NASCAR CUP SERIES
NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
AMBETTER 301
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
JULY 16, 2022

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series race weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Press Conference Transcript:

YOU’RE COMING OFF A PRETTY BIG WIN. HOW WAS YOUR WEEK?

“Yeah, my week was good. I had some things actually scheduled before all of that, so it was a nice, busy week. Always good to come off a win and looking forward to this weekend. (New Hampshire Motor Speedway) has been a not so good place for us really since I started coming up here. Looking forward to another opportunity and try to get a little better up here.”

I SAW AN INSTAGRAM POST FROM A COUPLE DAYS AGO OUT ON THE SOFTBALL FIELD. IS TEHRE A LITTLE SOFTBALL LEAGUE IN DAWSONVILLE OR JUST OUT THERE PLAYING WITH SOME FRIENDS?

“Yeah, I’ve been playing the last four or five years every summer. I enjoy it, it’s fun.”

ARE YOU ANY GOOD?

“No (laughs).”

A GOOD STRETCH FOR YOU LATELY.. THE FIRST DRIVER TO REACH THREE WINS IN THE NEXT GEN CAR. DOES THAT FEEL SIGNIFICANT?

“Wins in any car is good if it’s got the Cup Series logo on it, so that’s good. For us, I feel like we’ve just had a few good weeks. This is a sport that will humble you really fast, so when you come off of a good week, that doesn’t guarantee the next one is going to go that good again. I’ve been down that road and you just kind of ride the wave. It’s been a good wave and you want to try and ride it the best you can, and make it last as long as possible. It’s inevitable that it’s going to go the other direction at some point, so you just try to ride it whatever it brings. Try to stay middle of the road and make sure we’re still learning and putting ourselves in the best position possible for the final 10 (races). That, to me, is the key. Those playoff points and bonus points that you can accumulate to be ready for that is really the goal and that’s the most important piece of the puzzle. Anything we can do to better our chances and better our odds for those last 10 is really what’s top of mind for us and the best way to do that is compete for wins. We’ve been fortunate to do that for a few weeks and hopefully we can do that again up here. If not, we’ll fight for whatever the day can give us.”

IN TERMS OF SHIFTING, DO YOU THINK IT WILL BE SIMILAR AT ALL TO GATEWAY?

“I’m sure we’re going to be shifting. I don’t know whoever came up with the transaxle must have not realized that five was too many (laughs). I don’t know, but five is too many for us I’m afraid for most of these tracks that we go to.

It really doesn’t make a difference.. I just kind of think it’s unnecessary at a lot of these places. Does it really matter? No.. I don’t really care one way or another. I don’t think we should be at ovals, but we’ll definitely be shifting here at least one, probably twice in some scenarios.”

YOU WENT TO THE SHORT TRACK AND RAN A RACE THE OTHER NIGHT. BRAD KESELOWSKI WENT AND RAN THUNDER ROAD. TYLER REDDICK WENT TO RUN A SHORT TRACK RACE LAST NIGHT. WHAT DO YOU THINK THAT SAYS ABOUT RACING AS A WHOLE RIGHT NOW, WHERE YOU AND OTHER DRIVERS IN NASCAR ARE GOING BACK TO GRASSROOTS AND SUPPORTING THOSE LOCAL SHORT TRACKS?

“Yeah, I think it’s a good thing. To me, it’s just the will to want to race that I think is cool. I appreciate that and you want to see the health of short track racing continue to grow. I think anytime you can hop in there and make an impact is great. But to me, when I go do that stuff, I don’t go do it because I feel like I’m going to change it. I do it because I enjoy it; I respect the discipline; I want to learn the discipline; and I want to be better at whatever it is I’m going to run. And to me, that natural desire, will and interest to learn is what is going to fuel it. If we’re interested, then other people could be interested too. It’s not necessarily because you can make a difference, it’s just the respect of a discipline that I think is really cool about it. I think there’s a lot of respect for other disciplines in this garage right now.”

CONTINUING ON THAT NATURAL DESIRE TO LEARN.. EVEN IN YOUR PERIOD OF BEING IN CUP WITH HOW THE SCHEDULE HAS CHANGED AND NOW THE TALK OF A STREET COURSE RACE NEXT YEAR, HOW HAS THE DISCIPLINE OF BEING A DRIVER CHANGED AND HOW HAS THE SCHEDULE CHALLENGED YOU EVEN AS A CHAMPION DRIVER?

“It’s refreshing to go to different places. It’s refreshing to not do the same thing every year. Granted, there are dates that it is important to match up with on a certain calendar month due to the significance of it and I like that.. the Coca-Cola 600 in May, for example.

But I do think there are some events on our schedule that can certainly get stale and it’s nice to go somewhere different. It is challenging from a driver’s standpoint and from a team’s standpoint to tackle a new place, especially one you’ve never been to as you mentioned the street course. But it’s a good opportunity to have an event inside of a big city, like Chicago; potentially have a good crowd and introduce people to our sport that likely wouldn’t make the hour drive out to Chicagoland. To me, that’s the challenge with our sport. Most places we go, we’re 45 minutes to an hour and a half outside almost every big city. I think it is different and unique to potentially have one that’s not that, and that to me is where the focus should be in making it a good event, an exciting event. And one that fans will enjoy, want to come back to and genuinely have fun with.”

FROM A DRIVER’S POINT OF VIEW, HOW MUCH OF A CHALLENGE WOULD A STREET COURSE BE COMPARED TO A ROAD COURSE? WILL IT BE THAT SIGNIFICANT OF A LEARNING CURVE?

“It’s definitely going to be hard, for sure. I don’t necessarily think that just because it’s on the road of a street is going to be the biggest hurdle at first. The biggest hurdle of a new road course is literally learning what corner is coming next. Most places that we’ve been to, I feel like a lot of us have either watched on TV for a long time or have watched other series race at for a long time, so you already kind of have a general understanding of the layout. But when they’re going to create one out of thin air that no one knows or one you’ve never watched, that’s going to take some studying and take some time to recognize the layout; understand the unique pieces of it that can make you better than your competitors.”

THOSE WAVES THAT YOU MENTIONED EARLIER, HOW MUCH ARE YOU GUYS IN CONTROL THERE OR ARE YOU JUST ALONG FOR THE RIDE?

“I don’t want to put myself completely in charge of that because it’s very much a team effort. You can certainly create a lot of your own luck depending upon how well you prepare at the shop; the decisions you make in what setup you want to put underneath the car; how you execute when you get to the race track; the decisions I make on track throughout a race; how Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) calls a race. All of those factors can go into you creating whether or not you’re going to or not going to have a good day. If you make all of those right choices and you have some good fortunate on track and things go your way, likely you’re going to be in for a good afternoon.

To me, the important piece of all of that is just making sure we’re maximizing the things in our control. When you do that, you’re certainly bettering your odds. You’re not guaranteeing that the wave is going to go in your direction, but you’re bettering your odds. To me, that’s what this deal is all about.. just doing the best of things that are in your hands and the rest is what it is. But certainly those choices that you make are crucial to having a good weekend regardless.”

YOU MENTIONED THAT SINCE YOUR ROOKIE YEAR, YOU’VE STRUGGLED HERE AT NEW HAMPSHIRE. WHAT IS IT ABOUT THIS PLACE FOR YOU THAT’S MADE IT SUCH A CHALLENGE?

“Man, I don’t know. It’s not a short track, in my opinion. It’s still a mile, but just very flat. I didn’t race at a ton of super flat tracks as I was short track racing; and the ones I did race at, I was never very successful at. I don’t really know why.. just my habits and the things I look for in the car just don’t necessarily suit some of the things that you need I think to be really good here. So I’ve had to kind of readjust my approach; the things I want in the car and what is actually realistic and achievable in it; and what you’re just not going to get. I think, for me, for most of my trips here, I’ve probably chased after an unrealistic balance dream that just aren’t going to happen. I think at some point you have to recognize that. I think I’ve recognized that. I don’t know exactly know what the road is to success, but I understand that there are things that you’re just not going to get. It might be a little different with this car, but I would say generally the guys that are good up here are probably – if I had to bet – I would say are going to be good again. We’ll see.”

NEW HAMPSHIRE HAS BEEN ON THE SCHEDULE FOR AWHILE. OUTSIDE OF THE TRACK, ARE THERE ANY PLACES THAT YOU LIKE TO GO WHILE YOU’RE HERE?

“I do enjoy this area in the summer. I think it’s really nice. A long ways up here, but it’s nice weather-wise. I spent a little time in Boston. I’ve been to a couple concerts a few years ago and enjoyed the town; thought it was a neat city. I’ve always wanted to go to a Red Sox game, I wish they were in town. I saw Zac Brown was at Fenway last night after I already got to the track, so that was a bummer. I would have loved to have gone and see him.

But yeah, I enjoy the area. It’s not a place where I’ve spent a ton of time at, but I do like coming up here.”

About Chevrolet
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Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
New Hampshire | Saturday, July 16, 2022

Aric Almirola, the defending race winner at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, met with media members Saturday morning ahead of Cup Series practice and qualifying to discuss a myriad of topics.

ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang — YOU RAN SO WELL HERE LAST YEAR AFTER A TOUGH YEAR FOR SHR, WHAT WAS IT ABOUT THIS TRACK THAT BROUGHT YOU AND THE 10 TEAM TO LIFE? ARE THE EXPECTATIONS HIGH THIS YEAR OR IS IT A TOTAL RESET? “Last year I felt like a lot of our struggles was mostly the intermediate race tracks and we race so much of them that it kind of stands out and makes us look bad more routinely because we run so many intermediate race tracks. I felt like we were off on aero and just missing some things. But I felt like our short track program last year was good. We were a top-10 car at Richmond and a top-10 car at Martinsville. We came to Loudon and our car was perfect. We made very minimal adjustments throughout the entire race. We started deep in the field, based on the way that they did the lineups last year with the metrics. We were so far down in points. I think we started 20-something, 24th or 26th or something like that. We drove through the field and had a great day on pit road and our car was good and I did a good job on restarts. It was one of those days where everything goes right and we steadily worked our way through the field and got into the top-five by midway through stage 2 and then raced with the leaders from there and got the lead. Then we led a lot of laps to the finish and just felt like everything went perfectly. When you have days like that, it is kind of easy to go to victory lane. It is the days you have to overcome adversity and challenges and the adversity that we fount most of last year being down on speed at all the intermediate race tracks. So coming to Loudon, yeah, it was a surprise for most people but it wasn’t really a surprise for us. We felt like if we kept massaging on our short track package that we would have cars that we needed to go challenge for wins.”

YOU HAVE RUN WELL ON MOST OF THE FLAT TRACKS THIS YEAR. DO YOU EXPECT THAT TO CONTINUE THIS WEEKEND? “I hope so. Running as good as we have run at Martinsville and Gateway and then coming here and having a lot of high expectations and a lot of confidence coming off the win last year. Loudon has always been a good track for me. I think statistically it is probably my best track. You guys could probably tell me, I don’t dive into all that stuff. But thinking off the top of my head it is a track that I always feel I will run good and have a shot to win if the car does what I need it to do. I think back all the way to the very first time I ever got in a Cup car here. I got in Jimmie Johnson’s car on Saturday morning for practice and went out and made a 20-lap run and went a little faster than he did. That was a huge confidence boost for me. Honestly, that practice really changed the course of my career. After that practice, I went back over to the truck garage and ran really well in the truck race that day. The very next weekend I had a conversation with Dale Jr. about driving his Busch car the following year. Yeah, that practice and then getting that sort of confidence and having Chad Knaus believe in me and everybody at HMS and Dale Jr. asking me to come drive his car, it all started right here with that Saturday morning practice at Loudon driving the 48 car. This place has always been kind of a special place to me.”

WHEN YOU LOOK BACK TO THE VICTORY LAST YEAR, HOW DO YOU FEEL YOUR CAREER HAS CHANGED FROM THAT VICTORY? “I don’t think it is really any different. My career is something I am very proud of and it has been up and down for sure but winning at this level is so hard. It is so competitive. It is the best stock car drivers in the world. To get all the way to this level and to win at this level is very, very difficult. So to do it and to do it at a drivers-type race track, not to say my other wins weren’t, but to do it at Daytona and Talladega was nice but those places take a different style of driving. To do it here kind of cemented for me at least to where I feel like I got it done on a race track to where I needed to.”

WERE YOU SURPRISED THEY DIDN’T PUT ANY RESIN DOWN? “I was surprised they didn’t just because they typically have. Last year they didn’t because we had a tremendous amount of rain leading up to the race weekend and so there was still some grip left over in those areas where they had previously treated it. Throughout the race last year I feel like it was starting to wear off and go away. For them to not treat it this year, I don’t know. I have no idea what to expect. I think it will probably wear out pretty quickly if there is any left, any grip left in those areas. It will probably go away really quickly.”

THERE IS STILL A LOT OF CHATTER ABOUT YOU POTENTIALLY RECONSIDERING YOUR RETIREMENT. HAVE YOU THOUGHT ANY MORE ABOUT THAT? “It is humbling to have people keep questioning me about it. I have given it thought but I don’t have anything new to say really as of right now. I think for us and for our race team, my focus is to get through these next few weeks and try to win a race to get our way into the playoffs. I would like to do that here this weekend like we did last year. As far as anything that goes past this year, I don’t have anything new to say than what I have said previously.”

WHAT IS DIFFERENT ABOUT THIS PLACE THAT ALLOWS SO GUYS TO SORT OF RISE UP AND GET UNEXPECTED SUCCESS HERE? “I don’t know. I always feel like coming to this race track is kind of an acquired taste, so to speak. It is very difficult and unique. You spend more time in the corners than you do on the straightaways because the corners are so wide and so sweeping. I feel like it is very much a driver’s race track. It takes a certain technique and acquired taste. For more, I have always just enjoyed coming here. I have got friends that live up here and just when I come to the New England area, the fans and everybody just embrace stock car racing so much. There is just a really great atmosphere and it is a different feeling for me. Even when we pulled into the track last night. Pulling in and the Xfinity cars were on track for practice. I don’t know, I get giddy when I come here. I get excited. It is a really cool race track.”

WHEN YOU COME HERE TO NEW HAMPSHIRE, IT IS A BIT OF A CHANGE OF SCENERY. IS THERE ANYWHERE YOU LIKE TO GO AROUND NEW ENGLAND? “No, I have some friends that live down in Hampstead and they travel up here. We have been friends for 15-plus years and they have come up there for the last 10-plus years and they camp out just outside the track. We spend a lot of time camping with them and our kids all get along and they are out there running around, playing tag, roasting marshmallows to make S’mores and stuff like that. It is a change of pace when we come up here because it isn’t all about racing and being at the track. It is a little more like you are camping with your buddies and having fun. It feels different for us when we come up here because of that.”

WHAT HAS PUT THAT LITTLE BIT OF DOUBT IN YOUR HEAD TO WHERE YOU ARE THINKING ABOUT MAYBE KEEPING DOING THIS IN ANY FORM? “Because I keep getting asked. Honestly, I haven’t really put much thought into it at all and am kind of just going throughout the course of the year but it keeps getting brought up. The chatter turns into real chatter, more questions are getting asked by decision-makers, not just you guys. It puts that in my head to where I should at least give it thought. As of right now, as I said, I don’t have anything new to add.”

IS SMITHFIELD ATTACHED TO YOU? TO THE 10? “Smithfield isn’t attached to anybody. They are a company that has to make a decision as to what is best for them. They have to get a return on their investment. It doesn’t matter if it is me, the race team or NASCAR. They have to go through that due diligence process on their own.”

BUT THEY ARE GOING TO STICK AROUND? “I don’t know. That isn’t for me to say. They are an independent company and they run their operation and have to figure out what makes the most sense for them and how they can get value on their investment. We have had a lot of talks over the years. The one thing I will say is I am very proud of that relationship. It is something I have worked really hard on throughout the course of my career. It started out as just a sponsorship and then it went from sponsorship to partnership and then over the last five or six years, it has gone form partnership to a relationship. I have really deep meaningful relationships with a lot of people inside that company. I know them very personally and very well. That is something I am really proud of and something that will last way beyond me driving a race car and beyond me representing them as a company. I truly value the personal relationship I have built with many of the people inside that company. As it relates to whether or not they sponsor a race car in NASCAR, that is a decision they have to make as a business decision. That is a lot of money for them to spend to be involved in the sport. I think they have seen the value in that over the last 11 years and that is why they have continued to sponsor a race car in the sport year after year. They feel like all the people that sit in the stands and turn on the TV to watch our races, that is their customer. They believe they have the opportunity by sponsoring a race car in our sport to talk to their customer and make it a decision for them when they go to the grocery store and look in the meat aisle. There is a decision to make for that consumer for what they will pick for a product. The hope is that because they sponsor a NASCAR car that when they go through that meat aisle they will pick up a Smithfield product and put it in their grocery cart. So far, they have all the metrics and information to prove that to be true.”

IS YOUR MINDSET NOW, IN TERMS OF NEXT YEAR, TO MAYBE DO SOME RACING WHERE YOU CAN PICK AND CHOOSE AND NOT HAVE TO GO FULL-TIME RACING? “It is hard to say. I think there are a lot of moving parts and a lot of things to juggle in relation to that. That is a hard sell I have learned. Teams and the sponsor want consistency and for me, yeah, it is really hard to wrap your head around the full-out commitment of what this sport takes. I am 38 years old and have been doing this for a long time. I am not to the point where most of the other guys have retired. Most retire in their early to mid 40’s but for me, I feel like I also had kids younger than most of those guys before me did. Harvick and Jimmie (Johnson) had kids in their 30’s. I had kids in my late 20’s. I know that Alex is going to be 10 in a month and a half. Abby is going to be nine shortly after that. I have just witnessed it with friends of ours that have older kids. When they turn 16 and get car keys, all they want to do is be with their friends. They just ask mom and dad for money and what time curfew is. I just know that I have such a short window to be involved in their life in a meaningful way where they want me around. I will always be involved in their life but there is only a short time where they actually want me to be involved and I just don’t want to miss that opportunity or that window. I think as I evaluate where to go from here and give it real thought, their opinion matters to me because I want it to be something to where it is a family decision. Originally I made that decision based on my family and that won’t change going forward.”

YOU MENTIONED ABOUT THE RESIN POTENTIALLY WEARING OFF A LOT SOONER. WITH THE SHIFTING DONE HERE, DOES THAT TAKE AWAY THE ISSUE OF THE RESIN? “Yes and no. I think Loudon is a place we have always fought for drive off the corners. You kind of struggle for rear grip. It just depends on what tire Goodyear brought, too. At Martinsville, we typically struggle for drive off and then Goodyear brought a tire that was incredibly grippy and didn’t fall off and we didn’t struggle. It is all dependent on the tire Goodyear brought that will really determine whether or not the resin is a factor. I think it is less of a factor of whether or not we shift. If the tire falls off and we lose grip throughout the run, then shifting may or may not pay off because if you downshift then you have more acceleration off the corners and it is easier to wheel spin. There are factors outside of the resin that plays a role.”

THIS WEEK WE SAW BRAD KESELOWSKI RUN A LATE MODEL, TYLER REDDICK RUN A PRO-STOCK, WHAT DO YOU THINK IT SAYS ABOUT RACING AS A WHOLE TO HAVE NASCAR DRIVERS GOING AND RUNNING IN OTHER SERIES’ LIKE THAT? “I think it is awesome. The coolest part about short track racing when you are growing up is turning on the TV on Sunday and watching those guys and having those aspirations to get to that point. So then to have those guys that race on Sunday in the NASCAR Cup Series come to your home track and you have the opportunity to race against them is so cool. It brings so much awareness and attention to short track racing. I think that is needed. I think the hard part about it is that it costs a lot of money. There are a lot of moving parts and the schedules are busy and there are a lot of things you have to factor in on our side to be able to go and do that kind of Saturday night short track racing. I think it is awesome that those guys carved out the time and were able to go do that. I am sure it puts more fans in the stands and puts more attention and spotlight on those races.”

NASCAR CUP SERIES
NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
AMBETTER 301
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
JULY 15, 2022

WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series doubleheader race weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Press Conference Transcript:

WE’VE SEEN A LOT OF DRIVERS SHUFFLING THE PAST COUPLE OF WEEKS. DO YOU THINK IT’S GOING TO BE COMMON NOW THAT WE’RE GOING TO SEE DRIVERS KIND OF NEGOTIATE WELL PAST THEIR CONTRACTS; OR IS THAT AN ANOMALY?

“I think it’s just kind of an anomaly. Tyler (Reddick) is obviously super talented and I think he has a lot of leverage with winning and things like that. But I don’t know.. I don’t think that will be common. It happened with Kevin (Harvick) way back before I was racing, but watched it happen. I just think it’s the way it worked out with that situation.”

CAN YOU SUM UP THE EXPERIENCE AT SLINGER NATIONALS? IT’S JUST ANOTHER WEEK WHERE YOU WIN DURING THE WEEK, SO DO YOU COME INTO THE CUP WEEKEND WITH ANY MORE OF A SPRING IN YOUR STEP AFTER WINNING A SHORT TRACK RACE?

“Yeah, that’s a great question. I had a great time at Slinger. I had never been to that race, but I’ve heard a lot about it and watched videos. Matt Kenseth has won it eight times. Kyle Busch has won it once. The only reason I know that stuff is because it’s on the trophy, so that was cool (laughs).

I enjoyed it. I’ve raced a lot more this year and I’ve loved what its done for just the use of my time. I can be back home trying to prepare for a race as much as I can, but being out at the race track is just fun. I didn’t realize how much I enjoy doing that during the week. It’s tougher on the schedule.. like you get less sleep, you don’t have as much time at home, all those things are true. But it’s just been a lot of fun to do it. Looking forward to the future, I feel like it’s something that I’m going to try and incorporate in my career as I go. Obviously its gone great this year. I never would have thought it would go like it has, but it’s gone pretty amazing. A lot of things have worked out in our favor to win the races. It does bring over some confidence because I feel like when I’m in a race car, I’m learning and I can just have some fun.”

BRAD WENT AND RAN THUNDER ROAD LAST NIGHT. WE’VE SEEN OTHER DRIVERS IN THE CUP, XFINITY AND TRUCK SERIES SUPPORT GRASSROOTS RACING. WHAT DOES THAT SAY ABOUT RACING AS A WHOLE RIGHT NOW?

“Each race track you go to or each series you go to, the people in that series are the best at what they do. When we went up to Wisconsin and raced Slinger, I was 29th in practice at the beginning. My car was a lot better than that and I was probably going to get better than that, too. But it’s not easy to just go to these different places and insert yourself. So that’s what makes it so impressive of what Kyle Larson did last year and what other guys have done in the past. Kyle Busch used to travel to all these places; and Matt Kenseth.. people like that. It’s cool that Brad (Keselowski) went and did that last night. It’s fun to see the different environments.”

NOW THAT YOU’RE HERE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE, HOW ARE YOU FEELING ABOUT THE WEEKEND AND WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE TRACK HERE?

“I thought I had it figured out before I got to the Cup Series and I realized I just had really good cars to get me to this point. New Hampshire is a place that I’ve wanted to work at and get better; and this is a perfect opportunity this weekend to hopefully improve. Hopefully it translates to the Cup side. The Xfinity car is a little bit different, but the downforce level and the power level is not that different in the fact that it’s a short track. It should line up pretty well. I’m excited to get laps in the Xfinity car. We finished second at Texas (Motor Speedway) and hopefully we can have a little bit better run than that.”

THROUGHOUT THE DAY TODAY, WHAT HAS YOUR PREPARATION LOOKED LIKE?

“Not much of anything (laughs). I just got in with the team guys; got some lunch and waiting for this practice session to start. 20 minutes of practice isn’t a lot, but hopefully we’ll get one or two runs and get a chance to feel the car out. I go out first in qualifying, so I’m not sure how good or bad that’s going to be. Going out early isn’t usually a great thing, so we’ll just have to wait and see how that plays out.”

FOLLOWING UP ON THE GRASSROOTS QUESTION, HOW IMPORTANT DO YOU THINK IT IS FOR THE OVERALL HEALTH OF NOT ONLY NASCAR, BUT SHORT TRACK RACING, THAT YOU GUYS ARE DOING MORE CROSSOVER?

“I think it’s important. When you go to some of these short tracks, you notice how little some people know about what we’re doing, what’s going on, or where the Cup Series is racing. And then when you kind of educate them and they get a chance to meet you, their whole perspective changes on what NASCAR is all about. I think sometimes it’s kind of distant for them.. like the drivers seem pretty distant, just from their side of the fence to inside the garage. Going to the short tracks, it’s really not difficult to get a pit pass and go up and talk to your favorite driver. So it opens that door a little bit more.”

HOW DO YOU LIKE INTERACTING WITH THE FANS AT THE SHORT TRACKS?

“Yeah, it’s cool. The fact that there’s no barrier there, they can talk to you anytime. Typically I try to limit it to after practice or before practice, but it’s cool because you get to hear different stories. There was one guy that was at Jeff Gordon’s first race in the No. 24; and then he was seeing me at Atlanta. So people like that, that you meet, it’s cool to hear those stories.”

POCONO NEXT WEEKEND.. HOW MANY TIMES DO YOU ANTICIPATE THAT YOU’LL BE SHIFTING AT POCONO AND WHAT’S IT LIKE TO HAVE TO CONSTANTLY SHIFT ON A RACE TRACK LIKE THAT?

“I didn’t get a chance to run Pocono (Raceway) in the simulator this week, but watching Brett Moffitt run the simulator, I got a chance to kind of see where he was shifting. It looks like you’ll be shifting obviously every corner, as it is this year at most places. I don’t know if you’ll shift twice in certain corners or not. I’m not sure how the gearing is for that, but it’ll be interesting for sure.

And then to see how tomorrow is too with the shifting.”

YOU HAVE THE LONGEST STRAIGHTAWAY IN NASCAR. WHAT’S IT GOING TO BE LIKE TO BE DOWNSHIFTING AT THE END OF IT? IT SEEMS LIKE THERE’S A LOT GOING ON.. BRAKES, DOWNSHIFT, TURNING..

“Honestly, yes but we’re used to it now. We’ve been shifting so much. Even at Charlotte (Motor Speedway), if you were back in traffic, people were shifting. So I don’t think you ever kind of rule it out of your playbook and with that comes normalcy with it. I think we’re getting more and more used to it. It took me awhile to understand how to take my hand off the wheel and use my left hand a little bit more to steer the car, but it’s becoming more natural now.”

TO FOLLOW UP ON THAT, DO YOU EXPECT TO BE SHIFTING TWICE HERE; OR DO YOU THINK YOU’LL GET THROUGH THE CORNER SHIFTING JUST ONCE?

“Based on my simulator time, I feel like it’ll probably be once on both ends. But I would feel like if you get way back in traffic, you could be shifting twice each corner, each lap. Third gear is definitely an option. It’s not too much of a drop it doesn’t seem like from third to fourth.”

YOU HAD A REALLY SUCCESSFUL SEASON TO THIS POINT. I KNOW THE LAST FEW WEEKS HAVEN’T TURNED OUT AS WELL AS YOU’D HOPE, BUT WHEN YOU HAVE SUCCESS LIKE YOU DID AT SLINGER AND SOME OTHER PLACES, DOES IT REALLY MATTER IN A SENSE FROM A DRIVER’S POINT OF VIEW? YOU’VE ALREADY WON TWO CUP RACES THIS YEAR AND YOU’RE STILL A CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENDER. WHEN YOU WIN THESE RACES, IS IT THE LEARNING SKILLS OR IS IT THE ‘HEY I FEEL BETTER ABOUT MYSELF BECAUSE I WON A RACE AND I BEAT THESE GUYS’. WHAT’S THE BENEFIT?

“I think winning does wonders for drivers and teams, too. I think you see momentum build. When we won those two Cup races really close together within a couple of races, you see momentum from that from a driver’s perspective. And then when I go to the late model side – we’ve obviously won six-in-a-row, which we would not have expected that, but it builds momentum in those guys. Every time I get in the car, I’m excited and they’re excited.

So yeah, trying to build that back on the Cup side is top of the list for me. I think going to do all this stuff during the week is trying to get me back to that level for me as a driver and us as a team. We’re spending more time than ever in the simulator, things like that, trying to just get ourselves back to where we feel like we need to be. Even though it’s not playoff time and people can say ‘oh, you’re locked in with two wins’ – we definitely see right now as a really critical point to get us back to where we want to be.”

YOU’RE WILLIAM BYRON.. YOU’RE A CUP WINNER. SO WHEN YOU WIN IN THE LATE MODEL, I’M JUST CURIOUS HOW IT EFFECTS YOU PERSONALLY.

“I think it’s learning how to be versatile. Winning in different cars is a big boost because you’re not one dimensional. Like before this year, I would have probably gone back and ran late models earlier if I felt like it was going to go pretty well. But I didn’t think I would be able to take what I do now and move around. Going and doing it this year has definitely bred some confidence to know that I can get in a car and learn.

I think that’s what it takes on Sunday.. that adaptability and being able to have different techniques and make it work.”

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.