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

WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 RAPTORTOUGH.COM CAMARO ZL1, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series practice and qualifying session at Martinsville Speedway. Press Conference Transcript:

WHAT IS THAT LIKE FOR YOU, CONFIDENCE WISE COMING INTO A RACETRACK EACH WEEKEND AND WHAT ARE YOU SEEING IN THE TEAM IN TERMS OF THEIR MINDSET AND ATTITUDE COMING INTO THE RACETRACK WHEN YOU GUYS ARE PUTTING CARS ON THE TRACK THAT ARE CONTENDERS?
“I think it really dates back for us to last year. I felt like that last 10 races of the year last year, and probably the last 12, kind of getting ready for the playoff stretch we started to elevate our game a little bit more. We realized as a team that we weren’t, necessarily, one of the teams like we were really consistent, but we weren’t one of the teams that would win every week. I felt like towards the end of last year we were one of those teams that could win every week. Obviously, things didn’t come together. Then you go into this year, you start with a new car, got to go through testing, we’ve got to figure out what setups are close. We went through a lot of that adaptation period during the off season, but we started off the season pretty amazing. We were running third at Daytona before we got crashed. I made a mistake at California after we had the lead, you know we had our pit road issues and then was running in the top-five again. I think it’s just kind of been trending that direction. The comfort is there as a team. I feel like our communication is really spot on. We’ve got to work through different issues with this Next Gen car. We go to certain tracks right now and we’re miles off or really close. When we are really close, we know what we are doing. Miles off we’ve got to start throwing things at the car and figure it out. I think just good communication, good teamwork and I feel like we are really clicking right now, which is good. At the same time, there’s a lot of season left.”

WHAT DID IT MEAN TO YOU TO BE PART OF SOMETHING HISTORICAL LIKE THAT FINISIHING TOP FOUR AT DOVER? WHAT WAS IT LIKE AT THE END OF THE RACE TRYING TO HOLD YOUR SPOT AND MAKE SURE THAT YOU GUYS PULLED IT OFF?
“It was pretty amazing. Dover was a crazy day to see that, with the Gen 6 car that was a really good track for us and we knew that going there. Notes wise we knew we would be fast, but I think everyone in the shop was like our setup is the best, no our setup’s the best. We went through that process and I think to show up, last year we had no practice, but to see the speed we had early. Us, on the 24, we took the lead early in the race and then struggled to keep up with the racetrack, as well as our teammates. It was a little bit of a bummer that I finished fourth, but at the same time I was so excited for everyone at Hendrick Motorsports, because that shows so much strength to be able to take four cars and really we were battling ourselves the entire race which was pretty amazing.”

HOW DID MR. HENDRICK TAKE THAT?
“I think it was a sign of strength and what we’ve built with teamwork. The four of us work so closely and so well together that it feeds off of each other. Iron sharpens iron and I feel like we continue to work together and put ourselves further towards the front. It helps when you have teammates that are fast. It helps when you have, if Kyle is really fast at a racetrack, we can look at his setup or I can look at his data and say ok that’s maybe what I need to do different. We’re all capable of getting to that point, it’s just a matter of everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. Fortunately, it’s funny because Chase (Elliott) is so good on road courses, Kyle’s (Larson) so good on the mile and a half’s, Alex (Bowman) is really good on the short-tracks and I’m trying to blend it all together. It’s fun to have people that you can lean on for that.”

WITH THE TRUCK WIN YOU GOT LAST NIGHT, HOW DO YOU FEEL THAT WILL HELP YOU FOR THE RACE COMING UP ON SATURDAY?
“I think it will help me tremendously. I feel like we’re only going to get 20 minutes of practice here, so it’s not like you’re going to have a good idea or good chance of getting in a rhythm. You’re probably going to be in traffic. You’re probably going to be passing somebody, so I don’t have to worry about where are my marks. I can figure out all of that stuff. Obviously, the Next Gen car’s going to have more grip I would think than the truck, so I’m just going to have to drive it a little bit harder. It should be fun and it’s good to do that. I was pretty nervous going in the truck. I hadn’t been in one in a long time, besides a little bit last year. That was a new racetrack and kind of hard to get my bearings and we blew up early in the race. Last night was definitely fun. At the same time I really want to win the Cup race and feel like we were really close last week. We’ve just got to close the deal.”
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.

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

Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang, took part in a press conference showcasing the Ford F-150 Lightning, which is the first all-electric truck to pace a series race. Logano, who said he already has his Lightning on order, answered questions before today’s practice and qualifying session at the start-finish line.

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang – WHAT TURNS YOU ON ABOUT THIS F-150 LIGHTNING TRUCK? “I think the F-150 Lightning hits all of the markers that I want out of a truck. It’s got the styling. It has the use-ability and it’s really fast. I mean, you remember the Ford Lightnings from before and that was all about performance and speed. This thing is going 0-60 in under four seconds. None of them go that fast before, so this is the fastest Lightning there’s been. You can put your kids in the back, and fill it up in the bed and then you’ve got a frunk you can put even more stuff. For someone like me that has three screaming kids, this is the perfect vehicle. I think for someone that’s going to the construction site, it’s the perfect vehicle because you can plug your stuff right in the back. You can plug all your power tools in and whatever you need. Someone at home, one of the big selling pieces is you can light up your home when the power goes out with this thing. You can plug it right in, so there are a lot of really cool, special pieces with this truck. One of my favorite pieces is the styling, personally. It looks like the F-150. Everyone loves Ford F-150 for so many reasons and I think one of the most important ones is that it looks cool. People love customizing them. People love just the way they look in different trim packages and this truck kind of continues that tradition of good looks.”

DO YOU WORRY ABOUT HAVING THAT MUCH POWER ON REGULAR ROADS DRIVING AMONGST NORMAL PEOPLE? “Do I worry about it? No, I’d rather have all of it. I want all the power you can give me. There’s never enough. You can control it. There’s a pedal for that. It’s not a switch, it’s a pedal and you can modulate that (laughing).”

CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY AND HOW THINGS ARE EVOLVING? “To see the technology of what electrification is and the sustainability piece that goes along with that is pretty impressive how quickly that’s developing. You think about where electric vehicles were three years ago, one year ago, and where is it gonna be another year from now? Things are just happening so rapidly – battery technology, charging stations being put in. I obviously work with Shell and there’s a lot of work on that side of it that I see, and then everyone is just working together because it’s happening. It’s gonna happen. We can’t stop it. It’s gonna be a big movement in our world and especially in our country, so we have to adapt. We have to look for the advantage in that and also see that it is good. It’s good to do. It’s good for our world, so it’s kind of that next thing. Think about when vehicles came out in general. That was a big movement. You think of other game-changing things. Power to homes. That was a big thing. When you got a smart phone. That was a big thing. Electric vehicles is the next big thing.”

WHAT COLOR DID YOU ORDER? “I got a blue one ordered. I have a blue Tremor right now that I like and my son loves it. His favorite color is blue, so we got blue mainly because he thinks it’s cool and I think it looks cool. It’s Ford blue. It makes sense. It looks nice.”

ARE YOU READY TO RACE A HYBRID OR ELECTRIC VEHICLE? “Yeah, I think we can in the future. I don’t think it’s too far down the road if you ask me, to be honest with you. I don’t think we want to completely get rid of the internal combustion engines. I think there’s a lot of tradition behind that, so I think there’s a lot of stuff about just fans in general that love the sound and the feel of what NASCAR brings to the table. But I think if you do some kind of hybrid with some electric engine in there somehow, I think that can be a real game-changer to where you can kind of check both boxes. I think that’s important for the OEMs that are in our industry right now that, ‘Hey, this is where it’s going.’ We have to be able to touch on both of those things to be able to stay relevant and keep the interest of OEMs and bring new ones in.”

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT BRISTOL DIRT NEXT WEEK? “I’m excited. I had fun last year. You just kind of have to go with it. There’s still a lot of unknowns. We might know a little bit more than we did last year, but you have a whole new car now and there are areas I still want to be better at. That’s why I’m running the Truck race, so I don’t know. We’ll just kind of get up there and go racing like we do every other week.”

DO YOU WANT TO SEE DIRT CONTINUE MAYBE AT A DIFFERENT TRACK IF THIS BRISTOL EXPERIENCE DOESN’T WORK OUT, OR BE DONE WITH IT COMPLETELY AND STICK TO PAVED TRACKS? “I don’t think it’s a dirt experiment anymore. We already did it once. That was an experiment last year and I think most people liked it. I say this about our sport all the time, there are people that love short track racing. There are people that love superspeedways and hate short track racing. There are people that love mile-and-a-half racing. We get to do it all and some weeks you’re gonna see your favorite track and some weeks you’re gonna see something completely different. The fact that NASCAR is going to different things. We just ran the Clash. I thought that was crazy, but it was actually pretty good and really big for our sport. What’s next? We can race anywhere. We’ve proven we can put on a great race and an entertaining race for the fans, and a competitive race for the competitors out there. I don’t care where we go. Let’s do it. I think it’s great and if that’s on dirt, fine. If it’s at a local dirt track or Bristol, I don’t care. I’m gonna go race where they tell me to race and try to win and I think, honestly, it’s been pretty good here the last few years of the unknowns. When we go to those new tracks – Road America, the place packs out. Go back to Nashville after not going there for 10 years or so, the place packs out. So there’s something to that on bringing races to different markets that we haven’t gone to and bringing the races to the fans, whether it’s on whatever kind of track.”

IT’S ALMOST LIKE BRISTOL IS GETTING A RE-DO FROM LAST YEAR WITH THE WEATHER HOPEFULLY BEING BETTER AND THE RACE MOVING TO NIGHT? “Absolutely, and there’s gonna be things that we’re still gonna have issues. We still have a new car when we go there, so there are some unknowns like how the car is gonna cool? How is the car gonna handle the mud and dirt and where is it all gonna collect? What’s the dust gonna be like in the car? Those types of things. The night racing I think was something we learned last year, ‘Hey, we have to race at night to keep the dust down.’ It doesn’t matter what TV wants on that one. We have to race at night. That was important because you just couldn’t even see the cars and it was unsafe inside the car, so vision was important and this should be a good step in that direction. Like I said, there will be some things we’ll have to learn and figure out afterwards. We’ll debrief and figure that out, but I think it’s gonna be fine. We make a bigger deal out of things than what it really is all the time and then afterwards you go, ‘Oh, that wasn’t that bad. That was OK. That was pretty fun.’”

IS THERE ANYTHING FROM THE TEST THAT FRIESEN DID THE OTHER DAY THAT YOU HEARD THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE THEM IMPLEMENT? “I think the biggest thing that we can probably do, and it’s too late now, but it’s just trying to eliminate the front windshield for the race. There’s no other dirt cars that I’ve ever seen race with windshields in their car and that dust is one of the biggest issues, so figuring out a way to safely remove the windshield and add some kind of structure to keep big pieces of debris from hitting the driver is gonna be the number one goal moving forward after this race and what that is, and then probably some cooling options. The goal, to me, is how do we run these cars on a tacky racetrack where there’s a lot of mud? When it’s dusty and it’s not big clumps of mud that gets stuck on your windshield it just kind of blows over the top. So it just kind of ties your hands on what the track has to do. That’s what we kind of ran into last year is the track had to be dry before anyone went out there. We saw the trucks hit the gas in their heat race and the whole windshield was full of mud before they got in the corner, so if we had tear-offs, we’d just pull the tear-off and keep racing, but the other part of it is that mud is also gonna clog up the air inlet and overheat the engines pretty quickly too, so we’ve got to fix two issues there.”

THEY DID TAKE OFF THE WINDSHIELD. “Yeah, but it’s too late. It’s a week before the race. I think it’s too late at this point. Hey, if they say we’re gonna do it, I’m all for it. I’ll be on Team Get The Windshield Out, but I think at this point it’s gonna be hard to get all the teams to buy into that.”

DOESN’T DUCT TAPE FIX EVERYTHING? “I don’t know what we’re gonna duct tape. I don’t know what we’re duct taping on that one.”

WHAT ABOUT MARTINSVILLE? DO YOU HAVE ANY AGGRESSION LEFT OVER FOR ANYBODY? “I think everybody wants to win here. This is a historic racetrack, one of the most historic racetracks we go to. It’s special to win here. I want to win. I think at this point we’re gonna have to win to get into the playoffs with as many different winners as there is, so we better figure it out and this is probably one of our better chances.”

IT SEEMS THIS CAR PRODUCES DIFFERENT RACING DEPENDING ON THE TRACK. IS THAT A GOOD SIGN OF THIS CAR? “Sure. I think the racing is better than what it’s been over the last couple of years, in my opinion. I think cars have been able to move around the racetrack more. Things have been pretty good all things considered with the racing on the racetrack. A lot of what-ifs. There are a lot of teams making mistakes on pit road and drivers making mistakes in learning the car and understanding what they can and can’t do and just crashing them. It’s pretty good I’d say right now. It’s fun to go back and re-watch them right now for me and seeing what everyone is fighting.”

HOW MUCH DOES WINNING A RACE ALTER YOUR MINDFRAME IN TERMS OF GETTING PHYSICAL ON THE TRACK OR DO YOU TAKE THE TEMPERATURE OF HOW THE RACE IS GOING? “My aggression level, to be honest with you, is the same all the time – whether we have a bunch of parts or not, or we have 10 wins or no wins I’m gonna win. That’s the goal. That’s what we have to do. Now, it may change on a strategy where you may run the race completely different whether if you’re going for stage points or a stage win and setting yourself back. I think those things probably change if you have a win, but outside of that, I think drivers most of the time are gonna race the same, they might just call the race different.”

HAS THIS CAR ALLOWED YOU TO BECOME MORE AGGRESSIVE? “Absolutely. The car from a door banging side of things, rubbing, not cutting tires down, we haven’t really seen that happen yet. It didn’t happen at the Clash. It hasn’t happened at the road courses to speak of and there’s been plenty of contact, so the car is really good from that standpoint. The weak point is the rear toe link. That’s definitely the weak point. It’s crazy. You look at these cars that get out of the race because something broke on their car after a wreck and the body looks fine. It’s kind of funky. Even Daytona, we saw cars crash really hard and it’s kind of like the body pops back and it doesn’t look bad, but everything behind it is crushed. The body has been pretty fun and I think that’s something we’ve all learned. The rear toe links, like I said, is the one thing that stands out as the weakness of the car.”

DO THE XFINITY GUYS WHO HAVE RACED THIS BODY HAVE AN EDGE? “No. We’ve all ran them enough now. I’d say all it takes is for someone to run into you one time and not cut your tire down to say, ‘Oh, I guess that’s OK now.’”

ARE YOU PRO SIM? “I wouldn’t say I’m pro sim or anti sim. I’m kind of middle of the road on it. I’ve seen some gains and things you can do with it, but like anything else it’s a tool with limitations and as long as you understand what the limitations are it’s OK. If you put too much weight into it, you can really dial yourself out.”

ANY CONSIDERATION THE NEXT TIME WE GO BACK TO RICHMOND OF PUTTING ANYTHING ON THE TRACK TO MAKE IT MORE INTERESTING? “I got asked this on the radio the other day and I thought, ‘Man, would I put anything down there?’ I don’t know. To me, what changes at Richmond, whether the track is wide or narrow, is the tire. It’s all about the tire when you go to Richmond. There used to be a tire that we ran there that would really lay down a ton of rubber. The track would get really dark and it forced cars to move up the racetrack and the track got really wide. In the last four years, we haven’t had that and the track has been really a one to two-lane racetrack and that’s whether it’s Next Gen cars, Xfinity cars, anything else. Whatever compound or something – you look at it after the race walking out of the track it looks like a car hasn’t even been on the track yet. That, to me, is what I think it is. I don’t think putting resin down or those types of things to fake it is really the answer there. I think just if you want a wider racetrack, you would probably just change the tire.”

REALISTICALLY THE TIRE IS NOT LIKELY TO CHANGE THIS YEAR YOU’LL HAVE THE SAME THING. “Yeah, we just have to be careful when we start talking about resin because we haven’t done that there before and if you do it in the wrong way, it can make the racing right to where the top lane is too dominant, the bottom lane can never pass anyone and everyone is gonna follow the leader. You’ve got to be careful what you wish for on this one because when I look at Richmond I think there’s actually some really dang good racing there and it’s natural racing. There’s no manufactured garbage in racing at Richmond. It’s old school, go out there, you can run hard and you can pay the penalty on the long haul. You can go soft on the front side of the run and be good on the long haul. There’s a lot of racing strategy and as a driver that’s a lot of fun, and I think the fans that can appreciate that enjoy that race. I watched the modified race there on Friday night when I got up there and I thought it was an incredible race because it had that in it. It had the comers and goers in it. Look at the Xfinity race. They ran the whole final stage green and they finally all met up right at the end. It was great and the Cuppers had a similar effect. It was pretty entertaining from my side and, like I said, it goes back to what I said earlier, with fans that like that. Some fans might not like that, but if you don’t like that, Martinsville is next week and it’s gonna be a lot different than that. And if you don’t like Martinsville, you’ve got dirt racing next week, so NASCAR provides different types of racing for you and I think that’s the most exciting thing about being in this sport right now, whether you’re a fan or a competitor.”

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

ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series practice and qualifying session at Martinsville Speedway. Press Conference Transcript:

YOU’VE GOTTEN AROUND HERE PRETTY WELL SINCE JOINING HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS. ARE THERE ANY CONCERNS OR THOUGHTS THAT THIS NEW CAR IS GOING TO COMPLETELY TAKE AWAY SOME OF THE GOOD HABITS YOU HAVE HERE, THE FEEL THAT YOU HAVE, AND IT’S NO LONGER GOING TO BE BASICALLY YOUR MARTINSVILLE?
“Yes and no. I did get to run the wheel force car here last year, which was a Next Gen car. I think running Richmond (Raceway) last weekend gave us a good idea that the short tracks are kind of still the short tracks. You still fight really similar things. While you may not have the same issues with things like wheel hop and stuff like that, it’s still loose in, tight in the center and loose off; kind of the standard stuff. We still weren’t good on short runs. We were still really good on long runs. So, it was pretty typical us. I think it will hopefully still be a good place for us.”

WITH THE BIGGER BRAKES, DOES IT STILL LOOK LIKE MARTINSVILLE – THE WAY THE RACE PLAYS OUT AND THE WAY THE DRIVERS RACE EACH OTHER?
“Yeah, I think so. I think this car definitely lends itself to being more aggressive. It’s not nearly as fragile as the old car was. We have more braking power than we have grip. So like Richmond (Raceway), you don’t have much grip to lean on the car getting into the corner. So, you have a ton of brake power, but you can’t really use it. I think this will be pretty similar to that. I’m excited to see how it works out.”

THIS RACE HAS GONE FROM 500 LAPS TO 400 LAPS. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT AND HOW THAT YOU FEEL THAT WILL IMPACT EVERYTHING?
“I think it’s great. I don’t think it’s going to impact the race very much. It’s still a long day around this place, for sure, so it’s not like it’s a short one. The stage lengths kind of change a little bit, but I think it’ll look similar. I think it’s definitely a good move and hopefully puts on an exciting show for the fans.”

LAST FALL, YOU PUT YOUR NAME IN THE RECORD BOOK HERE. IT’S 75 YEARS OF MARTINSVILLE SPEEDWAY. HOW NEAT WAS IT TO GET THAT WIN AND JUST BE A PART OF THAT WINNING TRADITION BECAUSE EVERYONE STRIVES TO GET THAT GRANDFATHER CLOCK?
“Yeah, it’s really special to have a win here. Obviously, it’s a really special trophy. We had some controversy, but still super cool to be able to win here. It means a lot to me. It’s a place that I honestly struggled at quite a bit at first. I feel like I’ve worked really hard to get better here and, lately, we have been pretty successful here. Hopefully we get another one this weekend.”

AT DOVER, HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS SWEPT THE TOP-FOUR LAST YEAR. HOW BIG OF A DEAL WAS THAT? DID YOU UNDERSTAND THE HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE AND WHAT WAS THAT LIKE?
“Yeah, I think looking back at post-race, we all immediately understood and realized how special it was. Some things that we got to do throughout the week, like the photo we were able to take on Monday morning and stuff like that, was really cool. It was pretty special to be a part of that and be on the front side of that, as well.”

WHAT WAS IT LIKE IN THE CLOSING LAPS WHEN ALL OF A SUDDEN IT LOOKED LIKE THAT WAS A POSSIBILITY?
“I didn’t know we were 1-2-3-4 until after the race was over. I was just trying to hold the No. 5 (Kyle Larson) off and win the race; kind of business as usual until post-race.”

WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT THE DRAFTING AT DAYTONA AND WHAT DO YOU EXPECT WITH THE NEXT GEN CAR AT TALLADEGA?
“Yeah, we got stuck with flat tires and four laps down pretty quickly at Daytona (International Speedway). Hopefully we can have a better day at Talladega (Superspeedway). The draft is similar, but different. It’s still superspeedway racing. I think Talladega is going to be pretty similar to Daytona, as they always are. Looking forward to trying to get some redemption from the Daytona 500.”

BRISTOL DIRT IS NEXT WEEK. HOW DO YOU FEEL GOING INTO THAT RACE THIS YEAR COMPARED TO A YEAR AGO?
“Yeah, it feels all new again, with the new car and not knowing what to expect on how the car drives. I’m looking forward to it. I think it being a night race is obviously a great call. We’ll see how it plays out. Hopefully we’ll eliminate some of the struggles from last year; whether it’s the dust, the mud and just lack of being able to see. I’d like to be able to see where my race car is traveling. But other than that, I’m really looking forward to it.”

IF BRISTOL DOESN’T GO AS HOPEFUL AS PEOPLE ARE THINKING IT WILL, WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE THE DIRT EXPERIMENT CONTINUE AT A DIFFERENT TRACK, LIKE MORE OF A DIRT TRACK ITSELF; OR SHOULD NASCAR STICK TO PAVED RACETRACKS?
“I think as far as dirt tracks that are that size, the same things are going to happen wherever we go, with vision and things like that. I think ARCA is a good example of being able to make it work really successfully, but they’re running basically on rubber when they go to the mile (tracks).

I think the dirt thing is really cool. I enjoy it. We were really strong last year until we broke a transmission. So, I’m all for it. Hopefully the sequential is a little harder to break for me and I don’t create my own issue there again and have to ride around in third gear all day. I think it’s fun. The cars are really fun to drive. Obviously, it presents its own unique set of challenges and we’ve only had one try to get it right so far. I think the more we do it, the better it’s going to get.”

THE WEATHER TOMORROW NIGHT, IT’S GOING TO BE COLD. DOES THAT HAVE ANY EFFECT ON A DRIVER WHEN IT’S COLD LIKE THAT AND WHAT EFFECT IT MIGHT HAVE ON THE TRACK ITSELF?
“Yeah, I think the biggest thing is typically when it’s that cold, the racetrack has a lot of grip. Tire fall-off is not as bad as it is when it’s really hot and slick. From my side, Greg (Ives, crew chief) texted me earlier this week and he took all my cooling stuff out of the car. So, hopefully it actually is cold because if it gets hot tomorrow night, I’m going to be complaining (laughs).

It will just be a little different from the tire fall-off side of things. But it really doesn’t change a lot.”

THIS YEAR, THERE HAVE BEEN SEVEN DIFFERENT WINNERS TO START THE SEASON. LAST YEAR STARTED IN A VERY SIMILAR WAY. IS THAT JUST COINCIDENCE THAT THE SEASON HAS STARTED OFF LIKE THIS? TALK HAS ALREADY STARTED THAT THERE COULD BE 16 OR MORE DIFFERENT WINNERS BY THE END OF THE REGULAR SEASON – DO YOU BUY INTO THAT?
“Yeah, I think people probably will win multiple times. For me, I don’t really pay attention to that stuff a lot. I focus on my own thing and my own weeks; and just trying to go to the racetrack and do the best job I can. But my opinion, I think you’ll see people win multiple times. I don’t think you’ll see 16 different winners, but maybe you will. I guess we’ll wait and see.”

ARE YOU SURPRISED IT STARTED OUT THIS WAY LIKE LAST YEAR?
“Not really. I think with the new car, guys are figuring it out week-to-week. Big gains are being made right now. So, I’m not surprised to see so many winners.”

SPEAKING OF THIS CAR, IT SEEMS LIKE EVERYWHERE WE GO, IT’S GIVING US A LITTLE BIT OF SOMETHING DIFFERENT IN TERMS OF THE RACING. IS THAT A GOOD THING FOR THE SERIES AND IS THAT A GOOD SIGN OF WHAT THIS CAR CAN DO?
“Yeah, I think it’s good. It’s like anything – the old car had tracks that it put on a really great show and tracks that left a little bit to be desired with it. I think this car is going to have places that it puts on a better show than others. That’s kind of how it is with any racecar.

I think it’s been really good. We’re all fighting our own individual struggles with it, whether it’s guys dealing with pedal stuff, seat stuff, handling stuff, whatever it is. It’s been a big learning process, which it’s been fun having something new that you’re not familiar with; and it’s not the same that it’s been, what feels like, forever. I’ve been enjoying it and I think it’s been really good.”

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.