Toyota Racing – Martin Truex Jr.
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (August 26, 2022) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Martin Truex Jr. was made available to media prior to the Daytona International Speedway race this Saturday:

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

What are your thoughts on having a chance to race into the Playoffs tomorrow night?

“Well, yeah, first off, I mean, obviously, we’re all thinking about Kurt (Busch) and wishing him the best and hopefully, he gets better and he can come back and do what he loves to do. He’s been a good teammate this year. First time I’ve worked with him and you know, Toyota that’s been fun. So wish him the best and yeah, for us, we’re not in until it’s over tomorrow night. I don’t really have any feelings either way. We’re here to race and excited and two scenarios, one we get in on points, or we win the race. That will be optimum because of the points situations. But yeah, we’ll see. You know, we just kind of how it all plays out and we can make our own way in there.”

Did you talk to anyone about the possibility of having a chance now to race into the Playoffs?

“I hadn’t talked to anybody about anything. I heard the news just like everybody else. So yeah, I don’t know. I don’t really know what went into the process and for Kurt not being in the Playoffs. He probably didn’t feel right taking the spot. I don’t know that would be different if it was anybody else in that 16th position. I really don’t know. We didn’t have those conversations. So yeah. That’s all I know. But yeah, it’s a good opportunity for us and you know, obviously it’s not been the season we’ve wanted. It would have been nice to be locked in. You never want to come here to Daytona and not be locked in and having to make something happen. So that’s why, you know, we’ll just go race tomorrow night, see what happens and really not thinking about it either way, to be honest with you.”

How do you approach the race tomorrow night with the points gap to Ryan Blaney?

“I think we need to go race and try to stay at the front and try to get stage points. You know, like I said, best case scenario for us would be to go out and win because you know, the owner’s championship points side of things. You know, what, you have to fall back on that last spot. We won’t be in on owner’s points. So it’s not really what you hope to accomplish, right. So we’ll just say like I said, I mean, I think we had a really strong car here in February. Led a ton of laps won two stages. Then we got kind of banged up and then finished kind of tore up so you didn’t have the speed at the end of the race. But I had a really strong day going and Talladega went good as well. So I feel like our car is really fast here. And hopefully we can take advantage of that. Would be a fun way to win one here with everything on the line.”

Does Drew Herring approach spotting with this car at this track differently?

“We haven’t talked specifically about tomorrow night yet. I’m sure we will. Probably tomorrow but or tonight but I think for us it’s kind of just been an evolution process of working together at these types of race tracks and trying to just get better at and working together and you know, kind of just feeling things come quicker and be more aggressive and you know, me not checking my mirror when he says to move. That’s takes a little while, you know, the first couple times you’re like, ‘Yeah, but I’ll check. I know, it’s close, you know?’ And then you get to where you just get more comfortable and you trust that guy. So I feel like we’ve made some really good gaines on the on the speedway’s and this year has been pretty good for us. So hopefully we can continue to, to work on that and get better as the night goes on tomorrow night and be in position to take advantage of it at the end.”

If you do advance into the Playoffs, do you feel confident heading into Darlington?

“I do yeah, we had a strong run there back earlier in the year. We got in some trouble late. Like we ran top five around the top five most of the day. We need to be a little better there than we were the last time. I feel good about it. And I feel like we’ll have a good shot at going there and running well.”

Is it possible for this race to become even more of a wild card?

“You never know what to expect here but you know it’s going to be wild and crazy and there will be a lot of crashes. Rain in the area. Who knows when it could end. Does it even go the full distance? Weather tomorrow looks about like today. So you know, they brought the last regular season race here for a reason. Right? Drama and craziness and that’s what we’re going to see. So that’s why you know, for me, I’m just like, we’re just going to go out there and race and try to put our best race out there and hope that we can get it done, but I don’t have feelings either way, right now, whether we’re going to make it or we’re not. We’re going to go a race and see how it all unfolds. And there’s a lot of things that can happen and we’ll just see what happens and take it from there.”

Could you envision a scenario where you help Ryan Blaney win to ensure you get in on points?

“If he (Ryan Blaney) ended up in front of me at the end, and I wouldn’t have a problem pushing him. I’m not going to push a guy that hasn’t won yet. So I mean, yeah, obviously, I’m going to do what I feel like is the best opportunity for me to win or be in position to win so that would probably be the best scenario. Push Blaney into the lead and pass him coming to the checkers.”

Do you still have a love, hate relationship with Daytona or are you feeling more optimistic?

“I’d say I’m pretty optimistic. You know what we did in February, we can continue that and but yeah, I mean, just you have to stay out of the accidents, right? Because I mean, that’s the hardest thing to do here is you never know where they’re going to happen. You can be running second or third. You can be running 30th and trying to stay out of the mess so in February we led a bunch, like I mentioned, had a little trouble on pit road went back mid pack and coming back through and there’s a crash so you just never know when or where it’s going to happen. But yeah, I mean, as far as our speed goes and the things we’ve been working on between Drew (Herring, spotter) and I and James (Small, crew chief) just feel more confident. This year, I think with this car in general has run well for us and we’re feeling pretty good.”

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Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang, signed a multi-year extension with Team Penske earlier this week. He spoke about that, along with other issues, in the infield media center this afternoon.

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang – YOU HAVE BEEN INVOLVED IN THE NEW NASCAR DOCU-SERIES. WHAT WAS THAT LIKE? “I think everyone has seen the success that Drive to Survive had with reaching out to the non-fan or maybe casual fan of F1, and seeing how much that turned around even with me how much my point of view. I watched it casually, but I’d say I watch it a little more intently now as you learn a little bit more about how their sport works and really peeling back the curtains of not necessarily their personal lives that I really care about, but it’s how the race team is run and how they do things differently than what we do here in NASCAR. Those things were intriguing to me, so I think it’s pretty obvious it was successful and I think it’s smart for us to look for ways to do the same thing, which we did. I’ve been able to watch the first episode so far as the approval and it’s very entertaining, like highly entertaining and it’s a good mix of preparing for racing, personal lives, and the race itself, which may actually be the smallest part of it because everyone gets to see the race on Sunday anyway. You don’t have to tell that story again because everyone knows how it goes, but at least the preparation side of it and how my competitors do it and those type of things I’m interested in. I like watching that stuff as well. It kind of reminds me of that show a long time ago when they followed Kenny Wallace and Fedewa and all those guys. It was pretty entertaining, so it’s a step in that direction, for sure, and I think it’s gonna be great. I really don’t see it where it’s bad for the sport. It has some drama in it. It’s life. It shows life and it follows different drivers on different weeks, so I think it’s gonna be great for our sport, for sure. I think it was a hole in our sport that needed to be filled.”

HOW TRUE WAS IT BECAUSE YOU’VE EXPERIENCE THEM BEING THERE WITH THEM? “I can only speak on my behalf on my stuff, and it’s pretty true there. There are some editing ways and kind of how they create a character, in a way, but I wouldn’t say they’re far off on a lot of it. I thought it was good. They came to my house and they shot what I said was OK to shoot and they didn’t what I said I didn’t want them to see. The only thing I don’t want them to see is I don’t want people to know where I live. That’s a security piece. I don’t want that and they were respectful about that. I said, ‘Here are the things that I’m willing to show,’ and we lived our life and they filmed it. I can’t say we did anything differently than what we typically would do. It was good. We did that. They put some go-pros in the pickup truck on our way up to Bristol and had a truck full of kids screaming. It was life and they filmed it. It’s gonna be fun to watch that and how everybody does things differently and how lives are different away from the racetrack. Everyone has different amount of kids or married or not or whatever. Everyone has a different life. It’s kind of fun to see.”

CAN YOU CONFIRM THE TERM OF YOUR CONTRACT EXTENSION AND IS SPONSORSHIP LINED UP FOR THE DURATION OF THAT? “I can’t speak on the terms. I’m sure everyone can probably put a few things together and figure most of it out, but it’s definitely a long-term deal that’s gonna be great for all of us. Shell and Pennzoil and Team Penske, and honestly I think about it and it’s such a no-brainer for me. I was in a great situation. I feel very loyal to my partners and Roger and in Shell and Pennzoil that picked me up when no one else was going to, and gave me an amazing opportunity to win a bunch of races and a championship and have the opportunity to continue that relationship is, to me, like I said, a no-brainer. I’m in a great spot. We’ve got a winning race car, a secure place to work. When you think of what Penske can offer there, so, to me, it was a pretty easy decision on what to do there, and the continued growing on the team that we have. It’s tough to keep jumping ship, to go from one team to another. It’s not easy to do. You have to re-learn how things work, learn new relationships, who does what and you’re kind of starting from the beginning, where having the continuity of what we see at Team Penske for years to come whether it’s on the 12 with Blaney re-signing, myself, you see we’re gonna be able to work together for a long time and keep building off what we’re doing, and I think that puts us in a place of strength.”

THE PLAYOFFS START AT DARLINGTON, WHERE YOU WON. HOW MUCH CONFIDENCE DO YOU HAVE GOING THERE? “I feel good about it. Really, for the last month I feel really good about our performance, especially how we’ve been executing races. We’ve been really good at that the last month. We’ve maximized what we had. Our cars need to be faster, for sure, and it depends on the type of racetrack, but, to answer your question, Darlington is probably more so in our wheelhouse than any other racetrack. Old wore out surfaces is good for me as a driver and Paul as a crew chief, and the length and type of track that it is as well kind of falls into our wheelhouse. I’m excited about going back to Darlington. Obviously, we have a good place to work off of after we just ran there and had some success, so we can kind of tweak that setup some and hopefully be a little stronger than we were the last time.”

YOU, BLANEY AND SUAREZ HAVE ALL RE-SIGNED IN THE LAST FEW DAYS. WHAT MUST IT BE LIKE FOR KYLE BUSCH TO DEAL WITH THE DISTRACTION OF HIS SITUATION? “It’s a fair question and I can’t answer it for him. I can answer it for myself and just going through the quick negotiations that there was. Roger flew in. We met for three hours and we shook hands and we left. That’s how that worked and that’s how it worked the time before and it works smooth like that because we both understand each other’s side and we come to a neutral ground that makes sense for everybody and we both walked out of the room feeling like we got a good deal. That’s what a good deal is – when both sides win. That’s a good deal. We’ve been able to accomplish that for the last 10 years already, so I can say when it happens that quickly and you just move on the distraction is minimal because it just happens. Boom, it’s over. But knowing the negotiation is coming you have to prepare for it and that is a distraction and that’s just with one team. What if you were out there talking to four or five different teams all at the same time and trying to drive the race car and trying to live your life and be a dad and be a husband. Holy moley. I don’t know if I can do it and be 100 percent at any of it. It’s just a balance. I don’t know if it’s possible for me. I can’t speak for anybody else. I’m just speaking for myself. That’s one of the main reasons why I feel so at home where I’m at.”

HOW DO YOU APPROACH THIS RACE? WILL IT BE THE SAME AS BEFORE? “Yeah, it’s last chance. It’s your last shot to get in and everyone has the opportunity to win this thing – everybody has – and, yeah, I think this race plays differently than some of the other superspeedways. Some of it is because points don’t matter for a lot of people. They matter for us. We can get up there in points still and turn those into playoff points, but there are some teams that may not race for stage points because what does it matter? They’ve just got to survive and have something to race with at the end, so why would you take yourself out before that? You’re gonna have that, but I do think at the end of the race desperate people do desperate things and if this is your chance to get into the playoffs and know what that means for your team, and you have to make a risky move, the risky move is gonna happen even if it’s a two percent chance of it succeeding. It’s gonna happen. To me, there’s a 100 percent chance that they’re gonna crash at the end of this thing at some point. I don’t see how you don’t. I don’t see how it doesn’t happen. I’ll be surprised if it doesn’t happen in the last five laps, but it’s just a situation that we are put in coming here to Daytona, a superspeedway, with what’s on the line. It’s kind of asking yourself, ‘What would you do to win the Daytona 500?’ Well, what would you do to get in the playoffs? A lot of them are gonna say, “I’d wreck my mother to do it.’ That’s what a lot of them would say and, most likely, you’re gonna see something like that tomorrow night. Hopefully, the bright red and yellow Shell/Pennzoil Mustang is in front of all that and get a trophy at the end of the day.”

DO YOU HAVE A PLAN TO GO FOR THE WIN OR TRY TO HELP RYAN GET IN THE PLAYOFF HUNT WITH WHERE HE IS IN POINTS? “Ryan is in a pretty good spot after Kurt’s news earlier this week, unfortunately for him but I guess for Ryan it puts him in a better spot. It puts him in a better spot to make the playoffs to make the playoffs throughout this race. There are still situations that can happen that knocks him out, obviously, and I’ll be as good of a teammate as I always am and as good as I can be and work together as best as possible, but, the bottom line is I get paid to win the race too and I need to go out there and try to win the race as well. You can’t do it on your own. You’ve got to have people to work together with, but we eventually have to go race each other too at some point.”

HOW WILL THE TRACK BE WITH THE RAIN IN COMPARISON TO THE SPRING? “The rain is not gonna affect it much after the first run and the track takes some rubber – the Xfinity race tonight should rubber it in some, so I guess it won’t be that bad. It’s all about track temp. That’s really the biggest difference from the spring race to the fall race is the track temp. If it’s hot, it’s slick and you’re sliding around and the pack gets a little looser. If there’s a ton of grip, the pack seems to be a little tighter and that’s kind of what changes it up the most. Handling will come more into play, but as the sun goes down your track temp really doesn’t get much different than what it is in February in the 500.”

THERE ARE A LOT OF DIFFERENT SCENARIOS FOR RYAN AND MARTIN. IS THERE A SITUATION WHERE HE MAY HAVE TO PUSH TRUEX TO A WIN AS OPPOSED TO YOU OR ANOTHER FORD? “I don’t see where Blaney pushing Martin would be better than pushing his teammate. It would be the same result for Blaney. His teammate would have a win, which would be good for Team Penske. I guess I don’t see how that situation would play out. The worst thing that could happen for them is if there is if someone outside the playoffs now wins their way in and then Martin gains 25 points on Blaney. That would be the way he’s out, which I don’t know how likely that is. It’s very possible here at Daytona. If there is one place, it’s here so it can happen, but I can’t tell you exactly how Blaney is gonna call the race and what he’s gonna do. I think a lot of it depends and it’s a little bit off feel too on how the race is going and what’s going on the first couple stages before you make your decisions at the end of the race.”

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Coke Zero Sugar 400 Advance | Friday, August 26, 2022

Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang, recorded his first NASCAR Cup Series victory in this event in 2014. He stopped by the infield media center to announce that he will be back next season with sponsor Smithfield.

ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang – “I’m here to announce that I’ll be back. I know that doesn’t come as a surprise to many of you, but I put a lot of thought and a lot of discussing it with Janice and the kids and, ultimately, the subject continued to get broached from the race team and Smithfield and through all of that dialogue, mainly with the race team and Smithfield, it was very evident that not only did they want me back, but that Smithfield wanted to increase their marketing campaign around NASCAR and around me. So, they’ve decided to come back for a multi-year agreement, which is incredible. The amount of support that they have given to me and my family throughout my career is humbling, so when Shane Smith called me, the CEO of Smithfield and said, ‘Hey, we really want you to reconsider retiring. We want you to come back and drive our race car.’ It’s really hard to say no. I did tell him, ‘Let me talk to Janice and let me think about it, let me pray about it, and we did and there was a lot of back and forth discussion. Ultimately, it just feels right. I told you guys down here at the beginning of the year that I was retiring and it was for a family decision and this is still very much a family decision. Janice and the kids and I talked a lot about it and I think the person that probably has the most sacrifice involved is Janice, but the kids were ecstatic that they still get to come and be with their friends and there is a community that is involved and associated with what we do. This year, I took the opportunity to really soak it all up and embrace this year, and I have found a renewed sense of what a work/life balance looks like this year. I think by the time the year is over Janice and the kids will have come to about 28 races. I think many of you might not come to 28 races, so it’s been really good for us to find that balance. Everything has worked out to make it make sense for me to be able to continue to race with the kids’ activities. We’ve moved some things around to where they’re doing most of their activities during the week and the school that they’re involved in now, Friday is a satellite day to where they have to work. They work and they turn in their work on a computer, so they’re literally sitting in the bus right now as I’m sitting here talking to you trying to finish up their school work. Our family dynamic has changed. Things have changed and it just feels right. It feels like a blessing and a wonderful opportunity to continue to do what I love to do, and I think I made that very clear when I announced that I was gonna retire that I wasn’t retiring because I didn’t enjoy racing anymore, I was retiring because I was willing to make a sacrifice for my family because, ultimately, my family is the most important thing to me. Winning races and making money and all of those things, I was willing to make that sacrifice to make sure I was being the husband I needed to be and the father I needed to be, and through this year Janice and I just found a wonderful balance to where I still can be the husband that I want to be and the father that I want to be and we did some really cool stuff this year. I forgot just what a wonderful opportunity it is to be a race car driver. Not only do I get to do what I love to do, but we get to travel around the country and go to all sorts of different cities, so we took that opportunity this year. We went to the Arch in St. Louis. We went to the stadium where the Cardinals play. We’ve been to baseball games in Philly when we went to Pocono. We went to a Tigers game when they were playing the Tampa Bay races when we were in Detroit for the Michigan race. We’ve taken family road trips between Phoenix and Vegas. We went to Zion and hiked and we’ve just really taken this year to kind of embrace it and soak it all up and I think as a family we’re not ready for it to end yet.”

HOW MUCH OF A MINDSET CHANGE IS THIS NOW? “Honestly, not much of a mindset change because I’ve been so focused on competition. I think my commitment and my effort to performing at the highest level has never changed, and so I think the biggest thing for me is just looking ahead into the off-season, where I was like, ‘All right, once we get to the off-season I’ll be able to catch my breath and we’ll figure out whatever is next.’ I don’t for right now have to figure out whatever is next. I know what’s next. I’m gonna continue to drive a race car. I’m looking forward to it and I’m excited about it, but you have to remember I’ve been doing this for a long time. I’m going into my 12th season next year. It’s pretty routine, so from a mindset standpoint nothing really changes.”

SMITHFIELD HAS SIGNED FOR MULTIPLE YEARS. WHAT ABOUT YOU? DOES YOUR DEAL COINCIDE WITH THEIRS? “You’ll have to continue to ask me about it later on next year. I don’t know. For right now, that’s the plan. For right now, they’ve agreed to come back for a multi-year agreement. They’ve increased their investment in this sport and in the race team, back to the levels they were at in 2018-2019. That was one thing that really hit home for me was when I talked to Shane. He came down here to the Daytona 500 this year and that was his first race in many, many, many years. He grew up in North Carolina and was a fan of this sport way back when, and he’s been running the European operations for Smithfield for the last 10 years or so. He has now been promoted to CEO and he came to the Daytona 500 and was blown away when he walked around and just seeing the level of excitement, the enthusiasm for this sport, the sold-out grandstands, the viewership, just everything that he’s seen with this sport and just walking around and seeing the people that are here – all of the campers that are here throughout the infield, everybody tailgating and cooking out. Shane just said, ‘These are our people. These are our customers. We’ve been marketing to them and telling them a story and trying to get support for our brand from this core group of people for 11 years. We’re heavily invested in this market and we want to continue to be.’ He saw it first hand when he was here that the NASCAR fans are so brand loyal to the corporate sponsors that are involved in the sport. He knows and he feels very confident that their participation in this sport and sponsoring a race car and being involved gives them the opportunity to talk directly to their customer, and so when these fans that camp out, sit in the stands, tune in to watch on TV, when they go to the grocery store and they have a choice to make in the meat aisle, we all hope that they will go and pick up the Smithfield brand of meat to take it home to cook it or to bring it to the racetrack to grill out and cook out and we have a lot of data that kind of backs that up and supports it as well.”

HOW LONG DID YOU TAKE ON THE DECISION TO COME BACK? “It was a few weeks, to be honest, and there was a lot of talking back and forth like, ‘What does the sponsorship look like? Are they going to scale back? Are the going to stay flat or are they going to increase their level of investment and what does that look like and what does that look like for me? Are they gonna sponsor half of the year and do we have to find a sponsor for the other half of the year?’ All of those things played a key role in trying to iron out all the details. The first question was, ‘Would you reconsider?’ So I said, ‘Let me think about it. Let me talk to Janice. Let me pray about it.’ And then after about a week of having those discussions it was like, ‘Yes, I will reconsider, but x, y and z. What’s the answer to this? What’s the answer to this?’ And we worked through that for probably the next month to six weeks. I know it got put out last week that it was happening, but as of last week it still wasn’t done. There was still some things that needed to be ironed out in the details and so, to be fully transparent with all of you guys, it was done this week. We actually all came to agreement on all of the terms as of this week and that’s why we’ve announced it today.”

HOW DID THE KIDS REACT? “Both of the kids were elated. Abby said, ‘Does that mean we have to wait to get a horse?’ And I said, ‘Yes.’ But Alex and Abby were both very excited to still continue to be here. I think that’s one of the things you have to realize. Alex came to his first race when he was one month old. He was born on September 4th and he came to his first race at Talladega in October. He was one month old. Abby was born on Thanksgiving Day in 2013. Her first race was the Daytona 500 and she was three months old, so our kids don’t know any different. They don’t know really what life looks like away from the racetrack and so they had a little bit of uncertainty as well. It was like, ‘What does that mean when dad is retired.’ Other than I’m gonna be home a lot more, what does that mean? What does that look like? Does that me we won’t get to see any of our friends anymore at the racetrack because we come to a large majority of the races and we have a community center. We have the MRO community center and our kids spend a lot of time at that community center with a lot of the other driver’s kids as well, so that’s their friendship group. They have their friends at school and then they come to the racetrack on the weekends and they have their friends at the racetrack, so they were nervous about what it looked like once we were done racing. Would we never get to see our friends again that were at the racetrack, so they were happy to find out they were gonna get to keep coming.”

WAS SMITHFIELD THE TIPPING POINT IN THIS DECISION? “Absolutely, and I think that’s one thing, for me, that has been just a huge blessing personally and professionally. Smithfield has been the primary sponsor on my race car my entire Cup career and so to continue to have their support and their backing is just an awesome feeling to be their guy and to be wanted. I truly feel like I am part of the Smithfield family and you have to remember that I’ve been part of Smithfield for 11 years. In that 11 years they’ve been through four CEOs. We’ve been through multiple different marketing executives and executives throughout the entire executive level office, so I feel very engrained there and I feel like I’ve done my part as an ambassador for their brand to build relationships, not only with the key people, but the entire organization because as things move and shuffle and change inside their organization, it’s still never wavered in their support of this sport and of me.”

CAN YOU TAKE THE LESSON OF THIS FORWARD TO MAKE NEXT YEAR EVEN BETTER? “I think those are lessons that I’ll keep with me for the rest of my life. I’m a very, very highly competitive person and when I came into this sport it was just me. I just had myself to worry about and then I met Janice and Janice and I dated for a while and then once we got married it was like, ‘Oh, boy. I’m now responsible for you as well,’ and then we had kids and it was like, ‘Oh no, now I’m responsible for two more mouths to feed.’ I always tried to separate home and work, and I felt like to be the best that I needed to be, I needed to be all in on racing. It takes that level of commitment to be really successful at the highest level of any profession, you have to be all in and committed. I found myself for many years putting my family second or actually third often and everything else revolved around racing, the sponsors, all the commitments that came with racing, and I tried to fit in family time when I could. I feel like over the last few years I’ve done a lot better job at that, but as I approached retirement it was like, ‘Man, I want to make sure that we do this together, that we go out holding hands as a family.’ We really soak it all up. We embrace it. We cherish this opportunity because when my kids were younger it was easy. They weren’t gonna remember, but now Alex almost being 10, Abby almost being 9, that changes things. They’re gonna remember this time in their life forever, so I wanted to make sure that it was done and we did it right on the way out. Yeah, I think for the rest of my life I’ll take those lessons learned and make sure that I don’t sacrifice being a great husband and being a great dad at the expense of being a professional and vice versa. I don’t want to sacrifice being a great professional at the expense of being a poor dad or poor husband or absent one.”

WAS SMITHFIELD AN IMPORTANT PART IN YOUR ORIGINAL DECISION? THERE WAS TALK THEY MAY NOT EVEN BE COMING BACK, SO DID YOU NOT WANT TO POTENTIALLY START OVER WITH A NEW SPONSOR AND FIGURE YOU AND SMITHFIELD WOULD GO OUT TOGETHER? “Absolutely. That’s a fair question. I think that was very much a factor that was weighed in was, where are they at? They were going through a transition period as well from the current CEO to a new CEO. They weren’t really sure. Shane was just coming in and was trying to get his bearings and from my standpoint I had reached a point to where Alex was still trying to go-kart race on the weekends occasionally. We were playing flag football on Saturdays. I was watching go-kart races on Facetime videos. I was watching flag football games on Facetime videos. I was watching Abby horseback ride on Facetime videos and I was sitting at the track in my motorhome, so you take those things, you weigh them out and I was like, ‘Man, what am I doing? Do I really want to continue the grind? Do I want to continue being gone from my family 40 weeks a year and hustling to find sponsorship money and trying to put all of this effort and focus into studying SMT data and constantly going here, going there for sponsors and doing media requests? All these things you have to do and I’m not complaining about it because I have the coolest job in the world, and I’ve signed up for it and I’ve loved every minute of it, but it is a grind. I’m telling you, it is long, it is a long year, it is a lot of work, so I just found myself at times going like, ‘What am I doing?’ And things changed for us. We got our kids into a school where Fridays are satellite days so they could travel with me. Alex, on his own, decided that he wanted to play baseball so we signed up for a baseball league where his games are on Tuesdays and Thursday nights. I haven’t missed a single baseball game. Our circumstances in our life changed to where it just made more sense to be able to stay out here on the road and continue to do what I love to do and my family still be a part of it.”

DOES ALEX HAVE ANY INTEREST IN RACING? “If he was sitting here right next to me he would say yes, and I think he does, but we’ve kind of pumped the brakes on that for right now. He’s really, really into baseball and it’s been so fun for me. I played baseball up to high school and growing up in Florida, a little Hispanic community, every Hispanic kid in Florida plays baseball year round and so did I. I predominantly played baseball and raced as well when I could, and as I got older racing became more important than baseball, but, for me, as his father, I have so much fun going out in the yard and throwing the baseball with him and going to baseball practice. I’m actually the assistant coach on the baseball team and it’s just been so much fun to be out there on the field with the kids. Mom and dad are still pushing baseball pretty heavy, plus it’s way, way cheaper. We can play baseball for a whole year for what it costs for a set of tires.”

WILL DREW STAY THE COURSE WITH YOU? “Yeah, I think Drew will stay the course with me. I don’t want to speak for the race team and speak for Zippy, but as far as I know Drew will stay with me. Drew has been a wonderful addition to the race team. He is such a great team leader and the guys on the team love him. I really enjoy working with him. It’s been a lot of fun working with Drew this year, so I think, as far as I know, that’s the plan. It would be news to me if it wasn’t.”

WHAT ROLE DID THE ACCIDENT AT KANSAS IN 2017 PLAY IN YOUR DECISION TO ORIGINALLY RETIRE? “Every time we strap into a race car there’s always a risk involved, but I’ve known that since I was a kid. There’s a risk when you get in a go-kart. There’s a risk involved when I modified raced through late model racing, so I’ve always known that and that’s the risk that I’ve always been willing to take because I love to race so much. The adrenaline rush for me and the thrill of competition has always outweighed the risk factor and that still remains the same for me. Obviously, when you do get older you have more people depending on you. Now I have a wife that depends on me. I have two kids that depend on me, so circumstances certainly change over the years, but, for me, I still accept those risks as a race car driver and want to go out and perform and compete. That thrill always just outweighs the risk.”

NASCAR CUP SERIES
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
COKE ZERO SUGAR 400
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
AUGUST 26, 2022

WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series race weekend at Daytona International Speedway, where Saturday’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 will be the series’ regular season finale. Press Conference Transcript:

BOTH OF YOUR TEAMMATES – KYLE LARSON AND CHASE ELLIOTT – WERE INVOLVED IN THAT INCIDENT, IF THAT’S WHAT YOU WANT TO CALL IT, AT WATKINS GLEN. BUT THEY SAID RECENTLY THAT THEY HAD A MEETING AND EVERYTHING IS SETTLED. WERE YOU A PART OF THAT MEETING AND WHAT WAS YOUR TAKE ON THAT WHOLE SITUATION?

“Yeah, we’re always a part of those meetings. For us, competition meetings happen every Monday at noon. It was just an open discussion, dialogue, and I thought it went well. I’ve always had respect and raced well with all of my teammates. I feel like we all get along well and I feel like we all work together when possible. I mean obviously there’s not a ton of places where you can work together anymore; but the speedways, Martinsville restarts and things like that, Chase (Elliott) and I have worked together well on. And Kyle (Larson), too. In the Xfinity race, we worked well together.”

IN GENERAL, WHAT’S THE STANDARD OF WHAT YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO EXPECT FROM HOW TO RACE A TEAMMATE? THAT SITUATION ASIDE, WHEN YOU’RE RACING WITH THEM EVERY WEEK, ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO GIVE THEM EXTRA ROOM? DOES GOING FOR THE WIN CHANGE IT? WHAT DO YOU EXPECT FROM THAT?

“It’s tricky. In NASCAR today, there are so many other factors; like who’s behind you on a restart is a factor. So, that makes a decision different for you based on the loyalty, or lack thereof. I think all of those things factor in.

But when it comes to directly racing your teammate; for us, it’s just not making contact. We’re expected to trust the other three guys a little bit more than the rest of the field. I think that’s just the way that I approach it. If I do make some accidental contact.. like with Kyle (Larson) and I on restarts, or Chase (Elliott) and I, or Alex (Bowman) and I; it’s definitely not intentional to try and hit them. But yeah, just trying to race them with a little more trust I’d say. I’d say the biggest word is just ‘trust’.”

WITH HOW MUCH SPEED THAT YOU GUYS HAD AT THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR, HOW DANGEROUS DO YOU FEEL LIKE THE NO. 24 TEAM CAN BE IN THE PLAYOFFS?

“Yeah, we haven’t shown it in a while; but like Indy Road Course, we had top four speed. On all of the metrics that I looked at, we were a second-place car at the Indy Road Course, so that was a really good race for us. The last couple, we’ve kind of been on the edge of the top-10, not quite getting there at the end of the race.

But I think honestly a lot of the tracks in the playoffs are really good tracks for us. Obviously we had a great run going at Darlington. I feel like at Kansas.. we were leading the race, had a flat left rear tire, which was back when we were all having left rear tire problems, and damaged the entire underbody of the car. So we went from leading that race – Kurt (Busch) was second at that time – to I think we finished 15th or 16th because the car had no more downforce after that. Those two tracks are really good for us. Bristol ast year we finished third. I don’t really look past those, but I think as we get into the second and third round, those are great tracks too. I feel optimistic for really all of them. Homestead is back in there.. that was an awesome track. We just had a good test at Martinsville, so I feel like Martinsville can continue to be a good place for us. We just have to get to those.”

Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.

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.

Smithfield To Serve as Anchor Partner of No. 10 Ford Mustang with Largest Allotment of Races as a Primary Partner Since Joining SHR in 2018

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Aug. 26, 2022) – Smithfield Foods and NASCAR Cup Series driver Aric Almirola will continue their longstanding partnership as both return to Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) with a multiyear agreement that begins in 2023.

The 2023 season will be the 12th consecutive year that Smithfield has partnered with Almirola and its sixth together at SHR. The renewed pact comes with a significantly heightened presence as Smithfield will be the anchor partner of Almirola’s No. 10 Ford Mustang for the largest allotment of races since joining SHR in 2018.

The extension also marks a turnabout for Almirola. The 38-year-old from Tampa, Florida, came into 2022 ready to relish every moment, for his original plan was to retire at season’s end. In the course of this year, Almirola has discovered a new balance between his passion for racing and dedication to his family. His wife, Janice, and kids, Alex and Abby, join him on most race weekends, oftentimes enjoying once-in-a-lifetime experiences together as they travel the country. His rapport with crew chief Drew Blickensderfer has flourished, and the intense pressure he had put on himself was replaced with the joy of simply being present. Almirola was reinvigorated, and when Smithfield broached the subject of continuing together beyond 2022, Almirola accepted.

“I’ve learned a lot this year and perhaps the biggest learning was to never say never,” Almirola said. “I came into this year ready to soak everything up, and I have. I already knew I had the coolest job in the world, but being with my family and being there for Janice and Alex and Abby was really important. My desire to compete and win never wavered, but I didn’t want it to come at the expense of family. We found a way to accommodate both and I’ve never been happier.

“Smithfield is a big part of that. They’ve been a part of my life for 11 years and, really, my entire NASCAR Cup Series career. They’re family to me. And, of course, it’s always nice to be wanted. Smithfield wanted me to continue representing them. Stewart-Haas Racing wanted me to continue driving their racecars. Everything just aligned and it’s something we all embraced.

“The original decision to step away from fulltime racing at the end of the season was a family one, and so is this decision. Janice, Alex and Abby are just as excited as I am to continue racing the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang.”

The Smithfield/Almirola pairing is one of the most tenured in NASCAR. Almirola teamed up with Smithfield in 2012 while at Richard Petty Motorsports for his first full year in the NASCAR Cup Series. Almirola and Smithfield moved to SHR in 2018 where the two immediately found success, making the NASCAR Playoffs, winning in October at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway and finishing a career-high fifth in points. Almirola went on to score a career-best 18 top-10 finishes in 2020 before earning another victory in 2021 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon to put him into the playoffs for a fourth consecutive season.

“Aric has been a part of the Smithfield family for more than a decade and we’re very happy to have him back in the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang,” said Shane Smith, president and CEO, Smithfield Foods. “Just as Aric discovered new ways to enjoy this sport, Smithfield did too. I was at this year’s Daytona 500 with him and it was electric. NASCAR is exactly where we need to be. It’s where our customers are, and no one reaches them better than Aric Almirola. He’s an incredibly talented racer and devoted family man who embodies Smithfield’s values. From day one, Aric has embraced our commitment to do good for our customers, employees and communities. This is a reinvestment in Aric, in Stewart-Haas Racing and in NASCAR.”

Tony Stewart, co-owner of SHR with Haas Automation founder Gene Haas, was a driving force behind Almirola joining SHR in 2018. Stewart first met Almirola in 2004 when they were teammates at Joe Gibbs Racing. Stewart was already a NASCAR Cup Series champion with the first of his three titles in hand (2002, 2005 and 2011) while Almirola was just beginning his NASCAR career after being selected as one of the first two drivers for Gibbs’ diversity program.

“All of us at SHR are very happy to have Aric back in our Smithfield Ford Mustang,” Stewart said. “I’ve always admired Aric because he’s always working to better himself, to find a better way. This year is proof of that.

“We’re in a tough sport, in terms of the competition and in terms of the commitment it takes to compete at this level. Even with all that, Aric has found a way to compete and enjoy life. That sounds simple, but achieving it is hard, yet Aric makes it look simple. It’s one of his many attributes, and it’s one of the many reasons why he’s such a good fit for Smithfield and for us. I’m proud of him and proud to extend our partnership with Smithfield.”

About Smithfield Foods, Inc.:

Headquartered in Smithfield, Virginia, since 1936, Smithfield Foods, Inc., is an American food company with agricultural roots and a global reach. With more than 60,000 jobs globally, we are dedicated to producing “Good food. Responsibly.®” and serve as one of the world’s leading vertically integrated protein companies. We have pioneered sustainability standards for more than two decades, including our industry-leading commitments to become carbon negative in our U.S. company-owned operations and reduce GHG emissions 30 percent across our entire U.S. value chain by 2030. We believe in the power of protein to end food insecurity and have donated hundreds of millions of food servings to our communities. Smithfield boasts a portfolio of high-quality iconic brands, such as Smithfield®, Eckrich® and Nathan’s Famous®, among many others. For more information, visit www.SmithfieldFoods.com, and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.

About Stewart-Haas Racing:

Stewart-Haas Racing is the title-winning NASCAR team co-owned by three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Tony Stewart and Gene Haas, founder of Haas Automation – the largest CNC machine tool builder in North America. The Kannapolis, North Carolina-based organization has won two NASCAR Cup Series titles, one NASCAR Xfinity Series championship and more than 90 NASCAR races, including such crown-jewel events as the Daytona 500, Brickyard 400 and Southern 500. For more information, please visit us online at StewartHaasRacing.com and on social at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn.