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Cadillac sweeps front row in qualifying for Long Beach race

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Cadillac sweeps front row in qualifying for second race in a row
Bourdais records track record in the No. 01 V-Performance Academy Cadillac DPi-V.R

LONG BEACH, Calif. (April 8, 2022) – For the second consecutive IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race, Cadillac swept the front row in qualifying.

For the second race in a row, Sebastien Bourdais earned the pole award in the No. 01 V-Performance Academy Cadillac DPi-V.R. For the second race in a row, Bourdais set the DPi track qualifying lap record.

“Now all we have to do is put it all together over 100 minutes,” said Bourdais of the April 9 race on the 1.968-mile, 11-turn temporary street circuit in downtown Long Beach.

A Cadillac DPi has won every race at Long Beach dating to the inception of the class in 2017 (there was no race in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic), and last year the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R won from the pole to lead a Cadillac sweep of the top three finishers.

Bourdais drove the No. 01 Cadillac to a best lap of 1 minute, 9.472 seconds in the 15-minute session with a late-afternoon ambient temperature of 92 degrees. The previous qualifying lap record was 1:11.322, set in 2019. He also set the DPi track qualifying record for the 12-hour race on the Sebring International Raceway road course last month in claiming the pole start.

“That 01 Cadillac has been awesome to drive,” said Bourdais, who topped the practice time chart with a lap of 1:10.913 earlier in the day. “I just basically had to hit the potential of the car and get quite a good margin on the field. That was a great feeling. It’s testament to the team’s ability to give us some really fast race cars.”


Alex Lynn, driving the No. 02 Cadillac Accessories Cadillac DPi-V.R that won the Sebring race, will join his Chip Ganassi Racing teammate on the front row. He recorded a best lap of 1:09.833.

Pipo Derani, who co-drove to victory in 2021 at Long Beach, posted a best lap of 1:10.001 and will start fourth. Tristan Vautier, who co-drove the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R to a runner-up finish at Sebring, will start fifth after a best lap of 1:10.376.

USA Network will telecast the race at 5 p.m. ET April 9. Peacock will also stream the race live, and IMSA Radio will have the broadcast.

An interview with DPi pole winner Sebastien Bourdais (No. 01 V-Performance Academy Cadillac DPi-V.R):

TALK ABOUT HOW QUALIFYING DIFFERS IN A 12- OR 24-HOUR RACE BUT HOW MUCH IT MATTERS HERE.
“When you have 24 or 12 hours of racing, it seems a little futile. We have a 100-minute race with a busy field and a one-stopper, with difficulty to pass unless you get caught in traffic or make a mistake. It’s quite important and we’ve teed ourselves up for the best possible situation and scenario, but there’s still 100 minutes of racing to go and we’ve proved we don’t need 100 minutes to lose it. Let’s hope that we won’t do that tomorrow.”

TELL US WHAT IT TOOK TO MAKE IT HAPPEN TODAY AND WHAT IT WILL TAKE TOMORROW.
“I took a really good lap. I was really happy, and thanks to the boys at Chip Ganassi Racing. That 01 Cadillac has been awesome to drive. I just basically had to hit the potential of the car and get quite a good margin on the field. That was a great feeling. It’s testament to the team’s ability to give us some really fast race cars. I’m just looking forward to a different outcome because we’ve kind of shot ourselves in the foot quite a bit with mechanical issues – nothing to do with Cadillac but just kind of issues on our end. I’m really looking forward to picking up our game and put an event together, and I’m hoping it’s going to happen tomorrow.”

NEARLY TWO SECONDS UNDER THE TRACK RECORD, WHERE DID THE TIME COME FROM?
“It’s not like INDYCAR where you have a street course, road course, oval tire. Really, we’re running a road course tire on the street course. It’s a harder tire than it could be for places like this and the unusual high temperatures helped get the tires in that window for the car. The grip was amazing. Michelin has some really stable tires.”

IT WILL BE MUCH COOLER TOMORROW. HOW WILL THAT PLAY OUT?
“Back to normal. That’s the tough part. I think it really helped rubber up the track, and you can produce some really fast early lap times. From there, what happens I don’t think anybody really knows. I think, overall, I’m not super worried. I think it will just be easier on the rear tires. We have the bars in the car, we can change tire pressures for the second stint. It’s all about managing traffic, making sure you don’t get caught out in the big groups of GTs that are going to be around because it’s going to be 20 GTs nose to tail for the opening stint.”

Cadillac Racing lineup, starting position and notes:

No. 01 V-Performance Academy Cadillac DPi-V.R (Chip Ganassi Racing)
Renger van der Zande, Sebastien Bourdais
Bourdais drove in the qualifying session (start first, 1:45.166). Bourdais has earned the pole award at the two most recent races. Bourdais is a three-time winner at Long Beach in Indy car competition. … Van der Zande teamed with Kevin Magnussen to finish second in the 2021 race at Long Beach in the first season for the No. 01 Cadillac DPi-V.R.
Car chief-Phil Binks
Lead engineer-John Hennek
Race strategist-Peter Baron

No. 02 Cadillac Accessories Cadillac DPi-V.R (Chip Ganassi Racing)
Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn
Lynn drove in the qualifying session (start second, 1:09.833). The 02 Cadillac DPi-V.R won the race at Sebring after starting fourth. … First-year team in expanded Cadillac Racing entry for Chip Ganassi Racing. … … Bamber salutes his home country with a silver fern design on the sides of his helmet — a quasi-national emblem used for various official New Zealand symbols.
Car chief-Jamie Coates
Lead engineer-Danielle Shephard
Race strategist-Michael Harvey

No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R (Action Express Racing)
Pipo Derani, Tristan Nunez
Derani drove in the qualifying session (start fourth, 1:10.001): “We have a good car and we decided to kind of abort qualifying to have some tires for the race, and unfortunately the lap I did wasn’t enough and almost all the guys improved. I think they put up an amazing lap at the end. It’s one of those question marks; had I stayed a couple more laps could I have gone quicker? I believe so because the car has been so good. I think we missed an opportunity and we thought what we had was good enough because we never saw those kind of laps here. We have a good race pace and we’ll attack tomorrow.”

The No. 31 Cadillac DPi-V.R started from the pole and went on to win the 2021 race on the street circuit with Derani co-driving with Felipe Nasr. The team is coming off a third-place finish at Sebring. It opened the season with a fourth place at Daytona. … Derani and Nasr were the 2021 IMSA DPi Driver Champions and Whelen Engineering/Action Express Racing was the Team Champion.
Car chief-Bill Keuler
Technical director/lead engineer-Iain Watt
Race strategist-Tim Keene

No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R (JDC-Miller MotorSports)
Tristan Vautier, Richard Westbrook
Vautier drove in the qualifying session (start fifth, 1:10.376): “The car doesn’t feel bad, but we’re lacking pace to the 01 and 02 cars. We made some changes (after practice) for qualifying that made the car feel better that I think will give us a better race car for tomorrow.”

The No 5 Cadillac DPi-V.R enters the race weekend as the DPi championship points leader after third- and second-place finishes to start the season. … Vautier teamed with 2022 endurance event driver Loic Duval to place third in the 2021 Long Beach race. … The No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R won the 2018 and 2019 race at Long Beach.
Car chief-Josh Kerrigan
Lead engineer-Rick Cameron
Race strategist-John Church
Cadillac Racing DPi-V.R Long Beach results 2021-2017

2021: Overall winner (No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R) start first – Pipo Derani, Felipe Nasr
Second (No. 01 Cadillac Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R) start second – Renger van der Zande, Kevin Magnussen
Third (No. 5 Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R) start third – Tristan Vautier, Loic Duval
2019: Overall winner (No. 5 Mustang Sampling Cadillac DPi-V.R) start fourth – Felipe Albuquerque, Joao Barbosa
Fifth (No. 84 JDC-Miller MotorSports Cadillac DPi-V.R) start seventh – Stephen Simpson, Simon Trummer
Sixth (No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R) start second – Pipo Derani, Felipe Nasr
Seventh (No. 50 Juncos Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R) start ninth – Kyle Kaiser, Will Owen
10th (No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R) start 10th – Renger van der Zande, Jordan Taylor
2018: Overall winner (No. 5 Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R) start fifth — Felipe Albuquerque, Joao Barbosa
Third (No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R) start sixth – Renger van der Zande, Jordan Taylor
Seventh (No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R) start second – Felipe Nasr, Eric Curran
2017: Overall winner (No. 10 Konica Minolta Cadillac DPi-V.R) start first – Jordan Taylor, Ricky Taylor
29th overall, seventh in class (No. 5 Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac DPi-V.R) start second – Joao Barbosa, Christian Fittipaldi
32nd overall, eighth in class (No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi-V.R) start fifth – Eric Curran, Dane Cameron

About Cadillac
A leading luxury auto brand since 1902, Cadillac is growing globally, driven by an expanding product portfolio that features distinctive design and technology. More information on Cadillac appears at www.cadillac.com. Cadillac’s media website with information, images and video can be found at media.cadillac.com.

No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05 Team Qualify in Sixth Position for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach

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Official Release
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Long Beach, Calif. (April 8, 2022) — In searing Southern California heat, Filipe Albuquerque gave it everything this afternoon, ultimately qualifying in sixth position for the 2022 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. The Portuguese ace finished the session with a time of 1:10.576 at 100.385 mph.

Albuquerque felt that the car was good throughout the session, but a strategic decision to run fewer laps did not pan out the way the team hoped, with the track evolving late into the session. He will look to make headway into the pack ahead at the start tomorrow before full-time teammate Ricky Taylor takes over for the second stint.

“A bit of a disappointing qualifying session, especially coming from Free Practice 2,” explained Filipe Albuquerque. “We finished last, but I don’t think the result tells the whole story. I was happy with the car, but we made a slight mistake on strategy. We decided to do less laps, which led us to pit early, when the track was clearly still evolving. And that’s on us, that’s a mistake. I admit that the car was good. It looks like we were really bad, but the truth is that we’re going to go with the same car to the race. We have a good car to race and it’s promising for the race. Let’s see how it goes.”

“As for the start tomorrow, it’s tricky, starting from the outside. You can never plan the start. I just know that I’m going to do my best and try and make some overtakes, and we’ll see what comes out. But we never know. Last year was great. Who knows if this year is going to be any better? Or it could be random. We’ll see. It’s a surprise.”

Green flag for the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach will wave at 2:00 p.m. PT tomorrow, Saturday, April 9th with full coverage streaming on Peacock and coverage on the USA Network.

DPi STARTING GRID:

  1. Cadillac Chip Ganassi Racing (No. 01 Cadillac DPi) Renger van der Zande & Sebastian Bourdais (101.980 mph)
  2. Cadillac Chip Ganassi Racing (No. 02 Cadillac DPi) Earl Bamber & Alex Lynn (101.453 mph)
  3. Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian (No. 60 Acura ARX-05) Oliver Jarvis & Tom Blomqvist (101.299 mph)
  4. Whelen Engineering Racing (No. 31 Cadillac DPi) Pipo Derani & Tristan Nunez (101.209 mph)
  5. JDC Miller Motorsports (No. 5 Cadillac DPi) Tristan Vautier, Richard Westbrook (100.670 mph)
  6. Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05 (No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05) Ricky Taylor & Filipe Albuquerque (100.385 mph)

ABOUT KONICA MINOLTA

Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. is reshaping and revolutionizing the Workplace of the Future. The company guides and supports its clients’ digital transformation through its expansive office technology portfolio, including IT Services (All Covered), intelligent information management, managed print services and industrial and commercial print solutions. Konica Minolta has been included on CRN’s MSP 500 list nine times and The World Technology Awards recently named the company a finalist in the IT Software category. Konica Minolta has been recognized as the #1 Brand for Customer Loyalty in the MFP Office Copier Market by Brand Keys for fourteen consecutive years, and received Keypoint Intelligence’s BLI 2021 A3 Line of The Year Award and BLI 2021-2023 Most Color Consistent A3 Brand Award for its bizhub i-Series. Konica Minolta, Inc. has been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index for nine consecutive years and has spent four years on the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World list. Konica Minolta partners with its clients to give shape to ideas and works to bring value to our society. For more information, please visit us online and follow Konica Minolta on Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter. The No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05 effort and Wayne Taylor Racing is supported by an outstanding lineup of partners including Harrison Contracting, Acura Motorsports, Hammer Nutrition and CIT.

CORVETTE RACING AT LONG BEACH: Pole for Taylor, No. 3 C8.R

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Official Release
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CORVETTE RACING AT LONG BEACH: Pole for Taylor, No. 3 C8.R
Second straight Long Beach pole for Corvette Racing, first in GTD PRO

LONG BEACH, Calif. (April 8, 2022) – Corvette Racing’s Jordan Taylor qualified on pole position in the GT Daytona (GTD) PRO class of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship on Friday as the team looks for its ninth victory at the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Taylor posted a best lap of 1:18.048 (90.774 mph) on his final lap around the 1.968-mile, 11-turn street course in the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R that he will share with Antonio Garcia. The pairing are coming off a big win in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring three weeks ago with Nicky Catsburg. The pole was the first for the team in the new GTD PRO category and Taylor’s second in a row at Long Beach following a GT Le Mans (GTLM) pole last season.

Unusually hot temperatures Friday didn’t do any of the competitors any favors looking ahead to Saturday’s 100-minute race (5 p.m. ET on USA Network/IMSA Radio).

A projected drop of 15-20 degrees in the air temperature for Saturday means much of the data gathered won’t apply to the 100-minute race. Having said that, there were considerable lessons learned, specifically in the ABS braking package on the GTD PRO Corvette – one of the key differences between the current class and the GTLM version of the C8.R.

Suspension setup and compliance over some bumpier parts of the racing surface also were focal points Friday with some of those observations collected from the Sebring race and a subsequent test after the 12 Hours.

The combination of moving to GTD PRO plus a 100-minute race placed even more importance on qualifying than normal. With such a short race, there likely will be just one planned pit stop for fuel and change of tires and driver. With all 20 GTD cars having roughly the same performance levels, track position will be at a premium throughout.

The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach is scheduled for 5:05 p.m. ET/2:05 p.m. PT on Saturday. The race will air live on USA and stream on Peacock starting at 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT. IMSA Radio will air the race at IMSA.com along with XM 207 and SiriusXM Online 992.
JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – GTD PRO POLE WINNER: “We definitely put a lot of emphasis on qualifying around here because it’s so difficult to pass. Adding ABS makes it tougher. Practice One didn’t go that well. In Practice Two, we made some changes to get closer to the front of the field. Qualifying was super-tight. I thought my first 1:18.1 was quite a good lap and I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to beat it. I was disappointed to hear on the radio that we were six-hundredths off. I kept trying and slowing down and trying and slowing down. I made a couple of mistakes in turns nine and 10 on my second-to-last laps, and then I got turns 10 and 11 right to make all the difference. It was tight. With points in qualifying, it was another reason to qualify well. It’s a good day for Corvette Racing.”

CHANGES TO THE TRACK BETWEEN TURNS SIX AND EIGHT: “I don’t know what it is. It looks like a sealant or something. In the first session on the first 10 laps, the track was the fastest it was in that practice because that started peeling up. It looked like marbles at first but I think it was the track surface. It made it a little tricker and made it like a one-line run. If you ventured out, it was difficult. That will be something tomorrow as well when traffic comes through more for the prototypes or if we get pushed out into that it could be an issue.
“I think at Turn Six and Turn Eight, it seems like the walls are more rounded. I remember Six in the past had a sharper edge at the apex that would poke out a little bit. I don’t know if that was the change but that seems better.”

DIFFERENCE IN APPROACHING THE RACE AS A ONE-CAR TEAM: “I wouldn’t say we have dropped down (in class). The field is just as competitive (as GTLM) and it’s nice to have more cars to race against. It does make it more difficult having one car in the team. We showed up today for Practice One with a setup we thought was going to work. Usually we would come out with two setups to start that session. Our setup for Practice One wasn’t ideal so we spent the whole session chasing it and guessing for Practice Two, where in the past we’d have a second car to rely on. So we just lose half the time in development throughout the weekend. The way the team uses our simulator and all the tools we have, we can develop a setup close enough and rely on the history we have in the team and understand what the car is going to do from session to session especially at a track like this that changes so much.”

STAYING OUT IN QUALIFYING WHEN OTHER TEAMS STOPPED: “I didn’t have that much confidence that I was going to go faster but I thought it was worth trying. The fuel load and the weight of the fuel burning off is a big part of it that the driver doesn’t necessarily feel that much from lap to lap, but it shows up in laptime. I knew that was going to be one aspect. The balance also was changing, and I knew that if I kept pushing throughout the run, the balance would shift more to oversteer and that’s what I needed… more rotation. I definitely was sliding around a lot more than I was at the beginning of the session, so I didn’t know if that was going to be a positive or negative. I figured hopefully with the weight loss of the fuel and the balance shifting would be just enough to get another lap in and thankfully enough it was.”

FIRST POLE IN GTD PRO AFTER A SLOW START TO THE SEASON: “Daytona wasn’t ideal. Sebring obviously went well. That was a big turning point from a car setup point of view and understanding what the car needed to work on this tire. The tire has been the biggest thing for us to understand and understanding ABS. Sebring was big for us and it has some similarities to Long Beach so I think that’s why we can rely on our Sebring history here to know what the car setup is going to do. Once we get to Watkins Glen or Road America, there could be some new things to learn.”

HOW MUCH OF A PREMIUM DID THE TEAM PLACE ON QUALIFYING? “It is so difficult to pass here. ABS makes it that much tougher. If other guys are 1-2 seconds off, they can probably hold you off by attacking brake zones and holding on that way. We definitely put a premium on track position and qualifying. The race is a big question mark with how many red flags we had in practice and if we are going to have yellows and cautions and are guys going take that risk to pit early. One positive is that we do have a 35-minute driving minimum so guys just can’t jump out five or 10 minutes in. Track position is going to be key. Thankfully we got the pole and hopefully we can stay out in front and control things.”

CORVETTE RACING AT LONG BEACH: By the Numbers
• 1: As in one team, one manufacturer and one model of car for 14 years at Long Beach: Corvette Racing, Chevrolet and the Chevrolet Corvette.
• 3: Generations of Corvette Racing entries at Long Beach since 2007 –Corvette C6.R (2007-13) and Corvette C7.R (2014-2019) and Corvette C8.R (2021). All three generations have won at least once at Long Beach.
• 4: Number of Long Beach race victories for Corvette Racing’s duo of Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor.
• 8: Number of drivers who have competed at Long Beach for Corvette Racing – Olivier Beretta, Antonio Garcia, Oliver Gavin, Jan Magnussen, Tommy Milner, Johnny O’Connell, Nick Tandy and Jordan Taylor. Each driver has won at least once at Long Beach.
• 8: Number of Long Beach victories in 13 appearances for Corvette Racing – more than any other IMSA entrant at the circuit.
• 10: Number of Long Beach sports car victories for Chevrolet. Throw in 11 IndyCar wins, and Chevrolet has claimed 21 victories in the event’s two premier races.
• 14: Manufacturer Championships for Chevrolet and Corvette Racing since 2001.
• 19: Number of street circuit victories for Corvette Racing – more than any other IMSA entrant at the circuit.
• 25: Tracks at which Corvette Racing has won races – Baltimore, Charlotte Motor Speedway, COTA, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park/Mosport, Daytona, Detroit, Houston, Laguna Seca, Le Mans, Lime Rock, Long Beach, Miami, Mid-Ohio, Portland, Road America, Road Atlanta, Sebring, Sonoma, St. Petersburg, Texas, Trois Rivieres, Utah, VIR, Washington DC and Watkins Glen.
• 30: Number of wins in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for Corvette Racing since the start of 2014.
• 121: Victories worldwide for Corvette Racing – 113 in North America and eight at Le Mans.
• 253: Event starts by Corvette Racing since 1999.
• 3,945.82: Number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing in its 12 previous trips to Long Beach. That represents 2,005 laps around the 1.968-mile street circuit.
• 339,411.24: Total number of racing miles completed by Corvette Racing since its inception. To put that in perspective, Corvette Racing is more than halfway to the distance traveled by Apollo 13 – the longest manned spaceflight in history: 622,268 miles. That means Corvette Racing has raced to the moon… and then some!

Corvette Racing at Long Beach (wins in bold)
2007
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Johnny O’Connell – 2nd in GT1 (Magnussen fastest race lap)
No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin – 1st in GT1 (Gavin pole)

2008
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Johnny O’Connell/Jan Magnussen – 1st in GT1 (Magnussen pole)
No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin – 1st in GT1 (Gavin fastest race lap)

2009
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Johnny O’Connell – 2nd in GT1
No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Oliver Gavin – 1st in GT1 (Beretta pole, fastest race lap)

2010
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Johnny O’Connell – 2nd in GT2
No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Jan Magnussen – 9th in GT2 (Gavin fastest race lap)

2011
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Olivier Beretta/Tommy Milner – 5th in GT
No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Jan Magnussen – 2nd in GT (Magnussen fastest race lap)

2012
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 4th in GT
No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 1st in GT (Gavin fastest race lap)

2013
No. 3 Corvette C6.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 5th in GT
No. 4 Corvette C6.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 4th in GT (Gavin fastest race lap)

2014
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 1st in GTLM (Magnussen pole)
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 3rd in GTLM (Milner fastest race lap)

2015
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 3rd in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 7th in GTLM

2016
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 9th in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 2nd in GTLM

2017
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 5th in GTLM (Magnussen pole)
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 1st in GTLM

2018
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 4th in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 1st in GTLM

2019
No. 3 Corvette C7.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 2nd in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C7.R: Oliver Gavin/Tommy Milner – 3rd in GTLM

2021
No. 3 Corvette C8.R: Jan Magnussen/Antonio Garcia – 2nd in GTLM
No. 4 Corvette C8.R: Tommy Milner/Nick Tandy – 1st in GTLM
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 80 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.

RCR NXS Post Race Report: Martinsville

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Official Release
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Sheldon Creed and the No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet Team Run Strong and Lead Laps at Martinsville Speedway Before Mechanical Issues

Finish: 30th
Start: 5th
Points: 15th

“Everyone on this No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet team works so hard and tonight at Martinsville Speedway was no different. We qualified fifth and ran well early in the race, but struggled with drive off the corners, especially off Turn 4. About halfway through the race, we had a battery problem but we were still able to run. We even led the race with about a hundred laps to go before it finally quit. It stinks because I think we could have definitely finished somewhere in the top 10 or maybe even the top five. I wish our final results showed how strong our Chevy was tonight at Martinsville Speedway, but we’ll bounce back next week at Talladega.” -Sheldon Creed

Austin Hill and the No. 21 Bennett Transportation & Logistics Chevrolet Team Earn Solid, Top-Five Finish at Martinsville Speedway

Finish: 4th
Start: 14th
Points: 10th

“It was a solid day for us. Everybody at RCR and ECR brought a really fast No. 21 Bennett Transportation and Logistics Chevrolet Camaro to Martinsville Speedway. We didn’t have the speed we needed initially, but this team never gave up. We kept working on our Chevy and making it better. By the time we got to Stage 3, I thought we could run top-five lap times. I just needed to get up there. I knew the restarts were going to get wild at the end of the race. It was a 50-50 guess on if the inside lane or outside lane was better, and which lane was going to stack up and which one didn’t. I got lucky on the last three or four restarts. I was able to pick the right lane at the right time and gain some spots on the restarts when the cautions fell. On the last restart I was able to stay on the bottom. I saw the No. 1 car and the No. 54 car get together and when they did I just gassed up and went as low as I could to try to get by. it worked out for us and we’re leaving Martinsville with another top-five. That was a wild finish.” -Austin Hill

Toyota Racing NXS Post-Race Recap — Martinsville 4.8.22

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Official Release
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JONES CLAIMS FIRST WIN OF 2022 AT MARTINSVILLE
Brandon Jones Battles JGR Teammate on Final Lap

MARTINSVILLE, Va. (April 8, 2022) – Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Ty Gibbs and Brandon Jones shared time at the front of the field in Friday night’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at the half-mile Martinsville Speedway, but Jones would take the checkered flag in an eventful final lap. Jones picks up his first win of 2022 and secures a spot in this year’s Playoffs for his Menards GR Supra.

Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Xfinity Series
Martinsville Speedway
Race 8 of 33 – 131.5 miles, 250 laps

TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, BRANDON JONES
2nd, Landon Cassill*
3rd, AJ Allmendinger*
4th, Austin Hill*
5th, Sam Mayer*
7th, RYAN TRUEX
8th, TY GIBBS
21st, DEREK GRIFFITH
31st, JJ YELEY
*non-Toyota driver

TOYOTA QUOTES

BRANDON JONES, No. 19 Menards/Lyons Toyota GR Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 1st

What does it mean to battle your teammate for the win here at Martinsville?

“What a day. I can’t say that we could have called it any better. We made the call to stay out for stage points and drove the thing all the way from the back to the front. We had older tires than all of the guys at the end. Have to thank Lyons, Menards – our GR Supra was certainly as fast as Xfinity internet is. This is a driver’s race track here. I’ve won at a lot of different places now, but this is one that you really have to get after it. Ty (Gibbs) ran a really hard racee. He cleared me really early there in stage three and he had a strong GR Supra as well. It was fun to beat him. He’s hot right now and tough to beat. This was a good one.”

How were you able to battle in the closing laps with older tires?

“I think that one, they didn’t fall off maybe as much as some people thought and two, we just knew how to use our tools and we have a lot of different things to tune with. I don’t know, couldn’t have played it out any better and just really happy with the way it ended.”

Do you have a place for that Grandfather clock?

“I do, I have an awesome barn I just bought and I know right where it’s going to go.”

TY GIBBS, No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota GR Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 8th

What happened between you and Sam Mayer after the race was over?

“I tried to talk to him (Sam Mayer) and then he got up in my face and at that point you have to start fighting. We got put in a bad position there and the only thing I’m mad about is that the 1 (Mayer) didn’t have anything or wasn’t going to get past the 16 (AJ Allmendinger) there and then I got hit in the left rear. It’s just frustrating and I got drove in the fence again, but I was on the other side of it last week. It’s just part of it.”

#

About Toyota

Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in North America for more than 60 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands, plus our more than 1,800 dealerships.

Toyota directly employs more than 48,000 people in North America who have contributed to the design, engineering, and assembly of nearly 43 million cars and trucks at our 13 manufacturing plants. By 2025, Toyota’s 14th plant in North Carolina will begin to manufacture automotive batteries for electrified vehicles. With the more electrified vehicles on the road than any other automaker, more than a quarter of the company’s 2021 North American sales were electrified.

Through the Start Your Impossible campaign, Toyota highlights the way it partners with community, civic, academic and governmental organizations to address our society’s most pressing mobility challenges. We believe that when people are free to move, anything is possible. For more information about Toyota, visit www.ToyotaNewsroom.com.

Ford Performance NASCAR: Top 10 NXS Finishes for Herbst and Sieg

By
Official Release
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Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Xfinity Series
Call 811 Before Digging 250 – Friday, April 8 2022

FORD FINISHING RESULTS
6th – Riley Herbst
9th – Ryan Sieg
12th – Parker Retzlaff
35th – Natalie Decker
26th – Joe Graf Jr.
27th – Shane Lee
23rd – David Starr

RILEY HERBST, No. 98 Monster Energy Ford Mustang — “It wasn’t too bad. This just isn’t one of my good tracks, but to come home sixth with another top 10 – all in all it’s good. That’s what we need to do here. Obviously, we want $100,000 and to go win races, but we just have to progress.”

YOU SEEMED TO HAVE SOLID STRATEGY ALL NIGHT. “Yeah, that’s Richard on strategy and he did a good job. We just have to get better for the fall.”

RYAN SIEG, No. 39 CMR Roofing/A-Game Ford Mustang – YOU STAYED OUT LATE IN STAGE 2 AND FINISHED THIRD. WAS THAT A KEY TO YOUR GOOD NIGHT? “Yeah, that was a good positive, but that put us behind for the third stage and we had no track position. We got a little bit there at the end choosing the outside, and there were a couple times we could have got some more spots and then we got caught in the back in traffic. But, all in all, it was a good day for our Ford. We just needed a little bit of track position and a little bit of traction off the corner. That’s what we needed to try and get better and stay better all day. We fought that all day, but it’s tough here. This was an awesome job for Martinsville. We had a great Ford.”

The Simpsons and Gambling

By
SM
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Photo by Heather Gill on Unsplash

The Simpsons and gambling is a match that works almost seamlessly. In many episodes of the famous cartoon family, gambling was present. But from the beginning, there have always been episodes around this theme. Some of these have even become classics, but for the most part, we’ll leave you to watch them yourself and decide.

Season 1, Episode 1 (Roasting On an Open Fire)

The first episode in the longest-running American sitcom also contains its most direct reference to gambling. In Roasting On an Open Fire, Homer takes a job as a department store Santa to make ends meet for Christmas. But after borrowing money from Mr. Burns to buy Marge a gift, he’s forced to visit the dog track on Christmas Eve to win back his money. Of course, it all goes wrong, and the Simpsons family ends up with a greyhound called Santa’s Little Helper instead of cash.

Season 5, Episode 10 (Springfield)

Homer’s twin brother Herbert Powell comes to town and takes Homer on a trip to Las Vegas, where they visit several casinos, including the Landmark Hotel and Casino. Homer thinks he can win at roulette by betting on 32 because it’s his lucky number but loses everything he brought with him when they get there. He then wins by betting on all numbers, ending with 2, which was his birthday date (2/2). 

Season 10, Episode 10 (Viva Ned Flanders)

Ned Flanders wins a trip to Las Vegas, Nevada, and Homer tags along. They get caught up in the city’s excesses and become addicted to gambling mega moolah $1 deposit among other games. 

Homer joins his best friend in gambling during the Super Bowl. After losing the game, Homer wins a lot of money by betting on the coin toss that opens the game. The episode parodies Viva Las Vegas’s film and features Elvis Presley impersonator Tom Jones as himself.

Season 12, Episode 3 (Insane Clown Poppy)

In this episode, the father, Homer Simpson, goes to Las Vegas and meets a young girl named Mary.

Once there, he discovers that Mary is the daughter of Krusty the Clown, who had become a millionaire by investing his money in casinos. He tells Mary about his gambling addiction, and she gives him $5,000 to buy a new car. Homer then tries to win back the money he lost at the casino but loses even more.

Season 15, Episode 3 (The President Wore Pearls)

Bart becomes a poker prodigy in The President Wore Pearls after taking an IQ-boosting medication. He participates in the World Series of Poker, and his family cheers him on from home.

The Simpsons are seen playing poker at a table while watching Bart play against some of the world’s greatest players on TV. Throughout the show, he eliminates opponents until there are just two left. Bart holds a royal flush, while the other player has four kings. But a phone call disrupts Bart’s concentration just before the fight. The opponent then displays a complete house of three kings and two queens (with one king being on top)

Conclusion

If you love gambling, The Simpsons might seem an excellent inspiration for you. The games of Caesars Palace, the Springfield Bowl, and many others are as incredible as in real life, giving you a perfect chance to have fun in your favorite series. In particular, any gambling fan is going to love this animated series.

Brandon Jones capitalizes with a wild Xfinity victory at Martinsville

By
Andrew Kim
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Photo by Andrew Boyd for SpeedwayMedia.com.

Brandon Jones seized an opportunity in the second of two overtime attempts to overtake teammate Ty Gibbs on the final lap and win the Call 811 Before You Dig 250 on April 8. It was a wild Friday night at Martinsville Speedway with on-track chaos, a multitude of cautions and flaring tempers ensuing throughout the event, and even between two young guns.

The 25-year-old Jones from Atlanta, Georgia, utilized pit strategy to win the second stage in a one-lap dash while on worn tires. After pitting prior to the start of the final stage, he methodically carved his way to the front and was up in the top five under the final 10 laps. Then through a series of late carnages and with the event sent into two overtime attempts, Jones intimidated his teammate Gibbs before managing to draw dead even with his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate through the backstretch on the final lap. He then managed to clear Gibbs as Gibbs got tangled with Sam Mayer, whom he confronted following the event, to muscle away and claim his first victory of the 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series season.

With on-track qualifying occurring on Thursday, Ty Gibbs, winner of last weekend’s Xfinity event at Richmond Raceway, notched his third consecutive Xfinity pole position in recent weeks after posting a pole-winning lap at 95.985 mph in 19.728 seconds. Joining him on the front row was Justin Allgaier, who posted a fast lap at 95.496 mph in 19.829 seconds.

Prior to the event, Noah Gragson, Derek Griffith, Kyle Weatherman and Howie Disavino III dropped to the rear due to unapproved adjustments made to their respective cars. Another competitor who dropped to the rear due to unapproved adjustments was Dale Earnhardt Jr., who was making his lone Xfinity start of the season. 

When the green flag waved and the race started amid a brief delay due to rain, Gibbs launched ahead of rookie Sheldon Creed, Justin Allgaier and the field with an early advantage as he went on to lead the first lap. Shortly after, the first caution of the event flew due to a blown engine and smoke billowing out of the No. 47 car piloted by Brennan Poole that started in the first turn. 

Thirteen laps later, the race restarted under green. At the start, Gibbs prevailed in a full side-by-side battle against Allgaier to retain the lead while Creed battled and prevailed in a brief battle with Allgaier for the runner-up spot. In the midst of the battles, Brett Moffitt pitted after falling off the pace due to a transmission issue. 

Through the first 25 scheduled laps, Gibbs was leading by more than a second over Allgaier followed by Ryan Truex, Landon Cassill and Creed while Daniel Hemric, Ryan Sieg, AJ Allmendinger, Riley Herbst and Josh Berry were in the top 10. By then, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was in 31st. 

On Lap 39, the caution returned due to Howie Disavino III stopping on the track in Turn 4. Under caution, some drivers including Earnhardt Jr., Noah Gragson, Jade Buford and Myatt Snider pitted while the rest, led by Gibbs, remained on the track.

When the race restarted under green on Lap 45, Gibbs retained the lead while Allgaier retained second ahead of Ryan Truex. Behind, Creed and Cassill battled for fourth place while Ryan Sieg and Hemric battled for sixth. In addition, Josh Berry and Allmendinger battled for eighth place.

By Lap 50, Gibbs was leading by nearly half a second over Allgaier followed by Truex, Cassill and Hemric while Allmendinger, Brandon Jones, Berry, Sam Mayer and Creed were in the top 10. 

When the first stage concluded on Lap 60, Gibbs claimed his second stage victory of the season. Allgaier settled in second followed by Truex, Cassill, Hemric, Allmendinger, Brandon Jones, Berry, Mayer and Creed. By then, Gragson was up in 13th place while Earnhardt Jr. was in 22nd place.

During the stage break, a majority of the field led by Gibbs pitted, while the rest, led by Gragson remained on the track.

The second stage started on Lap 69 as Gragson and Myatt Snider occupied the front row. At the start, Gragson retained the lead while Snider and rookie Austin Hill battled for the runner-up spot. Behind, Gibbs was in fourth in front of Earnhardt Jr. 

Four laps later, the caution flew when a bump from Joe Graf Jr. sent Jade Buford spinning against the outside wall between Turns 3 and 4. 

By Lap 79, the race restarted under green. At the start, Gragson rocketed away with the lead entering the first turn while Gibbs fended off Austin Hill to retain the runner-up spot. Behind, Earnhardt Jr. battled with Snider for fourth place in front of Truex and Allgaier. Shortly after, Earnhardt Jr. was slowly being overtaken and was falling out of the top 10 as he was trapped on the outside lane. 

Back at the front by Lap 90, Gibbs, who reassumed the lead over Gragson on two laps earlier, was leading by half a second over Gragson followed by Hill, Brandon Jones and Allgaier, who wheel-hopped but managed to lose one spot in the process. Behind, Snider was bumped and shuffled out of the racing groove by Creed while racing in the top 15. 

Through the first 100 laps of the event, Gibbs continued to lead by more than a second over Gragson while Hill, Brandon Jones, Allgaier, Truex, Allmendinger, Mayer, Cassill and Hemric were in the top 10. Berry, Earnhardt Jr., Riley Herbst, Creed and Jeremy Clements were in the top 15 followed by Ryan Sieg, Jeb Burton, Brandon Brown, Derek Griffith and Alex Labbe. 

Two laps later, the caution returned when Joe Graf Jr. sent Stefan Parsons for a spin between Turns 1 and 2.

By Lap 107, the race restarted under green. At the start, Gibbs continued to lead followed by teammate Brandon Jones while Gragson fell back to third place in front of Hill and Allgaier. 

As the laps in the second stage dwindled, Gibbs remained as the leader by nearly a second over teammate Brandon Jones and Gragson while Allgaier was up in fourth place in front of Hill, Truex, Allmendinger, Mayer, Cassill and Berry.

Then on Lap 115, the caution flew when Anthony Alfredo turned Derek Griffith in Turn 1. Under caution, a majority of the field led by Gibbs pitted while the rest led by Brandon Jones remained on the track. 

During a one-lap dash to conclude the second stage scheduled for Lap 120, Brandon Jones was able to muscle away from Cassill and the field to claim his first stage victory of the season. Cassill retained second place followed by Ryan Sieg, Brandon Brown, David Starr, Anthony Alfredo, Stefan Parsons, Jeremy Clements, Riley Herbst and Shane Lee while Gibbs settled in 11th.

Under the stage break, some led by Brandon Jones pitted while the rest led by Stefan Parsons remained on the track. 

With 122 laps remaining, the final stage started. At the start, Parsons retained the lead through the first two turns until Herbst and Gibbs made a three-wide move on Parsons through the backstretch to move into first and second. Shortly after, a Monster Energy duo occurred between Herbst and Gibbs for the top spot before the latter prevailed. 

With 115 laps remaining, Gibbs was out in front by nearly nine-tenths of a second over Herbst, who was being pressured by Allgaier for more. Gragson, Truex, Allmendinger, Earnhardt Jr., Parsons, Berry and Hemric followed pursuit in the top 10.

Down to the final 100 laps of the event, Gibbs continued to lead by more than a second over Allgaier while third-place Gragson trailed by one-and-a-half seconds. Ryan Truex and Allmendinger were in the top five while Herbst, Berry, Hemric, Earnhardt Jr. and Creed were running in the top 10. 

Six laps later, the caution flew when the runner-up competitor of Allgaier slapped the outside wall in Turn 1 after wheel-hopping, thus sustaining rear-end damage to his No. 7 BRANDT Chevrolet Camaro. Under caution, a majority of the field led by Gibbs pitted while others like Creed, Brandon Jones, Brandon Brown, Anthony Alfredo and Matt Mills remained on the track.

With 88 laps remaining, the race proceeded under green. At the start, Creed retained the lead ahead of Jones and Mills while Gibbs muscle his No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota Supra to fourth place.

Four laps later, the caution flew when Ryan Truex spun his No. 18 ShopUSAPickleball.com Toyota Supra between Turns 1 and 2 following contact with Alex Labbe.

Another five laps later, the race proceeded under green. At the start, Brandon Jones continued to lead followed by teammate Gibbs and the field. Just then, the caution returned when Berry spun in Turn 3 after cutting a left-rear tire on his No. 8 Harrison’s Chevrolet Camaro, an issue that started when he made contact with his boss Earnhardt Jr. entering the backstretch. 

With 72 laps remaining, the race proceeded under green. At the start, Brandon Jones retained the lead followed by Gibbs, Creed and the field through the first two turns. Then, the caution returned when Matt Mills backed his car into the outside wall in Turn 3 after receiving contact from Herbst.

Eight laps later, the race proceeded under green. At the start, teammates Brandon Jones and Gibbs battled for the lead until he took over the lead another two laps later. Following a brief duel with his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Gibbs managed to retain the top spot. Shortly after, Gragson moved into second place followed by Allmendinger while Jones was trapped on the outside lane. 

Down to the final 50 laps of the event, Gibbs was leading by nearly seven-tenths of a second over Gragson while third-place Allmendinger trailed by more than two seconds. Brandon Jones and Creed were in the top five followed by Herbst, Hemric, Mayer, Cassill and Brandon Brown while Earnhardt Jr. was in 11th place in front of Alfredo, Jeb Burton, Hill, Ryan Sieg and Ryan Truex.

Fifteen laps later and with the leaders surrounded in lapped traffic, Gibbs continued to lead by six-tenths of a second over Gragson, who continued to pressure the leader for the lead and with a potential win in sight. Allmendinger, meanwhile, remained in third place followed by Jones and Mayer while Creed, Herbst, Cassill, Hemric and Earnhardt Jr. occupied the top 10.

Then with 30 laps remaining, the caution flew when Parsons lost his brakes and got into the outside wall in Turn 2. 

Down to the final 24 laps of the event, the race restarted under green. At the start, Gibbs cleared Gragson to retain the lead while Gragson managed to fend off Allmendinger and Mayer to retain second place. Soon after, Mayer moved into third place over Allmendinger while Brandon Jones was in fifth place. 

Just then, the caution flew when Hemric, who made contact with both Creed and Hill entering Turn 2, lost a left-rear tire and spun his No. 11 Cirkul Chevrolet Camaro between Turns 3 and 4. In the midst of Hemric’s incident, Earnhardt Jr. and Ryan Sieg made contact as Sieg’s rear bumper ripped off.

With 16 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Gibbs retained the lead with a strong race car while Mayer battled and overtook teammate Gragson for second place. Behind, Brandon Jones and Allmendinger remained in the top five ahead of Herbst. 

Two laps later, the caution flew when Jade Buford spun in Turn 1 as Derek Griffith sustained front-nose damage.

Down to the final eight laps of the event, the race proceeded under green. Just as Gibbs and Mayer briefly dueled for the top spot, the caution quickly returned when a stack-up and a bump from Berry sent Clements into Earnhardt Jr.’s No. 88 Hellmann’s Chevrolet Camaro, which sent Earnhardt sideways in the midst of the incoming field, though he was able to continue.

Under caution, some like Creed and Alfredo pitted while the rest led by Gibbs remained on the track.

With the event sent into overtime, the first overtime attempt did not last long as Mayer, who spun the tires on the outside lane, was bumped as he clipped Gragson, which sent Gragson’s No. 9 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet Camaro backward into the outside wall before he was t-boned by Jeb Burton. The incident sparked a multi-car wreck on the frontstretch that involved Alex Labbe, Mason Massey, Bayley Currey, Allgaier, Parsons, Derek Griffith, Parker Retzlaff, Alfredo, Snider, Berry, Kyle Weatherman and Brown while the second half of the field was blocked off by the carnage. The wreck forced NASCAR to place the event in a red flag situation as the on-track safety crew went to work to clear the carnage.

When the red flag was lifted and the second overtime attempt commenced under green, Gibbs briefly launched ahead of Mayer until Brandon Jones made the slightest of contact against teammate Gibbs, which got Gibbs loose entering the first turn as Jones tried to draw himself alongside Gibbs’ No. 54 Toyota for the top spot through the backstretch.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Gibbs continued to lead while teammate Jones launched another attack on Gibbs for the lead entering the first turn. Through the first two turns, Jones, this time, managed to draw dead even with Gibbs. Then between Turns 3 and 4, Jones muscled his No. 19 Menards Toyota Supra out in front on the bottom lane while Mayer rubbed against Gibbs, which stalled the latter’s run to the finish. This allowed Jones to pull away as he crossed the finish line to steal the win in upset fashion.

With his first victory at Martinsville, Jones claimed his fifth Xfinity Series career victory in his 211th series start and his first since winning at Darlington Raceway in September 2020. He also became the sixth different winner, fifth series regular, through the first eight scheduled Xfinity events.

“What a day!” Jones exclaimed on FS1. “I can’t say that we could’ve played it out any better. I loved the call we made to get stage points. [I] Drove the thing all the way from the back to the front and had older tires than all those guys at the end. This is a driver’s race track right here. I’ve won in a lot of different places now and this is one that you have to get after it. Ty [Gibbs] ran a really hard race. [I] Can’t believe he cleared me there really early in Stage 3. Fun to beat him. He’s hot right now. He’s tough to beat, so that’s a good one…Really happy with the way it ended.”

In the midst of the on-track chaos, Landon Cassill came home in a career-best second place followed by Allmendinger, who claimed the second Dash 4 Cash $100,000 bonus a week after missing out on the bonus at Richmond Raceway. Allmendinger, Brandon Jones, Cassill and fourth-place finisher Austin Hill will contend for the third Dash 4 Cash bonus at Talladega Superspeedway scheduled for April 23.

Mayer completed the top five while Herbst, Ryan Truex, Gibbs, Ryan Sieg and Clements finished in the top 10. 

Following the event, tempers flared on pit road between Gibbs and Mayer following their final lap incident. The post-race activity started with Gibbs ramming into the rear of Mayer’s car before both competitors confronted one another face-to-face as the punches and the shoves ensued, with Gibbs throwing punches across Mayer’s face and Mayer getting his left eye cut as the crew members and NASCAR officials got involved to separate both competitors. In the midst of the fight, a NASCAR official was injured and taken to the care center for evaluation. Following the chaos, both Gibbs and Mayer were summoned to the NASCAR hauler to meet with the officials.

“I tried to talk to [Mayer] and then, he got all over my face,” Gibbs said. “At that point, you got to start fighting. We got put in a bad position. The only thing I’m mad about is [Mayer] wasn’t gonna get past [Allmendinger] there and I just got hit in the left rear. It’s just frustrating. I just got drove into the fence at the end. I was on the other side of it last week, so that’s just part of it.”

“I had $100,000 in my sights and I was gonna do what I had to do to try and get that,” Mayer said. “I put the bumper to [Gibbs]. In my opinion, and we talked in the trailer, it was just a clean bump-and-run – and [Cassill)]kinda stuck it in there and kinda got us both crossed up and that’s kinda when it went to crap. I put the bumper to him. He came back over and he was upset and decided to throw a couple punches, but that’s fine by me. We talked about it. We’ll be good going forward, especially at Talladega. That’s a place where you don’t want to be enemies, so we’re gonna move on and be A-OK, keep our head down and go out and try to get a win next time.”

Following his late spin, Dale Earnhardt Jr. managed to finish 11th in his lone Xfinity start of the season.

There were 12 lead changes for seven different leaders. The race featured 16 cautions for 100 laps.

With his top-five result and a $100,000 bonus added to his paycheck, AJ Allmendinger leads the regular-season standings by 20 points over Ty Gibbs, 42 points over Noah Gragson, 89 over Brandon Jones and 94 over Josh Berry.

Results.

1. Brandon Jones, 28 laps led, Stage 2 winner

2. Landon Cassill

3. AJ Allmendinger

4. Austin Hill

5. Sam Mayer

6. Riley Herbst, one lap led

7. Ryan Truex

8. Ty Gibbs, 197 laps led, Stage 1 winner

9. Ryan Sieg

10. Jeremy Clements

11. Dale Earnhardt Jr.

12. Parker Retzlaff

13. Daniel Hemric 

14. Anthony Alfredo

15. Alex Labbe

16. Kyle Weatherman

17. Bayley Currey

18. Matt Mills

19. Josh Berry

20. Noah Gragson, 23 laps led

21. Derek Griffith

22. Jade Buford, one lap down

23. David Starr, one lap down

24. Myatt Snider, one lap down

25. Ryan Vargas, one lap down

26. Joe Graf Jr., one lap down

27. Shane Lee, one lap down

28. Stefan Parsons, one lap down, five laps led

29. Justin Allgaier, one lap down, one lap led

30. Sheldon Creed, two laps down, six laps led

31. JJ Yeley, two laps down

32. Jeb Burton – OUT, Accident

33. Mason Massey – OUT, Dvp

34. Brandon Brown – OUT, Accident

35. Natalie Decker, 19 laps down

36. Howie Disavino III – OUT, Driveshaft

37. Brett Moffitt – OUT, Driveshaft

38. Brennan Poole – OUT, Clutch

Next on the 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the series’ first of two visits to Talladega Superspeedway, where the third Dash 4 Cash event will occur. The event is scheduled to occur on April 23 at 4 p.m. ET on FOX.

Ford Performance NASCAR: Six Ford Drivers Qualify Top 10 for Martinsville Cup Race

By
Official Release
-

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.”

CHEVY NCS: Chase Elliott Puts Camaro ZL1 on the Pole at Martinsville

By
Official Release
-

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.

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