July 2, 2020

Matt DiBenedetto and the No. 21 Red Kap/Menards Mustang will be a part of an historic weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway as NASCAR’s Cup Series will run a double header with the NTT IndyCar Series.

DiBenedetto said he’s especially proud of this weekend’s paint scheme, which features a solid red color reminiscent of the Fords fielded by the Wood Brothers back in the 60s and carrying the logos of the workwear company Red Kap and Menards.

“I’m excited about having a cool new look on the car for a weekend as special as Indy,” DiBenedetto said. “We’re looking forward to showcasing Red Kap, and of course it’s an honor to represent the Menard family knowing how much Indianapolis Motor Speedway means to them.” 

John Menard is a long-time car owner and sponsor of cars competing in the Indianapolis 500, and his son Paul won NASCAR’s Brickyard 400 in 2011.

DiBenedetto said being a part of the Indy/NASCAR doubleheader will make an already memorable weekend extra special. DiBenedetto will be keeping a close eye on the Xfinity Series race on Indy’s road course, where the IndyCar Series also will run, since he’s the only driver to have run an Xfinity car on that course. He drove a Team Penske Mustang in a test back in January.

“The race weekend is going to be one to remember,” he said. “These are things that go down in history and even just racing at the Brickyard, every time you go in there is a check mark, a bucket list item in itself.” 

“I’ll be like a race fan, just watching these races as excited as any fan that you’ll see because it’s going to be so cool on such a history weekend, the July 4^th Weekend, you name it. All of that is so cool.”

DiBenedetto and the Red Kap/Menards team head to Indy after a successful double header at Pocono Raceway, which shares many characteristics including the 2.5-mile length and relatively flat turns, with Indy.

At Pocono, DiBenedetto scored stage points in all four stages and finished 13^th and 6^th in the two races.

“If you asked me that a couple years ago when we ran the low downforce stuff, I would say the two tracks were completely different, but now that we have the high downforce and less horsepower, they’re actually pretty similar in the fact that it’s real strategy-oriented, extremely track position-oriented,” he said. “The high downforce just makes it so tough to pass…

“It just makes it really tough on the teams and the pit crews and the strategy because you just have to have track position or else you can’t make your way up there.”

He went on to say he and the No. 21 team are poised to be a consistent top-10 team, at Indy and every other stop on the circuit.

“We’re stepping in that direction,” he said. “To be honest, every single race track we’ve been to, aside from Darlington, we’ve had top-10 speed.”

“I’ve never had equipment or an opportunity like that much in the past, so that’s the encouraging part.”

“I knew once we got on track together, I think we can do this very consistently.”

Like recent races, there will be no practice or qualifying prior to Sunday’s Big Machine Hand Sanitizer 400 Powered By Big Machine Records, which is set to get the green flag just after 4 p.m. on Sunday with TV coverage on NBC.  

BATAVIA, Ohio (July 2, 2020) – Familiar to the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series schedule, teams will once again enjoy Independence Day celebrations in the Buckeye state at Muskingum County Speedway and Portsmouth Raceway Park.  Friday’s annual July 3rd event at Muskingum County Speedway will see the pit and general admission gates open at 2:00 pm. Along with the heart-pumping action of the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, Friday will also feature Modifieds, Sport Mods, Modlites, and Four Cylinders, with hot laps beginning at 6:30 pm. In addition to the racing action, Muskingum County Speedway will have the area’s largest fireworks display. On Saturday, July 4th , Portsmouth Raceway Park will host the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series for the annual Independence 50 presented by Able Air. The Modifieds and Limited Late Models will serve as support divisions on Saturday. The pit gate will open at 2:00 pm at Portsmouth Raceway Park. The general admission gates will open at 4:00 pm, with on-track action beginning at 6:30 pm. 

Both nights will include a complete program of: Time Trials, Heat Races, B-Mains, and a 50-lap, $12,000-to-win main event. Jimmy Owens leads the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series championship standings and goes into the weekend with four consecutive series feature wins. Jonathan Davenport is now second, followed closely by Tim McCreadie, Tyler Erb and Josh Richards to round out the top five in championship standings. Track and Event Information:Muskingum County SpeedwayLocation: 7985 Frazeysburg Road, Dresden, OH 43821Directions: I-70 to exit 155, then 10.1 miles north on SR 60 (WSR)Website: www.muskingumcountyspeedway.com Portsmouth Raceway ParkPhone Number: 740-354-3278Location: 25648 State Route 73, West Portsmouth, OH 45663Directions: 0.5 mile south of US 52 on SR 73, then right just before bridgeWebsite: www.portsraceway.com Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Tire Rule:Left Rear/Fronts – Hoosier Rib (28.5) 1300Right Rear – Hoosier (29.0) 1300 NRM, (29.0) 1300 NRMW, (29.0) 1425 NRM, (29.0) 1425 NRMW
* Must use the same set of 4 tires for Time Trials, Heat Races, and B-Main.* For the A-Main, competitors may use 2 new rear tires of choice.
* Flat tire must be replaced with a used tire of the same compound and construction to retain starting position.

CHEVY RACING IN NTT INDYCAR SERIESGMR GRAND PRIXINDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAYINDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPTJULY 1, 2020
SIMON PAGENAUD, NO. 22 MENARDS TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, AND CONOR DALY, NO. 2O US AIR FORCE ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET, met with media to discuss the upcoming GMR Grand Prix on the Road Course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Pagenaud is the defending race winner, and Daly is making his debut with Ed Carpenter Racing. Full transcript:
THE MODERATOR: Welcome, everybody, to today’s NTT INDYCAR Series video news conference in advance of the GMR Grand Prix on Saturday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The race will be noon at eastern on your local NBC affiliate.
We’re pleased to be joined by the defending champion of the GMR Gran Prix, Simon Pagenaud of Team Penske, and Conor Daly, driver of the No. 20 US Air Force Chevrolet for Ed Carpenter Racing.
Simon, we’ll start with you. I know last May at Indianapolis, it was pretty life-changing for you. How important was the win in the GMR Grand Prix for setting that stage?
SIMON PAGENAUD: Hi, everyone. Thanks for joining.
Obviously racing in Indianapolis to me, it’s what we’re all about. Obviously, our name is INDYCAR. I’ve always loved the Indy Grand Prix because it really sets the tone going into the month of May. It just showcases what INDYCAR is about, road course racing, then the week after that we usually go into the Indianapolis 500.
That’s what’s really about our series, is diversity in terms of tracks and talents. I really enjoy it. I’m really excited to come to Indy again and race in Indianapolis again. That put a grin on my face.
Obviously, the Grand Prix has been very blessed for me. I’ve had three wins there. I hope I can get it to number four. It’s definitely the goal this weekend. But it definitely changed my life last year. Now I can race very focused, yeah, very focused. Also, the chance to race with my personal pressure is off because I’ve achieved my dream. Now I can really focus on myself and getting the best out of myself which is what I really enjoy the most.
THE MODERATOR: Conor, you’ve been going to IMS most of your life, raced in the GMR Grand Prix twice, had a sixth-place finish for Dale Coyne Racing in your debut race. How exciting is it to race at IMS and finally get started with Ed Carpenter Racing?
CONOR DALY: As part of my one-off entries in the Indianapolis 500 in the past, I’ve tried to beg, borrow and plead with the teams, Hey, can I please do the Grand Prix as well? It hasn’t worked out yet.
It’s nice to be back. It’s such an incredible way to start out the month of May. I love the road course at Indy. I love the racing opportunity it brings. We know it’s going to be hard to beat Team Penske there as usual, but it’s going to be a fun challenge. It’s going to be great just to get back on track on a road course, fight with everyone.
There’s a lot of entries as well. We’ve obviously got some one-off entries. It’s great to see some other people in the field again, like Sage Karam and stuff like that. It’s going to be cool to just get back out, get on the road course, let these cars live a little bit at Indianapolis and just have a good weekend.
THE MODERATOR: I know we have quite a few media on the line so we’ll open up for questions from the media.
Q. Simon, you mentioned you’ve won this race three times. The only other person to have won in an INDYCAR on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course has been Will Power, your teammate. What do you make of your particular dominance on this course in these last several years? What has worked so incredibly well for the Team Penske cars?SIMON PAGENAUD: Well, I think what I know for a fact is that Will and I have a very similar driving style. I had the chance to score a win with the Schmidt Peterson Honda when I was there. That was the inaugural Grand Prix, 2014. As a smaller team taking on the big team, that was a lot of fun.
Obviously, I joined the powerhouse of Team Penske and we’ve been able to carry on the tradition of winning at the Grand Prix. Obviously, I’m very proud of that. I feel, again, very blessed that we have the program to be able to contend for wins everywhere we go.
Team Penske, you guys all know, we put a lot of work in, we work really well as teammates as well. That’s one of the things with Will, we have a very similar driving style, but that doesn’t mean that we’re the same speed in every corner. Some corners he’s better than me, some corners I’m better than him. We share a lot. We talk about it, talk about how to set the car up. We’ve been able to make the whole program better that way. Josef contributes a lot to that, as well.
I think the three of us together, obviously we have phenomenal engineers that are able to bring some ideas on how to develop the car in a better way for that track or another track.
But I do think there’s a little bit of mystery as to why sometimes you go to a track and you have more luck than you would at a different track. All I can think of is Detroit. I’ve never had much luck there. It doesn’t mean I’m not a good driver. I go to the Grand Prix and most of the time I’ve had good luck.
There’s a bit of that mystery in racing. You can’t forget it. It’s certainly a testament to the great job that we do all together.
Q. Simon, is there an additional comfort level that you get as a driver going to a track where recently you’ve had success and where your team has also won weekends that you haven’t won? This INDYCAR Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, does it feel any different as far as a comfort level for you guys?SIMON PAGENAUD: I think as a driver, when you go to a track where you’ve won before, a track where you’ve had good success, you just have a level of confidence. I’m going into the Grand Prix with very high expectations of myself and my car and my team. I’m going there to win the race. I’m not going to be third. I’m not going in thinking I could be fifth or sixth or seventh. The goal is to win.
Quite frankly, that’s the only thought I have. But there are a lot of things that’s going to happen, a lot of things out of my control. All I can do is the best I can. Certainly with the team that I have, obviously you expect to win.
Q. You’re both so accessible to fans, have been for a very long time. What will you miss most about not having fans there?CONOR DALY: Well, I mean, honestly it’s my home race. I’ve even seen some tweets today that, like, you know, Tony Donohue put out it’s 27 years since there’s been a race at IMS and he hasn’t been there. It is weird.
I was a fan first. I was out there every day of my life, every month of May that I was allowed to get out of school early and go. It was such a part of my life. But we will still obviously be doing our best to put on the best show that we can for everyone at home.
We know our job is to go out there and try to absolutely, you know, beat everyone and create an incredible race because we know that if the fans were there, they would be cheering along just as much as they would be at home.
It’s tough. It’s strange. But I know that we continue to tell everyone, Hey, we appreciate you, hang with us, we’ll get back to the track eventually. Everyone will be there eventually. We’ll get back hopefully and enjoy it once again.
As long as everyone tunes in on TV, I can guarantee it will be quite a show for everyone.
Q. Simon, could you address that briefly?SIMON PAGENAUD: Yeah, of course, I think it’s a very tough time we’re in right now. We just all have to adapt. It’s quite unfortunate. INDYCAR has been doing everything they could to reorganize the schedule, make sure that we could put on a show for the fans. That’s what we’re going to do.
Texas was a good example of it. We’re out there racing with the new windscreen, a lot of new things that make the series really exciting. I think we see the numbers.
I think everybody in the series can’t wait to have the fans come back. Luckily that’s going to be at Road America. We don’t have to wait too long. It’s unfortunate it can’t happen in Indy. Obviously, health and safety is first. I think we’re in this position right now.
When you ask that question, first thing I thought is back to my childhood. I was at a racetrack. One of the main drivers refused to give me an autograph. Obviously, I wanted to be a driver at some point, I was really young, I didn’t know if I was going to be a driver. I made myself a promise that I would always do the best I could to give an autograph every time I could.
So the fans for me are a big part of my career, a big part of who I am as a racer. It’s the case for every INDYCAR driver, I can assure you that.
It’s going to be weird. Hopefully, that changes very soon.
Q. Conor, I know you’ve raced for 42 different INDYCAR teams. Having a split season, how does the communication flow from one team to the other, then from track to track? What is your mindset? Seems like you have good communication skills anyway. How are you suited for this?CONOR DALY: Well, there’s no sharing of information. Everyone wants to beat everyone. It’s tough (smiling).
Oddly enough, I feel like I’ve been with ECR for quite a long time. We still have yet to race with each other. I was signed up in November. Guess what? It’s almost July. Haven’t even done a single race with them yet. It’s really interesting.
But I feel like I’m part of their family already. We’ve done a lot of work together. We’ve done a lot of simulator days together. So working with the engineers, working with my teammates, Ed and Rinus. We’re ready. We’ve got everything in place. It’s just a matter of you can only think through so many things until your head starts to explode and you just want to get on the real racetrack.
We’ve thought through every possible thing that we could possibly think through and we’re ready to go out there and deliver for the U.S. Air Force, for Chevrolet, for everyone that supports this group. I can’t wait.
The car has been looking great for a long time. Now we got to see it in action side-by-side with a bunch of people. Hopefully at the front. That would be quite satisfactory.
Q. Not complaining or anything, but we’ve gone so long with such a slow start to the season because of the shutdown, now this is going to be the first of five races over the next three weekends. Is it almost like a standing start to the season going from zero to 160 in a matter of a couple of seconds?SIMON PAGENAUD: It’s definitely an adjustment. Everybody I think in the world has been going at an interesting slow speed to going flat out.
I think the advantage of it is we’ve all been able to train a lot, get ready for the heat. Obviously, the added windscreen makes for quite a hot day every day in the racecar. That’s also going to be an adjustment.
But I’m personally ready, ready to go, couldn’t be any more ready, to be honest with you. It’s the best shape I’ve ever been in in my career.
CONOR DALY: Yeah, I mean, like Simon said, I feel really good myself. I’m lighter than I’ve been starting a year before. I feel good. Obviously this weekend will be new for us. We’ve done some road course testing, of course, with the windscreen. But it’s going to be a good old Indiana summer day, plenty of humidity, nice and hot. That will be really tough I think. It will be really interesting.
Really the doubleheaders are going to be the ones where I think it will really test us and put us on the limit. But that’s why we do what we do. We want to be the best athletes we can be and the best drivers we can be. It’s on us to be as prepared as possible.
I can’t wait for it. I’ve been sitting around in this darn simulator room for way too many weekends. I’m ready to get back to the real racecar and be sweating as much as possible because that means we’re out there doing work and I can’t wait.
Q. As racers, how excited are you to see the second race of the day on Saturday, to see how well they do on your course?CONOR DALY: If we’re allowed to watch, I can’t wait. I think it’s going to be great. Those guys, I’ve been getting a lot of texts from different Xfinity guys about the track. I know it will be totally new for them. But I’m excited.
I wish I could do the race obviously. Got to stay focused on the INDYCAR program. I think it will be cool. I think they’ll race pretty well, too.
SIMON PAGENAUD: Yeah, I’m excited to see obviously Austin Cindric, how well he does over there in the Xfinity on Saturday afternoon. But obviously there’s a lot of precautionary aspect we have to think about. I don’t think I can stay actually. I’m actually going to hop on the plane to get home to make sure we all stay safe. Obviously we just have to follow the guidelines. It’s the way it is. I don’t think I’ll be able to watch the race. I wish I could have. It’s the situation we’re in.
I look forward to seeing the big NASCAR race on Sunday. That will be fun to watch. At the end of the day, it’s a historical moment, I think not just for American racing but for worldwide racing. I look forward to the weekend and seeing the reaction afterward.
Q. Elaborate a little bit more on this crossover. How important is it to share a weekend with NASCAR? Do you want to do more of these weekends with these guys?CONOR DALY: I think it’s huge. I think it’s awesome. I mean, I love racing. I’m a race fan. Doesn’t matter if it’s Formula 1, NASCAR, Formula E, whatever it is, USAC. Anything like that is awesome. I would love to see more of it.
This is the first time it will happen. Realistically we wish we could see both fan bases interacting and everyone there together. We’ll still wait on that. But I think it’s an exciting sign hopefully for the future because if one side of motorsport, NASCAR, is doing well, we want that success to kind of somehow — if we can work together, that would be great. This is a team effort. For motorsports to be successful, hopefully, we can all help each other. That would be a lot of fun.
SIMON PAGENAUD: I totally agree with Conor. At the end of the day, we’re all racers. Doesn’t matter if you have a roof, no roof, windscreen, whatever it is. I’m like Conor, I love any sort of racing. I love anything with four wheels and a steering wheel.
If you can join the power of NASCAR and the power of INDYCAR together, it’s fantastic. I think what’s happening for us, for everybody that enjoys racing, it’s massive. I can’t wait to see what the weekend is like, what it’s like.
Obviously, it would have been phenomenal to have the fans come to that race for the first-ever time. We’ll see the attendance we get on TV and the response on social media. It’s going to be a big weekend.
Q. You two have been good here. Is there a pressure moment to get a good result during the week against some of the guys that haven’t been as lucky?CONOR DALY: I think for me personally, yes, you want to kind of keep the momentum going because I know that I’ve been strong here in the past. But it’s also a new environment still with this team for me.
We’re going to have a lot to learn about ourselves. Carlin and I at Texas, I knew that environment already. We were able to take advantage of that. We had a fantastic car. They did the job over the off-season, kind of working with what I had told them last year that we needed to do.
This is still new for us at Ed Carpenter Racing. I’m just excited. We’re only one race in. We want to do well at every race. I’m not really thinking about points or anything yet. But I can’t wait to just get things going.
Yes, Road America is going to be wild, Iowa is going to be tough, swapping teams and everything like that. It will just be nice to get things going. I think if you do well, though, at Indy right now, it does create some good momentum because you’re just going to be going back-to-back races. It’s always nice to have good momentum and cars that are in one piece, as well.
SIMON PAGENAUD: For me, it’s a little different. It’s quite a bit different for me because I’ve been with Team Penske for six years. Same engineer for many, many years. Actually almost a decade. I’m in a very different situation where I’m going into the road course at Indy with the goal to win the race, score more points, strike the (indiscernible). We started the season really well in Texas. I feel this year we can’t be any more ready, quite frankly, despite the situation.
I’m 100% full throttle right now in my head. I’m really in a good space mentally to go to this racetrack and score as many points as possible. I’m definitely thinking championship right now.
Q. Simon, how much do you expect the Aeroscreen to change some of the setups from the past? You’ve been good in the last car. You saw Texas changed a little bit. Do you expect a change in the setups for this weekend?SIMON PAGENAUD: Yeah, it’s a great question because Texas was an eye-opener for a lot of us, I think. We realized after the race there was a lot of improvement to be made, but not enough time to really think about what we could do on-site.
Obviously, it’s the same for the road course in Indy. We don’t really know yet what’s going to need change. Certainly, that hour and 20 minutes of practice is not that much. We’re going into qualifying after that, then it’s race day the next day.
I think it’s going to take a few races to adjust and figure out what we need for each track. Each track is different. No matter what, this is going to be a year of adjustments. I think that might allow driver and engineer combinations to show strength.
Q. Jumping ahead a week. First doubleheader at Road America. What are some of the challenges that go into doing that doubleheader when you have races that one is going to start less than 18 hours after the other one ends?CONOR DALY: I think from the team side, it’s just the amount of work that the guys have to put in. Our crews are going to be flat out, for sure. We appreciate everything that those guys do. They’re flat out.
It’s going to be interesting for us. Road America, probably going to be warm, probably going to be a physical race. It’s been a little while since I’ve been there in an INDYCAR. It’s a great place to race.
The key is, if you have a decent day in the first race, how do you make it an even better day for day two? You know what I mean? Each time on track, you’re going to have to do the best job possible. Use race one as a test session for race two if you’re struggling a little bit.
We want to go there with a strong package immediately because you have two opportunities for points. But realistically you never know what could happen. It’s obviously going to be a very short weekend.
I’m excited for it though. Two races at Road America, I don’t think any driver in the world would complain about that.
SIMON PAGENAUD: I think it will be interesting. Obviously we’ve seen it with NASCAR in Pocono last weekend. First day you’re going to have some really good cars. The next day everybody gets better, like Conor said. The second day is actually really, really tough racing day where you’re a little bit drained from the day before. Decision making is going to have to be on point despite being tired.
We’ve had some practice with Detroit. It’s grueling. The IndyCars are extremely physical cars. It’s going to be hot again with the new windscreen as well. A lot to take in combination there.
I have no doubt it should be an amazing event. But certainly second race will be interesting to see who gets better.
Q. You are in this busy stretch, the quick turnaround. There’s some pressure there not to make it any harder on your team than it needs to be. How much can you be thinking about that in the first race that I really don’t need to put one off in (Turn) 5 or whatever?CONOR DALY: I think drivers are going to go flat out, non-stop, no matter what day it is, what race it is. Yes, we have to think about the weekend as a whole. Obviously, we saw in Texas some mistakes in the day, whether that was in practice or qualifying, really, really affected some people’s race days in general.
We got to be smart. That’s hopefully part of our job, is using our brains the right way, being smart about things. No matter what, I think we’re going to be flat out every day, no matter what.
SIMON PAGENAUD: I actually looked at the schedule yesterday. We’re basically starting in July. October it’s going to be over. It’s half the season really, just as many races in half a season. It’s going to be compact, intense. We all know that INDYCAR racing is extremely intense.
I think the big teams might have an advantage for sure because of the amount of people they have working with them. The smaller teams, on the other hand, it’s going to be hard for them because of all the work they have to do for all these weeks. They have reduced the amount of people.
Overall all the teams are so professional that it should be normal. I expect nothing less than usual.

NASCAR CUP SERIESBIG MACHINE HAND SANITIZER 400INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAYTEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPTJULY 1, 2020
TONY LUNDERS, TEAM MANAGER FOR CHIP GANASSI RACING, met with media via teleconference to reflect NASCAR’s first doubleheader race weekend at Pocono, the expectations going into Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and more. Transcript:  REFLECT A LITTLE BIT ON THIS PAST WEEKEND GOING TO POCONO, THE FIRST EVER NASCAR CUP SERIES DOUBLEHEADER. HOW DID YOUR TEAM PREPARE FOR THAT AND WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT?“We were looking forward to a double, especially with the lack of practice that we’ve been able to have since the Covid-19 pandemic started. So, we were looking forward to having an opportunity to race, and then put our heads together, talk with the drivers and then be able to adjust and see what types of changes we could make on our cars. It was good to have that. We didn’t know quite what to expect. We haven’t done that with using the same car back-to-back yet – we still have a couple more of those to go. So, I think we learned some things that we can apply going forward and we were happy to be able to do that.”
WHAT DO YOU EXPECT, TONY, AT INDIANAPOLIS, IN GENERAL? IF YOU LOOK AT THE WEEKEND AND THEN LOOK AT WHAT NASCAR MIGHT DO THERE, IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE SUCH A BIG WEEKEND FOR THE FANS.“For sure. First off, Indy is an important place for our team. There’s a lot of history there with our IndyCar group, Chip (Ganassi), and we’ve had some success there in the past. We take it like we would most other races, as far as the prep and all that stuff. Obviously having the IndyCar group there before we get there, that’s exciting for us. It’s been a long time – I think back in the early 2000s we did some companion races with Trucks and IndyCar, and that was fun to do. So, we’re looking forward to it from the sense of one, in our team, we have both groups going up there. We wish were able to interact with those guys a little bit more and be there on the same day. But for our Cup guys, it will be somewhat business-as-usual as we’ve had these one-day shows. I think from that aspect, it won’t be anything different. We’ll show up the morning of – we’re actually flying out Sunday morning. So, our day will look similar to some of these one-day shows that we’ve been doing.”
WHAT’S YOUR OUTLOOK FOR YOUR TEAMS ON THE CUP SIDE OF THINGS AT INDY?“Indy is a unique place. Some people relate it to some of the other stuff, maybe even some aspects from Pocono where we were just at. We need to run a little bit better there. We didn’t have as good of performance that we wanted at Pocono. I think we took some steps forward and did learn some things. But we’re optimistic. Indy is sort of a unique place. We’re optimistic and we look forward to getting out there.”
HAVING GONE THROUGH THE POCONO WEEKEND, OBVIOUSLY THERE SEEMS TO BE AT THIS POINT, THE EXPECTATION THAT THERE COULD BE ANOTHER ONE OR TWO DOUBLEHEADER WEEKENDS EVEN THIS YEAR. WHAT ARE THE THINGS THAT WERE LEARNED FROM THIS PAST WEEKEND’S EXPERIENCE TO MAYBE CONSIDER FOR ANY OF THE OTHER ONES?“When you have a weekend or a race, you’re trying to makeup for practice time and the ability to throw some changes into. So, you come into it and put your best effort forward for the first race. But it gives you an opportunity to turn right back around and make changes. Not only the good stuff that you come across, but you’re also going to make some mistakes. I think in hindsight, you get a chance to digest and look at what happened throughout the weekend, what you think you did well and what you think you could improve on. And you can apply that same type of thing going forward. It’s a little bit difficult with the protocol stuff that we’re going through now at the track. The way our team operates as a two-car unit and using the other team and information you can get from them – having our groups split up at the race track presents some unique challenges for us. So, a big part of this for us is just trying to overcome some of the communication stuff and how to apply stuff that your teammate is learning. One of the strengths, luckily for us, we have two drivers that are similar in maybe their styles. They both know each other well and have experience with each other in the past. Their communication was really high from the beginning. They have a friendship and a mutual respect for each other that has definitely helped us through this.”
WITH THE 42 TEAM HAVING A LITTLE BIT BETTER PERFORMANCE THIS PAST WEEKEND THAN WHAT IT’S HAD, WHAT HAS BEEN THE CHALLENGE THERE AND WHERE THAT TEAM IS AND WHAT IT NEEDS TO DO TO HAVE EVEN STRONGER PERFORMANCES?“I think a couple of things – across the board, obviously nobody has been able to practice and that hurts most teams equally. I think for us, it’s even a little bit more of a challenge with plugging that in there. Obviously he’s a champion and has won a ton of races, there’s a lot of respect there. But just getting plugged into our system, it’s taken a little bit of time. And I think in any situation, when you put a new driver with a new team, you go through that learning phase. Unfortunately, we have not been able to get a lot of that done in practice. In a normal practice, you can run through six to ten changes and get a leg up on that stuff. So, that’s been a little bit of a challenge where we’re starting a race many times and having to learn things throughout the race, where I feel like that would have been accelerated quite a bit given some practice with that group. We’ve had a couple better finishes, which is good. So, we’re just going to try and build on that going forward.”
OBVIOUSLY, INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAY IS A SPECIAL PLACE FOR CHIP. I’M WONDERING IF THERE REALLY ARE ANY SORT OF THINGS THAT YOU NOTICE IN A TEAM AND THE DRIVERS THAT MAKE IT, WHEN YOU GO THERE, SOME PLACE THAT THEY FEEL EITHER MORE OPTIMISTIC IN WINNING OR CERTAINLTLY MORE ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT DOING SO. “One exciting thing is Kurt (Busch)’s 700th start this weekend, so that’s pretty cool. I had the opportunity to work with Kurt when he first got into the Truck Series and it’s been fun to watch him throughout the last 20 years or so. Like you mentioned, the history with Chip Ganassi Racing, Chip, Indy, the Indy 500, the Brickyard – there’s just a long history of respect for that place and what it is. Teams always circle that race as a big one in their year as one of their goals, one of the top races you want to put a lot of effort towards winning and having success there. I think as the year goes, you have realistic expectations of where you’re at and what you think you can do. Like I said, that’s a unique place and you lean on some past experience there in what has worked and what hasn’t worked. A lot of it is confidence in how the team’s working. I think we’re in a good spot going in there. The teams are working really well together – jellying on pitstops, the pit crew and the road crews. It’s just different. It will be different showing up there without a huge fan base. It’s nice to be able to see some of these tracks moving towards having some fans there because it definitely adds to the environment when we’re there. Having the empty garages – when I say empty, just a lot less people – it’s just a different feel to it, for sure. But the teams, none the less, have put a lot of effort into winning that race.”
WHAT ARE YOUR LONGTERM PLANS FOR THE 42 TEAM? DO YOU SEE MATT AS THE LONGTERM SOLUTION FOR THAT TEAM OR ARE YOU JUST LOOKING TO GET THROUGH 2020?“We wanted to get some races with Matt (Kenseth) under us, kind of build that effort there and see where it took us. If Matt decided at some point that he’s enjoying what’s going on and we’re having some success, maybe there’s something more there. But I think the team is more focused on now, being mid-season, and what we need to do to get that car into the playoffs. We’re back in the points a little bit and we need to win a race. So, I think our focus is how do we build that group now to try to get towards the playoffs, win a race, and we’ll let the next year stuff take care of itself as the year goes on. Hopefully, the success is there. Certainly, there are others that know that seat is open and would contact us. And that’s all good, but I think our main focus now is just to get the performance and let the rest take care of itself.”
SPEAKING OF PERFORMANCE, ARE YOU CONTENT OR SATISFIED WITH THE COMMUNICATION BETWEEN MATT MCCALL AND KURT BUSCH AS IT STANDS RIGHT NOW?“Yeah, those two work really good together. That relationship has just gotten better as time has gone by. Kurt has a lot of confidence in Matt and that shows. And likewise, Matt’s communication to Kurt is working really well. We’ve got Kentucky circled coming up here. We got into victory lane there last year and that was really cool. So, we’re just trying to build on that and those guys are doing well together. I think that helps keep us as a company moving forward.”

NASCAR CUP SERIESBIG MACHINE HAND SANITIZER 400INDIANAPOLIS MOTOR SPEEDWAYTEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPTJULY 1, 2020
KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE met with media via teleconference, and discussed his 700th NASCAR Cup Series career start on Sunday at Indianapolis, having both INDYCAR and NASCAR racing on the same weekend, the ages of drivers currently competing in motorsports, the tight pit road conditions at Indy, and more. Full Transcript: INDY WILL BE YOUR 700th NASCAR CUP SERIES START. DID YOU IMAGINE WHEN YOU STARTED YOUR CAREER THAT YOU WOULD HAVE 700 STARTS?“It’s amazing. To have this opportunity and to have been blessed to have raced with so many great race teams over the years, just making it past the local track was something that I thought was an achievement because my dad was a local racer. He won a lot. But it was like money, sponsors, and the whole challenge of even getting to like the Southwest Tour and Late Model division, that was even tough for us way back in the past. So, it’s amazing. Twenty years of racing at the top series level and now having 700 starts, I never would have guessed.”
WHEN YOU LOOK AT GOING TO INDIANAPOLIS, WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS? WE HAVE THE ROAD COURSE FOR XFINITY, WE HAVE INDYCAR THERE, AND I’M SURE IT’S A TRACK THAT YOU FIND INTRIGUING. WHAT WILL THE WEEKEND BE LIKE IN YOUR MIND?“It’s a big marquee race. It’s our Brickyard 400. But unfortunately, we don’t have our race fans. That’s what I still think about first, each time we’re heading to the race track. And, with a special weekend like this with INDYCAR and Xfinity on the road course on Saturday, and then the Cup race on Sunday on the oval, Roger Penske is the only one that could have made INDYCAR and NASCAR happen on the same weekend. And Big Machine is there with their sponsorship and I know they would put on a great concert and the whole atmosphere around Indy, it was set-up to be fan-based and to have that extra entertainment value. So, it’s something we’ll miss. But I’m focused-in on Sunday’s race. I’m just going to fly in day-of. I would have really liked to have enjoyed seeing the IndyCars and Xfinity on track, but it’s time to stay in the bubble and stay isolated.”
WILL YOU WATCH THE INDYCAR AND XFINITY RACE? AND, WHAT IS YOUR VISION FOR GETTING A WIN AT INDY?“Oh absolutely. I’ll be tuned-in to watch and just enjoy it as a motorsports fan. I think that’s what this weekend is about with it being a July 4th celebration of our country’s birthday, and to have top forms in motorsport in America at Indy, you have open-wheel with INDYCAR and we’ve got NASCAR with the fenders on and they go around the oval, so it’s a great weekend for motorsports to tune-in.
WITH YOUR EXPERIENCED IN INDYCAR, DID YOU LOOK AT ANY CHANCE OF COMPETING IN THE RACE ON SATURDAY?“I did. I looked at it and just with everything going on with COVID and the pandemic and lack of preparation, it just kind of shut everything down as far as the progress and the approach, because it takes a full effort of being tested and track time and being ready. And that’s something that I really put in when I ran the Indy 500 six years ago now. And so, everything just got shut down. But, it would have been fun to with Chip Ganassi Racing and then with Jimmie Johnson now doing a test next week with Scott Dixon’s car, it’s all right there in front of us. It’s just the timing wasn’t right.”
DO YOU HAVE ANY SENSE OF HOW THE NEXT GEN CAR MIGHT REACT TO THE OVAL? THERE’S SOME TALK ABOUT IF THE XFINITY RACE GOES WELL OF MAYBE NASCAR DOING THE CUP CARS ON THE ROAD COURSE. BUT THEN, THERE’S TALK THAT WELL, COULD THE NEXT GEN CAR RACE ANY DIFFERENTLY?“As far as testing and gathering up information and data on the new car, it’s all kind of shut down as well. And, I see those cars though, where they’re able to adapt to any circumstances (like) a street course, road course, or oval. The way that I’ve looked at it and they way they’re assembled, things can be changed out pretty quick. So, you could almost hammer out a road course on a Saturday and an oval on a Sunday with the same cars.”
CAN YOU EXPLAIN WHAT HAS ALLOWED DRIVERS IN THEIR LATE 30’S TO BE VIEWED TO BE IN THE PEAK OF THEIR RACING CAREER STILL HAVING SUCCESS AND MAKING AN IMPACT? AND IS THAT EXTENDING CAREERS OR WHAT HAS THAT ALLOWED THOSE FROM LATE 30’S ON TO HAVE MORE SUCCESS AT A TIME WHEN PEOPLE DIDN’T LOOK AT IT AS BEING AS STRONG OF A PERIOD FOR A DRIVER’S CAREER?“It takes a good team to have a driver’s ability to find the success. A team is the foundation. But the way I’ve looked at things over the years is it seemed like drivers in the generation before me got in when they were in their young thirties and would go to their late forties. And then there was this guy named Jeff Gordon, who came into the sport and broke down a ton of barriers as far as age, and it opened up the flood gates for owners to look at all different areas of the country to find talent and to find racers. It’s been an amazing ride for me. I got in in my young twenties. And then a guy like Joey Logano got in in his teens. My little brother (Kyle Busch) got in in his teens. The change, the shift, has happened for younger drivers to get in and yet it’s still tough to go past 25 years is extreme. I don’t think we’ll ever see that anymore. And so that’s that window that we’ve all had this opportunity to race in, and I think it’s just a matter of age blended with the experience level and with a top-tier team. And when you see that, it’s usually in that 32 to 38 range that I would say could be the peak.
“But I’m having some of the best years of my career as far as consistency because I’m using that experience level. I’m using that calmness and that ability to project the future in the car, and that’s leading to good, consistent, and quality finishes. It’s just that we’ve got to cross over another barrier of sometimes you just throw caution to the wind and let it rip. And that’s when you see guys like (Ryan) Blaney, who now has won the last couple of restrictor-plate races, but yet ran into my little brother the other day at Pocono just driving over the nose of the car. So, you’ve got to blend in the youth and the experience and that’s when you’re going to find the right combination.”
WHAT IS PIT ROAD AT INDIANAPOLIS LIKE? THERE ARE A LOT OF CHALLENGES AT MANY TRACKS, BUT WITH HOW NARROW AND TIGHT INDIANAPOLIS IS, WHAT’S THAT LIKE IN AVOIDING ANY CONTACT THERE, WHICH CAN RUIN SOMEBODY’S DAY?“Yeah, Indianapolis has the toughest pit road in all of the NASCAR circuit. It’s compounded because of the difficulty of passing on track. And so, we’re all trying to gain every inch, every foot possible, on pit road. And so, when you’re coming down pit road at speed, guys are trying to look ahead and see where to peel off to get into their pit box, and then it creates an accordion effect of guys that are sitting there right on top of their lights and their pit road speed, and so that checks people up. And then when you’re coming out of your pit box, you’ve got to turn hard to the right to get around the guy that’s in front of you, and you’re mostly likely blending straight into traffic and people usually just throw all caution to the wind and go you know what? I’m just going to block you and it’s up to you to check-up because we’re that aggressive on pit road to keep that track position.”

Inside Line Promotions – JACKSON, Minn. (June 30, 2020) – Dominic Scelzi rallied throughout the 42^nd annual AGCO Jackson Nationals, where he overcame mechanical woes early in the weekend to tie for the most cars passed during the marquee event’s finale at Jackson Motorplex.

“It was a hell of a recovery from a tough weekend,” he said. “We made the show and moved forward in the race. I feel like from the moment we drove through the gate it was a struggle, but the guys kept working hard and we rebounded well by the end of it.”

Scelzi battled mechanical problems throughout the two preliminary nights of the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series event. He finished seventh in the Last Chance Showdown during the opener and maneuvered from 14^th to eighth in the LCS during Round 2 – both times being only a handful of positions shy of making the main event.

However, that changed on Saturday when Scelzi advanced from seventh to sixth place in a qualifier and from seventh to fourth place in the Last Chance Showdown.

“Before we went out they reworked the bottom,” he said. “Everyone moved to the top so I was able to sneak into the show by running the bottom. I felt like the car was all right and we rolled around the track decent.

“In the main event I felt really good and racy. There were a couple of yellows that didn’t fall my way. I passed a couple of guys when the yellow would come out and they’d get back in front of me. It didn’t go my way, but we still were able to pass a lot of cars.”

Scelzi charged from 24^th to 15^th and he was tied for the most positions gained during the race.

Next up is a trip to Cedar Lake Speedway in New Richmond, Wis., this Thursday through Saturday for the Independence Day Shootout with the World of Outlaws.

“I really like Cedar Lake,” he said. “It’s a place I enjoy going to. I’ve had good speed there. Usually that place gets really, really slick, which makes the racing fun. I’m hoping it gets slick and we can be contenders.”

CORVETTE RACING AT DAYTONA: Prepare for the Restart • First race back following COVID-19 lockdown period• Third race for new mid-engine Chevrolet Corvette C8.R• Corvette C8.Rs placed fourth, seventh in Rolex 24 debut DETROIT (June 30, 2020) – Following a long layoff due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Corvette Racing makes its return to competition this weekend at the same place the 2020 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship began. Daytona International Raceway is the site of Saturday’s WeatherTech 240 and Corvette Racing’s second IMSA event this season. Five months ago, Corvette Racing debuted the mid-engine Chevrolet Corvette C8.R in the Rolex 24 At Daytona. It was a landmark event for the program, which is in its 22nd year of top-level endurance sports car racing competition. Unlike January’s Rolex 24, each mid-engine Corvette will have two drivers apiece for the two-hour, 40-minute race on NBC Sports Network – Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor in the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Corvette with Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin in the No. 4 C8.R. All four are past winners at Daytona. At this year’s Rolex 24, Garcia, Taylor and Nicky Catsburg placed fourth in GT Le Mans (GTLM), and the No. 3 Corvette C8.R completed more miles – 2,794.60 – than any other Corvette in race history.  This weekend’s race will have a drastically different feel, however. Aside from the difference in race length and grid size, Corvette Racing (like all competitors) will operate in accordance with federal, state and local guidelines for social distancing and wear appropriate PPE at all times. The event schedule will include a one-hour practice Friday with another practice Saturday morning, qualifying early Saturday afternoon and a race into dusk Saturday evening. Corvette Racing is a three-time winner at Daytona – all coming at the Rolex 24 including an overall victory in 2001. The GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series held mid-summer races at Daytona through 2010; Garcia, Taylor and Milner each competed in at least one of those previous events. The Corvette C8.R is the fifth racing version that Corvette Racing has fielded since its first season in 1999. The team’s record since its debut is unmatched – 107 victories, 13 IMSA Team Championships, and 12 Manufacturer and Driver titles. The mid-engine C8.R is based on the strong foundation of the 2020 Corvette Stingray with both developed simultaneously. There is a deeper level of technology transfer between the race car and production Corvette than ever before which helps contribute to many of its advancements. As a result, the C8.R shares the highest percentage of parts between the production and race car than any previous generation. Initial design and development on the Corvette C8.R – with Corvette Racing engineers working alongside Corvette production personnel – began more than five years ago with track testing starting within the last 18 months. Heavy emphasis on wind tunnel and simulation aided in the testing program. The IMSA WeatherTech 240 at Daytona is set for July 3-4 with live race television coverage on NBC Sports Network, NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports App starting at 6 p.m. ET on Saturday. IMSA Radio will broadcast all practice and qualifying sessions as well as the race on IMSA.com, which also will host live timing and scoring.

ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “It’s going to be a challenge for everyone. Not being able to test your development on track is a new thing to do. Everyone is working at home so it’s not easy. You go by how the race went at Daytona, and we hope we are fixing the items we identified but we couldn’t test them on track. That’s the only downside to that and having just two hours practice. It will be a challenge, but Corvette Racing is the best team out there. If anyone can do this, it’s this team.”

JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “It will be a much shorter race with a much different mindset. For the Rolex, you’re trying to race to the end and survive the first 20 hours to race in the last four. For this one, you’ll prepping a car for speed to compete in laptime and performance. You’ll have to take a lot more risks not to lose track position. There will be a bit of difference in strategy. Corvette Racing has a long history of bouncing between races of these lengths (endurance vs. sprint).”

OLIVER GAVIN, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “It’s fantastic to get back racing. All credit to everyone at IMSA for working away tirelessly for the last couple of months to get us back racing at Daytona. It will be obviously pretty hot and sticky conditions but at least we will be back behind the wheel. Some fans will get to see cars out on track, which I think is fantastic. It’s been a long break… probably the longest period for anyone involved in racing. There isn’t a lot of track time at Daytona, which will present some challenges and be a little weird, to be honest. But everyone is really wanting to just get out there and get on with it.”

TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R: “With a new car, we are approaching each race trying to learn as much as we can. Winning races is always the target, and that won’t change whether we had a bad Daytona or not. For Olly and I, it’s about continuing to push the car forward and going for race wins. That’s the best way to make up that deficit. With less cars, it’s harder to make up larger point gaps but it’s the same for everyone. Just because we had a bad Daytona doesn’t mean we are out of it. As always, the goal at every weekend especially early on is to finish as high as we possibly can. Winning obviously is No. 1, but getting points is big. That won’t change by any means. There is an expected learning process with the new Corvette. If there is something we can learn early on here that will help us down the road then we will certainly explore that.”

·         Linus Lindqvist Sweeps Formula Regional Americas weekend

·         Honda Performance Development Extends Contract through 2023 as Exclusive Engine Supplier

·         SCCA Pro Racing inks Deal with Parella Motorsports Holdings

·         33 F4 U.S. Cars storm Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course

Lexington, Ohio (June 29, 2020)- After nearly an eight-month hiatus, the Formula 4 Untied States and Formula Regional Americas Championships returned to racing, roaring through Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course June 26-28 with more than 50 Honda-Powered cars between the championships. 

Linus Lindqvist Sweeps Formula Regional Americas weekend

The FR Americas drivers delivered two action packed races at Mid-Ohio, with exciting battles from the front to the back of the 17-car field, but it was  Global Racing Group rookie Linus Lundqvist who controlled the weekend with a dominate debut. 

Behind the No. 26 Paytrim machine, the 2018 BRDC British F3 champion swept the weekend, qualifying on pole by setting a new track qualifying lap record (1:19.273-seconds) then driving lights to checkers in both 30-minute features. The outstanding drive earned Lundqvist the Omologato Perfectly Timed Move of the Race.

“Two wins, two pole positions and setting the fastest lap, it’s very hard to beat an opening weekend like that,” Lundqvist said. “Obviously it wasn’t easy, especially when you look at how large and competitive the field is. I’m a very small part in this operation, the team gave me a great car and I went out there and did my part.

While HMD Motorsports driver David Malukas’ race craft shined on the technical 15-turn, 2.4-minle circuit, he played second fiddle to Lundqvist all weekend. Topping the charts early in qualifying, Malukas of Chicago was edged out of pole-position in the final laps by .001-seconds, the closest qualifying margin in series history.

In Race 1, Malukas, staring second, bobbled the F1-style standing start, dropping back to fifth before Turn 1. Malukas worked his way back to third by a final lap and clinched second after an unforced error made by Santiago Urrutia, sent the Uraguan pilot flying off course, forfeiting his podium position to his teammate. Newman Wachs Racing driver Victor Franzoni crossed the stripe in third.

Malukas challenged Lundqvist for the point in Race 2, but his focus quickly changed from challenging for first to defending his second-place position which allowed Lundqvist to pull a gap. Malukas completed his FR Americas debut weekend with a pair of second-place finishes.

Urrutia recovered in Race 2 to claim the podium finish he missed out on earlier in the weekend.

Full Results

HPD Extends Contract with Parella Motorsports Holdings through 2023

Honda Performance Development (HPD) extended its partnership through 2023 as the sole engine supplier to the FIA F4 U.S. and FR Americas Championships. In combination with the recent announcement that Parella Motorsports Holdings (PMH) is taking ownership of commercial promotion for these series, the future is very bright for developing world class open-wheel racing talent in North America.

The FR Americas Championship and F4 U.S. Championship offer global developing drivers the opportunity to demonstrate their skills on an international platform, with affordability and safety as top priorities. Both series’ cars are powered by equally strong, reliable, HPD-modified versions of the current Honda Civic® Type R® engine, with the FR Americas powered by a turbocharged 303-horsepower edition, while F4 U.S. uses a normally aspirated 160-bhp engine.

The Honda Civic® Type R® engine is manufactured in Marysville, Ohio, just miles north from Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

“We are eager to continue the strong momentum in developing racing talent in North America by leveraging our unique product and program capabilities,” said Ted Klaus, President of HPD. “I’d like to thank our partners SCCA Pro Racing, Ligier and Hankook for taking the risk with us, starting in 2015, to power the dreams of future INDYCAR stars.

“Our consistent, reliable, and powerful HPD-developed Type R® race engines have helped create affordable racing opportunities for developing open wheel racers, and we see even more opportunities with this new partnership,” Klaus continued. “We’re excited that PMH has taken an active interest in helping aspiring professional racers achieve their goals ‘Powered by Honda’, and we’re excited to see what the future holds for these series and their participants.”

33 F4 U.S. Cars storm Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course

The world’s largest FIA F4 average field stormed through Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course over the weekend, bringing 33 F4 U.S. cars to the Honda-supported circuit. While teams and drivers were ready to go racing, Mother Nature had other plans in mind, plaguing the first round with torrential weather. As rain worsened the already slick track conditions, lightening was spotted, forcing race control to call the round before the green flag reemerged. Since no green laps were taken, points were not awarded. The series will attempt to make up the round at a later date. 

Since no official lap times were clocked in Race 1, the grid for Race 2 was based off qualifying results. Christian Bogle started on point, and after three restarts, Bogle held onto his pole-position start to claim the Race 2 win at Mid-Ohio on Sunday. The race ended in yellow after a debris from an off car littered the track forced race competition to a halt. Crosslink/Kiwi Motorsport driver Dylan Tavella crossed the line second with Velocity Racing Development rookie Hunter Yeany rounding out the provisional podium. 

After cars failed post-race technical inspection, all F4 weekend results are provisional. Final results will be released following an appeals hearing.

June 29, 2020

Matt DiBenedetto and the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane team turned in another strong performance in the Sunday’s second half of a double-header at Pocono Raceway.

After finishing 13^th and scoring 10 Stage points on Saturday, DiBenedetto and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team came back on Monday and scored eight more Stage points and finished sixth in the Pocono 350.

Sunday’s finish netted 41 points, the most DiBenedetto has earned in a race this season. He remains 14^th in the Cup Series standings, but is just three points behind 13^th-place Clint Bowyer and six back of 12^th-place Jimmie Johnson.

DiBenedetto lined up eighth for the start of Sunday’s race and quickly drove his way into the top five then finished the first 30-lap Stage in sixth place, earning five Stage points.

In the second Stage, a 55-lapper, he ran in second or third place for much of the way, then made a pit stop from third place with 10 laps remaining in the Stage. Still, he drove his way back to ninth at the end of the Stage, earning two more points.

In the third and final segment of the race, he made his final pit stop with 38 laps remaining, taking two tires and fuel.

He rejoined the race and began working his way forward, gaining some spots through passes and others when drivers ahead of him made their last stops.

With 22 laps remaining, he was up to 15^th place, and broke back into the top 10 six laps later. With four laps remaining, he took sixth place and held off William Byron and Clint Bowyer to claim his best Pocono finish in 12 career starts and his fourth top-10 finish of the season.

“We had great strategy from start to finish,” DiBenedetto said of the plans formulated by crew chief Greg Erwin. “We followed Greg’s plan and it worked out even better than we thought.”

DiBenedetto said he and Erwin figured that making a pit stop just before the end of the second Stage would set them up better for the finish but cost them some Stage points, but that wasn’t the case.
 
“We thought we’d be sacrificing Stage points, but we had a good pit stop and had a solid restart and grabbed a couple of points.”
 
DiBenedetto said his Motorcraft/Quick Lane Mustang was fast and his crew was on their game.
 
“We had a top-10 car all day long,” he said. “Everything was really smooth. Everybody executed well, and it was just a good, solid day.”

He said the weekend’s performance at Pocono has him and the team feeling upbeat as they head to Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
 
“We’ve known we can do this,” he said, adding that he, Erwin and the crew have been working on their communication and on being more consistent in their on-track performance. “I think this weekend was an example of what we’ve been working on and knowing that we’re capable of doing is addressing that and just having solid days like we did today being in the top 10 from the start to the finish of the day, getting stage points and finishing up there.
 
“We’ve done a good job at working on that and I think we can do a lot more of this moving forward.”

Next up for DiBenedetto and the No. 21 team is the Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard on July 5. 
 

Solid, Top-15 Finish and Stage Points for Austin Dillon and the No. 3 Symbicort (budesonide/formoterol fumarate dihydrate) Chevrolet Team at Pocono Raceway

14th   2nd  17th

“Everyone on the Symbicort (budesonide/formoterol fumarate dihydrate) Chevrolet team did a great job hanging in there today and working together to pull off a top-15 finish. We made a few adjustments to our car and strategy based on what we learned yesterday. There was a lot more grip on the track then what I figured there would be for a 4 p.m. Eastern race start. We just battled a tight-handling condition for most of the day today, especially at the beginning of the race. We had to free it up a bunch. We missed Stage points at the conclusion of Stage 1 by just one position, but then earned a few key Stage points at the end of Stage 2. During Stage 3, we worked our way into the top-five before pitting for fuel with 13 laps remaining. All-in-all, can’t complain about a 14th-place finish. I want to thank everyone at AstraZeneca and Symbicort (budesonide/formoterol fumarate dihydrate) for their support.” -Austin Dillon

Tyler Reddick and No. 8 Caterpillar Team Put Up Strong Fight at Pocono Raceway

35th     30th    18th

“This weekend did not go at all how we wanted it to, but I’m proud of the No. 8 Caterpillar team for never giving up at any point. When I came across the line to take the green flag today, I lost all power steering and had to drop back to protect the car. Right as I was going to hit pit road to see what we could do to fix the handling, the caution came out for rain, which almost ended up helping us. I was able to pit and give my team the entire yellow to work on the car. We figured out we would be able to replace the alternator belt as the red flag came out. Once the yellow flag came back out, my team worked as fast as they could to make the repairs but we still ended up a handful of laps down by the time we could rejoin the field. From that point on it was just a matter of capitalizing on everything  that came our way to gain as many spots as we possibly could. Every point matters in the fight to make the Playoffs, and we weren’t going to go down without a fight. We got trapped a little bit with how the race played out, but we gave it our all today to get everything we could. I wouldn’t want to be racing with any other group than the one I have right now and am looking forward to getting back after it at Indy next weekend.” -Tyler Reddick

NASCAR CUP SERIESPOCONO RACEWAYPOCONO 350TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTESJUNE 28, 2020 
TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:POS.   DRIVER4th      CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE 7th      WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 1LE9th      ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 CHEVYGOODS.COM/ADAM POLISHES CAMARO ZL1 1LE12th    MATT KENSETH, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CAMARO ZL1 1LE13th    KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE
TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS: POS.  DRIVER1st      Denny Hamlin (Toyota)2nd     Kevin Harvick (Ford)3rd      Erik Jones (Toyota)4th      Chase Elliott (Chevrolet)5th      Aric Almirola (Ford) The NASCAR Cup Series season continues at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with the Big Machine Hand Sanitizer 400 Powered by Big Machine Records on Sunday, July 5th, at 4:00 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on NBC, NBC Sports Gold and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES:CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 4th“It was good to have a solid run for our NAPA team after yesterday being so poor. Obviously, we would’ve liked to of been a little better, but after starting in the back, I was pleased how I was able to move forward and gain a lot of that track position back. It was a good rebound. Looking forward to getting back on track at Indy.” WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 7th“We ended up with a top-10 finish today which was good. It was definitely an improvement from yesterday – seven spots better to be exact – which is good. We still struggled a good portion of the race but I think we made the right calls and adjustments at the end. We had a lot of speed actually the last couple runs. I think the track kind of came to us and ultimately that’s what we needed. So we’ll go on to Indy and hopefully have a better run there.” ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 CHEVYGOODS.COM/ADAM POLISHES CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 9th“It was an up and down day. So many people are on different pit strategies throughout the day here in Pocono. We had a top 10 car all day, just didn’t have the running positions to show for it. Greg (Ives) and the guys made great adjustments on pit road and really improved the car throughout the race. A top-10 finish today is good momentum for us going to Indy next weekend.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 13th“The team made a lot of changes to the car from the race yesterday, but we still really struggled with the handling in traffic. The difference between dirty and clean air is crazy. The Monster Energy Chevy was good early on when we had track position (clean air) and we were able to lead all the laps and get the Stage 1 win, but just a tough ending for the No.1 team, a little Pocono Deja vu for us today!”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 SYMBICORT CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 14th“Everyone on the Symbicort (budesonide/formoterol fumarate dihydrate) Chevrolet team did a great job hanging in there today and working together to pull off a top-15 finish. We made a few adjustments to our car and strategy based on what we learned yesterday. There was a lot more grip on the track then what I figured there would be for a 4 p.m. race start. We just battled a tight-handling condition for most of the day today, especially at the beginning of the race. We had to free up a bunch. We missed Stage points at the conclusion of Stage 1 by just one position, but then earned a few key Stage points at the end of Stage 2. During Stage 3, we worked our way into the top-five before pitting for fuel with 13 laps remaining. All-in-all, can’t complain about a 14^th-place finish. I want to thank everyone at AstraZeneca and Symbicort (budesonide/formoterol fumarate dihydrate) for their support.”
RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 KROGER CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 15th“Overall, I think it was a solid weekend for our Kroger Chevrolet. We definitely learned some things on Saturday that we were able to adapt to for Sunday, but the track raced very differently on Sunday than it did on Saturday. We were really loose most of the race, but Brian (Pattie) made some great strategy calls to keep us running up front and ultimately get a top-15 finish at the end. We’re on a solid momentum streak and I’m looking forward to carrying that over to Indianapolis Motor Speedway next weekend.”
BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 VICTORY JUNCTION CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 20th“Our Richard Petty Motorsports team made the right adjustments for what we fought yesterday, but it still was not the right adjustments; that is kind of the frustrating part. We did not have enough raw speed and couldn’t quite get the handling we needed on our No. 43 Victory Junction Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. All-in-all, we came-out with a top-20 finish and it’s an improvement from yesterday. Good to get out of Pocono, and give us time to refocus before we come back.”“I’m glad we got the race in. Racing with no lights is a little tricky, but all-in-all, we’ll head to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. We had our best finish there last year, so we’ll see if we can back that up.” TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 CATERPILLAR CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 35th “This weekend did not go at all how we wanted it to, but I’m proud of the No. 8 Caterpillar team for never giving up at any point. Unfortunately, when I came across the line to take the green flag today I lost all power steering and had to drop back to protect the car. Right as I was going to hit pit road to see what we could do to fix the handling, the caution came out for rain, which almost ended up helping us. I was able to pit and give my team the entire yellow to work on the car. We figured out we would be able to replace the alternator belt right as the red flag came out. Once the yellow flag came back out, my team worked as fast as they could to make the repairs but we still ended up a handful of laps down by the time we could rejoin the field. From that point on it was just a matter of capitalizing on everything that came our way to gain as many spots as we possibly could. Every point matters in the fight to make the Playoffs, and we weren’t going to go down without a fight. We got trapped a little bit with how the race played out, but we gave it our all today to get everything we could. I wouldn’t want to be racing with any other group than the one I have right now and am looking forward to getting back after it at Indy next weekend.”

Although the 12th Annual Scoggin-Dickey Parts Center NMRA/NMCA All-Star Nationals at Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Georgia, was originally scheduled to be run in April, the repercussions from the Covid-19 pandemic forced a date change to June 26-28, 2020. It was definitely worth the wait, though, as the event was run to completion over a near-perfect weekend and racers and fans alike were thrilled to be back out cutting lights and clicking off runs at “Georgia’s House of Speed.” A combined event for both NMRA and NMCA only added to the excitement, while the huge car show and expansive vendor midway amped up the atmosphere even further. At the event’s conclusion, champions were crowned in the Aerospace Components Winner’s Circle and cars were eagerly loaded into trailers in preparation for the next event in just a few short weeks. In the combined NMRA and NMCA VP Racing Madditives/Mickey Thompson Street Outlaw category, Alan Felts put his newly-finished “baby Pro Mod” ’91 Mustang into the number-one spot with a 4.424 at 165.97mph blast, but spun twice in round two of eliminations and couldn’t recover. Meanwhile, former champion and Street Outlaw bad boy Phil Hines of Lebanon, Ohio, met with Tony Hobson and his recently-acquired ride for an epic final-round battle of ProCharged-powered Mustangs. Hines, who had qualified fourth, snatched the lead at the start and was able to hold it all the way to the finish where a 4.504 at 160.79mph trip from his ’01 model took down Hobson’s effort of 4.514 at 160.86 mph in his ’90 Fox body. It was Mike Freeman’s name topping the list after qualifying had been finalized for twenty-four NMRA/NMCA Edelbrock Renegade/Xtreme Street entries, as his ’88 Mustang put in an impressive performance of 4.687 at 148.31 mph. In eliminations, all the glory belonged to Bob Zelenak of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, and his ’93 Mustang. Zelenak translated his earlier number-ten qualifying performance of a 4.832 at 144.44 mph to a nearly identical 4.832 at 145.55mph run in the finals and was able to add an NMRA Edelbrock Victortrophy to his collection while Scott Grove—who had qualified thirteenth—took the runner up consolation prize with his 5.109 at 139.37mph eighth-mile run. The lead in JDM Engineering Limited Street qualifying belonged to Samantha Moore and her ’14 Mustang, as the duo clocked an 8.669 at 157.70 mph quarter-mile time slip. A hurt transmission took her out in round one of eliminations, though, and opened the door for UPR Products’ own Bill Putnam and Blow By Racing-backed Jason Davis to face off in the finals. Davis, however, had cooked his turbocharger earlier in the day and was only able to take the light as he watched Putnam, who had qualified second, fly down the track in his orange ’94 Mustang for an uncontested win. Rocking out with his ’89 Mustang in Richmond Gear Factory Stockqualifying, John Leslie Jr. earned the number-one placement when he went 10.334 at 128.71 mph. The Rockstar lived up to the name during eliminations, as Leslie rocked out round after round in eliminations and took down Mike Bowen, who had qualified third on a hole shot, on his want to the Aerospace Components Winner’s Circle. G-Force Racing Transmissions Coyote Stock is always crazy competitive, but Michigan’s Frank Paultanis was on a tear right from the start, as he was the only driver to click off a 10-teens number in qualifying, which rightfully put him in the top spot with his ’04 Mustang. In eliminations, his performance advantage was clearly evident as he turned on win light after win light with his Coyote-powered ’04 Mustang and capped off a perfect weekend with a trip to the Aerospace Components Winner’s Circle after putting Nathan Stymiest back on the trailer in the finals. Just 0.003-seconds away from a perfect light behind the wheel of his ’89 Fox body Mustang, Chris Graff was the number-one qualifier in Exedy Racing Clutch Modular Muscle qualifying. Coming back from a stint in no prep racing, though, was Texas-based racer James Meredith of Triangle Speed Shop fielding his ’73 Capri. Meredith proved things really are bigger in Texas, including wins, as he defeated reigning champion Charlie McCulloch and his ’04 Mustang Cobra in a tight final elimination round where McCulloch went 10.980 on his 10.88 but Meredith managed a 9.967 on his 9.91. David Mormann of Tampa, Florida, was nearly dead-on when he ran 11.005 on his 11.00 dial with his ’70 Mustang Mach I during FSC Ford Muscle qualifying to land in the top placement. He kept up the consistency throughout eliminations to muscle his way through to the finals. Kevin Sanders had qualified third and also made it to the last round of the weekend, but Mormann had him both at the start and at the stripe and it was the man from the Sunshine State who closed things out on a high note. Sitting in first after ROUSH Performance Super Stang qualifying, Andy Ransford’s 0.039-second reaction time in his ’06 Mustang definitely did the job, but it was Lloyd Mikeska and Russell Haskins who had the advantage during eliminations. Mikeska, the number-three qualifier from Richmond, Texas, and Haskins, the number-two qualifier from Marietta, Georgia, battled it out in a heated final round, but ultimately the win light lit in Mikeska’s lane.Nearly two dozen competitors came out to contest the ARP Open Comp class, but Tom Hoffman had the quickest reaction time during qualifying with an 0.003-second trigger from his Mustang. Hoffman’s run ended in round two, but Bill Jones and Mel White, both of Nashville, Georgia, and both with 0.019-second reaction times in qualifying to wind up ninth and eighth, respectively, ran side by side in the finals for a ‘60s-era Falcon vs Mustang showdown. At the stripe, it was Jones whose 9.214 at 149.91 mph run on a 9.21 dial was a winner over White’s 10.977 at 121.57 mph pass on his 11.06 goal. Recovering from his battle with Covid-19, Vinnie Telesco was missed by his usual Detroit Locker Truck & Lightning class as well as the entire NMRA family. Keith Chobirko of White Oak, Pennsylvania, however, set the pace in qualifying with his ’01 Ranger when he cut a quick 0.002-second light and stayed right on the money all throughout eliminations. In the final round pairing, Chobirko defeated the number two qualifier, Bob Dill, with a winning package A large group of QA1/TorqStorm Superchargers True Street racers came out to enjoy a 30-mile street cruise and three back-to-back trips down the quarter mile after so much time in quarantine, and it was Mark Scordato of Newton, New Jersey who was the overall winner as his ’68 Pontiac GTO clocked the quickest average of 9.463-seconds. Hot on his heels was Dan Nusbaum from Crossville, Tennessee, who averaged 9.926-seconds in his ’87 Mustang to take the overall runner-up honors. Alex Corella won the 10-second group, Ben Bramlett took top honors for the 11-second section, Mike Baker was the winner in the 12-second group, Dylan Derby bested the 13-second average, Kay Ward had the lead in the 14-second pack, and Allen Smith was the final winner for the 15-second bunch. The NMRA Holley Drag Racing Series continues the 15th Annual Nitto Tire NMRA/NMCA Super Bowl of Street-Legal Drag Racing Presented by HPJ Performance with the Chevrolet Performance Challenge Series at World Wide Technology Raceway near St. Louis in Madison, Illinois, over the weekend July 30-August 2, 2020.

Myatt Snider and the TaxSlayer Chevrolet Team Show Speed with Top-Five Finish at Pocono Raceway

4th    2nd  10th

“It was a great day for us. We were up front leading laps and had a great chance to win in our TaxSlayer Chevrolet Camaro. I hate we got involved earlier with that incident that took out so many cars. I was getting a big push from behind and had a run on the 9 car. I knew we were going to funnel up very quickly, so I started lifting out of it, but the guy behind me didn’t. I hate it for those guys, but I’m thankful we were able to make it through without damage. In the end it just came down to experience for me. I’ve only had a select few races with this RCR car. It has so much speed, I just need to get myself a little more consistent. Kudos to my RCR guys for bringing such a fast TaxSlayer Camaro. I had a blast today. I just need to get a little more experience and I think we’ll be able to win some races.” -Myatt Snider

EASTABOGA, AL (June 27, 2020) – Jimmy Owens won his fourth straight Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt series event on Saturday Night leading all the way in the EZ-GO 50. The event marked the first Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series race at Talladega Short Track in 12 years. The current series point leader extended his lead in the championship standings with his 69th career series victory. Josh Richards finished second in the Clint Bowyer Racing entry and Kyle Hardy recorded his best career finish in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series as he rounded out the Big River Steel podium in third. Michael Page came home in fourth followed by former series rookie-of-the-year, Billy Moyer Jr. in fifth. Owens took the lead at the start of the race with Hudson O’Neal quickly moving from his fourth starting spot to second. O’Neal ran in second behind Owens until he slowed on lap 8 and exited the race. Jonathan Davenport moved into second place where he would stay until a caution flew for him with 31 laps scored. Richards became the third different driver to run in the second spot behind Owens. A caution with ten laps to go bunched the field up, but for the fourth series race in a row, Owens went on to the victory in the richest race ever ran at TST. “Once again, the car was flawless all weekend,” said the 48-year-old 3-time series champion in Lucas Oil Victory Lane, “My hats to the crew and Dale McDowell for prepping the track this week. They watered the track and gave us a racy track for a long time. It’s great to come home with a win for Pope Construction, they are just up the road from here. He has helped us for years. I am just glad he could be a part of it and be here with us. I don’t think I have ever been here where I haven’t run off the corner in one and two. I am glad the fans stuck it out and I’m glad the weather held out. Hopefully, we can keep it going.”    Richards tried his best to stay with Owens in the closing laps but settled for the second finishing spot.  “Those guys have a done a good job,” said Richards in reference to Owens and his crew. “Whatever he has going on, he’s been riding it. It doesn’t seem like he has to hustle it very much. Compared to last night, tonight, we got the car more dialed in. We ran the race we feel like we came to win. We were right there on him. He beat us in certain parts of the track, but we feel like we can run with him in other parts.  Our balance is good, and we will just keep on digging.” Hardy was pleased with his run, “We came here with our backs against the wall. We had a tough night last night. I wish It didn’t end like it did. Hats off to the track crew. They worked hard on it this week and they gave us a track to race on. That’s what it’s all about. It means a lot to come here and finish behind Jimmy Owens and Josh Richards.”

The winner’s Ramirez Motorsports Rocket Chassis is powered by a Vic Hill Racing Engine and sponsored by Reece Monument Company, Tommy Pope Construction, Boomtest Well Service, Red Line Oil, General Tire, Midwest Sheet Metal, Hypercoil Springs, Ohlins Shocks, and Champion Spark Plugs. Completing the top ten were Cory Hedgecock, Dillon Tidmore, Tanner English, Tyler Erb, and Stormy Scott.Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series 
Race Summary 
EZ-Go 50
Saturday, June 27th, 2020
Talladega Short Track – Eastaboga, AL

Lucas Oil Time Trials
Fast Time Group A: Jonathan Davenport / 14.036 seconds (overall)
Fast Time Group B: Tim McCreadie / 14.273 seconds 

Penske Race Shocks Heat Race #1 Finish (10 Laps, Top 4 Transfer):  1. 49-Jonathan Davenport[1]; 2. 38-Dillon Tidmore[5]; 3. 18X-Michael Page[4]; 4. 9-Devin Moran[3]; 5. 50-Shanon Buckingham[8]; 6. 10J-Joseph Joiner[10]; 7. 66-Jake Knowles[7]; 8. 16S-Sam Seawright[6]; 9. 25-Shane Clanton[2]; 10. 00P-Dalton Polston[9]; 11. (DNS) 29-Christian Hanger

FK Rod Ends Heat Race #2 Finish (10 Laps, Top 4 Transfer):  1. 14-Josh Richards[2]; 2. 2S-Stormy Scott[1]; 3. 1-Earl Pearson Jr[3]; 4. 40B-Kyle Bronson[8]; 5. 91-Heath Hindman[5]; 6. 21M-Billy Moyer Sr[4]; 7. 85-Jason Hiett[6]; 8. 35-Dallas Cooper[7]; 9. 6S-Blake Spencer[9]; 10. (DNS) 8-Kyle Strickler

Simpson Race Products Heat Race #3 Finish (10 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 20-Jimmy Owens[1]; 2. 21-Billy Moyer Jr[4]; 3. 79-Kyle Hardy[5]; 4. 81E-Tanner English[2]; 5. 44D-Dalton Cook[3]; 6. 22R-Will Roland[8]; 7. 57-Josh Adkins[9]; 8. 25M-Justin Mcree[10]; 9. 17-Logan Roberson[6]; 10. 84-Austin Smith[7]; 11. (DNS) 99M-JR Moseley

Ohlins Shocks Heat Race #4 Finish (10 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 71-Hudson O’Neal[2]; 2. 39-Tim McCreadie[1]; 3. 23H-Cory Hedgecock[3]; 4. 76-Brandon Overton[4]; 5. 1T-Tyler Erb[5]; 6. 24-Zach Leonhardi[6]; 7. 16-Tyler Bruening[8]; 8. 25T-Tim Roszell[9]; 9. 62-Cody King[7]; 10. 42K-Cla Knight[10]

Tiger Rear Ends B-Main #1 Finish (12 Laps, Top 3 Transfer):  1. 50-Shanon Buckingham[1]; 2. 91-Heath Hindman[2]; 3. 10J-Joseph Joiner[3]; 4. 21M-Billy Moyer Sr[4]; 5. 85-Jason Hiett[6]; 6. 66-Jake Knowles[5]; 7. 25-Shane Clanton[9]; 8. 16S-Sam Seawright[7]; 9. 35-Dallas Cooper[8]; 10. 6S-Blake Spencer[10]; 11. (DNS) 00P-Dalton Polston; 12. (DNS) 8-Kyle Strickler; 13. (DNS) 29-Christian Hanger

FAST Shafts B-Main #2 Finish (12 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 1T-Tyler Erb[2]; 2. 44D-Dalton Cook[1]; 3. 24-Zach Leonhardi[4]; 4. 22R-Will Roland[3]; 5. 25T-Tim Roszell[8]; 6. 57-Josh Adkins[5]; 7. 62-Cody King[10]; 8. 42K-Cla Knight[12]; 9. 84-Austin Smith[11]; 10. 25M-Justin Mcree[7]; 11. 16-Tyler Bruening[6]; 12. 99M-JR Moseley[13]; 13. (DNS) 17-Logan Roberson

Lucas Oil Feature Finish (50 Laps): 

Pos	Start	Car #	Competitor	Hometown	Pay
1	2	20	Jimmy Owens	Newport, TN	$12,900
2	3	14	Josh Richards	Shinnston, WV	$6,300
3	10	79	Kyle Hardy	Stephens City, VA	$3,500
4	9	18X	Michael Page	Winston, GA	$2,750
5	6	21	Billy Moyer Jr	Batesville, AR	$2,950
6	12	23H	Cory Hedgecock	Loudon, TN	$1,800
7	5	38	Dillon Tidmore	Gadsen, AL	$1,500
8	14	81E	Tanner English	Benton, KY	$2,100
9	18	1T	Tyler Erb	New Waverly, TX	$1,900
10	7	2S	Stormy Scott	Las Cruces, NM	$1,100
11	13	9	Devin Moran	Dresden, OH	$1,775
12	20	44D	Dalton Cook	Columbus, GA	$1,050
13	15	40B	Kyle Bronson	Brandon, FL	$1,725
14	17	50	Shanon Buckingham	Morristown, TN	$1,700
15	1	49	Jonathan Davenport	Blairsville, GA	$2,000
16	24	16	Tyler Bruening	Decorah, IA	$1,000
17	11	1	Earl Pearson Jr	Jacksonville, FL	$1,800
18	16	76	Brandon Overton	Evans, GA	$1,000
19	8	39	Tim McCreadie	Watertown, NY	$1,700
20	19	91	Heath Hindman	Signal Mountain, TN	$1,000
21	22	24	Zach Leonhardi	Douglasville, GA	$1,000
22	21	10J	Joseph Joiner	Milton, FL	$1,000
23	4	71	Hudson O’Neal	Martinsville, IN	$1,000
24	23	25	Shane Clanton	Zebulon, GA	$1,700

Race Statistics
Entrants: 42
Lap Leaders: Jimmy Owens (Laps 1 – 50)
Wrisco Feature Winner: Jimmy Owens
Margin of Victory: 1.581 seconds
Cautions: Hudson O’Neal (Lap 8); Jonathan Davenport (Lap 31); Shanon Buckingham, Earl Pearson Jr. (Lap 40)
Series Provisionals: Shane Clanton, Tyler Bruening
Fast Time Provisional: n/a
Series Emergency Provisionals: n/a
Big River Steel Podium Top 3: Jimmy Owens, Josh Richards, Kyle Hardy
Optima Batteries Hard Charger of the Race: Tyler Erb (Advanced 9 Positions) 
Midwest Sheet Metal Spoiler Challenge Point Leader: Jimmy Owens
Allstar Performance Most Laps Led: Jimmy Owens (50 Laps)
Sunoco Race for Gas Highest Finisher: Jimmy Owens
Eibach Springs Rookie of the Race: Tanner English
ARP Engine Builder of the Race: Vic Hill Racing Engines
Miller Welders Chassis Builder of the Race: Rocket Chassis
Outerwears Crew Chief of the Race: Jeff Strope (Jimmy Owens)
Dirty Girl Racewear Fastest Lap of the Race: Jimmy Owens (Lap #1 – 14.276 seconds)
STEEL-IT Tough Break of the Race: Jonathan Davenport
PFC Brakes Pole Award: Jonathan Davenport
Time of Race: 23 minutes 48 seconds

Lucas Oil Point Standings:

Pos	Car #	Competitor	Hometown	Points	Pay
1	20	Jimmy Owens	Newport, TN	3545	$99,300
2	49	Jonathan Davenport	Blairsville, GA	3145	$63,300
3	39	Tim McCreadie	Watertown, NY	3140	$58,350
4	1T	Tyler Erb	New Waverly, TX	3115	$47,100
5	14	Josh Richards	Shinnston, WV	3090	$53,475
6	9	Devin Moran	Dresden, OH	3035	$43,207
7	40B	Kyle Bronson	Brandon, FL	2975	$44,900
7	25	Shane Clanton	Zebulon, GA	2975	$45,700
9	21	Billy Moyer Jr	Batesville, AR	2725	$30,025
10	81E	Tanner English	Benton, KY	2615	$24,025
11	50	Shanon Buckingham	Morristown, TN	2505	$23,325
12	1	Earl Pearson Jr	Jacksonville, FL	2470	$22,900
13	71	Hudson O’Neal	Martinsville, IN	2445	$23,925
14	16	Tyler Bruening	Decorah, IA	2320	$13,875
15	2S	Stormy Scott	Las Cruces, NM	2205	$12,975
16	76	Brandon Overton	Evans, GA	2125	$53,150

Austin Dillon and the No. 3 American Ethanol Team Have Strong Run at Pocono Raceway

19th   17th  18th

“We had a great American Ethanol Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 today, but finished 19th, which isn’t what we wanted. We lost our track position in the middle of Stage 2 when the caution flag was displayed. We were running eighth at the time and hoping that it would go green and cycle out, but it didn’t. We had some really good lap times in Stage 3 but the way tire strategy played out we were not able to cycle our way back to the front for the end of the race. Even though we didn’t get the finish we were hoping for today, the good news is we get to race at Pocono Raceway again tomorrow. We start second. Hopefully we can turn that into a solid run for all of the RCR fans out there. I want to recognize all of the farmers with American Ethanol. They are the true back bone of America and I am proud to race for them. “ -Austin Dillon

Tyler Reddick and the Caterpillar Chevrolet Team Showcase Never-Give-Up Attitude at Pocono Raceway

30th     15th    16th

“The Caterpillar Chevrolet was really fast today at Pocono Raceway, and I think we showed that. We had good speed at the start of the race but we were involved in a wreck at the end of Stage Two that put us two laps down and changed the course of our race. From then on out, it was all about finishing and earning maximum points. I have to thank my guys for their hard work and making repairs so I could finish the last stage. We kept after it as a team and finished all the laps, trying to maximize on as many points as we could. We will regroup and be ready for round two tomorrow. Thank you to Caterpillar and the Cleveland Brothers for their support. We will definitely be ready to go tomorrow.” -Tyler Reddick

NASCAR CUP SERIESPOCONO RACEWAYPOCONO DOUBLEHEADERTEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTESJUNE 27, 2020 
 TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:POS.   DRIVER11th    MATT KENSETH, NO. 42 CREDIT ONE BANK CAMARO ZL1 1LE14th    WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 1LE17th    RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 KROGER CAMARO ZL1 1LE18th    KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE19th    AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 AMERICAN ETHANOL CAMARO ZL1 1LE 
TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS: POS.  DRIVER1st      Kevin Harvick (Ford)2nd     Denny Hamlin (Toyota)3rd      Aric Almirola (Ford)4th      Christopher Bell (Toyota)5th      Kyle Busch (Toyota)  The NASCAR Cup Series doubleheader race weekend at Pocono Raceway continues with the Pocono 350 tomorrow, June 28, at 4:00 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on FS1, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES:WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 14th“We struggled today. We had a hard time making speed and tried to salvage what we could there at the end. We started gaining more speed as the car tightened up by the end of the race. We’ll make some changes for tomorrow and see what we can do then.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 18th“I’m not really sure what went wrong with the handling on our Monster Energy Camaro? The track changed dramatically for us. We were pretty good the first half of the race, before the car started handling really tight on the exit of the corners. The second half was not so good for us with the handling and track position. We’ll turn it around and work for a better result tomorrow”.
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 AMERICAN ETHANOL CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 19th“We finished 19th today. Not what we wanted. Lost our track position in the middle of Stage 2 when the caution fell. It stunk. We were running eighth, and hoping it would go green and cycle out, but it didn’t. Nineteenth is what we had. I want to recognize all the farmers with American Ethanol. They’re the true backbone of America. I’m proud to race for them and all the ethanol producers across the country, so thank you guys for all your support. Tomorrow we start second and hopefully we can turn that into a solid run for all the RCR fans out there.”  BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 VICTORY JUNCTION CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 22nd“Well, that was a whole bunch of nothing. We didn’t really hit on much all day. On the tight side; just could never get the front end to work. The guys did good trying to figure out something on our No. 43 Victory Junction Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, it just wasn’t enough. We tried to pull some strategy there at the end, and just didn’t have enough raw speed to dial ourselves out. So, all-in-all, I’m proud of the efforts. We just kind of swung for the fences but didn’t really hit anything good. We know what not to do for tomorrow. We’ll come back way better with a totally different package. I had a good debrief with the guys, so we’ll see what tomorrow brings for us starting in the 22^nd-place. We missed that invert spot by two; stayed on the lead lap almost by a lap. But all-in-all it’s good to come out of there with a clean car. A lot of people had a bad day, so we capitalized. On to tomorrow.”
TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 26th “Our GEICO Camaro ZL1 1LE was fast and handled well through the corners, but something was wrong under the hood. Our car just didn’t have the speed on the straightaway and it hurt our momentum. We started the race really tight, but Matt (Borland) made a big adjustment on the first stop which helped the balance. My Germain Racing guys will try to figure out what was wrong tonight, so it doesn’t hinder us tomorrow.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 CHEVYGOODS.COM CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 27th“That is not the way we wanted to end the race. We had a good run going and were going to end up top 10. The No. 2 got into us there at the end and we cut a tire. Definitely don’t have the finish to show how our day was going, but we will be back tomorrow with a new car.”
TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 CATERPILLAR CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 30th“The Caterpillar Chevrolet was really fast today at Pocono Raceway, and I think we showed that. We had good speed at the start of the race but we were involved in a wreck at the end of Stage Two that put us two laps down and changed the course of our race. From then on out, it was all about finishing and earning maximum points. I have to thank my guys for their hard work and making repairs so I could finish the last stage. We kept after it as a team and finished all the laps, trying to maximize on as many points as we could. We will regroup and be ready for round two tomorrow. Thank you to Caterpillar and the Cleveland Brothers for their support. We will definitely be ready to go tomorrow.” 

NASCAR CUP SERIESPOCONO RACEWAYPOCONO DOUBLEHEADERTEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPTJUNE 26, 2020 
GREG IVES, CREW CHIEF FOR THE NO. 88 CHEVYGOODS.COM CAMARO ZL1 1LE FOR HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS, spoke with media via teleconference to discuss going into the first doubleheader race weekend in NASCAR history at Pocono Raceway, his thoughts as a crew chief on single-day shows without practice, and more. Transcript:  HOW EXCITING AND HOW CHALLENGING WILL IT BE TO BE RUNNING BACK-TO-BACK DAYS AT A TRACK LIKE POCONO? “Unfortunately for us, the doubleheader is going to be new to us, but our friends over at JRM just experienced that at Homestead a couple of weeks ago. Talking to Dave Owens, Travis Mack, and those guys, the crew chiefs over there, just getting some of their ideas and the problems they had. I know on the 9 car, they had to replace some body panels and those types of things. It’s definitely going to be new and exciting. I grew up short track racing myself and having twin-125’s and those types of things. Obviously, different scenarios on different days, but it’s definitely going to be fun to do something different.”
IF I READ THE RULES RIGHT, IT LOOKS LIKE YOU MAY HAVE 8 TO 9 HOURS TO WORK ON THE CAR FROM SATURDAY TO SUNDAY. THAT SOUNDS LIKE A LOT OF TIME.“Yeah, I mean it’s always a lot of time until you’re down to the last 20 to 30 minutes. Typically, that’s what the race teams do. They utilize every minute they possibly can, either to make their car better or to double-check things. We have a full list of items that we’re going to either check or inspect to make sure that we don’t have any issues. Who knows what types of incidents we’re going to run into. You’re planning for some pushing on restarts, so are you going to have tail or rear bumper damage that doesn’t necessarily make you want to go to a backup car, but you have to fix it before you go back into the next race. There’s a lot of things like that you don’t have the luxury of your fabricators at the track to make sure it’s right, so that all takes time. Multiple runs maybe through the hawk-eye system and that nine hours is going to go by pretty quick. I think NASCAR is putting that amount of time in just because it’s new. Let’s not try to hit a home run the first time – make sure these guys have enough time to diagnose any issues they may have. And the next time we do this, maybe we can trim back some time.”
YOU GUYS HAVE BACKUP CARS THIS WEEKEND – THAT’S BEEN A REASON WHY THERE HASN’T BEEN PRACTICE OR QUALIFYING. HOW CLOSE DO YOU THINK YOU GUYS ARE TO BEING ABLE TO HAVE BACKUP CARS EVERY WEEKEND IF NASCAR WANTED TO START HAVING ANY PRACTICE OR QUALIFYING? “I think the one thing that backup cars cause issue with is the workforce in the shop. Just having to prepare two cars each week and do that without maybe all one hundred percent personnel in the shop. That tends to make for some long hours and you know what happens when people work long hours – they tend to get grumpy and we don’t want that to happen. This is a fun sport and enjoy what we love to do. Eliminating some of the mid-week races, the Wednesday races, helps that. But all-in-all, you just have to look at the pro of having practice versus what we’re doing already. I feel like what we have right now as a product on the race track is pretty good and that is without a backup car, without qualifying and without practice. I think for the short term, to continue on like this is probably the best way to go.”
FROM A CREW CHIEF STANDPOINT, YOU SAID IT LOOKS LIKE THE SHOWS HAVE BEEN BETTER WITHOUT PRACTICE AND THE SINGLE DAY SHOWS. WHEN THINGS GET BACK TO NORMAL, ARE YOU ITCHING TO SEE PRACTICE BACK? DO YOU THINK THE TEAMS CAN GO WITHOUT PRACTICE IN THE FUTURE? HOW DO YOU SEE IT?“I would like to see practice come back, just from the sense of I have some things I’d like to try to make the car better. You can run as much simulation as possible, but getting it on the race track is the true test. The true feel from the driver and also the stopwatch. I would definitely like to do that being in the Playoffs. Usually this time is used for experimenting and finding that next tenth or two, which is so hard to find in this sport because of how close everything is with rules and the competition. I would like to have practice – not necessarily because I think it’s going to make the racing better on Sunday or easier for the guys in the shop. But I feel like from my standpoint, I go to tests to make my car better and as a crew chief, that’s what you want to be able to do. That’s what I would like to do – have a little bit more time on the track without actually racing.”
WITH EVERYTHING THAT’S GOING ON WITH THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC, YOU GUYS FIND YOURSELF IN AN UNIQUE POSITION WHERE YOU HAVE TWO RACES AT THE SAME RACE TRACK ON THE SAME WEEKEND. SO, IT’S ALMOST LIKE YOU GET A PRACTICE SESSION NOW WITH THE RACE ON SATURDAY AND SUNDAY. WHAT ARE THE THINGS YOU’RE GOING TO BE ABLE TO ADJUST BETWEEN SATURDAY AND SUNDAY TO MAKE THE CAR BETTER, DEPENDING ON HOW ALEX (BOWMAN) IS FEELING?“You really can’t change the body configuration. You can to a certain point. If you come there with more of a downforce car versus – you hear that a lot- I had too much drag in the car. It’s going to be difficult, probably, to change that style. There’s some tweaks you can make to get some of the drag off or maybe put some downforce in. But you can’t, obviously, rebuild the whole car. From my springs, shocks, camber settings, those types of things – you definitely can adjust. By the time it’s the end of stage one, usually my engineer is over there ‘hey, we should have done this or we should have done that’. I’ve already got a laundry list of items going of what we need to adjust and that’s not even for a doubleheader. Fortunately for us, I feel like we’ve had good baselines, a good foundation, each week and had a lot of speed. Just have to figure out how to execute and finish some of these races. I think for Pocono, I think the strategy side of things, you’re going to see how different people adjust. They may do one strategy on Saturday and one strategy on Sunday. That’s definitely going to be interesting to see how that plays out.”
OF ALL THE THINGS THAT MIGHT HAPPEN WHEN YOU HAVE A DOUBLEHEADER WEEKEND, WHAT ARE YOU MOST INTRIGUED TO FIND OUT?“Over the course of every year, every race, the track gains character. And what I mean by character is the bumps. Pocono, for example, it started out as a pretty smooth race track. You could stiffen up your front wheel brakes and mainly work on the attitude of the car, and get that so it really doesn’t move like a go-cart. But as the character of the track zones in over the tunnel and gets a little bit more bumps – and now people complain about the front end washing out because you hit a bump and it pushes up the race track, and now you have to work a little more on handling – those are the things that you can’t really predict when you don’t have practice. Typically, when you show up, you have a couple of laps – the driver comes in and says ‘yeah, I’m hitting the splitter too hard, we need a little softer front wheel or it’s way too rigid’, and you can work on that. Once you get into the race, it’s definitely difficult to know that or even change that once those laps start clicking off. The character of the track, you’ve probably even seen it at Talladega, that new tunnel in the entry of Turn Three, you can see the cars moving around a lot more. And you didn’t know that until either watching a race – the ARCA cars or the Xfinity cars – but once we got out there, definitely saw some different things like that.”
WHO DO YOU THINK BENEFITS FROM THIS KIND OF SCHEDULE? THE BIGGER TEAMS WITH TWO RACES IN A WEEKEND? DRIVERS WHO RACE A LOT? DRIVERS WITH EXPERIENCE? YOUNG GUYS?“I definitely think those that kind of have it together with a good foundation. Like I said, we were able to start the year, when we had practice, dialing our setup a little bit. Once we were able to start racing again, we were able to have some really strong runs and, potentially, could have had multiple wins. As the weeks start clicking off, everybody starts zoning back in on what they need to compete – either getting their cars better, setups better, drivers knocking the rust off, teams correlating their splitter heights and what the tires need for air pressure and grip. I think just having that solid baseline to start with and not trying to hit a home run, and ‘hey, we know this package is going to race well, so let’s not try to re-invent the wheel and just go out there and have a solid foundation’. Obviously, the bigger teams are able to feed off of each other. I have a lot of great teammates at Hendrick Motorsports that I can lean on for advice and what their thoughts are going into each week. So, I think it tailors a little bit better to the bigger teams and those that have more experience. The smaller teams, it’s maybe just taking a couple of weeks to zone in on what they need.”
JUST WANTED TO ASK YOU ABOUT POCONO AND INDIANAPOLIS – THE PAST, PEOPLE WERE ABLE TO LOOK AT IT AS BEING ABLE TO TAKE WHAT YOU HAD IN POCONO INTO INDIANAPOLIS. IS THAT STILL A CASE WHEN YOU TALK ABOUT THE CHARACTER OF POCONO? “I think everything is relevant. I feel like, as a crew chief, every lap I learn. We used to test at Nashville or Kentucky back in the day, down to New Smyrna – every lap we learned. Pocono definitely has a lot of characteristics with the flat corners, in some sense, and understanding what your package is going to do there. Like I said, the character of Pocono is just going to be a little bit different than Indy. How your car is going to draft down the front straightaway versus at Indy with their long straightaways. So, there are a lot of similarities that you can definitely pull from. If you feel like you selected the wrong aero package at Pocono, it’s probably going to be the wrong one at Indy. And you’re going to do some more things to maybe trim the car out or vice versa – if you trim the car out too much and you still need the handle at Indy. There’s definitely a lot of similarities and like you said, you can learn from Pocono, you can learn what not to do to bring to Indy. Ultimately, definitely a different character at each track, so it’s not a complete ‘hey, I just won Pocono, now I’m going to go win Indy because of this package’. That’s probably not the best way to think about it, but it definitely correlates a lot. Both tend to have the fuel mileage race and that strategy at the end of each stage to win stage points or put yourself in the best position at the end of the race. So, a lot of similarities, a lot of things you can carry over, but it’s not a complete one off.”
CERTAINLY, I’M SURE YOUR AWARE, THE CHARLOTTE AREA HAS MORE CORONA VIRUS CASES. I’M CURIOUS, HOW DOES THAT AFFECT THE GUIDANCE THAT YOU GIVE YOUR TEAM TO PROTECT THEMSELVES? “Definitely. On an individual basis, you have to have those conversations with each guy that you have on your team. Like you said, from the comfort level of traveling to different areas. I’ve had that conversation with them. The other thing is, everybody at Hendrick Motorsports is taking this time seriously. When we are traveling to Pocono, how are we going to feed our guys and supply them with the food they need. It may sound trivial, but not having them go to restaurants to potentially expose them. And we’ve come up with plans where basically we give them the meals they need so they are only going to one location. Making sure they eat at the track versus going out to somewhere else. Those types of things, even from how we are feeding the guys to how we are protecting them, is definitely very much important to not only myself, but everybody at Hendrick Motorsports. I feel like we’re doing it the best way, the safest way. For those that may feel uncomfortable in those scenarios or situations, we’re definitely hearing their voice and taking the proper protocol.” 

TEAM CHEVY ADVANCEPOCONO DOUBLEHEADERPOCONO RACEWAYLONG POND, PAJUNE 27-28, 2020
RACE #14 & #15: POCONOFor the first time in NASCAR history, Pocono Raceway will be the host of a NASCAR doubleheader race weekend. The ground-breaking weekend schedule will feature five races in three days, including two NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) events on back-to-back days: the Pocono Organics 325 in Partnership with Rodale Institute on Saturday, June 27th, and the Pocono 350 on Sunday, June 28th. The NCS doubleheader around the 2.5-mile track known as the ‘Tricky Triangle’ will mark the 14th and 15th races on the revised NCS schedule. In compliance with the pandemic guidelines, all events during the doubleheader weekend will be run without spectators.  ALL-TIME WINS LEADEROf NASCAR’s premier series’ 84 trips to the 2.5-mile tri-oval, Chevrolet leads all manufacturers with a total of 32 all-time wins. NASCAR Hall of Famer and career Chevrolet driver Jeff Gordon leads the way in wins at Pocono Raceway with six victories (1996, 1997, 1998, 2007, 2011 and 2012). Two Team Chevy drivers are in the record books as multiple race winners, including Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1 1LE, and Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1 1LE, both with three career wins at the track.  BOWTIE BULLETS·       Of the NASCAR Cup Series’ 84 races at the ‘Tricky Triangle’, Chevrolet has recorded 168 top-five’s, 367 top-10’s, and 7,180 laps led. 
·       Career Chevrolet driver Jeff Gordon leads the series in laps led at Pocono Raceway with 1,040 laps in 47-career starts. Of active drivers, Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1 1LE, has recorded the most laps led with a total of 743 laps in 36 starts. Of other lap leader statistics, Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1 1LE, holds the record for the most laps led in a single NCS race at the track with 175 of 200 laps (August ’07). ·       A Chevrolet has led the field to the green from the pole position 34 times, more than any other manufacturer. The most recent Chevy pole winner at Pocono is William Byron, No. 24 Axalta Camaro ZL1 (June ‘19). 
·       Chevrolet team Hendrick Motorsports has the most wins at Pocono of any team with 17 trips to victory lane: Jeff Gordon (six), Tim Richmond (three), Jimmie Johnson (three), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (two), Kasey Kahne (one), Geoff Bodine (one) and Terry Labonte (one). ·       Of active drivers, Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1 1LE, leads the way in runner-up finishes with five and top-five finishes with 14 at the track. In other top-finishing statistics of note, Jimmie Johnson and Kurt Busch lead all active NCS drivers in top-10 finishes with 20 each in their careers. ·       With 13 races in the books thus far, Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 1LE, leads all NCS drivers in an Average Running Position of 8.2, as well as topping the Fastest Laps Run list with 317. Following the GEICO 500 at Talladega, Elliott broke his longest career streak for races led (eight).  COMING TO THE GREENThe race weekend format continues on with no practice or qualifying. The starting lineup for Saturday’s Pocono Organics 325 in Partnership with Rodale Institute will be set by virtue of owners points and a random draw. Here are Team Chevy’s top-20 starters: 5th      Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 1LE7th      Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1 1LE10th    Alex Bowman, No. 88 ChevyGoods.com Camaro ZL1 1LE12th    Jimmie Johnson, No 48 Ally Camaro ZL1 1LE14th    Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Kroger Camaro ZL1 1LE15th    Tyler Reddick, No. 8 Caterpillar Camaro ZL1 1LE16th    William Byron, No. 24 Axalta Camaro ZL1 1LE17th    Austin Dillon, No. 3 American Ethanol Camaro ZL1 1LE The starting lineup for Sunday’s Pocono 350 will be set by the finishing order of Saturday’s event, with an inversion of the top-20 finishers.  TUNE-INFOX will telecast the 130-lap, 325-mile Pocono Organics 325 in Partnership with Rodale Institute live at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, June 27th. FS1 will telecast the 140-lap, 350-mile Pocono 350 live at 4:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, June 28th. Live coverage can also be found on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. QUOTABLE QUOTES:CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 4th IN STANDINGS“So far, our prep hasn’t been any different for this weekend’s doubleheader. We ultimately want to run one car the whole weekend. I think keeping that in mind during the race on Saturday, but at the same time I don’t know that you are really going to approach it much different. You always want to try and finish, and finish toward the front, so I don’t think that is going to change. I do think track position is going to be really important with the shorter races, though, especially lining yourself up for the last stage in each event because it is going to be so short. It’s going to be hard to make up a lot of ground in a hurry.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 CHEVYGOODS.COM CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 8th IN STANDINGSBOWMAN’S THOUGHTS ON POCONO: “Pocono is a really fun track. It is one of my favorite tracks we go to. We are typically really fast here. This track is an interesting track because there is a big compromise in all three corners. It is definitely one of the more technical places that we go to.”
BOWMAN’S THOUGHTS ON PASSING AT POCONO:“Pocono is a tough place to pass cars. One of the keys is to qualify decent, but since we aren’t qualifying, we need to hope we get a good draw. The track is really a one groove track and since it doesn’t widen out a lot, it is tough to get by cars. Hendrick Motorsports is building some fast cars right now and I know when we go to Pocono this weekend, that is what we will have.”
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 14th IN STANDINGSBYRON ON THE POCONO DOUBLE HEADER:“I think overall it’s going to be a fun weekend. I really enjoy racing at Pocono. I think it’s one of those racetracks we go to that’s cool to race at, but is also really tough to get around. The restarts are really difficult and usually pretty treacherous. It’s important to have good, clean and consistent restarts there. You also need a good long run car that turns well to make speed. Now add in back-to-back races there, I’m looking forward to it. It’s going to bring a new challenge and I think we’re up for it. We’ve ran well at Pocono in the past so this is a chance for us to really capitalize.”
BYRON ON IF A GOOD CAR AT POCONO IS SETUP TO RUN BETTER IN ONE CORNER OR CONSISTENT IN ALL THREE:“I think there’s still some truth to when people say you need to have your car setup better in one corner than the others at Pocono Raceway. However, I honestly think nowadays with the way engineering is, you have to figure out how to make it work in all three corners pretty well more than you use to. You have to be close to exceptional in all three turns to be competitive, but I think Turn 3 is the most important, personally. The way that corner is and how difficult it is for the majority of the field, you want to be better there than everyone else. I always look at racetracks and try to see where the majority of the field will be weak and usually the best cars throughout the race excel in those areas of weakness. With that being said, I think the saying still holds true today with the three corners and having to be good at one end over another.” TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 CATERPILLAR CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 16th IN STANDINGS“The toughest thing to overcome at Pocono Raceway has got the be the dirty air. I’ve gotten in these Cup cars a few times on 1.5-mile tracks, and we ran a similar aero package in our Xfinity cars at Pocono a couple of years ago, and the draft is a huge part of your handling. Managing your track position to avoid as much dirty air as possible is going to be very important. If we’re entering that weekend on a draw, that draw could be the very thing that dictates the first half of the Saturday race and how you’ll need to go about getting track position. With the track being so flat, it’s also important to keep the front of the car rotating through all three corners, which is a challenge since you get tighter the longer we run. With this package, that’s going to get enhanced the longer we are in dirty air. It’s going to be a dogfight on the restarts because of how valuable the air is.”
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 AMERICAN ETHANOL CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 18th IN STANDINGSTALK ABOUT POCONO RACEWAY. IT’S AN INTERESTINGLY-SHAPED TRACK.“Pocono is a fun, fast track and I feel like we’ve been able to build a good notebook there so I’m excited to get there this weekend for a double-header. Good finishes will be important for us and the points battle following Talladega. At Pocono Raceway, speed is definitely carried through turn two and through three to the start-finish line. I think those are the most important corners. Of course, every corner is important, but turns two and three are a little bit more important because it’s the flat end of the track.” RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 KROGER CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 20th IN STANDINGS “Coming off of a really strong weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, I’m looking forward to the doubleheader at Pocono this weekend. The doubleheader is obviously going to create its own set of unique challenges. The races are shorter, and you could hit on something during the race on Saturday that could really help you on Sunday. We have definitely shown a lot of speed at the big tracks so far this season, and while Pocono Raceway has been a struggle for me in the past, I think Brian Pattie has hit on some things that will give us a strong run Saturday and Sunday in our No. 47 Kroger Camaro ZL1 1LE.” RYAN PREECE, NO. 37 P&G CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 29th IN STANDINGS“I really like the fact that Pocono Raceway is a doubleheader. I like racing twice in one weekend because of the opportunity it gives you to try something on Saturday and if that doesn’t work, you can readjust for Sunday. I think track position is huge at Pocono and being able to have clean air is a big advantage as well. It’s truly a ‘Tricky Triangle’ with the different turns and straightaways. We’ve got a new paint scheme with our partners at P&G this weekend, and I encourage our fans to go to pg.com/TakeOnRace for more information.”

June 25, 2020

Matt DiBenedetto and the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane team are headed to Pocono Raceway this weekend for a rare Cup Series double-header. They will run the Pocono Organics 325 on Saturday afternoon then return Sunday for the Pocono 350. Both races will be full points-paying events.

DiBenedetto has 10 career starts at Pocono but will be making his first appearance there in the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Mustang.

“Pocono used to be one of my favorite tracks,” he said. “It’s so unique, and we used to shift gears every lap.”

These days, he said, things are different with the new handling package and its lower horsepower requirement.

“Now you get everything you can get on the restarts,” he said. “You go banzai for the first few turns, then everything single-files out.”

He said that when you’re running anywhere other than in the lead, it’s a struggle, aerodynamically speaking.
 
“You battle dirty air more at Pocono than at any other track except Indianapolis,” he said.

“You have to really attack the restarts. Track position means everything. 
 
“That puts a lot of pressure on me and on the crew to execute on the pit stops and restarts.”
 
Pocono, with its relatively low banking and long distance (2.5 miles), offers opportunities for fuel-mileage strategies, and the Wood Brothers team historically has been adept at taking advantage of those situations.
 
DiBenedetto, although a newcomer to the team, is well aware of the possibilities Pocono presents.
  
“The track is so big and so long that you can make a green-flag pit stop and not lose a lap,” he said. “Even if the caution comes out, you can stay out and gain track position.
 
“And the crew can crunch the numbers and treat the races there like a road course.”
 
He doesn’t expect the shorter length of the races this weekend will change how teams plan their pit stops.

 “I think the strategies will be the same,” he said.
 
And DiBenedetto said running two Pocono races in two days won’t be too physically taxing.
 
“That part will be fun,” he said. “The races aren’t super long. I should be able to recover physically and get rehydrated.”
 
The real test, he said, will be for the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team, which has to take the Mustang they race on Saturday and in a short time prepare in for Sunday’s race.

“That part will be a good test for our team,” he said.

There will be no practice or qualifying for either race.
 
The Pocono Organics 325 is set to start just after 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, with TV coverage on FOX. Sunday’s Pocono 350 is scheduled to get the green flag at 4 p.m. on Sunday with TV coverage on FOX Sports 1.
 

• Emerging talents Jacob Abel, Dakota Dickerson, Taylor Hagler and Karl Wittmer work to accelerate their careers with experience behind the wheel of the Acura NSX GT3 Evo
• Inaugural GT3 Academy event combined on- and off-track instruction at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta
• Race winners and NSX GT3 Race veterans Dane Cameron and Ryan Eversley provided one-on-one coaching for the candidates

Atlanta, GA (June 25, 2020) – A quartet of promising racers became the first graduates of the Honda Performance Development GT3 Driver Academy earlier this week, as HPD’s program to assist young drivers accelerate their careers held its inaugural session at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

The four members of the first GT3 Academy class all were selected for the racing career promise and included Taylor Hagler, Jacob Abel, Karl Wittmer and Dakota Dickerson.  All arrived Sunday for an orientation session with the Acura NSX GT3 Evo they would pilot during the next two days. The car, prepped and crewed by the 2019 SRO World Challenge GT America Championship-winning Racers Edge Motorsports team, proved to be an ideal classroom for the challenging Road Atlanta circuit.

Intermittent thunderstorms shuffled the planned schedule for the inaugural HPD GT3 Academy event at Road Atlanta, but the racer/students still each ran 60-plus laps over two days and worked through the full curricula that included one-on-one coaching and instruction. The first group meeting occurred online Thursday evening with Acura’s social media staff and agency offering best practices on digital engagement with fans, teams, and large OEMs.

Taylor Hagler, who drives a Honda Civic Type R TCR in the Michelin Pilot Challenge noted, “I had a pretty steep learning curve, but thanks to the pre-track briefings, I felt right at home once I got into the cockpit. The NSX GT3 Evo was amazing, and I’m still processing everything I learned in the last two days. I can’t wait for the next event at Mid-Ohio!”

The Road Atlanta program included on-track coaching sessions in the championship winning from NSX GT3 Evo race winners Ryan Eversley and Dane Cameron, as well as off-track instruction relating to effective communication with team personnel and engineers, in addition to driver marketing insights and sponsor searches. As a testament to the drivers’ quick learning, the original target lap set for the drivers by Dane had to be reset with an even faster base lap early on the second day.

“The first event of the GT3 Academy went flawlessly,” commented F3 Americas race winner Jacob Abel. “The NSX GT3 car was awesome, and having very limited experience in sports cars prior to this opportunity, I was concerned about adapting. However, Ryan, Dane, and everyone at Racers Edge Motorsports made the transition seamless. I’m looking forward to taking what we learned the past couple of days and building on it at Mid-Ohio next month!”

After each on-track session, the drivers immediately reviewed lap data and in-car video with an instructor, while drivers not on track would pair with another instructor at a location around the track. Acura Motorsports/HPD provided engineering support and feedback to increase driver experience in working with OEM engineering staff. With a stated goal of expanding diversity and access for North American racing talent, HPD is committed to bringing more opportunities like this for the future stars of motorsport.

Canadian racer Karl Wittmer said, “I have a lot of experience in Touring Cars, but even so, this was quite different. The pre-track briefings and coaching were really valuable, but the best part was definitely getting behind the wheel and getting faster and faster over the two days!”

The Mid-Ohio GT3 Academy event in July will feature two 2019 NSX GT3 Evo Champions in drivers Kyle Marcelli and Mario Farnbacher as instructors and will focus on communication and feedback with a racer’s team and engineering personnel. The remaining two GT3 Academy dates will be announced shortly with a planned bonus event later in the year.

Current F3 Americas Champion Dakota Dickerson concludes, “The first event of the HPD GT3 Drivers Academy was an incredible experience. Being able to work with so many experienced professionals including the Racers Edge Motorsports Team, Ryan Eversley, Dane Cameron, and all of the folks at Acura Motorsports helped accelerate my learning curve and gave me valuable insights. Plus, the Acura NSX GT3 EVO was a blast to drive!”

Next GT3 Academy Event: July 22-23 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course