With a strong surge in the third and final Stage of Sunday’s Pala Casino 400 at Auto Club Speedway, Harrison Burton and the No. 21 DEX Imaging team came away with a solid 15th-place finish.

Burton started Sunday’s 400-miler, likely the final Cup Series race on the Fontana track’s two-mile layout, from 24th place after practice and qualifying were cancelled due to adverse weather.

He was running 27th when the Competition Caution flag was displayed at Lap 15 and ended the first 65-lap Stage in 28th place.

Burton and the DEX Imaging team began to pick up speed in the second Stage and ended that 65-lap segment in 20th place.

The sophomore Cup driver and his No. 21 team really stepped up their performance in the closing segment, moving into the top 15 for the first time with 52 of 200 laps left to run.

When the race’s final round of green flag pit stops began with a little over 30 laps left to run, crew chief Brian Wilson elected to wait and be among the later teams to make their stop.

Burton had cycled up to the front by the time Wilson called him to pit road with 27 laps left to run.

With relatively fresher tires on the DEX Imaging Mustang, Burton returned to the track in 19th place and drove up to 15th, taking that spot as the race came to a close.

Eddie Wood said he was proud of the team’s progress throughout the race.

“The speed wasn’t there early on, but by the end of the race, Brian had made some great adjustments on our Mustang, and Harrison really drove it up through there at the end,” Wood said. “That last third of the race was impressive. I’m looking forward to seeing what this team can do going forward.”

Burton and the No. 21 team now turn their focus to next week’s Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which in recent seasons has been one of the Wood Brothers’ better tracks.

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

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES:
Reducing Operating Costs
Reducing Paper Consumption
Increasing Productivity

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

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

STEWART-HAAS RACING
Pala Casino 400

Date: Feb. 26, 2023
Event: Pala Casino 400 (Round 2 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California (2-mile oval)
Format: 200 laps, broken into three stages (65 laps/65 laps/70 laps)
Race Winner: Kyle Busch of Richard Childress Racing (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Ross Chastain of Trackhouse Racing (Chevrolet)
Stage 2 Winner: Ross Chastain of Trackhouse Racing (Chevrolet)

SHR Race Finish:

● Kevin Harvick (Started 10th, Finished 5th / Running, completed 200 of 200 laps)
● Chase Briscoe (Started 31st, Finished 20th / Running, completed 200 of 200 laps)
● Ryan Preece (Started 27th, Finished 33rd / Accident, completed 87 of 200 laps)
● Aric Almirola (Started 17th, Finished 35th / Accident, completed 86 of 200 laps)

SHR Points:

● Kevin Harvick (4th with 79 points, 13 out of first)
● Aric Almirola (25th with 31 points, 61 out of first)
● Chase Briscoe (33rd with 19 points, 73 out of first)
● Ryan Preece (34th with 15 points, 77 out of first)

SHR Notes:

● The Pala Casino 400 marked Harvick’s 29th career NASCAR Cup Series start at Fontana, the most among all NASCAR drivers, past and present.
● This was Harvick’s 750th consecutive NASCAR Cup Series start. He is just the third driver in series history to reach the milestone, joining Jeff Gordon (797 consecutive starts) and Ricky Rudd (788 consecutive starts). The last time Harvick was not in a Cup Series race was April 2, 2002 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, a span of 7,623 days between race dates.
● Harvick earned his first top-five of the season and his eighth top-five at Fontana. This was also Harvick’s 15th top-10 at the 2-mile oval.
● This was Harvick’s fourth straight top-10 at Fontana. He finished seventh last year, ninth in in 2020 and fourth in 2019. (The NASCAR Cup Series did not race at Fontana in 2021.)
● Since joining SHR in 2014, Harvick has only two finishes outside the top-15 at Fontana.
● Harvick finished eighth in Stage 1 to earn three bonus points and fourth in Stage 2 to earn seven more bonus points.
● Harvick led twice for five laps to increase his laps-led total at Fontana to 243.
● Harvick has now led 11,492 laps since joining SHR in 2014. He has led 15,907 laps in his entire NASCAR Cup Series career.
● In two career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Fontana, Briscoe has never finished outside the top-20. He finished 16th in his first start at the track last year.
● This was the first time Almirola finished outside the top-12 at Fontana since he joined SHR in 2018.

Race Notes:

● Kyle Busch won the Pala Casino 400 to score his 61st career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his first of the season and his fifth at Fontana. His margin over second-place Chase Elliott was 2.998 seconds.
● There were eight caution periods for a total of 38 laps.
● Only 20 of the 36 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
● Ross Chastain leaves Fontana as the championship leader by a single point over second-place Joey Logano.

Sound Bites:

“Our GEARWRENCH Ford Mustang was really good on the long runs. I just really struggled on the restarts with the front end. In the end, we had a chance, but I couldn’t put us in the right position on the restarts to guard our track position like we needed to. It was still a great day for our GEARWRENCH Ford Mustang. The guys did a great job on pit road all day and kept us up in the front.”– Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 GEARWRENCH Ford Mustang

“We definitely had high hopes coming in here. This is one of my better racetracks and we just completely struggled all day long from a lot of different issues. That’s not how we wanted to run, obviously. We’ve got a lot of work to do going into next week, but I feel like we can learn from it and move on.” – Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Mobil Delvac Ford Mustang

“It’s kind of stupid, to be honest with you, on a professional level and we all wreck on a restart. I don’t know what happened, but just a victim of circumstances. It sucks. I was racing around Aric (Almirola) and we were just trying to be smart and get to the end of the race. Something like that, you’re not expecting everyone to wreck coming to the restart line. It’s unfortunate. That adjustment could’ve gotten us a lot better, and we could’ve kept on making little gains. That was our goal, not to beat ourselves and just be there in the last 50 or 60 (laps). That’s why we stayed out that run – to see what our car would do in clean air and if we needed to work on it, which we did, and I felt like we just kept on making it better and better. It’s really a bad ending for this HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang, and even Aric, so we just have to go to Vegas and be on offense and start digging out of this hole we’re in right now.” – Ryan Preece, driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang

“I took off on the restart and went from second to third gear and, all of a sudden, everybody in front of us just stopped. I think the leader was just playing games, trying to prevent the runs coming from behind, and where they stopped in the middle of the restart zone was right about where they should’ve been accelerating. It was just a huge accordion effect. We were back in 16th, so everybody just started stacking up, and you can’t stop on a dime. It’s disappointing to get wrecked out of the race like that on a silly Mickey Mouse restart, but I should’ve known better.” – Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Las Vegas 400 on Sunday, March 5 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The race begins at 3:30 p.m. EST with live coverage provided by FOX and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Pala Casino 400 | Sunday, February 26, 2023

Ford Finishing Results:
5th – Kevin Harvick
7th – Brad Keselowski
10th – Joey Logano
13th – Chris Buescher
15th – Harrison Burton
17th – Todd Gilliland
18th – Michael McDowell
20th – Chase Briscoe
23rd – JJ Yeley
26th – Ryan Blaney
27th – Cody Ware
28th – Austin Cindric
33rd – Ryan Preece
35th – Aric Almirola

KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 GEARWRENCH Ford Mustang – “Our GEARWRENCH Ford Mustang was really good on the long runs, I just really struggled on the restarts with the front end. In the end, we had a chance, but I couldn’t put us in the right position on the restarts to guard our track position like we needed to. It was still a great day for our GEARWRENCH Ford Mustang. The guys did a great job on pit road all day and kept us up in the front.”

A LOT WAS MADE ABOUT WEEPERS AND THE TRACK FOR THE FINAL RACE HERE, SO HOW WERE THE TRACK CONDITIONS OVERALL? “The track conditions were fine. I didn’t really see any weepers and it was just really dirty every run. The second half of the race it cleaned up, but it was hard on the windshields. In the end, they did a great job preparing the track and we were able to put on a good race.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 Castrol Edge Ford Mustang – “We didn’t have a great start to the race… wasn’t driving really good, and I wasn’t really happy with it. Matt [McCall] and the crew just kept working on it. We had a couple of good adjustments there, got spun out and then recovered it. It was good to be able to recover. Just need a little more speed. Not quite where we need to be, but we weren’t terribly far off.”

CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Pala Casino Ford Mustang – “We started off really bad. It took us a good amount of time and some big adjustments to get dialed in. I’m proud of this Pela Casino Mustang. We really got a lot closer toward the end there. We’re not where we want to be – still. But, we’re much, much closer. It’s nice to see that gain throughout the day. I think we would’ve discovered some of that if we would have had practice, but obviously nobody did. We’ll just keep working on it – getting a little bit closer, so we can be in the hunt towards the end.”

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 AAA Southern California Ford Mustang – “It looks like we were in the hunt. We weren’t the best car, and we needed to make an adjustment to get better. I was falling off hard and was hoping we’d get back on track… just couldn’t. It fell off at the end even more. Running top-five all day, finishing 10th, doesn’t feel that great. Overall, the momentum is there, we fought hard and got some stage points. So, it was still a decent day.”

LEADING THE RACE DURING THAT RESTART, SOME GUYS MAY HAVE FELT YOU STOPPED AND STARTED IN THE RESTART ZONE OR MAYBE HAD SOME ISSUES. “Go back and look at the data. I didn’t do anything. I just rolled it and went like everyone was anticipating it. It’s part of the new restart zone – it’s bigger. So, you can’t anticipate as much as you used to without getting into trouble. I went late in the zone because the car to the inside of me was laying back, so I was waiting for him to get up next to me before I went. I didn’t brake check anyone. It might look like it but you can go back and look at it and see it’s not there.”

CHASE BRISCOE, No. 14 Rush Truck Centers Ford Mustang – “We definitely had high hopes going into here. This is one of my better racetracks and we just completely struggled all day long from a lot of different issues. That’s not how we wanted to run, obviously. We’ve got a lot of work to do going into next week, but I feel like we can learn from it and move on.”

TODD GILLILAND, No. 38 Long John Silver’s Ford Mustang – “This is something for us to build on. It was the best mile-and-a-half car we’ve had. There’s still work to do, but that was something to definitely work from. I’m proud of the effort by all my guys.”

ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang – “I took off on the restart and went from second to third gear and all of a sudden everybody in front of us just stopped. I think the leader was just playing games, trying to prevent the runs coming from behind and they stopped in the middle of the restart zone was right about where they should have been accelerating. It was just a huge accordion effect. We were back in 16th, so everybody just started stacking up and you can’t stop on a dime. It’s disappointing to get wrecked out of the race like that on a silly Mickey Mouse restart, but I should have known better.”

RYAN PREECE, No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang – “It’s kind of stupid, to be honest with you on a professional level and we all wreck on a restart. I don’t know what happened, but just a victim of circumstances. It sucks. I was racing around Aric and we were just trying to be smart and get to the end of the race. Something like that, you’re not expecting everyone to wreck coming to the restart line. It’s unfortunate. That adjustment could have gotten us a lot better and we could have kept on making little gains. That was our goal, not to beat ourselves and just be there in the last 50 or 60. That’s why we stayed out that run, to see what our car would do in clean air and if we needed to work on it, which we did, and I felt like we just kept on making it better and better. It’s really a bad ending for this HaasTooling Ford Mustang, and even Aric, so we just have to go to Vegas and be on offense and start digging out of this hole we’re in right now.”

NASCAR CUP SERIES
AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY
PALA CASINO 400
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES & QUOTES
FEBRUARY 26, 2023

KYLE BUSCH POWERS CAMARO ZL1 TO SECOND WIN OF 2023 AT AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY
Team Chevy Drivers Sweep Top-Four

In just his second points-paying race with Richard Childress Racing, Kyle Busch drove his No. 8 Lucas Oil Camaro ZL1 to the win at Auto Club Motor Speedway.

· The win is Busch’s 61st victory in 644-career starts in NASCAR’s premier series.

· The win marked Busch’s fifth NASCAR Cup Series victory at Auto Club Speedway, the most among active drivers in the series.

· Busch’s triumph is the second of the season for the Camaro ZL1, with Busch becoming the second Chevrolet driver to claim a playoff berth in the series.

· Busch’s victory marked Chevrolet’s series-leading 17th NASCAR Cup Series win at Auto Club Speedway.

· The winningest brand in NASCAR Cup Series history, Chevrolet now has 835 all-time NASCAR Cup Series victories.

· For the second consecutive season, Team Chevy drivers sweep the top-four finishing positions at Auto Club Speedway.

Kyle Busch, No. 8 Lucas Oil Camaro ZL1 – Race Winner Quote

Kyle, the well-documented move to Richard Childress Racing, you’ve been up front every time in this car; it only took two points races until you get your first win with these guys.

“Yeah, coulda-shoulda-woulda, right, last week. But no, I think it’s just phenomenal. I can’t thank Richard and Judy enough. I can’t thank Austin for calling me and getting me talking and getting me this opportunity to be able to come over here to RCR; and be a part of Chevrolet and be able to race this Lucas Oil Camaro today. To be able to put it up front like that, man.

The guys did a great job, Randall (Burnett, crew chief), everybody that has worked so hard during the off-season. We’ve done a lot of sim stuff; we’ve done a lot of testing in general just with trying to get up to speed, systems and all that sort of stuff. But man, there’s nothing more rewarding than being able to go to Victory Lane.

Want to give a shout-out to my wife and son and daughter back at home. I miss you guys, I’ll see you back at home tonight, and also Rowdy Energy, appreciate them. I need some 3CHI for my hands; I death gripped that wheel throughout the second half of that race. We held on, man, we got it today.”

You’ve won a lot of big races through your career, but given everything that went in with the move and the change in teams, where does this one rank?

“I think it ranks high just because it ranks to the fact of I can do it. I never doubted myself, but sometimes you do. You kind of get down on it, you wonder what’s going on and what’s happening and you put yourself in a different situation and you’re able to come out here and reward your guys. It’s not about me always winning but it’s about the guys. I’ve been with a lot of great people that have given me a lot of great opportunities in my career, so it’s awesome to be able to reward them.

I’m going to enjoy it for sure, and hopefully there’s many more left to go.”

TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Kyle Busch, No. 8 Lucas Oil Camaro ZL1
2nd Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1
3rd Ross Chastain, No. 1 Kubota Camaro ZL1
4th Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Freeway Insurance Camaro ZL1
8th Alex Bowman, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1
9th Austin Dillon, No. 3 Dow Coatings Camaro ZL1

TOP-FIVE UNOFFICIAL RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Kyle Busch (Chevrolet)
2nd Chase Elliott (Chevrolet)
3rd Ross Chastain (Chevrolet)
4th Daniel Suarez (Chevrolet)
5th Kevin Harvick (Ford)

The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season continues at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with the Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube on Sunday, March 5, at 3:30 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE QUOTES:

Ross Chastain, No. 1 Kubota Camaro ZL1

Finished: 3rd

WHAT WAS THE DIFFERENCE IN THE LAST 30 LAPS BETWEEN YOU AND THE 8?

“He got faster.. I don’t know. Our balance was building loose most of the day, so I thought we did everything right. We kept up with it and it would just build pretty loose late in the runs. At times, it was enough, and at times, they got way better. But I thought our No. 1 Kubota Chevrolet was the steady force. To start off the way that we have this year is a total 180 from last year when it was not like this. So, as much as it stings, and as much as it does hurt, hats off to Chevrolet for the top four there and for Trackhouse (on our finishes) at our first crack at big tracks here. That is all we can ask for.”

Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1

Finished: 2nd

“Just really proud of our team. We obviously didn’t run very good there toward the end of the year last year, and everybody really went to work hard over the winter to try and get better. Appreciate everybody on our NAPA team for just sticking with it and sticking with each other. Obviously I think we still have some work to do, but it was really nice to just see a lot of that hard work pay off and have the car driving like we were wanting it to do. So that’s always a good thing. Appreciate everybody’s effort; everybody at Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet.

Congratulations to Kyle (Busch). For him to leave and then to go get the job done like that is pretty cool. He’s always been really good to me, so happy for them and looking forward to getting to Vegas and hopefully competing for some more wins.”

Justin Haley, No. 31 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Camaro ZL1

Finished: 21st

“Our No. 31 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Camaro ZL1 was so fast. We ran free in comparison to my teammate, AJ (Allmendinger), but we knew we had so much speed and potential. Trent (Owens) made some great calls to help the ride quality of the car, and we knew if we could get some track position we would be in a good spot. Unfortunately, we got caught in a pileup on a restart and sustained heavy nose damage. P21 was a decent finish for the day we had.”

Noah Gragson, No. 42 Sunseeker Resort Camaro ZL1

Finished: 22nd

“A decent day for our Sunseeker Resorts Chevy. I thought we had decent speed, especially in the first half of the race. We stayed out in the final run of the second stage and got really, really tight. Crazy balance shift and had some damage on the nose, a little bit on the right side. We just kept working on it. We got back on the lead lap and then got it really good there at the end. Ran with the 1, who finished third, just nothing to show for it. We’ll keep working. We had really good speed at the end, ran with the guys in the top three, but we were a lap down. I’m proud of this team, we’re still learning and we’ll get better.”

Erik Jones, No. 43 Allegiant Camaro ZL1

Finished: 19th

“Just a tough day for our No. 43 Allegiant team. We struggled from the start with having to start pretty deep in the field with no qualifying. Just never had a really good balance. We got some track position, but couldn’t do much with it. A tough day. We just didn’t have what we needed. Hopefully we can get a little bit better and keep going forward.”

Alex Bowman, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1

Finished: 8th

“I felt like we were good. I just couldn’t launch out of my pit box. The pit box was really slick and I struggled with that, and because of that, I lost a lot of spots on pit road. I had a good race car, I just had to come from deep every time. We will take it and move on. It was a good points day and we will keep fighting.”

Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Freeway Insurance Camaro ZL1

Finished: 4th

“I’m very, very proud of everyone at Trackhouse Racing. They keep building very fast race cars and it’s a lot of fun to race like this. My No. 99 Freeway Insurance Chevy team did a great job on pit road with strategy and adjustments. I feel like I made a few mistakes today that maybe cost us a shot at the win. I feel like our car was capable of running up front, but I just made too many mistakes. I just have to clean up a few things on my end and I’m sure we’ll come back next weekend with another shot.”

TEAM CHEVY RACE HIGHLIGHTS:

Stage One

· With qualifying canceled and the starting lineup determined by the NASCAR rulebook, Daytona 500 Champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr. led Chevrolet to the green from a front row starting position in the Pala Casino 400 at Auto Club Speedway.

· On lap 12, defending Auto Club Speedway winner Kyle Larson brought his No. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM Camaro ZL1 down pit road for an unscheduled pit stop due to an electrical issue. Crew Chief, Cliff Daniels, brought Larson behind the wall during the competition caution for repairs.

· Ross Chastain powered his No. 1 Kubota Camaro ZL1 to the Stage One win, marking his second stage win of the season.

· Chevrolet drivers led a combined 45 of the 65 laps in Stage One (Chastain – 29 laps led; Alex Bowman – 16 laps led).

· Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron and Chase Elliott both scored stage points in Stage One after starting deep in the field. Byron – who started 32nd – finished in the sixth position, while Elliott drove from 33rd to the 10th position to end the opening Stage.

· Team Chevy Stage One: Top-10

1st Ross Chastain, No. 1 Kubota Camaro ZL1

3rd Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Freeway Insurance Camaro ZL1

4th Alex Bowman, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1

6th William Byron, No. 24 RaptorTough.com Camaro ZL1

10th Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1

Stage Two

· On lap 76, AJ Allmendinger was involved in an on-track accident, resulting in the first caution of Stage Two. Allmendinger brought the No. 16 Farmsmart Camaro ZL1 to pit road, with damage sustained forcing the team to retire from the race.

· Chastain performed a sweep of today’s Stages after driving his No. 1 Kubota Camaro ZL1 to the Stage Two win, marking his third stage win of the season.

· Four Chevrolet drivers scored stage points in both stages after driving their Camaro ZL1’s to top-10 finishes, including Chastain, Suarez, Bowman and Elliott.

· Team Chevy Stage Two: Top-10

1st Ross Chastain, No. 1 Kubota Camaro ZL1

2nd Kyle Busch, No. 8 Lucas Oil Camaro ZL1

5th Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Freeway Insurance Camaro ZL1

7th Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1

8th Alex Bowman, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1

10th Corey LaJoie, No. 7 NEGU Camaro ZL1

 

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.

Noah Gragson, No. 42 Sunseeker Resorts Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

START: 20th
FINISH: 22nd
POINTS: 27th

Noah Gragson Post-Race Thoughts: “A decent day for our Sunseeker Resorts Chevy. I thought we had decent speed, especially in the first half of the race. We stayed out in the final run of the second stage and got really, really tight. Crazy balance shift and had some damage on the nose, a little bit on the right side. We just kept working on it. We got back on the lead lap and then got it really good there at the end. Ran with the 1, who finished third, just nothing to show for it. We’ll keep working. We had really good speed at the end, ran with the guys in the top three, but we were a lap down. I’m proud of this team, we’re still learning and we’ll get better.”

Erik Jones, No. 43 Allegiant Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

START: 34TH
FINISH: 19TH
POINTS: 32nd

Erik Jones Post-Race Thoughts: “Just a tough day for our No. 43 Allegiant team. We struggled from the start with having to start pretty deep in the field with no qualifying. Just never had a really good balance. We got some track position, but couldn’t do much with it. A tough day. We just didn’t have what we needed. Hopefully we can get a little bit better and keep going forward.”

ABOUT LEGACY MOTOR CLUB:

LEGACY MOTOR CLUB is a team that competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, owned by Maury Gallagher and Jimmie Johnson. LEGACY M.C. operates two full-time entries, the No. 42 Chevrolet of Noah Gragson and the No. 43 Chevrolet of Erik Jones. The team also fields a third part-time entry, the No. 84 Chevrolet, for Johnson’s limited racing schedule.

For the last 75 years, the iconic Petty family name has been synonymous in NASCAR, spanning four generations. Over the course of his driving career, Team Ambassador Richard Petty forever enshrined himself as “The King”, earning 200 wins and seven NASCAR Cup Series championships alongside NASCAR Hall of Fame crew chief Dale Inman. GMS Racing entered the NASCAR Cup Series in 2021, later acquiring Richard Petty Motorsports to form Petty GMS.

The team was rebranded to LEGACY MOTOR CLUB in 2023 with the addition of Johnson, another seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, to the ownership structure. As a nod to car clubs of past eras, LEGACY M.C. is an inclusive club for the automobile racing enthusiast, fostering a team environment that will breed success for years to come. LEGACY M.C.’s vision is to honor the rich history of its past and acknowledge the future of the sport with some of today’s most iconic drivers.

LEGACY M.C. operates alongside GMS Racing, which fields three full-time entries in the NASCAR Truck Series. Since the formation of GMS Racing in 2012, Gallagher, along with one of the NASCAR garage’s most accomplished figures, Team President, Mike Beam, built a victorious organization, capturing the 2016 and 2020 NASCAR Truck Series championships, the 2015 ARCA Racing Series championship, as well as the 2019 & 2020 ARCA East championships, accumulating over 65 wins across six national racing circuits.

SOCIAL MEDIA:

To keep up-to-date with the latest news, information and exclusive content, follow LEGACY MOTOR CLUB on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

HAMLIN SCORES SOLID RUN AT AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY
Martin Truex Jr. battles back from two laps down to just miss the top-10

FONTANA, Calif. (February 26, 2023) – Denny Hamlin (sixth) led Toyota with a top-10 finish at Auto Club Speedway on Sunday afternoon.

Toyota Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Auto Club Speedway
Race 2 of 36 – 400 miles, 200 laps

TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Kyle Busch*
2nd, Chase Elliott*
3rd, Ross Chastain*
4th, Daniel Suarez*
5th, Kevin Harvick*
6th, DENNY HAMLIN
11th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
16th, TY GIBBS
30th, BUBBA WALLACE
32nd, CHRISTOPHER BELL
34th, TYLER REDDICK
*non-Toyota driver

TOYOTA QUOTES

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

Finishing Position: 6th

How was your run at the last race on the two-mile track here in California?

“Yeah, such a great race track – such a fun track. Wish we had a little more speed overall with our Sport Clips Camry, but still a solid day. I thought our balance was pretty good, just needed a little speed there and I thought we would be there in contention. I felt like we were a third-place car or so, so we just came up a little short of that. A decent day.”

CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 Sirius XM Toyota Camry TRD, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 32nd

What happened out there?

“Yeah, just the same thing that everybody already said – you can’t see what’s going on. You are just going off the guy in front of you and all of sudden he slows down and I got into him, and other guys got into me.”

TYLER REDDICK, No. 45 The Beast Unleashed Toyota Camry TRD, 23XI Racing

Finishing Position: 34th

How did you see that restart unfold?

“I saw it stacked up pretty bad. I saw the car behind me kind of laid off to get a really big run, so I kind of elected to make the decision to go to the bottom and get around it. Unfortunately, I think Ryan (Blaney) had the same idea. We just got collected and went through the grass and the right front of The Beast Unleashed Toyota Camry TRD was broke. Unfortunate end to my Cup racing career at this two-mile track, but thankfully I’ve got one more shot later on with GearWrench and Sam Hunt Racing in the Xfinity car.”

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 20 electrified options, with more in showrooms later this year.

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.