Toyota Racing – Denny Hamlin
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes

SONOMA, Calif. (June 10, 2023) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin was made available to media after winning the pole for the NASCAR Cup Series event at Sonoma Raceway on Saturday:

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota Camry TRD, Joe Gibbs Racing

Has Tyler Reddick helped elevated Toyota at the road courses?

“He has. I think he certainly exposed me and my lack of skills (laughter) and knew he would. You always want people that challenge you to be better and when Tyler (Reddick) came over here this year, we knew that he was going to be the bar that we were going to have to set ourselves against. When I go to COTA, and I’m in the simulator and well more than a second slower than he is, I just think about how many road course we have left and how can I cut that down by the time we get to Sonoma? How can I cut it down by the time I get to Chicago? There are different ways, it is a process. You are not just going to wake up overnight and be better. You have to see examples to understand. You have to drive the same car that they are driving. I think, while Tyler helped a lot, I have to give credit to 23XI for really helping me quite a bit this week as well.”

It looked like the third lap was the fastest on tires. Was that surprising to you?

“It was. He would say otherwise, but Chris (Gabehart, crew chief) was trying to get me unbuckled after our last lap in the final round. He was like ‘that’s a good day, that’s a good starting spot.’ I just asked him ‘you don’t want me to try again? Maybe I could do it.’ I’m glad we did try again. The good things that we saw about the tires was they had a big fall off after a certain number of laps. I thought I saw two seconds or more after 10 laps, which is really good because it is going to allow us – tires are going to matter, your pit strategy will matter. All that basically means is we didn’t do a good job on our earlier laps, and none of us really professional road course racers. We don’t do it all of the time. There are certainly those that are better than others, but if you can go right back out and run faster, it just means that you didn’t optimize or do a good enough job your first time out.”

Where do you feel like NASCAR is at when it comes to safety?

“Charlotte was my first true head-on impact. I don’t know that we had those changes in the car for that, but I thought certainly it had some room for improvement. We all knew that it had room for improvement. This is just kind of the evolution process of the Next Gen. It is just going to take time to get it all right from a competition and safety perspective. I don’t think we did enough proper testing with it before we unveiled it, but it is good to see that changes are getting made. I think we are all confident – especially with the transparency that they are showing – with the safety stuff. Here are the videos, here is how it was, here is how it is going to change. The only difference is – what is the cause and the effect. There is always an effect. As the team owners, that just means that we are going to damage more products and it is going to cost us a ton more money, but the safety of the drivers is the first and foremost thing and we will figure out the rest.”

Can you describe the evolution of Toyota in one year on the road courses?

“I think that Tyler (Reddick) is an element of it, but certainly, I think our cars are better. Last year, we were at a pretty big disadvantage at tracks like this, which disadvantage here, gave us an advantage at other tracks. When the cars are so close, when one has an aerodynamic advantage at one spot over another, it is going to be great for one track and bad for another. The way we developed our car was really made to have a big spoiler on it, and when NASCAR and the drivers wanted to reduce the downforce, it made it to where our cars weren’t that good. We got to revamp that this year, and certainly, the whole package it put together more for the Toyotas and that is what you are seeing.”

What is your reaction to the final decision on the Austin Dillon/Austin Cindric incident and what is your thoughts on using SMT data to make decisions on penalties?

“I think you can’t ignore evidence – that is just crazy. If someone is going to have a race suspension, you have look at all of the evidence. I think they have looked at SMT in the past, it was just not as public as it is now. I agree – it was a very 50/50 thing, and did it warrant a suspension? Probably not, even though it looked a little iffy to me, because, in my opinion, I looked at the whole scenario. Let’s go back three laps and see if he was mad or not. He was definitely mad. Well then you have to look at intent. Is it pre-meditated or not?

But you can’t really know intent, right? NASCAR doesn’t like to get into intent.

“Trust me, they like to get into intent, for sure (laughter). That all matters. In the end, I think they made the right call in the end. I hadn’t looked at it until I was right there on the microphone and looking at it – and I was like, what is he doing turning left there, but if you look, it was so 50/50. It really was and Austin (Dillon) came up a little bit, so you could go either way with it, and I’m glad that they hedged on the side of not making a call when it’s that close. When it’s a different situation and it’s more egregious and obvious, absolutely, keep doing what they are doing.”

Does qualifying on the pole change your pit strategy?

“It’s going to be a factor for sure. It’s up to me to execute good laps and stay up front. That is going to be the biggest thing – is making sure that I can keep it on track and keep executing laps like I know how to do. With no stage breaks, it allows us to determine our own pit strategy. We are not chasing someone, hopefully. Now if we are, if we get passed by a few cars early, it’s up to us to do a strategy that keeps us in the race, but now you are not having to give up stage points to flip stages which is good. I think it is an opportunity for us to come out of here with a pretty good points day, if the driver doesn’t make mistakes.”

Do you think by NASCAR showing off the illegal parts will affect how teams move forward on finding speed?

“I mean, you listen, I think this is a good thing. Exposing, and kind of the public shaming, should be a deterrent. From what I saw, you almost have to think that was a mistake or just lack of judgement, for sure. But either way, it is not right. He shows you that it doesn’t fit the template, so it just doesn’t fly with us. I think it is good to be transparent. The things that NASCAR is doing to be more transparent on the safety stuff and the technical stuff I think is all good. It is storylines, right? We are all talking about – hey, did you see that or not? It’s good for our sport and educates our fans, so I think it is a good thing.”

Have you been working with Bubba Wallace on positivity and moving forward?

“I think a lot of that comes from results as well. I think he is a result person and that he is capable of winning, and he’s got the confidence now that he is capable of being a successful driver in this series. So even when you have bad weeks like you did last week, you have a failure at the end, he was still competitive enough, and in the top-10 to understand that, I’m with a really good team, and that team is general is really working well at improving. I think that is what we are seeing. Certainly, they helped me this week. I’m just really happy of where he is at, and the progression he’s made.”

Does having speed today give you optimism for the Chicago Street Course or Indianapolis?

“More so for Indy than the Chicago Street Course. I think that will be a challenge for me personally, but it is just going to come down to reps. How many reps can I get before I get there? That will kind of dictate, I think, how successful I am at that track, but I think generally speaking, this is a track where I felt like the bulk of my time, I thought I’ve been missing has been in three corners. I just worked on those and got better. When we go to Chicago, I’m learning a whole new racetrack. I’m probably going to be a little bit off everywhere. I think it is just going to take more work to learn it and figure out how I can be better.”

Have you done sim or iRacing for the Chicago Street Course?

“iRacing, but not sim yet.”

What three corners did you work on?

“I can’t say that. That’s propriety information.”

Do you feel like Bubba Wallace has arrived as a weekly contender?

“He doesn’t need to win. He just needs to keep doing what he’s done the last month and a half. If you could have listened to what we were talking about on our ownership calls, on what is the strategy to get the 23 in the playoffs, it was just kind of, let’s everyone take a breath here and let’s see how this goes for the next month and a half before we start changing our strategy, and then he goes on a run of top-fives and top-10s. I think consistency still pays, not only to get in the playoffs, but once you are in it. I think contender is probably the right and correct word for him. I think he was a participant for a while, and now he is a contender, week-in and week-out. That’s what we wanted and what we expected, and that is what he is delivering.”

Is he driving differently or are there other changes?

“It’s a lot. There is a lot of different aspects to being successful, and it is not all about driver skill. It’s managing races, it’s being a leader with your team. There is just so much that goes into it – to being successful for sure. I’m not here to spill all of the secret sauce, because it is so hard to be competitive in this league, you want to keep those things to yourself.”

About Toyota

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

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

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

Toyota Racing – Martin Truex Jr.
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes

SONOMA, Calif. (June 10, 2023) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Martin Truex Jr. was made available to media prior to the NASCAR Cup Series event at Sonoma Raceway on Saturday:

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry TRD, Joe Gibbs Racing

What is about Sonoma that drivers appreciate over other road courses?

“The old asphalt here and the soft tire that Goodyear brings is a good combination, good speed taking off, you can really hustle the car and then five laps in you are starting to wear tires out and safe them. It is a lot different than any other road course that we go – and add in elevation changes, and things like that. It is a fun track. It is different than a lot of the newer tracks we go to.”

Do you have a layout that you prefer?

“I thought that they were both fun in their own respect. The carousel was a fun challenge, but I don’t think it caused enough drama. Turn seven is pretty crazy with the dive bombs and things on restarts, especially, so the excitement level with the drama – they wanted to get that back. Both courses are fun, challenging and tough to win at. “

What is your take on the lack of stage cautions here at Sonoma?

“I’m not sure. I think strategy comes in more when the cautions fall – it can certainly be a big factor in what happens during the race. In the past with stage racing, with the breaks, you kind of knew what you were going to do. If you wanted to try to win, except for one year, you had to pit before the cautions, before the stages, and give up stage points to have a chance at winning. Only one time it was done, where someone won stages, and won the race. I think now it’s just more straight forward, the guys that start up front will have a big advantage, qualifying will be more important than the past few years.”

Is there a reason that your road course finishes have been not as good with the Next Gen car compared to previous generations?

“No, it certainly is. Last year, I think as a group in general, we struggled on road courses and really never hit on anything much last year that worked very well, and now this year, I think we are lot closer. We ran pretty decent at COTA. I wouldn’t say COTA is a great measuring stick for us – at least for me – I don’t really feel like I have that place figured out. Tyler (Reddick) in the 45 car was dominate. We know that the opportunity is there with our cars this year, where we didn’t feel like it was last year, so hopefully we can be a lot better here than we were last year. It was a really big struggle for us, compared to years past, so we have a lot of new ideas and a lot of new things in our car this year from last year. I’m excited to get out there and see what it’s got.”

Is there a driver adjustment on a road course with the Next Gen?

“Honestly, not really. You drive the car as hard as you can. It’s still about the same things. It’s about getting in the corner as deep as you can and trying to out-brake people. Hitting your marks, hitting your shifts, all of the things it takes to get around a road course are still the same, it’s just a different car. We really haven’t honed in on how to make it fast yet.”

What are your expectations for the Chicago Street Course?

“I really don’t know. It’s going to be so dictated on how rough the streets are, how rough the track is. These cars don’t have a lot of suspension travel, they are really stiff, they bounce a lot. If it’s as bouncy as I think it’s going to be, it could be a handful, so I really don’t know. The only experience I have is iRacing, a couple of years ago, on it. I haven’t even been in the simulator yet, so that will be the first thing to tackle, and we will see where we go from there. It should be fun. It will be different than anything we’ve ever done, and I look forward to that. It is always fun to do new things.”

Are you excited for the off week, or do you wish you could keep going with the momentum that you have?

“I don’t know that it really matters. We’ve got a great team. We know what we are capable of now. We have a lot of confidence back that we lacked last year in our decision making and doing things throughout practice, whether it was strategy or whatever, it seems like things are clicking right now. I don’t know that an off week will change anything. We could probably use a few more off weeks before the playoffs if I’m being honest with you, but we don’t get those so I’m ready whenever.”

Is there one thing you can point to on why you are more successful this season?

“I think just better cars in general. Better cars, better understanding on what we need on the race tracks. Last year was a big learning curve. We were trying to figure out what direct we needed to go at races with this car and having 15-minute practices where you opt in on what you show up with, there is no real time to recover if you show up with some bad ideas, or things that didn’t work. You have to wait till you go back till that track again. Just all of that learning process and figuring things out has been a big factor for us. I think our cars are better this year as well. Toyota did some work in the off season and everybody at JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) worked hard to try to put the pieces together, so I think overall, we just have a better platform to work with and a better understanding of what we need.”

Have the differences with Next Gen car changed the passing zones?

“I think the passing zones are still the same places that they’ve always been here. Turn 12 is the biggest one, but getting in that corner, getting off that corner, there is probably the best passing zone. Turn seven is another good one. When the tires wear out here, there is a lot of places you can pass. That is where guys really start to struggle. If you can take care of your stuff, you can pass them in different areas. It just changes the speed of the car in different places around here, different corners, a little more grip, and then the shifting is a little bit easier as well. No real worries about missing shifts these days – they took that out of the equation. No worry about hurting brakes, just for here, managing tires is going to be a big deal.”

How important is the off weekend?

“I’ll be away doing stuff. I’ll probably be fishing or hanging out. It’s kind of is easy for me. I try to get away from racing a couple of days a week no matter what just to keep my sanity. I’ve been doing this a long time. I’ll talk to (crew chief) James (Small) on Monday. I’ll talk to James, usually on Wednesday or Thursday again, so I’ll have a few days in between there to kind of regroup and keep my sanity.”

Do you think the win helped get the pressure off your back?

“It is definitely easier when you’ve won a race, especially in today’s format, with getting locked into the playoffs, you don’t have to worry about that. You can kind of relax, go race and do your thing. I wouldn’t say it hurt anything, by any means, but at the same time, having better race cars and showing up ready to go on these weekends without a lot of guessing is a big deal. Pit crew has been coming around here lately. We have still had a few hiccups here and there. It’s so important to execute in the race these days with how close the field is and how hard it is to pass at certain tracks. You have to do everything right. You have to all of the little things right. We’ve been able to do that pretty well the last month or so, but really feel good about what we’ve done all year as far as the speed of our cars, and how we’ve able to race. I feel like we’ve had winning cars three or four races this year already. It was nice to get one of them, but we would like to have more, so we will keep working on it.”

What are you doing to try to earn your fourth win at Sonoma?

“As much as we struggled here last year, I’m really anxious to get out there and see what we have. I’ve been thinking about it all week. We have a lot of different things in our car this year, a lot of parts and pieces, but a whole different set-up, a whole different mindset, more geared to what we used to try to come here and do. I’m excited to get out there and see what we can do with it. Hopefully, we will find some of that old magic.”

Is Tyler Reddick’s knowledge on road courses with the Next Gen car, does that also help you at Joe Gibbs Racing?

“Yeah, for sure it is. Especially, the simulator stuff and then looking at his data. Everybody was looking at his data at COTA. I guess the benefit for us is that we get to ask him questions and hear about it – why did you do this and why did you do that. I think there is a lot of benefit to that these days. Definitely, the simulator time as well. We’ve only raced the one road course this year, so we still have a lot to go and a lot to do here, but for sure it was crazy impressive what he did at COTA.”

About Toyota

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

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

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

NASCAR CUP SERIES
SONOMA RACEWAY
TOYOTA / SAVE MART 350
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
JUNE 10, 2023

KYLE BUSCH, NO. 8 MCLAREN CUSTOM GRILLS CAMARO ZL1, met with the media prior to the NASCAR Cup Series practice and qualifying session at Sonoma Raceway. Press Conference Transcript:

THE LACK OF STAGE BREAKS ON ROAD COURSES.. HOW WILL THAT IMPACT WHAT WE SEE HERE AT SONOMA RACEWAY?

“Yeah, I mean to hear whether or not it’s a two-stop or a three-stop race, I think is still kind of to be determined based on pace fall-off and things like that. But that’s what the guys are initially looking at and see where that kind of falls. But yeah, you would always jump the stages and then you’d have the cautions, and then you’d have to go back green and all that sort of stuff. So I feel like making it a more traditional road course race lends itself – and we kind of saw it at COTA too – where there was actually still a lot of cautions, where maybe guys kind of knew or felt the pressure that if it gets too strung out, there’s no chance for me to keep it closed up and they’ll run into somebody and create a yellow. So that could certainly sometimes be the case as well here at Sonoma (Raceway). The leader here, until he runs into lap traffic, typically has a good advantage of just having that clean air and everything else to kind of walk away a little bit. So it makes it a lot tougher to try and come from the back without restarts.”

NASCAR ANNOUNCED SOME CHANGES TO THE CARS EFFECTIVE AT ATLANTA (MOTOR SPEEDWAY) BASED ON WHAT THEY SAW FROM THE RECONSTRUCTION OF THE NO. 5/NO. 41 ACCIDENT. I’M CURIOUS WHAT YOU THINK OF THOSE AND ANY LINGERING CONCERNS AS FAR AS REAR IMPACTS WITH (NOAH) GRAGSON BEING OUT THIS WEEK?

“Yeah, bummer for him. We saw a few big impacts last weekend and his seemed to be the worse, just after the brunt of how it all transpired – not being able to just get up beside the wall and not take a huge hit. The safety advances of the car and things like that – that’s all great, right. We needed to withstand big hits and hits like that and whatnot. I feel like we keep adding material and keep adding material and keep making these things heavier. We used to run 3,400 pound cars and now we’re at 3,600 pound cars, so what’s the limit? What’s the level of how heavy is too heavy?

Just talking to some of the engineers that I’ve spoken to – there are a few areas of the car that are really, really, really stiff and don’t have any sort of crush zone like the old car used to, and that’s why those bars broke. And so we didn’t look at any of that.. we didn’t cut any stuff out to soften up the frame rail, for instance, to let the frame rail flex. All we did was add stiffeners to make it even heavier and stiffer. So again, I’m not a genius, but at some point we all have to reimagine some things.”

YOUR WIN AT WORLD WIDE TECHNOLOGY RACEWAY WAS YOUR 63RD. NEXT ON THE LIST ABOVE YOU IS DALE EARNHARDT SR. WITH 76 AND JIMMIE (JOHNSON) AND CALE YARBOROUGH WITH 83. DO YOU LOOK AT THAT AS REALISTIC GOALS THAT YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO ACHIEVE?

“Yeah, I mean I would have said during the 2015 to 2019 timeframe, when I was winning five or six a season, that it was definitely attainable. And then we kind of slowed down the last few years and I would have probably told you I didn’t know if I’d get there. And then this year, we’ve got three and I feel like there’s plenty more. So hopefully we can continue to showcase that at RCR and with the No. 8 Chevy to go out there and win some more. I think anything is possible. I think it would be more fair to talk about it when I at least hit 70, which that could probably happen by the end of next year, so hopefully it does.”

NOW THAT YOU’VE GOT THREE WINS, PEOPLE ARE STARTING TO SAY THAT WE THOUGHT AUSTIN DILLON WOULD LEARN MORE FROM KYLE (BUSCH) OR HE WOULD WIN. IS IT HARD FOR HIM AND THEN HOW DO YOU BOOST HIM AND HELP HIM?

“Yeah, I would say Austin (Dillon) is actually – given his finishes and they’re probably not as good as he wants them to be – but where he comes from in a race, starting deep in the field, he’s been in some unfortunate circumstances on Friday’s or Saturday’s to get himself not qualified well. He flat out out-ran us at Bristol (Motorsport Speedway) Dirt, Martinsville (Speedway), North Wilkesboro (Motor Speedway).. the places with the low downforce stuff that us on the No. 8 are struggling with. Like last weekend, for instance, he ran in the teens for a while and he was slated to run probably eighth to tenth. So I don’t think that’s out of the ordinary for him and those guys. They are with a new crew chief with Keith (Rodden) coming over and getting ingrained into the system.. it’s probably a little bit more difficult on that side with those guys. But I still think there’s time and Austin is fine. He’s a competitor. He’s got a lot going on behind the scenes, as well. But I really enjoy working with him. He’s been a great teammate. We say a lot of the same things and talk a lot about how to continue to improve and make our stuff go, so that part of it has been really fun.”

I DON’T KNOW WHAT THE CURVE IS OF YOU BRINGING STUFF UP..

“No.. I mean I would say obviously he looked to me and wanted me to help elevate RCR and also help elevate himself. I feel like I’ve been able to do both of those things. I just don’t know the results are necessarily indicative to Austin’s (Dillon) standards or maybe to our other stands, and I think they’re still a work in progress on that front.”

WHAT ARE YOUR EXPECTATIONS FOR THE CHICAGO STREET COURSE RACE?

“(laughs).. to hit the walls minimally, where you don’t create too much damage and you can still continue, and hopefully you don’t get pile-driven into a wreck if the track gets blocked.

I don’t know.. it’s going to be tight; it’s going to be narrow. So we’ll just kind of have to see when we get there about what exactly it looks like. Looking at it on the simulator is probably entirely different than what it might feel like or be like when you get out there on the race track.”

AS THE ONLY ACTIVE DRIVE IN THE NASCAR CUP SERIES WITH TWO CHAMPIONSHIPS RIGHT NOW, HOW DO YOU APPROACH THE PLAYOFFS? WITH THREE WINS, YOU’RE LOCKED-IN, BUT CAN YOU TAKE EVERYTHING THAT YOU’VE LEARNED FROM THE OTHER TWO, EVEN THOUGH YOUR WITH ANOTHER ORGANIZATION, AND HAVE YOUR STRATEGY MENTALLY GOING IN THERE TO KNOW HOW YOU WANT TO APPROACH IT THIS YEAR?

“Yeah, I mean I feel like the consensus of how we’ve done things when I had Adam was always really good. We came up with a good system, good format, that we looked at and kind of followed and it seemed to work really well. I need to talk to Randall (Burnett) about that.. haven’t really gotten that far ahead yet. But it would be a good discussion point to look at some of that stuff; some of the same things we did there.

It’s all about maximizing stage points, whether you’re winning stages and getting those points, which is awesome. Or just maximizing your stage points throughout a race to get the best finish possible all day long to get those all-important points. That’s probably one thing that we really executed well with at World Wide Technology Raceway – going one, two, one. But weeks prior to that, we’ve kind of been on the struggle bus with being able to maximize our stage points through the year. If I could have gone back and recalculated all of the stage points that we’ve probably lost, we’d be the points leader, you know what I mean. So it’s just a matter of hitting it perfect.”

WE’VE GOTTEN TO SEE SOME OF THE PARTS THAT HAVE BEEN CONFISCATED RECENTLY WITH NASCAR DISPLAYING THEM. FROM A DRIVER’S PERSPECTIVE, ARE YOU GUYS INTERESTED IN SEEING WHAT OTHER TEAMS HAVE BEEN DOING, LIKE THE PART FROM THE NO. 14?

“(Laughs).. I wish we had a ‘what an idiot’ award. I mean even if you can’t find that part, you know you can call one of the other race teams and say – hey, do you guys have this.. can we buy it from you? That blows my mind.. I don’t get it. For as little as that probably meant, that was a huge fine to the pocket book and points book.

So yeah, anyways – I think it’s kind of cool that they show all of that stuff; show exactly what’s going on and what guys are doing. What’s crazy about it, though, is all the penalties that have come out of the R&D center – I guarantee you that you could take 15 of them after every single race and there would be something wrong with 14 of them, you know? It’s all the tricks and what you’re trying to do and what you can get away with, all of the time.”

DID YOU ENJOY INDUCTING KURT (BUSCH) INTO THE WEST COAST HALL OF FAME THE OTHER NIGHT?

“Yeah, thank you for bringing that up. Congratulations to Kurt (Busch) to being inducted into the West Coast Motorsports Hall of Fame. That’s really, really cool. Something special I remember years ago was seeing some of the names that were getting enshrined and inducted in. It’s really neat to have Kurt be a part of that and hopefully one day obviously me be a part of that.

But growing up in Las Vegas as two little punk kids and making it big time with not a lot of money and just a lot of talent – it was certainly really special. He did a great job of kind of paving the way for me through other circumstances also to get to the levels that he was able to get to, and beat the doors down that he was able to beat down and become a champion and a driver with a bunch of success. It’s been fun to see that, although I’m sure he kind of wished he could have ran out the rest of his time in his Cup career like he wanted to, but I think he’s made a lot of the right decisions in all of that. It’s good to see him rewarded for his time spent here in NASCAR.”

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.