Progressive AFT Partners with All Kids Bike

March 10, 2023 ARP Trish

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (March 6, 2023) – Progressive American Flat Track is excited to announce it has partnered with All Kids Bike to support its national movement to place Kindergarten PE Learn-To-Ride Programs into public schools.

Launched in 2018, All Kids Bike has already supported more than 800 schools across all 50 states, providing thousands of children the opportunity to experience the joy of two wheels via an inclusive, proven Learn-To-Ride curriculum.

Stars of Progressive American Flat Track will help spread the excitement just prior to this season’s highly anticipated opener, as a number of the world’s elite motorcycle dirt trackers will be in attendance when Daytona Beach, Florida’s Palm Terrace Elementary takes shipment of its own All Kids Bike Kindergarten Learn-to-Ride Program – which includes a 24-fleet of bikes, pedal conversion kits, helmets, and curriculum training – on Tuesday, March 7.

The series’ fans will also be given the opportunity to donate to the cause, both online when buying tickets for any 2023 round, and in person while attending a race this season.

“Fans of the sport are obviously very familiar with the sense of freedom, excitement, and confidence that comes with learning to ride,” said Gene Crouch, CEO of AMA Pro Racing. “It’s deeply gratifying to be able to help introduce the younger generation to those same experiences.”

“From the beginning of our existence, we felt learning to ride a bike should be an instrumental foundation that all kids deserve,” said Lisa Weyer, Executive Director of All Kids Bike. “It is our hope that by teaching kids how to ride a bike in Kindergarten PE class, we are leaving a legacy for the next generation of riders on two wheels. We’re excited to partner with Progressive American Flat Track and make an impact far beyond race weekend.”

The 2023 Progressive American Flat Track season will launch with the hugely anticipated return of the DAYTONA Short Track I & II at Daytona International Speedway on March 9 and 10.

For more information on All Kids Bike visit https://allkidsbike.org/.

For more information on Progressive AFT visit https://www.americanflattrack.com.

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MARWIN SPORTS AND JOHN FORCE RACING SIGN TWO-YEAR EXTENSION

March 10, 2023 ARP Trish

YORBA LINDA, Calif. (March 06, 2023) — Marwin Sports has signed a two-year extension with John Force Racing as the official work apparel partner of the 22-time championship team. Marwin, which produces clothing that is of the highest in quality and durability, will not only outfit the crews of 16-time Funny Car world champion John Force, reigning 2022 and 2017 Top Fuel champion Brittany Force, three-time Funny Car champion Robert Hight and 2019 Road to the Future Award winner Austin Prock, but the administrative and logistical staff in both Indiana and California as well as Force American Made employees in Indiana.
“All of us at Marwin Sports are proud to extend our partnership with John Force Racing. Our 5th year together will bring our latest technical performance work apparel to all team members. From the office staff to the Force American Made team at their shop and to the crew out on the starting line, our gear is put to the test by John Force Racing and other champions in motorsports in NASCAR, Indycar, IMSA, and Formula Drift,” said Marwin Sports President and Co-Founder Theresa Hwang. “With a well-rounded catalog producing team-wear, corporate-wear, fan-wear, and lifestyle, Marwin Sports has you covered.”
“It’s exciting for us to continue our partnership with Marwin Sports. Their apparel has stood up to the demand of the crew members and the Force American Made machine shop employees as well as created a cohesive and professional look for our administrative staff,” said CEO of John Force Racing and driver of the PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant / BlueDEF PLATINUM Chevrolet Camaro SS John Force. “We look forward to growing our relationship with Marwin. Their high-performance apparel is the perfect match for the type of high-performance sport that we are. They help us look the part of a championship team.”John Force Racing employees will continue to be outfitted in Marwin Sports USA technical performance work apparel beginning at the 2023 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season-opening Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals March 10-12 in Gainesville, FL.

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SPRING FORWARD: Carson Macedo Wins First Round of Low-E Insulation Spring Showdown at Volusia

March 10, 2023 ARP Trish

Macedo claimed his first World of Outlaws victory of 2023 and his second World of Outlaws win at Volusia during Bike Week

BARBERVILLE, FL (March 5, 2023) – Carson Macedo has made March his favorite time to visit Volusia Speedway Park with the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series – specifically March 5.

In the Series’ second March visit to the World’s Fastest Half-Mile Sunday evening, Macedo won the first round of the Low-E Insulation Spring Showdown and his second World of Outlaws victory at the track – the first came on March 5, 2021 (his first World of Outlaws win with Jason Johnson Racing) and the second on March 5, 2023.

“Hats off to my guys… They made that thing unbelievable to drive,” Macedo said. “It was incredible in traffic, and I think that’s what it was going to take to win tonight. I felt good enough to rotate and turn in traffic. It didn’t matter what was in front of you.”

The victory was the California driver’s 29th of his World of Outlaws career and fourth overall at Volusia.

When the 30-lap Feature commenced, Rookie of the Year contender Giovanni Scelzi positioned himself as the early favorite. After dominating the Toyota Dash, Scelzi kept that momentum going in the Feature, gapping the field by a second in the first lap.

He found the back of the field by Lap 5, forcing him to navigate an obstacle course of slower cars.

While he fought through the traffic, Macedo was on a mission behind. Cruising around the bottom, the Jason Johnson Racing driver passed Michael Kofoid for second on Lap 8 and then found Scelzi in front of him a lap later.

Diving under the KCP Racing #18 into Turn 1, Macedo perfected his line and powered ahead of Scelzi down the backstretch.

From there, Macedo went uncontested, holding a half of a track lead over Scelzi for a majority of the race. However, with three laps to go, nerves set in for the first time. Bill Rose slowed to a stop in Turn 4 bringing out the first caution of the night and bringing Scelzi to Macedo’s rear bumper.

When the green flag flew again, Scelzi’s good night turned into a nightmare. Due to an issue with his car on the restart, Scelzi and Kofoid collided, and Kasey Kahne nearly flipped after running over the right rear of Scelzi’s car.

Kofoid and Kahne continued – Kahne moving into third – but Kofoid went to the back after going to the Federated Car Care Work Zone and Scelzi was unable to finish.

The incident also moved David Gravel – who won the two season-opening events at Volusia in February – into second, giving Macedo another nervous moment before the restart.

And while Gravel kept Macedo within reach with two laps to go, Macedo found his rhythm on the final lap and gapped the Big Game Motorsports #2 car by half a straightaway before seeing the checkered flag.

“I knew [Gravel] was behind me,” Macedo said. “When you’ve been doing this long enough, you’re always looking up at the scoreboard. I was nervous on the first restart with Gio behind me because I knew he had a fast race car. I was nervous the top might get going. We hadn’t been out of traffic for a while… Then, with David behind me, David is such a good race car driver.”

Gravel extended his points lead and brought his results to first, first and second for the first three Feature events of 2023.

“I thought the stars were going to align there,” Gravel said. “We actually had a really good car. I got a good start and had a half a car length there on Buddy (Kofoid). Then, he crowded me, which he didn’t do anything wrong, but that let Carson get by me and that changed our race. I got a lot of good runs on Buddy and just couldn’t pass him. Luckily, I didn’t get involved in that crash.”

Kahne, even after nearly flipping when Scelzi had his issue on the restart, managed to bring his Fuel Me #9 car home in third – his best World of Outlaws finish since June of last year.

After having a mechanical issue in his Heat Race, 10-time Series champion Donny Schatz earned the KSE Hard Charger by going from 21st to seventh in the 30-lap Feature.

Macedo takes the early lead of the Low-E Insulation Spring Showdown six-race points battle – paying $10,000 to the driver with the most points at the end of the six-race series battle at Lincoln Speedway, March 18. The second highest earner will get $6,000 and third will get $4,000.

UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series will conclude the Florida portion of the Low-E Insulation Spring Showdown at Volusia Speedway Park, Monday, March 6. For tickets, CLICK HERE.

If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch every lap of World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series action live on DIRTVision.

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chevy racing–nascar–las vegas–post race

March 10, 2023 ARP Trish

NASCAR CUP SERIES LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY PENNZOIL 400 TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE RECAP & TRANSCRIPT MARCH 5, 2023

BYRON DELIVERS CHEVROLET’S THIRD CONSECUTIVE NASCAR CUP SERIES WINOF 2023 AT LAS VEGASTeam Chevy Drivers Sweep Top-Three

The win is Byron’s fifth victory in 183 career starts in NASCAR’S premier series. The win marked Byron’s first NASCAR Cup Series victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Hendrick Motorsports recorded a one-two-three finish with Byron leading teammates Kyle Larson (second) and Alex Bowman (third). Chevrolet is now three-for-three in NASCAR Cup Series points-paying races in 2023, with Byron becoming the third driver from the third different Chevrolet team to claim a win and a playoff berth. Byron’s victory marked Chevrolet’s 11th NASCAR Cup Series win at Las Vegas Motor Speedway; and the manufacturer’s fourth win in the series’ past six races at the 1.5-mile Nevada oval.For the second consecutive NASCAR Cup Series race, Chevrolet drivers swept the top-three finishing positions. The winningest brand in NASCAR Cup Series history, Chevrolet now has 836 all-time NASCAR Cup Series victories.Chevrolet swept the victories in all three NASCAR national series races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend: William Byron (NASCAR Cup Series), Austin Hill (NASCAR Xfinity Series) and Kyle Busch (NASCAR Camping World Truck Series).
LAS VEGAS, Nevada (March 5, 2023) – Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron and the No. 24 RaptorTough.com Camaro ZL1 team notched their first victory of the 2023 season with a dominating performance in the NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The 25-year-old North Carolina native took the green flag from a front-row starting position, drove his Chevrolet-powered machine to a sweep of the stage wins and led a race-high 176 laps en route to victory lane at the 1.5-mile Nevada oval.
“I’ve been really confident about this group of guys on the 24 team,” said Byron. “They work extremely hard. We spent a lot of time in the offseason just going through and running at the sim with Chevy, running on iRacing and just trying to get better as a racecar driver and as a team. It’s all about the team.”
A late-race caution forced the race into an overtime finish, giving Byron another shot at regaining the lead from then-race leader and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson. A handful of teams came down pit road during the yellow with the No. 24 RaptorTough.com Camaro ZL1 pit crew getting Byron off pit road first to set up the race’s green-white-checkered finish. Byron took the green flag from the outside front-row position alongside Martin Truex Jr. The Chevrolet driver made the pass on Truex Jr. on the first overtime lap and never looked back, taking the win with a 0.622-second margin over runner-up finisher Larson. Teammate Alex Bowman crossed the finish line in the third position, giving Hendrick Motorsports a one-two-three finish. The feat marks the second consecutive race this season that Chevrolet drivers have swept the top-three, following on the manufacturer’s top-four sweep at Auto Club Speedway last weekend.
With the victory at Las Vegas, Chevrolet has now won the first three points-paying races of the NCS season. Byron is the third driver from the third different Chevrolet team to claim a win and a playoff berth, joining fellow Chevrolet drivers Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Camaro ZL1) and Kyle Busch (No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Camaro ZL1) on that elite list.
Byron’s victory topped off another monumental feat for the Bowtie brand this weekend with a Chevrolet-powered machine making the trip to victory lane in all three of the NASCAR national series races at Las Vegas. Joining Byron on the weekend’s win list includes Austin Hill (No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Camaro SS), who took his second NASCAR Xfinity Series win of 2022; and Kyle Busch (No. 51 Kyle Busch Motorsports Silverado RST), who captured the win in his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start of the season.
NASCAR’s premier series heads to Phoenix Raceway next weekend with the United Rentals Work United 500 on Sunday, March 12, marking the final stop on the series’ western swing. Live coverage of the 312-mile race can be found on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 RAPTORTOUGH.COM CAMARO ZL1; RUDY FUGLE, CREW CHIEF, NO. 24 RAPTORTOUGH.COM CAMARO ZL1; AND JEFF ANDREWS, PRESIDENT AND GENERAL MANAGER, HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS – Press Conference Transcript
THE MODERATOR: We are joined by our race-winning crew chief, Rudy Fugle. Rudy, looked like a pretty dominant race by your team this weekend. Tell us from your vantage point what you thought.RUDY FUGLE: Yeah, no, it was just a really good weekend. Started yesterday with practice, and pleasantly surprised how much pace we had, long-run pace, short-run pace; qualified well; car was handling well.Made yesterday making decisions for how we were going to race the car today pretty easy, and then just super-fast car all day long.We had one sequence where William went out the box a little hot, and we hung a left front coming off a little bit and got to fourth, and if it goes green, we finish second to the 5 because of that, but we got a chance here. It always seems like it always happens in Las Vegas, you get one last shootout at the end. Pit crew did an awesome job getting us off pit road second, and we were able to pass the 19 and hold everybody else off.
Q. Yesterday your competitors were saying you guys had the fastest car. Did you go into this race just thinking if we don’t screw it up, we’re going to have a hell of a day?RUDY FUGLE: Yeah, we knew we had a good car, but I think we see — I don’t know that we’ve seen a dominant race car at a mile-and-a-half track since we’ve come out with this Gen-7 car. From green to checker, I don’t know if we’ve had somebody lead tons and tons of laps like we had with the old car yet.You never know what you’re going to go through. You think you’re going to have ebbs and flows and how the track changes and whatnot. If you lose track position for any reason, it seems really hard to get it all the way back.Happy to go through what we did and have a good car from start to finish.
Q. What did you tell him before that last restart?RUDY FUGLE: Yeah, just told him what he had there, and he needed to get connected to the 11 behind us to get a good push. We got a decent push from him, and the 19 he almost got too good of a push, they got disconnected, and then the two right side tires paid off through the center of the corner by the time we got back to getting the white, so it was great.
Q. Were you shocked that more people didn’t try to stay out there at the end, and if you guys didn’t have such a fast race car and you were like 15th or something, would you have tried to stay out and go for it?RUDY FUGLE: Yeah, most of us had 40 green laps on our tires. I thought there would be some more, yes. I thought we would be restarting row 3 if we pitted with rights. I expected three or four. I don’t know if they just weren’t good enough or whatever.Thankfully it worked out that way, but yeah, it’s a super hard decision with only two laps to go, how hard it is to break that first row up. I think somebody potentially could have won if there would have been enough people staying out, but there wasn’t.
Q. You mentioned and it’s a great point that we haven’t really seen domination on an intermediate from one car. What’s changing? Why are we seeing stuff like we saw today?RUDY FUGLE: Yeah, I think we’re all getting better, period. We’re finally figuring out more and more what this car needs to make it race.You saw some cars run really good the entire race. Ross was pretty dominant last week, period. I think he almost led half the laps.You see that happening more. You hit on it; it’s just going to keep evolving. You’re going to see some top cars hit on it and be able to do some things. The lack of cautions also helps you to be able to dominate, as well, so you don’t have multiple pit stops to have mistakes or somebody try something different.
THE MODERATOR: We’re now joined by president and general manager of Hendrick Motorsports, Jeff Andrews. Jeff, it’s been a pretty action-packed weekend for you guys. How did today go for you?JEFF ANDREWS: Today went a lot better than the last time I was sitting in this seat talking to this group.Yeah, fantastic day for Hendrick Motorsports and the one, two, three finish. I should say first and foremost obviously our thoughts are with Chase and everything he’s going through right now, and we sure missed him being here at the track with us today. Can only imagine being a young guy like that and what that must have felt like to have to watch that at home.Certainly thinking about him and missing him here today, but really proud of all of our cars and the effort that’s gone into our cars and race teams in the off-season. Certainly felt like last week we had good cars and capable of something similar, but various issues and things kind of took us out last week, so very gratifying to come back this week and be able to execute like we did today, and obviously very proud of Rudy and William, the job they did today. Dominated that race for the most part, and glad to see them get the win at the end.
Q. Rudy, did you expect that long green flag run there?RUDY FUGLE: After we got through the first stage and we got that long run, then Stage 2 looked that way, sometimes you get that feel. Here the cautions usually happen after three or four laps on a restart, and if they don’t happen then, then you’ll get that, a long green flag run.Once that set up, we were expecting the run to the end. We were going to run out of time to catch Kyle, but we got lucky and got the caution and had a chance to perform and execute to get us a win.
THE MODERATOR: We’re now joined by our race winner, William Byron. Looked like you had a great day today. Tell us what it was like from your vantage point.WILLIAM BYRON: It was a great day, obviously. I felt like in practice we had a good car. I was a little bit nervous about the wind today and how that would change what we had going on and whether or not we’d be as strong, but just kind of the consensus, I guess, in the garage and then talking to some of the drivers, they were pretty confident about what we had going on. I was happy about that.Yeah, started the race good. I thought Kyle was really strong. He could stay close to me for a lot of the runs in the first and second stage, and I felt like I was a little bit tight, but just trying to navigate lap traffic and navigate the wind and how that would change the handling.Yeah, just happy with getting the first win of the year. It’s been a while since we’ve won. It’s been almost a year, and it’s nice to kind of just get back to what I feel like we’re capable of. Yeah, it’s been up and down, but I feel like this is what we’re capable of every week.
Q. How would you evaluate Josh’s performance in the 9? I know it was very last minute for him, first time in the Next-Gen car. Seemed like his lap times were respectable for his first time in the Next-Gen car.JEFF ANDREWS: Yeah, Josh did an amazing job for us given the circumstances, and given the fact he’s not ever been in one of these Next-Gen cars before, really happy with what he did for us today.We’ve got some things to work on. We think we had a little bit of an issue there that was causing him a little bit of — some issues with his throttle there during the race that we’ve got to get fixed and remedied, but really, really pleased with the job he did for us today.
Q. Rudy, the late run that we had without a yellow, how were you prepping for any eventualities that might have gone on at that point, and when that first yellow came out and you lost the lead, how are you fixing everything and tweaking to try and get yourself back to the front?RUDY FUGLE: Yeah, no, it’s hard. You’re making a pit stop assuming that you’re going to come back out with a lead. These cars have a huge difference between leading and into traffic. As soon as you lose the lead and then you’re going to be more aero tight, so you’re like, oh, shoot, what are you doing there.Then you do a green flag run, so you’re trying to adjust for that green flag run, but you’re not going to be in as heavy traffic, so you don’t want to be too free on that green flag run.I thought we did a good job there our second half after the green flag stop. As we were catching the 5, our car was stuck pretty well, was catching him. If we could have got around the 11 a little bit quicker, if I would have pitted us one lap earlier, maybe we would have been able to catch the 5 under green.But anyway, then you’re preparing, and as you get to 15 to go, you’re talking to your engineers about, okay, caution comes out, what are we doing? Are we staying out? Are we taking rights? Are we taking four? If we’re taking rights, what are our air pressures? So on, so forth.Nonstop always just trying to communicate inside the box; if this happens, what do you do, so you’re not surprised.
Q. William, how important do you feel it was for Hendrick Motorsports to win today, considering everything that happened this weekend?WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I mean, that’s a good question. I think just shows the strength that our teams have and the ability to come together in tough situations.I think I speak for everyone in the fact that we miss Chase out here. He’s a big contributor to feedback and our debriefs and he’s a great race car driver. Has a lot to offer there.I think there was a void there, but I think we were able to fill it with just kind of coming together as a team, and having Josh come on board, he’s obviously a great race car driver, too, and I know him from the past.Yeah, it was an important day. I felt that for sure. I texted Mr. H. after practice and felt really good about the car and just wanted to reassure that we’re going to go out there and try to win for him because it was a tough week.Yeah, just shows the strength of our team to be able to come together.
Q. Do you normally text Mr. H. after practice?WILLIAM BYRON: No, I don’t. I don’t normally text him unless he texts me or unless we’re talking about other things outside of racing. I just felt confident and just felt like we had a shot to win.
Q. For Jeff, any decision on the 9 car driver yet for next week?JEFF ANDREWS: No, not yet. Obviously we’ve got to get together tomorrow morning and make some decisions pretty quick. We’ve obviously got to get a seat in the car, and then our haulers are planning on leaving late Tuesday afternoon, first part of the evening. We’ll be making that I would say early part of the day tomorrow.
Q. William, you were dominating the race and then you lose some spots and then just dirty air. It looked frustrating for you. At that point how do you stay mentally checked in and not let that frustration, that situation and possibly losing the race at that point take over?WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I think that’s kind of what I’ve been working on. I think I’ve — I feel like I’ve got less experience than some of these guys in terms of my overall racing career, and I feel like for me that evolution has come in the mental side of just kind of understanding how to approach an entire race.In that instance I was just kind of leaning on the stuff that I’ve worked on in trying to just make sure that I stay focused on the task at hand, just making good corners, making good laps, and try to be as efficient as I can to get back towards the front.At that point I was just focused on okay, how can I make this long run as good as I can, and then what do I need to tell Rudy feedback-wise to get a car a little bit better because there was such a discrepancy between clean air and dirty air. So trying to get the balance back to where we needed it. I felt like Kyle had a balance that was perfect for dirty air probably, and he got out front and he was a little bit too loose.I think we had tuned our car all day for clean air and then we had to kind of adjust there, but I was just happy with how we showed resilience through that whole process.
Q. Rudy, you said there about everybody is getting better as we saw the dominance today. It seems like the early trend is that Chevrolet is above everybody looking at high speed today, high speed at Fontana. Is there something that sticks out as to why that is? I don’t expect you to give secrets away, but is there anything common in the Chevy camp that you guys have hit on?RUDY FUGLE: I think since the beginning of last year, Chevrolet has had a really good product, a really good car. That group just did a really good job of giving us a good body. We have great engines. Either camp you get engines, they work together.Then we’ve got good teams, and the teams are working together better now than we ever have. I think there’s something to be said for that. Eric Warren is pushing all of that, and just really proud of the Chevrolet bunch and how they’re pushing us to work together to get better as a group.
Q. For you as well as William, William, you had said on TV that you guys had spent a lot of time in the off-season on the simulator and going through things. What were the things this team was trying to hone in on?RUDY FUGLE: Yeah, we’re just trying to get our setups tuned in better, and then try to get our knowledge for changes to what William feels and how that responds.Really just working together to solve problems. You get in the season and it’s super hard to get in there to the simulator and put the time in that we want to. In the off-season we put a lot of work in. Through these first few races, it showed off last week having speed right away and then showed off this week.Hopefully it’ll keep paying off and we’ll keep working on it.WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, honestly just it was nice to have his voice on the radio at the sim. Just kind of work through that feedback.It’s really similar to any other sport, just going out and practicing, so just kind of getting that feedback correct.We felt like last year was really topsy-turvy for us. We had obviously a couple wins, but then we were really up and down, and just didn’t really understand this car quite as good as we needed to. We needed to change some of our vocabulary when we talked about this race car versus he and I have worked together in the past and we’ve worked on cars that have a different tire and different grip levels, so we just had to change some of the words that we used and kind of talk about the car.
Q. William and then Rudy, what does this mean for you to win a race early, and what do you feel like this means for your season going forward?WILLIAM BYRON: Well, first thing I thought about was back in the All-Star Race, so that was good. I don’t think I was locked in because I won before the race last year. That’s a good kind of self-check, that I got that done.Yeah, it’s just good for our team because we can keep building in the future. I think it shows that it’s kind of a measuring stick of where we are. Felt like going into this weekend that we were there, but we haven’t shown that result-wise.Needed to show that with a result to kind of get that satisfaction as a team.I think it’s just hopefully more of the same. We don’t want to have any slumps this year. We want to just dig all the way to the end of the year. It’s a grind, but we’re going to fight hard all year and try to keep this performance up.RUDY FUGLE: Yeah, it’s huge for a couple reasons. But he said it. You just want to find that success again. We had success in the playoffs last year, but we had so much struggle during the summer that you kind of reassure yourself that you can do it.Then two, the start of the year is really, really tough on our crew guys, on the road and the shop guys. They are working their tails off. These West Coast races and all the stuff that we’re doing, we got cars late again this year, and they’re tired. They need a morale boost, and one, two, three will boost the morale in the shop, so that’s going to be huge. We’re happy that we can provide all of them with that boost and keep us going and keep building us good cars.That’s huge to be able to do that this early and going through this tough part.
Q. Just to follow up off the previous question, you guys had won obviously races early in the season in recent years, but do you think the difference between reaching your full potential as like a team and a driver is to be able to do that throughout the course of the season? As Rudy pointed out, you ran well in the playoffs, but still without the win, it was much more difficult to advance.WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, for sure. I mean, that’s what we’re focused on is just trying to perform throughout the entire year. We know we have the stamina as a team. We know that we communicate well, but I think in the past you get that sigh of relief from a win that you’re doing what you need to do, and I think this assures us that we can just keep doing the processes. Did a lot of prep work going into this week and woke up on Saturday feeling like we were prepared. That’s a nice feeling.We’re going to try to do that 36 weeks and see where that puts us.
Q. Rudy and William, I know clean air and dirty air are always a thing, even last year, but I feel like we didn’t hear about it quite as much last year on the intermediates? Why now? Is the field just closer again? Why is it making a difference again in such a big play?WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I personally think just from being out there, everyone gets more dialed in to what the track and the car needs. I think there was so much unknowns last year that it created guys bottoming out, wrecking, guys making big mistakes that you don’t normally see at this level with how good everyone is.Now the drivers are back to understanding what they have, and these are the best guys out there. You don’t make mistakes. To race against Kyle Larson, he doesn’t make any mistakes that really cost him time.It’s just kind of the excellence on display of the teams and drivers.RUDY FUGLE: Yeah, I think the cars are a little bit closer together. When the track is gripped up like this, too, it’s cool out there, so track temp was down. Track temp was under 70 today. Beginning part of the year you’ll have some of this that I think will fix itself as we start to warm up.
Q. Jeff, not to put these two on the spot, but how have you seen William grow under Rudy’s tutelage?JEFF ANDREWS: Well, I think over the last two years and these guys working together, both of them just have this rapport with each other and a trust in each other that you need in this business. Their margins are so small, and the human capital is one that Mr. Hendrick will talk to us about. It’s all about the people and it’s all about relationships and communication.That level of communication between Rudy and William has never been higher, and we commend them because they continue to work on it. They’re never satisfied with it. They worked real hard on it in the off-season. You heard William talking about how they worked in the simulator together, and having Rudy’s voice in his ear during that.We commend them, and really all our race teams, couldn’t be more proud of the way our group, our company is working together as a whole across four race teams. We’ve never had that. It’s never been as good as it is right now with that communication level with all four of our teams.
Q. William, this is the first time in your career that not only have you won the race, but you also won Stage 1 and Stage 2. What does it mean to accomplish something like that?WILLIAM BYRON: No, it’s cool. I think I haven’t really dominated — I’ve led a lot of laps in a couple races, but to be this good in a race with our team is definitely a good sign.I think it’s just a different feeling, I think, for me, just having a team around me that can execute that well on pit road that well, strategy that good on adjustments. That’s just a team effort.I think that’s a different — something different than I’ve had in the past in terms of wins, so that’s nice.
THE MODERATOR: Guys, thanks for coming in. Congratulations, and good luck next week.

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Burton Finishes 26th At Las Vegas

March 10, 2023 ARP Trish

March 5, 2023

A hard crash in practice on Saturday, likely caused by running over a lug nut that punctured the radiator in his No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Mustang, led to a long Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for Harrison Burton and his Wood Brothers team.

Burton, sliding in the fluid being released from his own car, slammed head on into the outside wall. That forced the team to go to a back-up Mustang and to miss qualifying.

He lined up on the back row for the start of Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 and moved up a few spots in the early going.

A lack of caution periods in the first Stage limited the opportunities to use pit strategy to move forward in the field and he ended the 80-lap Stage in 28^th place, one lap behind the leaders.

The second Stage also ran under the green flag, and Burton finished that segment in 30^th place, two laps down.

A yellow flag nine laps into the third segment of the race allowed the Motorcraft/Quick Lane team to take the wave-around, and Burton restarted in 29^th place, one lap down.

He was gaining spots, but eventually had to make a green-flag stop for fuel, and that dropped him to 29^th place, two laps down.

A caution flag with four of the scheduled 267 laps left to run set up an Overtime finish.

Burton pitted for fresh tires, and when the green flag was displayed for a two-lap dash to the finish he steered his way past spinning cars to pick up the only two positions available to him. He came home 26^th, tops among drivers two laps down.

Burton and the No. 21 team now turn their attention to next Sunday’s Ruoff Mortgage 500 at Phoenix Raceway.

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chevy racing–nascar–las vegas–post race

March 10, 2023 ARP Trish

NASCAR CUP SERIES LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY PENNZOIL 400 TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES & QUOTES MARCH 5, 2023

BYRON DELIVERS CHEVROLET’S THIRD CONSECUTIVE NASCAR CUP SERIES WINOF 2023 AT LAS VEGASTeam Chevy Drivers Sweep Top-Three

TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 RESULTS:POS. DRIVER1st William Byron, No. 24 RaptorTough.com Camaro ZL12nd Kyle Larson, No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL13rd Alex Bowman, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL18th Justin Haley, No. 31 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Camaro ZL110th Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Tootsies Orchid Lounge Camaro ZL1 TOP-FIVE UNOFFICIAL RESULTS: POS. DRIVER1st William Byron (Chevrolet)2nd Kyle Larson (Chevrolet)3rd Alex Bowman (Chevrolet)4th Bubba Wallace (Toyota)5th Christopher Bell (Toyota)

The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season continues at Phoenix Raceway with the United Rentals Work United 500 on Sunday, March 12, at 3:30 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE QUOTES:KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1Finished: 2ndIT LOOKED LIKE YOU HAD IT IN HAND. WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS WHEN THE CAUTION CAME OUT? “Damn. It’s just part of Cup racing. It seems like you count the laps down lap by lap, and then sure enough the yellow lights come on. You just have to get over that and try to execute a good pit stop. I thought I did a really good job getting to my sign and getting to the commitment line. I had a gap to William behind me, so their pit crew must have done a really good job and got him out in front of us. So that gave up the front row to us. I knew I was in trouble with the 19 staying out. I felt like William was going to get by him. It’s a bummer that we didn’t end up the winner, but all in all William probably had a little better car than I had today and their pit crew executed when they needed to at the end.”
MORE ON LATE CAUTION: “You can’t fuss about it too much. You just try to get focused on the pit stop and try to execute and do a good job. I felt like I did everything on my end good. I had a gap to the 24 behind me when we got the commitment line. I got to my sign good and got to pit-road speed good and all that. Their pit crew must have done a really good job. He edged us out there on pit road, and that was the race. It’s part of Cup racing. These are really, really tough to win and you have to execute from top to bottom. We did a good job today but their pit crew was a little faster on the last stop. A bummer but all in all I’m happy and proud of the effort from our Hendrick team. I’m looking forward to getting to Phoenix next week.”

JOSH BERRY, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 Finished: 29th “It was a lot of fun. Really I thought the first half of the race went pretty well. We were really close, right on the edge of staying on the lead lap or not. We just needed a couple more cautions to just give ourselves a better chance.
The second half of the race, we had an issue going on with the throttle or something because every time I was letting off, it was hanging wide-open. I was just trying to nurse it home and keep it out of trouble.”
They told you to have, so did you have fun?“Yeah, it was a lot of fun. I learned a lot, especially in the first two stages. I think we definitely saw at times we were running some pretty good lap times. Just struggled with dirty air; knowing where to put the car and how to do that. There’s a lot of learning to be done, but all-in-all, it was still a pretty good time.”

JUSTIN HALEY, NO. 31 LEAFFILTER GUTTER PROTECTION CAMARO ZL1Finished: 8th “We had a really good long run car today and this is our Fontana car. We’re one of like three teams, three individual cars that repaired our stuff and brought it this week. I’m proud of the effort and the grind. They hung a body in this thing in the snow in Fontana a few days ago. That’s pretty awesome for our little team. I appreciate Matt, Chris, and everyone at Leaf Filter. This was a good run for us, especially with the start of season we’ve had.”

ERIK JONES, NO. 43 ALLEGIANT CAMARO ZL1Finished: 19th “Not the finish we deserved today. The guys gave me a fast Allegiant Chevy and we were running really well, even made our way to the top 10. Unfortunately, we got behind and made some adjustments to free up our car in traffic, but ended up making ourselves too loose for when we were on clean air. We had some tire issues late and that put us in the back and wrecked on the last lap. We just need to clean things up and come back stronger next week at Phoenix.”

ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1Finished: 3rdYOU HAD A GOOD DAY AND DROVE YOUR WAY FORWARD. WHAT MORE DID YOU NEED TO DRIVE TO VICTORY LANE AGAIN? “We were really fast in Stage Two. I was a little indecisive with what I wanted in the racecar. There were times I was a little free and times where I was a little snug. I hedged us to securing the back of the racecar a little bit and got us too tight for Stage Three, so that’s on me. Every change I wanted, I got. I just got us a little bit too tight. I’m really proud of the 48 team. I’m really pumped for HMS to be 1-2-3. I’ve been on the good side of those consecutive finishes so now I’m on the other side. But it was a fun race with our teammates. I’m glad we were able to get a 1-2-3 on the last restart. Rudy is a little under the weather so hopefully that gets him feeling a little better than he was this morning.”
YOU MAY HAVE HAD A CHANCE: “I just got us too tight in Stage Three and tried to be really aggressive to make up for it on that last restart. I had a shot at it but was a couple of rows too far back to start. I’m really proud of Hendrick Motorsports. To be 1-2-3 is really awesome. Our Ally Camaro was really good, especially in Stage Two. I just asked for the wrong adjustments probably. I’m excited with the way the year has started and hopefully we keep the momentum rolling next week at Phoenix.”
DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 TOOTSIES ORCHID LOUNGE CAMARO ZL1 Finished: 10th “It was a roller coaster. We had a fast car all day. Some runs were better than others. I felt like at times that we had a car capable of fighting for the win. For some reason, I felt like we had a set of tires that was a little weird there and we lost some track position. Then we had a bad stop on the last one and lost another few seconds. It was a little difficult because we had to overcome a lot. But overall the car had speed and the car was capable of running in the top-five. That is very promising.”
THREE TOP-10s IN THREE RACES. IS THAT THE EXPECTATION NOW? “No. It’s to win.”
NOAH GRAGSON, NO. 42 SUNSEEKER RESORT CAMARO ZL1Finished: 30th“An up-and-down day. I felt like we had good speed, just lost a couple of laps on the first pit stop speeding on pit road, making mistakes and speeding again on my pass-through penalty during the first green-flag pit stop, and that put us behind all day. Proud of this Sunseeker Resorts LEGACY Motor Club team for not quitting all race. I felt like we had good speed, just a couple of laps down at the end. We’ll keep working on it.”

TEAM CHEVY RACE HIGHLIGHTS:
Stage One· William Byron (No. 24 RaptorTough.com Camaro ZL1) led the field to the green from a front-row starting spot, marking the third consecutive week that a Chevrolet driver posted a top-two qualifying effort. · When green-flag pitstops got under way, race leader Byron brought his No. 24 RaptorTough.com Camaro ZL1 down pit road on lap 37 for four tires, fuel and an air pressure adjustment. Byron re-took the lead on lap 41 after green-flag pit stops cycled through. · Byron went on to lead 67 of 80 laps in Stage One, taking the checkered flag for his first stage win of 2023. · Five Chevrolet drivers scored stage points with top-10 finishes in Stage One: 1st William Byron, No. 24 RaptorTough.com Camaro ZL12nd Kyle Larson, No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL13rd Ross Chastain, No. 1 GlobalTranz Camaro ZL17th Alex Bowman, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL19th Kyle Busch, No. 8 Alsco Uniforms Camaro ZL1

Stage Two· The second round of pit stops took place during the stage break, with the No. 24 RaptorTough.com Camaro ZL1 pit crew getting Byron off pit road first to give the Chevrolet driver a front-row starting spot for the beginning of Stage Two. · The race continued at a caution-free pace, forcing the field to make another round of green-flag pit stops at the stage’s halfway point. · Byron led the field to the end of Stage Two, giving the Chevrolet driver a sweep of the race’s stage wins. This marks the first time in Byron’s NCS career that he swept stage wins in a single race. · Byron’s stage win sweep brings Chevrolet to a total of five stage wins in 2023. · Byron continued setting a dominating pace, leading 152 of 165 laps recorded at the end of Stage Two. · Hendrick Motorsports teammates went one-two-three at the conclusion of Stage Two with Byron leading Kyle Larson (2nd) and Alex Bowman (3rd). · Team Chevy Stage Two: Top-101st William Byron, No. 24 RaptorTough.com Camaro ZL12nd Kyle Larson, No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL13rd Alex Bowman, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL17th Ross Chastain, No. 1 GlobalTranz Camaro ZL1

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chevy racing–nascar–las vegas post race

March 8, 2023 ARP Trish

NASCAR CUP SERIES LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY PENNZOIL 400 TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES & QUOTES MARCH 5, 2023

BYRON DELIVERS CHEVROLET’S THIRD CONSECUTIVE NASCAR CUP SERIES WINOF 2023 AT LAS VEGASTeam Chevy Drivers Sweep Top-Three

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Chevy Racing–Indycar–st. Petersburg post race

March 8, 2023 ARP Trish

CHEVROLET IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES

FIRESTONE GRAND PRIX OF ST. PETERSBURG

ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA

TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE REPORT

March 5, 2023

PATO O’WARD SCORES SOLID PODIUM FINISH FOR CHEVROLET ON STREETS OF ST. PETERSBURG

ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA (MARCH 5, 2023) – Pato O’Ward led Team Chevy in qualifying with the third place starting position, and led the Bowtie Brigade to the second step on the podium at the end of the 100-lap Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. But, it was eventful day for Chevrolet-powered drivers.

O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, took the lead lap 74 after battling the entire race in the top-five. Sitting third on lap 72, O’Ward missed a two-car incident between then race leader and defending race winner Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Dex Imagine Team Penske Chevrolet, and Romain Grosjean (Honda). Grosjean retired from competition while McLaughlin was able to continue and finish in the 13th position.

O’Ward took command of the race, and appeared to be in position to score his first victory on the Streets of St. Petersburg, and start the season with a win. But, with four laps remaining, his engine suffered a plenum event that causes a momentary loss of engine power and temporarily slowed O’Ward enough that eventual winner Marcus Ericsson was able to take the lead and drop O’Ward to second. It was a race that saw five cautions for 26 laps including an almost 20 minute red flag.

On lap one, there was a six-car pile-up in turn three that resulted in the retirement of Benjamin Pedersen, No, 55 Sexton Properties AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet, Santino Ferrucci, No. 14 Sexton Properties AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet and damaged the No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet of Felix Rosenqvist that required repairs putting him 49 laps down. On lap 42, four more cars made contact in turn four that took out the No. 21 BITNILE.COM Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet driven by Rinus VeeKay.

Scott Dixon (Honda) completed the podium in third.

Next up for Team Chevy in the NTT INDYCAR Series is the PPG 375 on April 2, 2023 at Texas Motor Speedway.

TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 RESULTS:

POS. DRIVER

2nd Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet

4th Alexander Rossi, No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet

5th Callum Ilott, No. 77 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet

7th Will Power, No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet

TOP-FIVE UNOFFICIAL RESULTS:

POS. DRIVER

1st Marcus Ericsson (Honda)

2nd Pato O’Ward (Chevrolet)

3rd Scott Dixon (Honda)

4th Alexander Rossi (Chevrolet)

5th Callum Ilott (Chevrolet)

Team Chevy Notes from the Streets of St. Petersburg

Scott McLaughlin led the most laps of the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg with 37.
Pato O’Ward was the next highest Chevrolet driver to lead laps with 23.
O’Ward earned Chevrolet’s 285th podium in INDYCAR competition, his first of the 2023 season, and 15th in his career.
Callum Ilott worked his way through the field from the start in 22nd to finish fifth
Conor Daly recovered from a Lap 37 brush with the wall in Turn 9 to finish the race 14th
After qualifying 21st for his first career INDYCAR event, the Rookie of the Year candidate drove a solid race to finish in the 12th position.

PATO O’WARD, NO. 5 ARROW MCLAREN CHEVROLET

Finished: 2nd

“It’s always something. All the boys deserve better than that. Compared to where we were at this point last year here, it’s a massive step. We just gave that one away. We can have that happen anymore. There was a flaming fire in the engine plenum. And that was just random. Yeah. That’s the way it goes sometimes in racing.”

ALEXANDER ROSSI, NO. 7 ARROW MCLAREN CHEVROLET

Finished: 4th

“I think we knew it was going to be pretty crazy based on practice and qualifying. The teams did a good job. It was a mistake-free race on everyone’s behalf. I think we obviously had three really strong cars. It was a shame what happened to Felix (Rosenqvist) at the start. I think the three of us had the potential to all be in the top-10. Today was just keeping your nose clean and staying out of trouble. It was a really good start for the (Arrow McLaren) organization. We struggled a little bit on Friday. All of the Arrow McLaren Chevy guys were able to put their heads together and we were able to come back.

I think we will only get stronger from here. This is a really good opportunity for us going into a pretty long break ahead of Texas, a place where this team has been pretty strong in the past. To just really understand where we’re weak and work on improving those areas, but yes, it is a fantastic way to start the season.”

CALLUM ILOTT, NO. 77 JUNCOS HOLLINGER RACING CHEVROLET

Finished: 5th

“Just time, right strategy, keeping it cool. It was not easy on those restarts. Really slow on the safety car, especially on the greens (alternates). We were picking up a lot of the rubber and that made it super slippery on those restarts. So I don’t blame anyone for making mistakes, overdoing it. I took it easy. Obviously, that cost me a couple of positions at a time. People were trying to gamble it, but when it goes wrong, it goes wrong. I was glad I kept it a little bit on the backend, and it mattered when it counted. Great race, great confidence boost for the Juncos Hollinger guys, girls back at the factory. Big thanks to them, and it’s gone really well this weekend.”

WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET

Finished: 7th

“We (Colton Herta) banged all the way in, and I went up the inside, and I had as much luck as I could. I feel bad that it ruined his day, but I thought he was for sure he knew I was there. I was up his inside, and I just understeered. It wasn’t like just a big divebomb. I was here, and he kind of hung on the outside. I hate to ruin anyone’s day, I do. I hate that. I like to race these guys clean, and he races me clean, so I feel really bad. He ended up out, and I was able to keep going. Still a very good day for us. I’m really happy to get the Verizon car in the top-10. A very hectic day.”

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN, NO. 3 DEX IMAGING TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET

Finished: 13th

“Very sorry to Romain (Grosjean). He’s a friend of mine. I know we were both going for the win there. I just made a big mistake. I tried to push on cold tires. I just didn’t have the grip on the inside (on the primary) like I did on the greens (alternate). Locked the rears. Unfortunately, we made wheel contact that time and it took us both out. Look, I don’t race like that. I apologize. I feel I had plenty of good battles with many good drivers. I just got to thank my DEX Imaging Chevy crew. The DEX Imaging car was great. My fuel mileage was great. You have your good days, you have your bad days. I do apologize to Romain and I’ll go see him soon.”

CONOR DALY, NO. 20 BITNILE ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET

Finished: 14th

“The race was playing out how we wanted. We got really lucky to avoid that first crash, which was one of the craziest things I have ever seen in my life. I felt strong, running with Rinus (VeeKay) and Josef (Newgarden). Then we just got taken out by Kyle Kirkwood. It was such a shame to get spun like that, but we hung on and kept fighting. The BITNILE.COM Chevrolet had good pace all day. On to the next one!”

JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET

Finished: 17th

“Pretty tough day. Just terrible ending. We had something mechanically break unfortunately on the engine side. Had a small fire. Tried to come to pit lane and shut it off, get it back to pit lane and get the fire out. It’s unfortunate because I think we were on for a top-five. I made a mistake on the last restart unfortunately with about 25 to go. We were restarting fifth and I went back to either eighth or ninth. I just got wide. I think for sure a top-10. We were capable of producing a good day which would have been a good start. Unfortunately, we just had to stop early. A real good job to the team. We had a really solid race. Everything was executed just beautifully as always. The Hitachi car felt racy. We made some moves there in the middle. I was proud of everybody. It was a good first race to work together; a lot of new people on the crew. Everyone performed incredibly; really good stops. So I feel really encouraged for the next round. We’ll just get back on it and get this thing tuned up and keep going.”

FELIX ROSENQVIST, NO. 6 ARROW MCLAREN CHEVROLET

Finished: 19th

”It was a tough day. We had such a good weekend, then that second corner I’m side by side with (Scott) Dixon and he didn’t see me in the mirror. The wall just appeared in front of me and I had nowhere to go, and that was it. It’s unfortunate. But we actually got back out there. The team did a hell of a job to put the car back together. I think we did 30 to 40 laps and got us up in P19. It’s not much, but it’s actually a lot considering we were back in the garage for half an hour. We’ll take it, put the rest in the trash, and move on.”

RINUS VEEKAY, NO. 21 BITNILE ED CARPENTER RACING CHEVROLET

Finished: 21st

“It’s so tricky out there. I am okay and I just hope that Jack Harvey will be okay, too. Josef (Newgarden) was a little on the inside and I was an inch into the marbles and you just run out of grip. We want to finish the first race of the year to be able to carry the momentum. I am really bummed for the guys and for BITNILE.COM. We had the pace and were doing very well. Time to focus on Texas next.”

SANTINO FERRUCCI, No. 14 SEXTON PROPERTIES AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET

Finished: 24th

“It’s one of those things where you have an accordion effect like that, there’s nothing you can really do unless you’re on a speedway where you have spotters where when everyone’s checking up, you’re relying on what you see in front of you. Everybody checked up, and I’m on the primary tire compared to everybody in front of me on the alternate. I just smoked brakes straight into the back of Helio (Castroneves). Funny enough, we were actually going to be okay coming to, because it was just a front wing, but when we came out of the corner, the way he spun or something happened, it hit my right rear and that’s kind of what killed our race. Just really upset for the boys. We’ve been working really hard and had a fantastic qualifying. Would love to log some laps, get some time on our dampers and our program, and see where we can improve from there.”

BENJAMIN PEDERSON, NO. 55 SEXTON PROPERTIES AJ FOYT RACING CHEVROLET

Finished: 27th

“Unfortunately, not the start for to my first INDYCAR race I was hoping for. Coming through Turn 1, everything was very textbook. We were looking pretty decent, to be honest, to make progress. Coming through Turn 3, I noticed some there was a little bit of your typical race flow traffic. As soon as I came through Turn 3, which is a blind corner, there was just a pile of cars. Cars were horizontal. Slammed on the brakes to do my best possible job to not be involved. Looked for a gap, but there were no gaps or holes to squeeze my car into. Unfortunately, I hit Devlin (DeFrancesco) straight on at a pretty high speed. It was definitely a big hit. I’m totally fine; got my hands off the wheel. Devasted for the team. I feel like we really didn’t get a chance today. We caught out, and honestly, the car felt really good in warm up. We were doing really well on fuel mileage. We definitely had a very good potential for the race. Can’t wait to get back to work with the whole team and go testing at Barber soon for another Rookie test. Honestly, I wish we could go tonight or tomorrow, and go testing already. We will have to wait a little bit, but very enthusiastic to get back to work and go racing again.”

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NARC SPRINT CARS – 2023 SEASON PREVIEW

March 8, 2023 ARP Trish

3/5/23 – Alex Nieten) Sacramento, CA… Less than two weeks remain before the NARC 410 Sprint Cars commence their 2023 campaign, and the 63rd season for the historic series promises to be another full of memorable moments.

The 2022 season brought us stories such as a back-to-back champion in the form of Dominic Scelzi, the prodigy that is Corey Day continuing to forge his path, the richest payday in NARC history claimed by Tyler Courtney, and many more. And the stars are aligning for 2023 to deliver even more important pages of the west coast racing history books.

The schedule will take the tour to 24 races at 15 tracks in three states beginning with Silver Dollar Speedway’s Mini Gold Cup on March 18th and concluding with Stockton Dirt Track’s Tribute to GP on November 5th.

Highlights of the calendar include the $10,000 to win Anthony Simone Classic (April 8th), the $8,300 to win Dennis Roth Classic (April 14-15th), the first trip to Antioch Speedway (April 29th) since 2017, $11,000 to win Peter Murphy Classic (May 12th-13th), Dave Bradway Jr. Memorial (June 3rd) another Pacific Northwest trip culminating in the $62,000 to win Dirt Cup (June 22nd-24th), $6,900 to win Howard Kaeding Classic (July 15th), and more.

As the schedule unfolds so will a variety of storylines to watch throughout 2023.

Can Scelzi Three-Peat?

A three-peat has been accomplished by only two drivers in NARC’s more than six decades of competition, and Dominic Scelzi will have the opportunity to become just the third as 2023 gets underway.

Bill Sullivan was the first to claim three consecutive championships when he did so from 1964 to 1966. Unsurprisingly, the lone other occupant of this exclusive list is the series’ winningest all-time driver, Brent Kaeding. BK strung together a whopping nine straight titles beginning in 1993 and concluding in 2001.

Scelzi has been astonishingly consistent during his two championship campaigns. In his 42 series starts over the past two seasons, the Fresno native has posted 10 wins, bagged 26 podiums, and logged a 5.2 average finish. The 25-year-old is the only driver since the turn of the century to earn at least 13 podiums in two straight NARC seasons.

One roster adjustment to the Scelzi Motorsports crew that aligns with “The Dominator’s” elevated performance is the addition of Jimmy Carr. The legendary crew chief came aboard in 2020, and he’s helped make the No. 41 one of the fastest machines on the west coast. Carr will be back in 2023 as he looks to help Scelzi make history.

Bud’s Back for More

Last year Bud Kaeding finished on the NARC points podium for the seventh time in the last eight seasons, and he’s planning to return with hopes of another consistent season.

The pilot of the iconic BK Racing No. 69 is pursuing his second championship after claiming the 2017 title driving for Morrie Williams.

The 2022 campaign proved to be a solid one for the Campbell native as he collected 14 top-10s on his way to a third-place effort in the standings. However, Kaeding will look to finish a little closer to the front in 2023 as his top-five tally was a little less than normal with three.

Cox Returns

For the first time since his Rookie of the Year campaign in 2016, Justyn Cox will be chasing a NARC title.

During that season seven years ago, Cox collected 13 top-10s in 19 races on his way to a third-place effort in the points. That year he was driving for his family team, and in 2023 he’ll be behind the wheel of the Bates-Hamilton Racing No. 42X.

Cox is familiar with the BHR crew. The Clarksburg native filled in for an injured Tim Kaeding back in 2018 to help them secure the Sprint Car Challenge Tour owner’s title, and the pairing nearly won Trophy Cup that year.

They reunited in the second half of 2022 following the team parting ways with Kaeding. After some impressive results including Cox’s personal best finish with NARC of second at Keller Auto Speedway, they decided to team up for this year with their sights on a NARC championship.

Sophomore Year Ahead for Mittry

After a successful debut season with NARC that resulted in claiming the 2022 Rookie of the Year honors, Max Mittry is returning for his sophomore campaign.

Last year Mittry planned to run only select NARC events, but some early impressive results motivated him to take on the full campaign. The Redding native ended up earning a solid seven top-10s with a best effort of sixth in May at the Peter Murphy Classic finale. He also claimed quick time honors in just his second series appearance in April at Silver Dollar Speedway.

The 17-year-old will be back aboard the Mittry Racing No. 2XM owned by his father, Demo Mittry.

Bloomfield’s Big Year

At just 16 years of age, Dylan Bloomfield is planning on running a hefty slate of more than 70 races this year, and the centerpiece will be his first full NARC campaign.

The teenager will be aboard the familiar Dave and Debbie Vertullo-owned No. 83V. Bloomfield took over driving duties of the Vertullo Motorsports machine late last year, and after some encouraging results Bloomfield was tabbed the team’s full-time driver for 2023.

The young talent out of Discovery Bay made nine NARC feature appearances last year with the final six of those being aboard the Vertullo car. Bloomfield picked up a pair of top-10s in 2022 including a ninth-place effort in just his third career series start at Stockton in August. His best series finish is currently an eighth at Keller Auto Speedway, which he earned last October.

The Vertullo ride is known for helping cultivate some of sprint car racing’s best talent, and Bloomfield hopes to be the next on the list of drivers who’ve made a mark behind the wheel.

Third Time’s a Charm for Aton?

After his strong 2021 Rookie of the Year campaign, Billy Aton went into 2022 with high hopes, but he unfortunately ran into somewhat of a sophomore slump.

Wild Bill’s numbers dipped a little last season, but 2023 signals a fresh start and a chance to return to 2021 form when he impressed at a variety of tracks during his first full NARC campaign.

The Benicia native will return to the seat of his family-owned No. 26 for his junior year on the tour.

Plenty More

On top of the drivers who’ve already committed, there are plenty of other talented California gassers who may partake in the entire 24-race campaign or a majority of it.

Justin Sanders has won seven NARC features in the last two years, and he plans to tackle as many races as he can in 2023. The Aromas racer will again be teammates with Max Mittry as he pilots a Mittry Racing 2X machine.

Perhaps the nation’s most promising young talent, Corey Day, intends to compete in a majority of the NARC schedule aboard the Jason Meyers Racing No. 14. In just 27 career series starts, the Clovis phenom has already visited victory lane on six occasions. The team is geared up to run the duration of the schedule.

One of the most consistent NARC forces throughout the years, Shane Golobic, promises to be a contender at every race he signs in for. The Fremont native owns podiums in roughly one-third of his career NARC feature starts and also boasts 14 victories.

A car to watch will be the famed Tarlton Motorsports No. 21. They plan to run as much of the NARC campaign as possible with a variety of drivers. The only person currently confirmed for some seat-time in the all-black machine is Cole Macedo as he’ll make a return to his roots with plenty of starts with Tarlton on his 2023 calendar.

Following his personal-best second-place effort in the 2022 NARC standings, Willie Croft is scaling back slightly in 2023, but he still has plenty of NARC action on his schedule. The Colfax driver is currently sitting one win away from double-digit series victories.

Three-time series champion, Jonathan Allard, intends to run a handful of NARC shows in 2023. Last year he reunited with the Williams Motorsports crew, and they combination plan to attend select events again this year.

Many more regular faces in the NARC pit area over the years are sure to make many appearances including D.J. Netto, Colby Copeland, Joel Myers Jr., Chase Johnson, Mitchell Faccinto, Andy Forsberg, Tanner and Blake Carrick, and more. Expect to see Pacific Northwest locals take on California’s best when the series heads north like Trey Starks, Tanner Holmes, Tyler Thompson, Logan Forler and others.

Let’s Go Racing

The schedule is set. The drivers are ready after the off-season. The only thing left to do is throw the green flag on the 2023 NARC 410 Sprint Car campaign and see what happens as the pursuit for the next NARC champion unfolds.

Check out the full NARC schedule at https://narc410.com/schedule/.

If you can’t make it to the track, tune into FloRacing to watch the west coast’s best drivers in 2023.

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MotoAnatomy Powered by Royal Enfield Announces Two-Rider Team for 2023 Progressive American Flat Track Season

February 22, 2023 ARP Trish

Sent on behalf of Royal Enfield Milwaukee, WI (Tuesday, February 21, 2023) – Johnny Lewis and the MotoAnatomy Powered by Royal Enfield team are prepared to take on the 2023 Progressive American Flat Track championship. For Lewis, this marks his fourth year of competition with Royal Enfield, and the 2023 season marks another step forward as the MotoAnatomy team will now field a full-time two-man team in the premiere class, adding Ryan Wells to the roster. Johnny Lewis and the MotoAnatomy team have made great strides in Progressive American Flat Track, introducing the Royal Enfield INT650 motorcycle into the world of competition. After spending several seasons in the Mission Production Twins class developing the Royal Enfield Twins FT motorcycle, Lewis carded multiple podium finishes in the last two seasons, including a historic win at the Lima Half-Mile in 2021—a first-ever feat for Royal Enfield. Lewis is now confident that the Twins FT has the potential to be a serious contender in all formats of Progressive AFT racing: Short Track, Half-Mile, TT, and even the formidable Mile. Lewis and crew are ready to jump into the busy 18-round Progressive AFT Championship. “This is going to be another historic season for Royal Enfield in American Flat Track,” said Johnny Lewis. “The Twins FT motorcycle is something we’ve spent a long time developing, and we’re now at a point where we have the confidence to go all in. We’re thrilled to bring on a second rider, as well. Ryan Wells is already a great addition to the MotoAnatomy team. We’re looking forward to kicking off the season at the Daytona Short Track.” Ryan Wells is a force in Progressive AFT competition, and the 2016 Parts Unlimited AFT Singles presented by KICKER champion ranks among the Singles’ class all-time winningest riders. The 2007 AMA Youth Dirt Tracker of the Year has been winning pro-level races for over a decade, and now brings his flat track expertise to Royal Enfield. “Words can’t express my excitement to join the MotoAnatomy Powered by Royal Enfield team for 2023,” said Ryan Wells. “Finally rejoining the Mission SuperTwins class full time is long overdue for my personal goals and I’m glad it’s finally coming to fruition. Being able to work alongside Johnny Lewis, someone I’ve looked up to for so long, is really the icing on the cake. I thrive off of positivity and people chasing the same goals and Johnny and I really click in those ways. I’m very excited to get the ball rolling.” The expanded Royal Enfield racing team will make its 2023 racing debut at the Progressive AFT season opener at Daytona Bike Week in Florida. Look for Johnny Lewis (#10) and Ryan Wells (#94) at the Daytona Short Track Doubleheader on Thursday, March 9, and Friday, March 10. Lewis, Wells and the MotoAnatomy Powered by Royal Enfield team will be joined at select rounds by the Royal Enfield BUILD. TRAIN. RACE. (BTR) program. The women of BTR will be contesting a schedule of four rounds within the Progressive American Flat Track schedule, starting with the Mission Dallas Half-Mile on April 22. For more info visit BuildTrainRace.com. 2023 Progressive American Flat Track Racing Schedule March 9 (Rnd 1) Daytona Short Track I – Daytona Beach, FLMarch 10 (Rnd 2) Daytona Short Track II – Daytona Beach, FLMarch 25 (Rnd 3) Yamaha Senoia Short Track – Senoia, GAApril 1 (Rnd 4) Arizona Super TT – Chandler, AZApril 22 (Rnd 5/ BTR Rnd 1) Mission Dallas Half-Mile – Mesquite, TXMay 6 (Rnd 6/ BTR Rnd 2) Ventura Short Track – Ventura, CAMay 13 (Rnd 7) Mission Sacramento Mile – Sacramento, CAMay 27 (Rnd 8) Red Mile – Lexington, KYJun 17 (Rnd 9) DuQuoin Mile – Du Quoin, ILJun 24 (Rnd 10) Mission Lima Half-Mile – Lima, OHJuly 1 (Rnd 11/ BTR Rnd 3) West Virginia Half Mile – Mineral Wells, WVJuly 8 (Rnd 12) Orange County Half-Mile – Middletown, NYJuly 22 (Rnd 13/ BTR Rnd 4) Bridgeport Half Mile, Swedesboro, NJJuly 30 (Rnd 14) SC2 Peoria TT – Peoria, ILAugust 6 (Rnd 15) Buffalo Chip TT – Sturgis, SDAugust 12 (Rnd 16) CertainTeed Castle Rock TT – Castle Rock, WASeptember 2 (Rnd 17) Mission Springfield Mile I – Springfield, ILSeptember 3 (Rnd 18) Mission Springfield Mile II – Springfield, IL For more on the 2023 Progressive American Flat Track Championship, visit AmericanFlatTrack.com.

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R+L CARRIERS EXTENDS PARTNERSHIP WITH TOP FUEL’S JOSH HART INTO 2023

February 21, 2023 ARP Trish

Wilmington, Ohio (February 21, 2023) — Following a highly successful 2022 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series campaign that saw second-year Top Fuel driver Josh Hart finish seventh in the world, R+L Carriers has extended their sponsorship of the Ocala, Florida-based driver and team for the 2023 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series. The partnership will focus on the dynamic business-to-business relationships and marketing opportunities for R+L Carriers, one of the nation’s leaders in the freight-shipping industry. This marketing relationship will showcase the wide variety of business opportunities R+L Carriers provides their customers.

“We had an amazing season in 2022, racing across the country and speaking with thousands of fans about what a great company R+L Carriers is and the shipping opportunities available in a variety of areas,” said Hart. “The company’s family roots and customer service are excellent; they truly deliver. I trust R+L Carriers to transport my team and 11,000-horsepower race car to every race. I’ve met several hardworking drivers, dedicated support staff and everyone in between. Now’s the time to start shipping with one of the best freight transportation companies in America.”

Josh Hart and R+L Carriers Top Fuel

Last season, racing the full 22-race schedule for the first time, Hart raced to two final rounds, qualified for the NHRA Countdown playoffs and finished in the Top Ten, well ahead of other established teams. During his rookie campaign in 2021, Hart won the first event of his career, the historic NHRA Gatornationals, as well as a playoff race during the Carolina Nationals in September. Hart has established himself as a rising star in the NHRA and a championship contender for the 2023 Top Fuel world title.

To view Hart’s upcoming Top Fuel schedule, visit nhra.com/schedule/2023.

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Lucas Oil Enhances Long-Standing Relationship with Richard Childress Racing and ECR Engines Through Continued Technical and Development Support and Primary Sponsorship

February 20, 2023 ARP Trish

Kyle Busch to Drive the No. 8 Lucas Oil Chevrolet at Auto Club Speedway
WELCOME, N.C. (February 20, 2023) – Lucas Oil, a long-time partner of both Richard Childress Racing and ECR Engines, will enhance their partnership with Richard Childress Racing in 2023, the three companies announced today. In addition to continued technical and development support, the official motor oil of ECR Engines will sponsor the No. 8 Lucas Oil Chevrolet driven by Kyle Busch at Auto Club Speedway on Sunday, February 26, 2023. The race airs live at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX. “RCR and ECR share our passion for motorsports, from the grassroots to the highest levels of the sport,” said Brandon Bernstein, director of partnership marketing for Lucas Oil. “We’ve seen first-hand the benefits of our partnership, especially as it relates to technology transfer over to short track racers and everyday consumers. We’re proud to continue to commit our resources in R&D and production, and to highlight our premier oil performance with sponsorship of the No. 8 Chevrolet.” Lucas Oil has served as the official lubricant of RCR and ECR Engines since 2014, and is the official motor oil of ECR Engines. RCR, ECR and Lucas Oil have gone to NASCAR Victory Lane together more than 20 times since the partnership began. “Lucas Oil’s market-leading products have long contributed to the incredible durability and on-track success of ECR’s engines in many forms of motorsports,” said Bob Fisher, senior vice president of ECR Engines. “We’re proud to be able to use our high-powered competition platform to showcase Lucas Oil’s key technologies and continue to win races and championships with their R&D support.” Through innovative product research and development, along with aggressive marketing programs, Lucas Oil has established itself as an industry leader, producing only the best line of lubricants and additives available anywhere. “RCR and ECR have benefited from having a lubricants partner with strong roots in racing,” said Torrey Galida, president of RCR. “We’re incredibly thankful to Lucas for all of the resources and expertise they provide to give us a competitive on-track advantage.” For more information and all that is going on at RCR, visit rcrracing.com.
About Lucas Oil:Founded in 1989 by Forrest and Charlotte Lucas, Lucas Oil Products was created with the simple philosophy of producing the best lubricants and additives available anywhere. Lucas Oil offers the most diversified range of innovative engine oil, gear oil and additive products refined by years of specialized research, development and testing. The company’s high performance engine oils and gear oils are widely recognized as best-in-class in the automotive, powersports, marine, industrial, outdoor, and motorsports marketplaces. In total, Lucas Oil boasts more than 300 premium products, representing the largest variety of shelf products of any oil company in the United States with a distribution network across 48 different countries.
Lucas Oil’s commitment to motorsports includes long standing support for high profile regional and national racing series, and the distribution of exclusive motorsports content from across the globe via MAVTV, a Lucas Oil owned and operated television network. The company also serves as the exclusive oil and lubricant partner of Monster Jam®, the Dallas Cowboys, the Indianapolis Colts and Lucas Oil Stadium. For more information please visit www.LucasOil.com. About Richard Childress Racing:Richard Childress Racing (www.rcrracing.com) is a renowned, performance-driven racing, marketing and manufacturing organization. Incorporated in 1969, RCR has celebrated over 50 years of racing and earned more than 200 victories and 16 championships, including six in the NASCAR Cup Series with the legendary Dale Earnhardt. RCR was the first organization to win championships in the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Truck Series and is a three-time winner of the Daytona 500 (1998, 2007, 2018). Its 2023 NASCAR Cup Series lineup includes two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch (No. 8 Chevrolet) and 2017 Coca-Cola 600 winner and 2018 Daytona 500 champion Austin Dillon (No. 3 Chevrolet). RCR fields a full-time NASCAR Xfinity Series program with Sheldon Creed (No. 2 Chevrolet) and Austin Hill (No. 21 Chevrolet).

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Late Wreck Relegates Burton to 26th at Daytona

February 20, 2023 ARP Trish

February 20, 2023

Harrison Burton and the No. 21 Motorcraft/DEX Imaging team were among the challengers for the win in the latter stages of Sunday’s 65^th-annual Daytona 500, but unfortunately they wound up among a host of drivers and teams that were knocked out of contention in a series of late-race crashes.

He was scored in 26^th place after a caution flag on the final lap of the second attempt at an overtime finish finally ended the race at 212 laps or 530 miles, the longest distance ever for a Daytona 500.

After starting the Great American Race from 19^th place, Burton rode near the rear of the lead pack for much of the early going in an effort to avoid damage to the Motorcraft/DEX Imaging Mustang. Then, just after the conclusion of Stage Two, he began to take his place among the lead pack.

He ran in and around the top 10 until a cycle of pit stops began with about 25 of the scheduled 200 laps left to run.

Burton assumed the lead just before making his stop with 20 laps remaining. Crew chief Brian Wilson’s pit strategy of pitting later than most others worked out just right and Burton, after taking just a few seconds of fuel, returned to the track still in the top spot.

Burton led a total of nine laps, and the Motorcraft/DEX Imaging Mustang was out front for a restart with 13 laps scheduled to run. He lost the top spot just after the restart but raced among the top five for a couple of laps before being shuffled back.

Burton was running 16^th when the caution flag was displayed for a wreck with three laps to go and sent the race into Overtime.

On the first attempt at an Overtime finish, Burton was swept up in a multi-car melee.

The Motorcraft/DEX Imaging crew patched up the No. 21 Mustang, including the replacement of a toe link, and got Burton back on track in 26^th place with only two laps lost.

The second attempt at Overtime saw the caution flag fly just after the white flag was displayed, ending the race with Burton still in 26^th place.

“I am just disappointed,” Burton told reporters after the race. “We were leading with 18 to go, and I feel like we had a shot. It just didn’t go our way.”

He said the outside lane just didn’t get rolling on the restart where he held the lead initially.

“We didn’t get organized very well, and by the time we did it was just a little too late,” he said. “I feel like when the 22 [Joey Logano] pulled up in front of me I tried to slow down to engage him and I got hit by the 8 [Kyle Busch] really hard and sent the 22 three-wide and we lost momentum again.

“I don’t know why I got out of shape off of [Turn] Four, but I about wrecked off of Four. Then you’re buried in the back trying to make moves to get back up there and when they wreck you are just right in the way.”

He said that while he was frustrated by the finish, it was otherwise a strong performance for him and the Motorcraft/DEX Imaging team.

“I felt like we executed our race well,” he said.

Burton and the No. 21 team return to the track next week for the Palo Casino 400 at Auto Club Speedway on Feb. 26.

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RICKY STENHOUSE JR. DELIVERS CHEVROLET’S 25TH DAYTONA 500 VICTORY

February 20, 2023 ARP Trish

Bowtie Brand’s 50th All-Time NCS Win at Daytona International Speedway

RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 KROGER / COTTONELLE CAMARO ZL1 – Press Conference Transcript: THE MODERATOR: We are now joined on the stage by the 2023 Daytona 500 champion, Ricky Stenhouse, driver of the No. 47 Kroger Continental Chevrolet for JTG Daugherty Racing.Just give us your thoughts about winning the Great American Race, Ricky.
RICKY STENHOUSE JR: Man, I think back to really all week, but really think back to this morning. I woke up and felt really good about the day. I normally don’t get nervous, but I was a little nervous, but like anxious and excited, ready to go.
My wife and I, Madison, we went in the gym and did a small little workout just to get going this morning and just felt relaxed, felt good about the day, knew our car was strong after Friday’s practice.Mike and our engineers made some really good adjustments after the Duels on Thursday and felt really good about our car. We did two 20-lap runs and stayed on the same set of tires for that practice session on Friday night and felt good with the adjustments that we made, and the car did everything that I needed it to do.
The only thing that we didn’t have when we started the race was track position. We started 31st, and first stage, I felt like was getting a little hectic up front and was just kind of a parking lot.
We were just side by side for the whole stage. We just kind of rode around and just kind of watched it.Then we got track position there in the second stage. Was able to get some points. Felt like we might have got snookered a little bit there on the strategy a lot, pitted, but it was nice to get up front and learn what the car was doing up front, which I think was beneficial for once we had those restarts late.Once we sped on pit road, kind of thought our race was over, but felt like the good Lord was watching out for us. I was serving the penalty, and then all of a sudden had a big wreck right there kind of where we were running, getting in Turn 1.
That gave us a second chance, and I knew that my team was — Tuesday’s meeting was not going to be very good because we preached all off-season about not beating ourselves, and there I went speeding on pit road, just trying to get — really wasn’t trying to get everything out of it, but got a little too much.So I felt like once the caution came out I really had to kind of put my elbows up and get back to the front to give us another shot to win so I at least could tell my guys that we had a shot to win.
Once we got up there, the 8, 3, 24, and myself, obviously we cleared the 17 and 6 and put all Chevys in the top four. And then I was blocking the 22 and he got up underneath me, and I kind of thought our race was over at that point, and then we had that restart.
The 17 and 6 chose the bottom, which kind of shocked me a little bit. Gave us the 6th starting position behind the 22, and with the 8 and 3 on the front row, I thought that they might try kind of the old-school restart of pulling down in front of each other. I knew that that would give our outside lane a huge run off of 2.
Kyle was pushing me like crazy down the backstretch, and I waited just long enough to go to the bottom once he was clear, as well, and that gave us the lead.
I was hoping we were going to get back to the white at that moment, and we didn’t. Big wreck behind us, and again, a perfect scenario for me.
I picked the top. I felt like our car was better on the top, and I knew Kyle was going to take the front row. You can’t give up a front row starting position. I was just hoping that Bell was going to go third because I felt like Logano and that manufacturer was a really good pusher.
Once we went green, we got the lead. I was a little nervous because we were low on fuel. Our low fuel light started flashing at me, so I knew we needed to get back to the white, and once we did that, I felt like we could make it all the way back around.
But the 22 had a huge run. Got to my outside. Kyle had a huge run and he kind of shipped the middle, and then I looked in my mirror and here comes Christopher and gave me a big shot down the short chute there into 1 caution and got out front enough for when the caution came out.So everything played out perfectly for us at the end of that. It’s the Daytona 500. It’s a long race. You’re going to have good parts and bad parts, but we just kept pushing through.
Q. I talked to Mike right after the race, and he said that you took him somewhere he had never been before, and now it was up to him to take you back. He wasn’t going to stop until he got you back to where you deserved to be. When you have that kind of relationship with somebody, and before you were in here he said you even shared a bed once —RICKY STENHOUSE JR: Yes, we have.
Q. Can you just reflect on that, and somebody who cares enough about you to see you to the end?RICKY STENHOUSE JR: Yeah, I think it was really big for myself. Not winning since 2017, having struggles, ups and downs, to have somebody like Mike, who when he took over the reins as soon as the season was over, it was, hey, I know you can still get this done. We’ve just got to give you the right opportunities. We know if we give you cars capable of running up front, you can do that. We’ve proven that.
I felt like his leadership throughout the whole shop is still not even — yeah, we won here at the Daytona 500, but I still think the fruits of that is going to come later on from his leadership in the shop and making sure — most of these guys that we have are the same guys we had last year. But he believes in myself more than I do, I think, and that’s huge.
I feel like that’s what separates crew chiefs these days, is that team aspect and leading your guys and getting the most out of them. We all have similar equipment, and that wasn’t always the case in this sport, so now it’s little nuances like that that help propel a race team forward.
We all felt confident this off-season, but it’s special to do it with Mike. We accomplished so much together. We’ve gone through ups and downs. He’s been in the sport a long time. He’s a Cup champion as a car chief with Kurt Busch. I think he’s won this race before, not as a crew chief, obviously, and our Nationwide Series Championships and race wins were something that we’re super proud of.
But we know those were 10 years ago and we need to make some new memories.
Q. What makes you such a good superspeedway racer?RICKY STENHOUSE JR: Man, I don’t know. So when we were in the Nationwide Series it really wasn’t one of my favorite things to do. We had some good runs, but I don’t feel like I knew exactly what I was doing. I was always looking forward to the mile-and-a-half racetracks in the Nationwide Series.In my Cup career we got some good finishes in superspeedway racing, but it was more of laying in the back, missing the wrecks, not really being on the offense. Then when I was at Roush Fenway, Jimmy Fennig kind of took over our speedway program, and felt like at that moment he gave us cars that had speed that you could go on the offense, that you could make big runs, you could make passes, you could learn the side draft, and I felt like that’s when I learned a lot about superspeedway racing and really felt confident to make runs and study what the leaders were doing, how they were staying up front.I feel like at the end of the races there’s generally similar guys at the front of these races, and it’s — yeah, some of its luck, but a lot of it’s skill and your spotter, the way y’all work together.
Mike Herman Jr when we were at Roush Fenway, felt like he was a good superspeedway spotter. Tab Boyd came on the market last off-season, two seasons ago, and we were lucky enough to pick him up. I felt like that upped our game over here at JTG Daugherty Racing on the superspeedways, and they gave me fast race cars, as well.
It takes a combination of all those things.
Q. In your opinion, what do you think has been holding JTG back from taking that next step?RICKY STENHOUSE JR: I came from Roush Fenway Racing and saw all the resources that they had and the support from the manufacturer, and then I went to JTG Daugherty Racing, and honestly I was surprised at how much nice equipment and how they ran things and how much of the car they actually built.
I wasn’t 100 percent sure what it was going to look like when it went into the race shop.But now for us to kind of take that next step, obviously this is our second season with this new car, and we’ve got more help from Chevrolet. We’ve been in the simulator way more in this off-season than we were all of last year.
Things like that, the resources that Chevy is going to help us out with, our alliance that we’ve built with Rick Hendrick Racing. Rick has been a great supporter of JTG Daugherty Racing in the past. We’ve been using their engines. I think that’s going to be a huge help for us, as well.
Like Mike said, I caught the tail end of it there, this is huge for us, but I’m honestly super excited to get to Fontana, Las Vegas. Obviously we had a decent test at Phoenix. We weren’t where we need to be on the short tracks yet, but we were so far off last year that the things that we’ve had — our tools that we’ve had this off-season, we feel like we’ve made those short tracks better already, and we’re looking forward to getting to those racetracks.
Q. When you come to Daytona or Talladega or even Atlanta, is your confidence much, much higher than it would be elsewhere?RICKY STENHOUSE JR: Definitely, but I think everybody’s is. But when you’ve been to a racetrack where you’ve been to Victory Lane in the Cup Series, you know how it works. The position that we put ourselves in this race last year, I think we led — I don’t know, I was rewatching it actually as I was getting ready to go out to the grid today. We were leading the last 20 or so laps here last year and we got crashed there on a late-race restart with five to go.
I told my guys this off-season coming into this week, if we can get in that same position again I would take it, and hopefully things worked out a little bit better, and there we were with a green-white-checkered. We had the lead and controlled the restart.
Yeah, so I definitely have confidence coming back to these places.
Q. In 2018 when you were at Roush and know you’re not coming back, are you thinking my career is over? And kind of the same thing, did you have any of those thoughts last year when you’re trying to do a contract extension at JTG knowing you hadn’t won yet with that team?RICKY STENHOUSE JR: Yeah, that was 2019. Yeah, that was something unexpected. Honestly, I kind of thought I had a contract through 2023, so that was the kind of crazy part about all that.My management team, Josh Jones at KHI jumped on the call on the phone as soon as we met with Roush Fenway at the time and got a hold of Tad and Ernie and started working the doors there. I had some great partners with Sunny D, who also stepped up and called on my behalf.Had a lot of great supporters that I felt confident in, of getting me a good job, and when I got over to JTG Daugherty Racing, like I said, I didn’t know what to expect, but I was super impressed with their whole race team and how they ran it.
I was looking forward to getting this car technically a year prior because I felt like once we were in comparable equipment to everybody else that they had all the right people to get the most out of the race cars.
I felt like I could do the job behind the wheel.
Yeah, we had done my contract a lot earlier than we announced it, so I think — I don’t know, maybe you asked me about it and I forgot that we had done it a long time ago. I don’t think we show up to the racetrack — JTG Daugherty Racing has got realistic expectations.
We’re building this program together. We were excited when we got, like I said, a car that was comparable to everybody else’s. Knowing it was going to be some growing pains over last season. We knew that. There was times we had a lot of hope. We went a month straight with our worst finish of eighth, but then we kind of fell off.
The bigger teams were able to learn a lot more at a faster rate, and I felt like that’s what got us behind. This off-season we’ve really focused on that, and I’m excited to go to these racetracks like Fontana, Las Vegas, and really see the potential that we’ve gained over this off-season.
Q. You started racing when you were a young kid, and every kid dreams of winning the Daytona 500. I know you won here before in July, but what was it like just being out there in Victory Lane, being on the start-finish line just knowing that you were the champion?RICKY STENHOUSE JR: Yeah, it’s super cool. Like you said, I’ve been racing a long time. I grew up going to the racetrack. My mom took me to watch my dad when I was six weeks old, and I’ve been going to a racetrack for an average of 40 weekends a year I would say my whole life.I came down here in 2006? Jeff over here has been a long supporter of my career. Him and I, he’s a Tennessee guy. He had met with Bobby Hamilton at the time. His shop was in Nashville. We flew over there, walked through Bobby Hamilton’s race shop. He invited us down to the Daytona 500 for the track race, we jumped down, and Bobby Hamilton won that race that year.You could see an awkward kid standing behind him during his interview, and that was me. That was in 2006.
I was impressed with this racetrack. I had never been to anything like it. I went to my first Cup race was like the ’92 Coke 600 back in the day. But like I was finally old enough to kind of picture everything.So since then, that was kind of the goal is to try and get here and race. Then 2008 was the first time I ever made laps around here in the ARCA car, and I’ve gotten to race this racetrack when it was the old-school racetrack where it was worn out, it was rough, a ton of fun.
I feel like it’s starting to get a little bit of that character back, but yeah, it’s been a dream for a long time, and super cool for us to be here.
Q. I remember seeing that clip around the internet, you in the background.RICKY STENHOUSE JR: Yeah, awkward.
Q. Going forward, Mike talked about finding your mojo again. What does this win do for you already, and what do you want to say?RICKY STENHOUSE JR: Yeah, we’re not done. I think Mike and I got a lot of things left to do. Again. It’s been a short off-season. I feel like we’ve — Mike has moved the needle on where this race team is at. Like I said, the resources I feel like we have now, moving forward throughout the 2023 season, there’s still a lot left to prove that we can go be competitive on all racetracks.
And yeah, it’s a speedway win, which is huge. It’s the Daytona 500. You’ve got to be able to win on them all. Throughout my career, Mike and I have won on short tracks, mile-and-a-halfs, and superspeedways.We do feel like mile-and-a-half racetracks are probably our bread and butter right now with this race car, excluding the superspeedways. But we know that we’ve got a lot of work left to do on the short tracks.Yeah, this gives us a boost of confidence, but I know we’re going to enjoy this one tonight. But I know that everybody in the shop and all these guys on this race team are looking forward to getting to Fontana and kind of seeing where we shake out after everything we’ve learned this off-season.
Q. When you’re a single-car team and it’s the end of the Daytona 500, even though you had some Chevys that were helping you out, did you feel like the lone wolf out there?RICKY STENHOUSE JR: Yes and no. Obviously throughout the whole race, even — I watched a lot of the first stage from my view. I was close enough where I could just watch the leaders, and I wasn’t really doing any racing.
Yeah, I was watching all the teammates work really well together up there. We’ve had Chevy meetings this whole week, and we preached about trying to get Chevrolet their 25th Daytona 500. We talked about working together.
We didn’t do great Thursday night in the Duels, in the first Duel. We learned a lot, and they transferred that on to the second Duel, and felt like our strategies worked really well today.
That was huge for us. Like you said, when I got down to it, the top 4 were Chevys at one point and I felt really good about that, that we could kind of control the race.
And then when the 5 lined up behind me, I knew that if we got a run, he would probably go with me, or I was really hoping so, and we were able to — you know, kind of shook the 22 out and both be first and second there.
Then the last restart, yes, you need teammates, but at that moment, as long as you had a good pusher behind you, I knew the 22 wasn’t going to just go to the outside of me because you’ve got to get the momentum going, and the momentum is in numbers, and I was confident in what Joey could do pushing me, and then it was kind of a free for all once you take the white flag.
Q. There aren’t a lot of sprint and midget drivers that have won the Daytona 500, but now you’re the latest to have done that. To know that you follow in the footsteps of guys like Mario Andretti and AJ Foyt and Ryan Newman who have done that here, how important is that to you to show to the grass-roots of America that you can come from that type of background and win the Daytona 500?RICKY STENHOUSE JR: Yeah, it’s special to me. I know Kyle has done a lot for dirt track racing, open wheel racing. Christopher Bell, you look at what Alex Bowman is doing now going back and forth and running sprint cars.
I have a lot of fun running with my dad. We don’t run as much as everybody else does, but definitely still a short track dirt racer.
I know how long and how important this race was when Tony, my former boss, tried to win this race for a long time. I looked up on the screen during one of those late cautions when the 8 was leading, and they were showing I think it was his 17th attempt, and it was our 12th.
I know how hard it is for guys to win this race, and it’s nice to go ahead and get that checked off the list.
Q. Jodi and Tad were in earlier and were asked about their longtime involvement in the sport and the efforts they’ve made to keep going. Even though that hasn’t always translated into trips to Victory Lane, I just wondered, you sort of had what many would have called a breakout year in 2017 where you picked up a couple wins. Has it been difficult since then? What have you felt at some point, that you might give up?RICKY STENHOUSE JR: Definitely never thought about giving up. I felt like, yeah, 2017, winning a couple races was huge for us, but I’ll even look back at that season, and we still weren’t super stellar. We had our ups and downs. But obviously two wins kind of puts a Band-Aid on some of those things that you can overlook.
But I think for me, coming to JTG Daugherty Racing was a nice reset. We had two cars at the time, moved to a single-car team, which I think has been beneficial. We’ve been able to put a lot of focus on the 47 car, and everybody in the shop, I feel like the details are really paid attention to. We’ve got some of the best guys in the shop.
It’s super neat to see how long Tad and Jodi have been in the sport. Around our shop, you see pictures of Tad going over the wall, doing jack man and tire changes, and they’re out helping sponsors nonstop around here. You partner them with Brad and Gordon and Mark, they make a great team.
It’s super cool to get them in Victory Lane. We had a great moment this off-season I feel like at our team lunch. Had a video put together, and it put some of JTG’s wins in there, my wins in there, and kind of helped us realize that, hey, we need these wins together, and realized that we could do that.We’ve both done it in our past, so it’s special to do it together.
Q. Obviously it’s a big milestone for you, but when you look at Jodi and Brad, it’s a milestone for NASCAR. How key is this thing for maybe the broader picture of where NASCAR is headed?RICKY STENHOUSE JR: Yeah, NASCAR has been doing such a great job of getting everyone involved in our sport. Even going out to areas of the country where we’re not so prominent in. You look at LA, going to Chicago, getting down in some of the inner cities and getting those fans interested in NASCAR.We’ve got a lot of diversity on our race team, throughout the garage, and it’s cool to have two on our race team and put them in Victory Lane here at the Daytona 500. It’s super special, and NASCAR is leading the way in a big way.
It’s cool to play a small part of getting them to Victory Lane.
Q. I saw on the replay there that you climbed up the fence after your victory there. Was that something you have thought about doing if you won this race, or was that spur of the moment?RICKY STENHOUSE JR: I feel like you never try and think about what you’re going to do when you win a race, especially the Daytona 500. My crew guys were out there. It was a bummer that I wasn’t able to do a burnout because we didn’t have any fuel left, so that was a bummer. I’m sure the Hendrick engine shop appreciates that.
When I won my first sprint car race my dad climbed the fence, and then my first ARCA win in 2008 at Kentucky, he was in the grandstands, and we both climbed up the fence and met at the top. Then when I won Talladega, he climbed the fence on the backstretch where he always watches the races there.Got out there, and the crew guys were like, hey, let’s climb the fence. Then I did the interview and turned around and they were gone, so I decided to go ahead and climb it myself. Yeah, just spur of the moment.
Q. Any word from Tony Stewart or Helio Castroneves, what they thought of it?RICKY STENHOUSE JR: I’m not sure. I know Tony didn’t do pull-ups when he got to the top. I know Helio can definitely do pull-ups when he gets to the top. I’ve done some workouts with him. Yeah, I haven’t checked my phone to see if Tony said anything yet.
Q. Do you come into this race every year assuming there will be a string of accidents in the last five or ten laps, and do you sort of steel yourself that you’re going to have to make some quick decisions because of all that?RICKY STENHOUSE JR: Yeah, for sure. You look at really any speedway race these days, and they’re all like that. Every one of us out there know it’s a really good opportunity to get to Victory Lane. Our cars are all comparable on speed, and the draft is obviously kind of an even playing field there for the most part.
When we lost our track position after I sped on pit road, I think we were like 29th, and we were going to come in and top off and maybe put some new tires on, but we know track position is so important. Mike said if five or six in front of us pit, let’s stay out. That’s just five or six less that we have to pass in a 14-lap run to the finish.
We did that. I felt like it was a huge strategy play to give us a shot.
Then yeah, it was chaos at the end. I got a good restart on the top, jumped to the bottom, and there was cars bouncing off the wall, bouncing off each other, somehow all keeping them going straight. But my line that I was in every time seemed to carry the momentum, and then all of a sudden I looked up and we were in, I think, seventh at the time.
After that, it got a little bit calmer, but we were all pushing each other like crazy. Throughout the whole race, you’re pushing in key parts of the racetrack. You push once you get in the flat off of Turn 2, get your momentum down the backstretch. You release getting into Turn 3, and then you get close again kind of through Turn 3, and try and carry that momentum all the way back down the frontstretch. Not a lot of bump drafting, and then a lot of bump drafting down the backstretch again.
I felt like everybody did a really good job of being smart and kind of methodical throughout the race, but when you’re in 10 to go, it’s like we all lose our mind and push the whole time. These cars are difficult to drive when you’re getting pushed all the way around the racetrack.
Q. How important do you feel the Next-Gen car and the, so to speak, leveling of the playing field contributed, or how important that was do you think in your race team being able to pull this off this evening?RICKY STENHOUSE JR: I don’t think this car helped us pull this off at Daytona. If you look at my very first race here at Daytona, we sat on the pole with the old-school car. That was huge.I felt like with the older car, I felt like we had race cars capable of winning while being here at JTG Daugherty Racing.
I think the car going forward at other racetracks is where we feel like it helps kind of level the playing field to a point. Like I said, I think last season the bigger teams learned at a faster rate. We hit on some stuff for about a month and felt really good, and then we kind of seemed to lose ground to some of those bigger teams.
We looked to make that jump this past off-season. I feel like we’ve made some big gains, and we’re looking forward to this car making competition more and more throughout the season.
Q. In the years since you got your first two wins back in 2017, there’s been a lot of criticism and jokes made at your expense because of your aggressive driving style in these races and accidents you may or may not have caused. On a night like this, on this stage, when everyone else is in the garage fixing torn-up cars and you’re crossing the finish line, at least not much of a scratch on your car, do you feel like you got the last laugh tonight?RICKY STENHOUSE JR: Obviously you’re going to have haters everywhere, and when you have somebody at the time like Kyle Busch getting out and bashing you, that’s difficult to overcome.I mean, I feel like I’ve put myself in some bad spots throughout my career, but the faster we get our cars, the more I can take care of them and still run them close to the front. It’s something I’ve always tried to do, which is at some times an expense, is try and take a car and try and get way more out of it than what’s there.
I feel like that’s my job to do as a race car driver, is to get the most speed out of a race car that you can, but also in this sport you’ve got to take care of it, and you can’t just leave it all out there every single race.That’s something that I felt like this off-season we’ve kind of met, and Mike is super confident in what he can do and what our engineers and team can give me, and we’ll assess each weekend after practice and after qualifying what our goals are for that given race day.
So I think we’ll do a better job of kind of setting our realistic expectations each week. If we feel like 15th is where we need to be that given week, then that’s where I’m going to try and get the car to and not try and get it to 10th or 5th like I tend to do.
That’s something that we’re going to be super focused on this year of finishing races. Mike brought up this off-season back in the Nationwide Series when we had fast race cars, in 2011 we finished, I think, 98.9 percent of the laps, and in 2012 I think we finished 98.2 percent of the laps, and the only laps we didn’t finish were crashes at superspeedways.
We know that we can do that together as a race team, and we’re looking forward to showing everybody that.
Q. Where is the party going to be tonight?RICKY STENHOUSE JR: I don’t know yet. Somewhere. We will be here for a long time.
Q. Throughout this whole week I’ve heard drivers say that winning the Daytona 500 is circumstantial, but you just mentioned that you use a lot of strategy to win this race. Can you please explain now that you’ve won the Daytona 500, what are your thoughts on what it takes to win this race?RICKY STENHOUSE JR: Definitely circumstantial at times. But like I said earlier, you look at the history of this race, you look at the history of superspeedway racing, and a lot of the same guys are towards the front.
Since 2016-ish, I feel like we are some of those contenders that are at the front of those races towards the end of the race. This race, it’s a long race. Like I said, the first stage, we didn’t have track position. But I felt like I kind of went to school watching what the leaders were doing so that when I got there, I kind of knew what to expect.
Then we got there, and I felt really good being in the top 5 there at the end of that second stage. I felt like I pushed the 48 really well. The 48, 1, and myself I felt like really controlled some of those last few laps coming to the stage end.
Yeah, it’s circumstantial. You’ve got to catch breaks at the right time. You’ve got to be able to make moves, and your line has got to go. But you’re also looking ahead. Your spotter is giving you all the information that he can to make sure that you have all the info to figure out which lane to be in.There was times where Tab was telling me, hey, get to the top lane, get to the top lane. He saw something that I couldn’t see in the front that killed the bottom lane’s momentum, and it propelled us past four or five, and then we jumped back to the bottom, things like that.Definitely a lot of strategy involved and calculated moves.
Q. I want to take it a little further, and I’m curious, you mentioned in your Xfinity championship days, really good car, not have to be as aggressive, take what the car gives you, all that stuff. From that standpoint, do you think the last couple of years where it seems like every year we get to the end of the season and you’re right there on the bubble points-wise or maybe even needing to win, do you feel like from day one you’re up against it and you have to race more aggressive, and to that point, now that you start off this season with a win presumably in the playoffs that now that edge is completely gone?RICKY STENHOUSE JR: Yeah, starting the season off with a win definitely changes, I feel like, your mindset going forward. But as we saw last year, you’re going to have to gain some points. You’re going to have to stay ahead of eventual winners in the point standings to make the playoffs.I think this season, you could see more winners than we had last year. That being said, we’ve got to be on our A game from here on out.
Like I said, I think everything that we’ve learned this off-season, I’ve got a lot of confidence in the cars that my guys are going to be able to give me so that I don’t have to over-drive them to get good finishes.There will be days that we’ll finish 17th, 18th, but that might be our goal for that given weekend. We can’t finish above 25th. That kills you in the points.
We’re wanting to be consistent. Obviously we wanted to get a win. We’ve done that. But we do feel like there’s other racetracks that we’re capable of winning at based off of our performance at some last year and the things that we’ve learned this off-season.
Yeah, I think mindset-wise, it definitely calms the nerves a little bit to go out and really focus on what we’re doing only.
Q. I know Mike woke up this morning with that conviction that you guys could do this, and there was always that conviction that you guys could do this, but I feel like the cars you had with them in 2020 and 2021 were really, really good cars. I don’t think this car was quite as good as those cars, and I’m curious, is the irony kind of not lost on you that you guys had arguably the best car here those two years and you come back this year, qualify near the back of the field, and this is the year you guys get it done?RICKY STENHOUSE JR: Yeah, it’s crazy. Our car in 2020 was amazingly fast. I think we shocked everybody with getting the pole and had really good cars those two years.We came here last year, and we qualified I think 24th, so we qualified 10 spots better, but we were second off the pole. We qualified 34th this year, we were seven and a half tenths off the pole. So technically we were closer to the lead cars, it was just like everybody got faster and we kind of fell back in positions.
I told my guys after Wednesday, I said, we have a set kind of standard of, hey, here’s our qualifying for superspeedways. We’ve set the bar, now let’s try and make that better going forward.But I said, guys, we’re closer to the lead pack cars than what we were last year, and we were leading this race with five or six to go. I said, we have a car capable of doing that.
Like I said, we made adjustments that gave up a little handling and ride quality for a little bit of speed, and I felt like in our Chevy draft on Friday night, I felt super confident in the car.
Again, maybe not the fastest, but I felt like I drafted well, it handled good enough for me, and I felt like that was always one of our benefits and kind of key things to have here at superspeedway races, is cars that handle good and being able to get pushed without getting too out of shape, and I felt like I had that.
THE MODERATOR: Ricky, congratulations on winning the Daytona 500, and we’ll see you next week at Fontana.

Uncategorized

chevy racing–nascar–daytona post race

February 20, 2023 ARP Trish

NASCAR CUP SERIES DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY DAYTONA 500 TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE FEBRUARY 19, 2023

TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 RESULTS:POS.   DRIVER1st      Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Kroger / Cottonelle Camaro ZL15th      Alex Bowman, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL16th      AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Nutrien Ag Solutions Camaro ZL17th      Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Tootsies Orchid Lounge Camaro ZL19th      Ross Chastain, No. 1 AdventHealth Camaro ZL1TOP-FIVE UNOFFICIAL RESULTS: POS.  DRIVER1.        Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (Chevrolet)2.        Joey Logano (Ford)3.        Christopher Bell (Toyota)4.        Chris Buescher (Ford)5.        Alex Bowman (Chevrolet) ·       Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Kroger / Cottonelle Camaro ZL1, captured the victory in the 65th running of the Daytona 500, marking his first career victory in the NASCAR Cup Series crown jewel event.
·       The victory is Stenhouse Jr.’s second victory at Daytona International Speedway; and his third career victory in NASCAR’s premier series.
·       Stenhouse Jr.’s victory is Chevrolet’s 25th Daytona 500 victory; and its 50th all-time NASCAR Cup Series victory at Daytona International Speedway, both of which are series-leading feats at the track.

The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season continues at Auto Club Speedway with the Pala Casino 400 on Sunday, February 26, at 3:30 P.M. ET. Live coverage can be found on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTES:RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 KROGER / COTTONELLE CAMARO ZL1 Finished: 1st Ricky Stenhouse Jr., it has been a long time coming. The one difference? Mike Kelley, your crew chief, is back. You won two championships together, and now you won the Daytona 500. Was it just magic together that made the difference here?“Yeah, I think this whole off-season Mike just preached how much we all believed in each other. They left me a note in the car that said they believe in me and to go get the job done tonight. I made a few mistakes. We were able to battle back.
This Kroger / Cottonelle team worked really, really hard in off-season. Great pit stops, Hendrick engines. Glad a Chevy won.
Man, this is unbelievable. This was the site of my last win back in 2017. We’ve worked really hard. We had a couple shots last year to get a win and fell short. It was a tough season, but man, we got it done, Daytona 500.”
You have a knack for this style of racing, and we went into overtime, so you had to do it a couple of times and earn it. What were those moments like, and what were you watching, what made the difference initially at the end?“Yeah, when the 8 went to the bottom there I was able to push the 22 and the 5. We had a huge run. I was hoping we were going to get to the white there, and we didn’t, so I knew I was going to take the top. I was hoping the 22 was going to follow, and he did. He was able to push us out.I went to the bottom, the 8 and the 22 got a huge run. The 5 split me in the middle, but another fellow dirt racer with Bell gave me a good shot down the little short chute into 1, and we were out front when the caution came out. We were out of fuel so the fuel light was going crazy.I hope y’all had fun. That was a heck of a race.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1Finished: 5th “It’s the Daytona 500 and we know how to crash some stuff.  It was just super aggressive and a lot of pushing. You know you have to do it and sometimes they go wrong and crashes happen.  Just proud of my team and glad we were able to make it out clean.” Do you have momentum going to California? “I think so. Just starting the year off strong on the right foot. Not only here but at the Coliseum as well. I enjoy California, it’s been hit or miss for me, but looking forward to getting back there.”

AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 16 NUTRIEN AG SOLUTIONS CAMARO ZL1 Finished: 6th“I’m really pleased with the finish we had. Any time you get to start the season with a top-10 in the Daytona 500 it’s a big deal. Felt like our car handled very well, just tough racing, very track-position oriented. When we got out front, we just lacked a little bit of speed to stay up there; that was the toughest thing. But overall, our guys did a great job and fought hard through the day, and you just have to be there at the end. We had a shot to win the Daytona 500. That’s pretty freaking cool. I wish we could have done it, but all you can ask for is having a real opportunity and we did tonight. That’s pretty special.”

DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 TOOTSIES ORCHID LOUNGE CAMARO ZL1 Finished: 7thHow was your Daytona 500? It looked wild from your view? “It was a little bit crazy, but I told the team they did a hell of a job. We lacked track position most of the day, and when it mattered the most, we had it. We just spun out there and I was just struggling with loose balance when people would get to the rear bumper for some reason. That one, the 2 came very close to me, very tight and the car behind me came very close as well and got me loose. We recovered and we are getting better at this kind of racing and we are going to get one of these one day.”

ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 1 ADVENTHEALTH CAMARO ZL1 Finished: 9th “We got the Stage 2 win in our AdventHealth Chevy. That was 10 more points than we left here with last year. With 13 laps to go I was thinking they were going to wreck again, but they didn’t and I was working to get caught up. Then coming to the white flag, they wrecked. I was a little off on my guessing on when they were going to wreck and when they weren’t (laughs). Proud of everybody at Trackhouse with a top-10 finish. It’s a whole lot better than last year, that’s for sure.”
KYLE BUSCH, NO. 8 3CHI CAMARO ZL1 Finished: 19th Walk us through those last couple of laps. “I don’t know. I just tried to keep it straight as much as I can and wait for when it’s going to happen and eventually it does, and it did again today. So, I tried, and I don’t know what else to do.  Come up short. Let lap 200 and wish it was still 1998 rules.” Does this get you excited for the season when you see how well RCR did here this afternoon? “Yeah, definitely excited for the start of the season and getting to the real racetracks.”  NOAH GRAGSON, NO. 42 WENDY’S CAMARO ZL1 Finished: 24th “I thought we had a decent run until the end. We put ourselves in position in the top 10 and then made a couple of mistakes and got caught up in the big wreck at the end with the last caution. Thankful for the opportunity. We’re going to continue to work hard and grow as a team. Really proud of Luke Lambert (crew chief) and the boys for the adversity we had. Never quit. We’re not going to quit. Just very thankful.”  JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 84 CARVANA CAMARO ZL1 Finished: 31st “All in all, just a great day. I hate that we didn’t get to the finish line, but we got a lot closer than I thought. If I would have taken a bet before the race started, I would have thought some issues earlier than that, but we had a great day. The Carvana car was awesome. Very, very proud of this race team. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the finish line.” JUSTIN HALEY, NO. CIRKUL CAMARO ZL1 Finished: 32nd “We had a great run going there for a while. We were unfortunately just caught up in what was ultimately just one of those green-white-checkered deals that are inevitable at superspeedways. We struggled a little bit all weekend. This package is pretty tough to pass with, but it was fun to be up there battling in the top 10 there for a bit.”
AUSTIN DILLION, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS CLUB CAMARO ZL1 Finished: 33rd What happened? “We had a strategy there and it just didn’t play out. We weren’t as good as some of the Fords to be able to tandem and get hooked up.  The 6 car just drove through the 24, and that is just what he does. His car is just good enough to where he can just drive through who he needs to and push them out of the way, or wreck them. That is the desperation that they are in right now. I hate it because I was wanting to get Kyle Busch in victory lane here at Daytona. Looking back I should have been a little more selfish at that point. I wish we would have just tried to block both lanes, truthfully. It was one of those deals that is a hard position to be in. I also wish it had gone to the white flag in the position we were in.  Unfortunately not, and hopefully Kyle (Busch) can still make something happen from sixth. RCR as a whole, it was pretty cool to get to where we got there and be 1-2 at the Daytona 500 with two laps to go.  It sucks because you are so close to winning a second Daytona 500 and your teammate was really close to winning his first ever.  We will take it and move on and we did it with not the fastest cars truthfully. It was just execution and we didn’t finish off the last part.” WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 RAPTORTOUGH.COM CAMARO ZL1Finished: 34th “I got into the 8 and we just got off center somehow and I wrecked him. Once he got off center, I tried to back up but I had the 6 in the back of me trying to push as well. Yeah, unfortunate because we were trying to put ourselves in the right position and we were in a really good spot there with about two to go and running third before that caution.  It seemed like when they did the teammate restart it really checked up the bottom lane and I had made my bed of trying to take that lane to have momentum off of turn two. That was unfortunate.” Erik Jones, No. 43 Guns N’ Roses Camaro ZL1Finished: 37thJones on the accident that ended his race early: “It was hard to tell. It looked like the No. 45 (Tyler Reddick) got turned around, but I couldn’t see how it happened. Regardless, we spun out there on the bottom when I was trying to get around it and then I got hit on the left side hard enough to take out the left rear and end our day.  It is what it is. We were up there; we were racing and we were doing all we could. We were just in the wrong spot at the wrong time. I wish we could have been a little ahead of him.”  Are you surprised the first on-track came at the end of Stage Two? “No, not really. Everybody was racing hard, but everybody was doing a good job of just keeping in line and doing what they needed to do. There were a couple of moments.. a couple of aggressive and bad pushes, but nothing that was too crazy. I don’t know what sprung that one off, but I thought everybody was doing a good job at that point. It started to get pretty aggressive up until that wreck and I was getting antsy about being up there and getting into something. We were kind of in a bad spot in the pack to get caught up in something. But yeah, I wasn’t surprised it took that long.” Obviously, it’s a superspeedway, so there’s not a ton you can take from this weekend. But what did you learn this weekend that you can apply for when we get to either Atlanta (Motor Speedway) or Talladega (Superspeedway) later on? “I thought our No. 43 Guns N’ Roses Chevy was good; it just needed some more speed. We had it driving pretty good, but just didn’t have it quite fast enough. I was having to carry a lot of throttle for too long to stay up and be aggressive with the pack with the pushes the way I wanted to, so we need to get a little more speed out of it moving forward. Hopefully we can find a way to do that.” Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1Finished: 38thElliott on the accident that ended his race early: “It looked like some guys got tangled up, upfront. Those of us in the back were just scattering to kind of miss it. It looked like the No. 5 (Kyle Larson) and the No. 43 (Erik Jones) kind of went to the apron. By the time we got slowed up, they were coming back across the track and I was the lucky winner to get there first. It’s a bummer.. long ways to go. Hate to end the day, but it is what it is.”

Uncategorized

chevy racing–daytona 500 post race

February 20, 2023 ARP Trish

NASCAR CUP SERIES DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY DAYTONA 500TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE FEBRUARY 19, 2023

TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 RESULTS:POS. DRIVER
1st – Ricky Stenhouse Jr, No. 47 Kroger/Cottonelle Chevrolet Camaro ZL15th – Alex Bowman, No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL16th – AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Nutrien Ag Solutions Chevrolet Camaro ZL17th – Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Tootsies Orchid Lounge Chevrolet Camaro ZL1
The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season continues at Auto Club Speedway with the Pala Casino 400 on Sunday, February 26, at 3:30 P.M. ET. Live coverage can be found on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTES:
Erik Jones, No. 43 Guns N’ Roses Camaro ZL1Finished: 37thJones on the accident that ended his race early: “It was hard to tell. It looked like the No. 45 (Tyler Reddick) got turned around, but I couldn’t see how it happened. Regardless, we spun out there on the bottom when I was trying to get around it and then I got hit on the left side hard enough to take out the left rear and end our day.  It is what it is. We were up there; we were racing and we were doing all we could. We were just in the wrong spot at the wrong time. I wish we could have been a little ahead of him.”  Are you surprised the first on-track came at the end of Stage Two? “No, not really. Everybody was racing hard, but everybody was doing a good job of just keeping in line and doing what they needed to do. There were a couple of moments.. a couple of aggressive and bad pushes, but nothing that was too crazy. I don’t know what sprung that one off, but I thought everybody was doing a good job at that point. It started to get pretty aggressive up until that wreck and I was getting antsy about being up there and getting into something. We were kind of in a bad spot in the pack to get caught up in something. But yeah, I wasn’t surprised it took that long.” Obviously, it’s a superspeedway, so there’s not a ton you can take from this weekend. But what did you learn this weekend that you can apply for when we get to either Atlanta (Motor Speedway) or Talladega (Superspeedway) later on? “I thought our No. 43 Guns N’ Roses Chevy was good, it just needed some more speed. We had it driving pretty good, but just didn’t have it quite fast enough. I was having to carry a lot of throttle for too long to stay up and be aggressive with the pack with the pushes the way I wanted to, so we need to get a little more speed out of it moving forward. Hopefully we can find a way to do that.” Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1Finished: 38thElliott on the accident that ended his race early: “It looked like some guys got tangled up, upfront. Those of us in the back were just scattering to kind of miss it. It looked like the No. 5 (Kyle Larson) and the No. 43 (Erik Jones) kind of went to the apron. By the time we got slowed up, they were coming back across the track and I was the lucky winner to get there first. It’s a bummer.. long ways to go. Hate to end the day, but it is what it is.”
AUSTIN DILLION, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS CLUB CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1 (Finished 33^rd)
WHAT HAPPENED?“We had a strategy there and it just didn’t play out. We weren’t as good as some of the Fords to be able to tandem and get hooked up.  The 6 car just drove through the 24, and that is just what he does. His car is just good enough to where he can just drive through who he needs to and push them out of the way, or wreck them. That is the desperation that they are in right now. I hate it because I was wanting to get Kyle Busch in victory lane here at Daytona. Looking back I should have been a little more selfish at that point. I wish we would have just tried to block both lanes, truthfully. It was one of those deals that is a hard position to be in. I also wish it had gone to the white flag in the position we were in.  Unfortunately not, and hopefully Kyle (Busch) can still make something happen from sixth. RCR as a whole, it was pretty cool to get to where we got there and be 1-2 at the Daytona 500 with two laps to go.  It sucks because you are so close to winning a second Daytona 500 and your teammate was really close to winning his first ever.  We will take it and move on and we did it with not the fastest cars truthfully. It was just execution and we didn’t finish off the last part.”
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 RAPTORTOUGH.COM CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1 (Finished 34^th)“I got into the 8 and we just got off center somehow and I wrecked him. Once he got off center, I tried to back up but I had the 6 in the back of me trying to push as well. Yeah, unfortunate because we were trying to put ourselves in the right position and we were in a really good spot there with about two to go and running third before that caution.  It seemed like when they did the teammate restart it really checked up the bottom lane and I had made my bed of trying to take that lane to have momentum off of turn two. That was unfortunate.”
NOAH GRAGSON, NO. 42 WENDY’S CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1 (Finished 24^th)“I thought we had a decent run until the end. We put ourselves in position in the top 10 and then made a couple of mistakes and got caught up in the big wreck at the end with the last caution. Thankful for the opportunity. We’re going to continue to work hard and grow as a team. Really proud of Luke Lambert (crew chief) and the boys for the adversity we had. Never quit. We’re not going to quit. Just very thankful.”
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 84 CARVANA CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1 (Finished 31^st)“All in all, just a great day. I hate that we didn’t get to the finish line, but we got a lot closer than I thought. If I would have taken a bet before the race started, I would have thought some issues earlier than that, but we had a great day. The Carvana car was awesome. Very, very proud of this race team. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the finish line.”
JUSTIN HALEY, NO. CIRKUL CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1 (Finished 32^nd)“We had a great run going there for a while. We were unfortunately just caught up in what was ultimately just one of those green-white-checkered deals that are inevitable at superspeedways. We struggled a little bit all weekend. This package is pretty tough to pass with, but it was fun to be up there battling in the top 10 there for a bit.”
KYLE BUSCH, NO. 8 3CHI CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1 (Finished 19^th)WALK US THROUGH THOSE LAST COUPLE OF LAPS“I don’t know. I just tried to keep it straight as much as I can and wait for when its going to happen and eventually it does, and it did again today. So, I tried, and I don’t know what else to do.  Come up short. Let lap 200 and wish it was still 1998 rules.”
DOES THIS GET YOU EXCITED FOR THE SEASON WHEN YOU SEE HOW WELL RCR DID HERE THIS AFTERNOON?“Yeah, definitely excited for the start of the season and getting to the real racetracks.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1 (Finished 5^th)“It’s the Daytona 500 and we know how to crash some stuff.  It was just super aggressive and a lot of pushing. You know you have to do it and sometimes they go wrong and crashes happen.  Just proud of my team and glad we were able to make it out clean.”
DO YOU HAVE MOMENTUM GOING TO CALIFORNIA?“I think so. Just starting the year off strong on the right foot. Not only here but at the Coliseum as well. I enjoy California, its been hit or miss for me, but looking forward to getting back there.”
DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 TOOTSIES CHEVORLET CAMARO ZL1 (Finished 7^th)
HOW WAS YOUR DAYTONA 500, IT LOOKED WILD FROM OUR VIEW?“It was a little bit crazy, but I told the team they did a hell of a job. We lacked track position most of the day, and when it mattered the most, we had it. We just spun out there and I was just struggling with loose balance when people would get to the rear bumper for some reason. That one, the 2 came very close to me, very tight and the car behind me came very close as well and got me loose. We recovered and we are getting better at this kind of racing and we are going to get one of these one day.”

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chevy racing–nascar–daytona 500–erik jones

February 20, 2023 ARP Trish

NASCAR CUP SERIES DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY DAYTONA 500 TEAM CHEVY ACCIDENT QUOTES FEBRUARY 18, 2023

Erik Jones, No. 43 Guns N’ Roses Camaro ZL1
Jones on the accident that ended his race early: “It was hard to tell. It looked like the No. 45 (Tyler Reddick) got turned around, but I couldn’t see how it happened. Regardless, we spun out there on the bottom when I was trying to get around it and then I got hit on the left side hard enough to take out the left rear and end our day. It is what it is. We were up there; we were racing and we were doing all we could. We were just in the wrong spot at the wrong time. I wish we could have been a little ahead of him.” Are you surprised the first on-track came at the end of Stage Two? “No, not really. Everybody was racing hard, but everybody was doing a good job of just keeping in line and doing what they needed to do. There were a couple of moments.. a couple of aggressive and bad pushes, but nothing that was too crazy. I don’t know what sprung that one off, but I thought everybody was doing a good job at that point. It started to get pretty aggressive up until that wreck and I was getting antsy about being up there and getting into something. We were kind of in a bad spot in the pack to get caught up in something. But yeah, I wasn’t surprised it took that long.” Obviously, it’s a superspeedway, so there’s not a ton you can take from this weekend. But what did you learn this weekend that you can apply for when we get to either Atlanta (Motor Speedway) or Talladega (Superspeedway) later on? “I thought our No. 43 Guns N’ Roses Chevy was good, it just needed some more speed. We had it driving pretty good, but just didn’t have it quite fast enough. I was having to carry a lot of throttle for too long to stay up and be aggressive with the pack with the pushes the way I wanted to, so we need to get a little more speed out of it moving forward. Hopefully we can find a way to do that.”

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1HUDDY: O’Neal gets first World of Outlaws win, becomes 100th Series winner

February 20, 2023 ARP Trish

McCreadie awarded Big GatorBARBERVILLE, FL – (Feb. 18, 2023) – When the smoke settled, spectators were left in awe of another historic rocket sighting in Florida.They weren’t looking to the sky, though. The mesmerizing visual took place in Barberville, FL with the “rocket” landing on the front stretch of Volusia Speedway Park Saturday night.While hearts around the track took a breath to ease their rapid pace from the excitement, Hudson O’Neal climbed from his Rocket1 Racing machine, slapping his hands on the roof, and exhausted all the air in his body with every yell as confetti levitated around him.The 22-year-old from Martinsville, IN won his first World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Model race during the Federated Auto Parts DIRTcar Nationals finale and became the 100th different winner in World of Outlaws CASE Late Model history.“It’s cool,” O’Neal said. “I came really close to winning these World of Outlaws races and for some reason never can seal the deal on them. To do it in the fashion we did and to be able to do it, it’s cool. It’s just more to do with Mark (Richards, owner of Rocket1 Racing) and the history that he has with the Outlaws. It’s special. This is a day I’ll never forget, I promise you.”O’Neal’s space in Victory Lane was shared with 2006 World of Outlaws CASE Late Model champion Tim McCreadie, who clinched the 2023 Big Gator championship with his fourth-place finish. The Watertown, NY driver put together finishes of second, first, first, third and fourth to lock up his second Big Gator trophy.Like O’Neal, McCreadie also made history as he became the first driver in the event’s history to win two Big Gator titles in two divisions. His first came with the Super DIRTcar Series in 2018.“It’s pretty cool,” McCreadie said. “Not a lot of guys go out and venture to do something different. My whole career is about, ‘Hey, let’s go try and do something and have some fun with it and see if I’m good enough to overcome not knowing what to do with a different type of race car.’“Hasn’t always worked out, but to come down here (at Volusia Speedway Park) and get a couple of these (Big Gator trophies) with all these fans here, that’s pretty cool.”When the 50-lap, $20,000-to-win, Feature initially lined up, the easy bet seemed to be on McCreadie, who drew the pole. O’Neal, buried in 23rd after transferring in through a Last Chance Showdown, seemed far out of reach for a successful takeoff.At the drop of the green flag, McCreadie launched ahead of the field, while outside pole sitter Chris Madden slid back to fourth in the first corner, moving Brian Shirley into second and Brandon Overton in third.The first caution of the night came at Lap 3 for a slowed Mason Ziegler. In that short amount of time, O’Neal was already up to 12th-place.Once the race resumed, McCreadie left Shirley and Overton to argue over second place. Six laps later, he found the back of the field. The straightaway led he had over Shirley was cut to a few car lengths in two laps.Finally close enough to make a move, Shirley dove under McCreadie into Turn 1 on Lap 19, nosing ahead of him by the center of the corner. However, the #39 had the better run around the top of the track and gapped Shirley’s #8 car by a car length off Turn 2.O’Neal was up to eighth.By the halfway point of the race, Madden had found his groove again and moved into second. A caution on Lap 29 for Mike Spatola stopping in Turn 4 brought the current Series points leader to McCreadie’s rear bumper.At this point, the firing of the thrusters on O’Neal’s machine could be heard as he sat fourth in line on the restart.Shirley and Madden wagged a war for second before Shirley began to master the top and try to run down McCreadie for the lead. However, again, he failed. That opened the door for “The Mailman” Devin Moran to make his trek forward, bringing “Huddy” with him.While McCreadie was caught behind Jimmy Owens, Moran dove underneath the former Outlaw champion and snuck ahead of him to claim the lead on Lap 42. After another circuit around, O’Neal also worked his way underneath McCreadie to take second.Staying within reach of Moran, O’Neal moved to the top of the track while Moran hugged the bottom. When Moran had to wait on the throttle exiting Turn 4 with a lap car ahead of him, O’Neal hit the hyperdrive and blasted around the outside of the #99 to take the lead on Lap 45.Moran tried to keep pace, but O’Neal ran a perfect trajectory to the checkered flag.“To be honest, we took the green and I rode the middle and I felt like I could steer a little bit better than everybody could,” O’Neal said. “I started rolling around there and catching that middle and started driving by some guys stacked up on the bottom and the first caution came out [three] laps in and I looked up and I’m running 12th. I thought, ‘Oh man, starting 12th is a whole lot better than starting [23rd],’ and we had a lot of laps left.“There for a while I was passing them, and I stalled out about fourth or so there and I just thought I don’t know if I have anything for them or not. I used my stuff up hard trying to get there. I don’t know, man, sometimes things just workout. Tonight, was one of those nights.”In addition to the milestone marks of O’Neal’s triumph, he also won the Fox Factory Hard Charger Award, rocketing his way from 23rd to first, and became the fourth different driver to win for Rocket1 Racing.“It means a lot, we’ve always been a big supporter of the World of Outlaws,” Richards said. “(O’Neal) makes the fourth driver to win for us. Bart Hartman won World of Outlaws races for us. Brandon (Sheppard) and Josh (Richards) won World of Outlaws races over the years. He’s starting a new chapter for us.”That chapter will always be remembered as another unforgettable “rocket launch” in Florida.UP NEXT: The World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Model Series continues its 2023 season at Smoky Mountain Speedway, March 3-4. For the full 2023 schedule, CLICK HERE.If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch all the action live on DIRTVision.RESULTSCase Construction Equipment Feature (50 Laps): 1. 1-Hudson O’Neal[23]; 2. 99-Devin Moran[8]; 3. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[20]; 4. 39-Tim McCreadie[1]; 5. 76-Brandon Overton[7]; 6. B5-Brandon Sheppard[18]; 7. 44-Chris Madden[2]; 8. 32-Bobby Pierce[5]; 9. 8-Brian Shirley[3]; 10. 111-Max Blair[9]; 11. 18D-Daulton Wilson[11]; 12. 40B-Kyle Bronson[15]; 13. 19R-Ryan Gustin[13]; 14. 12-Ashton Winger[28]; 15. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[25]; 16. B1-Brent Larson[22]; 17. 9-Nick Hoffman[27]; 18. 18-Chase Junghans[12]; 19. 11-Gordy Gundaker[26]; 20. 25-Shane Clanton[6]; 21. 99B-Boom Briggs[29]; 22. 22*-Payton Freeman[30]; 23. 96V-Tanner English[14]; 24. 20-Jimmy Owens[17]; 25. 17M-Dale McDowell[19]; 26. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[24]; 27. 49-Jonathan Davenport[4]; 28. 76N-Blair Nothdurft[16]; 29. 89-Mike Spatola[21]; 30. 25Z-Mason Zeigler[10]

The World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Model Series is brought to fans across the country by many important sponsors and partners, including: CASE Construction Equipment (Official Construction Equipment), CASE No.1 Engine Oil™ (Official Oil and Lubricant), DIRTVision (Official Live Broadcast Partner), Hoosier Racing Tire (Official Tire), iRacing (Official Online Racing Game), SIS Insurance (Official Insurance Provider), Toyota (Official Vehicle), and VP Racing Fuels (Official Racing Fuel); contingency sponsors include Arizona Sport Shirts/Gotta Race, ARP (Automotive Racing Products), Cometic Gasket, COMP Cams, Fox Factory (Hard Charger Award), Low-E Insulation, MSD, Penske Racing Shocks, Quarter Master, Swift Springs, and Wieland Metal Services (Exclusive Racing Aluminum); along with manufacturer sponsors, including, Behrent’s Performance Warehouse, Capital Race Cars, FIREBULL, Integra Shocks, Intercomp, Racing Electronics, Reliable Painting, Rocket Chassis, and Sea Foam.

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chevy racing–nascar–daytona–aj allmendinger

February 20, 2023 ARP Trish

NASCAR CUP SERIES DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY DAYTONA 500 TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT FEBRUARY 18, 2023

AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 16 NUTRIEN AG SOLUTIONS CAMARO ZL1, was the fastest Chevrolet driver in the NASCAR Cup Series final practice. Press Conference Transcript: AJ Allmendinger was the fastest Chevrolet in the NASCAR Cup Series final practice before the Daytona 500. AJ, tell us a little bit about your car and what you’re looking forward to tomorrow.“It was pretty easy to be the quickest Chevy… I think there was only three of us that went out there. It’s been good. We decided yesterday not to practice just to kind of fine tune everything. There were only a few things that we wanted to try. I felt like in the Duels, we never got the track position, but the car had pretty good speed in it. So, more than anything, it’s me just trying to learn the techniques of this car on the superspeedway because I didn’t run any of the (Cup) races on superspeedways last year.
Overall, I feel like it’s pretty good. It’s going to just be more about learning during the race tomorrow with 40 cars out there; how the car is reacting. It will be a little bit warmer than today. How the tires start to slide around and stuff with that many cars around you.
I’m pretty happy with everything. We’ll be ready to go tomorrow. It’s really cool to have Nutrien Ag Solutions on the car; moving up to Cup with me. It’s been a great partnership with our race team for the past several years now, so for them to come to the Cup side with me means a lot. It’s really cool to have them here.”
Based on what you’ve learned about the car so far, have you developed a strategy for tomorrow?“I think as we’ve all seen, it’s hard to get a third line working around here. In the past, I was always one of those guys that would kind of just sit back early on in the race and just let it develop. Some of it, at those times, maybe I didn’t quite have the speed to consistently run up front. So it was more about trying to time when to get up front and stay there at the end of the race.
With this car, I feel like you have to have more track position early on. So with 100 laps to go – I think 60 to 70 to go – you need your track position. It’s hard to try to get back up there. What I fought in the Duel was I felt like we were pretty decent, but it’s just hard to make moves. So I think trying to get up front however we do that and obviously trying to stay there, especially after halfway, is going to be really critical. The cars in traffic get aero-tight. Obviously we see when you’re pushing, if you push the wrong way, it’s tough. So it’s going to be a challenge tomorrow, but I think just trying to get up front early and hopefully stay there is probably the best thing.”
You’ve done this before. You’re no stranger to this week, but it’s been five years. Is the emotion different coming back to the Daytona 500 now compared to where you were in 2018. “No, I mean I’m always nervous. As soon as I get here, I feel the nerves right when I drive into the tunnel. It’s like as you land and drive into the tunnel, the nerves and anxiety builds up a little bit, which is a great thing because it should be like that. This is a special race to be a part of. I don’t take it for granted. I hate superspeedway racing; but with that said, when they would drop the green every year over the last five years, there was a piece of me just missing it. I feel very fortunate and lucky to be in this position and have this opportunity again. The nerves have built up over the week. I’m sure I’ll struggle to sleep tonight and wake up tomorrow and basically hurry up to get to (driver) intros. There’s a lot that goes on in the morning for all the drivers, but hurry up and get to intros and get inside the car because the nerves will definitely be there. Once you start the engine, it’s go-time.”
Both times you’ve ran third here, you started deep. You start deep again tomorrow.. is that a good omen? “The race is long enough; it doesn’t matter where you start. As I said, the track position is more critical, but if you have a fast car, you can still work your way up there. I think it’s more that you have to pick and choose when you do it because if you kind of go for it and you get kind of tossed to the back, it’s a lot harder to get back up there now. But yeah, if it’s meant to be and we make the right moves – there’s so much luck that goes into this too. You just try to make the right moves and if a wreck happens and you’re part of it, that is what it is. You just don’t want to be the cause of the wreck. That was always my mindset.
We’ll be ready to go. I’m so pumped to be back here. This is a great race for all of us to be a part. We should all feel lucky enough that we get to do this.”
When you approach three-wide situations, how do you really react to that knowing there’s not a lot of room for error? “Yeah, I mean these cars stall out really easy. So I think if you’re trying to start the third lane, you have to have a massive run. You can’t just pop out and hope a couple of guys go with you and make it work like the old car. This car, you have to make a run; have a big head of stem and generally know that guys will go with you. If you get stuck in the middle three-wide, you have to be careful, especially later in the tire run. But it’s all part of it.”
When you compare the energy of the crowd here at Daytona versus other tracks, what do you find to be a lot more stimulating knowing the history of this track? “It’s one of the biggest races we have in the world.. the Daytona 500. I feel like if you’re not a motorsports fan, you can still say certain races and they get what it is. You say the Indianapolis 500, they know what that is. You say the Daytona 500, they know what it is. You know if you win the race that you become a part of a legendary group that has won the Daytona 500. You feel that in the crowd, too. The people here – even the people that are first timers that have never been here and are just learning what racing is – they know what the Daytona 500 is. You feel that energy as soon as you wake up tomorrow morning. This place is packed. It’s sold out – infield, grandstands. Not that drivers need any more reason to be pumped up to race the Daytona 500, but you feel the energy in the crowd and that just gives it a little bit more.”
Simulations are great, but can you learn anything from watching previous finishes here? “Yeah, I’ve watched a lot of in-car and race footage from last year. Just trying to get an understanding of how the runs formulate and what you have to do to put yourself in the right position. But in the end of the day, it’s great to watch all of that and put that in the notebook and the mind, but you have to feel it. You have to be in that position. As we’ve seen many of times with this race, there’s no one way or another to win it. It’s great to be the first car leading off of turn four and we’ve seen people lose it that way. I felt like Austin (Dillon) did a great job last year because they had a big run on him and he did what he had to do to win the race. But yeah, you put all of those notes in your head; but at the end of the day, it’s different every time you’re a part of it. I’ve always said – you make what you think is the best decision in the moment and after, you can always nit-pick on whether it was the right decision. But you give yourself the best opportunity to make that decision. If it works out, it works out.”
The past few days, several of us have had the opportunity to make single-car runs in the Racing Experience cars and figured out what you guys do behind the wheel is probably a little more difficult than what we give you credit for in the past. But how do you guys keep the cars settled without basically bouncing all over each other? “Well we’re paid not to wreck, so that’s the ultimate goal to try not to wreck (laughs) and it hurts if you do. It’s a challenge. You make a single-car run, a lot of people can do that wide open. It’s not hard to do. I will say in this car, it was a little more difficult. They bounce around a lot more in qualifying. But yeah, you get three- or four-wide, that’s why we’re supposed to be the best of the best.”
Going back to the trust factor that we hear you guys talk about, with who you’re racing around..“We don’t trust any of each other.. let’s be honest (laughs). We know who is maybe a little safer and who’s a little more aggressive. But let’s not lie to each other, we don’t trust anyone out there.”
It’s no secret with Kaulig Racing’s Xfinity program, the team’s been dominate at Daytona and Talladega in recent years. How much have you been able to carryover from the Kaulig Xfinity results to prepare for the first multi-car Cup Series run in the Daytona 500?“The Cup Series is such a challenge; it’s difficult. That’s the point of it. There are 40 of us out there and we’re the best of the best, and that’s why we’re in those seats. It’s a lot more challenging.
A lot of it also goes with ECR, Chevrolet and all of our partners that help us get to that point of why our stuff is so fast on the Xfinity and the Cup side of it. But yeah, it’s a lot more difficult.
I think in the Xfinity Series, part of it is – in complete honesty – there’s not as many good cars in the race, and because of that, you’re able to get a lot of cars that want to hookup with you because they know your car is fast and they just want to go with you. So sometimes it’s even easier to make moves. Although, by the end of my Xfinity side of it, the field figured out they didn’t want the Kaulig Chevy’s linked up together because – whether it was Justin (Haley), myself, and Ross (Chastain); or Ross and Justin; or Jeb (Burton), Daniel (Hemric) and Landon (Cassill) – part of the culture is that we’re all in it together to try and win the race. In the end of the day, sure, you want to be the guy that wins the race. But it sets the tone with Matt Kaulig and Chris Rice and on down the line, that we’re helping each other. I think we showed that constantly in the Xfinity Series. It’s a lot more difficult in the Cup Series. There are a lot of four-car teams that are all really good, so it’ll be a lot more challenging. But myself and Justin (Haley) work so well together, so if we’re upfront, we know we’re going to help each other. Of course we want to be the one that wins the Daytona 500, but if Justin wins and I follow him across the line, I’m taking just as much pride in that as if I’m winning. That’s still the culture and that’s what we’re going to try and do.”

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chevy racing–nascar–daytona–jimmie johnson

February 17, 2023 ARP Trish

NASCAR CUP SERIES DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY DAYTONA 500 TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT FEBRUARY 17, 2023

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 84 CARVANA CAMARO ZL1, was the fastest car overall in the first practice session in advance of the Daytona 500. Press Conference Transcript – While you’ve been away, there’s been a lot of wrecks in this race at the end. How do you see that.. have we evolved to almost anything goes in the last 10 laps or not? “I think the blocking is probably one of the biggest issues, and it’s also one of the most important things to get right to maintain track position. I think that’s what’s changed the most from the years that I’ve been a Cup driver is the late blocks and the aggression of the blocks. We’ve had variations of pushing and being able to slam draft, bump draft, whatever it might be. The cars still don’t really like that. I was able to do some of that tonight and get a feel for it. You still need a pretty delicate touch to pull it off. I think that’s what happened last night with the No. 8 car and the No. 99. Just too much energy and just gets the car toggling from side-to-side and around it goes.
I don’t think it’s intentional. I don’t think the crashes at the end of these races are that you’re not trying to crash someone. You’re trying to win, right? So you’re trying to block to protect; you’re trying to shove somebody to make your lane go. It comes from a good place, but sadly it tears up a lot of race cars.”
Do you have any sense that people might help you more because if they push you to the win, it doesn’t impact the Playoffs? “I don’t think anybody is visualizing the win just yet. I think you’re still trying to figure out who you’re going to work with; who can receive a push, who can push well, who has speed. I certainly helped myself today by being in that fast Chevy pack and working with my old teammates. But when it comes to the last lap, it’s every man for himself. I don’t expect anyone to cut me any slack.”
At Media Day, you hadn’t really been in the car, expect for your test out in Phoenix for a day or so. Now that you’ve had a race in this new car and have had practice in this new car, what do you think of it? Does it remind you of anything you’ve driven before in your career?“I would say 70 or 80 percent of it is still a stock car and still the draft here. So the large majority of it is familiar; the large majority of the experience. I’m remembering little details as I make laps and get into the zone that – yeah this works or doesn’t work. Turn four is always tricky. Pit lane entry, pit lane exit, blend line.. all the details are coming back and it’s still really there. That will help you run in the middle of the pack. But to win the race, you have to be on your game. That’s the part I’m still trying to refine and why I ran every lap I could just now. And I plan to again tomorrow and then still a ton of learning to come in the race itself.”
Do you like the way the car feels?“It drives like a stock car. It doesn’t drive like an INDYCAR, thank god.. we know how that went (laughs).”
I’m sure as a veteran, you’ve had plenty of young people in your time come up and ask for advice or tricks out on the track. Have you found yourself this week asking any of the younger drivers or current Cup drivers for advice? “Yeah, I’d say leading into Phoenix and then coming here. I did sim for both of them. I spent a lot of time in the shop with Erik (Jones) and Noah (Gragson), just asking questions. Noah was at the track in Phoenix, as well as Erik, obviously driving, so I’ve been able to really lean on those two. They’ve joked a little bit about the fact that they’re giving me so much and they thought it would be the other way around. But honestly with the new car and where the speed hides in this new style of car – setups, driving style, experience you need to really manhandle it – I’ve been all ears listening to them. They’ve both been very helpful.”
What is something specific that a Noah Gragson can teach or tell Jimmie Johnson? “When we’re sitting there with our hands – doing all the hand talk that drivers do – in those conversations about like where the weight is sitting when you go back to the throttle; how the car might slide. This car seems to hop a lot when the rearend starts to slide across the track, which is new. I noticed that in the sim preparing for Phoenix that there was like a rear tire chatter and then the car would get loose. And I thought it was just something in the sim and maybe not the way the experience would be in real life, and then I got to Phoenix and found out that was the case. I think Conor Daly last night had the extreme that we all saw. I don’t know how he has feeling in his teeth still (laughs). So that would be one specific, kind of technical piece, that I’m trying to get used to.”
Is this one of those cases of the more things change, the more they stay the same, in reference to you being on top of a speed chart in a Cup Series car? Is this a case of with it really being your first, true weekend in a Next Gen car, that you don’t necessarily have any ‘bad habits’ to unlearn because you haven’t really experienced all of this until now?“Yeah, I honestly think it’s too early to read far into this. It is plate racing. That was just a practice session. We didn’t make any mistakes and did some things right to end up where we did. The other races we’ll run – once we’re able to figure out what those races are – we’ll see how I stack up. If it’s a short track, a mile-and-a-half, road course, whatever it might be.. those are all different, unique challenges that come with it.
For plate racing, I think that we have a really good driving race car. I think the Hendrick cars have a bit more speed from anything I saw out there on track, which qualifying is pretty obvious for that. But it’s just still early and anything can still happen. I’m glad to be in here. I’m glad we’re at the top of the board and not at the bottom. I’m sure the headlines would read a little differently if we were on the other end of it.”
You were side-by-side with the No. 48 out there. What was just the emotion of that.. was it weird or was it just another car?“Seeing him wasn’t weird, but having my spotter say the No. 48 car was outside of me was really weird. Two or three times, I had to remind myself because I really thought it was me when I’m hearing the No. 48. I’m like – yeah, I’m here.. why are you telling me the No. 48 is next to me (laughs). I have not driven the No. 48 car since I left that No. 48 car, so that part was different. But from a visual standpoint, I’m used to seeing Alex (Bowman) in the car and that part was fine. But through my ears, hearing about the No. 48, threw me off.”
You mentioned still trying to figure out what the rest of your schedule is going to look like. From the ownership standpoint, is it important for you to have their answer in the races that you’re running, just to better understand the feedback from the drivers and what they’re going to need moving forward? “Yeah, there are many ways to look at the races I run. Right now, kind of our pecking order is of course finding sponsorship for the car. And then secondly, what is going to not hurt the team – from a work load standpoint, car count and aspects that go with that. And then it is to help the other two cars. Once we get six months into this and I think we can staff up accordingly, get our inventory right and kind of catch our breath from the busy offseason we’ve had – we can maybe shuffle the prioritization of those. The goal, ultimately, is to have the No. 84 car really help the other two cars. Help really drive technology and really be a performance reason as to why it’s on-track. We’re just not there yet, but that’s kind of in our 12 month forecast.”
We got a look today at the Garage 56 Camaro. What do you think of that car, that project, that opportunity? “I’m thrilled to be a part of it and what a fun car. I’m sure you saw some of the specs for it – how much lighter the race car is, the downforce that’s on it, the carbon brakes, paddle shifting – it really is fun to drive. I’m so thankful to be part of the program. I literally leave here Sunday; drive in a rental car over to Sebring to do a 24 hour endurance test with the guys. It’s going to be a busy couple of days of driving.”
What do you need to do to prepare for Le Mans?“Obviously, the testing that we’re doing is one piece of it. But the rules, flags, there’s a lot of things that are different in the way they officiate for that particular event. I have to go over before the race and spend a day in the simulator to learn where their flagman stations are, what their flags mean. There are some pit road procedures that I need to be aware of and pay attention to. So I’ll head over a few days early to go into their simulator to drive that.
And then at home, I’ve just been using my sim rig and doing a bunch on iRacing. I’ve been out in the Corvette GT car and I’ve put only prototypes out that are faster than me. I’ll put as many as they’ll give me.. it’s usually around 60-70 cars on track, just so they’re chasing me and overtaking me. Every time I’ve been in a sportscar race, I’ve been in the fastest division and have not had to worry about my mirrors, and I’m really concerned about that. I want to make sure I’m leaving a lane when I need to and know what’s coming behind me, and I’m using iRacing to do that.”
With the thunderbirds, where does that experience rank for you? “Yeah, that’s probably near the top. I’ve never felt anything like that; the adrenaline, the acceleration. The first thing we did is we got off the runway and picked up the gear and did a performance turn to 10,000 feet. Instantly, I had to practice the heavy-g breathing that they talk to you about. It’s just wild. Just the weight of your body and the experience of pointing that thing in the sky; they roll it over and turn and all kinds of stuff.
It was great. I was really worried about getting sick and I’m happy to report that my ‘get sick’ bag was empty. I did not get sick during the ride, so that was super good. But I did take a little nap. We pulled 9.1G’s and I blacked out. I came to sitting in the back wondering where I was, what was going on. It was wild because I couldn’t hear anything and I’m looking around like – what am I doing in an airplane? And then I could hear somebody say ‘Jimmie.. Jimmie.. Jimmie’, and then it got loud and I’m like ‘yeah!’. They were like, ‘hey, you’re back.. I think you took a nap’. I said, ‘I believe I did.. I have no clue where I am or what I’m doing right now (laughs)’. That was wild.”
Hearing about the No. 48 in your ear – did Earl say ‘new leader No. 84’ today? “He’s with Noah (Gragson).”
Oh, you gave Earl up? “I did. It wasn’t an easy decision to make, but wearing my team owner hat and knowing the experience that Earl has and what he can share with Noah (Gragson). Noah started talking to me about Earl before we announced that I was going to be a part of the team. Neither Earl or Noah knew what was going on. I just sensed it was the right thing to do, so I was like – yeah, I don’t know what my racing is going to be next year.. you guys put that deal together. And then I was able to call them both and say – hey, now you get it.”
Who spots for you? “Jesse Vaughan. He was, I believe, the backup No. 11 car spotter on the Cup side, and has done Truck, Xfinity and ARCA a bunch.”Does he know the rules, that he has to say ‘new leader, No. 84’?“No, I’m not going to put that pressure on him. That’s an Earl-thing. We’ll see what he says. He didn’t say that tonight, though. He says ‘dude’ a lot, which I can relate with that. I’m not sure where he’s from, but I’m used to hearing ‘dude’ (laughs).”

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