Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Pennzoil 400 Qualifying | Saturday, March 5, 2022

FORD QUALIFYING RESULTS
3rd – Austin Cindric
4th – Chase Briscoe
6th – Joey Logano
11th – Ryan Blaney
15th – Brad Keselowski
19th – Harrison Burton
20th – Aric Almirola
22nd – Michael McDowell
24th – Cole Custer
25th – Kevin Harvick
27th – Chris Buescher
30th – Todd Gilliland
33rd – Cody Ware
35th – BJ McLeod
36th – Garrett Smithley

AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang – “We had a lot of wind and changing conditions. I definitely feel like I learned a lot for today. I feel like I learned more about the car honestly this week than I did at Fontana – just a bit more of a stable surface and more predictable, so I learned the right things to be able to put down a good lap and get improvement from practice, so I did my part. Four hundred miles tomorrow.”

CHASE BRISCOE, No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang – “It’s good. Outside of Indy I think this will be the first time I’ve started in the top five, so it’ll be cool to be able to start up front. We’ve had really good speed all year long. The Clash, I felt like we were one of the two best cars. Daytona is kind of what it is and last week we were really really good, too, so hopefully we can capitalize on that good starting spot and just continue to get those stage points and do those things that are gonna help us as the season goes on. Having a good starting spot is certainly a lot of it and we’ll see if we can take advantage of that here tomorrow and just keep this thing up front.”

HOW CHALLENGING WAS THE WIND TODAY? “I didn’t think it was as bad as Fontana. I definitely noticed it in practice a little more than qualifying. I don’t know why it was worse for me in practice, but I thought it’s definitely manageable a lot more than Fontana.”

NASCAR CUP SERIES
LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
PENNZOIL 400
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 5, 2022

DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 CommScope CAMARO ZL1, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series practice and qualifying session at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Press Conference Transcript:

I WAS CURIOUS DANIEL AFTER THE RACE LAST WEEK, I WAS LISTENING TO ONE OF YOUR COMMENTS “WE DIDN’T DESERVE TO WIN” BUT I THOUGHT YOU DROVE A HECK OF A RACE, HAD A HECK OF A RACE CAR. I’M CURIOUS WHY YOU DIDN’T FEEL YOU DESERVE TO WIN? YOU PUT YOURSELF IN A POSITION TO WIN?

“Yeah, I mean I think that I didn’t really have a clean race. I just needed one more lap you know being in the top five to know exactly what to do there. That was my first time in the top five the entire day and I thought things were working one way and they were actually working a different way. Probably I shouldn’t have said we didn’t deserve to win, but we are not 100 percent prepared for that. The rear (inaudible) of the car broke early in the race and it took us half of the race to figure it out. We had unbelievable pit stops. I feel that my car was capable of running the top five, top-10. I feel like there was still a little bit missing to be able to win the race. We’re going to get it for sure. I just felt that we were a little bit behind. Not much, just a little bit. That was the difference in winning and not winning.”

HOW MUCH DOES THAT BUILD YOUR CONFIDENCE, HOWEVER, IN THE TEAM AND WHERE YOU GUYS ARE HEADING AND WHAT’S HAPPENING WITH THIS NEXT GEN CAR AS FAR AS PARODY?

“Definitely a lot. I mean every time you get the opportunity to have a shot at winning, you get more confident. You get hungrier and that happens not just for me as a driver, but for the entire team. My engineers, my crew chief, my pit crew on Monday night I got to meet with most of them and they were ready to race again on Tuesday. We are very excited. I have an amazing team. All of them, they want to win, be competitive. And when you know that you can, you just show up to the racetrack even more excited. I’m very fortunate to be in this position. I think that we’re going to be able to do some fun things this year.”

DO YOU FEEL THE NEXT GEN, WE’VE HAD 19 DIFFERENT TOP-10 FINISHERS IN THE FIRST TWO RACES? DO YOU THINK THAT IT IS INDEED BROUGHT THE PARODY THAT YOU GUYS DO HAVE A LITTLE BIT MORE OF A CHANCE, A TEAM LIKE TRACKHOUSE TO BE THE GIBBS AND THE HENDRICKS, BEAT THE PENSKES?

“Without a doubt. I think what NASCAR did with this Next Gen car is something that, on my opinion, we’re already seeing the results. We are going to look back in a few years from now, five years from now and we are going to be very, very thankful we did this thing called Next Gen car. It just brought opportunity for new players in the game. I don’t think that if it wasn’t for the Next Gen car, I don’t think that Trackhouse would be here, I don’t think 23XI would be here. I’m sure that there’s more team owners that are maybe thinking about it now that there is a Next Gen car. So yeah, answering that question I think that the competition and the way that we are competing with the Nex Gen car is way more (inaudible) than before.”

HAVE YOU KIND OF REPLAYED THE FINISH OF THAT RACE LAST WEEK IN YOUR MIND, ESPECIALLY THE LANE CHOICE THERE AT THE END? THERE’S BEEN SOME CHATTER ON CHOOSING THE INSIDE.

“Yeah, I mean only like 137 times. That’s exactly what I meant with having a little bit more reps running up front. I run in the top-10 for a good amount of the race and then we had the (inaudible) issues going to the back and then we came back to the front. I never had clean air, so I didn’t know what that felt. In the first half of the race I knew that with new tires people were running the bottom for a few laps and I thought that was going to be the case by the end of the race. And after watching the race, that wasn’t the case. I was able to almost make a pass for the lead corner one and two on the bottom. Normally three and four is even stronger in the bottom than one and two. That was a decision that I made and that is a decision I am going to live the rest of my life with. Unfortunately it didn’t work out . if I can do everything again, I would have done things a little bit different. I still think that the five car was quite a bit stronger than me, so I don’t know if I was going to be able to hold him off but probably I was going to have a higher chance. But like I said just having reps up front. It was my first time with clean air the entire day. It’s easy to say now but I think that’s going to be one of the first opportunities that we’re going to be running up front and hopefully I can have a little bit more experience next time running up front so I can take advantage of the opportunity.”

AND THE WIND TODAY, HOW MUCH OF A FACTOR IS IT GOING TO BE AND WITH IT NOT BEING WINDY TOMORROW DO YOU JUST KIND OF HAVE TO LIVE WITH WHAT YOU’VE GOT CAUSE YOU’VE GOT TO BE SET UP FOR TOMORROW?

“You know every time that we talk about track conditions, windy not windy, I always try to think that it’s exactly the same for everyone. Everyone is playing with the same rules. Today, yeah, it’s going to be challenging, but also the fact that Next Gen car has never been here in Las Vegas as far as I know is going to be a challenge by itself. So, we have a lot of work to do. We only have 35-minutes of practice, so we are going to try to learn as much as we can. Be smart about it, make a plan. Go to qualifying try to put the 99 Chevy Camaro as close to the front as possible, hopefully the pole. That would be nice and go play tomorrow.”

DANIEL, WHAT’S IT FEEL LIKE TO RUN UP FRONT AGAIN AFTER SO LONG?

“It feels great. I was talking to Julie about this not too long ago that how life is a roller coaster sometimes. I was part of really, really good teams in the past. I always felt like there was something missing. Not just with myself, but there was something missing and for some reason I don’t know if it was my experience or voice or whatever that may be that changes were not happening. Then 2020 was probably one of the most difficult years of my life and career. Then I slowly started to go where I wanted to go. You know with Trackhouse Racing being competitive again. It definitely feels good. It feels very good especially having he experience that I have in 2020. That was very, very tough. I felt that not every driver out there has an opportunity like the one I have right now. It’s fairly simple to get to a good team, with a good name team, but it’s difficult to build a good team around you. Good everything. Good crew chiefs, engineers, pit crew, mechanics, that’s a difficult part. Unfortunately, it took me a while to figure out. I have had to learn pretty much every step of my career by myself. In a way, it’s been the hard way. But it’s been a process and I think that I am so fortunate and so blessed to have the team that I have right now. It’s pretty amazing to have a team strong. A team that has confidence in you and a team that believes that we can go out there this coming weekend to have a shot at winning. That’s pretty amazing and I’m just lucky to have Trackhouse on my side to do that every weekend.”

WHEN YOU GOT TO TRACKHOUSE DID YOU FEEL THAT THING THAT WAS MISSING, DID YOU FEEL THAT IT HAD BEEN FILLED?

“It’s a process. It doesn’t happen overnight. If you ask me, do I think I had everything filled in the beginning of last year when I joined Trackhouse, the honest truth is no. Do I think that Trackhouse was going to give me the tools to find everything that I needed, yes. It’s a process. You have to be either very good or very lucky to land into a team that’s already great. Many times you have to build it. Many times it can take you your entire career to find that or sometimes it is already like that. In my case, it has been a process to find that and learning and knowing what I need, what I don’t need. Having a lot of confidence in my crew chief, Travis Mack has been a huge step. He has done a tremendous job building the 99 team that we have today, and you know I honestly think that the team that I have right now is probably the best team I ever had in Cup. I’m talking about everything. Engineers, crew chiefs, pit crew, like complete team. It’s pretty amazing and I am very, very proud to be in the level I am right now with experience and with all the experiences with this team right now. I’m just trying to enjoy the moment as much as I can.”

I SAW A QUOTE YOU SAID “I CAN TELL YOU THAT I’M GOING TO WORK VERY, VERY HARD TO GET TO VICTORY LANE VERY, VERY SOON. WHAT IS WORKING HARD MEAN? WHAT DOES THAT MEAN TO YOU?

“It’s a combination of many things you know. If you were asking me that question two years ago, I was going to tell you go work out, work physically and trying to watch some film as many hours as possible. But right now, I have learned and realized that it goes just way more than that. Trying to work with your team and trying to realize what we could have done different and better. I look back in California and we left a lot on the table. I did, the car did a little bit. We had a good car, but I believe that we are going to have such a better car this weekend and probably everyone is going to say that, but to our plan and the way that we are growing as a team I feel like we just keep getting better. Learning as we go and learning is a process and I understand that but I think that you know working hard and smart is going to be very important. Doing that with a team like the one I have is going to be important and really fun at the same time.”

IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU ARE WORKING ON COMMUNICATION. REALATIONSHIP BUILDING.

“Yes and no. It’s a process. I have work already for a year with Travis Mack my crew chief, my main engineer Jose Blasco-Figueroa. I have been working with him for a couple years, I have known him for 15 years. Dustin, one of my other engineers is super smart. One of the smartest guys I know. It’s just the (inaudible) working together. Maybe yeah you can call it communication, but it’s a little bit of working together with the new car. Everyone is going to get better. There’s no question about it. Everyone is going to keep getting better as we go. The difference is going to be who can clean up all the little things a little bit better and I just think that we are in the good side of things. Working towards our goal, being competitive and win races.”

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
Pennzoil 400 Advance | Saturday, March 5, 2022

Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 Pennzoil Ford Mustang, has won the Pennzoil 400 twice (2019-2020) at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and comes into this weekend’s race second in the NASCAR Cup Series point standings – only five points behind Team Penske teammate Austin Cindric for the overall lead. Logano stopped by the infield media center before today’s practice and qualifying session to answer questions from the media.

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Pennzoil Ford Mustang – WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE NEXT GEN CAR AFTER TWO RACES? “I thought it’s gone pretty smooth so far. There’s gonna be learning curves. I think that’s something we all expected. There’s gonna be issues we’re gonna have to work through as an industry because some of it just you don’t know what you don’t know until you get out there. There’s probably gonna be more things that come up as we keep racing at different racetracks. We’ve gone to the smallest track you can possibly go to and almost the biggest one, and now a mile-and-a-half and also Fontana has a bumpy, worn-out surface. So, we’re going to different types of racetracks that we’re gonna keep finding out new things about the car that could be better. That’s just part of having a brand new car, an underdeveloped car because we’re just getting after it. We’re just starting to figure this thing out and we don’t have much time to figure things out while we have a whopping 30 minutes today (laughing). We don’t really have much time or really the ability to change a lot on the race car on the race weekend, so it keeps it interesting, but I think some of the obvious things that have been out in the news of things that can be better have been addressed or trying to find ways to fix them. As long as we can keep doing those things, I think we’ll work the bugs out soon.”

THE FLAT TIRE SITUATION IS ONE OF THOSE THAT NEEDS TO BE WORKED ON. DID YOU SEE THAT AS A POTENTIAL PROBLEM COMING AND DO YOU SEE A SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM? “Yes, we saw it coming. We saw it at tests when those cars have flat tires. What’s the solution? I don’t know. My solution is make a AAA truck that can go out there and change your tires for you, instead of towing the thing in and scraping the underbody off. That’s still my crutch fix is just go out there and at least put some kind tire on, put a donut tire on so you can get back to pit road and have your pit crew put your set back on so you can go. Obviously, I got the bad end of that stick at Daytona with a car that wasn’t even crashed and I was stuck three laps down, so that one is probably the number one thing we need to find a fix for, and I don’t think it’s that simple of a fix. Obviously it’s not because we would have fixed it by now, but in the meantime we need to look for crutches, in my opinion, since you asked for it – find something to at least get us by until we can come up with a reasonable fix that works for everybody. To me, that’s just how can we get the cars back without more damage and without losing time.”

DO YOU REALLY FEEL LIKE A SOLUTION COULD BE JUST POPPING SOMETHING ON REAL QUICK SO YOU LOSE ONLY ONE LAP OR TWO INSTEAD OF THREE? “Absolutely, yeah. If you had a crew that was ready for it that can go out there and have a gun or a set of tires essentially and be able to change them quickly and go, maybe I would have only lost one lap at Daytona instead of three and not got the back bumper knocked off by a tow truck that couldn’t even push it through the grass. I mean, that’s how stuck they are. When the tow truck is spinning his tires, that’s back. We either need four-wheel drive on the tow truck or we need to figure out how to change the tires and get back quicker. That’s my opinion. Everyone’s got one. I’m sure mine doesn’t matter a whole bunch, but that’s at least my one thing that I think might can help.”

DO YOU FEAR WITH A NEW CAR THAT MAYBE SOME OF YOUR ADVANTAGE IS GONE? WHAT IS YOUR COMFORT LEVEL COMING BACK HERE? “I think no one has an advantage anymore. Nobody knows to a lot of these points we were just talking about and having a lack of practice. Nobody really knows if they’re gonna be good or not. I think it’s funny when I get that question. How are you gonna run this weekend? No clue. I used to have an idea, to your point, as we go to Vegas. ‘Yeah, that’s one of my best tracks. I should be really good.’ I’ve got new clue how we’re gonna run. The good thing is though that it’s still a race car. It’s still got four tires. It still goes fast. It’s still Vegas and a lot of the things I’ve done in the past are probably gonna work with this car as a driver, but with setup and all that’s gonna be completely different. How you race was way different in Fontana last week. I had to unlearn a lot of things last week, especially on restarts because this car can do things that our old car just could not do, so it’s been interesting and a lot of fun, but it’s hard to say if you’re gonna be any good or not anymore.”

DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING FROM FONTANA THAT WILL HELP HERE IN TERMS OF THE BUMPS? “Here, there aren’t as many bumps, but the one set of bumps there is is really big and bigger than what Auto Club was last week. We’ve learned some things. I don’t think we have it figured out and, like I said, this is a different type of bump than what we had last week, so it’s a compromise of how good do you want to be the rest of the track and pay a penalty over the bump or vice versa. It’s tricky to know what that answer is because we haven’t raced with it here yet, so I’m not sure I know exactly where we want to be yet and we’re not sure we know how to fix it in the most efficient way.”

CAN THE LINE BE CHANGED THERE? “Yeah, you can go around it, but you’ve got to go race, too. On restarts, if you go into the corner two or three-wide, sometimes you’re forced to go in the lane you may not want to be and that might be directly right over the bump, so you have to be ready for it and with these cars and watching last week, they swap ends pretty quickly and that bump can cause that probably pretty easily.”

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON PRACTICE TIME? “As long as its the same for everyone I’m OK with it. Part of me was like, ‘Man, I wish we had more practice.’ But the other part is does it really make the race any better if we had more practice? That’s the question we’ve got to ask. Selfishly, as a racer you want to keep working on your car and doing things, but everyone else is getting it, does it really matter? If you look at the race last week, and really the races the last couple of years since COVID with no practice, the racing I’d argue might be better without practice. It makes it very challenging and the prep side big and even harder this year because, to the point earlier, we have a refined car that we’re not sure how to go fast with yet, but it’s still the same for everyone. Everyone has the same opportunity, so I say run it. The heck with practice.”

TALLADEGA IS JUST QUALIFYING WITH NO PRACTICE. ARE THERE OTHER RACES THAT COULD ADOPT THAT SAME SCHEDULE? “Maybe, eventually. I think it’s good to go out there for some kind of laps. Like what we’re doing isn’t that bad and it’s all really condensed. It’s tough because you don’t get a night to think on your car and come up with some adjustments you want to do for the next day. It’s like, ‘OK, here’s our 10 minutes before we’ve got to be in line. What do you want to do with it?’ And all you have are sway bar arms and air-pressure and height and wedge and toe. OK, we’re not making that big of a change. We really don’t have that big of a decision to make. We’re not trying to come up with big setup changes as far as the whole package. Obviously, you’re married to the springs you’ve got when you start, so you’re just kind of doing little things from there.”

NASCAR CUP SERIES
LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
PENNZOIL 400
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
MARCH 5, 2022

KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series practice and qualifying session at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Press Conference Transcript:

YOU’VE WON FIVE OUT OF THE LAST SEVEN RACES, DATING BACK TO LAST YEAR. ONLY NINE GUYS SINCE 1972 HAVE DONE THAT. DOES THAT MEAN ANYTHING TO YOU?
“It’s definitely cool. I didn’t think of it really, just because it’s gone on through two different seasons now. It doesn’t feel like I’ve won five out of the last seven. But either way, it’s cool to be in that category of superstars and hall of famers. Hopefully we can keep it going and get onto an even smaller list somehow.”

YOU’VE BEEN IN SITUATIONS WHERE YOU HAVE TO DRIVE YOUR BACKSIDE OFF JUST TO STAY WITH THEM AND GIVE YOURSELF ANY KIND OF CHANCE. NOW, YOU GO TO ANY RACE AND YOU HAVE A CHANCE TO WIN. WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE EVERYTIME THE GREEN FLAG DROPS, KNOWING THAT YOU AT LEAST HAVE A CHANCE?
“Last year, I felt that way for sure. I think this year, still with the new car, there’s uncertainty of how your weekend is going to be. I’m not going to say that last week I showed up to the track knowing that I was going to win, or knowing that I was going to have a shot to win, anyways. I don’t know if anybody really felt that way. But I think going forward, these are some good tracks for us. Our team is really strong, so I know that we will be able to execute our way to challenge for wins. That helps confidence out a lot. Winning last week for sure helps going forward here at Las Vegas (Motor Speedway) and having a better idea of how your weekend might be.

“Just excited to get these races in and get more of an understanding of how the car drives, how your team stacks up against the others and try to have a season a little bit better than last year.”

TELL US A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR SPONSOR ON THE SIDE OF THE CAR, THE SAMARITAN’S PURSE, AND THE REASON FOR THAT.
“Yeah, it’s just something neat that Rick Hendrick wants to do and raise money to benefit what’s going on in Ukraine. It’s an honor to have it on our car. I hope between the four of us Hendrick Motorsports drivers, we can all lead every lap of this race on Sunday and can donate quite a bit of money to their relief. Rick has a huge heart. It’s just neat that he does a lot of special things for so many different people.”

THE COMPETITION THIS WEEK AND TALKING TO CHASE (ELLIOTT) – WAS IT MATTER OF FACT, WAS IT NORMAL, WAS IT FROSTY, WAS IT AWKWARD?
“Well from my spot, it’s always going to be awkward. But it was a good meeting to have. Rick (Hendrick) called a meeting with all four teams and just kind of reiterated his expectations with us drivers. It’s good to get those reminders every now and then, and continue to race good in the future with each other. I’ll catch-up more with Chase (Elliott) here in a little bit and we’ll be good.”

WAS IT AN IN-PERSON MEETING?
“No, because it’s west coast swing, so we’re all traveling.”

INAUDIBLE
“I haven’t been there but a little over a year now; so as far as I can remember, that’s the only meeting since I’ve been there that Rick (Hendrick)has been a part of in that sense. He’s been to competition meetings and stuff like that, and we’ve had multiple meetings about different things. But as far as racing and stuff, that’s the first one I can remember him getting involved in. I think we all know his expectations and after the incident last week, it was good for him to get involved again and tell us what the expectations are.”

DID YOU CATCH RADIOACTIVE?
“Yeah.”

ANY COMMENT ON IT?
“No, it was another good episode of it (laughs).”

IT’S WINDY AGAIN THIS MORNING HERE AT LAS VEGAS. IS THAT GOING TO BE A FACTOR LIKE IT WAS AT AUTO CLUB LAST WEEKEND AND HOW DIFFERENT IS THE NEXT GEN CAR IN THE WIND COMPARED TO LAST YEAR’S CAR?
“Yeah, I’m not really sure how much the wind really played into the cars spinning and stuff last week, as least in practice and qualifying. I don’t know how much it will be an effect here. I think it was more the bumps and everybody just not being used to the car at all last week. So I think having a week of that and knowing how on-edge these cars are you would think would make this weekend a little less crazy. But (turns) one and two here is extremely rough, so I think that’s going to play a factor in the handling of the cars. I feel like a lot of mistakes will be made in (turns) one and two; and you’ll see some spins and crashes. Just try to ease into it and try and not step over the edge too soon.”

DID YOU SEE TYLER (MONN)’S TWEET LAST WEEKEND?
“Yeah, Tyler (Monn, Spotter) is great. I’ve been very, very happy with him as my spotter. The way things worked out for us to get him last year was so last minute, but I feel like we ended up with the best option I could have as a driver. He’s been great. We’ve had a lot of success together and I trust him a lot. We’ve talked quite a bit this week. We both are learning these new cars. The runs are huge, so there’s a lot to be learned. You have to have some incidents sometimes to really learn quickly and that’s what we’re going to do going forward.”

TWO BIG TRACKS NOW AND OUR FIRST LOOK AT A 1.5-MILE TRACK. WHAT DO YOU THINK IT’S GOING TO BE LIKE OUT THERE TODAY?
“Who knows, I don’t know. (Turns) one and two are really rough, so I think that’s where you might see some of us struggling getting through there. These cars don’t seem to handle – my car at least last weekend compared to Fontana in the past or tracks I ran last year – it was much harsher of a ride quality than what I remembered. This place being as rough as it is in (turns) one and two, that’s what we’ll probably fight and it’ll be difficult.

“We’ll see though. I think teams probably learned a lot last weekend and are applying it to their cars this week.”

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.