NASCAR CUP SERIES
CHICAGO STREET RACE
GRANT PARK 220
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING REPORT
JULY 1, 2023

Van Gisbergen Drives to Top Three Qualifying Effort in NASCAR Cup Series Debut
Four Team Chevy Drivers to Start in Top-10

TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 STARTING LINEUP:
POS. DRIVER
3rd Shane Van Gisbergen, No. 91 Enhance Health Camaro ZL1
5th Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Worldwide Express Camaro ZL1
7th Kyle Larson, No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL1
10th AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Bath Plant by BCI Acrylics Camaro ZL1

TOP-FIVE UNOFFICIAL STARTING LINEUP:
POS. DRIVER

1. Denny Hamlin (Toyota)
2. Tyler Reddick (Toyota)
3. Shane Van Gisbergen (Chevrolet)
4. Christopher Bell (Toyota)
5. Daniel Suarez (Chevrolet)  

CHICAGO, Ill. (July 1, 2023) – In his first laps behind the wheel of a Next Gen Camaro ZL1, Shane Van Gisbergen proved to be an early contender as the Chevrolet driver gears up for his NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) debut in the series’ first-ever street course race. The three-time Supercars Champion quickly topped and maintained the top position of the speed chart as NASCAR’s premier series took on the streets of Chicago for a 50-minute practice session. The Auckland, New Zealand, native followed up a strong practice session by posting the third-fast lap in qualifying in the No. 91 Enhance Health Camaro ZL1 to lead the Bowtie brand to the green flag as the series is set to make history in tomorrow’s Grant Park 220.

Joining Van Gisbergen with a top-10 qualifying effort includes Trackhouse Racing teammate Daniel Suarez, who posted a fifth-place qualifying effort in his No. 99 Worldwide Express Camaro ZL1. Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson (No. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM Camaro ZL1) qualified in the seventh-position, with Kaulig Racing’s AJ Allmendinger (No. 16 Bath Plant by BCI Acrylics Camaro ZL1) rounding out the Team Chevy top-10.

SHANE VAN GISBERGEN, NO. 91 ENHANCE HEALTH CAMARO ZL1

Qualified: 3rd

VAN GISBERGEN ON THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN AN AUSTRALIAN SUPERCAR AND NASCAR CUP CAR:

“Well I sit on the other side of the car, so that’s the hardest thing. And just the wall where the fence is – I ended up hitting the wall at the end with the right front, so just misjudging the wall because the whole car is on the other side. That’s probably the most difficult thing.”

WITH THE FOOT WORK AND ALL THAT STUFF, IS THAT PRETTY SIMILAR?

“Yeah, it feels the same.”

SO DOES IT FEEL LIKE A SUPERCAR BECAUSE PEOPLE SAY THAT THIS IS KIND OF A SUPERCAR GTD HYBRID, IS THAT FAIR?

“It’s kind of in the middle of last year’s Supercar and this years one. It’s better, it’s quite cool. It’s very stiff and low, and touches a lot. They’re very different step-up philosophy-wise, I guess, but similar in a lot of ways too.”

WHEN YOU GO INTO THIS RACE, DO YOU LOOK AT YOURSELF AS A LEGIT CONTENDER IN YOUR FIRST-EVER CUP RACE?

“I never think like that. But I do know our preparation has been good and our team is capable, so I just have to do the job.”

THE POTENTIAL OF RAIN – IS THAT SOMETHING THAT WORRIES YOU OR ARE YOU COMFORTABLE ENOUGH DOING THAT?

“Yeah – looking at the rain tires, it’s much different than anything I’ve ever driven before. There’s no grooves and the compound feels very soft. And then the concrete – I don’t think I’ve ever driven on concrete in the rain, so it’ll be tough.”

HOW HAVE THE OTHER DRIVERS BEEN TO YOU?

“It’s been pretty awesome. Everyone has been really nice and welcoming. It’s been good to chat with the front guys who I’ll be racing with tomorrow. It’s been really cool. My teammates (Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez) have been helpful, as well. They’re trying to talk about the car; brake settings we have and stuff. Everyone has been really open, it’s awesome.”

DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 WORLDWIDE EXPRESS CAMARO ZL1

Qualified: 5th

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT FOR TOMORROW – CHAOS OR DO YOU THINK YOU GUYS WILL SETTLE INTO A RHYTHM AS LONG AS THE RACE IS?

“I wish I knew.. I don’t really know. I just hope I’m up front. If they want to make it chaos in the back, that’s fine.. they can do whatever they want. We’re starting in the top-five, so hopefully we can get a position or two; get into the top-three and have a good race. Hopefully we have good pace. Hopefully we can get the strategy correctly, pit stops and go to the front. I think that we will be contenders. I’m happy where we’re at. I’m not satisfied, but I’m happy. I feel like there’s a couple things that I have to work on myself and there’s a couple things that we need to work on the car. But overall, it’s a pretty good start.”

DID YOU FIND THAT WHAT YOU GUYS DID IN THE SIMULATOR MATCHED UP PRETTY WELL TO WHAT IT WAS LIKE IN REAL LIFE OUT THERE ON THE TRACK IN PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING, IN TERMS OF WHAT THINGS WERE LIKE AND WHAT YOU WERE FEELING?

“I think it did for the most part, honestly. I think the simulator was very realistic. A few little things different here and there, especially because NASCAR added some tire barriers, so some corners got a little bit tighter. But I feel like everything that we did during the week and the last couple of weeks, it’s been very close. Like I said, we still have a little bit of work to do, but I feel like we’re in the ballpark.”

WHEN YOU’RE OUT THERE, ARE YOU BLOCKING OUT THE CITY SCAPE, BUILDINGS OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT?

“(Laughs) We have so much going on between bumps, braking zones and stuff like that – everything that I’m looking at is my dash, the wall, a couple of braking marks and that’s it.”

CAN YOU SEE THE ADVERTISEMENTS?

“I can see them, but I’m not paying attention to them, you know what I mean. Like I know that they’re there, but if you asked me – hey, what does it say there, I don’t know. I know there’s something there (laughs).”

WITH UTILIZING EVERY SPOTTER STAND IN THE 90 DEGREE TURNS, HOW MANY OF THEM ARE BLIND CORNERS? HOW OFTEN DO SPOTTERS HELP YOU AND HOW OFTEN ARE YOU JUST KIND OF FIGURING IT OUT ON YOUR OWN?

“I think 80 percent of the time, you’re on your own. I think the spotters are there for the most part to help you when there’s wrecks. If somebody wrecks in front of you, 50 percent of the track is going to be blocked most likely, so they’re there for that. For the ‘inside, outside’ – their views are not great. We have an amazing rearview camera that can help better than the spotters sometimes. But I have three of them and all three of them are doing a hell of a job, so far.”

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 Racing – Denny Hamlin
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes

CHICAGO (July 1, 2023) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin was made available to media after winning the pole for the NASCAR Cup Series event at the Chicago Street Race on Saturday:

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 Yahoo! Toyota Camry TRD, Joe Gibbs Racing

What are your first impressions of being here in Chicago for the first-ever NASCAR street race?

“Just really props to NASCAR and the city for making it happen. I certainly was pessimistic when it was first announced. I started warming up to it a little bit in the months leading up, but obviously when you see the fans that are walking around here on a Saturday – their excitement of just seeing a NASCAR race car up close taking pictures. It kind of is like this is what we’re supposed to do here. I mentioned on the podcast last week, the sooner we just kind of understand the gravity of the event and not get caught up too much in the on-track stuff I think the better off we’re going to be. Certainly, we were very optimistic about today. I certainly didn’t like waking up to rain. I thought that could’ve really changed things for me quite a bit, and hopefully it does not rain tomorrow. It was just a great day. Probably my single best day at the race track in all of my career for sure.”

Was there not much tire fall off on the track during qualifying and was it an advantage to only run one lap in the first round of qualifying?

“It was, but I messed up the first time. In the final round, when I ran the 88.9, I knew that I left a ton of time on the race track. I thought that the competition was going to let me get away with it, but Shane (Van Gisbergen) obviously put up a great lap. I knew that three or four tenths I could probably go get that in certain areas, and so we did. I still didn’t hit it perfect, but it was kind of just enough. The tire fall off, I thought that it’s really coming from reps. I think that the tires, if you were optimizing the driver’s perfect machines, but it was just the reps that were getting us a little bit faster.”

Was there anything about the track that you feel like needs to be changed for tomorrow?

“I felt that Adam (Stevens), Christopher Bell’s crew chief, brought up a really good point and that is coming off the final turn where pit entry is there are huge barrels there and with it only being a 40 mile per hour corner, we probably don’t need those huge barrels. So, if you could probably take one of those concrete barriers off the entrance to pit road because there’s no pit stalls for the first three stalls anyway and move those barrels back 20 to 25 feet, it would allow us to go through the final corner a little bit faster so we’re not causing a huge stack up with the cars that are pitting and the ones that are not. That’s the only thing that I saw. Everything else was kind of what you expected with the course. Your passing zones are going to be in the first six corners and then after that you’ve just got to maintain. That’s where you’re going to make the passes. The track gets so narrow after turn 6 that you’re not going to do much there.”

What were your concerns about this race when it was first announced?

“One of the things was from running the simulator and seeing how bumpy it was. It was a mess, but when we came out here and saw all of the extra paving that they did for the race track it made it significantly better. They really did a good job of smoothing out some of the big jumps that we had in the straightaways. That was one. And, certainly, just how tight it is. It is a tight race track, but it is what it is. I think it’s got three to four major passing zones that if you can stay close enough, you’ll be able to make passes. I was worried about this thing just going single file and that’s how you’re going to finish. I think that there’s an opportunity if you have a fast car, you’re going to move forward.”

Do you think Shane Van Gisbergen can contend for the win tomorrow?

“The biggest thing I noticed is the guy (Shane Van Gisbergen) is lightning fast, and all of the corners I feel super uncomfortable using that extra three inches against the wall. So, where the track is the narrowest and where you saw Chase (Elliott) and those guys kind of get into the wall is where he is extremely fast. He’s just got a feel for those barriers and the car control that he has. That’s his advantage right now is that we’re not used to having to cut the corners that tight and he is. It’s been impressive what he’s done today for sure.”

Is this really the best day of your career on the race track?

“Yeah. Just going into a race that obviously has got a ton of hype and has a ton of eyes looking at this race. Just the overall performance of our team today. From lap one of practice to the last lap of qualifying just having been strong on a track that is really tough, and everyone had to learn it at the same rate of speed. No one has got a veteran advantage at this type of race track. So, it’s just a proud moment for our team to be able to come here on equal footing with everyone and be able to perform as good as they did today. Again, I’ve never felt like I’ve had more speed in reserve than what I did today. I just knew that I can go get that. Do you want me to run four tenths faster? Just areas I can go and get that. Now, there’s risks with that. I think in the race I’m just going to have to back it down slightly to take away 20 to 30 percent of risk. You’re going to have to be a half second slower a lap, but you’re going to take away the risk of making a huge mistake. And I feel like when you have a car that’s as fast as mine, I’m able to back that up and still run a fast enough pace.”

Would you like to see this idea transposed to other major cities?

“I’m sure it’s possible for sure. I would like to see – if we do have a street race, you’d like to continue to get momentum at the place you’re at. I think that with it hopefully being a three-year thing here, I think that there’s a potential to continue to build it up bigger and bigger. Certainly, after the trial and error that you have the first year here there’s way more efficiencies that they can gain by doing it the second time around. They’re going to understand their timing better, be way more prepared when we get to the race track. The time to put it together would probably be cut 10 to 15 percent. Yes, but let’s not lose too far from where we are. I think that it’s great that we’re visiting, doing a street race and we have so many different disciplines, but you certainly have got to keep us doing what we do best and that’s side-by-side racing on ovals quite a bit.”

Are there certain tracks that you’d like to see added to the schedule?

“Nothing off hand, no. I’m sure there’s a lot of great race tracks that would be suitable. Even after running this thing on iRacing, I just was very skeptical of the layout of the track. But I just thought after driving it today that it has significant – it’s a raceable race track. It’s easy for me to say because I had such a great day, right? But I just think there’s tons of opportunities to make moves at this track. It’s one that’s very legitimate.”

What do you think it would mean to him if you or one of your 23XI drivers won the race tomorrow?

“He’s (Michael Jordan) pumped up whether we’re performing well at North Wilkesboro or we’re here in Chicago, honestly. It is a big city for him. He’s obviously did a lot for this city and this city did a ton for him. Having 23XI night at the Cubs game yesterday was big. Just the fanfare that the 23XI team has got from the unveiling of the car. Social outlets that don’t normally cover anything about racing because it’s about something else are paying attention to that. That’s how you grow the sport. And Michael (Jordan) is really proud of the growth that they’ve got and the speed they’ve got in such a short amount of time that the team has been around. For me, personally, it would have to be a top five win for me if we were able to do it.”

If it rains tomorrow, does it benefit Shane or Jenson because they’ve run street courses in the rain?

“Probably. I would say probably, yeah. I don’t know what we’ve got. I was a little pessimistic today coming in just thinking can I correlate what I’ve been practicing to the real thing. Certainly, in the rain I don’t feel quite as confident. We’ve all got to do it, so we’ll see how it goes.”

What is your responsibility to make sure the restarts don’t look like a cluster tomorrow?

“This is a start, right. We’ve definitely made a big shift with the restart zone at road courses because we have looked kind of bad at some of these late race restarts. Moving it back to create a corner to then spread out the field slightly. Trust me, it’s still going to be crazy into turn one but it’s just going to hopefully take us from not being bozos. That’s the goal. It still may happen, but I certainly think that you don’t really want to play a whole lot of games when it comes to that because it’s not good for anyone. It really isn’t. A lot of the responsibility will come from the second, third and fourth rows to really try not to anticipate or jump the start. You have to make a corner there. I think it’s placed probably in one of the best spots that it could to avoid what we’ve been doing lately.”

Do you feel like the elements you are good at on short tracks and superspeedway racing play a role in getting you into this position today?

“I think that for the guys out there, it’s as mentally grueling as any race track that we’ve got. Just simply because I think what Chris (Gabehart, crew chief) is talking about is that there is more speed out there, but the risk is going to be pushing it. Likely, if you have a chase scenario where you’re trying to chase someone down for the lead – they have the lead, they’re not going to run the most aggressive line, they’re not going to cut the corners as tight as they possibly can. But the guy in second is willing to do it because he’s going for it. It could cause the field to tighten up. The leader will always race a little more conservatively. It’s just weighing that risk that I think that he thinks that I try to do in speedway racing. When’s the time to push and when is it not.”

How are Joe Gibbs Racing and 23XI Racing doing with the changes to the cars for Atlanta?

“It’s certainly harder for a team like 23XI because we don’t have the manufacturing facility and we don’t have the equipment that JGR has. Certainly, we have to lean on them quite a bit to help us to execute those changes. What’s the long-term effect of it though, right? The business model of the car was built around it being super rigid and you’re never having to replace anything. The softer it is and the more crunchable it is, the more cause to crash them so what happens there. That’s the cause and effect that we haven’t seen quite yet. Luckily, we have a good agreement with JGR for when these things happen. They have the manpower to help assist us and make sure our cars are ready to go on time.”

About Toyota

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

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

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

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Chicago Street Race Qualifying | Saturday, July 1, 2023

Ford Qualifying Results:

6th – Michael McDowell
8th – Jenson Button
9th – Joey Logano
15th – Chris Buescher
16th – Chase Briscoe
17th – Ryan Blaney
20th – Brad Keselowski
24th – Aric Almirola
25th – Todd Gilliland
28th – Ryan Preece
30th – Andy Lally
31st – Austin Cindric
32nd – Harrison Burton
35th – Kevin Harvick

MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 34 Chicago Pneumatic Compressors – “It was a rough day. It was a humbling day, I’m not gonna lie. We unloaded not really where we hoped to be. We just missed the setup and missed the heights quite a bit, so practice was a struggle, but really proud of the effort. Travis Peterson and all our guys on our Chicago Pneumatic Compressor team did a good job making adjustments going into qualifying. I went out for that first lap and I was like, ‘OK, I think I have a decent package now I can work with.’ But, yeah, that practice was definitely a struggle. We’ve got some work to do tonight to figure out what we can do adjustment-wise to get ready for tomorrow. The track is a lot of fun. It’s super challenging. It’s everything I think we all thought it would be. The day didn’t go how I hoped it would go, but still made it to the second round and qualified well, but wanted to be starting from the pole and have a clear track. We’ll go to work. I think we have something to work with, which an hour ago I didn’t think we did. I’m really happy with what we were able to achieve in qualifying.”

WHAT’S THE FEEL FOR THE TRACK RIGHT NOW? “There are some tight sections and bumpy sections and the cars are hard to drive, but I don’t think that’s unexpected based on all the simulation we had done leading up to this week and the month of simulation leading up to this week. I think everything was pretty representative of what we had today, but in real life when you’re doing 160 miles an hour between concrete barriers it gets more real than it does on the computer, where you can hit the reset button, but the track is a lot of fun, challenging, taking rubber well. I think it’s gonna be a good race tomorrow and a good opportunity to put on a great show for a new crowd. It’s definitely neat. Walking around doing the track walk you could kind of take it all in, but I can tell you 100 percent, not one time, did I see a building when I was on that racetrack. You’re so laser focused on what you’re doing and where you’re at, that you’re not thinking about anything else. I’m glad I was able to take it in on the track walk because at speed you’re definitely not looking around.”

JENSON BUTTON, No. 15 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang – WHAT WAS YOUR EXPERIENCE ON THIS COURSE? “It’s been a good day. I mean it’s funny, isn’t it: You always want more than what you have. It’s the way of life, it seems. But no, it was a good run in terms of, I don’t think we did anything wrong. I think the balance was a little bit out. We’ve been fighting a tight car so for me, I’d call it understeer. I really struggled to get a lap on that one, and most people are doing the time on lap one. So, that hurts me quite a bit. It hurt me in Q1, and then in Q2, I had traffic. I can’t do the lap on the first lap, but it was starting my second lap that I had traffic. It was slightly annoying, so I had to do a cool down lap and then go again. Never works as well. P8 isn’t too bad. I’m pretty happy with that. I just wish we got a clean run in Q2. I would have had a couple more spots. It wouldn’t have been top-three, but it would have been a couple more spots.”

FROM YOUR EXPERIENCE AT COTA, DO YOU FEEL MORE COMFORTABLE? “Yeah, definitely. It’s new to all of us. I think Shane [Van Gisbergen] did a really good job. First time in a Cup car, but he does have the expertise of a street circuit in a heavy car. I think he was always going to be quick. We were a bit off the pace of the top-three there, but we would have been a bit closer. It’s nice to be able to sit in the Top-10. Who knows tomorrow? It looks like we’re going to have rain in the morning. The car feels more like a race car than a qualifying car in terms of where the balance is, which is great. That’s something to be positive about going into the race tomorrow. Thanks to the whole team, and thanks to Mobil 1 for giving me this opportunity once again.”

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford Mustang – WHAT ARE YOUR FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF TODAY’S FIRST TRACK SESSIONS? “The jury’s still out. We haven’t raced yet. So far, I’d say it’s a success from a lot of different things. I told some people from NASCAR that even if the race is just okay, it’s a success because of where we are and the marketing that’s come along with it. So many people in Chicago are talking about NASCAR racing right now. They may not have talked about it or ever heard about it – or interested in it – and they’re going to come see it. Hopefully, you hook them into loving the sport like we have so many others. From that standpoint, it’s already a win for our sport.”

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT FOR THE RACE? “We’ll see how the race goes. There are some really tricky spots on the racetrack. It’s hard. It’s like, you push a little too much, you’ll wreck your car. It’s definitely going to be tough.”

WHAT DO YOU EXPECT THE AGGRESSION LEVEL WILL BE FOR THE RACE? “I don’t know what to think. Probably the two guys that have run street courses before , that are really fast, they probably know a lot more than us at the moment. They kind of just showed it [in qualifying], kicked all our butts for jumping into these cars.”

KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 GEARWRENCH Ford Mustang – WHAT HAPPENED GOING INTO TURN ONE? “I clipped the inside wall with the left-front tire and then lost the steering and it drove straight in the wall.”

A LONG NIGHT AHEAD TO COME FROM THE BACK IN A BACK-UP CAR. “We were gonna be back there anyway.”

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Chicago Street Race Media Availability | Saturday, July 1, 2023

Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 GEARWRENCH Ford Mustang, stopped by the infield media center inside the Art Institute of Chicago to talk about this weekend’s Street Race.

KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 GEARWRENCH Ford Mustang – WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT WHAT YOU’VE SEEN SO FAR HERE IN CHICAGO? “We came last night and did the track walk this morning and was obviously pretty impressed by the way that the track looked. Really, after driving it and the way that it flowed and everything that we did in the simulator, I think it lays out well. I think there’s a lot of excitement and buzz and when you create this kind of event to come into a weekend everybody wants to see how it goes and what happens, so there’s a lot of intrigue and I think that’s really part of what makes a great event.”

IS THERE ANYTHING YOU SAW ON THE TRACK WALK THAT SHOULD BE ADDRESSED? “I think that most of them that were here yesterday pretty much covered everything, so they moved some tire packs. I think the big talk was the brake markers, trying to make them something a little more visible. They put some orange tape around the brake marker signs to try to make them a little bit more visible, so, really, other than small things like that you kind of just have to wait and see what the race looks like. Obviously, Xfinity practice looked pretty decent and it looks like the cars have good grip, so we’ll just have to wait and see how it races and kind of make adjustments from there, I would assume.”

COULD YOU IMAGINE IN 2001 RACING IN SOMETHING LIKE THIS SETTING? “It was just so much different when I started because of racing at new racetracks in the middle of nowhere was exciting. I think with the way that the evolution of the sport has evolved into doing things differently, we’ve raced inside of football stadium, we’ve raced on street courses now. We’ve been on dirt. We’ve raced in the rain – all things that I would have thought you were crazy for, and pretty much everyone would have thought you were crazy for at that particular time. It’s a constant evolution of trying to make things different and exciting. It’s a much different world that we live in. It’s a different attention span of those watching, for the most part, and it requires a constant change and evolution to keep it fresh and exciting, so I think as you go through this weekend it opens a lot of doors for us. I think we opened a lot of doors for ourselves when we went to the Coliseum and now you’ve just got to figure out how to find that balance of how much you want to do things like this and the Coliseum and whether dirt is right or wrong. Is it a different track? What moves the needle? And I think that’s really what ultimately makes this event a success. I don’t know that you can make it a failure at this particular point, but how much of a success this particular event is is just measured on new eyeballs, intrigue from television viewers and things like that.”

DO WE NEED MORE EVENTS WITH RACES AND CONCERTS AT EXISTING TRACKS? “Well, let’s just take Sonoma for example. When we first went to Sonoma nobody wanted to go and now it’s one of our destination races because you can talk your other half into going somewhere that they may not particularly want to be to watch a race, but there’s other things to do. Whether it’s a concert or a race, you can kind of find that middle ground to do something different with multiple things to do at the event, so it allows you to have a compromise with the people who don’t want to be at the race in order to have other things happening in a cool city, and not only the event we have but there’s also a lot of other things to do right here. It’s not like you have to drive an hour to get to the city or go to a baseball game or whatever it may be. There’s a lot of things that you can check boxes with and activities of things to do.”

IS THERE ANY DANGER OF OVERTHINKING THIS TRACK? “I’m probably the wrong guy to ask. My road racing street course ability is one event and it was in 1999 around the L.A. Coliseum. I think as we’ve gone through all of this, to me, this one looks easier just because you can connect the dots. Everybody is starting with the same experience level. It’s not something where you can go and drive other cars or have a racing past of things that you’ve done. I think the good road racers are still gonna rise to the top, but, for me, with all of the markers and simplicity of the way that everything lays out, I think you can connect the dots and still do pretty good. It’s different than going to Road America for the first time where you’ve got a bunch of guys who raced there in the Xfinity Series or raced there in other cars and have experience there, or whatever the case may be. We’re all starting from scratch and, for me, I feel more comfortable with where we’re going to start than where we did at say Road America.”

WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER ABOUT THAT OTHER RACE? “The only thing I really remember is that we ran through a big gutter and it would rip the rocker panels off, so we’re one step above that here so far today from what I’ve seen.”

HOW HAS IT BEEN HAVING JENSON BUTTON AROUND? “I haven’t spent much time around Jenson. I’ve had one conversation with him in the two races. I don’t think his experience can hurt anything. I think as we go through the whole process it will be interesting. I have not sat in any of the competition meetings with him, so I think as we do that tomorrow it’ll be interesting to hear his feedback, but definitely can’t hurt.”

HOW DO YOU THINK THE SIMULATOR TIME IS GOING TO TRANSLATE TO THE REAL COURSE? “Really, the biggest thing for me is just memorizing the track. I think things like what direction am I coming up on next, so that’ll be the most important thing to me is getting all the new markers on the actual racetrack. I think the lap time will be a little bit faster than what we practiced at in our simulator, so just memorizing those markers and getting comfortable with exactly where I need to be in the braking zones and how wide the racetrack is, which corner is coming up next, where all the bumps are, that’ll be the main thing for me is to memorize all that stuff in the first 50.”

WHAT ARE YOUR FEELINGS ON THE RESTART ZONE AND WITH HOW COTA ENDED IS THIS A WAY TO SOLVE THAT PROBLEM? “I think the theory was to spread the cars out more getting into turn one, so it seemed to work well at some of the racetracks like Portland. Sonoma didn’t really have that same type of problem with the way that it’s laid out. Hopefully, when you look at Portland it allowed the cars to get spread out and not have that huge effect of four or five cars nose-to-tail. It’s a tough balance just because of the fact that the car is so durable. I think it’s tough just because you know the car will do that and you start to get frustrated and participate because you at some point were on the other end of it getting spun out, so it’s a fine balance.”

BLANEY HIT A CONCRETE BARRIER AND NASCAR SAID IT WOULD LOOK AT OTHER TRACKS, BUT IS THERE A FRUSTRATION OR UNDERSTANDING THAT CARS WILL FIND DIFFERENT SPOTS AND YOU CAN’T COVER EVERYTHING? “I don’t think that’s a good excuse. I think that spot should have been covered. We’ve gone to some of these new racetracks and had bare walls and I think that probably needs to be done a little bit more aggressively in order to make those situations right. It’s just a firm reminder that we can hit anything anywhere. You’re not guarding for the everyday accidents. Obviously, it helps them, but you’re guarding for the weird incidents like we had with Kyle Busch at Daytona and Ryan’s was very similar to that. That’s really what you’re looking for, so definitely needs to be a little bit more thorough on erring too much, not enough.

CHASE ELLIOTT SAID HE WAS PLEASANTLY SURPRISED WITH HOW THE COURSE LOOKED. DOES THIS GIVE YOU A SENSE THAT NASCAR CAN DO THIS MORE OFTEN OR IS THIS A DIRECTION NASCAR HAS ALREADY BEEN MOVING? “I’m fairly certain they own all of the barriers, so it definitely opens the door to being able to do this type of event in other spots. I think you just have to measure the success and how far it moves the needle and know that you may not have to spend as much money because you don’t have to buy the barriers next time, but the amount of money being spent to put this event on there obviously has to be a level of excitement that moves the needle in order to keep doing that. I think you have to start somewhere and you have to step out of that box and do things differently, and I think we have a lot of room to still explore and do things and show our product off in different cities to different people. I think they told us that over 80 percent of the fans here this weekend will be people who have never watched a NASCAR race. If you’re gonna grow the sport, you’re gonna have to do stuff like this and I’m the same. When I walked the track, and luckily Julie (Giese) was the last person that I saw before we walked across the track, they’ve just done a good job. It flowed well on the simulator and it looked like it flowed well in practice for the Xfinity cars, and I don’t expect anything different with our cars. From the time I walked in the hotel and the way that it was organized and structured, it felt like old-school NASCAR to me with just the things that have happened since I’ve walked off the plane to come into the racetrack and into the hotel, so it’s been a great experience so far.”

IS THIS AN EVENT YOU HAVE TO COME TO WITH AN OPEN MIND? “I think you have to because I made the mistake at the Clash the first time we went and said I thought it was gonna be a disaster and it turned into a great event and a great race. I think you have to just do it because you don’t know. You just don’t know how these types of things are going to turn out, so an open mind is definitely better than walking in and just trying to figure out how to make it fail and trying to figure out all of the flaws in it because there are gonna be things that probably don’t go 100 percent right, but going through all these new type of events kind of changes your mindset to how you approach it because you see the enthusiasm. You can feel it and you can see it. You definitely don’t have this many colleagues sitting in your press room on a weekly basis, so there’s obviously something different this week that moves the needle.”

CAN YOU TAKE IN ANY OF THE SCENERY THIS CITY OFFERS WHEN YOU’RE ON THE TRACK? “It’s obviously going to be different, but I think once you fall out of those first few laps and you start to pick up all of those reference points it’ll just settle into the next corner. I think the part that as a competitor you kind of fall into this trap of not really enjoying the surroundings and all the things that go with that. I think you’ll probably see some cool pictures of things as you come out of the event and realize just the magnitude of coolness that went along with what we’re getting ready to do.”

YOU HAVE WON THREE OF THE LAST EIGHT AT LOUDON. WHY ARE YOU SO STRONG THERE? “Our flat track stuff has been really good. Our short track stuff has always been really good and I think as we go, this year our short track stuff is in the same category, so it’s definitely a racetrack that we’re looking forward to going to and I can’t wait to finally hopefully get to victory lane. After Nashville, having the fastest and having a tire go flat and Phoenix and a couple of the other places where it just seems like it all hasn’t come together, but they’re doing a great job of putting fast cars on the racetrack and Loudon is one of those places that checks a lot of boxes in order for us to go up there and hopefully have a good weekend.”

HAVE YOU NOTICED SPONSOR INTEREST IS HIGHER FOR THIS RACE? “I’m spoiled. Our sponsors have been in place for a long time, but I know the GEARWRENCH group that is on the car, they’ve brought a lot of people and activated throughout the week. We don’t have a lot of activity outside of that, but I know that there’s a lot of intrigue from people wanting to watch. You get the question of what do you think it’s going to be like. It’s come up several times in our meet and greets over the last several weeks, so there’s a lot of intrigue there. Our sponsor stuff has just been in place for a long time.”

WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE 36-RACE SCHEDULE, HOW WOULD YOU LAY IT OUT TO BALANCE THE WIDE VARIETY OF COURSES? “Yeah, that’s a great question. I think that obviously the road course number is going up. It seems like everybody wants to have more short tracks and things that go along with that side of the world. I think you have a lot of room to be flexible with whatever it is – the ‘hot ticket,’ right? I think that’s the most important thing, the hot ticket. It’s what is going to put the most butts in the grandstands and the most eyeballs on TVs. So, if it’s short tracks or street courses, we need to migrate to a few more of those. There is still a lot of room for Canada, Mexico, and there are a lot of things in North America to move to that we’ve been at before. Montreal was always one of the marquee races that opened up a different fund from the sponsorship side, and it was always full of people. I think there is a lot of room to move stuff around, especially from places that have a couple of dates that traditionally don’t have the best crowds and could be good ‘one’ racetracks.”

WHAT WOULD YOU SUGGEST? “Well, you know me. I’d change everything all the time. If it was me, Chicago is going to be a great city but I’d say, ‘I’ll see you guys again in about five years.’ You can be excited about it for the next four, then we’ll be back through the rotation. I’d rotate the championship race, the playoff races and create some sort of system that made sure there were enough road courses, short tracks and everything in the last 10. I’d move them all. There are traditional races like the Daytona 500, Southern 500… I guess there isn’t really more than that… the Coca-Cola 600 and maybe the Bristol summer race. Everything from there would be free game. I’d make sure that the markets and racetracks are held accountable to have the proper amount of people in the seats. If it’s not going the way it should, move them around.”

NASCAR CUP SERIES
CHICAGO STREET RACE
GRANT PARK 220
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
JULY 1, 2023

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 HOOTERS CAMARO ZL1, met with the media prior to the NASCAR Cup Series practice and qualifying session at the Chicago Street Race. Press conference transcript:

GIVE US YOUR FIRST IMPRESSIONS SINCE YOU’VE ARRIVE IN CHICAGO?

“Yeah, I’m pleasantly surprised with just the lay of how everything is operating. The track looks really nice, I feel like. I’m excited about it. My laps and time in the simulator – I had a lot of fun. I thought the track actually had a nice flow to it, so that was cool. We’ll see how that translates. It’s been interesting watching these guys run.

Overall, I think from my end, super impressed with all the logistics and things that go into this stuff. So props to NASCAR and all the people that put this place together – built the walls, built the fences and have done all the work over these last handful of weeks because a lot went into it. We’re all just kind of showing up here this weekend, but there’s a lot of work down there. Just excited to be here and hope we can put on a good show.”

WHEN YOU WATCH THE XFINITY CARS ON THE TRACK AND WALKING THE TRACK, WHAT APPEARS TO BE THE MOST CHALLENGING IN YOUR MIND OF THIS STREET COURSE?

“It’s very difficult to look and know versus being on the track and feel and see it. What your eyes are seeing and how you’re receiving that information when you’re out there running is just different than it is when you’re walking. Watching these cars run – the track content, to me, is really high in some areas and it’s really smooth in other areas. So finding that balance I think is going to be really important. It’s obviously narrow in sections. I think that’s going to be a hot topic of things to talk about. I do think it’s going to be difficult to pass once everybody gets up to pace come race time, but I hope that we’re able to mix it up and do different things. For me personally, just making laps. I want to just go make laps and try to find a rhythm and go to work from there.

A really important 50 minutes coming up and then we roll right into qualifying. I think qualifying well is going to be paramount to having a shot to win tomorrow.”

WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE START OF THE RACE, YOU TALK ABOUT MIXING IT UP. WHEN WILL FOLKS MIX IT UP? AFTER PRACTICE AND QUALIFYING, WILL YOU KNOW ENOUGH TO MIX IT UP INITIALLY OR NO?

“Well I think it totally depends on who you’re around and where your strong suits of the track are, if you have any, and where the other person differs in front of you or behind you. So I think that can change from car-to-car or person-to-person. I think that’s going to be different for every situation.”

HAVING GROWN UP IN AN ERA WITH YOUR DAD RACING WHERE THE SCHEDULE WAS PRETTY MUCH THE SAME EVERY YEAR, IT WAS KIND OF SET BEING WHAT A NASCAR DRIVER WAS – OVAL TRACKS, SAME PLACES EVERY YEAR. DO YOU FIND IT EXCITING AT ALL TO BE IN THIS ERA WHERE WE’RE GOING DIRT RACING, STREET RACING, ALL THE DIFFERENT THINGS WE’RE DOING.. IS THAT EXCITING TO YOU AS A RACER?

“Yeah, I commend NASCAR for trying. I think a lot should be said for that because for many years, nothing was really changing and it was working to a pretty large degree there for a long time. And that’s great, they didn’t need to. But this leadership group at NASCAR – I’ve said this over the last few years, I feel like more has changed in the last five or six years, or at least in my time that I’ve been here, than it probably changed in the prior 15 or 20 years. I think it is a good thing, just from the standpoint that they’re willing to try new things. What I think is really important and I’ve said this before too, you’re going to have to look in the mirror some days and know and be willing to be honest with yourself that – hey that didn’t work, and we don’t need to just keep beating that horse. So I think coming and doing events like this are important for us to go try new things. It may go great and it may not, and that’s totally fine. I’m good with that either way and I think the rest of the garage is too. We’re all excited to be here and we want to put on a good show. I hope it goes well and if it doesn’t, that’s fine too. We tried and we’ll look for the next event or the next thing that we can go and do as an industry to switch it up.

Yeah, I am excited to be a part of it. It’s been fun. I think this weekend has a lot of potential.”

OBVIOUSLY MANY OF US HAVE SOME NATURAL SORT OF SKEPTISIM SHOWING UP FOR THE FIRST TIME HERE OR LIKE THE LA COLISEUM. BUT THEN TO COME HERE AND SAY LIKE – WOW, THEY PULLED THIS OFF. DOES THAT GIVE DRIVERS AND PEOPLE IN THE GARAGE MORE FAITH IN NASCAR MOVING FORWARD WHEN THEY’RE SAYING WE MIGHT WANT TO TRY OTHER STUFF SOMEWHERE ELSE OR ANOTHER CITY. ARE THEY BUILDING UP SOME CREDIBILITY WITH YOU GUYS?

“Yeah, for sure. I think the (Los Angeles) Coliseum was a good thing to go try. I think it’s probably run its course, in my opinion. But I look at this event and I think this type of thing really has a lot of potential because as I’ve said, in my opinion, you’re not going to get inside city limits, aside from the Fairgrounds, ever again with the actual facility. So if you’re going to come to a city and race, this is going to have to be how it happens. I think the way that this was put together and just me looking at the track, walking out there and seeing just the fab work on the walls and just how nice it is – that really speaks volume to everyone involved, in my opinion. I’m really impressed with that, so yeah, it gives me a ton of confidence going forward that if other cities are interested in having us if things go well here and it gets received well, absolutely – I think that we can go and pull this off somewhere else, too.

I will say, this part of the city is really nice for this type of course. We’re not racing in between buildings. There’s a big enough open space with the roads to make it work. We’re not driving in between two skyscrapers, so it’s a little different and it fits just this part of town very well.”

I KNOW IT’S HARD HAVING NOT BEEN ON THE TRACK YET, BUT WAS THERE ANYTHING THAT YOU AS DRIVERS SAW ON THE TRACK WALK THAT YOU WOULD POTENTIALLY ASK NASCAR TO TWEAK FOR TOMORROW?

“No.. I mean again, haven’t been out there yet. The only concerning thing that I saw was just the manhole covers. I know they had welded them, but there was a couple places that looked like the welds – whether it be from equipment running across them – like they need to be redone. I think a couple of them are going to get really used up more than others, so I would look at that. If one of those things pops up a little bit, you’re going to destroy something pretty bad. Outside of that, no. There’s not a lot of run-off room, which I would like to see that if you were to blow a corner or something. From experience, it would be nice to have somewhere to go if you’re not going to make it. But at the same time, I get it.. they’re out of space, what do you do. So I totally understand that.

Yeah, I honestly didn’t see a lot out there. Hopefully everything stays togethers. There’s a lot of transitions in between asphalt to concrete and vice versa. So as long as those transitional patch areas stay together, I think it will be totally fine.”

WERE THERE ANY TIRE BARRIERS OR THINGS THAT YOU ANTICIPATED BEING THERE OR NOT ANTICIPATED BEING THERE THAT YOU SAW COMPARED TO THE SIM?

“No.. the only section that really looked any different to me was, it would be like (turn) four and five. Whatever the numbers are, the right-right before the long straightaway in the center of the track. That visually looks different. Like where they had the wall placed on the sim versus here is just a little different visually. But outside of that, the visual representation of the track content and things walking it looked really close. I’m curious to see how the bumps and stuff how different they are. But that was the only part of the track that I thought looked any different. The rest of it – like on iRacing, they had the right sponsor signage in the right corners. They had done a lot of work and I’m sure NASCAR uses them to help them make these places, too. And they should.. that should go both ways to be able to replicate things over and over again because they have such a really nice scan of the road.”

LOOKING FORWARD TO NEXT WEEK, YOU HAD SUCH A DOMINATING PERFORMANCE AT ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY A YEAR AGO. WHAT DID IT MEAN TO HAVE SUCH A CONVINCING PERFORMANCE AT YOUR HOME TRACK?

“Yeah, that was a really nice weekend obviously. I guess it’s a little different than having like a dominant performance at not a speedway. It is a speedway race, but we were.. we were really solid. And it’s not like you’re getting out to a four or five second lead. We just had a car that had the ability to be on offense all day. And when you’re on offense and you can be that guy to make lanes move forward and make a difference and pushing somebody to the front – it just puts you in a different league. It really puts you in a really, really nice position to have a good day. Certainly been on both sides of that fence. We’ve been on the other side of the fence since then with our speedway program. Obviously I missed Atlanta (Motor Speedway) the first time this year, but hopefully we can go back and have a good run again like we did last year.

Looking forward to it. I know a lot of the people around home are super excited about it being a night race, and getting under the lights down there I think is a really big deal. So I’m looking forward to that next week, but I’m excited about this weekend first. We’ll enjoy next week when it gets here.”

BASED ON YOUR WORK ON THE SIMULATOR, WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU’LL HAVE TO BE IN TURN 12 WHERE THE ENTRANCE TO PIT ROAD IS RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER AND CARS ARE GOING TO BE ENTERING PIT ROAD BASICALLY FROM THE RACING LINE?

“Yeah, I mean the good news is that it’s a pretty sharp corner anyway. Obviously coming to pit road makes it sharper, so you are going to have to be a little slower than you would normally. You’re going pretty slow even at speed I feel like right there, so I think it’ll be fine. I’m not sure how they’re going to police that yellow line because I could totally see you like needing a little bit of that room on exit. It’s really tight right there, so I’m not sure if they’re going to penalize people for running over that or not. I haven’t asked that question yet this weekend, but that was something I noticed in practice where a lot of guys that went to make the turn pushed out. Like not on purpose, they just pushed out and needed a little extra room to get to pit road. Hopefully there is a little leeway there because I think the tighter they make that, the more issues you’re going to cause because you have to be slower. So if you had just a little bit of room to run the corner and get in there, I don’t think it would stack everybody up so bad.”

I WANT TO ASK ABOUT THREE AREAS – ONE, EXITING THE PITS, YOU’RE LIKE RIGHT IN TURN ONE. ANY CONCERN THERE? THERE HAS BEEN TALK ABOUT TURN FOUR.. IT’S LIKE BARELY WIDE ENOUGH FOR LIKE A CAR LINK I THINK ON THE GROOVE. AND THEN I THINK IT’S TURN 10, YOU’RE JUST GOING SO FAST BECAUSE THAT’S THE LOOP. JUST YOUR THOUGHTS ON THOSE THREE AREAS?

“Yeah, I haven’t been out there. It’s so hard having not made a lap.. like I don’t know. Running laps on the simulator, I thought the setup through (turn) three, four, five, the right-right before that straightaway that we were talking about a second ago – I thought that was really fun and it didn’t seem that narrow to me on the iRacing thing, but it might be in the car. It’s certainly very rough. I think the content of the track, in my opinion, is a bigger deal than the width of it.

The other section in 10 – it was actually really fast on there. I was surprised through the carousel today how much elevation there is, so you climb up to the center point of the carousel and then it’s really downhill before that quick right. So I was surprised by that because I visually didn’t see that in the simulator. It kind of felt like it in the car, but I just didn’t really understand why and I’m like – oh that makes sense a little bit more. I just didn’t see it and wasn’t expecting that. That section is fast, but it’s really rough. Like after that quick right going into 11, it’s really, really rough right there. I think you’re going to have to watch that and make sure you really time your braking well to maximize and not get yourself in trouble because that’s obviously a really tight, tight corner through 11.”

WHAT ABOUT PIT EXIT?

“I didn’t think it was that big of a deal.. it’s off to the right. They have you off as far to the right and the corner wants you to be favoring way left. So you’re just going to have to be watching. If somebody is coming, watching these guys run, you want all that run-off to the right. So to me, the guy on track is certainly going to have kind of the right away because you’re going to get fenced if you try to fight that. I think the person coming at speed, when we have those situations, is going to recognize and he’s going to make a judgement call as to how far that guy is going to be next to him, in front or wherever. And then the guy coming off pit road is going to have to judge it, as well. I think once we do it a little bit, it’ll be fine.”

WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE SCHEDULE, HOW WOULD YOU LAY IT OUT WITH THE BALANCE BETWEEN SUPERSPEEDWAYS, INTERMEDIATES, SHORT-TRACKS, ROAD COURSES, STREET COURSES, IN TERMS OF WHAT YOU WOULD WANT IT TO LOOK LIKE?

“Yeah, I mean that’s always a popular debate, right? It seems like road racing was really cool because we only did it twice a year, and now we do it like a quarter of the season. I don’t know what the balance is really, and I don’t know what the right answer to that is. But I am a believer in less is more. I think when you have really special events, I think it’s because they happen once or twice a year.

I don’t know what the balance would be, but I think less is more. I don’t know if that answers your question, but that would be my general approach if I were to be in charge of the schedule. Obviously things have changed a little bit. Our short-track package hasn’t been great, but our intermediate package has. So do you make that decision based on what the entertainment value is like because of the car, or do you make that decision based on the fact that I ran a lot of short-tracks growing up? I don’t know, but I think less is more. I’m not in charge of that, so I don’t put a lot of thought into it.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI WAS IN HERE YESTERDAY AND INDICATED THAT THEY HAD RECEIVED A STRONGER RESPONSE FROM HIS SPONSORS IN INTEREST OF THIS TRIP AND WANTING TO COME HERE. DID YOU GUYS EXPERIENCE THE SAME THING COMPARED TO NORMAL WEEKS ON THE CIRCUIT?

“Yeah.. a lot of times too, you can always tell when there’s an exciting weekend coming up because friends from around home want to come to the race. But yes – the thing for us is Hooter is on the car this weekend and when HMS did their race picks, this was a race that they really wanted and rightfully so. I think there is a lot of excitement around the weekend and I think the short answer is – yes, there has been. A lot of interest, not just from partners, but from friends and people around town asking me about it. That’s going to continue throughout the whole weekend and I think it’ll be talked about for weeks to come, too.”

SPEAKING OF EVENTS, THIS HAS BEEN DESCRIBED AS MUCH AS AN EVENT AS A RACE. IS IT IMPORTANT FROM THE DRIVER’S PERSPECTIVE THAT YOU’RE PART OF AN EVENT AS OPPOSED TO A RACE? IS THAT IN YOUR HEAD AT ALL?

“Well yeah, they’re all events at the end of the day. This is all entertainment at some point, right? So yeah, I do think that has been looked at like that and I think that’s good. There’s nothing wrong with that. Somebody asked me last weekend what it would take to make this a successful race and I don’t think it has to be a last corner pass for the win. If that happens, great.. then yes, somebody hit a homerun. But I think if the environment is exciting, everybody does their job off the race track, it’s a fun place to hangout and everybody here in town wants to be here – we make this the event here in Chicago this weekend, whether the race is a great show or not, I think it’ll be a success. That’s how I’m looking at it. I have an extremely open mind coming into it. I’m excited about it. Ready to get on track and see how it goes.”

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT THE RESTART ZONE COMING BEFORE TURN 12? IT SOUNDS LIKE TALKING TO SPOTTERS, NOT REALLY SURE ANYBODY CAN REALLY SEE THAT VANTAGE POINT AND HOW YOU JUDGE THAT. HOW DO YOU ADDRESS THAT SITUATION?

“Listen.. you can’t put that on your spotters. We’re driving the cars, right? At the end of the day, anytime you’re in some of those situations, you have to make those decisions on your own. You can’t ask those guys to call some of that stuff for you because they can’t anticipate some of the things that are going to happen. So I think that’s totally on the drivers.

As it pertains to the restart zone, I wasn’t in the race at COTA, but I watched it and it was embarrassing to watch, for sure. Just strictly as a fan – take my NAPA hat off that day and as a fan just watching, that was not good. That was not a good look for anybody. And I think that falls on the drivers, personally. I think that falls on the drivers to make better decisions and not just run people over getting into the corner.”

HOW SO.. THERE’S NO PENALTY?

“Right, exactly.. there’s no penalty. I don’t know what that fine line is, but I definitely think it’s on the drivers to try and somehow find the right balance with that. I don’t know that we ever will, but I certainly don’t want our events to look like that because we’re better than that. There’s some really talented drivers and teams here that we don’t need our events to end in 15 cautions, overtimes and a bunch of guys that had really strong runs getting spun out for no reason. I don’t know if that will help this weekend. Again, I wasn’t a part of that, but I hope it does and I hope everybody just tries to find a little better balance somewhere in there. I don’t know what it is or how it is, but I just hope there’s a little better balance.”

About Chevrolet
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Toyota Racing – Kamui Kobayashi
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes

CHICAGO (July 1, 2023) – 23XI Racing driver Kamui Kobayashi, who will compete at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course in August, was made available to media prior to the NASCAR Cup Series event at the Chicago Street Race on Saturday:

KAMUI KOBAYASHI, 23XI Racing

What has your experience been like shadowing the 23XI Racing team here in Chicago?

“Hello everyone. Good morning. I’m really looking forward to the Indy race. I’m obviously coming here to run through everything with the team on race week. This is a street circuit, which is the first time in NASCAR. Obviously, I think I can probably help with my experience on a street circuit as well. I think it looks quite challenging. I did the track walk this morning and obviously I think by looking I’ve never seen such a challenging circuit in the street like this. I think like the open wheel car you have to have the same surface on the track, but here it’s not the same asphalt as a usual track so it’s looking quite challenging. I think it will get more attention in NASCAR than other races. I’m looking forward to watching the race this week.”

Will you be watching tomorrow’s race with the 23XI Racing team?

“Yes.”

Have you been able to give the 23XI team any tips or tricks about street course racing?

“I just talked to Tyler (Reddick) about how you – in terms of braking with the new surface and the bump. Just as I said, it’s an unknown before, but it’s most important when you’re at a new track, a city circuit – the track evolution is quite high so it’s an adjustment. You have to come out with other guys running. When other guys are running there’s more increasing grip. Obviously, if you go out of line there’s less grip so it’s going to be most important during the session and maybe during the race as well. Obviously, the other part is when I looked at this (track), it’s so challenging. To survive, I think is one of the things that’s very important. Especially when I looked at the weather forecast, it looks like a lot of risk of rain as well. I think for everyone it’s not an easy situation, but it will be a nice show.”

With your experience in open wheel racing, is it better to have fenders in racing conditions like we’re seeing at this street circuit?

“Actually, you cannot really race open wheel at this track because of the bump and even the holes, which there are quite a lot. Obviously, when we are racing open wheel, I think how you create downforce is obviously different so that’s even a bit too much when you look. But obviously it’s NASCAR racing here, and it should be fine in terms of the hole and in terms of the bump. I think this makes it more challenging for the drivers, but I think this gives more of a chance for the driver to make a difference probably. We’ll see how it goes, but for sure the track evolution and when they drive on the track will give us more confidence as a driver. There’s not a lot of running in NASCAR so I’m quite curious how much they pick up on the track.”

We saw you talking to Jenson Button prior to the track walk. Does the new generation race car make NASCAR more intriguing right now?

“Even with Jenson (Button), we did race the Super GT. I think we raced exactly the same year because I only raced one year in Super GT and that’s the year that Jenson came to Japan to race Super GT. Somehow, I think we had quite a lot of time racing together and in endurance races as well. I think when we talked about this kind of new experience, he knew exactly where we come from so, we were talking about how different between when you come from open wheel to stock cars. The car is definitely heavier and how you manage and how you find the limit, I think that makes it really different. I just had an experience in the simulator and that gives me a little idea in terms of NASCAR and how you drive. We were describing to each other how we feel and actually I think we feel the quite the same coming from open wheel to NASCAR. I think the first thing is the weight and it makes it so, so different compared to other (cars). We were talking about the brakes, because the brake pedal is okay but just by the weight, the car doesn’t stop. We talked about a couple topics, but part of that is we talked about this circuit. I think for everyone it’s challenging, and I think even for him he has experience on the street, but he says it’s not going to be very easy for everyone, especially in the wet.”

Growing up in Japan, how big of a deal was Michael Jordan?

“It’s the big star in Japan, seriously. At a younger age, if you never saw Michael Jordan play, I think they knew the name. But I will say I think he’s the most popular sportsman in Japan. I think everyone knew the name. To be honest, I haven’t had a chance to meet Michael Jordan, but when I joined this team, I got new Jordan shoes which I’m very lucky. It’s not easy to buy I think, but I get for free so, I need to say thank you. I think I want to get a signature from Michael Jordan on my shoes.”

Have you had a chance to meet Michael Jordan yet?

“No, but I think I will first ask for his signature.”

With Garage 56 at Le Mans, what was it like seeing everyone around the world reacting to NASCAR and do you think it will bring more fans here?

“I think the first thing I would like to say is this new gen car makes it more familiar in terms of probably driving. Also, I think NASCAR is quite welcoming now to supporting us to join. Not for a full season but to join and get experience. I think for us this is really helpful for us to join. For us, for sure I think definitely I remember that when I was young, I think my first racing watching on TV was NASCAR actually instead of Formula 1. I remember when I started go-karts, I didn’t know the Formula 1 name, but I remember in my memory that I saw an oval race with NASCAR. I don’t remember exactly, but this racing was what I was watching when I was young when I was like four or five years old maybe. I was saying when I have a chance I want to try NASCAR, which I was asking so many times, but I never had an opportunity, but finally I got this opportunity. I’m 36 years old so not a lot of chance, but I’m lucky I got it at least.”

Do you think you’ll do another NASCAR race?

“Well, it depends. If I manage good, maybe. If I don’t manage good, that’s it.”

What has been the lasting effect of the three races NASCAR ran in Japan 25 years ago?

“I think I will say it’s a bit different now because at that time when you say NASCAR being in Japan, but the first time we didn’t have any social media stuff. We just had newspapers, but this time you have all of the social media stuff. In NASCAR, all of the media are doing really great job. I think all of the attention that’s coming from social media is something that’s good. I think if you come to Japan now it’s probably a bit different story I would say because you can promote and you can promote in a different way, especially to the younger direction. I think it’s 25 years ago, I think we didn’t have a smart phone. That time was like a GPS or whatever with the different connection. But this time I think we have a completely different way to deliver the information. For sure, I think NASCAR and how they fight during the race, I think Japanese people like it. I think it’s a possibility in the future and if they come, I think they come a different way than 25 years ago.”

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Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Chicago Street Race Media Availability | Friday, June 30, 2023

RFK Racing’s Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher met with the media Friday to give their thoughts about the inaugural NASCAR street race through the streets of downtown Chicago. While the Chicago Street Race course is a new challenge for the entire field, Buescher notably brings a closely related road course rapport to the event – two Top-10 finishes in 2023, which includes a fourth-place finish last month at Sonoma Raceway.

• Brad Keselowski: Co-Owner of RFK Racing, Driver of the No. 6 Elk Grove Village Ford Mustang
• Chris Buescher: Driver of the No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang

HAVE YOU HAD ANY TIME TO CHECK OUT THE STREET COURSE? WHAT ARE YOUR FEELINGS?

CHRIS BUESCHER – “Nothing yet. But, we’ve checked out four different entrances of this building so far (media center). We’re off to a good start. The track walk is coming next. I guess it’s not an officially open track walk, but everybody else is posting photos, so we’re going to take off.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI – “Yeah, you guys are so important that we came here, first. That’s part of our ‘aim to please’ mentality here at RFK Racing.”

BRAD, YOU’VE BEEN VOCAL ABOUT TRYING DIFFERENT THINGS IN NASCAR. WHAT ABOUT THE CONCEPT ABOUT FULL-BODIED STOCK CARS ON STREET COURSES? HOW IS IT GOING TO WORK, AND CAN THIS BE A CONSIDERATION FOR THE FUTURE?

KESELOWSKI – “I don’t know how it’s going to work. I think at some point, you just have to go do things. You can get caught up in ‘what’s going to / what’s not going to work,’ and you can talk yourself out of a lot of things going down that path, but it’s important to refresh and renew. I don’t know if this weekend’s going to work out, but I hope it does. I have a lot invested in it personally, just like a lot of others do. But, there are a couple really good indicators that it’s going to work well – it’s a really good sentiment and an excited town as we’re pulling in. So, those are really good things. Of course, there are always going to be concerns, and we have concerns every week – not just this week. But, there are different concerns this week. It’s just natural. It’s new. New is exciting. New is concerning. I think there is a mixed bag of emotions, but I think it’s really important for the sport to try different things, to not be scared to fail. We will not grow at all as a sport if we’re overly scared of failing. That doesn’t mean we want to fail. It doesn’t mean we want to take reckless chances. But, this seems like a pretty calculated maneuver and a good piece of energy for our sport, and that’s always looking for something new and fresh to move it forward.”

YOU BOTH ARE LIVING THE HOTEL LIFE THIS WEEKEND. WHAT DIFFERENCES DOES THIS EVENT BRING LOGISTICALLY? ARE YOU CLOSE ENOUGH TO WALK TO THE COURSE?

BUESCHER – “I think so. I’m pretty sure one of these buildings right here is our hotel. So, it didn’t strike us as a very exhausting walk over here. It’s probably a lot closer than half the motorhome walks we go on at places. Yeah, it’ll be close by. I don’t have a view of the racetrack from my room – it’s of the backside of the alley, so I didn’t get that lucky. But, it is close-by. Definitely going to be paying a lot of attention to the Xfinity cars on-track, as well as the Xfinity race. I think we have the opportunity to go walk the course a little bit and be around different areas – maybe even go check out some of the spotter stands during the Xfinity race if that is an opportunity for us. Just trying to figure out what we can about this place… walk around and try to see what’s been repaved. I think everyone has obviously been on simulators, trying to find their way around it. But, the new paving – we have maps of where it is or was going. Thanks to a handful of you all for a bunch of pictures of what that looks like, but I haven’t seen it in person. I think that’s the next thing, as we are close enough to keep walking and keep taking a look at things, trying to figure out what it’s going to be like or get our best guess. We won’t know until tomorrow until we get on-track, really get up to speed. Simulator stuff I always come out of there feeling really good about it, and then you get on the track and everything’s different. It kind of makes you hit a reset button. So, a lot going on this weekend.”

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU REMEMBER WALKING INTO THE TRACK FROM YOUR HOTEL, AS OPPOSED TO STAYING IN A MOTORCOACH?

KESELOWSKI – “Has to be like Mexico, maybe? I think the drivers normally having buses is a reflection of the fact that at most tracks, there’s really nowhere close to stay or there are not the amenities to be able to be at your best. Here, it’s a little bit different. I mean, the hotel is right here. There are actual restaurants, and there are places and things you can do to take care of yourself and be prepared. I’d actually prefer this, because it’s a lot cheaper than driving our bus up and down the road each week… certainly a lot cheaper than buying the bus. But, don’t tell my wife or bus driver that part. Yeah, it actually worked out quite nice.”

BRAD, HAS YOUR TEAM ADAPTED IN ANY WAY FROM A MARKETING / SPONSORSHIP ACTIVATION STANDPOINT, CONSIDERING THIS EVENT MAY ATTRACT A DIFFERENT TYPE OF FAN?

KESELOWSKI – “Well, I think if you look at my car and you look at the sponsor this weekend: We have Elk Grove, which is a local community here with a big manufacturing initiative, and those are opportunities that are afforded to us by being in such a unique market as we are here in Chicago. I don’t think these are partnerships that we’d be able to land elsewhere. So, I think I’d start there. Outside of that, when you do the things that we do with our partners, whether it’s dinners and whatnot, it’s much more intimate of an environment here. A lot easier for some of our partners to attend, and probably more so than any of those things, from a partner attendance viewpoint, we have more partners attending this race. It kind of feels a little bit like the Daytona 500 for us in the sense of partners that are coming and want to be a part of this race. Those are all really healthy signs for us as a company with sponsors kind of being the life blood of us financially. That tells us that this is a big weekend for our sport.”

BRAD, DO YOU KNOW THE PLAN AS FAR AS PREPARING THE CARS FOR ALL THE CHANGES AT ATLANTA?

KESELOWSKI – “We’re doing really well. I actually just checked in on this, either Monday or Tuesday. The only cars we did not have done are the three that are here this weekend. We’re in really good shape. It’s always interesting when we have major rules changes to the cars, how we’re able to get it done and what kind of timing. Our group stepped up and was able to execute it fairly well on their own. So, that’s been a good thing to see. Of course, it always gives a lot of the ‘I told you so’ to those that are questioning and not building the cars themselves. But, hopefully this is one of the last major safety changes, and it’s a significant gain that… maybe we can’t put ‘safety to bed’… but have a little less rate of change to the cars here for the foreseeable future.”

CHRIS, LAST WEEK KYLE LARSON SAID THAT YOU ARE ONE OF THE MOST TALENTED DRIVERS IN THE FIELD. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO GET A COMPLIMENT LIKE THAT FROM HIM?

BUESCHER – “Makes you feel a little warm and fuzzy. It’s neat to hear, and know that we go to a lot of different racetracks and can run well. Somehow or another, road racing… I found my name in the hat more than I ever anticipated. It’s just something that’s clicked on pretty early in my racing career, and I get to talk about it a little more when we go places like this where we turn in both directions. Jack [Roush] actually told me years back – it was my first Xfinity win at Mid-Ohio, a road course – I remember the drive back to airport, called me and said, ‘That was good. Congratulations. But you were supposed to be good on ovals. So where’s that win?’” It’s one of those that you start trying to figure out what it is that makes it work for you, pick it apart, and be good at different styles – road courses, as well. I’d say early on, Sonoma was one where I couldn’t find my own way around and have been really competitive around there for several years now. It’s just like ovals: There are different styles of road courses, and it’s taken some hunting and some research to really try and figure out how to be good at all those places. It’s cool to be in the conversation and in the hunt for these things and to continue to be able to get good results. Just need checkered flag results.”

HOW DIFFERENT WILL IT BE FROM A REGULAR RACE WEEKEND IN TERMS OF FOLLOWING THE WEEKEND MORE CLOSELY?

KESELOWSKI – “Most weeks I don’t feel like there’s a lot to take away from the Xfinity cars. I think the rules, the way the cars drive and the drivers in that series really dictate the ebbs and flows being so much different, that there’s not a lot to learn from watching those races. This particular weekend, it’s obviously a different dynamic for that. I think a lot of the questions that we have are more car-track and integration related than just other things that we’d look at during a weekend. So, I think there will be a lot of questions for us: ‘How does the track change,’ ‘Do the walls move if someone hits them,’ ‘ Are there techniques or tactics that are going to come together,’ there are sections of the track that are paved so are they going to have more grip… things of that nature that are significantly more dynamic given this weekend than normal weekends that lend themselves to watching other series and trying to learn from it.”

BUESCHER – “Yeah, it’s not about if they can get to the 500 marker on entry, right? It’s about the restart zone and it being in a different place, how that’s going to play out and how it’s going to be enforced. Basically, everything Brad just said. The nuances of something completely new that you have a lot of questions about, and you don’t have any answers until it actually plays out in front of you. Going to be paying attention to a lot of that.”

HAVE YOU WATCHED EACH OTHERS’ SIMULATION SESSIONS? HOW HAS IT BEEN TRYING TO LEARN THIS TRACK?

KESELOWSKI – “Well, I wrecked a lot more than Chris did. So, whatever that’s worth. I watched him run for 10 or 20 laps and not really hit a wall. Then I went out there, and I think I hit every one of them. So, I don’t have any room to tease.”

BUESCHER – “I got there several hours before he did, and I hit every wall before that. It made it look good by that time, but I promise you, it was not a smooth start. There was a decent amount of iRacing as well when we didn’t have our Ford time that I tried to run in. I’m just more about figuring the course out, a little less of reading into just the setup side of things. I wrecked a whole lot of stuff over there as well. I think we definitely have ideas about places that make us a little bit nervous on-track. They’re going to be snug. Just some of the pictures I got from my spotter earlier today make the fountain corner look way different than I feel like it appeared in the simulator. it looks much tighter on the entry and exit of the fountain loop – Turns 8,9 and 10. I don’t know how we come up with numbering our corners on road courses, because for some road courses that would be one corner and at Watkins Glen it’d be four – I can’t keep up. That one looks different, so we’ll need to get on-track to get a read on it and see. That’s the only way to do it. The simulator definitely helps, but I’d say mostly everybody has been on it and has run some amount of laps. I’m hoping it’s as close as it could possibly be. But, we have to get on-track and figure it out.”

BRAD, FOR ALL THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS YOU’VE EXPERIENCED IN YOUR CAREER, WHAT ARE YOUR FEELINGS NOT HAVING WON YET ON A ROAD COURSE TYPE TRACK?

KESELOWSKI – “Yeah, it’s frustrating. I’ve had some really good cars. I think we’re capable of winning, more so probably at The Glen than anywhere else. We had a really good road course car last year at Indianapolis, that I felt like maybe not as good but a good shot at winning with. And I’ve let a few of those chances slip away with mistakes that I’ve made. It can be frustrating and some of them circumstantial. At the end of the day, the burden falls on me to make that happen. It’s not the stat I want to have, for sure. But, the season is much bigger than that. You kind of roll with that and do what you can. I’ve certainly put a lot of time and effort into it with different things we’ve done, to try to find another level. It’s something I have to challenge myself with. It doesn’t come natural and it’s just a lot of work to put in. Chris: It comes natural to him. It gives him such a huge advantage and puts him in a spot where he can take a weekend like this. I look at him and say that he’s one of the favorites to win. He’s got the natural talent to be able to pick these tracks up, immediately dissect them and figure out what he needs to go faster and not put himself in risky positions. That doesn’t come as easily for me as I would have liked it to, but ultimately, I still have a lot of opportunities in front of me, and I’m going to continue to grind, put the effort in and hope for the result.”

WHY DOES CHECKING THE SPOTTER STANDS DURING THE XFINITY RACE MATTER WHEN YOU HAVE A VIDEO CAMERA ON YOUR DASH? THERE ARE ALSO SOME AREAS THAT SPOTTERS CANNOT SEE, SO HOW MUCH DO YOU THINK YOU WILL RELY ON THEM FOR INFORMATION?

BUESCHER – “Maybe half of it is to try and understand what the spotter is seeing. The other half is for me just to have more visuals of the track in different areas. The camera has opened up your vision quite a bit out the back, but also realizing that your room for error here is zero. If you do have an instance where you need to know if your spotter has a clear view or not, and with certainty clear you or if it’s going to be close, I feel like everyone needs to have that in their head, because there is zero run-off and it’s a hard decision just going off your gut. You want a good understanding of what decision is being made from up in the air.I feel like there is something to be said about that for this go-around. Just have to be smart about it, but you can very easily lose a race car around this place. I don’t have to see the track in person yet to say that. Lost many of them on the simulator, so it is going to be a tough one just in the fact that there’s no room for error. I watched a lot of other motorsports and their street races over the past couple of weeks. Whether it’s been IndyCar, F1 or some sports car series, it’s tight. One person’s mistake can cause three… four… eight people to have a really bad day. We need to make sure we run the cleanest race possible to put us in the best spot to set up for a win at the end.”

WHERE YOU TRYING TO LEARN SOMETHING FROM WATCHING THOSE RACES?

BUESCHER – “I love racing in general. The first part of the answer is because we were in a ton of rain delays over the past several weeks, and we’ve had time to watch in places that have TVs. I still don’t have TV at the house, so it’s not much of an option there. But, watching them come on instead of sitting there, kind of idly watching them make laps and focusing on what they do for some of their passing scenarios, how they approach certain corners, if it may be a switch back. None of their cars run good on a rough racetrack either, and I was trying to figure out if some places looked like you’d run a little offline just to make sure it was as smooth as possible. Just trying to pick up little things like that. I dove into it a little more, just knowing what we were getting ready to come up against here.”

WHAT IS THE MENTALITY HEADING INTO THE RACE OF MANAGING LEVEL OF AGGRESSION?

KESELOWSKI – “I would expect this race to look very similar to the first race we ran at the roval, where a few people will get humbled very quickly in practice, qualifying and maybe even the start of the race. That will settle it down, and then at the end, it’ll turn into some pretty tough racing. I always feel like in motorsports you can almost feel the vibe of the competitors. You go to Daytona every year – you have the 500 and the Duels – and in one race, there are a lot of wrecks and in the other, there’s not. And if you’re in the second race, and there are no wrecks, you go, ‘Damn, I’m hosed,’ because you get a feel for the ebbs and flows. Then you look at a race like this, and it’s going to go up and down wildly. If you have a very smooth practice session, expect the qualifying session to be a disaster – and vice-versa. So, I think you’ll see that a lot here over the course of the next two days where the race flow and ebbs will have these big moments where it gets really calm, and then it ramps up really quickly. Then, dies down when everyone starts to see the consequences. I would expect a race with a lot of variability in it.”

BUESCHER – “We talked a little bit about it, but when we go road racing, we’ve had some really good races. We’ve had some that have frankly been a little bit embarrassing for us, as a collective group. So, look at the styles of racetracks that have put on good racing and have been a little bit more tame at times. It typically involves having track limits – actual track limits. We go to COTA and Indy – there is so much run-off space, whether it is grass that doesn’t tear up race cars anymore and doesn’t hook up splitters or COTA which is paved so much wider than the track surface. When we go to Sonoma, the groove is asphalt. Don’t be in the dirt, right? You know that dirt is going to go slower and it’s going to cause you to find tire barriers. That keeps everyone in-line better. You have that ten-fold here. There are two places here I think that have a minute amount of run-off room. Everywhere else, the track limits are white line to white line, basically. I think that as a group, everyone knows and realizes it. They have the same thing on their mind as we do, knowing that if we want to win this race, we do have to be there at the end, and that will create some level of easing into things this weekend. To Brad’s point: It takes one moment to change that energy, and it can go haywire really quickly. We’ll be ready when or if it does happen. I feel like it should be a little bit of a slower start.”

WHAT’S THE FEELING OF BEING ON THE CUSP OF MAKING THE CHAMPIONSHIP, AND FEELING THE PRESSURE OF CONTINUING TO MAXIMIZE RESULTS?

KESELOWSKI – “We had our quarterly luncheon this week, and had the chance to address all the employees. Ultimately, there are multiple moods in reflection that come up, and the first one is, we’ve made a lot of progress from where we were as a company last year. That hasn’t come easily. There has been a lot of work and effort put in for that, and we’re certainly very proud of that. But we also know that we have nine really challenging weeks in front of us, where I think the cars are 11th and 12th in the points standings. We have basically a two-car cushion with the playoffs – that’s the way they work. So, over the next nine weeks, I would not be surprised to see two new winners. Hopefully, we’re one of them. But, if that’s not the case, we have both of our cars on the bubble, which is not a good place to be. So, we look at these next nine weeks, and we’d like to win. But, that’s every week. In absence of that, we need to be really perfect. We need to capitalize on the opportunities in front of us and avoid any pitfalls or mistakes. Looking at that, it’s a tense few weeks. Of course, if you make it through all that, then you have to go execute the playoffs as well, right? We know that’s not going to be easy. We know that’s a big challenge. We’re still in this mixture of emotion where we’re significantly proud of the progress we’ve made in most given weeks. We’re in a spot to be one of the best Ford cars. We know that the Fords are not where we want them to be. But we can’t let that be our excuse. We need to control the things we can control. I think as a company, the respective teams have done a pretty good job of that. Upgrades that have been made to Chris’s team and car over the last two or three months are really showing off some investments we made there… and pit crew and other hard assets. So now we have two cars that are really in a good spot to contend. We just need a little bit more vehicle speed. The vehicle speed can be frustrating. Some of it you control. Some of it, you don’t. I’ll be interested to see how the next few weeks play out. There is always an opportunity to improve those things, and they show up in different moments. Sometimes they show up when you make your stuff better, and sometimes they show up when NASCAR enforces some things on everybody else, right? You can’t give up hope on that being the case, and you have to continuously be positioned to take advantage of that. Outside of that from the Ford perspective, Ford has a new car for next year that we think will address some of those concerns, or at least the aerodynamic side of it. We have a lot of reasons for optimism beyond this year, but we have to make this moment we’re in count right now. Weekends like this are kind of equalizer weekends. They are weekends that I think aren’t good excuses for us. So, we need to score a lot of points and if possible, get a win with one of our two cars. I think framing the conversation is really important to understand all the context. This weekend is a big opportunity for us. We know that when we go to the next Nashville-esque track, that it’s going to be very difficult for us to win. But, we still need to do the best we can get a lot of points so we can hold serve with our respective positions.”

BUESCHER – “Where he ended there: Between all the road course racing we have coming up, superspeedway racing courses where we know we are very strong as an organization, as a manufacturer, there is a lot of really good opportunity ahead of us with understanding that there are a few that will be a little bit more challenging. But I think over the next handful of weeks, we have the majority that the conversation shouldn’t really matter to us.”