POUGHKEEPSIE, NY (July 3, 2022) – Defending series and race champion Chris Dyson emerged from this weekend’s Road America round of the Trans Am by Pirelli series with a third-place finish and an expanded lead in this year’s title chase. But a podium finish wasn’t the result the defending race champion sought. After being judged to have jumped the start from his qualifying position on the outside of the front row (polesitter and eventual race winner Kaz Grala easily won the drag race to the first turn) Dyson served a drive-through penalty, departing the pits in his #20 ALTWELL Ford Mustang 30 seconds off the lead. Once clear of slower mid-field traffic Dyson vaulted all the rear of the field and fought back into second place. Then, during a bit of uncertainty about a full-course yellow, NASCAR veteran and 2022 Charlotte Trans Am winner Paul Menard slipped by Dyson with three laps remaining. Heavy rain falling on the four-mile circuit slowed lap times by 20 seconds and essentially froze the field in place as drivers tiptoed to the checkered flag. “The car was flying – it was absolutely brilliant to drive, especially as the runs went on,” Dyson said following the race. “We set the fastest lap, caught back up, and we got another shot at the win with the yellows. I think things would have been a little different without the penalty and the weather conditions. I think we would have been right up there with Kaz fighting until the end. Congratulations to Paul and Kaz; we had a great battle throughout.” Strong Run by Merrill Brings Fourth-Place For CD Racing TA2 standout Thomas Merrill finished a strong fourth for CD Racing, subbing for Humaid Masaood in the #21 allgram Ford Mustang. Hounding Grala and Menard early in the race, Merrill set his fastest lap, less than three-tenths of a second slower than Dyson’s race-best standard. “Thomas did a really solid job,” Dyson said. “There weren’t many laps for him in practice due to an unfortunate engine change. But he managed a quick lap in qualifying, and Thomas just got faster and faster as the race went on. He did that fastest lap just before the rain came.” Dyson said that despite his disappointment with his third-place finish in what he viewed as a winnable race, the team enters the season’s two-month mid-summer hiatus with a healthy points lead headed for September’s race at Watkins Glen International. “We’re going to work hard during this break to make sure that we carry that momentum with us to Watkins Glen.” NASCAR XFINITY Race Dyson also contested the NASCAR Xfinity Henry 180, driving Emerling-Gase Motorsports’ #35 Concord American Flagpole entry, his second-ever start in the series and first since 2019. Dyson’s 29th-place qualifying effort put him ahead of 14 other cars. In the race Dyson ran as high as 13th place before a brake problem at Canada Corner during the race’s final Stage led to a crash and a 28th-place finish. “It was too bad,” Dyson said during the one-hour interlude between the end of the Xfinity race and the green flag for the Trans Am sprint. “I think we had a top-20 car this afternoon if we hadn’t had that issue. I was really in a good rhythm with the car and just running my pace consistently when that happened without any warning. But overall it was a good experience and I thank the team for putting me in their car. And I look forward to future opportunities in the Xfinity series.” Modern Wellness with ALTWELL ALTWELL provides purposefully curated and flavored products to help improve your overall wellness, sleep, relaxation and balance. We know that can be a different experience for everyone, so we prioritize being able to serve the unique needs of our customers. We’re committed to helping you live each day with comfort and calm. That’s why all ALTWELL products are crafted with product quality and consumer satisfaction in mind. GYM WEED FEEL GOOD.  WORK OUT.  GYM WEED by ALTWELL. The hemp infused sports nutrition products to help take your workouts to a higher level.  Gym Weed is paired with the power of Hemp Extract and additional functional ingredients to enhance performance and support recovery.  GYM WEED products are third party lab tested and THC FREE to ensure safe, high-quality ingredients at the right dose. allgram Your Data is Yours! allgram is the next generation decentralized Peer to Peer secure communication platform hosted on the blockchain and developed with cyber and information security as the core elements of the solution. Leveraging Digital IDs you can communicate securely via chat, voice, video, & social media knowing that nobody is accessing your data. DIGITAL ID – Digital IDs are authenticated through the blockchain for true identity verification. CHAT – Peer to Peer communication via text, voice and video with no central servers. SCHEDULE CALLS – Send meeting invites using allgram calendar for business or personal use.  SOCIAL MEDIA – Create private or public clubs and share posts securely with no targeted advertisements.

CHEVROLET RACING IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES

HONDA INDY 200 AT MID-OHIO

MID-OHIO SPORTS CAR COURSE

LEXINGTON, OHIO

TEAM CHEVY POST RACE DRIVER QUOTES

JULY 3, 2022

TEAM CHEVY DRIVER POST RACE QUOTES:

SCOTT McLAUGHLIN, NO. 3 ODYSSEY BATTERY CHEVROLET, TEAM PENSKE – RACE WINNER

“It’s amazing. I really wanted to get a win here with mom and dad here. And our first time we have had Odyssey Battery on the car and you know it was it was awesome as well to have them on board but that mom and dad is very special on America’s weekend.

“Last night I was dressed up as a bald eagle, so maybe I need to do that every year, July 4 weekend.

“It was tough. You know, you’re thinking about fuel but thankfully obviously Chevy gave us the great fuel mileage and driveability off the restarts that allowed me to get a little bit of a gap from Palou and the Honda there so I’m really really proud of the guys for the car they gave me even though it was a little hard to drive towards the end. I would love to make it a little bit easier for myself but I’m super proud. Everyone did great pitstops from this car three, the thirsty threes, baby we’re going to the moon.

“Yeah, it was, it was tough, because, you know, my car sort of went away a little bit towards the end of the race, you know, it was good at the start. I think once a tire that the track changed a little bit and got a little bit dirty and bits and pieces, they got hard to sort of put the power down, which was making it hard to defend, but it is what it is we’ll learn and move on. But I think we’ve made some changes that certainly helped us today. And thankfully we did them.

“Yeah, look, it’s great momentum for us at the end of day this isINDYCAR you know, things can happen all the time. And I think we’ve had great pace to be in the top five, you know, I’ve made mistakes. There’s been certain things that haven’t gone our way strategy wise that have made us sort of fall back a little bit but we’ve always had the pace and it was all about having the belief and the belief and the guys we’ve got a great group here on the car three you know it’s we’re all mates you know, we’re just having fun with a go racing and have fun. So really proud to do it. And yeah, I’m excited.”

WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON 5G TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – FINISHED 3^RD: 

“Amazing day, amazing day for the Verizon 5G Chevy. Yeah. I said in a strategy meeting, which I have a few times this year, we’ve qualified bad and a top-10 would be great. Yellow when we were 12th, I thought, OK, we can be in the top-10 here. Good restarts, good exchanges, good pit stops, good strategy. Great job by the team. Over the moon, loving it man. Starting at the back is more entertaining than leading at the front! We’ve got to get on top of the qualifying. It wasn’t a pace issue at all. I can’t thank Verizon and Chevy enough. We’re having such a great year.

“You just have to keep your head in these races. As you see every week, so much happens. If you don’t make any mistakes, you’ll make up positions. This is IndyCar; you can never predict what’ll happen. I’m loving it. I hope the fans are too.”

RINUS VEEKAY, NO. 21 BITCOIN WITH BITNILE CHEVROLET, ED CARPENTER RACING –FINISHED 4^TH:

“We had a great race. Did not expect a top-four really before the race. Really before the race, I said top-eight I’d be happy with. Racing with Will… was nice, but he didn’t leave me enough space on entry in Turn 4. He put me in the grass.I think you have to leave enough space. But he didn’t get a penalty. But he did a great race. I didn’t expect to see him in my mirrors at the restart! The team, the 21 BitNile car did a great job at the pit stops. I’m happy to be back in the top-four, top-five. That’s needed at the moment. It was the perfect race.” 

JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 PPG CHEVROLET, TEAM PENSKE – FINISHED 7^TH: 

“It’s not a great day not a not a bad day either. We ended up seven we had a good start I think we got up to 11 at the start first pit pit exchanges really good we I think worked up to seven or six and then you know marching forward and then a couple of cautions came out. 

“Then the final pit exchange where we were looking to make something happen again on new reds a yellow came out right after we picked it basically and give it there normally sometimes helps you because it closes the pits but they waited for everybody else to pit. So we we lost out to the blend line and so I ended up losing three spots in that exchange, which which put us back to P seven and then just kind of finished out the race from there so not not a great day. You know, just kind of bad luck all day with the way the yellows are working out. They weren’t really favoring our strategy. But it’s good day for scot free after that and you know, we’ll go to the next one.”

CONOR DALY, NO. 20 BITNILE CHEVROLET, ED CARPENTER RACING – FINISHED 13^TH: 

I think we had a really incredible first stent. The car was super racy. I mean, we were passing people left and right. And just a real shame to see the yellow not get called. When there was a car off and a driver standing up and we’re still under green. I’m in a pretty dangerous corner. And now that was a real shame because it kind of worked against us. And some of the guys that we passed early on in the race ended up in front of us and tough to pass towards the end, but we were going forward really the whole time. So you know, to move up from 22nd hurts today. Getting to 13 is a good day for us. You know, I messed up in qualifying, so you know, gotta be perfect on these weekends and another solid race for us. We just got to get back into the top 10 When we go out next time

SIMONA de SILVESTRO, NO. 16 CHEVROLET, PARETTA AUTOSPORT – FINISHED 18^TH:

“I felt like I was strong again, doing things I used to do and moving forward. We were passing cars, we were moving forward and that encourages us a lot. There’s always things to iron out and get better but I think the results will come. I look forward to Nashville because I feel like we are getting to where we need to be.”

DALTON KELLETT, NO. 4 K-LINE CHEVROLET, AJ FOYT RACING – FINISHED 22^ND: 

“It’s been an eventful race for the team I guess. Overall it was not the best day for the AJ Foyt Racing crew. On my end, I felt like we had a pretty hooked up car in the first stent. In warm up we tried something close to Kyle’s setup from qualifying and it wasn’t quite working for me which kind of goes to show you got to sort of figure out your own thing for your own driving style. So, we went back to our qualifying car and on the new reds, the car felt pretty good. It felt like it was really connected through the corner, and I was able to push through the sections from four to nine. We were running decently well and then got turned around by the 45 car which was unfortunate. On a restart everyone’s battling but not great when you get turned from behind but you’re not really in the mix for a pass for their battle right? So, a mistake on their part and that put us two laps down because it took them a while to get me going again. Losing two laps — that’s the hard part. On an oval you can make that back but on a short road course like this, you have to get supremely lucky and that didn’t happen. On the blacks and the scrubbed red set we were lacking a bit of mechanical grip through the rhythm section. But overall a tough day, hoping for something better at the home race in Toronto.”

CALLUM ILOTT, NO. 77 DYNAMIC EDGE CHEVROLET, JUNCOS HOLLINGER RACING –FINISHED 23^RD:

“Had a bit of a disappointing end to that one and unfortunately ended with a bit of flames of behind us. Just coming to the final restart, I think it was p 11 and it just went on me, unfortunately. But you know, we’ll come back stronger to fight another day is a shame because we had great pace, especially on the blacks as well as reds. We struggled with a bit I had to get the balance back in the window at the first stop.  But yeah, hopefully the guys can be happy with the performance up to that point. Next one’s Toronto street circuit. Yeah. That’s why I’m so excited.”

PATO O’WARD, 5 ARROW McLAREN CHEVROLET, ARROW McLAREN SP – FINISHED 24^TH: “Today was a bummer. Apparently, the issue was something fuel delivery-wise, and it just kept getting worse and worse and worse. Then it just failed. It is a bummer and frustrating as we have thrown away, I think, an easy podium for us here. We had a lot of pace, and we’ve had a lot of pace throughout the weekend. The No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet was really well put together for qualifying and I tried to do my job the best I could.”

TATIANA CALDERON, NO. 11 ROKiT CHEVROLET, AJ FOYT RACING – FINISHED 25^TH: 

We had a good base for the race with the strategy as well we decided to go with the red tires for the start and then for the first stop, so I was feeling like we were in the group fighting with good pace. Suddenly I started to lose a little bit on the downshifts and then got stuck in here. Unfortunately, I think they guys did a fantastic job all weekend. So sad way to end this this race but hopefully, with all your help, we’ll be back in a couple of races more this year. Thanks for this opportunity.”

KYLE KIRKWOOD, NO. 14 ROKiT CHEVROLET, AJ FOYT RACING – FINISHED 26^TH: “I’m not really sure.  I’m gonna go back through the data, but wasn’t the same as Detroit, and figured the pressures were good felt like it was there and just couldn’t  turn and bottomed out right in the middle of the corner and set the car sailing and the nature of the track is kind of increasing radius to that section. So, unfortunately for the 14 AJ Foyt crew, we didn’t get to get the finish that that we thought we deserved. We were doing solid this weekend. So we’re right there in the top 10 Fighting for seven eight nines really. Just unfortunate. Felt good this morning.”

FELIX ROSEQVIST, NO. 7 VUSE CHEVROLET, ARROW McLAREN SP – FINISHED 27^TH’:

It’s just unfortunate. I had a really, really, really good run. I feel for the No. 7 Vuse Arrow McLaren SP guys who worked so hard this weekend. I think we had a mega weekend going as were off strategy with the black tires and holding our position. We actually managed to move up from fourth to third, so yeah, it’s a big loss for the team.

“I just felt like we were sailing out there. I think we showed again we are up there and fighting for podium positions. We just have to come back and do better in Toronto.”

CHEVROLET RACING IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES

HONDA INDY 200 AT MID-OHIO

MID-OHIO SPORTS CAR COURSE

LEXINGTON, OHIO

TEAM CHEVY SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN QUICK QUOTE

JULY 3, 2022

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN WINS AT MID-OHIO; SCORES SEVENTH WIN OF 2022 NTT INDYCAR SERIES SEASON FOR CHEVROLET

Second Win of the Season for McLaughlin and his Thirsty 3s Odyssey Battery Team Penske Chevrolet

Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 Odyssey Battery Team Penske Chevrolet, won today at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course taking home the trophy for the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio.

It Is the second win of the season for McLaughlin and the seventh of the nine races run for Chevrolet in the NTT INDYCAR Series. 

Quick quote:

“It’s amazing. I really wanted to get a win here with mom and dad here. And our first time we have had Odyssey Battery on the car and you know it was it was awesome as well to have them on board but that mom and dad is  very special on America’s weekend.

“Last night I was dressed up as a bald eagle, so maybe I need to do that every year, July 4 weekend. 

“It was tough. You know, you’re thinking about fuel but thankfully obviously Chevy gave us the great fuel mileage and driveability off the restarts that allowed me to get a little bit of a gap from Palou and the Honda there so I’m really really proud of the guys for the car they gave me even though it was a little hard to drive towards the end. I would love to make it a little bit easier for myself but I’m super proud. Everyone did great pitstops from this car three, the thirsty threes, baby we’re going to the moon.

“Yeah, it was, it was tough, because, you know, my car sort of went away a little bit towards the end of the race, you know, it was good at the start. I think once a tire that the track changed a little bit and got a little bit dirty and bits and pieces, they got hard to sort of put the power down, which was making it hard to defend, but it is what it is we’ll learn and move on. But I think we’ve made some changes that certainly helped us today. And thankfully we did them.

“Yeah, look, it’s great momentum for us at the end of day this isINDYCAR you know, things can happen all the time. And I think we’ve had great pace to be in the top five, you know, I’ve made mistakes. There’s been certain things that haven’t gone our way strategy wise that have made us sort of fall back a little bit but we’ve always had the pace and it was all about having the belief and the belief and the guys we’ve got a great group here on the car three you know it’s we’re all mates you know, we’re just having fun with a go racing and have fun. So really proud to do it. And yeah, I’m excited.”

Elkhart Lake, WISCONSIN – July 3, 2022 – Round 8 of the 2022 Trans Am presented by Pirelli Championship season saw probably the most competitive field of the season assemble at Road America and the race itself didn’t disappoint. Franklin Road’s Paul Menard scored a terrific P2 in the all-new livery No. 5 Showtime Motorsports Franklin Road Apparel Chevrolet Camaro while Showtime principal Ken Thwaits held on to his second position in the Drivers’ Championship after a P8 finish. Ken looked booked for P6, the position he held comfortably for most of the race, but rain on the last couple of laps cost him two places. All in all, it was a good day for the Franklin Road team who are now firmly established among the top tier of Trans Am teams. “I have to say I’m happy with the day overall, stated Ken. “I took it easy when the rain came as I was on slicks and wanted to come home in one piece. I gather I’m still in P2 in the Championship with three rounds to go and that’ll do for me.”  About Paul Menard’s return in the Chevrolet Camaro Ken added, “There were two NASCAR drivers plus reigning Champion Chris Dyson battling it out at the front of the race so that gives you an idea of the level of competition. The car performed really well in Paul’s hands and naturally from a team perspective I’m glad we got the runner up spot. If it wasn’t for the rain, it would have been a perfect day but I’ll take it.” Ken picked up 18 Championship points for finishing in P8 giving him a provisional total of 176, one point ahead of third placed Tomy Drissi.  Paul Menard was having his third drive of the season for Franklin Road after winning at Charlotte the last day he raced. Having qualified in P3 with a best time of 2:04:220 he outgunned Championship leader Chris Dyson to claim P2 on the podium after an epic duel over the closing laps that was everything Trans Am fans love to see. One of the best races of the season, the highlights can be seen at the following times: TA/XGT/SGT/GT – Jul 09, 2:00p.m. ET on CBS Sports NetworkTA/XGT/SGT/GT (Encore Presentation) – Jul 10, 10:00p.m. ET on CBS Sports NetworkTA2 – Jul 10, 2:30p.m. ET on CBS Sports NetworkTA2 (Encore Presentation) – Jul 11, 12:00 a.m. ET on CBS Sports Network  The TA Class series now takes its traditional midsummer break before resuming at the legendary Watkins Glen September 7 to 11. Meanwhile TA2 continues at the Big Machine Music City Grand Prix in Nashville August 5 and 6. Fans can find the Franklin Road Apparel Trans Am clothing here: https://www.franklinroad.com/search/trans+am/ Visit the team’s website for Showtime Motorsports showtimemotorsports.net. Learn more about the Showtime Motorsports team partner, Road Apparel, at franklinroad.com and keep up to date with the Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli at gotransam.com. #GoTransAm Check out the Showtime Motorsports Facebook page: facebook.com/showtimemotorsp/ and @ShowtimeMotorsp on Instagram.

Sophomore Star Beats Champion Brad Sweet for First Win Since 2017

NEW RICHMOND, WI – July 2, 2022 – It was five years ago this month when Brock Zearfoss scored one for the PA Posse at the 2017 Summer Nationals, recording his first-career World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series win at one of his home tracks, Williams Grove Speedway.

Since then, 1,807 days had passed and 169 races had come and gone with zero wins against The Greatest Show on Dirt. On Saturday night, that streak was finally snapped. The Moose’s LZ Bar & Grill #3Z made a triumphant visit to Victory Lane at Wisconsin’s Cedar Lake Speedway, beating reigning champ Brad Sweet and earning one of the sweetest wins of his career.

It’s no secret that the process has been grueling for the Jonestown, PA native since joining the Series full-time in 2021. There were nights when Zearfoss wanted to throw in the towel and head back home, but when you love it this much, he knew deep down that was never an option.

Ask any established superstar on the World of Outlaws trail – Donny Schatz, Brad Sweet, David Gravel, etc. – winning vs. the greatest Sprint Car drivers on the planet isn’t some overnight transition. They’ve all gone through those character-building moments of getting kicked in the dirt and losing night-in and night-out before the wins come consistently. But they all stuck with it and it paid off, a sensational joy that Zearfoss experienced himself on Saturday night.

Don’t be mistaken, either, this was no right time, right place, fluke-ish victory by The Jonestown Jet. The 31-year-old sophomore runner went wheel-to-wheel with Brad Sweet’s Kasey Kahne Racing, NAPA Auto Parts #49 on a racey 3/8-mile surface, and straight up outran the three-time and defending World of Outlaws champion.

“I’m speechless,” an emotional Zearfoss said in Victory Lane. “Nobody really knows how hard this team has worked. They’ve never given up on me, even on the nights that I think they should’ve. It’s not easy out here at all. I’ve been in this sport a long time, but racing at all these new tracks with this Series is so damn challenging. You get your butt kicked every single night against the Outlaws. This shows how far our team has come. We’ve been getting a lot better, and I hope this is only the start.

“I’ve told myself plenty of times that I should be coming off the road and that I can’t do this anymore, but deep in my heart I know this is where I need to be. We’ve all worked so hard to get to this level, we belong here and I want to prove that. It’s been a long time coming for sure. This is amazing.”

Offering three different leaders for the sixth consecutive race, the fourth-starting Zearfoss never assumed command until after halfway when a chaotic caution stripped second-running Giovanni Scelzi, third-running David Gravel, and fourth-running Logan Schuchart of position all at once.

The Lap 19 restart proved to be the ultimate game changer as Zearfoss fired off next to Sweet and executed a pitch-perfect run into turn one to steal the lead away. Sweet gave it all he had over the final 16 laps and found his way to Zearfoss’ rear bumper on several occasions, but a timely caution halted his shot at the #3Z each time.

“I knew I needed to nail that restart,” Zearfoss said on battling Sweet. “I knew my car was great in clean air, but I figured Brad would be the man to beat if I had to get too deep into lap traffic. I just needed to be consistent, but let me tell you that’s not east with the #49 breathing down your neck.”

Stretching out a 3.182-second margin of victory at the line, Zearfoss rode off into the sunset as a last-lap blunder by Sweet allowed David Gravel to complete a miraculous effort in his Big Game Motorsports #2. The Watertown, CT native went to the work area with a flat right rear tire on Lap 19, then drove from 16th-to-sixth in a quick six laps, and finished his charge with a stellar late-race rally to run it up to P2.

“I just can’t win a race here lately,” Gravel noted after his seventh runner-up result at Cedar Lake. “We didn’t give up, though, and I knew it would be a fight when my guys got the new tire on and sent me back out. We’ve been struggling a bit in the A-Main, but that changed tonight. I have to say congratulations to Brock. It can be depressing out here getting your butt kicked every night, but moments like that for him are why you work so hard.”

Current championship leader Brad Sweet of Grass Valley, CA continued his otherworldly career at Cedar Lake with an 11th podium finish in his last 12 starts at the track. As disaster struck other title contenders, The Big Cat enjoyed a big night in the points and pulled away to +38 margin through 34/77 events.

“I made a huge mistake choosing the top on that restart,” Sweet said afterward. “It’s funny because I complained last night when Donny [Schatz] was in the same situation, and I did it the same way tonight. Once I lost the lead we just never got back to lap traffic and I needed that. We’ll turn our focus to these big money races coming up next.”

The Shark Racing duo of Logan Schuchart (fourth) and Jacob Allen (fifth) rounded out the top-five at Cedar Lake Speedway, the only track where both the #1A and #1S have scored World of Outlaws wins.

Scotty Thiel of Sheboygan, WI drove forward from 13th-to-sixth in his family-owned #73, setting a new career-best finish against The Greatest Show on Dirt. Donny Schatz brought the Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing, Ford Performance, Carquest #15 home in seventh, while Spencer Bayston advanced from 14th-to-eighth in his CJB Motorsports, TrueTimber Camo, Signing Day Sports #5.

Sheldon Haudenschild survived a late-race rush to the work area with a ninth-place effort in the Stenhouse Jr. / Marshall Racing, NOS Energy Drink #17. Closing out the top-10 and claiming KSE Hard Charger honors was Kraig Kinser with a 20th-to-1oth bid in his #11K machine.

NOS NOTEBOOK (CEDAR LAKE SPEEDWAY, 7/2/22)

Brock Zearfoss’ second-career World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car victory makes him the 97th driver with multiple wins in Series history. He most notably joins active drivers Greg Wilson, Shane Golobic, Cory Eliason, and Parker Price-Miller in a tie for 81st on the All-Time Win List.

A win for Zearfoss brings the count to 14 different winners through 34 World of Outlaws Features this season. The exciting battles continued as Saturday made it six-straight races with a trio of different leaders at the front of the field.

Some sort of trouble hampered second, third, fourth, and fifth in the championship points as Sweet enjoyed a peaceful night battling for the win and extending his lead. Carson Macedo flipped down the backstretch and failed to finish the race in 22nd, while Haudenschild, Gravel & Schuchart all visited the work area but rallied for top-10 efforts.

Brad Sweet (11.707) opened the night by topping My Place Hotels Qualifying, earning his second QuickTime of the year and the 62nd of his World of Outlaws career. Scoring NOS Energy Drink Heat Race wins was David Gravel (195th career), Donny Schatz (498th career), and Brock Zearfoss (10th career).

Giovanni Scelzi won the DIRTVision Fast Pass Dash and led the opening six laps of the Feature, but cut a tire and went into the fence while running second on Lap 19 of the 35-lapper.

UP NEXT (Fri-Sat) – The Greatest Show on Dirt now heads to 34 Raceway in West Burlington, IA on Friday, July 8 and Wilmot Raceway in Wilmot, WI on Saturday, July 9. Fans can BUY TICKETS HERE, or watch every lap LIVE on DIRTVision.

NOS Energy Drink Feature Results (35 Laps) – 1. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss [4][$10,000]; 2. 2-David Gravel [5][$6,000]; 3. 49-Brad Sweet [2][$3,500]; 4. 1S-Logan Schuchart [3][$2,800]; 5. 1A-Jacob Allen [9][$2,500]; 6. 73-Scotty Thiel [13][$2,300]; 7. 15-Donny Schatz [6][$2,200]; 8. 5-Spencer Bayston [14][$2,100]; 9. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild [11][$2,050]; 10. 11K-Kraig Kinser [20][$2,000]; 11. 7S-Robbie Price [10][$1,600]; 12. 83-James McFadden [8][$1,400]; 13. 34DD-Brooke Tatnell [17][$1,200]; 14. 24T-Christopher Thram [12][$1,100]; 15. 23-Russel Borland [21][$1,050]; 16. 97-Alan Gilbertson [22][$1,000]; 17. 49J-Josh Schneiderman [19][$1,000]; 18. 6-Bill Rose [23][$1,000]; 19. 84-Scott Bogucki [18][$1,000]; 20. 9-Kasey Kahne [16][$1,000]; 21. 1AU-Marcus Dumesny [7][$1,000]; 22. 41-Carson Macedo [15][$1,000]; 23. 18-Giovanni Scelzi [1][$1,000]; 24. 199-Ryan Bowers [24][$1,000]. Lap Leaders: Giovanni Scelzi 1-6, Brad Sweet 7-19, Brock Zearfoss 20-35. KSE Hard Charger Award: 11K-Kraig Kinser[+10]

NEW Championship Standings (After 34/77 Races) – 1. Brad Sweet (4,646); 2. Sheldon Haudenschild (-38); 3. Carson Macedo (-56); 4. David Gravel (-58); 5. Logan Schuchart (-72); 6. Donny Schatz (-160); 7. Spencer Bayston (-190); 8. James McFadden (-242); 9. Jacob Allen (-354); 10. Brock Zearfoss (-498).

Freeman leads 33 of 40 laps en route to best career Hell Tour finish

CLARKSVILLE, TN – July 2, 2022 – Leading since the green dropped with a fast car on the top and a full-second lead. Payton Freeman was seven laps away from his first career DIRTcar Summer Nationals Feature win.

And then, a similar scenario reared its ugly head again.

After losing the lead in traffic after starting on the pole at Sycamore Speedway two weeks ago, Freeman was staring down lapped traffic again with Brian Shirley hot on his tail Saturday night at Clarksville Speedway. Determined to get by and hold onto the lead, Freeman stuck his nose to the inside, but the #38 of Thomas Hunziker did not yield.

The very next corner, Freeman got off the top again and hung it to the inside of Hunziker through Turns 1-2. But again, he could not make the pass. Behind him, Shirley had closed the gap completely and had no plans of waiting.

“I showed [Hunziker] that I was there two or three times,” Freeman said. “I figured he would move out of the way. I guess he didn’t get the point.”

Down the backstretch Shirley poked his nose to Freeman’s inside in a strong bid for the lead and made it stick in Turns 3-4 with a big slide job to get by both Freeman and Hunziker.

“[Freeman] whoa-ed up getting into Turn 1 behind [Hunziker] and didn’t get a good run,” Shirley said. “I went to the bottom and got a really good run.”

As Freeman cleared Hunziker behind him, Shirley took the lead and bolted down the front straightaway, opening up an advantage that Freeman could not overcome by the checkered. Shirley had swiped the lead, the win, and the $10,000 check out of the Hell Tour rookie’s grasp and cruised across the finish line for his third Summer Nationals win of the season.

“I got all the way to [Freeman] to where I knew I was gonna bump him a little bit, but not enough to take him out of the race or anything stupid,” Shirley said of his move for the lead. “Just one of those things where timing worked out for us and we were able to get the job done.”

Back in the pits, Freeman was understandably downcast, still digesting the events that cost him the biggest win of his career.

“I try to race everybody with respect, regardless of if we’re lapping or passing for position,” Freeman said on his approach to getting by slower cars. “But there’s no use going out there and tearing up a bunch of stuff and taking yourself out to win the race.”

Freeman took the green right to Shirley’s inside on Lap 1 and got the jump, which enabled him to lead the first 33 laps around the red clay quarter-mile. Turns out, that may have been part of Shirley’s plan the whole time.

“On the start, I wasn’t super worried even if [Freeman] got me because lapped traffic here is so hectic,” Shirley said. “I knew that, so I was like, ‘Even if he gets you on the start, just get in behind him and try and make sure you can be there to capitalize on something like that.’

“I’ve been to quite a few races here, and I’m sure you can also see that lapped traffic always comes into [play].”

Though it may have been one of the most bitter runner-up finishes of his young career, Freeman did something few other Summer Nationals rookies have in their first attempts at this grueling summer stretch. He knows it, and is going to build on it as the second half of the tour begins next week.

“As frustrating as it is, we’ve got speed,” Freeman said. “We’re getting better and we’re getting closer. We’re gonna keep our heads up and keep going and we’re gonna win one of these races before it’s over with.”

UP NEXT

The DIRTcar Summer Nationals Late Models are back in action Sunday night, July 3, at Lincoln Speedway in Lincoln, IL, to cap-off Multi-State Week. If you can’t be at the track, watch every lap live on DIRTVision.

ABBREVIATED RESULTS (view full results)

Feature 50 Laps | 00:47:52.244

1. 3S-Brian Shirley[2]; 2. F1-Payton Freeman[1]; 3. 212-Josh Putnam[7]; 4. 32-Bobby Pierce[3]; 5. 15-Christian Hanger[4]; 6. 25-Jason Feger[8]; 7. 14G-Joe Godsey[5]; 8. 81E-Tanner English[9]; 9. 18-David Seibers[11]; 10. 30-Mark Voigt[17]; 11. 14R-Jeff Roth[16]; 12. 31AUS-Paul Stubber[15]; 13. 38-Thomas Hunziker[14]; 14. J8-Jadon Frame[6]; 15. 26M-Brent McKinnon[13]; 16. 27-Joe Denby[12]; 17. 18C-Matt Cooper[18]; 18. 16-Brandon Tibaldi[21]; 19. 15F-Richard Frost[20]; 20. 21-Billy Moyer Jr[10]; 21. 4D-Doug Tye[19]; 22. 23NZ-Mick Quin[22]

TUCKASSEE TUSSLE: Lee Gets Redemption, Outduels Young at Clarksville

Lucas Lee knew he let one get away from him Friday night in Paducah. But Saturday night at Clarksville Speedway, he was not going to let rival Trent Young deny him a trip to DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals Victory Lane again.

In a near mirror image of Friday, Young started on the pole with Lee right behind him. The green dropped and Young took off, but his jumps were dampened by two quick cautions.

On the next restart, Lee chose one lane higher than Young, moving up to his outside in a strong bid for the lead on Lap 3. Lee nearly pulled even with Young as they crossed the stripe the next time by and used the high-side momentum to float around Young’s outside to take the lead as they raced out of Turn 2.

“As soon as I got that outside cleared, I knew I was going to be set sailing,” Lee said. “I knew if I could get a run off of Turn 2, I was gonna be alright.”

Lee poured it on over the next 15 laps, stretching his lead over 1.5 seconds at one point, until Young spotted an opportunity in the closing laps.

As Lee approached traffic with less than five-to-go, Young closed the gap rapidly.

“My sticks were getting smaller, so I knew I had to go,” Lee said. “Trent’s good here. Trent’s hard to beat here. He got me last night.”

Try as he may, however, Young was unable to get close enough to make the move, and Lee crossed the stripe for his second Summit Modified win of the season.

“This is [Young’s] track, he runs here all the time, he’s got tons of laps here and so do I,” Lee said. “I felt like what’s what it was going to come down to anyways – me and him.”

UP NEXT

The DIRTcar Summit Modifieds are back in action Sunday night, July 3, at Lincoln Speedway in Lincoln, IL, to cap-off Multi-State Week. If you can’t be at the track, watch every lap live on DIRTVision.

ABBREVIATED RESULTS (view full results)

Feature 20 Laps | 00:17:18.440

1. 12L-Lucas Lee[3]; 2. 10Y-Trent Young[1]; 3. 188-Jeremy Sneed[5]; 4. 121-Caleb Slaughter[2]; 5. 7D-Pete Sabatino[4]; 6. 96-Curtis Rodenhaber[6]; 7. 8-Jake Scogin[9]; 8. 98-Zac Harris[7]; 9. 91-Carl Thomas[8]; 10. 12W-Hunter Willbanks[11]; 11. 45-Troy Collings[10]; 12. 11-Brian Ashby[12]

Zanesville, OH (July 2, 2022) – Ricky Thornton, Jr., Brandon Sheppard, and Tyler Erb each captured a 20-lap preliminary feature on Saturday night at Muskingum County Speedway. The format allowed all drivers to participate in an A-Main event to set the first nine rows of the feature for the track’s richest race ever on Sunday night for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series-sanctioned $30,000-to-win race. The first feature that kicked off the night turned into a four-car battle the entire distance. Thornton, who had won the previous night in Portsmouth, Ohio after starting in fifth came from the same starting spot in Saturday’s prelim main event to take the lead on the 11th lap to score the feature win, earning the pole starting spot for the 60-lap main event on Sunday. Thornton snuck by a tight battle for the lead between Hudson O’Neal and Tim McCreadie. O’Neal was able to secure the second spot at the checkers with Earl Pearson Jr., McCreadie, Tyler Carpenter, and Gregg Satterlee all advancing to the feature on Sunday. The winner’s Todd and Vickie Burns/SSI Motorsports Longhorn Chassis is powered by a Clements Racing Engine and sponsored Big River Steel, Hoker Trucking, Dyno One, Penske Racing Shocks, Certified Inspection Services Company Inc., Excel Floor Covering, and West Side Tractor Sales Company. The second 20-lap feature was all Brandon Sheppard as the current Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series points leader led from start to finish to dominate the race. The battle for second was entertaining the entire way as five drivers battled as to who would finish second to Sheppard. Spencer Hughes, who started on the outside front row alongside Sheppard fell back to fourth at one point but recovered and moved back into second in the last five laps of the race. Ashton Winger, who currently leads the O’Reilly Auto Parts Rookie-of-the-Year chase ran in second for several laps until losing the spot to Hughes. Winger would cross the line in third followed by Ross Robinson, Brandon Overton, and Zack Dohm who all transferred to Sunday night’s finale. The winner’s Mark Richards Racing Rocket Chassis is powered by a Durham Racing Engine and sponsored by Valvoline, Seubert Calf Ranches, Ace Metal Works, Gunter’s Honey, Sunoco Race Fuels, Keyser Manufacturing, Sallack Well Service, Petroff Towing, Integra Racing Shocks, and Rocket Pre-Owned Motors. The third and final feature turned out to be another barnburner as Tyler Erb, Devin Moran, and Garrett Alberson raced to the finish line with Erb coming out ahead over Moran and Alberson. Moran and Erb traded sliders in the first two laps as Erb flexed his muscle and was able to slightly pull away from a heated two-car tussle between Moran and Alberson. A caution with four laps to go set up a dash between those three as Moran tried to make his car stick on the outside in turn four but slid too far up the track allowing Erb to secure the win. Moran settled for the second spot with Alberson coming home in third. The next three finishers would also transfer into Sunday night’s race as Nathon Loney, Daulton Wilson, and Tim Vance will start the Freedom 60. The winner’s Eric and Kelly Brock/Best Performance Motorsports Rocket Chassis is powered by a Clements Racing Engine and sponsored by Bulk Material Lift, M&W Transport, Lucas Oil Products, Midwest Sheet Metal, Bazell Race Fuels, KBC Graphics, Roberts Bee Company, and First-Class Septic. Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Race Summary Elite Munitions Freedom 60 – Night #1Saturday, July 2nd, 2022Muskingum County Speedway – Zanesville, OH Allstar Performance Time TrialsFast Time Group A: Hudson O’Neal / 15.682 seconds (overall)Fast Time Group B: Tim McCreadie / 16.003 seconds Race StatisticsEntrants: 36Arizona Sport Shirts Crown Jewel Cup Feature Winner: n/aBrandon Ford TV Challenge Feature Winner: n/aO’Reilly Auto Parts Rookie of the Race: n/aDirtonDirt.com Tough Break of the Race: n/aMidwest Sheet Metal Spoiler Challenge Point Leader: Brandon SheppardDirt Draft Fastest in Hot Laps: Brandon Overton (15.4471 seconds) Elite Munitions Prelim #1 Feature Finish (20 Laps):

Race StatisticsLap Leaders: Tim McCreadie (Lap 1); Hudson O’Neal (Laps 2-10); Ricky Thornton, Jr. (Laps 11-20)Wrisco Feature Winner: Ricky Thornton, Jr.Margin of Victory: 2.294 secondsStop-Tech Cautions: n/aBig River Steel Podium Top 3: Ricky Thornton, Jr., Hudson O’Neal, Earl Pearson, Jr.Penske Shocks Top 5: Ricky Thornton, Jr., Hudson O’Neal, Earl Pearson, Jr., Tim McCreadie, Tyler CarpenterOptima Batteries Hard Charger of the Race: Ricky Thornton, Jr. (Advanced 4 Positions)Hot Rod Processing Most Laps Led: Ricky Thornton, Jr. (10 Laps)Sunoco Race for Gas Highest Finisher: Ricky Thornton, Jr.Dirty Girl Racewear Fastest Lap of the Race: Ricky Thornton, Jr. (Lap 6 –16.133 seconds)Outerwears Crew Chief of the Race: Anthony Burroughs (Ricky Thornton, Jr.)ARP Engine Builder of the Race: Clements Race EnginesMiller Welders Chassis Builder of the Race: Longhorn ChassisTime of Race: 5 minutes 48 seconds Elite Munitions Prelim #2 Feature Finish (20 Laps):

Race StatisticsLap Leaders: Brandon Sheppard (Laps 1-20)Wrisco Feature Winner: Brandon SheppardMargin of Victory: 5.200 secondsStop-Tech Cautions: Mason Zeigler (Lap 3)Big River Steel Podium Top 3: Brandon Sheppard, Spencer Hughes, Ashton WingerPenske Shocks Top 5: Brandon Sheppard, Spencer Hughes, Ashton Winger, Ross Robinson, Brandon OvertonOptima Batteries Hard Charger of the Race: Joe Petyak (Advanced 3 Positions)Hot Rod Processing Most Laps Led: Brandon Sheppard (20 Laps)Sunoco Race for Gas Highest Finisher: Brandon SheppardDirty Girl Racewear Fastest Lap of the Race: Brandon Sheppard (Lap 3 – 16.708 seconds)Outerwears Crew Chief of the Race: Danny White (Brandon Sheppard)ARP Engine Builder of the Race: Durham Race EnginesMiller Welders Chassis Builder of the Race: Rocket ChassisTime of Race: 7 minutes 23 seconds Elite Munitions Prelim #3 Feature Finish (20 Laps):

Race StatisticsLap Leaders: Devin Moran (Lap 1); Tyler Erb (Laps 2-20)Wrisco Feature Winner: Tyler ErbMargin of Victory: 0.620 secondsStop-Tech Cautions: Daulton Wilson, Garrett Alberson, Todd Brennan, Dustin Smith, Tim Vance, Caiden Black (Initial Start); Nathon Loney (Lap 2); Chase Frohnapfel (Lap 2 restart); Todd Brennan (Lap 16)Big River Steel Podium Top 3: Tyler Erb, Devin Moran, Garrett AlbersonPenske Shocks Top 5: Tyler Erb, Devin Moran, Garrett Alberson, Nathon Loney, Daulton WilsonOptima Batteries Hard Charger of the Race: Tim Vance (Advanced 5 Positions)Hot Rod Processing Most Laps Led: Tyler Erb (19 Laps)Sunoco Race for Gas Highest Finisher: Tyler ErbDirty Girl Racewear Fastest Lap of the Race: Garrett Alberson (Lap 2 – 16.949 seconds)Outerwears Crew Chief of the Race: Randall Edwards (Tyler Erb)ARP Engine Builder of the Race: Clements Race EnginesMiller Welders Chassis Builder of the Race: Rocket ChassisTime of Race: 20 minutes 14 seconds

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (July 2, 2022) – Progressive American Flat Track superstar Briar Bauman (No. 3 Indian Motorcycle/Progressive Insurance FTR750) delivered a timely performance to win the Mission New York Short Track presented by Mad Max Indian Motorcycle at Weedsport Speedway in Weedsport, New York, on Saturday evening. The clutch victory was the two-time Mission SuperTwins presented by S&S Cycle champion’s first since the ‘22 season opener and required a masterful effort to pull off. While Bauman stood in the spotlight when all was said and done, he was mired down in fifth early when reigning class king Jared Mees (No. 1 Indian Motorcycle/Progressive Insurance FTR750) slid under an on-form Jarod Vanderkooi (No. 20 Mission Roof Systems Indian FTR750) and threatened to check out. Mees had worked up a near one-second advantage by the time Bauman had made his way onto Vanderkooi’s rear wheel in third. The race for victory was back on, however, after Mees made a minor mistake and nearly collided with the Airfence. Vanderkooi pounced less than a minute later; the Mission Roof Systems’ pilot seemed positioned to finally earn his maiden premier-class victory, but Bauman remained on the charge himself. Bauman took full advantage of traffic to erase a half-second deficit and ran up alongside the leader as the race entered its final minute. He then executed the race’s decisive maneuver with just over three laps as Vanderkooi had no answer. The triumph thrusts Bauman right back into serious title contention after his prospects had seemed on the wane in recent weeks. He said, “I had a decent start but kind of got shuffled back. I tried a few lines and found a good one and was able to get past a few guys. It just feels good.” Mees drifted back to a relatively distant third, while JD Beach (No. 95 Estenson Racing Yamaha MT-07 DT) overtook Brandon Robinson (No. 44 Mission Roof Systems Indian FTR750) late to steal away fourth. Second Estenson Racing Yamaha ace Dallas Daniels (No. 32 Estenson Racing Yamaha MT-07 DT) finished in sixth, followed by Bronson Bauman (No. 37 Latus Motors Racing Harley-Davidson XG750R), Mission Production Twins Challenge runner Jesse Janisch(No. 33 Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson XG750R), Davis Fisher (No. 67 Bob Lanphere’s BMC Racing Indian FTR750), and Sammy Halbert (No. 69 Mission Roof Systems Indian FTR750) Mees now leads by 16 points over both Bauman and Daniels (156-140-140). Beach is just over a race back in fourth at 127. Mission Production Twins presented by Vance & Hines Defending Mission Production Twins presented by Vance & Hines champion Cory Texter(No. 1 G&G Racing/Yamaha Racing Yamaha MT-07) came from behind to secure his third victory of ‘22, grabbing control of the title fight in the process. The Main Event was red flagged after Ryan Varnes (No. 68 Schaeffer’s Motorsports/Rausch Fuel & Oil KTM 890 Duke) was involved in an on-track incident. He was transported to the hospital by on-site first responders and additional information will be provided as it becomes available. When racing resumed following the stoppage, Texter and rival Jesse Janisch (No. 33 Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson XG750R) anticipated a head-to-head showdown for supremacy at the front. Cameron Smith (No. 34 Thee Cathy Gray/Al Barker Royal Enfield 650) had other plans in his debut ride aboard the Royal Enfield Twins FT while riding in place of the injured Johnny Lewis. While Janisch and Texter got away in first and second, respectively, Smith promptly split them to not only snatch away the lead but rip open some space. Texter needed pretty much the full remaining distance to finally fight his way back into contention, but he arrived in the shadow of Smith’s Royal Enfield just as they opened the final two laps. He then dove under Smith and into first just as they opened the final circulation. Smith attempted to press back around the outside of Texter, but the champ held firm at the front. Texter said, “That was tough… That one means a lot right there. It was a great race. Hats off to Cameron – man, he made me work for it.” Janisch cruised home in third, while Nick Armstrong (No. 60 Competitive Racing Frames/Lessley Brothers Yamaha MT-07) won out in a five-rider scrap for fourth ahead of Ben Lowe (No. 25 Mission Foods/Roof Systems Harley-Davidson XG750R), Billy Ross (No. 109 Mission Foods/Roof Systems Harley-Davidson XG750R), James Rispoli (No. 43 Wally Brown Racing/Haversack KTM 890 Duke) and Ryan Wells (No. 94 McGrane Racing/Scott Powersports Kawasaki Ninja 650) After opening the day with a single-point deficit, Texter now leads Janisch by seven points (156-149). Parts Unlimited AFT Singles presented by KICKER For the third consecutive race weekend, Kody Kopp (No. 12 Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 450 SX-FFE) stormed out at the start of the Parts Unlimited AFT Singles presented by KICKER Main Event and set sail. Similar to his previous two demonstrations of domination, Kopp quickly assembled a second-plus advantage and then managed it to the checkered flag. Trevor Brunner (No. 21 Estenson Racing Yamaha YZ450F) emerged from a seven-rider pack contesting second and did manage to cut into Kopp’s lead for a time, dipping it back under a second momentarily. That pressure only motivated Kopp to wick it back up, however, and the KTM prodigy ultimately sprinted away to a 1.692-second margin of victory. When asked how he stays humble in the face of his accumulating success, Kopp said, “I just show up every week at the track to ride my motorcycle. We’re just having a ball this year. I’ve just got to say a big thanks to my team Red Bull KTM, and to my mom and dad. I was so happy to finally take my mom on a victory lap. That was awesome.” While Brunner’s runner-up result was his first podium of the season, third place was an even more monumental achievement for Hunter Bauer (No. 24 NKR Canada/KTM/Vance & Hines KTM 450 SX-F), who sliced his way up from the fourth row to claim his first-career Progressive AFT podium. Despite his race-long forward momentum, Bauer had to play defense late as Trent Lowe(No. 48 Mission Foods/Al Lamb’s Dallas Honda CRF450R) made a last-lap bid to rob him of the position. Second-ranked Morgen Mischler (No. 13 American Honda/Progressive Insurance CRF450R) finished fifth as Kopp extended his title lead to a mammoth 42 points (180-138). Behind, the mending Max Whale (No. 18 Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 450 SX-FFE) impressed in his return from injury, fighting his way past Mischler’s teammates, Dalton Gauthier (No. 79 American Honda/Progressive Insurance CRF450R) and Chase Saathoff (No. 106 American Honda/Progressive Insurance CRF450R), to finish in sixth. The Mission New York Short Track presented by Mad Max Indian Motorcycle will premiere on FS1 on Saturday, July 9, at 11:30 a.m. ET/8:30 a.m. PT, including exclusive features, cutting-edge aerial drone and onboard footage, and expert commentary. Next Up: The 2022 Progressive AFT season will reach its midpoint on Saturday, July 16, with the Mission Port Royal Half-Mile presented by Appalachian Harley-Davidson at Port Royal Speedway in Port Royal, Pennsylvania. Visit https://store.americanflattrack.com/ebooking/ticket/view/id/3694/ to reserve your tickets today.

CHEVROLET RACING IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES

HONDA INDY 200 AT MID-OHIO

MID-OHIO SPORTS CAR COURSE

LEXINGTON, OHIO

TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING RECAP

JULY 2, 2022

O’WARD AND MCLAUGHLIN CAPTURE ALL CHEVY-POWERED FRONT ROW FOR INDY 200 AT MID-OHIO

IT IS FIFTH NTT P-1 AWARD FOR O’WARD, DRIVER FOR ARROW MCLAREN SP AND THE THIRD FRONT ROW START FOR TEAM PENSKE’S MCLAUGHLIN

LEXINGTON, OHIO (July 2, 2022) – Pato O’Ward transferred the speed his Arrow McLaren SP team found in his No, 5 Chevrolet in the two practices leading up to qualifying at Mid-Ohio into his fifth career NTT P1 Award with a lap of one minute, 06.7054 seconds/121.861 mph around the 2.258-mile/13-turn natural terrain road course.

O’Ward was one of three Chevrolet powered drivers to make the Firestone Fast Six for Sunday’s Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. 

Lining up along O’Ward will be Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin, behind the wheel of the No. 3 Odyssey Battery Chevrolet. McLaughlin turned a lap of one minute, 06.8382 seconds/121.619 mph to give Chevrolet the front row at Mid-Ohio, round nine of the 2022 NTT INDYCAR Series season.

Securing the fourth starting position for tomorrow’s 80-lap race is O’Ward’s teammate Felix Rosenqvist in the No 7 VUSE Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet.

Colton Herta, Scott Dixon and Simon Pagenaud completed the Firestone Fast Six field. 

 Chevrolet and the NTT INDYCAR Series in the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio, will start  at 12:45 p.m. ET on Sunday, July 3 from Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio. The race will air live on NBC, the Peacock streaming service and SiriusXM IndyCar Nation (Channel 160) beginning at 12:30 p.m. ET. Live timing and scoring will be available at racecontrol.indycar.com.

About Chevrolet

Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands, available in nearly 80 countries with nearly 2.7 million cars and trucks sold in 2021. Chevrolet models include electric and fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.

Pato O’Ward

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We’re joined by Pato O’Ward, driver of the No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP, first pole of 2022, fifth of his career. We were talking a lot about this is the ninth different pole winner to start the season. You’ve got to go back 61 years; 1961 was the last time something like this happened. Congratulations, saving the best for last. Tell us about the pole run for you.

PATO O’WARD: Thanks, man. It was a really messy qualifying from my side. Q1 and Q2, I kept leaving three, four, even half a second on the table just because I couldn’t get it right. If it wasn’t Turns blah-blah it was another turns the next qualifying. So it was really tough to get it right.

I’m super, super happy that I got it together for the team and for myself in Q3. It was a really solid lap, and I was very happy with the car. So every time I was coming in, like oh, what do we change. Oh, man, me, I guess.

But yeah, it was a good qualifying for us. The best I’ve started here, if my mind is not wrong, I think it’s like 19th, so it’s a way better view than what I’ve had here in the past.

Q. You said on pit lane this is a track position race so it’s very important to start on the pole here. I guess your 19th starting position is kind of evidenced by that. How much do you plan to go out and really dictate the pace of the race?

PATO O’WARD: Yeah, I think it’s going to be all about is the race going to have a fuel number, are you going to be hitting those to be able to get the strategy, but I think from years past it’s not too bad on fuel save, so yeah, obviously — but the plan is always to stay there whenever you’re starting in first, but there’s so many variables that can happen and that can throw your race upside down or help it.

Tomorrow I think it’s just going to be all about running our race. It’s a long race. It’s a lot of laps. But I think we can do a really good — it can be a very good solid points day for us.

Q. We talked in the bullpen on Friday about the importance of being able to capitalize on chances that you have over these last nine races in order to have a chance in this championship. I don’t know if you’re aware, but the three guys ahead of you in points right now are all starting outside the top 12. Does that make this race in terms of capitalizing, whether it’s a win or at least a podium, make that much more important for tomorrow?

PATO O’WARD: I mean, it for sure makes your life a lot easier when you think of it in terms of where you’re starting. Logically you don’t have to pass anybody when you start first place, right. But there’s so many variables. I could have been leading Road America, but then had an electrical failure, and that throws away your race. There’s so many different things that are out of your control that you can’t really dictate what’s going to happen. But you can try and make the best race for you, try and kind of get the best race car into the best window as you can in terms of for tire deg and all that stuff.

I think we’re in a really good spot. I’m very happy with my car. Yesterday was a bit of a rough day, and I think today we’ve made strides every single session with both car and myself, and I think qualifying shows to that.

Yeah, I think it’s a great starting position, and yeah.

Q. Record book here shows you started 21st in 2020.

PATO O’WARD: Okay, and then last year —

Q. Sorry, 20th, and then 15th in 2020 Race One.

PATO O’WARD: So 15th, yeah. I think it’s a significant difference to what my view has been here in INDYCAR at least. I’ve had very successful weekends here in junior formulas but haven’t really capitalized in a week in an INDYCAR, so this is the first step.

I’m excited for tomorrow. I think we will have as strong a race car as we’ve had in the past. The problem is we just haven’t really had that chance to make our life a little bit easier during the race and not have to pass so many cars.

Q. So when Ericsson doesn’t advance and Power doesn’t advance and Newgarden doesn’t advance, are you aware of that and say, hey, I’ve got a real great opportunity here?

PATO O’WARD: Yeah, I guess you look at it and it’s a great opportunity to capitalize, right. But there’s so many rules in INDYCAR. There’s certain rules that can really throw your race upside down if something happens that you really can’t control. Sometimes it is a lot better to actually start in the back as we saw in like Portland last year than being in the front.

Yeah, I think we’ve definitely executed when qualifying came, and I think tomorrow we just need to take the race as it comes and just be sure that we can react to certain things to keep our position.

Q. In each of Felix’s groups he really came on pretty strong. What do you make of his last five, six races? What’s clicked for him?

PATO O’WARD: I’m so happy that he’s there. The guy is there, and hopefully we’ll be sharing a podium. I think that would be fantastic for the team. It was never a doubt of like can he do it. We all knew that he could do it. But for some reason it just wasn’t clicking.

But I think now we’ve worked really hard with the team to bring up and better our package into something that is just a little bit better in terms of operation window to be able to get those laps that you need, because it’s such a tight championship where if you don’t get it right and you don’t have the car to help you with that, it just makes qualifying so much harder, which has happened to us in the past here specifically.

So I think it’s great that both cars are up there. I mean, I expect him to be the same for the rest of the year as I expect for myself. I think we’ve put it into the Fast Six since Barber, guess. I’m really happy with how I’ve been performing. Sadly just some things haven’t really gone our way. Our races have really turned upside down in a lot of cases where it should have been a solid podium or even a win.

Yeah, I think I’ve really learned that in INDYCAR you can never take things for granted and things can get thrown away in an instant, so I think it’s great that we’re starting on pole, and we just need to make the best race that we can for tomorrow.

Q. The in-car camera in that last session, I swear the first time you went through Turn 9 at speed your right hand came off the wheel. Maybe I’m wrong, but it looked like on your pole lap —

PATO O’WARD: It sounds like me.

Q. In your pole lap you squeezed everything out of that one turn, basically the last turn to the right coming up toward the timing stand. What was that like? What was that lap like from the standpoint of just I want to nail this? Give us your insight. Then when you get through that Turn 9 clear, did you feel like you were on to something?

PATO O’WARD: Yeah, I mean, the issue up to that point was that I kept making very — not visible but mistakes that I would finish the corner and be like, that’s terrible. This last lap, I had a few wiggles, but it was — I hit all the marks. I did everything I had to do in order to extract a lap time.

The other ones I was like cruising in the woods somewhere else.

But it was a lap that I think showed how much you need to hustle in INDYCAR to get the lap time out of it. But it was honestly my cleanest of laps just because I actually hit my marks rather than going somewhere else.

Q. Whether it had been pole or not, you felt pretty good about that lap?

PATO O’WARD: Oh, for sure. As soon as I was done with the lap and I saw the time — it was my quickest time in all of qualifying with used reds, and used reds are usually — they are at least four or five tenths worse than when they’re at peak. So as soon as I saw that lap, I knew it was going to be good, and I just think it shows to how much pace the car had. I just kept struggling with actually nailing the lap the sessions before.

I think it just speaks to how good it has been and how good the changes we did overnight were helping us, and yeah, I’m pumped.

Q. You started on pole before, obviously. You guys, it seems like almost everybody in this paddock now studies videos of former races and stuff in a way guys do. Do you go into that knowing that maybe I want to be a little bit different than I was the last time —

PATO O’WARD: No, you can’t plan a start. You kind of just have to take it as it comes. Something logical is that you try and get the jump, the best jump you can, but yeah, there’s only so many you can do to get that — like a decent jump on everyone else. They’re just going to suck up to you whenever the speed starts going up. You can’t really plan, you just kind of have to watch your mirrors and make sure you protect your area.

Q. David Malukas after the second group was a little bit frustrated. He was the car right behind you at the end of round 2. What happened from your perspective because he felt like he was delayed a little bit at the end of the second round of qualifying.

PATO O’WARD: Yeah, it’s not my problem. I think he’s got to learn how to distance himself and learn that. I think he put himself in that position because the red tires were coming in in lap 3 and he was on my gearbox in lap 1. It’s like, what do you think I’m going to let you by or something? I’m in my program, too.

Yeah, I don’t think I was doing anything wrong there. I was gapping to Simon and he decided not to do so and he had a pretty big gap and usually people respect when someone gaps in front of you they keep gapping so you’re not really under threat.

But yeah, I saw that. I was also surprised. I was like, why isn’t he backing away. But yeah, he did that to himself.

Q. I believe he also went P1 on that lap when that happened, right?

PATO O’WARD: I don’t know.

Q. Pato, Gavin Ward I think has now joined the team, and I was just wondering if — maybe it’s his second day, but have you noticed any changes or improvements? Has this helped your team get both cars in the top 6?

PATO O’WARD: Great guy. I just met him yesterday. He’s molded really well into the team. Has there really been differences? Not really. We’re doing what we do as a standard every weekend, right, which is try and make the car go faster and try and find a setup that’s going to make you better, right.

Has Gavin helped? Probably. Would we have been able to do it with him taking one more race or coming in one race after? Probably. I think he’s a great addition to the team, and I’m excited to see what he can bring to the table, and I think we’ll be able to see that in the next few weeks or into next year and everything.

Q. You’re out there running your own program in qualifying, but were you aware that Josef and Will and Alex and Marcus were not advancing?

PATO O’WARD: Yeah. I mean, I wasn’t really thinking of it, but yeah. I saw that they got bumped out, and I was just running my program.

Well, I think Will should have transferred, but I think he blocked somebody? Yeah. I think he would have been a pretty big threat for pole. I think he had a lot, a lot of pace.

Q. I think six races you’ve qualified inside the top 7 now in a row, and just kind of wondered where you feel you’re at in terms of your INDYCAR progression. Do you feel like the run that you’re on at the moment is a result of you kind of having found something in qualifying or feeling that you’re performing at a particularly high level in qualifying at the moment specifically?

PATO O’WARD: Yeah, thanks. I think it’s experience. I think it’s understanding the tire. I think it’s understanding what you need from the car in order to extract from it.

There’s a very fine line in getting that lap time or going over it that really makes your lap time tank, and I think that’s the hardest thing, especially on the red. They can get away with a lot of hustle, but if you overdo it, then you’re really into a pickle, and you will struggle for the rest of the lap.

It’s a hard line to find, but I think it’s just been that, and I don’t think I’ve mastered it at all. I think I’m getting better in just understanding it and kind of breaking down things rather than being like, oh, we want to make it to Q3. Well, yeah, what’s going to get you there.

But yeah, I think I’m still in the process of that and I will continue to be in that process for the rest of my career just because the tire changes all the time and the tracks change, things evolve. But I think it’s just trying to perfect that is probably the best chance you can give yourself to qualifying well.

THE MODERATOR: A fifth Firestone Fast Six for you, but I think this season the oddity is the 500 that you didn’t make —

PATO O’WARD: Yeah, top 7.

Q. We have a lot of foreign drivers in the series but we very rarely get questions every time for a driver in their native language; how important or how gratifying is it to carry the flag for México and the Spanish-speaking world in this series?

PATO O’WARD: It’s awesome, man. I think it’s growing massively, not just in INDYCAR but I think even more in Formula 1 with Checo doing well, and I think global motorsports as a whole is growing a bunch, and I think it’s taking all the categories with it.

It’s really cool to see that the country is behind me. They’re interested in seeing how I do. They’re excited when I do well. That’s how it’s supposed to be. I think that’s what everybody hopes that their country does or I guess that’s what they want to see from their fellow countrymen when they win or when they have a good race. People celebrate — maybe not together with them, but people are happy. I think that’s really good to see. I’m very proud to be carrying the Mexican flag here in INDYCAR.

I’m trying my best in order to get a race down there. I’ve already said it multiple times, it would be a sold-out event, and yeah, hopefully we can get it done in the near future.

Q. Do you have a Huski Chocolate-like sponsor? Huski Chocolate from Ericsson, you can’t actually get it here. Do you have one of those sponsors that’s a Mexican brand that we can’t actually —

PATO O’WARD: No, the guys love my personal sponsors. Obviously my main sponsor on my car is Arrow Electronics. We’ve got Mission Foods; that’s global. We’ve got Electrolit that’s global; we’ve got Topo Chico that’s global. Maybe not so much on the Europe side but it’s growing massively here in America. I’ve got Fastenal that they are also global in terms of businesses.

Yeah, I’m super proud to carry those names with me. I think it’s really cool to actually use the products that are actually sponsoring you. I think that’s one of the biggest things that I wanted to do whenever I was a young kid and I saw sponsors on a race car. I was like, man, I think it’s really cool to have a sponsor that you actually use in your daily life, and yeah, great people to have on board.

Scott McLaughlin

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to post qualifying for tomorrow’s Honda Indy at Mid-Ohio presented by the all new 2023 Civic Type R. Our pole winner in Pato O’Ward will join us momentarily, but joining us now, the driver of the No. 3 Odyssey Battery Team Penske Chevrolet, Scott McLaughlin. Congratulations. Your third career front row start, third this season, as well. Tell us about your afternoon.

SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, I wish I was as fast getting here on track. Probably would have got pole compared to the other guys. But yeah, very happy. First time with Odyssey on the car, and it’s exciting to start that relationship off in such a good way.

We’ve had this coming for a while. We felt like we had reasonable pace, and we’ve been wanting to sort of build on that bit by bit, and to finally sort of nail it in qualifying and get through the Fast Six and keep going was nice. Then to compete for pole and be as close as we were to Pato was fun.

Really pumped for tomorrow. It’s all about qualifying here in some ways, so hopefully look forward to starting off good and getting on with it.

THE MODERATOR: It should be noted it’s an all-Chevrolet front row, too, obviously big for the team.

SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yep, massive for Chevy. They’ve been great. Obviously it’s been well-documented what they’ve done for us, and the power and drivability has been fantastic, so excited for what’s tomorrow with an all-Chevy front row.

Q. It looked like in the last couple of segments you were just a little bit ahead in the green. Were you aware of that? What sectors did you probably not have it in order to knock him off the pole?

SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, I didn’t quite nail Turn 12, which is the first turn, and then probably Turn 2 I went really deep. Yeah, Turn 2. Probably cost myself a little bit of time there.

But look, I think Pato’s lap was pretty stout. I think that’s very strong — to be honest when I crossed the line I was like, that must be pretty close, if not pole, because we did a run early in qualifying on a used set and went out in 67.5. To do a 66.8 was good, and then Pato’s 66.7, so it shows how much the track evolved. Anyway, I deliberately told the guys, don’t tell me the time that I’m chasing; just let me drive. That sort of worked out well.

Q. You talked a lot about the ups and downs of last year, how that really helped you developmentally as a driver. I know in May in particular you didn’t have the results that you necessarily wanted. How did you feel like your experiences last year helped you get through that rough patch and get back to where you are starting on the front row for tomorrow?

SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, look, I think it just — I went through so much adversity last year that this was nothing. This is water off a duck’s back in some ways to what was going on. We were still — the last few races unfortunately haven’t gone great for us. We were competing potentially to be in top 5s and whatnot. It’s not like the pace wasn’t there.

Last year we lost ourselves a little bit because the pace wasn’t there. That’s sort of — that was what was the tough pill to swallow. But yeah, certainly last year shaped me to be — trust the process, trust what I’m doing is right. I’ve got two great teammates in Josef and Will who I fully believe could have been right here next to me if they had got through qualifying without any issues.

Really feeding off them and really feeding with the team and Ben, and that relationship is going well, too.

Q. I was talking to Tim Cindric in the bus earlier today and he said you’re right where he expected you to be at this point in your career. I know that when you came up, you probably wanted to win last year, but in a lot of ways is it tough when you’re a new driver like that to be able to handle realistic expectations rather than what you really want to do, which is win right out of the box?

SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, I spoke about it a ton. I think it’s hard going from my mentality of in Australia where I was winning a lot and I think the last — last year in Australia we won 14 races or something. It’s hard to go from a mentality of just cutthroat, you have to win every weekend, if you don’t it’s a bad race, to just coping with top 10s, top 15s. Regardless of what situation you are, you’re a competitive beast, you built yourself out to be. Every person in here, every driver is a competitive individual.

It’s very hard to sort of get out of that and just go, okay, well, I’ve got to learn. I’ve got to just build with this. I’ve got to build with the team. I’ve got to build with the car. It does take some time, and it definitely took me more time than I thought. I think Tim and Roger knew exactly how long it was going to take. That’s why they’re the experts.

I just had to trust the process, trust them and trust what we had going on here, and I think, yeah, we are in the right spot. I’m competing for top 5s every week, top 8s every week. I think we’re right where we want to be, but we’ve got a long which to go before we’re where Josef is right now, and I’ve got certainly a nice person to groove myself on.

Q. I heard you being asked about how the last few races have gone and I think a lot has been made of Will’s approach to how he’s taken on the season in terms of a bit of a fresh approach and not worrying about things outside of his control. Is that something you’ve kind of rubbed off and bounced off this year and is that something that’s helped you out, as well?

SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: Yeah, I think a little bit. Like I said, I’ve got Josef and Will there. They’re just very experienced guys, and I can just really feed off them. Even Simon last year, learning off him, too.

I’m in a really good space right now, and life off the track is a lot easier. I’ve got any green card. I’m all set in America. That’s a big weight off my shoulders. My God, that was a pain in the butt for a while there. Then you sort of have — you add that to the stress of the racing and learning new cars, new facilities, new everything, new people, it’s a lot.

So yeah, I guess you enjoy what’s happened, but there’s still a lot that I can improve and and get better, and yeah, I think my approach to the season has probably been a lot more normal to sort of how I was in Australia, a lot more comfortable, and yeah.

Q. I wanted to follow up on that green card stuff. What kind of toll was that, and what did you have to go through?

SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: It wasn’t too bad. It’s like — it’s a stress. You get a lot of evidence and — I’m a good bloke, and trying to prove to America, like keep me, I’ll be all right.

It is a stress, but look, there’s a lot more people going through harder stuff than I did just then. I’m very privileged to be able to call this place a home now, I’m a permanent resident and I’ll be a U.S. citizen one day, and it’s a proud thing to be here.

Q. (Inaudible.)

SCOTT McLAUGHLIN: It didn’t help that I met Kyle in Vegas, but anyway…

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

PATO O’WARD PUTS CHEVROLET ON POLE AT MID-OHIO

LEXINGTON, OHIO – Pato O’Ward behind the wheel of the No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet, picked up the fifth NTT P1 Award of his career to lead the field to the green flag tomorrow for the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. It is the sixth pole of the 2022 NTT INDYCAR Series season for drivers powered by the Chevrolet 2.2 liter V6 engine:

PATO O’WARD, NO. 5 ARROW McLAREN CHEVROLET, ARROW McLAREN SP – POLE-WINNER: “The car has been great. We didn’t really roll off the best, but we made some really good changes overnight. We got her in the window, and I’ve been able to extract what it has.”

“I wouldn’t change anything. It’s a great qualifying position to start tomorrow so  see what we’ve got.”

HOW CRITICAL IS POLE POSITION HERE? “It’s huge, man. It’s a track-position race. The best starting position we’ve ever had here is I think 18th. First is definitely a lot better than that!”

WHAT KIND OF RACECAR DO YOU HAVE FOR TOMORROW? “It’s a long race. A lot can happen. We’re in a great starting position and we have the best view into Turn One. We’re going to be giving it hell tomorrow!”

WHAT’S THE OUTLOOK ON FOR THE NO. 5 CAR TOMORROW NOW? “This is a track-position race. You make your life a lot easier when you start up at the front. Let’s just hope we stay there. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

Sheldon Creed and the No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet Team Zapped by Mechanical Issues After Strong Run at Road America

27th

6th

17th

“Our Whelen Chevrolet showed a lot of speed this weekend at Road America. We qualified well and finished second in Stage 2. Crew Chief Jeff(Stankiewicz made great calls in the pits to keep us up front and we made good adjustments throughout the race. Unfortunately, I got boxed in when we were leaving the pits in the final stage and we lost track position. I think we were going to end up with a top-10 but we had a problem with just a few laps left. There was a lot of smoke coming from our Chevy – not sure of the exact diagnosis but we will evaluate it this week in the shop. Certainly not the finish we wanted but we’ll rebound strong next weekend in Atlanta.”  -Sheldon Creed

Austin Hill and the No. 21 Bennett Transportation & Logistics Chevrolet Team Earn Strong Top-Five Finish at Road America

4th

10th

8th

“I’m proud of our Bennett Transportation & Logistics Chevrolet team today at Road America. This is one of those places where it’s important to settle in and be there at the end because half the time you’re just racing the track. We battled some major handling issues and really struggled with our rear lateral. Our Chevy just didn’t like the curbs at all. The best laps we made where when we tried to stay completely off the curbs and didn’t touch them. We made some major adjustments and thought we could run in the top 10. We found ourselves inside the top five and it almost feels like a win with how the day started. It was a great rebound and I’m proud of the entire team.” -Austin Hill

CHEVROLET RACING IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES

HONDA INDY 200 AT MID-OHIO

MID-OHIO SPORTS CAR COURSE

TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING QUOTES

JULY 2, 2022

TEAM CHEVY QUOTES

PATO O’WARD, NO. 5 ARROW McLAREN CHEVROLET, ARROW McLAREN SP – POLE-WINNER: “The car has been great. We didn’t really roll off the best, but we made some really good changes overnight. We got her in the window, and I’ve been able to extract what it has.”

“I wouldn’t change anything. It’s a great qualifying position to start tomorrow so we’ll see what we’ve got.”

HOW CRITICAL IS POLE POSITION HERE? “It’s huge, man. It’s a track-position race. The best starting position we’ve ever had here is I think 18th. First is definitely a lot better than that!”

WHAT KIND OF RACECAR DO YOU HAVE FOR TOMORROW? “It’s a long race. A lot can happen. We’re in a great starting position and we have the best view into Turn One. We’re going to be giving it hell tomorrow!”

WHAT’S THE OUTLOOK ON FOR THE NO. 5 CAR TOMORROW NOW? “This is a track-position race. You make your life a lot easier when you start up at the front. Let’s just hope we stay there. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

SCOTT McLAUGHLIN, NO. 3 ODYSSEY BATTERY CHEVROLET, TEAM PENSKE – QUALIFIED SECOND:“Fantastic! I’m really pumped with this. It’s been a little bit hard. We’ve been on the edge of the Fast Six but then to break into the Fast Six and compete with those guys… Congrats to Pato. Fantastic job by them and their guys.”

WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT FOR TOMORROW? “I think we’re going to be OK on both (black and red Firestone tires). We’ve tried to be a bit 50-50 on the reds and the blacks. I feel good on old tires, which is a good thing. Obviously I didn’t get pole on old tires, but at the end of the day we’re right there. If we have decent tire degradation, we’ll be OK. As always, it’s big to qualify at the front here. That’s a good first step. We just need to have a good first stint and get on with it.”

FELIX ROSEQVIST, NO. 7 VUSE CHEVROLET, ARROW McLAREN SP – QUALIFIED FOURTH: “Solid day… In Q1 we had the best time and almost the best time in Q2. I don’t know, I just felt we didn’t really make anything happen in the Fast Six. It’s a good day when you are disappointed with fourth. Congrats to Pato for piecing a good one together in the Fast Six. We have to look at our approach in the Fast Six. It seems like we are really good at getting to the Fast Six, but when we are in it, we never really go further than P4. It’s a good starting position, and I think we have a very good shot tomorrow.”

KYLE KIRKWOOD, NO. 14 ROKiT CHEVROLET, AJ FOYT RACING – QUALIFIED NINTH: “P9 today in qualifying… an awesome result! It’s our best qualifying of the year, so we’re super-stoked. We didn’t really have the pace in either of the practices but we did now, which is all that matters. We feel like we have a good racecar going into tomorrow.”

CALLUM ILOTT, NO. 77 DYNAMIC EDGE CHEVROLET, JUNCOS HOLLINGER RACING – QUALIFIED 10TH: “A bit of potential for a bit more, but to be fair I’m really happy with the progress we’ve made. In FP1, we had to improve a bit car-wise and on myself. In FP2, again had to improve  a bit car-wise and on myself. Coming into qualifying, we were immediately competitive. In the Fast 12, there was still a bit more time. We made a change to make it a bit more faster and a bit more on the edge. I didn’t quite put it together which is a bit annoying but P10 isn’t too bad. We beat some good names. I’m pretty happy with that. We have to think about what we want to do for the race, and we should have a good one. Thanks to the team and thanks to Chevy.”

RINUS VEEKAY, NO. 21 BITCOIN WITH BITNILE CHEVROLET, ED CARPENTER RACING – QUALIFIED 11TH: “The balance of the car was really good in both rounds of qualifying. We had something that wasn’t 100 percent right in the second round, which was unfortunate but we know we have the pace for tomorrow. There is bit of a window you can play with, but it’s not going to be that much of a strategy race. I just have to be fast and pass people! The team has given me a great racecar here in the past and as long as I can attack, I am very happy!”

JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 PPG CHEVROLET, TEAM PENSKE – QUALIFIED 14TH: “We’re not searching for answers with our PPG Chevrolet. It’s just traffic. Not searching for anything. The car is just fine, so it’s just a shame. Good job by Team Penske and Team Chevy. It’s just INDYCAR qualifying. Sometimes it is fine, and sometimes it is difficult to move through traffic.”

WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON 5G TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – QUALIFIED 21ST: “That was just giving away the championship right there. It is what it is. We will just have to make the best of it starting 21st. I’m just feeling sorry that happened. It’s totally on us. I talked to the team and told them I have got to know if someone is on a (qualifying) lap. We don’t normally have these kinds of penalties. That just was giving away a top-six and maybe a pole. The car has speed, but it is going to be difficult to go forward tomorrow. In this series, anything can happen but we can’t have these kinds of penalties. It’s on us.”

CONOR DALY, NO. 20 BITNILE CHEVROLET, ED CARPENTER RACING – QUALIFIED 22ND: “Every little bit counts. Three-hundredths puts you three rows higher here. It’s kind of crazy. Our teammate was fast and I think we could have been there as well, so this is tough. We were struggling with some rear insecurity, which is a shame because you have to be perfect. We always race well, so we will work towards tomorrow.”

DALTON KELLETT, NO. 4 K-LINE CHEVROLET, AJ FOYT RACING – QUALIFIED 23RD: “Just a couple of mistakes in qualifying on my end. It was a bit of a scrappy run. It felt like our K-Line Team Chevy was relatively balanced and feeling pretty good. Just didn’t put everything together and left some time on the table. I’m looking forward to we have for the race. We have a relatively solid car, so I’m pretty optimistic for tomorrow.”

SIMONA de SILVESTRO, NO. 16 CHEVROLET, PARETTA AUTOSPORT – QUALIFIED 25TH: “I think we improved quite a lot. I did not maximize the red tire in qualifying. That’s something I really need to put my head into and figure out for Nashville. We do have a good race car. I think we can definitely have consistent pace and move forward.”

TATIANA CALDERON, NO. 11 ROKiT CHEVROLET, AJ FOYT RACING – QUALIFIED 26TH: “I’m really happy to be back in Mid-Ohio where my IndyCar story started. I think we’ve been improving every session. I’m a bit disappointed with qualifying because we had a little bit more in there. We just got a little bit of traffic and ran a little bit wide. I think we have a really good racecar. Hopefully we can tweak a few things in the warmup and go hard for raceday.”

CHEVROLET RACING IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES

HONDA INDY 200 AT MID-OHIO

MID-OHIO SPORTS CAR COURSE

LEXINGTON, OHIO

TEAM CHEVY PATO O’WARD NTT P1 AWARD QUICK QUOTE

JULY 2, 2022

PATO O’WARD PUTS CHEVROLET ON POLE AT MID-OHIO

LEXINGTON, OHIO – Pato O’Ward, behind the wheel of the No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet, picked up the fifth NTT P1 Award of his career and will lead the field to the green flag tomorrow for the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. It is the sixth pole of the 2022 NTT INDYCAR Series season for drivers powered by the Chevrolet 2.2 liter V6 engine.

In addition to his five poles, O’Ward has three INDYCAR victories–all in the cockpit of a Chevrolet-powered IndyCar from the Arrow McLaren SP stable.

PATO O’WARD, NO. 5 ARROW McLAREN CHEVROLET, ARROW McLAREN SP – POLE-WINNER: “The car has been great. We didn’t really roll off the best, but we made some really good changes overnight. We got her in the window, and I’ve been able to extract what it has.”

“I wouldn’t change anything. It’s a great qualifying position to start tomorrow so we’ll see what we’ve got.”

HOW CRITICAL IS POLE POSITION HERE? “It’s huge, man. It’s a track-position race. The best starting position we’ve ever had here is I think 18th. First is definitely a lot better than that!”

WHAT KIND OF RACECAR DO YOU HAVE FOR TOMORROW? “It’s a long race. A lot can happen. We’re in a great starting position and we have the best view into Turn One. We’re going to be giving it hell tomorrow!”

WHAT’S THE OUTLOOK ON FOR THE NO. 5 CAR TOMORROW NOW? “This is a track-position race. You make your life a lot easier when you start up at the front. Let’s just hope we stay there. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

Three Camaro ZL1’s to Start in Top-Five ·       Chase Elliott captured his second pole win of 2022 at Road America, recording a lap of 134.427 seconds, at 108.407 mph, in his No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1. ·       This marks Elliott’s 11th career pole win in 239 races in NASCAR’s premier series. ·       Elliott’s pole win is the fourth for Chevrolet in 2022; and the bowtie brand’s 727th all-time in the NASCAR Cup Series.

ELKHART LAKE, Wis. (July 2, 2022) – Chase Elliott and the No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 team picked up right where they left off from their 2021 win at Road America. Edging out Chase Briscoe by .038 seconds, Elliott clocked-in a best-lap of 134.427 seconds, at 108.407 mph, to capture his second NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) pole win of 2022 and his 11th in 239 races in NASCAR’s premier series.  “Just appreciate everybody at Hendrick Motorsports, from the engine shop to every department that has a hand in what we do to make our NAPA Chevy what it was today,” said Elliott. “We’ll try to go to work and see if we can get it driving like it needs to for tomorrow.” Elliott’s pole win marked the fourth for Chevrolet in 2022; and a manufacturer-leading 727th all-time in NASCAR Cup Series history. Chevrolet returns to the 4.048-mile, 14-turn Wisconsin road course circuit not only as the defending winners, but the bowtie brand heads into tomorrow’s race with an eight-race road course win streak. That feat started with today’s pole winner, Chase Elliott, and his win at Circuit of The Americas in May 2021.  The 26-year-old Georgia native led Chevrolet to three of the top-five in the starting lineup for tomorrow’s 62-lap, 250-mile race. Kyle Larson followed up a NASCAR Xfinity Series pole win with a strong run for the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL1, securing a third-place starting spot to mark his 12th top-10 start of 2022. Tyler Reddick rounded out the Team Chevy top-five of the starting lineup in the fourth-position in his No. 8 3CHI Camaro ZL1.  USA Network will telecast the NASCAR Cup Series Kwik Trip 250 presented by JOCKEY Made in America live at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday, July 3. Live coverage can also be found on the NBCSports Gold App, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 – Press Conference Transcript:TAKE US THROUGH YOUR QUALIFYING RUN AND WHAT IT MEANS TO START FROM THE POLE AFTER WINNING THIS RACE LAST YEAR.“It was the exact opposite for us last year. I think we started last, so hopefully the results are good tomorrow like they were last season. Definitely a different vibe to the weekend. I think our car is going to need some different things to be successful tomorrow. I don’t think we’re as good as we need to be to be successful as we sit, so want to make sure we do our homework. Looking forward to getting out of here, getting across the street and start dissecting the direction we think we want to go to be solid all race long tomorrow.  Appreciate our team and everybody for sticking with it. NAPA, getting them the pole is always important. Getting that first pit box is always good. It’s not as important at a road course, but certainly nice to have nonetheless. I wasn’t expecting the pole.. we barely made the second round. I felt like it was just good to get through that second round. I thought that was going to be kind of a tall order there with the cars that went back out to re-run. It’s nice to get through.  We’ll go to work tomorrow and see what we have.” INAUDIBLE“I knew I had missed a couple here and there. But at least for me and how slow my brain works; I have to kind of take it one at a time. As I got back around there, I thought I had a pretty good exit from the carousel and a pretty decent quick right through the kink there. But I didn’t think my lap was good enough for the pole. I didn’t think it was a whole lot different than the lap I had run in the prior session. I felt like if we could just repeat that lap, that would be a solid starting spot considering we had a chance of not making the second round. Just wanted to put a solid lap together – try to minimize my mistakes, push in a couple different areas that I felt like I didn’t do a good job in the first session and try to maintain. Fortunately, it went a little better so I was surprised by that.” HOW MUCH MORE OF A COMFORT LEVEL IS THERE GOING INTO SUNDAY FROM THE POLE RATHER THAN THE BACK OF THE PACK?“There’s not.. not really at all. These races are very long. Typically the cars that are superior find their way to the front regardless of where they start. It’s nice to get a pole. You want them as much as you can, but I would much rather be good on Sunday than Saturday.” INAUDIBLE“I feel like we’ve had a good package on the road course stuff, more so on the old car than this car. I still feel like we’re learning. Like I said, I don’t think we’re as good as we need to be for tomorrow in a race situation as we sit. So we want to make sure we make the right decisions overnight to try and go in that direction.” YOU SAID YOU EXPECT IT TO BE HARD TO PASS. WHY IS THAT?“A lot of the places that we’ve gone this year with narrow braking zones and narrow corner entries have just made it that way. Like Martinsville was that way and Gateway was that way – just kind of those narrow, flatter corner entry places where it’s kind of hard to get fresh air. It seems like the inboard side of the car, we’re used to where you could get a headlight out on someone, say through whatever turn. If you could just get that inboard headlight, you had a little sniff of fresh air and it would benefit you. Now, it’s like the inboard side of the car isn’t as effective in clean air as it used to be. You used to have to be further out to get some cleaner air on the nose. There’s just no further out to go.. you’re not going to get that big of a gap. So we’re going to have to really be smart tomorrow about how we play our strategy and how I drive the car to make sure we’re good throughout an entire stint. It’s all good.. it’s not necessarily a problem. I’m just saying that’s what it feels like to me. Somebody else might give you a different answer.” THIS EVENT AND HAVING IT ON A HOLIDAY WEEKEND, JUST TALK ABOUT HOW UNIQUE IT IS. “I told a lot of people this, but I was super nervous leaving Daytona for our July 4th race. For NASCAR, that’s been a tradition that’s been in place for many years. That was a race that I grew up going to as a kid, so I had a little bit of an emotional tie to that one. I just always thought it was a lot of fun. It was a great environment and it was fun to be at the beach.  Man, we came up last year and I was blown away, I really was. The people are nice and it’s a beautiful area. The people are outside and enjoying the race track. I feel like it couldn’t have received us better for trying to start a new tradition somewhere. I don’t know how long NASCAR is planning on coming here on this weekend, but I feel like it’s been a really nice fit for us. The people around here have accepted us really with open arms and have brought a lot of energy. Like I always say – anytime you bring energy to a race track, it’s more fun for everybody involved; and the fans are a direct piece to that.”

Tristan Vautier drives No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R to third qualifying position

BOWMANVILLE, Ontario (July 2, 2022) – Tristan Vautier says he’ll have to watch a video replay of his qualifying lap that secured the third starting position for the Chevrolet Grand Prix because it was a blur. Vautier, driving the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R, recorded a best lap of 1 minute, 4.895 seconds on the fast 2.459-mile, 10-turn to lead the Cadillac contingent in qualifying for the 2-hour, 40-minute race that NBC will telecast at 3 p.m. (ET) July 3.

Cadillac Racing media links * CTMP media resource guide:Notes, statistics, driver profiles and more* 2022 media guide: Historical statistics, technical transfer and morePipeline of talent: First retail production Cadillac Escalade-V raises $500,000 at auction to benefit college. More

“I actually don’t remember my whole lap. When you don’t it means that you were really on the edge because you didn’t have any energy left to process,” said Vautier, who delivered the best starting spot for the JDC-Miller MotorSports entry since the Rolex 24 At Daytona in January when he qualified second. “It feels good to be back up there. From yesterday on, we did not look that great in the time charts but we felt like we had something better than the last few races.

“We didn’t panic about the practice lap times and stuck to our package so that we would not get too much out of line and be able to go into qualifying knowing our package well. We managed to make the tires work really well when it mattered. It’s good for the team; we needed that.” Lap times for all six DPi entries were lower than the previous track qualifying record of 1:05.452, set in 2019 – the last time the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship visited the facility – led by Tom Blomqvist’s 1:04.394 in the No. 60 Acura. Alex Lynn drove the No. 02 Cadillac Accessories Cadillac DPi-V.R to the fourth starting position with a best lap of 1:05.082. Olivier Pla, driving the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R, registered a 1:05.126 lap, while Sebastien Bourdais check in with a 1:05.266 lap in the No. 01 V-Performance Academy Cadillac DPi-V.R. Track and tire management will be key in the race, according to Renger van der Zande. “I think the racing you will be bumped up with traffic with an LMP3 or a GT car and if you’re behind you can’t go over them so you have to wait,” the co-driver of the No. 01 V-Performance Academy Cadillac DPi-V.R said. “The guy behind you is going to come with a big slingshot and might pass you on the straight. So, it’s attack mode and defend at the same time. You’ll see that the DPis will take a little risk getting by one or two cars just to have a gap from the guy behind you.”

Cadillac Racing lineup, starting position and quotes No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R (JDC-Miller MotorSports)Tristan Vautier, Richard WestbrookVautier drove in the qualifying session (start third, 1:04.895): “It feels good to be back up there. From yesterday on, we did not look that great in the time charts but we felt like we had something better than the last few races. We didn’t panic about the practice lap times and stuck to our package so that we would not get too much out of line and be able to go into qualifying knowing our package well. We managed to make the tires work really well when it mattered. It’s good for the team; we needed that.”Car chief-Josh KerriganLead engineer-Rick CameronRace strategist-John Church No. 02 Cadillac Accessories Cadillac DPi-V.R (Chip Ganassi Racing)Earl Bamber, Alex LynnLynn drove in the qualifying session (start fourth, 1:05.082): “P4 is not amazing. We are a little bit off the pace of the other cars than we would’ve liked but I think we have a very drivable race car for tomorrow. We have more work to be done overnight and will see what we can do on race day.”Car chief-Jamie CoatesLead engineer-Danielle ShephardRace strategist-Michael Harvey No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R (Action Express Racing)Pipo Derani, Olivier PlaPla drove in the qualifying session (start fifth, 1:05.126): “We made a lot of progress since the beginning of the weekend. Tomorrow we’ll make sure we have the best car for the race.” Car chief-Bill KeulerTechnical director/lead engineer-Iain WattRace strategist-Tim Keene No. 01 V-Performance Academy Cadillac DPi-V.R (Chip Ganassi Racing)Renger van der Zande, Sebastien BourdaisBourdais drove in the qualifying session (start sixth, 1:05.266). “Disappointing day for the 01. It was not my greatest showing. We’ve been trying a few different things to get it right. We’ll keep at it and see what we can do in the race tomorrow.”Car chief-Phil BinksLead engineer-John HennekRace strategist-Peter Baron

About CadillacA leading luxury auto brand since 1902, Cadillac is growing globally, driven by an expanding product portfolio that features distinctive design and technology. More information on Cadillac appears at www.cadillac.com.

Corvette C8.R feeling good but struggling for pace in Canadian debut BOWMANVILLE, Ontario (July 2, 2022) – Corvette Racing’s No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R will start from the third row of the GT Daytona (GTD) category Sunday for the Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motosport Park – the first race for the mid-engine Corvette in Canada. Jordan Taylor set a best lap of 1:15.955 (116.547 mph) in the Mobil 1/SiriusXM C8.R to qualify fourth in the GTD PRO category. He was 0.487 seconds behind the pole-winning Porsche of Mathieu Jaminet. A performance deficit left Taylor and Antonio Garcia starting similarly down the GTD PRO order a week ago at Watkins Glen International. With no significant changes to the Corvette on the performance side, the key will be gaining positions through strategy and execution – just like at The Glen. Corvette Racing – and the rest of the WeatherTech Championship – is back at CTMP for the first time since 2019. The C8.R is the fourth generation of Corvette to compete around and over the elevation changes at CTMP since the Corvette Racing program first competed there in 2000 with the Corvette C5-R. Since that time, the team has claimed 11 victories at the track – second-most among all venues behind only Sebring. Three of those came in Corvettes driven by Canadian and Corvette Racing legend Ron Fellows, who is co-owner of Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. The Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park is scheduled for 3:05 p.m. ET on Sunday, July 3. The race will air live on NBC and stream live on Peacock inside the United States and IMSA.comoutside the U.S. IMSA Radio will broadcast the race at IMSA.com with the call also on XM 207 and SiriusXM Online 992.

JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – QUALIFIED FOURTH IN GTD PRO: “The car is good. We’re just slow. It’s frustrating. I felt like the lap was pretty good but we’re off the pace. It’s nothing we’re doing wrong. We’ve improved the car through the weekend, and it’s the best it’s been since we’ve been here. Hopefully we can play some strategy in the race, jump ahead of some guys and hopefully hold them off.”I think the only hope for us is big tire degradation or traffic. On speed alone, we won’t be able to pass anyone I don’t think. We’ll have to hope for some other guys to make mistakes and hopefully our guys in the pitlane can make some passes for us.”

Corvette C8.R feeling good but struggling for pace in Canadian debut BOWMANVILLE, Ontario (July 2, 2022) – Corvette Racing’s No. 3 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R will start from the third row of the GT Daytona (GTD) category Sunday for the Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motosport Park – the first race for the mid-engine Corvette in Canada. Jordan Taylor set a best lap of 1:15.955 (116.547 mph) in the Mobil 1/SiriusXM C8.R to qualify fourth in the GTD PRO category. He was 0.487 seconds behind the pole-winning Porsche of Mathieu Jaminet. A performance deficit left Taylor and Antonio Garcia starting similarly down the GTD PRO order a week ago at Watkins Glen International. With no significant changes to the Corvette on the performance side, the key will be gaining positions through strategy and execution – just like at The Glen. Corvette Racing – and the rest of the WeatherTech Championship – is back at CTMP for the first time since 2019. The C8.R is the fourth generation of Corvette to compete around and over the elevation changes at CTMP since the Corvette Racing program first competed there in 2000 with the Corvette C5-R. Since that time, the team has claimed 11 victories at the track – second-most among all venues behind only Sebring. Three of those came in Corvettes driven by Canadian and Corvette Racing legend Ron Fellows, who is co-owner of Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. The Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park is scheduled for 3:05 p.m. ET on Sunday, July 3. The race will air live on NBC and stream live on Peacock inside the United States and IMSA.comoutside the U.S. IMSA Radio will broadcast the race at IMSA.com with the call also on XM 207 and SiriusXM Online 992.

JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – QUALIFIED FOURTH IN GTD PRO: “The car is good. We’re just slow. It’s frustrating. I felt like the lap was pretty good but we’re off the pace. It’s nothing we’re doing wrong. We’ve improved the car through the weekend, and it’s the best it’s been since we’ve been here. Hopefully we can play some strategy in the race, jump ahead of some guys and hopefully hold them off.”I think the only hope for us is big tire degradation or traffic. On speed alone, we won’t be able to pass anyone I don’t think. We’ll have to hope for some other guys to make mistakes and hopefully our guys in the pitlane can make some passes for us.”

Father-son duo Terry, Tanner English bag top-fives in home state

PADUCAH, KY – July 1, 2022 – While the top side of the banking held him up through much of the race, Bobby Pierce may have leaned most on his past experiences at Paducah International Raceway to score his fourth DIRTcar Summer Nationals victory of the season Friday night.

Until Friday, the Hell Tour hadn’t graced the high banks of the big 3/8-mile oval since June 28, 2013. That race was won by the one and only six-time champion and Dirt Late Model Hall-of-Famer Billy Moyer. Also in the field that night – a 16-year-old Bobby Pierce.

Though he finished fifth, the teenage racing sensation showed he was right on the cusp of breaking through to victory. Two nights later, he finally did break through, winning his first career Summer Nationals Feature in front of a home state Illinois crowd.

Nine years and forty-four tour victories later, Pierce still recalls the laps he made around the ultra-fast Paducah, and they might have just played a role in his journey to a dominant victory for $10,000 Friday night.

“I’ve always really liked this racetrack when I was younger; I just haven’t been able to come here in years,” Pierce said. “This was one I wanted to win pretty badly, probably more than any other on the tour, just because this place is so unique. Really, there’s nowhere like it.”

Pierce, the four-time Summer Nationals champion from Oakwood, IL, also has memories of racing at Paducah even before his Super Late Model career started.

“It definitely helped out that I was here in the past,” he said. “The first time I came here was in my Crate Late Model, and I was 12 or 13, I think. That’s pretty young for how big this place is.

“I remember going down the straightaways and having all day to think about my corner entrance because it felt like it took five days to get there with how long the straightaways are.”

He used those long straightaways to the fullest Friday night, stretching out his lead with ease once the race got going after a few early caution periods. Former tour regular Tanner English chased him throughout the 30-lap event, but never could keep pace with Pierce, ultimately settling for second.

After the first two yellows in the opening laps, only one final caution appeared just past the halfway mark. This erased Pierce’s three-plus-second lead and put English right on his bumper for the restart, which Pierce handled with ease, though there’s always the chance he doesn’t launch well.

“You always worry about that, especially going into Turn 1 here,” Pierce said. “With the line I was running, it’s a little bit strange. You go in there and it feels like you’re going 100 miles an hour and that wall is like a quick 90, and it was kinda slick up to it.”

UP NEXT

The DIRTcar Summer Nationals returns to action on July 2 for a $10,000-to-win Saturday night special at Clarksville Speedway. If you can’t be at the track, watch every lap live on DIRTVision.

ABBREVIATED RESULTS (view full results)

Feature 30 Laps | 00:25:37.649

1. 32-Bobby Pierce[2]; 2. 81E-Tanner English[1]; 3. 21-Billy Moyer Jr[4]; 4. 15-Christian Hanger[7]; 5. 96T-Terry English[8]; 6. 3S-Brian Shirley[11]; 7. 25-Jason Feger[5]; 8. 212-Josh Putnam[14]; 9. 81JR-Jason Riggs[6]; 10. 18-Matt Cooper[12]; 11. 14G-Joe Godsey[17]; 12. 4D-Doug Tye[13]; 13. 30-Mark Voigt[9]; 14. 10-Ronnie Cooper[24]; 15. 31AUS-Paul Stubber[20]; 16. 38-Thomas Hunziker[18]; 17. 26M-Brent McKinnon[21]; 18. 81J-Jack Riggs[16]; 19. 23NZ-Mick Quin[10]; 20. 14R-Jeff Roth[15]; 21. F1-Payton Freeman[22]; 22. 99-Dylan Thompson[3]; 23. 22-Aaron Edwards[23]; 24. 15F-Richard Frost[19]

FIRST TIMER: Young Wins at Paducah for First Career Summit Modified Victory

As one of the top DIRTcar UMP Modified drivers in his region, Trent Young had never been to DIRTcar Summit Racing Equipment Modified Nationals Victory Lane. Until now.

In his first time out with the tour this season, Young dominated the tour’s return to Paducah International Raceway Friday night for his first career Summit Modified trophy.

“For me, it is a pretty big win,” Young said. “We don’t run a lot of big shows anymore, just local stuff, mostly. I don’t get to race against a lot of the touring guys.

“I think we still can run with them. We’ve got a pretty good car.”

The Hopkinsville, KY, racer ran away from UMP Modified veterans Lucas Lee and Brian Shaw en route to victory in the 20-lap affair, leading every lap, even battling internal issues of his own throughout the program.

“We fought engine overheating issues most of the night,” Young said. “We were pretty hot in the Heat Race, so I figured it was gonna be the same for the Feature, and it was.”

UP NEXT 

The DIRTcar Summit Modifieds return to action on July 2 for a Saturday night special at Clarksville Speedway. If you can’t be at the track, watch every lap live on DIRTVision.

ABBREVIATED RESULTS (view full results)

Feature 20 Laps | 00:15:22.024

1. 10Y-Trent Young[2]; 2. 12L-Lucas Lee[3]; 3. 1S-Brian Shaw[4]; 4. 176-Scotty Owens[7]; 5. 2- Peyton Walker[5]; 6. 99-Teegan Embrey[8]; 7. 7D-Pete Sabatino[10]; 8. 00-troy gay[11]; 9. 7-Willie Gammill[9]; 10. 16-Todd Riley[6]; 11. (DNS) 8-Kyle Steffens

Brad Sweet Misses Sixth-Straight Cedar Lake Win by 0.200-Seconds

NEW RICHMOND, WI – A pair of World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series champions could do nothing to stop the new and improved Jacob Allen on Friday night at Cedar Lake Speedway.

Brad Sweet wanted it for the record books and Donny Schatz wanted it for the heart, but Jacob Allen wanted to prove his legendary father Bobby Allen wrong. Jacob’s victory, earned with a meticulous effort around the low side of the New Richmond, WI 3/8-mile, brings him to a popular three wins on the season.

“My dad took me on a bet that he thought I could maybe win three races this year, and it made me a bit mad,” Allen joked. “I’ve got three now, and now I gotta get one more to prove him wrong. It definitely takes a toll on you being out here on the road this long and not winning for so long, but giving it everything you’ve got. Already winning three this year feels so amazing.”

While Hanover, PA native fell as far back as fifth, all eyes were on the lead trio of Carson Macedo, Donny Schatz, and Brad Sweet. Macedo led the opening two circuits, Schatz controlled Laps 3-21, and Sweet quickly rose from 10th-to-third as the three orchestrated a nose-to-tail charge through lap traffic.

It appeared to be between those three throughout the first half, but everything changed on Lap 19 restart when Allen lined up inside of row two and he rocketed to second in the Pells Tire Service #1A. With Schatz committed to the fence, Allen slow-rolled the bottom and took to the lead on Lap 22.

A Lap 31 restart offered Sweet one last chance at stealing the win away, but he fell short by 0.200-seconds at the line as Allen continued his career-year and stopped Sweet’s streak.

“I can’t tell you enough how good this feels,” an ecstatic Allen noted. “My car has never been this balanced, and it just handled so well. This package we’ve put together for these type of race tracks has been incredible. We’ve been making the right decisions and I think I’ve been driving as good as ever.”

After five-straight World of Outlaws wins at Cedar Lake, three-time and defending Series champion Brad Sweet finally saw his historic streak come to an end. His second-place result extends his mark to a remarkable 10 consecutive top-two results (when finishing) at the track. He also extends his championship lead in the Kasey Kahne Racing, NAPA Auto Parts #49. 

“For whatever reason we just have a really good feel here at Cedar Lake, even when the car is off,” Sweet said after a close second-place run. “I was licking my chops on that restart thinking Donny would choose the bottom, but he went high and that flustered me. I did a bad job on that restart. Had I been a little closer I might’ve been able to pull off a last-lap miracle, but Jacob did a great job and earned that one. We’ve been off for a bit, so getting back on the podium at my favorite track feels great.”

Sheldon Haudenschild closed out the podium with a seventh-to-third run in the Stenhouse Jr. / Marshall Racing, NOS Energy Drink #17. The Wooster, OH native now has 12 podium finishes on the season, a Series-best with the World of Outlaws in 2022.

“I wanted to win that one just as bad,” Haudencshild said following his $100,000 victory last week. “I had a really bad 8-10 and got ate up off the start and was forced to do some battling. We had a good car, but the driver lacked a bit at the beginning.”

In an emotional bid to win one one for his late father, Danny Schatz, the 10-time champion Donny Schatz finished fourth aboard the Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing, Ford Performance, Carquest #15. He led Laps 3-21, but faded late in the running and barely missed a podium appearance. Carson Macedo, who paced the opening two laps, finished fifth aboard the Jason Johnson Racing, Albaugh #41. 

Rounding out the top-10 on Friday night was Giovanni Scelzi in sixth, James McFadden in seventh, Scotty Thiel took eighth-from-19th to earn the KSE Hard Charger Award, David Gravel scored ninth, and Logan Schuchart ended up 10th.

NOS NOTEBOOK (CEDAR LAKE SPEEDWAY, 7/1/22)

Jacob Allen has now claimed three of his four World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series victories in the 2022 season alone. He’s now tied for 69th on the All-Time Win List alongside Dub May, Jack Hewitt, Ian Madsen, James McFadden, and Spencer Bayston.

Brad Sweet’s second-place finish ended his stellar streak of five-straight World of Outlaws wins at Cedar Lake, but continued his remarkable run of 10 consecutive top-two results at the track. 

For the fifth consecutive race, a World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Feature offered three different lead changes.

Carson Macedo extended his impressive performance in My Place Hotels Qualifying, clocking an 11.449 around Cedar Lake’s 3/8-mile to record his seventh QuickTime Award of 2022 in the Jason Johnson Racing #41. He leads the QuickTime category by three over David Gravel (4) and Sheldon Haudenschild (3).

NOS Energy Drink Heat Race wins went to Kraig Kinser (124th career), Donny Schatz (497th career), and Jacob Allen (42nd career). Schatz scored the DIRTVision Fast Pass Dash win, while Scotty Thiel took home the MicroLite Last Chance Showdown.

UP NEXT (Sat) – The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series continues the Independence Day Spectacular on Saturday, July 2 at New Richmond, WI’s Cedar Lake Speedway. After this weekend, The Greatest Show on Dirt heads to 34 Raceway in West Burlington, IA on Friday, July 8 and Wilmot Raceway in Wilmot, WI on Saturday, July 9. Fans can BUY TICKETS HERE, or watch every lap LIVE on DIRTVision.

NOS Energy Drink Feature Results (35 Laps) – 1. 1A-Jacob Allen [3][$10,000]; 2. 49-Brad Sweet [10][$5,500]; 3. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild [7][$3,200]; 4. 15-Donny Schatz [1][$2,600]; 5. 41-Carson Macedo [2][$2,350]; 6. 18-Giovanni Scelzi [12][$2,150]; 7. 83-James McFadden [5][$2,100]; 8. 73-Scotty Thiel [19][$1,950]; 9. 2-David Gravel [8][$1,900]; 10. 1S-Logan Schuchart [4][$1,850]; 11. 3Z-Brock Zearfoss [13][$1,400]; 12. 84-Scott Bogucki [16][$1,200]; 13. 9-Kasey Kahne [17][$1,000]; 14. 5-Spencer Bayston [11][$950]; 15. 34DD-Brooke Tatnell [14][$900]; 16. 19-Paige Polyak [20][$900]; 17. 6-Bill Rose [21][$900]; 18. 97-Alan Gilbertson [23][$900]; 19. 1AU-Marcus Dumesny [9][$900]; 20. 7S-Robbie Price [24][$900]; 21. 49J-Josh Schneiderman [22][$900]; 22. 24T-Christopher Thram [15][$900]; 23. 11K-Kraig Kinser [6][$900]; 24. 22-Riley Goodno [18][$900]. Lap Leaders: Carson Macedo 1-2, Donny Schatz 3-21 Jacob Allen 22-35. KSE Hard Charger Award: 73-Scotty Thiel[+11]

NEW Championship Standings (After 33/77 Races): 1. Brad Sweet (4,502); 2. Carson Macedo (-18); 3. Sheldon Haudenschild (-26); 4. David Gravel (-60); 5. Logan Schuchart (-70); 6. Donny Schatz (-152); 7. Spencer Bayston (-180); 8. James McFadden (-224); 9. Jacob Allen (-350); 10. Brock Zearfoss (-504).

Portsmouth, OH (July 1, 2022) – Ricky Thornton Jr. took over the lead on lap 30 from race long leader Daulton Wilson. Rain hit the track with 45 laps scored, declaring Thornton as the winner of the Able Air Independence 50 on Friday night at Portsmouth Raceway Park. The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series-sanctioned event became official with five laps remaining in the race when track conditions became too wet to continue. The win was worth $12,000 for the defending Dirt Track World Championship winner. The 31-year-old stood in PRP Victory Lane scoring his first Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series win of 2022 to become the 15th different winner this season. Defending series champion Tim McCreadie finished in second followed by Hudson O’Neal, Earl Pearson Jr., and Daulton Wilson, who led the first 29 laps of the race. Wilson, one of the five drivers battling for the O’Reilly Auto Parts Rookie-of-the-Year chase with the series looked to be on his way to a clean sweep as he dominated the first half of the race. With impending weather in the area Wilson led at the halfway mark which would have become official if the rain would have caused a halt to the race.  A caution with 28 laps scored had Wilson leading followed by Thornton and McCreadie. Wilson would lead those two on the restart for another circuit but heading into turn four on the 30th lap he got crossways in turn four which allowed four drivers to get by him as he fell to fifth. Once Thornton had the lead, he stretched it out to be 2.165 seconds ahead of McCreadie when rain halted the race for good. Thornton, who started fifth went to Lucas Oil Victory Lane for the fourth time in his career, this time did his post-race interview from the tower. “I didn’t know if we were going to lose the track or not, luckily, we didn’t. So, we went back green and with five to go I didn’t know it was raining until I went down into turn one and I was like ‘I really blew that corner’ then I realized it was raining. It was something different, I am glad we got to do a victory lane like interview. I think overall it was pretty cool,” said the Arizona native who now makes his home in Indiana. “My crew has busted their tails and it is definitely showing a lot of speed this year so I hope we can keep it going. This track has been extremely good to us. Maybe we can come back here later in the year and get another win. I want to thank all of the fans for coming out tonight. You really didn’t know what the weather was going to do tonight. The track busted their tails to give us the best track we could get.” The winner’s Todd and Vickie Burns/SSI Motorsports Longhorn Chassis is powered by a Clements Racing Engine and sponsored by Big River Steel, Hoker Trucking, Dyno One, Penske Racing Shocks, FK Rod Ends, Certified Inspection Services, Excel Floor Covering, and West Side Tractor Sales Company. Completing the top ten were Brandon Sheppard, Tyler Erb, Devin Moran, Rod Conley, and Steve Casebolt. Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Race Summary Able Air Independence 50Friday, July 1st, 2022Portsmouth Raceway Park – Portsmouth, OH Allstar Performance Time TrialsFast Time Group A: Daulton Wilson / 14.546 seconds (overall)Fast Time Group B: Devin Moran / 14.629 seconds Penske Race Shocks Heat Race #1 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 18D-Daulton Wilson[1]; 2. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[2]; 3. 7-Ross Robinson[5]; 4. C9-Steve Casebolt[6]; 5. 81-Brandon Fouts[3]; 6. 58-Garrett Alberson[4]; 7. 00-Justin Cooper[8]; 8. 17T-Shannon Thornsberry[7] Summit Racing Equipment Heat Race #2 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 39-Tim McCreadie[1]; 2. 1-Brandon Sheppard[2]; 3. 111V-Max Blair[3]; 4. 11-Spencer Hughes[4]; 5. 9Z-Mason Zeigler[5]; 6. 21K-Kirk Phillips[6]; 7. 17-Tim Vance[7] Simpson Race Products Heat Race #3 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 9-Devin Moran[1]; 2. 1T-Tyler Erb[2]; 3. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[3]; 4. 71C-RJ Conley[4]; 5. 21H-Robby Hensley[5]; 6. 93-Cory Lawler[6]; 7. CJ1-Charlie Jude[7]; 8. (DNS) 1L-Corey Lewis Ohlins Shocks Heat Race #4 Finish (8 Laps, Top 4 Transfer): 1. 76-Brandon Overton[3]; 2. 71-Hudson O’Neal[2]; 3. 89-Ashton Winger[1]; 4. 17D-Zack Dohm[5]; 5. 71R-Rod Conley[6]; 6. B1-Josh Bocook[7]; 7. 1B-Nick Bocook[4] Fast Shafts B-Main #1 Finish (10 Laps, Top 6 Transfer): 1. 81-Brandon Fouts[1]; 2. 71R-Rod Conley[4]; 3. 21H-Robby Hensley[2]; 4. 58-Garrett Alberson[5]; 5. 9Z-Mason Zeigler[3]; 6. 21K-Kirk Phillips[7]; 7. 1B-Nick Bocook[12]; 8. 17-Tim Vance[11]; 9. 00-Justin Cooper[9]; 10. 93-Cory Lawler[6]; 11. B1-Josh Bocook[8]; 12. (DNS) CJ1-Charlie Jude; 13. (DNS) 17T-Shannon Thornsberry; 14. (DNS) 1L-Corey Lewis Able Air Independence 50 Feature Finish:

Race StatisticsEntrants: 30Lap Leaders: Daulton Wilson (Laps 1-29); Ricky Thornton, Jr. (Laps 30-45)Wrisco Feature Winner: Ricky Thornton, Jr.Arizona Sport Shirts Crown Jewel Cup Feature Winner: n/aBrandon Ford TV Challenge Feature Winner: n/aMargin of Victory: 2.165 secondsStop-Tech Cautions: Steve Casebolt (Lap 16); Spencer Hughes (Lap 16 restart); Debris (Lap 26); Garrett Alberson, RJ Conley (Lap 28); Rain (Lap 45)Series Provisionals: n/aFast Time Provisional: Nick Bocook; Tim VanceSeries Emergency Provisionals: n/aTrack Provisionals: n/aBig River Steel Podium Top 3: Ricky Thornton, Jr., Tim McCreadie, Hudson O’NealPenske Shocks Top 5: Ricky Thornton, Jr., Tim McCreadie, Hudson O’Neal, Earl Pearson, Jr., Daulton WilsonOptima Batteries Hard Charger of the Race: Rod Conley (Advanced 9 Positions)Midwest Sheet Metal Spoiler Challenge Point Leader: Brandon SheppardHot Rod Processing Most Laps Led: Daulton Wilson (29 Laps)Sunoco Race for Gas Highest Finisher: Ricky Thornton, Jr.O’Reilly Auto Parts Rookie of the Race: Daulton WilsonDirty Girl Racewear Fastest Lap of the Race: Daulton Wilson (Lap 3 – 15.536 seconds)Feature DirtonDirt.com Tough Break of the Race: Spencer HughesOuterwears Crew Chief of the Race: Anthony Burroughs (Ricky Thornton, Jr.)ARP Engine Builder of the Race: Clements Racing EnginesMiller Welders Chassis Builder of the Race: Longhorn ChassisDirt Draft Fastest in Hot Laps: Devin Moran (14.7724 seconds)Time of Race: 30 minutes 46 seconds Lucas Oil Championship Point Standings:

*Results are unofficial until Close of Business on the Tuesday following Race Day*

NASCAR CUP SERIES

ROAD AMERICA

KWIK TRIP 250

TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT

JULY 1, 2022

KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series doubleheader race weekend at Road America. Press Conference Transcript: 

KYLE, WALK US THROUGH YOUR QUALIFYING LAP TODAY IN THE NO. 17 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO SS THAT LANDED YOU THE POLE FOR TOMORROW’S NASCAR XFINITY SERIES RACE? 

“It was good. The first run, my goal was to hit my marks and I didn’t do that. It was kind of good to do that because then I could back off of that a little bit and just know if I got through the corners OK, my car was going to be fast enough that I could have a shot at the pole. I didn’t expect to be that much faster than the field, but it felt really good. 

I’m excited about tomorrow. My car felt amazing in race trim, as well. Hats off to the team for preparing a car for me to race this weekend and try to learn and better our efforts for Sunday. Definitely excited about it.”

YOU HAVEN’T COMPETED IN THE NASCAR XFINITY SERIES IN FOUR YEARS. WHAT’S IT LIKE BEING BACK IN A XFINITY CAR? 

“Yeah, it was honestly surprising when I had read that it had been since I think 2018. It doesn’t feel that long ago.

I don’t know – the driving stuff is whatever. It’s just like the visuals of the tach and the gauges. It’s a different style of dash than what I was even used to when I was racing Xfinity for Ganassi. Just the little things like that are hard to adjust to at first. But once you’re out there, it all kind of becomes natural and it’s just another stock car at that point.”

HOW MUCH ATTENTION HAVE YOU PAID TO THIS SERIES OVER THE LAST FOUR YEARS WITH THE NEW TALENT?

“I honestly probably haven’t paid enough attention, so I don’t really know how to answer that question. But I’m looking forward to competing with a lot of the young up-and-comers, as I’m sure they’re looking forward to compete with me also. It should be a lot of fun this weekend and for the couple of others I get to run the rest of the year.”

YOU’VE LED AT LEAST 19 LAPS ON THE CUP SIDE IN SEVEN OF THE LAST NINE RACES. DO YOU FEEL LIKE SOME OF THOSE HAVE KIND OF SLIPPED AWAY FROM YOU, AS FAR AS WINS? DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU GUYS ARE JUST A LITTLE BIT OFF? YOU FIND YOUR WAY UP FRONT AT SOME POINT DURING THE RACE.

“I don’t know. There were definitely a couple that we almost won that slipped away there late, like Kansas (Speedway) and Charlotte (Motor Speedway). But I feel like in both of those, we performed at a very great level and honestly a little bit better than what we should have; and that’s just a testament to our team and how strong we are. 

As I’m sure everybody does, I feel like we’re really close to being good; leading even more laps and challenging for even more wins. The cars are developing each week. Everyone is refining their stuff, setups and getting better. We just have to keep working really hard.”

I ASSUME YOU WEREN’T EXPECTING A SEASON LIKE LAST YEAR BECAUSE THOSE JUST DON’T COME AROUND, BUT HAS IT BEEN FRUSTRATING AT ALL NOT TO BE AS DOMINATE? OR DOES THE FACT THAT NOBODY HAS BEEN REALLY DOMINATE THIS YEAR KIND OF MAKE UP FOR ANY POTENTIAL FRUSTRATION?

“I haven’t been frustrated yet. I think I understand that the season we had last year was hard to repeat, especially going into a season with a new car and all that. I’m sure if we were in last year’s car and I was sitting here with the same stats – yeah, I’d probably be frustrated. But I thinking having the understanding that we have a new car, pit stops and everything, that helps kind of forget about the success, I guess, of last year. 

And two, I think nobody has been dominating. Pretty much everybody has been inconsistent at some point throughout a race every week. Just have to find some consistency and I feel like that’s where you’ll standout across the field.”

GIVEN HOW DIFFERENT THE CARS HAVE BECOME BETWEEN THESE TWO SERIES, WHAT DO YOU GAIN TOMORROW THAT’S GOING TO HELP? 

“I don’t know yet until I get out there tomorrow. But I think for me, just getting more laps – figuring out your angles of what works and what doesn’t work; the shapes of the corners and stuff like that to try and go faster and be better. I imagine our braking points will be much deeper tomorrow. It seems like this year compared to last year’s car, the Cup cars can brake a lot deeper into the corners. That might take some getting used to at first. 

I definitely think it doesn’t hurt to get more laps, especially on the same race track.”

WOULD YOU HAVE BEEN BETTER OFF DOING DOUBLE DUTY A YEAR AGO? 

“I don’t know – who’s to say. I pick them because it just works out for my schedule. But I picked this one because I’ve only raced here twice. I don’t remember at all the race I ran here in 2013 and I don’t remember being fast. And then the Cup race last year, this was probably our worst road course we had of the season. So that’s why it was important for me to run this race and just try and learn something every lap.”

AFTER LAST WEEKEND’S RACE, YOU MADE THE REFERENCE OF NEEDING TO CLEAN UP A FEW THINGS. YOU HAVE KEVIN (MEENDERING) HERE WORKING WITH YOU ON THE XFINITY CAR, SO YOU GET HIM DOUBLE DUTY LIKE YOU THIS WEEKEND. WHAT DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU NEED TO CLEAN UP OR IF THERE’S ANYTHING IN TERMS OF WORKING WITH HIM AND HOW CAN THIS WEEKEND HELP TOWARDS THAT? 

“I don’t know – I don’t remember those exact comments because I felt like everything went pretty smooth, as far as on my end on that. The radio stuff and all that was smooth. I don’t know – maybe I was talking about something else, I can’t remember (laughs). 

But it is good. It was an unfortunate circumstance that Cliff (Daniels) is suspended for four weeks, but if it’s going to happen, it falls at a good time where I’m doing this race also with Kevin (Meendering). Just getting more familiar with him. I feel like I’m super easy to work with and I feel like I can work with anybody, so it’s not hard for me to adjust to different crew chiefs and stuff. I guess just being familiar with the tone of voice and stuff on the radio is important to me. I know the car is always going to be fast when we hit the track. 

Cliff is Cliff and there’s nobody like him on a pit box, especially when he talks to you on the radio. I guess just getting familiar with that end of things.”

PEOPLE WILL LOOK AT THE LAST ROAD COURSE RACE AND SAY FOR AS STRONG AS YOU WERE AND SUCCESSFUL UNTIL THE WHEEL CAME OFF, THE EXPECTATION WOULD BE THAT IT WOULD CARRYOVER TO THIS PLACE. IS THERE MUCH FROM SONOMA (RACEWAY) THAT YOU CAN TAKE AND FEEL GOOD ABOUT GOING INTO THIS WEEKEND BASED ON HOW YOU DID AT SONOMA? 

“It’s hard to say. Last year, we dominated Sonoma (Raceway) and we were extremely good, and we weren’t great here (Road America). I don’t know – I’m sure on the car side of things, there are things that they learned from it. I’ve raced a lot at Sonoma and I haven’t raced here much. And yes, the two don’t really compare, so it’s hard to judge off of Sonoma for this place.”

DOES IT SEEM PRETTY SEAMLESS BEING IN A HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS’ XFINITY CAR? IT’S BEEN A LONG TIME SINCE THEY’VE RACED IN THIS SERIES, SO I’M JUST CURIOUS WHAT THAT TRANSITION HAS BEEN LIKE? 

“I don’t really know what all went into the logistics of fielding a Hendrick Motorsports car in the Xfinity Series. I know they probably had some help from JR Motorsports and stuff like that, but I don’t know the extent of it. I can only speak from my vantage point and everything has been smooth. I went and sat in the car once last week and it fit first try. I showed up today, sat in it again to make sure nothing changed, and it fit fine again. The radios worked fine. That’s the stuff that I worry about when I go to run a car that I haven’t ran before and everything has been smooth, so far.

I have no doubt that with the depth of talent that Hendrick Motorsports has, that it’s going to be performing at a high-level. It should be easy-going.”

I KNOW THAT WITH THE CAR NUMBER AND THE PAINT SCHEME, IT’S A TRIBUTE TO RICKY HENDRICK. YOU NEVER GOT TO MEET RICKY. WHEN YOU’RE DRIVING A CAR THAT CERTAINLY HAS SIGNIFICANCE TO THE TEAM AND THE OWNER, BUT YOU DON’T HAVE AS MUCH OF THAT RELATIONSHIP. HOW DO YOU FEEL? IS THERE ANY EXTRA WEIGHT ON YOUR SHOULDERS AND HOW DO YOU TRY TO LEARN A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT RICKY SINCE YOU NEVER GOT THE CHANCE TO MEET HIM?

“Yeah, that’s a good question. I never got the chance to meet Ricky (Hendrick), but I’ve heard a lot of stories. When we were on vacation last year, we watched that documentary that they came out with years back. So I could kind of learn a little bit about him, his family and Rick and Linda (Hendrick) even more watching that. That was good. 

And then I think for me, having children myself makes me running this car much more important. I can’t imagine losing one of my children and what that would do to me. Talking to Rick on the phone a few different times, he’s so excited about seeing this paint scheme and number on the race track. I hope to see him here this weekend. I know he’s trying hard to get here and we have a good shot to win. I did tell him that it does add some more pressure to you driving this car because you know how special it is to their family and to Hendrick Motorsports as a whole.”

I WAS TALKING TO ONE OF YOUR CREW MEMBERS AND TEHRE ARE A NUMBER OF PEOPLE WORKING ON THE CAR THIS WEEKEND THAT DID WORK WITH RICKY (HENDRICK). I WAS CURIOUS IF ANY OF THEM HAD MENTIONED THAT TO YOU YET. 

“I hadn’t heard of that, but that’s really neat and I think that just adds to these races that we’re running with this car. It’s special for everybody at the race shop and anybody who’s ever had a relationship with Ricky (Hendrick) or worked at Hendrick Motorsports in the past. 

I knew we were going to have this paint scheme because it’s Rick (Hendrick) and he’s flipping the bill for it. But when I heard that it was going to be that number and paying tribute to Ricky, I think it just made everybody really excited and it was just the perfect thing to do.”

THIS WEEK, IT CAME OUT THAT YOU HAVE BEEN NOMINATED FOR AN ESPYS FOR DRIVER OF THE YEAR AGAINST MAX VERSTAPPEN, ALEX PALOU AND STEVE TORRENCE. HOW COOL WAS THAT TO BE INCLUDED IN THAT GROUP AND BE UP FOR THAT HONOR?

“It’s a great honor. I know there has been a lot of NASCAR drivers to win the award, so my fingers are crossed that I can win that. That would definitely be one of the coolest awards. Just being nominated alone is a great honor. But if I was to win it and beat a F1 World Champion, as well as the other champions, that would be a great honor. 

We’ll see. I hope. Max (Verstappen) had a great year, as well as everybody else. Hopefully they consider my dirt wins, as well; because if you factor in my dirt wins, then that would give me a better shot.”