Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Coke Zero Sugar 400 Media Availability — Daytona International Speedway
Friday, August 28, 2026

The RFK Racing trio of Brad Keselowski, Chris Buescher and Ryan Preece stopped by the Daytona International Speedway infield media center before qualifying this afternoon to talk about their respective Chase scenarios. A complete transcript of that Q&A session follows:

BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 Consumer Cellular Ford Mustang Dark Horse – YOU TECHNICALLY HAVE A CHANCE STILL, SO WHAT IS YOUR MINDSET KNOWING RYAN IS IN CONTENTION AS WELL? “I think there are three scenarios we see at RFK and, obviously, with Chris being here, four, which is one car is locked in. My car needs a miracle and then there’s Ryan’s position in driver points and Ryan’s position in owner’s points. Those are the four different ways I look at this. Ryan’s position in owner’s points is really close and, ultimately, that’s how the money is paid out, so wearing my owner hat, we’re paying a lot of attention to that. And driver points is not as close, but still close enough with a great day that he could point his way into it, so it’s really important for us that we put our best foot forward. Chris, having nothing to really lose in this race, although an opportunity to move up a few spots in points, myself needing a lot of help to get anywhere, and then Ryan just needing probably to have a solid day to get us in in owner’s points and a pretty good day to get us in with his driver’s points, and I think that’s kind of the way I see it right now.”

RYAN PREECE, No. 60 Kroger/OIKOS Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT IS YOUR FOCUS FOR YOU GOING IN? “Be on offense. Brad pretty much explained it to you guys – the driver’s and the owner’s side – but, for me, when I come into this weekend I just think about trying to win stages and win the race. That ultimately, no matter what situation it is, we would get our way into the playoffs, so, selfishly, I’d like to be in on the driver’s side, but I am fully aware, and I’ve been in the car owner points race before. Ultimately, I would love to get both in. I completely understand the situation and know that having a great day will get us in on the owner’s side, but the goal going into it before everything starts is to try and do both. There’s a lot of unknowns right now, so just trying to be as prepared as possible.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI CONTINUED – THE HOUSTON TEXANS CAME TO RFK ON THURSDAY. WERE YOU THERE AND WAS THAT HARD FOR YOU WITH BEING A LIONS FAN? “I would say that, one, no we were not there. We had an event with our friends at Ford for all three of us drivers, so we weren’t able to attend, but I think RFK has made a big effort this year to engage more in hospitality and unique opportunities. The Houston Texas, I believe, were in town for a preseason game against the Panthers, so looking for those opportunities to do things that are fun for our people and fun for the fans of our sport and both sports – football and NASCAR. So, those kind of crossover opportunities are kind of the high tides that I think can lift all ships. It looked like they had a lot of fun from the videos I saw, and I was glad to see that, and then somewhat selfishly we’re always hopeful that there’s somebody on that team that sends a message to the next elite athlete as we look to the future of where our sport is going on pit road, that’s critical to our health is continuing to recruit those personnel. It’s a fun thing to do. No, I didn’t have any issues with bringing in someone from the Texans. I’m not a hater. And I will say that in full credit, when we re-did our human performance facility, we did get a lot of help from the current Lions GM at the time and that was great, so there’s some good relationships there.”

RYAN PREECE CONTINUED – HOW COULD THE UNPREDICTABILITY OF THE PACKAGE AFFECT THE MINDSET THIS WEEKEND? “I feel like, Brad you’re probably gonna give a really good answer on this and, to me, it’s try and win. No matter what. Every time, whether it’s Xfinity, Trucks, Cup, you think about Daytona, Talladega as anyone’s game. There’s a lot of strategy. Brad’s done a really good job when it’s come to getting out front, leading lanes and doing all of those things right, and you’ve got to have some luck on your side, but, for me, the mindset is win. The mindset is be the guy up front controlling lanes or pushing. That’s all you can do because you can get wrecked leading or you can get wrecked riding in 30th. I’ve had both happen, so I’d rather be the one that’s trying to lead the race and not playing defense.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI CONTINUED – WITH IT BEING LIKELY ONE OR TWO CARS GET IN, TO WHAT DEGREE AT THAT POINT DOES THE WHOLE ORGANIZATION START TO LOOK AT IT AS DEVOTING RESOURCES AND EFFORT TOWARD THE ONE OR TWO CARS THAT HAVE A PATH TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP? “I would probably first start by answering that with we have commitments for all three teams that we have to honor, and we have to put our best foot forward. The idea that we’re gonna strip players from one to help another doesn’t really sit all that well. That said, I think Chris’ team is very strong and there’s not really a reason to do that anyway, so that’s kind of the way I look at that. Ultimately, if our cars don’t make it, if the other two cars don’t make it outside of Chris, then we still expect him to go out and compete for race wins, and I don’t think that changes at all. Obviously, we still want to see the 17 car and Chris’ team have their best opportunity, but I don’t think there’s anything that stands out right now as a limiting factor to do that, that we have the ability to move around.”

RYAN PREECE CONTINUED – THE POLE IS THE GOAL TODAY. WITH THIS DIFFERENT PACKAGE, THOUGH, HAVE YOU SIMULATED IT? WILL YOU FEEL ANY DIFFERENCE TODAY IN QUALIFYING? “I hope not. I hope I can just hold a pretty wheel and we can put it on the pole. That would be ideal. In the past, I think stage one has always been a question for a lot of us because of fuel mileage and all those other things, where it feels like stage one is pretty straightforward now, so if you are in control of the race, it’s ideal to not give it up and if you’re on the pole, I shouldn’t say it’s necessarily easy to win that stage, but it’s yours to give away. I’m sure that’s a strong statement, but I believe in it.”

CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Fifth Third Bank Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT RACES ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO IN THE CHASE? “I was thinking late or not it didn’t matter if I was here. This has been easy. Darlington. From the get-go, Darlington has been a race that we’ve all run really well at and been in contention to fight for wins. Brad’s win there was not long ago. It’s a racetrack that I’ve always loved. It’s been one of my favorite racetracks. I tell people a lot that we always like the places that we run good at. I’ve liked Darlington even when I didn’t run good at that place, so I think that does say something for that facility, so right off the bat we’re gonna say that’s one we’ve got a great shot at. Really, when you look at the races remaining, including this one here tomorrow night, we have a lot of really good racetracks for our organization. I would say that we’ve got our mile-and-a-half has been extremely strong so with Kansas, Charlotte not being the Roval this time around, I’m actually happy about that even though the Roval was statistically very strong for us. I think that the oval can be as well. Phoenix has been great. I love Homestead. There’s really no tracks coming up – Bristol is my favorite track in the Chase. We don’t have to sit here and say we’ve got just one or two circled as opportunities. We feel like we have an opportunity everywhere we go. I’d say for me personally, Martinsville has probably been my weakest racetrack out of everything that we have coming at us and that’s pretty deep into the Chase, and what we’ve learned from the other two here, and what I’ve figured out from the driver’s side from the other two, our first race at Martinsville this year was shaping up to be a whole lot stronger, but we just had a freak deal happen there. I’m optimistic about that one as well, so I think that’s a long-winded answer of saying I don’t think we have to circle any specific one.”

THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS YOU SEEMED TO BE THE LAST ONE BUMPED OUT ON POINTS. HOW IS IT THIS YEAR KNOWING YOU ARE LOCKED IN? “That is not lost on me because this has been the last two races over the last two years that somebody comes at you from the top of the ropes and puts it down on the mat. It’s certainly rewarding to not be in that situation, to be right on the bubble and not have that fear of a straight-up unknown. I think it was two years ago where the unknown came from 30th or maybe 31st in points to knock us out. That hurts. So, to have a year that we’ve had, that’s been very consistent and very strong in a lot of places and not a fantastic year, but a very good year, knowing that should put us in the Chase, we are in the Chase and we don’t have that threat from a racetrack that can produce those wild one-off winners throughout a season. It is certainly nice and it’s a testament to the work that’s been done all season. It’s what we talked about in preseason is we’re gonna be able to make the Chase and it just depends on doing what we’ve always done and being consistent and not having the weeks where you fall out of it – trying not to have the wrecks through the year, trying not to give anything away. If we have a chance to run seventh on a day, it’s to make sure that you figure out how to run fifth and not 35th because of something that was just way too large of a Hail Mary. We want to get a little better. We want to be in the hunt to move up and be competing for wins as we finish out the season, and there’s a whole lot of tracks that we get to look ahead to. We had to come into Daytona and say, ‘Yeah, there’s really nothing for us to lose here.’ We have a little bit of points that we can gain with a good day, good strategy, good stage points whatever that may be, but we know how well our three cars work together when we go speedway racing, so we’ll be around each other, which typically means if one of us has a good day, the others are earning points as well. So, I think we go into this thing saying we’re all each other’s best friends at this race like normal, and that has a lot of potential for the best possible outcome for all of us.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI CONTINUED – TO COME INTO THIS WEEKEND WHERE POTENTIALLY ONLY ONE TEAM MAY MAKE THE CHASE. HOW DO YOU VIEW THAT BECAUSE EARLY IN THE YEAR ALL THREE OF YOU WERE IN POSITION? “Yeah, you’re right. If you back up to April or May we had all three cars pretty solidly in the playoffs and had a weak summer, particularly with the 6 car. That was less than ideal. I think there are some key learnings from that and certainly we won’t stand still on that. We just want to be better. We want to compete to be a tier one team and tier one teams put all of their cars in the playoffs. I don’t think we’re far off from being able to do that, but at some point you either are or you aren’t, so we’ve got to make sure that we get there.”

CHRIS BUESCHER CONTINUED – WHAT GIVES YOU THE ENTHUSIASM TO FEEL YOU CAN CONTEND FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP FROM WHERE YOU WILL BE STARTING? “We’ve got a lot of really smart people back at RFK who have been able to run through scenarios and what these seasons would have looked like under the current format and kind of have a decent understanding of what your year needs to look like to truly be in the hunt for a championship. We haven’t quite been there. We kind of got to that fifth place in points and held on for a little bit and we also had a bit of a weak summer and with that slid back a little bit and now we have to kind of scratch and claw our way back up. It’s right there. It’s not a whole lot of points in between – really a swing one way or the other plus two, minus two – so we’re still in the hunt for that. When it does reset and you get into the Chase, it’s gonna take better days than we’ve had. It’s gonna take truly competing for wins to set you up to be in the hunt for a championship as it should. You come down to it and you should be winning races and having those stellar days that set you up to be able to hoist the trophy up at the end of the season as well. We’ve got some work to do, but we see it as an opportunity to move forward from where we’re currently at. We know we can because we’ve been there through this year already, but it’s also one of those you know you need to be seeded probably somewhere no worse than sixth to truly have a shot at it and that’s gonna be tough as well. We’re close. We’re in the hunt. We’re gonna do all we can to put more points on the board tomorrow night and certainly that’s a great opportunity for us because we’ve got really great race cars here through the years – lots of opportunities to win races and been able to win here and been really close at other times, so we need a couple of things and the speedway Gods to look positive on our days and if we can do that, we can certainly have a great outcome tomorrow evening.”

NASCAR Cup Series
Daytona International Speedway
Team Chevy Driver Quotes
August 28, 2026

Ross Chastain, driver of the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, and Shane van Gisbergen, driver of the No. 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series regular season finale weekend at Daytona International Speedway.

Media Availability Quotes:

Shane, with the points positioning you’re in, what’s the game plan for this weekend?

Van Gisbergen: “Yeah, there’s a lot going on. Not really sure how it’s going to play out. I think, you know, 30 points is a lot until it’s not, until he (Ryan Preece) has two good stages, then we’re probably under a lot of pressure. So, yeah, as everyone knows, there’s a lot of anticipation, I guess, around the new rules and how the cars are going to be. I think we plan to be pretty conservative, and then see how his race is going and react to that. If he’s scored well in Stage One, we probably need to get amongst it in Stage Two and start pushing the issue a bit. It’s going to be fun. It’s a pretty cool feeling to have the pressure on us and see how we go.”

Can you compare the pressure that you’re under, the feeling of the championship kind of, because it’s got to be a different feeling, right? You’re not just coming for a race and going for the win, you’ve got the Chase to focus on. Can you compare that to when you were in Supercars? Is there a comparison, or is it just totally different? Do you maybe have some lessons that you could bring over from there?

Van Gisbergen: “I mean, it’s definitely different. I’ve had it come down to the last round for the win of a championship and this definitely does not compare to that. But there’s still definitely a lot of pressure. You know, it’s a whole year’s work that’s gone into this. Every week, we’ve sat in our Monday morning meetings analyzing the cutline, how many points we need per race average and what the gap is. That’s been a massive focus all year. So, yeah, still a lot of pressure. It makes our year if we get in, and then once we’re in the Chase, you know, it’s only up from there. It’ll be a fun 10 weeks or so if we get in.”

Ross, to start, to come in here and not have a shot to be in the Chase this year, what is that like as you just look at what this season has been like and where you guys are?

Chastain: “We definitely scheduled this media availability pre-being eliminated out of contention, but I wanted to stay true to our word though and come in here (laughs).”

Shane, on the flip side of that, if somebody had said to you at the start of the year you’d be the only Trackhouse car represented in the Chase, what would your reaction have been? Would you have taken that bet?

Van Gisbergen: “Yeah, of course I would have taken that. But obviously, you want the whole team to be in because that means the team is doing well. The reality is that we have struggled a bit, but I’m happy on the No. 97 side, personally, to have matched Ross (Chastain). We know how good he is on the ovals, and I think I’ve made a big jump this year to be able to match him most weeks. And obviously Connor (Zilisch), as well, is a huge talent, so to be comparable to those guys has been really cool for me this year.

But yeah, I want all three Trackhouse cars to be in. That would mean, as a team, we’re doing the right things, and we don’t quite seem to be there at the moment. There’s a lot of hard work and frustration going on, but we definitely need to improve.”

I know in the past, you’ve kind of wanted less chatter on the radio during races, but with you guys kind of keeping track of where Ryan Preece is, how do you balance that? Do you kind of want occasional updates on where he’s running compared to you or what the point situation is?

Van Gisbergen: “Yeah, I’d probably ask for that after the first stage. I think there’s going to be a lot going on at the start of the race, trying to figure out how the cars are handling, what people are doing and what techniques they’re using to be good. But yeah, certainly if it comes down to it in Stage Three; yeah, I’d want to know where he is and what’s happening. Especially, as I said, if he’s had two good stages and that points gap’s evaporated, we’ll be really mindful of where he is.”

Shane, there must be some comfort in knowing what a great speedway racer Ross is, and Connor has certainly had success on the big tracks too. Does that kind of give you a little bit extra something of goodwill as you’re racing?

Van Gisbergen: “Yeah, I’ve certainly learned a lot from Ross on these type of tracks, and especially here at the start of the year, it was pretty awesome. We were sort of controlling both lanes for a period of the race in the DAYTONA 500, which was cool. And then if it does race like Atlanta, we’ve led at Atlanta a few times and managed that. The way Ross controls the lanes, moves his car around and gives air to the following car; I think I’ve learned a lot, and hopefully, we can work together well, especially at the end if we’re under pressure. So yeah, it’d be pretty fun trying to make that. It’s cool to have the attention on us and us being the focus point, but it’s easy saying the words, too. It’s going to be hard to execute it when everyone’s trying to do it as well.”

About General Motors

General Motors (NYSE:GM) is driving the future of transportation, leveraging advanced technology to build safer, smarter, and lower emission cars, trucks, and SUVs. GM’s Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC brands offer a broad portfolio of innovative gasoline-powered vehicles and the industry’s widest range of EVs, as we move to an all-electric future.

GM Motorsports, including the Cadillac Formula 1® Team develops and proves advanced technologies in the most demanding environments, accelerating innovation in performance, safety, efficiency, and electrification for its production vehicles. Cadillac Racing is one of the leading manufacturers in the IMSA and FIA World Endurance Championships (WEC). Chevrolet competes in single seaters in the US IndyCar series, and in NASCAR with multiple team partners and drivers. Corvette customer teams compete in GT series across the globe including IMSA and WEC. Learn more at GM.com.

NASCAR Cup Series
Daytona International Speedway
Team Chevy Driver Quotes
August 28, 2026

 Carson Hocevar, driver of the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series regular season finale weekend at Daytona International Speedway.

Media Availability Quotes:

You’ve obviously been known for being willing to make an aggressive move. Do you think the uncertainty around the new superspeedway package kind of plays into that?

“Yeah, I think so. I think it’ll help, if anything. I was just pumped we had less meetings, less data to go off of and I didn’t fall asleep in a meeting this week, so I was pumped about that. That’s progress right there.”

I was at your guys’ shop on Wednesday talking to Michael McDowell. And he said that going into this season, you said that you wanted to be the guy pushing at super speedways, whereas he wanted to be the guy up front. Then that seemed to have changed after you won at Talladega and had that opportunity out front leading. So what is your mindset now? Are you still wanting to be the pusher in the last couple of laps or do you want to be out front kind of controlling everything?

“No, I still want to be the pusher. Talladega is a little different though. I mean, there’s a lot of differences. Like here, I want to be a pusher. Talladega with what we have for a package, you definitely want to be leading. You don’t want to be, you know, it’s a tough pass there. And then Atlanta, I don’t know what I’m doing. Just left, right, everywhere. You don’t even need to push anybody there. But here, I feel most comfortable pushing. And just for whatever reason, I feel like we just go faster with myself pushing, whether it’s my car or me. It’s advantageous for me to be pushing because it’s just going to help me.”

At the Daytona 500, you were leading right till the very end, and then you weren’t. And I’m wondering, because you weren’t leading at the end at Talladega until you were, was there something you learned here, perhaps, or something you studied from watching what happened at Daytona that you were able to kind of put in the mind and use it to your advantage to get that Talladega win?

“Yeah, well, when I got spun at Daytona, there was no one to the left of me. And I almost got spun at Talladega, but there was someone to the left of me, and it spun them, and it didn’t spin me. So I figured, if you’re going to get spun, just have someone to the left of you and you can keep it straight. And that was the difference maker, which, ironically enough, I kind of laughed and thought after that last caution that we were going to win, just because what Jeff Dickerson’s taught me is that superspeedway racing gods exist.

The 43 was behind me at the DAYTONA 500, the 47 was pushing me, and I spun off the 43. And at Talladega, the 47 pushed me and I got loose and wrecked the 43. So just a little bit of irony there. So hopefully we have– I don’t know, hopefully I picked up enough trash, went to church on time and everything that I built up good karma and hopefully we’ll be fine this week.”

You’re currently 66 points back from Christopher Bell, who sits fifth in the standings. If all goes well, you could potentially move up to fifth in the standings. So what would that mean for you to kind of have a bounce back weekend here?

“I don’t know. How many points is that? It’d be worth about 35 points. That’s how good it would feel when the Chase starts, I guess. I don’t know. I mean, he’d have to wreck pretty early and I’d have to pretty much max out to make that happen. So I don’t know. Maybe I’ll buy a lottery ticket and see which one hits.”

Were you shocked to hear that you are the driver with the number one amount of retail sales in NASCAR?

“I was a little shocked. I was appreciative of it, for sure. But yeah, I was a little shocked. I would say I’m more shocked that I’m in the top-five for at-track sales because we don’t have my own merch trailer or anything, and there’s limited options there. They do a good job selling and pushing them out. But I was more shocked of that, honestly. But for me, I feel like we’re just kind of getting started, so hopefully that trend can continue. But for me, I’m just appreciative of that. That means a lot to me.”

Do you think that maybe there’s a realistic chance that you could be in the running for the most popular driver?

“I mean, it’s possible. It’s possible, for sure. But I feel like if anybody should get it this year, I think it should be Kyle (Busch). So maybe I’ll wait for next year.”

What do you want to hear from your spotter? What do you want to know because of certainly these unknowns? You’re going to figure some things out in the car, but he’s also going to have the wider view. What are you going to ask him for and would it be any different from any other drafting type of race.

“Truthfully, I hope he’s just saying, ‘get all the way to the line, congrats, you just won Daytona’. That’s what I’m hoping to hear. But I don’t know. Honestly, I just hope to hear that it was a good or bad move. I’ll have probably more of a gauge of the draft and the feel of it than he would, honestly, from the outside. But it’s just about us getting on the same page of everything. Hopefully when he says that was a bad move or good move, we’re lining up in our thought process.”

You said in a post earlier this week, “I’m back” heading into this weekend. So how important is it to have a good weekend this weekend to reset for the chase?

“I think for us, we’ve had speed a little bit. But ultimately, we have to just get comfortable, or me especially. I feel like I take a lot of responsibility of it. Our expectations probably shifted, too, quickly when we were about fifth as the top Chevy, and I felt like I was trying to all of a sudden go faster than we need to go. So for me, it’s that we need to just go back to just running and laughing that somehow we were up in the top-five in points. Laughing that we’re up front and enjoying it, rather than have to try and take cars that just aren’t as fast as seemingly the Toyota’s right now, or at flat tracks right now, the Penske cars.

For us, I think this is our strong suit, so I’m excited for it. Hopefully, we can just show speed, be a contender, and play to our strengths. There’s a lot of mile-and-a-halves coming up that are good for us, too. But ultimately, we just kind of need to go back to how I want to race and not put as much pressure on trying to force anything to happen, really.”

I wanted to ask you how different life feels coming to Daytona this time versus when you came in Daytona. So much has happened for you. I think it’s fair to say that your personality is more out there, that you are more out there in general. Does life feel a lot different six months later?

“It does. I don’t know what aspects feel that much differently. It just all feels differently, which I’ve enjoyed. And it’s been fun. And yeah, I mean, you get to walk a little taller, which I’m already tall. But you get to walk a little bit firmer with how we’ve ran this year and everything that we have clicking for us right now. I think we all do that as a company, too. I think we’re really early in this, kind of, plan they have developed for our race team and how fast we can go. So, I’m confident in the trajectory. We get to walk a little bit prouder knowing that we’re pretty fast right now. But tomorrow, the next day and every day after, hopefully we just continue to get a little bit better every time. I’ve always tried to enjoy it because it’s been a dream of mine to do it. I’ve watched other drivers do podcasts, interviews or whatever and talk about how they just were miserable the whole time. I was like, that doesn’t sound very fun. I just try not to have that happen so in 20-30 years and I’m telling those stories, I can be like, we had so much fun… here’s all the stories we got.”

About General Motors

General Motors (NYSE:GM) is driving the future of transportation, leveraging advanced technology to build safer, smarter, and lower emission cars, trucks, and SUVs. GM’s Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC brands offer a broad portfolio of innovative gasoline-powered vehicles and the industry’s widest range of EVs, as we move to an all-electric future.

GM Motorsports, including the Cadillac Formula 1® Team develops and proves advanced technologies in the most demanding environments, accelerating innovation in performance, safety, efficiency, and electrification for its production vehicles. Cadillac Racing is one of the leading manufacturers in the IMSA and FIA World Endurance Championships (WEC). Chevrolet competes in single seaters in the US IndyCar series, and in NASCAR with multiple team partners and drivers. Corvette customer teams compete in GT series across the globe including IMSA and WEC. Learn more at GM.com.

NASCAR Cup Series
Daytona International Speedway
Team Chevy Driver Quotes
August 28, 2026

 Daniel Suarez, driver of the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series regular season finale weekend at Daytona International Speedway.

Media Availability Quotes:

Are you officially on baby watch yet, or are you a few weeks out?

“It is funny you ask that question because we were just talking that last night I had my official hospital tour, and I’m ready to drive as quick as possible, whenever the moment presents. Hopefully I’m home for that. I already know which floor I have to go, where I can park, where I’m going to chill, where I’m going to stress. I had an hour-and-a-half tour last night.

I think it’s considered already full term because we are getting into 38 weeks, so it can happen anytime. She can call me right now and say, hey, you have to come back. We’ll see how things happen. Hopefully, things work out for me to be there.”

Speaking of that, what’s the plan? Do you have a plan to leave the team and have a backup driver? Are you going to be here? What’s the strategy?

“Honestly, I haven’t really had a conversation with anyone about this besides with myself. My strategy, in my mind, is that if baby was coming like right now, I think it will be okay for me to skip qualifying. That’s just me saying that, just because it’s a superspeedway. Any other weekend, I don’t think that would be the case, especially being in the Chase. If it’s Saturday or Sunday, I think it’s going to be tough. Julia and I, we already had a conversation, but hopefully it’s a Monday through Friday baby (laughs).”

Do you have any idea who the team may have as a standby?

“I have no idea. Do you want to sign up? We’re looking for someone. He has to speak Spanish now (laughs).’

With these new superspeedway changes for tomorrow, do you have any idea of what the racing will be like potentially?

“Personally, I love unknowns. I love the challenge of something new. I find that actually quite exciting. I don’t think anyone really knows. We study data and we study information, but the reality is that – it has happened several times in the past where we study all the different things and then sometimes the numbers, the data, it doesn’t match exactly with real life.

My mind is just to be open-minded; try to have fun and try to adapt. If we get lucky, we’re going to have one lap in qualifying, if it doesn’t rain. And then, we go tomorrow for racing. Nobody’s going to know what to expect. I think that we have a great group of engineers that have worked very hard during the week to try to prepare for as much as adjustability on the car as possible to be prepared for any scenarios. But the reality is that we don’t really know. We don’t know if it’s going to be a super tight pack or if everyone is going to be spread out. We don’t really know. We’re going to have to wait and see.”

Can you just kind of describe your comfort level now? Last year, the system was so different, as far as how you got into the playoffs. But you did this on merit. You did this on just the type of numbers that you put out. To be able to do that, what’s your comfort level now going into the Chase?

“Yeah. It’s everything about the people. You have to have the right people around you and everything clicking at the right time, as well as the right manufacturer time. Right now, we know that Chevrolet has been working very, very hard to try to improve our packages, especially on short tracks. Overall, I feel pretty good about our team. We know our strengths, and we also know our weaknesses. We’ve been working hard and trying to improve those weaknesses.

We still have a lot to improve. I believe that we’re a very young team still with a bright future ahead, but we’re still very young. Jonathan, my engineer and I, we talk about this all the time that him and I, we don’t have a notebook built yet. Most of the racetracks, 90% of the racetracks that we’ve been this year, it’s our first time ever working together. We’re building the notebook and I promise you that the second time around on some of these tracks, we’re going to be better just because now we have an experience, not just basing things off previous experience with a different driver, with a different package and things like that. I believe that the potential of this team is big and we are only seeing the beginning of it.”

You’re wrapping up your first regular season with Spire tomorrow night and you’re already locked in the Chase. What has the move to Spire and the success you’ve had with the 7 team meant for you at this point in your career?

“It’s not a secret that last year, the 7 team was struggling and Daniel Suarez was struggling in different places, in different situations, with different circumstances. But we both were struggling. I know how good I am. I know what I’m capable of and Spire Motorsports is the same way. They have great people and they have a good structure. They have a good system. They knew that they can make the team successful. When we started having conversations at the end of last year, about this year, I knew that they had the pieces of the puzzle within the team to be successful, but we needed to build the puzzle. We worked very hard for that. Obviously, it’s been a lot of fun to see some of the results of that hard work. With that being said, we still have a long ways to go. We’re not winning on a weekly basis yet. We still have a long ways to go.

I like to be very honest with myself. I would be lying if I told you that right now we’re championship favorites. We’re not, but we are working towards that. We just have to keep pushing, keep learning, keep getting better and stay humble because it’s very easy to not stay humble in this sport. I have seen many horror stories when it comes to that. We just need to keep moving forward.”

Coming into this weekend with the aero changes, should there have been practice of some form, even just a few minutes, for everybody to get a feel for it?

“That’s a great question, Kelly. But I think that even if there was practice, I feel like NASCAR knows this — even if there was practice, I feel like it would have helped, yes. But we’re not going to experience what we’re going to experience tomorrow night because there were going to be packages of maybe 10 cars, 12 cars, 15 car max, and that’s kind of like maybe. And tomorrow, it’s going to be 36, 38 of us. It would have been nice, but I don’t think that we’re going to learn everything that we’re going to learn tomorrow. Sometimes a little bit is better than nothing, but who knows?

Like I said, personally, I believe very highly on my engineers. I feel like I have a great group of guys, and they’ve been working very hard all week long to try to make our car as versatile as possible because we don’t know if the adjustments are going to ask for left or right. So just trying to be versatile is going to be important because there is going to be a lot of cars, especially if we don’t qualify today, there’s going to be a lot of cars making adjustments in Stage One tomorrow.”

About General Motors

General Motors (NYSE:GM) is driving the future of transportation, leveraging advanced technology to build safer, smarter, and lower emission cars, trucks, and SUVs. GM’s Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC brands offer a broad portfolio of innovative gasoline-powered vehicles and the industry’s widest range of EVs, as we move to an all-electric future.

GM Motorsports, including the Cadillac Formula 1® Team develops and proves advanced technologies in the most demanding environments, accelerating innovation in performance, safety, efficiency, and electrification for its production vehicles. Cadillac Racing is one of the leading manufacturers in the IMSA and FIA World Endurance Championships (WEC). Chevrolet competes in single seaters in the US IndyCar series, and in NASCAR with multiple team partners and drivers. Corvette customer teams compete in GT series across the globe including IMSA and WEC. Learn more at GM.com.

NASCAR Cup Series
Daytona International Speedway
Team Chevy Driver Quotes
August 28, 2026

Austin Hill, driver of the No. 33 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and the No. 21 Chevrolet Camaro SS, met with the media in advance of running double duty in the NASCAR Cup and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series at Daytona International Speedway.

Media Availability Quotes:

Did you have a timeline of moving up to Cup next year? If that wouldn’t have happened, did you have a personal timeline where you would want to move up to Cup? And how close was it to that?

“Yeah, that’s a really good question. I would say I had been wanting to go to Cup for a little while now, but I wanted to make sure it was the right opportunity for me and not just jumping… any Cup car, and just to say I’m a cup driver, right? And that was something that I have always thought of for a very long time. I didn’t just want to jump in any type of Cup car just to say I’m racing in Cup now. I wanted to do it for the right organization, for the people that I wanted to be surrounded by. And I’ve always thought that since being at RCR for the last five years now, that that was the organization I wanted to be at.

“You know, I was kind of just biding my time. At the time, I didn’t know for sure what Kyle was going to be doing going into ’27. Obviously, there was a lot of speculation, rumors, all those things, and so I didn’t know what he was doing. Then with everything that’s transpired over the last several months, things quickly changed, and I had to kind of question myself on like, did I still want to do this? Do I still want to be in the Cup car, did I want to be taking the place of Kyle Busch? A lot of things were going through my head, and then I just kind of kept reminding myself that someone was going to be in the car. You know, they weren’t going to just retire that team. Someone was still going to run in that car, and so I just was like, ‘Well, I’ve been here for five years.’ You know, I feel like I’ve been extremely loyal to RCR. And roles reversed, kind of the same way. So I thought this was a great opportunity for me. If it wouldn’t have happened and they would have gone a different route, that would have been totally fine, too. I would have stayed in the O’Reilly Series and stayed in the 21 car for another year or two and just seen where that progressed and where that went. I haven’t been rushing it by any means on trying to get to the Cup level, but yeah here we are now. We’re going into the rest of the season trying to learn as much as I can, trying to balance both series and be ready and prepared as I can going into 2027.”

How nerve-wracking is that to know that there’s a possibility you’ll take a green flag never having raced this package here?

“Yeah, so qualifying, if it gets rained out, that’s not a huge concern to me because they have the car set up so much different in qualifying. Honestly, the car doesn’t drive very good in qualifying. It doesn’t matter if you’re the guy that’s sitting on the pole or you’re the guy that’s 36th, 38th on the grid. They just don’t drive very good in qualifying here. You know, they have them as low as they can possibly get them. They’re hitting the stops, the limiters, all those things, and so they kind of move around a lot. The car drives a lot different when you are in the draft and you are not in qualifying trim. So not having that lap really doesn’t concern me. What does concern me is that it is a totally different package, and we aren’t practicing. There’s a lot of different agendas. You’re going to have guys that are fully trimmed out for just straight raw speed, and you’re going to have guys that are full downforce and want to have a lot of balance in their car. We’re not going to know until that green flag drops on Saturday night what’s going to be the right case scenario. The only thing I am a little bit excited about with the Cup package is that from everything that I’ve been told and all of the data that I’ve gotten from GM, it seems to be as close as it can get to the O’Reilly side, and that makes me really excited. So I’m hoping that’s how it all is. But until the green flag drops, none of us are really going to know.”

What would it mean for you to get your fifth O’Reilly Series win here and potentially your first Cup Series win here, and potentially sweep the weekend?

“Yeah, I think that opportunity is definitely there. We’ve been good here at Daytona. Daytona’s been good to us, right? There’s been situations where we’ve won a race here and we didn’t think it was going to happen. The next thing you know, we just kind of find ourselves in the front at the very end, and the right runs happen or the right things happen. So yeah, I have a lot of confidence going into this weekend. I would love to check that box of getting a summer Daytona win. That’s something that’s kind of eluded me for a little while now. I can’t tell you the rhyme or reason why because it’s still Daytona. The only thing that I’ll say is, I think when you start out in February, people might be a little more reserved. I don’t know the exact answer to that, but when it comes down to the last race before the Chase… They want to get that last win and get all the points they can, and the intensity level picks up.

“On the Saturday night Cup deal, I think we have as good a chance as anyone. RCR has been very well-known for being fast on these super speedways, whether it’s the O’Reilly Series or the Cup Series. And it’s hard to win in Cup. You see it time and time again. Guys going on droughts and not winning races and things like that. So it’s going to be hard to get it done, but I think we have a really good shot at getting it done and going for Number Five on the O’Reilly side and getting the first one on the Cup side. That would be a perfect weekend for us. So yeah, hopefully that ends that way on Saturday night.”

You’re in your fifth full-time season with RCR in the O’Reilly Series. Looking back on that time, what do you think that’s taught you?

“Anytime you make a jump from one series to the next, it’s all always a transition. It’s a little bit of a jump, right? When I went from the truck level to the O’Reilly level, we obviously started off with a bang, winning here at Daytona. But then we kind of had some roller-coaster finishes where we’d have some decent days, and then other days wouldn’t be so good.

“I would say within these five years, just the effort and everything that I put into racing has went up. I’ve always felt like I put a lot of effort in, but I didn’t realize how much more effort I could be putting in and more time that I could be putting into the racing side of things… learning the cars better, figuring out setup packages and things like that that I like to drive because every driver is a little different, and I think that’s going to help me going into the Cup level. With me getting these opportunities of running the Cup car like I’m doing. I’m going to be a little bit ahead of the game going into next season, but in this offseason coming up, just figuring out exactly what I need in a Cup car to go fast. Now it might take a while throughout the season. Once it gets started, we might have those roller-coaster finishes. But I think where my mindset is now versus in 2022 when I got in the O’Reilly car, I think it’s a lot higher in my broad spectrum that I have of how I think about things is a lot greater, and I think that’s going to help me when I get in the Cup car. “

Is there one area that you really feel like you need to improve? What’s lacking from your repertoire that you feel you really need to buckle down on before you go full-time Cup racing?

“It’s a tough question because we’ve won at a lot of various different tracks on the O’Reilly series. But the only thing that sticks out to me, time and time again, is some of the short-track stuff that we run. Even though we’ve won at Martinsville with that chaotic finish, and I’ve had signs of running well at Bristol. I’m either running top-five at Martinsville or Bristol, or I’m running 20th. There’s no in between.

“I think that’s been our Achilles’ heel as a team and maybe me as a driver. Maybe I’m producing some of that. I’m not sure. So I would say effort-wise, I probably put even more effort into when we go to short-track racing than I do anything else. That’s one area that going into the Cup level, you’ve got to be good at every single racetrack, right? You’ve got to be good at various different things. So I think that’s something that I can work on, get better at, and then figuring out the way these Cup cars are in the dirty air. That’s one thing that’s kind of caught me off guard, especially with the C3 package that the Cup car runs on the mile-and-a-halfs and stuff. I think it’s tough for everyone, but it’s extremely tough for me right now on just how to position the car and the things that I need to do with the car on restarts. You see guys that’ll drive really deep in the corner, and they’re not really trying to pass you, but they’re trying to drive close enough to you where they can put dirty air on the car and get dirty air underneath the diffuser. The next thing you know, you are like getting tight off the corner and having to lift. All those things, I am still trying to learn on the fly, and I think throughout the rest of the season, that’s something I really need to hone in on and get a lot better at —how the dirty air and everything works to be better going into next year.”

When you stepped into the Cup car, going back several months, you stepped into a very emotional situation that was beyond anybody’s control. What have you done, and how have you worked with the team to be a comfort to everyone and be a leader and team building? And how will that help going into next season?

“I think for me, I’ve just been trying to show a ton of effort, right? I’m trying to just give all I can in both series, but especially on the Cup side – being at any type of simulator time that needs to be done. I’m in the simulator a few times a week, and then if I don’t feel like we’re in a good spot, I go up to RCR, run some more sim time on their static rig up there. So there’s things that I’m constantly doing, trying to get to know the team a lot better. A lot of these guys that I’m working with are kind of first time working with these guys. The one thing that’s been a little bit easier transition for me, I guess you’d say, is I’ve worked with Andy Street before. He’s my crew chief, right? So I’ve worked with him in the past. We’ve won races together on the O’Reilly side, so that kind of helped with things when I was coming over and doing this deal. And then Derek Nealon, my spotter, having that familiar voice on the radio spotting me, that’s kind of made everything a little bit easier for me. And then the pit crew. Most of the pit crew I know from the 21 team, so that’s kind of been an easier transition. But the rest of the team, you know, just trying to get to know them on a personal level because it’s always business related, right? We’re always working each and every week. It’s seven days a week. We’re just constantly going, going, going. I’m trying to get to know these guys on a personal level outside of the racing world, and just to show them that I care about these guys more than just what the results are on the racetrack.”

You’ve talked about the conversations that you had with Kevin Harvick after being thrust into the situation, and kind of tying it back to the situation that he was in as well. Are there any specific examples of you putting something into practice that he told you, and it helping the 33 and 8 teams?

“The biggest takeaway that I got from Kevin was just to be mentally tough and not to show your emotion in front of everyone. If you’re going to have a breakdown moment or anything like that happen, do that behind closed doors. You need to be the tough guy when it comes to driving the race car and being in the shop and being prepared and showing those guys that you mean business… that you’re here for them and you’re here to be that shoulder to lean on. That’s kind of one of the biggest takeaways for me. I’ve had to get a lot more mentally sharp than what I feel like I was, and I think that’s helped me as a person as a character.

“As a human being, I really appreciate the conversation that Kevin and I had. I could sit here and talk all day about some of the takeaways from it, but one of the biggest things that stuck with me is that you’ve just got to be that guy. You’ve got to be that leader. I’ve been trying to do that as best I can.”

And how would you describe the current morale on your team right now? How are Andy and his guys doing given the circumstances?

“I think everyone’s doing well for the situation at hand. It’s still very new. I saw Samantha (Busch) this weekend at afar, and it’s very emotional when you see her. I haven’t gotten to see her up close and have a conversation with her yet this weekend. But just seeing her, there’s a lot of things that go through my mind, and the biggest thing is family. You just hold your loved ones tighter at night and check in on people that maybe you haven’t checked in on for a while. I think the team’s doing good for the situation at hand, but they still need a shoulder to lean on every now and then. We’re kind of trying to have that bond and everything within the entire 33 / 8 team.”

About General Motors

General Motors (NYSE:GM) is driving the future of transportation, leveraging advanced technology to build safer, smarter, and lower emission cars, trucks, and SUVs. GM’s Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC brands offer a broad portfolio of innovative gasoline-powered vehicles and the industry’s widest range of EVs, as we move to an all-electric future.

GM Motorsports, including the Cadillac Formula 1® Team develops and proves advanced technologies in the most demanding environments, accelerating innovation in performance, safety, efficiency, and electrification for its production vehicles. Cadillac Racing is one of the leading manufacturers in the IMSA and FIA World Endurance Championships (WEC). Chevrolet competes in single seaters in the US IndyCar series, and in NASCAR with multiple team partners and drivers. Corvette customer teams compete in GT series across the globe including IMSA and WEC. Learn more at GM.com.