Coil was part of 15 of Force’s 16 Funny Car championships and over 130 wins

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (March 11, 2024) – Legendary crew chief Austin Coil, who tuned John Force to 15 of a record 16 NHRA Funny Car championships and over 130 national event wins, will be among 10 individuals to be inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America’s Class of 2024 on Tuesday night in Daytona Beach, Fla. After leading Frank Hawley to two NHRA Funny Car championships in the “Chi-Town Hustler” in 1982 and 1983, Coil joined forces with the up-and-coming Force. And for more than three decades, they became the most dominant driver-crew chief combination in drag racing history. “It’s a real honor,” Coil said of his induction. “I really was surprised when I came to find out that I had gotten this award and I’m just tickled pink.” But Coil isn’t accepting his induction solely for himself. There was a huge family at JFR that helped him and Force achieve the success they attained over the decades.“You know, it takes a lot of people to make a car win a lot,” Coil said. “The driver is important and the crew chief is important, but everybody is important. “My co-crew chief throughout most of these wins was Bernie Fedderly and he seems to get so little credit. It’s a terrible shame because I guarantee if it wasn’t for Bernie’s help, a lot of those win lights wouldn’t have come on. … And there also was our car chief through most of those wins, Dean Antonelli.” While it was Force’s talent behind the wheel that led to the team’s wins and titles, it was Coil’s talent under the hood that laid the foundation for Force’s success. “He taught me so much not just about driving a car, but also about business,” Force said of Coil. “He rode in the truck with me in the early days. There were times when I couldn’t make payroll, he didn’t have any money either. But he’d help me make payroll to keep the team going. He was a special individual.” Unfortunately, the now 78-year-old Coil will be unable to attend the induction in-person (he has sent along a taped interview that will be played), but Force will humbly accept the honor on behalf of his longtime friend. “You know, they talk about the GOAT (Greatest of All Time). Coil is the real GOAT to me, and that’s what I’m going to say when I get up there,” Force said. “If anyone deserves to be called GOAT, it ain’t me, it’s him. He made John Force. I was there all along, I get all the credit, but it was his magic. “Coil was someone who made me believe. You only build that with trust in time. They may try to call me the GOAT, but if that’s true, Austin Coil is the guy that created the GOAT.” Along with Coil, nine other luminaries from the world of motorsports will also be inducted: six-time IndyCar champion Scott Dixon (Open Wheel); seven-time NASCAR Cup champion Jimmie Johnson (Stock Cars); late actor, IndyCar team co-owner and amateur racer Paul Newman (At Large); Jim Downing and Dr. Robert Hubbard (Technology); Bud Ekins (Motorcycles); John Surtees (Sports Cars); and Earl B. Gilmore and Phil Walters (aka “Ted Tappett”), both in the Historic category.

March 10, 2024

Harrison Burton and the Draiver-sponsored No. 21 Mustang Dark Horse finished 27^th in Sunday’s Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix Raceway.

Burton started the 500-kilometer, 312-lap race on the one-mile oval from 24^th place. He surged into the top 20 in the opening laps and was running 21^st when the race’s first caution flag flew at Lap Six.

The remainder of the first Stage ran without additional yellow flags, and Burton ended that 60-lap segment in 29^th place.

After a pit stop during the caution period for the end of the Stage, he returned to the track in 27^th place but struggled in the early portion of the second Stage and fell a lap down at Lap 109.

Burton made a green-flag pit stop at Lap 113 and ran better in the remaining laps of the second Stage, finishing that segment in 28^th place.

The third and final segment of the race saw several caution periods for incidents on the track, and Burton steered the Draiver Mustang Dark Horse around them to salvage a 27^th-place finish. 

Burton and the Wood Brothers team now turn their attention to next Sunday’s 500-lapper on the high-banked concrete, half-mile Bristol Motor Speedway.

 

(3/11/24 – Ben Deatherage) Chico, CA … The NARC 410 Sprint Car Series is excited to lift the lid on its 65th competitive season on Saturday, March 16th, at Silver Dollar Speedway! The historic Chico ¼-mile clay oval hosts the opening leg of the 2024 campaign and will have $10,000 on the line to the driver that bests the field of the Mini Gold Cup main event.

After last weekend’s rainout at Hanford, this marks the first of 25 premier racing events that will invade 17-different dirt oval tracks in California, Oregon, and Washington.

“This is going to be such a great event at this place, and it’s great to have NARC back to Chico,” commented Silver Dollar Speedway General Manager and Announcer Troy Hennig. “We’ve done some really wonderful things here over the offseason, and I think fans and drivers are going to like it, especially the brand-new catch fence.”

With defending champion Corey Day moving to the national touring High Limit Series and two-time champ Dominic Scelzi touring around the country this Spring, the battle for the prestigious NARC championship is expected to be a wide open and highly-contested affair.  The addition of several new up and coming drivers and teams promise to make it even more interesting.

Who to Watch

Justin Sanders, from Aromas, has amassed two of his series triumphs at Silver Dollar, achieved in 2019 and 2021. The Mittry Motorsports #2X pilot was runner-up at the April 30th show in 2022.  Both Chico events were rained out last season. Sanders, a 15-time winner on the NARC circuit, is expected to be a top contender for the NARC championship this season.

Justyn Cox made it to Silver Dollar Speedway just a handful of times in 2023 but did manage to put the Bates-Hamilton Racing #42X in the main events during the Gold Cup Race of Champions.  Cox posted 15 top ten NARC finishes last year including a huge victory at Tulare and will be a nightly force to be reckoned with.

Lemoore’s Cole Macedo and Bud Kaeding of Campbell are also expected to be battling for the title this season. Both have ample experience to make that happen. Macedo, who has won several races around the country, captured his first NARC feature event last season and Kaeding was the 2017 NARC series champion.  Kaeding has 21 series wins to his credit.

There’s no doubt that the biggest target on anyone’s back is Shane Golobic. The Fremont chauffeur, piloting the Matt Wood Racing #17W, is the most recent non-sanctioned 410 feature winner at SDS when he won the fair race on May 28th. The last time the facility was in action, he scored the victory on the final night of the 360 Fall Nationals last October.

Many young Central Valley competitors are expected to be in the field, including Lemoore’s Gauge Garcia, Dominic Gordon from Clovis, 2019 NARC champion D.J. Netto from Hanford, and Caeden Steele of Fresno.

Other competitors include Penngrove driver Chase Johnson, Oakley pilot Dylan Bloomfield, Jarrett Soares of Gilroy, Benicia’s Billy Aton, reigning Rookie of the Year Nick Parker from Tucson, Tim Kaeding of San Jose, Chico’s Michael Ing, Ashlyn Rodriguez of Wilton, Lincoln’s Tanner Carrick, Kaleb Montgomery of Templeton, Auburn’s Andy Forsberg, and many more.

Fan & Competitor Info

Silver Dollar Speedway is located at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds at 2357 Fair Street in Chico, California. Tickets can be purchased online at silverdollar.ticketspice.com. Tickets are $30.00 for Adults, Juniors (13-17)/Seniors (65+)/Military $25, and Kids (12 and Under) are FREE.

Pit gates open at 2:00 p.m.  Front gates open at 4:00 p.m., qualifying at 5:30 p.m. and racing by 6:30 p.m.

Additional information can be found at www.silverdollarspeedway.com.

The NARC racing format includes qualifying, four eight-lap heat races, an exciting six-lap trophy dash, a 12-lap last chance race, and a 30-lap main event.  The lone companion division for the evening is the Hobby Stock division in what is expected to be a fast paced show.

The NARC 410 Sprint Series presented by Hoosier Tires, is the leading 410 Sprint Car tour west of the Rocky Mountains. Since 1960, they have enthralled countless thousands of fans from tracks up and down the Pacific Coast. For more information, visit their website at www.narc410.com or social media pages.

The event at Mini Gold Cup at Silver Dollar Speedway can be viewed live on Floracing.com, along with every NARC 410 Sprint Car Series race.

ED NOTE:  Silver Dollar Speedway will host a 410 open show on Friday night, March 15th.

The NARC 410 Sprint Car Racing Series is also sponsored by Hoosier Racing Tires and Floracing.com. Associate and product award sponsors include Automotive Racing Products (ARP), Beacon Wealth Strategies, Brown & Miller Racing Solutions, Bullet Impressions, Diversified Machine Inc., Jim Allen Promotions, Kaeding Performance Center, Kimo’s Tropical Car Wash, KSE Racing Enterprises, Lifeline LLC, Maxim Racing Products, Mettec Titanium, Pyrotect, Saldana Racing Products, Schoenfeld Headers, Scelzi Enterprises, SCI Racing Products, Starr Property Management, System 1 Ignition, Ultra Lite Brakes, Williams Roofing, Wilwood Disc Brakes, and Winters Performance Products.

Mini Gold Cup Former Winners:

1987- Jac Haudenschild
1988- Jimmy Sills
1989- Jac Haudenschild
1990- Bobby Davis Jr.
1991- Brent Kaeding
1992- Steve Kinser
1993- Brent Kaeding
1994- Jimmy Sills
1995- Steve Kent
1996- Brent Kaeding
1997- Randy Tiner
1998- Paul McMahan
1999- Jason Meyers
2000- Eric Rossi
2001- Brent Kaeding
2002- Roger Crockett
2003- Tim Shaffer
2004- Willie Croft
2005- Tim Kaeding
2007- Tim Kaeding
2008- Jason Meyers
2009- Jason Meyers
2011- Craig Dollansky
2012- Donny Schatz
2013- Paul McMahan
2015- Donny Schatz
2016- Donny Schatz
2019- Carson Macedo

UPCOMING EVENTS:
March 23 – Merced Speedway – March Madness Sprint Car Show
April 6 – Stockton Dirt Track – Asparagus Cup with SCCT
April 13 – Kings Speedway (Hanford) – $11,000 to win Peter Murphy Classic
April 27 – Stockton Dirt Track – Salute to NARC champ Leroy Van Conett
May 4 – Thunderbowl Raceway (Tulare) – Chris & Brian Faria Memorial
May 11 – Antioch Speedway – Contra Costa County Clash

Prock was making his debut in NHRA Funny Car competition

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 10, 2024) – Austin Prock finished second in his NHRA Funny Car debut to pace John Force Racing Sunday in the season-opening 55th annual Amalie Oil Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway. Prock earned No. 1 qualifier honors Friday and held on to the top spot during Saturday’s qualifying. In Sunday’s eliminations, he got past his first three opponents before losing to No. 6 qualifier J.R. Todd in the final. Prock lost traction shortly after taking the green light and ran 5.360 seconds at 145.03 mph to Todd’s winning effort of 3.889 seconds at 329.10 mph. “There should be nothing to hang our heads about,” Prock said. “We all are competitors. It definitely is frustrating not to get the job done. We had an outstanding car all weekend. I mean, we were almost flawless. I’m just really proud of the team. “This thing was flying. And this place is not easy to drive a Funny Car on. I had my hands full for the weekend and I definitely have some learning to do, but I’m trying to catch on as quick as I can. And hopefully, Pomona (in two weeks) will treat us a little bit better.” Piloting the Cornwell Tools Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car, Prock is filling in for three-time NHRA Funny Car champion Robert Hight, who announced in mid-January that he was taking an indefinite leave of absence for personal medical reasons. Nicknamed “the Prock Rocket,” the Lansing, Mich. native spent the last three seasons driving a Top Fuel dragster for JFR. Now that he’s filling in for Hight, the younger Prock is also driving for his father Jimmy, who has been Hight’s long-time crew chief, while Austin’s older brother Thomas, is assistant crew chief to their father. After starting the day with a win over John Smith in the first round, the 28-year-old Prock (3.899 seconds at 332.43 mph) beat his boss, 16-time NHRA Funny Car champion John Force (3.913 seconds at 328.46 mph), owner of John Force Racing (JFR) and driver of the PEAK Antifreeze & Coolant Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car, in the second round. Prock (3.871 seconds at 334.40 mph) then topped Chad Green in the semifinals, setting up the deciding match-up with Todd. “For a kid being in a dragster for a couple of years, but he’s been around pressure his whole life.” John Force said of Prock. “Pressure never bothers him. With Funny Car, he’s picked up on it real quick and made a lot of test runs and we’re very proud of him. Robert (Hight) is very proud of him and his family. The kid didn’t get the win but he got the job done.” Force then added, “He (Prock) took me out so I want to win, of course, and I wanted to do well for PEAK and Chevrolet, but some days it doesn’t happen.” Prock leaves Gainesville second in the Funny Car standings, seven points behind race winner Todd (114 points to 106), while John Force is eighth. In Top Fuel, Brittany Force and her Monster Energy Chevrolet Top Fuel Dragster had an early exit in the first round, losing to Billy Torrence. Brittany Force lost traction shortly after passing the starting line in her match with Torrence, finishing with an effort of 6.116 seconds at 100.86 mph. Brittany leaves Gainesville 14th in the Top Fuel standings. “Brittany has got a whole new program over there with (David) Grubnic and (John) Collins and he’s working out good,” John Force said. “No, I can’t complain, it was a good kickoff for the season.” The next NHRA national event takes place in two weeks (March 21-24) with the Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip in Pomona, CA.

Austin Dillon and the No. 3 Morgan & Morgan Chevrolet Team Showcase Never-Give-Up Attitude During Challenging Race at Phoenix Raceway

32nd

30th

32nd

“The streak of bad luck continues for the No. 3 Morgan & Morgan Chevy team. We got in that first wreck. I had just got in the throttle and couldn’t slow up. I got the left-front pretty bad. From there, it was a struggle to make repairs and log laps for the rest of the day. It made for a long race. We’ll go to Bristol Motor Speedway and try to get back on track. We were heading in the right direction after Las Vegas Motor Speedway, so hopefully, Bristol will be good for us.” -Austin Dillon

Kyle Busch Fights Through Tough Day to Post 22nd-Place Finish at Phoenix Raceway in zone Chevrolet

22nd

31st

11th

“Crew chief Randall Burnett and all the guys on the zone team worked hard this weekend at Phoenix Raceway. They made a ton of changes from the practice session we had on Friday afternoon through the race. We made the car a little better about halfway through the race but we still lacked grip and we needed clean air to make the front end of the car rotate better. We’ll bounce back and be better but we have some work to do.”   -Kyle Busch

CHEVROLET IN NHRA2024 AMALIE MOTOR OIL NHRA GATORNATIONALS GAINESVILLE RACEWAY GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA TEAM CHEVY RACE REPORT MARCH 10, 2024 AUSTIN PROCK TAKES HIS CORNWELL TOOLS CHEVROLET CAMARO SS TO THE GATORNATIONALS FINALS IN HIS FIRST NHRA FUNNY CAR RACE

Notes:Austin Prock, in his first NHRA Funny Car event, took his Cornwell Tools Chevy Camaro SS Funny Car to the final round.Prock defeated John Smith in Round 1 with his pass of 4.357 seconds E.T. at 293.92 mph after Smith lost a cylinder at half-track.Defeated team owner and teammate John Force, driver of the PEAK Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car, in a great side-by-side drag race. Prock posted a run of 3.899-seconds E.T. at 332.43 mph to Force’s 3.913-second E.T 328.46 mphIn the semifinal, Prock defeated Chad Green to earn his spot in the final round with his run of 3.871 seconds at 334.40 mph to Green’s 4.053 seconds E.T. at 306.88 mph.Prock fell to JR Todd in the final round after smoking the tires right on the starting line to Todd’s 3.889 seconds E.T 329.10 mph.Austin Prock is first driver in the history of NHRA Funny Car to score the No. 1 qualifier award in their first event.Brittany Force, who went to the finals on Saturday’s CarQuest Top Fuel Callout race, was eliminated in Round 1 when she smoked the tires on the starting line against Billy Torrence.Erica Enders scored her 49th career national win with a final round win over Cristian Quadra with a run of 6.494 seconds E.T at 211.93 mph. Today’s win was her first Wally trophy from the NHRA Gatornationals.Jeff Strickland defeated Jay Storey to win in Stock Eliminator with his Chevrolet COPO Camaro on a 10.543-second E.T. run at 90.68 mph.After four qualifying sessions that opened the event weekend on Friday, Austin Prock, driver of the Cornwell Tools Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car, drove to his first No. 1 qualifier of NHRA Funny Car competition. Tuned by his father Jimmy and brother Thomas, Prock earned the top spot on the leaderboard with his Q2 pass of 3.820 seconds E.T. at 334.65 mph.Prock’s strong qualifying run Friday evening of Q2 set the Gainesville Raceway track record, rocketing him to his fourth career NHRA No. 1 qualifier (three previously came in Top Fuel).With her strong run and picking up where she left off last season, Enders took the No. 1 qualifying spot at Gainesville with her Q2 pass of 6.550 seconds E.T. at 207.88 mph. Enders’ No. 1 qualifier in Gainesville is her 35th of her career.

Quotes:AUSTIN PROCK, DRIVER OF THE CORNWELL TOOLS CHEVROLET CAMARO SS FUNNY CAR:“There should be nothing to hang our heads about. We all are competitors. It definitely is frustrating not to get the job done. We had an outstanding car all weekend. I mean, we were almost flawless. I’m just really proud of the team. Like I said, we obviously would have liked to get the job done. But everyone did a hell of a job this weekend. This thing was flying. And this place is not easy to drive a Funny Car on. I had my hands full for the weekend and I definitely have some learning to do, but I’m trying to catch on as quick as I can. And hopefully, Pomona will treat us a little bit better.” “I’m looking forward to Pomona. If we can compete like we did this weekend, we’ll have an honest shot at winning a handful of Wally’s this year, so I’m really proud and can’t wait to get to Pomona.” JOHN FORCE, DRIVER OF THE PEAK ANTIFREEZE & COOLANT CHEVROLET CAMARO SS FUNNY CAR:“For a kid being in a dragster for a couple of years, but he’s (Austin Prock) been around his whole life and the pressure. Pressure never bothers him. With Funny Car, he’s picked up on it real quick and made a lot of test runs but we’re very proud of him. Robert is very proud of him and his family. The kid didn’t get the win but he got the job done. He (Prock) took me out so I want to win, of course, and I wanted to do well for PEAK and Chevrolet, but somedays it doesn’t happen. Brittany (Force) has got a whole new program over there with (David) Grubnic and (John) Collins and he’s working out good. I can’t complain. It was a good kickoff for the season.”

Up Next:The NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series heads west next to In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip for the Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals, March 22-24, 2024. Friday’s qualifying airs Saturday at 9:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1 (FS1), with Saturday’s qualifying also airing on FS1 Sunday at 12:30 p.m. ET. Sunday’s eliminations wrap up the weekend, with finals airing at 7 p.m. ET. All sessions from Pomona, Calif. air with NHRA on FOX on FOX Sports 1 (FS1). Coverage streams live throughout the weekend on NHRA.tv, and is available via AppleTV, Android TV, and Roku devices.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 10, 2024) – Veteran racer and team owner Mark Pawuk raced his Empaco Dodge Drag Pak to the Flexjet Factory Stock Showdown Series winner’s circle today at the 55th annual NHRA Gatornationals. Pawuk took advantage of the three qualifying sessions to enter race day as the No. 3 qualifier and in the final round he defeated Stephen Bell, to also claim the Flexjet $1,000 bounty. His traditional looking Dodge Drag Pak was adorned with a special memorial to NHRA Hall of Famer and close friend Don Schumacher.
 
“Don and I were very close and I reached out to his stepdaughter Megan and asked if I could do a car in his memory,” said an emotional Pawuk in the staging lanes after his win. “We are going to celebrate him at a couple races and it’s just so cool. I’ve always wanted to win the Gatornationals. This has always been one of my most favorite races and to do it with my wife and daughter here and all the people helping me. Unfortunately, Kyle, my son had to leave to get a flight home, so he left right before the semis. It was not the same without him on the starting line. I’m glad I could do this for Don every round.”

Mark Pawuk and team in Flexjet Factory Stock Showdown Series winner’s circle at NHRA Gatornationals, photo credit Auto Imagery/Gary Nastase

Pawuk had to take on three tough Chevrolet COPO Camaro competitors every round except for a bye run in the semifinals. Throughout the day Pawuk was up to the task leaving the starting line on time and hitting his shift points.
 
“I drove good all day,” said Pawuk, who has won eight Wallys in his career including two in the Flexjet Factory Stock Showdown Series. “I was a tad late in the final. Look at the parity between the three classes. You had cars running 7.79 and a couple 7.80s. so all three brands, Dodge, Ford and Chevy all ran right together. I think they did a great job of standardizing everything and getting us all so we can be competitive again. I really want to thank all my sponsors. I want to thank Ohio CAT and CAT Reynolds storage and Mr. Heater, Heat Star and Summit came back on my car with Red Line Oil, Dodge and all my associates like VP Fuel, Mickey Thompson and the group at Diamond Pistons.”
 
In the first round Pawuk took on Lee Hartman and it was one of the best races of the day with both drivers leaving the starting line together and then swapping the lead down track. Hartman was ahead for the first 400 feet and then Pawuk moved around him to take the win. The elapsed times at the finish line favored Pawuk, 7.796 second to 7.839 seconds.
 
The quarterfinals featured Pawuk facing another Chevrolet COPO Camaro. Anthony Troyer, the No. 6 qualifier, gave Pawuk a run for the money. Pawuk was first off the line but Troyer moved to the lead before the Dodge Drag Paks power kicked in and advanced Pawuk to the semifinals. The margin of victory was approximately six feet at the finish line with Pawuk’s 7.784 second run at 176.51 mph getting the win light over Troyer’s slightly slower 7.800 second, 173.41 mph run.
 
“Everybody worked really hard on this program this winter, especially Mike Valeria, who’s been helping me the last couple of years,” said Pawuk. “He really spent a lot of time just finding every little nook and cranny and David Barton on our engine program has been great. I am driving better than I have in a few years. Hopefully, I can keep that up. It seems like when the car comes around, the driver does better too. I wish I was cutting 10s and 20s off the line but I’ve been cutting a lot of 30s and that’s a lot better in 70s and 80s. I’m very happy I really appreciate Flexjet being back out here and the support they give us.”
 
Prior to Pawuk’s run, David Janac and David Davies III squared off with Janac’s Ford Cobra Jet taking the win but after the finish line the Ford contacted the guard wall and spun down track in spectacular fashion. When the race car came to a stop Janac exited the vehicle under his own power, but he was unable to return to racing action affording Mark Pawuk a bye to the final round. Pawuk outran Anthony Troyer in the next pair to ultimately advance to the final round.
 
In the final Pawuk was facing his final Chevrolet COPO Camaro competitor of the day, Stephen Bell, who carried the Flexjet Bounty as well as the title of series runner-up in 2023. Pawuk was first off the line and Bell spun the tires allowing Pawuk to get a sizeable lead which he took the winner’s circle.

 Mark Pawuk takes on Stephen Bell in the Flexjet Factory Stock Showdown Series final round during the NHRA Gatornationals,
photo credit Auto Imagery/Gary Nastase

Heading to the NHRA Winternationals in two weeks, Pawuk will be the points leader and carry the $1,000 bounty. The veteran driver was excited about the possibility heading to the second national event of the year.
 
 
Flexjet Bounty Program
Gatornationals (Gainesville, FL)
A $1,000 bounty collected by Mark Pawuk, defeated Stephen Bell (Norwalk winner)
 
2024 Flexjet Factory Stock Showdown Results
Gainesville – Mark Pawuk, winner; Stephen Bell, runner-up
 
Flexjet Factory Stock Showdown Top Ten Points Standings:
1. Mark Pawuk                  116
2. Stephen Bell                  94
3. David Janac                  77
4. Doug Hamp                   73
5. Scott Libersher              55
6. Anthony Troyer             54
7. Mike Clark                     53
8. David Davies III             52
9. Jason Dietsch                33
T10. Tony Scott Jr.            32
T10. Ricky Hord                32
T10. Raymond Nash          32
 

GAINESVILLE, FLA. (March 10, 2024) — Dreams came true this weekend for driver Buddy Hull, who made his Funny Car debut at the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Florida. The weekend was full of firsts for Hull – the first time representing himself as a driver for Jim Dunn Racing, the first time competing at the Gatornationals and the first time going rounds in a Funny Car.
 
“As a competitor it’s a lifelong dream to race here,” said Hull, who was piloting the Vertex Roofers and General Contractors Funny Car. “It’s kind of like my first trip to Indy for the US Nationals. I feel the same way about the Gatornationals. I’ve always had serious FOMO about all the guys both in Top Fuel and Funny Car who race the Gatornationals every year. The only way that this weekend would have been better is if we had won a round or two for Big Jim and all our sponsors. It’s a big deal to me and my team to represent well.”

 Buddy Hull and the Vertex Roofers and General Contractors Funny Car roll to the Gatornationals starting line, photo credit Ron Lewis Photography

In his first few qualifying sessions as a Top Fuel-turned-Funny Car driver, Hull made several solid runs. His second qualifying pass was the best of the weekend, topping out at 304.87 MPH and a 4.116-second ET. Hull would have loved to have made a fourth qualifying pass, but the final round of qualifying on Saturday was rained out.
 
“To be honest with you, I feel more at home and more comfortable in that Funny Car after eight or nine runs than I ever did in my Top Fuel car. It’s where I belong,” said Hull. “I feel like I belong in this Funny Car, and specifically on this team. Which is why I know we’re going to continue to get better. I’m exactly where I should be.”
 
Going into race day on Sunday, Hull was competing from the No. 15 spot, racing against Bob Tasca III. Tasca III recently made headlines during the PRO Superstar Shootout in Bradenton for hitting a record speed of 341.68 MPH.
 
“We knew we were racing Bob Tasca, one of the most proven and best drivers out here,” said Hull. “But I treated it just like any other car and driver out there. I went through my standard procedures in the race car and was very focused today. Even more so than qualifying. During qualifying my focus is less on cutting the light, but on race day, I focused more on doing my job at the starting line. We both had a similar run, but Tasca just got the best of us this time. I look forward to racing him again in the future.”
 
During the run, Hull rattled the tires a bit and had to pedal his Vertex Funny Car. Despite the tough first round loss, Hull is confident that his team was able to capture a lot of data that will be useful for the rest of the season, particularly as they go into the Winternationals in Pomona in a couple of weeks.
 
“This whole weekend was a great experience, and I think the team is gelling together. Give us a couple of more races together and we’ll be a real solid unit,” said Hull. “It will be an orchestra and we’ll be playing the instruments beautifully together. It’s going to be a great season for us. I know we’re going to win some rounds this year. Everything that I do in the car is monitored, everything from the brake handle to the throttle pedal. We’re collecting data all the time, and I’m continuing to get better. Big Jim Dunn has plans on adjusting the car and we will continue to tune it up. He feels very confident in my abilities. I’ve shown him that I can handle the race car, and that makes us both super excited moving forward.”

 Funny Car driver Buddy Hull at NHRA Gatornationals, photo credit by Ron Lewis Photography

Hull and the Jim Dunn Racing team will be back in competition for the Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, California on March 21-24 at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip. There will be one qualifying session on Friday, March 22 and two qualifying sessions on Saturday, March 23. On Friday, Hull will be part of Funny Car 101 at the Nitro Alley Stage at 1:30pm PST. For tickets or more information on the NHRA Winternationals visit nhra.com.
 
Qualifying Results
Q1: 4.252 sec, No speed; Qual. 15
Q2: 4.116 sec, 304.87 mph; Qual. 14
Q3: 9.656 sec, 73.13 mph; Qual. 15
Bonus Points: 0
 
Race Results
First Round

Bob Tasca III, Cranston, RI, PPG Ford Mustang, (.089), 4.450, 290.01 mph def. Buddy Hull, Dallas, TX, Vertex Roofers and General Contractors Dodge Charger, (.071), 5.068, 185.03 mph def.

Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Funny Car Point Standings
 
1. J.R. Todd                 114
2. Austin Prock            106
3. Bob Tasca III             84
4. Chad Green             74
5. Ron Capps               59
6. Matt Hagan             55
7. John Force               52
8.Alexis DeJoria          43
9. Cruz Pedregon        33
T10. Terry Haddock     32
T10. Paul Lee               32
T10. Blake Alexander  32
T13. Buddy Hull          31
T13. Dan Wilkerson    31
T13. John Smith          31
 

NASCAR CUP SERIES PHOENIX RACEWAY SHRINERS CHILDREN’S 500 TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE REPORT MARCH 10, 2024

Chastain Leads Chevrolet With Top-10 Finish at Phoenix

·       Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain led Chevrolet to the finish in the NASCAR Cup Series’ Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix Raceway – driving his No. 1 Kubota Camaro ZL1 to a sixth-place finish.  ·       The result marks Chastain’s third top-10 finish of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season; and his fourth top-10 finish in 12 career NCS starts at Phoenix Raceway. ·       The 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season continues at Bristol Motor Speedway with the Food City 500 on Sunday, March 17, at 3:30 P.M. ET. Live coverage can be found on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE QUOTES:Ross Chastain, No. 1 Kubota Camaro ZL1Finished: 6th Overall, happy to get another top-10 finish this season? “Yeah, for sure. There was a lot of fuel saving there at the end. We were not a sixth-place car. We had a lot of promise yesterday in qualifying, but it didn’t transfer through. It was more of what we had in practice. We definitely have some work to do. We want more. I don’t like watching these guys drive by us. We’ll be back in the shop on Tuesday to go to work and get ready for Bristol (Motor Speedway).” It was a clean day for you on pit road.. “Yeah, it was really good. It’s refreshing. I didn’t give up too much time. The No. 5 (Kyle Larson) beat us because I was slow, but it was on purpose, so I was good giving up one spot and not one lap.” Austin Dillon, No. 3 Morgan & Morgan Camaro ZL1Finished: 32nd“The streak of bad luck continues for the No. 3 Morgan & Morgan Chevy team. We got in that first wreck. I had just got in the throttle and couldn’t slow up. I got the left-front pretty bad. We’ll go onto Bristol (Motor Speedway) and try to get back on track. We were heading in the right direction after Las Vegas (Motor Speedway), so hopefully Bristol will be good for us.” Corey LaJoie, No. 7 Group 1001 Camaro ZL1Sidelined by damage sustained in an accident in the final stage. Finished: 33rd“Hate our day in Phoenix ended the way it did getting caught up in the restart after we had the lucky dog. We worked to get the car driving better and in a pretty decent position, setting ourselves up for a good run to the finish. Unfortunately, the 22 (Joey Logano) got spun and had nowhere to go, which ended the day for our Group 1001 Chevy Camaro.”

 

GAINESVILLE, FL (March 10, 2024) — The NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series is a marathon not a sprint and Ocala, Florida-based driver and team owner Josh Hart is ready for a long run. The driver of the R+L Carriers Top Fuel dragster built on his testing sessions in the off-season and came into the NHRA Gatornationals looking to add another Wally to his collection. The 2021 Gatornationals winner and 2023 Pep Boys Allstar Callout winner made strong passes on Friday and Saturday to qualify in the 16-dragster field.
 
The class will be exceedingly tough with just about every competitor owning national event wins or world championships. Hart was the No. 12 qualifier and he was paired up with 8-time Top Fuel world champion Tony Schumacher in the first round. Hart was looking to avenge a tough first round loss to Schumacher in 2023. When the cars pulled up to the starting line Hart felt confident and ready to get his first win light of 2024. He grabbed a significant starting line advantage and never trailed in the race posting time of 3.750 seconds at 329.26 mph, nearly equaling his quickest run of qualifying.

 Josh Hart and R+L Carriers Top Fuel at 2024 NHRA Gatornationals, photo credit Auto Imagery/Gary Nastase

“We made big strides this weekend with the R+L Carriers Top Fuel dragster,” said Hart, a multi-time Top Fuel national event winner. “We started changing our program at the end of last year to get more in line with the rest of the class. They have probably 80 runs and we just passed 20 passes. We will get there. I am not worried.”
 
In the second round Hart drew No. 4 qualifier and 2024 Pep Boys Allstar Callout winner Antron Brown. Once again Hart was first off the starting line but his advantage disappeared when his Goodyear slicks overpowered the warming track surface as his 12,000-horsepowered Top Fuel dragster accelerated past the Christmas Tree. Hart’s time of 3.866 seconds was a valiant effort to muscle his race car to the finish line against Brown’s 3.730 second run.
 
“This weekend had a lot of positives,” said Hart. “In the first round that was a textbook run. It was perfectly straight and quick. The sun came out just before the second round and I had my hands full on that pass. I wasn’t going to give up. I feel like we are starting this season on the right foot and I am ready to get to the NHRA Winternationals.”
 
The championship contending team will be making a sponsor appearance for primary backer R+L Carriers before getting ready to head west for the NHRA Winternationals at In-N-Out Drag Strip at Pomona, March 21-24. Hart will head to California sitting No. 8 in the Mission Foods Drag Racing Series.
 
Qualifying Results
Q1: 3.788 sec, 326.44 mph; Qual. 6
Q2: 3.776 sec, 318.62 mph; Qual. 10
Q3: 9.417 sec, 61.09 mph; Qual. 11
Q4: 3.744 sec, 322.65 mph; Qual. 12
Bonus Points: 0
 
Race Results
First Round

Josh Hart, Ocala, Fla., R+L Carriers dragster, (.049) 3.750, 329.26 mph def. Tony Schumacher, Austin Tex., Leatherwood Distillery dragster, (.091) 4.024, 323.81 mph

Second Round

Antron Brown, Brownsburg, Ind., Matco dragster, (.058) 3.730, 332.84 mph def. Josh Hart, Ocala, Fla., R+L Carriers dragster, (.053) 3.866, 298.14 mph

Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Top Ten – Top Fuel
1. Shawn Langdon             125
2. Billy Torrence                  96
3. Steve Torrence               86
4. Mike Salinas                   60
5. Antron Brown                 76
6. Justin Ashley                   53
6. Doug Kalitta                    53
8. Josh Hart                        52
9. Tony Schumacher           34
10. Tony Stewart                32

CHEVROLET IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES FIRESTONE GRAND PRIX OF ST. PETERSBURG ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA TEAM CHEVY RACE REPORT MARCH 10, 2024  JOSEF NEWGARDEN AND TEAM PENSKE RACE TO THE 112TH WIN FOR CHEVROLET IN THE V6 ERA AT ST. PETERSBURG Newgarden’s Victory is the Ninth for Chevrolet on the Streets of St. Petersburg, with Team Chevy Sweeping First Through Fourth Positions Josef Newgarden and his No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet team captured Chevrolet’s 112th victory of the V6 era since 2012 in dominating fashion, Team Chevy’s ninth in St. Petersburg.Leading 92 of the 100 laps in St. Petersburg, Newgarden showcased Chevrolet’s performance both on and off-track, and earned his 30th career NTT INDYCAR SERIES victory.Joining Newgarden on the podium, Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward (second), and Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin (third), allowed for a sweep of the podium in St. Petersburg, as well as the top-four finishing positions with Team Penske’s Will Power (fourth).With the podium sweep, Chevrolet earned their 311th podium finish in the V6 era since 2012.Saturday’s qualifying session saw Newgarden topping the charts with his fastest lap of 59.5714 seconds, earning Chevrolet’s ninth NTT P1 Pole Award on the Streets of St. Petersburg since 2012, the 129th in the V6 era, and Newgarden’s 17th career pole award.Race day started with a 30-minute warm-up session, with Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin (fourth) and Josef Newgarden (fifth), Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward (seventh), and Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Romain Grosjean (ninth) representing Chevrolet in the top-10. ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (March 10, 2024) – Josef Newgarden, in his No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet, showcased a strong performance in the 20th Firestone Grand Prix of St. Peterburg, racing to Chevrolet’s 112th win in the 2.2-liter twin turbo direct injected V6 era since 2012, and ninth at St. Petersburg. After capturing the NTT P1 Pole Award Saturday for Team Penske and Team Chevy, Newgarden led 92 laps of the 100 laps in a relatively clean, green flag race to take the checkered flag in exciting fashion. “I had a lot of fun today. Roger (Penske) was telling me, ‘You have a big lead. You better hold on to it and not throw it into the wall.’ I think it’s so deserving for the work (Team Penske) put in. I know intimately what’s been put into this program in the offseason. It’s Team Chevy, everything they brought this weekend, and then our team specifically, we worked really hard to close the gap. We didn’t have the speed we needed on road and street courses last year and I think, at least on a consistency basis, and today we brought that speed. We had the execution, as always, exactly what you expect from Team Penske.” “Congratulations to Josef Newgarden and the No. 2 PPG Chevrolet team on their win in St. Petersburg, said Jim Campbell, General Motors U.S. Vice President of Performance and Motorsports. “We’re really proud of the teamwork by Team Penske in the offseason, along with our Chevrolet engineers. It’s great to see Chevrolet drivers Pato O’Ward from Arrow McLaren and Scott McLaughlin of Team Penske sweep the podium with Josef.”  Also showcasing his talent and the strength of the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet team, as well as teamwork with Chevrolet, Pato O’Ward joined Newgarden on the podium in St. Petersburg finishing second. “It’s always good to be here in St. Pete,” said O’Ward. “I think it’s a phenomenal place to start the season, and we’ve laid ourselves a pretty strong foundation for the rest of the year, so super stoked for that. Super proud of our friends at Team Chevy, Arrow McLaren. They went to work this offseason, and it’s been fantastic to see the gains we’ve made. We’re just going to keep on pushing.” “Team Penske were just really, really strong today,” continued O’Ward. “They were obviously the guys to beat. They ended first, third, and fourth. I’m happy that we could maintain ourselves there. I wouldn’t say it was the easiest of laps keeping (Scott) McLaughlin and (Will) Power behind me. It’s such a tough track to pass where I just knew if I didn’t make mistakes, I’d be alright.” Making moves as the laps wound down, Newgarden’s Team Penske teammate Scott McLaughlin showcased his race craft to navigate traffic, claiming the third step on the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg podium. With the sweep, Chevrolet now has 311 podium finishes in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES since 2012. “Great day for the DEX Imaging Chevy,” said McLaughlin. “We were really super strong, but I’m really proud of the whole team. The 2 getting the win (Josef Newgarden). Well done to those guys and girls on the team. And then you’ve got with us in third and (Will in) fourth. Me and Will (Power) were pretty bummed after qualifying yesterday. We really had cars to put in the Fast Six. Glad we were able to bring it up to the front and get both podiums. We’re getting close to one-two-three podium for the Penske team, so we’re strong for that.” “We asked a lot (from Chevrolet) from day one last year, and they’ve come back with something really, really strong,” continued McLaughlin. “Really proud of them. Proud to get a really strong result for them. I think it was one to four. Super strong. That’s great to work with a manufacturer who wants to listen to you and keep working, wants to keep developing, and that’s exactly what we need.” Adding to the strong performance in the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, Chevrolet finished with six cars in the top-10, including Will Power with Team Penske in fourth, Alexander Rossi with Arrow McLaren in eighth, and Rinus VeeKay with Ed Carpenter Racing (10th). The NTT INDYCAR SERIES next heads west to Thermal Club near Palm Springs, Calif. for the $1 Million Challenge March 22-24, 2024. A new and unique non-championship points All-Star event, the race airs live on NBC Sunday at 12:30 p.m. ET.

TEAM CHEVY TOP-10 RACE RESULTS:1st      Josef Newgarden2nd    Pato O’Ward3rd     Scott McLaughlin4th     Will Power8th     Alexander Rossi10th   Rinus VeeKayWHAT THEY’RE SAYING (Quotes):Will Power, No. 12 Chevrolet at Team Penske:HOW IS IT TO START THE SEASON KNOWING YOUR TEAM COMES OUT OF THE GATE STRONG?“We kind of expected it. Lot of improvements in the offseason, the Chevy engine is really good and there was a lot of work also on the car. So, it was fun at the end and obviously we could push him. A lot of fuel save there at the beginning and the yellow fell at an unfortunate time which made it a bit more of a follow the leader sort of race. If it was extended by 10 laps like it used to be, then you would have a very big fuel window for the race.” WAS FUEL SAVE ONE OF THE BIGGEST COMPONENTS FOR YOU DURING THAT RACE?“Yeah, massively. Like as soon as I got in line at the start, I just tuned it down and sat back and saved fuel. I was just expecting it to go long and that was the only way you were going to pass, After about 10 laps you are like, ‘come on, something happen’. It’s good stuff and it’s a competitive field, no one makes mistakes, it’s a competitive field, and it’s an ultra-competitive situation and hard to pass.” Callum Ilott, No. 6 Chevrolet at Arrow McLaren:“It wasn’t a bad race. Starting 16th, we chipped away a little bit. I think we struggled a little bit in the first stint, everyone was quite processional, but we had a good car. Once we put the Firestone Alternate tires on, we definitely had a bit more pace and it was a shame we couldn’t quite unlock it with the way traffic worked out. Then we tried to gamble pitting earlier for the final stint, and it almost paid off but didn’t quite get through. There was a lot of fuel save at the end. Arrow McLaren did a great job with the car; it was fast.” “Honestly, it’s a shame we didn’t get a bit more out of it. Pato in P2 and Alexander in P8, so I think it was good that we could all move forward, and the No. 6 NTT DATA Arrow McLaren Chevrolet was quick this weekend and we can all come away happy with some points.” Alexander Rossi, No. 7 Chevrolet at Arrow McLaren:“It’s always going to be very hard from 15th, but I think the team did a great job maximizing what we could. We knew we had a fast car all weekend, and that was the case in the race. We had a good strategy, great pit stops. That’s really all you can do on days like this, kind of damage control. Obviously, it was a good day for the team with Pato on the podium, and we will learn from our mistakes this weekend and look forward to the next one.” Christian Rasmussen, No. 20 Chevrolet at Ed Carpenter Racing:“First NTT INDYCAR SERIES race under my belt. It was a long race, definitely one of harder ones I have done in my career I will say! With this being the first race of the season, I think it’s known as being one of the hardest for everyone. I hung in there, it was tough with the clutch issues but we just tried to do the best we could. We went a lap down but tried to maximize it, I worked hard to be the first car one lap down. Obviously not where we want to be, but considering the issues we worked through, it’s an okay result!” Rinus VeeKay, No. 21 Chevrolet at Ed Carpenter Racing:“I am pretty happy with today’s race, but it is a bit unfortunate to finish lower than where to started! We fought hard out there, and I think I drove a smart race. I am pretty happy with everything, with my car and the performance. Unfortunately, we couldn’t really hang on with the green Firestone Firehawks and had quite a bit of drop off at the end. We have some work to do, but we got a top-10 to start the season! It was tough to get top-10s last year and now we’ve started 2024 with one! A good start to the year, I am proud of my guys. Ready to go win a million dollars at The Thermal Club in a few weeks!” Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 Chevrolet at AJ Foyt Racing:“Obviously a fantastic race day for us. You know, this event was a little bit more of a qualifying race than it was anything else and starting 14th, we avoided some good carnage early, and moved up a couple of positions. First stop, there was a little bit of a hiccup, lost a couple there, but we made them back. And we just kind of did our own thing. We were in a big fuel save like everybody else. You know, we made it work. We stayed clean. We didn’t touch another car. We didn’t touch the walls all day. And we had a really clean green flag stop. Had a solid restart and we picked up a couple more positions. It was solid way to start the season with the Sexton Properties Chevrolet!” Sting Ray Robb, No. 41 Chevrolet at AJ Foyt Racing:“It was a tough day today. The start was not great, but once we settled in, I think that we had better pace than the guys in front of us. And on the first pitstop we made up a couple of spots, which was really good by the crew. We went on a different strategy from the guys in front of us so I think that we were just going to keep moving forward. After the restart, we gained a position, but then we had a brake failure. It’s something I think we’ve been struggling with through the year so far, just getting the brakes too hot. So it’s something to look at. I think that’ll be a little project that we get to do before the next race but for the most part, I think that we’re still heads up. We have a good car and I think that Santino’s performance today showed that we’re capable of doing a lot better than what we did and we’re looking forward to the next one with the Pray.com Chevrolet.” Romain Grosjean, No. 77 Chevrolet at Juncos Hollinger Racing:“First race of the season done. I think there’s a lot of positives from the weekend. Our race pace was really strong, so I’m excited about it. We had to retire the car for a mechanical issue, but really good job from all the team, Chevy, everyone, and I’m excited for the future.” Agustin Canapino, No. 78 Chevrolet at Juncos Hollinger Racing:“We finished in St. Pete P18. We were battling for top-14, top-15, but unfortunately I made a mistake trying to overtake. I went wide a little bit, and I lost four or five positions. It’s part of the racing, but the good thing is we were competitive. We were on a good pace. We need to continue our improvement with pit stops, the fuel numbers, everything with the team. We’re still new, still growing, but I’m happy with our pace this weekend. It’s a good way to start, we’ll take some points, and focus on the next.”

JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO 2 PPG TEAM PENSKE – Winner Press Conference Transcript:THE MODERATOR: Joined by Josef Newgarden, now a three-time winner here on the streets of St. Petersburg who led 92 of the 100 laps driving the No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet, giving Roger Penske, Team Penske, their 12th win here on the streets of St. Pete; 30th career win, as mentioned, third here. 30 by the way, you break a tie with the great Rick Mears, the longtime Penske legend for 13th place all time, 53rd career podium for Josef now. You’ve made it look easy but I know it wasn’t. JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It never is. It did feel — I don’t want to say it felt easy. It felt comfortable today. Really, really comfortable. I had a lot of fun. I sort of told myself before going into the race, I sort of want to let it be, not overstep, and then early on in the race, I’m like, I’m going. I’m not here to wait around. We’re going to win this race. Just really thankful to the team for the effort they’ve put in all year. I should say the entire off-season to get to this point. It’s been a big process for us to try and come back and be better in areas that we were weak last year, and I touched on it earlier in the weekend, but Chevrolet has done a tremendous job for us. They’re a huge part of the equation.  They’re a big lift for us coming into this weekend, and I think on the team side, we’ve also lifted our game and cleaned up a lot of areas where we were maybe not at the level we needed to be. It all just came together today. Great start of the year. Obviously we had strength because looking at my teammates, we’re sitting first, third and fourth. I think that’s really encouraging for the rest of the season. It doesn’t tell the whole picture, but I think it’s encouraging. Q. There was a lot of talk today of how you turned off social media and you’ve been prepping really hard for this year. I know it’s the first race of the year, but do you consider this a championship or season or a busted season if you don’t win the championship?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I’ve had to let go of that mentality. I think it’s too — there’s no sustainability in my perfection. I’m definitely a perfectionist. I’m an introvert, but I get hyper fixated on just trying to maximize everything. I think my mentality was in a lot of ways win or nothing all the way throughout my career. That’s just — even today it was creeping in. I’m like, we’re winning this race today or we’re not winning it. I was going to go for it or nothing. It is my mentality. But from a bigger picture standpoint, I just don’t think that’s sustainable. I’m not going away from my passion and my desire, but I’m trying to recenter my enjoyment in what I do. I enjoy working with a race team so much. It’s more than just driving the car really well on any given day. I mean, it is an entire process, stepping into a group with many different people coming together and trying to figure out a problem. That problem is different every single weekend, and it’s just so much fun to go through that with a team. We did that this weekend. It was a little different than what it was last year, and we found new solutions and we executed in the moment and made it happen on race day. I’m getting back to the basics of loving that. I really felt that today. I enjoyed driving. I really had a good time, and it all worked out, too, so that makes it a little bit more enjoyable. I think the centerment is where it needs to be. Q. Following up on that, I didn’t hear the pre-race interview, but I heard you said something to the effect of I’m enjoying my job once again. Last year did this feel like work? Did you hate this job for the first time in your life? Have you ever felt that way before last year?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I mean, I don’t want to dive into it too aggressively, but yeah, it did start becoming a job. This is how I make my living, and it’s how I provide for my family, and I’m showing up — it’s not a grueling job. Anyone would be lucky to be in the position that I’m in. But if you’re fortunate enough to be here and do this, you should enjoy it. It’s a very difficult job at the end of the day, too, because it’s purely results based. It’s hard to be in this type of job or position and know that you’re either here or not here based on your results. You’re either winning or you don’t have your seat. That’s literally how it works. It’s kind of hard to find that enjoyment factor. I’d always had it. I’d learned how to thrive in the pressure and still enjoy the job, and I think it just slipped away at one point. I was buried with a lot of other things, and I just tried to simplify my life and get back to happiness, and I think I’ve done that in a lot of ways. I feel really happy. I feel motivated. I’m enjoying showing up and seeing everybody with smiling faces, and let’s do our best. I hope we can win today, I think we can, and if we don’t, that’s all right, we’ll figure it out the next time. I’m kind of getting back to that point. Q. When Roger interrupted you, you told him you had been thinking of him at the end of the race and keeping it together like Roger had told you, and he said if you had a big lead you’d better hold it and not throw it into the wall. Had he said that to you before or was that just in jest?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: We joke. It’s great to have these little intimate moments with RP. Look, you just can’t find anybody more sincere and passionate and competitive than Roger. Of course, he wants us to just go out there and crush it and be out front and leading and doing it in the right way, and when you’re doing a great job, he wants you to not throw it away, and that seems reasonable. He’s paying us to do that. But yeah, he brought that up this weekend. I think there was another moment he was referencing that we were talking about, and we had joked back, we were like, look, you get us in the lead and we’ve got a big lead, we’ll hold on to it, we’ll do our job for you. I was thinking about that the entire last stint, I’ve got a nice lead and I was still pushing, he could be really stupid and throw this thing in the wall and I could only imagine the look on Roger’s face if I did that. It was just a funny moment the last 10 laps in the car. Q. The few laps that you effectively lost the lead in the race, were you 100 percent confident that you could retake the lead? Did you know it was a matter of time to get that back?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: No, definitely not. But that’s kind of what I was talking about earlier. I went into the race comfortable with the fact that let’s just have a good day. If we don’t win, that’s not the end all, be all. Let’s just get good points. As soon as we restarted, I’m like, I’m going past these guys. I don’t care if I wreck it. I’m just going to the front. I felt that today. So it was fun to have the killer mentality. I think you’ve got to have that in a lot of ways in any race that you’re in. It’s hard to survive without it. But no, I had no idea that we were just going to be able to get back out front and win.But what was really obvious to me was that we had a strong car. Just all day, it made my job so much easier. It was really easy to drive today as far as the pace out of the car and getting consistency. I felt comfortable all day long, and it makes a big difference when you have a car like that. Q. If I remember right, I feel like you’ve said that line of I’ve got to get back to loving this before, so that would insinuate that you’ve fallen in and out of love with the sport multiple times. What do you feel like is different about this time and the process that you’ve gone through this off-season and the mental state that you’re in starting the year?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Well, it’s always a combination of a lot of things, but I think just simply put, it’s just nice to — it’s just nice to feel positive. I’m just really encouraged about everything going on in life, and I’m not overloaded. I think I overloaded myself in the past, and that comes from my desire to just excel. I want to exceed at everything that I do and excel at it. Sometimes I’ve just got to pare it back and say, look, you just can’t do everything. I’m not saying that I was doing a great job at everything, but I think I was trying to, and I’ve had to tell myself, it’s all right, it’s not going to be perfect. You’ve got to remove that expectation. Simply put, I just wanted to be happier again being at the track and enjoying the job and the process, and I do. I’ve let go of some of the perfectionism. It’s in there. It’s never going to fully go away. I just want to be the best you can be every single year. I look at 17 races and I go, how do we win 17 races. You lose one race and you already are you’re mourning the one race you lost. You just can’t live on that hill for that long. It gets you a little bit lonely. So I’m enjoying it more, simply put. There’s not much more behind it than that. Q. Your teammates finished third and fourth for three Penske drivers in the top four today. I know with as fierce as your desire is to win this championship, I imagine — and I think you’ve told us that it was a little tough when Will goes and wins a championship in ’22 and Scott leads the team in 2023, finishing third. What is that teammate chemistry like in Team Penske with all three of you guys performing so well and also wanting fiercely to finish on top of each other?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I think it’s good. We obviously have strong cars across the board. We’re all capable of producing. That’s how I would want it. I would want the best teammates that I can possibly have. I don’t want people that are running a — a B team and a C team next to me. I want three A teams so that you can lean on the best. Last year almost didn’t bug me at all just because it was so disastrous to end the year that it almost became comical by the time we got done with Laguna. There wasn’t much you could read into it. It was like, what am I going to do here. We just had like calamity after calamity, and it wasn’t really anybody’s fault. We got wiped out on two of the four final races. That stuff doesn’t bug me. It’s more — I guess I’m speaking to the teammate side. That stuff doesn’t bug me. It’s more the internal stuff that bugs me. When we don’t reach our potential as a group, specifically on the 2 car side, that’s what bugs me the most. It’s just an internal thing. It’s never really an external thing that I’m looking at. I’m glad I have really good teammates next to me. I want that. I want the best of the best. Their success, which is great for the team, if that happens and it’s at the detriment of us, I’m never mad about that. I’m more so internally mad that we didn’t reach our potential, and that’s typically what is coming out for me when you see that. Q. I know Roger has this firm line between Team Penske and Penske Entertainment, but he sits at the middle of both of those, and this has been a tough weekend for Penske Entertainment and Roger in particular. Did it mean anything more to be able to deliver a win for him and Team Penske today?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Well, I think they’re very separate in a lot of respects. I think from a team standpoint, we’re related. This was a great weekend. Roger is still a racer. We work hard every year to perform the best we can. He wants to win every race, too. Of course he does. That’s why we show up every weekend. There’s nothing changing there. I think we’re super proud and happy from that standpoint. When it comes to the series, I would let Roger, the executives, touch on that more than me, but with Penske Entertainment, I’ve seen a ton of negative noise, and I get it. Everyone wants to jump on anything. But everything I experienced this weekend was pretty incredible. I know it’s subjective, but I’m trying to be sort of fair about this. The crowd was amazing. I’ve seen more people here that I’ve never seen at an INDYCAR races. I saw more specific current INDYCAR team jerseys. I saw more kids. I saw people referencing in TV shows. I saw people that were just fans of all sorts of drivers or all sorts of manufacturers. It looked really good to me. I don’t know what it looked like for everybody else, but from my seat it looked amazing. I feel the momentum, I feel the growth, and I know there’s a lot more coming throughout this year, and I know the product is always going to speak for itself. I don’t know how you can beat the INDYCAR racing product. It’s just the best on the planet. As long as we don’t mess that up in some way, we keep adding these other layers, we just can’t take — we all want to take 100 steps forward right now, and it’s really difficult to do that, and I think you’ve got to give these guys a little bit of room to continue to learn and build and move forward, and I think they’re doing that. They’re smart enough to not make a mistake twice. Of course they’re going to make mistakes, but I don’t think you’re going to see them repeat it. They will find a good formula, and I believe they’re doing that. Let’s keep going on this year and enjoy the positive energy that’s happening because I felt it all weekend. I’m pretty excited for this entire year after experiencing it. Q. You were on the pole, and you chose to start on blacks. Can you explain the reason for it? Also, so many on blacks for the start today. What was the reason do you think for that?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I mean, it was not an easy decision. I think it could have gone either way. Certainly at the end of the race, I wish I would have had new reds still. I think it ended up being the preferred tire as you built into the race. But we didn’t know that 100 percent. We were sort of guessing in a lot of ways coming out of warmup. It’s cooler conditions, and you’ve only got one run on a set of tires and you’re sort of guesstimating what you think the dropoff and grip level is going to be. We felt like the primary was a safer choice to start with, and we didn’t want to bank on using the red necessarily at the end. I think it was conservative to use it in the middle.It ended up working out for us. We had enough position at the end that we weren’t under threat, but if Scott was closer or one of these other cars at the end on green tires, we could have lost the race because of that because I think it was the preferred tire in the second and third stint. Now that we know that, we’re going to probably utilize that a little bit differently going forward. I know everybody is going to learn from it. Q. Josef, we had a lot of fuel saving going on today throughout the race. Wasn’t always the diciest of events. Usually when we have a ton of fuel saving we don’t have a winner just run off and hide at the end. Can you talk about that, and if you did decide it’s go time to tear away from Pato, or was the car just that good and it happened naturally?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I think the most enjoyable part about that last 20 laps was I never turned up. I was like, we’re hitting a number and the number is probably getting easier.We just never adjusted it. It was like, let’s just go. By go, I mean we’re just going to keep the same program. That was really encouraging. That’s what I spoke about earlier. My car was just so — it seemed simple today to drive it fast. It’s not always like that. Sometimes you can be really fast but you’re working overtime to produce the speed. I wasn’t working overtime today. I was working hard but just kind of standard hard. It was just really enjoyable to be able to feel that way. I just felt in control of things in a lot of respects. It’s not easy. There was definitely touch — at the end I think it was touch and go with the greens because they were the preferred tire for sure, but we just had enough positioning on the field that I feel like we were in a good spot and we could close it. Q. Been talking a lot about Chevrolet, rightfully so, just Molly whopped everybody today. You’ve come here for many season openers, and we always have that question at round one. Is it going to be a Chevy year, a Honda year, who’s going to show what. Based on what you felt in past seasons, tell me about Chevy’s gains, what you felt behind the steering wheel.JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I think we had some deficits last year. There’s no doubt. You can’t hide from that. But we also had some tremendous strengths. We leaned on a huge win at the Indy 500, we were very strong on ovals. I think you’re seeing a good ebb and flow between the manufacturers, which you want to see, I think, as a competitor and as a fan. For us, we would love to have it easy, but we want a strong competition between the manufacturers, and I think you had that last year. Maybe we were a little bit weak in some parts that we needed to bring up, and I think today, as I assess the race and as I assess the weekend, I think you see a lot of parity. You look at what more — I would say there was more parity than last year here. I think Honda looked pretty strong at this event for the opener. I think this weekend we looked even in a lot of respects, but we certainly have strength on our side that we can lean on now. That’s great. That’s only going to be good for the year. Every track is going to be a little bit different. We’ve got to see. This is one example right now, one data point. Let’s keep going a couple more rounds. I’ve got to say, Chevrolet, they work hard every off-season. They worked really hard this off-season. We were hard on ourselves. It’s not just them. We had to really improve our side and the chassis, and we were hard on them, too. We said, we’ve got to make all of these things better, and they delivered in spades. You rarely give someone — you ask for the menu, and you don’t get the whole menu, and they somehow I feel like gave us the whole menu. It’s pretty cool. They did a great job, and it makes me very encouraged for 2024. Q. If I figure it out correctly, mathematically you were more than 90 percent leading the race —JOSEF NEWGARDEN: 92 out of 100. That checks to me, too. I agree with that. Just quick math, but it sounds right. Q. I figured out more than 90 percent. Nevertheless, before you come to a race circuit like here and also to Long Beach, I would say as a non-technician the unknown factor or the unknown point is the traffic situation. Can you simulate or can your team simulate the behavior of your car in traffic before you arrive at a street circuit like here and Long Beach and know what the car will behave like in traffic?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It’s a good question. I mean, we don’t simulate that a lot. I guess what we’re simulating and probably the positive about an INDYCAR is it’s not super affected by traffic. Of course you’re losing a bit of downforce, you’re losing a balance. The balance is shifting more rearward when you’re behind a car. But it’s minimal compared to other race cars. We work on just the overall balance of our car, and then we sort of have a rough idea of how much that’s going to shift within traffic. But we don’t practice it a ton. We’re just kind of practicing with single car running and accounting for what we think we’re going to lose in traffic. But again, the great thing about INDYCAR racing is you’re not really affected too dramatically. You can race people straight up and not lose a ton of grip. I think that’s the good thing about this place. The great thing also today is I didn’t have a lot of traffic. The way the yellows fell I never sort of ran into the back of the field, which was sorta easy for me to manage. Q. (No microphone.)JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, and we do. I think the tire was the bigger difference than anything, so you can’t rely on just last year’s data. We had to look at more historical stuff. But I think a lot of today was a mystery because of how different the tire was. It was a new challenge for everybody that we’re all kind of figuring out to start the year.

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN, NO. 3 DEX IMAGING TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET, and PATO O’WARD, NO. 5 ARROW MCLAREN CHEVROLET – Podium Press Conference Transcript:THE MODERATOR: Celebrating 20 years here for the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, wrapping up with today’s podium finishers, Josef Newgarden continues to celebrate in Victory Lane. He’ll join us momentarily. Pato O’Ward is also on his way.  Joined now by the third-place finishing driver Scott McLaughlin, driver of the No. 3 Dex Imaging Penske Chevrolet, 13th career podium, bouncing back from a 13th last year to come home third here this afternoon. Your thoughts on a hot day out there, not a lot of caution flags, very difficult to get caught up, but obviously a very nice afternoon for Team Penske and Chevrolet, as well. SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, really stoked. For us to start ninth and move our way through to third, for us, it’s a win in some ways. I tried to get Pato there, but I had Will sort of breathing down my neck, and it was sort of a championship game in some ways thinking of the points in some ways. You just take what you can get. It’s so tight this year in INDYCAR, so you just need to get what you can and get out of here. Really proud of the Dex Imaging Chevy, particularly Team Chevy. They’ve come with some goods this year and really worked with us over the off-season to be strong and to get four in the top 5 is huge, and yeah, pumped. THE MODERATOR: Think about the restart, I believe it was lap 72, you restarted fourth got around Herta to get to the podium position. Tell me about that pass a little bit. SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, I felt really strong into Turn 10 all day and I knew I had green tires so I had to make them work. Wish I could have got past him on the first lap. I got past him on the second restart lap and maybe then I could have attacked Pato a little bit better when the tires were a little bit fresher.But yeah, Colton made it hard, but that’s part of it, and just sort of threw the Dr. Divebomb cap on and just threw it in there. Yeah, it worked out good, and I was more pumped with my start. I think I made it four wide and got through it, so that was a blast. Honestly, I had so much fun out there today. It was just proper racing, thinking on your feet with fuel strategy and where you put the car and how aggressive you were, and that’s what INDYCAR is all about. There’s no prediction, it’s just a wild card, and I enjoy it. THE MODERATOR: Joined by Pato O’Ward who comes home second, driver of the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, 21st career podium in your young NTT INDYCAR Series career. Your thoughts on the day? PATO O’WARD: Yeah, really strong day for us today. I think it’s a very solid foundation to what is going to be a very tight, very competitive rest of the year. I think the Penskes were just too strong for us today. I think we were all kind of playing the fuel game a little bit, and got to give it to everybody at Chevrolet, my guys over at Arrow McLaren. We got down to work in the off-season and we’ve made some gains and really cool to see the top 4 was all Chevrolet. I’m pretty pleased to see that. Q. Scott, I don’t know how insulated you are from this, but Roger and Penske leadership have taken a beating this weekend from some other team owners. How important do you think it was for Penske to come out with one, three, four and show your dominance on the track?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Look, I think for Roger, Team Penske and the Penske Entertainment thing I think is very separate, and for him, he’s got to put those hats on and see the good of the sport. I think everyone from Ron Ruzewski and all those people are really proud of how we ran today. It was a lot of hard work. But look, I was trying very hard to get Pato there to make it a one-two for Penske. There’s a lot of people that come here from our leadership and our sponsors and whatnot, and you just want to do the best job you can for them. Look, that’s part of owning the series. You’re go going to cop left, right and center, people upset with your adjustments or what you want for the series. You’re never going to have it all fine and dandy. I think obviously Roger — I try and stay out of it and just drive the car. The more I keep coming in the podium and whatnot, it’s good job security for me, and that’s all I’m worried about. Q. Pato, you got off to a similar start last year, you were in this race and it started off a streak of nice finishes for you. How do you tail off from here and not have a repeat of last year?PATO O’WARD: Well, stay cool, I guess. That usually works out. It’s tough. It really is tough. As we saw today, mistakes will — you’re going to have to pay some if you’re going to be making mistakes, and that’s what you don’t want to be doing. With the hybrid coming in halfway through the season, you’ve got to be on it. There’s no room for error because you need to leave those Joker cards for mishaps that could happen when you introduce something new. I think there’s no room for error anymore because the guys that you’re competing against are also winning races, and when they’re not winning races, they’re on the podium. This is where we have to be, and this is where we have to maintain ourselves. I think we just keep approaching it like we have and be aware of who we’re racing and what we can accomplish each and every weekend. Q. Scotty, I don’t know how aware you guys were of this internally, but Roger now has won IMSA opener, WEC opener, INDYCAR opener. He didn’t get Daytona, but to maintain that streak, is that pretty cool for you guys?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, it’s — I didn’t even know that. Well, I did know that, but that’s nice, reminded of that, except I didn’t do it today. Look, as a team, stoked. I just think we’ve put a lot of work hard this season. I think me, Will and Josef, it’s just a good team. We get along really well. It’s just a great business relationship, and I feel like it just really pushes the team forward in all facets. I’m really enjoying that. Yeah, we’ve just got to keep winning. Captain loves winning. He’s not going to get over it, so we’ll just keep doing it. Q. When Josef was in here yesterday he was telling us that Chevrolet took all these meetings during the off-season and he made and Penske made a ton of asks and Chevrolet answered all of them. Can you give your perspective on that for McLaren? Did Chevrolet go above and beyond to put you guys in position to take the four top?PATO O’WARD: Absolutely. We all met at the MTC in London. It was like 25, 20 of us at a massive table, and we just hammered down on everything that we wanted to see improvements on, everything that we thought that we did well, and just having an honest, open conversation of what’s going on because it just — whenever you’re at the end of basically life of an engine like this, a lot of the massive gains have been gained. When you gain little bits and pieces here and there, they’re usually pretty substantial. I was super, super happy to see just how receptive they were of it and how they were just — yeah, we’re going to get to work, and they brought us a very strong package, and super happy with that. It was Chevrolet and McLaren, so it was me, Rossi, David was in the meeting but he was still in America. But Rossi and I were in person. Q. A lot of the off-season has been spent with a lot of talk about a lot of things that went wrong for INDYCAR. Is today an example of everything that INDYCAR does right because it was a big crowd, the racing was clean, it was fast, it was the real pros out there racing. How important was it to get this type of race to silence some of the stuff that’s been talked about all season?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Look, I think any press is good press, but you’ve just got to — unfortunately you’ve just got to cop the good with the bad, like everything. But yeah, I’ve made a prediction pretty heavily. I’m a pretty big supporter of INDYCAR on my Twitter account, but we have the greatest series in the world, and I’ll stand by that. PATO O’WARD: I mean, just look at the amount of people that showed up today, yesterday, Friday. People want to be here. People want to see INDYCARs go racing. Like I really don’t know what more we can ask for from the fans. I think it’s time to turbo charge it and just really make it what its potential is because it’s so big. This series is so freaking hard. Like it’s a big deal when you win an INDYCAR race. I think every single race should really be a big deal. Q. Also some drivers had some issues with marbles out there. Did you guys experience any slipperiness?PATO O’WARD: I tried staying right behind the car in front. I didn’t want to experiment.SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Touche. Q. Obviously Chevrolet did bring you great gains this weekend. From both of your perspectives, what was your favorite part of it? Was it fuel save number, drivability, top end power? What’s your favorite gain?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: All of it. It’s been a big chance for us to rethink the process and how everything goes about, and it was going to take time. Unfortunately we couldn’t do it last year, but from this time last year to the end of the season we made a gain. Still wasn’t enough. They went to work over the off-season, like Pato, they had a similar meeting with us, and we’ve got to appreciate that. Yeah, they’ve come back with a whole range of things that have helped us today and certainly helped us today in the type of race that we ran. PATO O’WARD: Yeah, all of it. Give me all of it. Q. Did anybody have anything to beat Josef today?PATO O’WARD: I think his teammates did, but I think he was lucky that I was holding them up. SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I think if we started a little bit further up the front. We had an unfortunate circumstance yesterday in qualifying that sort of held us from making the Fast Six, but that’s just how it is. It was so tight. It’s unfortunate, but it’s the first race of the season. It swings around with us. Q. When did you decide to use the green tires at the end of the race instead of the middle of the race?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: We started on the front row seven times last year and started with the green tires seven times, and we didn’t win a race. We were going to run blacks as long as we can and see what happens at the end, and thankfully a yellow fell our way, we restarted with those new greens. I think we were maybe thinking just depending on how the race was going maybe running it in the second stint, but it was just where the yellows fell and stuff, the blacks worked out good, felt the primaries, and we focused on what we needed to do and we put the greens on at the end, which when the yellow came, I was very excited. Q. Turn 10 was a bit more trouble than I think recent years. Was it the track, the tire, something in the brakes? Some people were having trouble locking rears randomly?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I think today was hard because the wind did a complete 180. Yeah, 180. We had a headwind. I don’t know what you think, but we had a headwind all run, basically kind of a headwind, and then we had a full-off tailwind today. I think that’s what made it probably more treacherous than anything. PATO O’WARD: The wind. Q. Scott, I know you prided yourself a lot in being able to finish as the top Team Penske driver last year, finishing third in the championship. You mentioned that the relationship between you and Josef and Will continues to be really strong, having three guys in the top 4 today. As that battle intensifies in that team, how do you guys just continue to maintain that closeness and make sure you guys are performing as well as you can on and off the track?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: It’s no different. I think it’s been intensified for the last three years. When Will was winning the championship, we were still fighting to get to the end. We all had a shot at winning it. We’ve worked really well, and I think the engineers and management do a really good job at making that work, and I think we’re all at different kind of parts of our careers in some ways. I’m relatively new to INDYCAR, not so much, but Josef is obviously a veteran, and then Will is seeing the sort of end of his career in some ways. He’s still got a number of years left, but he’s been around a long time. We just gel. There’s no angst, there’s no nothing. It’s just pure business. It’s the only way we’re going to get through to the front because it’s so tight here. Q. Was it very hot out in the car today or did you cope with it well?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: I think the fuel saving helped a lot. Probably less of an intensity in some ways. But I think we both work pretty hard on our fitness and feel really good. Q. Looking after today and how the racing stuff played itself out and the performance from Chevy, does this give both of you as Chevy drivers a reasonable amount of confidence heading towards, say, Long Beach, which is the next type of circus that you’ll hit that’s similar to St. Pete?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, I think just every track from here on in, it’s just nice to feel the gain and see the gain. Things can change in terms of just performance and where we put everything. Some tracks work for Honda, sometimes some tracks work for Chevy, and Long Beach was probably one last year where the Honda was quite strong. But hopefully if we see a gain there, that’s going to bode well for the rest of the year.Q. How good does it feel to kick the series off again and know you’re back into it after what seems like a forever break during the off-season?SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, awesome, man. It’s so good INDYCAR is back, the amount of people that were there the last three days. This is such a cool place to kick it off, as well. Hopefully the race looked good on TV and we put on a good show.

March 11, 2024 — LAS VEGAS, NV

• Honda Baja Ridgeline finishes third overall in Nevada    
• First podium finish for Ridgeline after moving to the premier Unlimited category in 2024

The Honda Off-Road Racing Team took on the desert outside of Las Vegas, Nevada, this weekend, with the Honda Baja Ridgeline truck driven by Ethan Ebert finishing third in the Unlimited Truck category – the first podium finish for Honda since moving up to the premier division of off-road racing full time for the 2024 season.

After qualifying 12th, Ebert and navigator Gatlan Haddon took the Baja Ridgeline on a nearly flawless run through four laps of the 95.5-mile course, run near the Nevada-California border south of Las Vegas to secure their first podium result of 2024. Running fifth as the race entered its final stages, Ebert and Haddon took advantage of the misfortune of others to move into third, then survived a last-lap double flat incident with a quick tire change to secure their podium result with a total time of 7:41:46.127 for the race.

The impressive result was the second race for the latest generation Honda Baja Ridgeline in its new Honda Racing Corporation USA colors, and the third for the latest-generation Ridgeline, which debuted late last season to compete in the top category for unlimited race trucks.

Quotes

Jeff Proctor (team principal, Honda Off-Road Racing Team):”I couldn’t be happier with the final results of the Honda Ridgeline’s Mint 400. Everything clicked. Driver, navigator, crew, engineers – everyone. HRC brought a full team of engineers to support the team. They were all over the truck telemetry and continue to help us wring everything we can out of this engine to compete against the bigger horsepower engines in our class. They’ve embraced the engineering challenge and it’s special for the team to be a part of watching technology developed in the Honda Baja Ridgeline make its way to the street.”

Ethan Ebert (driver Honda Baja Ridgeline Race Truck) finished third: “Words can’t describe how I’m feeling after this race weekend. We started the race with some work cut out for us. However, the first lap started off strong with us beating the truck we started next to, which gave us some clean air to chase down the guys in front.  We held our own by coming back to the main pit stop sitting 5th in class from just the first lap, from there we made our way through the super tough desert of Nevada and kept on going. Gatlan [Haddon, navigator] was on point all day and amazing with every single call, we came across the line in third place in TT, a first for this Honda team! I can’t thank the team and [team owner Jeff] Proctor enough for getting us such a fast race truck and all the support we could ever ask for!  Now it’s on to Baja and this time we’re looking for silver or gold!”

Fast Fact

• The Honda Off-Road Racing program began in 2015 with a class win in the Baja 1000. The Honda Baja Ridgeline has gone on to record 17 class victories in 39 races.  For 2024, the Baja Ridgeline has moved up to the premier Unlimited category.

Next

The next race for the Honda Off-Road Racing Team will be the Baja 500 in June.

Former Top Fuel driver hopes to cap off NHRA Funny Car debut with a win on Sunday

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 9, 2024) – John Force Racing’s Austin Prock continued his impressive debut weekend as an NHRA Funny Car driver, earning No. 1 qualifier honors heading into Sunday’s eliminations of the 55th Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway. “I’m very excited,” said Prock, whose Friday afternoon qualifying effort of 3.820 seconds at 334.65 mph in the Cornwell Tools Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car held up through Saturday’s qualifying to keep him No. 1. “I mean, I couldn’t really have done much better this weekend so far.” The 28-year-old Prock spent the previous three seasons driving a Top Fuel dragster for JFR. When three-time NHRA Funny Car champion Robert Hight stepped aside indefinitely in January due to personal medical reasons, team owner John Force didn’t have far to look for a replacement driver, as Prock has also held a Funny Car competitor’s license since 2018. Prock made two qualifying runs on Friday. After earning and then having the No. 1 spot taken away from him by Bob Tasca III in the second qualifying run, Prock roared back almost immediately to regain the top position from Tasca moments later. That same run by Prock was the 10th quickest in NHRA Funny Car history and also set a track record. He then held on to No. 1 when Saturday’s second Funny Car qualifying session of the day was cancelled due to rain. “(A fourth and final qualifying run) would have helped,” Prock said. “It would have been nice to get another run. I only have a handful of runs down the racetrack in this car, so every time I can get in the seat, I will continue to improve. I would have liked to get another run, but I’m happy with this No. 1 qualifier for sure.” Prock will face John Smith in Sunday’s first round of eliminations. The Lansing, Mich. native is driving Hight’s race car in his absence, but has a strong team around him, led by his father and Hight’s longtime crew chief, Jimmy Prock, and assistant crew chief Thomas Prock, who is Austin’s brother.  “I really think that speaks volumes on this team,” Austin Prock said. “I’m the only new part of the equation. We know this car can win races, we know it can run low E.T. and I’m just sitting there hanging on and trying to do the best I can and essentially just not screw it up because I know if I do a good enough job, we can get the job done.” In other action Saturday for JFR, Prock’s teammate, two-time champion Brittany Force, managed to reach the finals of the three-round Pep Boys NHRA Top Fuel All-Star Callout exhibition event. Force (3.730 seconds at 328.70 mph) lost a close battle in the final round of the Callout to Antron Brown (3.709 seconds at 332.43 mph). As Force approached the finish line, the motor in her Monster Energy Chevrolet Top Fuel Dragster erupted into a large fireball. While she was uninjured in the incident, it definitely rattled the 12-year Top Fuel veteran. “It was going,” Force said of her dragster. “I could see the finish line, I could see Antron next to me and it just blew up. It was an explosion like I’ve never felt before. It rocked me in my seat. I could see the glow of the fire around me. It was ugly.” Force qualified 11th and will face No. 6 qualifier Billy Torrence in the first round of Sunday’s eliminations. Lastly, 16-time NHRA Funny Car champion and JFR team owner John Force, driver of the PEAK Antifreeze & Coolant Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car, was ninth in Funny Car qualifying (3.920 seconds at 324.67 mph) and will face No. 8 qualifier Cruz Pedregon in the first round. The Gatornationals eliminations will be televised on Sunday with live coverage from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET, and continuing coverage at 9 p.m. ET on FS1.

GAINESVILLE, FL (March 9, 2024) — After a lengthy rain delay Josh Hart and the R+L Carriers Top Fuel dragster team were eager to defend their 2023 Pep Boys Allstar Callout title. Earlier in the day Hart, the No. 8 qualifier, was called out by No. 1 qualifier Steve Torrence in a made-for-TV event in the Top Eliminator Club at Gainesville Raceway. All eight Top Fuel competitors were vying for the $80,000 top prize that Hart collected last year when he turned on three win lights outrunning Austin Prock, Brittany Force and Mike Salinas.

 Josh Hart and the R+L Carriers Top Fuel dragster take off in pursuit of their second Pep Boys Allstar Callout title,
photo credit Auto Imagery/Gary Nastase

Today, racing Torrence as the last pair of Top Fuel land rockets Hart was the first off the line with a strong .030 reaction time. Unfortunately, his 12,000-horsepowered R+L Carriers Top Fuel dragster overpowered the track and had to watch Torrence cruise to the finish line for the round win. Torrence’s time of 3.708 seconds was the quickest pass of the third round of the Top Fuel qualifying session.
 
“We got a little too aggressive chasing that $80,000,” said Hart, who won the 2021 NHRA Gatornationals his rookie season. “It was tricky for everyone after the rain delay, but Steve made a strong run. Last year we on this deal and then went home early on Sunday. I am going to try and flip that script and win the Gatornationals again. We have a solid team and I am looking forward to race day.”

 Josh Hart takes time with an R+L hospitality guest during today’s Gatornationals, photo credit Auto Imagery/Gary Nastase

The first round of eliminations will begin tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. ET and Hart will have his R+L Carriers Top Fuel dragster ready to take on one of the toughest fields in Gatornationals history. Hart will face Tony Schumacher in the first round. The sixteen qualified drivers are members of multi-car, multi-million-dollar operations. Hart has fastidiously built his racing operation on his own.
 
 
Pep Boys Top Fuel Allstar Callout Results
First Round
Antron Brown (.062) 3.910, 280.49 mph def. Shawn Langdon (.053) 4.304, 209.17 mph
Mike Salinas (.077) 4.192, 291.51 mph def. Justin Ashley (.062) 4.427, 237.09 mph
Brittany Force (.090) 3.795, 331.28 mph def. Doug Kalitta (.049) 5.816, 118.53 mph
Steve Torrence (.116) 3.708, 336.32 mph def. Josh Hart, R+L Carriers dragster, (.030) 9.417, 61.09 mph
 
Second Round
Antron Brown (.055) 3.761, 322.50 mph def. Steve Torrence (.072) 3.765, 329.34 mph
Brittany Force (.147) 3.785, 329.67 mph vs. Mike Salinas (.068) 4.477, 195.05 mph
 
Final Round
Antron Brown (.053) 3.709, 332.43 mph def. Brittany Force (.085) 3.730, 328.70 mph

Runner-Up Finish Captured by Jesse Love and the No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet Team at Phoenix Raceway

2nd

7th

5th

“It stings to finish second and be that close to winning. I hate running second as much as anybody, but at the same time, I’m proud of my Richard Childress Racing team. They gave me a fantastic Whelen Chevrolet today at Phoenix Raceway. We weren’t phenomenal to start the day. We needed to work on it. Danny Stockman made some good adjustments to the Whelen Camaro and my pit crew did great all day. I needed a little bit more at the end. Eventually, I’ll be able to do some of that restart magic again like I was back in my hay day in the ARCA Menards Series. It still stings even though I am happy with how we did.” -Jesse Love

Austin Hill and the No. 21 Bennett Transportation & Logistics Chevrolet Team Secure Fourth Top-Five Finish of 2024 at Phoenix Raceway

4th

15th

2nd

“We will take a top-five finish after that. Obviously, we always want to win, but that wasn’t in the cards today at Phoenix Raceway. Our Bennett Transportation & Logistics Chevrolet didn’t have the speed that our other competitors had, so we have some work to do before we come back here for the championship race. I fully expect us to be in the final four in November. The car was really tight and chattered the fronts all day. We were able to help that some with the adjustments made, but in doing that, we hurt the exit off the corner. We will have to go back to the drawing board to see what some of our other competitors are doing better than us and be ready to race for a championship. I saw the same things with our teammate and alliance cars. We were all fighting front turn. Overall, it was a solid points day for us. I love the battle that our Richard Childress Racing team brings to the track each week and we will keep digging.”-Austin Hill

GAINESVILLE, FL (March 9, 2024) —- The season opening Flexjet Factory Stock Showdown Series event at Gainesville Raceway showed that the competition level will be wide open. Newcomer Mike Clark from Mono, Ontario, Canada ran to the No. 1 spot driving his brand new Smokies Garage Dodge Drag Pak. On Friday night Clark ran 7.824 seconds at 175.80 mph and that time held up through the final round of qualifying on Saturday at the 55^th annual NHRA Gatornationals.

 Mike Clark runs to No. 1 at the Gatornationals Flexjet Factory Stock Showdown Series,
photo by Gary Nastase/Auto Imagery

“I’m new to Flexjet Factory Stock Showdown for sure,” said Clark. “I’ve been doing the Hemi Shootout stuff for years. I bought this Flexjet Factory Stock Showdown car about three weeks ago and put it together. I had (2023 Flexjet Factory Stock Showdown world champion) Aaron Stanfield go through the motor and change the blower. I’ve got Jody Hadley tuning with me which has been great.”
 
After the first qualifying run Friday championship runner-up Stephen Bell was No. 1 with a 7.994 second pass at 169.06 mph followed by Doug Hamp and Anthony Troyer. Under the lights at Gainesville Raceway Clark went to the top with his 7.824 second run at 175.80 mph in his Dodge Challenger after a tough first round pass. Mark Pawuk also stepped up running 7.905 seconds at 176.93 mph. The top five were rounded out by Scott Libersher and Anthony Troyer in COPO Camaros and Jason Dietsch’s Ford Cobra Jet. Clark was excited about his effort and he was looking forward to the first round.
 
“You want to go as fast as you can and make sure you don’t make any mistakes,” said Clark. “This is like every major series – you just hope that all the mechanics, the weather and the track all work together. It came together this weekend and we’ll see how race day goes. We’re gonna do about four or five Flexjet races. We kind of have to mix and match but I definitely want to do more of these races.”
 
Sunday, Clark will face Jonathan Allegrucci in the first round. In other marque first round match ups No. 3 qualifier Mark Pawuk will face off against No. 14 qualifier Lee Hartman while Scott Libersher will line his COPO Camaro up against Del Holbrook’s Ford Cobra Jet. Ricky Hord will be the first driver to take a shot at Flexjet Bounty target Stephen Bell in the opening round. 
 
First Round Match-ups
 
No. 1 Mike Clark vs. No. 16 Jonathan Allegrucci
No. 2 David Janac vs. No. 15 Kevin Skinner
No. 3 Mark Pawuk vs. No. 14 Lee Hartman
No. 4 Scott Libersher vs. No. 13 Del Holbrook
No. 5 Stephen Bell vs. No. 12 Ricky Hord
No. 6 Anthony Troyer vs. No. 11 Raymond Nash
No. 7 Jason Dietsch vs. No. 10 David Davies III
No. 8 Doug Hamp vs. No. 9 Tony Scott Jr.
 
2024 FLEXJET NHRA FACTORY STOCK SHOWDOWN SCHEDULE
March 21-24               64th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals, Pomona, Calif.
April 12-14                  24th annual NHRA Four-Wide Nationals, Las Vegas
May 17-19                   24th annual Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals, Chicago
June 7-9                      23rd annual NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals, Bristol, Tenn.
June 27-30                  18th annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals, Norwalk, Ohio
Aug. 15-18                   42nd annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals, Brainerd, Minn.
Aug. 28-Sept. 2           70th annual Dodge Power Brokers NHRA U.S. Nationals, Indianapolis
Sept. 12-15                  39th annual Pep Boys NHRA Nationals, Reading, Pa.
Sept. 27-29                  13th annual NHRA Midwest Nationals, St. Louis

CHEVROLET IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES FIRESTONE GRAND PRIX OF ST. PETERSBURG ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING REPORT MARCH 9, 2024 JOSEF NEWGARDEN AND TEAM PENSKE CAPTURE CHEVROLET’S 128TH NTT P1 POLE AWARD OF THE V6 ERA, TEAM CHEVY’S NINTH AT ST. PETERSBURG Josef Newgarden, driver of the No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet, captured the season-opening NTT P1 Pole Award, the 17th of his NTT INDYCAR SERIES career, with his fastest lap of 59.5714 seconds on the Streets of St. Petersburg.Newgarden’s NTT P1 Pole Award is Chevrolet’s 128th in the 2.2-liter twin turbo direct-injected V6 era since 2012, the ninth at St. Petersburg, and Newgarden’s first at this track.Showcasing how tight the NTT INDYCAR SERIES field is, Newgarden’s NTT P1 Pole Award is the closest front row in the V6 era since 2012.Chevrolet was represented by three drivers in the Firestone Fast Six, with Newgarden, Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward, and Juncos Hollinger Racing’s Romain Grosjean.Four of the six Chevrolets in Group 1 finished in the top-six, with Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward, Team Penske’s Newgarden, Ed Carpenter Racing’s Rinus VeeKay, and Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin transferring to the second round of qualifying.Grosjean and Team Penske’s Will Power transferred to Round 2 from Group 2, representing Chevrolet.Newgarden led Team Chevy in a strong second practice session on the Streets of St. Petersburg this morning that saw six Chevrolet drivers finish in the top-10, including Power (third), O’Ward (fourth), Romain Grosjean (fifth), VeeKay (sixth), and McLaughlin (eighth).Sunday’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg race day starts with final warm up on the Streets of St. Petersburg at 9:10 a.m. ET, with the green flag dropping live on NBC at noon ET. TEAM CHEVY TOP-10 QUALIFYING RESULTS:1st      Josef Newgarden3rd     Pato O’Ward5th     Romain Grosjean7th     Rinus VeeKay8th     Will Power9th     Scott McLaughlin

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING (Quotes):Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Chevrolet at Team Penske:“Man. I get jacked up every time I show up for an INDYCAR race. It’s an elevated level when you start out the year, because you just don’t know. You have no idea if you’re going to keep coming back in and producing results. It’s very difficult. You saw how tight it was, and I didn’t know this would come today. I just thought ‘Look, let’s get through Round 1, let’s get through Round 2, and then see what we can make happen in the Fast Six. Just really proud of this team. This is a rockstar team. I love everybody on it. I’m happy to be back. 2024, we’re starting right with Team Chevy and PPG. We’re here to go after it every weekend.” “You have to give hats off to Team Chevy. They listen to every bit of feedback we had. They took a lot of meetings, and they delivered today. Everything we were asking for they made better all around, and it’s not easy to do that. We asked for a menu of items, and they were like ‘Okay, we’ll give you everything.’ You don’t always get that every year, and I just feel like they knew they had to do even more this offseason just like us. Chevrolet did their part, and us at Team Penske, what we needed to do with our chassis, we did the exact same thing. So us together, I think we can have a really strong year.” Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Chevrolet at Team Penske:“Not a bad day for the DEX Imagine Chevy. We left a little bit out there. I think we could’ve easily made the Fast Six. We had a couple of little issues that were out of our control and held us back there. Overall, really solid start. We start P9, which it’s better than P19. We have a lot of cars to pass tomorrow. We’ll have fun. Good job to my teammate Josef (Newgarden) getting the pole. He made sure Chevy got a first pole of the year, which is really important for them, and hopefully we can add to the win tally in St. Pete tomorrow.” Will Power, No. 12 Chevrolet at Team Penske:“He had to back up and so I had to finish that second lap just to be eighth and then started my third lap kind of hurting, so I aborted it. Still, top-12 and P8. We can definitely race from there. The car has been really good all weekend and man you have to dig deep in these qualifying sessions. We will see what we can do tomorrow. I am very, very determined to have a good year and a good race, so it’s a good start. Anytime you are top-10 in this series, it’s pretty good, or top-12. We would have loved to get in the top six, but it’s so tight.” How is it physically behind the wheel?“Ah, brutal. Brutal honestly. It’s like a bloody sauna or a steam room. You are struggling in the car, but it is always like that in the first race. In the last race you are so race fit. That is the first time in the weekend when you have been digging deep for hundredths and you feel it coming in and I am like, ‘get the air on me’. Great series man. So, so tight. I really, really enjoy it.” Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Chevrolet at Arrow McLaren:“We’re rolling off P3 tomorrow. Inside Row 2 was exactly where we were last year, so it is a great spot to have many options in the race. I’m pretty stoked about that. I think we will be in good shape to do some good things tomorrow. I’m looking forward to it.” Callum Ilott, No. 6 Chevrolet at Arrow McLaren:Walk us around that first round of qualifying…“Yeah, obviously not easy because its super tight here in INDYCAR. Arrow McLaren did a great job with this car and it’s a shame we didn’t transfer. We were very close, but looking up there early in the session, we just didn’t quite get there on the greens. It is what it is and we got to work it out for the race.” When did the decision come to go with the greens? What is the difference in the hard primaries and the greens?“They have more grip, and they are softer, and I think that is kind of the plan for everyone. A couple of the guys in the first group went with the greens to start with and did two sets. Obviously, the difference in the blacks and greens is you get more grip and a little more speed out of it.” Alexander Rossi, No. 7 Chevrolet at Arrow McLaren:“That was very disappointing, because we had a pretty strong car. I was happy with the changes that we’ve made from yesterday and through the day today. We didn’t get a clear run on the Firestone Alternates, and it is so close that you can’t afford that. So, it is very unfortunate that we are so far back, but I do think the car is pretty strong. We’ll see what we can make of it tomorrow.” Christian Rasmussen, No. 20 Chevrolet at Ed Carpenter Racing:“I’m happy with the progress we’re making over the weekend. There are a lot of firsts and it’s no easy task to step up into the NTT INDYCAR SERIES! First time with the green Firestone tires, it just takes some learning. Rinus (VeeKay) did an amazing job in qualifying, into the Fast 12 and almost the Fast 6! We have a good car and should be able to move forward in the race tomorrow. I’m just excited for my first NTT INDYCAR SERIES race! It’s something I’ve been working towards for many years now and it’s going to be very cool!” Rinus VeeKay, No. 21 Chevrolet at Ed Carpenter Racing:Was that a product of offseason work?“It definitely was. The team put in a lot of effort, we’ve got new people on the team, and the group has become stronger. I know Team Chevy put a lot of effort in giving us more power and I feel like that definitely helped. I also looked in the mirror and looked at myself and tried to find weak spots and things to get better at. I think all those boxes have been checked of course. We felt like we made it into the Fast Six, but we did not again. Pretty close, but I feel like I was happy with my lap and have the whole weekend so far. The only race I won was from P7, so that is a good omen.” You have been strong all weekend long. Where does this put your confidence going into tomorrow?“It makes me very confident. I think I am a better racer than a qualifier, so as long as we can understand the tires and keep the tires underneath us, then I think we are going to have a great race. At least I have a lot less cars to pass and it’s nice to be ahead of the mess once in a while.” Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 Chevrolet at AJ Foyt Racing:“Honestly, our Sexton Chevrolet was on rails. We had more in it, but not being able to be in Practice 2, it’s no one’s fault. That’s the thing. It’s just some things that are unfortunate, but honestly, my boss Larry (Foyt) said go out and put it seventh, so we have all the tires in the world for strategy for the race tomorrow. Ask and you shall receive. We’re sitting pretty. Our car has a ton of pace. I’m looking forward to getting after it tomorrow.” “From when we rolled out to now, we haven’t changed anything. I mean this is the exact same car that came out of the trailer. That is what we did at Indianapolis, and we fought to win. That is the goal this year and to start out this year like this, I am very, very confident.” Sting Ray Robb, No. 41 Chevrolet at AJ Foyt Racing:“Qualifying was okay. I’m disappointed in myself. I think there was a lot of time left in my driving. We kind of got kind of hurt by some other cars backing up into us on our second push. Unfortunately, we are not starting where I think we are capable of going. The car was really good. I’m really happy with the team, but we’re still going to bulid. I think there is a lot to learn. Everyone’s new on the team including myself. That communication and relationship is going to get better as the year goes on.” Romain Grosjean, No. 77 Chevrolet at Juncos Hollinger Racing:“It is very satisfying. Last year, one (pole) was very special, and this year, I was hoping we could get into the Fast Six after P1, but I wasn’t quite sure about it. We made it in the Fast Six. We didn’t have the speed for the guys in the front, but anyway, I’m very proud of everything that’s been done. Chevy has been helping us a lot with data and on-track. Our team has worked a long way since Sebring where I wasn’t sure we’d be top-10 in qualifying, and here we are. I’m very happy with that. We have a good baseline.” “It’s a very, very good qualifying. I still think we have some work to be done, but I think the guys have a very clear idea of where I think I want the improvement to be made, and that’s where we’re going to try.” Agustin Canapino, No. 78 Chevrolet at Juncos Hollinger Racing:“We had a good qualifying session. P20 isn’t really the reality of the car. I’m really happy with the time; only one-tenth off from the Fast 12, and three-and-a-half tenths with the leaders, so I’m really happy with the performance of the car with the team. Thank you to Team Chevy and to our team. I’m really confident we will have a good race tomorrow.” Ricardo Juncos, Team Owner and Lead Strategist at Juncos Hollinger Racing:“I think now he is in P2 (in regards to Romain Grosjean in Group 2 of qualifying). Amazing job. We are all really happy to have someone like Romain Grosjean with us. I think he brings to the teams a lot of experience, and he’s been great for us, for the whole team. I think we have also Agustin (Canapino) in the top-six (of Round 1), but he missed a little bit of the last two corners. Until then, we were also in the top-six, so I think big improvement for the whole team.”

JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 PPG TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – NTT P1 Pole Award Winner Press Conference Transcript:THE MODERATOR: Wrapping up NTT P1 qualifying for tomorrow’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding. Joined now by Josef Newgarden, two-time champion here on the Streets of St. Pete. Today driving the No. 2 PPG Team Penske Chevrolet with the 17th career NTT P1 award. First here at St. Pete. Pretty tight. 58/10000th of a second between first and second. You talked on the broadcast about how one of the goals this year to get back to some NTT P1 awards and did it right out of the gate. How proud are you of this team right now for you? JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Crazy proud. I’m always proud of my team and even more so today. They deserve it. They’ve done a great job all off season. They’ve done a great job in 2023, and I feel like we fell short in a lot of areas that we didn’t need to. I don’t want to get too excited about this. We should enjoy it. It felt very good. I can’t tell you how good it felt, but it’s only day one. We have to get through tomorrow. Tomorrow is what pays the bills and gets us up the road in the championship. So let’s see how we continue the weekend, but just to start out I couldn’t have asked for something better. The team is just on it. Team Chevy absolutely crushed it in this offseason, so I couldn’t feel more positive. THE MODERATOR: You have engineering meetings and what not after this. We’ll get right to the questions. Q. Just a short question. From practice to qualifying, did your team or your crew do any significant technical changes of the car?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: No, nothing big. Really tiny stuff, which is always fun when it’s that way. Q. Josef, the first practice kind of seemed a little out of sorts. Maybe tough to gauge seeing where you guys were until second practice. What clicked? What did you all find to fall like this in qualifying?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I think some was just timing. Obviously we had that experimental first session, which I think is great. We all agreed that we wanted to try something. I’m not going to say it’s going to stick, but we were trying something. We were in the earlier part of the group. I think what I took from that it was undeniable how quick Felix was. He was like a stand-out. Everybody else was maybe a little bit jumbled up just because of timing and traffic and reds. So I think you got more of a true indicator where the majority of the field was in session two. Obviously there was carry-over from session one. We didn’t do a lot. I’m telling you all this because we didn’t make a lot of changes from practice one to practice two. We were sort of same car. Just really putting it together better, and I think P2 was representative more so for where we were as a team. Q. Josef, some new faces up there in the Fast Six, including the guy sitting right next to you on new teams, teams we’re not used to seeing up there like that. I know you talk about the competitive nature of INDYCAR, but is this something that we can expect to see all season like this?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Absolutely. I mean, we get the question every offseason. Who is your main threat? You can’t answer that clearly ever in INDYCAR. You just don’t know who is going to sort of rise to the occasion and improve. I think Felix is a great example of this. I’ve always thought the world of Felix. He’s a top-level driver. He’s one of the best drivers in the world. You get a little different environment. 12 months makes a big difference. Just things change all the time. This is the most difficult series in the world I think to put it all together, so you get people coming up and down the grid all the time. I just don’t think you can bank on any one individual being the class of the field. You have to beat everybody, and it’s moving all the time. The challenge always is changing. I applaud everybody that’s in this championship and is continuing to find pace. Q. Josef, when you talk about coming up short last year, obviously that wasn’t on ovals. Four wins on ovals. How much of your enthusiasm today is sort of rooted in the fact that it seems like street and road courses were your weakness last year. Now you start on the pole here.JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I mean, it’s what we need. We haven’t gotten an oval yet, so I hope we still have that form, but I think that comes back to what I just said about the quality of the field. Just because we were strong on ovals last year doesn’t guarantee that we will be strong on ovals again this year. I’ve made that mistake many times where you think you can just go with the same recipe that worked the year before, and it doesn’t always transfer. I think we’ve made the necessary steps to be better on a street course. I think we can get there in a road course too. We just have to make sure we preserve that excellent oval package that we’ve had, but if we can get all of them, then that’s what we were lacking last year. We just did not have the consistency across the board. I think today is very encouraging. It definitely makes me feel more positive about what we can bring for the entire championship. Q. I asked Will about this yesterday. I’ll get your take on it. The mood at Team Penske, obviously you won the Indy 500 last year, but Will went winless. Scotty won once. You were obviously frustrated. Coming into this season and coming off the NASCAR Championship for Penske, coming off Rolex 24, WEC win, I know the benchmark is always high for you guys, but is there more motivation with everything that’s going on within the organization and the way you guys ended last year to come up stronger this season?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I’m not trying to avoid the question, but it never really changes. What I mean by that is Penske, we definitely have an operating standard where excellence is what we aim for all the time. Whether we had a bad year or we had an excellent year, we’re still going for excellence the next season. That never drops. Certainly we lose form. The challenge changes like I was talking about, and we have to find a new way of doing things. That happens often. I don’t feel any different as far as pressure internally. We are the same all the time. We are expected to show up and do a great job, and we feel that internally. That’s not an external pressure. It’s not like Roger is over us demanding that. Others may tell you differently, but I just feel there’s a very internal drive of every individual within Penske just to be the best version of themselves. I don’t notice anything different. The only thing I would say is it’s been a great start to the year, as you said. We started out right, and now we just have to figure out how we can hopefully hold onto that throughout the entire season. I didn’t change last year’s glove, so… Q. Josef, I know the past couple of years you’ve come into the season opener. You’ve had some personnel moving around on the team, and things have been happening quite close to the start of the season. Have you felt any benefit from having things a little bit more solid and having an easier lead into the season, if you like, this weekend?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I don’t think it hurts. I mean, I don’t want to lean too aggressively into the consistency side. I think we’ve had, in general, a lot of consistency in our team.So even when I have new personnel on the 2 car, these are individuals that I know very well. The way we operate at Team Penske is I think a little bit unique. In a lot of ways you’re working with everybody on all cars. Yeah, I don’t think there’s a huge change from that standpoint, but we do have more consistency than last year. It’s Luke’s second year with me. We’re together. We’re not changing that role. We didn’t change much on the car. Yeah, there’s some positivity too it. I don’t know that I want to read too much into it. Q. You praised Team Chevy at the start of the call. Is there anything specific that they’ve given to you to start the season that you’ve been particularly impressed with? You sounded really kind of buoyant about what they’ve done in the offseason there.JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Oh, absolutely. I mean, I think it was a huge difference-maker today was just Chevrolet. I’m not going to put everything on them because it’s always a package. We always have to work together in conjunction. I think there was things we fell short on last year from a chassis standpoint. You know where we weren’t strong just as a team and what we needed to do, road and street course-wise. I think we’ve elevated our game, and Chevrolet has absolutely elevated their side. They took a lot of meetings with us in the offseason. They work hard every offseason, but I think they just went that from a extra mile this go-around. It’s still early days, but I’ll really encouraged by what they brought here and what we can see for the rest of the year. Q. Just quickly, Josef, this is something that got mentioned with Will yesterday, and you touched on it before, how good the oval package was for Team Penske last year. Considering the last few races this season are all predominantly on ovals, does that give the team a bit of confidence knowing you have a good package going into what could be a championship decider?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Not to me. I’ll repeat from earlier, but just because we had a strong year on ovals last year doesn’t guarantee we’re going to have an identical result this year. It very well could be that we show up and we’ve fixed a lot of our street and road course performance and then all of a sudden we take a step back on the ovals. I just think you have to be vigilant. I’m not going to rest on anything from prior seasons. I think the balance is still pretty mixed, as it should be. We’ve got a nice split between road, street, and oval.I don’t think you can hide behind the fact that you have to be good across the board. You can’t be weak anywhere. I’m not going to lean on a couple of new oval additions. I don’t think any of us can do that. Q. Can you talk about the durability of those softer green tires, please?JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I was curious what Felix thought. Yeah, it is going to be interesting. I don’t know that anyone has a great read yet. It’s impossible to know right now. We’re sort of getting an idea through qualifying. You’re starting to guess. I think they are more durable than last year, no doubt. Just to what level. I don’t know how much more durable they are. That’s everybody’s guessing game right now, but I do think they will come into play more so than what they did last year. Last year no one wanted to be on them very long, and I think this year it’s opened back up again where there could be some split strategies. Q. Josef, you have Luke Mason with you for the second year in a row. You shouted his name out right after you were told you had pole. Can you talk to the relationship the two of you developed because in year one Indy 500, four wins. Tell me about the chemistry of two of you have developed to make you even stronger.JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Well, he’s great. I’ve been fortunate in my career. I’ve got to work with just tremendous talent every single year. I’ve really had no weak points. Luke just has been an addition to that. He’s another person that to me is an absolute rock star race engineer. Anybody that knows what a race engineer really is would understand the significance of that. You can be a technically savvy individual. You can be a good engineer, but a race engineer requires something just a little different. I think Luke excels at it. I just think of world of him. He’s in a great spot. He’s certainly bringing a great dynamic to our team in a lot more ways than just one. Yeah, it’s good. I want the best for him. I want to see him win a bunch of races, and I want to do that together with him. THE MODERATOR: 58/10000th of a second was the difference. Crazy, crazy close. Front row for tomorrow’s Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by RP Funding.

March 9, 2024

Harrison Burton and the No. 21 Draiver Mustang Dark Horse are set to start 24th in Sunday’s Shriners Children’s Hospital 500 at Phoenix Raceway.

Burton took that spot with a lap at 131.670 miles per hour in qualifying Saturday afternoon.

His qualifying speed was faster than his best lap in Friday’s practice session, where he was 23rd on the speed chart at 129.529 mph. He posted that speed on the fourth of 60 laps run in the session.
 
Sunday’s 312-lap race is expected to get the green flag just after 12:30 p.m. local time (3:30 p.m. Eastern) with TV coverage on FOX.
 
Stage breaks are planned for Laps 60 and 185.
 

NASCAR CUP SERIES PHOENIX RACEWAY SHRINERS CHILDREN’S 500 TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT MARCH 9, 2024

ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 1 KUBOTA CAMARO ZL1, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series’ qualifying session at Phoenix Raceway.  Media Availability Quotes:  YESTERDAY, YOU WERE REALLY STRONG ON THE LONG RUN IN PRACTICE. WITH IT BEING A LITTLE WARMER AND A LITTLE WINDY, ARE YOU CONCERNED ABOUT YOUR SHORT RUN SPEED IN QUALIFYING, OR ARE YOU GUYS FOCUSED ON THE LONG RUN TOMORROW? “Just focused on getting grip. We really struggled yesterday just finding balance. I couldn’t believe that we were 15th on fast lap averages. We were 12th early on and my crew chief, Phil Surgen, said ‘you’re 12th’.. and I was like, ‘wow.. I feel like I’m 35th’. I just did not feel like I had the grip in the car.  It’s a little bit tough though because we’re coming off the win here last year, so I feel like a lot of my memories are of the really good laps; the laps we were driving away from the field and when we were passing people. And as I really dug back into it last night, there were a lot of times where I saw a lot of erratic steering and heavy braking from my driving traces from last fall. So it wasn’t as good as I remembered. I had the whole offseason to think back through and dream about all the good that happened, but there were some bad. There were some moments where I wasn’t happy with the car last fall.  We didn’t fall-off as much as some people, but we were just too tight. We were way too tight coming here. We were sliding the front tires a lot. We made a lot of changes in practice and after, which has not been the norm for the No. 1 car. You see it.. we’re normally pretty spot-on. We went to work. We made a lot of changes before we had to get into the tech line.” LAST WEEK AFTER THE RACE, YOU TALKED ABOUT THE SPEEDING PENALTIES. BUT I WONDERED.. IS IT ESPECIALLY FRUSTRATING BECAUSE OF HOW WELL, IN GENERAL, YOU GUYS SEEM TO HAVE STARTED THE SEASON, AS FAR AS SPEED, AND THERE’S A LOT OF POTENTIAL TO HAVE BEEN EVEN BETTER IN THE FIRST THREE RACES? “Yes, sir. If I was back in my days of Premium Motorsports and going to run 27th on a good day, and I sped and it made us finish 29th… it was like, well OK. Or even if we would get back there, but I knew it took us out of it by just not doing my job, it was hard then.. but looking back, easier. Now, when we have cars capable of winning.. I watched the race back post-Las Vegas and I’m like, it doesn’t look like a race-winning car. But in the car, I felt like it was a race-winning capable car to fight with the No. 5 (Kyle Larson) and the No. 45 (Tyler Reddick). That’s why my human emotion takes over and I can’t get out of my own way of saying anything, but I was just so sad that I took us out of a shot.  We got back up there, but if we would have been up there with the No. 45.. when I sped, I was five car lengths in front of the No. 45 on pit road. We were racing with him and I felt equal to him. I just wanted a shot to continue to make adjustments on my car up front. Continue to have four tires on it.. the two tire call was great and it was a great Band-Aid. When we look back, I might not even remember the speeding penalty. Most people won’t, but I know I will. But yeah, just the speed of the car and the feel.. like it goes fast and it was driving so good that I could hustle it. That’s what makes it tough.  And then I get out and I’m human – I look back at my interviews and I should be more positive. I should be thinking about a lot more things than just that one moment that I sped by .6 mph or something, and I just can’t get past it because it’s such an unforced error that, at this level and doing it three weeks in a row, it just builds up and I just kind of lost my mind there when I realized I had done it again.” WITH WHAT YOU TALKED ABOUT IN TERMS OF SPEEDING – IN ONE SENSE, THERE’S A LOT OF ELEMENTS THAT CAN GO INTO IT, BUT AT THE END OF THE DAY, WHAT HAS TO BE DONE OR HOW DO YOU GET TO THE POINT WHERE YOU’RE YOU ARE REACHING 10-TENTHS BUT NOT OVER THAT LINE? I KNOW YOU CAN ‘DON’T SPEED’, BUT WHAT GOES INTO THAT PROCESS OF WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO, WHAT YOU HAVE TO WORK WITH THE TEAM OR WHAT YOU HAVE TO THINK ABOUT? “Yeah, each one of our speeding issues have been a little bit different..” HOW SO? “Well, like Atlanta (Motor Speedway), it was going from the transition from the 90 mph zone to the frontstretch. I sped, locked the left-front up and slid into that first section. And then I also sped leaving because I stalled it and I freaked out, and when I got it fired up, I went way past my lights. I was just realizing how much time I had lost and I was going to lose the draft, so I sped like 3 mph.. that’s like unheard of. So that stemmed from hitting the No. 6 (Brad Keselowski) on-track. We had slammed side-to-side, so I had pitted without telling my crew. It just spiraled out of control. There were like 90 seconds where my mind and the car just kind of went haywire. I felt like I couldn’t function because we hit and I thought I was going to blow a left-front tire. Then you go to Las Vegas (Motor Speedway) – you slow down in the banking and then turn down into the apron. Well I went really slow.. I went six-tenths, like you’re talking about. I wasn’t trying to be 10-tenths, and then I turn on the apron; I’m slow and I just released the brake to just roll up to the line. I thought I was too slow, and then when I went back to the pedal to slow down, I realized I was too close to the yellow line. So it really came from a fact of laziness, in my mind, at Las Vegas.. where I wasn’t trying to be aggressive. I was trying to be the opposite. And in the laziness, I just let off the pedals and I let off too long.  Yeah, when the intention is to go slow and I still speed, that’s where my frustration came from; in the car and in the moment. And then there’s dejection after of just – OK, I know what my intention was.. it was very clear. I know what my mind was trying to do, and then in the moment, I don’t execute on what I’m intending to do. So it’s one thing to push to the lights and know that they’re right on the limit; it just rolls a little faster and it’s .01 faster. It’s another thing to intentionally be slow and still get popped because I was lazy with the pedals. That’s what honestly got me so upset.  But what’s so cool is that – yeah, I took the flight home and thought about it.. Monday morning, for sure. I watched the race back first thing Monday and walked away from it. And honestly my team got me and my guys were just like – Look, we’re not slowing down.. we don’t need you to be slow like you were at Vegas on the approach to pit road. We need you to go back to the Ross that wins the award. Like there are metrics that the whole garage measures pit road entry, from turn three to the yellow line. I’ve won that a lot. It doesn’t pay anything, but I’ve won it in Premium Motorsports cars. I’ve won it with different teams I’ve worked with. It’s something I’ve really focused on because it’s something I could win and I’m a competitor. And then now, I tried to back it down and I still got caught. It was cool to hear the guys and to truly change my mindset mid-way through Monday like – no, we’re not backing down from a yellow line.. that’s not going to scare us.” WHEN YOU REFERENCE LAST FALL’S RACE – I THINK IT WAS THE FIRST SEGMENT, YOU WENT FROM EIGHTH TO THIRD. OBVIOUSLY YOU WERE UP THERE AND ABLE TO MAKE PASSES AND GET TO THE LEAD LATER ON. YOU WERE ABLE TO DO WHAT, IN ESSENCE, THIS PACKAGE THIS WEEKEND IS SUPPOSED TO ALLOW YOU GUYS TO HAVE A GREAT SENSE OF. CAN YOU GIVE ME A SENSE OF WHAT YOU WERE ABLE TO DO SO WELL LAST FALL HERE BECAUSE YOU SEEMED TO MOVE UP BETTER THAN ANYBODY ELSE. IT SOUNDS LIKE THE CHANGES ARE GOING TO BE VERY MINOR AND IT’S GOING TO BE ABOUT THE SAME TYPE OF RACE. “Yeah, I felt like early on in that first run, I was able to maintain around eighth. I think I had to fight off maybe the No. 43 (Erik Jones) first lap, and then we kind of settled in and I just maintained. As we all gapped ourselves just naturally, the leader is going to pull away the first five laps, and second through 40th is going to just have gaps. My gap just stayed the same. And then I saw the guy in seventh – he slipped his right-rear and then he got tight off of (turn) four and all these little moments. I’m like – oh mines not doing that, so I was able to just maintain early. And then we just had a very nice, balanced car, so we were wearing the tires evenly. We weren’t over-heating one corner versus the others. Mine definitely handled worse on lap 50 than it did on lap five, but I was able to as simple as maintain early, and then I made most of my passes at the ends of the runs. That’s just a sign of good balance and good mechanical grip. Air aside, as you wear these tires.. if you can wear them evenly and your balance was OK to start, I was able to go as old school as old school can get; pass them on the long run.” NO MIC. “I have no idea. I’ve only got a little bit of practice on it, so I just don’t know. I’ll go react in the race. I don’t go in with any preconceived ideas. A lot of drivers do and more power to them that they believe they know what’s going to happen before the race starts. I’m like, I’m going to drive it into turn one and find out. I’m going to find out with everybody else, and then it’s up to me and where I feel like I’m strong, which is reacting instantly and catching the car when it reacts different than what I thought. Of course if it handled perfect, I would be wide-open in fifth gear all the way around here, but that’s not the case.” WHAT IN YEAR’S PAST HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO TAKE FROM THE SPRING RACE AND APPLY IT TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP RACE? WITH THE DEBUT OF THIS RULES PACKAGE, WHAT CAN YOU TAKE FROM THE SPRING AND APPLY IT TO THE FALL? “Previously, by the time we’d get to the fall, I knew where I was at in points. So when I was driving the No. 4 car that’s on the screen right now, we knew if we needed to buy tires or not. We knew if we needed to finish a couple spots ahead, or if we could finish worse and it didn’t matter because we were going to get paid the same. We lost a little purse money, but it wasn’t enough to off-set the cost of four sets of tires. It’s pretty wild to think back to that and with Dawson (Cram) here, that’s cool to think that’s where I was at one point.  Now, that’s up to Chevrolet and Trackhouse Racing to think about.. what’s the difference between spring and fall. Like I was talking about in the last question, like I just react.. I react to the simulator. I react to the at-track. Yeah, we have some ideas of what we think and we want to learn from our past.. we’re not blind to it. But I don’t think – oh, it’s going to be tighter in the fall, looser or it’s going to be this – when we’re changing the packages. We’re changing the cars. This car is evolving, so I don’t believe it’s going to be something because I’ve done that in the past and it didn’t really work out for me. I just react and I let my smart people around me – I’ve surrounded myself with the smartest people in the garage, both at Trackhouse and Chevrolet, and let them think about that. I’ll react in the car when I drive into turn three.” IN SEVEN STARTS AT BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY, YOU HAVE JUST ONE TOP-10 FINISH. WHAT IS IT ABOUT THAT PLACE THAT YOU FIND SO CHALLENGING? “Driving across a mountain and going into Bristol, Tennessee (laughs). Just when I get there, I have struggled a lot. I had one truck and one Xfinity car that I thought I could win at in all my starts there. Bristol (Motor Speedway) was my second-ever race in the sport in 2011 – I crashed in practice; I was the slowest in qualifying in a backup car and I ran into everything during the race. It was terrible.  Yeah, if I knew, I would fix it. I just haven’t been able to make speed. My teammates are generally faster than me there, and I know that. I’ve studied Daniel (Suarez) a lot, just looking through his stuff. We’ve had completely equally-built, same setup cars at Bristol and he outran me. As a teammate, I’m happy for him, but I want to beat him. And neither one of us ran great. Obviously I have a lot of laps around there. I remember when I went there for the first time, I was supposed to have just ran the one race in 2011 in a truck, and that was going to be it.. a bucket-list race. But it went good and we finished 10th, so we found a way to fund a few more. We went to Bristol for the second race. I remember being on top of the world – this NASCAR stuff is not as hard as I thought, but boy, Bristol kicked my butt that Wednesday night. That’s back when we raced Wednesday night.  Yeah, I have those memories of the bad and the good. Why I can’t make as much speed, I don’t know.”

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (March 8, 2024) – Brandon Robinson (No. 44 Mission Roof Systems Indian FTR750) successfully defended his adopted home turf to reign in Friday’s Mission SuperTwins Main Event to conclude a hugely entertaining Royal Enfield Short Track at DAYTONA II at the Daytona International Speedway Short Track. Robinson had to overcome potential Progressive American Flat Track, sanctioned by AMA Pro Racing, history in order to do so, forced to chase down an in-form Sammy Halbert (No. 69 Dodge Bros. Racing/Castrol Harley-Davidson XR750) to get the win. Halbert actually led the opening six-and-a-half minutes of the Main Event after earlier winning his heat race and the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge a full 53 years, 10 months, and five days after Mert Lawwill took the iconic Harley-Davidson XR750 to its maiden win at the Cumberland Half-Mile. Following an extended pursuit, the Mission Roof Systems pilot finally dove up the inside of Dodge Bros.-backed Halbert, who then was thrown out of his saddle after encountering a bump while off his usual line. Undeterred, Halbert nearly clawed his way back within striking distance before at last conceding the race to Robinson in its final minute. The victory was the fourth of Robinson’s career at the DAYTONA Short Track, moving him equal with Friday adversary Halbert for most all-time at the event. Afterward, Robinson, who originally hails from Pennsylvania but now resides just fifteen minutes from the World Center of Racing, unsurprisingly professed his affection for the track. He said, “This feels amazing. It feels like forever since I’ve won a race. Going winless last year really (made me angry) to be honest. I came to the Main with a chip on my shoulder. I love this place. I love Daytona. Something about this dirt – it’s the greatest dirt in the world as far as I’m concerned… This is a dream ending to the week.” Dallas Daniels (No. 32 Estenson Racing Yamaha MT-07 DT), himself the winner of the three prior premier-class showdowns at the venue, battled with Robinson and hunted Halbert over the Main’s opening half before falling into the clutches of the resurgent Briar Bauman (No. 3 Rick Ware Racing/KTM/Parts Plus KTM 790 Duke). The two then traded third multiple times – a melee complete with crisscrossing lines and squared-up counters – before Daniels laid claim on the spot for good. He finished a little more than a second ahead of Bauman with reigning Grand National Champion Jared Mees (No. 1 Rogers Racing/SDI Racing/Indian Motorcycle FTR750) not far behind in fifth. Sixth went to Davis Fisher (No. 67 Rackley Racing/Bob Lanphere’s BMC Racing Indian FTR750) a short distance ahead of Jarod Vanderkooi (No. 20 JMC Motorsports/Fairway Ford Ohio Indian FTR750) in seventh. Premier-class rookies Trevor Brunner (No. 21 Mission Foods/Zanotti Racing KTM 790 Duke) and Max Whale (No. 18 Latus Motors Racing/Liqui Moly Harley-Davidson XG750R) finished eighth and tenth, respectively, with Thursday runner-up Brandon Price (No. 92 Memphis Shades/Corbin/OTBR Yamaha MT-07) sandwiched in between.Parts Unlimited AFT Singles presented by KICKER Tom Drane (No. 59 Estenson Racing Yamaha YZ450F) rebounded from his Thursday disappointment to claim a dominating win in Friday’s Parts Unlimited AFT Singles presented by KICKER rematch. The young Australian ripped out to the holeshot in the restart that followed an early red flag and immediately stretched out a second-plus advantage at the front. Meanwhile, triple Daytona ST winner and double defending class champion Kody Kopp (No. 1 Rick Ware Racing/Parts Plus KTM 450 SX-F) moved up from third into second after working past impressive sophomore Logan Eisenhard (No. 66 Hannum’s Harley-Davidson KTM 450 SX-F) with five of the race’s scheduled six minutes still on the clock. With clear air in front of him and plenty of time to work with, Kopp’s attempts to close the gap saw him make minor inroads on Drane’s advantage for a spell. But despite the determined effort, the Yamaha ace’s speed and consistency ultimately won out to the tune of a 1.951-second margin of victory at the checkered flag. The victory was Drane’s first in the Short Track discipline, after previously winning three Miles and a Half-Mile. He said, “This means so much to finally get a Short Track win. I’d struggled a lot with these, but I just kept working and chipping away. I put all that effort in to try to become good (at them) so I can fight for the title this year.” Eisenhard kept his head down in search of a maiden Progressive AFT podium and very nearly pulled it off. However, he was swallowed up and then pushed aside in rapid succession by a pair of the category’s established stars, Dalton Gauthier (No. 79 D&D Racing/Certified KTM 450 SX-F) and Chase Saathoff (No. 88 JPG Motorsports Honda CRF450R) with just 30 seconds still on the clock. Gauthier then fended off Saathoff to secure his second podium of the young ’24 season. Despite losing out on his podium bid, Eisenhard did hold on to finish inside the top five even with Justin Jones (No. 91 J&H Racing Husqvarna FC 450), Aiden RoosEvans (No. 26 FRA Trust/ATV’s and More Yamaha YZ450F), and James Ott (No. 19 1st Impressions Race Team Husqvarna FC450) running just behind in close formation. Heralded rookie Evan Renshaw (No. 265 American Honda/Mission Foods CRF450R) finished ninth, one spot in front of his charging Turner Honda teammate, Trent Lowe (No. 48 American Honda/Mission Foods CRF450R), whose early-race crash prompted the aforementioned red flag. In the Royal Enfield Build. Train. Race Main, Kenzie Luker (No. 17 Royal Enfield/Parts Unlimited) edged Thursday winner Taia Little (No. 11 Royal Enfield/Parts Unlimited) by 0.275 seconds for the Friday victory. Next Up: The 2024 Progressive American Flat Track season will resume on Saturday, March 23, with the Yamaha Senoia Short Track at Senoia Raceway in Senoia, Georgia. To secure your tickets today, please visit https://www.americanflattrack.com/events/2024/view/senoia-short-track-2024. For those that can’t catch the live action from the circuit, FloRacing is the live streaming home of Progressive AFT. Sign up now and catch every second of on-track action starting with Practice & Qualifying and ending with the Victory Podium at the end of the night at http://flosports.link/aft. FOX Sports coverage of the Royal Enfield Short Track at DAYTONA I will premiere on FS1 on Saturday, March 16, at 9:30 a.m. ET (6:30 a.m. PT), while the Royal Enfield Short Track at DAYTONA II will air the following day, Sunday, March 17, at 12:00 p.m. ET (9:00 a.m. PT).For more information on Progressive AFT visit https://www.americanflattrack.com.