Sheldon Creed and the No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet Team Claim Respectable 12th-Place Finish at Talladega Superspeedway
Finish: 12th Start: 3rd Points: 14th
“Overall it was a good day. Our Whelen Chevrolet is in one piece and we can make it better for Daytona next year. I thought the first part of the race went how we planned it. We were trying to keep the No. 21 safe and try to do most of the blocking for him to keep him up front. I thought that worked really good in the first two stages. I got dropped there at the end of Stage 2, but I wasn’t too worried about that. I was just focused on keeping the No. 21 out front at that point. That might have hurt us because I only got back to like fifth or sixth. After we made our green flag stop, I got in line in seventh and I thought we were in a really good spot. The end just didn’t play out like I thought it was going to. I thought we were going to get a caution at one point. I thought they were going to wreck so I was just trying to be in a spot where if they did start wrecking, I could be safe. Even on the last lap I thought it was going to play out way different. We got the bottom line rolling really good off of Turn 2 down the backstretch and it just stalled out. I was boxed in the last few laps and couldn’t really move. It just didn’t play like Talladega normally plays out.” -Sheldon Creed
Austin Hill and the No. 21 Bennett Transportation & Logistics Chevrolet Team Lead Laps and Earn Stage Points at Talladega Superspeedway
Finish: 14th Start: 1st Points: 4th
“We were so close. Our Bennett Transportation & Logistics Chevrolet was crazy fast. We started on the pole and led a lot of laps today, but at Talladega Superspeedway you just never know what’s going to happen. My guys brought me a rocket ship and my pit crew was on it for every stop. I was really preparing for this race, studying and in the simulator. The guys at RCR and ECR deserve all the recognition for the cars they’ve put together every week. My team and I talked about strategy and my spotter, Derek Kneeland, and I had a really strong game plan at the start of the race. We went into this race wanting to win the stages and get as many points as we could, and we did just that, so that’s a positive. We just got shuffled out of the mix at the end and I couldn’t get the push I needed to get back to the lead. I’m bummed for my team because we were dominant all day, but we are heading to the ROVAL next weekend with a pretty good points buffer. Everyone knew we were there today, and everyone saw the speed and the car we had. I’m proud of this team and we’ll go get it at the ROVAL.” -Austin Hill
Herbst Finishes 11th at Talladega Monster Energy Driver Perseveres Despite Ill-Handling Racecar
Date: Saturday, Oct. 1 Event: Sparks 300 (Round 28 of 33) Series: NASCAR Xfinity Series Location: Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway (2.66-mile oval) Format: 113 laps, broken into three stages (25 laps/25 laps/63 laps) Start/Finish: 23rd / 11th (Running, completed 113 of 113 laps) Point Standing: 11th (2,060 points, 10 points below the top-eight cutoff) Race Winner: A.J. Allmendinger of Kaulig Racing (Chevrolet) Stage 1 Winner: Austin Hill of Richard Childress Racing (Chevrolet) Stage 2 Winner: Austin Hill of Richard Childress Racing (Chevrolet)
Overview:
Riley Herbst brought home an 11th-place finish despite an ill-handling No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang in Saturday’s Sparks 300 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. In the second race of the Round of 12 of the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs, Herbst started 23rd and made quick work of utilizing the draft to move his way forward. He was 14th by the day’s first caution on lap three, and then entered the top-10 on lap 12. In typical superspeedway fashion, the field was shuffled forward and backward during the opening two stages, which Herbst finished 11th and 12th, respectively, just missing out on scoring bonus points each time. He restarted the final stage 16th and worked his way up to seventh when the field went single file during the early laps of the run. Crew chief Richard Boswell opted to bring his driver down pit road in the second wave of green-flag pit stops on lap 68 for a quick, fuel-only stop. When the field cycled through the round of stops, the 23-year-old driver was ninth. The final stage went caution-free, and Herbst struggled to find speed in his racecar and ultimately finished just outside the top-10. It left him 10 points below the top-eight cutoff with one race to go in the Round of 12.
Riley Herbst, driver of the No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:
“It was a weird superspeedway race, to be honest. I feel like we just lacked overall speed, which isn’t like us at these tracks. We couldn’t jump above the cutline for the playoffs, but we’re going to another unpredictable track next Saturday. The Roval will be tough, too. We know what we have to do and we’ll do it.”
Notes:
● Herbst’s 11th-place finish was his third consecutive top-12. He finished fifth in the regular-season finale Sept. 16 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, and fifth in last Saturday’s playoff opener at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.
● AJ Allmendinger won the Sparks 300 to score his 14th career Xfinity Series victory, his fourth of the season, and his first at Talladega. His margin over second-place Sam Mayer was .015 of a second.
● There were three caution periods for a total of 11 laps.
● Twenty-three of the 38 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the Drive for the Cure 250 on Oct. 8 on the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval. It will be the third race of the seven-race playoffs and the final of the Round of 12. The race starts at 3 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBC and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
AJ Allmendinger saved his absolute best for the last and kept his championship hopes for this season alive after beating Sam Mayer in a photo finish to win the Sparks 300 at Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday, October 1.
The 40-year-old Allmendinger from Los Gatos, California, led three times for a total of three of 113-scheduled laps. Prior to the finish, he was running in second place behind pole-sitter Austin Hill under the final 10 laps. Following a shuffle amongst the front-runners, he made his way to the front of the field with two laps remaining before being overtaken by Sam Mayer prior to the final lap as he was shuffled back to third. Allmendinger then overtook Sieg through the backstretch and tucked in behind Mayer for the following two turns until he seized an opportunity entering the frontstretch to pull a slingshot move on Mayer with drafting help from teammate Landon Cassill. From there, Allmendinger was able to surge ahead and edge Mayer by a nose to claim his fourth checkered flag of the 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series and a spot to the Playoff’s Round of 8.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, Playoff contender Austin Hill claimed his first career pole position after posting a pole-winning lap at 182.036 mph in 52.605 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Playoff contender Ty Gibbs, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 181.981 mph in 52.621 seconds.
Prior to the event, names like Jesse Iwuji, Caesar Bacarella, Jeremy Clements, BJ McLeod, Mason Massey and Noah Gragson dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments to their respective cars. Joey Gase also dropped to the rear of the field due to an engine change along with Bayley Currey, Timmy Hill and Howie Disavino III, all of whom missed driver introductions.
When the green flag waved and the race started, Hill battled Allmendinger dead even for the lead, but managed to retain the top spot and pull away from the field entering Turns 3 and 4 as he proceeded to lead the first lap with drafting help from teammate Sheldon Creed.
During the third lap, the first caution of the event flew when Ty Gibbs got bumped off the front nose of Justin Allgaier’s No. 7 BRANDT Chevrolet Camaro as his No. 54 Sport Clips Toyota Supra slipped sideways before spinning across the backstretch. Despite making light contact with the outside wall, Gibbs managed to continue as he was dodged by the field. Under the caution period, names like Gragson, Sam Mayer, Ryan Vargas, Clements and Caesar Bacarella pitted while the rest led by Hill remained on the track.
When the race restarted under green on the sixth lap, Hill retained the lead followed by teammate Creed, Allgaier, Brandon Jones and the field. Not long after, Allgaier launched a bid for the lead on the outside lane before rocketing to the top on the eighth lap. By then, he had drafting help from AJ Allmendinger and a number of competitors running on the outside lane while Hill attempted to fight back on the inside lane.
Through the first 10 scheduled laps, Allgaier was leading ahead of Allmendinger, Hill, Daniel Hemric and Trevor Bayne while the field behind fanned out to three tight-packed lanes.
By Lap 15, Hill, who reassumed the lead a lap prior, was out in front followed by teammate Creed and Bayne while Anthony Alfredo, Myatt Snider, Brandon Jones, Allmendinger, Gragson, Riley Herbst and Hemric were in the top 10. In addition, 10 of the 12 Playoff contenders were running within the top 20 with Sam Mayer running in 21st and Jeremy Clements mired back in 25th.
Nearing the first stage’s conclusion on Lap 20, Hill continued to lead as he was out in front of a long line of competitors running towards the outside lane. Creed settled in second followed by Alfredo, Allmendinger, Hemric, Allgaier, Brandon Brown, JJ Yeley, Brandon Jones and Ryan Sieg while Bayne, Snider, Derek Griffith, Gibbs, Gragson, Jeb Burton, Parker Kligerman, Herbst, Berry and Mayer were in the top 20.
Then with two laps remaining in the first stage, a number of competitors led by Allmendinger dipped to the bottom lane in an attempt to overthrow Hill, but Hill also moved below the bottom lane as he retained the lead.
When the first stage concluded on Lap 25, Hill captured his second stage victory of the 2022 season. Teammate Creed settled in second followed by Hemric, Brandon Jones, Bayne, Allmendinger, Allgaier, Gibbs, Brown and Mayer. By then, seven of 12 Playoff contenders were scored in the top 10 while Herbst, Ryan Sieg, Josh Berry, Gragson and Clements were running within the top 22.
Under the stage break, some led by Hill pitted while others that included Currey, Timmy Hill, Howie Disavino III, Joey Gase, Ryan Vargas, David Starr, Joe Graaf Jr., Iwuji, McLod and Caesar Bacarella remained on the track. All the competitors who remained on the track under caution eventually pitted prior to the restart, giving Hill back the lead.
The second stage started on Lap 30 as Hill and Bayne occupied the front row. At the start, Hill retained the lead on the inside lane before Bayne assumed the top spot on the outside lane with drafting help from teammate Brandon Jones, Mayer and a bevy of competitors. As Bayne continued to lead on the outside lane, Hill remained as the lead competitor on the inside lane followed by teammate Creed.
Ten laps later, Bayne retained the lead followed by teammate Brandon Jones while Creed emerged as the first competitor on the inside lane while launching his bid for the lead followed by Brown. By then, the field started to fan out to three tight-packed lanes.
Another five laps later, Hill, who made a bold move beneath Bayne through the frontstretch to reassume the lead three laps earlier, was out in front followed by Alfredo and Brown while Bayne, Mayer and Sieg were running three wide while battling for fourth in front of the pack.
When the second stage concluded on Lap 50, Hill, who navigated his way through both lanes while also fending off a late surge from Allgaier, captured his third stage victory of the 2022 season and second of the day. Allgaier settled in second followed by Allmendinger, Bayne, Jeb Burton, Mayer, Brown, Brandon Jones, Sieg and Berry. By then, seven of 12 Playoff were scored in the top 10 while Gibbs, Herbst, Gragson, Hemric and Clements were running in 11th, 12th, 14t, 23rd and 31st, respectively.
Under the stage break, the leaders led by Hill returned to pit road for service while names like Currey, Joey Gaase, Jeffrey Earnhardt, David Starr, Joe Graf Jr., Iwuji, Caesar Bacarella, Disavino, Timmy Hill, Ryan Vargas, McLeod and Mike Harmon remained on the track. All eventually pitted prior to the restart, giving Bayne the lead followed by Mayer, Gragson, Brandon Jones and Gibbs.
With 58 laps remaining, the final stage started. At the start, Bayne and Gragson dueled for the lead before Gragson muscled his way into the lead while Bayne settled in second in front of teammates Brandon Jones and Gibbs. A lap later and with the field fanning out to three tight-packed lanes, Ryan Sieg emerged with the lead followed by a fast-charging Allmendinger and Hill.
With 50 laps remaining, Sieg was the leader of the race and ahead of a long line of competitors running towards the outside wall followed by Allmendinger, Hill, Brandon Jones and Gragson while Gibbs, Herbst, Landon Cassill, Snider and Jeb Burton were in the top 10.
Nearing the final 45 laps of the event, green flag pit stops commenced as teammates Jeb Burton and Anthony Alfredo pitted before another wave of competitors, including Gragson, pitted, mainly for fuel. During the pit stops, Myatt Snider turned across the front nose of Blaine Perkins while trying to enter his pit stall as Snider ended up looping his car backwards inside his pit stall.
With 40 laps remaining, Currey, who was one of 11 competitors who had yet to pit, was leading while Hill, the first competitor who pitted, led a bevy competitors in 12th place as he tried to close in on the lead group.
Eight laps later, Hill reassumed the lead when the rest of the competitors who had yet to pit led by Currey pitted. By then, Hill led a 14-car breakaway at the front followed by Allmendinger, Gragson, Cassill, Mayer, Kligerman, Creed, Sieg, Herbst, Berry, Gibbs, Bayne, Brandon Jones and Hemric. Behind, the next six competitors trailed by more than four seconds with Jeb Burton in 15th ahead of Allgaier, Alfredo, Derek Griffith, Yeley and Brandon Brown. With all but one of 12 Playoff competitors running within the top 20, Clements was the lone Playoff contender running outside of the top 20 in 25th.
With 25 laps remaining, Hill retained the lead ahead of Allmendinger, Gragson, Cassill and Mayer while the top-14 competitors remained four seconds ahead of the 15th-place competitor Jeb Burton. In addition, the top-19 competitors were ahead by nearly 23 seconds over the 20th-place competitor Blaine Perkins.
Five laps later and down to the final 20 laps of the event, Hill continued to lead ahead of Allmendinger, Gragson, Cassill and Mayer while Kligerman, Creed, Sieg, Herbst, Berry, Gibbs, Bayne, Brandon Jones and Hemric remained within the 14-car lead pack.
With 10 laps remaining, Hill remained as the leader ahead of the 14-car lead pack followed by Allmendinger, Gragson, Cassill, Mayer, Kligerman, Creed, Sieg, Herbst, Berry, Gibbs, Bayne, Brandon Jones and Hemric.
Then with six laps remaining, Mayer was the first competitor to fan out and start a second lane followed by Sieg and others as they launched a bid for the lead on Hill, who remained on the inside lane. During the following lap, Gragson made a move on the outside lane before he was blocked by Hill through the frontstretch. This then caused the field to fan out to three lanes as Hill was shoved out of the lead draft while Mayer and Allmendinger moved up and battled dead even for the lead ahead of the pack.
With two laps remaining, Allmendinger was out in front with drafting help from teammate Cassill while Mayer fought back on the outside lane with drafting help from Sieg. Through the backstretch, Mayer gained a strong run as he cleared the field and assume the lead with both lanes to his control. While Snider spun behind the leaders in the backstretch, the race remainder under green flag conditions.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Mayer remained as the leader ahead of Sieg, Allmendinger, Cassill and the pack. He continued to lead through three turns until he started to pull away from the pack. This allowed the pack led by Allmendinger and Sieg to gain a momentum and close back in on Mayer entering the frontstretch. Then, Allmendinger, who had teammate Cassill behind him, made his move to the outside of Mayer. With the momentum on his side, Allmendinger was able to beat Mayer by 0.015 seconds to steal the victory.
As a result, Allmendinger achieved his fourth Xfinity Series victory of the season, the 14th of his career and his first on a superspeedway venue. The victory awarded Allmendinger and his No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet Camaro team a one-way ticket to the Round of 8 in the 2022 Xfinity Series Playoffs, where he joins Noah Gragson as the only competitors to be guaranteed a spot for the next Playoff round. It also marks the seventh Xfinity victory for Kaulig Racing on a superspeedway venue (Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway).
Photo by Chad Wells for SpeedwayMedia.com.
“I still hate [restrictor plate racing]!” Allmendinger exclaimed on USA Network. “Gosh, we’ve been so close to winning one and I feel like I keep giving them away. I’m still learning, trying to know what too big of a lead is, but honestly, all the credit to [teammate] Landon Cassill. He kept shoving me. He stuck with me. That’s what’s great about Kaulig Racing. When you got teammates like Landon and Daniel [Hemric], that you know no matter where you go, they’re gonna go with you. [It] Makes it a little bit easier. [Cassill]’s gonna share [the win] with me, but I wish we could both be the winner because he deserves it more than I do. Man, I just wanted to win a superspeedway [event]. Finally got it.”
Mayer, who came within inches of claiming his first Xfinity career victory, settled in a career-best second place for his 10th top-five finish of the season. With the result, Mayer, who came into Talladega a single point above the top-eight cutline, leaves Talladega with a 13-point advantage above the cutline as he is in seventh place in the Playoff standings.
“This is my first time getting to the end of a speedway race, coming to the checkered [flag],” Mayer said. “It was a good first experience, I guess. [I will] Take a top five [finish] at a place like this any day. Going into today, we were just like get some stage points and hopefully, survive to the end. Obviously, we survived at the end and we did everything right. We were just three feet shy…I’m looking forward to [the Charlotte Roval]. I’m just happy to get through this one, but our Accelerate Chevrolet Camaro probably should be in Victory Lane right now.”
Cassill came home in third place followed by Ryan Sieg and Josh Berry. Kligerman, Gibbs, Hemric, Brandon Jones and Gragson completed the top 10 on the track. Notably, eight of 12 Playoff competitors finished in the top 10 on the track while Herbst, Hill, Allgaier and Clements finished 11th, 14th, 15th and 20th, respectively.
There were 20 lead changes for 11 different leaders. The race featured three cautions for 11 laps. All 38 starters finished the event while 23 finished on the lead lap.
The 2022 Sparks 300 event marks the third and final time the fall Xfinity Talladega event will occur, with the series’ scaling back to competing at Talladega once annually in 2023.
Results.
1. AJ Allmendinger, three laps led
2. Sam Mayer, three laps led
3. Landon Cassill
4. Ryan Sieg, 11 laps led
5. Josh Berry
6. Parker Kligerman
7. Ty Gibbs
8. Daniel Hemric
9. Brandon Jones, one lap led
10. Noah Gragson, one lap led
11. Riley Herbst
12. Sheldon Creed, two laps led
13. Trevor Bayne, 13 laps led
14. Austin Hill, 60 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner
15. Justin Allgaier, six laps led
16. Anthony Alfredo
17. Jeb Burton
18. JJ Yeley
19. Josh Williams
20. Jeremy Clements
21. Joey Gase
22. Joe Garaf Jr.
23. Derek Griffith
24. Bayley Currey, one lap down, 12 laps led
25. David Starr, one lap down
26. BJ McLeod, one lap down
27. Timmy Hill, one lap down, one lap led
28. Jesse Iwuji, one lap down
29. CJ McLaughlin, one lap down
30. Ryan Vargas, one lap down
31. Caesar Bacarella, one lap down
32. Howie Disavino III, one lap down
33. Brandon Brown, one lap down
34. Mike Harmon, two laps down
35. Myatt Snider, two laps down
36. Blaine Perkins, three laps down
37. Jeffrey Earnhardt, four laps down
38. Mason Massey, 18 laps down
*Bold indicates Playoff contenders
Playoff standings
1. Noah Gragson – Advanced
2. AJ Allmendinger – Advanced
3. Ty Gibbs +49
4. Austin Hill +43
5. Josh Berry +27
6. Justin Allgaier +25
7. Sam Mayer +12
8. Ryan Sieg +6
9. Daniel Hemric -6
10. Riley Herbst -10
11. Brandon Jones -10
12. Jeremy Clements -47
The 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs will continue next weekend at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course for a 250-mile feature and where the first round of eliminations will occur. The event is scheduled to occur on Saturday, October 8, at 3 p.m. ET on NBC.
If Daniel Hemric has an extra skip in his step this weekend, there’s a reason for it. He will climb into his No. 16 Kaulig Racing Cup Series machine with a new primary sponsor: Celsius Energy.
However, the organization has been a longtime partner with Kaulig Racing, and the company recently served as Justin Haley’s primary partner during the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway. Now, it’s Hemric’s turn to showcase its sugar-free content while trying to score his second career top-five finish at Talladega Superspeedway.
“First and foremost, it’s an honor to carry them on our No. 16 Kaulig Racing car at Talladega this weekend. They’ve been a partner with Kaulig long before I came along. In fact, this is my first time actually being active with them, wearing their brand on my uniform, and having a full sponsorship on the car at the Cup level,” Hemric told Speedway Media.
“It’s cool to see them, to be able to take that next step in our partnership. Being a primary sponsor on a Cup car is a big deal for any company to take, so it’s a big deal. It’s a beautiful car. It’s gonna be special to spend time with them this weekend and hopefully, we’ll give them a good showing.”
Kaulig Racing is in its first full season at the Cup level, but the team has exemplified that its superspeedway program is up to par. Haley finished seventh at Atlanta Motor Speedway earlier this season, and Hemric qualified third at Talladega in the spring. However, reminiscent of most teams, being there at the end of a superspeedway race is a common struggle. Hemric finished 36th in that race after an engine issue triggered a multi-car incident.
Similarly, both Haley and Hemric, the reigning Xfinity Series champion were contenders at Daytona during the regular-season finale when the pair became casualties of the infamous rain crash that took out 13 cars. Now the two teammates will try to keep their noses clean until the end of Sunday’s YellaWood 500. If all goes to plan, the Kaulig wheelmen could find themselves within the grasp of victory.
“I wouldn’t say I’m one of the few, but put me on the side of thoroughly enjoying the thrill of superspeedway racing and the chaos of not knowing what’s next. In superspeedway races, it’s a lot of the same guys [winning]. As much as people get caught up in hearing people talking about the unknown of plate racing and not being able to control your own destiny.
“A lot of the same guys win a lot of these races and that’s not by coincidence. To be able to go and hone and develop your craft to be one of those guys, that’s what I thoroughly enjoy about it. This is a big opportunity for us. I approach it the same as any other weekend, and that’s a chance to go win a race.”
In seven Cup series starts in 2022, Hemric has an average finish of 23rd.
TWO TOYOTA TOP-10s IN TALLADEGA XFINITY RACE Gibbs and Jones Solid Heading to Roval for Playoff Cutoff Race
TALLADEGA, Ala. (October 1, 2022) – Ty Gibbs (seventh) and Brandon Jones (eighth) scored top-10 finishes in Saturday afternoon’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Talladega Superspeedway. Both will head to next week’s race at Charlotte Motor Speedway’s Roval to look to secure their positions in the next round of the Playoffs.
Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap NASCAR Xfinity Series Talladega Superspeedway Race 28 of 33 – 300.58 miles, 113 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, AJ Allmendinger*
2nd, Sam Mayer*
3rd, Landon Cassill*
4th, Ryan Seig*
5th, Josh Berry*
7th, TY GIBBS
8th, BRANDON JONES
13th, TREVOR BAYNE
23rd, DEREK GRIFFITH
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
TY GIBBS, No. 54 Sport Clips Toyota GR Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 7th
How were you able to save the car from the early spin and recover for a top-10 finish?
“I don’t know if I saved it to be honest with you – unless it looked like I did. We did have a lot of damage on the right front and that affected our balance. We lost a lot of our right front splitter and it popped my right front into the air and that impacted the balance and control. We regrouped as a team and went back out and finished seventh. I think we’re 50 points to the good, which is not locked in, but it’s a good position. Better than a lot of these guys and we’ll just keep going. We’ve got a good program for the Roval too. This is a hard round so we just have to make it through.”
Josh Berry was very complimentary of you post-race in how you stayed with him. How difficult is it to run with other manufacturers?
“I really do like Josh (Berry) and I’ve raced with him for a long time and have a lot of respect for him. It comes down to where the 18 (Trevor Bayne) went to the outside of me and I really had nowhere to go and so I jumped up and ended up pushing the 8 (Berry) and gave him a really big shove and to be honest with you, I was surprised that he was able to hang onto it. It looked like he was on rails. I wish we could have finished a little better, but that’s what we had. Thank you for the opportunity and thankful to stay out of trouble.”
BRANDON JONES, No. 19 Menards/Little Hugs Toyota GR Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 8th
How was your race overall?
“Honestly, I think that’s what we needed to do aside from just go win the race, I think we needed to get stage points in at least every stage. The second stage had some challenges, but the first one was really good and still a top-10 result there. Wanted to win. We were talking earlier as teammates that maybe if we would have taken the run a little bit sooner, maybe we would have had the chance to win. It just takes so long to build up a run that maybe we just gave ourselves just one shot at it instead of two. If we could change anything, maybe we would try a little sooner. All in all, I couldn’t ask for a better Talladega finish to come home with all of us finishing the race.”
How do you feel about your points position heading into the Roval next weekend?
“Going to the Roval, we’ve had extremely fast Supras at the Roval here lately and all these road courses that we’ve run at, we’ve been able to run top-five and a few we’ve even been in contention to win the race. We have a lot of positivity and a lot of momentum going into that one.”
About Toyota
Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in North America for more than 60 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 43 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 the more electrified vehicles on the road than any other automaker, more than a quarter of the company’s 2021 North American sales were electrified.
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.
A timely caution amid a major wreck during the finish of an overtime attempt generated a new winner in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series as Matt DiBenedetto was awarded his first career win in the Chevrolet Silverado 250 at Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday, October 1.
The 31-year-old DiBenedetto from Grass Valley, California, placed himself in prime position of contending for the win as he was running in the top five during the final lap of the first and only overtime attempt that was caused when Carson Hocevar intentionally spun to draw a caution with four laps remaining. Approaching the frontstretch and the finish line, DiBenedetto went three-wide on Playoff contender Ben Rhodes and Bret Holmes as he launched his bid for the win. Despite getting forced below the double yellow line by Rhodes as Rhodes wrecked along with a host of other competitors, DiBenedetto managed to cross the finish line sideways in the runner-up spot after being edged by Holmes. Following an extensive review of the finish, however, DiBenedetto was deemed the winner due to being out in front at the moment of caution prior to taking the checkered flag and completing the race, thus claiming his first NASCAR national touring series career victory.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Friday, Playoff contender John Hunter Nemechek claimed his seventh pole position of the season after posting a pole-winning lap at 178.767 mph in 53.567 seconds. Joining him on the front row was teammate and Playoff contender Chandler Smith, who posted the second-best qualifying lap at 177.732 mph in 53.879 seconds.
When the green flag waved and the race started, Nemechek jumped ahead with an early advantage as the field stacked up in two tight-packed lanes through the first two turns. Through the backstretch, Nemechek retained the lead ahead of teammate Chandler Smith while Zane Smith started to challenge on the outside lane. Despite Zane Smith gaining a run through the frontstretch, Nemechek moved up to block him as he went on to lead the first lap.
A lap later, a side-by-side battle for the lead between Zane Smith and Nemechek occurred while the field behind started to fan out to three lanes.
Through the first five scheduled laps, Nemechek was leading by a hair over Zane Smith followed by Ty Majeski, Chandler Smith, Carson Hocevar, Colby Howard, Matt Crafton, Corey Heim, Jordan Anderson and Christian Eckes.
By Lap 10 and with the field settling into two tight-packed lanes within the draft, Nemechek continued to lead ahead of Zane Smith, Hocevar and Crafton while Chandler Smith and Jordan Anderson battled for fifth. By then, half of the remaining eight Playoff contenders were running in the top 10 with Eckes in eighth. Behind, Ben Rhodes was in 12th, Stewart Friesen was in 17th, Grant Enfinger was back in 23rd and Ty Majeski settled in 27th.
Then with two laps remaining in the first stage, the first caution of the event flew when the No. 3 Chevrolet Silverado RST piloted by Anderson, which was running in fifth place, went up in smoke and flames at full speed. With the truck up in flames, Anderson, who was trying to keep his truck below the apron with reduced speed, managed to avoid contact with the field as he then steered his flaming truck towards the inside wall in Turn 2 before escaping it. He would then be airlifted to a local hospital to be further evaluated with burns.
The caution for Anderson was enough for the first stage to conclude on Lap 20 as Nemechek secured his seventh stage victory of the 2022 season. Zane Smith settled in second followed by Hocevar, Chandler Smith, Tanner Gray, Colby Howard, Rhodes, Heim, Tyler Ankrum and Eckes. Meanwhile, Playoff contenders Friesen, Enfinger and Majeski were scored in the top 20.
Under the stage break, the leaders led by Nemechek pitted, most for fuel, as Chandler Smith exited first followed by teammate Nemechek, Friesen, Rhodes, Heim and Eckes.
The second stage started on Lap 26 and at the start, Chandler Smith and Rhodes dueled for the lead in front of Nemechek as the field stacked up entering Turn 2. Then as Rhodes gained another strong run on the outside lane to overtake Chandler Smith for the lead, the caution returned when Colby Howard spun in the middle of the pack and towards the backstretch after cutting a left-rear tire.
When the race restarted on Lap 31, a tight side-by-side battle for the lead ignited between Rhodes and Chandler Smith through the first two turns before Nemechek gave teammate Chandler Smith a small draft to lead through the backstretch. Rhodes, however, fought back on the outside lane with drafting help from teammate Eckes as the field battled in a tight side-by-side pack.
During the following lap, the caution flew when Lawless Alan blew a right-front tire and went dead straight into the outside wall in Turn 3. With debris flying out of Alan’s wrecked truck, Bryan Dauzat and Hocevar also received damage. This caution provided mixed strategy amongst the field as some pitted while others remained on the track.
With two laps remaining in the second stage, the race proceeded under green. At the start, Rhodes and Chandler Smith dueled for the lead in front of the pack and they remained dead even for the lead when they returned to the frontstretch and started the final lap of the second stage.
When the second stage concluded on Lap 40, Chandler Smith received a draft from teammate Nemechek to surge ahead of Rhodes and capture his sixth stage victory of the 2022 season. Teammate Nemechek settled in second while Friesen, Rhodes, Enfinger, Eckes, Ankrum, Heim, Zane Smith and Majeski were scored in the top 10. By then, all of the eight Playoff contenders cracked the top 10 and had scored at least one stage point.
Following the second stage’s conclusion, Zane Smith nursed his No. 38 Love’s Travel Stop Ford F-150 into his pit stall after he cut a right-rear tire and damaged the right-rear fender of his truck. Once pit road became accessible for the field, some led by Nemechek pitted, mainly for fuel, while names like Chase Purdy, Bret Holmes, Johnny Sauter, Matt DiBenedtto, Hailie Deegan and Clay Greenfield remained on the track. Prior to the restart, names like Nemechek and Chandler Smith pitted again to top off on fuel and for damage repair.
With 49 laps remaining, the final stage started as Chase Purdy and Bret Holmes occupied the front row. At the start, Holmes cleared the field and assumed the lead on the outside lane followed by Matt DiBenedetto as the field started to fan out to three lanes through the backstretch.
At the halfway mark on Lap 47, Holmes was leading ahead of DiBenedetto, Purdy, Johnny Sauter and Derek Kraus while Jack Wood, Enfinger, Eckes, Blaine Perkins and Carson Hocevar were scored in the top 10. By then, Eckes was the lone Playoff contender running in the top 10 while the remaining seven were mired inside the top 30.
With less than 40 laps remaining, Eckes made his way to the top of the field followed by Holmes, Hocevar, DiBenedetto and Sauter while Ryan Preece, Kraus, Purdy, Wood and Enfinger were in the top 10. With two of eight Playoff contenders running in the top 10, Rhodes and Majeski were in the top 20 while Friesen, Nemechek, Chandler Smith and Zane Smith were mired back from 25th to 28th, respectively.
Then nearing the final 30 laps of the event and with most of the front-runners veering to pit road for service under green, the caution flew when Hailie Deegan, who entered pit road too fast, hit her tire carrier and caused a tire to roll out of her pit box and onto the infield grass, which prompted the tire carrier to bolt to the infield grass and retrieve the tire. Following the pit stops, additional names like Friesen, Sauter and Purdy were penalized for speeding on pit road.
Down to the final 26 laps of the event, the race proceeded under green as Eckes and Hocevar occupied the front row. At the start, Hocevar was drafted into the lead followed by Enfinger before Eckes fought back on the outside lane through the backstretch. Soon after, Eckes and Hocevar engaged in a tight side-by-side battle for the lead in front of the pack running tight through two drafting lanes.
Five laps later, the caution returned when Colby Howard spun in front of Nemechek in Turn 4, though he managed to straighten his truck and not sustain any significant damage nor collect others.
With 18 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Eckes received a push from teammate Rhodes on the outside lane to remain as the leader by a mere margin before Hocevar fought back on the inside lane with drafting help from Preece.
Three laps later, the caution flew when Playoff contender Grant Enfinger, who was starting to fall off the pace in Turn 3, was bumped by Austin Wayne Self as both slipped sideways and pounded the outside wall. In the process, Sauter and Tanner Gray were collected as all four sustained significant damage to their respective trucks.
During the following restart with 10 laps remaining, Hocevar received drafting help from Preece to lead the inside lane while teammates Eckes and Rhodes fought back on the outside lane. As the field returned to the frontstretch, the front-runners were mired in a tight pack between two lanes as Eckes and Hocevar remained dead even for the lead.
Then with five laps remaining of the event, Hocevar, who was battling Eckes for the lead, dropped his truck below the apron and was falling off the pace after cutting a tire. Then with the race remaining under green while the lead pack zipped by, Hocevar remained on the track below the apron and looped his truck around past the start/finish line. This prompted NASCAR to draw the caution as Eckes was ahead followed by teammate Rhodes, DiBenedetto, Bret Holmes and Preece. In addition, NASCAR issued a one-lap penalty to Hocevar for intentionally causing a caution as the field was sent into overtime.
During the start of overtime, teammates Eckes and Rhodes battled for the lead through the first two turns. Then through the second turn and the backstretch, Rhodes received drafting help from Holmes to briefly pull away with the lead before the rest of the front-runners caught up to them through Turns 3 and 4. By then, Holmes navigated his way into the lead as DiBenedetto and Rhodes dueled for the lead.
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Holmes was leading ahead of Rhodes, DiBenedetto, Eckes and Preece. Through the backstretch, Rhodes was drafted into the lead by Eckes before both ThorSport Racing teammates dueled for the lead in front of the pack.
Then entering Turn 4, Rhodes started to pull ahead of Eckes when Heim got bumped as he wrecked his No. 51 JBL Toyota Tundra TRD Pro into the outside wall. With Heim coming back across the track and collecting more competitors, Holmes and DiBenedetto went three-wide on Rhodes approaching the start/finish line. While Holmes remained on the outside lane, DiBenedetto made contact with Rhodes as he was shoved below the double yellow line. The contact got Rhodes sideways as nearly the entire field wrecked while crossing the finish line. Back at the front, however, Holmes edged DiBenedetto by 0.002 seconds to score what appeared to have been his first NASCAR national touring series career victory.
Following an extensive review of the final lap incident, the battle for the win and who was out in front at the moment of caution, NASCAR determined that the caution was displayed before Holmes crossed the finish line to complete the race and that DiBenedetto was out in front when the caution was displayed, thus being declared the official winner.
With the victory, DiBenedetto, who has made 248 career starts in the NASCAR Cup Series, achieved his first career victory in his 338th career start across NASCAR’s top three national touring series and in his 21st career start in the Camping World Truck Series. The victory was also the first for Rackley-W.A.R. Racing, a team that debuted in 2021.
DiBenedetto’s victory marks the seventh consecutive season where the Truck Series Playoff event has been won by a non-Playoff contender with the streak spanning to the series’ Playoff inception in 2016. He also became the sixth different competitor to record a first Truck career victory at Talladega.
“Oh man, it’s such a long time coming!” DiBenedetto said on FS1. “Praise God. I’m so thankful. [My fans] have bared with me through so much in me being a reckless human being sometimes just through life. This one’s life-changing. I’m out of breath. I think I was more nervous waiting and hearing what would happen. My spotter, Doug Campbell, is awesome. We worked together so good. I think in the Cup Series, we led on like the white flag twice here or something at Talladega. So, I owe a lot to him. At the end there, we were just really committed to staying on the bottom [lane] and pushing. This [truck], it pushed well, so I was just committed to staying there and pushing whoever was in front of me. I’m so thankful. So thankful! This is amazing. This team deserves it.”
Once the final finishing order was displayed, Rhodes was awarded the runner-up spot despite ending up with a wrecked truck while Holmes was shuffled back to a career-best third place.
“It’s tough to lose something that close,” Holmes said. “We lost an ARCA race that close, I don’t know, probably lost it closer today. I want to win here so bad, I can’t stand it. I have so many people here from my hometown, friends, and family. Growing up and racing at the dirt track across the road, it just would mean the world for me to win here. It seems like the last couple years in ARCA we’ve been right there, the Truck races we’ve been right there. It’s just super tough, hate we couldn’t pull it off for everybody. Wish the race ended at the finish line because I feel like we would’ve had it…It’s tough to lose that one, for sure.”
Preece ended up fourth while Eckes completed the top five. Deegan notched a career-best sixth place despite being involved in the final lap accident while Purdy, Colby Howard, Parker Kligerman and Tyler Ankrum completed the top 10 on the track.
There were 25 lead changes for 11 different leaders. The race featured nine cautions for 36 laps.
Results.
1. Matt DiBenedetto, one lap led
2. Ben Rhodes, two laps led
3. Bret Holmes, six laps led
4. Ryan Preece
5. Christian Eckes, 25 laps led
6. Hailie Deegan
7. Chase Purdy, six laps led
8. Colby Howard
9. Parker Kligerman
10. Tyler Ankrum
11. Kaden Honeycutt
12. Clay Greenfield
13. Derek Kraus, three laps led
14. Chandler Smith, 17 laps led, Stage 2 winner
15. Timmy Hill
16. Parker Retzlaff
17. Zane Smith, one lap led
18. Kaz Grala
19. Jack Wood
20. Stewart Friesen
21. Bayley Currey
22. Matt Crafton, one lap led
23. Ty Majeski, one lap led
24. John Hunter Nemechek, 20 laps led, Stage 1 winner
25. Johnny Sauter
26. Corey Heim – OUT, Accident
27. Blaine Perkins – OUT, Accident
28. Carson Hocevar, one lap down, 12 laps led
29. Grant Enfinger, one lap down
30. Austin Wayne Self – OUT, Accident
31. Tanner Gray – OUT, Accident
32. Jennifer Jo Cobb – OUT, Clutch
33. Lawless Alan – OUT, Accident
34. Dean Thompson – OUT, Accident
35. Bryan Dauzat – OUT, Dvp
36. Jordan Anderson – OUT, Accident
*Bold indicates Playoff contenders
Playoff standings
1. Ty Majeski – Advanced
2. Chandler Smith +30
3. Zane Smith +18
4. Ben Rhodes +3
5. Christian Eckes -3
6. Stewart Friesen -3
7. John Hunter Nemechek -5
8. Grant Enfinger -29
With the 2022 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season nearing its conclusion, the Playoff’s Round of 8 will next continue at Homestead-Miami Speedway on October 22, where the Championship Round field will be set. The event’s coverage is scheduled to commence at 1 p.m. ET on FS1.
TWO TUNDRAS TALLY TALLADEGA TOP-FIVES Wild Talladega Finish Results with Four Tundras in the Top-10
TALLADEGA, Ala. (October 1, 2022) – Tundra teammates Ben Rhodes (second) and Christian Eckes (fifth) scored the top-finishes for Toyota in Saturday afternoon’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) race at Alabama’s Talladega Superspeedway. The two ThorSport Tundras were running one-two coming to the white flag, but a wild finish and accident coming to the checkered flag mixed up the final results and sent several trucks crashing and spinning through the infield.
Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Talladega Superspeedway Race 21 of 23 – 100 Laps, 250 Miles
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Matt DiBenedetto*
2nd, BEN RHODES
3rd, Bret Holmes*
4th, Ryan Preece
5th, CHRISTIAN ECKES
7th, CHASE PURDY
10th, TYLER ANKRUM
11th, KADEN HONEYCUTT
12th, CLAY GREENFIELD
14th, CHANDLER SMITH
15th, TIMMMY HILL
20th, STEWART FRIESEN
22nd, MATT CRAFTON
23rd, TY MAJESKI
24th, JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK
25th, JOHNNY SAUTER
26th, COREY HEIM
*non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
BEN RHODES, No. 99 Kubota Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, ThorSport Racing
Finishing Position: 2nd
What happened in the final lap of the race with the accident?
“As the saying goes, I haven’t’ seen the replay. I can’t help but feel that I had a hand in on that big one somehow. I believe that I went up to block and came back down and the hole was already filled and I didn’t know it. Split second decision. I hate it for my team and everybody at ThorSport most of all. They worked so hard to get these trucks there and we were right there to lock our ticket into Phoenix and now we have to really put in the work at Homestead to make sure we get in for another championship run. I just know we were on the bottom and I had a really, really good push. I felt like I got pushed out a little bit in the trioval, but again, I haven’t seen a replay and I saw the outside start to pull out and I knew we were going to lose momentum as that group pulled out. But they had a run still somehow and as I moved up to block, they filled the gap and I think I made contact, but again, I haven’t seen the replay for sure. Just hate it for Kubota and everybody involved. It’s s shame to be that close to punching your ticket and not get it.”
What would you have done differently on the final lap to try to get the win?
“Honestly, I think everything worked out fine until the last few hundred feet. If I could change it, I would have just stayed right on the bottom. I’m not saying we could have got the win, maybe we would have had second, but we wouldn’t have a torn up race truck right now. A lot of things would have been better for really everybody involved.”
CHRISTIAN ECKES, No. 98 FarmPaint Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, ThorSport Racing
Finishing Position: 5th
What happened in the final lap of the race?
“Just wrong lane. I thought the 25 (Matt DiBenedetto) would push me better than the 32 (Bret Holmes) and I was just wrong. They passed us and I tried to do some different moves. I’m not really sure what happened there at the end, I’m not sure if the 51 (Corey Heim) bailed on me or what. Coming to the checkered, I finished seventh and had a decent points day and the truck is mostly in one piece. We’ll move onto Homestead.”
TYLER ANKRUM, No. 16 LiUNA! Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, Hattori Racing Enterprises
Finishing Position: 10th
How was your race overall?
“Had a pretty good handling truck. It was a little darty, but we ran up front all day long and inside the top-10 and were running sixth there at the end. Just made a wrong decision to push the 51 (Corey Heim) and he spun. Actually happy to finish at race at Talladega. I can say for once that I want to come back. We’ll have a better speedway truck for the next one.”
TY MAJESKI, No. 66 Tenda Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, ThorSport Racing
Finishing Position: 23rd
What happened in the final lap of the race that ended your race early?
“We were just trying to make some moves at the end and trying to get the top formed and it just never came through and got passed by a couple trucks there at the end. Coming out of four, they all started wrecking and we were in the top lane and in the top lane, a lot of times you really don’t have anywhere to go. Got into a few trucks and another superspeedway race in the infield care center.”
JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK, No. 4 Pye-Barker Fire & Safety Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, Kyle Busch Motorsports
Finishing Position: 24th
How was your race today?
“Up and down. Maximized stage points there with Chandler (Smith) in the first stage and in the second stage, put ourselves in a good position to gain as many points as possible. Just didn’t work out there at the end. Stuff happens and I was one of the trucks that was spinning through the grass there. Probably lost around 10 or 12 spots there by spinning through the grass. It hurt our points day a little bit and we’re now just four points behind the cut going into Homestead.”
“I’m really not sure. I haven’t seen a replay, but just going for every spot I can get and it looked like we had a chance to win with our Tundra TRD Pro. Generally this is how it goes at Talladega, it’s unpredictable and you know, one driver doesn’t cause a wreck. There’s going to be another one half a lap later. Did everything I could today with my JBL Tundra TRD Pro today. KBM gave me a great truck and looking forward to the next one for sure.”
About Toyota
Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in North America for more than 60 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 43 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 the more electrified vehicles on the road than any other automaker, more than a quarter of the company’s 2021 North American sales were electrified.
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 – Christopher Bell NASCAR Cup Series Quotes
TALLADEGA, Ala. (October 1, 2022) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell was made available to media prior to the Talladega Superspeedway race this Saturday:
CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 SiriusXM Toyota Camry TRD, Joe Gibbs Racing
How do you approach these next few races with no Playoff winners as of yet?
“Yeah, it’s not the position we want it to be in, you know, going into Texas. I knew that Texas was going to be a very, very important race. And I mean, I thought that we would perform well and we did perform well before the DNF so you know, our goal leaving Texas was to be above the cutoff line and maybe have a little bit of a bonus going in into Talladega and the Roval. And unfortunately, that’s not the way it played out. And now, the only way forward is going to be to try and score as many points as we can. So going to have to race hard all day tomorrow and see where the cards fall.”
How much of a benefit is it to start on the pole knowing you’re after stage points and did you have more emphasis on starting up front against the other Playoff drivers?
“No, I mean, Speedway poles, they’re not much to do with me, it’s more so about the team and with us winning the pole here in the spring, we thought that we would have a good shot at it but you know, you can go from the back to the front and from the front to the back, you know, a handful of times before they paid the points that lap 60. So. You know, I think that winning the pole is a great testimony to the team, but really has no effect on the race tomorrow.”
Is it possible for Talladega to become more intense than it normally is for this race weekend?
“Yeah, I’m trying to think in like into last year’s Playoff race, it rained, and I made it to the end of the race. So I don’t remember a lot of wrecking in this race in the you know, a year from now. But I don’t know. I think that people will be calm especially to start the race. And then whenever it comes time to get those points it’s going to ramp up and the likelihood for a wreck is going to increase.”
How challenging is it to move up and back through the field with this car?
“So I would say that Talladega generally is a little bit easier to move back and forth than Daytona just because of the width and typically the lanes aren’t as blocked up. But you know, generally speaking, I don’t have a ton of experience on superspeedways with this car. I wrecked out really early at the Daytona 500. And then the Daytona fall race, I wrecked out early again. Talladega I guess I had an okay run but wasn’t racing for the win at the end of the race because I got trapped a lap down. So you know, I hope that the Toyotas are able to get together because it seems like that’s been at least my most successful Speedway races whenever I have a group to work with and not kind of fending for myself. Yeah, I don’t know if that really answers it. But you know, Speedway racing has not really been kind to me. So hopefully we can change that narrative tomorrow.”
Were you able to attend or view the driver’s meeting with Jeff Burton yesterday?
“Yes, I was able to call in and listen and for sure that the positives are that you know, there is stuff in the works to better specifically the rear impacts. And ironically, that’s been the majority of my crashes this year has been rear impacts and they’ve hurt really bad. So I’m glad that there’s stuff in the works to improve those style impacts. And hopefully we can just continue to improve the safety of the Next Gen car because the wrecks hurt right now.”
Do you ever look back on any of your impacts and have concerns that it was a concussion and not just a simple headache?
“I mean, it’s hard to say you know a headache is definitely not a good sign or a good symptom, but from the days moving on past that I don’t recall any symptoms that raised any red flags that says I shouldn’t get in the race car the following week. So, if that was the case, then I definitely would have raised my hand and say, ‘Hey, guys, something’s not right.’ But fortunately, I guess I’ve been able to heal or, you know, just the symptoms have gone away.”
Do you feel like you’re in a must-win situation yet?
“I mean, pretty close. I think that if we were going anywhere except Talladega it would be more likely to be a must win, but tomorrow, there’s going to be likely crashes and out of the 12 cars, I would assume that some of those 12 cars are going to have bad days. Hopefully it’s not me and you know, so with that being said, we’ll evaluate the points after Talladega and see where we’re at. So yeah, I think, you know, that is one thing that is working to my advantage in the position I am in. Because, you know, you never know what’s going to happen at Talladega. And it could be a good day for me. It could be a bad day for me, we just don’t know.”
Starting from the pole tomorrow, do you feel more pressure to gain stage points in the race?
“Yeah, that’s number one on our goals, for sure. And it was before we even qualified. So before Texas, our ideal situation was to score high points at Texas. And then basically ride at Talladega and try and, you know, miss the wrecks early on in the race and take our top 20 or whatever we were able to get at Talladega. And with us getting no points at Texas, it forces our hand to have to go through those stage points. So starting on the pole, hopefully we’re able to maintain track position throughout the first 60 laps, but it’s such a long run. And we have to have a green flag pitstop in there. So it’s just a long way to go before they pay out stage points, but for sure we have to be in the running of it. And we’re going to have to continue if we want to transfer on.”
How does wrecking in a midget compare to wrecks in this Next Gen car?
“I’m trying to think, but I guess they are similar. If you hit your head, you hit your head. And definitely the rear impacts for whatever reason or impacting your head, that’s an issue. But yeah, so I would say if you hit your head, you hit your head.”
Do you brace forward in midget car wrecks like they’re asking you to do in the Next Gen cars?
“So typically that is my brace impact. I will lock out my HANS tethers, grip the wheel and just kind of close my eyes and brace for impact, but it is interesting that’s the worst thing to do for rear impact. And I’m sure it’s the same way to sprint car too. So you know, one thing that we’ve been talking about is, you know, decreasing our Hans tethers, which ironically, Kyle Busch has been really, really hard on that ever since he had his incident at Daytona years ago. So that was whenever I was first getting started in NASCAR and he pushed that hard on me to make sure that our HANS tethers are as short as we can stand. So I’ll probably take another step and shortening those just so that my head is more contained. But yeah, definitely brace impact is, you know, lock your head forward and grip the wheel as tight as you can.”
Is it odd that the narrative has changed with this Next Gen car to dangers or concerns in stock car racing versus the dangers of sprint car racing?
“Yeah, I think it’s very, very, very surprising and not where we want to be for sure as stock car racing in general. But the good news is, is that we realize where we’re at, I think, as an industry and at least from our meeting yesterday it seems like NASCAR’s you know, they understand where we’re at to and everyone’s focused on moving forward. But yeah, it’s surprising, and I don’t think anyone would have seen it coming a couple years ago.”
About Toyota
Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in North America for more than 60 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 43 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 the more electrified vehicles on the road than any other automaker, more than a quarter of the company’s 2021 North American sales were electrified.
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 YellaWood 500 Qualifying | Saturday, October 1, 2022
FORD QUALIFYING RESULTS 4th – Aric Almirola 5th – Chase Briscoe 11th – Joey Logano 15th – Harrison Burton 17th – Austin Cindric 18th – Brad Keselowski 19th – Ryan Blaney 23rd – Chris Buescher 24th – Kevin Harvick 28th – Cole Custer 29th – Michael McDowell 34th – Todd Gilliland 35th – BJ McLeod 36th – JJ Yeley 37th – Cody Ware
ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang – “I think more and more these speedway races are turning into track position races. You’ve got to run up front and score stage points and do all those things. I feel good about it. I feel like our Smithfield Ford Mustang has a lot of speed in it, obviously, from qualifying. That will parlay over into the race and people know you have a fast race car they want to work with you. You have more friends and more teammates.”
CHASE BRISCOE, No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang – “I’m happy with how it is. I don’t think any of us expected to qualify that well, truthfully. We were definitely more prepared to race well rather than qualify well, so I was really surprised that first round. When I knew we had the potential to get the pole, honestly, I was kind of glad we ended up fifth. I don’t really want to be on the front row tomorrow. I feel like then you can’t really control how guys are pushing you and things like that, whereas in fifth I can kind of settle in and find my spot. I’m definitely looking forward to where we start tomorrow. I think we have a really good car and it’s just a matter of putting it all together.”
CODY WARE, No. 51 Nurtec ODT UBCF Ford Mustang – HOW ARE YOU FEELING? “Overall, I’m happy to be here to cut a lap in qualifying. It’s just one lap, but I had no pain there, so that gives me even more confidence going into tomorrow. I’m just happy with the way that I’ve had a good group of guys with me with Dr. Bill Heisel and OrthoCarolina and everyone who has been a part of the rehab and recovery process. It’s gonna be a long road, but it’s cool to be back here at Talladega the week after a pretty gnarly hit and still be in the No. 51 Nurtec ODT Mustang just has me very excited and happy. I’m happy to be here with all the support and care and just want to go kick some butt this weekend and do what we did at Daytona.”
WERE YOU SURPRISED WITH THE VIOLENCE OF THE WRECK? “It was definitely the hardest hit I’ve taken, but I think, all in all, it obviously sucks that I got hurt, but with how bad it was it could have been way worse and to walk away from that with relatively no major injuries and be able to continue to race and not miss anything is a testament to me being lucky, but also the cars being safe for now. I just obviously want to be part of the process. There are a couple of guys out with concussions and obviously I’m hurt, but my injury maybe could have happened whether it was this car or the Gen 6 car, so I’m not faulting the Next Gen car with that. I think we obviously need to do a good job of working together, instead of trying to get angry about it – just working together with drivers, teams and NASCAR themselves to continue to make these cars safer and I think we’ll be able to do that and get that job done.”
DO YOU FORESEE ANY ISSUES WITH BEING ABLE TO RUN THE FULL DISTANCE TOMORROW? “Right now, we have a pretty solid plan with Dr. Heisel to make sure that I have an air cast system put in place. I have an oversized shoe for my right foot, so we’re gonna have a lot of bracing and casting as well as some local anesthetics and some non-narcotic pain medication to get me through. It’s pretty standard. You’ve got a lot of guys in the NHL and NFL that use those methods to play through an injury. Thankfully, I just have a very minor impact fracture, so I’m confident and my doctors are confident that I’m not gonna have any pain or complications. If there was any risk of me getting re-injured or exacerbating the recovery process, I wouldn’t be in this weekend.”
WILL YOU HAVE A FILL-IN DRIVER AVAILABLE JUST IN CASE? “I think we’re in talks right now. We don’t have a stand by driver confirmed, but I’m 100 percent confident I’m gonna see this race through start to finish, but just in case the unexpected happens, we’re in talks to maybe have someone in place.”
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 Kohler Generators Ford Mustang – WHAT’S THE TENSION OR ANXIETY LIKE GOING INTO THIS WEEKEND? “It’s a little bit of a time warp back to the early 2000s and I think the racing will be just a little bit different accordingly. I don’t know if that’s better or worse, but a little bit of a time warp. I think we’ve gotten to a point where for a while there the racing was so aggressive because nobody was ever afraid of getting hurt. Who knows, maybe it will come back a little bit which probably isn’t a bad thing.”
DOES THAT MEAN SINGLE-FILE? “I don’t know if you’ll see that. Maybe just some of the less gratuitous moves that seem really terrible.”
WILL DRIVERS REALLY RACE DIFFERENTLY BECAUSE THEY KNOW THEY COULD GET A CONCUSSION? DO THEY SEE THIS AS REALITY NOW? “Whether they would admit it or not, there’s no doubt you race differently when you’re more afraid of getting hurt, so we all have business decisions to make there. As to how it affects who and what amount, I wouldn’t say I’m an expert on that.”
YOU ARE ACCUSED OFTEN OF MAKING TOO DARING OF A MOVE HERE? WILL YOU RACE DIFFERENTLY? “I don’t think so. No, I’m pretty comfortable with the moves that I make here,.”
CAN YOU TELL YOURSELF WHEN YOU’RE WRECKING TO PUT YOUR HEAD BACK? “It happens really fast, so I think generally you can train to some extent on things like that, but ultimately when you’re in the heat of the moment it doesn’t always work out. But for some of us, hopefully we can learn from that and be able to apply it. I know that I hope not to be in that situation where I have to apply it, but if I do find myself in it, I’m gonna try to.”
ARE YOU DOING ANYTHING IN YOUR CAR TO CHANGE IT? “We changed some of the padding to that regard and really tightened up the back of my head rest so I can’t have a really sharp movement backwards for this week. I think that should be helpful.”
WAS THAT FOR THIS WEEK? “Yeah. I normally do that for the plate tracks, but I’ll just do it everywhere now.”
YOU DON’T APPEAR AS FRUSTRATED AS SOME OTHERS, BUT YOU HEAR THAT FROM OTHER DRIVERS, RIGHT? “Maybe because it’s I have so many other things to be frustrated about. No, I think there are people working on it. It would be one thing if there was a magic wand with a solution and just wasn’t being applied. It would be one thing if nobody was working on anything, but there are people working on things right now and there are projects underway. I have reasonable expectations of those projects. The fact that there’s movement and there’s acknowledgement and NASCAR is working on things, confidence is fine for me.”
DO YOU FEEL THAT’S BECAUSE YOU ARE AN OWNER AND DRIVER NOW? “I’m sure it affects my view absolutely in the sense that I get to sit in meetings I didn’t sit in before where I have a better context of things that are happening. There’s more transparency for sure being in that spot.”
YOU EXPRESSED CONCERNS ABOUT DOCTORS DIAGNOSING CONCUSSIONS YEARS AGO. HAS YOUR OPINION CHANGED ON THAT AT ALL? “It’s no doubt that it’s an inexact science, diagnosing a concussion. I think any doctor would tell you that. I would take Kurt’s word for it if he doesn’t feel well enough above anybody else. I haven’t talked to Alex at all, but I don’t see him coming out and saying, ‘Hey, I still feel really good.’ Ultimately, I still believe in empowering athletes or drivers that if they feel good enough to race, they should be allowed to race.”
HARVICK SAYS SAFETY COSTS MONEY AND THAT’S BEEN SOME OF THE HURDLES TO FIX THIS. HOW MUCH ARE YOU GUYS LOOKING AT SPENDING AS AN OWNER? “Honestly, I don’t think the projects that I’m aware of, at least, are that expensive. The rear clips are a couple thousand dollars. If we have to replace every one of them next year, in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t mean anything to our budget. Now, as you get into other parts of the car, it has bigger effects, but I don’t think that there’s a cost-minded objection, at least not from my point of view to the things that I’ve heard at this point in time. I can’t speak for every owner either, but I think changing some rear clips and changing the rules on them for next year is really not a big needle mover for cost.”
IS THERE A CHANCE FOR CHANGE THIS YEAR BEFORE THE SEASON ENDS? “I don’t see that, just being realistic. I would like to think it would be, but given the timelines of we only have three to four weeks left in the season if you think the Phoenix cars are all being built next week or in two weeks – just the way the teams rotate the cars. They’re usually three to four weeks ahead, so I don’t see us having anything different before the year is over. I think we need to be working right now to have something for Daytona.”
DO YOU KNOW MUCH ABOUT THIS CRASH TEST HAPPENING NEXT WEEK IN OHIO? “Yeah, I think there is some sensible work being done. You have to keep in mind that when this car was built it was a bit of a pandemic baby. There was a lot of simulation work done and all those things, but there wasn’t a lot of real world crash testing simply because you couldn’t do those things. I think in the sense of it being a pandemic baby, we’re going through some of those hurdle right now to work through those challenges.”
WEREN’T THERE CRASH TESTS IN OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER AT TALLADEGA? “Yes, there was one at the end of last year, but that was just one impact and it certainly wasn’t anything representative of what you saw at Texas or with Kurt at Pocono.”
NASCAR CUP SERIES TALLADEGA SUPERSPEEDWAY YELLAWOOD 500 TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT OCTOBER 1, 2022
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session at Talladega Superspeedway. Press Conference Transcript:
LAST WEEK AFTER YOUR ACCIDENT, OBVIOUSLY YOUR CAR CAUGHT FIRE. DO YOU KNOW WHAT CAUSED IT? WE SAW WITH THE PREVIOUS CAR AFTER A BIG WRECK, YOU WOULD SEE A FIRE, TOO. BUT I’M CURIOUS WITH THIS CAR IF YOU’VE SEEN ANYTHING THAT CONCERNS YOU?
“I mean, yeah, it seems like it happens pretty easily. It’s hard to say. To your point, with the other car; you’d have wrecks and cars would catch on fire then, too. I’m not exactly sure what caused that. It obviously happened really fast and then it was on fire really quick. It had blown the brake line off of it because I didn’t have any brakes. So I assume it was probably pumping brake fluid in there. I don’t know if that was potentially making it worse as I was trying to get stopped.
I don’t know.. but it happened really quick and I’m not sure what the culprit really was.”
YOU SAID EARLIER THIS YEAR – AND YOU TWEETED AGAIN THIS WEEK – THAT WITH THE NEW CAR, WE SHOULD NEVER GO BACKWARDS IN ANY SENSE AND IN ANY AREA. GIVEN THE CIRCUMSTANCES AND THE STATE OF THINGS NOW, AS DRIVERS, WHERE DO YOU WANT TO SEE THINGS GO FROM HERE?
“I don’t feel like we should have ever been in this position to begin with, to need to go forward. We should have gone forward with a new opportunity at a new car, in my opinion. You have all of these years of experience, knowledge, time of racing, crashing these cars and teams working on them and building them. It just blows me away that we can have something new in 2022 that offers all of this technology and all of this time and experience of so many super talented people in this sport and we allow it to go backwards, especially with safety. It’s just super surprising to me that we allow that to happen. But we did and now it’s just about how do we go forward from here; making sure we’re making the right choices to improve what we have and keep things like what happened to Alex (Bowman) this week from happening. And what happened to Kurt (Busch).. those types of incidents didn’t result in injuries in the past handful of years from just me watching. Obviously, I’m not doctor, but I’ve watched a lot of cars back into the wall and those guys be fine.
I just hate to see that. No one is immune to it. It could be me next week, or it could be any of my peers or fellow competitors. Nobody wants to see that no matter how much you like or dislike a guy, in my opinion. I just hate to see us go backwards and I’m afraid that we have in some of those areas. But look, it’s just about how do we come together and how do we go forward from here. I think there are a lot of really smart individuals to try and help make that happen, and I’m confident that we will. But it’s crucial that we do, in my opinion, because having guys out during the playoffs right now – or any time for that matter – shouldn’t be happening and I think it’s taking away from our product on Sunday. That should be the focus; who wins, who loses, how the race was, how a guy did driving his car and how his team executed a good or a bad race.”
DO YOU AND OTHER DRIVERS FEEL POWERLESS IN THIS KIND OF PROCESS? I ASK THAT BECAUSE YOU GUYS HAVE VOICED YOUR COMPLAINTS FOR AWHILE NOW ABOUT THIS CAR AND NOTHING HAS MOVED IN THE DIRECTION THAT YOU GUYS ARE HAPPY WITH.
“There’s probably more of a process and more of a group now to potentially voice some of those opinions and try to get them across.. probably more than there’s ever been. You can say and voice those thoughts and that’s really kind of the end of it. It’s not our sand box, so at the end of the day, we might have an opinion or might try to voice it and do it through the correct channels, but ultimately the final decision is not up to us. So from me personally, that’s kind of where you lead it and you can just hope for the best. Like I said, it’s not our sand box and there’s not really a whole lot we can do about it.”
NASCAR IS SUPPOSED TO HAVE A CRASH TEST IN OHIO NEXT WEEK. WHAT KIND OF COMMUNICATION ARE YOU DRIVERS GETTING ON THIS AND ARE YOU HOPEFUL THAT WILL LEAD TO SOMETHING?
“I haven’t heard any of the rumors and I haven’t heard much about that particular test. But heck, we had plenty of enough time to test this car, crash it and do all the things that we need to do to ensure that some of these things aren’t happening that are happening now. We had a ton of time to do that. And this car was delayed an entire calendar year, on top of that. You have to think, we got an extra year of time to work on it and we’re still in this position.
There’s no excuse for going backwards. We have too many smart people, too much technology, too many years of crashing and racing at all of these same race tracks to have some of these things going on, in my opinion. Test next week or no test next week; we should not be in the position that we’re in. When you come out with a new product, you should take steps forward; not stay the same or go backwards, especially in the safety category, in my opinion.
And look, don’t take me the wrong way.. we’re very fortunate and I’m very grateful to do what I do. This is my job and that’s crazy, right. I’m not ungrateful for what I have and the opportunities that have been presented to me. But you just hate to see something take steps the wrong way.”
OBVIOUSLY, A LOT OF FRUSTRATION AND WE’RE SENSING IT NOT JUST FROM YOU.. WHAT WOULD BE THE RIGHT THING RIGHT NOW?
“Obviously, last week was a bummer, for the sake of the entire race and all of the guys that wrecked, myself included. I didn’t really feel like we did anything wrong and unfortunately we were punished for it, along with a lot of other drivers and teams. But I don’t really know what you do today. From Texas last week to Talladega tomorrow, I’m not sure what is realistically feasible to have that quick of a fix. I’m just disappointed that we have put ourselves in this box to begin with. It’s not realistic to change something in six days. I just hate that we put ourselves in the position that we’re in. As an industry, we’re smarter than that and I know the men and women that work in the garage on these race teams are smarter than that because I work with them every day. I just think we’re better than that and we shouldn’t be where we’re at right now.”
WHEN YOU HAVE TWO DRIVERS GET HURT LIKE THEY HAVE IN THE LAST FEW MONTHS AND NOW YOU’RE AT A TRACK LIKE TALLADEGA WHERE YOU’RE PROBABLY GOING TO HAVE TO DO SOME RISKY MOVES.. HOW DO YOU LOOK AT THIS WEEKEND IN THE SENSE OF WHAT THE POTENTIAL IS AND WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING FROM A PERSONAL POINT-OF-VIEW?
“That’s a tough one and I’m not really sure what the right answer is. But you come off a week like we had at Texas and somebody getting injured and you’re coming into here, where odds are we’re probably all going to hit something at some point tomorrow and probably not lightly. Do you just not show up.. do you just not run? I don’t think that’s feasible to ask. There’s always an inherent risk in what we do and it’s always been that way. My frustration, as I’ve referenced here in the past few minutes, is I just hate that we put ourselves in the box that we’re in right now. It’s just disappointing that we’ve put ourselves here and we had the choice. We did this to ourselves as an industry and that just should have never been the case. We should not have put ourselves in the box that we’re in right now.
So my disappointment lies in that.. that we had years in time and opportunity to make this thing right before we put it on track and we didn’t. And now, we’re having to fix it and I just hate that we did that. Like I said, I think we’re smarter than that and I think there’s just a lot of men and women that work in this garage that know better and we shouldn’t have been here.
But as far as the race goes, unfortunately or fortunately, however you want to look at it; you have to go and do your best to try and win and do all of the same things that you would do in the past to give yourself an opportunity to win the race. I don’t really see that you have a ton of choices, other than just try to trust in the process that things are going to get better and hope we’re taking steps in the right direction and we’re doing it in a timely manner.”
YOU KNOW THE HISTORY OF THE SPORT, SO YOU HAVE A LITTLE BIT MORE KNOWLEDGE THAN MAYBE SOME OTHERS. BUT YOU ARE PART OF A GENERATION OF DRIVERS THAT, FOR THE MOST PART, HAVEN’T HAD TO WORRY AS MUCH ABOUT SAFETY BECAUSE THE SPORT HAS HAD A VERY GOOD SAFETY RECORD FOR SO MANY YEARS. WHAT IS THIS PERIOD LIKE IN HAVING TO MAYBE ADDRESS OR LOOK AT THIS ISSUE MORE THAN YOU HAVE THROUGHOUT MUCH OF YOUR RACING CAREER?
“Obviously, things have gotten better over the years, for sure. There’s been a ton of gains in how the cars are built. I feel like, in the past, we always as an industry and even from the outside looking in before I was a part of it; if they weren’t on the forefront of something happening, they took those experiences that they had and they made it a lot better in a short period of time and that has been going on for years. Granted, there’s been some bad accidents and we’ve lost drivers over the years and nobody ever wanted to see that; but the safety aspect has improved and gotten better and better. I feel like NASCAR has been super on top of that in years past and that’s why I’m just so disappointed and shocked that we went backwards in what we did, especially in this day in age and all the things we have access to and whatnot.
That’s my point and I’m not going to say much more than that, other than I’m just disappointed that we put ourselves in the box that we’re in. We’re better than that. We shouldn’t be here. We had plenty of time to build this car the right way; to crash test it the right way, come out of the box and hit the ground running to put on a great show for the people that are watching. Let that be the story and put the best foot forward to keep drivers from getting injured. There’s always going to be risk and that’s part of it. We all accept that and we’re all very grateful to do what we do. I certainty am very lucky, whether we’re in the position that we’re in or not. So don’t take me the wrong way, but I just hate that we got ourselves in the box that we’re in because we shouldn’t be here.”
GIVEN EVERYTHING THAT YOU JUST SAID AND EMPHASIZED OVER THE LAST COUPLE OF MINUTES AND HOW THE INDUSTRY IS SMARTER THAN THIS.. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? HOW DID WE GET TO THIS POINT WHEN WE HAD ALL OF THIS TIME TO BUILD THIS CAR?
“I don’t know… you tell me. I don’t have a good answer for you on that. I really don’t. That is what baffles me. I have no idea how we got here.”
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