NASCAR CUP SERIES
ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY
FOLDS OF HONOR QUIKTRIP 500
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 20, 2022

WILLIAM BYRON GIVES CAMARO ZL1 THE THIRD WIN OF 2022 AT ATLANTA
Team Chevy Drivers Take Four of Top-Five, Six of Top-10

HAMPTON, Ga. (March 20, 2022) – In the debut of the repaved, revamped Atlanta Motor Speedway, William Byron drove the No. 24 Liberty University Camaro ZL1 to his first NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) victory of the 2022 season in the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500. In a race that saw 11 cautions and 46 lead changes – a record at Atlanta Motor Speedway – Byron led the final 10 laps of the 325-lap race to capture his third career victory in 149 starts in NASCAR’s premier series.
“The Liberty University Chevrolet was awesome there,” said Byron. “We had a pretty rough practice; worked hard on it and got it handling well. Like I told you, it was kind of an intermediate style with a little bit of superspeedway to it, so it was lot of fun. Thanks to everyone at Hendrick Motorsports.”

Byron’s win gives Chevrolet its 42nd trip to victory lane at Atlanta Motor Speedway, extending its all-time win record lead over all manufacturers. The feat also marks the bowtie brand’s third NASCAR Cup Series victory thus far this season. The winningest brand in NASCAR history, Chevrolet now sits at 817 all-time wins in NASCAR’s premier series. In just the fifth points-paying race of the season, three different Chevrolet drivers have now secured their spots in the 16-driver NCS Playoff field, with Byron joining Hendrick Motorsports teammates Kyle Larson and Alex Bowman.

For the third race this season, the Camaro ZL1 took four of the top-five and six of the top-10 of the final running order. Ross Chastain and his No. 1 Trackhouse Racing team showcased their speed all day, rallying from a blown tire while leading to fight back to a back-to-back runner-up finish. Joining Chastain in the top-five was his Trackhouse Racing teammate, Daniel Suarez, who brought his No. 99 CommScope Camaro ZL1 to the checkered flags in the fourth position. Rounding out the Team Chevy top-five was Corey LaJoie, who drove his No. 7 Spire Motorsports Camaro ZL1 to his career-best finish of fifth.
Byron’s victory was also celebrated by fellow Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Chase Elliott, who drove his No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 to a sixth-place finish. Elliott, the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series Champion, leaves his home state track in the lead of the driver standings, seven points over second-place Joey Logano. Alex Bowman, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1, finished 10th to give Chevrolet an impressive six of the top-10.

The NASCAR Cup Series season continues next weekend at Circuit of The Americas with the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix on Sunday, March 27, at 3:30 P.M. ET. Live coverage can be found on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1, RACE WIN PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:

THE MODERATOR: We roll into our post-race media availability now with our race winner, William Byron. We will continue with questions.

Q. William, just kind of curious your thoughts overall after what we went through with the practice and getting through the race, getting the win? What was your overall thoughts on the track, the layouts, and this style of racing on a mile and a half, which we’ve never seen before?
WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, certainly a lot to learn this weekend. I think that through all the things that we did to prepare, like nothing came close to what practice ended up being like, so I was shocked how crazy it was, how big the runs were.

My spotter, we talked overnight. It was like you couldn’t talk fast enough to get all the things you needed to say. I thought he really worked hard overnight and got a clear idea of kind of what needed to be said so we could work on that.

But we were not very good in practice. I felt like we were really tight and had some things that we had to work through. And Rudy and my engineers and all the guys on the car worked extremely hard to get it better. And today was awesome, obviously. We led a bunch of laps. It felt like we had the best car the way we could move through the field, and just awesome to win on kind of the inaugural race of Atlanta in this style, so always cool to do something like that.

Q. With the way the Truck and Xfinity races ended, did you think you were in the best position there the last couple of laps or did you feel like that you were in trouble and/or did you see something in those races that you were able to apply to the finish here?
WILLIAM BYRON: That’s a good question. I didn’t really have a chance to watch the races because I was racing last night at Hickory, but I watched a little bit of the Truck race. And I saw the last lap with Chandler leading and kind of how that developed.

So I was always trying to guard against getting too far out in front. But as soon as it got double file, I would say into turn one that really helped my cause to kind of be able to just manage the momentum. But single file, surprisingly, I mean, it might have looked like we were staying single file relatively easy, but it was hard to run single file.

It was difficult to manage the lead in the front and not have somebody get a run on you to easily pass you. So I think those things were interesting as the day developed. I felt like single file was my most vulnerable place to be, and then as soon as they would get kind of doubled up throughout the field, that was probably a little bit easier to handle.

Q. What is your QuikTrip pastry of choice?
WILLIAM BYRON: It looks like one of those sour cream donuts, so I’m a big sweet tooth, so I — my girlfriend knows I just eat constantly. So it’s not great, but it’s the way it is.

Q. Two for you. Being able to go back and forth and win at Hickory last night and then win here today, it’s kind of old-school. It’s like the old Busch Series run at a short track and then come run the super speedway on a Sunday. What do you think of that experience, being able to fly back and forth and do that?
WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I love it. I think it was — I hope for my sake that it doesn’t get overcrowded and a bunch of guys start doing that because I think it’s unique and cool, but it was a lot of fun to go to Hickory last night. That was the most nervous Saturday I’ve ever had. I was nervous in the Cup car. How was that going to go? How was the travel going to be going back to the other race track, and what is that going to feel like once I get back on the track?

Really just having good people around me to calm my nerves and just get me in the right state of mind, it was really nice to have something to kind of fill the space and be able to put my mind to something on Saturday night.

Hickory is such an iconic track, and the tire management that I had to go through last night was such a cool thing to go do, and really kind of challenged my mind completely different than this, but at the same time just the ability to adapt to stuff I think was a lot of fun and definitely hope to do more of that.
I hope to do Nashville in May, the Darlington weekend, and I think it’s just a lot of fun.

Q. You’ve worked with Branden Lines for a long time going back to your late model days. I believe this is his first Cup win. How cool is it to be able to give that to him after he has pretty much coached you throughout your career?
WILLIAM BYRON: Very cool. I mean, he — yeah, you said it best. I feel like he has been there really every step of the way. I mean, we’ve always kept in touch. Very similar to Rudy. Now I feel like at the Cup level, I have that triangle that we talk about with the spotter, crew chief, driver.

I have people that I’ve known for most of my racing career, so I think that’s very, very cool. You don’t see that a lot, but for someone as young as me, I feel like it’s really critical because my comfort level with him is very high. I can tell Branden whatever, whatever I think, and I can tell Rudy whatever I think.

So, yeah, it’s cool to see him kind of break through that bubble that is your first Cup win because it’s hard to get that. He did a great job throughout the last few laps, and I just had a good feeling coming into this race that we could do something good and pretty awesome to pull it off.

Q. William, some tires were popping, particularly on the Chevrolets. Were you kept abreast of what was happening there, and did you have a concern about that?
WILLIAM BYRON: So yes and no. I don’t think it was a Chevrolet thing. I think it was just the fact that whoever was leading for a long time when it got single file. Just the way that the cars felt on corner entry, you put a lot of load into the right-side tires a lot of time in the back traffic, you put a lot of load into the front, and that’s usually what you find on a repave is right front tire issues.

I think Goodyear has done a good job of working through and making sure that the right front does last, but the right rear is a little bit of an unpredictable thing because typically you’re not on the right rear that hard on a repave because you can’t be loose.

It was unique that that was an issue, but I’m sure it’s just something new with the track and something we’ll work through.

Q. I was just curious if today’s race was as mentally challenging or exhausting as Daytona or Talladega?
WILLIAM BYRON: More. More, for sure. Daytona and Talladega, when you get single file, can you relax. Today when you were single-file, you were constantly working to stay single file so you didn’t lose the lead. I think that was a lot different. I’m not used to that.

And the way that you — I told Branden at one point and Rudy, I was, like, man, I can’t believe we’re not halfway yet because this is — this just feels long mentally. Just all the energy that I’m spending to do all the moves that we need to make. Pretty crazy race, but definitely good to come out on top.

Q. You mentioned a few minutes ago about the triangle and having the right people around you. At this point do you feel like this is the most comfortable that you have been as a Cup Series driver and one the Hendrick organization since you have been there?
WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, definitely. I think that comfort has come in the last few years. I would say even back to working with Chad I felt more and more comfortable in the debriefs, more comfortable at the shop, and it was kind of one thing after another.

I would say the first thing I felt comfortable was walking into the shop and feeling like I could speak my mind and say what the car did, be critical. Then I think it slowly trickled to Rudy coming on board, somebody that I’ve worked with in the past, and then Branden was a nice addition to somebody I’ve worked with in the past as well.

Then ultimately, just having that good group around you and people that you trust and can work with. It’s been a great start to the year. We’ve had a ton of speed. Obviously had some wrecks and things, but I felt like today was due.

Q. I’m just kind of curious. You said a couple of times after you were climbing from the car. I’ve got to say the excitement, the screaming and the yelling was pretty intense, but you also said you were out of breath. And I’m just kind of wondering, was the out of breath from the exertion, from the emotion, from just the intensity of the racing? And if it was the latter, where would this stack up as just being nerve-wracking compared to a Talladega or a Daytona?
WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I think the excitement was just from, obviously, winning a Cup race. Cup races are so hard to win, and I feel like anytime you win one it’s just such an exciting feeling.

It’s a little bit different, though, when you have a nice lead or you’ve got a dominant car all day, but when you come to a speedway, you really don’t know you’re going to win until you come on to the front stretch and if you are by yourself.

So it’s just a crazy, exhilarating feeling when you win at a kind of super speedway style race because you’re constantly working, and you never — it’s never really guaranteed. That was where the excitement I think came from. But, yeah, I think it was a lot of fun.

Q. You ran the lower horsepower package here this weekend. You guys come back in July. Would you be in favor of a higher horsepower package to kind of get the cars separated, or did you like what you had today and come back with the same package?
WILLIAM BYRON: I doubt they’re going to change it after the way today was, but, yeah, I think repaves are tricky. You’re never going to — you’re probably going to have a hard time making the tires last for a couple of years with the pavement and the grip that this place would have if we had low downforce.
It is what it is, and just learning to adapt as we go and try to be the best we can at it.

Q. There’s parts of this track that some people say are kind of angry. It has its own little nuances already, and one of those it seems to be coming out of two in the back stretch. I was back there on the terrace watching, and you could see the cars kind of bottoming out. What did you feel in the car when you were out there, and how did that throw you guys around?
WILLIAM BYRON: Certainly the bump off two was kind of your lap counter because it was such a big bump that I felt like every time I got to that, it was like, all right, there’s another lap. Definitely kind of feeling it in your back. I’m sure they’ll smooth that out, and the cars are — as we saw at California, bumps are difficult sometimes with quick jolts, but overall I think that was the only thing I saw that was kind of puzzling, but I think the rest of the track definitely did have some character that I was interested the way it worked out.

The painted line definitely has a lot of grip. Not that you really need to use that, but certainly the way that the lanes work in the corner is kind of weird. There’s kind of like a snake effect to the lanes. It’s not just a smooth constant progression like it is at Daytona, so that’s a little different. I don’t know how that will change as the years go.

Q. First off, congratulations on your big win. I saw Alex Bowman come into victory lane congratulate you. Walk me through what he said to you, and how crucial is it to have such a tight-knit relationship in the Hendrick Motorsports family.
WILLIAM BYRON: It’s great to have really awesome teammates. I feel like Kyle, Chase, and Alex are awesome teammates. They’re really good race car drivers, and I feel like we all learn things from each other. We all have kind of our — as I have spent more time around all of them, I feel like we all have our tendencies and tracks that we like or dislike. It’s cool to learn from each of them. I feel like we continue to strengthen each other because we’re constantly kind of learning from each other, which is good.

THE MODERATOR: William, that seems to be all the questions we have. Thank you, again, for joining us. Congratulations, again, on the win. We wish you the best of luck next weekend as well.

WILLIAM BYRON: Appreciate it.

RUDY FUGLE, CREW CHIEF, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1; AND RICK HENDRICK, OWNER, HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS – PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT

THE MODERATOR: We are going to go ahead and get started here with our post-race availability for this afternoon’s Fold of Honors 500 here at Atlanta Motor Speedway. We’ve been joined by our race-winning crew chief, Rudy Fugle.

First of all, congrats on the win. We appreciate you coming in and joining us after the victory lane celebration. Tell us just a little bit about those final laps from your vantage point.

RUDY FUGLE: Thanks for the congrats. It’s really exciting to be able to get a win. Just the restart and the final — led to the final set of laps, and then we had one of the strongest cars, if not the strongest car.
But it’s all about getting the pushes and trying to stay ahead of that. So our spotter, Branden Lines and William did awesome. They were able to control the lanes and go back and forth. Even just getting the lead back was phenomenal.

Holding our breath, hoping to get back to the lead, and then once we got there, just holding your breath to control it. So super proud of everybody.

THE MODERATOR: We’ve now been joined by Rick Hendrick as well, so we’ll go ahead and open up for questions for both Rick and Rudy. I know I saw a few hands raised.

Q. Rudy, two things. First off, it was said over the radio after you won the race, and William said it in his TV interview, with the hard work that went in overnight in changing some things, working late. Can you walk us through the work that was done on this 24 car after what you saw in practice?
RUDY FUGLE: For the first time this year really we were off in practice. Just had some wrong philosophies, wrong setup items, and the way practice was we were just trying to get laps so William could get comfortable. But we really needed to work on the car more, but needed to make a plan.
Once we got out of here and got back to the hotel, our engineers, and even at the shop and here we worked until 9:00. We had some dinner, and then there was emails going out until midnight, so coming up with a plan.

Came up with a good plan thanks to — we used a lot of the 9 stuff to help guide us and made good decisions otherwise, and then give that to the guys to come in this morning. And they got an hour and a half to pretty much rebuild the race car.

So they did phenomenal getting the car built, getting through tech and put a race car on the track capable of winning, and not dominating, but being really, really fast. Close to dominating.

Q. Did you guys come here with a super speedway philosophy in car setup, or did you come here with the typical Atlanta setup?
RUDY FUGLE: No, it was a blend. A lot of super speedway thoughts and then some Michigan, some Texas repave and just trying to — and this car is still brand new, so there’s a ton we’re learning that you’re trying to apply. So missed it on a couple of things, but it didn’t take much to get it where we needed to be.

Q. I have a question for each of you gentlemen. Rudy, from your perspective as a crew chief, old Atlanta configuration and type of racing versus what we saw today. Your thoughts?
RUDY FUGLE: Yeah, it was — I thought racing really was really good today. There’s some things with the track, some big bumps and some character. It’s difficult. It’s stressful. It’s a different type of racing.
Crew chiefs, we love coming to Atlanta just like drivers did because if you got it right, if you were perfect, you did your homework and you could go dominate. You could have eight, ten-second leads. That’s snoozers for TV, but it’s something to be proud of from our side of things.

So we really enjoyed that challenge of how hard Atlanta was and how much fun it was with tire falloff making it good. But when you have to repave tracks, this was a good product today. I thought it was really, really good.

Q. Rick, from a car owner’s perspective, Daytona, Talladega races tend to be expensive. You guys tear up a lot of equipment. It seems like this is going to be kind of in that same vein. As a car owner, are you okay with adding two additional super speedway type races to a schedule and what may be your bottom line?
RICK HENDRICK: We have not had very good luck at finishing plate races. We’ve been in a great position, but we’ve seemed to get in wrecks all the time, and I don’t think this is going to be quite as bad.
These cars are more durable, and you saw it today. Usually when you have a wreck down at Talladega, Daytona, it’s just trashed. But a lot of cars were able to finish, and also I think it’s going to be easier and better with this car and I think the speeds here at this track. I believe it’s going to be a great show.

Q. I have one for each. Rudy, were you concerned at all about right rears blowing after seeing what happened to the others, you know, Goodyear said they were looking at it, but they didn’t notice it was all Chevrolets and all ones who were running up front.
RUDY FUGLE: Yeah, definitely. The speed and having to run pretty much wide open to lead compared to 70% throttle for a full lap to be second or third is definitely putting a lot more stress on the tires, so it’s kind of managing ourselves there.

I was trying to coach William into doing some lifts and just if we could lift a little bit and slow the pace down a little bit and not get passed, then we could save the tires. Definitely at a repave you are always worried about tires. You got hard tires because you have so much load, but eventually you put enough heat in them, and they blow out. Definitely on our mind.

We kind of knew because we share information. We kind of knew where some of these guys were and thought we may be — we weren’t in worse shape at least than they were. Just try to manage it.

Q. And, Rick, I would think that most of you feel that kind of four plate races is enough as far as when it comes to Daytona and Talladega. This kind of makes it six. Do you want to cap it, or is there any thought of some people say, well, if this works, then maybe they should do it at Texas or any of the other mile and a halfs?
RICK HENDRICK: No, I vote to cap it. With our record at plate races with finishing, I just — I think this is enough.

Q. For Rudy. I believe this is the first win as a spotter for Branden Lines, so just the job that he did with a really chaotic style of race, and how important was it to get his first Cup win as a spotter?
RUDY FUGLE: It’s huge. I’m really proud of Branden. I’ve known Branden for a really long time going back to Erik Jones’ late model and truck days and kind of been friends with him since. So getting a chance to work with him is really exciting.

How much passion he has for racing and how much hard work he puts in during the week. He has been working really, really hard. Him and William have a good relationship, so they’ve been working outside of even what I know and this lingo, you know, all these — like I said, he was — I think he changed two batteries today because he talked so much. He talked more here than you do at Daytona and Talladega because when you get in that top riding lane in Daytona and Talladega, you know what to expect, and the runs aren’t as quick. And here the runs were gigantic, and they were so fast, so spotter had to be on it, and Branden did a great job.

Q. Rudy, it looked like with about ten or 12 laps to go you might not want to be first the way the runs were taking place and all that, but William got out with some — got some space. Was that the approach you wanted to take, or were you feeling pretty safe being in front there in the last few laps?
RUDY FUGLE: Yeah. William stated it during the first stage that he thought being second was a better spot to be, and we were — the 1 was fast, and we were fast. I think it was the 8 we were kind of all making runs and just kind of learning.

If you get the right run, it’s tough to be the leader for sure. But we just had a lot of things go right. And Mr. H talked about it before the race. Sometimes at some point things have to go right for you. We’ve had a lot of bad luck and bad circumstances this year that have kept us from winning races I feel like, and today we just had some things go right.

Some guys, Blaney and whoever got up together and got out a lane, and then the 20 going underneath the line with the 1 getting side-by-side, just kind of generated — it stopped the runs from generating. It kind of worked out for us. I’ll take anything we can get.

Q. I have one for Rudy and one for Rick. Rudy, two of William’s three Cup victories have been on super speedway style racing. What makes him so good at that?
RUDY FUGLE: Yeah, no, he has become a great restrictor plate racer. He is really aggressive and knows how to use the runs and take the pushes and give pushes. I mean, it’s hard to say what makes somebody great. You know, everybody talks about Denny when we come to these places, but you have to have good cars, you have to have good engines, and then he has just done an awesome job of learning what makes the car stay up front at these places. When we’re not wrecked, he is usually up front.

Q. And, Rick, with William’s victory three of your four drivers have now won three of the first five races. It’s the first time that it’s been done since Carl Kiekhaefer did it in 1956. What does this mean to you?
RICK HENDRICK: Well, you know, I’m awful proud of the organization and the guys the way they worked together, and we’ve been fortunate. We had a couple of breaks to win one of the races, but I’m proud of them.

And it’s really hard today with the cars that we have and everything is equal, but I think the talent of our guys, like Rudy said, William has just been unbelievable on the plate races. I’m just proud of them. We might hit a streak here and not win one, but I’m really proud of the speed and the way they’re staying up front, and hopefully we’ll continue to win more races.

Q. Rick, already this season there’s been a race in a stadium. You’ve got a super speedway race at a mile and a half track. You know, here in a couple of weeks you’ll be going back to a dirt track. What do these changes mean, and what do you hope to see or what are you looking forward to more as the sport seems to continue to evolve?
RICK HENDRICK: I think it’s great for NASCAR. The stadium brought a lot of new fans in. The dirt track, I’ve got people coming out of the woodwork wanting to go to Bristol now for that race, and I think it’s exciting for the fans and the drivers are adapting well.

This car, we basically run the same car everywhere, and so I think it’s great for the sport, and I would like to see a street race. Hopefully we’ll just continue to work outside the box, and I think that’s growing a lot of new fans for us.

Q. Why do you want to see a street race? And also, secondly, I know the Texas race ended. This one got started. I don’t know if you had any contact with Jimmie or your thoughts of Jimmie having his top ten today?
RICK HENDRICK: I did not see the race. What happened to him?

Q. He was sixth.
RICK HENDRICK: We felt like when Jimmie got on oval he would be more competitive. I’m proud of him. I’m really proud of Jimmie for jumping into a sport and trying to relearn against all these guys or learn the sport. But I felt like when we got to ovals, when they got to ovals, he was going to be good.

Q. Why a street race?
RICK HENDRICK: I just think it’s exciting. I think it’s different. I think it would be why the Coliseum race? I mean, if there’s a right street circuit that we could race on, I just think something different brings in a new level of fans. And it’s exciting. It’s something different to talk about.

I think keep changing it up, and it just seems to bring in a lot of new people that we haven’t seen. The age group at the Coliseum were people — I think they said, like, 60% had never been to a NASCAR race. I think just doing something different than you’ve done for years and years is good for the sport.

THE MODERATOR: For Rick and Rudy, congratulations again on the victory. Thank you, again, for joining us.

Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.

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STEWART-HAAS RACING
Folds of Honor 500

Date: March 20, 2022
Event: Folds of Honor 500 (Round 5 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Atlanta Motor Speedway (1.54-mile oval)
Format: 325 laps, broken into three stages (105 laps/105 laps/115 laps)
Race Winner: William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 2 Winner: Ryan Blaney of Team Penske (Ford)

SHR Race Finish:

● Chase Briscoe (Started 1st, Finished 15th / Running, completed 325 of 325 laps)
● Kevin Harvick (Started 8th, Finished 21st / Running, completed 325 of 325 laps)
● Aric Almirola (Started 10th, Finished 22nd / Running, completed 325 of 325 laps)
● Cole Custer (Started 20th, Finished 34th / Accident, completed 150 of 325 laps)

SHR Points:

● Chase Briscoe (3rd with 155 points, 15 out of first)
● Aric Almirola (7th with 143 points, 27 out of first)
● Kevin Harvick (15th with 126 points, 44 out of first)
● Cole Custer (29th with 76 points, 94 out of first)

SHR Notes:

● Briscoe earned his third top-15 of the season and his second top-15 in three career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Atlanta.
● This was Briscoe’s second straight top-15. He won last Sunday at Phoenix Raceway.
● Briscoe’s 15th-place finish equaled previous best result at Atlanta, as he finished 15th last July.
● Briscoe finished third in Stage 2 to earn eight bonus points.
● Briscoe led once for five laps – his first laps led at Atlanta.
● Harvick led twice for 11 laps to increase his laps-led total at Atlanta to a series-best 1,359.
● Harvick has now led 11,368 laps since joining SHR in 2014. He has led 15,794 laps in his entire NASCAR Cup Series career.
● Almirola finished fourth in Stage 2 to earn seven bonus points.
● Almirola led once for six laps to increase his laps-led total at Atlanta to 50.

Race Notes:

● William Byron won the Folds of Honor 500 to score his third career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his first of the season and his first at Atlanta. His margin over second-place Ross Chastain was .145 of a second.
● There were 11 caution periods for a total of 65 laps.
● Only 23 of the 37 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.
● Chase Elliott leaves Atlanta as the championship leader with a seven-point advantage over second-place Joey Logano.

Sound Bites:

“There at the beginning, I got a little bit of damage but our car was honestly really good. We could never lead, but I could shove people really, really good and, if I had somebody that was good in front of me, I could just keep going and keep picking them off. There at the end, I felt like with how my car was, and I kept going to the bottom, the top was just so fast down the straightaway, so I knew I probably wasn’t going to win with the damage I had on the nose. So I was just trying to stay committed to running the top to keep our momentum up. I thought we were going to come out third or fourth and was trying to help the 12 (Ryan Blaney) and, honestly, to shove him to potentially the win, and I went in there and I just got him loose into (turn) one and obviously we both hit the fence because of it. It’s unfortunate. We were both going to have a really good day and I kind of shot ourselves in the foot there.” – Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang

“Man, we had such a fast Smithfield Ford all day. It handled great, too. It was nice to run up front and get some stage points. We got spun by the No. 1 car (Ross Chastain) there running up in fourth and I thought our car was fine, but we heard a rattle so we came to pit road and took tires to check on it and it looked fine. When we restarted, we just didn’t have full power and (we had) some mechanical issues and just had to ride until the checkered flag waved. I think we would’ve had a good shot at it. This 10 team will continue to fight.” – Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang

“The track is so narrow here that they got together up front and everybody stacked up with nowhere to go, so we hit the wall. We didn’t really hit that hard, but it broke some of the right-rear suspension and put us out.” – Cole Custer, driver of the No. 41 Dixie Vodka Ford Mustang

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix on Sunday, March 27 at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas. The race begins at 3:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FOX and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

NASCAR CUP SERIES
ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY
FOLDS OF HONOR QUIKTRIP 500
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
MARCH 20, 2022

TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1
2nd ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 1 ADVENT HEALTH CAMARO ZL1
4th DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 COMMSCOPE CAMARO ZL1
5th COREY LAJOIE, NO. 7 FRATERNAL ORDER OF EAGLES CAMARO ZL1
6th CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1
10th ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1

TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st William Byron (Chevrolet)
2nd Ross Chastain (Chevrolet)
3rd Kurt Busch (Toyota)
4th Daniel Suarez (Chevrolet)
5th Corey LaJoie (Chevrolet)

The NASCAR Cup Series season continues next weekend at Circuit of The Americas with the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix on Sunday, March 27, at 3:30 P.M. ET. Live coverage can be found on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTES:

WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1 – Race Winner
WILLIAM BYRON BRINGS IT HOME FOR HIS THIRD CAREER WIN. YOU JUST GOT OUT OF THE CAR AND SAID “THAT WAS FUN.” YOU HAVE A SUPERSPEEDWAY CAR, AN INTERMEDIATE SET UP – WHAT WAS THIS DAY LIKE IN THE END?
“It was so different. You know honestly the last few laps there, just trying to manage the gap to Bubba (Wallace) and trying to not get too far out front. My spotter Brandon (Lines), it’s his first win so congrats to him and just thanks to this whole team. They’ve done a great job this year. There’s a lot of changes with the Next Gen car.

The Liberty University Chevrolet was awesome there. We had a pretty rough practice; worked hard on it and got it handling well. Like I told you, it was kind of an intermediate style with a little bit of superspeedway to it, so it was lot of fun. Thanks to everyone at Hendrick Motorsports. Super exciting.”

HOW ABOUT THIS CROWD? PACKED STANDS HERE TO SEE AN ATLANTA RACE LIKE WE’VE NEVER SEEN BEFORE.
“It’s so cool. I think these fans saw one heck of a race. It was certainly long from my seat. It was mentally taxing. Just thanks to all the fans for coming out. Been an awesome weekend. I got the win last night in the Late Model too, so it’s been a lot of fun.”

ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 1 ADVENT HEALTH CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 2nd
LOSE SOME LAPS, GET THE LAPS BACK. IN POSITION AT THE END OF THIS RACE, ENDED UP THIRD.
“Maybe second. What a day, Regan. That’s the fight, that’s the fight in Trackhouse. This Gen 7 car to take a lick like that, blow a tire out of nowhere leading. Just cruising, blow a right rear, slam the wall, I thought our day was over. Our guys went underneath the car, got the tow closer and we got the balance back where I could drive it and this Advent Health Chevy was fast. It was so fast. I mean we were fighting with William (Byron) there at the beginning. So cool to race with buddies again. I only have a few, but the last two weeks I’ve been able to race with buddies. Can’t thank everybody at Trackhouse, the Moose, Advent Health, everybody that’s been on this car. Justin Marks and his family for what they do for me and Daniel Suarez. What a teammate to push me there at the end.”

DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 COMMSCOPE CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 4th
SECOND TOP-FIVE ALREADY THIS SEASON. YOU GUYS BOUNCED OFF THE WALL. YOU HAD A PENALTY ON PIT ROAD. WHAT WAS YOUR DAY LIKE?
“It was just like that, up and down. Our No. 99 CommScope Chevrolet was fast. We did a good job on pit road. We had fast pit stops. When we have a fast Chevrolet Camaro, it makes things easier. Everyone at Trackhouse Racing has been working very, very hard to build cars like this. We just have to keep it up. We have a few trophies coming in the near future.”

COREY LAJOIE, NO. 7 FRATERNAL ORDER OF EAGLES CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 5th
“We did exactly what we set out to do today. We made Atlanta Motor Speedway like a superspeedway. We missed the wrecks and put our No. 7 Fraternal Order of Eagles Camaro ZL1 there at the end and got a top-five finish. It’s great to start our season with three top-15’s and now one top-five. Hopefully, we can maintain the momentum over the next couple of weeks and put ourselves in a good points position through the summer. Thank you to everyone at Spire Motorsports and the No. 7 team for all the hard work to continue to build fast Chevy’s.”

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 6th
“It was crazy, for sure. Hopefully it was fun to watch because I felt like it was wild from my seat. It was very much so like a Daytona or Talladega. Just trying to position yourself there at the right spot and hope it goes your way.”

JUSTIN HALEY, NO. 31 LEAFFILTER GUTTER PROTECTION CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 11th
“Obviously, Chris (Buescher) and I were going for the same real estate there at the end, so neither of us were really to blame. I did not want to be forced down below the red and white line. I have been bitten by that rule in the past, so I obviously did not want to go below it, and I was not going to check up either. We had a really strong No. 31 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Camaro ZL1 all day, but we were just unlucky at the end.”

KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1 – Sidelined due to damage sustained in an accident on lap 208.
“We were just coming to the end of the stage. He (Denny Hamlin) was just trying to help me get a run down the front stretch. He just got to me in the corner and got me loose. I hate that happened, but it’s a product of this racing and product of pushing; trying to draft and get your lane going. Nothing is intentional.

Obviously, I wish we were still out there and both of us racing. The good thing is we have a win already. Two DNF’s in a row isn’t what we want, but our No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy is fast. We were able to drive to the front a few different times and avoid a couple different wrecks. I was happy with the car. The handling was off early, but we got it better. I know the speed was there to contend. We’ll move along and go have some fun on a road course.”

RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 KROGER/SWEETLEAF CAMARO ZL1 – Sidelined by damage sustained in an accident on lap 200.
YOU WERE LEADING AND HAD A FAST CAR. I HEARD YOUR CREW CHIEF SAY ON THE RADIO THAT YOU HAD A TIRE GO DOWN. DID YOU HAVE ANY INDICATION?
“No, I was just riding around and I felt really good with our No. 47. Kroger / SweetLeaf Camaro. It was really, really fast. We drove right up to the front from the back there at the start of the race. You saw a few tires let go with people leading, running in the front. I don’t know if with all the speed we have here, if the right rear can’t hang on or what.

The JTG Daugherty guys brought a really fast car. It was another race where I felt like we were running up front. We’ve done that quite often this year. We missed it last weekend in Phoenix, but we’ll go get them at COTA. Our guys are continuing to build really good race cars and that’s all we can ask for. We’ll keep trying to put ourselves in position. I had fun.”

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS/TRACKER OFF ROAD CAMARO ZL1 – Sidelined by damage sustained in an accident on lap 100.
“William (Byron) and I had a good run through (turns) one and two. Got to the lead and he pushed me down the backstretch. I knew the Toyotas were going to go opposite of us, so I felt like having the No. 24 block bottom and me go to the top would keep the Chevy’s up front. The No. 18 (Kyle Busch) decided to stick with me. I know he probably thought he was doing us a favor, but you can’t push on the left rear on exit off turn four going as fast as we’re going. He just turned me and it took us both out of the race.”

“It was the end of Stage One. We were going to get a run down the front stretch right there, so I don’t know why he’s pushing dead center, at the three-quarter mark. It’s part of it I guess. It was fun racing there for a while with a really fast No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevy. My feelings are hurt. Just two weeks in a row we’ve been taken out of the race.”

TY DILLON, NO. 42 ALSCO UNIFORMS CAMARO ZL1 – Sidelined by damage sustained in an accident on lap 100.
WHAT HAPPENED OUT THERE AND WHAT DID YOU SEE?
“I don’t know. We were taking it easy. We had a penalty on pit road, so we had to restart last there. I was just kind of chilling. I was trying to slow down with the wreck and the No. 14 (Chase Briscoe), I don’t know what he was looking at or doing. He just ran right through me and ended our day. I knew we had a good enough No. 42 Alsco Uniforms Camaro ZL1 to hopefully get up front with good track position and good pit stops. Just hate that it ended our day early.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE NEW ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY?
“It’s really hard to pass and you need help (to pass). I wasn’t up front enough to really tell you a lot, but it was really hard to pass. Even if you were handling better, if somebody could just stay in the middle lane, you could hardly get around them unless you had a massive run and they messed up. Track position matters. We were going to need to have good pit stops. Hopefully we would have been up front, but it wasn’t our day.”

NOAH GRAGSON, NO. 16 CHEVYLINERS.COM CAMARO ZL1 – Sidelined by damage sustained in an accident on lap 24.
“I just got loose there through (turns) one and two. It was still early in the race, so I wasn’t pushing it. I was just trying to bide my time and stay patient. It’s such a long race. It’s unfortunate. I hate it for the ChevyLiners.com team and everyone at Kaulig Racing. They’ve been putting in so many hours this year. My goal was to complete all the laps and finish the race. The No. 16 Camaro ZL1 was fast, it was just a mistake.”

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
Atlanta Motor Speedway | Sunday, March 20, 2022

Ford Finishing Results:
7th – Chris Buescher
9th – Joey Logano
12th – Brad Keselowski
15th – Chase Briscoe
17th – Ryan Blaney
18th – David Ragan
19th – BJ McLeod
21st – Kevin Harvick
22nd – Aric Almirola
24th – Michael McDowell
25th – Harrison Burton
26th – Cody Ware
27th – Todd Gilliland
32nd – Austin Cindric
34th – Cole Custer

CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 ITsavvy Ford Mustang – “The pylon looks better than our race, probably. It was a hard-fought race. We had a lot of balance gremlins that a lot of the field fought early on. A lot of it was just not knowing what to expect. It got better and were definitely a competitive car at the end. We needed a little more raw speed and then going through one and two coming to the checkered I don’t know what happened there. I haven’t seen all of that yet, but coming to the finish I had what I felt like was a decent run and went to pull down and go somewhere with it and I don’t think I realized the 31 was below me there. That was the end of the day. That wreck is probably on me, so frustrating to end that way but a decent finish for us still. I’m missing the old Atlanta a lot right now. To be fair, it was my favorite mile-and-a-half before, so it was gonna be hard for this one to compare and, to me, it doesn’t right now but we’ll keep working on it and see if we can get it better for next time.”

WITH ALL OF THE QUESTION MARKS BEFORE THE RACE. WHAT IS YOUR IMMEDIATE FEEDBACK WITH ONE RACE BEHIND YOU? “I’d say probably a good amount of drafting, a lot of momentum – no tandeming and a little bit of pushing and shoving, but I don’t think there’s the ability to get in the corner and really push like I think we thought about early on. There are some big questions there if it’s really sustainable or if we can get to that. Handling was a big thing, but you have to have some speed in the cars, too. What we had to do to get the handling decent we probably cost a little bit of speed through the day, but now we have somewhere to work off of.”

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Pennzoil Ford Mustang – “A long day. We spun out and then the engine wouldn’t start. I don’t know why it wouldn’t start, but it wouldn’t start until I got pushed. We lost a lap and then got our lap back. We just battled and battled and finished ninth. No stage points.”

WHAT DO YOU DO MOVING FORWARD AT THIS TRACK? “It’s a regular superspeedway. We just keep crashing. What did you expect? It’s the same stuff. I guess it’s OK, I don’t know. We survived, but a lot of cars crashed today for sure, just like we would expect. I don’t know, you be the judge if it was entertaining or not. I don’t know. It’s a different type of racing.”

CHASE BRISCOE, No. 14 HighPoint.com Ford Mustang — “There at the beginning I got a little bit of damage, but our car was honestly really good. We could never lead, but I could shove people really realliy good and if I had somebody that was good in front of me I could just keep going and keep picking them off. There at the end I felt like with how my car was, and I kept going to the bottom, the top was just so fast down the straightaway so I knew I probably wasn’t gonna win with the damage I had on the nose, so I was just trying to stay committed to running the top to keep our momentum up. I thought we were gonna come out third or fourth and was trying to help the 12 and, honestly, to shove him to potentially the win and I went in there and I just got him loose into one and obviously we both hit the fence because of it. It’s unfortunate. We were both gonna have a really good day and I kind of shot ourselves in the foot there.”

RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 BodyArmor Ford Mustang – “The 14 just shoved me into one when we were stacked up and you can’t do that. You’ve got to get off people and we ended up just getting destroyed. We were in a decent spot to win and have nothing to show for it.”

ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang – “Man we had such a fast Smithfield Ford all day. It handled great too. It was nice to run up front and get some stage points. We got spun by the No. 1 car there running up in fourth and I thought our car was fine, but we heard a rattle so we came to pit road and took tires to check on it and it looked fine. When we restarted we just didn’t have full power and some mechanical issues and just had to ride until the checkered flag waved. I think we would have had a good shot at it. This 10 team will continue to fight.”

TODD GILLILAND, No. 38 Georgia Peanuts Ford Mustang – “That was very unfortunate. I went high and we kind of split the field. Something for us to learn from and we didn’t want that to happen. Our Georgia Peanuts Ford was loose to start and then we broke a toe link. We fixed it, but we were laps down. We were racing it out and then got into the fence.”

CODY WARE, No. 51 Nurtec ODT Ford Mustang – “We were just riding around. I had the 77 and a couple of guys beyhind me and a couple guys in front of me that we all just planned on riding around and we weren’t ready to race yet. We were still just trying to figure it out to get to the end and go racing with maybe five or 10 laps to go but got that taken away from us today. I’m just really disappointed because my team brought a great Nurtec ODT Ford Mustang to the track today and it’s just a real shame that this is how the day ended.”

AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Menards/Knauf Ford Mustang – WHAT DID YOU SEE? “It was something I’d been watching and waiting for the entire race, the leaders getting wrecked. From my vantage point, just tried to slow down through the crash and got rear-ended by somebody. It’s just how it goes when there’s not a lot of room. This style of racing we’re all together and it’s a pretty large hit. It’s a shame to be out of the race. We were fighting close to the top 10 range most of the day, but just kind of a victim and it’s a bummer.”

HOW DID THIS RACE PLAY OUT BASED ON THE QUESTION MARKS GOING INTO IT? “It played out probably similar to what I thought it would after watching the Xfinity race yesterday. We stayed in a really large pack and handling seemed to matter a little bit, but track position seems to matter a lot. To be honest, I still can’t quite figure out if there’s a trick to what we were doing today, but just a shame. I wish we had gotten to the end and had a shot at it.”

HOW SIMILAR OR DIFFERENT WAS THIS FROM DAYTONA? “I would say it’s quite a bit different. In some ways leading into the weekend I think as an industry we probably didn’t think it was gonna be as much of a pack, but obviously the track had a lot of grip and it didn’t take long for it to widen out, so I think after watching yesterday we kind of knew it was gonna be a pack race. At the same time, the track is one mile smaller, so the opportunity to build runs and to be able to carry them into the corner but also not be handling limited, I think that’s why we have the racing that we do at Talladega and Daytona. I feel like today if you weren’t fifth on forward, you were limited by whatever was happening in the first two or three rows. I never quite figured out a method to the madness today. We kind of hung around 10th on the edge of stage points all the time. It was interesting for sure, but narrow track and not a lot of room to have errors.”

WHAT NEEDS TO BE LOOKED AT FOR NEXT TIME? “It’s certainly hard to say. From a close racing standpoint we have an entire pack, so I guess it depends on the formula you want. Not to give you a non-comital answer, but I would say if you were 10th on back today you were kind of just as passenger. You could take a run and go somewhere and then go back up and take a run and go somewhere, but you really wouldn’t make any progress unless you were putting somebody three-wide, which putting somebody three-wide was a pretty large risk and then usually lift anyway. I took advantage of that a few times and it was kind of fun, but it’s a pretty rare opportunity that you would catch somebody sleeping. Like I said, I never quite figured out a method to the madness and felt like the track was getting more grip throughout the race, so I think it’ll probably be racier with three lanes before the end.”

THE KNOCK ON THIS WAS TOO SHORT AND TOO NARROW TO AVOID WRECKS. ACCURATE? “I think our biggest concern coming into the race was green flag pit stops because of how narrow the track is. I think that’s probably a conversation topic. You look at what Indy Car does, they use the apron as their pit entry, so if that’s a move that could pit come in. Obviously, we’ve had enough cautions today where that hasn’t come into play, but you would think in a 500-mile race statistically you would have a green flag stop, but maybe we won’t have to deal with that. I would say from a narrow track standpoint and the style of racing I’d say that was probably my biggest concern and still is, and from that point it hasn’t happened yet, so I’m not right or wrong.”

COLE CUSTER, No. 41 Dixie Vodka Ford Mustang – “The track is so narrow here that they got together up front and everybody stacked up with nowhere to go, so we hit the wall. We didn’t really hit that hard, but it broke some of the right-rear suspension and put us out.”

WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT THE TRACK AND STYLE OF RACING TODAY? “I thought it was OK. I thought the racing was solid. We were side-by-side the whole time and that’s just part of it. We’ve just got to move onto the next one.”

BUSCH SCORES SECOND-STRAIGHT TOP-FIVE FINISH
Kurt Busch leads Toyota with a third-place finish

ATLANTA (March 20, 2022) – Kurt Busch (third) led Toyota in the NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday afternoon.

Toyota Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Atlanta Motor Speedway
Race 5 of 36 – 500.5 miles, 325 laps

TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, William Bryon*
2nd, Ross Chastain*
3rd, KURT BUSCH
4th, Daniel Suarez*
5th, Corey LaJoie*
8th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
13th, BUBBA WALLACE
23rd, CHRISTOPHER BELL
29th, DENNY HAMLIN
33rd, KYLE BUSCH
*non-Toyota driver

TOYOTA QUOTES

KURT BUSCH, No. 45 Monster Energy Toyota Camry TRD, 23XI Racing

Finishing Position: 3rd

How different was today for you?

“We were on a different planet today with the draft and the way the cars raced. Wow. I was catching air off of turn two. I had to lift to not hit the rev chip. I just had a little too much damage to not be on offense, and then we were just trying to ride around and pick our poison so to speak with the Monster Energy Toyota. We weren’t on offense, so if you are not on offense, you kind of have to ride and wait for the holes to open up and I got a top-five again. A lot of sarcasm here. We know we need to get better with the handling and some of our race craft, but another top-five – we will take it.”

CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 DeWalt Toyota Camry TRD, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 23rd

NASCAR has decided to move you to the end of the lead lap after the last lap move. Can you explain it from your seat?

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen a replay or anything, but I saw a hole there and tried to take it and we came together. I know he was coming down, whether or not – it kind of is what it is. Our DeWalt Camry was extremely fast today. We’ve been pretty fast all year, just haven’t got the results to show for it. Just have to keep digging.”

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota Camry TRD, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 29th

Can you sum up what racing was like out there?

“We had a really fast FedEx Camry. I was just trying to help Kyle (Larson) there and I just needed to let him go off turn four. The track gets light there, the car starts to lift up and that’s where I needed to back off of him and I just didn’t and spun him out. It is a shame. Our car was really fast. We definitely slowed after the first part of the damage – we were involved in that first wreck. Overall, just frustrating, but we are running well, we are just finishing horrible. I’m just making some bad decisions. It’s easy in retrospect to say I should have done this, and I should have done that, but in the moment, you are trying to battle for some stage points there and we’ve got good grip, and I’m pushing him, and everything is going well and then all of a sudden the car lifts up and he’s gone. Just split-second decision making.”

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About Toyota

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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.