BRITTANY FORCE AND FLAV-R-PAC LEAVE NORTHWEST NATIONALS WITH TRACK SPEED RECORD
| KENT, Wash. (July 23, 2023) – Brittany Force and the Flav-R-Pac / Monster Energy Chevrolet dragster team will maintain their fourth-place points position after a quarterfinal exit at the Flav-R-Pac NHRA Northwest Nationals Sunday at Pacific Raceways. John Force and the PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Chevy Camaro SS also had a quarterfinal exit while Robert Hight with the Cornwell Tools / AAA Chevy Camaro SS and Ausitn Prock with the Montana Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist Chevy dragster exited in the first round. Entering the day as the No. 10 qualifiers, Brittany Force and the Flav-R-Pac team had an unfortunate first-round match-up with teammate Austin Prock. Force and Prock would put on quite the show with their side-by-side quickest pair of the weekend. The Flav-R-Pac team would take the win with a 3.707-second run at a track record 334.73 mph while Prock would handle the Montana Brand dragster to a stout 3.738 at 325.92. Force’s impressive showing in the first round landed her in a quarterfinal race against four-time champion Steve Torrence. The Flav-R-Pac machine would run into tire smoke around 60 feet, coasting to the finish line at 8.811 seconds and 70.93 mph. Torrence wouldn’t miss a beat with a 3.752 pass at 319.52. “That first-round win was an outstanding run for this Flav-R-Pac / Monster Energy team. We set the track speed record and ran low ET of the weekend. Our team worked really hard to turn things around after an uneventful two days of qualifying. Unfortunately, we went out the second round, but we know our error and we’ll improve it before we go to the next race,” Force said. “Overall, we were really excited to be out here representing Flav-R-Pac at their title race. It was awesome to see Flav-R-Pac splashed all over everywhere. I wish we could have done better but we’ll attempt to get the job done again next weekend in Sonoma.” Austin Prock and the Montana Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist team, who entered the day as the No. 5 qualifiers, held onto their No. 5 points position after taking the first-round loss to Force. Their 3.738-second pass at 325.92 was the third-best ET of the round and coupled with Prock’s .067 reaction time would have beat anyone else in the round. “This Montana Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist team had a strong run today; we were just lined up against the wrong car. Drag racing is tough and humbling sometimes,” Prock said. “We have a good hot rod right now, we just need some things to fall our way. On to Sonoma to give it another go.” John Force and the PEAK Chevy started race day as the No. 1 qualifiers after they had a blistering Saturday evening pass. The efforts earned the 16-time champion a first-round bye. Force would handle the PEAK Camaro to a 3.952-second run at 323.89 mph to earn lane choice over his second-round opponent, Chad Green. Force would run into trouble in the quarterfinal matchup, crossing the finish line at only 4.229 seconds. “Not the day we wanted. Couldn’t get the job done for Frank Tiegs at his Flav-R-Pac race. Really thought, after going No. 1 and after that first round in Top Fuel, we might have had it. Just not our day,” Force said. “This PEAK team, we’re doing good. We can hang with the rest of these teams, just need to find our consistency. We’ll pack up and head to the next one, try to get some rounds in Sonoma.” Robert Hight and the Cornwell Tools Chevy had their defense of the NHRA Northwest Nationals cut short in the first round. Hight started race day from the No. 4 qualifying spot, squaring up with Cruz Pedregon. The Cornwell Tools Camaro would haze the tires to go only 4.445 seconds at 214.89 mph, falling short of Pedregon’s 3.956 at 323.50. “Disappointing, but again, we get the opportunity to turn it around in just a couple days. I know this Cornwell Tools team was really hoping to get another Northwest Nationals Wally. Would have been nice to get it done for Frank Tiegs again at his title race after everything he’s done for John Force Racing,” Hight said. “Hopefully we can turn it around and get into a groove starting in Sonoma next weekend.” The final leg of the famed NHRA Western Swing kicks off next weekend, July 28-30, with the DENSO NHRA Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma Raceway. -30- |
 AUSTIN PROCK, 27, Montana Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist dragsterQualifying:5th; 3.774-seconds; 323.27 mphBonus Qualifying Points:+1 (3rd quickest Q2) Race Results: Lost to Brittany Force BRITTANY FORCE, 37, Flav-R-Pac / Monster Energy dragsterQualifying:10th; 3.808-seconds; 319.22 mphBonus Qualifying Points:0 Race Results: Beat Austin Prock; Lost to Steve Torrence   JOHN FORCE, 74, PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Chevrolet Camaro SSQualifying:2nd; 3.915-seconds; 327.35 mphBonus Qualifying Points: +5 (2nd quickest Q1; quickest Q3)Race Results: Bye; Lost to Chad Green ROBERT HIGHT, 53, Cornwell Tools / AAA Chevrolet Camaro SSQualifying:4th; 3.963-seconds; 320.81 mphBonus Qualifying Points:0 Race Results: Lost to Cruz Pedregon |
| Photo Credit: Gary Nastase, Auto Imagery |
| Unofficial NHRA Camping World Top Ten Points Standings TOP FUEL – 1. Steve Torrence, 821; 2. Justin Ashley, 817; 3. Leah Pruett, 685; 4. Brittany Force, Flav-R-Pac / Monster Energy dragster, 684; 5. Austin Prock, Montana Brand/Rocky Mountain Twist dragster, 654; 6. Doug Kalitta, 637; 7. Antron Brown, 624; 8. Mike Salinas, 622; 9. Josh Hart, 571; 10. Clay Millican, 568. FUNNY CAR – 1. Matt Hagan, 832; 2. Ron Capps, 815; 3. Alexis DeJoria, 712; 4. Robert Hight, Cornwell Tools/AAA Chevy Camaro SS, 703; 5. Chad Green, 702; 6. Tie, Bob Tasca III and Tim Wilkerson, 660 each; 8. John Force, PEAK Coolant and Antifreeze Chevy Camaro SS, 605; 9. J.R. Todd, 578; 10. Cruz Pedregon, 508. |
Josh Hart Exits Seattle Motivated for Sonoma
KENT, WA (July 23, 2023) — Josh Hart and the R+L Carriers Top Fuel dragster team moved from Denver to Seattle for the Flav-R-Pac NHRA Northwest Nationals this weekend looking to build on his quarterfinal finish from last week. The 2023 Pep Boys Top Fuel Allstar Callout winner was returning to Pacific Raceways for the second time in his professional career. Through three rounds of qualifying Hart made two consistent passes and in the final session his R+L Carriers overpowered the track sending the rising Top Fuel star into eliminations as the No. 11 qualifier. His quickest run during qualifying was during the first pass on Saturday and he posted a 3.820 second run at 319.67 mph.
“We had three shots in qualifying and coming down from the mountain it took us a couple of runs to get squared away,” said Hart, who has two national event wins. “It was a little warm and our first run on Saturday was something we knew we could build on. The final session of qualifying we just missed it but (crew chief) Ron (Douglas) knew we could throw more at the track on race day.”
On race day Hart drew four-time world champion Steve Torrence in a No. 11 versus No. 4 qualifier battle. The fellow independent team owners and drivers have a mountain of respect for each other but that was put to the side when the helmets went on to start the Northwest Nationals. As the Christmas Tree fired Hart was first off the line and was side by side with Torrence as both dragsters flew down the track. As the finish line closed in Torrence was able to get the nose of his Capco Contractors dragster out in front of Hart’s R+L Carriers 12,000-horsepower land rocket.
As Hart and Torrence crossed the finish line the win light came on for Torrence and Hart was left with the satisfaction of a well-run race. His R+L Carriers Top Fuel machine made its quickest run of the weekend and showed the team it truly has the power to compete, posting a 3.750 second pass at a whopping 331.12 mph time.
Josh Hart with fans at Northwest Nationals, photo by Gary Nastase/Auto Imagery
“Ron threw everything at the track and we really stepped up with a 3.75 second pass,” said Hart. “The biggest positive is we have a race car that can run with anyone. We just need to get one or two favorable match-ups. These R+L Carriers guys are working really hard and this weekend showed we can battle and keep our heads up.”
As the final race of the Western Swing loom next weekend at Sonoma Raceway Hart will look to that event as the beginning of his push to prepare for the Countdown. Four races stand between the championship contender and moving up in the Top Fuel point standings.
“This weekend we had a lot of R+L Carriers guests in our hospitality and we will have a good group in Sonoma,” said Hart. “Our job is to win rounds but we want to make sure our guests enjoy the experience. I was able to talk with a lot of guests all weekend and that helps with the sting of a short weekend. I am chasing my dream out here and we have a ton of support. We are going to go after it in Sonoma.”
Hart and the rest of the Top Fuel class will be on track on Friday with two qualifying sessions followed by two more qualifying sessions on Saturday. The quickest 16 Top Fuel dragsters will battle it out on Sunday with the race being broadcast on FOX nationally.
Qualifying Results
Q1: 3.915 sec, 308.21 mph; Qual. 8
Q2: 3.820 sec, 319.67 mph; Qual. 8
Q3: 4.492 sec, 173.25 mph; Qual. 11
Bonus Points: 0
Race Results
First Round
Steve Torrence, CAPCO Contractors dragster, (.084), 3.736, 328.38 mph def. Josh Hart, R+L Carriers dragster, (.0073), 3.750, 331.12 mph
Camping World Drag Racing Series Top Ten - Top Fuel 1. Steve Torrence 821 2. Justin Ashley 817 3. Leah Pruett 685 4. Brittany Force 684 5. Austin Prock 654 6. Doug Kalitta 637 7. Antron Brown 624 8. Mike Salinas 622 9. Josh Hart 571 10. Clay Millican 568
SCRAPPERS RACING SHOWS STRENGTH IN SEATTLE
Event: Northwest Nationals, Pacific Raceways
Scrappers Racing Results:
· Top Fuel – Mike Salinas – Round 2
· Pro Stock Motorcycle – Jianna Evaristo – Round 1
| Driver/Rider | Opponent | ET |
| Mike Salinas | Round 1 – BYERound 2 – Shawn Langdon | Round 1 – W. 3.786Round 2 – L. 4.772 vs. 3.792 |
| Jianna Evaristo | Round 1 – Chase Van Sant | Round 1 – L. 6.822 vs. 6.799 |
KENT, Wash. (July 23, 2023) – Mike Salinas started the weekend in the Northwest strong by claiming the number one qualifier position during the second qualifying session early on Saturday afternoon. The Valley Services Top Fuel dragster posted a time of 3.743 seconds at 329.02 mph for the second number one qualifier for Scrappers Racing this season.
As race morning rolled around, Salinas would inherit a bye run in the first round due to his number one qualifier position. He posted another solid pass at 3.786 seconds even losing a cylinder in his nitro-powered motor on the run. That would give him lane choice over Shawn Langdon for round two, but Salinas had to lift down track and would lose to Langdon with a 4.772 to a 3.792.
“We went up there with the thought of running a smooth, clean, fast run,” said Salinas, following round two. “We have the bottom end of the track real good and we’re trying to ease into the top part and the track just wouldn’t hold what we were trying to give it, that’s all. I got him (Langdon) on the light and had him to a certain spot. We were ahead of him and the car started breaking loose so I had to lift and he went by.”
In the first appearance for Pro Stock Motorcycle at the Pacific Raceways, Jianna Evaristo qualified in the number eight position with a time of 6.848 seconds at 197.42 mph. Evaristo would pair up against Chase Van Sant in round one as NHRA’s ‘Marquee Matchup.’ While Evaristo posted her fastest time of the weekend with a 6.822 second pass, it wasn’t enough to advance to round two as Van Sant posted a time of 6.799 seconds.
The NHRA Championship Drag Racing Series will finish out their Western Swing next weekend at Sonoma Raceway in Northern California. The Scrappers Racing Top Fuel car with Salinas and the Pro Stock Motorcycle of Evaristo will begin the weekend with the first round of qualifying on Friday, July 28 at 5:00 PM PT/8:00 PM ET.
JADE’S REVENGE: Avedisian Passes Jones Late to Win Second of Season at Southern Illinois
MARION, IL (July 22, 2023) – One night after giving up the lead and a win in the final laps, Jade Avedisian sang a song of redemption in Southern Illinois Raceway Victory Lane – a winner with the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota and the POWRi National Midget League for the second time this season.
The 16-year-old Californian was heartbroken Friday night after defending Xtreme Outlaw champion Zach Daum got around her for the lead coming to the white flag at Doe Run Raceway, forcing her to settle for a runner-up finish. She and the Keith Kunz Motorsports crew shook it off, regrouped, came back looking for vengeance on Saturday and got exactly that.
Avedisian started up front, took the lead on a late restart and drove it back home for her second Xtreme Outlaw-POWRi Challenge Series win of the season and fourth Xtreme Outlaw win of her career.
“Lately, we’ve been in the first few rows of every Feature and had a shot to win, and [either] I mess up or something goes wrong,” Avedisian said. “To finally get back into Victory Lane for the second time this year gives us a bit more momentum rolling into the next month of Xtreme racing.”
From fourth on the starting grid, Jade kept pace with the leaders through the first half of the 30-lap main event, not letting Kyle Jones or Taylor Reimer get too far out. With the final third of the race quickly approaching, Avedisian decided it was go-time and selected the top lane as her vehicle to get her moving toward the front.
“I just tried to drive it as hard as I possibly could,” Avedisian said. “I wasn’t sure in the beginning if it was going to work. I finally got up there, and I was assuming the few cars behind me were just trying to help me clean it off. It just kept getting faster and faster.”
The faster the top got, the more she gained on leader Jones. By the time the race’s only caution flew with 22 laps complete, Avedisian had shrunk Jones’ lead down to under a half-second from what was once almost two full seconds.
On the ensuing restart, Avedisian showed her hand in her bread-and-butter lane around the top.
“I saw [Jones’] crew guys telling him to go to the top, and I wasn’t sure if he was going to, and he ended up not,” Avedisian said. “He kinda left me on the restart, but luckily I had enough speed around the top.”
With a great run off Turn 2 and a sweeping line around Turns 3-4, Avedisian sailed around the outside of Jones to take the lead at the flag stand. Now in control in the final laps with a fast car, Avedisian hit the afterburners and drove away from the field, leading them back around to the checkers to bag the $4,000 grand prize.
Crossing the stripe in second was Zach Daum, who drove all the way up from 11th on the starting grid. Though his quest for four-straight victories with his new team at Trifecta Motorsports fell one spot short, Daum was still pleased with he and the car’s performance as he charged to the front in his signature bottom-hugging lane.
“I ran a couple laps on the top – I had to get around [Andrew] Felker, and I knew he was on the bottom and wasn’t leaving, so I couldn’t waste any time messing with him,” Daum said. “I moved around a little bit, but we were just so good on the bottom that I never really felt the need to move and abandon.”
With four-straight podium finishes and five top-fives in the last five Series events, Daum and the Trifecta squad have been working well together since their first pairing in the team’s flagship #7U car at the beginning of June.
“I feel like we’re all in a really good place,” Daum said. “Janky [Bobby Milliser] works his ass off, Staton and Steve [car owners] work their ass off. They’re in this to win races, win championships, be competitive, and it shows.
“We ain’t got the biggest rig in the pits, but we got everything we need to go race. And that’s the important part.”
Taylor Reimer crossed the stripe third from fourth on the starting grid, posting back-to-back top-five finishes for the first time on the 2023 Xtreme Outlaw trail. After a slow start to the 2023 season, she’s picked up her average start and average finish and said she feels she’s been improving.
“I feel a little bit more confident; I think I was just a little down on myself,” Reimer said. “At the beginning of the year, we weren’t performing as well as we should’ve been.
“The past couple of weeks, on my down time, I’ve been trying to stay focused – watching film, going to sim when I can. Just trying to keep my head down and grind it out.”
UP NEXT
The Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota gets back into action in less than a week’s time, starting up a three-day race weekend next Friday-Sunday, July 28-30 at Ohio Valley Speedway (WV), Atomic Speedway (OH) and Brushcreek Motorsports Complex (OH).
Tickets for all three events will be on sale at the gate. If you can’t be there in person, stream every lap live on DIRTVision.
ABBREVIATED RESULTS (view full results)
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 71-Jade Avedisian[4]; 2. 7U-Zach Daum[11]; 3. 25K-Taylor Reimer[3]; 4. 16-Kyle Jones[1]; 5. 08-Cannon McIntosh[15]; 6. 26R-Corbin Rueschenberg[5]; 7. 40-Chase McDermand[6]; 8. 58-Daniel Whitley[7]; 9. 11A-Andrew Felker[2]; 10. 97-Gavin Miller[13]; 11. 21K-Karter Sarff[16]; 12. 97K-Cooper Williams[9]; 13. 1K-Brayton Lynch[12]; 14. 56-Mitchell Davis[20]; 15. 31K-Jaxton Wiggs[14]; 16. 26-Chance Crum[17]; 17. 19AZ-Hayden Reinbold[8]; 18. 44-Branigan Roark[10]; 19. 17B-Austin Barnhill[18]; 20. 08K-Brody Wake[19]
Brandon Sheppard Collects Second Career Silver Dollar Nationals
| BRANDON, SD (July 22, 2023) – Brandon Sheppard held off challenges from both Bobby Pierce and Hudson O’Neal to win his second career Silver Dollar Nationals – Presented by MyRacePass on Saturday night at Huset’s Speedway. The box score will show that Sheppard led all 80 laps, but it was far from easy as he took home $53,000 for his second Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series win of the season. Pierce, who started eighth finished second to Sheppard with O’Neal coming home in third. The current Big River Steel Chase for the Championship – Presented by MyRacePass points leader Ricky Thornton Jr. charged from his 16th starting spot to place fourth. Tyler Erb came from 12th to round out the top five. Sheppard, who won the Silver Dollar Nationals when it was at I-80 Speedway in 2020 dueled with Pierce and O’Neal for most of the last half of the race, withstood every attempt by those two competitors to come home with the victory. “Man, them guys were making it hard on me for sure. The track it was awesome. It was treacherous out there. I was tight about halfway thru the race thru three and four and they had me messed up and a little bit worried. Once I moved to the top in one and two I kind of started slowing down my entry into three and four and that helped me out a bunch then all the lapped cars were on the bottom, so I just committed myself to the top for the rest of the race. I got a smooth rhythm going and I was just able to hold them guys off. Bobby and Hudson have been really tough this year, we’ve had our ups and downs all year long. Our win column isn’t as good as we would have liked it to be,” said the 30-year-old New Berlin, Illinois resident. “This one means a lot to me. I won it with the Rocket House Car a couple of years ago and to do it at a new racetrack, it’s a short track. We were battling hard there and that’s what you get when you run short tracks. This place is awesome. We battled a lot with Mother Nature this weekend, but the track guys did a phenomenal job on the track the whole time. It got a little one lane the first night, but you will have that occasionally. Like I said hats off to the track crew.” Pierce, who just a few weeks ago won the $50,000 NAPA Auto Parts Gopher 50 at Deer Creek Speedway took several shots at Sheppard but could not duplicate the ending where he beat O’Neal to the finish at Deer Creek. “I wish I would have tried the bottom sooner. I just couldn’t make that run on him so I was hoping for some lapped cars to hold him up and maybe I could cross him [Sheppard] over. That was a heck of a race to come from eighth like that. We were on the move pretty quick in the race. I don’t how he [Sheppard] fit around me there in turn four that one lap, that was nuts. I had the slider basically cleared and he just got around and that won him the race so congrats to him on that. He drove a heck of a race.” O’Neal rounded out the Big River Steel Podium with his third-place finish. “That was brutal up around the that cushion, it wasn’t brutal for the race cars, man it was on us. I was dead about the last ten laps. Man, it was a good race me, Shepp and Bobby, I think you could have thrown a blanket over us the last 30 or 40 laps or whatever it was. I thought it was a great race. There was sometimes where I thought we were going to have a shot I got a good restart on the last one and I was able to kind of sneak under Shepp for a minute, but I just couldn’t quite get clear of him, and Bobby played it good and got back by me.” The winner’s Sheppard-Riggs Racing, Longhorn Chassis is powered by a Cornett Racing Engine and sponsored by True Timber Camo, Valvoline, Paulson Rock Products, Dennis G. Woodworth Attorney-at-Law, Wyld Gear, Riggs Drilling Solutions, Sheppard Auto Sales and Salvage, Sunoco Race Fuels, and Bilstein Shocks. Completing the top ten were Tim McCreadie, Chase Junghans, Kyle Bronson, Jonathan Davenport, and Devin Moran. Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Race Summary 13th Annual Silver Dollar Nationals Presented by MyRacePassSaturday, July 22, 2023Huset’s Speedway – Brandon, SD Penske Shocks Round #1 – Heat Race #1 Finish (11 Laps): 1. 1H-Hudson O’Neal[5]; 2. 99B-Boom Briggs[1]; 3. 14M-Morgan Bagley[4]; 4. 49-Jonathan Davenport[9]; 5. 16-Tyler Bruening[7]; 6. 8-Dillon McCowan[6]; 7. 7-Ross Robinson[3]; 8. 11-Spencer Hughes[2]; 9. 10W-Junior Coover[8]Summit Racing Products Round #1 – Heat Race #2 Finish (10 Laps): 1. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[2]; 2. 18D-Daulton Wilson[1]; 3. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[3]; 4. 157-Mike Marlar[4]; 5. 111B-Max Blair[6]; 6. 99-Devin Moran[7]; 7. 24-Bill Leighton[5]; 8. 66C-Matt Cosner[8] Simpson Race Products Round #1 – Heat Race #3 (10 Laps): 1. 25C-Shane Clanton[1]; 2. B5-Brandon Sheppard[3]; 3. 40B-Kyle Bronson[2]; 4. 76-Brandon Overton[5]; 5. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[6]; 6. 58-Garrett Alberson[7]; 7. 25-Chad Simpson[4]; 8. 07-Ben Sukup[8] AP1 Insurance Round #1 – Heat Race #4 (10 Laps): 1. 1T-Tyler Erb[1]; 2. 18-Chase Junghans[2]; 3. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[4]; 4. 32-Bobby Pierce[6]; 5. 39-Tim McCreadie[7]; 6. 76B-Blair Nothdurft[3]; 7. 14J-Jake Neal[8]; 8. 6-Al Humphrey[5] Penske Shocks Round #2 – Heat Race #1 Finish (11 Laps): 1. 99-Devin Moran[2]; 2. 49-Jonathan Davenport[1]; 3. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[3]; 4. 1H-Hudson O’Neal[4]; 5. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[5]; 6. 1T-Tyler Erb[7]; 7. 40B-Kyle Bronson[6]; 8. 99B-Boom Briggs[8]; 9. (DNS) 6-Al Humphrey Summit Racing Products Round #2 – Heat Race #2 Finish (10 Laps): 1. 76-Brandon Overton[4]; 2. 111B-Max Blair[3]; 3. 25C-Shane Clanton[8]; 4. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[7]; 5. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[5]; 6. 14J-Jake Neal[1]; 7. 14M-Morgan Bagley[6]; 8. 10W-Junior Coover[2] Simpson Race Products Round #2 – Heat Race #3 (10 Laps): 1. 39-Tim McCreadie[2]; 2. 16-Tyler Bruening[3]; 3. 25-Chad Simpson[5]; 4. 7-Ross Robinson[7]; 5. 07-Ben Sukup[1]; 6. 24-Bill Leighton[4]; 7. 76B-Blair Nothdurft[6]; 8. 18D-Daulton Wilson[8] AP1 Insurance Round #2 – Heat Race #4 (10 Laps): 1. B5-Brandon Sheppard[6]; 2. 32-Bobby Pierce[3]; 3. 58-Garrett Alberson[2]; 4. 66C-Matt Cosner[1]; 5. 157-Mike Marlar[5]; 6. 18-Chase Junghans[7]; 7. 8-Dillon McCowan[4]; 8. 11-Spencer Hughes[8] Fast Shafts B-Main Race #1 (12 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 58-Garrett Alberson[1]; 2. 25-Chad Simpson[2]; 3. 7-Ross Robinson[3]; 4. 99B-Boom Briggs[4]; 5. 66C-Matt Cosner[5]; 6. 8-Dillon McCowan[6]; 7. 76B-Blair Nothdurft[7]; 8. 11-Spencer Hughes[8]; 9. 6-Al Humphrey[9] UNOH B-Main Race #2 (12 Laps, Top 3 Transfer): 1. 157-Mike Marlar[1]; 2. 18D-Daulton Wilson[3]; 3. 40B-Kyle Bronson[4]; 4. 14M-Morgan Bagley[2]; 5. 14J-Jake Neal[5]; 6. 07-Ben Sukup[7]; 7. 10W-Junior Coover[8]; 8. (DNS) 24-Bill Leighton Non-Qualifiers Race (10 Laps): 1. 66C-Matt Cosner[1]; 2. 14M-Morgan Bagley[2]; 3. 8-Dillon McCowan[3]; 4. 14J-Jake Neal[4]; 5. 76B-Blair Nothdurft[5]; 6. 6-Al Humphrey[7]; 7. 07-Ben Sukup[6]; 8. 10W-Junior Coover[8] 13th Annual Silver Dollar Nationals Presented by MyRacePass Feature Finish (80 Laps): |
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| Race Statistics Entrants: 33Terminal Maintenance & Construction Pole Sitter: Brandon SheppardLap Leaders: Brandon Sheppard (Laps 1-80)Wieland Feature Winner: Brandon SheppardArizona Sport Shirts Crown Jewel Cup Feature Winner: Brandon SheppardBrandon Ford TV Challenge Feature Winner: Brandon Sheppard Margin of Victory: 0.326 secondsGorsuch Performance Solutions Cautions: Debris (Lap 16); Daulton Wilson (Lap 37); Ross Robinson (Lap 42); Ross Robinson (Lap 46)Series Provisionals: Spencer Hughes; Boom BriggsFast Time Provisional: n/aSeries Emergency Provisionals: n/aTrack Provisional: n/aBig River Steel Podium Top 3: Brandon Sheppard, Bobby Pierce, Hudson O’NealPenske Shocks Top 5: Brandon Sheppard, Bobby Pierce, Hudson O’Neal, Ricky Thornton, Jr, Tyler ErbTodd Steel Buildings Hard Charger of the Race: Kyle Bronson (Advanced 14 Positions)Wilwood Brakes Lucky 7th Place Feature: Chase JunghansDeatherage Opticians Lucky 13th Place Feature: Mike MarlarEarnhardt Technologies Most Laps Led: Brandon Sheppard (80 Laps)Sunoco Race for Gas Highest Finisher: Brandon SheppardMidwest Sheet Metal Spoiler Challenge Point Leader: Ricky Thornton, Jr.O’Reilly Auto Parts Rookie of the Race: Max BlairEtchberger Trucking Fastest Lap of the Race: Brandon Sheppard (Lap 3 – 13.081 seconds)MD3 Tough Break of the Race: Brandon OvertonOuterwears Crew Chief of the Race: Corey Richman (Brandon Sheppard)ARP Engine Builder of the Race: Cornett Racing EnginesMiller Welders Chassis Builder of the Race: Longhorn ChassisDirt Draft Fastest in Hot Laps: Ricky Thornton, Jr. (12.561 seconds)Time of Race: 29 minutes 43 seconds The Big River Steel Chase for the Championship Presented by ARP Point Standings: |
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CA CONQUERS PA: Rico Abreu Aces Williams Grove for Summer Nationals Victory
| Abreu survives a challenge from David Gravel for his first win at the historic racetrackMECHANICSBURG, PA (July 22, 2023) – Not often do the Pennsylvania Posse fans embrace an outsider like one of their own. But not all outsiders are as beloved as Rico Abreu.When Abreu stopped in front of the famed Beer Hill in Turn 3 after winning Saturday at Mechanicsburg, PA’s Williams Grove Speedway, the passionate fans cheered as if PA is listed next to his name instead of CA in the home state column. As he climbed the fence in front of them, the noise elevated from cheers to a roar.The St. Helena, CA native led all 30 laps of the Champion Racing Oil Summer Nationals finale, holding off a late David Gravel charge to collect a victory representing neither the World of Outlaws or PA Posse, but the Invaders. A $20,000 paycheck awaited Abreu for his efforts.Abreu’s visit to Victory Lane was his fourth of 2023 with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars. It also marked his first career triumph at Williams Grove, making him the 53rd different driver to win at the half mile with The Greatest Show on Dirt. The 31-year-old has now won twice as an Invader in PA this year after topping Lincoln’s Spring Showdown race back in March.For Abreu, the night marked yet another testament to the vast strides he’s made in 2023 as he continues what’s been an amazing season.“That was really intense there at the end. It’s really hard to judge your pace. I really wasn’t catching traffic,” Abreu said. “I’m just thankful for this team. Everybody does an unbelievable job making the right decisions. The Dash Draw was really important tonight for us and the way the circumstances laid out in the race. I’m wore out from climbing the fence back there.“This has been a really special racetrack to me. A very difficult racetrack as a race car driver coming from the west coast out here. Just totally different driving styles. It’s taken me a few years to really conquer this place and put a team behind me that developed me into a mature enough driver to be successful here. We haven’t ran out of the top five, I think, with Ricky (Warner, crew chief) here. It just shows how important your team is.”As Abreu noted, the Dash Draw positioned him favorably as drawing the one lined him up first for the Toyota Racing Dash that he won to earn the pole of the Feature. The best starting spot in the field allowed him to pull ahead at the drop of the green flag.Behind Abreu, Spencer Bayston held second while David Gravel and Brent Marks commenced a war for third. The two traded sliders and crossovers and even a little contact until Gravel finally secured the spot.Only a few laps later, Gravel pulled up to the tail tank of Bayston to begin a battle for the runner-up position. On lap 12, Gravel ripped the cushion in Turns 1 and 2 to roll around Bayston. With Bayston unable to answer his move, Gravel put Abreu in the crosshairs.Up front, Abreu worked smoothly through traffic as the race moved beyond halfway. Gravel steadily began to inch toward the top spot. While Abreu favored the bottom line around both ends of the paperclip-shaped track, Gravel opted for the top in Turns 1 and 2. Hitting the cushion perfectly allowed him to chip away at the lead until he was only a few car lengths back.“I knew Gravel was pressuring me there the whole race,” Abreu noted. “You have to be very disciplined as a race car driver when you get put in those circumstances. You know there’s pressure and you get out of the groove and you lose a pass and that’s the race winning move.”Once Gravel got close with less than 10 laps to go, it was as if he hit an invisible wall. Suddenly, the Big Game Motorsports #2 couldn’t close as Abreu continued to roll the bottom. Then one small mistake from Abreu nearly cost him the race. Exiting Turn 4 coming to three laps remaining, Abreu narrowly missed the grip, helping Gravel get a massive run. He peeked to Abreu’s outside heading down the front straightaway but wasn’t able to nose ahead entering Turn 1.That move proved to be the final challenge as Abreu went on to cross the finish line with a little over a half a second advantage.“I know my family is at home watching,” Abreu said. “And I know how much it means to them to be able to see us have success and the investment and time it takes to get a team to the elite level like this to compete against the World of Outlaws and Pennsylvania Posse. They’re all here this weekend.”As for the celebration on Beer Hill? It was something he’d been planning for a while.“I watched Fred Rahmer do it when he won the National Open, and I had a lot of respect for that,” Abreu said. “I’ve always said if I ever were to win a race here, I was going to make sure to stop over there. Those race fans don’t get a whole lot of love when it comes to Victory Lane, so it was important to me to stop over there and try to rowdy them up.”Gravel came home second for his 14th top five in the last 16 races and 23rd podium of the season. The Watertown, CT native felt that timing wasn’t his friend. Whether it was his preferred line going away when he neared Abreu or the checkered flag flying right when he thought another opportunity to take the lead was coming together, time wasn’t on his side.“I found the bottom early in (Turns) 3 and 4, and Rico was running high then he moved down at the right time,” Gravel said. “Then I found the top of (Turns) 1 and 2, and he didn’t, but that top got so far around and the bottom started cleaning up. I knew every lap the bottom was going to get faster and faster, so I knew I had to try really hard to get him as soon as possible. I got to his rear bumper here on the front stretch and did all I could and let it all out there… I wish it was like five more laps because if he got a little closer to lapped traffic in (Turns) 1 and 2, I think I would’ve had a little bit better shot on that last lap.”Bringing home the final podium spot was the PA Posse’s leading representative – Brent Marks. The Myerstown, PA driver was happy with he and his Murray-Marks team’s performance in the main event and thought he could’ve finished a spot better had a couple things fallen his way.“We had a really good car there the last half,” Marks said. “I ran those guys down. I was really hoping David would keep running the top down in (Turns) 1 and 2. It just felt like I could’ve squeezed by him there, but I guess he felt like he was losing some ground and moved down to the bottom there for the last few laps. On the last lap he tried another one around the top, and I was hoping I could get a run off of (Turn) 2 to squeeze by him to get to second but just wasn’t able to do it.”Spencer Bayston and Justin Peck completed the top five.Gravel’s runner-up coupled with Brad Sweet finishing eighth tied the two at the top of the championship standings as they continue their competitive title fight.Carson Macedo picked up the KSE Racing Hard Charger with a run from 21st to 14th. Macedo also topped the Micro-Lite Last Chance Showdown.In Low-E Insulation Qualifying, Brad Sweet netted his first Simpson Performance Products QuickTime of the season and the 70th of his career.CASE No.1 Engine Oil Heat One also went to Sweet (227th Heat Race win of career). NOS Energy Drink Heats Two through Four were claimed by Justin Peck (eighth of career), Spencer Bayston (18th of career), and James McFadden (42nd of career).UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars make their one trip to New York in 2023 as they invade Weedsport Speedway for the Empire State Challenge (July 29-30). The final night will serve as another “Summer of Money” stop with $20,000 going to the winner. For tickets, CLICK HERE.If you can’t make it to the track, catch all of the action on DIRTVision.RESULTS:NOS Energy Drink Feature (30 Laps): 1. 24-Rico Abreu[1]; 2. 2-David Gravel[3]; 3. 19-Brent Marks[6]; 4. 5-Spencer Bayston[2]; 5. 13-Justin Peck[8]; 6. 83-James McFadden[5]; 7. 11-Cory Eliason[4]; 8. 49-Brad Sweet[7]; 9. 15-Donny Schatz[10]; 10. 8-Freddie Rahmer[11]; 11. 1S-Logan Schuchart[9]; 12. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[15]; 13. 17B-Steve Buckwalter[16]; 14. 41-Carson Macedo[21]; 15. 44-Dylan Norris[13]; 16. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[12]; 17. 67-Justin Whittall[17]; 18. 2D-Chase Dietz[24]; 19. 69K-Lance Dewease[22]; 20. 99M-Kyle Moody[14]; 21. 11T-TJ Stutts[19]; 22. 48-Danny Dietrich[26]; 23. 5E-Brandon Rahmer[20]; 24. 5W-Lucas Wolfe[18]; 25. 7S-Robbie Price[23]; 26. (DNF) 23-Devon Borden[27]; 27. (DNF) 6-Bill Rose[25] |
Daniels Strikes Back at Bridgeport Half-Mile
| DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (July 22, 2023) – Rising star Dallas Daniels (No. 32 Estenson Racing Yamaha MT-07 DT) claimed a cathartic victory in the Drag Specialties Bridgeport Half-Mile as Progressive American Flat Track, sanctioned by AMA Pro Racing, made an unforgettable debut at Bridgeport Speedway in Swedesboro, New Jersey. Daniels’ triumph came by a scant 0.095 seconds over his Mission SuperTwins presented by S&S Cycle title rival, Jared Mees (No. 1 Indian Motorcycle/Rogers Racing/SDI Racing FTR750), with JD Beach (No. 95 Estenson Racing Yamaha MT-07 DT), Davis Fisher (No. 67 Rackley Racing/Bob Lanphere’s BMC Racing Indian FTR750), and Brandon Robinson (No. 44 Mission Roof Systems Indian FTR750) all in contention for a win. The victory couldn’t have been better timed for the Estenson Racing ace, as he simultaneously halted Mees’ momentum and reclaimed the title lead, if only by two points (280-278). The outcome was arguably even more important for his psyche after he’d wound up second in a series of prior head-to-head matchups with the legendary rider. Mees, who controlled the middle portion of the race after getting past early leader Beach, was unable to drop the pack the way he did last time out. That’s in part due to the fact that Beach, Daniels, and Fisher – all desperate to prevent that escape from transpiring – continued to attempt to slide underneath Mees. Those attempts would occasionally see a rider other than Mees sneak into first momentarily but never in a way that the lead change stuck. That is until Daniels worked out a high line that allowed him to roll through the corners and power down the straights. That line eventually allowed him to storm past Mees and immediately open a small advantage. But the cagey Mees adapted and closed back in for one last strike. That came in the race’s final corner, where the champ attempted a slide up on the leader’s flank, but Daniels kept it pinned and held Mees at bay by just fractions of a second at the line. The win was Daniels’ first-ever Half-Mile triumph in the premier class, moving him to within a TT win of the Grand Slam. It also saw him up his season-long podium streak to 13 in the process. “It’s been one heckuva year,” a jubilant Daniels said. “These Half-Miles are kind of the kryptonite for the Yamaha and for me on a twin. I remember on the 450, I won like six Half-Miles in a row in 2020, but when I got on a twin, it was kind of difficult. “Jared has just been kicking our butt. He won every Mile and almost all the Half-Miles. This is his forte right here. I had to reach back and grab that one. I was so nervous. That top – you’ve really got to roll it. It’s all about momentum. For a couple laps, I was just trying to get in the lead so I could do it. I knew once I cleared their front, I could roll. It just feels so good. It’s so awesome.” Beach, Fisher, and Robinson finished third through fifth, respectively, with Briar Bauman (No. 3 Parts Plus/Jacob Companies KTM 790 Duke) leading the second half of the top-ten in sixth. Jarod Vanderkooi (No. 20 JMC Motorsports/Fairway Ford Indian FTR750) came home in seventh, followed by Henry Wiles (No. 17 BriggsAuto.com/Martin Trucking Indian FTR750), Ben Lowe (No. 25 Rackley Racing/Mission Foods Indian FTR750), and Cameron Smith (No. 34 Martin Trucking/Fredericktown Yamaha MT-07). Parts Unlimited AFT Singles presented by KICKER Tom Drane (No. 59 Estenson Racing Yamaha YZ450F) continued the torrid start to his Progressive AFT career, scoring a third Parts Unlimited AFT Singles presented by KICKER victory in just 14 attempts. After dominating his heat and Al Lamb’s Dallas Honda Challenge, the young Aussie came into the Main Event as the strong favorite to end the evening atop the box. And while that ultimately proved true, he had to earn it. Drane found himself mired in fifth following a less than ideal opening lap. He then had to work to erase the gap and systematically fight his way through Jared Lowe (No. 63 Mission Foods/Helmet House Honda CRF450R), Chad Cose (No. 49 1st Impressions Race Team/Husqvarna Racing FC450), and Chase Saathoff (No. 88 American Honda/Mission Foods CRF450R) before finally shifting his sights to the race-long leader. That happened to be his teammate, Trevor Brunner (No. 21 Estenson Racing Yamaha YZ450F), who had pulled more than a second on the field in his bid to secure a first win of the season. Drane pushed Brunner’s hope back at least another weekend. He reeled in his Estenson Racing stablemate and then threw a series of slide jobs at him before finally overhauling him in a pass that saw the two make contact mid-corner. Once out front, the Drane freight train continued full steam ahead and he took the checkered flag with nearly a second in hand. Drane said, “I was just working the whole race, trying to catch up. And then right towards the end I got close enough to make the move – I didn’t mean to run into him, but that’s just racing. I can’t thank the whole team for all the work they put in throughout the day. Their work makes this all possible. I’m going to keep it going, keep the confidence up, and go into the next race just like this one.” Max Whale (No. 18 Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 450 SX-F) made it two Aussies in the top three, finishing off his charge up from seventh with a last-corner overtake of Saathoff to steal away the final spot on the podium. Trent Lowe (No. 48 American Honda/Mission Foods CRF450R) executed an impressive climb of his own, battling his way from the LCQ and an early 13th-place position to round out the top five. Lowe’s run up through the field came at the expense of reigning class champion Kody Kopp (No. 1 Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 450 SX-F), who was a tick off his usual form most of the night. The Red Bull KTM star finished sixth after winning the previous three races. But despite the minor dip in form, Kopp still boasts a commanding championship lead, which now stands at 45 points (255-210) over Saathoff. Brunner is a close third with 208 points, while the surging Drane has closed to within striking distance of second as well at 207. Next Up: The stars of Progressive American Flat Track will now tackle one of the most renowned races in two-wheel motorsport with this year’s edition of the famed SC2 Peoria TT at the Peoria Motorcycle Club in Peoria, Illinois, on Sunday, July 30. Visit https://www.tixr.com/groups/peoriamotorcycleclub/events/peoria-tt-60731 to reserve your seats today. For those that can’t catch the live action from the circuit, FansChoice.tv 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 https://www.fanschoice.tv. |
JOHN FORCE TAKES PEAK TO NO. 1 SATURDAY AT NORTHWEST NATIONALS
| KENT, Wash. (July 22, 2023) – John Force and the PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Chevrolet Camaro SS team rallied to their first No. 1 qualifying position of the season Saturday at the Flav-R-Pac NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways. Robert Hight and the Cornwell Tools / AAA Chevy Camaro SS team will start from No. 4 while in Top Fuel, Austin Prock and the Montana Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist team are No. 5 and Brittany Force with Flav-R-Pac / Monster Energy are No. 10. John Force and the PEAK Chevy team started day two of qualifying at the Northwest Nationals from the No. 2 spot. They had a solid pass to start Saturday’s qualifying with Force handling the PEAK Chevy to a 4.041-second pass at 318.92 mph. Force would take over the No. 1 spot in the final session by a landslide with a 3.915 pass at 327.35. The No. 2 qualifier only had a 3.961. With the No. 1 start, he’s earned a bye in the first round of eliminations. “My crew chief, Danny Hood, does a great job, he’s got Tim Fabrisi to back him up and a great bunch of guys that really support me. We got a race to win tomorrow. Our team cars are good, some are a little bit off. Some are hot, I didn’t think we’d be that fast. Danny said, ‘Hang on.’ When he does that, I know he’s pushing it. I’m excited. Some days you get beat up and you feel like everything is going wrong. Then you run like that and you feel young again. That’s pathetic, but that’s the way it works,” Force said. “I love Seattle. They’ve made a lot of improvements up here and invested a lot. The fans showed up today. Yesterday was light but we had them here today and I want us to do it again tomorrow. Let’s keep Frank Tiegs, who loves it, sponsoring this thing. Let’s do it again tomorrow, let’s have a safe race and an exciting end to the weekend.” It is Force’s seventh No. 1 at Pacific Raceways and 166th in his career. It is his first No. 1 qualifying position since September 2022, when he took the No. 1 spot at the NHRA Carolina Nationals in Charlotte. Robert Hight and the Cornwell Tools team consistently improved during their three qualifying efforts. With a 4.028 on Friday night, they jumped to a 4.006-second pass at 323.66 mph on Saturday afternoon and then broke into the three-second range with a solid 3.963 at 320.81 mph that ultimately earned them the No. 4 qualifying position and a date with long-time rival Cruz Pedregon in the first round. “Feels good to have improved each session. Jimmy Prock and this Cornwell Tools team, they learned from each run, and it showed so it has me excited for race day,” Hight said. “We need some consistency; we need to go some rounds. It’s coming together, and it’s good timing. SO we’ll just see how tomorrow goes. Would love to get a back-to-back win here for Frank Tiegs and Flav-R-Pac and celebrate in the winners circle with our partners at Cornwell Tools too.” Austin Prock and the Montana brand team were consistent through qualifying at the Northwest Nationals. After a 3.808-second run on Friday evening, Prock handled the Montana Brand dragster to a 3.774-second pass at 323.27 mph Saturday afternoon and then a 3.818 at 315.56. Prock’s efforts landed him the No. 5 qualifying spot but an unfortunate matchup with teammate Brittany Force in the first round. “This Montana Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist team made some progress today. We had a really nice pass in the second session this afternoon, but we dropped a cylinder in the final session and couldn’t improve,” Prock said. “All in all, a good day. I’m looking forward to the greatest day of the week, Sunday.” Brittany Force and the Flav-R-Pac team had nothing but room for improvement entering the day without having made a full pass on Friday night. They’d put together a 3.808-second pass at 319.22 mph on Saturday afternoon before having to shut off early in the final session for only a 4.042 at 221.63. As the No. 10 qualifiers, they’ll take on their teammate Austin Prock in the first round. “I’m excited to be here a the Flav-R-Pac Northwest Nationals. We qualified in a tough position No. 10 and right out of the box we face teammate Austin Prock in the first round,” Force said. “It’s unfortunate. That’s drag racing for you though. We’re both going to battle it out. At least one of us is going to the second round to make Frank Tiegs and all of Flav-R-Pac happy. This Flav-R-Pac / Monster Energy team is looking for a long day, we need to turn our luck around after two tough days of qualifying and get this win.” The Flav-R-Pac NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways continues with eliminations Sunday at 10:30 a.m. Television coverage of the event continues with a second qualifying show Sunday at 1:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1 (FS1). Eliminations will be aired Sunday at 4:00 p.m. ET on FOX Broadcasting Network. -30- |
| AUSTIN PROCK, 27, Montana Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist dragsterQualifying:5th; 3.774-seconds; 323.27 mphBonus Qualifying Points:+1 (3rd quickest Q2) BRITTANY FORCE, 37, Flav-R-Pac / Monster Energy dragsterQualifying:10th; 3.808-seconds; 319.22 mphBonus Qualifying Points:0 JOHN FORCE, 74, PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Chevrolet Camaro SSQualifying:2nd; 3.915-seconds; 327.35 mphBonus Qualifying Points: +5 (2nd quickest Q1; quickest Q3)ROBERT HIGHT, 53, Cornwell Tools / AAA Chevrolet Camaro SSQualifying:4th; 3.963-seconds; 320.81 mphBonus Qualifying Points:0 |
SALINAS PUTS SCRAPPERS RACING NUMBER ONE IN TOP FUEL QUALIFYING IN SEATTLE FOR NORTHWEST NATIONALS
Event: Northwest Nationals, Pacific Raceways
Scrappers Racing Results:
· Top Fuel – Mike Salinas – No. 1 Qualifier – 3.743, 329.02 mph
· Pro Stock Motorcycle – Jianna Evaristo – No. 8 Qualifier – 6.848, 197.42 mph
KENT, Wash. (July 22, 2023) – Mike Salinas drove his Valley Services Top Fuel dragster to the number one qualifier position during the second round of qualifying on Saturday afternoon. Salinas posted a time of 3.743 seconds at 329.02 mph and the time held through the third and final session later in the afternoon.
For Salinas, the achievement marks his second number one qualifier of 2023 with his first coming at Route 66 Raceway near Chicago. It was also his 13th career number one qualifier. For Salinas and his Scrappers Racing team, there has been a lot of effort behind-the-scenes to learn about the car and make some adjustments before heading into the Countdown and with today’s results, the team believes those learnings are starting to pay dividends.
“Basically, what we did was exactly what Steve Torrence did last year, we just didn’t share it with anybody,” said Salinas, following his final qualifying round. “We just fell on our face and tried all kinds of different things. All the stuff we did learn, we’re just applying it now and the car seems to be responding exactly like we wanted it to. Our 60 foots were amazing for the heat and the track temperature. I think we’re in a good place.”
By earning the number one qualifier position, Salinas will have a bye run in the first round of eliminations on Sunday. With the track temperatures expected to be coolest for that first session, you can expect the Scrappers Racing team to still bring as much power as possible to the starting line.
“Guaranteed,” said Salinas. “We are going to throw down. We have to. Every run means something for the Countdown. It helps moral and it helps with three guys in there calling the shots. I told them yesterday, it’s time to open up a can and let’s go and see what we can do. I’ve let you do everything you want and now it’s time to run. There is no tomorrow because if we don’t start now and get our momentum going, we’re not going to do too well.”
The first round of eliminations from Pacific Raceways begins at 10:30 AM PT/1:30 PM ET. Coverage of the finals will air on FOX at 4:00 PM ET.
ADDITIONAL QUOTES – MIKE SALINAS:
You were able to make your quickest run in Q2, but how important was it to back it up in Q3 with another strong pass?
“We were actually trying to run a little bit better and be a little better, but I think it mowed through the clutch a little bit. We were actually trying to make the same run with it being just a little bit hotter because that’s what it’s going to be tomorrow. First round everyone is going to go hard so it should be pretty impressive.”
Are you having fun with the motorcycle ride?
“Oh yeah, I haven’t talked to the business in three weeks and it’s been pretty amazing. They keep calling, but I’m not answering. Us guys that work everyday and we come in and race on the weekends, it’s harder to drive these cars and focus because if we like it or not, we have business on our mind and how many things we have going on and when you can just get a little break and learn how to turn it off, it helps a lot.”
What has it been like spending so much time with the family on the ride?
“I think we’ve done 2700 miles on the bikes and my wife and I said five words to each other on the ride so it was kind of awesome and she probably appreciated it (laughing). And how often do we get to turn everything off and see America, the true America. We’ve met some really great people along the way and it’s been pretty nice. Really enjoyable.”
What has been your favorite part of the ride to date?
“Actually we went through Montana and there was about a 10-mile stretch that I haven’t smelled air that fresh and it was noticeable. We were on the bikes and riding and it was like a wall. It was just amazing. Whatever that area was, I want to buy right there. It was just amazing. But it’s been fun because the family is together and we’ve had a great time. We’re actually going to ride along the coast on the way home and I’ve got an extra bike for Steve Torrence if he wants to come with us.”
What would it mean to pull off the win tomorrow?
“It would be great to pull it off, but look, there are some great cars here and a lot of people have been testing and everybody is ready for this stuff. When you have guys that have won four championships and you watch what they do and you go study all the runs that they’ve done and you watch all these guys from Steve Torrence to Allen Johnson and how they won races, strategically we’re in a good place and everyone is going to try for the same thing. It’s probably the best racing we’re going to see and I say that every year, but you need to be good at this to run with these guys so it’s impressive.”
TOYOTA SWEEP CHALLENGE VICTORIES
Doug Kalitta, Ron Capps lead Toyota in qualifying heading into race day in Seattle
KENT, Wash. (July 22, 2023) – Team Toyota’s excellence in the Mission 2Fast2Tasty Challenges continued at Pacific Raceways, just outside of Seattle, on Saturday with Toyota drivers Steve Torrence and Ron Capps picking up the challenge wins. It was an all-Toyota final round in both Top Fuel and Funny Car as Torrence was able to get past Shawn Langdon and Capps defeated J.R. Todd in a close duel.
In qualifying action, Doug Kalitta continued his strong performance in Denver with a second place starting position, followed by Justin Ashley in third and Torrence in fourth. In Funny Car, both Capps and Todd had their best runs of the weekend in their Challenge final. Capps is seeded in third, with Todd in close pursuit in fifth. Alexis DeJoria had a couple of strong runs and is seeded eighth overall in her Toyota GR Supra Funny Car.
Toyota Post-Qualifying Recap
NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series
Pacific Raceways
Race 11 of 21
TOYOTA TOP FUEL QUALIFYING POSITIONS
| Name | Car | Qualifying Position | First Round Opponent |
| Mike Salinas* | Valley Services Top Fuel Dragster | 1st (3.743) | BYE |
| Doug Kalitta | Mac Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | 2nd (3.753) | R. Smith |
| Justin Ashley | Phillips Connect Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | 3rd (3.760) | T. Schumacher |
| Steve Torrence | Capco Contractors Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | 4th (3.764) | J. Hart |
| Antron Brown | Matco Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | 7th (3.781) | S. Langdon |
| Shawn Langdon | Kalitta Air Careers Toyota Top Fuel Dragster | 8th (3.786) | A. Brown |
(*non-Toyota driver)
TOYOTA FUNNY CAR QUALIFYING POSITIONS
| Name | Car | Qualifying Position | First Round Opponent |
| John Force* | Peak Chevy Camaro Funny Car | 1st (3.915) | BYE |
| Ron Capps | NAPA Auto Parts Toyota GR Supra Funny Car | 3rd (3.951) | J. Diehl |
| J.R. Todd | DHL Toyota GR Supra Funny Car | 5th (3.967) | A. Laughlin |
| Alexis DeJoria | Bandero Tequila Toyota GR Supra Funny Car | 8th (3.997) | C. Green |
(*non-Toyota driver)
TOYOTA QUOTES
DOUG KALITTA, Mac Tools Toyota Top Fuel Dragster, Kalitta Motorsports
TF Qualifying Result: 2nd
How do you feel about race day tomorrow after a solid qualifying effort?
“I’m super excited. It’s been a fun day. We smoked the tires in the last one there, but I think we’ll be in good shape for tomorrow. Seattle is a cool place to run with all of the trees. I got to run the Toyota Supra today in the Supra Showdown which is always fun. I’m definitely looking forward to having a good race day on Sunday.”
STEVE TORRENCE, Capco Contractors Toyota Top Fuel Dragster, Torrence Racing
TF Qualifying Result: 4th
Mission Challenge Top Fuel Winner
What does it mean to get a victory in the Mission 2Fast2Tasty Challenges for tomorrow’s race?
“We had a really good race car in Denver. That thing actually shut off about 100 to 150 feet early against Doug (Kalitta) – we should’ve won that round. It definitely gives me a boost of confidence in my race car and in myself just driving my car. I went there with a completely different mindset to start the Western Swing – to go out and get that Steve Torrence swagger back. You can overthink the situation, you can overanalyze it, you can do a lot of different things and back yourself into a corner and you either fight your way out or you don’t. And, I’m a fighter. I re-evaluated my situation, I trusted my guys and my guys and my car. We didn’t win four world championships by me doing something stupid and not trusting in them. That was the mindset I went to Denver with. Left there with a lot of confidence in the car and came here. You may be able to go up there and run a little bit quicker, but you still want to win that shootout. We did what we needed to do. Like I was saying, it’s hot. It’s hot for here, but you’re sitting in the car and it’s high stress and you’re ready to race, you’re wanting to win, the sun is dead behind the tree and you’re blinking. I knew I missed the tree. Not many times do you get away with that against Shawn Langdon, but we had a good car. My guys were consistent, and we went out and did what it was supposed to do. To sum that up, a lot of confidence going into race day tomorrow. First win we’ve had in a while. We openly and admittedly kicked ourselves last year in trying to re-create the wheel and I think that it’s finally coming around the way that we wanted to. It’s more mentally taxing than anything because when you have that momentum and that confidence and that swagger and just that consistency that we had for four years and then to have a season like we had last year, you kind of have to dig deep to get back where you’re at. I’m not one of the guys that looks back at what we’ve accomplished, I’m look back and think you’re only as good as your last past and it hadn’t been that good. We’re thankful for all of the partners that have stood behind us and that Capco Contractors Toyota Dragster with MAC Tools and Red Line in it. It’s the baddest thing here. I’ve got the best thing. I’ll put my team toe to toe with any team in the history of this sport. We’ve done more and accomplished more in a shorter timeframe than anybody and you’ve got to remember that and stand with the guys. You’ve got to stand with the girl you brought to the dance and that’s what we’re doing.”
RON CAPPS, NAPA Auto Parts Toyota GR Supra Funny Car, Ron Capps Motorsports
FC Qualifying Result: 3rd
Mission Challenge Funny Car Winner
How exciting is it to pick up another specialty win today?
“Once again, I want to just say it over and over, thank you to Mission Foods for putting this up. They really created something cool. We all ran it. We all saw the points is the thing that stood out for most. It’s great money, we appreciate that, too. As you know we won the world championship last year by less than a handful of points. I completely understand. I’ve lost championships in year’s past by less than a handful of points several times. I understand that, but what they did to be able to do this and to be able to get your confidence back – it does help. They created a whole new Saturday. It was cool to have two Toyotas up there. Obviously, Alexis (DeJoria) or J.R. (Todd) they were both so key in inviting me to the Toyota family this year and I’ve bragged and bragged about that. So, anytime I race them in a final or something like that it’s fun to go and throw down because we knew a Toyota was going to win. We’ll take the points, we’re very excited about that. I’m happy for Guido (Dean Antonelli, crew chief), he’s got some good data for tomorrow. We lost the number one spot to (John) Force and the number two spot to (Bob) Tasca and I think Guido was trying to run a little quicker but he didn’t have time to make a big change at the end.”
Burton Qualifies 26th At Pocono
July 22, 2023
Harrison Burton, in the No. 21 DEX Imaging Mustang, is set to start Sunday’s HighPoint.com 400 at Pocono Raceway from 26th place.
Burton took that spot with a lap around the Tricky Triange at 167.019 miles per hour in single-car qualifying Saturday afternoon.
The DEX Imaging Mustang was faster in qualifying than in a practice session held earlier on Saturday afternoon. Burton was 25th fastest in practice with a best lap at 166.306 mph. He posted that time on the 11thof the 15 laps he ran in the session.
Sunday’s HighPoint.com 400 is scheduled to get the green flag just after 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time with TV coverage on USA Network.
Stage breaks in the 160-lap race are set for Laps 30 and 95.
JOSEF NEWGARDEN CLAIMS FIFTH IOWA SPEEDWAY VICTORY
CHEVROLET IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES
HY-VEE HOMEFRONT 250 PRESENTED BY INSTACART
NEWTON, IOWA
TEAM CHEVY RACE NO. 1 POST RACE RECAP
JULY 22, 2023
SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN AND PATO O’WARD FILLED ALL-CHEVROLET PODIUM IN RACE NO. 1 OF HY-VEE DOUBLEHEADER
NEWTON, IOWA (JULY 22, 2023) – Josef Newgarden did what Josef Newgarden does at Iowa Speedway – wins. Starting third in the 28-car field for Race No. 1 of the Hy-Vee Doubleheader WEEKEND, the driver of the No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet methodically worked his way to the lead on lap 121 and never looked back.
The two-time NTT INDYCAR Series champion chased down his teammate second-place starter Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 XPEL Chevrolet, to claim 2nd in the running order on lap 95 of the 250-lap race. Newgarden then set his sights on pole winner and race leader Will Power, No. 12 Verizon 5G Chevrolet. On lap 121, he made a clean pass on Power on the bottom through turns one and two and jumped out to an almost five second lead.
Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren INDYCAR Chevrolet, completed the all-Chevrolet podium. Starting fifth on the grid, O’Ward quickly dispensed with another car and stayed in the battle with the three Team Penske drivers.
Today’s victory is the fifth for Newgarden at Iowa Speedway, the 28th of his career, and jumped to second in the point standings, 98 points behind the leader with six races left on the 2023 schedule.
Power will start on the pole for Sunday’s Hy-Vee ONESTEP 250 with McLaughlin again alongside on the front row. Newgarden will roll off 7th and O’Ward will start from 11th on the grid.
Race No. 2, the Hy-Vee ONESTEP 250 presented by Gatorade is set to start at 2:30 pm ET with live coverage on NBC TV, INDYCAR Radio and INDYCAR. live timing and scoring.
TOP-FIVE QUOTES:
JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET-RACE WINNER:
LITTLE FRUSTRATION THERE AT THE END, WE COULD TELL, BUT YOU DOMINATED
“Yeah, it was a great day. Look, my team is just…they are unbelievable. They gave me a great car. I show up every weekend and I feel like I have got the best of the best behind me. Team Penske, I am proud to be a part of this team and proud to have partners like Hitachi and Team Chevy. Team Chevy has been really tremendous to us, and they are always working hard, even with our feedback. They always take it and put it to use. I love Iowa and obviously it was a great day, but its tough in INDYCAR. These guys that are about to go a lap down, they always run the leader really hard and that is the name of the game. Its legal, but man it is a little frustrating at times. And it has gotten worse. It was much worse here than I have ever had it. So, I am going to study the tape and I am going to be better tomorrow. Because if that is how its got to be, then I just have to elevate my game for race two.”
THERE WAS A TIME TODAY WHEN YOU WERE DOWN, BUT YOU FOUND A WAY
“Yeah, look, we did not start where we wanted to be and that was right from qualifying. I was so frustrated. We unloaded off the truck pretty much perfectly. Luke Mason did an amazing job with this car, and it was exactly where it needed to be and then to qualify where we did, it was…..I have messed up qualifying here so many times and it never gets easier. I am always so mad with myself that we didn’t get that right. And it was like that at the beginning of the race. It took us literally a stint and a half to get the car just where it needed to be. But once it was comfy, I think it was the car to beat. I really do. We needed to manage it and we did that, and it doesn’t guarantee you anything for tomorrow, I promise you that. Everyone is going to get better, and they already got much better from last year. So, we have to stay on our toes, and maybe we can do another one.
SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN, NO. 3 XPEL TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET-FINISHED 2ND:
I WOULD SAY THERE IS NO SHAME IN LOSING TO A GUY THAT HAS WON FIVE TIMES HERE
“When I saw him coming, I was like ‘ah its on mate’. Hey, Bus Bros was 1-2, so not bad. Really happy for everyone on the Xpel Chevy. The car was great today, and the team gave me a great car. I have to thank Josef, and congrats to him for winning the race, but during the week we sat down together and really went over like everything. And it helped me today. I learned a ton today, I badly want to beat that guy and I am going to be trying everything I can to beat him, but he is the epitome of a great teammate and I appreciate the help he has given me.”
YOU WERE DEFINTELY BEST IN CLASS, SO IS THERE SOMETHING YOU CAN BRING BACK FOR TOMORROW?
“I mucked up one of my in and out laps and got caught with a lap car, so I was a bit slower coming in and I lost a couple of seconds. So, there was all that catch up from there and we got back to sort of there or there abouts, but just really proud of everyone and thankful for everyone at Xpel and at Chevy and everyone that supports me. The Thirsty Threes were ripping, I love that, and can’t wait to come back tomorrow.”
PATO O’WARD, NO. 5 ARROW MCLAREN INDYCAR CHEVROLET-FINISHED 3RD:
YOU GOT CLOSE AGAIN, WHAT DID YOU LEARN TODAY TRYING TO CHASE THOSE GUYS?
“I learned that I couldn’t keep up with them today. We didn’t have a strong enough car and I was holding on for dear life on some of those laps. So, it was a tough one and we have got work to do. We have another opportunity tomorrow and we are going to try and maximize that. We have a pretty significant step forward that we have to make if we want to challenge these guys. Specifically in traffic, I felt a little handcuffed as far as where I could place the car.”
IT WOULDN’T HANDLE?
“No, I just could really only use one lane and I couldn’t really get through traffic the way that they could. I think when the tires were a little bit fresher, we weren’t far off, but when you start getting into that dirty air, we just couldn’t do anything. We would just get stuck. I tried multiple times, and I am probably the first guy t
WILL POWER, NO.12 VERIZON 5G TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET-FINISHED 5TH:
YOU WERE UP FRONT, STARTED ON THE POLE BUT BRUSHED THE WALL. WHAT WERE THE CIRCUMSTANCES TODAY?
“I just got a little high. The car in front went up and took the air and boom. It was a pretty square it and I was worried about how much force goes through the suspension. We will probably have to change it tonight.”
THE CAR WAS OKAY AFTER THAT?
“Yeah, I think so. We had more push, but I don’t think it really hurt the car too bad.”
WE KNOW YOU ARE FAST. YOU ARE STARTING ON THE POLE TOMORROW, SO WHAT IS THE GAME PLAN AND DO YOU EXPECT TO BE ABLE TO CHALLENGE NEWGARDEN?
“Yeah, its tough man. It will probably be a slightly different race because everyone gets a bit better, it gets a little hotter and then you have to get through all that traffic. So, yeah, we sort of have to review. I mean, at the end of the day it was just who got through that traffic better. We had a huge gaggle of cars once Josef got me. I mean, he is very good at reading that stuff and he just got me on the inside.”
JOSEF NEWGARDEN-SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN-PATO O’WARD
Press Conference Transcript
THE MODERATOR: Joined by now five-time winner here at Iowa Speedway, Josef Newgarden, leading 129 of the 250 laps, driving the No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet. It’s career win No. 28.
You climb now. You’re 98 points back of Alex Palou of the overall season long championship. More importantly, another win here today. Congratulations.
What came to you there after that first stint and a half or so that you were able to get past Will and stay up front?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It was just unfortunate that we came off the truck so good — Luke Mason did such a great job with this car. I was so happy yesterday, pretty immediately, and then to qualify as disappointingly as we did, I think for us, for our expectation, if you will — it wasn’t a disaster, but it wasn’t where we thought we should be. I know it’s not where the car should be.
I was really — I’ve done that a lot here. I’ve not qualified where I think we should. That exact problem was sort of the same in the beginning of the race. We were trying to counteract it and didn’t quite get there. It took about a stint, stint and a half, to really get the car where it needed to be.
Then it was great. It was back to sort of the beginning of yesterday. It was just a nice car. Team did a great job as always. They always give me a fantastic car here. You can’t win a race around this place without having the best car in the field, and I feel like we’ve always got that when we show up.
Q. Josef, you were really upset, I remember, last year after qualifying. I believe you were second in both races behind Will to start. Is it the way you drive the track you’re doing wrong or setup?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It’s a combination. It was mostly setup today, which is not on anybody. I’ll say it’s on me. Like I just didn’t quite know where we needed to be.
I mean, you’re kind of guessing. We were supposed to originally qualify at 8:30. It was going to be a lot colder. So you’re basing the setup around that. Then you have to think about the race. We were also probably a little bit more lean to the race than other people because you’ve just got to choose a little bit.
The temperature is going to keep rising in the race. Do you want the race car to be right, or do you want the qualifying car? And you’re kind of in the middle a little bit. So I don’t think we were fully optimized for qualifying, but I also just didn’t get the balance right.
I would say it’s that. Last year was the same deal. I could have done better personally last year. I didn’t drive hard enough, so I was kicking myself for that. I felt like I drove hard enough today. I just didn’t have the balance I needed. We were pretty upset about it, but we knew we’d have a chance in the race.
We’ve got a great car. We knew that right from the jump. It was just a matter of I felt like we could do more today. Even leaving now, we’ve got a lot of homework tonight to be even better. It was good, but it wasn’t quite good enough. It’s going to need to be better tomorrow is my feel.
Q. Yesterday you were telling us how you went a step beyond being a teammate to Scotty and shared everything about this track, and he was explaining that after qualifying today that you reviewed every lap he made and every lap you made last year. Did you have any regrets about that in the closing laps and knowing he was breathing down your neck at some points during this race?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I mean, I knew he knew everything. I tried to be as transparent as I can with him as a teammate. He’s been — he’s a great member of the team. He’s a good pal. I want to kick his ass as much as anybody. It’s got nothing to do with that, and I’m not giving him any favors necessarily. I just think it’s the right thing to do.
If your teammate wants to learn something, I hope he would give me the courtesy the same way. When he’s got something on me, I want him to teach me it. I think that’s how it should be. You don’t always get that, but I’m happy to teach him what I know.
I look at it that it doesn’t really matter — if he knows exactly what I know, then it’s just going to come down to who’s doing a better job. If he does a better job than me, then he deserves to win. I hope he doesn’t do a better job than me tomorrow, but if he does, he’ll be a deserving winner. Let’s see what happens. He looked really good today. I’m going to probably have to step up a little bit more tomorrow.
Q. In Victory Lane, you were obviously upset with some of the lap traffic today. Pato and Scotty were both in here and shared your concerns about that. Are you going to name any names for us? Anyone you want to call out in particular?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: There’s a lot of people. There’s a lot of people. It’s one thing if you’re leading the race. If you’re leading the race, you’re really within your right. If you’re fighting with people around you, seventh, eighth, ninth place, you’re all fighting. You’re within your right to fight as hard as possible.
I think, the way the rule was written, it’s also legal for them to fight to the death to stay on the lead lap in front of the leader. It is legal. I’m just telling you you’re not making any friends when you do it. There’s 20 laps to go in the race, and I was getting driven like it was literally to the death for the end of the Indy 500. It was just crazy. I couldn’t believe the way people were mirror driving.
I’ve never seen it that bad here. Normally if you’re the leader, you’re not getting a handout, but you’re at least getting the courtesy that you are the leader and you’re about to get lapped. You don’t have to pull over, but just don’t be aggressive and weave in front of the leader, block the leader, chop the leader.
Like there’s just a point where you’ve got to understand that that comes back around. If you do that to someone, I’m going to fence you the next time I see you. If you’re the leader the next time, I am going to do you so dirty if you did that to me.
It’s common sense. Everybody in the paddock knows it, and they’re just — for whatever reason, there’s just people who just can’t get it. You know what, if they can’t learn it by now, they’ll probably never learn. I guess where I’m going with this, you can tell I’m frustrated by it, which a lot of people are. I can’t change people’s behavior. If they’re going to continue to do that, I have to study and figure out how to counteract it because that’s how they’re going to play.
I’m going to assume they’re going to play like that tomorrow, and I’ve got to be in a better position and better equipped handle it.
Q. Scotty said he might go talk to some people tonight.
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I’ll go talk to some people too. They need to know. Look, it’s not cool. It’s not cool. If you want to play that game, that’s fine, but you should be thinking long term.
Q. Josef, you said earlier the car was good. Nevertheless do you think the car has enough to win tomorrow?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It’s definitely in the window, there’s no doubt. The tough thing about Iowa is the window is so tight here. You can have a stint where you’re really good and a stint where you all of a sudden lose a ton of potential and time on the average, and it’s really easy to bounce back and forth between perfect and way off perfect.
I think the car’s in the window. We’ve just got to maybe clean some areas up. I’ve got to get some new tools in my toolkit, figure out how can I arm myself a little bit better for the way everything is flowing nowadays?
Everyone is stronger. It looks like that. Everyone has more maneuverability. Everyone is getting coached by their spotters now on exactly how to race people hard. So it is a tougher game than I think it’s ever been around here.
Our car is capable. We’ve just got to make sure we maximize it.
Q. So much of the history of Penske Racing has been drivers who are great oval drivers like Al Unser and Rick Mears and now yourself. To be in that category, and when you win on an oval race for Team Penske, how special is it?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I don’t really feel differently about it than any other track, to be honest. My goal is to be strong everywhere. It doesn’t matter the discipline or the track type. I want to be good everywhere we show up. If there’s a place we’re not good, it’s number one on my list to figure out. Why aren’t we good here? Why can’t we win this race?
Anything is possible for us and our team, and we need to approach it that way. So just in short, it doesn’t feel different to me, whether it’s Iowa or it’s Toronto or it’s Detroit or Road America. They all matter. You take great pride in being able to work with the team and put a victory together. They’re all difficult.
It’s not easy to win a race in this series, so they all feel the same.
Q. Obviously the goal is to come here tomorrow and win again. How do you feel the prospects are coming out here and getting out the broom?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I was hesitant yesterday to — I feel like everybody — when we walk in here, they just assume, oh, we’re going to be quick. It’s not the attitude that you can have. You just can’t feel like there’s anything given. I think we did a good job today recovering. I was really proud of the team.
To feel disappointed with qualifying and then to just really improve the race car and do a great job today, I’m proud of that, but that doesn’t guarantee tomorrow either. I think Scott’s going to be really good. Pato, he’s going to come back better. I think Will’s going to be strong. You never know who else is going to improve overnight.
I’m focused on being better tomorrow because I’m going to assume that everyone else is going to pick up their game.
Q. Obviously laser focused, and obviously frustrated about the traffic and stuff like that. I don’t know if you feel like you’re putting more pressure on yourself this weekend because of maybe your own expectations and what everyone else is expecting you to do. When you come into this place, it feels like you’re quite pent up at the moment. Is that the pressure you’re putting on yourself for this weekend?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Maybe a little bit. There’s a pressure that’s on us, I know when we show up here. It’s that assumption. It’s the assumption that we’re going to be great just because we should be. We’re the 2 car. We should be really good here.
That’s okay because I think there’s always a pressure that exists. You show up to Indianapolis with Team Penske, and there’s only — there’s only one place that people accept as okay for Team Penske, and that’s winning the race. We deal with those pressures. It’s not like it’s something new.
But I think, more than anything, it’s just been — it’s honestly been a really tough year, like we’ve had some good moments, there’s no doubt. Obviously the 500 was just — it was the best moment for everybody this year. Other than that, it’s been a really tough season, really, really tough. It just feels like one of those grinders again. We grinded last year.
I want to figure out how to get us in a place where we’re not grinding and try to figure it out week to week. I’ve got all the confidence in the world. The tough thing for me is I know the potential of the team, I really do. It’s there. It’s always been there, and I just want us to realize it more.
We’re continually working on that. For me, I’m just a perfectionist, and I think working towards that potential and maximizing it is what you’re seeing from me.
Q. Have you thought about the points at all in terms of what today means for that? And if you allowed yourself to kind of think about that? Or is your focus solely on tomorrow and trying to keep that out of your mind?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yes and no. I’m very aware of it. I’ve seen it climb from the beginning of the season. Alex has had a great run. He’s really had no bad races. I explained this in the past that, when you’re a great driver like Alex and he’s got a great team around him and you don’t have any bad races, that is what happens points-wise. You build up a cushion the way they have.
It’s a tough deficit that we’re in. I’m aware of it. I’m not putting any pressure on this weekend or to the end of the year. It kind of is what it is, right? I can’t control what happens with Alex. I think the odds are higher that he has some bad luck at some point, but that doesn’t mean it’s ever going to come. It just may be a great year for those guys where they don’t ever truly see it, and that’s okay.
I’ve just had to learn over the years that you can’t control these things. You really can’t. I focus on trying to be the best that we can be every weekend. This weekend’s no different. It’s just you’re dealing with that scenario that you brought up that everyone expects us to be really good here and win a couple of races. I know that.
Regardless of that, I just try to make sure we do the best job. We did the best job we could today, and we need to do that tomorrow.
Q. I was going to ask about points as well. Just following up on that, you were 126 out coming in, and now you’re 98 out. You took 28 points off today. Is that a good chunk? If you do that tomorrow, do you feel good about leaving here?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I do. That’s a great chunk. You win another time, what does that put you at, I don’t know, 72? That would be great. That would be great. We’re going to for sure need that.
You can’t spin this any way. I’m not telling myself a story to make myself feel better tomorrow. There’s no doubt we have to win a lot of races, and Alex has to inevitably at some point hit bad luck. It’s just the way this whole thing goes. If that doesn’t happen, then we’re still going to focus on winning races, and hopefully we have a lot of wins on the year and we get close. Or maybe just winning a bunch of races and he doesn’t need the bad luck, and that’s enough to get us the championship.
I have no idea how this is all going to play out, but yeah, tomorrow — they all matter at this point. What is there, six to go? They’re all going to be critical. We can’t afford a bad weekend anymore. He can, but we’ve got to be pretty much perfect, which when it’s like that, it just almost doesn’t matter. Like what’s going to be is going to be. I think a lot of people are in this mindset. They’re just trying to win races.
It’s kind of a good way to go about it because you can’t just take little bites out of him. It’s just not going to work. You’ve got to be hitting it with a hammer and hoping that fate kind of swings back your way. So I hope we get that, but there’s just no telling if that’s going to happen.
Q. Speaking of the hammer, do you feel like you need to hit two nails this weekend? It seems like you’re having trouble celebrating this win because you feel like you’re only half done. Is that accurate?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I think that’s very accurate because you’ve got to look at it as a complete result, the two races combined. That’s a very good way to put it. It is not just a single race weekend and then we move on to the next challenge. It is the same challenge two times over.
So we’ve got to go do the job tomorrow, and then once we get done with that, we’ll move to Nashville and start figuring out that problem.
THE MODERATOR: Five-time winner here at Iowa. Go for six tomorrow. Good luck. Josef Newgarden in Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet.
That will wrap things up. Next warmup comes up tomorrow morning here at Iowa Speedway.
THE MODERATOR: Wrapping up today’s Hy-Vee Homefront 250 presented by Instacart, podium finishers will be here of course. Josef Newgarden with the win here today. Joined now by Scott McLaughlin in the No. 3 Expel Team Penske Chevrolet, coming home 2nd, second podium of the season, tenth of his career. And also joining us, Pato O’Ward in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet with his fifth podium of 2023 and 18th of his career.
Scott, tell us about race number one here this week and your thoughts.
SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: I’m going to get him at some point. I’m very determined. Helluva race. I think the three of us could have easily swept the top three there. Pato did an awesome job. Their cars are just really good through traffic.
What I learned with Josef during the week, during the last couple of weeks, has been huge. It’s a nice little rabbit to chase when he’s out in front. When you can keep up with him, that’s a nice feeling. Gives me a lot of confidence.
Learned a lot for tomorrow. I think we’ve got a really good race car we can sort of evolve with and just get better.
THE MODERATOR: Pato, your thoughts getting back on the podium here at Iowa Speedway?
PATO O’WARD: Solid podium for us today. Just didn’t have anything for the Penskes. We need to take a solid step forward if we want to make them sweat tomorrow.
I just think they were specifically strong getting through traffic. I would just — I’d get stuck. I wasn’t able to place the car where I needed to in order to get by some slow cars.
Obviously happy with it, but considering how much pace we had last year, it’s like where is it?
THE MODERATOR: You guys were catching up quickly to back markers, lap cars, and whatnot. Mentally, what’s that like to go through a couple hours or so where you’re really trying to — weaving in and out of cars and dealing with traffic all day long? Pato?
PATO O’WARD: Usually it’s quite okay. You know who you’re racing. Sometimes you get to some guys, and they’re just not very gentleman-like, I guess, when you’re falling behind.
Yeah, I had some moments in there where it wasn’t all turning left for sure.
THE MODERATOR: 1,502 passes on track, which is the most on record here at Iowa Speedway, INDYCAR sort of tracking that back in 2007. So there’s a lot going on out on the 7/8-mile oval. Take a couple of questions.
Q. Pato, do you have enough time in the warmup tomorrow, and can you do enough to make enough changes to catch up to the Penske guys? They’re incredible.
PATO O’WARD: I have a very clear picture of what we need. We’ve just got to get creative and see how we’re going to find that. Obviously we put our best foot forward coming into qualifying for the race, knowing what we’ve had here in the past, and we think this is going to be working for us.
But we need to take another step if we want to challenge for the win tomorrow.
Q. Scott, you were telling us yesterday that like Josef had opened up the playbook and showed you everything, but you thought there might be some things maybe he didn’t show you. Do you feel like you’ve got a full Monty from Josef?
SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: Yeah, I definitely think he’s opened it right up, which is good because I think it’s pushed us all three. Us three were really, really strong during that race, something to be proud of for the team.
Yeah, I was — I’m a little bummed the second to last stint we just didn’t have the balance that I needed. If I had the balance that I had in the last stint and I was able to stay with him, I really feel like we could have been right there with him and made some moves.
When I was catching him towards the end, I was like, oh, it’s going to be a little Texas rerun but other way around. Yeah, didn’t quite get there. He’s very good on this place. He’s got a very good understanding of the car and where he puts it.
Yeah, I think he was getting choked up a little bit. There’s a lot of guys out there that were racing the leader very hard, mirror driving, and just at times it was quite dangerous. Yeah, it is what it is.
Q. That was one of the first things that Josef mentioned in his Victory Lane interview, so I’ll give you guys the opportunity. Are we naming names in terms of who some of these drivers are?
SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: Not in the media, but we’ll go see them tonight.
Q. Same question for you both. How was the tire situation, and can you use maybe the tire degradation and change the pressure?
SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: My engineer gets paid to figure that out. So I’ll just drive the thing. I think we definitely need a little bit here or there. I think all three cars in Penske have the strengths and weaknesses. So we’ll sort of try and make up a sort of special sauce for tomorrow.
Yeah, I thought they brought a new tire this weekend from Firestone. Feels really good. No vibrations or anything. So that’s really good to start.
Q. Scott, first portion of the race when Will was leading and you tried a couple of times to go underneath him and a couple of times weren’t able to pull it off, was that just basically the strength of his car, or did you run out of room on the track?
SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: I think it’s just I probably ran him a little hard. I thought Josef was further back, and then all of a sudden he was ten back, five back, and then passing me. Probably burned my stuff up a little too much, but I had to start going for it.
Definitely felt faster than Will, but it was hard. We were always — one was getting choked up by traffic, and the next, you take one lane, and then that lane in front of you had gone. You can’t just wash up in front of the guy or into the side of them.
It is what it is, but that was probably one part of the race where I felt annoyed with myself a little bit.
Q. Pato, over the last couple of years, it seems like the same guys fighting for the wins and for the victories. How much does it, at least finishing on the podium, validate how good you are here?
PATO O’WARD: Absolutely, it’s one of the places where we come in here and we know that we’ve had a very good past here. It doesn’t necessarily mean we’re going to have the exact same results.
I think today was a little bit of what we had last year, but definitely not as strong. Last year we had, I felt like we were on par with where Josef was, and really what makes you lead or be second in line is usually if you can get them on the undercut or whatever.
Today I definitely felt like I was a bit more on the defensive. I didn’t feel like I was attacking as much, and I couldn’t put the car where I needed to. It was a really, really hard race, probably the hardest Iowa race that I’ve done, just to keep it where we had it.
Q. For both of you, the opening green stint was a very long stint. Were you both surprised at how long that was? Was there ever a thought in your mind around halfway that the race could have gone caution free?
PATO O’WARD: I thought it could have been caution-free for sure. 60-something laps, wasn’t it? I don’t know exactly how much it was, but it was getting pretty gnarly.
SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: We said in our strategy meeting the actual probability of yellows is low. There’s not really that many yellows here. We sort of figured it was going to be like that.
Yeah, I was surprised how long that first run to the yellow went, but at least it didn’t throw a curveball fuel-wise. Everyone had to make a stop or two. I don’t know how many stops we made it in, but yeah.
Q. Was it very tough out there physically for the first opening stint for that long? Usually you’re able to take a small breather under yellows but not that much.
SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: It was okay. The head pad is a wonderful thing, laying your head on it, and you sort of just go with it.
It’s more mental. It’s just mentally very like — you feel like you’re not blinking for two hours. That’s probably more taxing. I’ll get a good sleep tonight and come back tomorrow.
Q. Scott, just for people that tune in to my podcast and stuff down here in New Zealand, this is the true essence of speedway racing in its purest form on a short track oval like this. Can you just explain what that’s like for you as a driver by comparison to anything else the series comes across?
SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: It’s a little bullring. It’s probably one of my favorite ovals. Apart from IMS, it’s probably my favorite just from the perspective of being able to run different lanes and be able to really control your own destiny with your right foot.
It’s not just flat out. It’s not just ripping around. You’ve actually got to really think where you put the car, how hard you drive into the corner. You’ve got to think about looking after your tires at the start of the stint to the end because it’s a really nice bank.
Gateway has a little bit of it, but this one really, really cool and I enjoy having two races here. It also helps when your car is phenomenal like it has been the last few years. Enjoyed it and glad I qualified up front both races.
Q. It’s mentally very tough too concentration-wise because something is happening all the time, there’s no breathing space whatsoever for you.
SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: I think it’s probably 30 laps, 15 after the start and 15 after the restart, where we didn’t pass anyone. Like after that, every lap I was passing a car. That’s pretty crazy to think about in an 18-second lap, but it is what it is.
Sometimes then at the end of the stint, you’ve got people that aren’t that quick, but they’re on new tires, so they’re just flying through you like a video game. You feel like a superhero at the start of your stints, that’s for sure. It’s an awesome place for this car, for this series, and I’m glad we’ve got two races, and it’s such a great event.
Q. Well done today. Happy you’re 1-2, but let’s reverse the fortune tomorrow.
SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: Thank you.
Q. What’s the recovery plan for both you guys? A beer with Kenny Chesney?
SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN: No, man. I’ll probably have a really cold shower. I’d like a nice bath. I think you boys do that. Yeah, just cool down. It’s not as hot as last year thankfully. And get ready for a big one tomorrow.
THE MODERATOR: Pato, how are you going to recover?
PATO O’WARD: Eat.
THE MODERATOR: Good plan.
PATO O’WARD: Big meal.
THE MODERATOR: Congratulations on the podium. We’ll see you tomorrow. Scott McLaughlin will start 2nd tomorrow, Pato O’Ward will start 11th.
Byron, Chevrolet Claims NASCAR Cup Series Pole at Pocono
| NASCAR CUP SERIESPOCONO RACEWAYHIGHPOINT.COM 400TEAM CHEVY POLE WIN REPORTJULY 22, 2023 Byron, Chevrolet Claims NASCAR Cup Series Pole at PoconoCamaro ZL1’s Seventh NCS Pole of 2023 |
 · William Byron (No. 24 RaptorTough.com Camaro ZL1) posted a lap of 52.746 seconds, at 170.629 mph, in the final round of qualifying to capture the pole position for tomorrow’s HighPoint.com 400 at Pocono Raceway – his third NASCAR Cup Series pole win of the 2023 season. · The pole win is Byron’s 11th career pole in 201 starts in NASCAR’s premier series. · This marks Chevrolet’s seventh NASCAR Cup Series pole of the 2023 season; the manufacturer’s series-leading 35th NCS pole at Pocono Raceway; and its 741st all-time pole in NASCAR’s premier series. · Two Chevrolet drivers posted a top-three qualifying effort including pole winner William Byron, and his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson (third). · Chevrolet drivers swept the pole wins across all three NASCAR national series at Pocono Raceway with Nick Sanchez (No. 2 Rev Racing Silverado RST) in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series; Josh Berry (No. 8 JR Motorsports Camaro SS) in the NASCAR Xfinity Series; and William Byron (No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Camaro ZL1) in the NASCAR Cup Series. |
| TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-20 STARTING LINEUP: POS. DRIVER1. William Byron, No. 24 RaptorTough.com Camaro ZL13. Kyle Larson, No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL112. Corey LaJoie, No. 7 TD Bank Camaro ZL116. AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Action Industries Camaro ZL117. Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Jockey Camaro ZL119. Justin Haley, No. 31 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Camaro ZL120. Alex Bowman, No. 48 Ally Best Friends Camaro ZL1 TOP-FIVE UNOFFICIAL STARTING LINEUP: POS. DRIVER1. William Byron (Chevrolet)2. Martin Truex Jr. (Toyota)3. Kyle Larson (Chevrolet)4. Kevin Harvick (Ford)5. Christopher Bell (Toyota) |
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| WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 RAPTORTOUGH.COM CAMARO ZL1 – Pole Win Press Conference |
| WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO START ON THE POLE TOMORROW FOR THE LONG RACE, PIT STALL SELECTION AND HOW GOOD TODAY’S LAP WAS? “Yeah, it’s really important to have pit stall selection. I feel like I reiterate that a lot with my team – qualifying position is important, but pit stall selection is really critical. Just happy to get that number one pit stall. For us, I felt like we had a really smooth day. We had some tough conversations after Loudon. We just had a tough weekend. We went into Wednesday and focused hard on kind of building up our Pocono car and using the Chevy simulator. Just thanks to those guys for their efforts. Some weeks it’s different than others, but this week they did a great job. Just thankful for our whole team and the effort we put in. This really is a speed race track. I was nervous coming here. I feel like the Toyota’s have been really strong, but we’re inching up on it and I think we’re right there.” SIX WEEKS LEFT IN THE REGULAR SEASON. YOU AND MARTIN TRUEX JR. ARE CHASING FOR THE 15 PLAYOFF POINTS BONUS. HOW IMPORTANT IS STAYING CONSISTENT OVER THESE NEXT SIX WEEKS?“It’s important. I don’t think I stress any more or less, based on the regular season. I kind of had that thought after Loudon. It can go either way. I think there’s tracks that he’s really strong at; there’s tracks that we’re really strong. It’s just going to be kind of toe-to-toe for the rest of the time. There’s a lot in our control, but there’s also some wild card races in there. So I think honestly for us, just trying to perform. We know that the last 10 races is where it really counts. If we can compete for stage wins and compete for race wins, we’re going to stack up playoff points and the points on the regular season will take care of themselves. I think for me, my mindset is just trying to do the best that we can and try to make these six races a good prep session for the playoffs.” THE FACT THAT YOU GUYS WERE ABLE TO COME BACK WITH SPEED BECAUSE, LIKE YOU SAID, IT WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN THAT SURPRISING IF TOYOTA WAS LIKE ONE-TWO-THREE IN QUALIFYING OR SOMETHING. SO FOR YOU GUYS TO SHOW UP WITH THE SPEED YOU HAVE AFTER THE WEEK YOU JUST HAD, DOES THAT GIVE YOU EVEN MORE CONFIDENCE THAT THIS IS SORT OF A DIFFERENT YEAR THAN YOU’VE HAD BEFORE WHERE YOUR TEAM CAN JUST OVERCOME WHATEVER?“It does, for sure. I think that for me, I was a little bit nervous after last week. We had some damage on pit road, so it wasn’t completely realistic how we finished. But we were off a little bit on speed and I feel like Nashville (Superspeedway) we were off a bit on speed, as well. So I think this week, showing up with the pace that we had off the truck, was really impressive. It shows that our tools are working correctly because right now, it’s really all about unloading with the right setup and the right feel. So for us, our balance was really close. We had potential – we had lap time that we could go out and get. So I think that’s a really good sign and we just have to keep pushing. Those guys have been strong, really strong, at a lot of the tracks. It’s nice to see though that we can take a few punches for a few weeks and come back with this performance.” (NO MIC.)“I do. I think Martin (Truex Jr.) and I have somewhat similar styles. At least in the old car, when we would look at data, we had similar brake pressure and similar inputs. I mean we’re totally different backgrounds and totally different ages. But yeah, I enjoy racing him. I think he races the way people should. I don’t think he does anything super malicious, but he’s aggressive. He’s good to race against. I think there’s five or six guys out there that I really like racing with.” SINCE YOU WON THE POLE, HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR CHANCES FOR THE NEXT SIX WEEKS, ESPECIALLY WITH A GOOD START COMING ON SUNDAY? “Yeah, I mean we’ve kind of had our tough tracks over the summer for years – I would say the years that Rudy (Fugle) and I have been working together. For some reason, just some of those tracks haven’t clicked exactly how we wanted them to. But this is one that we come to that we take a lot of pride in being good here. And there’s also some other ones – Nashville (Superspeedway), Atlanta (Motor Speedway) was good. We just have to keep it up. It’s a long six weeks and we just have to continue to pace ourselves, do the right things during the week. Make sure our process kind of stays similar throughout the week so that we can show up on Sunday’s and perform.” HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE ATMOSPHERE AT HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS RIGHT NOW? OBVIOUSLY YOUR IN THE MIDST OF THE FIGHT FOR THE REGULAR SEASON CHAMPIONSHP AND HAVE FOUND PLENTY OF SUCCESS THIS SEASON. KYLE LARSON IS COMFORTABLY IN THE PLAYOFFS, AS WELL. CLEARLY CHASE ELLIOTT AND ALEX BOWMAN ARE ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN AS IT STANDS. “Well I think we all work really hard, so I think it’s just trying to put all the pieces together. It’s been a tough season for a couple of our teammates, in terms of staying healthy and all of those things, and just the rhythm of the week. Yeah, we’ve been fortunate that we’ve had a good year so far, but like I’ve been saying, it’s race #20 and there’s a lot left to do. So we can’t kind of rest on what we’ve done, but yeah hopefully our entire team can keep pushing and just continue to improve.” WITH WHERE YOU ARE IN THE POINTS RIGHT NOW AND THE BATTLE WITH MARTIN TRUEX JR., HOW DO YOU KIND OF BALANCE POINTS RACING WITH ALSO BEING AGGRESSIVE, TAKING SWINGS AT THINGS, TRYING TO GO FOR PLAYOFF POINTS AND CONTINUING TO CHASE WINS?“I mean I’ve noticed a change in how Rudy (Fugle) calls races. I think that he’s just aggressive, in general, so really it doesn’t change anything. We were aggressive at Atlanta (Motor Speedway). We were aggressive at Chicago (Street Race) – it didn’t work out because I hit the wall, But I think overall, I think he’s pushing and I don’t think he’d do anything different. I think that’s just his learning curve in the Cup Series. He’s not been at it for very long and I think he’s starting to kind of adapt to the strategy side. So for me, I drive the same. I don’t really change anything.” YOU’VE BEEN PRETTY CONSISTENT AT POCONO RACEWAY OVER YOUR CAREER. HOW DO YOU VIEW THIS PLACE? DO YOU LIKE RACING HERE AND WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE SUCCESSFUL AT A PLACE LIKE POCONO? “For some reason, I like it. I don’t know. My dad sent me a stat that was pretty good this week, just about this being one of my best tracks. I don’t know why. I think when I came here, I came here in the ARCA car when I was like 18 years old – I don’t know if that helped. Or just the experience in the truck and winning that race I think helped. When we got here in the Cup car when I worked with Darian Grubb my first year, this was a bright spot to our year. We had a really strong performance here. So I think it’s just kind of clicked ever since that first time in the Cup car.” WHAT UNIQUE CHALLENGES DOES POCONO RACEWAY BRING TO BOTH YOU AND YOUR TEAM? “Everyone talks about it – making all three turns and having the right balance. It’s really tough to have all three turns have the right balance in the car. When you talk to your crew chief about this place, you say – man, OK one was good.. two I missed.. three wasn’t as good. There’s always like little spots – I feel like other race tracks, you just kind of talk about the whole balance around the whole track. You’re like – at Nashville (Superspeedway), I’m free in this spot or I’m tight in this spot. But here, it’s just really different. You have a lot of time to think down the straightaways and corner entry is really tough.” OBVIOUSLY YOU’RE GOING TO ROOT FOR YOUR TEAMMATES TO MAKE THE PLAYOFFS, BUT IF THEY DON’T MAKE THE FIELD, DOES THAT MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE FOR YOU OR FOR KYLE (LARSON) ONCE THE PLAYOFFS ACTUALLY START?“I think it’s obviously better if all four of us make it because that’s all four of us pushing each other to perform; build better setups, build better racecars. But yeah, we just try to do the best job we can. Try to help those guys when we can at certain race tracks, and go from there.” DOING THE RICHMOND (RACEWAY) TEST IN A WEEK, DO YOU THINK THAT THE RESULTS WILL BE ANY DIFFERENT THAN WHAT YOU WOULD HAVE GOTTEN AT NEW HAMPSHIRE (MOTOR SPEEDWAY)?“Well I know it’s going to be really humid and hot, so I’m going to sweat everything out from the weekend. But I don’t know – I think it’s going to be a good test. Hopefully we try to give our best effort to help NASCAR with helping the rules package on the short-tracks. I think it’s great that they’re using this as an opportunity to improve. Yeah, I’m just going to try to help them as much as I can. I don’t know how much it will really help us for this year, but going to try really help grow that short-track package and hopefully get a better product.” CAN YOU DESCRIBE YOUR POLE-WINNING LAP? “Yeah, I think the first round was crazy because we basically ran half of our lap and had to come back in, change tires and just kind of reset. At that point, try to put a first round together that is good enough to advance. The second round lap, I felt like I got off of (turn) three good coming to the green. I felt like I had pretty good momentum. My shift point was as little bit sooner than before, so I felt like I had good momentum coming to start-finish. And then really, just felt like one was a weakness that I saw on SMT between rounds. I felt like I could get into one just a little bit deeper and maybe have some more grip through the middle. I got off of one good, so I was really confident getting to the tunnel. And then when I got into the tunnel, I just kind of got in a little bit soft and a little bit shallow and hit the bumps at a bad angle. So I had to lift a little bit off of two – just didn’t have a lot of momentum off of two. I felt like my RPM was down going down that short chute, so I was just coaching myself into not trying to make up for it in three. I was like – man, that corner is done, I just have to go through three and have a good exit of that corner because kind of the exit of three is really what makes the lap coming to start-finish. So tried not to compound mistakes. You’re never going to really hit a lap perfect here, but I felt like I got through one and three good enough.” |
CORVETTE RACING AT LIME ROCK: Tough Luck on Tight Track
| Garcia, Taylor move into second in points after fourth-place finish in GT-only fight LAKEVILLE, Conn. (July 22, 2023) – Luck and track position went against Corvette Racing on Saturday at Lime Rock Park as Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor drove to a fourth-place finish in the FCP Euro Northeast Grand Prix presented by Liqui Moly. The day wasn’t a complete loss, though, as the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette finished high enough to move into second place in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship’s GT Daytona (GTD) PRO points standings with four events to go. |
| JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – FINISHED FOURTH IN GTD PRO: “It was a pretty frustrating day. We didn’t have the fastest car, but with the way the strategy was looking, it looked like we were going to be able to jump a bunch of guys on that last stop and then something went wrong on the stop itself. I couldn’t get it back in gear, and we were sitting there for an extra 10 seconds. Once you lose all that track position, it’s impossible to pass around here. Even if we had a stronger car, you’re just sitting behind guys. We were just waiting for someone to make a mistake or something like that to cruise by. But that wasn’t the case. Everyone kind of drove around in a line, and that was it.” |
Daum Passes Avedisian in Final Laps to Notch Third-Straight Win with Trifecta Motorsports
McIntosh flips and takes second DNF of the season, shrinks points gap down to 55 over Miller
DOE RUN, MO (July 21, 2023) – Zach Daum’s hot streak is still burning. His third-straight Feature win with the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series presented by Toyota Friday night came in a thriller, passing Jade Avedisian for the lead coming to the white flag and holding her off to win the first-ever Midget event held at Doe Run Raceway.
The exciting finish was his third-straight Series victory with his new team at Trifecta Motorsports, which he joined after the seat of the flagship #7U car was vacated in early June. One phone call from team owner Steve Carbone was all it took to turn Daum’s early season hardships around, as they walked out of their first race weekend together with two wins at Wayne County Speedway before the Series’ summer break.
Now, they’ve got a third. The big smile on Daum’s face in Victory Lane said it all – it’s a memorable time for him in his open-wheel racing career.
“I don’t know that this is the best I’ve ever done, but it’s right up there,” Daum, of Pocahontas, IL, said. “Everything’s playing together right now. We’ve been fast, I feel like I’m driving good, I have confidence – just everything it takes to put these types of races and championships together.”
A third-place run in his Heat Race set the defending Xtreme Outlaw champion up with a ninth-place starting spot for the Feature. Using his preferred lane around the bottom, Daum surged all the way up to second in 15 laps.
“I had a good rhythm on the bottom and in the middle,” Daum said. “I was picking off cars, especially when people would start sliding each other, I could get both of them at once because they both had to check up and I could get ahead and drive back around them.”
As he hit the halfway point of the 30-lap Toyota Racing Feature, only one car remained ahead of him – Jade Avedisian.
Avedisian, the 16-year-old championship contender from Clovis, CA, had led all but six laps up to that point and was maintaining a big lead over Daum. A caution flag with six laps left erased that gap and put Daum right on her tail-tank for the restart.
Avedisian got a great start, using her preferred line around the top. But three laps later with Daum right on her heels, she decided it was time to change lanes to protect the lead.
“I wasn’t sure what to do [on the restart]; I knew the top was getting really far around and it shelfs-off really bad here,” Avedisian said. “I finally saw [Daum] poke his nose, and I still thought with like three-to-go that I would have enough and by that time, he was almost right next to me. So, I decided to go down there, and I had no clue he was in the middle.”
“I knew as soon as I peeked my nose down there, she was gonna come down, which she had to,” Daum said. “The problem was we weren’t running the bottom; we were running the middle and kinda floating around.
“She just had no idea. She ran 20-plus laps on the top and then tried to run the last couple on the bottom. It’s hard to transition.”
Despite her best efforts to keep Daum at bay, Avedisian was unable to hold the 7U off in the end. Daum countered her new line on the bottom by moving up into the middle, wound-up the momentum and made the pass to her outside as the white flag was displayed out of Turn 4.
“When [KKM crew] told her to move to the bottom, I thought, ‘Well, here’s my chance,’” Daum said. “If I can get a good restart, and she puts two car lengths on me, she’s gonna win the race. She kinda did, and then I just got back to her.
“She moved down, and it was like, ‘Okay, it’s over now because I know I can roll through the middle better.’”
Avedisian didn’t go away silently, however, trying to scrape-up the momentum she needed for a pass-back attempt coming to the checkers, but it wasn’t enough. Daum sailed across the line to bank the big check and his fourth career Series victory.
Though slightly dejected after the checkers, Avedisian still held her head high with a runner-up finish, knowing it turned out to be a great points night. Despite her best efforts on the top side of the track for much of the race, she stood by her decision to move down, considering she wasn’t gaining anything by trying to race any higher up.
“I ran [the top line] as hard as I possibly could when he was right next to me, and [Daum] was still gaining on me,” Avedisian said. “I think I moved down at the right time, I just moved down too low, and he just went around me.”
Abacus Racing driver Daniel Whitley came home third to notch his best career Xtreme Outlaw victory. Taylor Reimer crossed in fourth and Series points runner-up Gavin Miller crossed fifth.
The top-five runs by Avedisian and Miller turned out to be very valuable in the championship standings as points leader Cannon McIntosh struggled throughout the second half of the night. Fuel problems in his Heat left him with a 15th-place starting spot for the Feature, where he made it all the way to 10th before a crash sent him tumbling through Turn 2, effectively ending his night early with a 20th-place finish and shrinking his points lead down to 55 on Miller.
UP NEXT
The Xtreme Outlaw Midgets are back in action Saturday, July 22, with a visit to Southern Illinois Raceway in Marion, IL, for the second leg of the weekend doubleheader. Get a ticket at the gate or stream every lap live on DIRTVision.
FEATURE RESULTS
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 7U-Zach Daum[9]; 2. 71-Jade Avedisian[2]; 3. 58-Daniel Whitley[3]; 4. 25K-Taylor Reimer[5]; 5. 97-Gavin Miller[4]; 6. 51B-Joe B Miller[10]; 7. 11A-Andrew Felker[1]; 8. 21K-Karter Sarff[7]; 9. 32-Trey Marcham[8]; 10. 44-Branigan Roark[18]; 11. 33-Kyle Jones[20]; 12. 97K-Cooper Williams[6]; 13. 26R-Corbin Rueschenberg[17]; 14. 40-Chase McDermand[12]; 15. 16-Garet Williamson[11]; 16. 26-Chance Crum[14]; 17. 31K-Jaxton Wiggs[21]; 18. 08K-Brody Wake[16]; 19. 17B-Austin Barnhill[19]; 20. 08-Cannon McIntosh[15]; 21. 19AZ-Hayden Reinbold[13]
MORGAN CUP MIRACLE: Logan Schuchart Steals Williams Grove Win at the Checkered Flag
| The Hanover, PA native sneaks by Brad Sweet on the final lap to claim the Morgan Cup for the World of OutlawsMECHANICSBURG, PA (July 21, 2023) – The race appeared to be over. Brad Sweet had led from the drop of the green flag at Williams Grove Speedway on Friday night with a comfortable advantage. But as the white flag waved on the Morgan Cup, the Jaws music began to play.Logan Schuchart spent the entire race in pursuit. Scratching and clawing his way by lapped cars but unable to keep up with Sweet. And then suddenly, hope arose. Schuchart went from 2.2 seconds behind with three laps to go to 1.2 behind as they began the final lap. Down the back straightaway he charged with a head of steam aboard the Shark Racing #1S. As they exited the final corner, Schuchart used a massive run to dip under Sweet and steal the win by only eight one hundredths of a second.The Pennsylvania crowd erupted. Fans looked at each other as if seeking confirmation for what they’d witnessed. Surely Schuchart couldn’t have pulled that off. But he did. He erased a more than two second gap in only three laps. Even Schuchart himself could hardly believe it.“Man, I really didn’t think I had a shot, either,” Schuchart admitted. “I just ran the top the whole race running the same line as Brad. When we did get to some lapped cars there, they were just in both lines. I took way too long to get by them. Brad just got way out there. He was running a consistent race. I knew we felt pretty good, and I felt that our car was going to come in later. “The closer it got those last couple laps, I think I looked up around Lap 20, and I thought I’d move the wing back and try to move around the racetrack to see if I could find anything. I was able to get by Kasey (Kahne) there and slowly started moving in on Brad and really gained on him the last couple laps there. I knew he was probably going to be conservative and block the bottom… When he moved down, I thought I’m just going to run the top and with my wing trunked I thought I’m going to have to keep the car as loose as possible and try and spring off the exit and try to get down the straightaway good. And that’s what we were able to do.”Schuchart’s 38th career World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car victory was his first at Williams Grove in his 57th attempt at the historic half mile. The Hanover, PA native became the 52nd different driver to win a race with The Greatest Show on Dirt at the tricky oval. The 30-year-old is up to a trio of World of Outlaws triumphs this year plus his Eldora Million victory.And while he may hail from Pennsylvania, the win in the dual Morgan Cup finale/Champion Racing Oil Summer Nationals opener was one for the Outlaws as the 10-year Series veteran snatched the Cup from the PA Posse and banked $15,000. Regardless of his driving allegiance, Schuchart was full of excitement to stand in Victory Lane in front of the fans who’ve cheered him on from his earliest days.“This one hits close to my heart,” Schuchart said. “This is really cool to win in front of our PA fans. If you would’ve told me 10 years ago it was going to take me 10 years to win an Outlaw race at one of my home tracks, I would’ve been pretty disappointed. I can’t thank all of the fans enough. Always a bunch of support after the races here no matter if we run 15th or whatever.”The early portion of the race was controlled by Sweet. After topping the Toyota Racing Dash, he wheeled the Kasey Kahne Racing #49 ahead in the early circuits. No cautions interrupted the flow of the race, and even when faced by thick traffic as they approached halfway, Sweet didn’t falter. The four-time and reigning champion sliced expertly through slower cars.What hurt Sweet in the closing laps was a lost wheel cover, causing mud to fill his right-rear wheel and making the car difficult to handle. Sweet’s misfortune was Schuchart’s gain as he closed in and made the thrilling last-second pass.For Schuchart, the moment served as a testament of the importance of giving your all until the race is over.“It doesn’t matter what position you’re in. Until that checkered flag falls, you give it 110%,” Schuchart said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s racing, football, any sport, or life in general, you’ve got to give it 110% every chance you get because you never know. I’m just very thankful to do this with my team and get this opportunity night in and night out.”Sweet’s runner-up result gave him back-to-back second place efforts and four runner-ups in the last six races. “The Big Cat” is up to 18 World of Outlaws podiums this season. No driver will be happy with losing a win of the final lap, but Sweet’s silver lining came in the form of regaining the point lead as he now sits 12 markers ahead of David Gravel, who finished 11th. For Sweet, the missing wheel cover was too much to overcome.“Somehow the wheel got packed full of mud, and I honestly just barely made it around the last lap,” Sweet explained. “I tried to just go to the bottom there. I didn’t think I should go to the outside. I just really couldn’t see it was shaking so bad. I couldn’t get any traction coming to the line. I knew I was in trouble if anyone was close. I tried to limp it around and just wasn’t good enough.”Rico Abreu stayed toward the front for the duration of the race after starting fourth and brought the #24 home third. It marked another consistent run for the St. Helena, CA native who is having a career year behind the wheel. The result put him at 10 World of Outlaws podiums for the year. He’s only the fourth driver to reach that mark this season and the only one among non-full-time drivers.“We were just really consistent throughout the whole race night,” Abreu said. “Our balance is really good. We’ve been really good here. Getting from sixth to fourth there in the Dash was pretty important for us and beating Carson (Macedo) on the start into Turn 1… I could see Brad’s car shaking there when he was ahead of us. Logan and him and I just got to racing when the pace slowed down, and I thought we would’ve been able to stick our nose in there and break some momentum, but it was just a little bit too late.”Sheldon Haudenschild and Carson Macedo completed the top five.Macedo also picked up the night’s Simpson Performance Products QuickTime Award – his Series best 12th of the season and the 31st of his career.For the second straight night, Danny Dietrich was the KSE Racing Hard Charger. The Gettysburg, PA native drove the Gary Kauffman #48 from 15th to seventh.CASE No.1 Engine Oil Heat One went to Carson Macedo (108th Heat Race win of career). NOS Energy Drink Heats Two through Four were topped by Logan Schuchart (114th of career), Gio Scelzi (31st of career), and Cory Eliason (19th of career).Spencer Bayston won the Micro-Lite Last Chance Showdown.The Smith Titanium Brake Systems “Break of the Race” went to Justin Peck after an issue on the final lap ended a sure top 10 run and dropped him to a 21st place finish.UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Cars finish the Champion Racing Oil Summer Nationals with $20,000 up for grabs on Saturday, July 22. For tickets, CLICK HERE.If you can’t make it to the track, catch all of the action on DIRTVision.RESULTS:NOS Energy Drink Feature (25 Laps): 1. 1S-Logan Schuchart[2]; 2. 49-Brad Sweet[1]; 3. 24-Rico Abreu[4]; 4. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild[7]; 5. 41-Carson Macedo[3]; 6. 19-Brent Marks[6]; 7. 48-Danny Dietrich[15]; 8. 11-Cory Eliason[5]; 9. 18-Giovanni Scelzi[8]; 10. 8-Freddie Rahmer[14]; 11. 2-David Gravel[10]; 12. 27-Troy Wagaman Jr[17]; 13. 69K-Lance Dewease[20]; 14. 23-Devon Borden[9]; 15. 15-Donny Schatz[13]; 16. 5-Spencer Bayston[21]; 17. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss[16]; 18. 44-Dylan Norris[11]; 19. 83-James McFadden[18]; 20. 67-Justin Whittall[23]; 21. 13-Justin Peck[12]; 22. 11T-TJ Stutts[25]; 23. 9-Kasey Kahne[24]; 24. 1A-Jacob Allen[19]; 25. 99M-Kyle Moody[26]; 26. 12-Billy Dietrich[22] |
JOHN FORCE RACING KICKS OFF QUALIFYING AT FLAV-R-PAC NORTHWEST NATIONALS
| KENT, Wash. (July 21, 2023) – The Flav-R-Pac NHRA Northwest Nationals got things started at Pacific Raceways with one qualifying session on Friday afternoon. John Force and the PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Chevrolet Camaro SS led his four-car team as the Funny Car provisional No. 2 qualifier while Robert Hight and the Cornwell Tools / AAA Chevy Camaro SS were No. 8. In Top Fuel, Austin Prock and the Montana Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist team will start Saturday from the No. 5 spot while Brittany Force and the Flav-R-Pac / Monster Energy team will work to climb up from the No. 10 spot. John Force and the PEAK Chevy, who are looking for their 10th victory and seventh No. 1 qualifier at Pacific Raceways, opened qualifying with a solid 3.983-second pass at 322.42 mph to earn two bonus points for the provisional No. 2 qualifying position. “I’m excited about this race, the Flav-R-Pac Northwest Nationals. We promoted it really hard with the FanFest at the mall in Auburn and Brittany, she was all over Seattle and hung out with the WNBA Basketball team, the Storm, and then they came out here today. That’s awesome,” Force said. “I’d like to win this race. Win for PEAK and all our sponsors but especially for Frank Tiegs. It’s his race and he’s on all our cars and really done a lot for this team. So I want us to get it done.” Defending event champions Robert Hight and the Cornwell Tools Camaro made a full pass in their first session but were down on speed for a 4.028-second pass at 321.42 mph to end up in the No. 8 spot. Austin Prock and the Montana Brand team had a solid pass to kick off their qualifying efforts at the location of Prock’s first career victory. Prock would record a 3.808-second pass at 312.86 mph with a cylinder out to end the night in the No. 5 spot. Brittany Force and the Flav-R-Pac dragster ran into tire smoke at mid-track during their first attempt down Pacific Raceways. They coasted to a 6.406-second pass at 92.71 mph in a 13-car field to end up No. 10 with two runs left to move their way up on Saturday. The Flav-R-Pac NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways continues with qualifying Saturday at 2:15 and 4:45 p.m. Eliminations are slated to begin Sunday at 10:30 a.m. Television coverage of the event begins with qualifying shows Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 1:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1 (FS1). Eliminations will be aired Sunday at 4:00 p.m. ET on FOX Broadcasting Network. -30- |
AUSTIN PROCK, 27, Montana Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist dragsterQualifying:5th; 3.808-seconds; 312.86 mphBonus Qualifying Points:0  BRITTANY FORCE, 36, Monster Energy / Flav-R-Pac dragsterQualifying:10th; 6.406-seconds; 92.71 mphBonus Qualifying Points:0 JOHN FORCE, 74, PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Chevrolet Camaro SSQualifying:2nd; 3.983-seconds; 322.42 mphBonus Qualifying Points: +2 (2nd quickest Q1)ROBERT HIGHT, 53, Cornwell Tools / AAA Chevy Camaro SSQualifying:8th; 4.028-seconds; 321.42 mphBonus Qualifying Points:0 |
CHEVROLET LEADS PRACTICE ONE AT IOWA SPEEDWAY
CHEVROLET IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES
HY-VEE DOUBLEHEADER AT IOWA SPEEDWAY
NEWTON, IOWA
TEAM CHEVY PRACTICE ONE REPORT
JULY 21, 2023
CHEVROLET LEADS PRACTICE ONE AT IOWA SPEEDWAY
- Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet-four-time Iowa Speedway winner, and Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 XPEL Team Penske Chevrolet ended practice session No. 1 on top of leader board with laps of 18.2420 seconds/176.428 mph, and 18.2897 seconds/175.968 mph respectively
- Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, the last NTT INDYCAR Series winner at Iowa Speedway, stood fifth in the final rundown with a lap of 18.3416 seconds/175.470 mph
- Ryan Hunter-Reay, No. 20 Bitnile.com Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet, three-time winner at Iowa Speedway, posted the eighth quickest lap at 18.4749 seconds/174.204 mph
- A total of 13 Chevrolet-powered INDY cars participated in the only practice session of the Hy-Vee doubleheader INDYCAR weekend
- The qualifying procedure for the Iowa weekend is unique in that each car gets two laps on the clock; lap one secures their starting position for the Saturday Hy-Vee Homefront 250 presented by INSTACART. The second lap secures their starting position for Sunday’s Hy-Vee ONESTEP 250 presented by Gatorade
- Qualifying is scheduled to start Saturday morning at 9:30 am ET with live coverage on Peacock and INDYCAR Radio
- The 250-lap Hy-Vee Homefront 250 presented by INSTACART is set to start Saturday at 3:00 pm ET with live coverage on NBC TV, INDYCAR Radio and INDYCAR.COM live timing and scoring
POST PRACTICE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
Josef Newgarden
Pato O’Ward
Ryan Hunter-Reay
THE MODERATOR: Wrapping up one practice for this week’s Hy-Vee INDYCAR Race Weekend here at Iowa Speedway. Pato O’Ward, fifth quick, he will join us here momentarily, as will eighth place finishing driver Ryan Hunter-Reay in today’s practice. Joined now by Josef Newgarden, driving the No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet. Four-time winner here at Iowa. Indy 500 champion obviously from this year as well and two-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champ. P1 at 176.428 miles-an-hour. Joseph, any indication of what’s to come this weekend?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I don’t know. It’s hard to say. Good practice for sure, no doubt. It’s difficult to say what tomorrow and Sunday is going to bring.
I think everybody looks really good. There’s a lot of cars that tested here. Pretty much the whole field tested outside of us in McLaren, and I think everybody looks like they’ve raised their game.
So it’s not going to be easy whether it’s qualifying or the race. I think it will be pretty tight up and down the grid. We’ll see what happens.
THE MODERATOR: One practice and qualifying, one session at a time. Questions for Josef Newgarden?
Q. Josef, you said it was just okay, but you’re approached by a significant amount. Does that mean you feel good about qualifying, and it’s race setup where you’re wondering?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I mean, both. I had a really clear run to start out for my Q1 in the beginning. The second two Q-sims I did were not clear. The last one I got a little bit closer to that ultimate time that I did, but yeah, I think either/or it’s going to be tough.
There’s a lot of other cars out there that probably didn’t get clear Q-sims, and we didn’t maybe see their ultimate pace. I’ll be fascinated to see the morning.
I think we should be in the mix. It just has this feeling like everyone is way closer than what they were last year. So I’m speaking more about the race, but both sessions I think it’s going to be really close.
Q. Is there anybody in particular outside of the Penske McLaren cars who caught your eye who is really strong or could be a threat?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Legitimately everyone looked like they were levelled up relative to last year. Practice is kind of difficult here just because you’ve got to be ten laps difference on tires makes a huge swing in performance. So it’s hard to assess where everybody is when you’re out there, and it’s hard to get an apples-to-apples comparison.
Any car that I was up against just felt like they were better than what they were doing last year. It was certainly not as easy to kind of come through the field.
I think Ryan will be good in that ECR car. He has been good here in the past, and he looks pretty sporty.
I thought the Ganassi cars looked better than they’ve been. It looked like they were happy at the test, so I think they’ll be difficult. I know McLaren is really strong here.
Then you have my teammates. I know Scotty is going to be good. Yeah, hopefully he is not too good, but he could be very good this weekend I could see.
Q. (Indiscernible).
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It’s just a compromise. We decided to go to Road America versus here, whereas other teams decided to do it the other way around; right? So it’s not that there’s a secret. We made a choice.
We almost came here. It wasn’t like a clear-cut decision or that it was easy to go to Road America versus this place, but we thought that was an area where we had more opportunity to gain than at Iowa. That’s why we did it.
We’re going to find out here in 48 hours if that was a good call or not.
Q. I think your cars are going to be impounded tomorrow after qualifying. How does the team set up the car? You just go with race setup?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah. I mean, you kind of have to. At the end of the day, qualifying, it doesn’t really matter. When it comes to choosing between that and a race, you have to have a good race car. You’re going to be stuck with it for 250 laps versus two.
So, yeah, you’re going to be putting the race car setup on. You might sneak in a little bit of an adjustment for trying to get a decent run in qualifying.
But to be honest, it’s a terrible condition setup. We’re going to be qualifying at 8:30 a.m. It’s going to be 12 degrees cooler, and then you can’t adjust the car for when it’s the middle of the day.
I don’t personally love that. I think you’re going to be bottoming a lot more when the conditions are super cool. The car is just going to be stuck.
So I kind of wish we had that setup differently where we could adjust at least ride heights or front wing or something like that. The way the rules are written in impound, you’re going to basically put your race car on, and hopefully it’s not too aggressive for qualifying.
THE MODERATOR: Joined obviously now by Pato O’Ward, fifth quick today, driving the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. First winner in last year’s race number two at the Hy-Vee INDYCAR Race Weekend. Pato, another nice start to the weekend here at Iowa Speedway?
PATO O’WARD: I have no idea where we’re at, to be honest. It’s just tough. Around here five laps difference on your tires versus somebody else’s tires, it’s really a world of difference. It’s super easy to kind of spook yourself and feel like you’re not as strong as what you actually are, or you can get a misread and think, I’m a hero, and then you’re not.
I think tomorrow will be obviously an opportunity to learn more of what everybody has got to work for race two. Yeah, we don’t have more time to really work on the car, so it’s just kind of qualifying and then race that qualifying car.
I think it will be a dead game just like it always is in 60-something laps per set. Really pretty tall order.
THE MODERATOR: Hanging on there at the end maybe.
PATO O’WARD: Yeah.
THE MODERATOR: Follow-ups for Josef before we go ahead and cut him loose?
Q. I was going to ask about Scott. You mentioned how good he looked at the practice there. Do you feel like every year you come here, you know, he can see your data, and it’s a little bit of giving away some of your secrets, or do you still feel like you can keep some things to yourself, and it’s not as simple as him kind of going through your data and saying, okay, Josef is doing this on this lap and this on this corner or whatever?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, there’s no hiding when he is your teammate. I’ve gone a step further than that and just opened up my playbook for him.
He is smart. He is probably going to utilize that pretty well. He already looks like he is. So let’s see if I still have enough for him.
Q. To come up with a compromise that’s going to be fast in qualifying and be able to handle the race, at least a Saturday race, how much does that really show the expertise and the brilliance of an engineering staff to find out what that compromise really is?
JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I mean, I want to make it sound more impressive than it is, but you are basically just putting your race car on and trying to not bottom too much. So you’re not — there’s not anything too tricky that we can do.
I think mostly, at least on our team, it would be much more preferred if we could just make a few adjustments because I think everybody going to fight that.
At the end of the day you’re putting your race car on, and you’re going to try to set your ride heights, and that’s about it. It’s nothing too crazy.
THE MODERATOR: Josef, we’ll cut you loose. Thanks for being in here. Appreciate and see you tomorrow bright and early for qualifying. More questions for Pato O’Ward?
Q. To follow up on that a little bit, it’s two laps, but it’s warmup laps. Can you try and time it a little bit to get peaky on lap two that counts, or you just have to — you give up too much on lap one, then you are in trouble on two.
PATO O’WARD: You don’t want to give up on lap one. You want to obviously get the best run out of your warmup lap into lap one and then that will obviously feed into lap two.
We didn’t really get a read on that either because it’s just such a small track with so many cars. Our Q runs weren’t really Q runs. By the time you actually get maybe a decent turn one and two clear, your pressures are already skyrocketing. It’s so hard to get a read.
So tomorrow in qualifying I think we’re going to go into it knowing a little bit of what we’ve got, but a little bit of not what we’ve got. Just like Josef said, everybody just races their — sorry — qualifies their race car because, you know, in reality this track is probably the least qualifying-sensitive track. You can qualify last, but if you have a frickin’ rocket in the race, you’re chilling.
THE MODERATOR: Simon Pagenaud a couple of years ago. He started last.
PATO O’WARD: He got helped by the strategy.
Q. You said you definitely are not the strongest, and I think the last year certainly was Penske and McLaren and then everybody else. Josef was saying that Hunter-Reay looked good, the Ganassi cars looked good. Who outside of your teammates, the Penske cars, looks strong to you?
PATO O’WARD: Particularly I think we obviously were not here for the test, so they’ve obviously gotten stronger because they had a full day that we didn’t.
Well, vice versa. We had a full road in Road America that they didn’t, so you just have to pick your fights and really go to where you think you’re lacking.
But it’s just — it’s an odd place from day-to-day because, like I said, you can feel like you’re not very strong, and then tomorrow everybody is on the exact same laps on the exact same tires, and then you’re just cruising.
Like, that happened to me last year. I was kind of, like, eh, and then as soon as everybody is on the same playing field, it was just, like, bye.
It’s so hard to read. You really don’t know until you get that race one under your belt, and then you are, okay, I need this for race two.
I think today was a little bit of that. You know, we got some long runs in, but I mean, 40 laps, we still need to go 20 more to finish this stint, and those last 20 laps are usually pretty sketch.
Q. (Off microphone).
PATO O’WARD: Exactly. Josef can also be the strongest and not care. I feel like it can be anybody’s just because you get false reads. I think everybody gets false reads on other people because you feel that you’re weak, but you’re also maybe on 15 older tires or 10 lap older tires. And here, different to other tracks, five laps here, like 35 to 40, huge difference.
You can get a false read. You know, they’ve been behind us pretty much all stint. Well, but all stint? Or really how much pressure do they have, or are theirs older and you feel so much stronger than them? It’s just pretty much a guessing game kind of thing for the race.
Q. What can you do to make your tires stay a little better a little longer? Is it line? I know it’s setup, of course, but what can you personally, the driver, do?
PATO O’WARD: You ultimately just don’t — you don’t want to over-abuse it. The problem is if you don’t — if you’re just not really using it, then you’re just going to get freight-trained by everybody.
There’s a compromise there, but a lot of things are in the moment. You can feel out how much you’re oversaturating the front or how much you’re beating it. It really depends on what balance you have.
Then once you get the first stint done, then you know where your balance is kind of going to. Then for the next one you can kind of prepare it or at least start it a little bit better and hopefully make it last a little bit better rather than going either super under-steery or super over-steery. It’s a tough game.
What’s up, bro? You look good. Jinx.
THE MODERATOR: We were just talking about that difference. Ryan Hunter-Reay joins us, driver of the No. 20 Bitnile.com Chevrolet. Three-team winner here at Iowa. What did you learn in that session today?
RYAN HUNTER-REAY: It was quite a bit different than the test, that’s for sure. Just started the session pretty loose and then just had to work on kind of getting that in check.
I kind of made the decision let’s just bail on focusing on anything qualifying. Let’s just focus on the race car the whole time.
Yeah, like Pato was saying, it’s different phases of the tire through the life of the tire, and you kind of figure out what you can get away with and what you can’t. It’s tough.
It’s amazing how much different this place is than it was back in my first run in 2012. Totally different race car, but it’s challenging.
It’s tough to keep the tire under you. You have to be smart about it. It will be a tough one, but I think we made the right changes towards the end of the session in practice. We had a good direction at the end, which is important.
Q. Pato, 28 cars on the shortest track of the season. Are there going to be three lanes, and how much time in the race do you spend not only looking ahead, but behind you paying attention to what the cars behind you are doing maybe to position yourself? Not to block, but just to kind of keep them from getting around you.
PATO O’WARD: It is to block. If you are looking behind you, it’s because you’re in defense mode (laughing).
Three racing lanes? I think for restarts maybe or for race start, but for racing I just don’t see us hanging it out like all the way up there, especially in three and four. Three and four, for me it was pretty slippery.
THE MODERATOR: See you tomorrow morning.
PATO O’WARD: Thanks.
THE MODERATOR: More questions for Ryan Hunter-Reay?
Q. Ryan, since you’ve taken over the No. 20, is this the track where you feel most like Ryan Hunter-Reay?
RYAN HUNTER-REAY: It’s different every track we go to. I felt good at Mid-Ohio. Just didn’t really have the balance that I wanted or needed or what I kind of was striving for.
Toronto, timing just never really went right. Not getting the tires in before it rained in qualifying type of thing. It was just one of those deals.
Yeah, here this is the first place I’ve come back to that I’ve been on the track with the team, and we had a test day. This place, it either seems like, bar a few cars here or there, it seems like maybe Newgarden and Pato, I’m not sure, but it seems like you’re either under-steer or over-steer. There’s kind of no happy medium.
It is difficult. I’m not sure what we’ll have tomorrow, but like I said, I think we went in the right direction.
Yeah, this place I have a certain affinity for short track racing, and it’s been a big part of my career. Yeah, we’re back here at Iowa, which has been a place that has been really good to me. So hopefully that trend will continue.
Q. As you enter traffic, how is the car behaving in traffic? Much different than the other prerun?
RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Yeah, big difference. You could be on your own for a straightaway or two and thinking you’re Superman, and then all of a sudden you come up on three or four cars, and the whole thing changes.
That really makes it difficult on car placement because of the lack of grip and where you drive into the corner and how you place your car. Let’s say I want to be on that lane, and I want my right sides to be there. It’s really difficult to place the car at times, especially on older tires.
Once you get to about lap 40 on tires, you want to pick up the phone and call 9-1-1 and tell them you’re coming in. Then they tell you, well, you have another 30 laps to go.
Then you tell them, Wow, it’s really bad.
They tell you, Well, everybody else is dealing with it too.
THE MODERATOR: That’s universal. It doesn’t matter what team you’re on.
RYAN HUNTER-REAY: I think they pull a cheat sheet, a card out, like a laminated card that says, Nope, everybody else is dealing with that; you can’t come in.
Q. What about the heat?
RYAN HUNTER-REAY: The heat? Yeah, absolutely. I miss this place being a night race, but it is really incredible what Hy-Vee has been able to do with this place. It’s absolutely insane. Having last raced here in 2020, it looks like a completely different racetrack.
Not on the surface. Everywhere around it obviously. But, yeah, the heat is going to be an issue.
The good news is everybody else is dealing with that same circumstance. It’s a matter of being smart on how you deal with traffic and how aggressive you are.
The line is so, so thin on making the right move or the wrong move in traffic and putting yourself up in the marble, so two lanes for sure.
Q. Ryan, on the flip side of the 9-1-1 call, somebody was telling me about I don’t know which one of your Iowa victories it was, but there was one where you pitted and just darted past everybody because you were on fresh tires, and everybody else was —
RYAN HUNTER-REAY: That was pure talent. That was not tires (laughing). It was so much fun, though. That was one of the most fun races I’ve had.
Q. What is that like when you can dominate the field at will like that here?
RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Yeah, that race was 2014. We hadn’t had the best night. Tony was leading the whole time, and we knew tires were going to be the way to go.
We didn’t know if we had enough time to do. At the time Michael Andretti made the call. I wasn’t sure about it because we had to give up 10, 11 spots to do it, something like that. I don’t remember what it was.
The great thing was that all the guys that were on used had to use the higher lane because they were just forced there. They couldn’t run the lower lane.
So Josef Newgarden and I both had new tires, and we just ran around the bottom just passing everybody like it was a video game. It was really incredible. I would like to do that again actually.
Q. How I guess important is it to you to have a result like that in practice in the role that you’re in right now? Can you take any momentum from that, or is it kind of like just a result of so many cars on a short racetrack?
RYAN HUNTER-REAY: The practice results that you see are not indicative at all of who is fast in race trim because the practice results are based on a solo lap by themselves with no interference, no dirty air, and all that stuff.
What’s really going to pay this weekend is a car that is consistent over the long run that uses the Firestone tire in a balanced manner through the stint. We have no idea who that is yet.
We do have a good idea based on history and based on who I ran around tonight. I think Josef and Pato were probably some of the best out there. That’s what’s most important.
Really the practice session really doesn’t matter. Folks that know really what to look for, we’ll go back and look at average pace or average lap times over a stint of 20, 30 laps, and that will kind of tell a story.
But, yeah, it wasn’t a bad day. I think we made some good changes. I’m cautiously optimistic on hopefully we can just make a consistent run to the first two stints. If we do that, I think we’ll be good.
THE MODERATOR: Get a good night’s sleep, young man.
RYAN HUNTER-REAY: Thank you. You’re here at 6:30 or something like that?
THE MODERATOR: Bring some donuts with you. That be would great. Hy-Vee, of course. Next session comes up qualifying for tomorrow’s race one here at Iowa Speedway. Qualifying begins at 8:30 a.m. Central Time. Thanks, everyone.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
CORVETTE RACING AT LIME ROCK: Second-Row Start for No. 3 C8.R
| Garcia goes under old track record, will roll off third on grid in GT-only showcase LAKEVILLE, Conn. (July 21, 2023) – Corvette Racing and Antonio Garcia will charge toward the first corner for the Northeast Grand Prix on Saturday from inside the second row after a third-place result in qualifying Friday at Lime Rock Park. Garcia, in the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R, set a best time of 50.897 (104.257 mph) in a record-breaking, 15-minute session around the 1.474-mile, seven turn Lime Rock layout. |
| He’ll start Saturday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race and will team with Jordan Taylor – the same duo that won the GT-only race in 2021 with the No. 3 Corvette. The five cars in the GTD PRO class were under the previous track record of 51.079; they were all separated by 0.481 seconds. Garcia set the fastest GTD PRO lap in Friday’s first practice and was quickest overall in the final session prior to qualifying. That’s a good sign for the long-run pace of the Corvette, which won for the first time this year two weeks ago at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. While the Garcia/Taylor pairing currently sits third in points, the No. 3 Corvette is in the thick of the GTD PRO championships with 109 points separating the team from the class-leading No. 14 Lexus in the standings. With six victories at the 1.474-mile, seven-turn road course in northwestern Connecticut, no team in IMSA history has won more times at Lime Rock than Corvette Racing. In fact, no team in the paddock has half the number of victories at the circuit. This is the first of two races this season to feature only GTD PRO and GTD cars, the second coming at Virginia International Raceway in August. Of note, six of Corvette Racing’s 126 victories worldwide have been overall wins, including the 2021 Lime Rock win for the No. 3 Corvette. The FCP Euro Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park is scheduled for 12:10 p.m. ET on Saturday. The race will air live on USA and stream live on Peacock inside the United States and IMSA.com outside the U.S. IMSA Radio also will air the race beginning at 11:30 a.m. ET at IMSA.com with the race call also on XM 207 and SiriusXM Online 992. |
| 2023 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship – GTD PRO (After six of 11 events)Driver Standings1. Ben Barnicoat/Jack Hawksworth – 2,1102. Daniel Juncadella/Jules Gounon – 2,0143. Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 2,0014. Klaus Bachler/Patrick Pilet – 1,9555. Alex Riberas/Ross Gunn – 1,698 Team Standings1. No. 14 Vasser Sullivan – 2,1102. No. 79 WeatherTech Racing – 2,0143. No. 3 Corvette Racing – 2,0014. No. 9 Pfaff Motorsports – 1,9555. No. 23 Heart of Racing Team – 1,698 Manufacturer Standings1. Lexus – 2,1102. Mercedes-AMG – 2.0143. Chevrolet – 2,0014. Porsche – 1,9555. Aston Martin – 1,709 CORVETTE RACING AT LIME ROCK: By the Numbers• 1: As in one team, one manufacturer and one model of car for 25 years of racing: Corvette Racing, Chevrolet and the Chevrolet Corvette• 4: Generations of Corvette Racing entries at Lime Rock Park since 2004 – Corvette C5-R (2004), Corvette C6.R (2005-13), Corvette C7.R (2016-2019) and Corvette C8.R, which made its Lime Rock debut in 2021• 6: Number of victories at Lime Rock for Corvette Racing, the most of any entrant in IMSA.• 7: Number of drivers who have won races at Lime Rock for Corvette Racing – Oliver Gavin (four), Olivier Beretta (three), Jan Magnussen (two), and Johnny O’Connell and Tommy Milner (one each). Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor joined the list with last year’s victory• 7: Fastest race laps for Corvette Racing drivers at Lime Rock. Antonio Garcia (2017) was the most recent• 7: Pole positions at Lime Rock for Corvette Racing, the most of any entrant in IMSA. Jordan Taylor (2021) was the most recent• 14: Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001• 27: Tracks at which Corvette Racing has won races – Baltimore, Charlotte Motor Speedway, COTA, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park/Mosport, Daytona, Detroit, Houston, Laguna Seca, Le Mans, Lime Rock, Long Beach, Miami, Mid-Ohio, Monza, Portimão, Portland, Road America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Sonoma, St. Petersburg, Texas, Trois Rivieres, Utah, VIR, Washington DC and Watkins Glen• 34: Number of drivers for Corvette Racing since 1999. Ben Keating and Nico Varrone joined that list with their participation – and victory – in the 1,000 Miles of Sebring for the World Endurance Championship• 100: As in Corvette Racing’s 100th program victory at Lime Rock Park in 2016• 126: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 113 in North America, nine at Le and three in the FIA WEC. The most recent came in the last IMSA round at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park• 277: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999.• 6,708.24: Number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing in its 15 previous trips to Lime Rock Park. That represents 4,412 laps or 64 trips from the Empire State Building in New York City to the track• 359,080.28: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing since its inception. To put that in perspective, Corvette Racing is more than halfway to the distance traveled by Apollo 13 – the longest manned spaceflight in history: 622,268 miles. That means Corvette Racing has raced to the moon… and then some! Corvette Racing at Lime Rock Park (wins in bold)2004No. 3 Corvette C5-R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O’Connell – 2nd in GTSNo. 4 Corvette C5-R: Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin – 1st in GTS (Beretta pole, fastest race lap) 2005No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O’Connell – 2nd in GT1No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin – 1st in GT1 (Beretta pole, fastest race lap) 2006No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Ron Fellows/Johnny O’Connell – 2nd in GT1No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin – 4th in GT1 (Beretta fastest race lap) 2007No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Johnny O’Connell – 2nd in GT1 (O’Connell fastest race lap)No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin – 1st in GT1 2008No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Johnny O’Connell/Jan Magnussen – 1st in GT1No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin – 2nd in GT1 (Gavin pole, Beretta fastest race lap) 2010No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Johnny O’Connell – 12th in GT2No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Jan Magnussen – 5th in GT2 2011No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Tommy Milner – 9th in GTNo. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Jan Magnussen – 10th in GT 2012No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 2nd in GTNo. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 3rd in GT 2013No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 2nd in GTNo. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 6th in GT 2016No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 2nd in GTLMNo. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 1st in GTLM (100tth Corvette Racing win; Gavin fastest lap) 2017No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 4th in GTLMNo. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 8th in GTLM 2018No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 2nd in GTLM (Garcia pole)No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 4th in GTLM 2019No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 5th in GTLMNo. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Marcel Fässler – 6th in GTLM 2021No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 1st in GTLM (Taylor pole)No. 4 Corvette C8.R: Tommy Milner/Nick Tandy – 2nd in GTLM 2022No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Antonio Garcia/Jordan Taylor – 4th in GTD PRO |