Hamlin wins record seventh at Pocono Raceway in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series HighPoint.com 400

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July 23, 2023

Denny Hamlin breaks tie with legend Jeff Gordon for most wins before a sold-out main grandstand at Pocono Raceway.
The Joe Gibbs Racing veteran also recorded his 50th career Cup win and provided Toyota with its 600th NASCAR National Series victory.

LONG POND, Pa. (July 23, 2023) – This time around Denny Hamlin actually took the Pocono Raceway’s iconic Eagle trophy home.

Honest.

A year after being stripped of his win when his car was disqualified, Hamlin (No. 11 Mavis Tires & Brakes Toyota) secured his record seventh win at “The Tricky Triangle” before a sold-out grandstand crowd in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series HighPoint.com 400.

The victory broke a tie for most wins at Pocono Raceway with NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon and the Joe Gibbs Racing veteran added two more milestones to the celebration. Hamlin recorded his 50th career Cup win and also handed Toyota its 600th career NASCAR National Series victory (177 Cup, 196 Xfinity, 227 Trucks).

“Stuff like this doesn’t sit in for a while,” Hamlin said. “When you retire and you got a bunch of time, you’re sitting there on your rocker on your back porch, you’re thinking about, ‘What have I accomplished, right, in the sport?’ These things take a long time to sit in. They really do. We’re in the heat of the moment now. It takes time.

“I never thought I’d get an opportunity in the Cup Series. Luckily, J.D. Gibbs took a chance and Joe Gibbs took a chance on me nearly 20 years ago. To get my 50th win, it comes down to the track that I got my first, it certainly is special.”

And it did come with some controversy in Pocono Raceway’s 50th anniversary of hosting NASCAR.

On a restart with seven laps to go, Kyle Larson (No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet) was at the point when a charging Hamlin came up on his side panel. The two made contact that forced Larson to brush the wall and ended his hopes of contending for his first win at Pocono Raceway.

“Just unfortunate,” said Larson, who fell to 20th. “I’ve been cost a lot of good finishes by him throughout my career. I know he says I race a certain way. I don’t think I’ve ever had to apologize to him about anything. Not that he’s going to say sorry after this. It is what it is.”

Hamlin thought otherwise.

“There was a lane,” he said. “He missed the corner first and, evidently, he didn’t have his right-side tires clean. When he gassed up, he just kept going again. You know, you have an option in those positions to either hold it wide open and hit the fence or lift and race it out. Those are the choices they made. I didn’t hit either one of ’em. Didn’t touch ’em.”

Hamlin still had plenty of work to do as he was faced with a final restart in the 160-lap, 400-mile race with the likes of Kevin Harvick (No. 4 Busch Light Peach Ford), Martin Truex Jr. (No. 19 Interstate Batteries Toyota) and Tyler Reddick (No. 45 Jordan Brand Toyota) lined up behind him. Hamlin jumped out to a strong restart with JGR teammate Truex Jr. in tow. Reddick was moving as well, moving up to third with two to go and then passing Truex Jr. with one lap remaining.

Hamlin, who led the final seven laps, had a comfortable lead at that stage and a spin by Ryan Preece (No. 41 Mohawk Northeast Ford) on the white flag lap forced the race to finish under caution and clinch the record win.

Reddick finished second while Truex Jr. was third. Harvick, the leader among active drivers for career starts at Pocono Raceway, took fourth in his 44th and final start at “The Tricky Triangle.” Rookie Ty Gibbs (No. 54 He Gets Us Toyota) rounded out the top five with a career-best finish.

Hamlin notches 50th Cup Series triumph; becomes winningest competitor at Pocono

By

Andrew Kim

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July 23, 2023

Photo by Kirk Schroll for SpeedwayMedia.com.

A year after having a record-breaking victory at Pocono Raceway stripped due to disqualification to his race-winning car, Denny Hamlin responded back with vengeance and reclaimed the title of holding the most victories at the Tricky Triangle by winning the HighPoint.com 400 on Sunday, July 23.

The three-time Daytona 500 champion from Chesterfield, Virginia, led twice for nine of 160-scheduled laps in an event where he rolled off the starting grid in eighth place, ran towards the front and accumulated an abundance of stage points by finishing in the top five during both stage periods. Amid various pit strategies and a bevy of caution periods amid on-track carnages, Hamlin, who methodically gained ground towards the lead and avoided a spin involving Alex Bowman with 12 laps remaining amid close-quarters racing, seized an opportunity for the lead during a restart with seven laps remaining as he drew himself alongside Kyle Larson.

In the process, Hamlin went up the racetrack and forced Larson out of the racing groove which resulted in Larson scrubbing the outside wall past Turn 1 while Hamlin rocketed away with the lead. Amid another ensuing caution period, where Larson bumped Hamlin to express his displeasure over the contact, Hamlin then managed to pull away from teammate Martin Truex Jr. and Tyler Reddick in a three-lap dash to the finish and just before an incident involving Ryan Preece concluded the event under caution to claim his second NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2023 season and his all-time leading seventh triumph at the Tricky Triangle.

With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, July 22, William Byron notched his third pole of 2023 and the 11th of his Cup Series career after posting a pole-winning lap at 170.629 mph in 52.746 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Martin Truex Jr., winner of last weekend’s Cup event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 170.235 mph in 52.868 seconds.

Prior to the event, Chase Elliott and Todd Gilliland dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective entries after both spun during their respective qualifying laps on Saturday.

When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Byron and Truex dueled for the lead through the frontstretch and entering the first turn until Byron managed to use the outside lane to his advantage as he rocketed into the lead entering Long Pond Straight. With Byron leading, Truex retained second as Joey Logano muscled his way into third place over Kyle Larson, Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin. With the field navigating its way through Turns 2 and 3 before returning to the frontstretch, Byron proceeded to lead the first lap while Truex, Logano, Harvick and Larson followed in pursuit.

Through the second lap and as the field continued to jostle for early spots, rookie Ty Gibbs scrubbed the outside wall entering Long Pond Straight and while running 17th. With Gibbs resuming under full speed and the race proceeding under green, Byron retained the lead with a reasonable advantage over Truex while Logano, Harvick and Larson remained in the top five. Behind, Bubba Wallace, who scrubbed the wall during his qualifying lap but rolled off the grid in 10th place, was in sixth ahead of Christopher Bell as Austin Cindric, Tyler Reddick and Hamlin pursued in the top 10.

On the fourth lap, the first caution of the event flew when JJ Yeley, who was running towards the rear of the field, spun and slapped the inside wall on the driver’s left side at the Short Chute and just past Turn 2. During the caution period, some like Chase Elliott, Aric Almirola, Ryan Preece, Chase Briscoe, Cole Custer and Todd Gilliland pitted while the rest led by Byron remained on the track.

When the race resumed under green flag conditions on the 10th lap, Byron and Logano, who moved up to restart alongside Byron on the front row after Truex elected to start behind Byron on the outside lane, dueled for the lead entering the first turn as the field fanned out. Then in Turn 1, Logano rocketed his No. 22 Verizon Frontline Ford Mustang into the lead as Byron went up the track and fell back to second. Then exiting Long Pond Straight and as the field continued to fan out, Byron was placed in a three-wide battle with teammate Larson and Harvick to retain second, with Larson gaining the spot as Truex fell back to fifth.

Three laps later and amid the early battles within the field, Corey LaJoie, who was running 12th, pitted under green after scrubbing the wall entering Long Pond Straight a lap earlier and reporting a flat tire to his No. 7 TD Bank Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, though he remained on the lead lap following his pit service. With the event remaining under green flag conditions, Logano continued to lead over a hard-charging Larson, who started to gain ground on Logano for the lead, while Byron settled in third and trailed the lead by more than a second.

Through the first 20 scheduled laps, Logano retained the lead by three-tenths of a second over Larson while Byron, Harvick and Truex were running in the top five. Behind, Christopher Bell occupied sixth ahead of teammate Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Reddick and AJ Allmendinger while Michael McDowell, Bubba Wallace, Austin Cindric, Ty Gibbs and Alex Bowman were in the top 15. Meanwhile, Brad Keselowski was in 16th ahead of Justin Haley, Kyle Busch, Chris Buescher and Erik Jones while Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ross Chastain, Chase Elliott, Daniel Suarez, rookie Noah Gragson, Ryan Preece, Harrison Burton, Austin Dillon, Ty Dillon and Aric Almirola were mired in the top 30.

Five laps later, Logano stabilized his advantage to nearly half a second over Larson while third-place Byron trailed by more than a second. By then, the top-10 field that included Harvick, Truex, Bell, Hamlin, Blaney, Reddick and Allmendinger were trailing the lead by under six seconds. Another lap later, Kyle Busch, who was running 18th, pitted his No. 8 Lenovo Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 under green. A bevy of names that included Larson, Byron, Harvick, Bell, Blaney, Ty Gibbs, Bowman, Austin Cindric, Keselowski, Elliott and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. would pit during the proceeding lap under green and just as pit road closed with the first stage’s conclusion within sight.

When the first stage concluded on Lap 30, Logano captured his third Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. Truex, the regular-season championship leader, followed suit in second while Hamlin, Reddick, Allmendinger, Michael McDowell, Bubba Wallace, Justin Haley, Chris Buescher and Erik Jones were scored in the top 10.

Under the stage break, a bevy of names led by Logano, including those who remained on the track during the first stage’s conclusion period, pitted while the rest led by Cole Custer and Byron, including those who pitted prior to the first stage’s conclusion, remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Hamlin exited first followed by teammate Truex, Reddick, Logano, McDowell and Allmendinger. Custer would then pit a lap after remaining on the track, which enabled Byron to cycle back into the lead.

The second stage started on Lap 35 as teammates Byron and Larson occupied the front row. At the start and with the field fanning out entering the first turn, the caution quickly returned when Logano, who was running in the middle of the pack, received a bump from McDowell that caused Logano to get loose and bounce off of Reddick before he spun backward and hit the outside wall, with the driver unable to drive away due to flat-spotting his tires and needing a wrecker to tow his car back to pit road. At the same time, McDowell, who was turning left to avoid Logano, made contact with Wallace, which proceeded into Wallace clipping Suarez as Suarez also spun sideways and slapped the outside wall head-on. The incident not only left a huge dent to Suarez’s front nose of his No. 99 Jockey Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, but it also implicated his ensuing battle to make the top-16 cutline for the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs as he came into Pocono trailing the cutline by a single point. The damage, however, was enough to terminate Suarez’s event in the garage.

During the proceeding restart on Lap 41, teammates Byron and Larson dueled for the lead through the frontstretch and entering the first turn before the field navigated its way to Long Pond Straight. The caution, however, quickly returned when Austin Dillon, who was running 26th, got clipped by BJ McLeod as Dillon was sent spinning backward toward the outside wall in Turn 1.

The following restart on Lap 45 restart generated another caution period as Larson, who dueled teammate Byron for the lead through the frontstretch and entering Turn 1, received a bump from Bell that got Larson’s No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 sideways and spinning up the track backward toward the outside wall in Turn 1 while the rest of the field scattered to avoid him. During the caution period, select names that included Harvick, Chase Briscoe, Erik Jones, Cole Custer, Harrison Burton, Todd Gilliland and Ty Dillon pitted while the rest led by Byron remained on the track.

On the ensuing restart on Lap 50, where Byron and Bell occupied the front row, Byron surged ahead with a huge push on the outside lane to retain the lead through the frontstretch and entering Turn 1. With the field navigating its way through Turn 1 and Long Pond Straight, Ty Gibbs was up in third behind Blaney, who surged his No. 12 Advance Auto Parts Ford Mustang into second, followed by Keselowski and Bell, who lost a handful of spots during the restart, while teammates Elliott and Alex Bowman battled for sixth. Truex would join the battle involving Bowman and Elliott during the following lap along with Hamlin while Reddick was in 10th ahead of a battle between Wallace, Kyle Busch, Cindric and Buescher.

By Lap 55 and amid a series of on-track battles ensuing within the field, Byron was leading by six-tenths of a second over Blaney while third-place Ty Gibbs trailed by more than a second. Byron would continue to lead by nine-tenths of a second over Blaney at the Lap 60 mark while Ty Gibbs, Keselowski and Bell remained in the top five. With Elliott, Truex, Hamlin, Reddick and Bowman running in the top 10, Wallace was in 11th ahead of Buescher, Allmendinger, Haley and McDowell while Kyle Busch, who went up the track and nearly scrubbed the wall a few laps earlier, had fallen back to 16th in front of Ryan Preece, Cindric, Aric Almirola and Stenhouse. By then, Larson was mired in 24th in front of Harvick, Ross Chastain was in 27th and Chase Briscoe was in 30th.

On Lap 63, Bowman and Kyle Busch, who were running 10th and 16th, respectively, pitted under green. Stenhouse would pit during the proceeding lap before Allmendinger pitted by Lap 65. By then, Kyle Busch was lapped by Byron amid a 17-second pit stop. Wallace would then pit under green on Lap 68 as Byron continued to lead through the Lap 70 mark.

By Lap 72, Hamlin, who was running on fumes amid a shortage of fuel due to leaving his pit stall early while fueling his car during his previous pit stop under caution, pitted his No. 11 Mavis Tires & Brakes Toyota TRD Camry under green while running 11th. His driver Reddick would pit during the following lap as Byron retained the lead by more than a second over runner-up Blaney and more than two seconds over Ty Gibbs through the Lap 75 mark. Byron would extend his advantage to more than two seconds over Blaney and more than three seconds over Ty Gibbs by Lap 78. By then, Buescher and Chastain pitted under green as Keselowski would follow suit.

Then on Lap 79, Byron surrendered the lead to pit his No. 24 Raptor Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 followed by Blaney, Bell, Cindric, and Almirola as Ty Gibbs cycled into the lead. Elliott and McDowell would follow suit on Lap 80 as Ty Gibbs pitted his No. 54 He Get Us Toyota TRD Camry on Lap 81 along with teammate Truex and Ryan Preece. By then, Larson cycled into the lead as Austin Dillon pitted his No. 3 BREZTRI Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 under green on Lap 83.

Just past the Lap 85 mark, Larson was leading by eight-tenths of a second over Harvick while Erik Jones, Ty Dillon and LaJoie were in the top five. Behind, Byron cycled his way up to sixth while Harrison Burton, Bowman, Hamlin and Reddick were scored in the top 10 ahead of Blaney, Ty Gibbs, Wallace, Bell and Truex.

With the event reaching its Lap 90 mark, select names like LaJoie and Erik Jones pitted under green. Harvick would then surrender the runner-up spot to pit his No. 4 Busch Light Peach Ford Mustang on Lap 91 along with Harrison Burton as Larson continued to lead. Then on Lap 91, the caution flew when Bell got loose and spun his No. 20 Yahoo! Toyota TRD Camry exiting Turn 1. The caution for Bell’s incident was enough for NASCAR to conclude the second stage scheduled to conclude on Lap 95 under caution as Larson, who was about to pit prior to Bell’s incident and was running low on fuel, coasted to his third Cup stage victory of the 2023 season. Ty Dillon emerged in the runner-up spot while Byron, Hamlin, Bowman, Reddick, Ty Gibbs, Blaney, Wallace and Truex were scored in the top 10.

Under the stage break, some led by Larson, including a mix of competitors who had yet to pit prior to the stage’s conclusion and who pitted early from the stage’s conclusion like Hamlin, pitted while the rest led by Byron remained on the track.

With 61 laps remaining, the final stage started as Byron and Blaney occupied the front row. At the start, Byron rocketed away with the lead on the outside lane through the frontstretch before the inside lane led by Blaney regained momentum as Blaney assumed the lead through Turn 1. Truex followed suit behind Blaney while Byron fell back to third.

During the following lap with 60 laps remaining, Truex attempted to draw even with Blaney entering Turn 1 in his bid for the lead, but he stepped off the throttle as Blaney retained the lead while Byron tried to regain ground on the two leaders. Truex would then succeed in gaining the lead through the frontstretch during the following lap as Byron followed suit. Soon after, Blaney lost spots to Ty Gibbs, Buescher, Wallace and Bowman as he was dropkicked to seventh. He would continue to lose more spots during the ensuing lap as he reported a power issue to his car.

With 55 laps remaining, the caution returned when Austin Dillon, who was vying for a spot in the top 10 and battling with Keselowski and Reddick, turned across the front nose of Reddick entering Turn 1 as Dillon spun up the track and pounded the outside wall hard. Compared to his previous incident in Turn 1, Dillon’s latest incident terminated his run with a wrecked race car and prompted the North Carolinian to toss his helmet at Reddick’s No. 45 Jordan Brand Toyota TRD Camry to express his displeasure. At the moment of caution, Truex was leading ahead of Byron while Ty Gibbs, Buescher, Wallace, Bowman, Hamlin, Harvick, Elliott and Keselowski were in the top 10.

During the caution period, select names that included Blaney, Keselowski, Almirola, Cindric, Stenhouse, Kyle Busch, LaJoie, Todd Gilliland and Harrison Burton pitted while the rest led by Truex remained on the track.

As the race restarted with 50 laps remaining, Truex retained the lead amid a strong restart on the outside lane while Byron retained second in front of Ty Gibbs. Behind, Wallace carved his way up to fourth followed by Buescher while Bowman was in sixth ahead of Harvick and Elliott as the field cycled its way through Long Pond Straight, the Tunnel Curve and Turns 2 and 3.

Ten laps later, Byron surrendered the runner-up spot to pit under green along with Buescher, McDowell, Keselowski, Cindric and Larson, who only opted for two fresh tires to cycle ahead of his fellow competitors. By then, Bowman had pitted a lap earlier while Truex retained the lead. With 39 laps remaining, however, the cycle of green flag pit stops continue to ensue as Truex pitted his No. 19 Interstate Batteries Toyota TRD Camry from the lead along with Wallace, Elliott, Chastain, Allmendinger and Haley while Ty Gibbs cycled into the lead. Gibbs would then pit with 38 laps remaining along with teammate Bell as Hamlin cycled into the lead followed by Harvick and Reddick.

As Hamlin and Harvick both pitted for two fresh tires and fuel with 37 laps remaining, Reddick cycled into the lead while Larson, the first competitor running on two fresh tires and a full tank of gas, managed to cycle ahead of both Hamlin and Harvick on the track. With Reddick still leading with 30 laps remaining and despite having another pit stop within his horizon to have enough fuel to finish the event, Erik Jones trailed in the runner-up spot by more than three seconds followed by Stenhouse, LaJoie, Harrison Burton, Almirola, Gilliland, Yeley and Blaney, all of whom needing a pit stop to finish the event. Meanwhile, Larson, the first competitor running in prime position with his two fresh tires and a full tank of fuel, was in 10th followed by a hard-charging Hamlin while Truex, Bowman, Harvick, Byron, Ty Gibbs, Kyle Busch, Elliott, Buescher and Wallace followed pursuit.

With 25 laps remaining, Erik Jones surrendered the runner-up spot to pit his No. 43 U.S. Air Force Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 under green as Reddick continued to lead by more than eight seconds over Stenhouse, who would pit his No. 47 Blue Buffalo Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 during the proceeding lap. Reddick would then surrender the lead to pit under green with 22 laps remaining as LaJoie cycled into the lead.

Down to the final 20 laps of the event, LaJoie was leading by more than five seconds over Almirola followed by Gilliland, all three of whom still needed to pit, while Larson cycled his way up to fourth despite trailing the top-three competitors by more than 11 seconds. Behind, a battle ensued between Joe Gibbs Racing’s Hamlin and Truex while Bowman, Harvick, Byron and Ty Gibbs were in the top 10. By then, Harrison Burton pitted under green.

Then three laps later, the caution flew when contact from Ty Dillon sent Briscoe spinning and hitting the outside wall in Turn 3 as Briscoe limped his damaged No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang to his pit stall. During the caution period, some led by LaJoie and including Almirola, Gilliland, Byron, Elliott, Buescher, Yeley, Wallace, Allmendinger, Chastain, Keselowski, Blaney, Gilliland, Cindric, Preece, McDowell, Haley, LaJoie and Kyle Busch pitted while the rest led by Larson remained on the track. Amid the pit stops, Cindric was penalized for speeding on pit road while LaJoie was held a lap in his pit box for overtaking the pace car while pulling up to his pit stall prior to his service.

When the race restarted under green with 13 laps remaining, where Larson and Hamlin occupied the front row, Larson received a strong push from Truex on the outside lane to rocket ahead with the lead over Hamlin entering Turn 1. Through Long Pond Straight and as the field fanned out through the Tunnel Curve, Larson retained the lead over Truex as Bowman moved up to third while Hamlin fell back to fourth in front of Harvick.

During the following lap, Truex started to launch his charge on Larson for the lead as he closed in to within a tenth of a second to Larson’s rear bumper through Long Pond Straight and the Tunnel Curve. Shortly after, the caution flew when Bowman, who was running third, spun sideways in front of Hamlin amid close-quarters racing, but with no contact made between both competitors, as Bowman backed his No. 48 Ally Best Friends Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 against the outside wall in Turn 3.

Down to the final seven laps of the event, where Larson and Truex occupied the front row, the race restarted under green. At the start, Larson received another strong push on the outside lane, this time from Hamlin, to retain the lead entering Turn 1. Through Turn 1, however, Hamlin made his move beneath Larson in a bid for the lead as he even forced Larson up the track and caused Larson to scrub the outside wall. With Truex and Harvick joining the battle, Hamlin gained control of the field with the lead followed by Truex and Harvick while Larson dropped to fourth. Not long after, the caution returned when Haley wrecked in Turn 2. During the caution period, Larson bumped into Hamlin to express his displeasure over the contact.

With the event restarting under green with three laps remaining, where teammates Hamlin and Truex occupying the front row, Hamlin launched ahead with another strong start on the outside lane and he would retain the top spot over Truex as he navigated his way into Long Pond Straight. Through the straightaway, Larson started to lose momentum and a bevy of spots towards the front amid his damage while Hamlin continued to lead Truex.

Down to the final two laps of the event, Hamlin was leading by three-tenths of a second over Truex while Harvick was being challenged by Reddick for third. In the process, Ty Gibbs was in fifth ahead of Bell, Stenhouse, Erik Jones, Harrison Burton and Elliott while Larson plummeted to 14th.

Then as Hamlin started to navigate his way towards the frontstretch to start the final lap of the event, Preece spun past the Tunnel Curve. NASCAR, though, opted keep the race under green flag conditions and display the white flag to start the final lap, where Hamlin remained as the leader by nearly eight-tenths of a second over Truex and Reddick. With Preece unable to drive away from his incident and as the field was approaching him through Long Pond Straight, NASCAR threw the caution to conclude the event. As a result, the leader Hamlin was awarded the victory as he notched the second Cup consecutive victory in recent weeks for Joe Gibbs Racing.

With the victory, Hamlin notched his second NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2023 season, his first since winning at Kansas Speedway in May amid a final lap dust-up involving Larson and he surpassed Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon in becoming the winningest Cup competitor at the Tricky Triangle with seven victories. In addition, he became the fifth competitor to achieve multiple Cup victories this season and the 15th different competitor to achieve 50 wins in NASCAR’s premier series as he moved into a tie with Hall of Famers Ned Jarrett and Junior Johnson for 13th place on the all-time wins list. As an added bonus, Hamlin recorded the 600th overall victory for the Toyota nameplate across NASCAR with the manufacturer notching its seventh victory of the 2023 Cup season.

Photo by Jeff Clemons for SpeedwayMedia.com.

“Both [Larson and Bowman] wrecked themselves,” Hamlin, who stood his ground over his late incidents involving Larson and Bowman, said on USA Network. “There was a lane. [Larson] missed the corner first and evidently, he didn’t have his right-side tires clean. When he gassed up, he just kept going again. You have an option in those positions that it’s either hold it wide open and hit the fence or lift and race it out. Those were choices they made. I didn’t hit either one of them. I didn’t touch them.”

“I love it,” Hamlin, who reigned in the chorus of boos from the crowd, added. “They can boo my [winning] rock here in a few years. Honestly, we had the best car. The strategy worked out well. [Crew chief] Chris [Gabehart] just kept getting me more towards the front. This Mavis Tires & Brakes car was just really fast right from the get-go in practice. Just really happy that we’re finally winning these races that we should win.”

Upon completion of the post-race inspection process, there were no issues assessed to Hamlin’s race-winning car this season compared to the previous season, which made Hamlin’s 2023 victory at Pocono official.

Meanwhile, Larson, who ended up 20th and had initially placed himself in contention for the victory amid his early spin, maintained his composure but did not mince his words nor his displeasure to Hamlin over the on-track contact.

“I’ve been cost a lot of good finishes by [Hamlin] throughout my career and I know he says I race a certain way, but I don’t think I’ve ever had to apologize to him about anything,” Larson said. “Not that I’m sure he’s gonna say sorry after this, but it is what it is. Whatever, just move on. Yes, this makes things [expletive] and awkward, but whatever. He’s always right. All the buddies know Denny’s always right, so I’m sure he was in the right there as well. I’m not gonna let it tarnish our friendship on track, but I am pissed. I feel like I should be pissed. I think at this point, I’m gonna have to [race him differently], right? Eventually, like he says, you got to start racing people a certain way to get the respect back. I don’t think I deserve to be run into before I ever got to the wall.”

Behind Hamlin, Reddick rallied to come home in the runner-up spot followed by Truex, who fell short in winning back-to-back races in recent weeks. Harvick and Ty Gibbs finished in the top five.

Bell, Stenhouse, Harrison Burton, Erik Jones and Chase Elliott finished in the top 10. Notably, Wallace ended up 11th, Byron settled in 14th behind Ross Chastain, Keselowski finished 16th, Kyle Busch ended up 21st behind Larson and Bowman fell back to 24th. In addition, Blaney ended up 30th, the final competitor on the lead lap.

There were 14 lead changes for nine different leaders. The race featured 11 cautions for 44 laps. In addition, 30 of 36 starters finished on the lead lap.

With five regular-season events remaining of this year’s Cup Series schedule, Martin Truex Jr. continues to lead the regular-season standings by 30 points over William Byron, 55 over Denny Hamlin, 75 over Christopher Bell and 98 over Ross Chastain.

William Byron, Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, Ross Chastain, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. are currently guaranteed spots for the 2023 Cup Series Playoffs based on winning at least once throughout the regular-season stretch. Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Chris Buescher, Bubba Wallace and Michael McDowell currently occupy the remaining vacant spots in the Playoffs based on points, with McDowell occupying the 16th and final vacant spot by 17 points over AJ Allmendinger, 23 over Daniel Suarez, 28 over rookie Ty Gibbs, 45 over Alex Bowman, 56 over Chase Elliott, 60 over Austin Cindric and 62 over Justin Haley.

Results.

1. Denny Hamlin, nine laps led

2. Tyler Reddick, 15 laps led

3. Martin Truex Jr., 20 laps led

4. Kevin Harvick

5. Ty Gibbs, four laps led

6. Christopher Bell

7. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

8. Harrison Burton

9. Erik Jones

10. Chase Elliott

11. Bubba Wallace

12. Aric Almirola

13. Ross Chastain

14. William Byron, 60 laps led

15. Todd Gilliland

16. Brad Keselowski

17. AJ Allmendinger

18. Chris Buescher

19. Michael McDowell

20. Kyle Larson, 24 laps led, Stage 2 winner

21. Kyle Busch

22. Noah Gragson

23. Austin Cindric

24. Alex Bowman

25. Cole Custer

26. JJ Yeley

27. Corey LaJoie, five laps led

28. Ty Dillon

29. Chase Briscoe

30. Ryan Blaney, two laps led

31. Ryan Preece, one lap down

32. BJ McLeod, one lap down

33. Justin Haley – OUT, Accident

34. Austin Dillon – OUT, Accident

35. Joey Logano – OUT, Dvp, 21 laps led, Stage 1 winner

36. Daniel Suarez – OUT, Accident

Next on the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the series’ second and final visit of this season to Richmond Raceway in Richmond, Virginia. The event is scheduled to occur next Sunday, July 30 at 3 p.m. ET on USA Network.

DEX Imaging Team Finishes 8th at Pocono

By

Official Release

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July 23, 2023

Harrison Burton and the No. 21 DEX Imaging team took advantage of some savvy strategy calls that put them in the lead pack in the final laps of Sunday’s HighPoint.com 400 at Pocono Raceway and came away with an eighth-place finish.

It was Burton’s second top-10 of the season, the first being a sixth place at Darlington in May, and the fourth of his Cup Series career.

In the early laps of Sunday’s 400-miler on the Tricky Triangle, Burton moved up two spots from his 26th starting position then finished the first 30-lap Stage in 15th place by staying on the track as others ahead of him made pit stops just prior to the end of the Stage.

Crew chief Brian Wilson brought Burton to pit road during the caution period at the end of the Stage then called for several more stops under caution, at Laps 36 and 46, which allowed the DEX Imaging team to make a green flag stop with just four laps remaining in Stage Two.

When a group of drivers pitted at the end of the Stage, Burton moved up to 13th position for the start of the third and final segment of the race.

Burton was back on pit road at Laps 106, and that strategy allowed him to move up to second place during the next round of green-flag stops.

The No. 21 Mustang hit pit road at Lap 138 for two tires and six laps later was back in the top 10 with 15 of 160 laps left to run.

Burton, with his No. 21 Mustang responding well to some mid-race adjustments, did his best driving of the day over an action-packed final 10 laps as two more incidents caused restarts, with the racing as aggressive as it had been all day.

The final green flag flew with three laps remaining, and Burton picked up three positions to eighth place before a stalled car on the track caused the race to end under the caution flag.

“We were mired in traffic all day and that makes it hard,” Burton told reporters after the race. “We struggled for handling but made a few changes at the end and that got the car pretty good right before the long green-flag cycle and I could kind of run long.

“A lot of those guys pitted themselves into traffic, and we were able to have clean air and click off faster lap times.

“We pitted and came out in front of a lot of those guys, so that helped us a lot.”

Burton said the varying strategies employed at Pocono make the racing much more interesting.

“It’s fun to kind of know what’s going on and know that you have to go run fast laps because the guys behind you are trying to do the same,” he said. “It worked out to where we pitted out in front of them. The guys did a good job on pit road to do that, and the last few restarts I just tried to be aggressive and keep moving forward and got a few more spots.”

Burton said the strong run and top-10 finish were a big boost for him and the No. 21 team.

“The last two weekends have been better for us,” he said. “This weekend I was disappointed the first little bit because it wasn’t very good, and then found a way to keep digging and claw out of it. Last weekend was the opposite. The first three-quarters of the race was really good and then the end just got cycled back on some restarts.

“It’s good to finish on the good side of it this weekend and keep fighting through the day and not give up on making the race car better. We definitely did that.

“I’m proud of our guys. There’s not a lot of quit on this race team. We’ve been through hell and high water, but we’re still fighting.”

Next up for Burton and the Wood Brothers team is a Sunday afternoon 400-lapper at Richmond Raceway.

About DEX Imaging
DEX Imaging is the digital document imaging division of Staples, the world’s largest business solutions provider. DEX sells and services the broadest selection of copiers, printers and data management solutions, such as HP, Konica Minolta, Canon, Kyocera and numerous others.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES:
Reducing Operating Costs
Reducing Paper Consumption
Increasing Productivity

DEX Imaging has been the recipient of virtually every industry award since the company’s inception, including the JD Power & Associates Award for Best Customer Experience, the prestigious ProTech Service award by Konica Minolta, the Diamond Premier Dealer Award by Kyocera, and the Elite DEALER Award by ‘ENX’ magazine. Other accolades include being named ‘Best Place to Work’ by numerous business journals in the markets DEX serves.

Wood Brothers Racing
Wood Brothers Racing was formed in 1950 in Stuart, Va., by Hall of Famer Glenn Wood. Wood Brothers Racing is the oldest active team and one of the winningest teams in NASCAR history. Since its founding, the team won 99 races (including at least one race in every decade for the last seven decades) and 120 poles in NASCAR’s top-tier series. Fielding only Ford products for its entire history, the Wood Brothers own the longest association of any motorsports team with a single manufacturer. Glenn’s brother, Leonard, is known for inventing the modern pit stop. The team currently runs the Ford Mustang driven by Harrison Burton in the famous No. 21 racer.

Stewart-Haas Racing: HighPoint.com 400 from Pocono

By

Official Release

-

July 23, 2023

STEWART-HAAS RACING
HighPoint.com 400

Date: July 23, 2023
Event: HighPoint.com 400 (Round 21 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Pocono (Pa.) Raceway (2.5-mile triangle)
Format: 160 laps, broken into three stages (30 laps/65 laps/65 laps)
Race Winner: Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Stage 1 Winner: Joey Logano of Team Penske (Ford)
Stage 2 Winner: Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)

SHR Race Finish:

● Kevin Harvick (Started 4th, Finished 4th / Running, completed 160 of 160 laps)

● Aric Almirola (Started 27th, Finished 12th / Running, completed 160 of 160 laps)

● Chase Briscoe (Started 29th, Finished 29th / Running, completed 160 of 160 laps)

● Ryan Preece (Started 34th, Finished 31st / Running, completed 159 of 160 laps)

SHR Points:

● Kevin Harvick (8th with 601 points, 110 out of first)

● Aric Almirola (25th with 352 points, 359 out of first)

● Ryan Preece (27th with 341 points, 370 out of first)

● Chase Briscoe (31st with 257 points, 454 out of first)

SHR Notes:

● Harvick earned his sixth top-five and ninth top-10 of the season. It was his 16th top-five and 23rd top-10 in 44 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Pocono.

● Harvick’s 16 top-fives and 23 top-10s at Pocono are the most among active NASCAR Cup Series drivers. Denny Hamlin is next best with 15 top-fives and 22 top-10s.

● This was Harvick’s second straight top-five. He finished fourth last week at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon.

● Since joining SHR in 2014, Harvick has only four finishes outside of the top-10 at Pocono – a span of 18 races.

● Almirola earned his fifth top-15 of the season and his seventh top-15 in 21 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Pocono.

● This was Almirola’s eighth straight finish of 16th or better at Pocono.

Race Notes:

● Hamlin won the HighPoint.com 400 to score his milestone 50th career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his second of the season and his seventh at Pocono. Tyler Reddick crossed the finish line second as the race ended under caution.

● There were 11 caution periods for a total of 44 laps.

● Thirty of the 36 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.

● Martin Truex Jr., remains the championship leader after Pocono with a 30-point advantage over second-place William Byron.

Sound Bites:

“I would’ve rather won, but I think we just have to keep ourselves in the mix, keep doing what we’re doing, and you just never know how these things are going to play out. We needed the front in clean air and we never really got that. Our car just struggled in traffic on that first lap of the restarts to get going with the front tires, but it was a strange race. I didn’t ever think that that strategy would play out like it did, running where we were and then have it cycle all through. You’ve just got to keep going every lap. They know what they’re doing up there and let it play out.” – Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Busch Light Peach Ford Mustang

“Today was a tough day, but I’m glad we were able to finish on the lead lap. We’ve had success at Pocono with HighPoint.com and I really wanted to get them a good finish in their race. We still have a lot of work to do on the No. 14 team, but I have all the confidence in these guys and I know we’ll figure it out.” – Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Cook Out 400 on Sunday, July 30 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway. The race begins at 3 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by USA and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Toyota earns landmark NASCAR victory

By

Official Release

-

July 23, 2023

no11 — Photo by Jeff Clemons for Speedwaymedia.com

POCONO, Penn. (July 23, 2023) – With Denny Hamlin’s win in the NASCAR Cup Series today at Pocono, Toyota has earned a milestone NASCAR victory as the manufacturer now owns 600 NASCAR national series wins. Toyota has amassed 177 wins in the NASCAR Cup Series, 196 in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and 227 in the NASCAR Truck Series.

“To think we have celebrated 600 Toyota wins in NASCAR is incredibly rewarding to me and the entire Toyota family,” said David Wilson, president, TRD. “There are so many people that have worked countless hours, days and years to help us achieve this accomplishment, and this wouldn’t be possible without all of our outstanding team partners and talented drivers behind the wheel of Camrys, Supras and Tundras. We look forward to celebrating 600 more wins as we continue to focus on achieving our short-term and long-term goals in NASCAR.”

Joe Gibbs Racing is Toyota’s winningest organization, owning 338 race victories in NASCAR Cup Series (148) and NASCAR Xfinity Series (190) competition since partnering together in 2008.

Eighty (80) drivers in total have won in a Toyota, led by multi-time Toyota champion Kyle Busch with 203 victories. Denny Hamlin (61 wins), Martin Truex Jr. (33 wins), Christopher Bell (29 wins), Todd Bodine (22 wins), Joey Logano (20 wins), Erik Jones (18 wins), Matt Kenseth (18 wins), Johnny Benson (14 wins), Mike Skinner (12 wins), Matt Crafton (12 wins), John Hunter Nemechek (12 wins), Ty Gibbs (11 wins) and Timothy Peters (10 wins) all have taken home 10 or more national-series wins behind the wheel of a Toyota.

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 63,000 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 24 electrified options.

Toyota Racing – NCS Pocono Post-Race Report – 07.23.23

By

Official Release

-

July 23, 2023

HAMLIN SCORES MILESTONE VICTORY FOR HIMSELF, TOYOTA
Denny Hamlin earns 50th career NASCAR Cup Series victory, 600th NASCAR victory for Toyota

POCONO, Penn. (July 23, 2023) – Denny Hamlin delivered on a special day for himself and Toyota as he earned his series-best seventh Cup Series victory at Pocono, 50th NASCAR Cup Series win for himself and 600th NASCAR national series win for Toyota. It was a stellar day for Team Toyota as all six Toyota Camry TRD drivers finished inside the top-11 finishers – Tyler Reddick (second), Martin Truex Jr. (third), Ty Gibbs (fifth), Christopher Bell (sixth) and Bubba Wallace (11th). For Gibbs, it was a career-best result, a year after his Cup Series debut. It’s the 14th Toyota podium sweep in Toyota’s Cup Series history and the 11th time to have four of the top-five finishers. Both most recently happened in Kansas last fall.

Toyota Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Pocono Raceway
Race 21 of 36 – 400 miles, 160 laps

TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, DENNY HAMLIN
2nd, TYLER REDDICK
3rd, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
4th, Kevin Harvick*
5th, TY GIBBS
6th, CHRISTOPHER BELL
11th, BUBBA WALLACE
*non-Toyota driver

TOYOTA QUOTES

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 Mavis Tires & Brakes Toyota Camry TRD, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 1st

Can you describe the race there at the end with Kyle Larson?

“I pushed him all the way into turn one. I don’t know if he didn’t have his tires clean and then he washed up the race track. We got side-by-side, and he chose not to lift. It’s just one of those things when you are on the outside the aerodynamics position, I didn’t touch him. He just made the decision not to lift.”

How good was the race car and how important was it to get that lead?

“Well, we had the best car that is for sure. Just happy to get this Mavis Tires and Brakes Camry into victory lane.”

What does it mean to be the winningest driver at Pocono and 50 career wins?

“It just means so much. I’ve got to thank the partners Mavis, Toyota, TRD, FedEx, Sport Clips, Coca-Cola, Interstate Batteries, Jordan Brand, Shady Rays and Logitech – they are the ones that make this possible. This team right here. They’ve just done a phenomenal job on pit road, the strategy guys in the war room, the guys on the top of the pit box – Chris (Gabehart, crew chief) and his team, they are the ones that got me those wins.”

TYLER REDDICK, No. 45 Jordan Brand Toyota Camry TRD, 23XI Racing

Finishing Position: 2nd

How was the race today?

“Yeah, we had really strong Jordan Brand H-Wings 2 Toyota Camry TRD. The runner-up finish – when you look at the quality of the car and the tire advantage, it is a little disappointing.”

Can you take us through the decisions you had to make today?

“Unfortunately, I couldn’t make many decisions, they were being made for me. In the closing laps, we didn’t get a lot of pushes – we didn’t really get a good push on any of the restarts and that left us in a vulnerable spot. We did everything we could in our Jordan Brand H-Wings 2 Toyota Camry TRD. Solid car.”

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 19 Interstate Batteries Fine Foods Toyota Camry TRD, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 3rd

How was your race?

“Our Interstate Batteries Camry was a rocket. We fought track position all day, and finally got it, and then drove away from the field until strategy got us back a few spots. All-in-all, really good speed, good day. I just couldn’t get the push from the front row to get the lead back.”

Can you take me through those last few restarts?

“When I got to second behind the 5 (Kyle Larson), I thought better take the front row and hope for a good push. I fell back to third. I got the front row again, still didn’t get a good push. At least on the last one, I was able to pull the 4 (Kevin Harvick) off the 11 (Denny Hamlin) and get to second, just impossible to pass the leader. Our car was so fast, but the guy out front would get clean air and be gone. All-in-all great day, track position was king.”

TY GIBBS, No. 54 He Gets Us Toyota Camry TRD, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 5th

Congrats on your first top-five. Can you tell us about your race?

“It’s really cool. We had a really fast He Gets Us, Monster Energy Toyota Camry. It’s great to come home in the top-five. Thank you to everybody supports me at JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) and Toyota, TRD. What a great day. We were up front all day. Solid day with good track position. It was nice to stay out of the mess back there. We just have to keep fighting.”

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 63,000 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 24 electrified options.

CHEVROLET INDYCAR AT IOWA: TEAM CHEVY HY-VEE ONESTEP 250 – NEWGARDEN AND CHEVROLET SCORE DOUBLE VICTORIES IN IOWA

By

Official Release

-

July 23, 2023

CHEVROLET IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES
HY-VEE HOMEFRONT 250 PRESENTED BY INSTACART
NEWTON, IOWA
TEAM CHEVY RACE NO. 2 POST RACE RECAP
JULY 23, 2023

JOSEF NEWGARDEN AND CHEVROLET SCORE DOUBLE VICTORIES AT IOWA SPEEDWAY
Will Power Gave Chevy Second Podium Step with Runner-Up Finish

NEWTON, IOWA (July 23, 2023)

Josef Newgarden with Chevrolet 2.2 liter V6 power scored back-to-back wins at the Hy-Vee Doubleheader Weekend at Iowa Speedway after starting 3rd on Saturday and 7th on Sunday
The two victories are 4th and 5th wins of the season for Team Chevy in the NTT INDYCAR Series
Chevrolet has 11 wins at Iowa Speedway
Led 212 of the 250-lap race in the No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet
Took the lead on lap 31 and led remainder of way except through pit stop exchanges
Two-time NTT INDYCAR Series Champion scored his 6th win on the .894-mile track
Win is fifth straight oval track win for Newgarden including 2023 Indianapolis 500
Equals AJ Foyt in 1964, and Al Unser, Sr. in 1968 and 1970
Win was 29th victory of his career, tying Rick Mears on all-time-list
All of Newgarden’s wins were behind the wheel of a Team Penske Chevy INDYCAR
Newgarden now sits 2nd in the standings, 80 points down to leader with 5 races remaining
Will Power, No. 12 Verizon 5G Team Penske Chevrolet, finished 2nd to give Chevrolet two podium positions for Race 2 after scoring a podium sweep in Race 1
Power started on the pole for both races
Was credited for leading 30 laps in Race 2 after leading 119 in Race 1
Of the 5 cars remaining on the lead lap at the checkered flag of Race 2, two were Chevy powered
Felix Rosenqvist, No 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet, finished 4th
Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 EXPEL Team Penske Chevrolet, finished 5th
Up next on the 17-race NTT INDYCAR Series schedule is the Streets of Nashville on August 4 – 6, 2023

Josef Newgarden and his No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet team returned to Iowa Speedway with a vengeance scoring victories in both races of the Hy-Vee Doubleheader Weekend.

The wins were 5th and 6th for Newgarden at his favorite short track and the 11th and 12th wins for Chevrolet in the NTT INDYCAR Series at Iowa.

With podium finishes by Scott McLaughlin and Pato O’Ward on Saturday to sweep the podium and a runner-up podium by

Will Power on Sunday, Team Chevy scored 5 of the 6 spots available.

For the second consecutive year, Will Power won the NTT P1 Award for both races to push his career total poles to 70-the most of any driver.

The Series moves on to Streets of Nashville August 4-6.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING (QUOTES):

JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET-RACE WINNER:

ON HIS RACE

“For us, we knew we had a great car, and the pressure was there because we wanted to execute on it and make sure it was a great weekend. I am happy now. When you finish the first race, its great to have a doubleheader, but you feel incomplete until you get through today. To be able to come back and do it again, and make our car a little bit better, I am super proud of the team. Luke and the entire group. Chad leading the boys, its just a fantastic effort from everyone. Hitachi has been with most of my victories I think, so to be with them and have them on the car is fantastic. And Team Chevy. We almost got a repeat of that 1-2-3 for Chevy. So, sorry we didn’t get that done but they were phenomenal this weekend.”

YOU SWEPT THE WEEKEND. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN TO YOU?

“Its very gratifying because I know how good our car is here. When you show up with a car like this, you have the pressure to execute and get the job done. If you don’t get the job done, you feel like you did something wrong. I certainly felt that after qualifying, but to be able to fix that and win a couple of races….its not so much last year that I am thinking of, it’s just purely this year we wanted to execute.”

TALK ABOUT THE CHAMPIONSHIP AND TAKING THAT TO THE HOMEFRONT IN NASHVILLE

“Look, I will speak about Alex (Palou) again. He is a tremendous competitor and its funny because he is actually my pickleball teammate, so we have a little bit of a relationship. But he is great to run against and is one of the best you are going to find in the world. So, I think what he has done this year, its easy to see why he has gotten the points gap. He’s been tremendous, his team has been tremendous, and I hope that we can close that. We have got to win more races in the 2 car to do it, but there is no doubt that he has been one of the best competitors that you can drive against. I am excited for the rest of the season and who knows what will happen. This is INDYCAR and things can change really quickly. So, let’s stick with it and see how it shapes up.”

WILL POWER, NO.12 VERIZON 5G TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET-FINISHED 2ND:

I AM LOOKING AT THAT FINAL RESTART AND OBVIOUSLY THAT WAS KEY

“Yeah, it was a very good restart. We struggled massively at the beginning and my engineer made a really good change. Taking wing out helped me so much. I had a really fast car, we just needed to pit a couple of laps early so that we could be P2 to Josef and I think we might have had a shot at it. It’s the best car that I have had here, and I was really happy with it and enjoyed the race. Not the first stint though. Man, I was like white knuckling it the whole time, so I am stoked to get the Verizon Chevy to P2. Its pretty tough to beat Josef here, but we will do it one day. We will get him.”

HOW TOUGH IS IT TO JUST BE THE DRIVER AND NOT THE STRATEGIST AND THEY ARE TRYING TO WORK TOWARD THE WIN?

“Yeah, I mean yeah. Those guys have done so well for me over the years, its just tough around here. You have to be real sneaky to call to pit, because if you pit, then everyone will just come at the same time. Yeah, mega day. I was thinking we were going to be struggling to be in the top 10, but it just shows how quickly that stuff can change. Stoked with all the team effort and everything. Bloody great.”

FELIX ROSENQVIST, NO. 6 ARROW MCLAREN INDYCAR CHEVROLET-FINISHED 4TH:

DID YOU THINK YOU WOULD BE FIGHTING FOR A WIN LATE IN THIS RACE?

“Yes and no. We have been strong here previously and I thought we all had a tough day as a team yesterday. Pato did a mega performance. Today the car was really good. Arrow McLaren and NTT Data, big thanks to them. We turned the car around really good, and we also found ourselves one lap behind at one point. From there on we had two really, really good stints in the middle. The last stint was initially pretty good, then we struggled a little bit at the end. The last restart, I don’t know. I will have to look at it but I felt like Will kind of pushed me up in the marbles and I was very lucky to finish the race because I was full locked and waiting to see where I was going to end up. So, yeah, never been more bummed about a fourth-place finish, but it was a good drive. Those last lap things can end up either way as we saw at Indy. Hell of a day for us and glad we have some momentum going.”

SCOTT MCLAUGHLIN, NO. 3 XPEL TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET-FINISHED 5TH:

WHAT IS THE PHYSICAL TOLL ON THE SECOND HALF OF THE DAY ON AN OVAL DOUBLEHEADER?

“Its more mental than anything. I have no idea how I finished that last stint. I had burned the right rear off and I was just hanging on. It was a Sprint Car there. So, out on the cush and having a lot of fun, but I am happy to bring the XPEL Chevrolet back with two top fives. A podium is not a bad deal. I would have loved to have joined my teammates at the podium today, but we just tried something different, and it didn’t quite work.”

WE HEARD YOU TOWARD THE END ON THE RADIO JUST TRYING NOT TO CRASH. WHAT WAS THAT LIKE AND DID YOU KNOW AS YOU DROPPED BACK THAT IT DIDN’T MATTER AND WASN’T FOR POSITION?

“I had run out of tools. I was fully stiff on my front bar, fully stuffed on my rear bar, and I was all the way to the right in my weight jacker. I had zero tools left and I was just driving this thing. It was fun and I learned a lot and its not fun when you restart with the whole field behind you. But it is what it is, and I am learning every lap around these ovals and what I learned this weekend was huge and I can’t wait to come back here in the future.”

YOU DON’T COME FROM AN OVAL BACKGROUND BUT THIS IS YOUR 13TH OVAL AND YOUR SEVENTH TOP FIVE. WHAT HAVE YOU FOUND TO GET SO GOOD ON THIS TYPE OF RACING?

“Look, Team Penske builds great cars. They gave us three rocket ships as you saw this weekend. We probably tried a little bit too hard to undercut Josef and Will to get in front of them with that off strategy sort of move that we did mid-race. But yeah, I am very proud of the car that I drive, the people I drive for, and yeah, just very lucky. I count my lucky stars. Just speaking to some of the drivers at intros and they are a little jealous and they are scared to go up against us which is a nice thing about ovals. But there is a lot of respect there for sure.

PATO O’WARD, NO. 5 ARROW MCLAREN INDYCAR CHEVROLET-FINISHED 10TH:

TELL US ABOUT YOUR RUN TODAY PATO

“I don’t have an explanation on what happened today. We obviously went the wrong way, at least that is what it seems like. Obviously, the guys are going to do a sit down now and see if maybe we missed something in that transfer. But man, just the pure fact that we didn’t end up in an accident with just ourselves or somebody else, feels like a win. It’s just, I don’t know. You come into these weekends knowing usually where you have been in the past and a chance to kind of bounce back. Obviously, today, it feels like we just threw that away. I don’t have an explanation for that, and I don’t think any of us know what or why. It felt like it was the right direction, and as you can tell, I am just confused. Congratulations to Josef, he dominated. Absolutely destroyed everybody. Would have loved to have made him sweat a little bit and fight it out with him like we have in the past. But today was just a miserable day for us.”

ALEXANDER ROSSI, NO. 7 ARROW MCLAREN INDYCAR CHEVROLET-FINISHED 15TH:

ON HIS RACE:

”This was pretty much a lost weekend for us. With it being a doubleheader, double points, we needed to capitalize here, and it just didn’t happen. We were outside the window and just didn’t have the pace we needed to compete. We have a lot to look into before Nashville. We’re all hungry for more than what it showed this weekend.”

CALLUM ILOTT, NO. 77JUNCOS HOLLINGER RACING CHEVROLET-FINISHED 14TH:

“Pretty strong two days for us. 15th yesterday; 14th today. Nine positions gained yesterday; 10 positions today. Yeah, overall car felt great. A lot more comfortable today with the car than yesterday. So we made some big improvements. We just got really unlucky with the yellows. I was the last person for Newgarden’s pass on both of those last yellows and I lost I lost laps because of that. Otherwise, just before that I was fighting with other cars and yeah, it was looking quite good. So a little bit annoying; luck wasn’t on our side at all that sort of stuff. But race was good. And we did the best job we could. I think it was it was promising. So big thanks to the team. Thanks for Chevy. Thanks, Pete are on board with us this weekend. On to Nashville.”

AGUSTIN CANAPINO, NO. 78 JUNCOS HOLLINGER RACING CHEVROLET-FINISHED 26TH:

“Unfortunately, I touched the wall when I picked up the marbles which is a shame because we were really good battling with guys at that moment. I think today we had a car that could have run in top-10, maybe more. So, thanks to my team for the work they always do. Today is learning for me. It was my mistake.”

PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

Josef Newgarden

Will Power

THE MODERATOR: Joined by Josef Newgarden as well, back with another victory here. Driving the No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet. Obviously sixth win here at Iowa. Fifth straight oval win, which ranks you up there with A.J. Foyt, 1964, the great Al Unser in ’68 and 1970. 29th career INDYCAR SERIES win now, which ties you with Rick Mears on the 13th all-time. Ain’t so bad.

First time the INDYCAR SERIES has had a double-header sweep since Scott Dixon did it in Toronto in 2013. You made it look easy leading 211 of the 250 laps, but I know it wasn’t. Your thoughts about another win here at Iowa?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: By no means easy. I think today was different. As we spoke about yesterday, I felt like today was going to have a different twist, and it did.

I think that’s why you saw the order slightly jumbled in the top ten. Just balance-wise with a hotter track you were getting different reactions from the car, and we needed to keep up with it.

I think the good thing is and the fortunate thing for us is that we have a really good baseline race car here. You know, it’s impossible to win around this place without a great car, and we always have it at this track. At least in recent memory we’ve always had it.

Yeah, it was great day. I feel really happy today. Yesterday felt incomplete. That’s the only way I can put it. When you have a double-header and you feel like you have a great car underneath you, finishing day one it just doesn’t feel finished. Today I feel like we’re done now. We can leave.

I’m much happier today, and really proud of the team. Excited for them. They deserve it. They put in a lot of work, and they deserve the results this weekend.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Josef Newgarden.

Q. You just said it was a different twist today. Does it mean the car was different than yesterday?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, the balance was different today. The tires were wearing out I think more aggressively, or let’s just say they were wearing quicker with the track temp elevated slightly more.

Balance was different. It was more difficult today to manage the front rear axle of the car relative to yesterday. Yesterday if you had one axle going off during the race, it stayed consistently sort of there. You can manipulate it on both ends of the car, but today it was both ends, and you could get yourself in a bad spot on either end of the race car today really quickly. It could flip stint to stint.

I think that’s what made it trickier, and that’s probably why you saw some people moving more today because it was easier to get it wrong, and you just had to be really on top of your tools to make sure that you didn’t let it get away from you.

Q. You talked about it a little bit in post-race on TV just about the satisfaction and relief almost of being able to get through this weekend and not being able to totally celebrate or appreciate yesterday’s win until today’s race was over with. What is that like after you got done talking to us going through your routine, going to bed last night? What emotions, what was that feeling like, that tension of not being able to be totally settled or happy with a great performance that you just had done?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I would say I just felt heightened. Similar to when you haven’t run a race on a normal weekend, you know, you are just heightened the night before.

I’m just focused. I’m focused on what’s going to be different. I watched probably four hours of video last night just figuring out what can be a little bit better, including the whole broadcast.

I just felt kind of on the chip just ready to go, like it’s just not done. It’s half of what the available points are, and so I felt really charged and ready to rock again.

But I wouldn’t say that’s different to a normal weekend. That’s how you feel leading up to a Sunday. So you get through Saturday, and you think, oh, what a great achievement, and it was, but it’s just not done yet. You can reverse everything the next day.

Now I feel good about it. We’re not reversing anything. We did the job, and now we can leave.

Q. Like winning pole on a Saturday, but not feeling like the weekend is totally done?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I think that’s a good way to put it. Winning the pole is a big deal. It helps. Very satisfying, but it’s kind of just half the battle.

I would say even the pole is less than that. It’s probably 25% of the battle. The wins are so much more. Yesterday truly only felt like 50% of the battle.

Q. Going into the final championship stretch of five races with four races on road and street courses. I know you’ve been a little bit up and down with one podium this year I think at Road America, a handful of top tens, but maybe not quite the strength or the consistency as Alex. What do you feel like you guys are going to have to get out of those last couple of races, and do you guys feel like you have that performance and the distance in the car to try and steal this one from him?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I think that’s the unknown. We have been a little bit too up and down across the board. We’ve talked about this before.

It’s just, yeah, I don’t think we have the consistency that we want as a team. When you look at every track type, we’re probably bouncing up and down a little bit too much.

There’s no doubt that the ovals, particularly the race package has been very strong for us. It’s hard to complain about our race cars on ovals these days. They’re very, very good.

It’s a complex schedule on the way out. We’ve got to do street course, road course, oval, back to two road courses, and yeah, it is a question mark. We definitely have to elevate our game on where we’ve been the first half of the year. There’s no doubt.

I think that Alex and his crew, they’re in a really good spot. They’ve had what appears to be a pretty consistent program. We’ve got to elevate to their level and just execute.

You just never know what’s going to happen. I think if we can be excellent on the back half of the schedule, then anything is possible.

THE MODERATOR: I have an apology to Graham Rahal, who swept the Detroit double-header in 2017. I was thinking I blamed someone who wasn’t here. Anyway, kudos to Nathan on that one.

Q. You were saying about the four hours of video. What was that made up of? I guess you watched the race broadcast, and was it…

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Just whatever we have. Whatever we record I’m watching or listening to, yeah.

Q. You mentioned in recent memory the car has been good here. You had obviously won races before the Aero screens came in. Do you think there’s any characteristics that the Aero screens introduced into the car, and that’s why you’ve been so good in this period after this?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I wouldn’t say so. I think this is — I think Iowa has stayed so consistent over the last, let’s say, four, five years. It’s the same challenge every time we’re here.

It moves around a little bit, right, year to year depending on temp, track condition, tires. Tire was slightly different this year. There were small differences, but I think the broad equation or the overall problem that you’re trying to solve here has not changed.

I would say other tracks have changed dramatically with the Aero screen. This has not been one of them. The only thing is it’s wearing out more and more. Degradation is just higher every year, but the thing you have to figure out is just the same every year. You know, how do you get the thing consistent?

It doesn’t take much. Everybody is struggling with it. And if you just get fractionally more consistent than the competition, then it can make a massive difference here relative to another track.

Q. I know last year this day was not a good one or anyone around you would want to really think about it or remember it. But emotionally or just personally, does this win today feel — have you thought about that day last year and what this win might mean to kind of correct that a little bit and just what that feels like?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I’m happy it didn’t happen again. You know, it was — to just answer the question, no, I have not thought about it much. I didn’t think about it last year or think that, hey, I want to come here and right the wrong. It wasn’t that sort of situation.

When I think back to it, what pops out in my head is more the work that had to go into make sure they let me stay in the race car the next weekend. That’s what stands out to me.

Obviously the win-loss was disappointing too for many reasons, but I just remember that the week after that, it was a heck of a journey trying to make sure that we were in the car.

But, no, I wasn’t thinking about it. As far as this weekend, the only thing that stands out is that — we talked about it yesterday, but just any person that I talked to, they just assume. They just assume, oh, you’re going to have a great weekend.

I just stay very vigilant with that because there is going to be a year. It’s bound to happen. We’re going to show up here, and we’re not going to be very good.

That’s okay. I’m expecting that to happen. I want to be able to get on top of it when it does hit us, but yeah, that’s the challenge that I think of when I come here.

Q. I guess now you can leave the leather helmet at home that you wore at Indy last year. You whacked 18 more points off the lead. You’re down to 80. If somebody had said to you entering the weekend you can get points lead down to 80, or a deficit, I should say, how would you have felt about that? And five races to go, is it doable?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I mean, I would take it. I don’t know about you, but that’s a positive result I think leaving the weekend.

I would have liked it to reach 50 or 60. That sound better, but that’s not where we’re at, and I think we did a pretty good job given what was in our control this weekend.

I mean, it’s hard not to give kudos to Alex. I think he just did a great job. Clearly we seem to have the upper hand this weekend, and he had a great day today. You know, he maximized what he could, and I think that speaks to what he brings to his program. He maximizes his results. He minimized a loss today. You know, it could have be more, and he just made sure it wasn’t.

He is a tremendous competitor. Did a great job. I wish we gained more, but I’m not going to be dissatisfied with where we brought it to.

Q. Josef, when I asked Alex and Will when they were in here earlier, they told me that in the pre-race meeting that you guys were told with ten to go if there’s a caution, pits would not open with the attempt to try to get a green flag finish at the end. Was that your same understanding, and did you know that, or did that come to mind when that yellow flag came out with ten to go?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah. Yeah, that’s how I understood it too. It seems to be the most fair way to — it’s such a short track.

To procedurally do all the things that they want to do, just to give second, third, and so on place a chance at the end on a restart, I don’t like that, but I think if you’re looking at it from a fairness standpoint, if you’re going to let everyone have pit stops, then you have to — okay, we do that, but then we also have to move all the lap cars.

I don’t think they have enough time on this length of the track. That’s the situation that happened in 2018, and we ran out — we thought we were going to go green, and we pitted, and we didn’t. We just ran out of time.

I think the only way they can really approach this stuff is get the lap cars out of the way, we will go to the restart, and not allow anybody to pit. It’s probably the fairest thing can you do.

I didn’t love it. I would have preferred to keep the lap cars in between. But looking at it from a competitor, I think it’s the fairest way they can approach it.

Q. We’ve had a couple more laps. Say everyone gets a chance to pit and puts on fresh tires, obviously you dominated the race up to that point. Do you feel like you still would have had the car underneath you with the adjustments that you had made and the adjustments some other cars up close to you had made to fend folks off at the end if that had been the circumstance?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: So difficult to say. I have no idea. I would like to think, yeah, we would have been just fine, but this race can change quickly.

The balance can get away from you really fast. I think we managed our balance perfectly at the time we needed to. We needed to do it for 250 laps. If it was longer, it was 300, maybe we would lose out to somebody else, but it’s impossible to say.

Q. Following up on the caution with ten to go — you’re smiling.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Caution with ten to go and I’m smiling?

Q. You’re smiling at me like I’m about to ask something —

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I don’t know what you are about to ask. I’m very curious what you’re about to ask. You’re giving me that cheeky smile, like…

Q. Is the red flag not an option the way it is at the Indy 500 if there is a late caution like that?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Definitely. I will say that procedurally this is what they said they were going to do. They also have the abandonment of procedures, so they could just do whatever they want; right?

I guess saying that, the red flag is the option. Yeah, maybe. Maybe. That’s definitely doable.

I don’t know in this type of — it’s hard to say. I’ll say this. Whatever they were going to do, I’m fine with it. We’ll race, and we’ll figure it out, and we’ll still try and win.

What they did today, we lived with it. I thought it was fair enough, but if they want to do it differently in the future, I’m all game for whatever anybody wants to do. Whatever is going to make everybody happy, that’s what we should be doing. Everybody, every person.

Q. The style of racing, did some of the offenders heed your advice today?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: No, but I think I probably made too much of a stink about it. I was worried about the reverse happening and it just getting worse. It didn’t get worse. It was the same situation as yesterday.

I knew that was probably going to be the case. Like I said yesterday, I was trying to be prepared today on what I could do within my control to manage it.

When you are out there and this stuff is happening, I can’t affect anybody else. The only thing I can do is just be more prepared, and I have felt more prepared today. I was ready for it, and whatever was coming my way, I was just going to handle it as it was.

Q. And your corn field comment after the race about buying a corn field, I mean, I know that they do grow corn in Tennessee, but not quite like in Iowa. But just the fact that this part of the country has done so well for you, and also, you came up driving go-karts at New Castle in Indiana in the Midwest. The whole midwestern thing really works for you.

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Bruce, I’m here to invest; okay? I’m ready. I’m going to buy some corn fields. I’m going to start producing for the country and doing my part. It seems like the right thing to do at this point with all the years I’ve spent here. I agree with you.

I really like Iowa. It’s actually a great little place. It’s not super busy out here, but it feels like a big event this weekend is what I’ll say. I think Hy-Vee has done a tremendous job at making this a destination.

I like to say it’s the Field of Dreams of racing. It really is. It’s a cool place to come and visit and spend a weekend, and Hy-Vee has made it an event. So it’s only gotten better from the first time I’ve been here.

Yeah, I’m going to partner with — I’m not even going to say it. I’m going to get myself in trouble. But, yeah, maybe.

Q. To kind of differentiate this race from yesterday’s race, would you rather see it be 300 laps to where it’s a little bit different procedurally, or are you fine with it staying two 250s?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to change the show. I almost think — gosh, I mean, whatever you say it’s going to be unpopular. I almost think you could put a little downforce on the cars again. I’ll just say it. I’ll say it.

I don’t want anyone to change it. I’m pretty happy with it the way it is, but if you really want to help the show, I think you put some more downforce back on the cars. It gets strung out pretty fast here, which is fun. I love it. As a race car driver, it’s a good formula. I would just put more horsepower, make them dig even more. That would be my request.

But if you are trying to appease people, you could probably put a little bit more downforce back on, close it up, and you would still get that degradation on the sort of back one-third of a stint, but just keep the group compressed a little bit longer into a stint is what I think we could do to maybe improve the show, if that’s what we’re looking to do.

Q. Or have one of them be a nice race?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: I’m never against a night race. I would run every race as a night race if it was my decision.

Q. Before the race weekend, it was my impression a lot of talk about tire degradation. So how was the whole weekend summarized with the tire situation? Was it worse? Was it bad?

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: It was slightly worse, yeah, for degradation. And by worse I don’t mean in a bad way. There just was more. I think naturally there was more.

Every year you come here and the track is a little bit older, you’re always going to experience slightly more. It wasn’t night and day different to last year. I would say it’s slightly more, but not night and day. Pretty similar race.

Q. (Off microphone).

JOSEF NEWGARDEN: Oh, yeah, no, no, no. I mean, the tire is strong and structurally great. There’s nothing wrong with that.

When it wears out, you just run a little bit slower, but it was very similar it last year. I would say you just have a tiny year-over-year increase.

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations. Josef Newgarden driving the No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet, now a six-time winner here at Iowa.

THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon. Wrapping up today’s Hy-Vee One Step 250 here at Iowa Speedway, and for that matter the Hy-Vee INDYCAR Race Weekend. Again, Josef Newgarden will join us momentarily as will third place finishing driver Alex Palou, but joined now by Will Power, driver of the No. 12 Verizon 5G Team Penske Chevrolet.

Managing his best finish of the season with a second. It’s his fourth podium of the season, 98th of his career. Will, kind of a long weekend, but you made some points and a couple of good finishes there for you.

WILL POWER: Yeah, good weekend. Two poles, second. I feel like I had the car to really challenge at the end there.

We’re lucky to get the yellow. Probably should have pitted a couple of laps earlier. It probably would have put us in contention. Struggled the first two massively. Like, massively. Massively loose.

Yeah, once we fixed that, we were really strong again. That was really good. Yeah, good day, good day.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Will Power?

Q. You’ve been on rolls before in your career, but you know, tracks that are just Will Power tracks. Will Power is going to win this race, and everybody else is fighting for second. It seems lately Josef has this place figured out. Is it almost exasperating that no matter what you do, he just seems to be that much ahead of everybody?

WILL POWER: Yeah, it is. I obviously look at it very closely. I felt like we actually finally had it once we made those adjustments to run with him.

We came into pits with him, but I had to wait for X and to pit. It was just bad timing on our part to not pit a couple of laps early.

Obviously risks with that, but not much. Here you have a two-lap window to make a yellow.

Just ovals in general, he has won every single oval that he has finished in a long time now, yeah.

Q. Will, do you see him taking a page out of your playbook from last year in making the most of any day?

WILL POWER: Yeah, I think it’s a points lead that’s not completely comfortable. Pretty comfortable to take a bit more risk. Yeah, he has won a championship before. He knows that. He is going to do what he does, which is pretty good.

Q. Can I go back to Will? A question. You just said earlier a minute ago if I understood it correctly that the car was very loose, and it could be fixed. Was there already an indication today in the morning in warmup that the car was loose?

WILL POWER: There was an indication, and we didn’t do enough. Yeah, yeah, it’s nuts how the adjustment just of the front wing how it transformed the car from just horrible to extremely good.

Q. Was curious how it was communicated to you over the radio on those final ten laps and whether you were surprised that the leaders on the lead lap didn’t get a chance to go through pit lane to take tires or anything over that final ten laps of the race?

WILL POWER: You weren’t allowed to take — yeah, you weren’t allowed.

Q. I didn’t know if you guys would have been expecting the pits —

WILL POWER: To open? There weren’t enough laps left so I guess they were thinking. I think they said that in the driver meeting that with ten to go, they’re just going to — kind of it is what it is, which is quite interesting because it’s like — it would have been a big battle if it was new tires. A bit less with the old tires. Kind of close, but it still would have been a fun restart.

Q. Say this happened five laps early, so 15 to go, maybe more time to allow the pits to open and still get a restart, do either of you feel like you had a car to take to Josef on fresh tires with the adjustments you guys have made over the course of the race to challenge him for a win, or would it have still probably been the same or similar results?

WILL POWER: Yeah, I really did. I was right within that last stint going into the pit stop, and I had to wait for Ericsson to pit, so it was going to be interesting.

My car was very, very strong middle to end of stint. And at the beginning, yeah, I had a great restart. Went from I think sixth to third and then just hung back and saved tires and went again and went to second.

Yeah, that’s the first time I actually thought, yeah, I could probably challenge this guy. A little bit last year, yeah, and today. Not yesterday.

Q. Will, you mentioned the Ericsson pit stop. They held you while he went in. How heads-up was that and then to realize, hey, Ericsson is coming in, there are some people that have penalties for unsafe releases. Let’s keep him here and —

WILL POWER: I was watching my mirror because I saw them set up, and I knew that he would be coming, so I sat there watching. There was confusion on the radio that I was, like, not going to have one of these.

It sucks because you just watched three, four — almost three or four seconds tick by. A chunk of time. Like, he came out, and I could hardly see him. I came in the pits right on him, on Josef.

Yeah, that’s the gamble. I just thought we were in a position to take a big risk and pit way early because we’re not really in the championship. Just go for a win. But I’m not on the stand, so I don’t know the situation. I don’t think anyone had pitted at that point, but that would have given us clear in and out and the undercut.277-1-1182 2023-07-22 22:01:00 GMT

About Chevrolet

Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands, available in 79 countries with more than 3.2 million cars and trucks sold in 2020. 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.

NHRA AT SEATTLE: Team Chevy Post Race Recap

By

Official Release

-

July 23, 2023

CHEVROLET IN NHRA
FLAV-R-PAC NHRA NORTHWEST NATIONALS
PACIFIC RACEWAYS
KENT, WASHINGTON
TEAM CHEVY RACE REPORT
JULY 23, 2023

JOHN FORCE RACING AND TEAM CHEVY FACE TOUGH NHRA NORTHWEST NATIONALS RACE DAY IN SEATTLE

John Force raced to Round 2 after a bye in the first round, with his day ending early in the second when he was defeated by Chad Green.
Falling in Round 1, Robert Hight’s day ended prematurely after facing a defeat by Cruz Pedregon.
Teammates Austin Prock and Brittany faced each other in Round 1 after qualifying No. 5 and No. 10 respectively.
J. Force captured his first No. 1 qualifier of the 2023 season and 166th of his legendary career Saturday at the Northwest Nationals.

KENT, Washington (July 23, 2023) – Heading into the 2023 Flav-R-Pac NHRA Northwest Nationals race day at Pacific Raceways, the Chevrolet nitro teams of John Force Racing faced a tough day and premature elimination.

In what had been a hopeful and winning weekend in the Pacific Northwest unfortunately saw Brittany Force, driver of the Flav-R-Pack/Monster Energy Chevrolet Top Fuel dragster, as well as her father John Force, driver of the PEAK Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car, eliminated in Round 2. Despite the early exit, B. Force did continue showing her team’s strength, setting the track speed record at Pacific Raceways during the weekend.

“That first-round win was an outstanding run for this Flav-R-Pac / Monster Energy team. We set the track speed record and ran low ET of the weekend. Our team worked really hard to turn things around after an uneventful two days of qualifying. Unfortunately, we went out the second round, but we know our error and we’ll improve it before we go to the next race,” Force said. “Overall, we were really excited to be out here representing Flav-R-Pac at their title race. It was awesome to see Flav-R-Pac splashed all over everywhere. I wish we could have done better but we’ll attempt to get the job done again next weekend in Sonoma.”

Hopeful to visit the Winner’s Circle at day’s end, J. Force looked strong at the conclusion of qualifying Saturday by capturing his 166th career No. 1 qualifier with a run of 3.915 ET at 327.35 MPH.

“Not the day we wanted. Couldn’t get the job done for Frank Tiegs at his Flav-R-Pac race. Really thought, after going No. 1 and after that first round in Top Fuel, we might have had it. Just not our day,” Force said. “This PEAK team, we’re doing good. We can hang with the rest of these teams, just need to find our consistency. We’ll pack up and head to the next one, try to get some rounds in Sonoma.”

Facing Round 1 elimination, Robert Hight, driver of the Cornwell Tools/AAA Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car, fell to Cruz Pedregon after smoking the tires on his run. Austin Prock, driver of the Montana Brands/Rocky Mountain Twist Chevrolet Top Fuel dragster, was knocked out by teammate B. Force after racing tightly to the finish line.

The Chevrolet Top Fuel and Funny Car teams at John Force Racing in NHRA wrap up the Western Swing with the DENSO NHRA Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma Raceway in Sonoma, California July 28-30, 2023. Broadcast of Sunday’s eliminations will air live at 4 p.m. ET on FOX Sunday, July 30, 2023.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING:

Austin Prock, driver of the Montana Brands/Rocky Mountain Twist Chevrolet Top Fuel dragster for John Force Racing:

“This Montana Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist team had a strong run today; we were just lined up against the wrong car. Drag racing is tough and humbling sometimes. We have a good hot rod right now, we just need some things to fall our way. On to Sonoma to give it another go.”

Robert Hight, driver of the Cornwell Tools/AAA Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car for John Force Racing:

“Disappointing, but again, we get the opportunity to turn it around in just a couple days. I know this Cornwell Tools team was really hoping to get another Northwest Nationals Wally. Would have been nice to get it done for Frank Tiegs again at his title race after everything he’s done for John Force Racing. Hopefully we can turn it around and get into a groove starting in Sonoma next weekend.”

Round 1 Recap:

Top Fuel:

No. 10 Brittany Force defeated teammate No. 5 Austin Prock with her 3.707 ET pass at 334.73 MPH to Prock’s 3.738 ET at 325.92 MPH.
Funny Car:

No. 1 John Force moved to Round 2 after seeing a bye in the first round.
No. 4 Robert Hight fell to No. 11 Cruz Pedregon after he ran a 4.412 ET at 214.89 MPH to Pedregon’s 3.956 ET at 323.50 MPH.

Round 2 Recap:

Top Fuel:

B. Force fell to Steve Torrence with her run of 8.811 ET at 70.93 MPH to his 3.752 ET at 328.78 MPH.
Funny Car:

J. Force fell to Chad Green with his run of 4.229 ET at 255.43 MPH to Green’s 3.979 ET at 319.52 MPH.

About Chevrolet

Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is one of the world’s largest car brands, doing business in more than 100 countries and selling more than 4.0 million cars and trucks a year. Chevrolet provides customers with 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.

CHEVROLET NCS AT POCONO: Post-Race Report

By

Official Release

-

July 23, 2023

NASCAR CUP SERIES
POCONO RACEWAY
HIGHPOINT.COM 400
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE REPORT
JULY 22, 2023

THREE CAMARO ZL1’S TAKE TOP-10 FINISHES AT POCONO

TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
7th Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Blue Buffalo Camaro ZL1
9th Erik Jones, No. 43 U.S. Air Force Camaro ZL1
10th Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1

The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season continues at Richmond Raceway with the Cook Out 400 on Sunday, July 30, at 3 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on the USA Network, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE QUOTES:

RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 BLUE BUFFALO CAMARO ZL1

Finished: 7th

Stenhouse Jr. on his top-10 finish at Pocono Raceway:

“It was an up-and-down day for the No. 47 Blue Buffalo Chevy team. We didn’t have track position at the beginning. We got it there in the middle stages of the race, but just wasn’t good enough to keep it. The guys made some really good adjustments and we got better. The final stage when we ran long, we were running good lap times when we got clean air. We took two tires and that gave us really good track position for when the cautions came out. It was just about timing those restarts there at the end. We messed up every restart there at the beginning, and then nailed every one there at the end. All-in-all, it was a really strong day for our team.”

ERIK JONES, NO. 43 U.S. AIR FORCE CAMARO ZL1

Finished: 9th

Jones on his top-10 finish at Pocono Raceway:

“It was a good day for the No. 43 U.S. Air Force Chevy. I thought we had some good speed. We capitalized a lot on strategy and some opportunities to get up to the top there at the end. We had some restarts go our way and happy it played out for us. It was a good day and hope to keep improving.”

Your team is trending in the right direction and your team is heading to your home track of Michigan International Speedway in a couple weeks. How does that feel knowing that you guys have it going in the right way with your last five races going pretty well overall?

“Yeah, it’s exciting. You want to go to Michigan (International Speedway) and run well. We want to get through next weekend at Richmond (Raceway) and run well. It’s been a place where we’ve struggled the last couple of years with this car. But Michigan has been another one, historically, like Pocono (Raceway) that’s been good for us. We ran good there last year. Hopefully we can carry some speed and things we learned here that I think we can probably get better on our No. 43 U.S. Air Force Chevy to go to a big track like Michigan. We’ll see how it plays out, but I’m happy with where we’ve been going.”

What does this momentum mean for you and the No. 43 Chevy team?

“It’s good. Obviously we wish we were fighting for that playoff spot – we’re in a must-win. But we need some more speed to get into a winning position on tracks like this. Daytona (International Speedway) is obviously going to be an opportunity, but we need another step going to a place like Michigan (International Speedway) coming up to contend for wins. We made big gains – we went from a 25th place team to a top-12 team, I’d say, right now. Just hope we can find a way to take that next step.”

NOAH GRAGSON, NO. 42 SUNSEEKER RESORTS CAMARO ZL1

Finished: 22nd

“Decent day for our No. 42 Sunseeker Resorts Chevy team. Just lost too much on pit road and didn’t make good adjustments there at the end. It’s a step in the right direction, but we just need to be better. Disappointing, but we don’t have a mark on the car. We just need to be better.”

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BREZTRI CAMARO ZL1

Sidelined by damage sustained in an accident in the Final Stage.

Finished: 34th

You got caught up in an incident after having a great run today. We saw the displeasure with Tyler Reddick – what happened and what message were you trying to send him?

“That I was mad. I don’t know – I heard (Dale Earnhardt) Jr.’s replay said that I came down a little bit. I felt like I was holding my own. He was at my left-rear going in there, and I knew we were three-wide. I think I’ve got the right to at least hold my lane. I’ve got to turn at some point to get down. Brad (Keselowski) was on my outside, maybe a half-lane up. But Tyler (Reddick) drove it in there, and obviously I feel like he drove it in there deep enough where he had to come up the track into me. We can look at the SMT and see the little fine movements that we make, but I felt like that was not the time to do that for the No. 45.

I hate it for the No. 3 BREZTRI Chevy team. We really sucked at the beginning of the race. We got the car much better and made some good strategy moves. But we just live to fight another day. It was a pretty rough hit.”

DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 JOCKEY CAMARO ZL1

Sidelined by damage sustained in an accident in Stage Two.

Finished: 36th

Suarez on the accident that ended his day:

“I don’t know – I got turned around on the right-rear on a very fast straightaway. Just lucky we didn’t get wrecked big time, but unfortunately we couldn’t continue anymore. But at the end of the day, it’s our fault. We shouldn’t be back there with those guys. We fought the balance of the car in the first stage. We lost a bunch of track position. We kind of got it back a little bit. I felt like once we got the balance, we were going to be able to drive the front. But we didn’t get the opportunity to and got wrecked before that.

It was a racing incident, but we shouldn’t be back there racing with those guys anyway.”

How tough of a deal is this given the playoff situation?

“Yeah, it’s not great; it’s not ideal. But I have to control what I can control, and I cannot control some of the other guys. Like I said, in my mind, we shouldn’t be racing back there. We had a car capable of running in the top-10, top-15 at least, and we were running in the 20s because we missed the balance of the car in the first stage. We just have to be better.”

How frustrated are you at this point?

“Definitely frustrated because I feel like we’re better than this. I’m frustrated also because I feel like guys are wrecking each other and I’m the one that ended up out of the race without being in their mess. But what are you going to do – sometimes you’re on the good end of it and sometimes you’re on the bad end of it. Unfortunately today, I was on the short end of it.”

About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands, available in 79 countries with more than 3.2 million cars and trucks sold in 2020. 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 achieves milestone NHRA victory

By

Official Release

-

July 23, 2023

KENT, Wash. (July 23, 2023) – With Steve Torrence’s victory at Pacific Raceways today, Toyota Gazoo Racing North America has achieved a milestone in NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series competition – 200 event wins.

Toyota has participated in NHRA, the largest auto racing organization in the world, since the 2002 with the first Toyota Celica Funny Car. Jerry Toliver delivered the first win for Toyota in March 2004 at the Winternationals at Pomona Dragway. Since then, Toyota has earned hundreds of victories across NHRA’s two nitro divisions – Top Fuel and Funny Car. Toyota has been an official partner with NHRA for nearly a decade – holding the Official Car of the NHRA title since 2014.

“We are honored to have achieved our 200th victory in NHRA competition,” said David Wilson, president, TRD. “Our NHRA teams constantly deliver for Toyota on and off the drag strip. Their hard work and tireless effort to succeed has allowed us to achieve this incredible milestone in our Toyota Racing history. We look forward to celebrating this achievement with them and continuing to work towards the season-long championship titles.”

Long-time Toyota driver Antron Brown holds the most Toyota victories with 56, while Larry Dixon (19), Shawn Langdon (17), Del Worsham (17), Cruz Pedregon (13), Morgan Lucas (12), Doug Kalitta (11), J.R. Todd (11) and Richie Crampton (10) all have scored 10 or more victories under the Toyota banner. Toyota drivers have earned 10 total championships, including Brown’s three Top Fuel titles (2012, 2015, 2016) and Top Fuel and Funny Car titles with Worsham. Toyota’s newest driver, Ron Capps, is the reigning Funny Car titlist.

Toyota’s current driver lineup – Justin Ashley, Brown, Capps, Alexis DeJoria, Kalitta, Langdon, Todd and Steve Torrence – have all scored victories with Toyota support.

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 63,000 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 24 electrified options.

SpeedwayMedia.comOnline Resource for Motorsports Information

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