes – Brad Sweet, David Gravel, Jacob Allen 6 Dashes – Carson Macedo, Spencer Bayston 5 Dashes – James McFadden, Cory Eliason 4 Dashes – Sheldon Haudenschild, Donny Schatz, Kraig Kinser, Giovanni Scelzi 3 Dashes – Tyler Courtney, Aaron Reutzel 2 Dashes – Logan Schuchart, Brock Zearfoss, Kyle Larson, Kerry Madsen, Rico Abreu, Dominic Scelzi, Corey Day, Brent Marks 1 Dash – Anthony Macri, Sam Hafertepe Jr, Colby Copeland, Tanner Carrick, DJ Netto, Brian Brown, Brady BaconMICROLITE LAST CHANCE SHOWDOWN WINS (8 Drivers): 3 LCS Wins – Sheldon Haudenschild 2 LCS Wins – Logan Schuchart, Ayrton Gennetten 1 LCS Win – James McFadden, Spencer Bayston, Anthony Macri, Mitchell Faccinto, Sam Hafertepe JrKSE HARD CHARGER AWARDS (7 Drivers): 4 Hard Chargers – Logan Schuchart 3 Hard Chargers – Sheldon Haudenschild 2 Hard Chargers – James McFadden 1 Hard Chargers – Carson Macedo, Donny Schatz, Tanner Thorson, Rico AbreuPODIUM FINISHES (16 Drivers): 6 Podiums – Brad Sweet, David Gravel 3 Podiums – Carson Macedo, Sheldon Haudenschild, Donny Schatz, Giovanni Scelzi, Kyle Larson 2 Podiums – James McFadden, Corey Day, Brent Marks 1 Podium – Spencer Bayston, Jacob Allen, Cory Eliason, Aaron Reutzel, Sam Hafertepe Jr, Brian BrownTOP 10 FINISHES (27 Drivers): 12 Top 10s – Brad Sweet 10 Top 10s – David Gravel, Carson Macedo, Sheldon Haudenschild, Giovanni Scelzi 9 Top 10s – Donny Schatz 8 Top 10s – James McFadden, Logan Schuchart 7 Top 10s – Spencer Bayston, Cory Eliason 6 Top 10s – Jacob Allen 5 Top 10s – Rico Abreu 4 Top 10s – Tyler Courtney 3 Top 10s – Brock Zearfoss, Kyle Larson, Brent Marks 2 Top 10s – Aaron Reutzel, Dominic Scelzi, Kerry Madsen, Corey Day 1 Top 10 – Anthony Macri, Justin Peck, Sam Hafertepe Jr, Shane Golobic, DJ Netto, Brian Brown, Hunter Schuerenberg2022 WORLD OF OUTLAWS SPRINT CAR SCHEDULE & WINNERS: No. / Day, Date / Track / Location / Winner (Total Wins) 1. Thur, Feb. 10 / Volusia Speedway Park / Barberville, FL / Donny Schatz (1) 2. Fri, Feb. 11 / Volusia Speedway Park / Barberville, FL / Sheldon Haudenschild (1) 3. Sat, Feb. 12 / Volusia Speedway Park / Barberville, FL / David Gravel (1) 4. Fri, March 4 / Cotton Bowl Speedway / Paige, TX / Sheldon Haudenschild (2) 5. Sat, March 5 / Cotton Bowl Speedway / Paige, TX / Carson Macedo (1) 6. Fri, March 11 / Thunderbowl Raceway / Tulare, CA / Giovanni Scelzi (1) 7. Sat, March 12 / Thunderbowl Raceway / Tulare, CA / Kyle Larson (1) 8. Fri, March 18 / Merced Speedway / Merced, CA / Carson Macedo (2) 9. Fri, March 25 / Bakersfield Speedway / Bakersfield, CA / Giovanni Scelzi (2) 10. Sat, March 26 / Perris Auto Speedway / Perris, CA / David Gravel (2) 11. Tues, March 29 / Vado Speedway Park / Vado, NM / Brad Sweet (1) 12. Sat, April 2 / Devil’s Bowl Speedway / Mesquite, TX / Brent Marks (1) 13. Sat, April 9 / Lake Ozark Speedway / Eldon, MO / Jacob Allen (1) 14. Fri, April 15 / Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 / Pevely, MO 15. Sat, April 16 / Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 / Pevely, MO 16. Fri, April 22 / Tri-City Speedway / Granite City, IL 17. Sat, April 23 / Tri-State Speedway / Haubstadt, IN 18. Fri, April 29 / Bristol Motor Speedway / Bristol, TN 19. Sat, April 30 / Bristol Motor Speedway / Bristol, TN 20. Fri, May 6 / Eldora Speedway / Rossburg, OH 21. Sat, May 7 / Eldora Speedway / Rossburg, OH 22. Wed, May 11 / Lincoln Speedway / Abbottstown, PA 23. Fri, May 13 / Williams Grove Speedway / Mechanicsburg, PA 24. Sat, May 14 / Williams Grove Speedway / Mechanicsburg, PA 25. Tues, May 17 / Bridgeport Speedway / Swedesboro, NJ 26. Fri, May 20 / Attica Raceway Park / Attica, OH 27. Sat, May 21 / Sharon Speedway / Hartford, OH 28. Sat, May 28 / Atomic Speedway / Waverly, OH 29. Mon, May 30 / Lawrenceburg Speedway / Lawrenceburg, IN 30. Fri, June 3 / River Cities Speedway / Grand Forks, ND 31. Sun, June 5 / Huset’s Speedway / Brandon, SD 32. Fri, June 10 / Knoxville Raceway / Knoxville, IA 33. Sat, June 11 / Knoxville Raceway / Knoxville, IA 34. Fri, June 17 / Beaver Dam Raceway / Beaver Dam, IA 35. Sat, June 18 / Beaver Dam Raceway / Beaver Dam, IA 36. Thur, June 23 / Huset’s Speedway / Brandon, SD 37. Fri, June 24 / Huset’s Speedway / Brandon, SD 38. Sat, June 25 / Huset’s Speedway / Brandon, SD 39. Fri, July 1 / Cedar Lake Speedway / New Richmond, WI 40. Sat, July 2 / Cedar Lake Speedway / New Richmond, WI 41. Fri, July 8 / 34 Raceway / West Burlington, IA 42. Sat, July 9 / Wilmot Raceway / Wilmot, WI 43. Tues, July 12 / Attica Raceway Park / Attica, OH 44. Wed, July 13 / Eldora Speedway / Rossburg, OH 45. Thur, July 14 / Eldora Speedway / Rossburg, OH 46. Fri, July 15 / Eldora Speedway / Rossburg, OH 47. Sat, July 16 / Eldora Speedway / Rossburg, OH 48. Wed, July 20 / Port Royal Speedway / Port Royal, PA 49. Fri, July 22 / Williams Grove Speedway / Mechanicsburg, PA 50. Sat, July 23 / Williams Grove Speedway / Mechanicsburg, PA 51. Sat, July 30 / Weedsport Speedway / Weedsport, NY 52. Sun, July 31 / Weedsport Speedway / Weedsport, NY 53. Fri, Aug. 5 / Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 / Pevely, MO 54. Sat, Aug. 6 / Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 / Pevely, MO 55. Wed, Aug. 10 / Knoxville Raceway / Knoxville, IA 56. Thur, Aug. 11 / Knoxville Raceway / Knoxville, IA 57. Fri, Aug, 12 / Knoxville Raceway / Knoxville, IA 58. Sat, Aug. 13 / Knoxville Raceway / Knoxville, IA 59. Thur, Aug. 18 / Jackson Motorplex / Jackson, MN 60. Fri, Aug. 19 / Jackson Motorplex / Jackson, MN 61. Sat, Aug. 20 / Jackson Motorplex / Jackson, MN 62. Fri, Aug. 26 / River Cities Speedway / Grand Forks, ND 63. Sat, Aug. 27 / Red River Valley Speedway / West Fargo, ND 64. Thur, Sept. 1 / Skagit Speedway / Alger, WA 65. Fri, Sept. 2 / Skagit Speedway / Alger, WA 66. Sat, Sept. 3 / Skagit Speedway / Alger, WA 67. Mon, Sept. 5 / Gray’s Harbor Raceway / Elma, WA 68. Fri, Sept. 9 / Silver Dollar Speedway / Chico, CA 69. Sat, Sept. 10 / Silver Dollar Speedway / Chico, CA 70. Fri, Sept. 16 / Keller Auto Speedway / Hanford, CA 71. Sat, Sept. 17 / Placerville Speedway / Placerville, CA 72. Fri, Sept. 23 / Eldora Speedway / Rossburg, OH 73. Sat, Sept. 24 / Sharon Speedway / Hartford, OH 74. Fri, Sept. 30 / Williams Grove Speedway / Mechanicsburg, PA 75. Sat, Oct. 1 / Williams Grove Speedway / Mechanicsburg, PA 76. Fri, Oct. 7 / Port Royal Speedway / Port Royal, PA 77. Sat, Oct. 8 / Port Royal Speedway / Port Royal, PA 78. Fri, Oct. 14 / I-80 Speedway / Greenwood, NE 79. Sat, Oct. 15 / Lakeside Speedway / Kansas City, KS 80. Thur, Nov. 3 / The Dirt Track at Charlotte / Concord, NC 81. Fri, Nov. 4 / The Dirt Track at Charlotte / Concord, NC 82. Sat, Nov. 5 The Dirt Track at Charlotte / Concord, NC

Grandson of NASCAR Legend Dale Earnhardt to make RCR Debut

WELCOME, N.C. (April 12, 2022) –Richard Childress Racing announced today that Jeffrey Earnhardt will drive the legendary No. 3 car in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Talladega Superspeedway. ForeverLawn, headquartered in Louisville, Ohio and specializing in the manufacturing and installation of premium synthetic grass solutions, will be the primary sponsor of the entry. The race will be televised live on FOX beginning at 4 p.m. ET on Saturday, April 23. Jeffrey Earnhardt is the grandson of seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt and is the nephew of Dale Earnhardt, Jr. His father, Kerry, was a regular competitor in the Xfinity Series from 1998 until 2009. Jeffrey Earnhardt has competed in all three NASCAR national series. He has 135 Xfinity Series starts and owns a best finish of third-place with Joe Gibbs Racing at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 2019.  “It’s great to have an Earnhardt back in one of our cars,” said Richard Childress, Chairman and CEO of RCR. “We think Jeffrey is a talented young driver and I’m confident he will run well at Talladega.”  Earnhardt, 32, is a native of Mooresville, N.C., and is eagerly anticipating his first start with RCR. “What a dream come true,” said Earnhardt. “The chance to be behind the wheel of the No. 3 car for RCR, that my pawpaw made famous, has long been a dream of mine and now it’s finally happening. I can’t thank ForeverLawn enough for making my dreams come to reality and for being such a big part of my career. I also want to thank Mr. Childress for making this possible. The No. 3 car is cherished by a lot of people, and I know how much it means to him. To give me this opportunity is something I’ll never forget.” New partners SuperPufft, Dalstrong, and The Accredited Petroleum Association are also a part of this journey, making their debut with the ForeverLawn family at Talladega. They will be featured on the No. 3 car alongside returning partners Synthetic Turf Resources (STR) and Precision Products.  “My goodness, to be in the mix with two of the greatest names in, not just NASCAR, but all of racing – Childress and Earnhardt – is an incredible privilege,” said Dale Karmie, Co-Founder of ForeverLawn, Inc. “We at ForeverLawn are thrilled to help put these two names back together, and to do it in the iconic No. 3—with a definite nod to the Intimidator—is just amazing. We are excited to see the #blackandgreengrassmachine hit Talladega Superspeedway.”  ForeverLawn Inc. was created out of a desire to bring the highest quality, most technologically advanced premium synthetic grass product to the residential and commercial landscape markets. Owners Brian and Dale Karmie came from the computer software industry and began selling and installing turf in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2002. This hands-on, customer-driven experience led the brothers to start their own premium synthetic grass company, ForeverLawn, in 2004. The company has consistently led the synthetic turf industry through groundbreaking approaches to products and practice ever since. Today the company services over eighty localized markets through their dealer network, with an impressive regional, national, and international project portfolio.  Additional details pertaining to Earnhardt’s RCR entry will be announced at a later date.  For more information, please visit www.rcrracing.com About ForeverLawn:ForeverLawn improves spaces and communities through innovative synthetic grass solutions. As the premium choice for synthetic surfacing, each product is engineered to solve unique consumer needs and desires while maintaining superior standards and natural aesthetics. Want to be a part of something bigger? Learn how you can be a person of impact through business ownership opportunities with ForeverLawn. For more information, contact opportunities@foreverlawn.com. About Richard Childress Racing:Richard Childress Racing (rcrracing.com) is a renowned, performance-driven racing, marketing and manufacturing organization. Incorporated in 1969, RCR has celebrated over 50 years of racing and earned more than 200 victories and 16 championships, including six in the NASCAR Cup Series with the legendary Dale Earnhardt. RCR was the first organization to win championships in the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Truck Series and is a three-time winner of the Daytona 500 (1998, 2007, 2018). Its 2022 NASCAR Cup Series lineup includes two-time NASCAR champion, 2017 Coca-Cola 600 winner and 2018 Daytona 500 champion Austin Dillon (No. 3 Chevrolet), along with two-time NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Tyler Reddick (No. 8 Chevrolet). RCR fields a full-time NASCAR Xfinity Series program with Sheldon Creed (No. 2 Chevrolet) and Austin Hill (No. 21 Chevrolet).

Inside Line Promotions – TULARE, Calif. (April 11, 2022) – Dominic Scelzi earned his fourth second-place result of the season last Friday during a Kings of Thunder event at Thunderbowl Raceway.

Scelzi was a contender throughout the night as he timed in fifth quickest in qualifying to kick off the competition.

“We went out late in qualifying and ended up fifth, which I was pretty happy with,” he said. “Then we started on the pole of a heat race and won it. We also won the dash.”

Scelzi’s heat race and dash victories placed him on the pole for the main event.

“They did a full rework on the track before the feature and it was pretty wide open for the first 20 laps,” he said. “On the initial start the bottom wasn’t the place to be. I fell to third before we got into turn one. It was impossible to pass. We ran right behind the top two for 15 laps. When the yellow came out the track was starting to get wider, but it was still wide open. I made a move to get to second after the restart. I hit a hole and fell back to third. Then I got back to second on a restart with three laps to go.”

Scelzi’s second-place run was his fifth top five of the season.

Saturday’s King of the West-NARC Fujitsu Series event at Keller Auto Speedway in Hanford, Calif., was canceled because of extreme wind. The series is off until April 30 when Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico, Calif., hosts the 10^th annual David Tarter Memorial.

Scelzi is unsure of his racing plans during the next two weeks leading up to that event.

QUICK RESULTS –

April 8 – Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare, Calif. – Qualifying: 5; Heat race: 1 (1); Dash: 1 (2); Feature: 2 (1).

SEASON STATS –

10 races, 0 wins, 5 top fives, 7 top 10s, 8 top 15s, 8 top 20s

UP NEXT –

TBD

Registration now open for $1,000-to-win iRacing spectacular May 4 & 11

CONCORD, NC – April 12, 2022 – From the fastest-growing Dirt Oval league on iRacingcomes a new challenge for the ultimate Big Block Modified racers and money chasers – the DIRTcar Digital Dash.

DIRTcar eSports’ inaugural special event on Wednesday, May 4 and Wednesday, May 11, puts up a $3,600+ purse – with a $1,000 winner’s share – in a 50-lap, fixed setup, Super DIRTcar Series Big Block Modified showdown on the virtual Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

FORMAT

The DIRTcar Digital Dash will spread over two days, one week apart, and follow the traditional DIRTcar eSports format, which consists of three separate rounds of racing – the Qualifying Round, the Preliminary Round, and the Final Round. All races will be contested using iRacing’s default fixed setup for Big Block Modifieds at Charlotte.

Racing begins with the Qualifying Round on May 4, where entrants will be divided up at random into individual sessions of 24 (maximum) and contest a 2-lap time-trial session to set the starting grid for a 30-lap Feature. The top-12 finishers from each Feature will transfer to the Preliminary Round on the following Wednesday, May 11.

Preliminary Round contestants will then be divided up into two separate sessions, both running one complete racing program including Hot Laps, Qualifying, Heats, Last Chance races and a Feature. The top-12 finishers from each Feature will then transfer into the Final Round.

The Final Round takes to the track that same night with a time-trial session for all 24 finalists to set the starting grid for the 50-lap finale.

DIRTCAR ESPORTS EVENT FORMAT

REGISTRATION

Registration for the inaugural DIRTcar Digital Dash is now open at the link below. The “early registration” period runs through Saturday, April 30 at 11:59pm ET, with an entry fee of $25. Any driver who enters Sunday, May 1 through Monday, May 2 at 11:59pm ET, will pay the “late registration” fee of $35.

The entry form will close completely on Monday, May 2 at midnight, and will not reopen.

REGISTER HERE

PURSE

The $3,625 event purse will be distributed throughout the 24 Final Round Feature starters, as shown on the chart below.

Finish Position	Winnings
1st	$1,000
2nd	$750
3rd	$500
4th	$250
5th	$100
6th	$75
7th	$70
8th	$65
9th	$60
10th	$55
11th	$50
12th	$50
13th	$50
14th	$50
15th	$50
16th	$50
17th	$50
18th	$50
19th	$50
20th	$50
21st	$50
22nd	$50
23rd	$50
24th	$50

WHERE TO WATCH

Broadcast coverage begins with the first Preliminary Round session on May 11, continuing through the end of the Final Round Feature. The Qualifying Round program on May 4 will not be broadcasted. Find the stream at each of the following links:

• DIRTcar eSports Twitch

• DIRTcar YouTube Channel

• DIRTcar Facebook Page

Record-high purse money, number of drivers competed in tour’s third season

CONCORD, NC – April 11, 2022 – Of the seven races contested on the 2021-22 DrydeneXtreme DIRTcar Series trail, four were claimed by first-time winners.

The dust has settled on the winter Super Late Model tour’s third consecutive season of competition, which featured the Southeast’s best drivers racing in three states over 126 calendar days. A deep dive into the numbers shows several statistics that defined the growth and diversity of the competitors that took part on tour this season.

Among the many takeaways that stood out, a record-high total of $304,150 was paid out in event purse and points fund money. This season also produced seven different winners in seven races, up by three from both previous years, and visited four different tracks – matching the 2019-20 season total.

Check out these other various statistics compiled over the 2021-22 season, and be on the lookout for the 2022-23 Drydene Xtreme DIRTcar Series schedule to be released later this year.

1, 2 – Ross Bailes won his first championship with the Xtreme Series this year, becoming only the second driver to win the iconic Drydene oil barrel championship trophy (Chris Madden – 2019-20, 2020-21).

3 – The Series points lead changed hands three times from start-to-finish. Bailes led through the first three races before a quiet weekend at Lavonia Speedway in February gave the lead to Carson Ferguson and Ben Watkins after Friday night at Lavonia.

Watkins took sole possession of it after Ferguson wrecked out of the Saturday Lavonia race and kept it through Friday night of the season finale at Cherokee on March 25. Bailes finished 15 positions ahead of Watkins the very next night to take the lead back and the championship trophy with him.

6 – Six different drivers were awarded with Quick Time honors for the fastest lap overall in Qualifying, including Dustin Mitchell, Brandon Overton, Jensen Ford, Ben Watkins (twice), Brandon Sheppard and Trent Ivey.

Six names also topped the field in a Last Chance Showdown event, including Dennis Franklin, Dalton Cook, Boom Briggs, Josh Richards, Anthony Sanders and David Duke.

7 – Number of drivers to earn Hard Charger honors in a Feature: Jeff Smith, Ben Watkins, Dalton Cook, Carson Ferguson (twice), Ethan Wilson, Cla Knight and Brent Larson.

16 – Sixteen different drivers finished on the podium this season. Bailes and Watkins tied at three apiece, Max Blair went back-to-back in the final two races of the season as an Outlaw invader to rank second, while all other drivers had one podium appearance.

17 – The number of points Bailes made up in the final race of the season at Cherokee. Watkins carried the points lead into the final race weekend after notching back-to-back podium finishes at Lavonia in February, which put him atop rivals Bailes and third-place Carson Ferguson.

Drivers from 17 different states attempted to qualify for at least one race on the schedule.

19 – Different Heat Race winners. Bailes led all drivers with three, and only two other drivers won twice (Sheppard, Blair).

70 – The total number of positions gained by Hard Chargers over seven Feature races.

82 – Different drivers attempted to qualify for at least one race on the schedule. This is an improvement by five from 2020-21 (77 drivers) and an increase of 12 from the inaugural season in 2019-20 (70 drivers).

370 – A total of 370 Feature laps were run between all seven races on the calendar. Cherokee Speedway’s annual endurance spectacle, the Blue Gray 100, topped the list at 100 laps, followed by the Rock Gault Memorial, which capped the season in a 60-lap, co-sanctioned special with the World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Model Series.

The season-opening Palmetto State 50 ranked third with its 50-lap main event, while all other Features on the schedule were 40 laps in length.

April 11, 2022

Harrison Burton and the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane team left Martinsville Speedway Saturday night disappointed in their run in the Blue-Emu 400 but determined to get their 2022 Cup Series season back on track.

Burton struggled from the beginning of the 400-lap run after starting 29^th. His qualifying effort on Friday was derailed when he slid his left-front tire on his opening lap, hurting his speed on both laps.

Having to start in the rear on Saturday on NASCAR’s shortest track, it was almost inevitable that he’d get lapped early, unless he was fortunate enough to get a timely caution flag.

That didn’t happen and he lost a lap to the leaders. After a single round of adjustments at the stage break, the team was able to improve the Mustang’s speed and keep pace through the end of stage two, not losing an additional lap. A bizarre set of events during the only green flag pit stop where the air hose was stuck under the right front tire cost an extra sixteen seconds. Combining that and an eventual yellow flag during the cycle cost the team two additional laps.  The race progressed and with one final caution Harrison was able to gain three spots, finishing 26^th and leaving the track 29^th in the driver points standings.

Eddie Wood said that despite what transpired Saturday night, his driver and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team are much better than what they’ve shown in recent weeks.

“Harrison has proven in the Xfinity Series that he can win races,” Wood said. “And our race team is capable of much better. We made the Playoffs in 2020 and almost made the cut last year.”

“We have the resources we need, and we are more determined than ever to get this thing turned around.”
 
Wood said he and his family-owned team have been down before in their decades in the sport but have always found a way to bounce back.
 
“Among the things I’ve learned is that there’s no point in making excuses,” he said. “You just have to keep working hard, and eventually it’ll start clicking and you start getting the results you expect when you have the support we have from Ford and Motorcraft/Quick Lane and DEX and the other companies that sponsor us.”

Next up for Burton and the Wood Brothers is a Sunday night dirt-track race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
 

Port Royal, PA (April 10, 2022) – Gregg Satterlee inherited the lead in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series-sanctioned River Valley 40 at Port Royal Speedway on Sunday evening when the top two running cars of Kyle Larson and Earl Pearson Jr. both ran into difficulty on the 25th lap of the race. Satterlee dominated the remainder of the race to get his third career win in the series. Brandon Sheppard finished in second with Tim McCreadie rounding out the podium in third. Jimmy Owens was fourth with Tyler Erb, the previous night’s winner at Hagerstown finishing fifth. Larson and Pearson ran in the top two spots at the drop of the green with Larson grabbing the early lead. The duo put on a show in the race for the lead as they started to encounter lapped traffic by the 14th circuit. That didn’t matter as Larson and Pearson continued to race hard for the top spot slicing and dicing through lapped cars. The top two were starting to be reeled in by Sheppard and Satterlee as a four-car battle for the lead was ensuing. Suddenly heading off turn four after some close quarters racing, Larson and Pearson made contact resulting in Larson spinning in front of the field and a broken steering component on Pearson’s car; drawing a caution and ending Pearson’s night. Satterlee had closed on the race leaders before the caution but inherited the top spot during the single caution of the event. In the final 15 laps of the race Satterlee pulled away from the field for a 3.8 second advantage at the finish line over Sheppard and McCreadie to score his first Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series win since 2018.   The 37-year-old Pennsylvania native became the eighth different winner this season with the series. “Honestly from the center of turn three until you get to turn four you can’t see anything, so I don’t know happened down there. I could see one of them spinning, but luckily Larson was far enough around the corner because I wouldn’t have seen him. I guess this is our lucky day. I thought with that deal in the heat race I had ruined our night. Everything fell our way tonight. I have always wanted a Lucas Oil win here; this is definitely our favorite track to race at and it’s always nice to win here in front of these fans.” “The track was really in good shape. We could race from the inside to the outside wall and every inch in between. Hats off to Steve O’Neal, the promoter. We love coming here to Port Royal, they put a lot of effort into this place and there is no other race track around like this one.” Sheppard, four-time Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series winner this season, came home in second to Satterlee. “It was a good track and a good race going on there for a while. I was hanging on as good as I could, I don’t know if I could have passed any of those guys. It was unfortunate was happened to those guys (Larson and Pearson). Gregg got out there and he had a really good run. We are working really hard to get this thing up front and it’s paying off. We are very excited for the rest of the year.” McCreadie, who ran second to Erb at Hagerstown on Saturday night came back with another podium finish on Sunday evening at Port Royal. “Hats off to my guys, they work so hard to try and get me feeling competitive again. We took big steps this weekend. I hate it for Earl and Kyle they were up front in Longhorn cars, and they were doing really well. We were there, the longer we ran the better we got. I had a little issue running off of four and I couldn’t run the outside like I wanted to.” The winner’s Rocket Chassis is powered by a Clements Racing Engine and sponsored by Satterlee Motorsports, Keyser Manufacturing, and Integra Shocks. Completing the top ten were Ashton Winger, Ross Robinson, Colton Flinner, Matt Cosner, and Max Blair. Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Race Summary River Valley 40Sunday, April 10th, 2022Port Royal Speedway – Port Royal, PA Allstar Performance Time TrialsFast Time Group A: Earl Pearson, Jr. / 18.471 seconds (overall)Fast Time Group B: Kyle Larson / 18.538 seconds Penske Race Shocks Heat Race #1 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[1]; 2. 1T-Tyler Erb[3]; 3. 7-Ross Robinson[5]; 4. 11-Spencer Hughes[2]; 5. 20F-Trever Feathers[7]; 6. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[6]; 7. 9Z-Mason Zeigler[8]; 8. 32J-Justin Weaver[10]; 9. 9Y-Levi Yetter[9]; 10. 8-Kyle Strickler[4] Summit Racing Equipment Heat Race #2 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 39-Tim McCreadie[3]; 2. 89-Ashton Winger[4]; 3. 2T-Kyle Lee[1]; 4. 9-Devin Moran[5]; 5. 15C-Jason Covert[6]; 6. 111V-Max Blair[2]; 7. 21M-Chad Myers[7]; 8. 2J-Jeff Rine[9]; 9. 06-Mike Lupfer[8] Simpson Race Products Heat Race #3 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 6-Kyle Larson[1]; 2. 22-Gregg Satterlee[2]; 3. 20-Jimmy Owens[3]; 4. 25-Shane Clanton[4]; 5. 9M-Hayes Mattern[5]; 6. 71-Hudson O’Neal[7]; 7. 11AC-Trevor Collins[8]; 8. 18D-Daulton Wilson[6]; 9. C33-Chris Casner[9] Ohlins Shocks Heat Race #4 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 1S-Brandon Sheppard[1]; 2. 0E-Rick Eckert[6]; 3. 48-Colton Flinner[5]; 4. 66C-Matt Cosner[3]; 5. 4-Gary Stuhler[4]; 6. 24-Dylan Yoder[7]; 7. 86-Austin Berry[8]; 8. 58-Garrett Alberson[2]; 9. 72-Tyler Emory[9] Fast Shafts B-Main #1 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 111V-Max Blair[4]; 2. 20F-Trever Feathers[1]; 3. 9Z-Mason Zeigler[5]; 4. 15C-Jason Covert[2]; 5. 21M-Chad Myers[6]; 6. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[3]; 7. 32J-Justin Weaver[7]; 8. 2J-Jeff Rine[8]; 9. 8-Kyle Strickler[11]; 10. 9Y-Levi Yetter[9]; 11. 06-Mike Lupfer[10] UNOH B-Main #2 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 24-Dylan Yoder[4]; 2. 4-Gary Stuhler[2]; 3. 71-Hudson O’Neal[3]; 4. 86-Austin Berry[6]; 5. 9M-Hayes Mattern[1]; 6. 18D-Daulton Wilson[7]; 7. 11AC-Trevor Collins[5]; 8. 58-Garrett Alberson[8]; 9. 72-Tyler Emory[10]; 10. C33-Chris Casner[9] Lucas Oil Feature Finish (40 Laps):

Race StatisticsEntrants: 37Lap Leaders: Kyle Larson (Laps 1 – 25); Gregg Satterlee (Laps 26 – 40)Wrisco Feature Winner: Gregg SatterleeArizona Sport Shirts Crown Jewel Cup Feature Winner: n/aBrandon Ford TV Challenge Feature Winner: n/aMargin of Victory: 2.189 secondsStop-Tech Cautions: Kyle Larson (Lap 25)Series Provisionals: Ricky Thornton, Jr., Garrett AlbersonFast Time Provisional: n/aSeries Emergency Provisionals: Daulton WilsonTrack Provisionals: Austin Berry Big River Steel Podium Top 3: Gregg Satterlee, Brandon Sheppard, Tim McCreadiePenske Shocks Top 5: Gregg Satterlee, Brandon Sheppard, Tim McCreadie, Jimmy Owens, Tyler ErbOptima Batteries Hard Charger of the Race: Matt Cosner (Advanced 7 Positions)Midwest Sheet Metal Spoiler Challenge Point Leader: Devin MoranHot Rod Processing Most Laps Led: Kyle Larson (25 Laps)Sunoco Race for Gas Highest Finisher: Jimmy OwensO’Reilly Auto Parts Rookie of the Race: Ashton WingerDirty Girl Racewear Fastest Lap of the Race: Kyle Larson (Lap 1 – 19.780 seconds)DirtonDirt.com Tough Break of the Race: Ricky Thornton, Jr.Outerwears Crew Chief of the Race: Robby Allen (Gregg Satterlee)ARP Engine Builder of the Race: Clements Racing EnginesMiller Welders Chassis Builder of the Race: Rocket ChassisDirt Draft Fastest in Hot Laps: Ricky Thornton, Jr. (17.909 seconds)Time of Race: 17 minutes 38 seconds

Third consecutive win for Chevrolet, second in a row for No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske

LONG BEACH, Calif. (April 10, 2022) – Josef Newgarden delivered Chevrolet its first victory at Long Beach in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES since 2016 and its third straight to open the season with a thrilling victory in the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. It was the first victory at Long Beach in Newgarden’s career and second in a row of the season in the No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet. Newgarden withstood a furious final 28 laps and two full-course caution periods before winning under yellow-flag conditions at Long Beach. It gave Team Chevy its third straight win to open the 2022 INDYCAR season for the first time in six years. Newgarden won for the 22nd time in INDYCAR and won back-to-back races for the first time in five years. “Congratulations to Josef Newgarden and everyone on the No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet team on an exciting win at Long Beach,” said Rob Buckner, Chevrolet Program Manager for the NTT INDYCAR SERIES. “It took a perfect race on strategy and in the pits, and Josef was fantastic in holding the lead on two late restarts. We’ve started a season by winning three in a row for the first time in six years, which is a testament to the hard work of everyone at Chevrolet and our technical partner teams. This gives us huge momentum going into Barber Motorsports Park at the end of the month and into the month of May.” Team Chevy recorded three of the first five finishing positions. Team Penske teammate Will Power was fourth in the No. 12 Verizon 5G Chevrolet, followed in fifth by Arrow McLaren SP’s Pato O’Ward in the No. 5 Vuse Chevrolet. A.J. Foyt Racing’s Kyle Kirkwood wrapped up the top-10 with his best finish of his rookie season in the No. 14 Rokit Chevrolet. The No. 2 Team Penske team got Newgarden out ahead of Alex Palou on the final pit stop with 28 laps to go. An outstanding out-lap kept Newgarden in first before having to hold off a separate charge from Romain Grosjean on the softer red Firestone tires over the final 13 laps and another late-race restart. Chevrolet and the NTT INDYCAR Series continue the 2022 season at Barber Motorsports Park for the Grand Prix of Alabama on Sunday, May 1. The race begins at 1 p.m. ET and will air live on NBC, the Peacock streaming service and SiriusXM IndyCar Nation (Channel 160). Live timing and scoring will be available at racecontrol.indycar.com.

TEAM CHEVY QUOTESJOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 HITACHI CHEVROLET, TEAM PENSKE – RACE WINNER:IS THIS ONE OF YOUR GREATEST WINS?“This is definitely up there on the list. This was a fight today. This is not an easy race to win. I don’t know what it looked like from the outside, but I was working my butt off with Grosjean there at the end on the used reds. I was hoping he would fade a little bit, Holding him off on that restart was super difficult. This Hitachi car was on it. I knew coming in to the race we had a great strategy and with Team Chevy we were going to be alright. With pit stops helping me get around Alex (Palou), I’m so proud of Team Penske. I have been trying to win a race here for 11 years so I’m so happy to finally get it done.”WHAT WAS HARDEST BATTLE?“I think the out lap with Palou. We got together in Turn Five and that almost didn’t work. We went side-by-side in that corner and then again in Turn Six. That was the difficult battle, but I think overall Grosjean had the best shot at getting it done. Fortunately we just held.DID YOU HAVE HERTA COVERED?“Yes, I think we had him covered. I was pretty determined.”MORE ON THE WIN.“When I was walking out of the press conference room after qualifying, a reporter from the LA Times pulled me aside and said, ‘Hey Josef, real quick… at what point does Herta just check out tomorrow?’ I took total offense to that. The guy assumed Colton was going to run away with the race. So I was pretty determined.  Alex (Palou) was fast but I think we had them both covered for sure.”IT’S BEEN FIVE YEARS SINCE YOU WON CONSECUTIVE RACES. IS SOMETHING SPECIAL HAPPENING RIGHT NOW?“It’s too early to say. It’s only three races in. We could have a horrible rest of the year. I’m not trying to wish bad juju on us, just looking at both sides of the argument. What I feel like we are building on the 2 car. We’ve got a good engineer in Eric Leichtle and all our crew plus everyone else at Team Penske that works on this team. I’m feeling positive about where we are going, but we have a long way to go. Indianapolis is where we have to perform for Team Penske. I want a Borg-Warner so bad. So let’s see what we can do during the Month of May.” WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON 5G CHEVROLET, TEAM PENSKE – FINISHED FOURTH: “It was a very solid day for the Verizon 5G Chevy. We’re playing the long game and banking those points. When we get a chance to win, we’ll go for it. At the start we said if we got in the top-five we’d be really happy. A podium would have been awesome, but I’m happy with this.” PATO O’WARD, NO. 5 McLAREN VUSE CHEVROLET, ARROW McLAREN RACING SP – FINISHED FIFTH: “We had a rough start to the weekend so this fifth-place feels really good. We wanted to just get a solid foundation for the rest of our year, and we’ve done this today. I’m happy and proud of the boys. We should be very satisfied with fifth because we started 11th. We went forward and not just one or two positions. We went up a handful so we can be proud of that.”  KYLE KIRKWOOD, NO. 14 ROKIT CHEVROLET, AJ FOYT RACING – FINISHED 10TH: “The race went exceptional for us at A.J. Foyt Racing. It’s a sweet win for us because we’ve had a couple of finishes we didn’t want with the pace we had. Today we had the pace and we were able to show that. Unfortunately, we couldn’t make some passes happen but we got into the top-10. We were absolutely solid on the red tires. I felt like we could make some passes but everyone was a little too bunched up in the first stint to make that happen. Once we went to the black tires, we were able to run with everyone else who was in front of us but it was a bit of a fuel-saving game so we were all kind of sitting in limbo. The restarts here are just so tough because you come out of the last corner and it’s a massive accordion effect. You can’t make passes happen into Turn One. It’s so tight between the walls to make the passes anywhere else. It’s just so difficult. We’re right there with the big dogs and we’re right there with the big teams. We were quick today and we showed that. All we did was go forward. It was solid points for the team. I’m super happy and everyone is smiling. We’re look forward to going testing at Indianapolis here in a couple of weeks.” FELIX ROSENQVIST, NO. 7 McLAREN VUSE CHEVROLET, ARROW McLAREN RACING SP – FINISHED 11TH: “After a horrible first stint, with a lot of tire degradation, I had no rubber left on the tires. It’s a familiar thing at this point with the last event being the same deal. That’s something we really need to solve. I’m not sure if it is driving-related, setup-related or maybe a little bit of both. It’s something we have to fix, because we can’t afford to miss opportunities like today where we had a potential top-five result in the bag. “It all started slipping away and we were trying to survive out there with massive degradation. It’s a shame to come home 11th, but there are some positives to take away. We had good speed this weekend and we were excited and ready to go. We all want to capitalize on a good finish, and right now that would be good for all of us.” CONOR DALY, NO. 20 BITNILE CHEVROLET, ED CARPENTER RACING – FINISHED 12TH: “Going from 17th to 12th today was a good run for us. We had more pace than we did last year, for sure. I felt strong in the race and I felt like I could attack. Moving forward felt like a possibility, and we did! I did have one big, hairy moment trying to pass Jimmie (Johnson) when he was a lap down, I lost a position to Felix (Rosenqvist) which was a shame. Honestly, I’m just happy I saved it because it was a wild one! The team worked hard, we know we struggle here but managed our best finish oof the year. We’ve had a lot of crazy stuff happen so far and to get in a solid race is good!”  RINUS VEEKAY, NO. 21 ALZAMEND NEURO CHEVROLET, ED CARPENTER RACING – FINISHED 13TH:“It was a pretty tough race out there today. We did all we could! We were struggling with the pace, but we made a really good decision at the end to pit and finish on red tires. I raced as hard as I could! Overall, even though we struggled, we got some solid points. P13 was the best we could do!” SCOTT McLAUGHLIN, NO. 3 PPG CHEVROLET, TEAM PENSKE – FINISHED 14TH: “We had good pace but I made a mistake on the second exchange. It was bad judgement. I clipped the inside wall which spun me out. Once you lose track position like that, you’re pretty done. We managed to claw our way back to 14th and passed the most cars. We just didn’t have track position. I felt like it was a pretty good weekend overall pace-wise. We were right there but didn’t put it together. I’ll keep my head up and keep working and we’ll be OK. Team Penkse still won, which is the main thing. We’re in a good spot. Until that mistake, we made a good start, were in a good spot and in front of Grosjean who ultimately finished second. It’s disappointing, but we’ll keep building. We’re still second in the championship, which isn’t a bad thing.” TATIANA CALDERON, NO. 11 ROKIT CHEVROLET, AJ FOYT RACING – FINISHED 16TH: “I’m really happy with the steps have we made since St. Petersburg. I feel much more confident in the car, even on pit stops and making little adjustments and learning how to deal with the tires better. I’m really thankful for the team. They did a fantastic job. Of course we want to be fighting more people in the next couple of races. The steps we took were huge and I’ll carry that confidence into Barber.” CALLUM ILOTT, NO. 77 DYNAMIC EDGE CHEVROLET, JUNCOS HOLLINGER RACING – FINISHED 24TH: “Unfortunately, our race ended early with a little bit of contact with the wall in Turn Eight. We just knocked the rear out and had to retire. Otherwise, it was a weird race. There was so much grip on the track and the rubber was building up massively. It was a real shame to finish like that. We didn’t have a massive amount of pace which is something we need to work on, the different feelings with the tires from reds to blacks. We have a lot to look at after this weekend, some pros and some cons. We have Barber in two weeks, which I believe is a physical one, so I need to train a bit for that one. Overall, Long Beach was a challenge, but we will analyze and look to improve for the next one.” DALTON KELLETT, NO. 4 K-LINE INSULATORS CHEVROLET, AJ FOYT RACING – FINISHED 26TH: “I got a little deep into the brake zone for Turn One and carried too much speed through the entry to the corner, got wide and hit the barriers. I was trying to shift into fuel-saving mode and kind of misjudged it on the brakes.” Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske ChevroletPost Race Winner’s Press ConferenceTHE MODERATOR: We’re joined by the 2022 champion of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, Josef Newgarden. You probably didn’t get the money, did you, this time in Victory Lane?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I didn’t get any money, but I haven’t seen — well, I did see Roger. I didn’t ask him, though. He doesn’t owe me anything. He’s been more than fair to me.THE MODERATOR: For you personally to finally check off Long Beach, how big was this for you?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It’s a huge pleasure to finally be able to win around this place. I’ve been coming here for 11 years. I remember my first race here in 2011 I was running in Indy Lights and I stuck the car in the fence with about two to go in Turn 8, and I just — I was leading and literally two to go, so I’ve never had a victory here, so it’s pretty special to finally get one. Yeah, just really, really pleased for the team, the 2 car.You know, the funniest bit about this whole weekend was when I left this press conference yesterday after qualifying, there was some dude from the LA Times and he came up to me like right before I hit the stairs and he goes, Hey, Josef, Josef – it’s this dude – he goes, Josef, one question: At what point does Colton Herta check out tomorrow? Like when is that. And I thought it was just such a bizarre question and I went to bed last night, and I go, you know what? I said, that kid is not checking out tomorrow. There’s no way. He’s just not going to do it after I heard this from this person. And he didn’t.We came here, we came here to fight. Alex Palou was super fast today. I thought he was a very deserving winner if it would have played out that way, and I thought we were quick today and we put up a good race. So I’m just really proud of our team.I thought they fought hard this weekend. Sometimes you might not be quite the quickest but if you fight really hard and you come with a good game plan you can get the job done, and I feel like that’s how we performed this weekend.Q. He asked you the first part of my question, but the second part was to get your first victory here during a time when you and your wife are about to have a child, how much cooler does that make this victory?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Well, you know, I think the cool factor of having a child and us being so fortunate to — everything is going so well up to this point, there’s nothing that really changes that. A victory is a victory, but I kind of compartmentalize things.I’m really pleased to get this win for the team. Of course on the other side I’m super excited for my family and my wife and for us to welcome our first child hopefully pretty soon.But the victory, I think about the team a lot more to be honest. I really do. All the people that are putting in the work and the effort and the hours and sacrifice, and we’ve got a lot of new people on the 2 car this year. It’s high turnover from last year, and we’re trying to get everybody acclimated and up to speed and comfortable. I just feel like we’re building slowly and I can see the confidence growing in these new individuals.This victory gives me more satisfaction from that standpoint than the other.Q. Sorry so ask another family question, but I’ve got two young kids, I remember being where you are where the phone is probably on loud —JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, man.Q. You’re waiting for that. It does seem to be a running trend in sports that people in that position perform really well. We see those stories all the time with team sports, individual sports. Do you feel like you’re just in the moment more? Do you think that it’s having any kind of an effect on you that would lead to back-to-back wins?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I don’t know. You know, I don’t try and overthink things too much or read into situations too often. I really don’t. I believe you’re focused in on your business. There’s outside factors and influences that can contribute to results, but ultimately if you’re just staying focused on your job, then you get blips here and there that affect a result, but if you just carry on doing your own thing then nothing should really be affecting it.But I will say for whatever reason when there’s a lot of chaos going on in my life, we seem to do well. Things seem to go well for whatever reason. I don’t know if that is necessarily correlated to that, but it seems to be something there.Yeah, so far, so good. I don’t know that there’s a lot of chaos going on, but we’re just busy. There’s a lot on my mind. There’s a lot we’re doing, and I’m obviously trying to personally keep my head in the game, too, with what we’re doing here at the track and racing in INDYCAR. I don’t know. I don’t know that I have a good answer for you, but I have seen in the past when a lot goes on in my life that we do pretty well.Q. After the last lap win in Texas, crazy you led three laps, and then today you win on a yellow, and just kind of off his comment earlier, how special it is, it’s been said that it’s something different to win at Long Beach, it’s a special feeling. What is that like?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Incredibly special. This place is a hard nut to crack. It’s a lot of pressure like the Indy 500. Everyone looks at this place as the crown jewel of our sport, and it would be honor to win here and you feel it within the team. The team was so pumped up to be able to win around this place. It does mean more than some other tracks.So I think that’s what adds to the difficulty, but I was glad it didn’t go yellow with three laps to go. It was a half lap. It seemed pretty much over at that point, bearing me not making an outrageous mistake with a couple corners left.At least it wasn’t some token victory where the yellow was out really early. But we had to work for it today. As soon as I got comfortable I felt like a yellow came out and we had to pretty much go from zero again, and in some situations fighting against I would say us as a deficit with tires.It was not easy today by any means.Q. You’ve got your oval win, street course win, you’re a natural terrain road course win away from splitting a million dollars with a charity.JOSEF NEWGARDEN: That would be cool.Q. When do you start thinking about that?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I don’t know. I haven’t really thought about it. A couple people said it to me in Victory Lane, and I was like, if it happens, it happens.Q. What charity are you —JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I would split mine with Wags and Walks out of Nashville. It’s where we adopted our dog Axel from. They originally started out here in LA actually, Wags and Walks, and then they have a Nashville branch now that’s been growing pretty extensively, and also SeriousFun Children’s Network, who I do a lot of work with, as well, and we host a charity ping-pong event every year. Split it between those two, if we can get that done.Q. What does it mean to be known to win on all types of circuits, short ovals, superspeedways? Does that make you feel like a more complete driver or does it really matter?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It makes me feel like a real INDYCAR driver, to be honest with you. I think that’s what makes our sport great. We talk about it a lot, but it’s the truth. The thing that sets INDYCAR apart is the diversity of the racing. We love having the best of the best from around the world and having to compete on all types of tracks and having to master all disciplines. If you can’t master all disciplines, then it’s so difficult to be successful in this sport.I just love that INDYCAR drivers have to be good at all those skill sets, so when we’re able to do that, it gives me a lot of satisfaction.Q. On the last actual restart, second lap it seemed like you really pulled away from Romain. Was it Push-to-Pass? He was still on red tires, you were on black. What was it that enabled you to pull out so far?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I think he chewed his tires up a little bit too much leading into the last yellow. The first yellow he had a definite tire advantage with the reds, but then he was out of Push-to-Pass and I was, too, to be quite honest. I think I had two seconds left leading into that last restart, so I didn’t really have any, either. But his tires were just not quite as good as the first restart, so I think I had a better opportunity to hold ground, whereas that first restart I was really vulnerable and fortunately we just hung on.Q. Last year at Detroit you had to fend off Pato O’Ward. He got around you at the end. This year you had to fend off Colton there in the earlier part of the race after the first stop. How different was it trying to hold back Pato last year and trying to hold back Colton this year at Long Beach? How different were their driving styles?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Well, I would say this was a little easier. The disparity between myself and the people behind me was less. At Detroit it was a nightmare situation. I was hanging on for dear life, and the field all bunches back up and now all of a sudden I’m sitting with very, very weak old red tires and everyone behind me had pretty much good primary tires. So the spread was a lot bigger at Detroit.I think the task at hand was much more difficult on that race than it was today. It was still really hard today but not quite as precarious of a situation as what I had myself in at Detroit.Q. Late race restart here, late race restart then, as well, no nerves at all?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Oh, lots of nerves, but I didn’t want to give it up. I was in position today. My team had put me in the place they needed to. We executed on our strategy. We’d gone a little bit longer. We maximized our final laps before pitting and we got ourselves in position to win. We were leading the race. I didn’t want to give that up.Yeah, it’s no doubt nerve-racking. I get nervous in every race. It’s a normal thing to cope with. I think that’s the key is just — you cope with it. You end up utilizing it in a good manner, not letting it consume you.Q. How much are you looking forward to getting back to Barber even though last year wasn’t so well but kind of putting last year in the rear-view mirror and all that stuff going ahead?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, no doubt. It’s behind us and I’d love to go back and redeem myself. It was certainly a bruise that I’ve not had before around that place, and typically it’s been a strong venue for us, so I’m encouraged going back. I think we can have a good run there this year.Q. That leads to this PeopleReady Force For Good Challenge. The first entrant this year to win on road course, street course and oval, that’s a million dollars you split between the team and your favorite charity which you already mentioned. Going back to Barber, you’ve got the oval, now a street course. Barber you’ve won three times there already, so it’s saying —JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It’s possible, Dave. It’s possible. I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. We don’t know how we’re going to be when we show up. We didn’t test there like the other teams did last week. So maybe we’re at a slight disadvantage. But we’ll put our heads together. We’re a pretty smart group. We’ll see what we’ve got when we show up there.Q. Some drivers look at the big game trophies as being the ones — obviously Helio, two Rolexes, four Indy 500s, so how much do the marquee events matter to you?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: They matter. They definitely matter. I think people put a lot more — they put a lot more respect behind them, right. I think when you see someone like Helio is a great example, four Indy 500s and two Rolexes now, that’s a big deal. If he only won 20 races total in his career or something, maybe say 15 but he had all that, that kind of weights him in a different category. So I think it’s weighted differently, no doubt, than just outright wins.I go for those too; I would love to get some more big game. But I’m definitely a guy of averages, I just try and let’s get as much as we can across the board, and that’s typically what leads into championships.Two different conversations I’d say. The championships are on the average side, and then if you’re not going for championships you can just go for the big prestigious events. Some people have careers where those are the ones they knock down.Q. In that vein, when you were asked about winning two in a row, you immediately steered it to, I want the Borg-Warner trophy. I really want that.JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I do. I’m focused on it. I can’t do more than what I’ve done in the past, I can tell you that. So I’m not putting extra pressure on myself that I have to do some superhuman feat. It’s for whatever reason just not clicked yet, so I’m just staying the course. I’m going to put effort forward like every year, and I’m going to put myself in position to maybe win the race and I just — one of these years it’s got to work out.I would love to do that for our team. It’s a tough one to win. I think that’s what makes it so special. You can go your whole career and not win the Indy 500, and I accept that if that’s the case, but I’m not going to go down without a fight.Q. Does a win like this make you feel more confident, or that’s its own separate entity?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: No, I don’t think it’s changed my confidence level up or down. It is what it is in my eyes. I fight the same fight every year, and that’s all I can do. I just can do what’s in my control, and I hope this year is the year for us. You never know when that’s going to be.Q. When I talked to you in January I remember you had just talked to Cindric and you had this conversation where you said, hey, we’re going to level up, I want to win six times this year, we’re really going to go after it. Do you remember the context of that? Was that that you have this new team around you and you were talking about how to approach 2022, and has it worked out even better than you would have expected the first three races with a new team?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Was that in an interview? Was it media day —Q. It was media day, yeah.JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I do remember saying that. I can’t remember the context I was saying it in. I think where I was probably going with that is when I look at the last two years and just falling short on the championships, we do just need to find another gear. It’s not like we’ve been in a bad place. We’ve been in conversation every year and pretty much most races we’re in the conversation, but we just didn’t go to that next level to where it doesn’t have to be close. Like let’s get to a place where we’re not just — we’re there and we’re trying to seal the deal at the end. It’s can we get this done early. Let’s get ourselves in a more advantageous position.So I think that’s what I meant by leveling up. So far, I feel like that’s happening. I feel the build in the 2 car. I really do. But you’ve got to be cautious. It’s early. It’s three races in. It’s so hard to paint a complete picture. It’s easy to paint these small pictures and say, look, this is everything, but then the picture changes really quickly in a another couple races.I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, but I feel really good about where it’s going.Q. I was out on the course watching the race, and can you talk to me about Turn 8? It seemed like a lot of debris was picking up there and it seemed like it was hard for some of the drivers to navigate. What was it like for you?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It was. The course was getting difficult because there was so much rubber on the track that it was almost — it was compiling on top and on top of each other that it was starting to peel up and then spread out across the track, so you would slide slightly off line and pick up big chunks of rubber. So it was like the surface got really grainy. It wasn’t smooth where you just have a nice consistent profile. It was just filled with these chunks of rubber everywhere, so I think that’s probably what you were seeing because if you had gone off line there it was really easy to catch one of those sections where it was all chunked up, so not easy.There was so much grip this weekend, so much rubber being laid down between the IMSA series and ourselves that that’s what made it so difficult at the end. It was just starting to compile too much almost.Q. You had said earlier about how you really like to take things one race at a time, really try to just focus on yourself internally and not let a lot of outside noise get to you. I just think of last year when I know several of us including me had mentioned to you about how Team Penske hadn’t capitalized on a win the first half of the year, and when you had one, I know that that had annoyed you a little bit, that comment that it seemed like drove you from yesterday to today. Are you someone that really feeds off of being slighted or outside motivation that you feel like you can kind of charge yourself with?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: You know, I really don’t. There’s obviously athletes we can look at over the years that sort of use it as fuel. Michael Jordan is probably the — I love these documentaries, too, on these super successful athletes to see the mental side of them. I don’t know that I’m wired that way. I don’t take fuel in where if someone said I’m not good at something or they attack our team or maybe I could twist a comment and use it as a negative towards us, I don’t use that stuff as fuel to better myself.I’m a very pragmatic person. It is what it is. Things are the way they are. I just focus, to your comment, I focus on what we can control, and so I try and look at things very clearly and just stay level.I know where we’re at. If we didn’t win races in the first eight races last year and everyone is wondering what’s going on, well, I know what’s going on inside the camp and I knew we were good. We just hadn’t clicked off a win yet. So it didn’t bug me. I thought it was funny. I thought it was really funny how down everyone was on Team Penske. I’m like, I don’t know, I think we’re pretty good; wait until we click one off here because we’ll probably get two or three if we get on a roll.That’s pretty much what happened.Then the yesterday comment was just really funny to me. I was like, man, that was ballsy to say that. You’ve got to be really confident to think that in the INDYCAR Series that you know exactly what’s going to happen, I would not bank on that these days, not in INDYCAR.Q. Before the race weekend I’d done a little number crunching and I know we hear about how strong Andretti Autosport is on street course venues. You guys in a couple different ways had the better of them since I think the start of 2019. Do you feel like you guys get enough respect for how strong you guys have been on street courses lately, and do you feel like you potentially have the strongest street course package in the paddock right now?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Well, I don’t think we need any more respect. Everyone has been very kind to Team Penske. It’s obviously a storied team, has a lot of history, and Roger — I don’t think you can look at anyone better to have a career than Roger Penske and the way that he carries himself and represents the team. I don’t ever feel like we’re lacking the respect or that people are discounting us. I don’t think anyone ever really does.But you know, I think everyone holds us to a very high standard, and if we’re not excellent every single moment then there’s something wrong. I understand that.With this type of history at a place like Team Penske, you totally get it. That’s how highly successful franchises are viewed.But I do feel like Andretti is an incredibly formidable and — not enemy. I was going to say enemy. Competitor. For us, we do not discount them. I think they were slightly ahead of us this weekend. I really do. They just had a tick on us, but I would say at St. Pete we had a tick on them. So this is going to ebb and flow across the year when we go to Detroit and Toronto. I think that can go up and down, and our different packages probably suit different conditions and track styles slightly, but we’re going to have a very good battle. They’re super difficult to beat right now across the board, and we’ve just got to continue to elevate our program so that we can match them. If we’re not matching them, we need to be close, and feel like that’s what happened this weekend. We didn’t quite match them but we were super close and we executed and still ended the weekend pretty solidly.Q. As strong as you have been sometimes to start seasons, 2018 I think sticks out in terms of when you’ve been with Team Penske. Years in which you’ve won a championship, ’17 and ’19, really kind of kicked it up another notch at the end of the season, won three races I think in the latter half both of those years. In years when you have started strong versus years when you have really finished incredibly strong, how do those seasons feel differently when you’re going through them?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, some of them are so circumstantial. I thought 2020 was one of our strongest seasons we’ve ever had, and we lost the championship by just a little bit. I thought we started the year incredibly well.We had one thing after the other happen, and we just couldn’t get a win for like four or five races before it finally clicked. It had nothing to do with our form. Our form was incredible. I was really shocked at how 2020 transpired because of how good I thought we were performing.So I guess I say that to you because they’re all so different. I don’t read too much into trends because they all kind of take their own shape, and I focus on where we are truly from a performance standpoint. So we could have a terrible start to the year, but if the performance is there and the results aren’t coming for outside circumstances that weren’t in our control, well, then I’m not going to freak out. Eventually that’s going to come to us and it’ll play out towards the end of the year.I’m also very cautious that if we start a year super well, like say this year, things can turn like super quick, and we’ll all of a sudden have to get on top of it and try and rectify it.Yeah, the trends for me are hard to follow because they can change so quickly and I feel like every season just takes its own shape. I don’t know that I’m going to compare right now what’s going on in 2022 to any other year at the moment.Q. Can you speak to the downsizing of Team Penske to three cars? Are we seeing the effect of that? When I spoke with RP a couple days ago, he said, what we’re seeing now with three wins, Will with three top 5s in the first three races, hasn’t done that since his championship year, this looks like the effects of downsizing and tightening your product to get back to this competitive state you’re used to. Is that what we’re seeing here?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I think there’s something to that. I do. We felt like that could be the case. We’ve compacted everything. We’ve sort of narrowed in on kind of our focus and what we need to be really looking at and how we can control the whole group. It’s a little easier to get your arms around it when it’s three versus four, so I do think there’s a positive impact, short-term, that we’re seeing going from four to three.I caution that because I think if you stayed at four, we still could have had the beneficial results we’re seeing now, but I think from a short-term standpoint we’ve definitely made a gain by just being able to be more concise and put more effort and the whole thing and get our arms around it.So that’s definitely happening. The big thing at Team Penske right now is I felt like we were super strong last year, but it was more so on the 2 car, and we needed to elevate the whole program and we’ve done that. We’ve taken a big step across the board. I feel like everybody is firing on all cylinders, and that’s only good for the entire organization. When the whole organization is up, then we’re all lifted. I’m really feeling that effect at the moment.Q. Have you had a chance at all since Victory Lane to look at your phone and see all the dad jokes about Pagenaud making the Newgarden at the —JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Was that Simon?Q. Yeah.JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I feel like there’s three or four cars that are the same, the pink cars. There’s a bunch of them. It’s Helio, Simon and —Q. Dave, we need a limit on — we need to get some of these liveries figured out, buddy.JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Ross. So I didn’t know who it was. I was like someone is in the garden finally. No one has ever been in there.Q. I was wondering if you might be able to go into more detail about considering the amount of marbles out there today, how difficult was it to defend and was there anything you had to do differently at this circuit compared to others, considering you have corners that are off camber, a lot of bumps all over, even underbraking?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, it was tricky. I had to be — I had to make sure that if I got off line I didn’t get off much just because it was — particularly on the outside, I felt like if I was defending I wanted to make someone go to the outside. The outside seemed to be the worst place on track. You could deal with the inside marbling and off-line dirt a lot better than the outside. Yeah, it was tricky.There was just so much rubber on the track and it was accumulating tremendously and it was just starting to peel up and push off line that it was really difficult to do anything in those areas but we all navigated it as best we could, and fortunately didn’t get the bad end of it today.Q. Quick question on the tire deg. Was it heavy today, and did the new pavement that was laid down here help or hinder the tire in the race?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I thought the red dropoff was more substantial than I predicted it would be. I thought with the elevated track grip, we were so much quicker this weekend. There was so much rubber on the track. I really thought the tire life on the reds would be pretty impressive, and it was the opposite. Romain actually did a really aggressive strategy there at the end to go to used.There’s more opportunity to let the tires survive at the end because there’s more rubber down, but that first stint was really difficult. I think anybody that had used reds on the first stint probably died and went backwards, and even the new reds were really difficult to make last.That was a surprise to me. I thought they would hang in there a little better, but it definitely dissuaded us from going to those at the end. We thought primaries were going to be the way to be.Q. We spoke in the buildup to the race this weekend about the changes that have been made on the No. 2 car. How much confidence and kind of momentum does this give you for yourself kind of with the changes that have come in, how well you’ve gelled kind of going into the month of May?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, it’s been good. We’ve got a long way to go, but the build has been really pleasing on the 2 car. There’s a lot of new people there, a lot going on, and I’ve talked on that a lot.But I think everyone is finding their footing pretty quickly, and they’re growing in confidence. Texas was a big boost. This is going to be another boost. It’s my job to motivate the team and to keep them directed where we need to be going.I feel like we’ve started that journey on the right foot, and let’s try and keep it on the right track is where my mind is at. But so far, so good. I feel really, really positive about it.THE MODERATOR: We’ll wrap things up. Congratulations.The last time Team Penske won three in a row to start the season was 10 years ago, 2012, Helio Castroneves did it, won the opening race, Will Power went on to win the next two and then went on to win the fourth one, as well, so we’ll see what happens in a couple weeks’ time at Barber. Congratulations Josef Newgarden, the champion of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

CHEVROLET RACING IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES GRAND PRIX OF LONG BEACH STREETS OF LONG BEACH TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE QUOTES APRIL 10, 2022

LONG BEACH, Calif. (April 10, 2022) – Josef Newgarden delivered Chevrolet its first victory at Long Beach in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES since 2016 with a thrilling victory in the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach – the first of his career at the street circuit and second in a row on the season in the No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet. Newgarden withstood a furious final 28 laps and two full-course caution periods before winning under yellow-flag conditions at Long Beach. It gave Team Chevy its third straight win to open the 2022 INDYCAR season for the first time in six years. Team Chevy recorded three of the first five finishing positions. Team Penske teammate Will Power was fourth in the No. 12 Verizon 5G Chevrolet, followed in fifth by Arrow McLaren SP’s Pato O’Ward in the No. 5 Vuse Chevrolet. A.J. Foyt Racing’s Kyle Kirkwood wrapped up the top-10 with his best finish of his rookie season in the No. 14 Rokit Chevrolet. TEAM CHEVY QUOTESJOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 HITACHI CHEVROLET, TEAM PENSKE – RACE WINNER:IS THIS ONE OF YOUR GREATEST WINS?“This is definitely up there on the list. This was a fight today. This is not an easy race to win. I don’t know what it looked like from the outside, but I was working my butt off with Grosjean there at the end on the used reds. I was hoping he would fade a little bit, Holding him off on that restart was super difficult. This Hitachi car was on it. I knew coming in to the race we had a great strategy and with Team Chevy we were going to be alright. With pit stops helping me get around Alex (Palou), I’m so proud of Team Penske. I have been trying to win a race here for 11 years so I’m so happy to finally get it done.”WHAT WAS HARDEST BATTLE?“I think the out lap with Palou. We got together in Turn Five and that almost didn’t work. We went side-by-side in that corner and then again in Turn Six. That was the difficult battle, but I think overall Grosjean had the best shot at getting it done. Fortunately we just held.DID YOU HAVE HERTA COVERED?“Yes, I think we had him covered. I was pretty determined.”MORE ON THE WIN.“When I was walking out of the press conference room after qualifying, a reporter from the LA Times pulled me aside and said, ‘Hey Josef, real quick… at what point does Herta just check out tomorrow?’ I took total offense to that. The guy assumed Colton was going to run away with the race. So I was pretty determined.  Alex (Palou) was fast but I think we had them both covered for sure.”IT’S BEEN FIVE YEARS SINCE YOU WON CONSECUTIVE RACES. IS SOMETHING SPECIAL HAPPENING RIGHT NOW?“It’s too early to say. It’s only three races in. We could have a horrible rest of the year. I’m not trying to wish bad juju on us, just looking at both sides of the argument. What I feel like we are building on the 2 car. We’ve got a good engineer in Eric Leichtle and all our crew plus everyone else at Team Penske that works on this team. I’m feeling positive about where we are going, but we have a long way to go. Indianapolis is where we have to perform for Team Penske. I want a Borg-Warner so bad. So let’s see what we can do during the Month of May.” WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON 5G CHEVROLET, TEAM PENSKE – FINISHED FOURTH: “It was a very solid day for the Verizon 5G Chevy. We’re playing the long game and banking those points. When we get a chance to win, we’ll go for it. At the start we said if we got in the top-five we’d be really happy. A podium would have been awesome, but I’m happy with this.” PATO O’WARD, NO. 5 McLAREN VUSE CHEVROLET, ARROW McLAREN RACING SP – FINISHED FIFTH: “We had a rough start to the weekend so this fifth-place feels really good. We wanted to just get a solid foundation for the rest of our year, and we’ve done this today. I’m happy and proud of the boys. We should be very satisfied with fifth because we started 11th. We went forward and not just one or two positions. We went up a handful so we can be proud of that.”  KYLE KIRKWOOD, NO. 14 ROKIT CHEVROLET, AJ FOYT RACING – FINISHED 10TH: “The race went exceptional for us at A.J. Foyt Racing. It’s a sweet win for us because we’ve had a couple of finishes we didn’t want with the pace we had. Today we had the pace and we were able to show that. Unfortunately, we couldn’t make some passes happen but we got into the top-10. We were absolutely solid on the red tires. I felt like we could make some passes but everyone was a little too bunched up in the first stint to make that happen. Once we went to the black tires, we were able to run with everyone else who was in front of us but it was a bit of a fuel-saving game so we were all kind of sitting in limbo. The restarts here are just so tough because you come out of the last corner and it’s a massive accordion effect. You can’t make passes happen into Turn One. It’s so tight between the walls to make the passes anywhere else. It’s just so difficult. We’re right there with the big dogs and we’re right there with the big teams. We were quick today and we showed that. All we did was go forward. It was solid points for the team. I’m super happy and everyone is smiling. We’re look forward to going testing at Indianapolis here in a couple of weeks.” SCOTT McLAUGHLIN, NO. 3 PPG CHEVROLET, TEAM PENSKE – FINISHED 14TH: “We had good pace but I made a mistake on the second exchange. It was bad judgement. I clipped the inside wall which spun me out. Once you lose track position like that, you’re pretty done. We managed to claw our way back to 14th and passed the most cars. We just didn’t have track position. I felt like it was a pretty good weekend overall pace-wise. We were right there but didn’t put it together. I’ll keep my head up and keep working and we’ll be OK. Team Penkse still won, which is the main thing. We’re in a good spot. Until that mistake, we made a good start, were in a good spot and in front of Grosjean who ultimately finished second. It’s disappointing, but we’ll keep building. We’re still second in the championship, which isn’t a bad thing.” TATIANA CALDERON, NO. 11 ROKIT CHEVROLET, AJ FOYT RACING – FINISHED 16TH: “I’m really happy with the steps have we made since St. Petersburg. I feel much more confident in the car, even on pit stops and making little adjustments and learning how to deal with the tires better. I’m really thankful for the team. They did a fantastic job. Of course we want to be fighting more people in the next couple of races. The steps we took were huge and I’ll carry that confidence into Barber.” CALLUM ILOTT, NO. 77 DYNAMIC EDGE CHEVROLET, JUNCOS HOLLINGER RACING – FINISHED 24TH: “Unfortunately, our race ended early with a little bit of contact with the wall in Turn Eight. We just knocked the rear out and had to retire. Otherwise, it was a weird race. There was so much grip on the track and the rubber was building up massively. It was a real shame to finish like that. We didn’t have a massive amount of pace which is something we need to work on, the different feelings with the tires from reds to blacks. We have a lot to look at after this weekend, some pros and some cons. We have Barber in two weeks, which I believe is a physical one, so I need to train a bit for that one. Overall, Long Beach was a challenge, but we will analyze and look to improve for the next one.” DALTON KELLETT, NO. 4 K-LINE INSULATORS CHEVROLET, AJ FOYT RACING – FINISHED 26TH: “I got a little deep into the brake zone for Turn One and carried too much speed through the entry to the corner, got wide and hit the barriers. I was trying to shift into fuel-saving mode and kind of misjudged it on the brakes.

Allen Led Final Three Laps for $15,000 Payday at Missouri’s Lake Ozark Speedway

ELDON, MO – April 9, 2022 –Jacob Allen decided enough was enough on Saturday night.

As he watched the lead slip from his grasp, all of the heartbreaking losses, the close calls, and the what could have beens flashed before his eyes. At that moment, Allen made a deal with himself – “I’m not losing this race. I can’t run second again.”

It was like the 27-year-old native of Hanover, PA shape-shifted into a brand new man and introduced us to a Jacob Allen who simply refused to lose. He seized every opportunity he saw from the battle through traffic with Brady Bacon down to the Lap 27 pass which ultimately decided the race.

Chasing a perfect night at Lake Ozark Speedway, Allen struggled with backmarkers early on and gave the lead away on Lap 12. He promptly sat up in the seat and got it back, but another bobble on Lap 20 sent him faltering to second again as Brady Bacon appeared ready to claim his first-ever World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series win.

Allen had other plans, however. He kept the Shark Racing #1A within striking distance and when the right rear tire on Bacon’s #21H began going flat, he saw the door open and kicked it right in. The pair made slight contact twice on Lap 27 as Allen snuck underneath Bacon and muscled his way to the lead and victory lane.

“I feel like I’ve always been known as Mr. Nice Guy,” an emotional Allen said. “But I felt like I couldn’t lose this, I just couldn’t run second again. I’ve lost so many times and I’ve fallen backward so many times. I knew he might not like me for it, but I had to do what I had to do. I respect Brady [Bacon] a lot and he’s probably one of the winningest guys in the pit area, but I just had to nudge him a bit because I needed this win.”

At the tune of $15,000, the Jason Johnson Classic victory is easily the biggest of Allen’s career. It’s his second-ever win with the World of Outlaws and his first since September of 2020. The extra special win at the Jason Johnson Classic presented by FK Rod Ends also came aboard the Bobby Allen throwback scheme with Jacob’s father in attendance to enjoy the moment.”

“Jason Johnson’s program was and is still family-based just like mine,” Allen said about how special this win was. “I have the utmost respect for that entire family and their team. I can’t thank Jack, Tyler, Ron, Ben, Logan, dad, and Hannah enough. They’ve been through everything with me and they could’ve given up, but they don’t. $15,000 is sick.”

Outside of Allen’s return to victory lane, Brady Bacon’s prowess was easily the biggest story of the night. The Broken Arrow, OK native is a four-time USAC National Sprint Car champion and one of the most recognized non-wing racers in the world, but on this night he was taking it to The Greatest Show on Dirt.

In his first-ever race aboard the TKH Motorsports #21H Sprint Car, Bacon was nearly flawless at Lake Ozark. He timed in second-quick, ran second in his Heat, finished third in the Dash, and led nine laps before a flat right rear tire spoiled his shot at winning his first-ever World of Outlaws Feature.

“It’s tough to swallow,” Bacon added, after finishing 17th at the line. “It just wasn’t meant to be. I’m really proud of our effort on this new operation with the Hinck’s, though. All you can do is look forward to the next one and find a way to be better.”

Also capitalizing on Bacon’s misfortune was Spencer Bayston of Lebanon, IN, who scored a season-best second-place finish aboard the CJB Motorsports, Signing Day Sports #5. It’s the fourth-straight top-10 finish for the Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year contender (second-best active streak) as he and crew chief Barry Jackson continue to gel well.

“I think we’re as fast anyone right now,” Bayston said from the podium. “Some things haven’t gone our way, but we’ve made the most of the opportunities we’ve been given. This is what these guys deserve to be up here on the frontstretch. The first part of this year is all new to me, but we’ve done a great job of attacking. I’m ready to get that first win out of the way.”

Limping home his own flat right rear was David Gravel of Watertown, CT, who barely hung on to finish third and score his sixth podium of the season in the Big Game Motorsports #2 at Lake Ozark.

“On a night like tonight we’re gonna be extremely happy with third,” Gravel grinned. “I saw Brady’s tire going down and knew I wasn’t far behind, but we barely held it together. Not ideal conditions, but I’m glad we got this in.”

Allen’s Shark Racing teammate Logan Schuchart matched his season-best result of fourth-place in the DuraMAX/Drydene #1S, while Brad Sweet earned another steady top-five finish in the Kasey Kahne Racing, NAPA Auto Parts #49.

Rounding out the top-10 in the Jason Johnson Classic was Brock Zearfoss, Rico Abreu, Brent Marks, Giovanni Scelzi, and Sheldon Haudenschild.

NOS NOTEBOOK (Lake Ozark Speedway, 4/9/22)

Jacob Allen’s second career victory makes him the 96th multi-time winner in World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series history and moves him beyond his uncle Joey Allen (1 win). It’s the 63rd Series victory for his family with another 30 wins from father Bobby Allen and 30 more from nephew Logan Schuchart.

Allen’s victory ends a 104-race dry spell since his first-career win which came on September 11, 2020 at Dodge City (KS) Raceway Park. He also became the fourth different winner through four years of the Jason Johnson Classic, joining Gravel, McFadden & Sweet.

The Shark Racing #1A recorded the first perfect night of the 2022 season by setting Slick Woody’s QuickTime Award (11.464), winning his NOS Energy Drink Heat Race, winning the DIRTVision Fast Pass Dash, and winning the Jason Johnson Classic Feature.

UP NEXT (Fri) – The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series will stay in the state of Missouri next weekend with a doubleheader at Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 in Pevely, MO on Friday & Saturday, April 15-16. Fans can BUY TICKETS HERE, or watch every lap on LIVE on DIRTVision.

NOS Energy Drink Feature Results (30 Laps) – 1. 1A-Jacob Allen [1][$15,000]; 2. 5-Spencer Bayston [2][$6,225]; 3. 2-David Gravel [4][$3,725]; 4. 1S-Logan Schuchart [7][$3,025]; 5. 49-Brad Sweet [5][$2,725]; 6. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss [6][$2,525]; 7. 24-Rico Abreu [12][$2,425]; 8. 19-Brent Marks [9][$2,325]; 9. 18-Giovanni Scelzi [10][$2,275]; 10. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild [8][$2,225]; 11. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg [11][$1,825]; 12. 15-Donny Schatz [14][$1,625]; 13. 83-James McFadden [18][$1,425]; 14. 8-Aaron Reutzel [17][$1,325]; 15. 21-Brian Brown [13][$1,275]; 16. 41-Carson Macedo [15][$1,225]; 17. 21H-Brady Bacon [3][$1,225]; 18. 7BC-Tyler Courtney [19][$1,200]; 19. 11K-Kraig Kinser [22][$1,200]; 20. 73-Scotty Thiel [20][$1,200]; 21. 35-Zach Hampton [23][$1,200]; 22. 25-JJ Hickle [16][$1,200]; 23. 17B-Bill Balog [24][$1,200]; 24. 15H-Sam Hafertepe [21][$1,200]; 25. 7S-Jason Sides [25]. Lap Leaders: Jacob Allen 1-11, 13-19, 28-30; Brady Bacon 12, 20-27. KSE Hard Charger Award: 24-Rico Abreu[+5]

NEW Championship Standings (After 13/83 Races): 1. Brad Sweet (1,826); 2. David Gravel (-40); 3. Carson Macedo (-54); 4. Sheldon Haudenschild (-70); 5. Donny Schatz (-110); 6. James McFadden (-116); 7. Giovanni Scelzi (-120); 8. Logan Schuchart (-138); 9. Spencer Bayston (-156); 10. Jacob Allen (-190).

Leary, Bacon, and Ballou Traded Lead in Jason Johnson Classic Feature

ELDON, MO – April 9, 2022 – Being a frontrunner in Saturday’s Low-E Insulation Feature was a dangerous game with the Xtreme Outlaw Sprint Car Series and POWRi WAR Sprint Cars. For some, it spelled disaster; for others, it spelled glory.

At only 30 laps in length, the non-wing portion of the Jason Johnson Classic at Lake Ozark Speedway saw countless comers and goers throughout. In total, a staggering 11 different drivers at one point or another held a top-five running position.

There was doom: Bacon’s shocking spin, Clouser’s flat tire, Bright’s tough tumble & Short’s wicked flip.

There was brillance: Leary’s late rally, Ballou’s spectacular charge, Cockrum’s first podium & J-Mac’s KKM success.

In the end, CJ Leary of Greenfield, IN played his cards the best aboard the Michael Motorspors #77M. After leading the opening 12 laps, Leary faded as far back as fourth and appeared out of the picture until the tables and the track turned. He avenged earlier contact with Robert Ballou by driving by the 17th-starter on Lap 27 and clutching up late in the going to score the $5,000 victory.

“Sometimes being the leader isn’t always the best, and I think that was the case tonight,” Leary noted. “I think Brady had the car in the Feature, he could run where I and anyone else couldn’t. When he spun out, I knew the whole race changed. Robert and I had a spirited battle there and it was fun. It feels good to put Bill Michael and this Kodiak Products #77M back in victory lane.”

His second win through three races makes Leary the first repeat winner in Xtreme Outlaw Sprint Car Series history. It also extends his points lead in the 13-race mini-Series as the former USAC National Sprint Car champion emerges as an unexpected contender for the inaugural $20,000 Xtreme Outlaw title.

The first half of the Xtreme / POWRi Feature went quickly with Leary leading the first 12, and then fifth-starting Brady Bacon taking the Wedgewood #98 to the point on Lap 13. Chaos soon broke out as a trio of leading contenders dropped out with Mario Clouser (3rd) of Auburn, IL suffering a flat right rear, Carson Short (4th) of Marion, IL flipping over after contact with Ballou, and Alex Bright (5th) of Collegeville, PA finding the wall & landing upside down.

More wildness ensued as 17th-starting Robert Ballou entered the picture and looked to pull off a massive win from deep in the field. The Mad Man was pressuring Bacon for the point when the Broken Arrow, OK native looped the #98 and brought out the final caution on Lap 22, putting the lead directly into Ballou’s hand.

It looked like the #12 had the checkered flag in his bag, but Leary’s #77M returned to form and the non-wing ace simply aced the restart when it mattered most. He snuck underneath Ballou on Lap 27 down the backstretch and drove away to a margin of victory at 0.849-seconds.

Ballou’s +15 run to a runner-up effort easily earned him TJ Forged Hard Charger honors, and capped off a crazy night for him. He was disqualified after winning his Heat (did not report to scales), then won the K1 Race Gear Last Chance Showdown from 12th, and almost won it all from 17th.

“When you piss off the bull, you get the horns,” Ballou said on his aggressive driving style. “I’ve raced with CJ quite a bit over the years and there have been some good ones and bad ones. I kinda squeezed him into the wall, but I had to lift so I didn’t wreck both of us. He was just too good at the end. I was a sitting duck out there and I didn’t move down in time to stop him.”

Shane Cockrum of Marion, IL finished in third, earning a season-best result for car owner Shane Wade and crew chief Davey Jones in the Amati Racing #66. One of the 15 originally committed championship contenders, Cockrum now sits third in the point standings behind Leary and Ballou through three of 13 races.

“I honestly thought through the middle parts that we were the car to beat,” Cockrum commented. “I lost some momentum on that last restart and kind of took away our shot. It takes a night like this to turn things around, and I’ve got full confidence in this group. I can’t thank these Amati Racing guys enough for taking a chance on me.”

Matt Westfall of Pleasant Hill, OH drove forward to a season-best fourth-from-12th in his #33M. Rounding out the top-five was Broken Arrow, OK native Jason McDougal, who was as high as third at one point, in his first run aboard the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports #67 Sprint Car.

Closing out the top-10 of the Xtreme / POWRi Feature was Wesley Smith, Jack Wagner, Kory Schudy, Jake Swanson, and Isaac Chapple.

UP NEXT (May) – The Xtreme Outlaw Sprint Car Series presented by Low-E Insulation will have another two months off before resuming the inaugural season on June 10-11 back at Lake Ozark Speedway in Eldon, MO. Before then, the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota Racing will debut with a special Millbridge (NC) Speedway doubleheader on Monday & Tuesday, May 23-24.

Low-E Insulation Feature Results (30 Laps): 1. 77M-CJ Leary (1); 2. 12-Robert Ballou (17); 3. 66-Shane Cockrum (9); 4. 33M-Matt Westfall (12); 5. 67-Jason McDougal (15); 6. 44-Wesley Smith (8); 7. 77-Jack Wagner (2); 8. 28-Kory Schudy (13); 9. 21AZ-Jake Swanson (18); 10. 52-Isaac Chapple (3); 11. 31-Zach Daum (22); 12. 6-Mario Clouser (4); 13. 77K-Katlynn Leer (21); 14. 98-Brady Bacon (5); 15. 75-Dustin Clark (14); 16. 11W-Wyatt Burks (23); 17. 2B-Chad Boespflug (6); 18. 16-Anthony Nicholson (20); 19. 21H-Dallas Hewitt (19); 20. 28M-Brandon Mattox (11); 21. 17GP-Kyle Shipley (16); 22. 20-Alex Bright (7); 23. 21S-Carson Short (10); 24. 24-Landon Simon (24). Lap Leaders: Leary 1-12, 27-30; Bacon 13-22; Ballou 23-26. TJ Forged Hard Charger: Ballou +15.

NEW Championship Standings (3/14 Races): 1. CJ Leary (676); 2. Robert Ballou (-36); 3. Shane Cockrum (-77); 4. Carson Short (-114); 5. Jake Swanson (-130); 6. Brady Bacon (-135); 7. Alex Bright (-139); 8. Mario Clouser (-148); 9. Wesley Smith (-153); 10. Matt Westfall (-163).

 
WILLIAM BYRON CAPTURED HIS SECOND WIN OF 2022 AT MARTINSVILLEVictory Marks Fifth NCS Win for Next Gen Camaro ZL1 RIDGEWAY, Va. (April 9, 2022) – A trip to Martinsville Speedway saw William Byron capture his second NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) triumph of the 2022 season in the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400. Victory lane at the .526-mile paperclip was a familiar place on the weekend for the 24-year-old North Carolina native, where Byron started the race weekend capturing the victory in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) race in the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado RST. 
With momentum on his side, Byron showcased the speed of his No. 24 RaptorTough.com Camaro ZL1 team, scoring a runner-up finish in both stages. Taking the lead at the start of the final stage, Byron led a race-high 212 laps en route to his fourth-career victory in NASCAR’s premier series. Byron’s victory under the lights at the Virginia-based short track makes him the only driver so far this season to become a repeat winner in the NASCAR Cup Series. 
“It feels awesome,” said Byron after celebrating with his team on the front stretch. “When that last caution came out, I thought everyone behind us would pit and luckily we stayed out. We were aggressive. We felt like we could re-fire on the tires and be okay; and you’ve got one of the most aggressive guys behind you in (Joey) Logano. I knew I chattered the tires in (turns) 3 and 4 and kind of left the bottom open, but was able to block my exits and get a good drive off.”
The Camaro ZL1 showed its dominance at the Virginia-based short track, leading 398 of the 400-lap event. Bryon’s triumph gives Chevrolet its fifth victory thus far in 2022 and its 819th all-time win in NASCAR’s premier series, extending its win record as the winningest brand in NASCAR history. Three of the top-five and four of the top-10 of the final running order of the race were taken by Chevrolet drivers. Austin Dillon brought his No. 3 Get Bioethanol Camaro ZL1 home in the third position, his third top-10 finish at Martinsville. Recent first time winner, Ross Chastain, rounded out the top-five in his No. 1 GoPro Camaro ZL1. Pole winner, Chase Elliott, swept both stage wins and led 185 laps in his No. 9 LLumar Camaro ZL1 to round out the Team Chevy top-10. Elliott leaves Martinsville Speedway at the top of the NCS driver points standings with a three-point advantage over second. 
The NASCAR Cup Series season continues next weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway with the Food City Dirt Race on Sunday, April 17, at 7 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 RAPTORTOUGH.COM CAMARO ZL1, PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT: THE MODERATOR: We are joined by our race winner, William Byron, who has been collecting clocks here all weekend at Martinsville, his second clock of the weekend here, driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. We will go straight to questions for William.
Q.Can you just talk a little bit about how the car felt tonight? It seemed like a bit of an odd race here at Martinsville in terms of what we usually see and passing seemed pretty low.WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, the pace was certainly high. I don’t think I ever — I couldn’t ever relax. I saved tire by just not sliding the tires, but I never could back up and save tire and things like that.But I think it’s just really cold temps. Anytime it’s below 40 degrees I’d say, the tires don’t even lay rubber. That was definitely a factor all night.
But normal short track stuff, like take care of your rear tires and all those things, and I felt like we did a good job of that. Rudy made some great adjustments there probably the mid portion of the race, got us a little bit better, and just tried to manage when we got to traffic and had to be aggressive with certain guys to kind of either move them or get them off-line to pass them and set our gap from there.
I thought as soon as we got our car a little bit better we could work through lap traffic and build a lead.
Q.How much could you take from the truck race on Thursday? Obviously this car is very different.WILLIAM BYRON: It’s different, but Martinsville, like any short track you go to, it’s rhythms, rhythms. So you find that rhythm, and I felt like in the truck I was able to find that rhythm pretty well on that last long run that we had towards the end of that race, and it’s always fun just racing other stuff. I don’t know why I didn’t do more short track racing throughout the last few years, but it’s been a lot of fun to go back to the short tracks and be with great people on the late model side. There’s little things here and there that they’ve taught me that I feel like have helped me, and all those little tidbits pay off.
Q.I asked you Thursday where you’re going to put the clock. Have you figured the first one out and what are you going to do with the second one?WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, probably give one of them to my parents, and yeah, probably just keep the Cup one in the apartment because that one is pretty special.
Anytime you win a Cup race — these things are hard. I know it might have looked like we had a dominant race, but these Cup wins are really hard, so you cherish them, and definitely going to try to keep all the trophies together.
Q.You were in a similar position to win a clock I think it was 2019, and a late caution kind of made it go away. Jeff Gordon has been so good here for so long; the 24 car is synonymous with modern Martinsville history. Are you aware of any of that and your place now adding to that legacy? Chase wasn’t able to do it; he came close, too, but are you aware of your place in history, now the 24 at Martinsville?WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, because it’s special. When I was a rookie, Jeff was like, hey, let’s ride up to Martinsville together. It wasn’t even a question, it was hey, let’s ride up to Martinsville together, I want to show you some things. He walked me through this place. Just the things he told me, I don’t know if it really clicked until I ran second that year to Truex, but they started to click, and it was like, all right, that’s the way you get around Martinsville.
So just having his history in the 24 car definitely puts an emphasis on being good here because I feel like it’s a place that is filled with history, and if you can win here in the 24 car it’s going to be something you always cherish.
Definitely is special, and he’s got, what, 93 wins and however many clocks. We’ve got a lot of clocks to chase, but it’s cool to get that advice from him. Those little things that I picked up from him in my rookie year that I didn’t really use for a few years, and then as soon as I got towards the front I’m like, all right, that makes sense.
Q.I know Jeff has taken a personal investment in you, not just the race craft but the marketing and presenting yourself publicly. What has Jeff meant to you as far as your development as a Cup driver?WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I think Jeff kind of brought me to the Cup Series. I was a kid in Xfinity that was really raw and didn’t know a lot about the world and I felt like Jeff brought me into the Cup world and said here’s how things go. I think that that’s been key for me because he’s probably been the biggest mentor for me in terms of how do I manage the team, how do I talk to the guys, how do I get things done when it comes to inside the shop and how I work with people, hey, I want this on my car or I want this in the interior of the car.
He was very vocal about getting all that stuff right, and I feel like those are the details that now it’s kind of paying off for me.
Q.I’ve got a couple questions. I was talking with Joey Logano after the race. He talked about how you brake checked him. He said, I would have done the same thing. I asked him do you wish now you would have hit him harder, and he said, yes. What were you expecting there? Were you expecting something harder than what he gave you in Turn 1?WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I just knew from — just Legend car days, I knew if it comes down to a restart at the end, the second-place guy is just trying to move you off the bottom. Dennis taught me a lot of good lessons back in the day of that stuff, and I felt like that paid off there at the end. I’ve never really been in a situation like that until tonight, but I was like, man, all right, I guess it’s kind of like the Legend cars. You’ve got to keep the car on the bottom.
Luckily I kind of messed up 3 and 4 and I was able to — he was right there on my bumper but I was able to manage that.
Q.This is the first time you’ve had multiple wins in a season. You’ve done that –WILLIAM BYRON: That’s cool. We’ve been chasing that.
Q.That’s eight races, only eight races into a 36-race season. A, how does that make you feel now? And are you adjusting goals now as far as how many races you think you can win this year?WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I think I said it a couple times. I felt like last year left us with a pretty bitter taste because I felt like we were so close to a lot of wins in that second half of the year, and man, it just felt like things would happen and things would break down right at the last minute.
It left me with a bitter taste, and I felt like throughout this off-season I was pretty bitter about that stuff, but it was motivation because I felt like we could get into this year — granted, it’s a new car, we had to go through that adaptation process with the new car, but I feel like we’re starting to learn now what we need.It’s good to see, and now I feel like all of that desire and passion that we had in the off-season to prove to ourselves that we could win multiple races is there.
Q.Does it change your goals?WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I think my goals for at least last year and this year have been to win multiple races, so I don’t think that’s changed, but it’s a long season, so we’ve got to go to Bristol and figure out that and go to Talladega and hopefully build on what we did at Atlanta. I don’t know, it’s a long season for sure, but I think certainly we have the pieces to do it.
Q.You said it “clicked” when you finished second to Truex a few years ago. We’ve heard that from drivers before, that there would be a moment where it clicked. What was it about watching Truex or following Truex that it clicked for you?WILLIAM BYRON: Well, I can’t tell you that. I don’t know, it’s just short track stuff. I think when it clicks, it clicks everywhere. I’d say the mile-and-a-halfs are a little bit different, but they’re still — like grip is grip, so once you figure out what that feeling is that you want in the car, it does click for you.
Yeah, I just think — I’ve got great people around me. With Rudy, he’s grown up on the short tracks. He worked with Kyle a lot in super late models, and he’s got a good idea of these places.
It helps when you have people pulling the rope in the same direction and you have Rudy up there knowing what adjustments to make. He can see the car go around the track, and he probably knows before I say anything what I need.
Just an awesome team, and we’ve got — I can’t forget to mention Raptor. They’re on the car with AXALTA, and their promotion there, so pretty cool to have them on the car. Good to get both sponsors a win, with Liberty a couple weeks ago. Pretty awesome.
Q.You touched on being the first repeat winner of the year and being bitter after losing out on some wins last year. What does it mean now to cross off the box of first season getting multiple wins?WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I just think it kind of breaks the ice a little bit. I felt like I could win a race a year. We’ve done that for a couple years. But to get in that multi-win category is hard. You’ve got to lead a lot of laps.
We were doing that okay, but we were kind of — I’d say we were probably an eighth to 12th place team before this year, and I just feel like we’re — I just see a difference in the way our guys are this year and kind of the attention to detail. It’s been good so far, so — like I said, it’s a long season, so a lot is going to change with this car, and we’ve got to keep it up.
Q.Is it true that you have an upcoming competition in Lego Masters?WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I’m doing some stuff with Lego Masters soon. I don’t have any idea what it’s going to look like or what it’s going to be, but I’m supposed to not spoil that, so I’m just kind of wait-and-see.
But yeah, it’s been kind of a busy season so far, so the last thing I built was the Titanic Lego set, which was like 9,900 pieces. That was pretty wild. I was pretty exhausted after that. It’s hanging up in front of my bed, so it’s pretty cool.
Q.Your experience with Kyle Larson on the dirt, how will that help you for some dirt racing?WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I mean, I’ll be honest, I have no idea what I’m doing, but I think iRacing has helped. Their dirt model is pretty good, the way the track changes. I feel like I’ve been trying to watch a lot of dirt races to kind of see how that all works. Luckily last year with Bristol dirt in the Cup car, it was pretty much like an asphalt track. It was just a slick asphalt track because it got rubbered in and you just had to baby the throttle.
I think this year is going to be a little bit different, so hopefully running the dirt late model will help me a little bit. I want to run a lot more of those because I feel like they’re a full-sized car, you can manipulate them, they’re not too dangerous I feel like for somebody like me who has no experience, and they’ve got a ton of horsepower.
My hope would be to run a lot of super late model races on asphalt and some on dirt would be the goal for the future.
Q.After years of declining attendance, short track racing is seeing an amazing regrowth but is now struggling due to the pandemic with supplies and tires. Do you think it’s imperative that drivers on your level go to these tracks to help them market and bring in fans?WILLIAM BYRON: Oh, yeah. I think — I probably get more fans from going to a race at Hickory or Pensacola or New Smyrna than I do going to do something here at the track. I feel like people see that you’re able to do unique stuff and kind of — those guys are really good at what they do, so the racing is no different than up here, it’s just a matter of kind of different cars and different series.
But yeah, I think my next one is Nashville in a couple weeks, and hopefully we can have a good run there and just keep that momentum going. I do think it’s cool to — my wish would be that we had more short track races close by the Cup race, and then we could have guys do that. But hopefully in the next couple years we can kind of get the schedules synced up.
Q.Tell us how important you think short tracks have been in developing talent and growing skills for young drivers to reach this level, including you when you started.WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I think it’s big. Cup is its own beast, so we can’t discredit — like when you get to Cup, there’s so much you’ve got to learn. But you’ve just got to be versatile. I think Larson showed that last year. It’s just about being versatile and being able to adapt. Everyone at this level is so good. It always amazing me when we go out in practice for a new track and you see like 20 guys just figure it out so quick. It’s just amazing to see the talent in Cup is pretty cool.
Q.Last year, strong year for you, top 4 in points most of the regular season. You get to the playoffs, one bad run, I think Talladega crash kind of undermines all of it. This year eight races in you’ve already got more playoff points than you had all year last year. I know you’re more concerned about the wins right now, but how important is that for you to make a deeper run when the post-season comes and avoid those kind of pitfalls?WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, it’s all bonus points. Last year we were top 3 in points all year and that was great and we were feeling good and then we get to August and we’re like, oh, shoot, we’re ninth in playoff points, like where did all that go, or whatever, seventh, eighth, ninth, around there. Yeah, we’ve got to get those playoff points. We’ve learned that over the course of being in the playoffs the last three years or four years.
Yeah, it’s just all about getting the playoff points so you can be one of those top three or four guys. Ideally you’d try to be like Larson was last year, but yeah, it’s really important.
Q.You are a very close family; we talked about that years ago when I wrote about you in the Charlotte observer. Your parents are here and you said this was for your mom. It was a year ago that she had her health issues. Please talk about how much this means a year later to win this race and how you’ve dealt with this during this year when it’s been so tough.WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I mean, to think back to last year, the race was on a Sunday but it was the same weekend as this, and the first thing that happened was I got back to my bus and we finished fourth, I think, and I was like, thinking about the race, and I opened my phone and my dad is like, call me. I’m like, man, that’s weird, he never says that after a race. He usually says something about the race or whatever, but it was like very urgent.
So I called him and he told me what was going on. He told me about it, and he told me what happened at the track and that she was rushed to the hospital.
It all seemed okay, but they were like, yeah, there’s this mass in her brain, we’re not sure what it is. My heart just stopped. I was just like, man, I couldn’t deal with the emotion of that. It was hard to process.I’d say the next few days after that I didn’t think about racing at all. It was all about what was going on.I think as the next 90 to 100 days progressed, it was still about that, but I somehow had to race, too, and that was a tough challenge, but we worked through it, and it was — like my dad always says, it was a crazy 100 days or crazy 90 days, and as we got on the other side of that, there was a lot of bright side. Great to have her here and have them here and just see how things have progressed in a year. It’s been amazing.
Definitely makes you count your blessings and be thankful for everything, and nothing more special than tonight to kind of cap it all off a year later on the same weekend. Pretty special, and yeah, pretty cool.
Q.Everything is good now?WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, for sure, so just thankful, and we’ll definitely enjoy this win, and it’s going to be a lot of fun to celebrate. Yeah, I’m pretty close to them. I’ve got a great supporting cast with Max and my girlfriend Erin and my sister Kathryn. I have a great group of people around me that I feel like when things were tough in racing and in life, it’s easy to go to them and talk to them.
Q.Were you surprised so many other drivers stayed out, or was tire wear and track position so kind of rare for this track that you knew that they were all going to have to stay out?WILLIAM BYRON: Well, I definitely didn’t know what they were going to do. I thought they would do the opposite of us for sure, and Rudy was adamant about that. I think I said something like, I think my tires are okay, or something, because I was trying to encourage that a little bit, but I didn’t really want to make his decision. I wanted to see how it played out, and I wanted to stick with whatever he thought was best. But when he said stay out, I was like maybe 60/40 on that decision. I was like, all right, I could see how that could work but I could also see how that could not work, as well.
I think it worked out okay. The 3 had the biggest decision in that he decided to stay out in second and everyone kind of followed suit. Yeah, it could have been interesting if those guys had tires for sure. I kind of would have been the odd man out.
But with how cold it was outside, I don’t know if you could have gotten cold tires to take off, it was so cold. They took seven laps to take off.
Q.On the restart where you first took the lead, I think it was with Chase, was there some kind of an agreement or understanding on the restart how you guys would work together, and what was that?WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, we just — watching races here throughout the years, it just makes sense for the leader to choose the top and have the — if you’re teammates, if you’re lucky enough to be in that position, he takes the bottom and you work it out after Turn 2. It worked out well. I thought it was a little choppy. The Next Gen accelerates kinda weird. Like you have grip and then you — if you spin your tires you’re killed, but as soon as you launch it’s really good. The first one we did I spun my tires a bunch and I almost lost second, but yeah, it worked out, and luckily — I think he had a pretty good run, too. They were really fast. Just kind of all about who got out front.
THE MODERATOR: William, congratulations, and we’ll see you next weekend at Bristol.
RUDY FUGLE, CREW CHIEF, NO. 24 RAPTORTOUGH.COM CAMARO ZL1; AND JEFF GORDON, VICE CHAIRMAN AND CO-OWNER, HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS, PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT: THE MODERATOR: We are joined by the crew chief of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet driven by William Byron; we have Rudy Fugle. We also have team owner Jeff Gordon here for the race-winning team.
Q.Rudy, can you give me an idea with the shifting we saw today, what was the strategy that NASCAR had in setting those gear ratios and the competition they were trying to create? Why did we have that dynamic today?RUDY FUGLE: First of all, who won Pensacola?
Q.Bubba got the SRX ride. Actually Thorne won the race and Bubba got the SRX ride.RUDY FUGLE: Yeah, so back to your question about shifting, I think with this car, the ratios are really close together is the thing. I think some would argue that a different gear could have put us in fourth a little longer and might not have shifted as much or every lap.
But I don’t know, I think this car has just tended to be that way and the ratios are a little closer between gears, and it’s easier to shift to be honest. Everything just happens a little easier, and anytime the driver can find some lap time and affect his handling with it, it’s just going to drive that way.
Q.It was a track position race in a lot of ways. Was that part of it or was it just the weather and the tire?RUDY FUGLE: Yeah, I think it was the weather really. If it was 55, 65, would have laid some rubber down, you would have seen some different things, and definitely would have had some more falloff, and you would have seen the normal clumping and moving up a little bit in the center and just seeing a little maneuverability, but with the rain and it being so cold, just couldn’t help it; that’s just the kind of race it was, I think.
Q.Jeff, you’ve been with William as he’s won races in the 24 before but obviously this place was so special and so important for your career. Does it mean anything extra to you and the organization to have William get a grandfather clock?JEFF GORDON: Well, he got two this week. You know, I’ve been seeing him progress. I think all of us have, and I think when Rudy came on board, his confidence in William, their history, and the confidence that William has in Rudy, I’ve just seen this team evolving. They’ve been bringing great race cars. They’ve been leading laps. Now they’ve won two races already this year, and I think more are going to come.When you start to get that momentum on your side and the confidence is building, that’s a powerful combination. I think all of us were a little bit skeptical about what kind of season we were going to start off with with this new car. I think a lot of people with the unknowns, but I couldn’t be more proud of these guys and having so many differences and changes like the shifting and just the setups and how to race these cars, the brakes, all those things around a place like this, and yet they came here really strong and maintained that track position you talked about.
I’m really excited to see William progressing so fast this season already, but you’ve been seeing it build for the last couple years.
Q.Jeff, did it feel weird seeing the 24 car win here and you were not driving it?JEFF GORDON: Well, I’ve only known what that’s like to be inside the car, I’ve never seen it from the outside. The 24 car has always had a special place in my heart. When I stepped out of the car from the first time when Chase was driving the 24 at Daytona, I was in the TV booth and it pulled out on pit road, and that was kind of strange to me, I’ll be honest.
But since then I’ve gotten used to it and comfortable, and I think William is a great fit for the sponsors, for the team, and certainly he’s get being the job done behind the wheel. So that’s exciting. That’s fun to see the 24 back in Victory Lane anytime.
Q.Rudy, I know you were on the pit box with Bono on Thursday. Did that help you any tonight to translate anything that you may have learned that night over to today?RUDY FUGLE: Yeah, I think anytime you’re involved in a race, especially at the same kind of track and as unique as this place is, you learn and you take those experiences and get a little better. It’s a totally different type of race and everything, but you’ll take everything you can get, and it was fun.
Q.William has two clocks now; are you going to beg him for one?RUDY FUGLE: No, he’s got to put some in each room. We’ll keep stacking some up hopefully and we’ll get everybody on the team one hopefully soon.
Q.Jeff, four wins, first eight races. You talked about, hey, they came here and shifting is different and all that, but overall this season to be batting .500 after eight races, is that more than you could have anticipated with a new car?JEFF GORDON: Yeah, definitely. Testing, you’re trying to evaluate where you’re at as a team, listening to these guys and their debriefs and talking to them over the off-season and through some of the testing last year, everybody had no idea who was going to come out strong. I will say that I thought that William looked very good in this car from the very beginning. He tested this car pretty early on in the process, and I just think his driving skills and the way he approaches things, and he works really hard at it, too, he studies a lot, and they give him a lot of information and he can retain it.
I think that a young guy with that ability to get on the simulator as much as — right now William is all in. He’s doing other races, he’s constantly taking in new information from these guys, working with his teammates, learning from them.
As an organization, yeah, I think that it just goes to show the quality of people and the depth that we have and the details that we pay attention to. We did that with the old car, and these guys are continuing to do that with the new car, and working with Chevrolet, I think they’ve been working really hard with us to provide all the information and technology and a great race car.
Q.Can you just talk about the maturing of William to a guy that you have potential and you’ve got to make that pay off, you’ve got to win a race, now it looks like he is lining up to go, okay, this is going to be my first serious run at a championship and somebody that’s going to have to be thought of at the end of the year. Can you talk about where he was and where he is right now?RUDY FUGLE: Yeah, I think last year the playoffs were huge for us, just that experience, and if you look at our average running position probably in the entirety of the playoffs, it was really, really good. That’s when I noticed that confidence really, really there and growing.
Then all off-season with the testing, whether it was good or bad, just growing and budding, deciding to run different kinds of cars and racing all the time, and he’s just been successful, winning trucks, winning late model races, and it’s just trending into something new.
The confidence I’ve seen in him a long time ago when we were racing trucks and when I first met him after racing K&N, he’s really, really confident in himself.
JEFF GORDON: I would just add that leading laps, just mixing it up with the best in the business, and then having a restart, like a green-white-checkered like he had tonight up against Logano who’s very aggressive, so is Austin Dillon, and to be able to pull that off, now you believe in yourself that — in any scenario, if you’ve got the car and you’re in the position that you can get it done and people around you believe that you can get it done.
That’s a game changer, right? Sometimes people never get that opportunity. But right now with William, it’s happening early in the season, which makes you kind of anxious to see what’s next.
Q.How important is it for William just now you guys — he has multiple wins for the first time in a season, and I think that was something that he wouldn’t admit but I feel like that was weighing on him, that he had one win but then it was sporadic after that.RUDY FUGLE: Yeah, I think anytime you can add that to your list of your repertoire, your resume, whatever, it helps. I don’t think we look at that, we don’t talk about it, but sure, it matters to all of us to be able to go out there. We just want to win on a regular basis. You want to have a shot to go win every weekend, and like Jeff said, leading laps and running in the top 5, top 3 consistently is what it takes. That’s a huge step.
JEFF GORDON: Yeah, I don’t know if I can add much more.
Q.Rudy, William came in here yesterday and talked about how at the end of last year is when everything really started as far as like consistency and everything started to kind of come together in that regard, and he used the phrase that the team is “just clicking right now.” What have you seen from your guys in that regard, maybe confidence and attitude going into the racetrack every weekend?RUDY FUGLE: Yeah, this team has done an amazing job. We have great engineers, great car chief who leads a group of mechanics, and really a huge depth at HMS, period. But the quality of race car that they’re putting out and the details, that has bled over to this car because everybody has got the same to start with, so the very minute details make a huge difference.
To be able to trust in each other that all those details are getting met is what makes a big difference in the pace of the car most of the time, and then so we all believe in each other, we get along, we have a good time, and we all want to win just as bad. We’re not here just to show up and Cup race; we’re here to win.
Q.This maybe didn’t look like a typical Martinsville race that we see with a ton of cautions, a ton of wrecks, lead changes. What do you attribute that to? Was it the car? Was it the temperature?JEFF GORDON: Well, I was surprised. I’ll be honest, we were trying to speculate what was going to happen. I was talking to all the crew chiefs and kind of getting their thoughts, and I don’t think anybody would have guessed that it would have gone — especially because it’s a new car, right, and they’re shifting every lap and it’s easy to lock the left front tire up, and there’s just a lot of things — I think we all knew it would be deeper in the braking zone, lap times were faster. There wasn’t a lot of falloff.Typically in that situation you would say, oh, well then people are going to get more desperate to make these banzai moves and then the cautions are going to come, or hey, what do we not know about this car that could kind of bite us today. Didn’t see any of that.
I think — and I think Rudy has already said this, too. Track temperature, when the track is this cold and it doesn’t lay rubber, the tires just don’t give up. I’d almost say Goodyear has too good of a tire here right now because I think the racers want to see the falloff and be able to see line changes, setup matter over a long run. They’re running qualifying laps almost every lap. It just did not fall off near as much as anybody thought it would. That’s night racing, and especially a cold night race.
RUDY FUGLE: Yeah, most of it was temperature. It was even during practice just a little bit warmer. We saw way more falloff and the tires were gummier. You were going to see a different kind of race. So I think we just got bit by the cold weather.
Also we noticed the cars holding up better, also, so they absorb the hit, the bump-and-run better, you don’t hit and spin out. It doesn’t seem to happen right now. The good part about not having damage also creates not getting spun out it seems like.
Q.Following up on that, Rudy, on the intermediate tracks it seems like these cars are more wicked to drive. How come on an intermediate does it seem if you start spinning you’re toast, but here you can get bumped and save it?RUDY FUGLE: Yeah, I mean, intermediates it’s the speed, the lack of sideforce from what we have, the lack of downforce from what we had and we’re up on power from what we had. And then the tire wears out pretty quick. It’s pretty soft.
Then we come here and we have similar downforce to what we’ve had recently. We’ve got a little bit less power actually from 750 to 670, and the sideforce doesn’t matter as much. It ends up being a little bit easier to drive. The tires are wider. You have all those advantages of this car that the tire grip and mechanical grip kind of shows up.
Q.William mentioned his mom in Victory Lane, and this was the place where she had her stroke-like event, and I’m wondering during the time that she was in the hospital, how do you feel William handled it? Were you concerned about any sort of focus? How much do you think that impacted him, if at all, last season?RUDY FUGLE: Yeah, I mean, it was a traumatic event. It happened during the race here last year. William has got a tight-knit family with his sister and his mom and his dad. Yeah, of course it affects him. He’s a professional, and he doesn’t really wear a bunch of his emotions on his sleeve, but you know it affects you. We’ve all gone through different things in our lives, and as much as we want to block it out, it affects us and what we do.
He did an awesome job of trying to — getting through all that and still being successful and racing, but it’s amazing. Just so happy that a year anniversary for that to get a win. It’s pretty awesome.
JEFF GORDON: I was going to say, she’s here in the back, so a year later it’s pretty awesome to come back and have a win.

Austin Dillon Earns Career-Best Martinsville Speedway Finish with Third-Place Result in the No. 3 Get Bioethanol Chevrolet

3rd

23rd

15th

“It’s great to knock off our third-consecutive top-10 finish in the NASCAR Cup Series, but I’m a little bummed at finishing third at Martinsville Speedway in the No. 3 Get Bioethanol Chevrolet tonight. I like to pride myself on coming in clutch during key moments, but I definitely didn’t have a clutch performance at the end of the race. I spun the tires pretty good on the last restart, and it eliminated our chance to win. Once I got back in line there, I had some grip but it was too late to make anything happen. I felt like we had good forward drive all night long. Our Chevy was amazing on the long runs. Everyone at RCR and ECR have been working their tails off to try and put us in position to win. We have been in the simulator working really hard to make this car as good as possible. We’re racing for a win, and that’s what we are going to get if we keep bringing cars like this to the track. That was a great run. We didn’t get what we wanted, but they knew we were here.” -Austin Dillon

Tyler Reddick and the No. 8 3CHI Team Battle Hard at Martinsville Speedway

18th

22nd

12th

“It was a long weekend for our No. 8 3CHI Chevrolet team, but all of these guys at RCR never give up. Our Chevrolet was really fast during practice on Friday, but we missed a little during qualifying and had to start the race 22nd. Even with a mid-pack starting spot, we were feeling good heading into the race because we learned so much on Friday. The race was a little bit more challenging than we anticipated. We struggled with a tight-handling condition throughout the whole race, and really needed help making our car turn through the center of the corners. We gave it everything we had, but just couldn’t seem to make our in-race adjustments stick. We rallied into the top 10 in Stage 3 before the last caution of the race. I just couldn’t fight the traffic when we went into overtime and ended up falling back. We’ll regroup and get ready for Bristol Dirt next weekend.” -Tyler Reddick

NASCAR CUP SERIES MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY BLUE-EMU MAXIMUM PAIN RELIEF 400 TEAM CHEVY RACE WIN QUOTE & NOTES APRIL 9, 2022

WILLIAM BYRON TAKES THE WIN AT MARTINSVILLETeam Chevy Scores Fifth NCS Victory of 2022 Behind the wheel of his No. 24 RaptorTough.com Camaro ZL1, William Byron led the field to the checkered flag in the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 at Martinsville Speedway.  ·       The win is Byron’s second of the 2022 season and his fourth-career NASCAR Cup Series victory. It also marks the 284th NASCAR Cup Series triumph for Hendrick Motorsports, the winningest organization in NASCAR history. ·       Byron started the 400-lap race from the fifth position, capturing a runner-up finish in both stages. The Hendrick Motorsports driver took the lead at the beginning of the final stage, leading 212 laps to capture the victory. ·       Byron is the only repeat winner thus far this season in the NASCAR Cup Series. ·       Byron’s triumph is the fifth of the season for the Camaro ZL1; and the 59th victory for Team Chevy at Martinsville to lead all manufacturers. ·       The winningest brand in NASCAR, Chevrolet now has 819th all-time NASCAR Cup Series victories. WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 RAPTORTOUGH.COM CAMARO ZL1, Race Winner Quick Quote: Q.Your crew got you the lead at the end of Stage 2. You did the rest all night long. You had to fend off a late-race restart; didn’t place a wheel wrong all night long. How good does it feel to win at Martinsville?“It feels awesome. When that last caution came out, I thought everyone behind us would pit and luckily we stayed out. We were aggressive. We felt like we could re-fire on the tires and be okay; and you’ve got one of the most aggressive guys behind you in (Joey) Logano. I knew I chattered the tires in (turns) 3 and 4 and kind of left the bottom open, but was able to block my exits and get a good drive off.
This one is for my mom. This same weekend last year she had kind of a mini-stroke and was diagnosed with brain cancer. It means a lot to have her here and it’s been a crazy year. But she’s doing great. And thanks, everybody, for the support. I kind of felt like she was riding in there with me. It’s cool to have her here and I’m definitely going to enjoy this one.”
Q.She was definitely riding with you on the pit box all night long. A lot of smiles. What do you think that moment is going to be like when you see her in a minute?“It’s going to be awesome. I love my parents. They’ve been so supportive, but also kind of let me grow up as I get older. Yeah, I’ve got a great support system. Thanks to all the fans for coming out. Great crowd. I’ve always wanted to win at Martinsville (Speedway). Got two clocks this weekend, so I’ll enjoy that.”

Hagerstown, MD (April 9, 2022) – It was a clean sweep for Tyler Erb on Saturday Night at Hagerstown Speedway as the 25-year-old Texas native set Allstar Performance overall fast time, won his heat, and led all 50 laps to win the Conococheague 50 in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series-sanctioned event.   Defending race winner Tim McCreadie finished in second followed by Gregg Satterlee, Kyle Hardy, and points leader Devin Moran. With the win, Erb becomes the 13th different winner in 14 Lucas Oil races held at Hagerstown Speedway, which is celebrating its 75th Anniversary this year. Erb jumped to the lead at the start of the race on an evening where there were a few rain-shower delays, but the track crew whipped the ½ mile facility in quick shape as the program was complete by 8:30 PM. Only one Stop-Tech caution flag slowed Erb during the event. This win was not only Erb’s first ever win at Hagerstown, but also the first at this track for his crew chief Randall Edwards. Bryan Bernheisel pressured Erb until McCreadie, who had scored a thrilling last lap victory a year ago at Hagerstown, passed Bernheisel on lap four to take second. McCreadie was running a different line than Erb and got within a couple of car lengths as the two battled up to the lap 28 yellow. After the caution Erb went unchallenged for the lead the rest of the way as McCreadie fell into the clutches of Hardy and Satterlee. Hardy was looking for a podium finish in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, but Satterlee was able to wrestle the spot away from him with 12 laps remaining. In Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the 17th time in his career Erb becomes the seventh different winner this season. “That’s the way we draw it out every week to have a night like this, but it doesn’t always pan out. I am glad we got this in with the weather and everything. It was really a good crowd for not the most desirable weather conditions. I can’t believe it honestly. The first time I came here I was so bad, it was unbelievable, last year we got a little bit better but to win this year just means a lot. I am excited to get to Port Royal tomorrow. To get a win here it’s a real confidence booster, this place just moved up on my list of race tracks I like now.” McCreadie, the reigning series champion, came home in second. “We were starting to fade a little bit before that caution. This is the car we ran last year. People think oh it’s Hagerstown so you’re always going to be good here. I have driven enough to know we made a big stride today.” Satterlee, 2016 Lucas Oil winner with a last lap pass at Hagerstown, rounded out the podium with a third-place run. “We really needed to win my heat race. We just needed a little better starting position for the feature but all-in-all it was good night. We are working on a couple of new things with the car this year to get better. I don’t think we have quite got where we need to be, but we are definitely close.”  The winner’s Best Performance Motorsports Rocket Chassis is powered by a Clements Racing Engine and sponsored by Bulk Material Lift, M&W Transport, Lucas Oil Products, Midwest Sheet Metal, Bazell Race Fuels, KBC Graphics, Roberts Bee Company, and First-Class Septic. Completing the top ten were Jimmy Owens, Earl Pearson Jr., Matt Cosner, Ricky Thornton Jr., and Shane Clanton. Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Race Summary Conococheague 50Saturday, April 9th, 2022Hagerstown Speedway – Hagerstown, MD Allstar Performance Time TrialsFast Time Group A: Tyler Erb / 18.996 seconds (overall)Fast Time Group B: Garrett Alberson / 19.235 seconds Penske Race Shocks Heat Race #1 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 1T-Tyler Erb[1]; 2. 45-Kyle Hardy[2]; 3. 66C-Matt Cosner[4]; 4. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[7]; 5. 20F-Trever Feathers[6]; 6. 4-Gary Stuhler[8]; 7. 17-Nick Dickson[5]; 8. 93-Cory Lawler[9]; 9. (DNF) 111V-Max Blair[3] Summit Racing Equipment Heat Race #2 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 39-Tim McCreadie[4]; 2. 8-Kyle Strickler[2]; 3. 32J-Justin Weaver[1]; 4. 0E-Rick Eckert[3]; 5. 11-Spencer Hughes[6]; 6. 15C-Jason Covert[8]; 7. 7-Ross Robinson[5]; 8. 19-Logan Roberson[7] Simpson Race Products Heat Race #3 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 119-Bryan Bernheisel[2]; 2. 22-Gregg Satterlee[3]; 3. 58-Garrett Alberson[1]; 4. 20-Jimmy Owens[4]; 5. 71-Hudson O’Neal[6]; 6. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[5]; 7. 18D-Daulton Wilson[7]; 8. 94-Jason Miller[8]; 9. 0H-Dale Hollidge[9] Ohlins Shocks Heat Race #4 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 1S-Brandon Sheppard[1]; 2. 9-Devin Moran[2]; 3. 89-Ashton Winger[3]; 4. 2T-Kyle Lee[4]; 5. 25-Shane Clanton[5]; 6. 9Z-Mason Zeigler[7]; 7. 76-Andy Haus[8]; 8. 72-Tyler Emory[6] Fast Shafts B-Main #1 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 15C-Jason Covert[4]; 2. 20F-Trever Feathers[1]; 3. 7-Ross Robinson[6]; 4. 4-Gary Stuhler[3]; 5. 11-Spencer Hughes[2]; 6. 111V-Max Blair[9]; 7. 17-Nick Dickson[5]; 8. 93-Cory Lawler[7]; 9. (DNS) 19-Logan Roberson UNOH B-Main #2 Finish (10 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 71-Hudson O’Neal[1]; 2. 25-Shane Clanton[2]; 3. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[3]; 4. 9Z-Mason Zeigler[4]; 5. 18D-Daulton Wilson[5]; 6. 72-Tyler Emory[8]; 7. 76-Andy Haus[6]; 8. 0H-Dale Hollidge[9]; 9. 94-Jason Miller[7] Lucas Oil Feature Finish (50 Laps):

Race StatisticsEntrants: 34Lap Leaders: Tyler Erb (Laps 1 – 50)Wrisco Feature Winner: Tyler ErbArizona Sport Shirts Crown Jewel Cup Feature Winner: n/aBrandon Ford TV Challenge Feature Winner: n/aMargin of Victory: 2.189 secondsStop-Tech Cautions: Hudson O’Neal (Lap 28)Series Provisionals: Daulton Wilson; Spencer HughesFast Time Provisional: n/aSeries Emergency Provisionals: n/aTrack Provisional: Gary StuhlerBig River Steel Podium Top 3: Tyler Erb, Tim McCreadie, Gregg SatterleePenske Shocks Top 5: Tyler Erb, Tim McCreadie, Gregg Satterlee, Kyle Hardy, Devin MoranOptima Batteries Hard Charger of the Race: Ricky Thornton, Jr. (Advanced 13 Positions)Midwest Sheet Metal Spoiler Challenge Point Leader: Devin MoranHot Rod Processing Most Laps Led: Tyler Erb (50 Laps)Sunoco Race for Gas Highest Finisher: Tyler ErbO’Reilly Auto Parts Rookie of the Race: Ashton WingerDirty Girl Racewear Fastest Lap of the Race: Tyler Erb (Lap 1 – 20.090 seconds)DirtonDirt.com Tough Break of the Race: Hudson O’NealOuterwears Crew Chief of the Race: Randall Edwards (Tyler Erb)ARP Engine Builder of the Race: Clements Racing EnginesMiller Welders Chassis Builder of the Race: Rocket ChassisDirt Draft Fastest in Hot Laps: Justin Weaver (18.319 seconds)Time of Race: 20 minutes 21 seconds