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.”

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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.”

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.

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