CHASE ELLIOTT SCORES VICTORY AT THE DAYTONA ROAD COURSETeam Chevy Takes Four of the Top-10 DAYTONA BEACH, FL (August 16, 2020) – Chase Elliott adds to his impressive road course resume by taking his No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 1LE to victory lane in the GoBowling 235 at the Daytona International Speedway Road Course, the NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) debut appearance at the 14-turn, 3.61-mile road course. The win is Elliott’s second points-paying victory and 13th top-10 finish of the 2020 season. It is his fourth career road course win and third in a row.  The victory, Chevrolet’s fourth triumph of the season, is the manufacturer’s 32nd road course win on tracks currently on the NCS tour and the 790th all-time win in NASCAR’s premier series. The win at the inaugural visit to the Daytona International Speedway Road Course is Elliott’s eighth career victory in 172 NASCAR Cup Series starts. Elliott, the youngest road course winner in NCS history, is now the sixth and most recent driver in NASCAR Cup Series history to win three or more consecutive road course races.  The win is the 19th NCS road course triumph for Hendrick Motorsports, which was also celebrated by Elliott’s teammates Jimmie Johnson, who finished 4th in his No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1 1LE, and William Byron, who was 8th in his No. 24 Liberty University Camaro ZL1 1LE. Kaz Grala, who was the substitution driver for Austin Dillon after he tested positive for COVID-19, brought the No. 3 American Ethanol Camaro ZL1 1LE home in the 7th position in his NCS debut, giving Chevrolet four of the top-10 finishers.  Denny Hamlin (Toyota) was second, Martin Truex Jr. (Toyota) was third and Chris Buescher (Ford) rounded out the top-five finishers of the race.  The NASCAR Cup Series season continues with a doubleheader race weekend at Dover International Speedway with the Drydene 311 on Saturday, August 22, at 4:00 p.m. ET and the Drydene 311 on Sunday, August 23, at 4:00 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on the NBCSN, NBC Sports Gold app, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT: THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by today’s winner of the Go Bowling 235 at the Daytona road course, Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. I believe that’s three road wins in a row. Is it safe to say you’re becoming a fan of the road courses?             CHASE ELLIOTT: I’ve just had really good cars I think more than anything. I’m not sure I did anything very special today but had a really fast NAPA Camaro, which makes everybody’s job a little easier from my end driving it, from Alan’s end calling the race, and then from his end on adjusting, too. Really fortunate from that standpoint. Had a really nice week of preparation, came out and executed really good race. Really proud of the day. I think we have a lot to be proud of and showing up having a car like it needed to be, it doing what I wanted, and then to take that and get the result that I felt like we deserved.            Q. I don’t know that you made a mistake today or at least it didn’t look like it. I’m curious, did you expect it to go that smoothly at a track that you had never raced at before?CHASE ELLIOTT: Well, it never goes smooth, or smooth in my eyes, at least. Yeah, I mean, obviously I look back and just ‑‑ we had that run there after the lightning break, and then I think the odds of it going green from there to the end, I think we all knew were pretty well slim to none. So, it was just a matter of when that caution was going to come out in my eyes and in my head. I had already accepted that long before it came out, and then to me the bigger question was not when but how many were going to be in a row, how many green‑white‑checkereds were you going to have to do in a row, and that’s where as time goes on, just executing those is important, and the only way to get better at them is to be in those positions more often as a driver and for me personally, so really proud to be there today and to execute it like we needed to.            Q. I’m wondering, how does it feel to make history and win this race on this first road course here?CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, I mean, any win at Daytona is special, and Alan and I were joking, he said we had to change it to a road case to win a race here at Daytona. That was his first win here. This is his home track, he’s from down here, so I think that was really cool. Yeah, just a great day.           Obviously Watkins Glen has been good to us, but I was just really happy that we replaced a road course with a road course and didn’t just pile something else on the schedule to check a box. I think there was a lot of effort into getting this road course done and completed in time, so appreciate Daytona and everybody that works in the facilities here to be able to turn it that fast, and did a really nice job with it.            Q. With the late restart there, did you have any Roval flashbacks like man, I can’t do this again, I’ve got to do something different?CHASE ELLIOTT: Well, I certainly didn’t want to drive into the barrier in Turn 1, so yes, that crossed my mind: Don’t do that.            Q. And you didn’t, so you learned?CHASE ELLIOTT: Learned. I finally learned something.            Q. Speaking of the last restart with three laps to go, were you expecting complete mayhem and maybe to get rooted out of the lead?CHASE ELLIOTT: I had considered it a possibility for sure. You know, but at the same time, I think if you execute and do your part from the driver’s side, you should be able to keep those opportunities from happening if you stay mistake free. Fortunately was able to get a good jump, had a good Turn 1, and then tried to just fall into rhythm there and just tried not to overdrive it. I thought Denny was being really aggressive on corner entry. I was not being as aggressive as him and was just focused in on my exits and trying to just control that gap to him, and yeah, fortunately it all worked out.            Q. Is there any sort of lesson with the car you can take from this road course and apply it to the oval since we’re going to be coming back in two weeks?CHASE ELLIOTT: No, unfortunately not. This is just a whole different animal, car, configuration, body, brakes, motor, you name it; nothing is really the same. This is just kind of a road course racing is a thing of its own and superspeedway racing is just not ‑‑ there’s absolutely nothing you can take from today and apply it to the week after next.            Q. And since you’re becoming ‑‑ you’ve grown to like road courses I presume, so do you think that this Daytona road course could find a permanent spot on the, quote‑unquote, normal schedule?CHASE ELLIOTT: That’s well above me. I don’t know. I think you’d have to make ‑‑ those decisions are made with a lot of things in mind, and whether or not I like it isn’t one of them. That’s just part of it.            Q. How does it feel just to win again, to sort of end a little bit of a dry spell and some of the things this team has gone through here in the summer months?CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, it feels really good. I mean, any time you can win in this series, I have learned and learned the hard way in some cases that you just can’t take them for granted. They’re just too hard to get, and it should be, and that makes the feeling of victory feel that much better because it is so hard. You just have to enjoy them. You never know if you’ll ever get another one or what tomorrow brings. I don’t take it for granted, and we just tried to make the most of a really good car today. You don’t have cars like that all the time, so when you do, you really want to make the most of it and try to capitalize and just really fortunate that everything went our way and we executed and did everything on our end that we could control right and had the result that, like I said earlier, I thought we deserved.            Q. Is it also a major positive you beat one of the hottest drivers in the deal right now? Denny Hamlin week in and week out. Does that at least send a little bit of a message to those guys, we can be as good as you and we can beat you guys?CHASE ELLIOTT: I mean, I don’t feel like we need to prove that to them, and we certainly don’t need to prove that to ourselves. I think that when we have things going like we can and like we know how to do, I think we can run with whoever. I think we’ve proven that in the past, and that’s not something that I need to sell myself on believing or sell my team. I think we’re all on the same page there.            Q. About a year ago when you won the Watkins Glen race, you guys were coming off several tough weeks, and you said it was good to get a reminder that you guys had the pieces of the puzzle and everything in place, that if things went correctly that you could win as you got close to the playoffs. Do you hope that this win can sort of serve in the same capacity this season?CHASE ELLIOTT: Well, I mean, the points you can’t put a price tag on the six points we earned today for the playoffs, and that to me is the biggest piece of the puzzle for as far as a championship goes. Our performance on the ovals the past month have not been what they need to be to compete for the championship, and I think we all know that, so we’re working really hard on doing that and getting better, and I think a day like today where we’re able to come here, have a really fast car, get some of those bonus points, I don’t want to say it bides us time, but having six more points than we would have had than if we hadn’t have won today makes a big difference, and especially when you’re fighting to run seventh and eighth at Michigan last weekend.           All that stuff matters, and as tight as it’s going to be through these rounds and through this last 10, we needed all we could get, and those bonus points, they’re irreplaceable. That has Denny and Kevin pretty well locked in to Phoenix, and that’s a situation that we strive to be in each year, and those guys have put themselves in that position year and year, so it’s certainly possible, and we want to do the same.            Q. You touched on the Michigan disappointment, I guess, from a few weeks ago. You head to Dover next weekend with two chances to win, and Dover has been historically a good track for you. Do you feel like there’s any momentum that you can carry in? Obviously the tracks don’t compare whatsoever, but do you feel like there’s any moral momentum that goes into next weekend?CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, for sure. I mean, any win is great, right, and it makes everybody feel good. We should enjoy this. We should enjoy today, tomorrow, and when we go back to work this week, obviously we’ll put eyes on Dover, but there’s been a lot of emphasis put into Dover and trying to improve, especially after a tough month. So yeah, until we get to the racetrack and kind of see where we stack up and get our report car, obviously we don’t know, but yeah, winning, you can’t ‑‑ there’s nothing that replaces that. Like I say, I just think it makes everybody on our team feel like they deserve to feel. I think we have a winning group. I believe that, and there is no doubt in my mind about that, and we just have to have all the puzzle pieces going together to make that happen, just like anybody else does. But I think we have what it takes to run really good and compete with these guys week in and week out.            Q. Earlier this week you were talking about how you and your team really weren’t able to keep up the momentum that you may have been able to gain from winning the All‑Star Race last month. Considering that and considering that you’re back in Victory Lane today, how much of a point of emphasis is continued success from this going to be in the shop this week?CHASE ELLIOTT: Well, I mean, we always want to do good. There’s no speech that we hear when we have a bad day that makes us want to do better any more than we already do, and if we don’t have that fire before you have a bad day, then we shouldn’t be doing this, and I don’t think that’s the case for anybody on our team.            Q. Obviously with last year’s win at the Roval and then this win here, two different types of courses, but a little bit of similarity. The Roval being an elimination race, does this give a little bit of confidence knowing that you can go back there with that success on both these style of racetracks and have that potential to move on?CHASE ELLIOTT: I hope so. I mean, the Roval is obviously a long ways off. Everybody is going to get better from what they had today. Yeah, there’s a lot of racing between now and the Roval we need to focus on. You know, a good run here I think gives us a good baseline of a few things we improved on. But it is a different track from Charlotte. That is a different animal I feel like, but some similarities, but certainly different, too.            Q. We heard a lot of drivers talking this week about the use of the simulators and iRacing. How much did that pay off in today’s race?CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, a little bit. I mean, I think we had some time on iRacing and time with Chevrolet this week. Appreciate Jordan Taylor and Boris Said reached out to me this week, and I feel like offered some really nice help that made a difference today, so really thankful for that. Like I said, just had a really nice week of preparation I felt like personally and spent the amount of time I felt I needed to in certain areas to try to fire off well, and it was just super ‑‑ yeah, feels really good to know when you put the work in certain areas you can come out and have a performance like that after you put in the right amount of time.            Q. I want to ask you, how big of a factor was the heat in the race, and during the lightning delay, were you able to cool down and rehydrate?CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, I think that lightning delay was pretty crucial for a lot of guys to get a breather. I mean, I was hot for sure. I think everyone was. I mean, it was a hot day. Mid‑afternoon in Daytona is not cool and probably never will be.            Q. Do you think NASCAR may need to make any improvements for this race when the Clash uses the road course in 2021?CHASE ELLIOTT: I thought the track was fine. They have a ton of 24‑hour events that they’ve run here over the years, so I don’t think they need to do anything. I thought it was all good, no worries.            Q. You mentioned that Arizona is the most important thing to come out of this season, and I’m right here in Dawsonville. What would you say growing up‑wise with Bill as your dad and just growing up in the pick‑your‑boot‑straps‑up‑and‑get‑it‑going in Dawsonville, what do you think it is about you that just provides that bulldog in you that focuses on the championship ahead?CHASE ELLIOTT: I don’t know, I think everybody is ‑‑ I’m sure a lot of people are proud of where they’re from and that’s certainly the case for me. You want to make your hometown proud and fortunate to still call it home, which is nice. But yeah, I don’t know. I mean, I’ve been lucky to grow up in the racing world, and not just my dad, but I’ve had a lot of really nice, really great racing mentors I feel like to look up to over the years who handled themselves the right way in my eyes on and off the racetrack, and yeah, there’s really no other thing to say other than I just got lucky with the people around me that I grew up around and had nice people and good people, good role models to look up to.            Q. This season we were supposed to use the low downforce package on the road courses, but of course for Daytona, being Daytona, we had the big spoiler for this race. What effect did that have on the racing today?CHASE ELLIOTT: I mean, good question. I don’t know. I think about Watkins Glen in 2018, and I think about Watkins Glen in 2019 and it was pretty much the same race, so I’m not sure that it makes much of a difference. It seems like the good cars always find their way to the front. It might take them a little longer at certain tracks, but they tend to find their way back there whether we have an eight‑inch spoiler or two‑inch spoiler or no spoiler, so I’m just not sure that’s an excuse we need to use anymore.            THE MODERATOR: Chase, thank you for your time today and congrats on the win again. ALAN GUSTAFSON, CREW CHIEF, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 L1E PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:  THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by Alan Gustafson today, the race‑winning crew chief for the No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet. Alan, just talk to us about what you had to do to get that into Victory Lane today.             ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, just obviously preparation in the shop is a big deal. Appreciate everybody at HMS Racing doing a great job and getting the car ready and in great position to go and try to win the race. So for us it was about executing, putting ourselves in position, and yeah, the car was great off the truck, and Chase is a phenomenal road racer and adapted really quickly, and it really went well for us today. Super happy about it.            Q. Chase has eight career wins now, four of them on road courses, two at Watkins Glen and two unique tracks at the Roval and on this one, which was new to everybody basically. You mentioned him as a road racer. What have you discovered in the races working with him that seems to make him adapt so well in these races?ALAN GUSTAFSON: He’s really good. I mean, he’s just a very talented driver. With any good driver, they have the ability to slow things down, and when you’re running a new track or running at the speeds they run they can slow it down to where it’s slow and they can make the right decisions and adjustments, and he does a fabulous job of that. We knew really from the first time I worked with him at a road course, I knew he was really good and just needed some experience and needed to understand the cars.           I’ve mentioned this before, we went to a Watkins Glen test his rookie year and were able to find some things that he really liked in the cars, and ever since we’ve been able to improve on that.           Yeah, he’s a tremendous talent. I think he’s a world‑class race car driver, certainly a world‑class road racer, and just did an amazing job.           It’s a daunting task I’m sure to come here and not know anything about driving the track. You can drive the simulators all you want, but still, to understand this tire and the grip it’s going to have on this surface when it’s 100 degrees outside and traffic is around you and all of the above is a very difficult thing to do. He did a great job, and yeah, a lot of kudos to him.            Q. I wondered if you could just compare a little bit if you remember the preparation that you did going into the first race at the Roval compared to what you had to do going into this race?ALAN GUSTAFSON: Well, the first Roval race we had a test, and I know there was ‑‑ I can’t remember the exact sequence, but there was a few tests leading up to it, and there was split‑test days, and I know the first time we were there it was us and the 48, and they were changing configurations and bus stops and chicanes and just a lot of time at the Roval.           I think we were much more ready for the Roval and prepared. But really all ‑‑ I don’t want to say all, that’s not true. But a lot of that effort was able to be used for here, right, and we could use a lot of that information and apply a lot of that to this place. They’re not distinctly different. They are different for sure, more the grip in the track than I think anything, but yeah, so the Roval there was tons of testing and tons of buildup to it, and we knew everything from the gearing to the braking to the handling on the car, and here you’re making some pretty big assumptions on getting that all perfect.            Q. How does it feel to get the win at Daytona, considering it’s been a track that’s kind of eluded you from a points‑paying race perspective? Just describe how much determination he has on those road courses which has proven to be very successful to you guys as of late.ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, winning here at Daytona is a big deal. I think it’s a big deal for everybody. Certainly a really big deal for me. I’ve been trying to do it for a long time and have been really, really close. The superspeedways are just ‑‑ there’s just so much ran doneness or circumstantial things that go into that. It’s tough, and we haven’t been able to put all that together correctly. We’ve been really close but haven’t been able to do it so it’s nice to come here and win at the road course. I’ve come here since I was ‑‑ watched races on this road course since I was probably four years old. This is really where I started my racing here was more road racing than it was stock car racing.           It’s cool for me, and yeah, again, his ability is amazing, and his record speaks for itself. He’s the best guy in the series when we go and turn left and right. He does an incredible job, and he’s just really good at it, and he’s phenomenal.           It’s nice to be able to come to a track and have the team support and then have the best driver on the grid climb into your car. It’s an exciting thing.            Q. You win early, and it takes pressure off you in the playoff. Those late‑season wins kind of build momentum to the playoff, and how important are wins later in the regular season heading into the playoff?ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, they’re all important. I think you alluded to some of the particular things when you win early it’s ‑‑ you know, you slot yourself in, obviously, and there’s some value to that, and when you win late, then there’s some value to that momentum.           We’ve all seen these races. We know that you’re going to have to win and win often to be the champion. It’s not going to be some situation where you’re going to run fifth to tenth and make it. You’re going to have to go and win and compete with the 11 and the 4 and those guys on a regular basis and win.           It’s important for us to do that, and we’ve kind of ‑‑ our form slipped, obviously, the last couple months, and it’s important for us to get our form back. This is obviously a step in the right direction. It’s a very specific discipline of racing, but there’s still a road course left, so yeah, it’s good. Any time you win is good. The bonus points are good. The momentum is good. The morale is good. I’ve never found an ill effect of winning in my career.            Q. Alan, you mentioned the 11 and the 4. They’re at the top of their games right now. Do you feel you’re half a step behind those guys? Early in the season you seemed to have as much speed as they did, and now maybe ‑‑ or do you feel like it’s just a matter of putting it together, you still have the speed, still have what it takes to run with those guys?ALAN GUSTAFSON: No, at the beginning of the year I thought we were the best car for a significant part of the season. I mean, it could be my rose‑colored glasses but I certainly felt like we were in contention to win about every week. We’ve had some issues and slips since then, and those guys have got the upper hand on us and we don’t have the pace to match them right now, and we can’t consistently compete to win on all different configurations of tracks. There’s certainly specific tracks that we’re still really good at. Obviously Bristol and road courses. I think we’ll have our chances, but I do think we’ve got to find some pace and some speed to match those guys when it comes to the Texases and Kansases and racetracks along those lines.           So we’re working hard. I promise you there’s nobody in the garage working as hard as Hendrick Motorsports is and the 9 team is to try to reel that back in, but those guys have got an upper hand on us, and I’m sure they did it by grinding hard and working hard, and kudos to them for doing it, but we’ve got to find something.            Q. Since I’m based in New York, how disappointed were you guys that you couldn’t come to Watkins Glen this season? Chase did say it was good to replace one road course with another, but how disappointing is it that you couldn’t make the annual trip to Watkins Glen?ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, I mean, it’s ‑‑ I love Watkins Glen. I love the area. It’s gorgeous country. It’s in August. It’s so good. It’s so nice. You know, you still have reasonably cool nights and it’s just lush and green and beautiful. I love the area. I love going there. I love the track. Man, it’s a wicked road course. It’s so fast and unique. Yeah, it’s great.           I miss it, and I miss ‑‑ I really love the dedicated road course circuits like that that are ‑‑ you’re like in the forest, you’re out there kind of ‑‑ it’s not a big concrete jungle. You kind of race through the trees and you’re in a ‑‑ I don’t know how to describe it. It just reminds me more of really truly dedicated road courses that I grew up on. So I love that part of it.           But if we’re not going to be able to race there, this is a great place to come and race, and I think everybody was excited to get on this track. It’s so prestigious and so many good people have raced here and won, so many legends of the sport.           You know, it’s bittersweet. I would have loved to have been at Watkins Glen. I would have probably slept a lot better last night if we were going to Watkins Glen, but it was also a great challenge to come here. Daytona is my home. It’s really what got me started in the sport. Any chance to come here and race is great, and certainly to win.            Q. You noted earlier that your career started in road racing. Do you think that has helped you as a crew chief set up cars for Chase especially?ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, I don’t think it hurts. Yeah, I’ve always had a love for it. My best friends growing up still road race. They have a shop here and have raced at the highest level, in the 24 hours, and been very successful and won, and yeah, a lot of my roots are there.           Yeah, it’s always been ‑‑ it’s something I’ve really enjoyed and loved. Any time you enjoy something, it’s a huge benefit. The cars we raced back then don’t have anything to do with what we race now, but I think just embracing it, enjoying it and seeing the positive side of it, all that helps, and I’ve always enjoyed road racing and enjoyed the challenge. I think that certainly helps when it comes to having to go do it and execute it.            Q. You seemingly go from one strong suit to another here. Dover has historically been a great place for you and Chase. How significant will it be for you guys to go in there and get good runs on a double‑header weekend, and how much does a win today help to start the week on a positive note?CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, it helps for sure, and you’re right, Dover is another really strong track for us. Statistically it’s certainly got to be one of the best that we run at. I’m looking forward to getting there. It’s a lot of fun, too. It’s certainly a different challenge and very unique.           Yeah, we need to be able to go and win there. We need to be able to contend to win. It’s that time of year. There’s just no ‑‑ we’ve got to be able to go everywhere and contend to win, and certainly we’re going to go to Dover and give everything we can to put ourselves in position to win, and I’m looking forward to going there and seeing what we’ve got, and like I said, we’re working hard to improve our oval track stuff. Certainly that’s a little different configuration with the aero package, but yeah, we’re pushing hard and we’re excited to go. My expectation is we want to be able to go there and win.            Q. In regards to heading to Dover, this will be the third double‑header that we’ve had this season for a weekend. Is Dover going to be the biggest challenge as far as double headers? And second part of that, is there a little bit of chip on you guys’ shoulders knowing that the last race you ran there you only completed eight laps?ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, I think you’ve always got to have kind of a chip on your shoulder. You’ve got to find some way to motivate yourself and keep pushing yourself, and so yeah, we’re ready to go.           Dover is going to be the most difficult double‑header on the equipment for sure, to run the cars there. That’s a very violent track. I don’t think that ‑‑ TV doesn’t do it justice or watching the race doesn’t do it justice. It’s the loading and the bumps into 3 and the violence the car takes, all the components on the car. I mean, they are just getting punished lap after lap after lap after lap.           This is going to be the most difficult double‑header as far as equipment goes for sure. And yeah, the double headers are not easy. It’s tight schedules and a lot of long hours. I guess if you’re in the 4 at Rodney’s place, it looked pretty easy last weekend, but it wasn’t easy for us for sure.            Q. How have your guys handled those double headers?ALAN GUSTAFSON: Just a lot of hard work. You’ve got to prep the cars and you’ve got to have a good game plan on what you’re going to switch out, how you’re going to switch it out. From the time the race is over until the time the garage is closed until the time we put the car on the grid, it’s nonstop. There’s very few people there to support it, and you’re trying to debrief, trying to get a game plan, and it’s just a lot of work.            Q. Considering your previous sports car experience and the next‑gen car that’s coming up with a lot of sports car elements with aluminum uprights, do you see the next‑gen car being more suited for road courses or possibly street circuits than the ovals like traditionally we’ve seen?ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I’m curious, I think the car is more suited for road course racing and more suited for street course racing, and with the way the underbody is and the aerodynamic setup of the car, and it being symmetrical, I worried about it at Dover. I don’t think it’ll have any issue road racing. I think it’ll be very V‑8 Supercar‑esque in my opinion. But when you go slam that thing around at Dover, the aluminum wheels and the rest of it is where that car is going to be put to a significant test, like I was saying earlier. There’s nothing like Dover, period, that’s it. There’s no place in the world like that. There’s no place that loads like that. There’s nothing like that. It’s a test for sure.            Q. Do you see with the wheels growing bigger, and I’m assuming the rotors are going to grow bigger and possibly bigger calipers, do you see that helping out on certain courses?ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, I think the cars will be faster. You’ve got better brakes; I think you’ll be faster road racing where you use a lot of brakes and Martinsville and places like that, but we don’t use much brake at the intermediates or high‑speed ovals. Probably won’t impact that.            Q. As far as the individual links in the rear and specifically what I’ve heard of the tolling speed and kind of position of the wheels, do you see that as being a vulnerability or is that more to be able to save the chassis?ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, I mean, it’s hard to say. I can’t say that I’ve worked with the car enough to make a whole lot of educated opinions about it, so it’s tough to say. I mean, I think it’s just more in convention with the majority of the rest of the racing industry. That’s really where I think it’s gone, and that’s just much more conventional to really any other race car you’d see on any other circuit.           

August 16, 2020

A caution flag near the end of Sunday’s Go Bowling 235 on the road course at Daytona International Speedway gave Matt DiBenedetto and the No. 21 Menards/Dutch Boy team the break they needed to finish 15^th and head to Dover International Speedway with a 44-point cushion in the Playoff standings.

DiBenedetto, who added six points to his total by finishing fifth in the race’s first Stage, remains 15^th in the Playoff standings with three races left in the regular season – two at Dover and one on the oval track at Daytona. After that, the top 16 drivers in the Playoff standings will start the 10-race, season-ending run for the Cup Series championship.

On a steamy hot Sunday afternoon at Daytona, DiBenedetto and the Menards/Dutch Boy Mustang lined up ninth for the start of the inaugural Cup race on the 3.6-mile road course. 

He moved up to sixth place by Lap Six and to fifth place by Lap 12 and remained there until the end of the first 15-lap Stage. 

Because he made his pit stop after at the end of the first Stage, while others gained track position by making their stops before the end of Stage One, DiBenedetto and the Menards/Dutch Boy team were playing catch-up for most of the second Stage and wound up 21^st at the finish.

In the third and final segment of the race, DiBenedetto and the team struggled to find the rear grip he needed, and were running 18^th when the caution flag flew with five laps remaining for a spin by Kyle Busch.
 
DiBenedetto and the Menards/Dutch Boy team opted to head to pit road for fresh tires and one final adjustment, which put him 23^rd in line for a three-lap dash to the checkered flag.
 
As he often does on restarts, DiBenedetto made the most of the moment and gained eight spots before he crossed the finish line.
 
DiBenedetto said the Menards/Dutch Boy Mustang just didn’t have the speed he needed to stay among the leaders.
 
“We struggled all day and had to play defense the whole race,” he said.
 
DiBenedetto had no complaints about the race course itself. “It was fun, and I would love to do it again,” he said.
 
Eddie Wood said that while he and the team had hoped for a better finish at Daytona he’s pleased to have some breathing room headed into the Dover double-header. DiBenedetto and the team were 57 points ahead of the 17^th place driver headed into Daytona and saw that margin shrink by 13 points.
 
“We lost some points to the cutline, but we’re still in a decent spot,” he said. “With two races at Dover and one at Daytona, all of the teams competing for those final Playoff spots won’t feel really safe until the checkered flag flies at Daytona in two weeks.”

NASCAR CUP SERIES DAYTONA ROAD COURSE GO BOWLING 235 TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTES AUGUST 16, 2020

TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:POS.   DRIVER1st      CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE 4th      JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE7th      KAZ GRALA, NO. 3 AMERICAN ETHANOL CAMARO ZL1 1LE8th      WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1 1LE12th    ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 1LE
TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS: POS.  DRIVER1st      Chase Elliott (Chevrolet)2nd     Denny Hamlin (Toyota)3rd      Martin Truex Jr. (Toyota)4th      Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet)5th      Chris Buescher (Ford) The NASCAR Cup Series season continues with a doubleheader race weekend at Dover International Speedway with the Drydene 311 on Saturday, August 22, at 4:00 p.m. ET and the Drydene 311 on Sunday, August 23, at 4:00 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on the NBCSN, NBC Sports Gold app, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES:CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Race WinnerYOU MADE HISTORY TODAY AT DAYTONA. WHAT WAS THE RACE LIKE TODAY FROM YOUR VIEWPOINT?“Our guys did a phenomenal job. We just had a phenomenal car. I don’t think I did anything very special today. I think Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) and all our guys did a really good job pitting there at the start. We made a couple really small adjustments, I felt like, there, at that first stop and I was really kind of able to leave it after that. So, I just appreciate everybody that makes this happen. Thanks to the fans. Good to see you guys back. Appreciate you all coming out. And, just thanks to all our partners and Chevrolet. I spent a lot of time with them this past week. A special thanks to Jordan Taylor and Boris Said for reaching out and being willing to help this weekend; some road course ringers. I tried to lean on them and luckily everything worked out.” JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 4th“Good job to everyone on my No. 48 Ally Chevy team. I just lacked that rear grip at the end there. That was a really fun and a solid day, that’s what we needed and now we go to my favorite track – Dover. So proud of Chase, what a road racer he is.”
KAZ GRALA, NO. 3 AMERICAN ETHANOL CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 7th“I never thought my NASCAR Cup Series debut would come in this nature. I first want to say that I’m thankful that Austin’s symptoms are mild and that his wife Whitney and baby Ace are healthy. I hope to see him back in the car next week at Dover International Speedway. It certainly was an honor to get the call from Richard Childress and drive his iconic No. 3 American Ethanol Chevrolet. I honestly had a blast. These Cup cars have so much power, which I really enjoyed. Today exceeded my expectations. My goal was to come in today, run all the laps, not tear anything up, and get a top-30 finish so this is certainly far above my wildest dreams. Justin Alexander called an excellent strategic race, which really helped us get up there and compete inside the top-20 most of the day. We were able to lead laps in my NASCAR Cup Series debut, and it was fun to mix it up with some of my childhood heroes. Before the last caution, I made a bold, three-wide move on a restart, which got us a ton of positions. I don’t really know what I was thinking, but it worked and put us around 12th. We were in pretty good shape with some fresher tires than the guys ahead of us and opted to stay out under the last caution. We were able to pick off a few more of those guys to finish comfortably inside the top-10. I can’t thank everyone enough for giving me this opportunity: Richard, American Ethanol, and Chevrolet. Today was a dream come true and I hope I made everyone in Welcome, all of the guys on the No. 3 team, Austin Dillon and all of RCR’s partners proud. That green No. 3 American Ethanol Chevrolet is iconic and it meant a lot to be able to sport American Ethanol’s colors today. I hope to have the opportunity to be racing on Sundays in the future.”
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 8th“It was a good result for us today. We chose to go for the stage points and had to pass our way through the field a few times because of that strategy. I think we did a nice job of that and getting a lot of those available points. Once we got towards the front top five we kind of stalled out though. Overall, I’m pretty happy with today and getting a good result. We just need to have a couple good weeks with solid races when we go on to Dover for two races and back to Daytona. I’m looking forward to Dover next week for sure though.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 12th“That wasn’t a whole lot of fun. Started the race and tried to work our way through there and go through a cycle of green-flag pit stops and then had a flat left rear. We didn’t hit anything, so that was a big bummer. We had to pit again and then went a lap down, so we had to come back from that. We passed a lot of cars and got the lucky dog and then had to start in the back again for the third time. We drove up to 11th there before the last caution. We just had the wrong restart lane and couldn’t really go. We were down on forward drive, but pretty good by ourselves. Proud of this Axalta team for how they recovered, but a bummer to lose those four spots on that last lap.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 14th“I really enjoyed the day today, the track was a fun challenge for us. Matt McCall did a nice job making adjustments on the Monster Energy Camaro, but we burned up the tires on the last longer run and just had to play a little defense in the end. It was a really fun track and I had some fun out there today, I just didn’t have enough in the end”.
TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 CAT APP CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 18th“Man, the Daytona International Speedway Road Course is tough, but our No. 8 Cat App Chevrolet team kept after it, and we were able to continue to get better throughout the day. I spent a lot of time on the Chevrolet simulator before this weekend to help prepare, but there was still a big learning curve during the first stage of this race. I struggled with some wheel hop in Stage 1, but we were able to make some adjustments before Stage 2 started to help fight that. I got more comfortable with the course as the race went on and had better drive off to fight for positions. The red flag actually helped me a little bit since I was able to cool off a little bit and review some SMT data with my crew chief, Randall Burnett. We made a fuel only stop just before Lap 50, which helped me get some good track position. Unfortunately, that final yellow came out with six laps to go, and we had to pit for four fresh tires. I got boxed in on that final stop, so that hurt our restart spot, but I was able to get our No. 8 Cat App Chevrolet back into the top 20 before the checkered flag came out. Not the day we wanted, but we maximized what we could and have three more shots to get into the Playoffs, so our fight isn’t over yet.”
TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO FOR YOUR BOAT CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 20th“Strong battle for us today. Our GEICO For Your Boat Chevrolet was really strong at the beginning of the race. We battled our way up to 16th and then fell back to 30th right before that final stage. We fought real hard and ended up with another top-20 finish. It was a hot day inside the race car and a hot one outside. I’m proud of our effort and we kept it on track for the first time at the Daytona Road Course.”
BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 DOOR DASH CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 25th“That was not the finish that our Richard Petty Motorsports team wanted. Going into it (the DAYTONA Road Course) I thought I would finish, but to say that the No. 43 DoorDash Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE and Bubba Wallace would be top-10 finish at a road course on the last lap – man, I never would have thought it. Hats-off to my guys – they never gave up on me and brought all the confidence. Just an unfortunate ending, but our No. 43 DoorDash Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE was stout. It just was not the finish that we deserved today. Onto the Dover International Speedway.”
BRENDAN GAUGHAN, NO. 62 BEARD OIL CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 39th “That isn’t quite what we wanted here today. I spent the first half of the race just trying to feel out the racecar, and get to the points that I like on the course. After the red flag, we finally got our car where we wanted and started to move up. We were getting close to that top-15 and I made a mistake. I don’t normally miss shifts but I missed two shifts to fourth (gear) and over revved the motor. When I did I lost fourth gear. We were here in Daytona to run well on this road course – not have to change the transmission just to go back out there and run around 20 laps down. We will be back here in two weeks and see if we can get a good one for the old No. 62 Beard Oil Chevy.”

• Marco Andretti claims Honda’s 11^th ‘500’ pole in Fast Nine final qualifying
• Scott Dixon and Takuma Sato complete Honda front-row lockout
• Honda takes 11 of the top of 12 qualifiying spots in dominant show of speed
• 104^th Indianapolis 500 takes place on Sunday, August 23

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (August 16, 2020) – In a thrilling “Fast Nine” final qualifying shootout for the coveted pole starting position, Marco Andretti edged fellow Honda driver Scott Dixon today by just 0.017 mph for the honor of leading the field to the green flag in next Sunday’s 104^th running of the Indianapolis 500.

Takuma Sato completed a front-row lockout for Honda, as the manufacturer swept the front row and claimed 11 of the top-12 starting positions for next weekend’s race.  Ryan Hunter-Reay and James Hinchcliffe will start on the second row, fifth and sixth, respectively.  The third row also is all Honda, with rookie Alex Palou starting seventh, followed by Graham Rahal and Alexander Rossi. 

Four different Honda-powered teams are represented in the top nine, including Andretti Autosport (Andretti, Hunter-Reay, Hinchcliffe and Rossi); Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (Sato and Rahal); Chip Ganassi Racing (Dixon) and Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh (Palou).

Andretti’s four-lap margin over second fastest Scott Dixon was the third closest in “500” history.  Only 2012 (Ryan Briscoe over Honda’s James Hinchcliffe by 0.003 mph) and 1970 (Al Unser over Johnny Rutherford by 0.008 mph) were closer.

On Saturday, Honda drivers and teams also dominated first-round qualifying at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  In addition to placing eight drivers into the Fast Nine shootout, Honda drivers fill out the fourth row of the starting grid with Colton Herta, Marcus Ericsson and Spencer Pigot.  Felix Rosenqvist will start in the middle of the fifth row, 14^th; with Zach Veach in the middle of row six and Meyer Shank Racing’s Jack Harvey in the center of the seventh row.  Santino Ferrucci will start to the inside of Harvey after qualifying 19^th ; while James Davison rounds out the 15-driver Honda field and will start 27^th.

Honda Racing social media content and videos from practice and qualifying from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is available on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/HondaRacingHPD) and on Twitter at (https://twitter.com/HondaRacing_HPD).  Produced by the CoForce Digital Media, YouTube video packages can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV.  

Next

The 104^th running of the Indianapolis 500 takes place on Sunday, August 23, with live television coverage on NBC starting with pre-race festivities at 1 p.m. EDT.

Quotes

Marco Andretti (Andretti Autosport Honda) Pole qualifier, his first Indianapolis 500 pole, 11^th Indy pole for Honda: “For me, I starting feeling the wind on Lap 2, which meant it was going to be a long couple of laps! Laps 3 and 4 definitely were sort of sketchy. [On leading the field to the green flag to start next weekend’s Indianapolis 500] It’s the best seat in the house! Clean air is always good here. Speed’s always good here and man, horsepower’s so cool, isn’t it? Makes everything so much easier.  Honda did an unbelievable job, and our team rolled off so fast [from the first of practice].  I’m just so excited!”

Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) Qualified in the middle of the front row, second: “Massive thank you to Honda and HPD, they’ve done a tremendous job.  We know they’ve worked very hard for the race as well.  I feel like we didn’t leave much on the table, we could’ve also gotten the car a little more neutral, it was pretty ‘understeery’ right from the get-go.  But it is what it is, [Fast Nine qualifying] is tough, especially with the wind conditions today.  That’s what makes it so exciting, it was extremely close [for the pole] right there at the end and unfortunately, we came up a little bit short. But I’m extremely happy for Marco [Andretti]. He’s a great person and a really good racer.  We just have to try to beat them [in the race] next weekend.” 

Takuma Sato (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda) Qualified on the outside of the front row, third: “First, big congrats to Marco [Andretti] and Andretti Autosport, they did a fantastic job [winning the pole]. Starting on the front row is a big accomplishment for us.  Everyone at Rahal Letterman Lanningan Racing worked hard over the off season to improved our performance here and the results showed today.  Honda, great, great work from them, just a tremendous job from them and the team.  Now we shift to preparing for the race.  We have another practice this afternoon that will be extremely important; also ‘Carb Day’ [final practice on Friday].  We believe we have a strong car in race trim, we’re so already looking forward to the race on Sunday.”

Ted Klaus (President, Honda Performance Development) on today’s Indianapolis 500 pole and front-row sweep for Honda: “This has been a great weekend for Honda, and we’re thrilled to have the pole, and an all-Honda front row.  Everyone at HPD and our partner teams can take pride in the accomplishments this weekend. We all know that the race is going to be a battle. You’ll see tire degradation and pit strategy and fuel-saving strategy all play out just like it’s played out in years past. That’s why the race will be fascinating and fun to watch. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that I don’t do anything to piss off the racing gods so that we can have one of our teams bring it home into Victory Circle next Sunday.”

AUGUST 16, 2020 INDIANAPOLIS: Following an exciting Fast Nine Shootout, Rinus VeeKay has placed his No. 21 Sonax Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet solidy in the fourth starting position on the inside of the second row.  VeeKay was fourth in the order of the nine drivers to take their turn at a pole run, and laid down four very consistent laps delivering a four-lap average of 230.704 mph,  He held on to the outside of the front row until the last driver, and pole winner Marco Andretti posted the fastest time of the day 231.068 mph.  At 19 years old, VeeKay showed the maturity a1nd calm of a veteran to secure a second row start. As a result being the fastest rookie in the 33 car field, VeeKay received a $10,000 award from American Dairy.                                                        “I didn’t know that!” exclaimed VeeKay. “That is a great surprise! That is my first-ever dollar I’ve made in racing. Real happy with that! “It was a great qualifying effort. I It was a good run. The wind was a llttle tough on the last lap. I stayed flat for four laps and that was my aim. I think being the only Chevy (in Fast Nine), being fourth is amazing!”                                                                  Driving for Ed Carpenter, one of the most successful drivers and team owners at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, VeeKay had the benefit of the best leadership and guidance a rookie could get, and teammate Conor Daly has a lot of Indy 500 experience to share as the three ECR drivers prepare for next Sunday’s Indianpolis 500. Next up on the schedule is Miller Lite Carb Day, Friday, Aug. 21, final practice for the Indianapolis 500. Then “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” on Sunday, Aug. 23 at 1:00 p.m. ET live on NBC. NO. 21 RINUS VEEKAY, SONAX ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET: “I know we have a great race car. It is hard to say as a rookie, (winning) is my goal. But I have to be realistic. But it is the Indy 500 and anything can happen. But I try not to think about it so it doesn’t distract me. But I think we are getting close. “Ed can teach me everything. He has so much experience here. Conor has so many starts here. It is so valuable for me. It’s so great for me to have such a team with great teammates and engineers around me that have so muh experience that they bring all of that experience over to me.”                

UNION, KY (August 15, 2020) – Tim McCreadie passed race leader Jimmy Owens on lap 87 and pulled away to win the 38th Annual Sunoco North-South 100 Presented by Lucas Oil on Saturday Night at Florence Speedway. McCreadie came from the 20th starting position to pick up his second career win in the crown jewel event sanctioned by the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series. The 46-year-old New York native earned $50,000 for the triumph.Brandon Overton got by Owens with just a handful of laps remaining to take home second. Owens, the current LOLMDS points leader was third. Chris Ferguson who started from the pole was fourth with Dale McDowell claiming fifth at the checkers. Owens and Overton ran 1-2, and traded the lead for two laps, until first time Florence visitor Ricky Thornton Jr. started to use the high-side to his advantage. Thornton took second on lap 54 from Overton. By lap 60, Overton was back around Thornton. Meanwhile McCreadie, who had started on the outside of row number ten, had climbed through the field and was running third by lap 68. Owens was still out in front, but a stretch of cautions kept the field close. On the 76th lap, McCreadie cleared Overton for second and set his sights on Owens. The final caution appeared on lap 83 and that set-up McCreadie’s charge for the top spot. McCreadie hounded Owens after the last restart as he would dive to the inside of him to take over the lead on the 87th lap. McCreadie then opened the lead over both Owens and Overton, who in the last ten laps had battled side-by-side with Overton, finally winning the tussle with Owens. McCreadie added another big payday to his racing resume. He appeared in Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the 14th time in his career. “Every time there was a caution I was getting more and more upset. I tried to run the bottom as long as I could because the tires would get a little hot and then the car would just start to slide. The tire rule here has made the racing a lot better. Kudos to the series for doing that. There wasn’t much of a lip up top tonight like I am used to here. I could see the fans going crazy down the backstretch, it’s a lot of fun to come here and race and the fans are great.” Overton withstood a terrific battle with Owens to take second. “Man, I really wanted those two to get up there and race a little harder with each other. I was kind of married to the same line Jimmy was. Timmy could kind of roll around the top and I was a little too soft. I was kind of playing a little defense.” Owens was looking for this fourth win in the crown jewel event but came home in third.  “It was just caution after caution after caution and that wasn’t helping us any. We could extend the lead out a little bit and then it would get closed back up. Timmy had a great car tonight; my hat is off to him. I am happy to come out of here with a third-place finish.” The winner’s Paylor Motorsports Team owned by Donald and Gena Bradsher has a Longhorn Chassis powered by a Cornett Racing Engine and sponsored by Mega Plumbing of the Carolinas, Bilstein Shocks, VP Fuels, Sweeteners Plus, and D&E Marine. Completing the top ten were Josh Richards, Hudson O’Neal, Earl Pearson Jr., Shane Clanton, and Billy Moyer Jr.

Day one of qualifying for the 104^th running of the Indianapolis 500 has come to close with Team Chevy rookie Rinus Veekay ready to do battle in the Fast Nine Qualifying at 1:15 p.m. Sunday afternoon. 
The driver of the No. 21 Sonax Ed Carpenter Chevrolet led the 17 Chevy powered in the five hour and 50 minute session that set positions 10-33 in the starting field and gave the nine fastest of the day a shot for the coveted pole on Sunday. 
At 19 years old, Veekay showed the maturity and calm of a veteran to secure the sixth fastest time driving for Ed Carpenteer, one of the most successful qualifiers at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Veekay had the benefit of the best leadership and guidance a rookie could ask for in lining up to make a run for his first Indy 500. 
Two-time and defending NTT INDYCAR Series champion Josef Newgarden, No, 1 Shell V-Power Team Penske Chevrolet will start 13^th; Pato O’Ward, No.5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet starts, Carpenter put his No. 20 U.S. Space Force Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet in 16^th position and Conor Daly, No. 47 U.S. Air Force Ed Carpenter Chevrolet will roll off 18^th. On Sunday, Veekay and the other eight drivers will have a 30 minute practice session in the morning to give the teams and drivers a look at the track characteristics before the pole qualifying. After the Fast Nine Shootout, there will be an all-field practice from 3:30 to 6:00 p.m., the last time the cars are on track until Happy Hour on Carb day, Friday, August 21, 2020.  DRIVER QUOTES:NO. 1 JOSEF NEWGARDEN, SHELL V-POWER TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:“Judging from yesterday, the hotter it got, the more difficult it was for everybody. This early draw here was certainly beneficial for us and others that got it today. I think that was pretty much where are our car was today. We could practice for a touch more, but I think we were pretty close to our limit. It’s just great to be here. I’m just pumped we are running the Indianapolis 500. I can’t say thanks enough to Roger, everyone at IMS for making this happen. We are going to put on an amazing show next weekend. I think we are going to have a good car to race with for Shell V-Power Nitro and Team Chevy.”
NO. 3 HELIO CASTRONEVES, PENNZOIL TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:“Being on the second page (of the time sheet) isn’t what you want, but we are working on it. We are going to find out if we can find a little bit and if not, we race the Pennzoil Chevrolet from there and we have a very good car. We’ve all been really happy with the cars in race trim. You hate to start that far back as you need to pass a lot of cars and use some strategy, but it can be done from there. I’m just excited to run in another Indy 500 and do our best to put on a show for all the fans watching at home.” NO. 4 CHARLIE KIMBALL , TRESIBA AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET: “It was a challenging run for the No. 4 Tresiba Chevrolet but the A.J. Foyt Racing guys have been good all week. I know the car is good in race trim. We just have to figure out exactly what happened in those four laps. Got pretty busy in turn four on lap four, so it’s about a four-lap average here unfortunately – not one or not two. We’ll work on it, figure out what’s going on and be better for tomorrow (practice).” NO. 5 PATO O’WARD, ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET:”I think it was positive toward the end of the day. I think we started the day a little confused based on where we had ran yesterday. We fixed it for the afternoon. We improved a few spots, but didn’t have enough for the Fast Nine. Every time you improve a few positions, it is positive. We should look back and be happy with our last run because of the heat. We will start working on the race car now. Excited to see what Arrow McLaren SP and Chevrolet can do next week.” NO. 7 OLIVER ASKEW, ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET: “My first qualifying at the Indianapolis 500 was pretty exciting. First run ended up being our quickest, unfortunately, we weren’t able to go quicker. It looks like we are stuck in 21st right now. Probably the most frightening four laps of my life, but that’s what Indy 500 qualifying is all about. Looking forward to putting the race setup back on, because I feel like Arrow McLaren SP have a much more competitive package in race trim. Looking forward to the rest of the week.”  NO. 12 WILL POWER, VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:“I’m not sure what else we could do out there today, I was wide open the whole time. We will see where we end up and just focus on the race and get back to race mode as a team. We will keep the focus on that for tomorrow’s practice and work on the driveability of our car. This will be the furthest back I’ll probably ever started here, but you can win from anywhere in this race. It will be a long day, but we have a good Verizon 5G Edge Chevrolet. The guys have worked hard and I appreciate the effort. We will continue to work on the racecar and have some fun next weekend.” NO. 14 TONY KANAAN, ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET: “Well, a little bit disappointing. I think we could have been in the top-15 but the car was pretty comfortable. We concentrated a lot on the race setup and the car is actually pretty decent in race trim so just a few more cars to pass but, all in all, the temperature didn’t help us. Of course we would have like to drawn an earlier (qualifying) number but that’s just the luck of the draw, so it is what it is, but we’re ready for next weekend.” NO. 20 ED CARPENTER, U.S. SPACE FORCE ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET:    “Today was a day of mixed emotions. I’m very happy for Rinus and the ECR team for once again prepping fast cars. Chevrolet gave us great power today and we had a chance! We gave it all we had, but at least we have one car in the Fast Nine Shootout. I was really hoping to have the U.S. Space Force car up there, but this is the Indy 500 and you can win from anywhere! That’s still the mission.” NO. 21 RINUS VEEKAY, SONAX ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET: “Pretty good day at the office! I was lucky yesterday with the draw and had a good run this morning. Fourth driver out and I think the temperature really helped us. We put some really good laps down and stayed super consistent. I was kind of shocked by the 231.7 on the first lap. Very pleased with that! Being the only Chevrolet driver in the Fast Nine is also something to feel good about. Tomorrow is another day. It almost feels like the hardest part is over, the waiting is so hard! Tomorrow we can just go and qualify! For the race, everything is going to be different, but we have a good racecar. I’m very confident.” NO. 22 SIMON PAGENAUD, MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:“I wasn’t what we wanted out there at all with the Menards Chevrolet, but this place treats you like she wants to treat you and you have to respect that. We had a perfect experience last year, but this year it is a little harder so we have to work for it. It was an eventful qualifying session for sure. Certainly way too much sliding around, and certainly not fast enough either. If we start where we are, we have a great racecar for the race. What bothers me the most is I wanted a fast time, and at Team Penske, that is what we expect. So we will just have to work on it and make it better for the race next Sunday.” NO. 24 SAGE KARAM, WIX FILTERS DRYER REINBOLD RACING CHEVROLET:“This isn’t what we wanted, obviously. Around lap 2 we ended up blistering a tire and that made the car pretty loose. I just stayed flat (on the throttle) and made the best of it. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough today. We missed the first lap speed because the car didn’t fell off that badly. We wanted a few more mile per hour on lap one. We have started in the back before and worked our way up. We are going to focus on how to make the race car platform better. Our race setup is definitely more comfortable than the qual setup. And our DRR WIX team is real good in the pits as well. I know this race is going to come down to track position. In laps and out laps are going to be huge. Obviously, pit stops are extremely important. I’ve never worried about my pit crew. Despite being an Indy-only crew most of the time, they work year-around on pit stops in the shop. We always pick up positions on pit stops. If we get are in position to improve on the track, I know that the crew will gain us spots in the pits too.” NO.41 DALTON KELLETT,  K-LINE USA AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET:“Alright just finished my first qualifying run at Indy. Really excited, really happy that we got that solid run in. Went off the order third, so the track was nice and cool. The car felt great for all four laps. It was good to get lots of practice in the heat yesterday when it was slippery, moving around but I ended up getting a solid platform for this morning after a couple changes. Looking at the times maybe we could have been a bit more aggressive on our mechanical balance, but we’ve really had the focus this week for the race which is what we’re looking ahead for and devoted most of our time to so I think being conservative in qualifying was always our plan. But very happy to get that run in and looking forward to practice on Sunday.” NO. 47CONOR DALY, U.S. AIR FORCE ED CARPENTER RACING CHEEVROLET: “Not the day we wanted to have here! After yesterday, we knew our car was a challenge to drive in the heat. The time of day where we drew to qualify was quite hot. I had a bit of a loose moment on the last lap, which really didn’t help the four-lap average. We went out later in the day and improved a little bit, but it was just really challenging in the heat. We know the U.S. Air Force Chevy is a going to be a good racecar, though. Ed (Carpenter) and I are starting from the same row and we can definitely move forward from there.” NO. 59 MAX CHILTON, GALLAGHER CARLIN CHEVROLET: “All things considered, I’d say I’m pleased with how our day of qualifying ended. We drew a low number in the draw yesterday, so we didn’t even get out to do our first qualifying run until about two hours into the session when the track was at its hottest. We just didn’t have it on our first run and I’d say we didn’t maximize the setup we had for the conditions at the time of day we were running. We weren’t happy with where we ended up and both the team and myself felt like there was definitely more in the car, so the guys went back and quickly looked through the data to see what direction we needed to go to make another attempt. The guys made some changes to the car and we went back out with about 40 minutes to go in the session, which was obviously the right call as we averaged almost a mile and a half quicker and moved up two spots and into the row ahead of where we’d been. I’ve said it from the beginning, but I really feel that we have a good race car and I’m looking forward to hopefully working my way up to the front.” NO. 66 FERNANDO ALONSO,          RUOFF ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET: “The speed was not there yesterday in practice and today in qualifying. We know that so we just wanted to put in a solid run in for qualifying with no mistakes and execute the best we could. I think we achieved that and I’m happy with that. The No. 66 Ruoff Mortgage Arrow McLaren SP car was feeling great today. I think we have a good race car because the first few days we were on the competitive side. The starting place for the race is not changing our hopes for next Sunday. All our focus now is on the race. This place offers a lot of possibilities even for the people starting at the back and we will be looking to take that possibility next week.” NO. 67 JR HILDEBRAND,  SALESFORCE DRYER REINBOLD RACING CHEVROLET:“I wasn’t psyched about being the last qualifier today. We know how the track gets later in qualifying and, after 115 or 120 degrees track surface, it starts to get really slick out there. We knew that after Friday’s practice in the afternoon and it was 127 on my qualifying run today. The car feels good in race trim but once we started trimming out the car, we have been struggling. It’s a bum draw for sure today. The crew guys have been working super hard to improve our cars throughout practice and qualifying. I felt good about the first lap in the heat with a 228.5 (m.p.h.) but the conditions were different in turns one and two from three and four. I did have a big moment on the second lap in turn one. The focus now is on the race and I feel that our setups are good. We’ll try to improve on some of those settings in Sunday afternoon practice. If we have a good car in the race, we can move up. It’s 500 miles after all.”  NO. 81 BEN HANLEY, DRAGON SPEED USA CHEVROLET                       IANAP

• Marco Andretti fastest as Honda drivers claim top five speeds in first-round qualifying
• Honda drivers claim eight of “Fast Nine” final qualifying positions, 11 of top 12 overall
• Final Qualifying for 104^th Indianapolis 500 takes place Sunday

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (August 15, 2020) –  Honda drivers and teams dominated first-round qualifying today at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  Led by Marco Andretti and the Andretti Autosport team, the manufacturer claimed eight of the fastest nine qualifying runs today, making them eligible for Sunday’s “Fast Nine” shootout to set the first three rows of the starting grid and the coveted pole position for next weekend’s Indianapolis 500.

Led by Marco Andretti’s four-lap run of 231.351 mph, Andretti Autosport drivers swept the first four positions on the provisional grid, with Ryan Hunter-Reay, Alexander Rossi and James Hinchcliffe rounding out the top four.  Championship leader, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Scott Dixon, ended the day fifth after “waving off” a very fast last-minute run.  Rookie Alex Palou was seventh for Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh; while the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing duo of Graham Rahal and Takuma Sato rounded out the “Fast Nine”.  Four different Honda-powered teams will all have at least one driver in tomorrow’s pole shootout.

Despite lining up 28^th [a result of Friday night’s blind qualifying draw] – and therefore with the disadvantage of a far hotter track than his principal opponents – Andretti delivered the first 232mph lap en route to the fastest qualifying run of the day.  Hinchcliffe and Palou also impressed with their runs coming in the less favored heat of mid-afternoon.

Positions 10 through 33 were locked-in today, with Colton Herta, Marcus Ericsson and Spencer Pigot filling out the fourth row of the starting grid for Honda.  Felix Rosenqvist will start in the middle of the fifth row, 14^th, for Chip Ganassi Racing; with Zach Veach in the middle of row six and Meyer Shank Racing’s Jack Harvey in the center of the seventh row.  Santino Ferrucci will start to the inside of Harvey after qualifying 19^th today; while James Davison rounds out the 15-driver Honda field and will start 27^th.

Honda Racing social media content and videos from practice and qualifying from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is available on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/HondaRacingHPD) and on Twitter at (https://twitter.com/HondaRacing_HPD).  Produced by the CoForce Digital Media, YouTube video packages can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV.  

Next

Final qualifying, for today’s nine fastest qualifiers will determine the coveted pole position and set the first three rows of starters for the August 23 Indianapolis 500.  Live television coverage of final qualifying begins on NBC at 1 p.m. EDT Sunday.  Coverage on the NBC Sport Gold app begins at 10 a.m. EDT.

The 104^th running of the Indianapolis 500 takes place on Sunday, August 23, with live television coverage on NBC starting with pre-race festivities at 1 p.m. EDT.

Quotes

Marco Andretti (Andretti Autosport Honda) Fastest in opening-round qualifying today: “Man, when it all comes together, it’s beautiful.  The balance was great. Honda really ‘brought it’ this year, so thanks to them. Now we’ve got to do it one more time tomorrow [in final qualifying for today’s top nine]. “The ‘roll-off’ speed of the Honda, the team and car they put together, has been really impressive.  When you roll off [the transporter] with speed, that’s always the first hurdle at Indianapolis. When you get over that, then it’s about fine tuning and circumstances [such as weather], so hopefully we are on the better end of things.”

Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) Championship leader, fifth fastest today in first-round qualifying: “I didn’t know if our first attempt would be good enough to keep us in the ‘Fast Nine’. We were fairly conservative on balance and overall downforce. As we got through the hotter parts of the day today it got harder for the drivers to hold on to the cars when they were this trimmed out, but we improved from sixth to fifth [with a second run in the afternoon]. I don’t think you want to go fastest today because that means tomorrow you’ll go last in the hottest part of the day. I’m pretty happy though with the PNC Bank and always proud to be powered by Honda.”

Ted Klaus (President, Honda Performance Development) on today’s first-round qualifying results: “Well, we are honestly a little surprised at exactly how things played out today — pleasantly surprised, You’ve got Andretti Autosport, Chip Ganassi Racing, Dale Coyne Racing, and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing all represented [in the Fast Nine].  Our group at HPD always do a great job, so I don’t want to take anything away from them. The high-boost formula has never been run in qualifying [at Indy] and I think IndyCar gets kudos [for introducing it]. We made the car safer with the Aeroscreen, and now we’ve made them faster, which is a win-win. The teams have been very gracious to us this year, saying they’re proud to be powered by Honda; and I just throw it right back at them, that we’re proud to power them. I think the collaboration and cooperation between the teams and HPD –  pushing each other – has been the biggest difference. The result is we’ve been a little bit faster. I think it would be unfair to the teams and how much work they’ve put in to say, ‘It’s just because we found a little power.’ It’s a whole bunch of little things, all stacked on top of each other. It’s definitely satisfying to watch it come to fruition in qualifying.”

Union, KY (August 14, 2020) – Chris Ferguson sits on top of points after the first round of heats at Florence Speedway for the Sunoco North South 100 before rain showers caused the postponement of round two heats.The first heat in round one would see Shane Clanton charge from the third starting spot to take the win.  Mike Marlar, winner of Thursday night’s North-South Shootout, came from the inside of row number three to take the runner-up spot behind Clanton as sixth starting Josh Richards was third. The second heat in round one was a terrific battle for the lead as Chris Ferguson emerged from his seventh starting position to claim the victory. Kent Robinson started from the pole and ran second to Ferguson. First time Florence visitor, Ross Bailes charging from his 10th starting position to claim third at the finish. The third heat in round one would see the first pole sitter claim a win as Tim McCreadie lead all the way for the win. Former Florence Speedway track champion, Jason Jameson ran second with eighth starting Billy Moyer Jr. passing several cars to finish in third. The fourth heat in round one saw LOLMDS Rookie-of-the-Year contender Tyler Bruening take the victory after roaring to the lead on the opening lap. Bruening pulled away for a dominating victory over current LOLMDS Championship Points leader Jimmy Owens, who finished second after starting sixth. Devin Moran advanced two spots during the race to come home in third. The fifth heat in round one would see four-time Series Champion Earl Pearson Jr. lead wire-to-wire to pick up the victory. With his Florence Speedway debut this week, Ricky Thornton Jr. finished second in the final heat of round one. Dale McDowell roared from the inside of row number five to take third spot at the checkers.

Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series 
Race Summary 
Sunoco Race Fuels North/South 100 – presented by Lucas Oil
Friday, August 14th, 2020
Florence Speedway – Union, KY

Penske Race Shocks Round 1 Heat Race #1 Finish: 1. 25-Shane Clanton[3]; 2. 157-Mike Marlar[5]; 3. 14-Josh Richards[6]; 4. 76-Brandon Overton[10]; 5. 32-Bobby Pierce[1]; 6. 25Z-Mason Zeigler[8]; 7. 56C-Colton Horner[7]; 8. 7W-Ricky Weiss[9]; 9. 1G-Devin Gilpin[11]; 10. 11R-Josh Rice[4]; 11. 13W-David Webb[2]

FK Rod Ends Round 1 Heat Race #2 Finish: 1. 22F-Chris Ferguson[7]; 2. 7R-Kent Robinson[1]; 3. 1B-Ross Bailes[10]; 4. 20B-Todd Brennan[5]; 5. 0-Scott Bloomquist[8]; 6. 94M-Jason Miller[6]; 7. 8-Kyle Strickler[4]; 8. 49-Jonathan Davenport[11]; 9. 17D-Zack Dohm[9]; 10. 81E-Tanner English[2]; 11. 79-Kyle Hardy[3]

Simpson Race Products Round 1 Heat Race #3 Finish: 1. 39-Tim McCreadie[1]; 2. 12J-Jason Jameson[3]; 3. 21-Billy Moyer Jr[8]; 4. 11J-Drew Armstrong[2]; 5. 2S-Stormy Scott[6]; 6. 50-Shanon Buckingham[11]; 7. 18D-Daulton Wilson[4]; 8. 17ST-Shannon Thornsberry[5]; 9. 83-Scott James[9]; 10. 21P-Kirk Phillips[10]; 11. 17T-Tim Vance[7]

Ohlins Shocks Round 1 Heat Race #4 Finish: 1. 16-Tyler Bruening[4]; 2. 20-Jimmy Owens[6]; 3. 9-Devin Moran[5]; 4. 1T-Tyler Erb[8]; 5. 71-Hudson O’Neal[7]; 6. 49G-Billy Green[2]; 7. 1M-Connor Meade[1]; 8. 51M-Joey Moriarty[3]; 9. 18L-Trevor Landrum[9]; 10. 33J-Jesse Lay[10]

Sunoco Race Fuels Round 1 Heat #5 Finish: 1. 1-Earl Pearson Jr[1]; 2. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[4]; 3. 17M-Dale McDowell[9]; 4. 40B-Kyle Bronson[8]; 5. 28X-Tyler Carpenter[7]; 6. 22L-Skyller Lewis[10]; 7. 21H-Robby Hensley[5]; 8. 32S-Chad Stapleton[3]; 9. 20C-Tristan Chamberlain[2]; 10. 8A-Curt Addison[6]

CHEVROLET RACING NTT INDYCAR SERIES INDIANAPOLIS 500 INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEEDWAY INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA TEAM CHEVY PRACTICE DAY THREE FAST FRIDAY DRIVER QUOTES AUGUST 14, 2020
DRIVER QUOTES:
NO. 1 JOSEF NEWGARDEN, SHELL V-POWER TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:”Tricky day for us from an ultimate speed standpoint.  I think we still have a good opportunity to show well tomorrow and fight to get in the last part of the fast nine.  I think a pole run will be toough for us, but we have to put ourselves as far forward as possible. Then we have to work in the race car and I think we can make anything happen in the race. I have a lot of confidence in Team Chevy and all of our partners. i think we’ve got what it takes to have a solid performance tomorrow and like I said, put ourselves in good position for the race.”
NO. 3 HELLIO CASTRONEVES, PENNZOIL TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET: “It was a very rough day today for the No. 3 Pennzoil Chevy. We definitely will continue looking at our teammates setups and continue work for tomorrow. We’re going to keep fighting and we’ll see what happens.” NO. 4 CHARLIE KIMBALL, TRESIBA AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET:“Well it’s Fast Friday and that means we get to go fast. It was pretty challenging I think for everybody today. The track temps came up, the ambient temps came up, the wind picked up and when you’re hanging and Indy car out at over 230 miles per hour it’s a handful, it can be around here especially, but the No. 4 Tresiba Chevrolet team here at A.J. Foyt Racing I think did a really good job to maximize the car we had. We had some pretty big challenges early in the day but we made some big improvements and came out better at the end of the day so as a team I think we have a little more confidence going in to tomorrow, but tomorrow’s just the first battle. It’s next Sunday we’re really working towards.” NO. 5 PATO O’WARD, ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET:”Today was even more of step forward than yesterday for the No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet. Today was all about qualifying running to get ready for tomorrow. The goal is obviously going to be to get into the Fast Nine. I think we have made some good changes and we are very happy with where we are at to start the day off tomorrow in qualifying.” NO. 7 OLIVER ASKEW, ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET:”I don’t think we were able to show our true pace today. We did most of our qualifying sims in the heat of the day which isn’t ideal but we expect the conditions to be the same for tomorrow’s qualifying. Really depends on where we get in the random draw for where we go out tomorrow. That’s going to dictate a lot of everyone’s performance for their first run tomorrow in qualifying. I think we rolled out with a really good car this weekend. We haven’t really changed much so that shows all the hard work from the Arrow McLaren SP team is paying off so far. Looking forward to laying it all out tomorrow and showing everyone what we really have.” NO. 12 WILL POWER, VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET: “I think we found a better setup at the end so I feel a little more comfortable going into the first run of qualifying in the Verizon 5G Edge Chevy. It’s going to be very tight. I really hope we can make it into the top nine but there are so many fast cars, it will be difficult.” NO. 14 TONY KANAAN, ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET:“Difficult day. I was really hopeful that yesterday, since we had such a great day, that today with the increasing of boost we were going to be competitive and we struggled today. I think a lot of the teams did, too. I think the temperatures didn’t help but we have a lot of work to do tonight. Still an awesome day to be at the track, still an awesome day to run 230 plus miles per hour. I mean it had been a while that I haven’t done that so, we’ll see what’s going to happen tomorrow. It’s going to be interesting. We have a lot of work to do.”
NO. 20 ED CARPENTER, U.S. SPACE FORCE ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET: “Today was not the day I was hoping for, to be honest. I felt really good yesterday in race setup and with our speed. The conditions were very tough today. I was hoping we were going to be able to contend for the pole in the U.S. Space Force car. I don’t know if that’s in the cars this year, but we’ll certainly give it our best shot. The good thing is Rinus (VeeKay) was fairly happy. Those guys were clearly the best in the ECR stable. He was completing more four-lap runs than I was and was a little quicker too, so we’ll lean on what they did. We’ll put out best foot forward. One thing I do know, conditions are going to be tough tomorrow. I saw a lot of people struggling today and it’s definitely going to come down to the fourth lap. I’m going to rely on my experience and hopefully put us in a pretty good spot, knowing that we still do have a good racecar.”  NO. 21 RINUS VEEKAY, SONAX ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET:“A good day! The SONAX car is doing pretty well in qualifying trim. Most of the best times were this morning, but we actually improved in the hottest part of the day when the track temp was over 130 degrees. I think that shows good speed. We seemed to be one of the most consistent cars out there. I also drew a good starting position. I was super nervous, I haven’t been that nervous in a long time! Qualifying number four! Tomorrow’s going to be different, you never know what’s going to happen. I know one thing, I’m going to have a good car. ECR’s known for that.” NO. 22 SIMON PAGENAUD, MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:”Tough day today. It was really hot and really slick out there. It’s not really showing our pace because we got on track late, and the temperature was already up. I think we have more pace than we are showing on the time charts. Certainly not what we showed in race pace. It is good to have a good car for race day, that is reassuring, but I am going for pole position. I want to be fast and we need to find some speed.” NO. 24   SAGE KARAM, WIX FILTERS DRYER REINBOLD RACING CHEVROLET:“Conditions deteriorated as the day went on. But it’s the same for everyone and Saturday looks to be similar weather. Looks like Honda rolled out a pretty good unit for qualifying. I still feel really good about our race pace right now. I know Chevy will do everything they can overnight, but it looks like the Honda cars might have a bit of an edge right now. From our perspective, I feel very good about how the team has worked together. Sage and I have been communicating well too. We haven’t found the ‘sweet’ spot for qualifying and we’ll try some things in the morning. It will be tough for everyone and I will try to stick the best number I can when it’s my turn.” NO.41 DALTON KELLETT, K-LINE USA AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET: “Just finished up my first Fast Friday. I feel like I can finally breathe now. It was a long day of qualifying runs. Felt like we have a pretty good car in us for the four lap average. We played around with various trim levels and we were working on mechanical balance, so I think we’ve got a good compromise between outright speed and also just having the car for the entire four laps. It’s my first time going into qualifying at Indy. With my previous experience in (Indy) Lights in the Road to Indy it’s only two laps for qualifying so that four lap run does feel like it takes a long time and you really have to work your tools, work your weight jacker during the run to stay ahead of whichever way the car is going but the team’s been doing a good job and we drew third for qualifying order tomorrow so looking forward to getting on track early.” NO. 47 CONOR DALY, U.S. AIR FORCE ED CARPENTER RACING CHEEVROLET: “Results wise, today looks great. We’ve had a really consistent week up front in the Top 10, which is nice. Today was a struggle though, for sure, especially in the afternoon. It’s tough to see where each engine manufacturer ended up and who had what in the chamber. We’re obviously going to work with our Chevrolet guys and give it the best shot we can. Hopefully, we can all put our heads together and come up with something great for tomorrow. We want to give the U.S. Air Force car a good run!” NO. 59 MAX CHILTON, GALLAGHER CARLIN CHEVROLET:“It was another day of our speed not properly reflecting where we feel we are in terms of the time charts. The guys did a great job getting a new engine in the No. 59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet late in the day yesterday and because of that we had to spend most of the morning, which was when the track was at its quickest, shaking the car down and working through our setup. Once it got so much hotter later in the afternoon, we just couldn’t get the car where we wanted it no matter what changes we made. We found a little more speed again at the end of the day and were able to close out the session on a decently high note, but just with all of the variables going against us we weren’t able to show the true speed of the car.” NO. 66 FERNANDO ALONSO, RUOFF ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET: “Today was a good day. I think after yesterday’s issue, the team did a very good job overnight and the car was ready in the morning. So, we maximized the number of laps we had available today and the number of sets. Because we saved some in the previous day so we had more today so it was a very good test day for us today and useful information. Let’s see tomorrow what the speed of the car is.” NO. 67 JR HILDEBRAND, SALESFORCE DRYER REINBOLD RACING CHEVROLET:“Conditions deteriorated as the day went on. But it’s the same for everyone and Saturday looks to be similar weather. Looks like Honda rolled out a pretty good unit for qualifying. I still feel really good about our race pace right now. I know Chevy will do everything they can overnight, but it looks like the Honda cars might have a bit of an edge right now. From our perspective, I feel very good about how the team has worked together. Sage and I have been communicating well too. We haven’t found the ‘sweet’ spot for qualifying and we’ll try some things in the morning. It will be tough for everyone and I will try to stick the best number I can when it’s my turn.” NO. 81 BEN HANLEY, DRAGON SPEED USA CHEVROLET         

• Marco Andretti quickest in final full practice day prior to Indianapolis 500 qualifying
• Honda drivers claim nine of top ten lap speeds in “Fast Friday” session
• Qualifying for 104^th Indianapolis 500 begins Saturday

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (August 14, 2020) – The final full day of practice prior to qualifying action this weekend saw Honda drivers claim nine of the top-ten speeds in “Fast Friday” action at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with Marco Andretti leading the field with a best lap of 233.491 mph.

The combination of cool morning temperatures and increased turbocharger boost for qualifying resulted in a dramatic increase in speeds, with 22 of the 33 drivers topping 230 mph during the day.  Scott Dixon made an impressive late-afternoon qualifying simulation run to vault to third on overall speed and second in the “no tow” list of single-car runs.

Heading the “no tow” list was Ryan Hunter-Reay, who also posted the fourth-fastest overall speed, 232.124 mph, a lap during a simulated qualifying run in the cooler late-morning temperatures.  Spencer Pigot rounded out the top five for Honda, while Alex Palou was once again the quickest rookie, and sixth fastest overall.

Behind the top six, Honda drivers also claimed the seventh through 10^th overall positions as well. James Hinchcliffe ended the day seventh, followed by Takuma Sato, Alexander Rossi and Marcus Ericsson.  On the “no tow” speed chart, the fastest six today included Hunter-Ray, Dixon, Rossi, Andretti, Ericsson and Hinchcliffe.

Honda Racing social media content and videos from practice and qualifying from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is available on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/HondaRacingHPD) and on Twitter at (https://twitter.com/HondaRacing_HPD).  Produced by the CoForce Digital Media, YouTube video packages can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV.  

Next

Qualifying, to set the 33-car starting field for the August 23 Indianapolis 500, will take place tomorrow and Sunday, with live television coverage on NBC at 3 p.m. EDT Saturday and 1 p.m. EDT Sunday.  Coverage on the NBC Sport Gold app begins at 11 a.m. EDT on Saturday, and 10 a.m. EDT Sunday.

Quotes

Marco Andretti (Andretti Autosport Honda) Fastest in practice today: “Fast Friday was good, especially with the top speed of the day, thanks to a great effort from Honda and the whole U.S. Concrete/Curb team. We seem to be looking good on ‘no-tow’ speeds as well [4^th].  Although we still have a few things to work out. I wanted to end the day with [faster] runs than we did.  But we just need to nail tomorrow and the #98 car has enough speed for the Fast Nine [to be eligible for Sunday’s pole qualifying session].” 

Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) Third fastest today: “I hope things keep going in this direction. I’m always proud to be powered by Honda and HPD, and hope this is some indication that we have the upper hand on power this year. It’s always tough here at Indy, and the race is obviously where it counts. The PNC Bank car is good right now and we’re trying to get some more balance, so that’s kind of where we’re at. We were second or third most the day on the no-tow speed report for outright speed, so we hope that ends up holding true.”

TEAM CHEVY ADVANCE GO BOWLING 235 AT THE DAYTONA ROAD COURSE DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA AUGUST 16, 2020
RACE #23 – DAYTONA BEACH, FLFor the first time in the history of the NASCAR Cup Series (NCS), the inaugural Go Bowling 235 at the Daytona Road Course is set to debut on Sunday, August 16th at the famed Daytona International Speedway (DIS). It becomes the 23rd of 36 races on the NCS 2020 circuit.
The event was positioned in lieu of the original road course date at Watkins Glen International in upstate New York, which was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The historic road racing weekend, Aug. 14-16, begins on Friday, August 14 with the ARCA Menards Series race at 5:00 p.m. ET, followed by the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at 3:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, August 15, and is capped with a Sunday doubleheader on August 16, featuring NASCAR’s RV & Outdoors Truck Series at 12:00 p.m. ET and the Go Bowling 235 NASCAR Cup Series feature race at 3:00 p.m. ET.
While the 65-lap Go Bowling 235 will run on the same road course layout as the Rolex 24 At Daytona, North America’s premier race for sports cars, it will feature an added twist. The traditional ribbon of asphalt out of Turn 4 will sport a new chicane that transforms the design into a 14-turn, 3.61-mile, high-banked tri-oval/infield road course, which is unique to all motorsports. With NASCAR having curtailed practice sessions during the COVID-19 pandemic, the racing promises to be exciting and intense.
BOWTIE BULLETSAlthough the Daytona Road Course is uncharted territory for the competitors, and there are no prior statistics, Chevrolet has shown success at other road courses currently on the NCS tour with a total of 31 victories, more than any other manufacturer:           Watkins Glen International – 2.45-mile, 7-turn road course = 19 Wins           Sonoma Raceway – 2.52-mile, 12-turn road course = 11 Wins           Charlotte Roval – 2.28-mile, 17-turn road course = 1 win
Current active Chevy drivers with road course wins include:Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 1LE = Two wins at Watkins Glen (2018, ’19), and one at the Charlotte Roval (2019)Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1 1LE = One win at Sonoma Raceway (2011)Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1 1LE = One win at Sonoma Raceway (2010)
Road Course Records:Chase Elliott remains the youngest road-course winner (22 years, 8 months, 8 days) of all time in the NCS. If he wins at the Daytona Road Course on Sunday, Elliott will become the most recent driver with three consecutive road-course race wins.
Chevrolet driver, Jeff Gordon, holds the record for most consecutive road-course wins with six (1997-2000).
PLAYOFF PICTURE:With 22 races in the books and just four left in the regular season, the chase to making the Playoff cutline is on. The top-16 in the standings at the end of the regular season will have a chance to compete for the title of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series Champion. As the points stand heading to Daytona weekend, five slots in the top 16 in the standings are occupied by Team Chevy drivers. 5th      Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 1LE8th      Alex Bowman, No. 88 Axalta Camaro ZL1 1LE9th      Austin Dillon, No. 3 American Ethanol Camaro ZL1 1LE13th     Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1 1LE16th     William Byron, No. 24 Liberty University Camaro ZL1 1LE           Three Team Chevy Camaro ZL1 1LE drivers have secured their spots in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs with wins captured this season so far: Alex Bowman’s win at Auto Club Speedway, Chase Elliott’s victory at Charlotte Motor Speedway and Austin Dillon’s recent trip to victory lane at Texas Motor Speedway.
TAKING THE GREEN:The starting line-up procedure has been adjusted by NASCAR for the remainder of the 2020 season. A combination of finishing position from the previous race (weighted 50%), rank in team owner points standings (35%) and the fastest lap from the previous race (15%) are used to set the lineup at each race.  Here are Team Chevy’s top-20 starters:
7th       Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 1LE8th       Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1 1LE10th     Austin Dillon, No. 3 American Ethanol Camaro ZL1 1LE11th     Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1 1LE13th     William Byron, No. 24 Liberty University Camaro ZL1 1LE16th     Matt Kenseth, No. 42 Clover Camaro ZL1 1LE18th     Tyler Reddick, No. 8 Cat App Camaro ZL1 1LE19th     Bubba Wallace, No. 43 Victory Junction Camaro ZL1 1LE
TUNE-IN:NBC will telecast the 65-lap, 3.61-mile Go Bowling 235 at Daytona International Speedway live at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, August 16th. Live coverage can also be found on the NBC Sports Gold app, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
QUOTABLE QUOTES:
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 5th in Standings:“I am super excited just to go somewhere new. Obviously, I’ve enjoyed Watkins Glen these past couple of years. We have a new challenge ahead with the DAYTONA Road Course. I think the biggest thing is not having any practice. I think it is going to be exciting but it’s also going to be really hard for the guys that have never made a lap there before. I think it’s going to give a pretty big advantage to those who’ve run the 24-hour race and have made any laps on that track. I’ve never made a lap. I don’t even know what turns are where. I’m going to get on iRacing and try and make some laps just to familiarize myself with the track. I’ve watched the 24-hour race, but I’ve never really paid a ton of attention to it. It’s going to be really difficult for people like me who have never seen it.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 10th in Standings:“With unprecedented times here in 2020, I think the call from NASCAR to make this unprecedented move is brilliant. With Watkins Glen not able to host a race in upstate New York, and to have the road course available for us down in Daytona; with no practice and no qualifying and just jumping straight into the race, why not? We’ve done everything in 2020 so far to overcome all these hurdles. I think the fun-factor this weekend has got everybody’s anxiety-level up; but also the challenge that’s right in front of us because it’s basically a wild card-style race, where you could see a driver and a team that don’t normally make the Playoffs, punch their ticket.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 11th in Standings:“The good thing about this weekend is that none of the drivers really know what to expect. It is really more of a level playing field. We have been in the simulator this week just trying to learn more about the configuration and speeds in the corners. I think we have some strengths that we can bring from the ‘roval,’ so we just need to capitalize on that on Sunday.”
GREG IVES, CREW CHIEF, NO. 88 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 10th in Standings:“We are preparing the best way we know how for the DAYTONA road course. It is going to be strange, but we are doing the same thing we did when we were preparing to go to the ‘roval’ for the first time. We went into that race thinking there would be a lot of cautions, especially going into Turn 1 for the first time, but everything was good. Main difference here is at the ‘roval’, we had practice.”
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 14th in Standings:Byron on racing at the Daytona road course:“I am a bit more optimistic on how this race is going to turn out. I was at Daytona for the 24-hour race this past year. I feel like even that time gives me a good idea of what the track looks like and what the car needs to feel like based on the things I heard and saw. I know some guys have made laps on that road course in sports cars, which may give them a bit of an advantage. There are simulation tools though that I can use to prepare and get better for this race. I’m just really excited about this race overall.” Byron on his style of road course racing:“When it comes to road course racing, I feel like I try to find a nice balance between aggression and consistency. When I need to make fast laps, I am super aggressive by using the curbs, getting as much as I can out of the apex of the corners and using aggressive braking to pass guys. Once the race kind of goes on and the pace mellows out though, I settle in and work more on consistency lap after lap. If you just constantly push, push, push, it is extremely hard on the tires. You have to push when you’re trying to pass someone and then set your own pace from there.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 16th in Standings:“I am so excited for this weekend at Daytona. I have a lot of reps (repetitions) and a couple thousand miles on this on this track from competing in the seven Rolex races I’ve been able to compete in, and I also did a July 4th six-hour race there – so bring it on. The challenges of this track – there will be some really high speeds and then the chicane off of four will change that to some degree. It’s going to be a balance of aero efficiency on the straightaways and mechanical grip for the tight little infield section. It’s going to be really interesting for those who have never taken a lap on this track. “I hope we can make something happen over the next four races and get into the playoffs. I’m very optimistic we can make something happen. I will know if I don’t make the playoffs that I left it all on the track, this team gives 100% and we can all sleep at night knowing that.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 AMERICAN ETHANOL CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 17th in Standings:“I’ve been working on the simulator to prepare for the race. We’ve all been putting a lot of hours in leading up to the race. It’s an American Ethanol race and I can’t wait to get out there in that green number three car. I think it will be interesting having NASCAR Cup Series cars out on the track. It will be good to get to see the NASCAR Truck Series and the NASCAR Xfinity Series on the track before us so we can see how rubber gets laid down and where speed is made. There’s also a little section on the back that’s not there for the 24 Hours of Daytona race. It’s a chicane that you approach when you come off of Turn 4. You have to get slowed up really quick for it before the start finish line. It all starts in Turn 1. Obviously, blending into the area right past the area where we would normally be leaving pit road if we were competing on the oval configuration that we are all used to. You’ve got a sharp left there, a quick back and forth and then to another hard right-hander. That slow section through the middle of the track is going to be really key, I think. The cars that get through that the best are going to be your best cars of the weekend. Also getting onto the big track in Turns 1 and 2 seems to be where a ton of the speed is carried since that is the longest straightaway.
“I’m looking forward to the race. Some of the guys are going to have a little bit of an advantage because they’ve raced there before, but a lot of us have not and it will be a fun test. We’re just going to go out there and give it our all and see what we come up with. It seems like a really fun road course compared to what we usually run. It’s kind of spread out. There’s a lot of left-hand turns, which I like because that’s what I’m used to. So, we will get there and take what it gives us.”
TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 CAT APP CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 18th in Standings:Knowing that NASCAR has not run on Daytona International Speedway’s road course before, how are you preparing for the weekend?“I’m very excited about the possibility this weekend brings for me and the No. 8 Cat App team. I’ve been taking advantage of Chevrolet’s simulator they have available to us to help get familiar with the course and start learning where passes could potentially be made on Sunday. The Chevy simulator has helped me a lot with road courses in the past. That has always been a style of racing I’ve found challenging, but I think that by using the simulator a lot last year, I was a lot closer to where I wanted to be heading into those weekends. I’m hoping to reach the same level of preparation this year by just making lap after lap on the simulator and practice hitting my marks every time. I’ve also leaned a lot on AJ Allmendinger again. He has worked with my crew chief, Randall Burnett, a lot in the past, and he helped me a lot last year too with the road courses. Randall also has a really good idea on how to set up our Chevrolets for road courses, so I’m confident he has a plan on where he wants the car to be before we even reach the track this weekend. But overall, I’m really looking forward to this weekend. There is just a lot of possibility out there to make up points on the other drivers we’re in the Playoff bubbles with, and we’ll need to capitalize on that.”
BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 VICTORY JUNCTION CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 20th in Standings:With road courses, you guys like a lot of creature comforts in there that are different than the ovals. Can you explain how you’re going to get to that without having any laps on track, and really feel like you’re ready to race when the green goes?“I don’t know if any of us are going to feel like we are ready to race the DAYTONA Road Course. It is going to be an exciting race for sure. I am glad our Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE is not on the front row for this one to drive-off in there and find my marks. And, I don’t want to be like Brad (Keselowski) at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval two years ago and overshoot the corner. We just have to be mindful. This is the most time I have spent preparing for a road course and going to the SIM. I’m actually heading-up to jump on the SIM immediately after this press conference. I am preparing myself for as much as I can to be ready for putting corners together. It’s crazy how, just from watching the 24 Hours of Daytona, you learn which way this track goes. Obviously, turning left immediately after the start/finish line, and going through the infield there. Then you visualize, like man, I used to park here in the road course parking lot. So, it’s going to be cool to racing all around that. It will be exciting for the fans. But again, I have tried to spend so much time prepping for this; so hopefully it works out for Richard Petty Motorsports in the end.” We were supposed to be at Watkins Glen International this weekend. What’s your take on not going to The Glen this year?“I’m alright with it. It has not been one of my best race tracks. But I think this, with everything going on with COVID-19, I know NASCAR has been up to their necks in trying to figure-out what the schedule is going to be. I definitely don’t envy them right now. But kudos to them for coming-up with an alternative. And it’s something new. It’s new for NASCAR. I know the road course has been around for years and years. We have been able to watch that on TV right before our season kick-off at Daytona (International Speedway). For us to go in there with no practice, I remember when I was asked ‘we need a solid answer if you’re okay with no practice.’ And I was like, okay, what does everybody else think about this? The final verdict was no practice. Drive-off into Turn 1 and figure-out where you go after that. It will be cool. It’ll be a different alternative to definitely have fans tune-in for that and to be able to watch all the action on NBC. None of us really know what to expect. But, to have a good race and try to continue on momentum from there. Like I said earlier, I have prepped a lot; a lot more than I have in the past to be good here and be successful here. Hopefully it goes hand-in-hand.” TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO FOR YOUR BOAT CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 27th in Standings:What is your outlook going into the Daytona Road Course for the first time?“I’ve always felt really good going to road courses, especially in the Truck and Xfinity Series. Sonoma and Watkins Glen have been tougher to adapt to in the Cup Series, because there is so much experience by teams at those tracks. So anytime we go to a new place or specifically a new road course, I welcome the challenge where we are all in the same unique situation.”
Have you been able to prepare for the chicane at all?“It will definitely be challenging to adapt to that corner. I’ve spent time on the simulator these past couple of weeks, so while we don’t know what it will feel like in an actual race car, that gets our GEICO team as close as we can. But then again, everything is new, so it’s just a matter of managing your day and not getting yourself in trouble early. You need to be able to attack the corners and go for it at the end of the race. It’s going to be a race full of adapting. Some guys will pick it up quickly based on experience and then some drivers will hopefully learn throughout and be in contention by the end.”
MATT KENSETH, NO. 42 CLOVER CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 28th in Standings:“With the Daytona Road Course coming up, there are a lot of unknowns. A lot of people have never raced there before. Some of us have raced there, but it’s been many, many years ago, and a lot of things have changed since then; plus, a different chicane coming off Turn 4. So, we’ve been using the Chevrolet simulator a lot just to go out and get some reference points and try to get somewhat of a feel for it and get some good visuals, and kind of know where the corners are and the braking zones and some of the tough spots and all that. So, I think all the Chevy drivers have been there quite a bit to try and get a feel for it. Hopefully that’ll give us a little head start on getting there and hopefully make us more competitive when they drop the green flag.”

UNION, KY (August 13, 2020) – Mike Marlar passed race leader Brandon Overton on the final lap to win Thursday Night’s Sunoco North-South Shootout at Florence Speedway. Marlar’s late race dramatics earned him his first Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series win of the season. He became the 16th different driver to win on the tour this year. Overton finished .529 seconds behind Marlar at the checkers. Zack Dohm closed on the top two in the final laps to take third with Jimmy Owens and Tim McCreadie completing the top five drivers. In a race slowed by only one caution flag, Owens was dominate for most of the race until Overton and Marlar caught him with five laps to go. Overton squeezed by to take the lead on lap 47 but a daring last lap pass propelled Marlar by Overton to pick up his first-ever late model victory at Florence. Marlar was elated in Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the 14th time in his career. “I knew there was a little patch around the outside and I didn’t want to do a crossover move. I was afraid we would rub, and I really didn’t want to pass him [Overton] down there like that. With the way everybody was racing there at the end I just took advantage of what was happening. We rubbed a little bit earlier in the race. You never want that stuff to happen. It was an awesome race.” “We took off a little bit there in the spring, but have been back for about a month now. I have to thank my car owner Ronnie Delk and my crew guys, Josh and Jerry and Little Brian with Integra Shocks and Derek and Nick Jones with Rockets Convenience Fuels. We have always enjoyed coming to Florence. We have run second so many times here in a late model. We’ve had success in a modified at Florence but have never won here in a late model. When you race with the Lucas Oil Series it’s the best competition in the country. Racing is a humbling sport and whenever you win it is always nice.” Overton came up just short of his fourth LOLMDS win of the season. “I had a tire going down at the end.  That was just good hard racing with Mikey, yes we rubbed a little bit, but we were both going for the win.  We changed a lot on the car from last night. We haven’t run with these Lucas tire rules for a while it’s totally different than what we have been used to recently. We really picked it up tonight and we came close.” Dohm ended up rounding out the podium in Victory Lane. “I wish we had about ten more laps. We’re going to get one of these Lucas Oil races soon if we keep running like we have. This Longhorn Chassis has been spot on. We have been able to pick up some good wins recently and we would like to get that big check on Saturday for sure.” The winner’s Rocket Chassis is powered by a Cornett Racing Engine and sponsored by Delk Equipment Sales, Rockets Convenience Plus, Brucebilt Performance, PPM Racing Products, and Can-Am Automotive. Completing the top ten were Josh Richards, Stormy Scott, Tyler Erb, Dale McDowell, and Josh Rice.

• Scott Dixon, Honda lead the second day of practice for next weekend’s race
• Takuma Sato, Marco Andretti complete top three sweep for Honda
• Honda drivers led by Jack Harvey also dominate “no tow” speeds

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (August 13, 2020) – Taking advantage of a healthy “tow” from several cars on track ahead of him, Scott Dixon took his Chip Ganassi Racing Honda to the top of the time sheets Thursday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the final hour of practice for next weekend’s Indianapolis 500.  Dixon became the first driver this week to top 226 mph as speeds increased around the famed 2.5-mile Brickyard oval with his one-lap speed of 226.102 mph.

After leading the way for most of the day, Takuma Sato ended second quickest at 225.693 mph, with Marco Andretti rounding out the top three for Honda and Andretti Autosport with a lap of 225.249 mph.  Alex Palou led the rookie contingent and ended the day fifth overall with a speed of 224.971 in his Dale Coyne Racing with Team Goh Honda.  Colton Herta made it five Honda drivers in the top six with a best lap of 224.648 mph.

Jack Harvey ran 13^th-overall with a speed of 223.828 mph in his Meyer Shank Racing Honda, but led the field in “no tow” speed, for laps without cars in front to assist straight-line speed.  His lap of 222.124 mph led another Honda sweep of fastest “no tow” speeds, with Colton Herta second at 221.895 mph and his Andretti Autosport teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay third at 221.777 mph.  Fastest in opening day practice on Wednesday, James Hinchcliffe posted the fifth-fastest no tow lap of 221.241 mph.

Honda Racing social media content and videos from practice and qualifying from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway will be available on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/HondaRacingHPD) and on Twitter at (https://twitter.com/HondaRacing_HPD).  Produced by the CoForce Digital Media, YouTube video packages can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/HondaRacingHPDTV.  

Next

Practice activities at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway continue tomorrow with “Fast Friday”, the final full day of practice prior to qualifying on Saturday and Sunday, to set the field of 33 starters for the August 23 Indianapolis 500.

Quotes

Scott Dixon (Chip Ganassi Racing Honda) Fastest in practice today: “We had a pretty decent day.  We kind of got lost at the start, but we think we found the issue with that.  Once we came back on track around mid-day, the PNC Honda was really fast, and a lot easier to drive.  It also seems to be pretty good in traffic.  Tomorrow the [turbocharger] boost gets turned up [for the final day of practice and qualifying] and it’s going to be a big jump.  I expect to see some pretty big speeds tomorrow, especially in tows.  Everyone will be trying to get a clean [no traffic or tow] lap [to simulate qualifying conditions], but that’s going to be tough to find.”

Takuma Sato (Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing Honda) 2^nd fastest: “I think I’m pretty happy going into ‘Fast Friday’ tomorrow. We have a strong Honda engine, so if you can have a good [chassis] balance, then you can trim [downforce] and gain a lot of lap speed. But it will be highly unlikely you can trim [the downforce] all the way down. I expect now we’ll go at least the same speed, or faster, than last year into Turn One. It’s going to be challenging.”

CHEVROLET RACING NTT INDYCAR SERIES INDIANAPOLIS 500 INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEEDWAY INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA TEAM CHEVY PRACTICE DAY TWO RECAP WITH DRIVER QUOTES AUGUST 13, 2020INDIANAPOLISINDIANAPOLIS – Day two of practice for the 104^th running of the Indianapolis 500 has been competed as the 17 Chevy powered cars worked on their race asetups. With Fast Friday next on the schedule, the focus will turn to qualifying as the boost is upped to the level utilized on Saturday and Sunday qualifying to set the starting line-up. Unfortunately, there was one on-track single car incident. Fernando Alonso made contact with the wall with less that two hours left in practice. The team will have a car prepped and ready to go on Friday for the two-time Formula One champion. Until the incident, Alonso was the fastest Chevy for the second consecutive day.
Practice continues from 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Friday for all drivers, with live coverage on INDYCAR Pass on NBC Sports Gold. Cars will receive increased turbocharger boost – generating extra horsepower and higher speeds – on “Fast Friday” practice in preparation for Crown Armed Forces Qualifying Weekend on Saturday and Sunday, which will set the field for the race Sunday, Aug. 23. DRIVER QUOTES:NO. 1 JOSEF NEWGARDEN, SHELL V-POWER TEAM PENSKE” CHEVROLET:“”It was another good day. No drama, which is good. This place is all about keeping up with the schedule. It is very easy to get lost running so many miles, so many sets of tires. The Shell car is pretty fast. Team Chevy has done a great job for us o far. I am excited to turn up the boost tomorrow. To see how fast we can go. That’s where we have to shift our focus. These first two days were about the race. Tomorrow is about qualifying. We will see how we are there.” NO. 3 HELLIO CASTRONEVES, PENNZOIL TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:“It was another great day of developing the No. 3 Pennzoil Chevy. We worked again on the race setup and running a bit more in traffic. We feel great. We feel really strong. We know tomorrow there’s going to be a lot more horsepower and so we will turn our focus to that so when we get to Saturday we are ready.” NO. 4 CHARLIE KIMBALL, TRESIBA AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET:“Solid day of work here at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I think we still have some things to work on on the race car as well as getting ready for qualifying. Tomorrow we get more horsepower, more boost and get ready for Fast Friday and qualifying, but the first two days have gone really well. Really pleased with the Tresiba Chevy crew for AJ Foyt Racing. These guys have done a great job preparing the car and continuing to keep it up to spec, so I feel really positive going into the weekend as well as next weekend.” NO. 5 PATO O’WARD, ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET:“I think today we made some really good strides. We’ve been really working on the race car, and we have made some very good, positive improvements. I think it was a good day knowledge-wise for me and setup-development for race day. Tomorrow is Fast Friday, so time to turn up the engines and see how fast Arrow McLaren SP and Team Chevy can go.” NO. 7 OLIVER ASKEW, ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET:“We are still building up to it. We ended up top 10 on the timing board, but that doesn’t really mean anything to us. Those are just tow laps that people get. The most important thing is that the car feels good in traffic. I think we have a good baseline now. I’m looking forward to qualifying trim tomorrow, the extra boost. We are completely in qualifying mode now. We can look back on the experience today when we put the race setup back on Sunday afternoon. Ultimately on Friday, I think it is a really important day to put finishing touches on the car. I’m very confident that Arrow McLaren SP and everyone on the engineering staff is going to look at all the data and make sure we have the best possible package on race day.” NO. 12 WILL POWER , VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:“We went through a few different philosphies and changes. I think we’re in a good spot. I look forward to getting out there tomorrow and seeing how we are speed-wise for qualifying to see where we stack up. We’re going to run qualifying runs tomorrow for the Verizon 5G Edge Chevy and will just keep working at it to find more speed.” NO. 14 TONY KANAAN, ABC SUPPLY AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET: “It was a good day. I mean we were trying to find the perfect balance for the perfect race car which – finding perfection – it’s tough sometimes, so we made big changes. Changes that take an hour, an hour and a half to go back and forth and if they go right, it’s good but if they go wrong, you don’t have time to go back and it’s one of those days. But I was pretty pleased with our basic setup. We’re just trying to reach the next level so that’s in the books now. We’re going concentrate for qualifying tomorrow and Saturday then we’ll go back and revisit on Sunday. SO now it’s turning on to qualifying mode and see what’s going to happen tomorrow.”
NO. 20 ED CARPENTER, U.S. SPACE FORCE ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET:“All in all, it was a much better day than yesterday! It was one of those day where you almost need to ignore the speed charts when everyone is getting a big tow to put up a number. We made a lot of progress on race running with how I feel in traffic and doing long runs. That was productive. Still not totally sure what speed we have in the U.S. Space Force Chevrolet, but we’ll sort that out tomorrow! There’s room for improvement, but overall I’m pleased with the progress from yesterday to today. We’re heading in the right direction!”        NO. 21 RINUS VEEKAY, SONAX ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET: “We had a really good second day of practice! We got in a lot of real traffic running before Fast Friday. I’m looking forward to that! Extra power! The SONAX Chevy felt really good. Yesterday, I was fast on my own but struggled a little bit in traffic. Today, we ended the day on a high. It felt amazing. I could really pass people and move my way through the pack. The ECR team made incredible progress. We’re strong, we’ll see how tomorrow goes!” NO. 22 SIMON PAGENAUD, MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET:“It was a great day. We went through a roller coaster of emotions when we couldn’t get the balance the way we wanted. We reset ourselves to where we were happy and then made a slight adjustment with it and I am extremely happy now. We had a great run in traffic – a good run and it feels like it should feel. So I am very excited for race day. I know other people will catch up, but we are ahead of the program right now. That is a big positive. I am super happy to represent the team well with the equipment I have. That is where I wanted to be today.” NO. 24 SAGE KARAM, WIX FILTERS DRYER REINBOLD RACING CHEVROLET:“We tried some changes overnight and some things worked but others didn’t. We had a good car Wednesday when we finished up. And we went back to those settings in the middle of the day. And then made more changes in the right direction. The WIX Filters Chevy felt good at the end today. We didn’t get to do everything we wanted to today, but the car felt strong on that last run. We weren’t concerned about lap times today. We didn’t get in big drafts, just got comfortable in the race car. On Friday, we’ll crank in more boost and power for qualifying. It will be interesting on Friday with the extra horsepower. Fast Friday is a day that a lot of the drivers aren’t too sure about with their cars. Since we started today with certain settings, we didn’t get to complete all of the changes we wanted. We’ll probably work on those changes on Friday morning and then move onto qualifying setups. Overall, I’m happy with the direction of the race car.” NO.41 DALTON KELLETT, K-LINE USA AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET: “We had a great day working on our race setup. We’ve just been chipping away slowly at how we want the balance and downforce level to be for race running. At the end we did a couple long runs and keeping with the pack. The car feels pretty racy, feels pretty quick. I think across the three teams everyone’s pretty happy so all in all I’m pleased with how the day went. We didn’t do any qualifying runs, we’re saving that for tomorrow so we’ll have to see how it goes when we crank up the boost and trim things out tomorrow. It’s going to be exciting. Looking forward to my first Fast Friday!” NO. 47 CONOR DALY,U.S. AIR FORCE ED CARPENTER RACING CHEEVROLET:“Today was another step forward for us. Cole (Pearn, engineer) and I are figuring out what I need and what he wants to do. We’re definitely close to where we want to be, but that becomes a difficult area to work in. Cole doesn’t have the experience yet and I really don’t have the experience to know exactly what we need. We’re trying to mess around with some things and figure out what we can do next to make it even better. I like where the U.S. Air Force Chevy is at. It’s fast. We don’t want to out-engineer ourselves, we’re going to keep our heads on straight and keep on trucking.” NO. 59 MAX CHILTON,GALLAGHER CARLIN CHEVROLET:”We started out our second day of testing for the Indianapolis 500 fairly strong. We were one of the first cars out on track when practice opened this morning and we had some really solid no-tow times, but we had an engine issue after about an hour of running that greatly reduced our time on track. We went back to the garage and had to change the engine, but the guys did a great job getting the No. 59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet back out this afternoon before the session ended. Even with the issues today, the car felt really good when we went back out at the end of the day and I’m actually feeling pretty good about where we are heading into Fast Friday.” NO. 66  FERNANDO ALONSO, RUOFF ARROW MCLAREN SP CHEVROLET:ALONSO WAS INVOLVED IN A SINGLE CAR INCIDENT LATE IN PRACTICE: “We just lost the grip of the car and at this place, the walls are very close. Just the way it is, unfortunately it happened again today. Hopefully it just happens today and not on Sunday, August 23. You learn every lap you do around this track and we will learn from this one. Hopefully tomorrow we can start again. It has been going okay, more or less, so far this week so hopefully we can keep it up the good work and have no more issues. I didn’t check but it shouldn’t be too bad. I will rely on the Arrow McLaren SP team and we will be fine.” NO. 67 JR HILDEBRAND, SALESFORCE DRYER REINBOLD RACING CHEVROLET:“There was a lot of stuff for us to get through in just one day. We might check back in on a couple of things in the morning before moving towards our qualifying setups. Additional added turbo boost will throw some wrinkles in the items for Friday. I think if the conditions are good, cooler, I think the speeds will be really high. The weather looks a little dodgy for Friday. All in all, I feel really good about the way the guys have the car going. It’s not easy with our little two-car draft compared to Andretti with six or seven cars together. But we knew we needed to be smart today with the proper things we worked on. We know we have a little bit more to work on and there were not many cars that could drive around people today. That might be the expectation for the race too. The strategies might be go fast early on a stint and then hold on or take a consistent run through a whole stint. I’m not sure how you handle it right now. With the August heat conditions, the new aeroscreen and the new Firestone compounds, there are a lot of variables right now. But we’ll learn more throughout the weekend. I feel pretty good right now with the race settings.” NO. 81 BEN HANLEY,DRAGON SPEED USA CHEVROLET