NASCAR CUP SERIES
PLAYOFF MEDIA DAY
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
AUGUST 31, 2023

 KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS CAMARO ZL1, 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Media Day Quotes:

HOW DO YOU APPROACH THESE NEXT 10 WEEKS?

“You know, I think I have had the same mindset my whole career that I have ever made the playoffs and that is just being consistent, finishing and not making mistakes. If you remember last year, I had a mistake at the Roval, and it bit me and cost us a chance to win the championship. So, if you can finish and be consistent and get good stage points, you can help yourself out quite a bit. So, that is the mindset for me.”

WHAT DID YOU GUYS LEARN FROM THAT EXPERIENCE IN THE PLAYOFFS LAST YEAR THAT CAN TRANSLATE INTO THIS YEAR?

“Last year was just difficult on many fronts. We had a lot of adversity throughout the year speed-wise, mistakes, and all that and we still were in the final four for the owner’s championship. So, it was a good realization that our team is extremely good and if we just clean things up, we can be really strong. And I feel like we did that this year, I think we did that and although the results look very similar, we have been a way better team consistently this year. We have challenged for a lot more wins this year. So, yeah, I think we are in a good spot going into the playoffs and hopefully we can just be smooth and quietly make our way through.”

HAS THERE BEEN A MESSAGE FROM CLIFF TO THE TEAM ON HOW TO APPROACH THE NEXT 10 WEEKS?

“I am not sure because I usually hear the message Sunday morning. He has probably talked to the team throughout the week, but he is really good about motivating us and saying the right thing at the right time. Usually, the pre-race meetings are very motivational.”

ARE YOU AT THE POINT OF YOUR CAREER TO WHERE IF YOU DON’T MAKE THE CHAMPIONSHIP FOUR, IT’S A DISAPPOINTMENT?

“I don’t know. It hasn’t been that long since I won a championship, so I have only gone one year without winning one. So, I don’t know how I feel. Last year felt shitty because I screwed up at the Roval and took myself out of it. So, that wasn’t fun to deal with. But, at the end of the year we still had three wins and that is not a bad year. This year we have got three wins as well and won the All-Star race. If I don’t win the championship, for sure I am going to be disappointed. We didn’t achieve the goal, but it wasn’t a disappointment from start to finish. We won a lot more than a lot of people did and this year we still have 10 races left. So, I try to be a glass half full guy most of the time, so I try to set realistic expectations as well.”

WITH THE 9 AND THE 48 NOT IN THE DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP, DOES HENDRICK APPROACH THAT DIFFERENTLY IN HAVING THOSE TEAMS HELP YOU AND THE 24 TEAM?

“Yeah, I don’t know. I am not sure what….I am not sure. We all work really well together as it is and I don’t see that changing. And I don’t know if there is any R&D stuff coming or not, but I could see if there were any R&D things that Alex (Bowman) would probably get it first and depending on where Chase (Elliott) is in the owner’s points….which he is going to do really good job. He has got a really good shot to make it to the final four of the owner’s side of things. But yeah, I don’t really know and I think we all work really well together, so its really hard to change everything up.”

IS THERE A TRACK OVER THESE NEXT 10 WEEKS THAT JUMPS OUT AS A NEXT OPPORTUNITY TO PERFORM FOR, AND MAYBE A STRUGGLE POINT WHERE YOU GUYS FEEL LIKE YOU NEED TO MAKE THE MOST IMPROVEMENTS?

“I think the first round are three great tracks for us. Darlington, Kansas, and Bristol are really, really good. In the second round, Texas hopefully will be a good track for us. Talladega is Talladega. And the Roval is a good track for us as well. I think if we can make it to the Round of 8, I like that better than the Round of 12. We have Vegas in there and we almost won that earlier this year and Homestead is probably my best track. Then there is Martinsville, where we won at earlier this year. So, I would love to make it to the Round of 8, because I think we would have a good shot. You just never know, and this sport kind of evolves each week and you don’t know if you are going to be as strong the second time around as you were earlier in the year.”

HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO NOT OVERLOOK ANY OF THE 16 TEAMS IN THE PLAYOFFS?

“Yeah, especially with the Next Gen car, I don’t think you can overlook anybody. Everybody is so equal and those underdogs have done a really good job this year of executing each race and finishing where they probably deserve or a little bit better. I look at Ricky (Stenhouse Jr.), because he has probably had his best season by far to date. He has been super consistent and has had a lot of speed at times and those races that he has had speed, he has finished up there too. You can’t overlook those guys at all because they are going to be consistent, and they are going to do a good job. There is always somebody where their team just does a really good job of executing and making themselves stand out. So, hopefully that is us this year.”

IS THERE ONE TEAM OR DRIVER THAT STANDS OUT THE MOST AS THE BIGGEST COMPETITION?

“I think Martin Truex Jr. and William Byron have been the two best guys consistently all year long. Maybe not necessarily the fastest every week, but they are about. They are top three guys every week and then they do a really good job of executing. So, I look at those two. They have a lot of playoff points as well, and not necessarily that they are guaranteed to make it to Phoenix, but I think they have the best shot.”

REGARDING THE RYAN PREECE WRECK AND THE ROTATIONS IN THE AIR. WHAT IS THAT LIKE?

“When I wrecked in New Zealand a few years ago, it was not as crazy as that, but very similar where I had like really quick rotations and its just wild. Like the gravity pulls your hands and whole body off the wheel. My eyes were bloodshot for a few months, and I am sure he looks pretty attractive right now.”

YOU ARE ABOUT FIVE WEEKS AWAY FROM THE INDYCAR TEST. IS THERE ANYTHING YOU DO NOW TO PREPARE?

“I haven’t done anything yet and I haven’t heard if they want me to do any simulator time or anything like that. I don’t know how well their oval stuff is on there for INDYCAR. But yeah, I am sure it’s going to creep up on me. It is kind of tough because it’s right at the beginning of our playoffs, so it’s hard to take too much focus off that currently. I think once we get racing, I can focus more on the test. But honestly, I don’t even know what to do. Like I don’t know what to look at before I get in the car. I think I just need to get some laps and get familiarity with it and then I can understand what I need to work on.”

REGARDING WILLIAM BYRON SAYING THAT YOUR DRIVING STYLES ARE SIMILAR AND THAT COULD HELP ADVANCING IN THE PLAYOFFS

“I don’t know. People have said we are similar, and I think at least set-up wise, we are the most similar it seems. As far as driving style, I don’t know, I think at this point and the way these race cars are driving that we all have similar driving styles. I think William and I can do a really good job and we can go bring Rick (Hendrick) another championship.”

HOW HAS YOUR TIME AT HENDRICK HELPED YOU EVOLVE AS A BETTER DRIVER?

“Well, I don’t know how things would be if I was still at Ganassi, but we have so much more data to look at now than we did a few years ago. So, maybe I would still be doing all the pre-race stuff that I do now, it could be the same because you have the data. You have so much more data and I think Cliff and the engineers are so good at looking at the data and kind of coaching me through how I can be better, things I am doing good at and keep after. So, I don’t know how like I have evolved, and you just naturally evolve. With all that data, the learning curve is so much easier, and everybody is getting so much better every week because of the data.”

REGARDING IF YOU LOOK AT KYLE BUSCH’S DATA MORE NOW THAT HE IS IN THE CHEVY CAMP NOW?

“I wouldn’t say I look at his stuff any more or less than I used to. But maybe now that I can see his data, I can understand that our cars drive more similar now than when we were at different organizations. So, we can talk about it and debrief about it a little bit more and understand what he is talking about a little better. Kyle Busch is one of the top drivers in this sport, so I was always looking at his stuff before, and I am still looking at it now.”

About Chevrolet

Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands. 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.

Toyota Racing – Bubba Wallace
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes

CHARLOTTE (August 31, 2023) – 23XI Racing driver Bubba Wallace was made available to media as part of the NASCAR Playoff Media Day.

BUBBA WALLACE, No. 23 McDonald’s Toyota Camry TRD, 23XI Racing

Did you celebrate at all on Saturday?

“Saturday, we got home about 1:30am. We didn’t go to bed until like 3 just from being wired, but I had the 23 team over Sunday, and we didn’t get too crazy, because we knew that Monday was right around the corner, so I had a couple adult beverages and played some pool. Just good to kind of kick back and celebrate with them and show that I’m proud of them of what we were able to do.”

What does it mean that Michael Jordan was there celebrating with you?

“I think that is a better question for the team members, because I would be interested to see how they felt. I thought it was really cool to share that with them. For me, that’s just MJ (Michael Jordan) being happy and proud and wanting to see his cars do well. To have the interaction with Bootie (Barker, crew chief) was really cool, the reaction with the crew was really neat, so I’m sure they felt really ecstatic over that.”

You said you are ecstatic for the crew, are you ecstatic for yourself too?

“Yeah, no doubt. From looking from where we were at the beginning of the season, wrecking out at COTA, I was just pissed off at myself for being in that spot, so put in the work and got us kind of back on track, and then you had to fight for it the last three or four weeks, so yeah, I’m definitely proud of myself. Watkins Glen was probably the best showcase of road course performance that I was able to put together to date, so yeah.”

Why did you call Scott Dixon before that race?

“(Steve) Lauletta (president, 23XI) set that up. He brought him over last year in Indy to the Grid, so it was cool to see him win Indy. Steve texted me – he set it up on Monday after Indy, and then Wednesday or Thursday, he was like have you talked to him yet, and I’m like no, because I’m not the type of person to reach out. I was like let me get some laps under my belt after practice and qualifying, and I felt pretty good about it, but just the mental side of things is where I struggled. I failed to shoutout Jordan Taylor too. I talked to him after Chicago. Just on race craft stuff and how to be better there, so I appreciate him as well. Apologize I didn’t mention him there. I know he really doesn’t need a mention, but there is a lot of people that I reached out to that helped out in a massive way, so I appreciate that.”

Was it because they were good at road course racing?

“Yeah, hands down.”

Or because Scott Dixon is a champion?

“it’s a little bit of everything, but it’s the road course side for me. It’s hard because those guys don’t drive my car, and that was the first thing that he said – I need to see some data, and he was like I want to help out more, so I thought that was pretty cool.”

How far can you go?

“Well, if I don’t do anything dumb, I hope to be racing at Phoenix, right? Don’t miss any weeks, no vacation. I think we are a lot better than 16th. I look at this first round, as one of the strongest of any of the top 16. Darlington, we ran fourth in the spring, Kansas, we know we can do Kansas. Bristol, Bristol we need a little more magic there, but top-10 car. Second round is where we are starting to work on that. Texas, we’ve been okay at. Talladega style is, Talladega, and then the ROVAL. We ran top 10 at, but don’t feel good about that one. Then the third round, I feel pretty good. So if we can do what we know how to do in the first round and maintain or do some stuff in the second round, there is no reason we can’t be top eight, top four. I really feel good about that, but definitely not a 16th place car.”

Is there an edge to have your teammate and car owner in the Playoffs?

“Yes, it is nice to be able to have people to rely on and get some insight, but at the end of the day they are competitors, so we’ve got to go beat them. We are all working hard towards one goal, and that is bringing a championship home for 23XI.”

Do you think about how hard you’ve worked to get to this point, or do you have to put that to the side?

“I think in the moment, you are like we made it, good job, but time never stops. You have to keep going. You have to be so ready for the next task at hand. Now I’m focused on getting to Darlington and executing.”

What would make this a great Playoffs?

“For it to be great, you have to be great. I think I’m pumped to be an underdog. We know we are way more capable of being better than 16th, but we know if we don’t execute, we can see our happy asses in 16th. We just have to go out and do what we know how to do, and just do it. Not get complacent and be one of those front running cars over the next 10 weeks. We know it’s a tall task, but we can do it.”

Where is the disconnect from getting stage points, but not getting those same finishes?

“Yeah, the last month or so, running fine but not finishing worth a damn, so I’m like what are we doing, like I’m legit asking what are we doing to dial ourselves out? We are all scratching our heads because we kind of noticed a trend earlier this year when we kind of had the same thing going on where we were really good to start the race and then nowhere to be talked about in the end. It was like we did a half-pound of air pressure out of the left front, holy cow that is it. Well, we weren’t doing that, and we still had the same result. I don’t know. But we hope that is gone. We hope we can finish out the races where we need to be. Just goes back to just grind. You have to grind and work hard through the whole thing.”

Inaudible

“There is nothing easy about the spot that we are in, so I think that’s looking at every avenue and not expecting the same results as before. Am I expecting to show up and qualify second again, no because I want to qualify on the pole. We missed it by just a little bit. Am I expecting to run fourth, no I want to run first, but it is not that easy. You can sit there and dream about it, but you have to put in the work and dedication to make this happen. The guys at the shop have to do the same thing. We can’t miss a nut or a bolt, loose screw or anything. We’ve got make sure the bodies are right and do everything we can to make sure our cars are up to par and beyond that.”

Did you pull anything from last season’s owner playoff run?

“Yes, but for me, it is just another race. It is another set of 10 races. Saturday is another practice, another qualifying, and Sunday is another race. I think the things you learn last year is how you race, how you approach things, but I made a lot of mistakes last year that I regret, and there is a lot of learning curves coming out of that, setting you up for this year. I was saying this was going to be our best year yet, so I’m glad it’s living up to par. We still have to continue to fight, because a couple of bad races and you are out.”

Did you have time for any of your stress relievers (drumming, photography) before the races recently?

“I have to schedule when I go to the bathroom, it’s that crazy (laughter). I didn’t really have much time. Music is there every day, so you have time for that. Drumming, there’s some dust on all of the cymbals. Photography, clearly, I have my camera with me, but yeah, I try to find any escape that I can. Really, I’m cool, calm and collected. No stress right now.”

How is your mental game in handling this pressure?

“It’s funny, I read that. We had the opportunity to do media during the week to free up the obligations at the race track and to focus on what we needed to do, which was get the 23 car in the Playoffs. That’s the most important thing. As much as talking to media is really important, I’m sorry y’all don’t pay my bills (laughter). I did my obligations before then and then, some of the stuff gives a bad light on my PR team, and it’s not really fair for her because she does a really good job at keeping my schedule really clear and doing all of the stuff that we need to do to get by, not just get by, but things that are going to be good for the brand, good for the team, so to go out and do all of that stuff earlier in the week, it was like hey, let’s go focus on the race now. Then you get back and you see that Bubba Wallace is mentally fragile and doesn’t want to do interviews, and you are like, I was good. I could have stayed on pit road and talked to y’all for hours, but I guess people handle their stress differently, because absolutely, I was stressed to the max. I’ve never been stressed like that before. I’ve never been in this situation before. I’ve always been 20th-21st, 200 points out in a must win situation, 10 loose wheels later. It was like oh, ok. Now that I’m in here, I’m experiencing somethings that I never have, and how to I handle this. Let’s talk to media. Let’s give them – hey I’m stressed out on Wednesday. I’m going to be stressed out until the checkered flag falls on Saturday, but continue to talk about it – how do you feel? Are you going to come up and talk to me in Daytona at 12:00 and then 1 o’clock and ask me the same question? Well, I answered that on Wednesday. I’m stressed. So, for it to offend people that I declined an interview. I didn’t really decline. We did our obligations and we made sure we were focused on the task at hand, which is the most important thing. That was the main goal in all of that.”

What are your thoughts on Kurt Busch?

“I hate the circumstances that put Kurt in where he’s at. I saw it happen live. I was 20 car lengths behind him. To see him, try to fight and try to get back in the car was something that I was always proud of because he was determined to get back in. My wife (Amanda) would always come up to me and was like Kurt (Busch) is so adamant on getting back in the car, what’s his progress like? I’m like I don’t know, I think everything is going okay, and I don’t know the time frame. I think we would all love to see Kurt back in a car, but I think the progress kind of flatlined, and he started seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and the next thing for him was to retire. As lustrous of a career as he had and how he came in – the conversation I had with (Kevin) Harvick at Indy, I guess that would be 2021. I went over to Harvick to squash our beef. I was like, hey, how is Kurt, because he’s coming over. He’s like he’s good, he’s really, really good. He makes teams better. His setups are a little wonky (laughter) but he’s really, really good. He was right. He made our team better. He made our team progress faster than if was just me. He’s always given positive insight and constructive insight on how to make this better. He came up to me a couple of times and said that you need to be a better teammate. You need to do certain things to help out the leaders of this team, and I was like oh, okay. I like Kurt for who he is because he doesn’t sugar coat anything. He comes up to you and delivers it straight and that is what I try to do. So, yeah, I’m happy for Kurt, but bummed for him because he didn’t want to go out like that.”

About Toyota

Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in North America for more than 65 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands, plus our more than 1,800 dealerships.

Toyota directly employs more than 48,000 people in North America who have contributed to the design, engineering, and assembly of nearly 45 million cars and trucks at our 13 manufacturing plants. By 2025, Toyota’s 14th plant in North Carolina will begin to manufacture automotive batteries for electrified vehicles. With more electrified vehicles on the road than any other automaker, Toyota currently offers 22 electrified options.

Through the Start Your Impossible campaign, Toyota highlights the way it partners with community, civic, academic and governmental organizations to address our society’s most pressing mobility challenges. We believe that when people are free to move, anything is possible. For more information about Toyota, visit www.ToyotaNewsroom.com.

NASCAR CUP SERIES
PLAYOFF MEDIA DAY
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
AUGUST 31, 2023

ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 1 TRACKHOUSE RACING CAMARO ZL1, 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Media Day Press Conference Transcript:

IT SOUNDED EARLIER LIKE YOU WERE FIRED ABOUT DARLINGTON.

“Whether I was driving in the Southern 500 this weekend or not, I would be going down there to watch. I love that track. I love the drive down. I definitely love driving on it. I just get excited about it. I get excited watching clips of racecars going around that track.”

YOU’VE HAD SPEED AT DARLINGTON WHETHER THE FINISHES REFLECT IT OR NOT. WHAT IS IT ABOUT THAT TRACK?

“I don’t know. It’s humbling when I’m on it, and it’s definitely been humbling to me. I don’t know how to describe it. I feel natural when I’m out there. I don’t feel natural running up next to the wall. I just love it up there. It’s been its fair share of mean to me, for good reason. We definitely haven’t gotten the finishes we want. But no matter what, I usually drive out of there with a smile.”

ANY BONZAI MOVES TO GET INTO THE NEXT ROUND?

“No sir, no more up these sleeves! It’s just go scrap up as many points as we can and see what we’ve got at the end of each elimination race.”

HOW WOULD YOU SUM UP YOUR SEASON TO GET TO THIS POINT?

“I don’t know if we have enough tape! I think there’s a lot of things I could have done better. There’s a lot of things that I’m grateful that went the way they did. And I learned from all of it. So how do I think it went? I think it went exactly how it was supposed to. Now we have a shot for 10 weeks to go fight for this thing.”

YOU’RE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PACK GOING IN. DOES THAT IMPACT HOW YOU APPROACH THE FIRST ROUND?

“It does not affect how I drive off into Turn One at Darlington during qualifying or on Lap 30 of the race or Lap 230 or 330. It’s what do I need to do to put my car in the best position to win, get as many points as I can, run as fast as a lap as I can. I can’t think of any of that other stuff, and I don’t have the bandwidth for it. I think about the lap I’m in, what does the next corner need from me, and it’s a very repetitive process of 367 times plus maybe a little overtime of repeating that process of what does the next corner need from me.”

EVERY TIME YOU GO TO WORK, YOU SEE THE SPACE PAINTED OF HOW SHORT YOU WERE LAST YEAR. IS IT OVERWHELMING OR IS IT A GOOD REMINDER?

“It was overwhelming at first. The first couple of times I drove over it, I didn’t really care for it. I actually parked on the other side of the building the first week because I didn’t really get it. By the end of the first week, I thought through everything Justin (Marks) said, and he talked to me a little bit more about it. I just started driving across it like everybody else. Now I look forward to it. It’s a little grip of the steering wheel, a little pump of throttle, then a quick memory and right back to what do I need to do today? That’s really all I can do, is try to be better the next time.”

HOW HAS BEING IN THE PLAYOFFS LAST YEAR CHANGED YOUR MINDSET?

“There’s definitely things we’ve learned. It can be something as simple as my schedule, how we go about the 10 weeks and on the raceday what we build into my calendar. Fundamentally from a large point of view, we don’t have to do anything different. We didn’t do anything too crazy last year – the Hail Melon and some of that stuff was crazy – but in our preparation and our execution when we got to the track for all these playoff races, we can’t reinvent the wheel this week for Darlington. We can’t reinvent it for the Roval or anything. We need to go race. That’s what we’ve done for two years and really three since a lot of us were at CGR together. We didn’t get here by accident, and it’s OK to go win some of these things. Somebody is going to.”

DO YOU PAY ATTENTION TO WHO SAYS IS GOING TO THROUGH THE ROUNDS, WHO IS GOING TO MAKE IT TO THE FINAL FOUR?

“We don’t put it on a bulletin board, no. I see it, but I’m not looking for it. Social media has given everybody’s opinion a platform. I know that about it. If you have access to a device that will post on social media from anywhere in the world and you have the service to get it out, you can say anything you want. I accepted that a long time ago, probably when I still had a Blackberry. From then to now, it hasn’t changed. Social media is what it is. If you have a platform to be on the broadcast team or a platform to have a Twitter account with one follower, you have the same platform on social media. Post what you want.”

WHAT COULD HAVE CHANGED THE END OF THE SPRING RACE AT DARLINGTON?

“It was a decision to take the lead back from the 5… take that Turn One entry, run up the hill, with the throttle commitment and steering wheel commitment I had, it was a decision to take it. And I didn’t need to take it. I could have raced him off Turn Two. I put myself in the wall and we were out of the race. And it took him out, too. Definitely could have changed, and it started with a decision under caution to take the spot on the ensuing restart.”

DO YOU FEEL MORE CONFIDENT COMING BACK TO THE PLAYOFFS THIS YEAR?

“I’ve got 140 employees at Trackhouse that are going to battle for Daniel (Suarez) and I. Whether or not we have a playoff banner on the window or not, it doesn’t change the caliber or rocketship they are about to put on the track for Daniel and I. We just go about our stuff, and we don’t hide from anything. I don’t have a higher or lower confidence level. I know that I learned a lot last year.”

WHAT WAS THE BIGGEST THING YOU DID LEARN?

“That it was OK to just be OK. There were some races where guys are blowing tires, issues are happening and motors are blowing… just be OK and it’s going to be alright. There were times where I could have pushed harder and maybe we could have won. It would have been a high-risk of crashing, and at that moment we didn’t need that so we just ran second and moved on.”

HOW WOULD YOU SUM UP THE FIELD THIS YEAR COMPARED TO PREVIOUS YEAR?

“The points currently with the reset is tight for most of us. Going to Darlington, you don’t know who is going to show up and be the fastest. You don’t know who is going to be fifth-quick and who is going to be 25th-quick. Any of us 16 could easily be either of those on the practice sheet. That will dictate ultimately who transfers on… who is the bottom-four speed-wise, and it might be the same cars who get the least amount of points. You could easily run 25th right now in Cup, and you could easily run fifth.”

WHO ELSE STANDS OUT IN THE PLAYOFF FIELD?

“I don’t have any of them that I’m not focused on as far as who could be getting more points by the time we get to Bristol, but I can only control my destiny. I can’t control the past and I can’t control the future. I’m going to go to work on my stuff and go through our processes at Trackhouse and Chevy, and all those other guys can do whatever they would like. It’s just about me and my group, and what we need to do to transfer through.”

About Chevrolet

Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands. 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.

CHASE BRISCOE
Darlington Advance
No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

● Event: Cook Out Southern 500 (Round 27 of 36)

● Time/Date: 6 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Sept. 3

● Location: Darlington (S.C.) Raceway

● Layout: 1.366-mile oval

● Laps/Miles: 367 laps/501.32 miles

● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 115 laps / Stage 2: 115 laps / Final Stage: 137 laps

● TV/Radio: USA Network / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● The NASCAR Cup Series returns to Darlington (S.C.) Raceway for the second time this year with Chase Briscoe back behind the wheel of a HighPoint.com-sponsored Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR). The No. 14 team hopes to capitalize on the experience of dynamic duo Briscoe and crew chief Richard Boswell, who partnered for a memorable NASCAR Xfinity Series win in 2020 on the 1.366-mile egg-shaped oval.

● In the Cup Series’ first visit to Darlington in May, Briscoe started 31st and drove to a 17th-place finish. He has a best finish of 11th earned in May 2021 which came in his first of five Cup Series starts at Darlington. Briscoe also finished no worse than 11th in three Xfinity Series starts at Darlington, which included the 2020 win.

● When NASCAR returned to action in May 2020 after a 10-week shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Briscoe was the first NASCAR Xfinity Series driver to earn a win – his second of nine that season. He started 11th for the 200-lap race around “The Track Too Tough To Tame,” and ran among the top-10 for the majority of the race. A quick pit stop put Briscoe in the lead for a lap-138 restart, setting up a battle with Kyle Busch, the winningest driver in Xfinity Series history with 102 career victories. After a fierce duel, Briscoe prevailed by a .086-of-a-second margin over the runner-up Busch.

● For the second year running, Briscoe will drive a black-and-white HighPoint.com Ford Mustang for Sunday’s Southern 500 in place of the traditional blue-and-white colors of HighPoint for one of the crown jewel races of the NASCAR Cup Series. The change in color honors the late sportswriter and 2016 Squier-Hall Award recipient Benny Phillips, who gave Darlington the moniker, “The Lady in Black.”

● The name of HighPoint.com employee Tom Brahs will be riding along with Briscoe for the 367-lap race at Darlington. As an IT Manager overseeing external customer support and internal security initiatives at HighPoint, NOC Engineer Brahs is described as the ultimate team player. His favorite HighPoint Fundamental is, “Do the right thing, ALWAYS,” and he truly represents this fundamental in the attitude he brings to his role daily. Brahs joined HighPoint five years ago and, since day one, his focus has been on client satisfaction, whether the client is internal or external. His outreach goes far beyond the work he does at HighPoint as he is the Past Deputy Chief of the Hampton Township fire department in New Jersey and now serves as a volunteer fireman. Brahs has been married to his wife Amy for 26 years. They have a beautiful daughter, Makalya, who will head off to college this year, and two angels, Nicolas and Aryanna. Tom, Amy and Makalya are avid NASCAR and dirt racing fans who will be traveling to Darlington to cheer on the No. 14 HighPoint.com team.

Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

You made a strong run in the playoffs last year, but a tough season has you on the outside looking in for this year’s final 10 races. How does the approach for the final 10 races change for the No. 14 team?

“I’m obviously bummed we aren’t going to be competing in the playoffs. I felt like if we could get in, we could probably be a little more competitive just based off the momentum we were able to pick up last year. But we’ve gone through a lot of changes this year and we’ve had to work through a lot. These last 10 races don’t change too much for us. We still show up wanting to run up front and win, but we know that it’s also a chance to learn as much as we can for next season. There are still some things we are working through as a team now that we have Richard (Boswell, crew chief) calling the shots, so we’ll take every opportunity we can get to learn and become a better, stronger team.”

Is there a track in this last 10-race stretch that you’re looking forward to visiting?

“We have two short tracks coming up that I’m really looking forward to. We learned a lot at Bristol last year and I think we can lean on that to have a good run again this year, and maybe build on what we know a little. The other is Martinsville. We led a lot of laps this year and I think, had it gone green, we probably could’ve had a chance at a win. Even last year at Martinsville, we had a really strong car, but we had to take a chance on pit strategy to go for a win and advance to Phoenix, and it didn’t quite work out for us. But, I think those are the two where we can apply what we’ve been working on and have a chance to finish the season with some positive results.”

No. 14 HighPoint.com Team Roster

Primary Team Members

Driver: Chase Briscoe

Hometown: Mitchell, Indiana

Crew Chief: Richard Boswell

Hometown: Friendship, Maryland

Car Chief: J.D. Frey

Hometown: Ferndale, California

Engineer: Mike Cook

Hometown: Annapolis, Maryland

Spotter: Joey Campbell

Hometown: Berlin, Connecticut

Over-The-Wall Members

Front Tire Changer: Shayne Pipala

Hometown: Frankfort Square, Illinois

Rear Tire Changer: Dakota Ratcliff
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee

Tire Carrier: Jon Bernal
Hometown: Shelby, North Carolina

Jack Man: Dylan Moser

Hometown: Monroe, North Carolina

Fuel Man: Corey Coppola

Hometown: Bluefield, West Virginia

Road Crew Members

Underneath Mechanic: Stephen Gonzalez
Hometown: Mooresville, North Carolina

Interior Mechanic: Trevor Adams
Hometown: Naples, Florida

Tire Specialist: Keith Eads
Hometown: Arlington, Virginia

Engine Tuner: Jon Phillips
Hometown: Jefferson City, Missouri

Transporter Co-Driver: Todd Cable
Hometown: Shelby, North Carolina

Transporter Co-Driver: Rob Fink
Hometown: Mocksville, North Carolina

NASCAR CUP SERIES
PLAYOFF MEDIA DAY
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
AUGUST 31, 2023

 KYLE BUSCH, NO. 8 RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING CAMARO ZL1, 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Media Availability Quotes:

You talked about the move to the new team and that people that you were taking a step back with that move. Seeing that you have multiple wins and are in the playoffs and the car that you left is not in the playoffs, does that make you smile a little bit?

“No, I don’t really focus on that stuff a whole lot. For me, it’s all about what we’re doing and it’s all about what have you done for me lately. Anything that anybody else does, you don’t really worry about. The only other guy I really worry about as much as me is probably Austin Dillon. Just trying to work with the RCR group and make sure we’re as good and as strong as we need to be to further our competition and success rate.”

Busch on what makes this year’s NASCAR Cup Series playoff field so tight:

“The cars are closer, the drivers are closer, all the data that you get. We have SMT data in these racecars now, so everybody gets to see the same stuff. So everything is so much tighter now that it’s hard to find any sort of advantage because you’re basically just tattle-tailing it to everybody anything that you do. So yeah, tighter points is going to mean tighter races. It’s going to mean tighter opportunities on pit road to excel or to go backwards if you make mistakes.”

What wisdom or ideas were you able to bring over to RCR with your experience and time at Joe Gibbs Racing?

“Alot of stuff – just how you perceive data, look at data, what data you really need. What’s important after practices, after races, things like that. That’s the biggest thing from there. They’ve got a good process and procedure of how they do stuff and how they build cars and I didn’t see anything in that. But they’ve done a really good job of taking in some of my ideas and being able to implement that.”

Have you succeeded your expectations? Have you met your expectations? Do you still have more work to do to get to that goal?

“I would say – give me some of my finishes back and I would say that we’ve probably exceeded expectations. Three wins on the year, I feel like is a good start. I’d love to have five total, in a perfect world, so lets win two of these final 10 races and we’ll really have something to talk about.”

Was five wins the number coming into the year?

“It always is.. that’s always my number. Anytime you look at a championship season of a driver, they’ve got around five wins. That’s been a good year.. you can always bank yourself as being a championship guy if you have five wins.”

What would it mean to you to bring a championship to RCR for the first time in almost 30 years?

“I mean it would be phenomenal.. it would be awesome. That’s what we all strive for. I don’t care what team I’m at, I’m going to go try to win a championship. But to have the history and the legacy of RCR and everything that they’ve done over the years with (Dale) Earnhardt, Sr., and with the other drivers that have been there – yeah, it’s been a little quiet lately, but that would be nice to shake that up. I feel like when you’re in the Final Four, it’s like a championship season. You just have to go out and execute in that last race. There are so many things that can go against you in that last race to not let you win a championship, but that’s a title season. That’s where we want to get to and I feel like we can, and we’ll work Phoenix (Raceway) when that time comes.”

How beneficial is your experience in doing this before – been there, done that, won it?

“I mean anytime you have experience doing something, you’re only going to think back to the moments that you can be better at it and not make the same mistakes over and over again. For me, I don’t know – I’ve been through years of playoffs where we’ve had wins through the playoffs and have been really strong and not won the championship. I’ve had years where we barely make it through each round, and then we get to Homestead (Miami Speedway) and we win, you know what I mean. Like we were written off in 2019… nobody thought we were even close to having a chance. So we went out there – we executed on the final day and we smoked everybody. But in 2018, I thought we were destined for the championship and we go to Homestead – we’re running fourth of the top-four guys, in the fourth position, and we had a bad day. But that’s just how it comes down to it in that last race, in the final moment.”

Half of the playoff field this year is comprised of teams with two cars or one car, and none of the three or four car teams got everybody in this year – why?

“Parity, call it. Call it just the difficulty of competition being so close as to what it is. I feel like your biggest gains are the times in which others make mistakes. And so for me, at Michigan (International Speedway) – I was working really hard trying to pass (Ryan) Blaney. I thought my car was great, driving perfect on lap 15.. he’s going to cut me some slack and give me a break, and he doesn’t and I crash, you know what I mean. So it’s moments like that where you take yourself out and others have done similar things that it just opens up – Ross (Chastain) and Kyle (Larson) got in a car-fight at Darlington (Raceway) earlier this year and they knocked themselves out.. they knocked themselves down in points. So there’s always those things that just kind of happen and it’s because you’re trying to get that position. You know you have to put that other guy in a bad spot to get them to lift in order to get that position, and you’re either going to crash, you’re both going to crash or whatever.”

And it goes back to the car now?

“Yeah, I mean like I said – the car being so close, it’s hard as a driver to find that extra step of an advantage and to pass that guy that’s in front of you.”

Coming to this team this year – just because of who you are, do you come in and almost say – ‘hey, I’m the driver.. I’m the leader. Let’s do it this way’. In conjunction, not like bossy. A lot of times, you look at the driver and they sometimes look at the crew chief, depending on how the team is formulated. How did you look at it? Have you tried to assume the mantle of the leadership, or share it with Randall (Burnett)? How do you approach the playoffs with these guys this year?

“Yeah, I mean to me – starting back to the beginning of the year, it’s all data driven. So you look at data and it’s like – OK, what data was I used to looking at that was important to me do I need again to be able to see? And then I go to Randall (Burnett, crew chief) and I ask those questions, or I go to Justin (Alexander) and I ask those questions. And then we’re able to pull that data, get that data, and it kind of helps us to be able to learn from what we were doing and how to get better. I feel like processes and procedures have gotten better throughout the course of the year. And I think right now going into the playoffs – the only thing you can look at right now is how do you set yourself up for your weekends, your days or how many points do you need going into the weekend. So OK – we know this round is going to take ‘X’ amount of points to get through, so we need a 20th place finish, three weeks in a row, and we’re in. You’re not going to finish 20th, but you know when you’re running 12th, it’s not going to be dismal or it’s not going to cost you a ton, unless you have a bad day next week. So you always want the most you can get.

It’s just stuff like that. They were in the playoffs last year. I feel like they have a good sense of what it takes and what it’s like. We both got knocked out early, but there’s learning from that.”

What can you do to help this group? They made the playoffs, but haven’t gotten past the first round?

“Well I didn’t get past the first round either last year (laughs).

No – to me, it’s talking about some of the stuff that I just mentioned. Not making mistakes.. that’s where I feel like our detriment has been. And some of it isn’t self-induced, you know. Like the engine issues at the Indy Road Course – how do you know that’s going to happen? So just things like that, but it’s racing – there’s a lot of different circumstances that will happen, but you just have to work your way around them.”

Cautions are down a little bit from last year. I know a little bit of that number is inflated because the road courses don’t have the stage breaks, but it’s still down I think over 10 percent from last year. I know it was tough to drive the car last year, so that probably contributed to it.

“Your cautions were high last year because everybody was getting used to it. Flat left-rear tires, too much left-rear camber, issues like that, so your numbers were inflated. This year, everybody has gotten better. Your numbers are deflated because of rule changes on road courses, so I don’t know that it’s an ‘apples-to-apples’.”

But how does that change things? In essence, there’s longer green-flag runs. So last year, you could probably count on – hey, my car isn’t right, there’s going to be a caution that comes up. Not necessarily all of the time.. there will probably be green-flag stops at Darlington.

“Yeah, it’s definitely more green-flag runs. I love green-flag runs. When your cars are right, you’re good and moving forward – I love green-flag runs. I love taking advantage of getting to pit road, on pit road, all that sort of stuff. Executing there and being able to pickup seconds that you can.

The caution stuff – yeah, cautions breed cautions, and with everybody knowing there’s so much to be gained on restarts, I feel like that’s probably been a little bit of my detriment this year.. just losing spots on restarts. Trying to get the beehive away from me, you know? Everybody get away from me.. let me go focus on me and then I can do my own deal. But you’re swatting flies on those restarts trying to keep everybody away.”

When you talk about pit road – obviously you’ve been every good for a long time in getting on and getting off pit road. I’m curious where that skill or that ability came from.. how you were taught that or the importance of that.

“I think it just stems from knowing there’s room to gain.. go take it. Every time you turn around or every corner you’re racing around, there’s a tenth to be gained. You know tenths can add up and when you can add up ten of them, that’s a second. If you lose a race by a half-second, then that costs you. It’s just knowing all of that. Just pushing.. always getting the most you can.”

This time last year is when you announced your transition over to RCR. What has this last year been like for you to have a clean slate, especially with how frustrating the first round of the playoffs was last year?

“To me, I’ve enjoyed it. I think moving teams is always kind of scary.. going to a new school or whatever is kind of un-nerving. But it’s been really good. Randall (Burnett, crew chief) has made it super easy. Everybody at RCR has been great. My thing now is just to try and reward them with the skill and everything I know that I have to be able to go out there and perform with the best of what I know to bring home a championship. But more importantly, just make that Final Four. The potential is there. The stuff is there. The team is there. We just have to execute, and that starts with me. That starts with Randall and it snowballs from there.”

What do you feel like the biggest challenge has been? With how well that you guys have run, what has been the biggest thing you’ve had to adapt to or the thing that’s challenged you more than you expected?

“I think the things that have challenged me the most is just the difficulty in the competition getting closer together. Less cautions, less opportunities of being better than the guys that you’re running around, so you kind of get stuck behind them. That’s frustrating, so you try harder and then you put yourself in a bad spot. So I think the detrimental part of me after a race is not having a good day, or something derailing it, and thinking like – man, what could we have done different. But really there’s nothing you could have done different to prevent it, or the data doesn’t suggest there is. It’s just stuff happens.”

About Chevrolet

Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands. 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.

NASCAR CUP SERIES
PLAYOFF MEDIA DAY
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
AUGUST 31, 2023

WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS CAMARO ZL1, 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Media Day Press Conference Transcript:

IS IT WEIRD WHEN PEOPLE LIST YOU AS THE FAVORITE WHEN YOU’VE NOT MADE THE FINAL FOUR?

“Yeah, I don’t want to think about that until we get to that point. I feel like we have to work our way through the rounds and do the best job we can at all the opening tracks. It’s nice to have good bonus points and it’s nice to have that in our back pocket. But I’ve seen how the playoffs have played out over the last few years, and you can’t get ahead of yourself. We have to do a good job in each round and take it one race at a time.”

IS THIS WHERE YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD BE AT THE START OF THE SEASON?

“Starting the season, we didn’t expect to win five races to be honest. Winning three races was kind of the goal. As we transitioned throughout the year, the expectations got higher. There was a little slump that came with that because we started to expect to run top-three or top-five every week. It’s just not possible with this car especially. You’ve got way too many challenges. I feel like we got into a good place before the playoffs start to where we feel like we’re comfortable and have a good mindset. Watkins Glen just felt really good. It felt like we had the right approach.”

DO YOU FEEL STRONGER THAN AN 18-1 SHOT TO WIN?

“I don’t really look at the odds, to be honest. I think I was like fourth or something. I don’t really pay attention to that stuff. For me, I look at the stats and how we’re performing. There are a couple of tracks where we could be better. Talladega comes to mind. The short tracks at the end of the year come to mind. We’ve got two-and-a-half months to work toward the short tracks getting better, and we’ve got a month or so to work on Talladega. I feel like the tracks coming up suit us well. I’m not too nervous for the first few tracks, at least.”

HOW DO THESE POINTS HELP CARRY YOU THROUGH THE ROUNDS?

“It’s a little bit of a safety net, I guess. But it can all go away pretty quick. We can’t really just lean on that all the time. We have to perform well. We have to average 30 points a race in this first round, I think, and continue to work our way toward the second round… just take it one race a time and a three-race stretch at a time. I feel like it’s pretty simple. It’s just to try and go to Darlington, have a solid race and hopefully unload with good speed. We found a couple of tenths in the simulator this week. I felt like we had a good sim session. The car drove well. Hopefully it drives as good as it did in the simulator. We kind of backed it up with what we did in the spring. Honestly on our setup, we haven’t changed a lot at that place in awhile. We have to focus on Darlington and then Kansas, we’ll focus on that Tuesday and get a good baseline for there. We had a good race there in the spring as well, finished third and qualified on the pole. I look at the first two tracks as good places for us.”

HOW DO YOU SIZE UP DENNY HAMLIN?

“It’s a Gibbs-Hendrick kind of battle. RFK is getting in there. Penske always shows up in the playoffs. The 4 car could show up strong. They’re really consistent. There’s not really a weak link in the playoffs that I look at. Front Row has a good road-course package and a good super-speedway package. It’s anybody’s game right now. To your question about the 11, I think they’re one of the strongest teams. I anticipate him being really good at Darlington, I anticipate (Kyle) Larson being really good at Darlington, (Brad) Keselowski could be good. There are a lot of guys that pop up at a lot of these tracks.”

DO YOU HAVE TO STEP UP YOUR GAME AFTER FIVE WINS FOR THE PLAYOFFS? IS THERE A NEED TO CHANGE ANYTHING?

“I don’t think we change a thing. The intensity of the moment already elevates your performance a little bit. I know we’re good enough, I know we’re capable. I know my best is good enough. I feel like for me, it’s more the same… It’s trying to approach each track individually and not look too far ahead. That’s really the thing I’ve learned, not to get ahead of ourselves. We can’t be thinking about the Round of 12, we can’t be thinking about the Round of Eight. We’ve got to be focused on Darlington right now. Then when Monday comes we’ll focus on Kansas, and maybe we’ll do a little bit of prep work for Bristol to make sure we’re ready. It’s just one step at a time. We can’t think too far ahead.”

HOW DID THAT IMPACT YOU IN PREVIOUS PLAYOFFS?

“It’s always nice to think that, ‘Yeah, this track suits us well.’ There’s no guarantees with that approach. You can show up and not be as fast as you think you’re going to be. Last year was our best playoffs that we’ve had, and that gives me a lot of confidence that we have that kind of basis and foundation for finishing well consistently, getting points and being fast at the right times. I think I could have managed last year a little bit better. I’m going to try and use this year’s playoffs as a learning experience. I’m confident we’ll be here for another eight to 10 years. We just have to learn from what we’re doing this year to hopefully make us better.”

WITH KYLE BUSCH IN A CHEVROLET FOR THE FIRST TIME, DO YOU HAVE MORE COMMUNICATION WITH HIM NOW THAT HE’S IN THE SAME MANUFACTURER CAMP?

“It’s changed a lot in the last two to three years. All our teams share information on setups, so we know exactly what’s in the 8 car and they know exactly what’s in the 24. We have a meeting throughout the week to talk to those guys, and I get along really well with Kyle from our days at KBM. I feel like we work well together. The goal for us is that hopefully a high tide raises all ships. I feel like if the two of us work well together and the two teams, it can help everyone. I feel like that’s what we’ve tried to apply this year, just to work together as good as we can. It helps when you have a good previous relationship with someone like that.”

ON HAVING FIVE WINS AT FIVE TRACKS THAT ARE IN THE PLAYOFFS.

“That’s good to know. I didn’t know that stat. It’s nice to know that a lot of the tracks line up well for us. It’s a comforting thing to know. Like I said, I don’t want to think too far ahead and get too excited about Vegas or Phoenix because we’re not there yet. We have to get there first. Hopefully this first round goes smooth and we don’t have too many headaches at night and can get through it.”

WHY WILL THESE PLAYOFFS BE DIFFERENT TO GET YOU TO PHOENIX?

“I think it’s going to be a steady improvement from what we did last year. Last year, we had the second-best average finish in the playoffs. We finished sixth in the points. Basically we were one race shy of making it to Phoenix with a bad qualifying effort at Martinsville. If we can build on what we did last year and improve some of the mistakes from the Round of Eight and improve some of the qualifying errors that we had at Martinsville, I think we’d already be ahead. It’s one step at a time, but if we learn from what we did last year then we can be better yet.”

WITH KYLE LARSON ONE OF YOUR STRONGEST COMPETITOR, HOW DO YOU ENTER THAT AND HOW OPEN-BOOK ARE YOU IF YOU BOTH GO ALL THE WAY TO PHOENIX?

“He’s really good and really fast. I feel like when he came to Hendrick Motorsports, I admired his talent and his simplicity in how he described the car. He just really knew exactly what the car was going but he didn’t make it too complicated. I’ve tried to take that approach, and I feel like the two of our teams work really well together. You’ll see a lot of times he and I being close together on pace because we drive similarly. We search for kind of the same things in terms of balance of the car. I think that helps our teams progress. Rudy (Fugle, crew chief) knows that he can look at their stuff and give me something similar, and it usually works. I don’t know why it’s worked that way. We have totally different backgrounds but seem to drive a stock car somewhat similarly.”

DO YOU HAVE A LOT OF CONFIDENCE GOING INTO DARLINGTON BASED ON WHAT HAPPENED IN THE SPRING?

“Yes and no. A lot has changed since then, so I feel like we have to keep up with the times and keep up with what’s new and what’s going on. I do think we can be really good at Darlington. It’s just a matter of how good. We want to be solid and have a good top-10 qualifying and a good top-10 race. For us, it’s pretty simple. It’s always been a good track for me, all the way back to Xfinity days. I love the challenge of it. The challenge of that track brings out a good side of my driving style. I enjoy places that are really tough and challenging, and that’s definitely one of them. It’s high-speed, it’s close to the wall, it’s everything I enjoy as a driver.”

IS THERE ANY SENSE OF URGENCY IN GETTING THIS DONE?

“I don’t think so. I’m 25. I feel like I have years left to keep driving. I feel like this is an opportunity that’s a great one, but it’s one that I’m going to relish and enjoy. I’m going to enjoy that we’re in this position. It’s fun and exciting. I’m looking forward to having more of those down the road. Maybe not next year. Like you said, it’s cyclical and maybe next year we’re not as strong. But I know we’ve built a foundation that can sustain itself. I’ve been racing for 11 years, and half of those have been in the Cup Series. It’s been a steep learning curve, but I feel really comfortable now.”

HOW HAS YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH RUDY PROGRESSED AS YOU’VE GONE THROUGH PLAYOFFS AND HIGH-PRESSURE SITUATIONS?

“He has a different approach than I do in terms of how he manages the pressure. It works for us. We’re a little bit opposite in some of our approaches. But when we talk about racecars, we’re very similar in our approach. We work well together because we do have differences, but at the same time we communicate well.”

About Chevrolet

Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands. 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.