CHEVROLET RACING IN NTT INDYCAR SERIESGENESYS 300TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAYFT. WORTH, TEXASTEAM CHEVY PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPTJUNE 3, 2020
THE MODERATOR: Good morning, everybody. Welcome to the first of today’s video conferences with participants from the NTT INDYCAR SERIES. INDYCAR is holding these in advance of the Genesys 300, which takes place Saturday night at Texas Motor Speedway. The race will be on at 8:00 p.m. on NBC. We’re pleased to be joined this morning by the president of Team Penske, Tim Cindric. Tim, welcome to the call.
TIM CINDRIC: Good morning, guys.
THE MODERATOR: Tim, starting the season a few weeks later than we had hoped to in March, what kind of unique challenges has Team Penske faced as they get ready for the Genesys 300?
TIM CINDRIC: Well, I think everybody, knowing that we haven’t actually raced in, what, eight and a half months or so right now, has a bit of anxiety for how it’s going to turn out, and obviously going to Texas as our first race, yeah, it brings a lot of questions as far as how prepared we are and really how the season is going to start. Yeah, ever since Friday the 13th of March, it’s been a bit of a whirlwind up and down, and we’re just glad to be going racing again.
THE MODERATOR: As a team strategist, do the unique challenges of Texas and all the things that have been announced about tire stints and things, the one-day show, make it any more of a challenge for you?
TIM CINDRIC: Well, it’s something we haven’t experienced before, so honestly I wish it were the other way around because I think there’s probably more strategy involved in having the tire falloff and the degradation at Texas, and you saw that play out last year with Josef and kind of how that race went back and forth. Either way, I think it’s going to be really good racing. I am glad that we’ve got veterans in our cars right now because if I’m a rookie and I have to start at Texas as my first race, that’s pretty intimidating for sure, but yeah, thankfully they’re getting a bit of practice and not having to hop in and just race like NASCAR has had to do here quite a few times.
Q. In February you guys had the opportunity to take Scott McLaughlin to Texas to run some laps, so you have a little bit of data with the Aeroscreen on the car. Was that a helpful test for you guys?TIM CINDRIC: I think it was really more helpful for him. At the end of the day, it was just him being able to get up to speed and be in a position to understand what an oval is like and how fast it really is, but any time you get a chance to run somewhere, it’s beneficial, but I think the windscreen and that type of thing, once we go night racing, I’m not sure really anybody has experienced that at this point with the current screen. I know that Scott Dixon did a few runs I think it was at Phoenix if I remember correctly, but when you do it for real, it’s going to be different.
Q. I actually wanted to follow up on a question up just asked regarding testing. Jay Frye announced earlier this week that teams for the rest of the 2020 season would be limited to essentially only testing on the grounds of trying to develop a new potential future driver down the road, and so when you guys have the opportunity to get that extra test in with Scott at the beginning of the year on an oval, I know as you mentioned, maybe not a ton that you could take out of that and you guys weren’t anticipating this whirlwind season going, but just that one extra day on an oval which not too many teams have gotten, if that’s the only data that you guys will have, does that give you any sort of an edge going down the road the rest of the year?TIM CINDRIC: I think the perception is that it may. It probably depends on what side you sit on. But what we ran there with him was obviously something very different than what we would plan to race with our guys because you’re trying to give him the maximum level of comfort. He didn’t really run — I can’t remember even how many laps that he ran, but just getting to the point where he could hold the thing full throttle all the way around was a bit of a learning curve. You have to remember he’s never been on an oval whatsoever before.
But yeah, any time you go there — I don’t think we learned too much more than I guess we anticipated doing. I don’t really know how to answer the question because it’s all going to be really a matter of perception. Every team that didn’t get a run there is going to say that we gained all these big advantages and we’re going to say that really it wasn’t that big of an advantage. It was a bit of an inconvenience in some ways to go do it in the way that we did it right after the previous test, but we felt like we had him here in the country and it was a good opportunity for him to learn what that was all about.
In fact, he was actually scheduled to try and run the Richmond open test and the reason for the Texas test was that they weren’t going to allow him to run the Richmond open test with the other competitors unless he had run on an oval, so the background to why we actually went to Texas was it was the only oval that whoa could run, that we could actually get him cleared to do the Richmond open test.
Q. You mentioned your veteran drivers that you have in the car for this weekend. In such a breakneck season, especially in July that we’re going to have with I think about five races in 15 days or so, how important will that experience between Power, Pagenaud and Newgarden be for you guys as you try to navigate so many ever-changing things, a new landscape in such a short period of time for this shortened condensed season?TIM CINDRIC: Yeah, I think when you look at the schedule, it’s so different than what we’re used to, and I think the competition in INDYCAR, you saw it last year and I think you’ll see it again this year, the competition just continues to get greater and greater. You see some of the guys that came on board last year like Rosenqvist that now has a season under his belt, Herta. Look at all these guys that are up-and-coming and then you combine that with the veterans that we have and the fact that we’ve all been running these cars — yeah, OK, the windscreen is a bit different, but I don’t think that’s really going to give us a whole lot of handling characteristic change; it’s going to be more about how you execute on race weekends. With the number of double-headers that we have, it’s going to be a very momentum-based season, and I think you’re going to have comers and goers, and you’re going to have those that are seemingly out of it, but all of a sudden are in it when they have a great weekend at Iowa or Elkhart Lake or anywhere else. You’re going to continue, I think, to see this championship all the way down to St. Pete.
Q. The fact that you’re also in charge of the NASCAR side of the operation, even though they were drive-to races, the fact that they got rolling back in May, did you learn any processes and things of that nature that will be helpful in getting the INDYCAR team set with the parameters we have with the COVID-19 situation?TIM CINDRIC: Yeah, without a doubt. I think the fact that we’re running a NASCAR team out of the same building has probably given us a lot bigger edge on what to understand at Texas than maybe running Scott McLaughlin there for a few laps. But I’ve got to commend NASCAR and their aggressiveness in terms of getting back on track because I think they’ve really served as a catalyst for the rest of motorsports worldwide to show the world that it can be done, and there was a lot of risk in doing that in terms of being the first and taking the risks of, hey, what happens and what protocols you have to have in place and secondary procedures or whatever else. Without a doubt, we’ve learned a ton from the way in which it’s transpired within the NASCAR world.
I think honestly that the way they started the protocols, there hasn’t been too many changes. They had things pretty well covered from the very beginning, and it’s just been a matter of executing, and when you look at how NASCAR operates and whether it’s the pit stops or just how their haulers are arranged or how their communication happens relative to INDYCAR, relative to IMSA, everybody has their own little idiosyncrasies of how you operate as a series, so I think there’s some uniqueness there that’s going to continue to play out. But certainly, I think not only our team but I think motorsports in general has learned a lot from NASCAR.
Q. And also, how have you staggered the work schedules with the crew, and also, it’s going to be fairly ambitious for you to get to the races. You leave out of the Statesville airport Saturday morning and that’s going to be — you’re doing what the Indy guys are doing except you’re coming from a different part of the country. How do all those logistics come into play for you?TIM CINDRIC: Yeah, it’s been frustrating for many, but it’s a part of life now, as everybody understands. Yeah, we’ve chosen at this point to work in shifts rather than have our entire workforce together. You have to remember we have almost 500 people in the building on a normal basis, so we’ve really been working to maybe a third of the workforce, if you will, on any given day, split into shifts. Our shifts have been six-hour shifts, so we’ve been working from 6:00 to noon, and then we’ve taken a two-hour break for sanitization and so forth, and then we’ve worked then from 2:00 to 8:00 with a different shift. That’s been across the board through all of our series, and we’ll continue that process here for the foreseeable future, and really it helps us maybe take less risk with our people but also put ourselves in a position to where we’re not as vulnerable should someone get infected.
Q. Tim, I wanted to ask you about what Bruce was asking about in terms of the itinerary of getting to Texas. I’ve heard that the Indianapolis teams are going to be leaving very early Saturday morning, getting back very early Sunday morning, a very long day. How will that work coming from North Carolina? Do you have any sense of what the itinerary will be? Are you leaving very early and expecting to get back very late?TIM CINDRIC: Yeah, I think it’s the same really. The drivers are taking a different approach. The drivers are going in early just so that they get a decent night’s sleep there and can get acclimated, whereas the team, yeah, we’re going to leave before the sun comes up for sure, go through all of our screenings and protocols before we take off, and then yeah, go through that process just to get into the racetrack. It’s going to be a long day without a doubt, but wouldn’t trade it — don’t want to be home on Saturday. I’d much rather be at Texas.
Q. What are you expecting from the Aeroscreen? I’ve heard some sort of surprising takes on it like it actually might mean less downforce on the cars by a slight amount. What are you expecting in terms of how the cars will handle and how it might impact the racing?TIM CINDRIC: Well, obviously there’s a weight distribution change, so on the road courses we’ve seen that. Everybody has had a chance to test those things at COTA or whatever else, and really from a physics standpoint, what we don’t understand is how we’re going to draft and how things are going to be in traffic. That’s probably a pretty unknown right now. When you’re running by yourself and what we thought was going to happen with Scott when we put Scott out there, honestly, it was pretty immune to the whole situation. There wasn’t a lot of unexpectedness. There was some drag. But yeah, it did maybe make a bigger hole in the air, but at the same time, is that helpful or not helpful in terms of drafting?
I think we’re not going to know until we get in a pack to really understand how it’s going to affect the race, so it’s yet to be seen, really.
Q. Are you expecting with the tire stints, will there be more pack racing than normal if you have 35 laps at a time?TIM CINDRIC: You know, I don’t think we’ve raced this tire combination, so I’m not 100 percent sure. I do think that without having the falloff that we’ve typically had there where it starts to string out toward the end, I do think that it’s going to be pretty competitive there at the front and that the cars will certainly be closer and we’ll have less cars a lap down. When you look at only running 35-lap stints, you’re going to have more cars on the lead lap than what you would typically have in say a 70-lap stint or something that’s more normal for a place like Texas.
So I think the fact that you have more cars on the lead lap, you’re going to have less people moving over or they’re going to have harder racing for sure. So I certainly think it’s going to be a competitive night.
Q. I just wanted to start with Scott because you mentioned him a few times. Is there any update on his situation in terms of will he be racing with you this year and is there still appetite to do that because you’ve spoken about the benefit of having your experienced guys in the car, obviously, with having reduced practices. Is there still appetite to get Scott out there at some point this year?TIM CINDRIC: Well, there’s certainly an appetite. Whether that’s reality or not is yet to be seen. Currently with the schedule that he has and the quarantine rules that exist within travel at the moment going to and from Australia, if those stay in place the way that they are relative to the schedule, I just don’t see that it’s feasible. It’s just not possible to be able to clear quarantine and actually have him continue with the Supercars schedule and the schedule that we have. Until some of that is lifted, I really don’t see him having an opportunity to be here, and obviously, from an economic standpoint, I think everybody is challenged on that front.
I think for sure there’s a huge appetite, and he understands the reasons why we need to be patience on both ends, but right now he’s focused on the Supercars series until really things change.
Q. We’ve heard from Jay Frye that they’re considering a staged introduction of the next chassis for INDYCAR. What are your thoughts on what you’ve been told as a team so far on the next sort of phase of the rules cycle? Is it something — the things that you’ve heard so far, is it something you’re behind, or is there anything you think needs to be ironed out? What’s your feeling about the whole situation at the moment?TIM CINDRIC: Honestly, we’ve been so tied up in what’s been going on the last three months or so that I couldn’t give you too many details of even what’s been discussed. Our focus has been on today and how to get through today to get to tomorrow. This process that we’ve been through, it’s turned into three days a week, right. There’s today, tomorrow and yesterday. You forget what day of the week it is.
Been really struggling with trying to keep up with what’s happening on that front, and I think there’s been lots of discussion, and I think it’s really encouraging to hear that a manufacturer like Ferrari might be interested in the series itself. It tells you how far the series has come in a very short period of time here, and I think if we can get back on track, a lot of those things are going to be pretty exciting. But from today, I can’t honestly tell you that we have a very good perspective of even what’s been discussed just because we’re so focused on just getting through the next day.
Q. We’ve heard lots of stories about how people have been coping during quarantine, stuck at home, unable to go out. Just wondered if you’d share how you and your family have been coping and dealing, staying busy during the quarantine.TIM CINDRIC: I haven’t had any trouble being busy. I think it was probably the first week after St. Pete where you’re trying to really understand what this all means for everybody, but from that point on, honestly, it’s been probably the most frustrating few months of my career because every day is a different day. Every day is changing, every day is a constant change of scenario, and what might or might not happen and really how you keep the workforce not only motivated but quite frankly employed.
When you look at all the different trade-offs that we have with not knowing what the series was going to do, what the schedule was going to be, there’s just so much uncertainty, and some of that still exists. I still think it’s a pretty fragile environment. The fact that we’re still not racing with fans and some of these other things, I think motorsports has done more than any other sport to be relevant, and we’re very fortunate from that perspective.
But for me personally, I think I’ve had as much time and energy devoted into my job than I really ever have here in the recent times. As much as I thought maybe the first week that this all occurred that I’d be catching up on my domestic list, I can’t say that I’ve really had a chance to do much of that. But on the other hand, there’s quite a few people that have kind of in some ways been at home too long, so you have to look at all the different perspectives of what it is.
The one thing I am thankful for is that my kids are old enough to where I didn’t have to home school any of them because that would have been a real trying thing for me to try and home school my own kids and keep my family intact. Fortunately, that’s beyond me as far as the age of my children, but as I see the others having to home school kids and all that, in some ways I’m really jealous that they spend the time that I didn’t really have to devote to my kids at that age, but in other ways I’m like, man, I don’t know if I could have got through that or not. It’s interesting times.
Q. How beneficial is it to you as a team going into Texas having won there last year, given that you’re starting new with the Aeroscreen this year?TIM CINDRIC: Well, you certainly look at that race, and we weren’t really the dominating car until toward the end of that race. I think it gives us, yeah, kind of a check on the list to say we know what’s possible with the way the tire situation is probably in my mind going to be more influential than what the Aeroscreen scenario is, provided that the sightlines and the reflections and all the things that we really haven’t experienced yet don’t come into play more than what we anticipate. I think right now we anticipate all that being — based on our runnings at COTA and some other things, unfortunately, we didn’t get the chance to run the Richmond open test. That would have given us a pretty good perspective on how it is to run on the banking and the ovals and that type of thing, and I think we were going to be able to run there at night a bit.
But I think the bigger concern with the Aeroscreen honestly is just adapting to racing at night, and we really haven’t done much of that at this point in time as well as the tire combination that we have and the 35-lap – if that’s where we end up – regulation to how long you can run a stint or half stint on tires is going to keep the field pretty packed up the entire time, which with that many cautions or that many situations of pitting, if you want to call it that — the in and out laps is where I was trying to get to, they’re going to become that much more important. So when you look at the number of in and out laps or the pit stops itself, I think track position will still be pretty key.
Q. I wanted to ask how much your role has changed, not because of the pandemic but with Roger getting involved in the series and IMS, and also I wanted to ask if there’s going to be a lot more day clashes this year, given not only NASCAR but also IMSA is going to have to compress its schedule towards the latter half of the season, how your duties are going to change and priorities are going to change now that you’re kind of like leading the race team.TIM CINDRIC: Yeah, well, honestly, he’s given me that rope here for the last 20 years in a lot of ways, so I think our relationship really hasn’t changed in terms of the way he and I operate.
Indy right now has taken probably more of his time, so he’s maybe a little bit distant in some weeks, and in other weeks he’s right on cue. But from a running-the-race-team perspective, he’s kind of always given me that ability to go do those things and has never really micromanaged what we do. I’ve always felt like I have an understanding of when to pick up the phone and when to make sure he’s in the meeting and when to make it happen, so I think that’s probably why I’ve survived here so long, because I think I understand that balance. Some days maybe I get out of check, but lately, I’ve felt more of an accountant and an HR guy than I have a racing guy here in the last two or three months, so it’ll be fun to actually be a racing guy here for a little while.
But yeah, my role within the team, I guess I refer to myself as the team guy. He’s got to focus on the series, and I really don’t have much influence in the series itself, except I probably have a seat closer to the table than I did before as far as being one that he’ll reach out and ask your opinion about a certain thing that’s happening or what he’s trying to achieve and maybe try and give some direction with who else out there might be a good sounding board for some of the things that INDYCAR or IMS is trying to be. But the quality of people there, he’s come to find that there’s a really good core within INDYCAR and within IMS, and his leadership has really brought that to another level, I think. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to see that.
I got a chance to actually go to Indianapolis a couple weeks ago. Hadn’t seen Roger really since the Daytona 500 was the last time that I saw Roger up until two weeks ago, other than these Zoom calls. He taught me what Zoom was, so he was ahead of the curve relative to myself on this Zoom business. He took the initiative to have my come to Indy and spend a couple hours with him on a golf cart going around the speedway and just understanding what’s transpired since he took over the speedway, and it’s amazing.
Having grown up there as a kid, I thought I knew that place like the back of my hand, and there’s so many places that I went to and that I saw on the outside of the racetrack that I had never seen before, and the best way — he said, “What do you think?” After I thought about it, I’m like, the best way I can tell you is that this whole place looks younger, the entire place, what he’s done, and I’m really interested to see what the die-hard fans have to say because the ones that — you know how it is. You know your little space. Like for us we know the garage area like the back of our hand, we know the men’s bathroom, we know exactly where the paper towels are, what all works, what used to be there and what’s there now, and you walk it and it’s amazing; you have LED lights in the bathrooms. Okay, people have made jokes about the bathrooms, but when you understand how many of them there are and the fact that that’s where everybody goes, you know, as part of it.
But when you look at what he’s done with — that’s one discussion. But what they haven’t really understood is just the sight lines, the video boards, the additional video situations that he has, and the overall customer experience, what you see as you drive in, what you saw as you walk in a gate, when you look at when you walk up — the actual grandstand that you’ve walked up for years, and you’ve had this particular seat for years. It used to be a rusty banister, now it’s not. It used to be this and it used to be that. It’s unbelievable what’s happened in a short period of time. It’s unfortunate we are where we are now, but in some ways, it’s good for the speedway in that they’ve had even more time to do some of these things. It’s quite an evolution, and I think it’ll continue here for a while.
THE MODERATOR: Tim, we appreciate you taking the time to join us and wish you and Team Penske the best of luck this weekend at Texas.
TIM CINDRIC: Appreciate you guys calling in, and hope to see you at the racetrack soon.

Inside Line Promotions – FRESNO, Calif. (June 2, 2020) – Giovanni Scelzi is bound for the Midwest to tackle four races with the Ollie’s Bargain Outlet All Star Circuit of Champions presented by Mobil 1.

Scelzi, who is driving a family car, will make his debut at Lawton Speedway in Lawton, Okla., on Thursday; at Red Dirt Raceway in Meeker, Okla., on Friday; at Outlaw Motor Speedway in Oktaha, Okla., on Saturday; and at 81 Speedway in Park City, Kan., on Sunday during the Cometic Gasket Thunder Through the Plains presented by Hercules Tires.

“We’re making some changes with the race car this week and we have four nights to learn so there’s nothing better than racing night after night,” he said. “Hopefully we can find the perfect balance in the race car on Thursday. Once you get that you can just tune on it here and there.”

Less than half of Scelzi’s races this season have been on pavement, giving him only seven starts in a winged sprint car. However, he has earned three second-place finishes, four top fives and five top 10s in those seven races.

“I haven’t been able to run much sprint car stuff this year,” he said. “I think a realistic goal is to run in the top five. We want to find a good balance and be able to contend each night.”

Scelzi noted that his tentative debut with car owner Guy Forbrook is now scheduled for June 12-13 at Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa, where a World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series event is on tap

Honda Drivers, Teams Ready for Rescheduled 2020 INDYCAR Season Debut
Delayed season opens Saturday at Texas Motor Speedway
Honda seeks “three-peat” of Manufacturer Championships
Talented 14-driver lineup features eight IndyCar Series race winners, including four Indianapolis 500 winners, two series champions

TORRANCE, Calif. (June 1, 2020) – Eight race winners, four Indianapolis 500 champions and two former series title holders make up the talented Honda-powered lineup for the 2020 NTT INDYCAR SERIES, opening this weekend with the Genesys 300 at Texas Motor Speedway.
Originally scheduled to begin at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in March, the season start was delayed due to effects of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. The 2020 season now will begin Saturday night with a non-spectator event at the 1.5-mile Texas oval. NBC will provide live network television coverage starting at 8 p.m. EDT.
Eight wins in 2019 brought Honda the company’s eighth INDYCAR Manufacturers’ Championship, and second consecutive title, with Honda drivers claiming victory in 19 of 34 races over the past two seasons.
“HPD Is proud that in 2019 – together with our partner teams – we achieved a second consecutive INDYCAR Manufacturers’ Championship”, said Ted Klaus, president of Honda Performance Development, the racing arm for American Honda in North America.  “So far this year, HPD has been ‘racing’ to support medical ventilator companies with engineering services, as well as finding ways to safely run our racing business and get back to the track. It will be great to begin the 2020 racing season, where we intend to win on the track AND demonstrate common sense ways we can resume our livelihoods.
 “For 2020, HPD’s goals are to win the Indianapolis 500, as well as the NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship.  Everyone at HPD has worked extremely hard to prepare for another highly competitive season, and we’re looking forward to getting our title defense under way.”
Honda will present an impressive lineup in Texas, all utilizing the Honda HI20TT twin-turbo V6 engine and Dallara chassis. It begins with five-time IndyCar series champion and 2008 Indianapolis 500 victor Scott Dixon, and includes 2017 Indianapolis 500 winner Takuma Sato; 2012 series and 2014 Indianapolis 500 champion Ryan Hunter-Reay; 2016 Indianapolis 500 winner Alexander Rossi; multi-race winners Graham Rahal and James Hinchcliffe; plus Colton Herta, who broke through with two race wins during his rookie 2019 season.
Honda has been a fixture in North American open-wheel racing since 1994, and has played an active role in the growth of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES as both a Manufacturers’ Championship competitor and single engine supplier, with a record that includes eight Manufacturers’ Championships. Honda’s Indy car total of 245 wins in 26 years of North American open-wheel racing – including 12 Indianapolis 500 victories since 2004 – is unmatched by any other manufacturer in the same period.
The company scored its first Indianapolis 500 victory in 2004 with Buddy Rice; Manufacturers’ Championships in 2004 and ’05; and became engine supplier to the entire IndyCar Series in 2006. Honda supplied racing engines to the full, 33-car Indianapolis 500 field every year from 2006-2011, and for six consecutive years – and the only six times in event history – the ‘500’ ran without a single engine failure.
Since the return of multi-manufacturer competition in 2012, Honda has scored four more Indy 500 triumphs, by Dario Franchitti in 2012, Hunter-Reay in 2014, Rossi’s dramatic victory in 2016’s historic 100th race and Sato’s popular victory in 2017. The 12 wins by Honda at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway lead all other major automobile manufacturers.

CHEVROLET RACING IN NTT INDYCAR SERIESGENESYS 300TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAYFT. WORTH, TEXASTEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPTJUNE 1, 2020
THE MODERATOR: We’re happy to be joined this afternoon by Tony Kanaan, who will race the famous No. 14 for A.J. Foyt Racing at Texas.
Tony, welcome to the call.
TONY KANAAN: Thank you.
THE MODERATOR: When the season was due to start in March, you weren’t going to be on the grid at St. Pete. Thanks to the extension we had for the off-season, you get a chance to kick off T.K.’s Last Lap at Texas and possibly extend the streak of consecutive starts to 318. Does that make this weekend a little more special to you?
TONY KANAAN: Yeah, I mean, a lot of people ask me how I coped with the delay of the season. To be honest, I was mentally prepared already because my first real race was going to be the 500. My mind was already set for May. I only really had to delay, what, a couple of weeks from what I was originally scheduled to do. For me, I think it wasn’t as hard as for the other guys that were already in St. Pete ready to go.
Also, a great surprise was with the unfortunate situation I’m going to get to extend my consecutive starts by one more. Hopefully, I’m going to get to start the race first. We can’t say that before I get there. It’s a pretty cool thing. It was one other thing I was actually ready to retire once they took the green flag in St. Pete.
THE MODERATOR: You’ve raced 20 times since 2003 at Texas Motor Speedway. Obviously, it’s a track where you clinched your championship. You have a lot of special memories at that track. What do you like the most about racing at Texas? What will you remember the most about racing at Texas?
TONY KANAAN: Regardless of how we had the package, how did they change the track, it was always a very challenging place for various different reasons over the years. Used to be a pack race, then not. It was a very difficult racetrack on tires, extremely hard on the tires. It was a difficult race to race.
I don’t think I can pick one particular thing to say Texas is difficult. I think it’s going to be a nerve-wracking day. We cannot even call it a weekend any more because it’s a single-day event. Everybody has been out of the car for quite a few months. I’ve been out of the car for eight months myself. I never actually driven the car with the windscreen. It will be challenging.
This is a challenging time. I think the race is still going to be great. It’s a fast oval. Apart from Indy, I think it’s one of the fastest we go. We’ll see. Happy to be back, though.
THE MODERATOR: We will open it up for questions for Tony Kanaan.
Q. You talked about all the different packages you’ve raced at Texas. The thing I remember about you is you’ve never been reluctant to speak out about safety, especially at Texas and other tracks. Is that what you consider one of your legacies, that you’ve been a leader and a spokesman for the group?TONY KANAAN: I mean, eventually I became the spokesman because I’m the oldest guy in the field, the most experienced. That’s usually what happens, right? When I first came into INDYCAR, it was Al (Unser) Jr., it was Mauricio Gugelmin, all these guys that took the lead on the drivers association. Over the years I’ve learned a lot from those guys.
I have to say I was, what, two years into the series when we lost Greg Moore. Since then I’ve been extremely involved trying to make the sport safer. At the beginning I was young. I just sat down and listened. By the time we came through the years, I slowly started to help more and more. I took more of the liberty to be more spoken, try to unify the communication between the series and the drivers. Now we have the best group of people on both sides.
Yeah, I guess I’m not going to take all the credit because I don’t do this alone. I have a lot of other drivers that help me out. Yes, over the years I’ve tried to make the series that made me safer and safer so we don’t lose friends and people that we love.
Q. We know there will be no fans this time. I saw Kurt Busch yesterday say he thought there’s been a different vibe when he gets out of the car, no fans there. Even the introductions he’s missing, just a different vibe. Are you even concerned about any of that?TONY KANAAN: I think we all been mentally prepared for this, right? I don’t know how I’m going to feel because I haven’t witnessed a racetrack with no fans, to be honest. I don’t recall in my career ever that I show up to a race – talk about testing – but that wasn’t a single person ask you to the autograph. You are going to walk in, it’s going to be like a private event.
That is the safest thing to do for our first race. It will be no sport if we keep doing this, thank God I know it’s not going to happen, but no sport will survive without fans. It will be a different vibe. I think we need to look.
Throughout my entire life, not just this situation specifically, I always try to look at the positive things. Out of a negative or bad situation, there is always something you can make the most out of it.
To be honest we should be happy that we’re back. We should be happy that life is becoming whatever that normal is going to be. But also I think in hindsight a lot of us, not saying me, but we will actually value the fans a lot more once we come out of Texas that we had to race with empty stands.
I believe it’s on the fans’ advantage because I think it will be a lot more appreciation. Not that we didn’t. I think INDYCAR is great. We grow this series because we give the access to the fans, access to us, autograph session, you can be in the grid if you buy a paddock pass. Think about the positive side. Once they’re allowed to come in, it will be even better than it was before.
Q. Speaking of making a positive out of a negative, with all the iRacing experience, has that gotten the drivers used to the visual of what it’s going to look like with the Aeroscreen?TONY KANAAN: Honestly I hope so because I have no idea how to answer that because I have not been in the car. I didn’t even sit in the car in the shop. My car is not ready yet with the windscreen. I think I’m going to go to the shop tomorrow and try.
iRacing has been, as far as the graphics, pretty good at it. Hopefully it will be the same. If it’s the same, I have plenty of sit time already.
Q. You’ve been part of some wild races at Texas. Do you expect Saturday night to be a little on the wild side or do you think there will be a little more caution since it’s the first race out after this unexpected pause?TONY KANAAN: I think we all going to be a little bit more on the cautious side. I think everybody is going to try to get a rhythm, try to finish the race, try to get this one under our belt. It’s an oval, the first race. I’m hoping that’s going to be the approach.
Talking to some of the guys, I think everybody is on the same page. You never know when the green flag drops, people have a tendency to forget and go for it.
Q. You knew John McCain, NTT CEO. You’re part of the NTT Data sponsorship this year. He’s going to be honored on Marcus’ car this race. How important is that to you, somebody who is so important to the series gets honored after he passed away?TONY KANAAN: I mean, John was a personal friend of mine actually apart from being a sponsor. We went through his battle with his disease for the past year and a half. I mean, I went to see him a couple times. We talked frequently on the phone. I still am in contact with his wife and his kids.
John did a lot for the sport. Way before NTT, people that don’t know, John used to sponsor Greg Ray with EDS back in the day. He was from Indy. He was a lover of the sport.
We haven’t actually had a chance to celebrate his life yet because we had this party organized for him and COVID hit. We still got to do that. It’s awesome. Benito (Santos, his marketing manager) and I are working on something to do it for him, as well, this weekend. Obviously NTT is from Texas. NTT has been a great sponsor of mine since I joined Ganassi. When I left, they kept a personal deal with me.
It’s really close to the heart, and I can’t wait to pay a tribute to him this weekend.
Q. This is going to be the first live sporting event in the state of Texas since COVID started. People are so starved for competition. Do you think this is going to be an opportunity to maybe add some new INDYCAR fans, people that maybe weren’t watching the sport before but will now?TONY KANAAN: I think so. I think nowadays we can always speak from experience. Like America, it’s very well-known, when I first came here, look how many sports we have on a weekend. Sometimes you cannot catch up, so many. Even during the week. Now everything is stopped.
Hopefully these people that never really watch racing will be looking to watch something on Saturday night. We’re on prime on NBC, which is great after 13 years for the first time again. I’m hopeful that will be the case, for sure.
Q. The idea of not having had a lot of testing this off-season, Texas being the first race of the year, it being typically really exciting but sometimes dangerous. How do you balance, and how do you hope others will balance, the idea of being aggressive, trying to get up toward the front early to possibly avoid some of the incidents that might happen in the race, also keeping in the back of your head that you and the rest of the series has been out of the car for the last eight or nine months?TONY KANAAN: I mean, I think we are professionals. We’ve been doing this for a long time. We are a different breed. We’re always needing to adapt to something really quick. If you think about it, when you travel 220, 230 miles an hour, nothing even is predictable. You have to adapt to that reaction, you have to adapt to that situation, to that moment. It will be no different this weekend.
Yeah, there is room for people to say, We need more this, we need more that. Now is not the time for us to actually complain. This is what we got and this is what we get to work with. Be smart about it and do the best you can.
Now, I can’t speak for everybody else, but I’m pretty sure that the guys that have a lot of experience, that’s what they’re going to do. We have a bunch of rookies in the field. Hopefully they will be patient enough to do so.
We can’t make a prediction what’s going to happen. I just believe that everybody is going to try to get this weekend out of the way as far as let’s get started. So I’m hoping, like I said, I’m hoping that will be the case with everybody else.
Q. There are so many things that are unpredictable. Do you think, given the unpredictability of so many things, along with the race at Texas, do you think there is potentially a situation where experience could play a real factor in being able to be adaptable quickly?TONY KANAAN: Yeah, I mean, experience never hurts, right? I have to say we are in a series that everybody has a lot of experience, apart from the rookies. It’s a fine line, right? When you have experience, you kind of know what to expect, you know how to react, be a little bit more smart. But when you haven’t tried, the unknown is actually pretty cool sometimes. You don’t worry about it. You wake up and say, Okay, I have a race on the oval, I’m going to try to win. You don’t know what’s going to happen.
I would say the experience is going to help a lot to make me sleep the night before the race. I know I have been in the car for a long time, I know the car. Once the green flag drops, it will be a balance with the most aggressive people and those with experience.
If I had to pick one, because you asked, I will say experience would win just because we’ve been out of the car for so long.
Q. Before the race, your plan, since you’ve never been in this car with this screen, how are you and your engineer going to attack getting comfortable and then searching for speed?TONY KANAAN: There is not a lot of time. Basically not a lot of options. We do have by mandatory by the series and Firestone, we have to scrub all the sets of tires that we going to actually use in the race for safety reasons. That being said, that means four laps on each set, which is five sets total or six, so you’re talking about 24 laps already you got to come in and out to get the shine off the tire.
For me, I hope after 23 years in INDYCAR will be enough for me to get used to the windscreen and everything else.
After that you got to get the car right. The car needs to be spot on out of the box from the shop. You’re not going to have a lot of time to change things, to make big changes. If you’re off, it’s going to be a long night. Everybody is in the same boat.
Q. A lot of the fun factor for you is the fans. How much are you going to miss that? Not being pestered for autographs, I don’t think you see it as that, but how much are you going to miss not having anybody to play with?TONY KANAAN: That’s the opposite, I like being pestered about autographs. That’s who I am. That’s how I became who I am in INDYCAR.
It is going to be really weird. I have no doubt that for me I don’t think it’s going to feel like a race weekend. It’s going to feel like a private test with everybody in the series and that’s it.
Again, it’s different times, right? Everywhere we go nowadays it’s empty. Even when you go places, everything is different. Try to get my mind and my emotions wrapped around this new normal up until we can really come back to normal.
I think it’s going to be weird for sure. I’m glad that we’re back racing at least.
Q. Are you looking forward to Iowa?TONY KANAAN: I mean, I was extremely lucky because with all this pandemic, I actually had gained one more race because I was going to do five races. It ended up with Iowa being a doubleheader I was going to do six, then we lost Richmond. For me my life has not actually changed as far as races. Iowa is a place I’ve had a lot of success. Now we’re doing a doubleheader there, it’s even better for me.
It’s a very weird year right now. I looked at my watch today and said, We’re in June and we haven’t done anything, nobody. I’m going to start to try to enjoy these last five races.
I know for a fact, if you think about it, for me, if I look at the races I’m going to do, by August 30th I’m done. It will be even a shorter year for me. I’m looking forward to go back to Iowa.
Q. You’ve been around a long time, seen a lot of different leadership regimes within INDYCAR. How would you compare the current leadership to what you’ve seen from the past?TONY KANAAN: I think we have the best we ever had, to be honest. We went through very difficult times since the split. I’m not saying that we didn’t have good leadership before, but I think now, between Mark Miles, Jay Frye and then when Roger stepped in, it couldn’t be any better.
I also have to say I don’t think we would be racing this year if Roger hadn’t bought the series. He’s putting a lot of effort in, reinvesting a lot to keep all of us together.
To me we’re in the best hands we can possibly be in. We’re in the best hands since I joined this series, which is 23, 22 years ago. We’re in the best hands I’ve ever seen. I’m really happy about that.
Q. What are some of the challenges INDYCAR still has to get back to the level it wants to be at?TONY KANAAN: Right now I think we’re in the right path. It’s just time. You’re not going to become the most popular series from one year to the other. I think we’ve been building, we’ve been doing great, improving our television package. We’re more out there. Now we try to gather the new fans.
When I talk about new fans, I think there’s a lot of discussion about I have four kids on my own, those kids don’t care to watch TV. They’re on the tablets, on their phones, on the Internet. That’s where we need to try to become popular, too, to gather more fans. I know the series has a plan for that. I know we’re all working really hard to do that. I don’t think we have to do anything different, it’s just going to take a little bit of time.
One comment. You can see I’m in the dark because we had a little situation in my house this weekend. The basement got flooded, burned the entire (indiscernible) of the house. We have no power. I’m trying to do the best. I’m not in my man cave in the dark (laughter).
Q. What aspect from racing, aside from racing itself, have you missed the most? Has the crisis really refocused your love of racing maybe more than ever before?TONY KANAAN: The first question, what I miss the most? It’s really that feeling, it’s race week. I woke up today, I was like, Man, we’re racing Saturday. I got to watch my workout. I can’t go as hard because it’s what I’ve been doing for the past eight months. You go balls out, you don’t care, tired. Sleep into the middle of the day. You’re sore.
I miss that anticipation. Tomorrow we’re going to have a team meeting, talk about the race. We’re going to watch last year’s race and evaluate that that I’ve lived for so long. That’s what I’m missing.
The second question, what was it?
Q. Basically being refocused by the crisis and the pandemic.TONY KANAAN: Yeah, the refocus, it’s hard, right? You ask yourself, Am I doing the right thing, setting the right example through my kids, to my fans when you post something? Do I wear a mask? When do I wear a mask?
That is first, and now the anticipation. I’m going to go to the track, how do I behave there? INDYCAR had a 35-page document they sent to us to us kind of get educated. From then on it’s really try to adjust to the new schedule. It’s a one-day event. You’re going to do everything in one day. Everything is new.
To me, I honestly always try to look at the positive side. Because I’ve been doing this for so long, it’s actually kind of cool. We’ve been doing the same thing, every year we say the same thing. We do spring training, do the same pictures, turn left, turn right, look up, look down. We’re going to talk to you guys. We’re going to qualify, go to the bullpen. You’ll ask us the same questions: How is the car? Blah, blah, blah. This is different, you’re not going to be there.
For me it’s actually cool. I’m not saying it’s a good situation but it’s something different.
Q. Under normal circumstances you’d be coming off a month at Indy, a doubleheader in Detroit. How strange does it feel to not have those emotional highs and lows? Looking ahead to Indy in August, why will it still be a big deal no matter when it is, regardless of whether there are fans there?TONY KANAAN: To be honest, your first question, I’m not going to say I didn’t miss because it’s such a strange times that I don’t even know what day of the week it is sometimes, what month are we in. We’re just all on like a cruise control mode, right? We just wake up, we try to entertain the kids because they’re going to ask why they can’t go here, there, why they’re not going to school. You just move on with life.
To me, I haven’t felt that because I live in Indy, because we can’t leave the house, we can’t go out, it didn’t feel like the month of May because nobody was ready for the month of May anyway. The city wasn’t prepped for that because we knew it was not going to happen. On that standpoint I don’t think I had to deal with it at all.
Now your second question, on the August thing, first I think unconsciously because I know the 500 is going to happen, it wasn’t a big deal it didn’t happen in May. As far as I’m concerned, as far as a driver you can ask, probably you guys that cover, once you merge yourself into the three weeks, you don’t know what month it is, day of the week it is. You breathe and you eat and you’re at the track the whole time worrying about getting your car ready.
To me, if it’s August, if it’s May, if it’s Christmas, if it’s New Year’s, that doesn’t matter because that is the month of Indy. I know the tradition, it was May, but I’ve never really knew what day of the week was when I was racing because I was so focused on getting the car right.
The best thing that happen was Roger and his team made sure that the 500 is going to happen. It’s just going to be a little hotter. Maybe not because it’s Indianapolis. It might snow. You never know (smiling).
Q. How excited are you to have Charlie Kimball as your teammate, having worked with him previously at Ganassi, given you have the combined experience of racing during these uncertain times, given you have the added rookies in the field this year?TONY KANAAN: It helped a lot. Charlie was a great teammate at, what was it, Ganassi. I know Charlie well enough. Especially now that we don’t have that much time, he’s the only full-time driver in that team. With his experience and mine, I think we’re going to be able to feed from each other that day and have not an advantage because all the good teams have good drivers, but it was not going to put us behind, that’s for sure.
Charlie is great. We’re actually good friends. Our families are friends. We hang together, our kids, our wives. It makes me feel good. At least in a year that we didn’t know who is going to be driving what car, who is going to be my teammate, it’s great that it’s him.
THE MODERATOR: That’s all the questions we have for you. We will thank you for your time, wish you the best of luck this weekend at Texas.
TONY KANAAN: Thank you guys. Appreciate it. Hope you guys stay safe. We’ll have more surprises this week. I can’t say much, but we will have some cool things that are going to happen before the weekend.

CHEVROLET RACING IN NTT INDYCAR SERIESGENEYES 300TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAYFT. WORTH, TEXASTEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPTJUNE 1, 2020
Defending NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Josef Newgarden, No. 1 XPEL Team Penske Chevrolet, was the guest on Series’ teleconference: 
THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon. We have our two-time defending NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion and 2019 Texas race winner Josef Newgarden here with us.
I’ll go ahead and kick it off, then open it up for questions.
We’re excited to come and kick off our season at the Genesys 300 here next weekend. Josef, thanks for joining us today. How excited are you to get back to racing and kick off the season next week at Texas?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: So, yeah, I’m super excited about starting off the season next weekend. It’s certainly something we’ve been waiting for the last three months, is the call to go race.
Feel like we have some goals to look forward to. We have some tasks at hand, we know what they are. I know the first couple weeks of this lockdown in the United States, it felt quite hopeless. Now we feel pretty positive that we have something to work towards.
Excited to get to the track. It’s what we love the most. Excited to do it in the safest way possible with the NTT INDYCAR SERIES. We’re going to be looking to come out of the gates very strong to start a different-looking season with XPEL onboard this week in Texas, which is going to be cool for us, and some good power from Team Chevy, as well.
THE MODERATOR: We’ll take some questions.
Q. The first thing to comes to mind, since we haven’t had any racing yet, I look at this group of rookies, as talented as they are, they get thrown into Texas, how daunting that place can be even being a veteran. Does the comfort level change knowing you’re going to be going up against guys that haven’t been able to compete on the INDYCAR stage yet at a place like Texas?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Great question.
Totally agree. Texas is a very difficult racetrack to race in general, whether you’ve been there 20 years or first time. It’s a daunting track to get right. Typically we have five races or so to sort out our stuff, kind of get ourselves in the right frame of mind, have a general base before we go to a track like that.
I think for the veterans it will be a tough race to get thrust into. From the rookie side, it’s going to be extremely difficult. This whole year is going to be tough on rookies with limited track time. I think Texas will be one of the toughest places to go to right out of the gates, face a big challenge. It will be tough on everybody.
Probably have to change our mental process a little bit for how we race people. Like you said, I think rookies might have to have some extra care or some extra thought coming up on somebody or racing wheel-to-wheel with one of those guys.
I hope everyone tries to get back into a rhythm to start this season. It’s going to be very, very important, especially at a place like Texas, that everyone try to settle in for this first race out. I think we need to do that for ourselves individually, but I think collectively as a group coming off the simulator racing we’ve been doing, everything over the last two or three months, trying to get back into a rhythm is going to be important for us.
Q. With so few personnel allowed per entry at the track, how much do you think that’s going to impact communication to help everything kind of move a little bit more fluidly, or maybe even less fluidly as it were, compared to what it would be on a normal race weekend? Do you expect that would be a big hindrance for teams at Texas?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I think procedurally it will be very different. Our process within our own team, our process within teams collectively, race control, INDYCAR, that’s all going to be different.
But I think the flow of information, race control during the race, decisions throughout the day, typically all that is done remotely anyways. I don’t think that will be aggressively impacted. I think we’ll be able to operate pretty globally, not a lot of lag time with communication flow from an event standpoint.
Within the team, that hands-on experience of just to be able to walk over, talk about (indiscernible), whatever it is, you’re not going to have that interaction. That’s going to be very, very different from my standpoint as a driver.
I think the most critical relationship is the engineer-driver combo. From my standpoint, that’s going to be the thing that I need to stay most in touch with. That’s what we’re working on, is how can we make that as fluid as possible. Everything else I think can flow pretty normally outside of that.
My performance is certainly going to be directly tied to staying closely connected to my engineer and going from there.
Q. You talked about trying to get in a rhythm and stuff. It’s going to be almost three months since you guys were getting ready to race, then you have a month off after that one. Talk about dealing with that.JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, it’s a strange time, right? I think it’s been tough for everybody right now, regardless of what industry or way of life you’re operating in. A lot of things have been taken away, our passions and our jobs a bit altered.
It’s going to be a new world for us racing here. Showing up for a one-day show, different than what we used to do at Texas. This sort of lag time between some events is very different. Haven’t been in the car in three months now kind of getting to Texas.
Look, we got to make the most of it. I think in some ways it’s very exciting because we’ve never had opportunities to see who could shine under situations where there’s not a lot of testing. Kind of have to make quick decisions, hopefully make them better than people around you. From that standpoint, I’m really excited.
I think it’s going to put a lot of pressure to get it right early within a race weekend, within a race situation. I think some people will really shine under those conditions more so than others.
Q. With the one day, that’s something new, you’re going to fly down together, spend a day, go back. What is your understanding of how that’s going to work? What are your thoughts about doing that?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I think it’s like everything: INDYCAR has done a great job of trying to analyze, figure out what is the best way to get back going. Inevitably, like everything, it has to get back going at some point.
The fun thing about our sport is we can create that separation specifically, but amongst the athletes, a lot of the individual teams, we can create these bubbles and figure out how to social distance together, put procedures in place that keeps us safe.
We’re not in the position yet to bring fans back. That makes me pretty sad. But at the same time just thinking that we’re putting procedures in place that get us back to the racetrack, get the show on TV, still get the race out to fans remotely, that’s really exciting.
I love where we’re starting. I feel comfortable with the guidelines that are in place. Everyone has worked hard. I think we’re doing it smart, safely. With some baby steps, trying to do this methodically, I think we will get back to the full force of what racing was three months ago before not too long.
Q. How would you explain Texas Motor Speedway to a first-time viewer, which we should get some of those with the race being on NBC, which will be the first time that INDYCAR has been on primetime on NBC? How would you explain it to a first-time viewer?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Great question. Always hard to answer. I think for me it’s like watching jet fighters in a gymnasium, you know. Let’s go with that. You’re watching these incredible pieces of art, these cool machines, they’re jet fighter planes in my opinion on the ground. They are flying around in close proximity and going to battle.
Texas is one of these places where you get these really intense battles with these jet fighter-looking cars. They’re constantly drafting each other, trying to use the air and push the air to either get ahead of someone or keep someone behind them. It’s just a very fun, intense battle, which turns into a bit like a dogfight. If you’re into that action, I think you’ll get that at Texas Motor Speedway.
To your point, it’s a great opportunity for us to maybe showcase our sport to people that have not been exposed to it before. People that love sports, but maybe haven’t seen an INDYCAR race, INDYCAR action around Texas under the lights. I think it’s something once they see it, I know we can put on a good show and I think they’ll enjoy the product.
THE MODERATOR: We were discussing some ideas internally how we can increase that audience. Someone came up with a good idea: if we could all get one person to watch the event, we’d all be the better for it.
We’ll continue with questions.
Q. Eddie Gossage called this race the most important race in the history of INDYCAR because of the circumstances, because of the layoff, the built-up frustration. Are you looking at it the same way, that this is a chance to showcase the sport and maybe take away some of the angst everyone is having?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Well, I certainly think it’s an incredibly important event. Texas is an important event regardless of this current situation we’re in. It’s always a big-time show. It’s always had a storied place in INDYCAR history.
But in these current situations, without a doubt it’s going to be a very important event back for us. Is it the most important event in INDYCAR history? I have no idea if it is or not. Without a doubt, it’s going to be a very important event in the current time period.
I think it’s an event where we can get it right. It’s been actually quite fun to watch the NASCAR guys. I think we’ve been watching them very closely, how they’ve managed the slow reopening of their series. We’re going to be looking to do much of the same.
We have very good guidelines in place, I think a good roadmap from the INDYCAR Series of how to do this safely. I think INDYCAR will work with Texas Motor Speedway to really reach fans that haven’t been reached before because of the eyeballs that are out there that are deprived of other sporting events.
It will be for sure an event to get right. A lot of pressure. But I think everyone involved will really be able to rise to the occasion and do a great job.
Q. Kind of lost in this entire process is we haven’t had an official race yet with the INDYCAR Aeroscreen. Doing that immediately at an oval, what is your thought process about how this is going to race?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Well, the positive is that we spent a good amount of time, the series itself, Jay Frye leading the charge, making sure that this screen was vetted as it could be, making sure that it is fully prepared to run through a rigorous INDYCAR event.
I think the positive is that most of the work has been done. I don’t think there’s any dramatic concerns from anybody about rolling into this event, having any major issues.
I think inevitably we will have things that will pop up that we will want to improve on. With any new technology, that is always the case. You do the best you can to introduce it and make sure it’s ready to rock right from the jump. I think the screen is ready for that.
We’re going to have some things that creep in throughout the year that we need to improve on. We will continue to make it safer. Just like a HANS device, SAFER barriers, they’re always going to be improving, getting better.
Is the Aeroscreen ready for primetime? Absolutely. It’s been tested, been run through its paces at many different types of tracks, short ovals, speedways, road and street courses. It is absolutely ready to go.
I do not think it’s going to be a major concern for the teams. It is a topic of discussion and we want to make sure we’re prepared in that area of the car for the race. Is it a major concern? No, I don’t think so.
Q. You were talking about watching how NASCAR has eased back into it. I think it was Harvick that said you feel like everything is going to be normal, and it hits you is when you get out of the car and it’s dead silent. Is that what you anticipate?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I would say that’s probably right. That’s my anticipation of what’s going to happen. I’ve had the question already, Is it going to be strange or different being in the racecar, not having fans?
I don’t think so from a racing standpoint. When you’re in the car and you’re focused in, you’re very locked in on the situation that’s happening, whether it’s practice or qualifying or the race. That’s not going to be altered with no fans.
What is going to be strange, if you’re the person that wins the race or you’re a person that finishes second or third, you were just in an intense fight, at least a fight on track trying to win the race, getting out of the car, whether you’re celebrating a win or you’re disappointed with the loss, getting out of the car, trying to feed off that energy that the crowd gives you in that moment, that’s going to be very different. It’s not going to be there.
I think those moments will be very, very strange for everybody. Disappointing in a lot of ways just because that’s a lot of what we love about racing, is doing our part, driving the cars, trying to be competitive in the race, then sharing that energy level with the crowd afterwards. We’re not going to be able to do that in that way to start out.
Like I said, I think the most important thing is just to get the show back on the road, still be able to broadcast this in primetime. I think in a lot of ways it’s a big win for us to get back and be racing again.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you so very much, Josef, for joining us this afternoon. We appreciate your time.

May 31, 2020

Matt DiBenedetto and the No. 21 REESE/Draw-Tite Ford team had some early success in Sunday’s Food City Presents the Supermarket Heroes 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway but were collected in a mid-race multi-car incident and wound up with a 31^st-place finish.

DiBenedetto started ninth after the line-up for the top 12 starting spots was set by a draw among the top 12 teams in car owner points.

He struggled with a loose handling condition in the opening laps but took the lead by staying on the track when the yellow flag flew at Lap 62 for the second of two competition caution periods.

He held the top spot for four laps, the third-straight race in which he paced the field, then finished seventh in the first 125-lap Stage despite riding on older tires than many of his competitors. 

Entering pit road at the end of Stage One, DiBenedetto was nabbed for speeding and sent to the rear of the pack for the restart.

As he was working his way forward, he was swept up in a nine-car crash on Lap 231. He wound up spending 43 laps in the garage while the REESE/Draw-Tite team replaced a broken tie rod. He rejoined the race and ran until the finish, moving up to 31^st position but dropping two spots in the Cup Series standings to 13^th.
 
A frustrated DiBenedetto was able to find some bright spots on an otherwise disappointing day.
 
“We hung on with old tires to get stage points,” he said. “The car was plenty fast. 
 
“Then we got a speeding penalty, and were driving back through the field and broke a tie rod.
 
“We had a fast car, but in the end it didn’t matter.”
 
DiBenedetto said what he needs most is simple – a change of racing luck, such as that being enjoyed by his fellow Team Ford driver Brad Keselowski, who has won two of the last three races by capitalizing on others’ misfortunes in the closing laps.
 
“We need to borrow his horseshoe,” DiBenedetto said.
 
DiBenedetto and the No. 21 team now head to Atlanta Motor Speedway next Sunday for the Folds of Honor/Quik Trip 500.
 

Horizon Global
Headquartered in Plymouth, MI, Horizon Global is the #1 designer, manufacturer and distributor of a wide variety of high-quality, custom-engineered towing, trailering, cargo management and other related accessory products in North America and Europe. The Company serves OEMs, retailers, dealer networks and the end consumer as the category leader in the automotive, leisure and agricultural market segments. Horizon provides its customers with outstanding products and services that reflect the Company’s commitment to market leadership, innovation and operational excellence. The Company’s mission is to utilize forward-thinking technology to develop and deliver best-in-class products for our customers, engage with our employees and realize value creation for our shareholders. 

Horizon Global is home to some of the world’s most recognized brands in the towing and trailering industry, including: Draw-Tite, Reese, Westfalia, BULLDOG, Fulton and Tekonsha. Horizon Global has approximately 3,600 employees.  For more information, please visit www.horizonglobal.com .

Wood Brothers Racing
Wood Brothers Racing was formedin 1950 in Stuart, Va., by Hall of Famer Glen Wood. WoodBrothers Racing is the oldest active team and one of the winningest teams in NASCAR history. Since its founding, the team won 99 races (including at least one race in every decade for the last seven decades) and 120 poles in NASCAR’s top-tier series. Fielding only Ford products for its entire history, the Wood Brothers own the longest association of any motorsports team with a single manufacturer. Glen’s brother, Leonard, is known for inventing the modern pit stop. The team currently runs the Ford Mustang driven by Matt DiBenedetto in the famous No. 21 racer.

NASCAR CUP SERIESBRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAYFOOD CITY PRESENTS SUPERMARKET HEROES 500TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTESMAY 31, 2020
TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:POS.   DRIVER3rd     JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE 6th      AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 SYMBICORT CAMARO ZL1 1LE7th      KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE8th      WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 1LE10th    BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 VICTORY JUNCTION CAMARO ZL1 1LETOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS: POS.  DRIVER1st      Brad Keselowski (Ford)2nd     Clint Bowyer (Ford)3rd     Jimmie Johnson (Chevrolet)4th      Kyle Busch (Toyota)5th     Erik Jones (Toyota)  The NASCAR Cup Series season continues at Atlanta Motor Speedway with the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 on Sunday, June 7, at 3:00 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on FOX, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES:JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 3rdJIMMIE, WALK US THROUGH THE WILD AND CRAZY RACE FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE. “Yeah, wild and crazy night for sure. Very strong performance for us. Really proud of the guys keeping our chins up through the last four weeks. We’ve had fast cars, really haven’t had the results to show for it.”           “To put together a solid race, start to finish, great pit stops, fast car, be a threat. We need more long runs. There’s only one long race in the whole race. We were battling for the lead with Kyle. I wish there were more long runs because our car didn’t have the short run speed in it. But we still salvaged a great day out of it with the Ally Chevy.” ALL THINGS CONSIDERED IN THE TWO WEEKS, HOW SATISFIED ARE YOU WITH THE PROGRESS THAT YOU AND CLIFF HAVE DONE, ESPECIALLY WITH THE LONG LAYOFF TO NOW, A VICTORY IS ALL THAT’S MISSING? “We’re excited. I felt like when the lockdown and quarantine started, we had momentum on our side. I was really bummed that we couldn’t see that through. Then to sit on ice for eight, nine weeks, whatever it ended up being, then come back and really actually be stronger than we were before the lockdown happened is really a testament to everybody at Hendrick, the leadership on Cliff’s side, what he’s doing with these crew guys. I felt like we would be good, but we definitely stepped it up after the lockdown lifted, now that we’re back racing.”  AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 SYMBICORT CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 6th“P-6 for the No. 3 car. The Symbicort Chevrolet was good when it mattered. We worked really hard today; hard-fought battle. The car was tight; low right front. Goodyear said they didn’t know what happened to the tire. But we recovered and made some great adjustments. We were pretty fast there at the end. Justin (Alexander, Crew Chief) made a great call to take tires with 38 laps to go and it showed up. I can’t believe the 2 car won; just shows you have to stay in these races until the end. We were racing him right before that last caution, came out and he goes off and wins the race. We’re close, we’re getting there. Love how these races are playing out. Getting closer and closer! Thanks for all the support – next week is Atlanta!” KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 7th“Wow, what a day for us! The Monster Energy Chevrolet – not one straight panel on it. We went through a lot of damage, went through a lot of looseness early in the race. Man, we had a lot of lucky breaks that fell our way there at the end to be able to come home seventh. There were a couple of guys that wiped each other out, couple of guys chose the wrong lane on the restart and we were able to take advantage with our long run speed. We’ve got to work on our short run speed and how the car drives when it’s on stickers. But we’ll keep digging – we’re not going to give up!”  WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 8th“It was a tough race at the start for us but we finished eighth which was good. Lately we’ve had damage and just a lot of things go wrong for us. We just really needed a good finish and we did today. “We had a loose wheel at the start of the race and had to start at the back of the field after that. We marched our way through the field, back to the top 10. We then again had to start at the back to make repairs to account for the loose wheel. For a third time we had to start back again later because of right side damage. Once we finally got our track position back, we stayed up towards the top 10 and keep ourselves up there. At the end, some of those guys had fresher tires and we faded a couple spots. Overall though it was a good day for us, and we can go onto Atlanta where I think we have a good shot at winning.” BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 VICTORY JUNCTION CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 10th“That was hard fought. I am worn-out after that one. That was a good day for our Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 Victory Junction Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. There were ups and downs, back and forth. We have to figure out our pit road speeding. I am 99.999% sure I was way under the limit – just because we got caught the first time, so there was no need to push it. Besides that, we rebounded from those penalties. I over stepped adjusting the car. We were just way out of place at the beginning of the race and our team over-adjusted, and came back full circle as the track rubbered-up. “All-in-all, it was a good day at the Bristol Motor Speedway. It was fun there at the end. It was wild – that race had pretty much everything. I have seen a lot of positive comments from fans. That’s Bristol Motor Speedway for you. We will carry some momentum over – finally got a good finish after two bad ones. We got the bad juju off our back and we will go onto the Atlanta Motor Speedway! We’ve got some work to do there. I am excited about the speed we’ve been bringing to the track each week. The speed we have been bringing has been good. We need to tweak some things to get us to the next level. We are knocking on the door. We’re doing really good things.” MATT KENSETH, NO. 42 MCDONALD’S CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 16th“Another tough day for me and the 42 team. We had a lot of things go right today with good stops in the pits and some runs with really good speed, but couldn’t turn it into a good finish. So, all in all a frustrating day that ended without the finish we could’ve had. We’ll keep working hard as we look forward to Atlanta and hopefully put together a better race next weekend.”
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 22ndWE JUST TALKED WITH JOEY LOGANO AND HE GAVE US HIS TAKE. WHAT’S YOUR TAKE OF WHAT HAPPENED?“Oh, just going for the win, you know, trying to get a run underneath and got really loose-in. I don’t know if I had a tire going down or if I just got loose on entry. But, as soon as I turned off the wall, I had zero chance of making it. I’ll certainly take the blame. I don’t think so, I just got loose and got up into him. Yeah, you know, I feel like that was my shot. He was really good on the short run and I feel like I had to keep him behind me right there in order to win the race with only three or four laps to go. I hate we both wrecked. But you can’t go back in time now.”
RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 KROGER CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Sidelined in crash on lap 228; Finished 34th“We just got crashed. Our Kroger Camaro was just so good. Two weeks in a row, I feel like, we had one of the best cars I’ve had at that given race track. We were just racing hard. The No. 42 (Matt Kenseth) had to check-up and the No. 48 (Jimmie Johnson) just ran into our left rear and spun us. But, it was a bummer. I felt like we had a really good shot at racing them for the win. We were getting it dialed-in there. Starting on the inside was a little tricky on re-starts in trying to get yourself up, and we were starting to get some momentum back to the top five there and just got crashed. He about got us last week. He got us this week. But, it’s just part of it. It’s short-track racing. Hopefully our guys bring another good car to Atlanta next weekend, and we’ll go get ‘em.” TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 ALSCO UNIFORMS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Sidelined by crash on lap 228; Finished 36th“Well, unfortunately we had an early end to my NASCAR Cup Series debut at Bristol Motor Speedway. We had a handful with the balance of our Alsco Uniforms Chevrolet today and weren’t quite where we needed to be to start the race. We worked really hard though and got it to where I thought it needed to be. We were even able to start clicking off some top-five lap times, just needed some track position to get up there and start contending. We had started to weed away at that, and I’m confident we would have gotten up there. I could run the top lane pretty well, which was helping a lot. It’s unfortunate, but it’s a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time at Bristol. I saw the No. 47 get spun, and I saw him go down but then I couldn’t see him anymore. I was worried if I checked up too much I’d get caught up in it, but it didn’t matter and I got caught up in it anyway. Just a tough situation and a tough way to end our day.” ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 CHEVYGOODS.COM/ADAM’S POLISHES CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Sidelined by crash on lap 228; Finished 37thALEX, WALK US THROUGH WHAT TOOK PLACE FROM YOUR VANTAGE POINT?“It looked like the 47 (Ricky Stenhouse Jr.) crashed and I just couldn’t get stopped in time. I was hoping they would stay low and as they all came up, I got on the brake pedal, just locked the fronts up and couldn’t turn. Bummer – hate it for our ChevyGoods.com Adam’s Polishes guys. The first race for having Adam’s Polishes on the car; bummed for them. We had a really good car, just had some weird stuff happen today. We cross-threaded a lug nut, had to come back down and change that out. The clutch pedal fell off inside the race car, so that wasn’t good for pit stops by any means. So, we struggled with that the last pit stop and lost some more track position. And then, just wrong place wrong time. Hate it, but it looks like the 9 (Chase Elliott) is running really well, so hopefully a HMS car can park it in victory lane. It was one of those days that everything was going wrong and finished it off.” TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Sidelined by crash on lap 198; Finished 39th“Rough day for the third race in a row. Obviously today we got caught up in a wreck after having the car fall off the jack during a pit stop. It’s just unfortunate, but our Germain Racing team is strong though. Our cars are really fast. Our GEICO Camaros are a lot stronger than we have been in the past couple years. We have plenty of time to rebound and accomplish our goals this season. We will keep our heads up, keep digging and fight until the end. Bad days will come; it’s just how you fight through them. We will go try again in Atlanta.”

NASCAR CUP SERIESBRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAYSUPERMARKET HEROES 500TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPTMAY 29, 2020

RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 KROGER CAMARO ZL1 1LE, spoke with media via teleconference to discuss his fourth-place finish in the Alsco Uniforms 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, looking towards the next race at Bristol Motor Speedway, and more. Full Transcript:  IT WAS A FUN RUN THAT YOU HAD LAST NIGHT. WALK US THROUGH THE EXPERIENCE AND THE NIGHT FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE.“Yeah, for us, it was just really good to just have a smooth race with really no issues. Obviously, the first race back at Darlington, I kind of ruined our day early. Then, the second Darlington, we had some issues that we couldn’t fix while we were in the race. Charlotte, the Coca-Cola 600, the first run, we ran up to tenth. I felt really good about it. After we came to the pits, we had some issues again that we had to get over and just didn’t really have the speed after that first run. We felt like what we had in the car was really good and I liked the way it drove at the beginning of the 600. So, we just kind of worked on that and made sure that we limited all of our mistakes and got all of our issues figured out. Brian (Pattie, Crew Chief) and the boys did an awesome job with that. From the drop of the green flag, I felt really good about how our Kroger Camaro ran. For us, it was just huge to get a good run in and pass a lot of really good cars. We ran decent at Vegas and got a good finish on pit strategy. But last night, it was just nice to be able to run up front, pass a lot of really good cars and actually catch the leaders there at a few points towards the end of the race. All-in-all, a great night for us and really looking forward to hopefully carrying that momentum, show what we are capable of and be able to do that more and more often.” WITH THE WAY THAT THIS SEASON HAS GONE, FOUR RACES WITH YOUR NEW TEAM, A TEN-WEEK BREAK, THEN BACK, I’M WONDERING IF IT’S MAKING IT DIFFICULT FOR A NEW TEAM TO FIND A RHYTHM?“Yes and no. We semi had a rhythm going to start the year. I felt like we still had some things to kind of work through. But you sit around for a long time and you’re trying to think of new ways to make your car faster. Then, I go out and make a huge mistake and we didn’t learn anything at Darlington, so that was a rough way to kick it back off. Some of those things that we were working on, if we would have had practice, we definitely would have found some of those issues that we had at the second race at Darlington and the first race at Charlotte. But now, I think we have it under control. We’ve figured out what issues we had and I feel really good about where we are after the way yesterday went. No issues, still things to work on. I don’t really feel like the new team coming back is hard to get in that rhythm, it was just I made a huge mistake that kind of got us off because we could have learned a lot I felt like in that first Darlington. It kind of put us a race behind, so we could have maybe figured out our issues a race earlier and had two good Charlotte races.” YOU’VE HAD SUCCESS AT BRISTOL BEFORE. HOW MUCH ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO SUNDAY AND WHAT YOU THINK YOU GUYS CAN DO THERE?“I feel really good. I know (Chris) Buescher when he was here, they had some really good runs at Bristol. Our setups, looking at what we normally run versus what they ran here, are pretty similar. So, I feel good about that. The feel that I have in this race car I feel like is better than really any of the feel that I had in my Cup cars over my career so far. I felt like last night was a car that kind of reminded me of when I raced the Xfinity Series on the 1.5-mile tracks – I could kind of put my car where I wanted to and it did a lot of the things that I was asking it to do. So, I’m looking forward to getting that to Bristol knowing that we’ve had good runs there. We’ve had chances to win there. It would be nice to be able to get up and go lead some laps, and contend for a win there as well.” YOU GET YOUR FAIR SHARE OF CRITICISM FROM PEOPLE WHEN YOU DO MAKE A MISTAKE, LIKE AT DARLINGTON, AND SOCIAL MEDIA IMMEDIATELY JUMPS ON IT. HOW DO YOU BALANCE THE LOWS OUT WITH SOMETHING LIKE LAST NIGHT?“Yes and no. The frustrating part is that I just need to get more consistent, not make those mistakes and not give people reasons to run their mouth. But it’s all part of it, that’s the things you have to take with the sport. Anytime you have a lot of fans watching and definitely fans of different teams, you’ll have people run their mouth. But you just have to stick to what you know, stick to your team, know that you bring your friends with you to the race track, and know they’re the ones around you supporting you. Honestly, I think that’s one thing that I get out of working out so hard – it doesn’t just physically prepare you for the race, but mentally just keeps you focused on what you need to focus on. I know for me, I definitely need to get more consistent. I look back at my years in the Xfinity Series, it didn’t start off great, but when our cars were right, I felt like I was able to do a lot with them, be more consistent, contend for wins, win and run up front. If we keep having cars like we had last night, I feel like I can make less mistakes, but also be aggressive and still get a lot out of the race car, and try and keep those haters off the internet as much as possible.” ONE OF THE DRIVERS SAID TO US THIS MORNING THAT THE FIRST LAP AT BRISTOL CAN BE NERVE-RACKING FOR ANY DRIVER, EVEN IF YOU HAD YOUR CAR DIALED IN. DO YOU FEEL THE SAME WAY, CONSIDERING WHAT THIS MAY BE LIKE WITH NO PRACTICE, NO QUALIFYING? “Practices at Bristol, kind of that first run, you get out of breath, you almost have to remind yourself to breathe. But we’re all going to be doing that at the same time now. I think for us, the biggest unknown is normally we’re able to run the top of the race track in during practice. You kind of get two grooves going, people aren’t too scared to venture high early in the race. But now, with no practice, you’re not going to have those runs up there to lay the rubber. It’ll be nerve-racking, for sure. I think everybody is going to kind of take it a little bit easy, probably not going to do what I did at Darlington on the first lap. Just kind of let the race play out. Everybody is going to be hoping they get a good draw. That’s another reason why the race last night was important for us. After the last three, we slipped in points quite a bit and we were kind of in that third group of drawing for positions. Now, we put ourselves in that second group. Hopefully, we can draw towards the front of that and get a good starting position so we don’t feel like we need to be in a hurry. The leaders come fast at Bristol and that’s always a nerve-racking thing as well.” HOW DO YOU FEEL ALL THE COVID-19 PROTOCOLS THAT NASCAR HAS PUT IN PLACE HAS GONE?“Yeah, it’s definitely smooth. I think any updates that they’ve had, they’ve sent it to us and everything has gone really smooth as far as on the driver side. I haven’t heard any complaints from the crew guys or really anybody. I feel like everybody has been doing a good job and just accepted it. It might not be comfortable wearing a mask, but it’s part of what we have to do. It’s cool that our sport is back up and running, and being able to get our season back going. I know there are a lot of other sports that wish they could be doing the same thing. NASCAR has done a great job of working with the government and the states to make sure we are capable of going racing at the race tracks that we need to race at.” YOU’RE AN AGGRESSIVE DRIVER, IT’S WHAT YOU DO. WHERE IS THE LINE AT BRISTOL BETWEEN FINESSE AND AGGRESSION IN YOUR MIND? “I think you just have to feel out your race car and feel out the race track. You’ll have the bottom lane, the top lane, the middle – it’s just a race track you just have to get a feel for where you want your car to work, knowing that top lane will eventually come in and be the fast way around. But knowing that you might have to run the bottom on restarts and through traffic. So, really it’s just going to be feeling your car out until that competition caution that we generally have with no practice and just make sure that you give your crew chief as much information as you can to make sure when that pit stop comes that we can make the right adjustments to be good after that.” HOW DO YOU THINK THE FIELD WILL BE PULLING OFF AT BRISTOL? TOTALLY DIFFERENT TRACK THAN DARLINGTON OR CHARLOTTE. “No, I think it will be about the same. Probably the weirdest thing I feel like at Bristol would be no fans because the grandstands are so close to the race track. That will be a different feeling kind of walking down into the stadium with nobody yelling at you or cheering for you, so that’ll be different. But all-in-all, I think everybody is going to be in kind of the same mindset and just trying to feel everything out.” ALL THESE RACES IN A CONDENSED SCHEDULE, IT’S BEEN PRETTY WELL RECEIVED IT SEEMS LIKE AMONG THE YOUNGER DRIVERS. YOU AS A DRIVER WHO HAS BEEN AT THIS FOR A FEW MORE YEARS THAN SOME OF THE YOUNGER DRIVERS, DO YOU LIKE IT? “Obviously, since we’ve been back going, it was nice to be able to jump back into the race car at Darlington on Wednesday after our issues on Sunday. We had issues at Darlington with our race car on Wednesday, so it was nice to get back in on Sunday. I enjoy it as far as that goes, but to me, I just like to race. I like to be in the race car. Practice and qualifying doesn’t do it for me as much as getting out and competing in the race, as far as we’d be in the car on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. But really there’s nothing like going out and racing. I enjoy racing as much as possible. I like the Sunday – Wednesday schedules; I wish would could kind of keep doing that. I’ve never been a fan of shortening the season because I just like to race. I’m going to try and sprinkle some more dirt races in when I can, if NASCAR lets me (laughs). For me, I enjoy the racing aspect of it. I love being in the race car as much as possible. Like probably the other crew chiefs said, the guys at the shop definitely have a lot more work, as far as getting cars ready week in and week out. So, that’s always been probably the biggest question mark of running these mid-week races to catch up our schedule is the toll that it’s taking on the crew guys. But it’s all been well received, they enjoy it and they love us back racing.” I KNOW THAT YOU AND KYLE LARSON ARE PRETTY CLOSE. HAVE YOU BEEN TALKING TO HIM AT ALL AS THE SEASON IS RESUMING AND HOW HE’S DOING?“Yeah, he’s obviously got a big adjustment and it’s totally different than what was his schedule and life before everything went down. He’s glad to be racing, definitely misses being in the Cup car and competing at this level. He’s just been hanging out with his family and going dirt racing. It’s a big adjustment, but he seems to be doing alright.” COMING OUT OF THE PANDEMIC, WAS THERE ANY POINT WHERE YOU FELT LIKE WE REALLY NEED TO HAVE A STRONG RUN IN THIS MID-WEEK RACE AT CHARLOTTE OR DID YOU FEEL ANY EXTRA PRESSURE ON YOURSELF TO DELIVER THAT, KNOWING HOW YOU HAD SLIPPED IN THE POINTS?“Yeah, it’s was very important. Like I said, the first Darlington obviously was kind of written off. The second Darlington, we learned a lot. Didn’t have the run that we wanted, but knew that there were some big issues that we needed to fix. Coming into Charlotte for the 600, we felt like we fixed all those issues and we kind of had some different issues come up that we weren’t expecting. So, I felt like we learned a lot those two races that we could get everything smoothed out and ready for that mid-week race at Charlotte. Knowing that it was a short race, you had to be on your game from the start and we were. I told the boys that we needed a good run going into Bristol, my favorite race track, knowing that I really like the way these cars drive. And if it drives as good at Bristol as it has at these other race tracks, I feel like we’re going to have a shot at a win. I wanted a good solid top-15 run, no issues, no mistakes and it turned out to be way better than that. So, we’re looking forward to hopefully carrying that momentum into Sunday.” DO YOU FEEL LIKE THAT RUN, FINISHING IN THE TOP-FIVE AND THE SPEED YOU HAD, IS THAT THE POTENTIAL YOU SAW WHEN YOU JUMPED OVER TO JTG DAUGHERTY FOR THIS YEAR?“Yeah, definitely. Looking at the equipment that they have here, the people, the parts and pieces, the Hendrick power, the new Chevy Camaro body – I feel like those are all really good things to put together. Bringing my crew chief Brian Pattie over, bringing Mike Kelley over, with a lot of knowledge and a lot of experience to work in, they jumped right it. I felt like they’ve been working with these guys for a long time and it’s only been a short amount of time. So, I feel like we are definitely capable of running in the top-ten. I feel like last night was definitely a night that we hit it right. We had a really good car and I hope we can continue to run top-five and contend for wins. But I definitely feel like we can run top-ten with everything that we have right here. We have to do that – we have to limit my mistakes, limit the issues that we’ve had and just have good, smooth, solid nights, and I think we can run top-ten.”

TEAM CHEVY ADVANCEFOOD CITY PRESENTS SUPERMARKET HEROES 500BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAYBRISTOL, TENNESSEE MAY 31, 2020
RACE #9 AT BRISTOL:In the revised 2020 NASCAR Cup Series schedule, the 60th running of the historic Food City 500, the ninth race of the season, will be held Sunday, May 31st at the iconic Bristol Motor Speedway. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 266-mile, 500-lap race on the famed all-concrete high-banks will be held without spectators in attendance. In honor of those serving on the front lines within the supermarket industry of the United States and around the world, the event has re-badged as the Supermarket Heroes 500. BOWTIE BULLETS·       Chevrolet leads all manufacturers with 45 all-time wins and 39 poles in 116 races at the track known as the ‘World’s Fastest Half-Mile’, more than any other brand. ·       Of active Team Chevy drivers, Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1, is a six-time winner at Bristol (’02, twice in ’03. ’04, ’06, & ’18) and Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1, has won twice (’10 & ’17) ·       The most recent Chevy pole winner is Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 1LE, (April ’19). Elliott’s 2019 pole holds the track’s current qualifying record with a time of 14.568 (131.713 mph). ·       To-date, Chevrolet has also scored 209 top-fives, 432 top-10’s, and has led 23,613 laps around the .533-mile coliseum-style track. ·       In 1971, Charlie Glotzbach captured Chevrolet’s first win at Bristol Motor Speedway, which was also the first NASCAR Cup win for Monte Carlo. With the aid of relief driver, Friday Hassler, the duo clocked an average pace of 101.074 mph throughout the caution-free, 500-lap race. That speed record still stands today. SCORECARD:With Chase Elliott’s Thursday night victory at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and Alex Bowman’s win at Auto Club Speedway on March 1st, two Team Chevy Camaro ZL1 1LE drivers have now secured spots in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs that will determine the 2020 champion. The Hendrick Motorsports teammates, Elliott and Bowman, are currently ranked third and fourth, respectively, in the point standings. STARTING ORDER:With no qualifying for the event, the starting line-up has been determined by a random draw. Five Team Chevy drivers will start in the Top-15: Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 1LE – starts 6thAlex Bowman, No. 88 ChevyGoods.com/Adam’s Polishes Camaro ZL1 1LE – starts 11thKurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1 1LE – starts 12thWilliam Byron, No. 24 Axalta Camaro Zl1 1LE – starts 13thMatt Kenseth, No. 42 McDonald’s Camaro ZL1 1LE – starts 14th TUNE-IN:The Supermarket Heroes 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway gets underway on Sunday, May 31^st at 3:30 p.m. ET. Live coverage will air on FS1, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.  QUOTABLE QUOTES:CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 3rd IN STANDINGSELLIOTT ON CHARLOTTE WIN: “We battled hard and finally got our car good enough there at the end. I’m not sure that we had it exactly perfect, but the guys did a great job making good adjustments and good pit stops there to put us in a position, and I think the race going long played into our favor as compared to what Kevin (Harvick) had to work with. Just had some good fortune and things went our way. Just appreciate all our partners for sticking with us. Finally good to get a Kelley Blue Book win. That’s our first win together, so hopefully many more.” ELLIOTT ON HOW HE FEELS PHYSICALLY AFTER THREE RACES IN FIVE DAYS: “I feel really good. I feel like I tried to stay biking and doing things throughout those two months off, and honestly coming back and going back to Darlington where it was hot and then coming into the 600, it kind of just threw us back right to the wolves, and I think that was really a good thing just to really get some hot races and some long races in right off the bat and just jump right to it. I feel good, and I’m certainly tired, it’s been a long week, but I’m going to rest these next couple days and get ready for Bristol. I am looking forward to going and hopefully having a good run.” ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 CHEVYGOODS.COM/ADAM’S POLISHES CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 4th IN STANDINGSBOWMAN ON BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY: “Bristol is strong track for us, but you have to have good track position. It’s tough to bounce back if you get down on track position, but this No. 88 team is great at figuring out exactly what we need here. We have had some decent finishes here in the past, so I know that we can do that again on Sunday.” GREG IVES, CREW CHIEF FOR THE NO. 88 CHEVYGOODS.COM/ADAM’S POLISHES CAMARO ZL1 1LEIVES ON BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY: “Bristol is a strong track for the 88 team. We have had our struggles with the flatter short track, but that does not include Bristol. We hope to continue to build our momentum this Sunday and execute all race long.” JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 16th IN STANDINGS“Bristol is going to be very complicated, in my opinion the biggest issue is going to be the track. When that track is green and has no rubber on it, is very low on grip. With the traction compound on the bottom lane , it needs traffic to work it in. So, to show up cold turkey with the setup required to be competitive for the first stage is going to be way different than the setup you will need to win the race. It’s going to be a tough challenge on the teams, pit road is going to be important, and minimal adjustments during a pit stop are key since we are short manned over the wall. In order to raise the track bar, change the wedge or pull a spring rubber it takes so long – and unfortunately, we will probably need adjustments like that as the race wears on. From a technical standpoint – this race is going to be the most difficult so far. The car will have to have some adjustability built in.” TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 ALSCO UNIFORMS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 17th IN STANDINGSBRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY IS KNOWN FOR BEING A TOUGH TRACK. HOW DO YOU FEEL ENTERING YOUR FIRST CUP SERIES START THERE WITH NO PRACTICE OR QUALIFYING? “It’s going to be tough on Sunday. Bristol is one of the toughest tracks to go around when it doesn’t have rubber and heat on it. I’ve ran Truck races there through my career, and when we’re one of the first ones on the track, that first hour of practice, you can’t really learn much. The traction compound is slick – you go down in there to try to use it and you almost spin out. You run the middle, and that’s about it. Man, the first hour or so of practice you can’t get up in that either because it’s slick, and you almost wreck. I remember the first time they put traction compound down at Bristol, I went out for practice and I was in the middle of it, so we were OK. But I wanted to try the bottom, so I went down there, got loose and couldn’t go anywhere. I realized that wasn’t going to work, so I went up to try to use the top and I drove it straight into the fence. Given that experience, I’m worried that the start of Sunday’s race is going to be very chaotic. I don’t know how that’s going to go. There’s only one groove, and we’re going to be starting double-file, so that’s going to be very interesting.” WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 18th IN STANDINGS“The race at Bristol will probably bring the biggest unknowns during all of this with it being a short track, fast and a rhythm track. I had good runs going last year; we just needed some luck. I also had success there in iRacing during the time off so hopefully some of those trends and knowledge of the track will carry over. You need to be good at running the top groove there – it is really important. You also need to be patient when running the bottom and running in the PJ1 (track compound). It’s a dynamic track for that reason and you always have to be on your toes for sure. Hopefully we can get a good starting spot there and run up front to avoid some of that.” RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 KROGER CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 20th IN STANDINGS“I feel really good about Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway in our Kroger Camaro. JTG Daugherty Racing has had some really good runs at short tracks such as Bristol in the past, and we have some similar setups for how I like to race short tracks versus what’s been run before. The feel that I have in this race car is better than any that I have had in my Cup cars throughout my career. I know I saw that in our race at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Thursday night where I could put my car where I wanted to and it did a lot of the things that I was asking it to. It’ll definitely be different at Bristol knowing that our first ‘out of breath’ lap will be the first lap of the race. Normally we get that in practice, but it will be the same for everyone. The biggest unknown is the top groove that would get rubbered up in practice, and won’t before the race. It’ll be nerve wracking, but we’ve had a couple second-place finishes at Bristol and I’m looking forward to bringing our momentum from Charlotte to Bristol this weekend and continue moving forward.” BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 VICTORY JUNCTION CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 23rd IN STANDINGS“It takes a lot to be successful at the Bristol Motor Speedway. You have to have the awareness; I think that is probably the biggest thing. You get a hundred laps in, you are sunk-down in the seat, and you can’t really see what is ahead of you. If you are in the entry of Turn 1 and there is a crash off of Turn 2, you have to be ready for it and the spotter has to be on top of it. “It is really a team effort when you go to the Bristol Motor Speedway. The team has to have a good set-up. It goes back to awareness. You just have to be capable of putting yourself in the right spot at the right time. When the groove starts to move up, you have to be able to move up and be competitive. Richard Petty Motorsports has always been good at the bottom and once it moves to the top – we’ve never been super great. So, our team will have to work on that. You have to be able to adapt really well.” JERRY BAXTER, CREW CHIEF FOR THE NO. 43 VICTORY JUNCTION CAMARO ZL1 1LE “We have the Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 Victory Junction Camaro ZL1 1LE ready to go. We’ve been showing pretty consistent speed over the last few events, so that’s a good thing. Going into Bristol Motor Speedway, that’s one of Bubba’s favorite tracks, so we’re looking forward to getting the Richard Petty Motorsports Chevrolet a good finish this weekend.” RYAN PREECE, NO. 37 BUSH’S BEANS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 30th IN STANDINGS“Bristol Motor Speedway is a track that I always circle on the schedule for us. I’ve obviously had a lot of success there, winning in the Xfinity Series as well as in the Modified Series. It’s no secret that our 2020 season has been hindered by bad luck. We’ve had some pretty fast cars and running where we want to be, and just haven’t been able to finish it off with things that have been out of our control. Without any practice, we have to expect the unexpected. The VHT compound can make the bottom groove really slippery to start, but putting 40 cars out there at once might speed that process of bringing in the top lane and bottom lane up a little bit. I think the field has been a lot closer since we returned to racing, with everyone on one playing field of just lining up and racing. Our random draw hasn’t left us with the greatest starting position, but we have 500 laps to figure it out and move our BUSH’S Beans Camaro to the front.” 

May 29, 2020

Last fall at Bristol Motor Speedway, Matt DiBenedetto, having learned just days before that he would be a free agent in 2020, turned in a performance that won the hearts of fans both at the track and across the NASCAR nation.

Although he relinquished the lead after holding the top spot for 93 laps late in the race and wound up in second place, the crowd cheered loud and long as he was interviewed for the TV and radio broadcasts.
 
In those interviews, DiBenedetto, who finished second, vowed to remain in the Cup Series and said he had faith that some top-tier team would hire him and be glad to get him.
 
“I just want to stick around and keep doing this for a long time to come,” DiBenedetto said on that hot August night. “I love it. I love the opportunity. I’m not done yet.”

 “Something will come open. It’s going to happen. I’m here to win. Something’s going to come open.”
 
Turns out he was right. The Wood Brothers hired him to drive their iconic No. 21 Ford Mustang.
 
“That Bristol race was the turning point in Matt’s career,” Eddie Wood said. “I remember how well he ran and how the fans were supporting him. When Paul [Menard] decided to retire and we talked with him about who would take over the car, Matt’s name was the first one that came up for us and Paul.”
 
Now DiBenedetto, who already has matched his Bristol finishing position with a second-place run at Las Vegas earlier this year, is returning to Bristol with a No. 21 REESE/Draw-Tite Mustang that is expected to be capable of once again contending for a win on the half-mile concrete oval.
 
Wood said he’s optimistic about the team’s prospects this weekend.

“Bristol is Matt’s best track,” he said. “And we’ve had some fast cars up there lately.”

 “The biggest thing is getting to the end of the race without getting involved in someone else’s mess or your own mess.
 
“It’s the hardest race we run to survive to the finish. It’s so fast and the cars run so close. Things happen fast.” 
 
Wood also said he and his family team are excited to have the No. 21 Mustang carry the universally known REESE and Draw-Tite brands, which have been providing heavy-duty and custom hitches and towing equipment since their inceptions in 1952 and 1946.
 
 “We had REESE and Draw-Tite on the car for the iRacing event at Bristol a few weeks ago, and we were proud of that, but it’s a much bigger deal to represent them in a real Cup race,” he said. “We always enjoy working with companies like ours that have long histories.”
 
Sunday’s Food City presents the Supermarket Heroes 500, for which there will be no practice or qualifying, is set to start just after 3:30 p.m. with TV coverage on FOX Sports One.
 

May 29, 2020

After a promising start to Thursday’s Alsco Uniforms 500-kilometer Cup Series race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Matt DiBenedetto and the No. 21 Menards/Richmond team struggled with a loose handing condition for the remainder of the race and wound up with a 15^th-place finish.
 
DiBenedetto started fourth when the line-up was set using a modified inversion of the finish of Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600, where he finished 17^th.

On the start of Thursday’s 208-lap race, he pushed pole-sitter William Byron into the lead going into Turns One and Two then passed him for the lead down the backstretch.

He led the next nine laps then retook the top spot on the 11^th lap for a total of 10 laps led. It was the second-straight race he’s been out front, the first being the six circuits he led in the Coca-Cola 600.

After losing the top spot DiBenedetto continued to keep pace with the front-runners and ended the first 55-lap Stage in third place, collecting eight Stage points.

But from then on to the finish, the loose handling conditions persisted, hampering his progress in a race that ended with a 59-lap green-flag run to the finish.

“The car got really loose, and with it being a short race we never really got a handle on it,” DiBenedetto said. “We worked on the car, but it just wasn’t responding to the adjustments we made.
 
“But it was good to lead the race, and the Stage points helped make our day not too bad. They saved us a little.”
 
DiBenedetto remains 11^th in the Cup Series standings as and the No. 21 team head to Bristol Motor Speedway, one of his best tracks and where he finished second last fall driving for another team.
 
“I’m ready to go to a short track and get away from these mile-and-a-half tracks for a weekend,” he said.
 
Sunday’s Food City presents the Supermarket Heroes 500, for which there will be no practice or qualifying, is set to start just after 3:30 p.m. with TV coverage on FOX Sports One.
 

NASCAR CUP SERIESBRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAYSUPERMARKET HEROES 500TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPTMAY 29, 2020
RYAN PREECE, NO. 37 BUSH’S BEANS CAMARO ZL1 1LE, met with media via teleconference and discussed the season thus far, how the hectic schedule has been for him, his expectations at Bristol this coming Sunday, and more. Full Transcript: YOU’VE BEEN A BUSY MAN HERE THE LAST COUPLE OF WEEKS. PLEASE WALK US THROUGH THIS CADENCE OF RACING MULTIPLE TIMES A WEEK AND HOW THAT HAS IMPACTED YOU. DO YOU ENJOY IT?“I enjoy it to be honest with you. I like the Sunday-Wednesday, or Sunday-Thursday thing that we’ve been doing. It’ nice, even on the bad days, to not have to wait very long to get back in the race car or get back to the race track.
“Yesterday wasn’t exactly our strongest day. On our side, we, honestly, I thought the 600 was going to be good but with just pit strategy, we ended-up getting caught a lap down somehow, and then had to get off-sequence and lost more track position. But, we had a good race car, so I was looking forward to getting there (again). We struggled yesterday so that made for just a long day. But, looking forward to Bristol this Sunday. That’s somewhere that I’ve been circling on the calendar since we started the season. So, I’m excited to get over there. Our 2020 season has been, I would say, hindered by a lot of bad luck. We’ve had some pretty fast race cars and running where we want to be, and just haven’t been able to finish it off with just things that are out of your control. So, we’re going to try and control the things we can and keep moving forward.”
WHAT DO YOU EXPECT AT BRISTOL?  WILL IT BE ANY DIFFERENT DUE TO NO PRACTICE AND NO QUALIFYING?“You kind of have to expect the unexpected, to be honest with you. With the VHT compound, the bottom lane, in the past is really slippery for the first five or ten minutes of practice. With 36 or 40 cars out there, that might speed up the process. But, I think the racing is going to be really good. I think the field has been a heck of a lot closer over the course of these past few weeks just because it doesn’t give many people to fine-tune. You’ve got what you’ve got. You can only do so much on pit stops. So, I think the racing this weekend should be really good.”
TALK ABOUT YOUR HISTORY AT BRISTOL. YOU TOOK HOME THE $100,000 PRIZE IN XFINITY AT BRISTOL AND TRIGGERED A EARLY WRECK AT ‘VIRTUAL’ BRISTOL IN 2020. WHAT’S YOUR HISTORY AT BRISTOL AND WHAT DO YOU THINK?“I’ve won there in a Modified also, so I enjoy racing Bristol. I enjoy short tracks. The throttle, the brake, whatever it may be, there are so many different tools that you can do as a driver to try and help some speed or long-run stuff at short tracks. So, I enjoy going to them. And Bristol is the fastest half-mile there is and just everything happens so quick. Obviously we aren’t going to have very much track position just because of the random draw and where we are in points right now (30th in standings), but we’ve got 500 laps to figure it out and move forward.”
RICKY STENHOUSE, JR. HAD A GOOD RUN LAST NIGHT AT CHARLOTTE. HE HAS A COUPLE OF TOP-FIVE’S THIS YEAR. HOW DO YOU FEEL LIKE THE ADDITION OF HIM THIS SEASON HAS AFFECTED JTG DAUGHERTY RACING?“Oh, I think they’ve had their races where they’ve been really good, right? I would say between Ricky and (Brian) Pattie (crew chief), they’ve definitely brought some of their superspeedway stuff over and last night they were really good. So, that was really good for JTG. I will say that this new Chevrolet body has been a huge addition, too. And the hours that all the guys over there that are putting into the wind-tunnel time has really paid off, also. The black cloud in the room right there is we’ve had some really good runs going and just unfortunate stuff we’ve got to cleanup on our end, some pit stops have killed us on track position and we’ve had a couple of motors blow up. So, we’re looking forward to putting these first eight races behind us and moving forward and trying to get into a rhythm and knocking off some good runs.”
LAST NIGHT WHEN EVERYBODY WAS FOUR-WIDE ON A RE-START, YOU WOUND UP GOING THROUGH THE ASTROTURF IN THE INFIELD. DID YOU THINK YOU WERE IN IRACING FOR A MINUTE? THAT LOOKED PRETTY CRAZY.“Yeah, I don’t know. I know the driver turned left when he probably shouldn’t have. So, I was thinking about that this morning. Next time that happens, I think you just end up hooking the guys because you end up putting yourself in a bad situation to avoid a wreck and it ends up damaging your own car so you end up paying the price. Next time you just sit there and let them turn themselves.”
THE MODIFIED TOUR WAS SCHEDULED TO GET UNDERWAY THIS PAST WEEKEND AT SOUTH BOSTON BUT DIDN’T GO BECAUSE OF WEATHER. WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FRIENDS OVER THERE BEEN SAYING ABOUT THEIR STOPPAGE RIGHT NOW?“It is what it is right now. At the end of the day, I don’t think some of these guys want to race with a reduced purse, which is understandable. When you show up to do some of those races, you understand that there’s a possibility that you aren’t going to make money, so losing that much more sometimes can be tough to swallow. But, I know those guys want to get racing soon so hopefully they can get back to normal soon and go racing.”
WILL YOU TAKE RISKS TO WIN, CONSIDERING WHERE YOU’RE AT IN POINTS?“Should we? Absolutely. Will we? For sure. At this point, I don’t know. Does anybody know what you’ve got to do for some good luck or whatever? I mean, yesterday, we were able to get some track position. We weren’t handling the way we wanted to, but we were working at it. And every time we came in, if we came in at the end of a stage in 17th or 18th, we’d come out 26th. And a restart doesn’t go your way trying to pass cars isn’t extremely easy. So, I would say yes, we are willing to take plenty of risks.”
DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU’RE ON THE BRINK OF THINGS TURNING AROUND? WHAT ARE YOU THINKING NOW AT THE START OF THE SEASON?“I would say every race. At Darlington, we were really good, to be honest with you. Honestly, we were really, really good. And I see it turning around. It’s just not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. We’ve just got to keep our heads up and keep bringing the best possible piece we can and keeping out of trouble and execute. Everybody has to execute at this level. That’s what it comes down to. If you have a bad stop or whatever it may be, and you lose track position on that last restart or stage, trying to make that up is so difficult. You guys see that on TV. So, I think we’re right there. Hopefully Bristol can be the week to turn it around. We’ve got BUSH’S Beans on the car, which I’m excited about. And I’m looking forward to getting this monkey off the back.”
WHEN YOU WERE RUNNING THREE AND FOUR WIDE AT CHARLOTTE, IS THAT SOMETHING THAT’S CHARLOTTE-SPECIFIC, OR DO YOU THINK YOU’RE GOING TO SEE SOME MORE RESTARTS LIKE THAT AT BRISTOL?“I don’t think you’re going to see three or four wide at Bristol. I think if you see three or four-wide at Bristol, you’re probably going to see a big wreck. So, I think it’s 1.5-mile-specific with this package. Restarts, if you get a good lane and you’re able to keep a run going and get to the top, which the top is typically the best spot to be, you’re going to pass some cars. So, Bristol, this weekend, I would expect two-wide, maybe three-wide, possibly, if you’re a daredevil, but that’s about it.”
IS PICKING THAT UPPER LANE GOING TO GIVE YOU THE BEST ADVANTAGE?“Yeah, I think the top. Once the VHT wears off, it’ll be the place to be.”

NASCAR CUP SERIESCHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAYALSCO UNIFORMS 500TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPTMARCH 28, 2020
CHASE ELLIOTT PUTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE IN VICTORY LANE AT CHARLOTTETeam Chevy Takes Three of Top-Five Overall
CONCORD, N.C. (MAY 28, 2020) – Chase Elliott collected his first win of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season in his No. 9 Kelley Blue Book Camaro ZL1 1LE in the midweek Alsco Uniforms 500 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the fourth since the sport resumed racing on May 17th.  His last win was at the Charlotte Roval in September 2019.
The victory was Elliott’s seventh in 157 NASCAR Cup career starts, and his first victory and fifth top-10 finish in 29 races at Charlotte Motor Speedway. It also marked the second win for the Camaro Zl1 1LE in 2020, Chevrolet’s 46th win at the Charlotte venue, and 788th in NASCAR’s premier series.
Ricky Stenhouse, No. 47 Kroger Camaro ZL1 1LE finished fourth in the 208-lap race, and Kurt Busch, was fifth in his No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro Z1 1LE, to give Team Chevy three of the top-five finishing positions. Austin Dillon was eighth in the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Off Road Camaro Zl1 1LE.
Hendrick Motorsports teammates, Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1 and William Byron, No. 24 Axalta Camaro ZL1 1LE, finished 11th and 12th^, respectively.
Additionally, Hendrick Motorsports leads the NASCAR Cup Series in wins at Charlotte with 20: Jimmie Johnson (eight), Jeff Gordon (five), Darrell Waltrip (two); plus Ken Schraeder, Terry Labonte, Casey Mears, Kasey Kahne, and Chase Elliott with one each.
To round out the top five overall, Denny Hamlin (Toyota) finished second and Ryan Blaney (Ford) was third.
The NASCAR Cup Series season continues at Bristol Motor Speedway with the Supermarket Heroes 500 on Sunday, May 31st at 3:30 p.m. ET. Live coverage will air on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
POST RACE PRESS CONFERENCE INTERVIEWS:CHASE ELLIOTT and ALAN GUSTAFSON, NO. 9 KELLEY BLUE BOOK CAMARO ZL1 1LE
THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by the winner of tonight’s Alsco Uniforms 500 and that is Chase Elliott. Congratulations on winning the race. Walk us through that run tonight.            CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, appreciate it. It was just ‑‑ we battled hard and finally got our car good enough there at the end. I’m not sure that we had it exactly perfect, but the guys did a great job making good adjustments and good pit stops there to put us in a position, and I think the race going long played into our favor as compared to what Kevin had to work with. Just had some good fortune and things went our way. Just appreciate all our partners for sticking with us. Finally good to get a Kelley Blue Book win. That’s our first win together, so hopefully many more.            Q. After Sunday, was there any worry on your part that maybe Alan just didn’t have confidence in you?CHASE ELLIOTT: That’s probably about the dumbest question you’ve ever asked me.            Q. Does the fact that you have strong cars, does that alleviate any concerns of, oh, well, if a decision doesn’t go your way or if you make a mistake or if somebody makes a mistake, as long as you have fast cars you’re going to continue to win races?CHASE ELLIOTT: I think the biggest thing is if we can continue to put ourselves in position and give ourselves chances and we do a good job at controlling the things that are in our control, that’s all we can ask for. We can’t control when a caution comes out two laps to go and you’re kind of in a lose‑lose situation there. We’ve got to keep doing things that are in our hands and keep doing those well.            Q. You spoke to it a little bit in your interviews, but just the feeling of oh, my gosh, what’s going to go wrong, how do you keep focused on what you’re trying to do in the car those final laps when you’re like, oh, my gosh, what’s going to happen?CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, I mean, honestly, it really just keeps you grounded, to be completely frank, especially after Sunday. You’re just kind of waiting on something to happen. It just kind of keeps you grounded, and the fact that it’s never over until it’s over, we’ve been reminded of that quite a lot, and that’s a lesson I’m never going to forget.            Q. Do you have any sense of if the caution ‑‑ were you thinking, okay, if the caution does come out I’m definitely staying out here this time or anything like that?CHASE ELLIOTT: I think it just depends. We can “what‑if” it to death, but until you’re put in that situation ‑‑ that was a longer run there at the end than we even had on Sunday, so who knows. I mean, when the caution comes out late like that, you’re going to have takers and not, and it’s all just about the numbers as to who does and who doesn’t. I can’t answer that. It’s hard to tell.            Q. I wonder how you’re feeling physically after running all these races?CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, good question. I feel really good. I feel like I tried to stay biking and doing things throughout those two months off, and honestly coming back and going back to Darlington where it was hot and then coming into the 600, it kind of just threw us back right to the wolves, and I think that was really a good thing just to really get some hot races and some long races in right off the bat and just jump right to it. I feel good, and I’m certainly tired, it’s been a long week, but I’m going to rest these next couple days and get ready for Bristol.            Q. I wonder with this workload if the size of Hendrick Motorsports is a benefit and you guys having so many people and it’s showing in your preparation and how you guys are showing up at the racetrack?CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, I mean, I think all of our employees at HMS from top to bottom have been really working hard throughout the off‑season. But again, we’re still very early in the year, and I challenge all of the people at HMS, myself, the road crew, the pit crews to stay hungry because the season is very long, a lot of racing left, and we just need to keep pushing. No reason to get content right now.            Q. Chase, you were running well even before the pause of the season, and now you’ve been ‑‑ you’ve had the strong run here. Is it as much a continuation or do you feel like you guys have gotten better just in the last two weeks?CHASE ELLIOTT: To be honest, I feel like it’s been a continuation from the beginning of the season. I feel like all the same contenders are contending now as to who was contending before the break, so I still feel like ‑‑ I almost get the sense that we’re still working on some of the parts and pieces and cars that we had before we had two months off, so I’m really curious to see how these next two weeks progress because people are going to get better, and I think some of the things they’ve been trying and working on they’re actually going to have time to implement to their cars. We have to stay hungry and stay after it.            Q. What are you curious to see?CHASE ELLIOTT: Who’s fast and who’s not.            Q. What was the conversations like with Alan in the immediate aftermath of Sunday and through the next couple days?CHASE ELLIOTT: You know, look, I mean, I feel like at the end of the day, he has to make decisions on the spot. I feel like we were in a lose‑lose position there on Sunday, so it’s not his fault that the caution came out with two laps to go, and when you’re in a position like that you have to make a decision and stick with it. I’m not going to question him. I don’t fault him. It’s not his fault; it’s just one of those things where you’ve got to make a gut call and go with it, and heck, we drove back to third. I just don’t see how you can look back at that and say he did something wrong because that position is a super hard one to be in. It’s a good one to be in, right, because you’re leading the race, but also a really tough one to be in at the same time.            Q. Did you kind of give him a pep talk or anything or explain what you just explained now to him?CHASE ELLIOTT: No, he’s been doing this way longer than me, so he knows.            Q. Chase, with the races you’ve run this week, the 600, the truck race, then tonight, the rain delays, postponements, how do you get your mindset into making the transition from a late week race into Bristol on Sunday for a short track?CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, just get ready. 500 laps at Bristol is a really physical event. We’ve raced a lot throughout this week. I’m tired, and I want to rest tomorrow and Saturday and get ready to go. It’s going to be a tough one on Sunday, especially in the afternoon.            Q. Chase, kind of bouncing off of the previous question, when we talk about momentum, normally you have a full week to enjoy a race win like this. Does it help to go to Bristol only a couple days later to carry the momentum or would you rather enjoy the victory a little bit more?CHASE ELLIOTT: I mean, that’s tough. You know, I don’t know that it matters. To me a win is a win. Those five bonus points are five bonus points, and the sticker on top of the car is still going to be there. I think it’s all ‑‑ I don’t really know that it matters. I’m just excited that we’ve been performing well, and ultimately I want to just have a shot to win each and every week. That’s our goal as a team. Whether we do or not is one thing, but to just have a chance to be in position is the goal, so we need to stay after that goal.            Q. How much of a benefit was it for your confidence to come back and win Tuesday night and kind of immediately shake the sting of Sunday? Did that do anything to help you maybe come into this race with a little bit of a fresher mind?CHASE ELLIOTT: Like I said Tuesday, I don’t know that Tuesday made up for Sunday. It was certainly good. It never hurt anything to come over here, perform and have a good run like that. But it definitely didn’t fix it. I think we were hungry and wanted to get back and try again.            Q. Rain delay aside, what did you think of the length of tonight’s race both in time and mileage wise?CHASE ELLIOTT: I think it’s great. I think it ups the intensity. I think you have to have your car driving really well from the start, and if it doesn’t, you have to make those big swings early. I feel like it just ramps up the intensity and everything that comes with that. Just the clock is ticking and you don’t have a lot of time to do much of anything.   THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by the crew chief of the No. 9, Alan Gustafson. Please walk us through tonight’s victory from your perspective.            ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, so with the invert we certainly started a little further back than we wanted to, and you know, short stages and a lot of cautions near the start, it was just kind of hard for us to work our way through there, and we did eventually, and kind of got in the top 5, and once we got up there we could figure out what kind of car we had. Our car I don’t think was quite as fast as it was the other night and a little bit too free, so we suffered there a little bit and tried to improve it, and I think we got it better. Had a loose wheel, an unfortunate caution to get the loose wheel fixed, and at the end there, Chase made some adjustments, we adjusted on the car and he was able to pass Kevin to win the race. It was a great day for us.            Q. Alan, how much does having fast cars help kind of heal any either frustration and everything over what happened on Sunday?ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, a lot. I mean, a lot. Having an opportunity to win is a huge thing, and we’ve had a lot of opportunities to win. It’s obviously been pretty well‑documented that we didn’t do that as much as we would have liked, and knowing we could come here with a good car and a chance to win again and put ourselves in that position again and overcome it was good. I mean, if the race on Sunday night, if that was really the only shot we had all year, we hadn’t had cars that had speed to win, it would have been even that much more devastating, but we’ve had really good cars. Yeah, it worked out.            Q. Chase didn’t indicate that he felt this way, but I was curious whether you were concerned that he might feel like you wouldn’t have confidence in him to be able to kind of stay out on old tires and win.ALAN GUSTAFSON: Oh, no. No, no, I have the utmost confidence in him. I think he’s the best driver out here, and he’s showing it. That situation was ‑‑ there’s a lot of factors that went into it, and our struggles earlier in the race probably influenced me more than I should have let it, and it didn’t work out.           We’re also assuming that we stay out and we win the race, so it’s tough. It’s just a tough situation.           Q.       Can you walk us through what those hours and days since Sunday night were like for you, your own personal experience and taking the heat from the call and everything that went into that?            ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, I don’t know, it obviously wasn’t a great feeling. You know, I don’t base my self‑worth on other people’s opinions or if I’m doing a good job based on what other people say, but certainly I’m a human being, too, and when you get that many rocks thrown at you, it doesn’t feel great. But yeah, it was a long couple days, but at the end of the day, you’ve just got to look past it and move on.            Q. As a crew chief after you have a race like Sunday, does it shake your confidence at all? Does it make you doubt yourself at all?ALAN GUSTAFSON: No. No. I think you have to be a little bit hard‑headed to do this job, and you have to find a way to improve, and just you have to kind of shake it off. Professional sports are super fickle, and one day you’re good and one day you’re terrible, and you just get used to that.            Q. What was the conversations like with Chase Sunday night and then the next few days afterwards?ALAN GUSTAFSON: Chase and I, we were always in lockstep on all those decisions. I have the most confidence in him, and I feel like he does in me, and we never ‑‑ I mean, we certainly felt that on Sunday. I think both of us did. Not only for ourselves but for all the guys at the shop and everybody that works so hard and for NAPA and for HMS and for Mr. Hendrick and Kelley Blue Book, all our sponsors, we felt bad, but we certainly knew that we just had to move past it.            Q. Obviously with the new social distancing protocols and guidelines, this is the first time that you got to react to a race win with those in place. I saw you were kind of giving some air high‑fives to some people in the pit box, walking down pit road. What has that been like adjusting to that and then tonight not really being able to celebrate physically with your team?ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, I mean, it’s tough because that team camaraderie, that’s really the best part of our sport, and I think that’s my favorite thing is working together with a group of guys and overcoming adversity and then being able to celebrate that together and enjoy that accomplishment together.           You know, look, it’s still a great feeling, but certainly you miss that intimacy and you miss that ability to high five and kind of go through that. But certainly it’s a small price to pay. There’s a lot of people in a lot worse positions than we are. We’re fortunate to be here. We’re fortunate to be able to do what we love to do, and it’s not ideal, but it’s really good.            Q. Alan, could you talk a little bit about what the feeling is right now at Hendrick Motorsports where you guys have been consistently talked about as having the fastest cars, considering everything that’s gone on the last few years, and then you guys being able to capitalize on that by going to Victory Lane?ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, I mean, we’re really excited and proud, and we’re happy with our Chevy Camaro. The thing is a rocket ship, and we appreciate all the work that’s gone into it. It’s fun to race, and we feel like we’ve got a really competitive car.           It’s not been easy. We’ve had to work through split shifts and social distance circumstances and all types of ‑‑ the things that everybody has had to go through with COVID, and it’s been tough. That’s something I’m really proud of, not only Hendrick Motorsports but certainly the 9 guys ‑‑ there’s a group of guys on the 9 team that typically go on the road, and ultimately they can’t go on the road anymore based on the roster, so those are the guys who are working tirelessly at the shop to prepare these cars, so everybody back there is doing an amazing job, and to bring cars like this to the track is a true testament to their ability, and I’m really proud of that and super proud of everybody at HMS. We’ve all stuck together. We’ve all fought through it. We’ve not had the years we wanted the last three or four and we’ve stuck together and kept fighting and kept fighting, and now I think we’re getting to a position where we can contend.            Q. Have you had enough races this season where you can say how much the change to the Chevy body has contributed to the effort this year?ALAN GUSTAFSON: Well, I certainly ‑‑ that’s a contributing factor, and a lot of hard work at the shop and a lot of work in the off‑season and a lot of collaboration and all those things, a lot of collaboration with Chevrolet and all those things have paid off to put us in a really good position and in a spot where we can really compete.            Q. Alan, when we talked during the pause, you had said that you kind of thought that what happened the first part of the season would probably carry over to the first few races early on because of the challenges of getting equipment and updating stuff for teams. That seems to have played out. Will there be a point where you’re going to see teams make a challenge, or how much more difficult is it in this season and this unique season to try to catch up?ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, it’s a great question. I mean, I think it’s going to unfold. I certainly feel like we’ve raced some really competitive teams. The 4 car and the 18 car and the 22 and whoever else, the 19 and all those guys, they’re going to work hard, and they’re not going to be down for long. They’re going to be improving, and we’ve got to do the same thing. We’ve got to continue to improve and continue to get better on and off the track and execute better in all facets of what we do.           It’s a very interesting dynamic. I can’t say that any of us have gone through this, and we don’t know ultimately what’s going to transpire. But I certainly think that there’s certainly room for everyone to improve, and I have every expectation that our competitors will.            Q. Is that going to come up maybe in the next month when there’s not 16 races in 12 days seemingly?ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, I think right now you’re going to see a lot of just being able to execute and bring quality cars and do the ‑‑ I want to say basic, not that it’s basic, but do the fundamental things that we take for granted. The teams that can do that well are going to be successful, and then once we transition more back to a normal situation, I do think that then there probably will be a bigger opportunity to work on performance enhancements.            Q. Alan, seeing Chase win the truck race on Tuesday night, did that do anything to help erase any lingering sting or tension from Sunday night? Obviously I know it doesn’t fix what happened Sunday, but did seeing Chase win that race do anything for you and the team?ALAN GUSTAFSON: Not really. I enjoyed it. I thought it was great. I thought the whole bounty and Kevin putting it up and Chase racing it and Kyle putting his best effort into it was very entertaining. You know, it’s no surprise that certainly two of the best guys in our sport, and I’d argue two of the best guys on the planet driving race cars were doing that and had a good race. It was entertainment. Happy for Chase. It was a cool thing. As always, he handled himself really well and did an amazing job. It was more fun.           I mean, it certainly doesn’t hurt to laugh and there was some funny circumstances in there, but yeah, it was good entertainment.            Q. With having shown the speed at the intermediate tracks and the restrictor plate tracks, how much confidence does that now give you going into the first short track of the season at Bristol?ALAN GUSTAFSON: None really. I love Bristol. It’s a great track. It’s a lot of fun. But it’s got its own unique challenges, and it’s got its own unique circumstances. I don’t really feel like there’s much from any of the tracks that we’ve raced that’s going to correlate to Bristol. It’s its own animal. I’m excited to get there and race it, and the dynamic of the track changing and rubber and the grip compound and no practice and all that’s going to be ‑‑ it’s going to be significant there. That’ll be a pressure cooker. It’ll be fun.            Q. Alan, kind of following off of something you alluded to from an earlier question, you mentioned you guys have to keep pushing forward and keep trying to find speed. In this environment and really with how tight the top of the field is right now, how tough is it as a team when you’re sitting on top or close to the top like you guys are? How tough is it to not get complacent and keep reaching for more, keep trying to find those extra tenths?ALAN GUSTAFSON: It’s not hard. It’s not hard. You’re only as good as your last result, and as soon as you think you’re in a position that you’re going to be better than everyone else, you’re going to get knocked down pretty quick. I’ve been through it enough in my career that this is the pinnacle of motorsports; there’s too many good people to think that you’re going to be able to walk through the park and just stroll along. You’ve got to work.            THE MODERATOR: Alan, congratulations on the win. Good luck on Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway.            ALAN GUSTAFSON: Thank you. Appreciate everybody for sticking around. 

NASCAR CUP SERIESCHARLOTTE MOTOR SPEEDWAYALSCO UNIFORMS 500TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTESMARCH 28, 2020
TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:POS.   DRIVER1st      CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 KELLEY BLUE BOOK CAMARO ZL1 1LE 4th      RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 KROGER CAMARO ZL1 1LE 5th      KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE 8th      AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER OFF ROAD CAMARO ZL1 1LE11th    JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS: POS.  DRIVER1st      Chase Elliott (Chevrolet)2nd     Denny Hamlin (Toyota)3rd      Ryan Blaney (Ford)4th      Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (Chevrolet)5th      Kurt Busch (Chevrolet) The NASCAR Cup Series season continues at Bristol Motor Speedway with the Supermarket Heroes 500 on Sunday, May 31, at 3:30 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on FS1, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES: CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 KELLEY BLUE BOOK CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Race WinnerWHEN VICTORY SEEMED RIGHT THERE, NOBODY SNATCHED IT AWAY FROM YOU TONIGHT. AFTER WHAT YOU’VE BEEN THROUGH, HOW GOOD DOES IT FEEL TO BE STANDING HERE?“It feels awesome. Man, it was a tough week, for sure. We’ve had some tough losses, but that deal on Sunday night was a heartbreaker. It’s not the Coca-Cola 600, but any win in the Cup Series is really hard to get, and I really appreciate everybody at Hendrick Motorsports across the street, Chevrolet, and everybody at the shop have been working really hard. Kelley Blue Book, NAPA, Hooters, Mountain Dew, all our partners that have made this happen – I just appreciate it. I appreciate my team. Alan (Gustafson) made a great call there at the end to get it tuned up and, luckily, the run went long and I think that fell in our favor.” WHAT WERE THE LAST FIVE LAPS LIKE?“I was just waiting for the caution to come out, to be honest with you. I thought either the caution was going to come out, I was going to break something or I was going to crash. Just after the last couple of weeks, I just thought surely it wasn’t going to go green until the end. Just glad it did and glad we’re hopefully back on the right path.” RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 KROGER CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 4th“That was a really solid night for our Kroger Camaro ZL1 1LE. I knew we had good speed in our car from the Coca-Cola 600 the other night, we just weren’t able to put the whole race together. We worked really well together and I was happy with the handling the majority of the night. Brian (Pattie) made some really good adjustments that allowed us to make passes and make aggressive moves to gain track position and hold it during the final green flag run. This is exactly the type of momentum we need heading into one of my favorite tracks – Bristol Motor Speedway – this Sunday.” KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 5th“Not a bad run! A top-five at Charlotte (Motor Speedway) on a Thursday night. Thanks to Matt McCall and all the guys on this Monster Energy team. We changed a few things our car to learn as much as we could, without practice and without testing. We tried some different things and it raced differently. The car handled loose all night, but we were able to bring home a top-five. We just need to fine-tune a little bit here and there. Thanks to Monster Energy, Chevrolet, GEARWERENCH and everyone else on this effort. That puts us solidly up in the points; moving forward there will be a random draw for the starting line-up, if you’re in the top-12 you have a shot at starting on the pole. We’re making steady progress and had good stage points tonight.” AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER OFF ROAD CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 8th“Eighth place – it’s what we deserved in the Coca-Cola 600 too. It’s crazy you run 900 miles and we were an eighth-place car all 900 miles of it I feel like. But we had spurts where we were really fast, top-five at times. Justin (Alexander, Crew Chief), the pit crew, my spotter Brandon, everybody did a great job. It was fun; fun on the restarts. I was just a little too free tonight. It was good on the long runs because it was free, but the first ten laps if you don’t get going, you lose a couple of spots and you’re done. We needed to have a little better take off speed. We’ll keep working. Bristol’s next – loving all these miles in a short period of time. It’s a lot of fun!” WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 12th“It was a rough night after we got that damage. We really never were the same after that. Obviously, we never had track position or the speed. We could get the handling to be okay but it would really fall off hard on the long run. It was just never the same, but the guys did a good job fixing it, trying to get us back up to the front. The pit crew was phenomenal. We restarted eighth on that last run and ran 10th^h for a while. To finish 12th is not bad after getting that damage. I feel like we got a couple more spots than maybe we should have, which is great. We’ll go on to the next race, execute and have a smooth race hopefully.” TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 OKUMA CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 14th“Man, what an up and down night for our No. 8 Okuma Chevrolet team, but we were able to grab a top-15 finish out of it. Our car was so tough to manage balance-wise tonight. For the first two stages of the race, it was too tight in the entry and exit of the turns but way too loose in the middle, which made it really hard to trust the car as we went into the corners of the track. The adjustment my team made on that final stop of the race was the best one of the night and allowed me to race up through the field and into the top 15. We just lacked some long run speed tonight stay up there and battle within the top 10, so that’s something we’ll go back and look at to improve on for future intermediate tracks like this. It’s been fun racing in our backyard of Charlotte over the past week, but I’m looking forward to moving on to Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday.” MATT KENSETH, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 23rd“Another tough night for the Credit One Bank Camaro. We had a flat tire early in the race, but managed to get the lap we lost back, then had a loose wheel later in the race which forced a pit stop under green. The penalty for the commitment violation when we pitted for the loose wheel certainly added to the rough night, but we kept doing all we could to gain back as many spots as possible before the end of the race. The handling on the car improved some throughout the night, but we just got too far back with the bad breaks to be able to do much more. A tough race, but better days ahead for our team.” TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 27th “Our GEICO Hump Day Chevrolet was actually pretty good handling wise tonight. It drove well over the bumps, which was an area we struggled with on Sunday, so Matt (Borland) and the guys definitely improved our setup. Unfortunately, from the moment I pulled off pit road before the green flag, I didn’t have any power steering. We tried to fix it under caution, but when we couldn’t diagnose the problem on pit road, I had to tough it out. The pit crew had solid stops all night long and I really think we would have had a strong run tonight if it wasn’t for the power steering issue. When we get back to the shop, we will figure out what the problem was and move forward to Bristol.” ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 CHEVYGOODS.COM/NOCO CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 31st “That didn’t end the way we imagined. We had a great car and led some laps and got our fourth stage win of the season. I just got in the wall there at the end and it really hurt the right side. At that point, there isn’t really much we can do. We will finish one of these things here soon. It is a quick turnaround to Bristol on Sunday, but I’m ready for it.” BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 WORLD WIDE TECHNOLOGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Sidelined due to mechanical failure; Finished 37th“I know there are a lot of questions to be answered. Obviously, our Richard Petty Motorsports team is frustrated. First thing, hats-off to the guys for bringing an outstanding Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. The Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 World Wide Technology Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE had a lot of speed – a big improvement from Sunday. We’ll hold everyone accountable, including myself, as a team would do for the problems that we are having right now. It takes a team effort to figure out our struggles. “If it’s bad luck, it’s bad luck. We’ve got to shake it and the best way to do that is to show-up to the next race with our heads held high and keep that chip on our shoulder. We’ll get to the root of our problem and continue to bring a fast race car to the track. We’re showing big improvements and that’s really all we can ask for. But we’ve got to clean-up some stuff. Like I said, if it’s internally, we’ll fix it. If it’s dumb luck, then you’ll have that. On to the Bristol Motor Speedway.”

 Elkhart, IN (May 28, 2020) — Since the postponed AMALIE® Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals Terry McMillen has been staying busy in his race shop with crew chief Rob Wendland but in his down time he has let his family go to the dogs. The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series has been on hiatus since mid-March and McMillen along with his wife Cori and son Cam have been fostering puppies for a Northern Indiana organization, Homeward Bound Animal Welfare Group. The McMillens already have three dogs and a cat so bringing additional puppies into their family only seemed like a logical idea.

“When we got back from Gainesville, our dog sitter Jen Schwartz, who runs the organization, asked if we wanted some puppies to play with for a couple of days, and it has turned into a constant cycle of fostering,” explained Cori McMillen. “We have had about 15 puppies since we started this. We typically have two puppies at a time.  If one gets a home, then she brings me another that same day.”

Now as an additional commitment to the organization McMillen Racing is auctioning a replica crew shirt designed by ProThings, die-cast dragster, cap and visor all signed by Terry McMillen. The auction launched today on eBay, click here to see auction, with all proceeds going to Homeward Bound Animal Welfare Group.

“Fosters are the backbone to the rescue. The more fosters we have, the more dogs we can rescue,” said Jen Schwartz Founder and Director of Homeward Bound Animal Welfare Group. “I have known the McMillen family for a few years, so when they offered to foster, I was thrilled.  With their family fostering two puppies at a time, it gives me the ability to put more focus into rehabilitating dogs with more serious medical conditions.  I know they are enjoying time with the puppies, so it’s definitely been a win-win situation.” 

Throughout the down time the McMillens have been busy fostering and comforting each puppy they receive. The ability to house multiple animals has made a huge difference and also creates a busy atmosphere at home.

“Our job is to help them transition into home life, since they have never been in a home environment.  We only foster puppies and it has worked out great, because she needed someone to help fostering puppies specifically. The puppies fit best into our lifestyle since we have three dogs and a cat of our own, so bringing an older dog in with an unknown background could cause conflicts.  Our dogs just ignore the puppies,” added McMillen 

Homeward Bound is a non-profit organization that does not receive state or federal funding in turn they rely on fundraising and private donations. They have rescued over 6,000 dogs with the help of a small group of volunteers who are dedicated to helping pets out of less than perfect situations and getting them into their forever homes

“They don’t have a brick and mortar building so, they rely on fosters.  They will take in any dog that needs a home no matter the age or medical condition. They take dogs that are in kill shelters in Indiana and in other states, so that they have a chance at a life.  They also get puppies that are actually puppies from breeders but are considered ‘reject’ puppies that for whatever reason, usually because of a physical or medical condition, can’t be sold to pet stores.  If Homeward Bound didn’t take them, they would either be put back into the breeding cycle or euthanized,” added McMillen. 

Terry McMillen Racing based in Elkhart, Ind., is a Top Fuel drag racing team competing in the NHRA (National Hot Rod Association) Mello Yello Drag Racing Series. The team was founded in 2007 and has shown remarkable determination and dedication. McMillen won the prestigious Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals in 2018 and has qualified for the NHRA Countdown, the end of season playoffs, in 2017 and 2018. Throughout his career with longtime sponsor AMALIE® Motor Oil McMillen has raced to eight final rounds including a career best five finals in 2018.