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
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 – 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.”

About Toyota

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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 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.”

NASCAR CUP SERIES
CHICAGO STREET RACE
GRANT PARK 220
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
JUNE 30, 2023

ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 1 ADVENTHEALTH CAMARO ZL1, met with the media on Friday afternoon to discuss the NASCAR Cup Series race at The Chicago Street Race. Media availability quotes:

THOUGHTS ON BEING IN CHICAGO AND OUTLOOK THIS WEEKEND

“It’s a little different than Nashville, that’s for sure. Being out at the racetrack, it’s wild. I think we are all kind of experiencing it and whether you grew up in a city like this or not, it’s different when we are coming here and the thought of racing a NASCAR race. For me, it’s a bit different than Alva, Florida, and I am embracing it. It’s been an incredible feeling just knowing this is where we are going to work this weekend. When I strap in on Sunday, it’s right here, in the buildings. It’s going to be different and I am proud to be one of the drivers to be a part of this history-making moment.”

WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR IN THE COMPETITION THIS RACE MIGHT PRODUCE?

“For me, it’s still about naturally driving the car and attacking the track. But there is just no runoff. In practice on these road courses is that I can overstep, spin out, and it’s okay in practice. Get the clutch pushed in, don’t let the engine turnover backwards, don’t lock a tire up and drag the car coming back in the pits, and don’t hit a tire barrier. Its usually far enough away that there is room enough to stop and slide and learn the limit. Here that is not the case. There is no runoff and no room for error. In talking with drivers that have run street races before with these tight walls, that is the biggest difference. Virtually you can go and prepare, and still attack and crash on our simulators, but when you get in a car, its going to all close in. And that is what they all keep saying. I have just taken the approach that I know its going to feel terrible as far as wall proximity and knowing that I know the penalty in practice, qualifying, and the race and its really big. The moment that I break traction, I am not going to wonder if I am going to hit the wall for very long, because the wall is right there. So, that has been the biggest thing mentally is trying to balance aggression for lap time and penalty of overstepping that aggression and hitting the wall. That has really been my focus all week.”

CAN YOU GIVE US YOUR ANALYSIS OF WHERE YOU ARE FOCUSED ON THE COURSE RIGHT NOW?

“Yes. On a normal track I would have…..turn four bump at Nashville is a big spot that I was focused on. I knew it was going to be a problem and it was a problem all weekend. Here I have 2 point some odd miles and 12 turns that I am really focused on. I really am not putting any corners above the others until I drive the car. I am not having preconceived notions, I don’t want to proactively think ‘oh turn four is going to be tough’, I know they are going to be tough. There is not going to be an easy turn on this track because for me, because of no runoff. No room to run off, slow down and slide. So, no, I don’t have anything right now. After practice, come back to me and I might have some, but I am not putting any corners of any higher priority right now because of the others because I don’t know.”

HOW MUCH WILL YOU BE ABLE TO LEAN ON YOUR TEAM OWNER WHO IS RACING THIS WEEKEND, AND WHAT WILL IT BE LIKE WORKING WITH JUSTIN THAT WAY?

“Yeah, I offered to spot for him. Politely no one really took me up on that. It was really cool that the first time he drove the track at the simulator at GM, I was able to be there with him with Kaulig. We both drove and we got to compare to each other and compare our feedback of what we were feeling in the car as far as our driving styles. I leaned on Justin in the Xfinity Series starting in 2015, when he was still racing part time, for road courses. So that is where our relationship really grew were the years before that when I was getting into the truck, he was getting out of it in 2011. We were just kind of acquaintances that I bought some seats from. I still remember the first time I met his wife Erin was knocking on their door to pay. I had an envelope with cash to pay for the seats and Justin wasn’t there to going to texting him and asking him for advice over the years on tracks. Then going to him when he was in the 42 Xfinity car, that has continued to in our boss/employee/employer relationship to the point where now we are back to just that driving relationship and we are buddies. So, it was a crazy sim session with a lot of bouncing and not great driving and they evolved after that and I wasn’t there for those sessions. That was a really cool moment for me to get in and drive and then have him get in and drive. He is a racer. That is the Justin Marks I know. Justin Marks the team owner, I am still learning to adapt to in knowing him as that. I know him as the driver. He is a highly renowned road course racer and the guy that I went to for advice. Never knowing that he was going to own a dang Cup team and I was going to drive for him, and we were going to win three races together. So, yeah, right when he gets on track, I will be right there at his window net when he gets out to debrief with him and Alex Yontz, his crew chief, and the Kaulig bunch. It’s a group that I have worked with before and I know that group well. I talked to him a little bit about the dynamics over there and helped him get up to speed with them.”

HOW MUCH WILL DRIVERS BE WATCHING THE XFINITY RACE FOR INFORMATION?

“Yeah, it would have been for sure at track, and it will be radios on and listening. I normally don’t do that, unless I am listing to a specific driver that maybe I am paying attention to more and I want to listen to how their dialogue is with their crew chief. And see if they yell too much or something. SMT will be rolling and I will have a tablet up and watching different cars and seeing their lines. In the race for sure, but with practice, that will be highly focused for me. The cool part of Justin, and adding that in was the sim work that I just talked about and the prep work. Just listening and getting his feedback of how they are approaching it. It just helps a small sliver. Small percent, couple percent, five percent, of my prep is guided by how he is doing it. I take everybody’s opinion and I form my own. I take their prep and I form what I think is my best prep. So prep work has been the biggest thing as I have been able to listen to him and that team talk that day at the simulator at GM. It was really crucial, and I have gone back to that day and how they are approaching it and we evolved it on the Cup side for the 99, 1 and 91 cars. Project 91 with Shane (van Gisbergen). Everybody has their different philosophies and we are all going to ultimately put our best piece of paper on come Saturday and Sunday.”

ARE YOU GETTING A GOOD SENSE OF THIS RACE BEING A BIG DEAL NOW THAT YOU ARE HERE?

“Yeah, for sure. I mean I am looking out of all these windows in this incredible art institute, and you can’t see the sky. It’s only buildings. I see a couple of trees, and from my point of view, I am not used to that. I am used to wide open farm fields and two-lane roads in south Florida. So, to be here now and know that when I strap in, I am probably not going to see much of the sky. It’s going to be buildings, walls, fences and tight confines. It’s real, it’s here and I get to be a part of it. I am just thankful for that and then we go to work. Once we get on track, it will be just another racetrack, another 12 turns, try to beat my competitors and my heroes come Sunday.”

GOING THROUGH THE SIM, CAN YOU NAME A COUPLE OF TROUBLE SPOTS THAT YOU SEE AT THIS POINT?

“Yeah, 12 of them. I wrecked in every corner, okay. But that is what is so great about modern technology is that you just stop, they hit reset, and you fire right back off. Now, I rein that in. I don’t attack like I did in there. I bring that down and I will be working up to it. So, if you don’t see super-fast laps right off the bat from me, that is not an accident. Now do I want to go out and be the fastest and win everything and win the pole like last week? Of course. I am a competitor. But I am not just focused on lap times and firing off, because I know the penalty and it has been my main focus this week is keeping that aggression level down in practice.”

SPEAKING OF LAST WEEK, BIG WIN. BIG PARTY TOO?

“Yeah. Man. Look, Trackhouse was formed in Nashville, the thought. Justin was living there and that is where the leadership group still is with Ty (Norris) and Dean and Steve Smith. And Tootsies was one of the first groups to really get on board. And so got out of the car and when I saw Ty in victory lane, not on the front stretch, I said look…..we always talk about we are going to stay and we haven’t in any of the other wins. We haven’t stayed yet, but if we are ever going to do it, its here. So, fortunately they kept the plane and they flew everybody home at 10 am Monday. It was great. It was just…from taking over the stage at Tootsies and having Phillip get on the drums, to just embracing having more time and personal time up there on the third floor to see everybody. To talk and enjoy the night was awesome. Everybody made the plane and got to work the next morning.”

REGARDING BEING CONFIDENT LAST WEEK FOR THE VICTORY

“Yeah, obviously they were high. I couldn’t believe I said it, even after I walked away from you. I thought, ‘oh’, and then it kind of left my mind. Then on Sunday morning I saw some of the tweets about it and I thought, ‘okay, mental note, don’t ever do that again’. I know we are fast, and we have a shot to win, but there is so much that can go wrong. Let’s not be that confident, overconfident and I felt like it came across wrong. And then we won and I was like, ‘hot dang, glad I said it’. I don’t know why I said it, because it just rolled off my tongue and we were just casually talking walking out. A fast car will give you that confidence as a driver. When they pointed at the guitars hanging on the wall and said that was for the winner and I was like ‘I will come back and get those tomorrow night’. I am not normally like that. Y’all know me and I am not normally like that. But with a car like that and being able to tie together…..I was so proud of those two laps, mainly the round two lap. To be able to go a few thousandths of a second faster when we were expecting a half of a tenth fall off. Truth be told, it means I could have gone a little bit faster in round one, but I won’t get into that. To be able to back up the lap time was incredible. So, I was super proud of that. Aside from winning on Sunday, that second round lap in Saturday’s effort will always be a memory of mine now and something that I am proud of.”

WITH THE WIN YOU CAN CHANGE YOUR FOCUS NOW A BIT, RIGHT?

“We can but we didn’t change our approach. The only thing we changed this week was we were not productive on Monday. But we all got back to work on Tuesday, and it was a normal week. As we have evolved as a team, last year after COTA, my week after the first win was crazy with more interviews and went more places and did more stuff than I ever experienced. This year after this win was much more regimented. I am thankful my team gave me the time to prepare like I wanted to. They gave me the time to put into the process that we have, and not be so scattered about the country and doing interviews, and flying here, and going there. I am glad we did it the way we did it last year, because it was great, but I wanted to focus on this week and the weeks coming up. So, nothing changes. We don’t take our right rear spring out and change it this week because we want to save it. We go as hard as we can, as fast as we can and try to put together the best weeks because we are competitors. And that is what we do.”

DOES HAVING THE WIN MAKE THIS WEEK LESS STRESSFUL?

“It does. I mean we try and scrap up as many points as we can every week. So, to have a 57-point day, almost perfect, the race last week just feels good. Aside from the win. If we had just got second and 56 points, it still feels………I don’t know if that is how it works up front, 52, it still would feel good coming here and knowing that we piled up that many just week to week. It’s easy to remember last week, but not easy to remember how it was 10 weeks ago and how many points we got. We ultimately want to have the most points and that is a sign of a great team. So, no matter what, this weekend, yes. Last week makes this week easier. But we are still going to put our best foot forward to run the 100th lap as far up as we can.”

FOR THIS RACE, IS IT TRACK POSITION OR TIRES, AND HOW DO YOU MANAGE IT THROUGH THE COURSE OF THE DAY?

“I have no idea. I have heard and been told that it will gain grip and lap time throughout the weekend from when we start. It will gain exponentially, and we are not sure with these cars how much more. But the track will naturally be faster with more rubber as we lay it down. So, I don’t know. Fast cars are going to be up front and somebody with a fast car is going to mess up qualifying and start in the back and have to work their way forward, but a fast car and a fast driver will be able to pass. You will be able to out brake people and you will be able to pass them if you can out wrap them through these 90 degree turns. Have less wheel in the car and drive off the corner to their left rear quarter panel, or right rear quarter panel depending on which corner it is. You will have position and you will be able to pass. So, it’s not going to be pleasant, but it never is. They are some of the best drivers and teams, they are really good at defending, and maximizing their cars. Now with the car, we all have the same parts and pieces. We have the same chassis, body, and suspension parts. We can choose our settings, but we are not manufacturing the stuff. So, from the fastest car in qualifying to the slowest, I don’t know where I am going to stack up in that, but I know I have the same parts and pieces and it’s just about my team’s application of that stuff to make it go fast. And then me driving it. So, I don’t know what will be the key, I just know fast car and fast driver will ultimately prevail.”

REGARDING AGGRESSIVENESS VERSUS WAITING AND PASSING

“Yeah, I know its easy to sit here and say it, but fundamentally I talked about rolling out in practice and being on the reserved side. I will attack my car, but I will not attack the track. I want to feel if I am tight or loose and if I am bouncing too much. I am not going to go two seconds off the pace, but I might be on lap one. But I will work up to it. And then on the restarts and stuff, I just think we have, for me, I have so much more to gain in not being the aggressor….and will pay off. I am not saying I am just going to roll over and let people take advantage of me, but I want to be on the better end, walking out of here, with opinions of other drivers and their thoughts about me. I want to be on the better end than the worse end. If it means a spot or two, I will be honest, I would rather be on the pay it forward a bit. Now that is not to say that I won’t overshoot a brake zone. Some of the brake markers are hard to see. They are a unique design, and they are not really bright. We will see how that goes throughout the weekend and if we change that. So, if I missed my braking and I get into somebody, not saying I am not going to do something on accident, but I am not maliciously go out and bulldoze through there. For me there is a conscious and mental effort to not be on the aggression side on a turn one dive bomb. Now if I think I can pass someone cleanly, I am going to do it.”

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

Jenson Button will be making his second career NASCAR Cup Series start in this weekend’s inaugural Chicago Street Race. Button, driving the No. 15 Rick Ware Racing Ford Mustang, discussed the course and significance of the event with the media.

JENSON BUTTON, No. 15 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang – WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS TRAVELING INTO CHICAGO AND OF THE COURSE? “It’s pretty exciting to be here at the first-ever street race in NASCAR. Chicago: I flew in from L.A. I live in L.A. My wife’s from California, and we flew yesterday into Chicago. Humidity is the first thing that hits you when you just get off the plane, which we’ll definitely have to deal with this weekend. But, it’s so cool – racing within a city. There aren’t many racing drivers that get that opportunity. I’ve had the opportunity at Monaco and in Singapore, but not in a stock car. So, this is a new and exciting opportunity. For me, I think the racing is going to be out-of-this-world and exciting. We also have a bit of weather thrown into the weekend – a possibility of rain and thunderstorms. So, that always mixes things up. I’m looking forward to the action. A big thank you to Mobil 1 for making this dream happen for me, to race three races in Cup this year.”

HAVE YOU WALKED THE TRACK YET? “I tried to, but they didn’t let my wife on… it was a ‘no.’ So, I’m doing it tomorrow morning. She has a VIP pass and VIPs aren’t allowed on-track.I’m going to walk it tomorrow. I was always going to walk it twice – once with the family, and then tomorrow morning with my crew chief and the team. I’ll be up bright and early at 7 a.m., and hopefully it’s going to be a little cooler as well.”

WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION TO HOW MANY 90-DEGREE CORNERS THERE ARE ON THIS COURSE? THERE MAY NOT BE A LOT OF PASSING OPPORTUNITIES, WHICH ISN’T IDEAL. “What’s not ideal? I mean, we’re here to get the best out of whatever we race on, right? It shouldn’t be dictated by what we think is best for us in the car. We should deal with what is put in front of us. The 90-degree corners: It definitely gives us some opportunity to pass. Not every 90-degree corner is going to give you that opportunity. I think Turn 1, Turn 2, Turn 5 and the last corner are the main overtaking places. Other sections of the track are too narrow, like Turn 9 – that long left-hander. It’s quite a narrow section, but that has its own challenges: First of all, keeping our car out of the wall, but also trying to thread the needle to go through that section. It’s going to feel extremely quick.The speeds won’t be extremely high, but when the barriers are that close, it feels unbelievably fast. It feels like they are narrowing in on you throughout the race. So, it’s a challenging track. You have to throw the bumps into it, you’ve got the overpasses… it’s going to be tough for us to learn in 50 minutes, to have confidence in the car and track, to push it and brake where we think we can brake, because one little lock-up and you’re in the wall. It’s not like you have a safety net like you have on most road courses. Tricky, but well-up for the challenge. I think we can put on a good show.”

WILL THIS TRACK CHANGE ANY DIFFERENTLY UNDER WET CONDITIONS TO OTHER COURSES? WILL IT BE THE SAME KIND OF ADJUSTMENTS IF IT DOES RAIN? “Everything gets more difficult when it rains – on any track, but especially a street course. One: Because, I don’t know the last time it rained here, and the oils from a road car which will be on the track. You won’t really have an issue with it in the dry, but as soon as it rains, it becomes slick. So, that’s an issue. Bumps make it more difficult in the wet, there’s no run-off, so if you want to lock-up and you’re in the wall – exactly the same in the dry. But, it’s more likely to happen because there is so much less grip. Normally, you’d take wet lines which would be a little different to dry lines, but you’re limited because the circuit’s so narrow. So it’s basically finding a line that you feel comfortable with, so you can get on the power as soon as possible. Racing in the wet… it’ll be nuts. It’ll be pretty crazy. Totally up for it. Most of the guys wouldn’t have driven on street courses, and most of the guys wouldn’t have raced in the wet. So, it’s going to be mayhem out there – but in a good and positive way. A little bit nuts… Like a sprinkling of nuts, whereas in the wet, it’s going to be a shower of nuts.”

HOW DO YOU SEE FULL-BODIED STOCK CARS ON THIS TYPE OF COURSE, AS OPPOSED TO THE MORE NIMBLE RACE CARS YOU’RE USED TO? IS THIS EVENT SOMETHING THAT CAN BE DONE MORE OFTEN? “I like that NASCAR is thinking outside of the box, and that we’re trying new things. Why not? There are so many races on the calendar, and this is one of the 38 races that you guys do. I like that we’re trying something different. It is a big, heavy car, and I must admit when I first drove it, I thought it would soak up the bumps a lot better than it does. I think the reason is, because the diffuser on the car – you have to run the car as low as possible to get that diffuser activated. So you’re on the bump stops – there’s no suspension in these cars. Here though, we’ve done so much work in the simulator to get it to a point where it’s consistent and driveable, and it does soak up bumps. I don’t think that’s an issue. The V8 Supercars that race in Australia: They race on street courses all the time, and that’s the same kind of philosophy, the same ideas behind the car itself. We can make it work, but it’s just a limited amount of time to get the car into a working range before qualifying. The person who does will come out quickest.”

YOU MENTIONED TURNS 1, 2 AND 5 WERE THE KEY OVERTAKING CORNERS. THOSE ARE ALL PLACES THAT HAVE SURFACE CHANGES, SO CAN YOU EXPLAIN THE CHALLENGES IN THOSE CORNERS? “Surface change is always an issue, especially when it’s wet. That makes it even more difficult because concrete is very slippery when wet. You change your style to suit the material you’re driving on, whether it’s the asphalt or the concrete. You might brake slightly earlier, but harder if it’s asphalt to get all the braking done on the asphalt area before you step onto the concrete. So you have most of the slowing down done. Turn 1 will be a tricky one. Walking the track is a must. So tomorrow, for the hour that we have, we’ll be really concentrating on where the concrete starts and the asphalt finishes. That is really key for understanding the track and the different conditions. Also when the rubber goes down, it’ll go down differently on concrete than asphalt. It’s also working that out and the areas you can push the car, areas you need to look after the car. Maybe braking earlier into a corner and getting a better exit. In some corners you can brake later and use that grip of the asphalt. It definitely throws something into the mix of ‘things to learn,’ but we all should be pretty good by that point.”

HOW DOES A STREET COURSE TEST A DRIVER IN COMPARISON TO A TRADITIONAL OVAL? “I guess it’s kind of similar to ovals in a way. You don’t have the aero issues that you have on an oval, I guess. I’ve never driven an oval, so I don’t know. But when you watch, you have lots of different issues with the airflow over the car, traffic and what have you. So you don’t have that, but in terms of not having much room for error, I think that’s kind of similar to an oval – you make a mistake on an oval and you’re in the wall. Here, it’s exactly the same thing, but it could be entry, apex and exit where you can find yourself in the wall here. It has its unique challenges, because you’re using the brakes, your modulating brakes throttle all the way through the corner. I expect the quick guys, which there are a lot of them in Cup, to get to grips with this place pretty quickly. I definitely have an advantage racing street courses, but not in such a big car. It’s always been in a single-seater. I don’t think I’m so on the back foot like I probably was in Austin, but I also don’t have a massive advantage coming here, because I don’t know the car as well as most. I think you’ll see a lot of us in qualifying touching the barriers here and there – as long as it’s side on, then it’s ok because you’re not going to damage the toe links. You have to be aggressive to get a lap-time out of the car here, but the problem is that it’s a lot of risk. It’s very easy to find yourself in the wall.”

WHAT WERE THE SIM LAPS LIKE? “I spun coming out of the pits, so it wasn’t a good start. Once you get up to speed… the throttle control is nuts around here. You really have to modulate the gas pedal – there’s a lot of modulation, especially because there are so many bumps. Laterally loaded when you get on the throttle, it’s really tough. Straight ahead traction is fine. The big area where we’ll be struggling, I think, is Turn 3 to Turn 4. That fast right kink, before you turn right over the bridge in that really narrow path of the course. There is no room for error. When you come through Turn 3, it’s quite bumpy as you hit the brakes, so the car is moving so much through the braking zones, and trying to pick your apex point is really difficult. it gets to a point where you have to think, ‘Am I going to make the corner or not?’ At some point, you go past the point of no return. You’ve turned in… and if you get it wrong, you’re going to be in the wall. There is a point where you can go, ‘I’ve braked too late’ and turn left onto the escape road and turn it around. So that for me is going to be the trickiest corner to get right, because there’s the run-off area, you can brake late and be aggressive. But it gets to that point where you either choose to turn right or go straight.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK A RACE LIKE THIS MEANS TO THE FANS? “I can only think of positives. I don’t see why anyone would be negative. It’s one race out of many. We’re trying something new. I think it’s exciting. We’re going to see Cup cars and Xfinity cars racing on the streets of Chicago. I mean, it’s pretty crazy, right? I think it’s a great challenge for everyone. For the organizers that put this on, I’m impressed. But also for everyone involved. The logistics are difficult. I know from previous experience in street races. For the team and drivers, it’s all a big learning curve. I think to have got to this point already, we should congratulate everyone for what they’ve done. Hopefully, we can repay that by putting on a great race this weekend, and we’ll hopefully see more street courses in the future. I want to see some racing in Europe. I think that’s a good possibility, and I think the European fans are very on-board with NASCAR at the moment, especially after the performance we had at Le Mans. So, there’s a big fan base to tap into there – new fans. I think that’s one thing about racing in the streets here. There are a lot of new fans that come to the sport. You have to respect the people that have been a fan of this sport for decades, but you also want to bring in a new, younger fan base. This is a good way of doing that.”

YOU HOLD THE GUINNESS WORLD RECORD FOR REACTION TIME ON THE BATAK WALL. HOW DOES YOUR RECORD-HOLDING REACTION TIME ASSIST YOU INSIDE THE WHITE LINES ON THE TRACK? “Inside the walls, which are the white lines here. It was a publicity thing I did a few months ago. I had the world record of a batak wall, it’s called – how many lights you can extinguish in 30 seconds. I had the record when I was in my twenties, and they asked, ‘ You think you can beat it?’ I said, ‘No way.’ But, I did. So, in my forties, I have the world record for this batak wall reaction test. And you’re right: You need that at a place like this. These cars aren’t the quickest cars I’ve driven, but it’s reacting to what the car is doing, and it’s such a narrow circuit here for these cars. Every experience I’ve had on a street circuit, when you’re in the race, it also feels like it gets narrower every lap. It feels like the barriers are narrowing in on you. Every race car driver will tell you this. This race, for example, at Monaco and Singapore: It gets tougher and tougher each lap, because the focus and concentration needed is way beyond anything else. So mentally, the drivers are going to get out of the car and be tired after this one. Reaction, yeah, are going to be key – especially with the other 37 guys out there. It’s pretty nuts on your own, but then you throw everyone else into the mix? It’s going to be a great race to watch, especially for me to be in the mix. It’ll be a lot of fun.”

ON A SCALE OF 1-10, 10 BEING THE MOST DIFFICULT, WHERE DOES THIS COURSE RANK IN YOUR CAREER? “It’s difficult to give you a definitive answer, as I haven’t driven the course yet. But, from my experience in the simulator, it’s definitely tricky. These cars, they don’t slow down like the cars I’m used to. Normally, we brake at the 150-yard marker, and in the Cup car, you’re at the 500-yard marker. So, there’s a lot going on when you hit the brakes going into the corner, and one little slip-up and you’re in the wall. I think, mentally, it’s a very challenging race for us. The logistics of being in a city: It’s not an issue for the drivers as much. We stay across the road and walk to the track, which is great. It’s quite relaxed. But the actual race itself is going to be extremely challenging. If I put Monaco and Singapore as two very challenging courses in a racing car, I put them up at an eight, and I’d probably put this at a nine. It would be just above in terms of challenges for all of us out there.”

WAS THE SIMULATOR VERY DETAILED, ACCOUNTING FOR SURFACE CHANGES LIKE MANHOLE COVERS ON THE COURSE? “Yes, it’s lasered. They lasered the track. I think the simulation that I drove was before they tarmacked a few sections lately… put new asphalt down. So, it was before that. But yeah, in terms of where the bumps are, for the bits they haven’t changed, it was as it should be in reality.It’s very difficult to know the grip level. There’s going to be a lot of dust out there, oils from cars driving on the streets. There are a lot of things to still learn, and also the way it’s going to progress through the weekend. The grip level is going to go through the roof. When we first drive the track, it’s going to be very low-grip. I have questioned, as I’m in the [Group] A part of qualifying and not the [Group] B part, whether it’s fair because B is going to be so much faster on a street circuit, where it grips up so much more. A little bit unfair. I’d rather A be one side of the grid and B be the other side. But hey, it’s not my regulations. It just means I have to qualify in the top-five.”

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT SHANE VAN GISBERGEN TESTING IN NASCAR AND WHAT’S THE COMPARISON TO SUPERCARS? WHAT ABOUT TO THE CAR THAT COMPETED IN LE MANS? “I’m more amazed that he actually got to test, because I didn’t. In his race car as well. No, it’s great having Shane on-board. Whatever he jumps in, he’s super competitive. This is very much what he’s used to in terms of street courses. The weight of the car is kind of ‘used to,’ I guess? With Supercars, it might be a little heavier? I expect him to be very competitive this weekend. He’ll be right at the front-end. So hopefully I will be racing with him, and I’ll be near him. For him to come across and say it has a lot of front grip and it turns in as he would hope, it’s kind of surprising, but it’s great to hear that. The cars are in a good place, where it’s competitive against a V8 Supercar. For me, compared to the Garage 56 car, it’s very different. We didn’t have regulations, so we could do what we wanted – move the fuel tank forward, more power, more downforce, power shift… so, we made it into a car that was very driveable. We had traction control. It was the easiest car that I had ever driven. So you go through the Porsche Curves at Le Mans, little bit of understeer the way through, rear’s really stable – no issues with this like we had at COTA, where the rear tire just gives up because there’s no suspension and because you have to run the diffuser on the ground. We made it really easy to drive, which is what you need for an endurance race. The Cup cars are a lot more difficult, but it doesn’t matter. It means it’s the same for all of us. It’s a challenge. It’s just getting on-top of how the car is. I think we’ve made a lot of progress from where I had the car at COTA to here, so I’m looking forward to getting out there and seeing how it feels.”

WHAT HAVE YOUR FORMER F1 COLLEAGUES BEEN SAYING TO YOU SINCE JOINING NASCAR, AND HELPING BRING THAT CULTURE TO LE MANS? “I actually had lunch a couple of months ago with Rubens Barrichello, who was my teammate back in 2006-2009 in Formula 1, and he heard of it and was like, ‘What?’ First he was like, ‘Why would you want to take a stock car to Le Mans?’ And I told him about it, and he still didn’t get it. I think since the race, he’d have a very different opinion. Everyone that saw the car on-track loved it. It definitely brought something to Le Mans. Le Mans is such a special place, anyways – 100th year, hypercars are in a great place. But everytime we went past the grandstands, they’d cheer. Every lap. Every lap the stock car went around, they cheered. I think we definitely pulled in a lot of fans for NASCAR, which is great. Friends are very supportive, ex-competitors from F1 are very supportive of me racing NASCAR. They’re like, ‘I’d love to give that a go.’ Daniel Ricciardo, I think we all know, is a big fan of NASCAR. Maybe we’ll get him in a car in the next couple of years. It’s a great challenge, and I never thought that I’d have the opportunity to race in Cup. I think every driver at the pinnacle of the sport would love the opportunity to jump around and try different things. That’s even F1 drivers, they’d love to try racing at Le Mans in the top category… Indy and racing in NASCAR in Cup. I feel very privileged to have the opportunity. So, big thanks to Mobil 1.”

WILL WE SEE YOU RACE IN NASCAR MORE ON A REGULAR BASIS? “I have spoken about this but for me, at this point in my life, it’s just not possible. I couldn’t do 38 weekends of the year. I’ve got two little kids, and I know some drivers can do it and it works for them. But for me, having so many years of racing already under my belt, of traveling and what-have-you, it’s very difficult. The thing is, also, a lot of the stuff I do would go away – those deals that I have for years to come. It puts me in an awkward situation if I just did one or two years in NASCAR. So, it’s a dream to do a whole season, but I don’t think it’s actually a reality. I’d love to keep doing one-off races if there was an opportunity, but it’s also not easy – I know that – from a team’s point of view to find a car or charter that I could just jump into for certain races.”

WILL YOU BE MORE AGGRESSIVE OR CONSERVATIVE ON THE RESTARTS THIS WEEKEND? “You’re definitely going to see different styles of racing here, I think. You have the aggressors, and you are going to have the drivers that sit back and just let it unfold, knowing that there’s going to be another restart anyways at the end of the race. I think survival is the main thing. Having a car at the end of the race that’s still working, and everything’s pointing in the right direction. I mean, if you’re quick enough and right at the front, you’re going to be aggressive from the word ‘go.’ But, if you’re in the middle of the pack, you’re going to be trying to stay out of trouble until two-thirds of the race is done, and you’re still pointing in the right direction. Then, you can push on, hopefully to a good result. If it’s dry, it’s going to be a real challenge. Overtaking is not going to be easy, because there is no room for error. If it’s wet, it’s 100-times more difficult. I think we’re all excited about this race. We have no idea how it’s going to go, but I think we have to, as much as we should, be respecting each other more than we probably did at COTA – respecting the track is a big one as well.”

WHAT DOES A SUCCESSFUL CHICAGO STREET RACE EVENT, COUPLED WITH LE MANS, DO FOR NASCAR? ALSO, WHERE IS EUROPE SHOULD NASCAR GO? “I love the idea we have in Indianapolis, where we’re racing the same weekend as IndyCar. It brings in fans from two different motorsports. I think, yes, Le Mans was great for NASCAR. This is the first road course we’ve driven since then, so it will definitely have a lot of eyes on it from European fans. Yeah, the car’s different. But, it kind of looks very similar, or it sounds very similar – and there’s 38 of them on-track doing more of a show like we were at Le Mans. I think we’ll pull in a lot of fans. We need to have a good race. I think if everyone is just crashing into each other – I know there’s no rules with how aggressive you can be, well there is to a point – but it’s a very aggressive series, and I think a lot of European fans aren’t used to that. I think that’s what’s going to be the hurdle for them. Can they get into that style of driving? Or, are they going to switch-off because it’s nothing like any other kind of racing? I think this will be helpful for us in terms of our racing, because we can’t be too aggressive. So hopefully, it’ll make for good racing – good overtaking moves, and when you make that move on the inside and it’s so clean, it’s like, ‘Wow, that was awesome.’ I think that if we can have a good race this weekend, it’s great for the fan base and for NASCAR bringing in new fans. Racing in Europe: Brands Hatch Indy Circuit would be amazing Because it’s almost an oval anyways. That would be a lot of fun.”

MAYBE THE EUROPEANS WILL LOVE THE DRAMA? “I think we all love drama, and that’s why we like behind-the-scenes of motor racing like ‘Drive to Survive’ for Formula 1. It has a big fan base because people see the personalities, they see the behind-the-scenes of the sport. Otherwise, they’d just see drivers driving around with crash helmets on. I think that’s what’s going to help NASCAR, if we can find a way to bring fans in and they understand the personalities in the sport, behind the series. That’s key as well. There isn’t just 38 guys riving around. They don’t know who they are. It’s important for them to know the individuals, for them to support one or two of them. They have someone to back. I think that’s what we can still build on here. I’m not sure the drivers would be a fan of it but, this is what I think would help the sport.”

WHAT MUSIC DO YOU LISTEN TO AHEAD OF A RACE? “It’s funny, actually. The last couple of years of F1, I used to listen to reggae because I’d have so much energy already that I needed to calm myself down. Coffee was off – I couldn’t drink coffee before the race because my foot would be doing this (taps) on the pedal. In my early years, it was Rage Against the Machine, and that got me into a lot of trouble. But now, it’s definitely more country music, basically because, I need to keep myself calm and my head in the right space. If I listen to anything too crazy, I’d put myself in a dark place. We don’t want that before the race.”