STEWART-HAAS RACING
Las Vegas 400

Date: March 6, 2022
Event: Las Vegas 400 (Round 3 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Las Vegas Motor Speedway (1.5-mile oval)
Format: 267 laps, broken into three stages (80 laps/85 laps/102 laps)
Note: Race extended seven laps past its scheduled 267-lap distance due to a green-white-checkered finish.
Race Winner: Alex Bowman of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Alex Bowman of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 2 Winner: Ross Chastain of Trackhouse Racing (Chevrolet)

SHR Race Finish:

● Aric Almirola (Started 20th, Finished 6th / Running, completed 274 of 274 laps)
● Kevin Harvick (Started 25th, Finished 12th / Running, completed 274 of 274 laps)
● Cole Custer (Started 24th, Finished 33rd / Engine, completed 171 of 274 laps)
● Chase Briscoe (Started 4th, Finished 35th / Accident, completed 135 of 274 laps)

SHR Points:

● Aric Almirola (6th with 97 points, 16 out of first)
● Chase Briscoe (14th with 74 points, 39 out of first)
● Kevin Harvick (16th with 69 points, 44 out of first)

● Cole Custer (26th with 52 points, 61 out of first)

SHR Notes:

● Almirola earned his third top-10 of the season and his fourth top-10 in 18 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Las Vegas.
● This was Almirola’s third straight top-10. He finished fifth in the season-opening Daytona 500 and sixth last Sunday at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California.
● Almirola equaled his previous best result at Las Vegas – sixth, earned in September 2018.
● Harvick finished eighth in Stage 2 to earn three bonus points.
● Briscoe finished eighth in Stage 1 to earn three bonus points.

Race Notes:

● Alex Bowman won the Las Vegas 400 to score his seventh career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his first of the season and his first at Las Vegas. His margin over second-place Kyle Larson was .178 of a second.

● There were 12 caution periods for a total of 60 laps.

● Twenty-three of the 37 drivers in the race finished on the lead lap.

● Larson leaves Las Vegas as the championship leader with a six-point advantage over second-place Martin Truex Jr.

Sound Bites:

“We fight. That’s the beauty of this race team. We’re still learning this car. There’s a lot to learn about it and we’re still trying to figure a lot of things out. Practice is great, but we’ve got to make adjustments throughout the race, and I feel like every race we’re learning more and more and more and we’re building a notebook. This team has so much fight in it and so much grit that it’s a lot of fun to race with these guys. We’ll keep digging and try and keep this streak alive of all these top-10 finishes. It’s a lot of fun when you run up front.” – Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 10 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang

“We struggled with traffic on the restarts, but we worked through it and everyone on the crew did a good job.” – Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Rheem Ford Mustang

“Something happened under the hood. I’m not sure what it was. It was a very eventful day, for sure. We started in the back and then we started making progress, but had to go to the back again. Then we spun and had to go to the back one more time, so it was just an eventful day and it didn’t end very well. We’ll just move onto the next one. I think we had a solid car. We finally got running good at the end and it was shaping up to be a solid day, but it didn’t work out.”– Cole Custer, driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang

“We were running really good and then the 34 (Michael McDowell) stayed out that one time on tires and kind of just messed us up. We lost a lot of track position and then he got loose and I was so sideways. I came across and got the 99 (Daniel Suárez). I don’t know if that damaged it or what, but I would say the last 5-10 laps before I finally spun out the rear was bouncing really, really bad and I think it broke something, or the tire went down. I just went in the corner and the thing spun out. It’s just really unfortunate. I thought we were gonna be really, really good. We’ve had good speed all year long, so we’ll just try to dig out of a hole next week.”– Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Ruoff Mortgage 500k on Sunday, March 13 at Phoenix Raceway. The race begins at 3:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FOX and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

LATE RACE CAUTION RELINQUISHES BUSCH TO TOP-FIVE FINISH
Camry TRDs battled for the win until a late caution restacked the field

LAS VEGAS (March 6, 2022) – Kyle Busch had to settle for a fourth-place finish in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway after leading and battling with Toyota teammate Martin Truex Jr. for the win with less than five laps remaining. A late-race caution would bring the field to pit road and restack the field for NASCAR overtime where Busch would cross the line in the fourth position followed by Truex Jr. (eighth) and Christopher Bell (10th).

Toyota Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Race 3 of 36 – 400.5 miles, 267 laps

TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Alex Bowman*
2nd, Kyle Larson*
3rd, Ross Chastain*
4th, KYLE BUSCH
5th, William Byron*
8th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
10th, CHRISTOPHER BELL
13th, KURT BUSCH
25th, BUBBA WALLACE
32nd, DENNY HAMLIN
*non-Toyota driver

TOYOTA QUOTES

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Ethel M Chocolates Toyota Camry TRD, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 4th

So close to the win, but after the adversity the team overcame from yesterday’s spin and going to a backup car, was today a good outcome nonetheless?

“True testament to everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing. Really appreciate my guys on the 18, but also the 11, 19 and 20 – all of them for coming over and pitching in. Everybody had a hand in being able to make us go today. So really appreciate that. Great Ethel M Chocolates Toyota Camry TRD Today. I mean, I was fast at the end and trying just to do what I could to hold the lead there with (Martin) Truex (Jr.). Felt like I inched away finally and we were coming to the white or something, I don’t know what it was, but anyways, it wasn’t meant to be. Not our day. See you next week.”

You and the team suffered a lot of adversity during the weekend and in this race, can you take us through the day?

“Just a great effort by everybody at Toyota and Joe Gibbs Racing for all the hard work and my guys on the 18 team and also the 11, 19 and 20. They just did a really good job of getting us here today. We had no choice, we had to be here, but they worked really hard all night long and put in a lot of hours so that was good and to have the opportunity to go out and race for a win, that was really good too. We tried to make the most of it there, but luck just wasn’t on our side.”

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

Finishing Position: 10th

After starting on the pole, then spinning during the event, how were you able to come back for a top-10 finish?

“I don’t know, I was able to get a decent finish out of it so that’s good to get a top-10. The DeWalt Camry was fast and I felt like we were capable of racing for the win. The 18 and the 19 looked like they had it before the yellow came out and I was every bit as good as them. Just have to put it all together.”

After three very different race tracks to start this season, how are you feeling about the progress of the team working on this new Next Gen Camry TRD?
“I feel good. Our stuff is obviously really fast. I enjoy the racing product that we have. It seems NASCAR is really heavy on the high drag stuff and we still get draft runs and it’s low downforce. I think it’s good, we just have to put it all together as drivers.”

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

Finishing Position: 32nd

What happened that ended your race early?

“We broke the transaxle. Just killed every gear when I left pit road. We had the best car today. Just got back there and was working our way forward and made mistakes.”

#

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 Notes and Quotes|
NASCAR Cup Series
Las Vegas Motor Speedway | Sunday, March 6, 2022

FORD FINISHING RESULTS
6th – Aric Almirola
12th – Kevin Harvick
14th – Joey Logano
16th – Harrison Burton
18th – Chris Buescher
19th – Austin Cindric
23rd – Todd Gilliland
24th – Brad Keselowski
26th – Cody Ware
27th – Michael McDowell
28th – BJ McLeod
30th – Garrett Smithley
33rd – Cole Custer
35th – Chase Briscoe
36th – Ryan Blaney

ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang – “We fight. That’s the beauty of this race team. We’re still learning this car. There’s a lot to learn about it and we’re still trying to figure a lot of things out. Practice is great, but we’ve got to make adjustments throughout the race and I feel like every race we’re learning more and more and more and we’re building a notebook. We’re making adjustments throughout the race and trying to figure it out. This team has so much fight in it and so much grit that it’s a lot of fun to race with these guys. We’ll keep digging and try and keep this streak alive of all these top 10 finishes. It’s a lot of fun when you run up front.”

IT SEEMS THAT IN ALL THREE RACES YOU GET BETTER BETWEEN STAGE 2 AND 3. TRUE? “Yeah, Drew has been doing a great job of making good adjustments throughout the race and just getting the car better and better. We take the first half of the race and it’s really about learning. We make adjustments. If they’re no good, we go back on them and just keep fine-tuning on the car to get it to where we need to get it and, usually, the last few weeks we’ve gotten the car where we needed to have it at the end of the race. It’s been nice. It’s so much fun to race with this group of guys and everybody that supports us – Mobil 1. Our Ford Mustang was fast. We’ve got some work to do to keep up with some of the other manufacturers. We’ve got to continue to do our homework, but, nonetheless, this is a great start to our season and a lot of fun.”

YOU STARTED ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE FOURTH ROW FOR THE OT RESTART. WHAT WAS THE KEY TO GAINING A COUPLE OF SPOTS? “I just wanted to make sure I could get the car turning. I was able to get to a couple of those cars outside and be able to keep the throttle down and get by those guys, so things went our way. I picked the right lanes at the right time on restarts. Those last couple of restarts were crucial to get this good finish.”

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Pennzoil Ford Mustang – “We were tight and at the start we just weren’t very good. We made some adjustments and got better to where we were a sixth or seventh-place car, which would have been a decent recovery all things considered and then we just gave up a bunch at the end.”

AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang – “Obviously not an ideal day for our Discount Tire Ford. We really struggled being tight early on in the race and lost a little bit of our track position. I felt like we were hanging tough in the top 15 and had a lot of potential to make the car a little bit better. We decided to go off strategy and keep scuffs on the car and unfortunately that played out and had us getting fenced for some position outside the top 20. Then we had a right-rear tire come apart and had to pit right before the yellow came out, which trapped us two down. Recovering for a top 20 is I guess a decent recovery, but definitely not what we were wanting or hoping for today, but definitely learned a lot and hopefully it’s something we can carry forward.”

HARRISON BURTON, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang – “I felt like we had a real up-and-down day. We ended up in the wall trying to miss a crash and then ended up hitting somebody trying to miss a crash. Every time we would get any track position we seemed to lose it. It’s a track position race and lots of challenges trying to pass, but overall it was a pretty decent day for us. The finish at least was better than where we had been at times and worse than what we had been quick enough to run at times, but at the end of the day we’re building, so this is a step. We actually finished the race and got some points and we’re just trying to build towards the right direction as a group and try to make our group better as quick as we can.”

COLE CUSTER, No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang – “Something happened under the hood. I’m not sure what it was. It was a very eventful day for sure. We started in the back and then we started making progress, but had to go to the back again. Then we spun and had to go to the back one more time, so it was just an eventful day and didn’t end very well. We’ll just move onto the next one. I think we had a solid car. We finally got running good at the end and it was shaping up to be a solid day, but it didn’t work out.”

CHASE BRISCOE, No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang — “I don’t know. We were running really good and then the 34 stayed out that one time on tires and kind of just messed us up. We lost a lot of track position and then he got loose and I was so sideways. I came across and got the 99. I don’t know if that damaged it or what, but I would say the last 5-10 laps before I finally spun out the rear was bouncing really really bad and I think it broke something or the tire went down. I don’t know. I just went in the corner and the thing spun out. It’s just really unfortunate. I thought we were gonna be really really good. We’ve had good speed all year long, so we’ll just try to dig out of a hole next week.”

RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Pennzoil Ford Mustang – “The 6 spun out on his own right in front of me and I plowed into him. I’m not happy about anything and I don’t mean to be happy about anything when someone loses it right in front of you and ends our day. I won’t call it bad luck, but when someone just spins out in front of you and wipes you out, there’s nothing to be happy about. We had a pretty fast car and nothing to show for it.”

NASCAR CUP SERIES
LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
PENNZOIL 400
TEAM CHEVY POST-QUALIFYING NOTES
MARCH 5, 2022

KYLE LARSON PUTS CAMARO ZL1 ON THE FRONT ROW AT LAS VEGAS
Five Team Chevy Drivers Qualify in the Top-10

TOP-10 TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
2nd KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1
5th CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1
7th TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 BETMGM CAMARO ZL1
9th RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 SUNNYD CAMARO ZL1
10th AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BREZTRI CAMARO ZL1

TOP-FIVE UNOFFICIAL QUALIFYING RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Christopher Bell (Toyota)
2nd Kyle Larson (Chevrolet)
3rd Austin Cindric (Ford)
4th Chase Briscoe (Ford)
5th Chase Elliott (Chevrolet)

· Kyle Larson made a lap of 29.668 seconds, at 182.014 mph, in his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL1 to capture a front row starting spot in the NASCAR Cup Series Pennzoil 400 Presented by Jiffy Lube at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

· It’s the 29-year-old Hendrick Motorsports Driver’s eighth top-10 starting spot in 12 races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

· It also marks his 39th front row starting spot in his NASCAR Cup Series career.

· FOX will telecast the NASCAR Cup Series Wise Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway live at 3:30 p.m. ET tomorrow, Sunday, March 6. Live coverage can also be found on PRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1, POST-QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:

FOR THE PAST THREE WEEKS, YOU’VE BEEN THE FAVORITE TO WIN THE RACE. DOES THAT EVER WEIGH ON YOU?
“I like being the favorite. That means you’ve done a good job. But I don’t pay too much attention to it. I don’t really think that matters a whole lot because odds makers don’t really know as much as all the teams and drivers do, as far as what cars are stuff are good at each track. But either way, it’s good. It’s good to qualify on the front row here at Las Vegas (Motor Speedway) and hopefully we can have another solid run; execute a great race and try and fight for another win.”

SOME TRACKS THAT YOU GUYS RACE AT, PEOPLE HAVE GREAT STARTING POSITIONS AND THEY ACT LIKE IT’S NOT REALLY SUCH A BIG DEAL BECAUSE OF HOW THE RACE PLAYS OUT. IS THAT A BIGGER DEAL HERE AT LAS VEGAS, TO HAVE THE ABILITY TO START UP FRONT?
“I think it’s important at every race track; probably more important than I used to think. Last year, we got to run up front a lot. We had great pit stops and executed races very well to maintain that track position; where I maybe didn’t have that in the past. Having well-executed races and maintaining that, you get a sense for how much easier the races go by. You’re doing a lot less fighting and putting yourself in hairy situations and stuff like that. Starting up front is just the beginning to that. Like last week, we had to go from the rear and it was a fight to get to about the middle portions of the second stage to where we could then try and maintain that. We had one hiccup on pit road and lost some spots again. But yeah, starting the race up front is, in my opinion, definitely really important.”

WHEN YOU CAME IN EARLIER, YOU SAID YOU WERE GOING TO CATCHUP WITH CHASE (ELLIOTT) LATER. HAS THAT HAPPENED YET?
“Yeah, I got to talk to him and we got to go over what happened from each of our vantage points. It was good to have a conversation and good to hopefully move along from it. It went well; honestly better than I anticipated. He’s a great teammate and I’m going to do my part to be a great teammate each and every week. Hopefully we never have any incidents happen again like what happened last week.”

DID YOU FIND THAT HE WAS UNDERSTANDING?
“Yeah, I felt like he was. I was encouraged by that. Like I said, he’s always been a great teammate. We’re both young and we’re both going to be fighting for wins together. So, hopefully nothing like that happens again.”

BEFORE THE DAYTONA 500, YOU PREDICTED A BIG YEAR FOR TYLER REDDICK AND HE’S LOOKED PRETTY GOOD SO FAR. WHY DID YOU THINK THAT?
“I think it was just a combination of a lot of things. I’ve grown up with Tyler (Reddick). I’ve known Tyler since he was like five. I’ve always seen his talent and I feel like – yes, the testing was a big part of it. But the way the rules packages have gone with a little more horsepower and less downforce, I feel like that’s going to suite him very well. And it’s proven to be that way, so far. I think it’s just a combination of a lot of things. But yeah, he was by far the fast car last week. He was around me a lot in practice today and I felt like he was really good again. I would look to him to be strong again tomorrow. Speaking of odds makers and stuff, I’m sure there are probably going to be a lot of people putting some money on him.”

REPEAT WINNERS DON’T HAPPEN OFTEN HERE. WHAT DO YOU THINK IT’S GOING TO TAKE TO REPEAT YOUR WIN HERE FROM LAST YEAR?
“Well, I don’t know. I feel like I’m not really technically repeating anything because I lost the second time we came to Las Vegas (Motor Speedway) last year. I don’t know – it’s just like any other race. I think the repeat thing doesn’t matter. You have to have a fast car, execute a good race; both you and your team. It’s hard to go back-to-back each week, back-to-back each time. I think our team is strong enough to hopefully do it.”

DID THE WIND PLAY A FACTOR?
“I don’t know. I felt like in (turns) three and four, with the wind blowing that direction, the first run I made it was a little inconsistent for me to get to the bottom. But once I just kind of calmed down my entry and slowed down a little bit more, I was able to hit my marks better. It’s just something you have to adjust to as a driver.

“I was behind Kyle (Busch) when he crashed and that was crazy. It turned around backwards so fast. I don’t know if the wind had anything to do with that, something broke, he hit a seam or what. It was wild.”

IT WAS A TIRE THAT WENT DOWN. HIS LEFT REAR.
“OK, that makes sense because it turned around backwards so fast and it had me nervous for a little while.”

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.