NASCAR CUP SERIES
AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY
WISE POWER 400
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
FEBRUARY 27, 2022

KYLE LARSON GIVES CAMARO ZL1 THE FIRST WIN OF 2022 AT FONTANA
Team Chevy Drivers Sweep Top-Four

FONTANA, Calif. (February 27, 2022) – In the NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) return to Auto Club Speedway, reigning champion Kyle Larson drove his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL1 to victory lane in the Wise Power 400. The victory marks the California native’s 17th-career win in 261 starts in NASCAR’s premier series. The feat locks Larson into the 2022 NCS Playoffs, securing his chance at defending the championship title.

In just the second points-paying race of the 2022 season, the 29-year-old Hendrick Motorsports driver’s victory is the first for the Next Gen Camaro ZL1, which was introduced at the Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum earlier this month. The feat gives Chevrolet its 16th win at Auto Club Speedway – extending the lead over all manufacturers – and its 815th all-time in NASCAR Cup Series competition.

“Cliff (Daniels, Crew Chief) and everybody made some good adjustments overnight, and the car handled a lot better,” said Larson. “There were definitely some guys that were quicker than us, but they had their misfortunes. Just kept our heads in it all day. Long race. Just restarts were crazy. The whole runs were crazy. Definitely wild, but cool to get a win here in California and hopefully get on a little streak.”

The Camaro ZL1 showed its speed at the California oval with the bowtie brand sweeping the top-four positions in the final running order. Austin Dillon drove his No. 3 Dow Coatings Camaro ZL1 to a runner-up finish, his third top-10 finish in eight starts at Auto Club Speedway. Erik Jones, who lead the field to the green from a front row starting spot, brought his No. 43 FOCUSFactor Camaro ZL1 across the finish line in the third position. Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Freeway Insurance Camaro ZL1, finished in fourth to complete the 1-2-3-4 Chevrolet finish.

Daniel Hemric, who races the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Camaro ZL1 part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, overcame adversity from six laps down to bring his Poppy Bank Camaro ZL1 home in the ninth position. Ricky Stenhouse, No. 47 Ralphs/Honey Nut Cheerios Camaro ZL1, rounded out the top-10 to give Chevrolet six of the top-10 finishing positions.

The NASCAR Cup Series season continues next weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with the Pennzoil 400 on Sunday, March 6, at 3:30 P.M. ET. Live coverage can be found on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1; AND CLIFF DANIELS, CREW CHIEF, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1, PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:

THE MODERATOR: We’ve been joined by our race-winning team, race winner Kyle Larson and crew chief Cliff Daniels, for today’s Wise Power 400 at Auto Club Speedway. Congrats on another victory, checking that box to the NASCAR playoffs so early in the season.

We’ll start with questions for Cliff or Kyle.

Q. Tell me about this new car now. We’ve had it at a superspeedway, had it at a short track, now had it at a two-mile oval. It seems like it was all over the place, and all Joey Logano had to say about it is that it’s “edgy”.
KYLE LARSON: Yeah, it’s definitely edgy. Honestly I enjoyed it more than I thought I was going to. I thought dirty air was going to be really bad behind people, and it didn’t seem way worse or different than normal. So that was encouraging. I thought the runs were equally as big if not bigger down the frontstretch. Restarts were still crazy.

Yeah, I thought it was way different, which was good for me anyways, and probably for us drivers. And then you have the part where, yeah, it’s on edge where if you get a little too stepped out, you spin.
You have to be aware of that and your aggressiveness on the restarts and try to work on your balance a lot. We did that throughout the day quite a bit. We had runs early on where we’d be tight and then the next run we’d be loose and then we were able to kind of narrow that window down there it seemed like around halfway, and that’s when I felt like we were going to have a decent shot to win.

Yeah, fun race. A lot of hard work by everybody on our team and proud of everybody’s effort.

Q. Kyle, what was your take on the contact that you had there with Chase? What happened there?
KYLE LARSON: So I didn’t get through 3 and 4 very well. Joey did a good job on the bottom, and then we were side drafting each other, and I’m not even looking in my mirror at that point because all I’m worried about is Joey and I’m looking out of my A-post window.

I had a run, so I went to peel off, and as soon as I peeled off, my spotter is yelling, “Outside! Outside! Outside!” And I had no clue he was even coming.

Yeah, I mean, I hate that I ended his day after they worked so hard to get back to the lead lap and back in contention to win, but it was just an honest mistake on probably both of our faults. I should have had more awareness in my mirror. My spotter could have told me he was coming with a big run, and we would have avoided that mess. I would have probably not been side drafting on Joey as hard as I was. I would have been more so protecting on Chase than worrying about Joey.

It happened, and I hate that it did. I know they’re upset. But we’ll talk, and hopefully we’ll get on the same page. I would never run into my teammate or block him that aggressively and that late on purpose.

Q. Cliff, I think Jeff Andrews said you had a conversation with Chase after —
CLIFF DANIELS: No, I went and talked to Alan. These guys were in the garage working on the car, so I walked over there and talked to him, said hey, we’ll take our share of the responsibility. They’re great teammates, always have been, and I know we’re all good teammates together.

Like he said, that’s nothing that he would ever do intentionally, and that’s a tough racing deal. I don’t blame Chase at all for what could have been the race-winning move, and he just told his side of the story. Obviously they had an amazing recovery on the 9 team today, so to see that get cut short is really tough for us as teammates because you want all four teammates to run 1 through 4. So unfortunate, but I know that we will all get together and be on the same page.

Q. Kyle, how easy will it be to get on the same page? Is this just a bump in the road? Their radio was pretty spicy afterward. When we saw the spin, you’re like, did he do that on purpose —
KYLE LARSON: I didn’t ask that.

CLIFF DANIELS: No, no, no.

Q. Chase said that the toe link broke again for the second time today. I’m just kind of — from the outside looking in, it looks like it could be something hard to get over, so I’m curious from the inside how would you feel?
KYLE LARSON: I mean, I honestly just told you guys my side of it. I’m going to tell him exactly how I told you guys, and he’ll take it for what it is. Either way I’m sure he’ll still be upset even if we’re on the same page or not. It’s just a conversation that we’ll have, and we’re both young, we both respect each other a lot, so we’ll both be racing for wins for many years to come.

I’m not too worried about it. I think if anything it’s probably a small bump in the road. I think if things happen more so in the future, then yes, it gets out of hand. But Hendrick Motorsports I don’t think will ever let it get to that point, and like I said, we have enough respect for each other that I don’t think it will get out of hand at all.

We’ll just have a conversation, and I’m sure it’ll be fine. Like I said, he’s going to be upset, which he has a right to be, but I’ll explain my side just like I explained it to you guys, and he’ll believe me or he won’t.

Q. Kyle, yesterday Austin said after qualifying he had to talk to himself to convince him to do certain things. Today you said it’s a little edgy. You guys have the same feelings, that you’re still coming to grips with it?
KYLE LARSON: At least for me, I think having laps on the car yesterday kind of — you get yourself calibrated to that, and today wasn’t — it wasn’t as nervous as it was for me yesterday. But also they made some good changes I feel like overnight with the overall right quality of our car, which allowed me to have more confidence in what was going to happen with the race car.

That probably also helped quite a bit. Yeah, I just had a couple moments throughout the day that I thought that I got close to spinning, but other than that, I felt like it was a fairly normal handling race car for me.

Q. It’s getting better, though, slowly getting better?
KYLE LARSON: Yeah, we’ll just keep working on the car and we’ll get it better ourselves, even without having to make rule package changes I’m sure. Just every team is trying to learn quickly, and I’ve got Cliff leading our team, and we have all the confidence in the world in him and Adam and everybody at the shop and here at the racetrack to keep building on what we have.

Q. Comparing the dirt car to the Next-Gen car, what did you notice today?
KYLE LARSON: The dirt car?

Q. Yeah, just driving the dirt car. Were there any similarities in just the handling characteristics with the Next-Gen car today?
KYLE LARSON: No, no, it’s — dirt car, I mean, you get sideways, you can control it.

This still feels like a stock car to me. It just has a lot less sideforce feeling to me. It’s just you have a lot less room to catch it when you do get a little bit yawed out, where before you could get yawed out and it had so much side force and such a big spoiler it would kind of drag itself back straight.

Now you just get past that point, it just snaps fast. Yeah, it drives like a stock car.

Q. You saw kind of a lot of guys get into trouble today when they tried to be aggressive or make a certain move, get into tire trouble, car trouble, what have you. Where do you think you were able to find a sweet spot in terms of pushing the pace but also kind of staying out of a mess and that sort of thing?
KYLE LARSON: Yeah, I think just having good awareness of what line you were in and anticipating the grip you were going to have on exit. Yeah, I mean, there was a couple people who spun off of 4 trying to be aggressive on the throttle to clear up in front of people or clear and tuck in line and then they’d get a little too far over the edge and spin.

You just kind of had — for me I tried to be aggressive on entry but as conservative as I could be on exit to make sure that I wasn’t going to spin or have to bail out of the throttle and kill my momentum. I felt like there was restarts that I did a good job of that and restarts where maybe I was too conservative, but until you learn more about the car, it’s hard to be too aggressive.

Q. Starting position today wasn’t as desirable as you would have liked; how did you get the job done when basically the entire race was an adrenaline field fight from start to finish?
KYLE LARSON: Yeah, thankfully the races are so long that if your car is good, it doesn’t matter how far back you start. We were able to get to like 12th pretty quickly. I was very pleased with that.

I wasn’t sure with the unknown of dirty air and stuff how hard it was going to be to get to the front, but myself and Joey were able to drive up there pretty quickly, and then just had to adjust on our car from there. We put ourselves in the game from early on and just had to kind of chip away at it and make good decisions, both on the pit box and behind the wheel, and we were able to do that today and execute a very good race.

Q. There was an observation during the race where it seemed like drivers who had some experience on dirt, they were running better. Did your expertise in the dirt have anything to do with you starting in the back and working your way up to the front?
KYLE LARSON: No, I don’t think so. I mean, Joey Logano got to the front quicker than I did, and he grew up in Connecticut. I don’t think they have any dirt up there. I don’t think it matters.

I mean, they have snow and ice up there, right, so maybe he’s got some time on that.

Q. (No microphone.)
KYLE LARSON: Yeah, again, that’s not really dirt. Yeah, it doesn’t matter. I think you’re just reading into it a little bit too much.

Q. The battle with Suárez there, how did you come out ahead on that one?
KYLE LARSON: Yeah, that was a tough restart. I had Joey behind me and I knew I was going to have to fight him off. I hadn’t really spent much time on Suárez but he had told me that he was pretty good on the short runs. Yeah, I knew I was going to have to fight him off. Was hoping that I wouldn’t, but Joey was so good I felt like on the short run that I was more worried about him through 1 and 2, and had to — I peeled off to the middle and he was able to run a lot of speed and get close to my outside, and I kind of had to throttle up to make sure that didn’t happen.

Then it got us kind of choked up off of 2, and Suárez had a good one in 2 and a really good 3 and 4 and got by me. Then — actually I think I led through 3 and 4. They got a good push behind me and got clear into 1, and then he went to the bottom again once we got to 3 and 4 the next time by, and I’m not sure if he got tight or loose or what, but his momentum was killed off of 4 and I was able to get a good run to get by him.

And then Austin, I hadn’t spent much time around him, either, and he seemed to be good on the short run running the bottom. I just knew — I felt good on the bottom throughout the race, but I knew being the leader I was going to have the best shot of protecting any runs coming from behind me if I just ran up top and kept my speed wound up.

I was able to do that and get to the white before — it sounded like there was a crash, and get the win.

Q. That move that you made down on the apron, was that more aggressive than a normal move? Were you sailing it in there, Hail Mary type of thing?
KYLE LARSON: On the frontstretch? Yeah, I got below the apron about the start-finish line. That was more to get away from any side draft he might be able to pull, and thankfully I was able to get far enough away from him to have enough momentum to get clear in front of him and then run the lane that I needed to run in 1 and 2.

So no, it wasn’t any more aggressive than normal.

Q. We’ve heard from Kyle about this new car a lot. I want to get your thoughts as a crew chief because you’re the one making the adjustments and the calls. What are the biggest things you’ve learned now that we’ve been on a short track, superspeedway, now a two-mile oval, going to this West Coast Swing with our typical mile-and-a-halfs, and then Phoenix, which people call a short track but is a mile-long track. What’s the biggest things that you’ve learned, and what do you anticipate going into those two races?
CLIFF DANIELS: Yeah, really nothing carries over from last year, even kind of the concept of how a race would go.

The Coliseum really had no tire falloff. We had substantial tire falloff here, which yes, we always do, but it was completely amplified.

Daytona even itself raced a bit different. I think he would agree that it wasn’t — if you tried to go at Daytona and move around in the draft, the lanes were just kind of stuck two-by-two and there wasn’t a whole lot of momentum to be gained or spots to be gained.

And then the way the race played out today was almost like old-school Darlington. You run 10 or 15 laps, somebody blows a tire, hits the fence, you pit, and you had 12 sets of tires, and I think we used all but one.

Our car for whatever reason was on a really fine line of a balance adjustment, like it was a very, very small adjustment away from being comfortable, to being one side or the other of the coin of balance, which is obviously something that we will get to work on as we get more reps with the car, just to get it more comfortable for him and more consistent, that it’s not so broken up run to run. Luckily we did hone in on it at the end.

So to directly answer your question, obviously I illustrated a lot of different points there, I think it just races so different that a lot of the concepts that you would bring as a crew chief to call a race into like a short track race or a specific intermediate race, it’s all different, it’s unique to itself, and it’s going to be my job to be a student of the game and try to make sure we do it right every week.

Q. So nothing at all from last year (indiscernible)?
CLIFF DANIELS: No, not really, just because last year when you think about it, the 550 package itself that we ran at most of the intermediates, we look at percentage of lap time falloff. I would say your average intermediate was probably 4 to 4 and a half percent of lap time falloff. Today I think was 12 over the run. Even California — so this race in 2020 was probably in the sixes, so you’re talking double the falloff of what we had with the 550 package the last couple years.

Even then you could almost run a full fuel run without somebody blowing a tire or having an issue. We never even got close to a full fuel run today. What was the longest run today, 19 laps, 20 laps?
Yeah, totally different landscape for how to call a race.

THE MODERATOR: Cliff, we’re going to let you go. Thanks.

Q. One of the big things about the season, obviously the brand new car, the big thing about it is parity and how it allows teams to operate a lot closer in a sense and that comes off the heels of a very dominant season that you had last year. Was there any concern with the switch of the car that that wouldn’t be the case this year, and does getting a win early on in the season rectify that pressure in that instance?
KYLE LARSON: Yeah, it definitely feels good to get a win early on in the year because going to a new car you don’t know if you’re going to win or not. But I mean, you have confidence in your race team. It was neat today to see some guys who don’t typically run up front run up front and contend for the win.
The 8 was dominant today. The 43 was super impressive. The 99 there at the end. Austin Dillon and their team did a good job. I mean, I look at it as Chevys were really strong today. Chase Briscoe and their team was really good at one point.

Yeah, you had some more players or some different players, I guess, than you maybe would have had in the past. That part of it’s neat to see. I think that’ll probably change as we go along with the season, but for right now it’s pretty cool to see.

Q. Does it sort of even out more as we go through the season?
KYLE LARSON: Yeah, I just think — who knows, but I think your teams with more resources and more people and more engineers and stuff like that will still have the edge over the other teams, even though we’re all kind of racing the same car. But just we’ll be able to build a notebook hopefully a little quicker than others and get back to dominating like we did last year.

THE MODERATOR: Kyle, thank you for your time. Congratulations again on the win.

JEFF ANDREWS, GENERAL MANAGER, HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS, PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
THE MODERATOR: We’re going to get started here with our post-race press conference. We’ve now been joined by Jeff Andrews, who’s the general manager of Hendrick Motorsports, and he’s here to answer any questions you guys have with today’s win.

Thank you so much for joining us. Congratulations on another Hendrick Motorsports victory. Kyle is back in Victory Lane, obviously checking that box to get into the NASCAR playoffs later this season. Tell us a little bit about today’s race and what it means for Kyle and Cliff to be back in Victory Lane so early in the season.

JEFF ANDREWS: Yeah, certainly to come here the second race of the year and all the — everything new going on with the vehicle and just everything that the teams have been working on, you know, all winter long, very proud of everyone back in North Carolina that’s doing such an amazing job putting these race cars together for us and everything that we’ve been through in the off-season with the transition.
Certainly coming out here this early on and having a successful day like we did with multiple cars I think is as important as the win. But we’re very proud of the way it played out for us there at the end and certainly had, like I said, multiple cars there all day long, and it kind of came and went.

I think Cliff would probably tell you it took he and the guys probably a little bit to get there. Probably not as good in the middle of the race as say the 9 and Alan and Chase were, but made good gains on it during the day and got to a good spot there at the end and was able to capitalize on that last restart.

Q. How do you handle the whole Chase-Kyle situation? Obviously Chase wasn’t happy with that incident.
JEFF ANDREWS: Well, the first thing we’ll do is I talked to Chase after the race, and I think we’ve got to understand what those guys have been through all day long and where they had come back to, and obviously to be in contention there for the win late in the race is just a true testament to the great job that Alan and that entire team did to get that car back and have it competitive.

I think certainly nothing intentional there by Kyle, and I think we’ll go back — I know we’ll go back and talk about it in our meetings tomorrow and Tuesday, and we’ll look at all the facts and we’ll look at what happened and we’ll talk about it as a company, and at the end of the day we’re going to — as we always do, we’ll do the right things for the company and get ready to go to Las Vegas in a good spot for really everybody.

Q. Chase said that (indiscernible) second time. You could look at it and say did he spin on purpose to bring out the caution.
JEFF ANDREWS: Yeah, I don’t believe he was taking out any frustration. He came on there pretty quickly after the contact with the wall, and it was a very similar issue that had happened to them early in the day with the bent toe link, and that puts a bunch of toe out in that right rear tire and rear assembly and that makes it very difficult to drive.

They were trying to stay out and finish as well as they could and had the issue late in the race there, had to come in and put a toe link on it.

Q. When you have a meeting like that, will those guys talk directly? Do you have to pull those guys aside and say, let’s get a small group thing or is it just with everybody there? How does that work to start mending those fences?
JEFF ANDREWS: Well, first that’ll need to start from our perspective between Kyle and Chase, and hopefully they can get to a good spot and kind of step back and look at the data and really watch what happened there, and then of course as a group Jeff Gordon, Chad and myself and Mr. Hendrick, of course we want to speak to them because we want to go to Las Vegas in a good spot, and certainly very proud of both of those teams. They both had great race cars. That’s the great news, right. This other stuff that happens on the racetrack, we can get all that to a good spot between those two teams, and give Cliff credit for standing down there talking to him a while ago, and he said after what happened, their mission is going to be to do everything they can to help Chase and that 9 team as well as our other teams get a win and get on to the playoffs.

Q. 400 more miles on this new car; what’s your number one thing you learned today and the number one thing you think the car needs to be worked on?
JEFF ANDREWS: I think as we’ve talked about everything that — there’s a lot new. There’s a lot going on, obviously, and really these race teams, we just need time and laps on these cars. We need to learn them. We need to understand little nuances of them, and days like Saturday, those are tough days to come here and have a quick 20-minute practice with a brand new race car really in this kind of environment and on this track, which has always been a tough track, regardless of the car to get around.

The race car is great. It’s a really, really nice piece of equipment. I commend NASCAR. They’ve done a great job on it. Now it’s in the team’s hands, and we’ll continue to work with them to work through whatever issues either we have with the vehicle or things that go on during the race and flat tires and all that.

That’s one thing about this industry, when we get together and decide we’re going to do something and decide we’re going to work on something together, some really great things happen. So there’s a great relationship there between the race teams and NASCAR, and no doubt we’re going to learn quickly here in the next three to five weeks, I feel certain by the time we get done at Phoenix that there will be some further revisions on things and rules and parts and pieces, but one thing is for sure, I think you saw a great product on track today from a racing standpoint.

There was a lot of position changes for the lead, a lot of close side-by-side racing, and that’s a product of the car really being so close technically to each other across all the teams.

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

About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands, available in 79 countries with more than 3.2 million cars and trucks sold in 2020. Chevrolet models include electric and fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.

NASCAR CUP SERIES
AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY
WISE POWER 400
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
FEBRUARY 27, 2022

TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1
2nd AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW COATINGS CAMARO ZL1
3rd ERIK JONES, NO. 43 FOCUSFACTOR CAMARO ZL1
4th DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 FREEWAY INSURANCE CAMARO ZL1
9th DANIEL HEMRIC, NO. 16 POPPY BANK CAMARO ZL1
10th RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 RALPHS/HONEY NUT CHEERIOS CAMARO ZL1

TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Kyle Larson (Chevrolet)
2nd Austin Dillon (Chevrolet)
3rd Erik Jones (Chevrolet)
4th Daniel Suarez (Chevrolet)
5th Joey Logano (Ford)

The NASCAR Cup Series season continues next weekend at Las Vegas Speedway with the Pennzoil 400 on Sunday, March 6, 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:

KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1 – Race Winner
KYLE, IT DOESN’T MATTER THE CAR, IT DOESN’T MATTER THE TRACK – YOU JUST GET IN IT, YOU GO FAST. YOUR SECOND CAREER VICTORY AT AUTO CLUB SPEEDWAY.
“Yeah, thanks. It’s always fun here to win in the home state. Hard work all weekend there. Didn’t feel great in practice yesterday.

“Cliff (Daniels, Crew Chief) and everybody made some good adjustments overnight, and the car handled a lot better. There were definitely some guys that were quicker than us, but they had their misfortunes. Just kept our heads in it all day. Long race. Just restarts were crazy. The whole runs were crazy.

“Definitely wild but cool to get a win here in California and hopefully get on a little streak.”

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 DOW COATINGS CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 2nd
“Huge credit to the Lord and our pit crew. Man, they were unbelievable all day. They kept us in this race. We had to make a bunch of adjustments. We were terrible at the beginning. Just kind of learning the car myself and then communicating with Justin (Alexander, Crew Chief), we just made it better and better. We got a lot of great partners on this Dow Chevrolet. I have to thank American Ethanol, everybody that helps make this possible.

“The pit crew was the story of the day today. They were special. And my teammate (Tyler) Reddick – he balled out all day up there against the fence. I hate it for him what happened to him and I felt like if we didn’t get up there and get after it for them, it would be a let down for RCR. So, glad to get P-2.

“I made a run at him off of (turn) four. I don’t know if I should have ran the bottom. We could really get into turn one pretty good and rotate the bottom better than some guys. But man, that was a fun race. I’m impressed.”

ERIK JONES, NO. 43 FOCUSFACTOR CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 3rd
YOU STARTED THE DAY IN SECOND. RAN UP FRONT ALL DAY LONG; LEADING LAPS. THE STRONGEST WE’VE SEEN THE NO. 43 CHEVROLET IN QUITE SOME TIME. HOW GOOD DID IT FEEL TO RUN UP FRONT ALL DAY?
“It was good. It feels good to be interviewed after the race, too. It’s awesome, but it’s frustrating too. You’re that close and you have a car that you feel like can do it. The No. 43 FOCUSFactor Chevrolet definitely had it today. It was a matter of getting up front and taking advantage of clean air, and we did that a couple of times. A couple restarts just didn’t go our way. I probably could have done a better job here and there, and it just didn’t add up. I just haven’t raced up front a lot in the last year and a half. There are some things I need to be better at. Hopefully I have a lot of time to work on that. We want to keep running upfront and if we keep doing that, we’re going to win some races.

“I’m really proud of this whole group. It’s been a big off season with the merger and everything we’ve done, so this is a very satisfying run for everybody and I just hope we can keep going.”

DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 FREEWAY INSURANCE CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 4th
DANIEL SUAREZ GAVE IT A VALIANT EFFORT, WAS LEADING WITH THREE LAPS TO GO. WHAT ARE THE EMOTIONS KNOWNING HOW CLOSE YOU CAME BUT COMING UP JUST A BIT SHORT?
“We’re going to win a few races very soon here. I just can’t thank everyone enough on my team. We had a fast car, but we went through a lot of adversity. We had a few issues. We hit the wall once. We had an issue with a diffuser.

“My pit crew, those guys are legends; it’s unbelievable. It’s the best pit crew I’ve ever had, and it’s a lot of fun to race like that. Freeway Insurance, Chevrolet, everyone that helps Trackhouse Racing out to be able to be here and perform this way. I can tell you that I’m going to work very, very hard to go to Victory Lane very, very soon.”

DANIEL HEMRIC, NO. 16 POPPY BANK CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 9th
“What a day! I felt like we had a really good car, and we were able to maintain good speed and move forward. Unfortunately, we had an issue with our shifter and lost six laps. I can’t believe we got all of them back and were even able to contend there at the end. I’m super proud of everyone on this No. 16 Poppy Bank Chevy team, My crew chief, Matt Swiderski, and everyone else at Kaulig Racing put together an incredible race car. It was really good and super fast – it was just a matter of being back on the lead lap.”

JUSTIN HALEY, NO. 31 LEAFFILTER GUTTER PROTECTION CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 23rd
“Overall it was a good race. We stayed on the lead lap and raced in the top 15 quite a bit. We made the car better with each stop as the race went on, so l’m proud of everyone the No. 31 LeafFilter Gutter Protection Chevy team for working hard all day. At the end, we were racing hard for 11th or 12th and made contact with the 12 car. It wasn’t the finish we wanted, and the car is a little torn up, but I’m happy with the performance of the car and the gains we made.”

TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 LENOVO CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 24th
“Absolutely gutted by how our race unfolded but I couldn’t be prouder of this whole team and what we were able to do a majority of this race today. We will learn from this; we will become stronger from this and be hungrier than ever before. It was really fun having all of the Lenovo guests here today and it was really exciting to have such a strong run for them today. We will keep this momentum going to Las Vegas next week.”

ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 1 CASA DEL SOL TEQUILA CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 29th
“To use a backup car and start the race without any laps on it was a handful. We were really loose to start and I was not sure if we’d be able to get on the other side of it. My crew chief Phil Surgen and the Trackhouse team kept changing a lot of things on the car and got the balance where I could drive it. At the beginning of the race, I was pretty worried that we were just going to be loose and slow all day. Obviously, we got a lot better and had a shot at a top-five and I messed up. I made an unforced error running around the sixth spot. I was just riding along and hit a bump wrong and didn’t catch it in time. A mistake on my part. Seeing the transition from the beginning of the race to the end, gives me a lot of hope.”

WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 – Finished 34th
“So frustrated I made that mistake for our team today. What a fast car and we were making our way back to the front. I got loose getting under the No. 8 (Tyler Reddick) who had a flat. Thankful for such a fast car and I know we’ll be back stronger next week.”

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

About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands, available in 79 countries with more than 3.2 million cars and trucks sold in 2020. Chevrolet models include electric and fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.

A late-race crash left Harrison Burton and the No. 21 DEX Imaging Mustang with a 33rd-place finish in Sunday’s Wise Power 400 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif.

Burton started the race from 22nd place and quickly moved into the top 20, but he and the DEX Imaging team struggled to find speed as the race went on.

The team made adjustments, some of which delivered slight improvements while others were unsuccessful.

For much of the race he ran on either side of 20th place, and finished both of the 65-lap Stages in 21st place.

Any hopes for a decent finish ended when he was involved in a multi-car crash on Lap 157.

Just after a restart, as the pack exited Turn Two, drivers began spinning ahead of Burton and he was unable to avoid contact with the No. 23 of Bubba Wallace. The DEX Imaging Mustang was too damaged to continue.

“It just looked like they stacked up in front of us there,” Burton told reporters at the track. “I don’t know how many crashed, but there was a lot of smoke, and I couldn’t see where I was going.

“I kind of had to take a guess on where they wouldn’t be and ended up finding the 23.”

Burton said he was disappointed with the lack of speed that left him running in the back when he crashed.

“It was a frustrating day,” he said. “It felt like we weren’t running as well as we needed to be anyway.

“I guess those things happen when you don’t have great track position. We were fighting in the teens and 20s all day, and we need to be fighting further up to be able to avoid that mess.”

Among the few bright spots on an otherwise disappointing day for Burton was hearing the news that Team Penske’s Scott McLaughlin, who races in IndyCar with sponsorship from Burton’s long-time backer, DEX Imaging, won that circuit’s season opener in St. Petersburg, Fla., earlier in the afternoon.

Burton and the No. 21 team, after failing to finish the first two races of the season, will try to turn that around next week in the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

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About DEX Imaging
DEX Imaging is the digital document imaging division of Staples, the world’s largest business solutions provider. DEX sells and services the broadest selection of copiers, printers and data management solutions, such as HP, Konica Minolta, Canon, Kyocera and numerous others.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES:
Reducing Operating Costs
Reducing Paper Consumption
Increasing Productivity

DEX Imaging has been the recipient of virtually every industry award since the company’s inception, including the JD Power & Associates Award for Best Customer Experience, the prestigious ProTech Service award by Konica Minolta, the Diamond Premier Dealer Award by Kyocera, and the Elite DEALER Award by ‘ENX’ magazine. Other accolades include being named ‘Best Place to Work’ by numerous business journals in the markets DEX serves.

Wood Brothers Racing
Wood Brothers Racing was formed in 1950 in Stuart, Va., by Hall of Famer Glenn Wood. Wood Brothers Racing is the oldest active team and one of the winningest teams in NASCAR history. Since its founding, the team won 99 races (including at least one race in every decade for the last seven decades) and 120 poles in NASCAR’s top-tier series. Fielding only Ford products for its entire history, the Wood Brothers own the longest association of any motorsports team with a single manufacturer. Glenn’s brother, Leonard, is known for inventing the modern pit stop. The team currently runs the Ford Mustang driven by Harrison Burton in the famous No. 21 racer.

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Auto Club Speedway | Sunday, February 27, 2022

FORD FINISHING RESULTS
5th – Joey Logano
6th – Aric Almirola
7th – Kevin Harvick
11th – Cole Custer
12th – Austin Cindric
16th – Chase Briscoe
18th – Ryan Blaney
20th – Todd Gilliland
21st – Garrett Smithley
22nd – BJ McLeod
27th – Brad Keselowski
31st – Michael McDowell
32nd – Cody Ware
33rd – Harrison Burton
35th – Chris Buescher

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 AAA Southern California Ford Mustang — Finished 5th

“The guys did a great job of getting the car fixed after I wrecked in qualifying and we were fast right off the get-go. We were okay. The short runs weren’t really our cup of tea with our Auto Club Mustang here. We had a shot there at the end though going down the backstretch two-wide and I thought it was my chance. It was a low percentage move and it was kind of too late down the straightaway to make the move but I thought I had a big enough run that I could maybe get position going in. It was just too late and I couldn’t get my amigo Daniel Suarez there to get far enough back on my quarter. He was on my door and I had to start chasing it. I don’t know. I probably could have finished second or third if I didn’t make that move but you have to go for the win. We were so close. I probably would do it again but maybe checked up the entry a little bit anticipating him washing up into Larson. But hey, I tried.”

“It was a fight for everybody out there. The cars are equally matched and nobody had a real dominant car. It switched out through the race. At times it was the 8 and the 5. We were pretty good a couple runs and we were good on the long haul with our Mustang. I had a shot there at the end down the backstretch and I had that run and I knew it was a low percentage move to try to go three-wide on the bottom as late as I was going down the straightaway to get that run but I had to try it. Maybe we could have finished a couple of spots better if I didn’t try it but I had to give it a whirl and it probably cost us a couple of spots but who knows, it might have been the winning move. I am always going to try, it just didn’t work out for us. Overall, coming here with big challenges and wrecking the car in qualifying and the guys fixing it and giving us a shot at the win, you have to be proud of that effort. We learned a lot and there is a lot more to get better at. Nobody is really good, that is what I figured out today. Nobody is good. We have work to do.”

ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Rush/Mobil 1 Delvac Ford Mustang — Finished 6th

“We sure had our hands full. It was a crazy day, wow. These cars are certainly a handful and we worked on it all day and made it to where it was driving better. Then we got some damage and the guys worked on it and got it fixed. It was a solid day for us to come out and have a good start to the west coast swing and keep our cars in one piece.”

KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Subway Ford Mustang — Finished 7th

“We actually had a really good car and then every time we would get close we would have something go wrong. So we just had so many things go wrong that it was hard to keep our track position but I am really proud of my team. They did a great job of battling through everything and giving us a shot out there.”

COLE CUSTER, No. 41 Production Alliance Group Ford Mustang — Finished 11th

“I was really happy with the progress our team made. We made really good adjustments all day and got our car better. We got a little off there at the end and I wish I did a few things different on the restarts but overall it was a solid day and we got some stage points and we can take that into the next one.”

DO YOU FEEL A LITTLE BETTER GOING INTO VEGAS? “For sure, I think it is awesome to get the car driving good and have confidence there so hopefully, we can take that into the next weekend.”

AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Menards/Quaker State Ford Mustang — Finished 12th

“It was a really solid day in our Menards Quaker State Ford Mustang getting points in both stages and being a contender in the top-10 the entire race. I felt like I was a bit married to the top lane. I will have to understand why that is and look over how I can be better on the bottom and do a better job on the restarts. It wasn’t our day as far as being involved the wrong things and even recovered back to the top-10 and got a wheel stuck on. We have some things to clean up but it was overall a solid performance and it was good to be in the top-10 all day.”

CHASE BRISCOE, No. 14 Mahindra Tractor Ford Mustang — Finished 16th

DO YOU THINK YOUR DIRT BACKGROUND HELPED YOU MOVE AROUND AND GET BY GUYS TODAY? “I don’t know. Maybe a little bit. I think dirt guys like Larson and Reddick and me, we like it slick and worn out and you can move around and search for grip. I felt like I was able to try different lanes and try to find grip. I felt like our car was really good too and that obviously helps. But yeah, this place has always been really good for us guys and I think that is just because of how slick it is.”

WAS TRACK POSITION THE BIGGEST THING ONCE YOU GOT STUCK IN THE BACK? “Yeah, I think track position is a lot of it but at the same time, we started 26th and were able to drive to the lead so I can’t blame it all on track position. I think toward the end of the race as guys get better and better throughout it gets harder and harder to drive up through there. I think after I got in the wall a little bit you never really know how much that hurts you but track position is always important.”

ANYTHING YOU CAN TAKE FROM HERE TO ANY OTHER TRACKS OR IS THIS PLACE TOO UNIQUE? “I think it is pretty unique. I think that the 1.5 mile stuff, you can learn some stuff. It will be a learning experience the whole time and I think anything you can take away from any track is going to be important. I definitely feel like we learned some stuff today.”

HARRISON BURTON, No. 21 DEX Imaging Ford Mustang — Involved in a multi-car accident on Lap 157

“It just looked like they stacked up in front of us there. I don’t know how many crashed but there was a lot of smoke and I couldn’t see where I was going. I kind of had to take a guess on where they wouldn’t be and ended up finding the 23 I think. It was a frustrating day. It felt like we weren’t running as well as we needed to be anyway. I guess those things happen when you don’t have great track position. We were fighting in the teens and 20’s all day and we need to be fighting further up to be able to avoid that mess.”

KURT BUSCH BATTLES ADVERSITY TO SCORE FIRST TOYOTA TOP-10 FINISH
Busch finishes eighth in NASCAR’s return to Auto Club Speedway

FONTANA, Calif. (February 27, 2022) – Kurt Busch (eighth) led Toyota in the Wise Power 400 at California’s Auto Club Speedway on Sunday evening.

Toyota Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Auto Club Speedway
Race 2 of 36 – 400 miles, 200 laps

TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Kyle Larson*
2nd, Austin Dillon*
3rd, Erik Jones*
4th, Daniel Suarez*
5th, Joey Logano*
8th, KURT BUSCH
13th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
14th, KYLE BUSCH
15th, DENNY HAMLIN
19th, BUBBA WALLACE
36th, CHRISTOPHER BELL
*non-Toyota driver

TOYOTA QUOTES

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

Finishing Position: 8th

Wild day, lots of hard work to get a top-10 here. How was it from your seat?

“I can’t describe what we went through today with all the adversity, all of the problems – the self-inflicted things, the odd ball scenarios. Wow. What a top-10. That is a statement piece for us at 23XI, to get our top-10 like this with everything we have been through. I’ve got to thank all of my guys for staying focused. They showed me the way, and I showed them on what we’ve got to do this year to keep chiseling away. I think we are the highest finishing Toyota, so we know we have some work to do, and the restart fell our way on that last one, but that was the best our car had handled since the first stage, so lots to learn. Lots to go through. Thanks to Monster Energy, Toyota and everybody that has been working hard on these cars at 23XI.”

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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.