NASCAR CUP SERIES
CHICAGO STREET RACE
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES
JULY 5, 2025
Ty Dillon, driver of the No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series practice and qualifying session at the Chicago Street Course.
Media Availability Quotes:
LAST WEEK WAS A BIG RACE FOR YOUR TEAM AND YOU HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO ADVANCE IN THE IN-SEASON CHALLENGE. MAYBE JUST HIT ON LIKE LAST WEEK IN GENERAL, BUT ALSO WHAT IT WOULD MEAN FOR YOUR TEAM TO BE ABLE TO PULL THAT OFF.
“Yeah, you know, obviously we’re quite overlooked going into that race, probably rightfully so coming in as a 32 seed against a one seed. But I think we’re pretty confident coming in. We’ve been running strong in a lot of these races and just haven’t been able to finish them out. And part of getting the recognition is finishing out the race is strong. It doesn’t really always matter if you’re running up front at most the race. Most people are just paying attention to the end result. Our race at Talladega earlier in the year was really strong and probably would have finished in the top 10 there. And I think that was a bit overlooked as well. And I knew we were going to be able to put pressure on Denny last week, and it wasn’t a place that he’s really pumped about racing around the last couple of years. But you know, he was going to put up a good fight by the end of the race. And I think whether he was in that crash or not, we were going to give him a good fight for knocking them out. So it was big for us. Our Kaulig Racing team, big for our sponsors, to have that moment, have kind of a fun moment after the race with Denny and his fans. Just carrying some good momentum in here to Chicago, a place that I’ve only raced at once. I came and spotted for my brother here last year in the rain. And so, I enjoy road course racing. I enjoy this unique style of it. And I think it’s another opportunity for our Sea Best team to go knock Brad out.”
TY, WITH THE POST-RACE MOMENT, THE INTERVIEW LAST WEEK, OBVIOUSLY THAT HELPED A LOT. IT WENT VIRAL, SOCIAL MEDIA TOOK OFF. JUST IN GENERAL, WHETHER IT WAS THAT MOMENT OR JUST BEATING DENNY IN GENERAL, CAN YOU EXPAND UPON JUST HOW MUCH YOU THINK THAT BROUGHT ATTENTION TO THE TEAM, TO THE SPONSORS THIS WEEK?
“Yeah, for sure. We’ve been getting a lot of comments, calls, and even walking around here in Chicago, I feel like the fan enthusiasm. I usually get a couple, hey, Ty, but like some more enthusiastic fan interaction already. So that’s been fun. You know, I think a lot of credit goes to Denny as well. He’s leaned into the Denny versus the world thing the last year or so and built up a bit of a villain role, and it’s been fun. And when drivers kind of lean into some kind of entertainment part of our roles, it opens up doors for us other guys to show some of our personality. And I think without Denny opening up to his fans a little bit or opening up to the sport a little bit, there’s not that opportunity for people to see me when we excel in a situation. And NASCAR also adding to it, doing the bracket challenge to add something interesting throughout the year that gives us a little chance to talk trash and go at each other a little bit and in a good fun (way). So, it was just a good moment. Everything culminated together. And then on our team’s credit, we’ve ran good all year. There just hasn’t been the moment that we’ve gotten a chance for everybody to really see it. We’ve got to continue to get better so that the broadcasters and you guys continue to talk good about us, and that only helps. And having a moment last week for sure helped that, and hopefully we continue that momentum.”
YOU SAID, ADMITTEDLY SO, YOU WERE KIND OF AN UNDERDOG GOING UP AGAINST DENNY LAST WEEK, BUT HE WENT ON THE SHOW AND SAID, HEY, LET TY HAVE HIS MOMENT. I’M NOT PISSED AT HIM. APPARENTLY, YOU CALLED HIM. WHAT WAS THAT MOMENT LIKE TALKING WITH DENNY AND WITH HIM? HOW DOES IT MAKE YOU FEEL FOR HIM TO GO ON THE SHOW AND SAY WHAT HE DID ABOUT, GIVE IT TO THIS GUY. HE DESERVES IT.
“Yeah, I sent him a text afterwards and just said, hey, man, just having fun with your friends. I hate that you got taken out. We didn’t get to race straight up as much as we probably wanted to, but he was like, man, I loved it. That was cool. And Denny gets it, you know, and I think that’s something for our drivers to continue to grow. Denny’s grown, I think, in his comfort level of who he is in the race car and around the track to where he’s leaning into that little, bit of a villain role, and I think we should all see that a little bit. I think we get so focused, as drivers on our own performance, and we beat ourselves up, but we don’t lean into the fact that so much of what we do isn’t just about us. It’s about the entertainment level that we provide to our fans, and Denny has done a great job of that, like I said, and given me also the opportunity when I excel, playing off of him to show some of my personality. I like trash talking. When I play sports, it’s kind of the fun thing that I do. Like, I don’t mean anything by it, but I like to see where people’s minds are inside the game, and so that was just a fun moment. He gets it, which is cool, and there’s a level of people that kind of understand there’s another level to this whole game once you’ve been around long enough that really matters as far as leaning into the fan side of this thing.”
SO, TWO QUICK ONES. WAS THAT REMARK PLANNED OR SPONTANEOUS?
It was planned when I knew he was eliminated. When I knew we had him, I told Mamba for the interview, I said, hey, give me a second after this interview, I got something to say. So, somewhat spontaneous, I guess you could call it that, but it was there. It was always there, and I just wanted to lean into it a little bit.”
AND HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR CHANCES AGAINST BRAD ON THE CHICAGO STREET COURSE?
Honestly, I feel good. You know, we’re going to do our best starting today and all through the race tomorrow to put pressure on him. This is a place that if you feel like you can pressure people, they can make mistakes. Obviously, you’re seeing in practice in Xfinity cars, a little bit more can get you in a lot of trouble. And I enjoy road course racing. We ran really good in Mexico City, another one of the races that we ran up front. A lot of people credit it to being good in the rain, but we also ran really well when it turned dry, too. We were probably going to be staring at a top ten run there. And I think on the last restart when Truex got spun, it knocked our right front down, and we never got another caution to come back. So we have some confidence coming from Mexico City. Obviously, this is a little bit of a different animal. It’s been a cool week for me. We have Will Brown come over from the V8 Supercar, so I’ve been studying as much as I can from that guy. He is just as solid, it seems, so far as SVG and knowing his way around getting these street courses. So just learning. Went to a humbling school this week underneath Will Brown, just learning from him. So we’re going to try to get better every time we get on the track this weekend and finish strong. I think that if we do what we know we’re capable of, we execute our race, don’t put ourselves in trouble, we’re going to put a lot of pressure on Brad to knock him out too.”
YOU TOUCHED ON IT A LITTLE BIT. YOU LOOK AT THE RESULTS OVERALL, MAYBE THEY’RE NOT WHERE YOU WANT, BUT RUNNING POSITION, THINGS LIKE THAT, YOU GUYS ARE MUCH MORE ATTUNED AND MORE COMPETITIVE THAN MANY PEOPLE REALIZE. HOW WOULD YOU KIND OF CHARACTERIZE YOUR SEASON ON THAT FRONT?
Yeah, it’s been frustrating in a sense, but the main ingredient, to future success is there and that’s the speed and the ability to run up front. Now the execution is something that we have to grow in, finishing out these races we’re running seventh in Talladega and run out of gas come to the white flag. We ran I guess twice at Bristol killed our finish there, get ran into at Mexico City probably would have finished somewhere in the top-12, I believe, if that thing runs out without losing a flat tire. I can go back to so many races where just silly things happened, and we made mistakes. Maybe it’s just being a young team all the way through driver, crew chief, and pit crew where we’ve just made mistakes that have not finished the races out. At Phoenix earlier in the year we’re running really strong, I speed on pit road probably take a fifth or sixth place finish and end up 14th. Just these opportunities that we got to grow in, and I think we’re getting there. I think last week was a good, testament to that and you know our goal is to make sure people know that and see how we continue to progress as a team. It’s been so fun working with this Kaulig group and, we’re only going to get better.”
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