NASCAR CUP SERIES
DARLINGTON RACEWAY
THE REAL HEROES 400
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPTS
MAY 17, 2020
CHEVROLET CAPTURES THREE OF TOP-FIVE FINISHERS AT DARLINGTON
Camaro ZL1 1LE Takes Five of Top 10 Overall
DARLINGTON, S.C. (MAY 17, 2020) – The 2020 NASCAR Cup Series returned today with The Real Heroes 400 at Darlington Raceway following a 10-week postponement due to the coronavirus pandemic. The oldest speedway on the circuit was selected as the place to restart the series, and the sport’s drivers and teams tackled ‘The Track Too Tough to Tame’ with masks, social distancing, remote broadcasting, and a fan free speedway.
Alex Bowman, driver of the No. 88 ChevyGoods.com NOCO Camaro ZL1 1LE and recent winner at Auto Club Speedway, finished second in the 293-lap, 400-mile race. Kurt Busch, was third across the stripe in his No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1 1LE, and Bowman’s teammate, Chase Elliott was fourth in the No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 1LE, to give Chevrolet three of the top-five finishing positions.
Tyler Reddick, in his first Cup career race at Darlington aboard the No. 8 Caterpillar Camaro ZL1 1LE, scored a seventh place finish, and Matt Kenseth, who made his return from retirement debut in the No. 42 Credit One Bank Chevrolet, was tenth in the final order.
To round out the top 5 finishers, Kevin Harvick (Ford) was the race winner and Denny Hamlin (Toyota) was fifth.
Darlington Raceway will again host the next event on the circuit this coming Wednesday evening, May 19th at 7:30 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on FS1, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 CHEVYGOODS.COM NOCO PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
THE MODERATOR: Alex Bowman, our runner‑up for today’s Real Heroes 400 at Darlington Raceway. Go ahead and tell us about your run out there, what it was like to be back behind the wheel of a real racecar.
ALEX BOWMAN: Yeah, it was great to be back. Obviously a little different, but felt really good to get back in the car.
We were really strong on short runs right off the bat. Just got tight as the runs went on. Freed it up quite a bit during the first two‑thirds of the race. Got the car pretty good, then I kind of leaned on the wall a little bit and hurt us there at the end.
Just a little bit off. I felt like I didn’t do a great job of knowing what I needed to be able to beat the 4 there on long runs at the end. I feel like if I could have gotten in front of him on the short run, I could have held him off with clean air. But I didn’t really know. I could get the car free right on the wall or get it tight by turning down off the wall a little bit. I didn’t really know which direction to go on the last change.
I have to do a better job there. But really happy with everybody at Hendrick Motorsports, ChevyGoods.com and NOCO, to come off a mini off‑season, have four cars that were strong, have a good day like that, it means a lot. Can’t wait to get back here on Wednesday.
THE MODERATOR: We’ll start with questions for Alex.
Q. Anything you could have done on the restart short of wrecking Harvick to take the lead?
ALEX BOWMAN: Yeah, I don’t know. Not be on the inside is really the only thing. I feel like watching it back, I could have been really aggressive and cut the corner into one a little bit and maybe cleared him. I was already pretty aggressive with that. Maybe I could have acted like I was going to clear myself and got him to lift. If he doesn’t lift, we both crash. In three and four I got loose under him. He did a good job of getting on my door, taking some side force away.
That’s tough. You’re racing one of the best in the business at one of the most technical, hard racetracks we go to. Just to have the opportunity to race him hard and clean like that was a lot of fun.
Q. Any added confidence going into today having signed your new contract this past week?
ALEX BOWMAN: Yeah, for sure. Obviously not having to talk about 2021 any more, just focus on the task at hand, going and contending for a championship is really good.
Got to thank Mr. Hendrick and everybody at HMS. Obviously my career has changed significantly since coming over to HMS. They gave me a big break. I’m very appreciative for that. Really enjoying it. Glad to have that squared away. Ready to go try to win some more races.
Q. What can you take away from this race on the racetrack that you can apply on Wednesday? Could you even bring the same car if you wanted to because you ran so well?
ALEX BOWMAN: I don’t know if you could bring the same car or not. I did get the wall a little bit, so they’d have to probably put at least a new right rear quarter panel on it. That gets pretty tricky on trying to turn stuff around. I don’t think we’ll bring the same car. Fairly certain we’ll bring a different car.
Everybody at HMS does a really good job of getting all our cars extremely close. I think we can take what we ran, have a pretty good idea of some adjustments we couldn’t do on pit road but I felt like would really help what I needed in the racecar there to be a little better on long runs and help me in some areas.
I’m really looking forward to it. I think we have a good game plan for it. Obviously our cars are really strong right now.
Q. What is it like for you at some of these tracks where you’re out front for the first time in your career, have these fast racecars at a track like Darlington? Are you learning new things about yourself, what you’re able to do? Is it surprising?
ALEX BOWMAN: Yeah, definitely. I’ve definitely found myself in some situations that I haven’t been in over the last couple years as our racecars have gotten stronger. I feel like I’m learning a lot.
It was really interesting trying to prepare for this race. I spent the day yesterday at my shop. I felt like I was doing something wrong all day, there was something that I needed to be doing different to prepare more. If I didn’t go to my shop, I was just going to sit at my home all day and do nothing. I hung out and cleaned my shop by myself all day.
It’s just been really interesting to be in different situations and learn from them as well as learn what I can do off the racetrack to better prepare myself. I feel like I’m in a pretty good spot with the off‑the‑racetrack stuff. It’s definitely been a big improvement here lately. Very appreciative of that, all the help that Josh Wise has been on that.
On‑track stuff, I feel like I’m learning every time out. There are some restarts I wish I would have gotten better, things I’d do a little differently. But I didn’t make any big mistakes today. Definitely things I could improve on, but it was a good, solid day.
Q. Josh Wise, you talked about your fast last week. Is that mental or a physical thing? Mental strength or physical strength?
ALEX BOWMAN: I think it’s definitely about both. Josh does a really good job of doing mental things without telling us that we’re doing mental things with all the drivers he works with. It’s been pretty interesting to catch onto some of the things he’s doing sometimes. It also kind of resets or body in the way that it burns food.
It was interesting to do. That’s the second time I’ve done one. We did one going into California. We won there. Maybe I run well if I don’t eat on Monday and Tuesday of race week. But, no, I think it’s been good.
He has single‑handedly improved my life on and off the racetrack quite a bit. Definitely appreciative for his help.
Q. It blows me away how much you guys normally are so connected with your PR people, the managers, people that get you from place to place. Even though this is a one‑day show, I saw talk before the race about drivers having to do some things by themselves. How did you coordinate before the race, also getting this Zoom conference set up in your motorhome?
ALEX BOWMAN: It’s pretty interesting. I ran Cup for a couple years really without a full‑time PR person. We kind of split somebody at BK, then at Tommy I just did my own thing.
It’s definitely interesting coming down here. The whole thing was way different than normal. But I feel like everybody at HMS did a really good job kind of making it easy on me at least. Kind of just got texts, had calendar things set up for when I needed to do whatever. It was pretty easy to do.
Appreciative for the hard work that goes into that because I’m sure it wasn’t easy for everybody else to figure it out and to set it up and tell me what I needed to do. Really all I had to do was look at my phone and know what to do.
Getting here four hours before the green flag, sitting in my bus all day, doing nothing, was really, really weird. Not being at the racetrack yesterday was really, really weird. As far as everything that Kelsey and everybody from HMS had me do, it was all pretty self‑explanatory and easy.
Q. I think there was some question as to could the Hendrick drivers pick up where you left off. Now with this long layoff, did everybody catch up, be as strong? Seemed like you guys still had the speed there today. Is your level of confidence soaring right now? You have to feel pretty good, I’m assuming, right now.
ALEX BOWMAN: Yeah, I felt great the way we started the season. Unloading in Las Vegas, I think we saw our racecars were going to be really strong. To continue that after we got shut down and firing everything back up, to continue the strength that we had means a lot.
I think it was an interesting time period, right? Guys couldn’t really be in their shops developing new stuff. You weren’t allowed to be in the wind tunnel, simulators, all that stuff. Everybody is still at home working on their notebooks, trying to piece together what they can do to make their racecars better.
In a sense it didn’t really give people maybe the complete opportunity to catch up, but it at least gave them some opportunity. I think for everybody at HMS to stay on top of things, improve our racecars, I think we didn’t just come back with what we had in Vegas and Fontana, I think we came back with something better. We need to keep working on it because everybody around us is constantly getting better, as well.
Q. What kind of a statement do you feel today was for Hendrick as a whole? With Wednesday coming right on the heels of today, do you feel like the teams that showed well today will likely show well again Wednesday night?
ALEX BOWMAN: Yeah, yeah, I think definitely the teams that were good today are going to be good on Wednesday night. The track is going to be a little different, probably a little more rubbered up. Hopefully the rain stays away. It’s definitely going to be different. The invert and everything is going to be quite a bit different.
I think the guys that were good are going to be good again. The invert might help some guys in clean air that we didn’t see this week.
Q. It seemed like today was a statement for all you guys at Hendrick.
ALEX BOWMAN: Yeah, absolutely. I feel like all the intermediates this season have been a big statement for us. The 9 was probably the best car in Vegas. We had a great car in Fontana. Then to come here and have four really fast cars, it’s awesome.
It’s really different than how we started the season the last two years. I feel like our cars, the biggest thing, when we’re off a little bit, we’re not running 20th any more. If we have a bad run, we fall back to eighth.
I think that shows a lot about the strength of HMS right now. We’re just going to keep gaining on it.
THE MODERATOR: Alex, congratulations on the run today. Good to see you back on the racetrack. Good luck on Wednesday night.
ALEX BOWMAN: Thanks, guys. Good to see you. Have a good one.
KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
THE MODERATOR: Kurt Busch, today’s third‑place finisher. Kurt, thanks for taking the time to join us today. Why don’t you run through your run out there in the first race back.
KURT BUSCH: Yeah, thanks for having me. Wow, this was a great feeling to be able to have such a good car with a good team at Chip Ganassi Racing. To be out there with no fans but yet I could feel them all the way through the television cameras. Out there racing hard, trying to put on a good show.
I think we were a third‑place car with the Monster Energy Chevy. We were a little tight to start the race. That pace that Kevin Harvick had for the first 10 laps was tough to beat. Bowman was really quick. His setup like from Fontana helped him here today. Had a really good run at Fontana.
So to dance with the Lady in Black, I’ll take a third‑place finish. It was great to be out there and to race 200 miles an hour, to feel g‑forces again, to have a day where I was out there working and being part of a team.
Again, just thanks to Matt McCall and everybody making good adjustments. Felt good all the way through, good teamwork.
THE MODERATOR: We’ll take questions for Kurt.
Q. You mentioned no fans there. What was it like walking to your car prior to the race without fans, then hanging out for a few minutes with pretty much no one around you?
KURT BUSCH: Yeah, there were those times when you’d look in the grandstands. When you see an empty seat, you feel a set of eyeballs that are coming through the camera lens. I knew FOX was going to do a tremendous job to broadcast our race, to have as many people feel like they were there today.
That’s the way I approached the race, was even just walking out on pit road, crew members with masks on, halfway you don’t recognize anybody until I got to my No. 1 guys. That was our core group. We went into battle today together and brought home a top five finish.
Had a chance to push for the lead. Pit stops were solid, adjustments were good, we just didn’t have enough. But again it’s a privilege to be out there racing in a situation like this. So thank you, NASCAR, for getting everything together. We’ll be back on Wednesday.
We always make fun of ourselves in a Monday meeting afterwards where, Oh, man, if you’re going back there tomorrow, what would you do? This is that moment. So I’m happy we’re going to jump in on some digital meetings and jump back here on Wednesday.
Q. Another strong day for the Chevys. Seems like as a whole what we saw earlier in the season carried over or picked right up. Do you feel pretty confident at this point in the next few races that Chevys are going to perform well?
KURT BUSCH: Yeah, I believe we’ve improved our Camaro tremendously. Hendrick has done what I would call a fuzz step better than us at Ganassi. We’re right in that box to be able to be in the top five. Now we’ve got to cross over and lead some laps, be consistent on pit road.
But all in all from the way our day started, buried 22nd off the draw, we’re going to be buried again back in the mid pack for when the race starts Wednesday. Man, just Matt McCall did a really good job. It’s a balance of Hendrick, our engines, the chassis from Ganassi, then the body with Chevrolet, everybody helping out.
Good to get back out there.
Q. When we talked earlier this week you admitted you were nervous getting in the car for the first lap. What were those nerves like? Did Ricky’s (indiscernible) help you settle down just a little bit?
KURT BUSCH: Yeah, it was awesome. The feelings, the nerves, the anxiety, the excitement, knowing we were in uncharted territory. I didn’t know who spun, didn’t know who had trouble.
Everybody did a real good job of settling in even on the next few restarts to race the racetrack. You have to do that here at Darlington. I would call today a success all the way around.
Q. Could you talk a little bit about the atmosphere when you got here today amongst your fellow drivers or in particular the Ganassi team? There seemed to be a great sense of people having sort of relief maybe of being back to work.
KURT BUSCH: Yeah, a whole different vibe today versus Atlanta. It was great to see everybody working, from the Goodyear side, the Sunoco side, the inspectors. Today had a really good vibe all the way around. People were smart, had good distance between each other, respect for what we had to do to perform.
Just the electric atmosphere, again, of something so new and something so uncharted that once we dropped the green flag, you got to zone in and focus on Darlington. Really a special time today around 3:30 to get belted in and do something we’ve never done as a sport.
Q. What does today mean for Chip Ganassi Racing? Both cars top 10. Your thoughts in regards to Matt getting a top 10 his first race back since 2018?
KURT BUSCH: That was awesome. When I got out of the car in the infield, they have an old school pylon of where the top‑10 finishers are with their car number. There’s old Matt Kenseth, No. 42, finishing 10th. That’s what he will do every day, all racetracks. I mean, that’s Matt. That’s what he does.
For him to balance out with Chad Johnston, Ganassi, everybody, first day out to get a top 10, that’s huge. That sets a big tone.
I have yet to be able to call Chip Ganassi or Rob Kauffman. I’ll be calling Matt Kenseth on my way home. It’s really a neat day for us to bounce back like that. For us to back up what we did at Fontana with a top five run, let’s keep this train rolling.
Q. You referenced because of the invert you’ll have to start further back Wednesday night. A hundred fewer miles. What is the challenge in trying to work your way up with less time?
KURT BUSCH: Today we went from I think 12th to fourth on one of our pit stops. It was amazing. Then we went from sixth to 10th. The pit crew has a huge responsibility at this racetrack. Today’s runs weren’t very long. It was very weird that a 400‑mile race didn’t have much more than a 40‑lap run. The way that the stages are set up for Wednesday, we could have a very, very long run in the stages.
We’ll see how things play out. Our car was really good I think on the long run, but we have to make adjustments to battle hard for a race win.
Q. What kind of statement does this make about NASCAR and its perseverance to ensure racing got back?
KURT BUSCH: What a tremendous effort. The collaborative effort from everybody from the NASCAR side, the officials, the team owners, the drivers, our television broadcast partners, radio. Everybody had to reach out of the normal, reach out of the box, do it with common sense, do it through all of these Zoom, Skype, Team Viewer exercises through the phone, through the computers. What a job. I’m very proud of the effort we put forth today.
To put things aside, this is a privilege to go out there and race racecars at 200 miles an hour and have a job during this pandemic. Have a great sponsor with Monster Energy, great manufacturer with Chevrolet. Thanks to everybody at Chip Ganassi Racing. I’m over the moon. It was exciting to race. We missed our fans not being in the grandstands, but we felt you through the TV and through the radio.
Q. Would you change anything personally to how you approach Wednesday, maybe not on the track but off of it?
KURT BUSCH: For me? We’ll see how my body feels tomorrow. Hydrate, eat, stretching. I felt like coming to the track four hours before the race start was a bit much. But I really enjoyed my time here in the motorhome, in my own self isolation, that zone to focus in. We didn’t know what was coming our way.
I don’t know what to change. I’m going to have all my gear where I’m going to be washing everything, sanitizing it, rolling back out to pit road on Wednesday with my driver bag, hop back in the No. 1 Monster Energy Chevy hopefully with a chance to win.
THE MODERATOR: Kurt, congratulations on the run today. Good luck again on Wednesday at The Track Too Tough to Tame.
KURT BUSCH: Thank you, everybody. Appreciate it.
Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.
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