Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Martinsville Qualifying | Friday, April 8, 2022

FORD QUALIFYING RESULTS
2nd – Aric Almirola
3rd – Cole Custer
4th – Chris Buescher
6th– Kevin Harvick
9th – Brad Keselowski
10th – Todd Gilliland
12th – Ryan Blaney
13th – Austin Cindric
14th – Joey Logano
16th – Michael McDowell
19th – Chase Briscoe
29th – Harrison Burton
32nd – JJ Yeley
33rd – BJ McLeod
35th – Cody Ware

TODD GILLILAND, No. 38 Cross Country Adjusting Ford Mustang – “It’s funny. As soon as I got out of the car the first time I was really happy and then now I’m actually kind of disappointed with how that second round went. It’s just funny how our expectations change and move around, but overall I think we still have to be pretty happy with that. Our team made some pretty good changes and just to be able to go out and do that was really special. Starting 10th, that’s still by far my best qualifying effort, so hopefully we can just keep building every single week and keep gaining respect every week as well.”

COLE CUSTER, No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang – “It was an awesome day. I think we made some great adjustments during practice and now it just comes down to what you have in the race and figuring out kind of how the track is gonna change and what you’re gonna fight on the long runs. I think we have some ideas to make a few adjustments for that, but, overall, just great speed in the car. I just wish I was just that little bit better. I think I could have had a shot at it. If I would have done things a little bit different, I would have had a shot at it.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 6 Fastenal Ford Mustang – WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE APPEAL AND WAS IT FAIR? “I think I learned a lot through the process, that’s for sure, and not just about NASCAR but probably more so about our team and where we’re at and what we need to work on and how we need to grow to be better. Ultimately, I felt like it was a pretty fair deal. I’m glad that there’s a process like that that exists.”

CAN YOU SAY WHAT IT WAS THAT RESULTED IN THE PENALTY? “We had repaired a tail panel and it had a key feature that NASCAR deemed was not repaired adequately enough, and it’s a tough situation. We didn’t want to run the tail panel. We didn’t have any new tail panels to put on the car. We had a tail panel with three races on it and we did some repairs to it. We probably could have done a better job on the repair and we put NASCAR in a tough spot. It’s kind of like a trickle down effect. I wish we had, quite frankly, done a better job repairing it, but we can’t go back on it. I understand NASCAR’s position on it. It’s kind of one of those things where everybody is right and everybody is wrong at the same time. Ultimately, we’ll have to learn to be better for it.”

WHAT WAS YOUR ARGUMENT? “Our intent to appeal the penalty was to show everybody that we didn’t want to run that tail panel. If we had a new one, we would have ran it to begin with, so it’s a difficult position. Ultimately, it’s NASCAR’s position that the parts and pieces have to be right. I think we made our repairs in good faith, but probably didn’t do a great job. Did I think there was a competitive advantage? Probably not, but we put NASCAR in a tough position of having to make a judgment call and that’s not fair to them, so it’s one of those situations where I don’t think anybody is really wrong and nobody is really right and it’s probably one of those situations that if we could repeat, we would have begged, borrowed and stole a new tail and put it on the car, but that’s not the world we were living in. I’m glad that that’s being fixed, but this is the world we’re in now and we’ll go make the most of it.”

ARE SUPPLY ISSUES STILL PUTTING TEAMS IN TOUGH POSITION? “That’s probably a better question for the operations and manufacturing guys. I know it’s getting better than it was two or three months ago, but as to whether it’s perfect or not that’s probably not a good spot for me to answer.”

DO YOU FEEL ANY MORE HOPEFUL OR LESS HOPEFUL? DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU GOT SMACKED IN THE GUT? “It doesn’t feel good. Ultimately, our success is not dictated by this or anything else other than our ability to get this team and these cars to where they can compete at a high level and run for race wins. Everything outside of that, to me, is just noise.”

HOW DID JACK HANDLE THIS? “I think, like the rest of us, is frustrated and disappointed to be in that position, but the reality is that’s where we’re at and we can’t go backwards. If we could, we would, I tell you that, but I think he also feels like everything that we did was done in good faith and it wasn’t somebody saying, ‘Hey, let’s cheat this tail up and we can make the car go faster.’ It’s pretty clear that that’s not the case, but it’s also pretty clear that we should have done a better job of communicating with NASCAR and with our process of repairing the parts.”

DID YOU ATTEND THE HEARING AND DID YOU SPEAK? “A little bit. I mostly just listened and observed.”

DID ANYTHING SURPRISE YOU? YOU HADN’T BEEN IN ONE BEFORE. “No, I hadn’t. Probably the biggest surprise was just how professionally it was run. I didn’t know what to expect. Not that I had low expectations, but I try not to set high expectations and it was done a lot better than probably some of the rumors I heard in the garage and I’ll give NASCAR credit for that.”

DID YOU DO SOMETHING YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD DO WITH THE PANEL? “The start of the season is always a scramble to get parts and pieces, but the world we’re living in it’s more than ever before, and that’s not just NASCAR, that’s everywhere. And it’s not just body panels or Next Gen stuff. It’s engine parts and things that we’ve had traditionally for years that you just can’t get, and so it’s the realities of the world we’re living in, but it’s not an excuse for us to not have things right.”

WHERE DO YOU STAND ON HAVING WHAT YOU NEED? “I think we have what we need to race for the next two races.”

WHY DIDN’T YOU GO TO THE FINAL APPEALS OFFICER? “It’s time for us to move on and focus on what we need to win, and the rest of it is just noise to us.”

IS IT JUST MUST-WIN NOW AND YOU DON’T CARE ABOUT POINTS? “No, I like points. Points are nice. I don’t think you’re gonna make the playoffs if you don’t win races this year. Not that the penalty doesn’t hurt. Not that it’s not impactful. It is. I don’t think you make the playoffs without winning a race this year.”

DO YOU FEEL THERE COULD BE MORE THAN 16 DIFFERENT WINNERS DURING THE REGULAR SEASON? DOES THAT HAVE TO BE PART OF YOUR MINDSET? “Yeah, I think so. I could see there being 15 to 16 winners this year. I struggle to say there will be 17 or 18, but I don’t think there’s gonna be 10 either.”

SO POINTS STILL MATTER FOR YOU. “Yeah, it’s all still gonna matter. It’s not go for broke, wins only, but I’m gonna try to get the best finish that we can get, put ourselves in position and hope for the best.”

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT TODAY? “We’ve made major progress. We unloaded at the Coliseum and we were a mile off. We didn’t get where we need to be. Both cars missed the main race and today we’ve got two cars in the top 10. I think Chris ended up third or fourth and I ended up ninth. We’re significantly more competitive and starting to get our feet underneath us. You asked about the appeal, part of the reason why I don’t want to mess with that anymore is I want to worry about making race cars go fast. It takes a lot of energy and work to prepare for the appeals and four or five of our best people spending days at a time preparing all that stuff. I want to just go out and win.”

DO YOU FEEL WHAT THEY SAID YOU DID THAT THE HARSH PENALTY DID VIOLATE THAT RULE? “I feel like NASCAR is in a difficult position. We have a brand new car that comes with a brand new deterrence model. I think if you look historically, no, it would not have justified that level of a penalty, but that doesn’t matter. We’re in a new model and a new world and NASCAR is doing the things that teams like us requested they do in heavily enforcing the rules. I think the ultimate test will be not us getting a penalty it’s if somebody else gets a penalty of a similar nature for doing similar things.”

IS THERE ANYTHING YOU WOULD LIKE TO LOOK AT FOLLOWING THE SEASON IN REGARDS TO THE RULES? “Everybody is learning at a rapid rate, and it’s not just the teams it’s NASCAR. You guys are learning about this car. I have never shifted at Martinsville before and I just spent the last two hours shifting, so there’s a lot of things changing and evolving very quickly, and certainly hindsight is 20/20 in this circumstance.”

NASCAR CUP SERIES
MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY
BLUE-EMU MAXIMUM PAIN RELIEF 400
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
APRIL 8, 2022

CHASE ELLIOTT PUTS CAMARO ZL1 ON THE POLE AT MARTINSVILLE
Three Team Chevy Drivers Qualify in the Top-10

RIDGEWAY, Va. (April 8, 2022) – Team Chevy’s Chase Elliott topped the leaderboard in qualifying and will lead the field to the green under the lights at Martinsville Speedway in the NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400. The 2022 season welcomes the return of qualifying to all NCS events with a unique format to the series. For races on oval tracks, the field is split into two groups, where each car participates in a single-car, single-lap qualifying run. The top-five fastest drivers from each group advanced to the second round to vie for the pole position with one final lap each. Elliott put down a lap of 19.694 seconds, at 96.151 mph, in his No. 9 LLumar Camaro ZL1 to capture his 10th pole in his NASCAR Cup Series career. The 26-year-old Dawsonville, Georgia, native is no stranger to showing speed at the Virginia-based short track, with his eyes set on winning his second prestigious grandfather clock trophy.

Elliott’s pole gives Chevrolet its 54th pole win at Martinsville Speedway – the most of all manufacturers – and its 725th all-time in NASCAR Cup Series competition. The feat also marks the second pole win of the 2022 season for the Next Gen Camaro ZL1, which captured its first pole in its points-paying competition debut at Daytona International Speedway last month.

The bowtie brand saw three Camaro ZL1’s lock-in a top-10 starting spot for the 400-lap event at the .526-mile paperclip. Coming off of a trip to victory lane in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race last night, William Byron wheeled his No. 24 RaptorTough.com Camaro ZL1 to a fifth-place qualifying spot, his fourth top-10 starting spot of 2022. Elliott and Byron’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Kyle Larson, qualified eighth to round out the Team Chevy top-10 lineup.

FS1 will telecast the NASCAR Cup Series Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 400 at Martinsville Speedway live at 7:30 p.m. ET tomorrow, Saturday, April 9. Live coverage can also be found on MRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 LLUMAR CAMARO ZL1, POLE WINNER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
TALK ABOUT HOW THE PRACTICE SESSION WENT AND THEN THE FASTEST LAP OF THE QUALIFYING SESSION, WHERE YOU WON THE POLE.
“Obviously, practice went by quick. But just trying to dive through all of the little nuances of this car; how it’s different and how we want to attack that for tomorrow. I think the overall feel here is pretty similar to what it’s been in the past. It seems like the shorter tracks, the cars have a pretty similar sensation to what the last generation car had. It has just a little different way of getting there with setups and some of the fine details.

Overall, I think it’s fine. There are certainly going to be challenges tomorrow for us and I’m sure for everybody. Hopefully we can try to make the right decisions to hopefully have them impact us the least. We’ll see.”

A LOT OF GUYS COME IN HERE AND TALK ABOUT HOW SETTING UP THE CAR BEFORE YOU GET HERE IS KIND OF LIKE A STAB IN THE DARK. DO YOU GUYS FEEL LIKE THAT?
“Yeah, it kind of is in a lot of ways. You don’t have a ton of time to tune on it. It goes really quick. In 20 minutes, you really have time for maybe one change. I think if you’re doing more than one change, you’re probably thrashing a little too hard in practice. For us, when we ran today, we didn’t even make a change because I felt like it took me awhile to just find a rhythm. Once I found a rhythm, practice was almost over. So, at that point, there’s no point in me coming in and asking them to do something, and then them having to bust it to get back out there for two laps.

Yeah, it is a bit of a guess; but I think it’s fun to be honest. I’ve enjoyed it. I’ve said this a lot, but short tracks across the country, guys have five laps of hot laps. We’re supposed to be at the top level of our sport here, so why do we need to practice for three hours a weekend either. I think it’s cool, I like it.”

LAST YEAR, YOU WERE PART OF THE 1-2-3-4 HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS FINISH AT DOVER. CAN YOU REFLECT A LITTLE BIT ON THAT?
“Yeah, I was shocked that it had never happened before. I remember that just being the first thing that kind of came to my mind. I’m just like – man, of all the years and success of HMS and all the great things that have been done with the organization, I was just blown away that they had never ran 1-2-3-4 before. I thought it was great. I was super proud of everybody for achieving that top to bottom. From the crew members, to the drivers, to everybody that works at the shop that doesn’t go on the road – it was a big deal as an organization to sweep a weekend like that. I’m proud to have been a very small part of it. It was fun.”

DOES IT FEEL, IN ANY WAY, LIKE A PURSUIT OF PARITY?
“No, I think it’s just what the rule is and I don’t make them. I’m all good with it. I like it.”

THERE HAS BEEN SOME TALK OF JUST THE DURABILITY OF THESE CARS ALLOWING THE DRIVERS TO BE A LITTLE BIT MORE AGGRESSIVE. AT A TRACK LIKE MARTINSVILLE, IT SEEMS LIKE SOMETHING THAT WE WILL CONTINUE TO SEE. DOES THAT GIVE YOU MORE CONFIDENCE TO MAYBE MAKE MORE AGGRESSIVE MOVES?
“Maybe in the right circumstance. I could see it getting a little more aggressive. The bumpers are certainly not as fragile as they used to be. The quarter-panels don’t seem to cause tire rubs as easily as they used to. Now some of the components – toe links and things of that nature – are pretty fragile. So, I do think you can break some of the suspension. But as it pertains to bumping a guy out of the way or things like that, you are at less risk of hurting your car in the process. I feel like when it comes down to it, sure yeah, guys are going to get aggressive. But we all got aggressive before, too. I don’t know that it will look a lot different.”

DO YOU FIND YOURSELF SPENDING MORE TIME IN THE SIMULATOR WITH THIS CAR THAN YOU DID THE OTHER ONE?
“Less, to be honest. The sim stuff – I think it’s a great tool for some areas of what we do. For me, we’re so new with this car. I don’t want to develop any bad habits. I want to develop raw, real feelings of the car and I think the only way to really extract that is to be in the race car, at the race track that we’re going to be going to. Right now, I’m still trying to kind of learn it. And I think maybe once you learn a baseline of what it should feel like, then going to the sim and being able to dive in and help that side of things out I think is probably more realistic. But when I don’t 100 percent know what’s right and what’s wrong, I think you’re pretty vulnerable to developing bad habits driving something that’s not the real thing.”

YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT DEVELOPING YOUR RHYTHM TODAY. A LOT OF THE DRIVERS WHO HAVE COME IN HERE HAVE SAID THEIR SHIFTING A LOT. ARE YOU SHIFTING AND IS THAT PART OF DEVELOPING YOUR RHYTHM?
“Yeah, for sure. Shifting is very real. Down in every corner entry and up in every corner exit. So, it’s a lot of shifting. I think from a driver’s standpoint, you get used to that. You kind of get in a flow of doing it. Hopefully the parts and pieces are prepared for that. 400 laps of shifting that much – I’m not sure we’ve put that kind of strain on them yet. I know we were shifting at Phoenix (Raceway) some; obviously at the road courses too. But that has potential to be pretty rough on things. Hopefully everything will stay together and we don’t have any issues from that front.”

WITH THE SHIFTING AND THE DIFFERENT TIRES, DOES IT STILL FEEL LIKE MARTINSVILLE, IN TERMS OF HOW YOU TRY TO MAKE SPEED AND HOW YOU ATTACK THE TRACK? WHAT WAYS IS IT DIFFERENT?
“To be honest with you, I feel like it’s very much Martinsville to me. It doesn’t feel a ton different at all, as far as the track goes, the tires and how the cars react. I just think, setup wise, we’ve had to develop a little bit of a different path of getting to the same location, if that makes any sense. But feeling-wise, it’s super similar to what it’s always been, in my opinion.”

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.

Toyota Racing – Denny Hamlin
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes

MARTINSVILLE, Va. (April 8, 2022) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin was made available to media prior to the Martinsville Speedway race this Friday:

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

How much could the sturdiness of these cars play into how aggressive the racing could be tomorrow night?

“I think it probably will lend itself to guys being more aggressive with each other side to side probably could be the outside lane not giving as much room to the outside lane. And suddenly maybe not as worried about tire rubs or whatnot. So certainly, it could change little things here and there. And that’s something that I’m sure you’ll see, casual fan will see, but certainly inside baseball.”

As a team owner, how do you feel about the appeal and the way things were handled? Are things good in the sense that if you do things right, you’ll be good?

“We think we know what we don’t exactly know for sure. But yeah, there should be a level of transparency there. We know, generally speaking if you go by the rules that NASCAR is giving us, we’ll be in good shape. Now, they have opened up some areas here and there because supply and driver comfort stuff, things like that. So, it’s not it’s not completely just open together. It’s not like maybe intended, but the big things it is so it was a big thing and it would be hard to convince them that you’re not trying to get an advantage.”

Why are you guys so good here at Martinsville as an organization?

“I mean, personally speaking, I think I have two of the best short track teammates out there. Short of that, I’m not sure it’s not like our setups from the previous generation cars were a big thing. Richmond just a decade ago just really took a swing and there was only one or two guys that would run well at Richmond, but just seems like Kyle and I learned a ton off of each other. And same thing that kids have came over and started winning short tracks. Well, these guys are good. They’re just drivers always going to be your biggest X-Factor on where you finish at tracks like Richmond. Aerodynamics aren’t as big of a deal. Setups are, but your driver’s just as important.”:

What is it like to be a part of the history with the 75th anniversary of Martinsville Speedway?

“I mean, it’s special for sure. I wasn’t able to win the late model big late model race here for the years that I tried. Came close a few times, but was just a track that, you know, I actually have a few laps that before getting into a Cup car here. So it was the only track that I felt somewhat comfortable with before I got into the Cup Series, and so it’s just you know, this is kind of the essence of the short tracks in which we grew up with the asphalt late model guys. This is what we grew up doing is this type of racing, and it’s rolling around the corner and then back in the gas. That’s, our style of racing. We certainly have a good feeling when it comes to these types of tracks that we’ve been racing for decades.”

How will you tackle the race this weekend with the new race car? Is it relying on previous notes or a whole new challenge?

“A little bit of both. But yeah, I suspect that we can still take our same techniques and be pretty good here. But we will have to change some things. I know that there’s little things that people don’t know like tires. Tires is the biggest thing that contributes to the racing that we have today we used to have a set of tires that if you get 15 or 20 laps on them, and they just blow off and when I say blow off, like there’s no grip in them. So you had to really modulate and then we’ve gone through a transition where the last few years it’s just been added or relaxed or as hard as you can there’s no reward or saving or anything like that. It’s not worth it. What you would gain is not worth what you would get back from it so it is different, but you’ll still see the guys that have found ways to win here I think find ways to win again.”

Do you have a good idea of how much this tire might fall off?

I mean, that’s what I’m talking about. When we look at all races here and the track is black and looks like asphalt. It’s just that rubber that sticks to the concrete. Now today’s tires don’t really do that, doesn’t clump up like we used to just stick to the race track. The moment of caution comes out, it all comes right back. We see it at Dover every time we go to track, the black. You see this high speed cameras and then cautions and and then its just like a power wash. So it’s just so different than what it used to be. We had to change your style of driving for that and took the time away here and it’s just nice that the track was really green. I really don’t know how much they learned you know.

Do you believe that over time, things will come full circle and you can win the races that you’ve lost?

“I’m definitely a believer and odds are certainly. I think that if you flip a coin 10 times, it’s going to be heads or tails. It could be at 20 flipping 1000. And it’s not going to vary more than 55%. So it’s, it’s just more time to do it. So yes, to answer your question. I do subscribe to that theory that if you do it long enough, the odds will go to your favor. I’m subscribing to that every time I make it to the final four.”

Have you lost more than you could ever get back?

“I’ve had so many weeks and we keep track of all this stuff within our team, but you know, it’s been the last, I don’t know, the last year since I’ve been working with (Chris) Gabehart (crew chief). We keep track of like, what are we capable of doing? Honestly, people who are winning 3% of the races completed huge numbers, but there’s so many X factors that you can’t control that take out 10%. Drivre makes a mistake, take out another 5%. You know, it’s just makes it so tough to win in the sport. We’re in a losing business for reasons. Us versus 35 others and a lot of times there’s factors that you can’t control that sometimes keep you from running and then sometimes things work out great.”

How frustrating is it to go through a cycle where you have as many DNFs so far this season as you’ve had in the previous two years?

“Yeah, I mean, I’m not sure that I’ve had one last five or six races like that where it was just atrocious finishes. But I probably have, I mean, I’ve been doing this forever, but it just it didn’t worry me as much as it probably should have. Just because I knew that we would figure it out. Our teams good enough that we’re going to get over any kind of hole that we’re in. It’s just a matter of time. It’s been a long time since we just had to search for speed and not figured out why we can’t win. That’s been years and years and years ago. Really 2018 is the year where it’s like it’s not that I couldn’t figure it out, but we just couldn’t get to victory lane. Since then, it’s like the answers are right there in front of us is just going to work on.

Do the DNFs bother you this season?

“I knew before the season started that we’re going to have more cautious and more crashes. There’s going to be a more attrition. We’ve had five different point leaders or something, because it’s hard for anyone to string together any kind of consistency right now. Because there’s more mechanical layers that’s in play, or restarts. Things have more opportunities for your day to get derailed. So that’s why we see everyone just there’s finishes bouncing all over the place. I think it will start to get levelled out. Probably be the end of the year when we feel good about every part of the car is super reliable, failing things we’ve understood what works with it, how we need to restart. All those things, it’s going to get better with time.”

Do you have an idea of how these cars will drive on the superspeedway at Talladega?

Yeah, it was unfortunate because we drove right to the front there and ended up getting crashed, but it was I really wanted an opportunity because I tested there and I was really happy with the knowledge that I’ve gotten before the 500. I thought I had an advantage over the field because I had so much time with it for the 500. Except I didn’t get to show it, but I’m confident we got to a good place. Yes. I was a little worried after the test. That we were going to have this style type of racing, is that right or wrong? But in the end, I think that we showed that with some time testing, put on a good show, and it probably will.”

What would it mean to capture the 200th win for Joe Gibbs Racing?

“It would be special for sure. Big wins like that seem to be celebrated more for sure. It’s good. It’s good for your confidence I’d say. That’s pretty much the gist of it. Certainly remember the 100 came in Loudon (NH) or something like that.

Can you race differently after getting the win at Richmond?

Yes, is the answer. We were probably a week or two before that, we just needed to race a solid day like we all we all want to win. Like it’s going stop the bleeding, a little bit. So certainly now stopped the bleeding on that side. Sure. I feel a little bit more confident in being aggressive in this race and because of the way last week went because I was worried about making the Playoffs or not just simply because eventually we can’t just keep having bad finishes. It’s tough on team. It’s tough for them to keep them excited about what we’re doing here. So I think now certainly I don’t have that voice in my head saying to be careful.”

You don’t show pressure a lot, but do you feel the pressure?

Sure. Yeah, that’s fair. You know, it’s we went all last regular season, even though it’s really, really strong, not winning into the playoffs. The first two rounds we did. Again, just want to keep that momentum of winning half because you know, the last three years we’ve won a lot, so don’t like to have that all in wins because you start to second guessing and start searching around to find out why.”

#

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.

RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Advance Auto Parts Ford Mustang – CAN YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR PAINT SCHEME THIS WEEKEND? “Yeah, it’s a little bit different Advance scheme than we’ve had in the past. It’s something they’ve been wanting to do, kind of more of a black car and yellow logos. It reminds me a lot of the Rusty Miller Genuine Draft car, so it was great to work with those guys on it. They do a great job and also promoting the Advance My Track Challenge that’s coming back this year. That’s a really cool program those guys are doing to support local grassroots racing, so awesome to have them their first primary of the year. I couldn’t think of a better spot for a company who loves short track racing and local roots than Martinsville, so it should be good.”

HOW DO YOU FEEL THE NEXT GEN CAR DRAFTED AT DAYTONA AND WHAT KIND OF RACE DO YOU SEE AT TALLADEGA? “Daytona, first race of the season pretty much with that new car beside the Clash, and I learned a lot during Speedweeks at the superspeedway and kind of how they draft. We’re not gonna be able to practice at Talladega. You just kind of qualify and line up and race, and hope you remember how they drive Daytona. We kind of see differences from Daytona to Talladega. Your car is gonna handle better at Talladega, just wider and a little bit more grip, so we’ll be running three-wide more. I was honestly surprised at the lack of three-wide racing at Daytona. It seemed like you couldn’t really shoot the middle as good as you could in the past, for whatever reason. No one even really tried it. I think it’s because you just hit a huge wall of air and you couldn’t make that move happen as good and make progress. Another part of it might have been guys not wanting to force the issue and kind of get in a wreck, and then late in the race there was just no opportunities to do it. It’s hard to tell, but I think everyone has kind of gotten a little bit more of a handle on this car of what you need and look at Daytona, ‘OK, how can we change up our stuff and kind of refine things.’ I think you’ll see more three-wide racing and guys making a little bit more aggressive moves just because it’s wider and got more grip, but I think that’s pretty common at Talladega. You won’t be able to practice all that stuff. You’ll have to learn it under fire, but we’ve got two years of that, so be able to hopefully everyone will get back into the speedway swing of things pretty soon.”

HAVE YOU TALKED TO ANYBODY ABOUT THE TEST FRIESEN DID AT BRISTOL? “I saw it and it looked pretty nice. It looked like he had pretty good speed around that place. From what I know, I feel like the tire is better than what it was last year, just the tread on it number one, and it’s gonna be better because this tire is wider. The tire is wider, so it’s gonna make it a little bit more racy, which will be good. Hopefully, adding banking up to the top will let it kind of widen out. Being a night race is gonna help. As far as the windshield goes, I know they tried a screen. I know they took the windshield out and tried a screen and kind of ran it behind, I think they had a modified or a late model up there they ran behind and, I mean, me personally I think anybody in the garage will tell you they’d rather run a screen because they can have the track a little bit nicer, just keeping moisture in it, but I don’t know if we’re gonna go that route this year, unfortunately, just from what I’ve been hearing. We’ll see. I think it’s gonna be better than last year, a little bit more racy just kind of the things you learn and go back with, but, unfortunately, I think they tried to test that screen too late. Testing it this week it’s a week before the race. It’s kind of a little too late to test something like that, but you’re limited because when is the track gonna be ready? It’s not ready months ahead of time where you can make these changes. I would have liked to see a screen, but I don’t think that’s gonna happen, so we’ll just go there. I think the wider tire is gonna help the racing, hopefully let us move around and we’ll find out. If the weather is nicer to us, hopefully it’s not a downpour like it was and that kind of hurts the racing and hurts the track, but I think the tire is the big thing that’s gonna help that track out a lot and make it a little bit better show.”

DOES BODY OF THIS NEXT GEN CAR ALLOW THIS RACE TO BE MORE PHYSICAL POTENTIALLY? “I think the fans are already fired up about any race at Martinsville. I think this car is pretty resilient compared to the last one. Bodywise, I think it’s way more resilient, so I think the bumpers – front and back – are a lot stronger than what they were last year. I felt like if you got hit in the left-rear quarterpanel or you kind of tried to move someone out of the way with the right-front fender, you could damage pretty easy. You didn’t have a lot of support in the noses before. Now, they’re solid, so I feel like it’s gonna be a little bit more physical here tomorrow night, not only because it’s 100 laps shorter, the cars can take more and I think you’re gonna see a little bit more aggressive styles of racing. That’s what Martinsville is all about, and I think you get a car that can take it you’re gonna see more of it. I don’t see anything kind of dumb happening or stupid aggressive, but I think you’re gonna use the bumper a little bit more, and you might use it a little quicker than you would with the previous car, just because it’s beefed up a little bit more.”

HOW DO YOU VIEW THE STAT OF YOU LEADING OVER 100 LAPS AND NOT WINNING ANY OF THOSE RACES YET? “I don’t think it’s frustrating. It stinks you lead laps and win stages and don’t end up winning the race. That’s a bummer, but I’ve always just tried to look at it like, ‘Hey, we were leading laps. We’re running fast.’ I’d much rather this be going on, leading laps, running up front and not being able to close out the win from running 20th every week. We’re running 20th and getting lucky and running 13th. I’d rather our cars be fast like they have been and just try to clean up things to where you can put yourself in better spots to win the race or adjust on your car a little bit better throughout the race to try to be a little bit quicker at the end. There are definitely worse problems to have, so I’m not frustrated by any means as far as leading laps and not winning, just gotta keep running up front. You just hope you keep that speed and you work on the execution side and hope it comes with it.”

400 LAPS THIS WEEK. DOES THAT CHANGE ANYTHING? WILL IT BE NOTICEABLE? “Yeah, you’ll understand that the stages will be shorter and things like that. Track is gonna be really cold, so not really sure what rubber is gonna get laid down, but there are periods of this race – like early on, the first third or like lap 50-300 is pretty tame, I would say for the most part. I don’t think you’ll have that as much this year just because it’s 100 laps shorter and you’re gonna have to make moves a little bit quicker. I can see the aggression level being raised a little bit and I don’t mind it being 100 laps less, 100 laps longer, I don’t care. You base your race around how many laps we’re running, so I could see the aggression being a little bit higher, that’s about it.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT RICHMOND, MARTINSVILLE AND BRISTOL BEING BACK-TO-BACK-TO-BACK? “I don’t care if we went Richmond, Talladega, road course. I don’t care. It’s just what the schedule is and you adapt to each place each week, but I like it. It kind of keeps you in the short track mindset, I guess. I think we’re able to switch up mindsets pretty good from track to track or different sizes, but it kind of keeps you in that mindset and it’s kind of nice to base things around like Bristol is an oddball. You can’t really take away anything from other tracks with it being dirt, but you take some stuff you learned at Richmond last week and maybe you can apply it here as far as setup stuff, just thoughts of everyone trying to learn the car. It kind of keeps you in that mode a little bit more, but I think it’s a pretty cool three-week stretch – three short tracks, three very famous short tracks and I don’t mind it. I think it’s something cool.”

IT’S 75 YEARS OF MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY, WHAT IS THE KEY TO HAVING SUCCESS HERE? “It’s a tough place. I struggled here the first couple years I came and really couldn’t figure it out. I did a lot of homework. Brad back in like 2017, 18, 19 was awesome here and I really started looking at his data and was like, ‘OK, what do I have to do each part of the run to be like Brad, how he drives this place and finds himself up front?’ We worked really hard on that and the fall race in 2017 or I’d probably say the spring race in 2018 it just kind of clicked. It’s like, ‘OK, this is what I need to do. I need my car to drive like this. I need to drive like this.’ And all of a sudden you’re leading laps and contending for a win and all that stuff, so it’s one of those weird things to where if it clicks for you all of a sudden, you’re like, ‘Now I know what to do.’ Some tracks it takes maybe a little bit longer than others. Richmond has kind of been like a slow, get a little bit better there each time we go back for me. Martinsville was like a one race, ‘OK, this is what I need to do.’ So it’s kind of weird how that works, but I’ve kind of been a curb hugger here. I just ride along the curb. That’s kind of how I’ve found success. Is it gonna translate over to this car? I don’t know. I’ll find out here in about an hour, but we’ll just have to see. You just have to keep your car turning good and rotating. That’s one of the biggest things I’ve learned and kind of how you modulate the brakes getting into the corner. That’s one of the big things, so all that kind of changes. It’s still the same Martinsville, but a little bit different car and you’ll have to adjust for that.”

DO YOU HAVE A SPOT IN YOUR HOUSE PICKED OUT FOR THAT GRANDFATHER CLOCK IF YOU WIN TOMORROW? “I’ll find a spot for it. I think anyone will clear space out for that. It’s something we’ve been really close to a couple times. I feel like all my friends have grandfather clocks and it’s definitely something special. Growing up in High Point, right down the road, it’s kind of home track for me. I lived closer to here than I did to Charlotte growing up. This I kind of base as a home race for me and always wanted that grandfather clock ever since I was a little kid watching dad run here and thought it was the coolest thing ever. I’ve been really close to getting one and hopefully we can get one here this weekend, if not really soon. I’ll definitely find a spot for it. That’s not the biggest thing I’ll think of. I’ll put it right in the center of my living room, if anything, but you’ve got to get it first and then you kind of figure that out.”