Richard Childress Racing’s history at Daytona International Speedway … Dating back to 1976, Richard Childress Racing has won 11 poles and collected six points-paying victories at the most-storied racetrack on the NASCAR Cup Series circuit. RCR owns three DAYTONA 500 wins (Dale Earnhardt – 1998, Kevin Harvick – 2007, Austin Dillon – 2018), three Coke Zero 400 trophies (Earnhardt – 1990, 1993 and Harvick – 2010) and 15 qualifying races, including Austin Dillon’s victory in 2021 plus a record 10-consecutive victories with Earnhardt (1990 – 1999). In addition to RCR’s NASCAR Cup Series success at Daytona International Speedway, the organization has four NASCAR Xfinity Series victories with NASCAR Hall of Fame members Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2002) and Tony Stewart (2013) plus Kevin Harvick (2007) and Austin Dillon (2015 fall race).

The 2022 Lineup … Both Austin Dillon and Tyler Reddick return to RCR’s NASCAR Cup Series lineup in 2022, with Dillon driving the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Off Road Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and Reddick driving the No. 8 3CHI Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 at Daytona. RCR has expanded to two full-time entries for the 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series season with drivers Sheldon Creed and Austin Hill, who are both competing for Sunoco Rookie of the Year honors. Creed will pilot the No. 2 Whelen Engineering Chevrolet Camaro SS in the season opening race at Daytona, while Hill will be behind the wheel of the No. 21 Bennett/United Rentals Chevrolet Camaro SS.

Keeping the Streak Alive … RCR has won the pole position in each of the last six consecutive NASCAR Xfinity Series February races on the Daytona oval where time trials were held. The impressive streak began with Ty Dillon’s pole-winning run in 2016. Other drivers who have kept the streak alive: Brandon Jones (2017), Daniel Hemric (2018), Tyler Reddick (2019), and Myatt Snider (2020).

Introducing the Next Gen … NASCAR’s Next Gen Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, which officially debuts in 2022, is a collaboration of the brightest engineering minds in racing. With technology at the forefront, Richard Childress Racing has played a unique and critical role in helping to bring this new on-track identity to life, working closely with OEMs, other teams and NASCAR to build and test the initial prototype.

Time to Duel … The Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona feature two 150-mile races under the lights and will help decide the majority of the final starting grid for Sunday’s DAYTONA 500. Dillon and Reddick will find out which Duel their Camaros will compete in after Wednesday night’s single-car time trials. The qualifying session begins at 8:05 p.m. ET on FS1.

Catch the Action … The Bluegreen Vacations Duels at Daytona, two 60-lap qualifying races, will be televised live Thursday, Feb. 17 beginning at 7 p.m. ET on FS1 and will be broadcast live on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series Beef. It’s What for Dinner. 300 at Daytona will be televised live Saturday, Feb. 19 beginning at 5 p.m. ET on FS1 and will be broadcast live on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

The 64th running of the DAY 500 will be televised live Sunday, Feb. 20 beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET on FOX and will be broadcast live on the MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

This Week’s Bass Pro Shops / TRACKER Off Road Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 at Daytona International Speedway … Dillon, the 2018 DAYTONA 500 Champion, has 15 previous starts in the NASCAR Cup Series at Daytona International Speedway, acquiring one pole award, two top-five and seven top-10 finishes. The Welcome, North Carolina, driver, who grew up attending races at Daytona International Speedway with his family, has 10 starts in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with one win, seven top-five and seven top-10 finishes plus two starts in the NASCAR Truck Series.

Former Pole Winner … Dillon earned his first-career NASCAR Cup Series pole award with a lap of 196.019 mph (45.914 seconds) in the 2014 edition of the DAYTONA 500. It marked the fourth time the No. 3 has won the pole for the Daytona 500, and its 67th Cup Series pole. He also started on the front row for the Coke Zero 400 in July 2015 at Daytona. His starting position for this year’s DAYTONA 500 will be determined by his finishing position in the Bluegreen Vacations Duels on Thursday (live on FOX Sports 1 beginning at 7 p.m. ET).

TRACKER Off Road … Dillon’s No. 3 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 prominently features TRACKER ATVs, a game-changing new line of all-terrain vehicles and side-by-sides offering breakthrough performance, service and value in the off-road industry. TRACKER OFF ROAD was born out of a powerhouse partnership formed between Bass Pro Shops and TRACKER founder Johnny Morris and Textron Specialized Vehicles, bringing together the undisputed world leader in boating with a global leader in innovation and technology.

Bass Pro Shops … Bass Pro Shops is North America’s premier outdoor and conservation company. Founded in 1972 when avid young angler Johnny Morris began selling tackle out of his father’s liquor store in Springfield, Missouri. Today the company provides customers with unmatched offerings spanning premier destination retail, outdoor equipment manufacturing, world-class resort destinations and more. In 2017 Bass Pro Shops acquired Cabela’s to create a “best-of-the-best” experience with superior products, dynamic locations and outstanding customer service. Bass Pro Shops also operates White River Marine Group, offering an unsurpassed collection of industry-leading boat brands, and Big Cedar Lodge, America’s Premier Wilderness Resort. Under the visionary conservation leadership of Johnny Morris, Bass Pro Shops is a national leader in protecting habitat and introducing families to the outdoors and has been named by Forbes as “one of America’s Best Employers.” Bass Pro Shops has a long relationship with NASCAR, dating back to 1998. For more information, visit http://www.basspro.com/.

AUSTIN DILLON QUOTES:
Looking back now, what stands out to you about your DAYTONA 500 win?
“A lot stands out about my DAYTONA 500 win. Mostly, how special it was to our entire organization. All of the people at RCR that have put so much into my career. Going to Victory Lane at Daytona International Speedway is an epic feeling. It’s a dream come true. Nothing compares to that feeling of racing to the start-finish line when no one is in front of you nd everyone is behind you.”

You’ve had success at Daytona International Speedway. How do you negotiate staying out of the wrecks throughout the race so that you can be in contention at the end?
“It’s tough. It’s a game of putting yourself in position. I call it high-speed chess because you know at some point in time you’re going to be vulnerable. You hope that someone doesn’t take advantage of that too much and cause a big wreck. It’s one of those things where you are constantly moving and trying to guess the flow of the pack. I think the best place to be is in the front most of the time, but it’s impossible now with the way we race to keep yourself up there for the entire race. You see guys do it for long periods of time. Denny Hamlin has been pretty amazing at putting himself in the right position as of late. I’m going to do my best this time around to put ourselves in position for another shot at the DAYTONA 500.”

Do you feel the “Big One” coming, or does it happen so fast that you’re just in it?
“Sometimes you’re in it, and there is nothing you can do about it because you know time is running out and you’re in it either way. It’s an odd feeling knowing your putting yourself out there and something is about to happen. It’s an issue of timing. You’re hoping you just get through it. I’ve been fortunate to sneak through some of them, or be in front of some of them. You usually know when the intensity is rising and the pack is starting to get a little bit out of control. You try to do your best to give yourself an out or be in front of it.”

Tyler Reddick and the No. 8 3CHI Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 at Daytona International Speedway … Sunday’s sold-out DAYTONA 500 will be Tyler Reddick’s fourth attempt at a win in the season-opener and sixth NASCAR Cup Series start at the superspeedway. Last season, Reddick started 29th and finished 27th in The Great American Race and is looking to improve that number in the Next Gen Chevrolet. In the August race last season at Daytona International Speedway, Reddick started 17th and finished fifth, ultimately punching his ticket to the NASCAR Playoffs for the first time in his career.

3CHI Blazes the Trail for Another Industry First … 3CHI and Richard Childress Racing created another first with their partnership for the 2022 NASCAR season. 3CHI began with roots as a CBD producer and quickly became a pioneer in science-based hemp and cannabis innovation. The company was the first to commercially develop and market Delta 8 THC, and today, 3CHI is an industry leader with unsurpassed product quality and purity as verified by top independent labs and benchmark organizations. 3CHI products are sold in a majority of the United States, and the company produces and markets a variety of gummies, tinctures, lotions, edibles and vape products. All 3CHI products meet federal requirements for full legal compliance, with a commitment to promoting responsible adult use. See 3CHI.com for more information.

TYLER REDDICK QUOTES:
When you think of the DAYTONA 500 and all of the unknowns, like “The Big One,” how do you approach such a long race with many challenges?
“When it comes to running the DAYTONA 500, it’s always a very interesting challenge. Every single lap of the entire race, you have to wager risk versus reward. Any moment on the racetrack, your race can end. You can make a decision that takes you from the lead to last. You can make a decision that wrecks your racecar. You can make a decision that leads to you being in a wreck. When it comes to this race, there are so many decisions you have to make from Lap 1 to Lap 200 that have to be absolutely perfect. One decision throughout that entire race, a race filled with thousands of decisions that are made in split-second moments, can dictate whether you win, lose or crash. Because of that, it makes it one of the most challenging races of the year. And it makes it one of the most exciting, too.”

The DAYTONA 500 always produces exciting racing but with the new Next Gen car, what are you anticipating heading into the Great American Race?
“Kicking off the season with the DAYTONA 500 is something special every single year. As a racecar driver, this race is one of the biggest, exciting, and highly anticipated races. With the new car, all of the teams are on a level playing field. We all had the same opportunities to test the car and work with our teams and manufacturers to prepare for the season. I’m excited to see all the hard work that RCR and Chevrolet have put into this car be on display on the track.”

You’ve talked about never really slowing down during the offseason or stopping to take a break. What does that do for you and your preparation heading into a new season?
“I’ve never really been one to slow down during the offseason because I want to keep improving and working during that time to get better for the next season. I spent a lot of my time working out and getting stronger all while learning more about the Next Gen car, participating in the tests and preparing for 2022. The goals are the same for me week in and week out, and that is to go out on the track, contend for wins, be up front and in the mix and leave with positive results. I feel like this is our year and couldn’t be more excited to get to Daytona for the 500.”

The partnership with RCR and 3CHI is one that is very new and very different in the NASCAR industry. How excited are you to represent them in the No. 8 Chevrolet?
“The partnership with 3CHI is one that RCR is very proud of. A lot of hard work went into making it happen and I can’t thank NASCAR, 3CHI and my colleagues at RCR enough for all the time and effort they put into making this partnership come to life. 3CHI wanted to be a part of NASCAR throughout all of last year and we made it our goal to make it happen in 2022. I can’t wait to get that awesome paint scheme on track in a few days.”

Austin Hill and the No. 21 Bennett / United Rentals Chevrolet Camaro SS at Daytona International Speedway … Hill will be making his second career NASCAR Xfinity Series start at Daytona on Saturday. Hill competed in the Xfinity Series season-opener at Daytona in 2020. He scored his first Truck Series victory at Daytona in 2019, winning the race in NASCAR Overtime and going on to compete in the NASCAR Playoffs.

About Bennett Family of Companies … McDonough-Ga. based Bennett Family of Companies is a woman-owned, Women’s Enterprise Business Council (WBENC) certified, diversified transportation and logistics company. Through its nine affiliated operating companies, the Bennett Family of Companies delivers integrated transportation and supply chain management solutions worldwide. The company will use race experiences to recruit and retain hundreds of truck drivers for their organization in 2022. For more information, visit www.Drive4Bennett.com.com.

About United Rentals … United Rentals, Inc. is the largest equipment rental company in the world. The company has an integrated network of 1,278 rental locations in North America, 11 in Europe, 28 in Australia and 18 in New Zealand. In North America, the company operates in 49 states and every Canadian province. The company’s approximately 20,100 employees serve construction and industrial customers, utilities, municipalities, homeowners, and others. The company offers approximately 4,300 classes of equipment for rent with a total original cost of $15.72 billion. United Rentals is a member of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, the Barron’s 400 Index and the Russell 3000 Index® and is headquartered in Stamford, Conn. Additional information about United Rentals is available at unitedrentals.com.

AUSTIN HILL QUOTE:
What are your thoughts on racing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with Richard Childress Racing at Daytona International Speedway?
“Richard Childress Racing has felt like family from the get-go and these last few months have been great, just getting to know my crew chief Andy Street and all the guys in the shop. It feels very family-based which is what I like. I think the chemistry is there and we haven’t even been to the racetrack yet. RCR has some really fast Chevrolet Camaros on the superspeedways. They have an impressive streak of sitting on the pole at Daytona so I’ve got to go out there and put a good lap down when we qualify.”

Sheldon Creed and The No. 2 Whelen Engineering Chevrolet Camaro SS at Daytona International Speedway … Creed has one previous NASCAR Xfinity Series start at Daytona International Speedway that came in 2019. He has three starts on the 2.5-oval in the Truck Series where he led a lap in all three events and scored two top-10 finishes. Creed won the race in 2020 and finished second last season in two Truck Series races on the Daytona International Speedway Road Course.

About Whelen … Whelen Engineering is a family-owned company with a pioneering spirit and a passion to protect the lives of those who protect and serve others. The company mission is to provide industry-defining safety solutions around the world, while creating a community of problem-solvers who are inspired to push boundaries and continue our legacy of delivering ground-breaking innovation. As a global leader in the emergency warning industry, Whelen has been trusted to perform since 1952, when George Whelen III invented the first rotating aviation beacon. Whelen now encompasses two state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in Connecticut and New Hampshire with over 750,000 square feet of engineering and manufacturing space and the largest design staff in the industry. Every part of every Whelen product is proudly designed and manufactured in America. We embrace quality as our foundation, we celebrate innovative engineering in every product we produce.

SHELDON CREED QUOTE:
What are your thoughts on racing at Daytona International Speedway in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with RCR?
“I’m super-excited about this new opportunity with Richard Childress Racing and Whelen. It’s awesome join RCR and I can’t wait to work with everyone at Whelen this season. I’m really looking forward to hitting the track this week in Daytona. I know things are going to be a lot different with the Xfinity car than what I experienced in the Truck Series, but I have a great team behind me and that will definitely shorten up the learning curve. There’s a lot to learn early on but I’m eager to get to this week at Daytona.”

NASCAR CUP SERIES
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
DAYTONA 500
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
FEBRUARY 16, 2022

ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 1 TRACKHOUSE RACING CAMARO ZL1; AND DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 TRACKHOUSE RACING CAMARO ZL1 – Daytona 500 Media Availability Transcript:

THE MODERATOR: Joining us next is Daniel Suárez and Ross Chastain from Trackhouse Racing.

Q. Ross, you had a chance to test at Atlanta. Chris Buescher was in here a while ago, thought we might see a hybrid kind of speedway/handling race. Do you think it’s going to be a hybrid, or is it going to lend itself to this type of speedway racing that we’ve heard about?
ROSS CHASTAIN: Yeah, it definitely is going to be a new Atlanta. It’s not going to be like anything we’ve ever seen before there.

I think this Next‑Gen car after practice last night, it’s going to be a different mentality for the 500 here even, because I can speak from our car, we are here to qualify tonight, and it’s not going to drive good in the Duel because it’s an impound race for that and then we have time to work on it Friday and Saturday ahead of the 500.

I think we’re going to have to dial some handling in on our No. 1 Advent Health Chevrolet for the 500 this weekend, and it’ll be the same way for Atlanta. You can make them drive pretty bad if you want them to go really fast.

Yeah, Atlanta just with the three cars in the draft was pretty challenging, so we’re going to be lifting some, but you’ll still have ‑‑ the leader will probably be wide open and you’ll be lifting farther back in the pack trying to keep up.

Q. Just your reaction and what it felt like racing at COTA last year with that amount of moisture, that amount of rain.
DANIEL SUÁREZ: I thought it was great. Nobody could see anything.
You know, there is a few things that we can’t control, and one of them is obviously Mother Nature. I think that things were a little bit probably too crazy at one point. I love racing in the rain. I raced a lot in the rain growing up, and I love it. I think it’s a lot of fun.

But there is a point where it’s not fun anymore, and then it’s a little bit too crazy, like okay, what are we doing here, we can’t even see. Probably we got to that point at one point.

But overall, I think the event itself, it was huge, and I’m looking forward to coming back, and I’m sure a lot of people are, as well.

ROSS CHASTAIN: I just want to say, I agree. We got to a point in that race where it was too ‑‑ we just couldn’t see anything, and I’ve raced Xfinity races where ‑‑ same thing, but we kept racing. Then looking back on it, if we really want to make a better judgment call next time, like the time of us probably stopping the race was like 10 laps before we did, but by the time they stopped the race everything was okay in my opinion. Like we got through the worst part of that storm and the heavy rain band that came through, and we should have ran it out at that point. It just seemed odd that we waited that long. But that’s Monday morning quarterbacking, and selfishly we would have been better off if we’d have ran the race out. But it was 10 laps before they called the race, like I was going down the backstretch, and even Xfinity qualifying, I jumped in Bobby Dotter’s car when Joe hurt his knee, and I went down the backstretch completely blind just following the tracks in front of me and we were okay to do that, but then we called the Cup race early.

I hope looking forward to the future, we make a better call.

Q. If that race had not ended early, do you think you had a chance to win? It seemed like you guys had put yourself in a spot ‑‑
ROSS CHASTAIN: Oh, yeah. I didn’t execute good on the pit stop. I didn’t get on and off pit road very good, but yeah, we were competitive, so I just wanted to run the race out, one, just for the cool factor of racing at COTA. Making laps there is really awesome.

Q. Ross, being a native Floridian, what does this place mean to you, and if you would kind of speak on your upbringing and the Florida racing culture, as well.
ROSS CHASTAIN: Well, look no further than that wall in the back. Looking at that is what it looks like at driver intros walking out on the stage; the smoke comes out, you walk down that long platform. You have to walk by the trophy, and that’s what we see, we see Daytona Rising, we see the grandstands.

I grew up watching the July races. This was our family vacation in the summer, and we would camp off Turn 1 before the camping out there was nice. It was like a mud pit out there, and the motor homes would be stuck. I remember that, those summer races were tough because it rained every day and the races were always delayed.

But that’s what we loved. Like we rode our bikes around and I got in trouble for ‑‑ I can say this now. I think my Statute of Limitations has ran out. I got in trouble for riding my bike on the track. That security guard was not happy with me.

Those memories, man, just my friends and family and other motor homes, that’s what I remember, and then the cool factor of now racing in the Daytona 500. I remember every part of my first 500, every moment and how nervous I was, and we finished ninth because we stayed out of trouble.

Q. For Ross, your 2020 Daytona 500, you were in position late there to have a chance to win that race before getting caught up in a crash there. I’m curious what that race has done for you for last year’s Daytona 500 as well as entering this year’s race, being as close as you were and at least being able to sniff it and coming up short that time around.
ROSS CHASTAIN: Yeah, well, it comes full circle to right now. Advent Health is on my suit. They just announced entitlement at Kansas Speedway coming up later in the year on top of what all they do here at Daytona, with those being their two big areas of their hospitals and their healthcare workers where they’re on the front lines right through the whole pandemic. But they’ve been saving lives for a lot longer than the pandemic, and now they’re taking care of us as humans throughout a worldwide pandemic in those two especially geographic areas.

Back to 2020, though, that was my first time driving with Advent Health on my car, and let’s be honest, I’ll tell the story, they wanted Kyle Larson in the 42. They wanted to be on the 42, and just the business side didn’t work out, so we did a third car with the 77 and Spire Motorsports through Chip Ganassi racing to do me, and they had to ‑‑ Doug Duchardt, CGR and the sales team had to sell Advent Health on Ross Chastain, like who was Ross.

We come here and we’d met obviously before we got here to the track, and then we go and compete and we have a chance to win, and we fell in love with each other. We realized like we’re two Florida‑based ‑‑ based out of Florida and where they started, and I am, too, right, I grew up four hours from here, and just that commonality of the love of the sport grew and we realized how aligned we were on a lot of things, both on and off the track with our beliefs and with how they just want people to feel wheel and really take care of themselves before they ever get to the hospital before they ever have to see a doctor, how much stuff we can do as people to just take care of ourselves aligns with me and Daniel, as well. Take care of our bodies and put the right stuff in, you’re going to get the results you want. You’re going to get the right stuff out.

It’s just something that really lines up with me like agriculture does where I can just talk about it and I don’t have to think about it, I don’t have to look at key messaging points before I come up on stage. Like I can just talk about my friends at Advent Health and our values and our mission for them to save lives and make the world a better place. Then you transfer that over now to Trackhouse, we want to be the culture, we want to be the team that industry people want to come work for, but we also want to broaden ourselves beyond NASCAR.

I know this is the NASCAR media center, but we had the opportunity with the Clash a few weeks ago and now the 500 to really amplify this sport, and Trackhouse wants to be on the leading edge of that and make a difference, and it all comes back to Advent Health supporting me, supporting me in the 42 and then moving with me to Trackhouse.

They didn’t have to. They were a CGR partner. They could have went anywhere, and when we talked, whenever the sale happened and the merger was going to happen from CGR to Trackhouse, I said, Guys, I want to stay at Trackhouse, I want you to stay with me and they were all in and they never batted an eye. They’re our primary partner, and going to see a lot of them at the track this year.

Q. Ross, what have you seen of this organization as you’ve come in and they’re expanding, and Daniel, you’ve been there for a year now, what have you seen as they’ve prepared to go to two full‑time cars?
ROSS CHASTAIN: Well, all the driver handbook stuff was in Spanish to start. No, I kid.

Yeah, so Trackhouse in 2021 to Trackhouse in 2022 is totally different. Watching them last year, they were up at RCR, their first year in the sport, learning a lot of things, and they really relied on the RCR campus. Now we are totally self reliant in Concord, 8500 Westmoreland Drive.

The foundation that was built by CGR, there’s a lot of familiar boys and girls there, men and women older than me and smarter than me building these cars, and that is what Trackhouse is now. It’s its own identity. It’s a key partner with Chevrolet.

We have the building blocks of 20 years of CGR and Chevrolet supporting us now to do what we want to do.

You bring in Daniel, Ty, Justin, Armando, Pitbull ‑‑ am I supposed to call him Armando or Pitbull ‑‑ are you asleep?

DANIEL SUÁREZ: I was about to ask her to repeat the question.

ROSS CHASTAIN: Yeah, so the upper management is different but a lot of the on‑the‑floor people are the same, so a lot of familiar faces for me.

DANIEL SUÁREZ: What was the question again?

Q. What have you seen from the company as it’s expanded from just focusing on you to now going to two full‑time cars?
DANIEL SUÁREZ: Well, the change was much bigger than that. I still remember a year and a half ago sitting with Ty and then sitting with Justin and Ty and talking about this project called Trackhouse and taking a leap of faith on this, and Justin telling me to trust him on this, that he had big plans for this.

I knew we were going to grow and what we were going good, we were going to be strong. He had that vision. But I didn’t know how fast it was going to happen, and it definitely happened fast, quite fast.

It’s been quite a big change, not just going from one car to two cars, but going to the change of our organization, just like Ross mentioned, from being pretty much ‑‑ getting a lot of help and support from RCR, which we are going to be forever thankful because without them probably we wouldn’t be here today, and then being able to have the transition to everything that is Trackhouse today. We have over 100 people working in Trackhouse Racing right now, and we have two full‑time operations there for two cars. It’s just so ‑‑ it’s such a big change, so much bigger than just adding one more car because there are so many things that changed in the process.

There’s only a few people that actually lived that process. One of them has been myself, Ty Norris, Justin, Drew has been with us in the very beginning, but it’s been quite a process going from a handful of people to over 100.

It’s a process, and overall just very excited to be here. It’s always exciting to be here in February because there is a lot of energy, there is a lot of new things, but this year is extra exciting with the unknowns about how the new car is going to play out, how aggressive can you be and things like that.

Yeah, looking forward to getting rolling tonight and tomorrow night.

Q. Is it realistic to expect the two of you to contend for the playoffs?
DANIEL SUÁREZ: Yes.

ROSS CHASTAIN: Yes.

Q. Daniel, how is Ross different from other teammates that you have had, and Ross, how is Daniel different from others you’ve had?
DANIEL SUÁREZ: Well, I’ve been fortunate that I’ve been part of some teams that have a lot of teammates and some of them with a lot of experience, some of them with not so much experience, and everyone is different. Every team is different. Something that I mentioned to Justin and to Ty since the very beginning about Ross is that I like ‑‑ at the time I just didn’t know Ross to the point where I know him today, but I knew that he was hungry, and for me and for our team, I think that’s extremely important, having somebody that wants to do something, somebody that is hungry.

There is a lot of drivers that are talented out there, and not all of them put actually the work to be better. I feel that it’s always good to have a good teammate because you start pushing each other. You start trying to find out what he’s doing better than me and what am I doing better than him and then trying to push each other and in that way be able to bring Trackhouse to the next level.

Right now we have a lot of good things coming our way in Trackhouse Racing, but the reality is that the plan is to do all our talking on the track, and that is going to be with trophies.

The better the work together, the better that journey is going to be.

ROSS CHASTAIN: No, Daniel came into the sport after I was already here and I was in the Xfinity Series and 10th place was a good day and he came in and was instantly successful at winning races, a championship, and I was jealous. I was like, man, if I had that opportunity, I’d be good.

When I got that opportunity, I realized how hard it must have been for him to come into the sport and just be expected to be the great race car driver that his teammates were that had all the years of racing in America and racing these type of stock cars.

Getting to know him now and talking about both of us kind of like our paths through the sport, we’ve been humbled a few times, and so I make the joke about being Spanish, but we speak the same language in a lot of ways because we’ve been humbled by some failed adventures with race teams, and it didn’t work.

I know for me, really six or seven years out of my 11 I would say were failures, and I’m okay with that. I don’t want to speak for Daniel, but I think we understand the opportunity we have in front of us and the work we’re putting in is to make sure that this effort with Trackhouse is not a failure.

Q. Daniel, unfortunately the 500 has not been your race. 32.9 average finish, a bunch of DNFs. What’s it going to take this year to finally get over the hump and get this car at least to the checkered flag in one piece?
DANIEL SUÁREZ: That’s a good question. I don’t know. Definitely have to do something different than what I’ve been doing the last five years.

You know, this race is very unpredictable. I have learned that you have to ‑‑ sometimes if you just try to cruise and ride in the back, that’s not fun for anyone. I don’t enjoy that. Sometimes you can get a good finish out of it, but probably a lot of people can’t do that.

Sometimes when you race, you can get in trouble, but you can also have a shot to win. I feel like one of the keys is to actually learn to read the race, learn to know when trouble is coming, and when things are about to happen and things like that. It’s impossible to predict it 100 percent, but that’s what we do as a race car driver, trying to see what is about to happen.

I think things are going to happen quite different with this new car. In my opinion, the racing is going to be so much better because the runs we get are so much bigger, but we’re going to find out tomorrow night. I’m excited for the challenge. I know that I don’t have a great stat, great stats when it comes to the Daytona 500, but I’m ready to change that.

ROSS CHASTAIN: I think he said you stink here.

DANIEL SUÁREZ: I do, yeah. He’s right.

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
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
DAYTONA 500
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
FEBRUARY 16, 2022

KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS CAMARO ZL1, Daytona 500 Media Availability Transcript:

KYLE, NOW HAVING THE ENTIRE OFF SEASON TO PROCESS BEING THE CHAMPION, HEADING INTO THIS SEASON NOW WHAT ARE THE EMOTIONS? DOES IT FEEL ANY DIFFERENT HEADING INTO THIS SEASON BASED ON WHAT YOU WERE ABLE TO ACCOMPLISH A YEAR AGO?

“No. I think it’s really easy for us to kind of move on and forget about the success that you had only a couple months ago. So, I think it is because, for me, I think you know I race so often just trying to get focused on winning the next race or winning again the next season. So, you kind of have to, you can’t really soak up what you did last year I feel like until you are done with your career someday. Just focused on this year and trying to have another solid season all around and hopefully win another championship.”

KYLE, DOING A STORY ON LAST YEAR’S ATLANTA RACE. WAS THAT AN OCCASION WHERE YOU LOSE A RACE TO WIN SOMETHING ELSE DOWN THE ROAD? A LESSON LEARNED YOU KNOW YOU WILL BE ABLE TO PROCESS AND USE TO GO TO VICTORY LANE?

“Not really. No, I mean I think you know that race in particular you know we had dominated all race long. Like dominated, dominated all race long. I think when you do that you don’t want to mess anything up. I think we probably yes, we didn’t work on our car enough throughout the race and then when I finally did have somebody in my mirror, well I wasn’t used to that. So, I’m trying to drive harder and get away from (Ryan) Blaney and just abused my tires too much. Then yeah, the flip side of things, his team was watching somebody else dominate all race long and probably continued to work on their car and got it better. Then he could probably tell he was better than me and managed better than I did, so yeah, I mean I definitely think we learned from that moving forward. I don’t know if we ever utilized that later on down the road, but that’s definitely something I think that we learned or noticed.”

YOU BEING FROM CALIFORNIA, DO YOU THINK THE LA CLASH IS GOING TO CREATE SOME MOMENTUM FOR FONTANA OR EVEN FOR THAT MATTER SONOMA? DO YOU THINK IT WILL CREATE SOME ENERGY IN THAT STATE THAT WILL PROVE BENEFICIAL FOR OTHER RACETRACKS?

“I don’t know. I hope so. I thought it was a great event and I thought there were a lot of fans there. There was, from what I heard, a lot of new fans. Well, new people going to their first ever race. Hopefully now they are fans and will go to Fontana or whatever it may be. Go to Sonoma later on in the year. I feel like the west coast races already have a lot of fans. Whenever we have ran Fontana in the past, I feel like the infield is slammed packed. It’s the best infield in my opinion that we have in our sport. The grandstands on Sunday always have a lot of people. Even Sonoma I feel like it may not look like it because it is so spread out for the road course but there’s always a lot of fans there and merchandise sales are always really good there. I don’t think the west coast needs a whole lot of help, but obviously you want it to get even bigger than it already is. Yeah, the CLASH was good. I thought it went well and hopefully there’s a lot of momentum from it now.”

I AM CURIOUS WHAT YOUR RELATIONSHIP IS WITH THE DAYTONA 500. WHAT COMES TO MIND WHEN YOU GET HERE AND YOUR THOUGHTS ON IT?

“Well, I mean it’s the biggest race in our sport. So, I want to win it and I get excited to come down here. Spend the week, get to go to Disney, get to run sprint cars and run a lot of dirt stuff nearby. Then yeah, compete in the biggest race of our year. I haven’t had much success here, so that part of it doesn’t get me too excited to show up. I was close to winning in 2017. I crossed the line coming to the white as the leader and then ran out of fuel so, that was really cool. I remember the emotions of that while I was running, like wow I could really win the 500 and then not winning it fuels me to want to win it in my future because before that race and every race since then I have been not even close. I would love to do it and hopefully I can continue to learn more about this race. I mean you could luck into winning here for sure, but I feel like I have a lot more to learn, to gain experience, to compete at the front all race long and really have a true shot of winning.”

(INAUDIBLE)

“No, I don’t think so. For me I have chased races more than championships, so to me the priority of winning big races hasn’t changed at all. It’s more in front of you than the championship is, so yeah it doesn’t change where it ranks on my list. I still want to win this. I want to win the Southern 500 really bad. I want to win Indy. I have won the Bristol Night Race which was cool. I won the Coke 600 last year, which was cool. There’s definitely a few that I still want to win really bad.”

GOING OFF OF HOLLY’S QUESTION, EVEN IN THE LAST YEAR YOU HAVE WON (INAUDIBLE), KNOXVILLE NATIONALS, KINGS ROYAL, CHILI BOWL A HANDFUL OF TIMES AS WELL, IF YOU WERE TO ADD DAYTONA 500 TO YOUR RESUME WHERE DO YOU THINK THIS WIN WOULD RANK AMONGST THE OTHERS?

“I don’t know. I hate trying to rank races because I feel like I will always get picked apart, so I’m not going to rank it right now. Ask me where it ranks after I win it someday.”

JUST KIND OF CURIOUS YOU WERE IN A POSTIION AT GANASSI WHERE YOU RAN OK, BUT CERTAINLY DIDN’T HAVE A YEAR LIKE LAST YEAR. IS THERE A DRIVER OUT THERE WHO MAY NOT BE AT YOUR TALENT LEVEL BUT HAS POTENTIAL THAT MIGHT STAND OUT TO YOU THAT THNK IF THEY GOT IN THE RIGHT POSITION COULD ENJOY THE KIND OF SUCCESS THAT YOU’RE HAVING NOW?

“I don’t know. I think Tyler Reddick is going to have an amazing season. I think he’s been the best car at all the tests. I think he showed last week at the CLASH that he is really good. I feel when I watch him, I am watching myself just because we are both really aggressive and he seems to be even a little more aggressive and kind of keep things in control better than I could back when I was running really hard in Ganassi equipment trying to run up front. He’s the guy that I look at this year that I feel like is going to have the breakout season and win a lot of races.”

AND BOWMAN GOING AND RUNNING A 410 SPRINT CAR, JUST THE FACT THAT HE WAS ABLE TO GO TO THE WORLD OF OUTLAWS FIRST WEEKEND OUT AND QUALIFY FOR ALL THREE FEATURES PRETTY IMPRESSIVE ON HIS PART. I KNOW HE LEANED ON YOU A LITTLE BIT, BUT CAN YOU TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THAT?

“I mean I have told him a lot of times that I thought he did an amazing job. He did better than I think any of us thought he was going to do, so that was really awesome to see. He outqualified me at Volusia on the first night. Yeah, he did a good job. Quick time in the all-star race at East Bay, so with under 10 starts in a sprint car and really doesn’t have hardly any dirt racing experience in his career, he was mainly a pavement racer before he got to ARCA, he did an awesome job. You know he’s got Joe Gaerte as his crew chief, so I am familiar with Joe and his time at KLR. It was neat to see them run really good, and I am glad that he did because now he is going to be fired up to race even more and gaining experience in that.”

KYLE, WHAT IS YOUR CEILING AS A DRIVER AND HOW DO YOU THINK YOU CAN GET BETTER TO REACH THAT CEILING?

“I don’t know. I’m not sure, just I don’t want to know what my ceiling is. I don’t think any of us do. You just always continue to try, even when you get to your celling, you try to work hard to surpass it. So, I don’t know just keep trying to evolve as a racecar driver, keep racing a lot and trying to win races and just fine tuning different areas of your craft.”

KYLE, THERE HAS BEEN MORE DISCUSSION THIS WEEK ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF YOU RUNNING THE INDY 500. I REALIZE THERE ARE A LOT OF BRIDGES THAT HAVE TO BE CROSSED FOR THAT TO EVENTUALLY HAPPEN. JUST LOOKING AT THAT POSSIBILITY, WOULD YOU FEEL COMFORTABLE SORT OF PARACHUTING IN AND RUNNING THAT RACE AS YOUR FIRST INDYCAR EXPERIENCE OR WOULD YOU WANT TO PLAY AROUND IN THE CARS ELSEWHERE?

“Yeah, no I mean I think it’s too late in the game for this year. If I ever run the Indy 500, I want to be prepared. I want to show up with the feeling that I have a shot to win. I don’t want to just show up and be like oh I get to compete in the Indy 500, that is really cool. Like I want to go there and be confident and know that I have a shot to run up front. With that takes a lot of preparation, a lot of work and I don’t think that’s something you can fully get done in a few months. I mean down the road, I’d like to do it, but I want to do it when the time is right and right now in February 2022 is not the right time. I think it is something more so down the road, but I definitely want to do it someday. It was cool to read Jeff’s (Gordon) article or whatever that said they were open to it and yeah we will see.”

IN THE THREE MONTHS SINCE YOU HAVE WON THE CHAMPIONSHIP, WHAT HAS BEEN THE MOST UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY THAT YOU HAVE GOTTEN TO EXPERIENCE THAT MAYBE YOU WOULDN’T HAVE GOTTEN TO EXPERIENCE IF YOU HADN’T WON THE CHAMPIONSHIP AND SPECIFIALLY LIKE ON THE MARKETING SIDE? WHAT KIND OF MARKETING STUFF HAVE YOU MAYBE BEEN PART OF THAT YOU HAVE NEVER BEEN PART OF BEFORE?

“I didn’t really do a whole lot. We had the media day a couple of days after the championship, did a lot of interviews and stuff. Those are all so quick that you don’t really like fully pay attention to who you are doing them with. I don’t know. Honestly probably the coolest thing that I wouldn’t have ever gotten done without winning the championship was just the thing that Elk Grove did for me, my hometown, and the parade the did for me. Other than that it hasn’t been too wild. I feel like I have talked to a lot of the same people before the championship and after. Nothing was like wow that was neat.”

CAN YOU EXPLAIN, GOING BACK TO THE CLASH, THE INCIDENT WITH THE 31 BECAUSE I THINK THERE ARE SOME PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE THAT WAS MORE OF AN INTENTIONAL MOVE OR SOMETHING TO PUT THE 31 IN THE WALL? JUST KIND OF HOW THAT WENT THROUGH YOUR MIND AND HOW THAT PLYAED OUT AND IF THERE WAS ANYTHING THAT NEEDED TO BE DONE AFTERWARDS AFTER REVIEWING TAPE OR ANYTHING?

“Yeah so, I will start off by saying I overreacted. So, I will play it out in my mind. I went down the backstretch and I knew he was on my outside. I got clear like late in the straightaway and the next thing I know he was running the left side of me, so you just see red really quick. Like dangit. So yeah, I was like well now I am stuck on the outside and I am about to get shuffled really far back and I am mad at you so yes, I hung a left on him. I did not want to crash him, but I wanted that inside lane for the next corner. So, I felt really bad. Instantly I felt bad that I crashed him, and he came over and talked to me after the race and I told him that I was sorry that I wrecked you. But yes, I wish I would have you know understood the racetrack that we were at and that somebody probably else shoved him into me and you know maybe I wouldn’t have overreacted as bad as I did. Yeah, definitely felt bad about that but you know it is what it is at this point, and I just have to learn from those moments. I feel like I do a really good job normally staying calm, but I think you know in that instance I didn’t, and I think probably with no points on the line probably played factor in my overreaction but yeah, I just hate that I tore up their car because of the lack of equipment that teams have right now. Nobody can really afford to be tearing stuff up at this point.

I BELIEVE IT WAS DENNY HAMLIN WHEN I ASKED EARLIER TODAY IF THE NEW CAR MIGHT SHOW US SOME SURPRISE WINNERS IN THE BEGINNING OF THE SEASON AND HE SAYS GOOD TEAMS WILL ALWAYS HAVE AN ADVANTAGE. DO YOU FEEL THAT WAY AND IF SO, WHY?

“Yeah, (INAUDIBLE), I thought that yes, maybe a Spire Motorsports could go win a race early in the year because you know we all read what the media writes, and everyone seems to say it is equal but it’s not. Your best teams are still going to be, they just have more people and smarter people with more resources to figure out quicker so yeah, being a part of that Phoenix test on the speed charts it was all the same teams up front to back like it would have been before. I think there’s teams that are a little better than they were, I think there’s teams that are a little worse than they were but for the most part it’s so far doesn’t seem too different.”

INAUDIBLE

“I don’t get too involved in like, I don’t even know what they can do as far as engineering and simulation but yeah I just know that we have got hundreds of people where a lot of these race teams don’t and you know we will be able to figure out things quicker than they will.”

THIS YEAR YOU GUYS ARE LOOKING PRETTY FAST IN THE INDIVIDUAL QUALIFYING TIMES, HOW SIGNIFICANT WOULD IT BE FOR YOU TO GET YOURSELF LOCKED ON THE FRONT ROW TOINGHT AND MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A CAR READY TO GO FOR SUNDAY IF YOU DO SO?

“Yeah, I think that would be huge. I don’t think that I will be the team to compete for the front row. It sounds like our team’s more focused on getting a good handle for the race and stuff like that. Who knows? We could get a wind gust or something and get the pole and go wow, but it sounds like we are not putting all of our eggs in that basket to try to go get on the front row. I think our focus is on the race and with that I don’t think we will have the speed, single-car wise, to be on the front row.”

IN REFERENCE TO YOUR WORDS ABOUT INDY, HAVE YOU TALKED TO SAY KURT BUSCH OR TONY STEWART ABOUT WHAT IT WAS LIKE FOR THEM TO DO THE DOUBLE AND HAVE THEIR INFORMATION AFFECTED YOUR DECISION AT ALL?

“No, I have never talked to Tony about it and I don’t, honestly, remember if I have talked to Kurt about it. I am sure I have at some point while he was my teammate at Ganassi, but no I haven’t talked to anybody really about it. I’m sure once it becomes more of a reality that I could do it, I will probably talk to as many people as I can. For right now, I haven’t done my due diligence I guess and talked to other drivers who have done it.”

YOU WENT OVER TO WATCH SOME FORMULA 1. GENERAL MOTORS IS NOW ADDING FORMULA 1, THEY RUN ALL YEAR NOW. WHAT WOULD IT TAKE FOR YOU TO GET A TEST IN F1?

“I don’t know. I am guessing millions of dollars and a lot of luck. It was a big realization when I went there that I feel like the rest of the world doesn’t care a whole lot about American auto racing. That was pretty eye opening. I would love the opportunity for sure. I think those are amazing racecars and the lifestyle they get to live is really cool, so yeah I would love to do it. I would love to have a test someday. It’s just not viewed, what we do is not viewed as big as the rest of the world what I think is cool.”

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KEVIN HARVICK, No, 4 Busch Light Ford Mustang — YOU WERE DOING QUITE A BIT OF PIT ROAD WORK DURING PRACTICE YESTERDAY. WHAT WERE YOU TRYING TO LEARN THERE? “Yeah, I just feel like the details of the day are going to be important and I just want to try to be as comfortable as possible. The way you get into the pit box and things are different than what you did in the old car. Just making sure that I understand the acceleration of the car out of the pit box, how far to go before pit road speed and how hard to push all those details. I think as you look at it, you are kind of starting over with everything and just trying to make sure that we check as many boxes as we can whether it is as simple as bumping another car, getting in and out of the pit box. All those things need to be addressed to make sure all the details are covered to try to minimize mistakes because I really think those details are what it is going to come down to.”

EVERYONE IN HERE TODAY HAS PRETTY MUCH CONCEDED THE POLE TO ONE OF THE HENDRICK CARS. CAN YOU PUT A FORD ON THE FRONT ROW TONIGHT? “I honestly have not looked at the scoring monitor so I have no idea. I really have no clue. I don’t even know what lap time we ran because I just don’t feel like it really matters. We might be fast enough to qualify on the pole but I never even asked. I just concentrated on doing so many of the little things that I never even looked. Maybe. I don’t know how to answer that.”

TALKING TO A BUNCH OF GUYS ABOUT BJ MCLEOD AND THE RESPECT HE HAS FROM DRIVERS FOR WHAT HE DOES BEHIND THE WHEEL AND BEHIND THE SCENES. WHAT IS YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM LIKE AND WHAT ARE YOUR IMPRESSIONS OF HIM? “He is one of my favorites in the garage because I feel like BJ is the racers racer. For me, I always stop and have great conversations with BJ about whatever. It could be anything. You never know. What they have done with that team and building the process and the parts and pieces and how they have gone about things is trying to build the racing dream. All BJ wanted to do was win races and I think at this particular level he just knows that there is a budget and a process that has to go with everything that comes along with that. I think the thing about BJ is he loves racing and he is in racing for all the racers reasons and creating a successful business and he is just good people, that is the biggest thing.”

YOU SEE BJ AND HE HAS THE SKULLS AND BIG CHAINS AND HE DOESN’T REALLY LOOK THE PART OF A CAR OWNER OR RACE CAR DRIVER. YOU GUYS EVER GIVE HIM A HARD TIME ABOUT THAT OR ANYTHING? “Not really. That is the unique thing about people that aren’t in the garage every day. The thing you have to know about our garage is that there are all walks of life that come through that garage. When you are in there week after week after week, they are all just people. They are just part of the racing family that comes with what we do, whether it is male or female, black or white, white t-shirt with black skulls on your t-shirt, whatever. When I see BJ, I just think of a guy that loves to race and it takes everyone to do this and we are all different in our own unique ways. BJ is just another one of the guys in the garage.”

YOU AND KURT BUSCH CAME INTO THE CUP SERIES RIGHT AROUND THE SAME TIME AND YOU HAVE BEEN TEAMMATES WITH HIM BEFORE. WHAT HAS IT BEEN LIKE FOR YOU TO SEE KURT THE LAST FEW YEARS KIND OF EMBRACE HAVING AN ELDER STATESMAN-TYPE ROLE WITHIN THE SPORT? “Kurt is a competitor first off and a really good race car driver and one of my favorite teammates because of the fact that he knows so much about the race car. He is so detailed in his analysis of things that go on that whoever’s team he is on he is an asset and a benefit because he will just analyze things so deeply and get in there and work on the things that he needs to work on to get better and figure out why he is not where he wants to be or why he is where he is. Kurt is just Kurt. I think he has obviously mellowed out. He is just like BJ, right? BJ is BJ and Kurt is Kurt and they aren’t trying to hide anything and do the things that they like to do. Kurt has mellowed out a little bit but when you are in there digging with him every day there is still that same fire and passion that goes with the sport. It is just controlled differently in the public eye and the things outside of the race car. Kurt is just a hard-core racer but my favorite thing about Kurt is how much he knows and will analyze the car.”

DO YOU HAVE A DEFINITIVE KURT BUSCH STORY FROM YOUR DAYS AS TEAMMATES? “Not any that I would share in here. There are some good ones though.”

YOU HAVE 17 STRAIGHT TOP-10 FINISHES AT PHOENIX INCLUDING SIX WINS AND 12 TOP-FIVE FINISHES. DO THOSE NUMBERS MEAN ANYTHING TO YOU? ARE THEY A SENSE OF PRIDE AND DO YOU ANTICIPATE BEING ABLE TO KEEP THAT ROLL GOING WITH THIS NEXT GEN CAR? “I love numbers but I never pay attention to my own for sure. I think as I go to Phoenix the expectations are always high and obviously we set that standard as a team to go there and perform well. We had a good test there and I feel good about where we left with the car and obviously will try to be better when we go back. It is a place that I have a lot of pride in general in just because of the fact that I have gone there for so long. I think the first race I ran there was in 1995 in a Southwest Tour car. It has been through one reconfiguration and it is just a place that I pride myself on running well at just because I have such a long history of going there. The flat tracks, in general, have been – and I think Phoenix is probably the start of that – but I grew up on flat tracks and Phoenix was always the biggest race of the year with the Southwest Tour cars and Winston West cars back in the day when we had the first race of the year out there. I think it is a place that I like going to and hopefully, we can keep that rolling but it means something to run good there.”

IS IT LIKE THE SPEED RUN DOWN HERE FOR QUALIFYING THAT YOU PAY NO ATTENTION TO THOSE NUMBERS EITHER? “I don’t. I try to stay oblivious to all of that stuff. I don’t know. I just feel like when you start looking — like the qualifying thing – I honestly don’t know what the lap time was yesterday just because I feel like if we do all the things we are supposed to do we will be in the mix. If it is fast it is fast. If it drivers right it will draft well and do the things we need to and it will be fine once you get to Sunday. I try to focus on the task at hand.”

I SAW THAT YOUR MANAGEMENT COMPANY SIGNED RILEY HERBST. WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR IN THE DRIVERS YOU SIGN AND ARE YOU VERY INVOLVED IN THAT? “Oh yeah, they probably get tired of me asking questions about the things that happen every day. We are happy to have Riley. He and his family obviously have a long history in racing. There are so many things that go along with this sport and being able to be in a position like we are from the management side to be able to help Riley navigate the things that are difficult once you get to a certain spot in NASCAR racing. His is in the Xfinity level right now and it is just a difficult sport to manage because if things aren’t going your way you can be beat down so quick from a mental standpoint and not really know how to navigate the team. From the management side of things I feel like we bring a lot of real-life experience to a lot of the young guys in trying to help them navigate their careers and teams. We have been on the TV side of it and the team ownership side of it and we have athletes in other sports so I look at NASCAR as easy. Those are the easy ones just because we have so much experience and the same group of people that we have navigated this sport with for a long time. Two decades with some of them that are in the office. This part is easy, yeah. I think the other sports are good for us to learn other sanctioning bodies and how other athletes tick. Here we have been there and done that and keep up with the evolution of the sport and feel like we can bring a lot to his career to help him navigate it.”

WITH ARIC ALMIROLA GETTING READY TO RETIRE, WHAT HAS HE MEANT TO YOU AS A TEAMMATE? “Aric is one of those guys that just seems to always do the right thing and that is how he presents himself in meetings and every situation that I have ever seen Aric in he is always polite and kind and doing the right thing. I think as a competitor he has obviously done a great job of being competitive and doing the things he wants to do and now he is doing what he wants to do at the time he wants to do that from the retirement side of things. Just a standup person and a quality teammate. I keep going back to this but he is just a great person. There are a lot of great people in our garage.”

NASCAR CUP SERIES
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
DAYTONA 500
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
FEBRUARY 16, 2022

ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS CAMARO ZL1; AND WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS CAMARO ZL1 – Daytona 500 Media Availability Transcript:

THE MODERATOR: Next up we have William Byron and Alex Bowman from Hendrick Motorsports. Alex, we’ve heard you’re bringing back the Best Friends donation program for this season. Would you mind telling us a little bit more about that?
ALEX BOWMAN: Yeah, so obviously last year was really cool, learning more about Best Friends. I think we raised like $120,000 to try to save animals, so that was really cool to be a part of, and big thanks to Ally for helping bring it back and doing it again. This year we’re going to donate $4,800 every week to a local shelter through Best Friends, so looking forward to that. If we win, it goes to 10,000 again, so hopefully we can raise a bunch of money to save some animals.

Q. Alex, just a while ago Kyle Busch was in here and he told all of us to watch out for the 48 car tonight in qualifying when it comes to getting on that front row. You have a history with being on the front row here; how are you guys feeling about what you guys need to do tonight?
ALEX BOWMAN: I feel pretty good from my side of things. All I can do is floor it and hold the wheel as straight as I can, try to hit my shifts. Yeah, I think we have a shot at it. I think Greg Ives and Hendrick Motorsports really put a lot into speedway qualifying. Obviously we focused on it a lot yesterday in practice.

Hopefully we can make it happen. I think if there was a year you wanted to be kind of on the front row and not have to worry about the Duel as much, this year would be that year, so hopefully we can make it happen.

Q. William, I’m curious how you approach this race being a past winner here at Daytona. You know how to get to Victory Lane here. How do you approach the rest of this week leading into Sunday?
WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I think that honestly it’s one of the more nerve‑racking Duels just because of the car situation, but for us just to see how qualifying goes tonight and hopefully it goes well and we can lock in with Alex, I hope, like last year, and then hopefully I don’t have as bad a Duel as I had last year.

Other than that, Sunday is its own deal.

Q. A question about Fontana. William, looking at your stats for Fontana, 15th three times in a row is your record ‑‑
WILLIAM BYRON: That’s not a great stat.

Q. Can you not finish 15th this time?
WILLIAM BYRON: I hope not. I hope I can do like him. He’s finished first there and top 5 I feel like. Yeah, I don’t know. I think it’s been kind of a tough track for me, but hopefully this year it changes.

Q. Alex, it’ll be two years and some change since when you won at Fontana. Does it feel that long, and do you feel like even with the new car you can pick up where you left off?
ALEX BOWMAN: Yeah, feels like forever. You know, no, I don’t think we can pick up exactly where we left off with the new car. I think the new car is going to be so different. You can’t drive the car nearly as sideways as you could with the old car, and that day we were really loose all day but super fast.

I don’t think you’ll be able to be as aggressive on being loose and kind of leaning on the right side of the car, so just figuring out how to get it snugged up and still be fast around that place is going to be key.

Q. I’ve been asking drivers all day about qualifying. Kyle said zero attention put on it from his camp, and you guys put a lot on it. Is that mostly team and you understand the reason why mainly because of sponsors, you feel like you’ve got a good piece underneath you for qualifying, but is that mainly the team effort and you don’t do anything different or emphasis on it compared to what they do to get you ready for it?
ALEX BOWMAN: Yeah, I think it’s definitely mostly team from my point of view. I’m going to come down here and do whatever they tell me, right, so just trying to know how to hit my shifts right and kind of maximize each and every little thing is really all I can do. From there it’s up to the team.

It means a lot to Mr. Hendrick and to each and every individual at Hendrick Motorsports, so doing all we can to get them another pole.

Q. William, your contract with Hendrick Motorsports is up at the end of the year. I’m wondering if you can update us where negotiations are at, and do you anticipate signing an extension with them?
WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, just I feel like we’re in a good place and just focused on this weekend. I love racing for Hendrick Motorsports. I think we all do. Love the culture that we have. Just focused on kind of this year and having a great start to the year because I feel like last year finished off strong for all of us, and looking forward to it.

Q. Hendrick Motorsports has won six of the past seven poles for the Daytona 500 but has failed to win in all six of their pole winnings. How do you translate it now to the 500 and making sure your car is getting to Victory Lane on Sunday when it matters?
WILLIAM BYRON: Well, I think just knowing that Sunday is kind of a marathon and you’ve got to get to the end of the race, which is ‑‑ looking at the stats, it looks like not many guys get to the end, so hopefully we can be one of those guys, and I think if any of our cars are there at the end, we’ll have a shot to win. Chase last year finished second, so I think we’ll have a shot to win.

Q. When Kyle was in here, he didn’t think the Next Gen was going to be a better car at Phoenix. I had some drivers talk about it being a little more nimble on road courses or short tracks. Do you think it’ll play out that way? What kind of car do you think you’ll have for Phoenix, or what kind of race do you anticipate there?
ALEX BOWMAN: Yeah, I think like anything, when you change things, it’s going to have racetracks that it’s better and racetracks that it’s worse. I think if we had the Gen‑6 car at the Clash, it wouldn’t have been nearly as good as it was. I think the Next‑Gen car was really suited to a small place like that.

I think it’s going to be really awesome on road courses. Phoenix, the test was pretty interesting. It’s just difficult, you can’t lean on the car as hard as you could with the old car, so trying to find that balance of not spinning the thing out every couple laps is tough.

So much has changed throughout all the tests and everything, it’s really hard to say what it’s going to be like when we go there to race. But it’s definitely going to have places that it’s better than the old car and places that drivers felt like the old car drove better, but I don’t think that necessarily means it’s better or worse.

Q. William, as far as maybe the brakes, the braking package, do you think it’s better suited for Phoenix or short tracks?
WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, they’re definitely very powerful. I feel like they lock up easier, so it’s kind of ‑‑ we all seem to kind of have that at the clash like where the brakes seemed to lock up, and we never really had that with the old car. Typically with the old car you’d lose the brakes before you had any other issues.

I think it’s going to be different. You’re going to have a lot of ability like on the road courses like Alex said to brake deep and all those things.

Q. You both touched on it earlier about the Duels, but it seems like everybody that you ask, the agenda is different. Some people want nothing to do with it, Joey probably to no surprise says he’s going to race because it’s a race. Have you two thought about what you want to do if you don’t get the front row for tonight?
ALEX BOWMAN: Yeah, I mean, I think kind of with our agenda, obviously we’re all in on qualifying, and I think that translates ‑‑ that typically translates to a car that’s not going to drive amazing in the Duels. Just trying to protect the race car the best we can and put ourselves in the best position we can be for the 500. Obviously it is a race and it does pay points, but trying to protect the race car and be as smart as we can be.

WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I know my crew chief was very sad last year after the Duels, so try not to be quite so sad this year. Whatever that means.

ALEX BOWMAN: Less sad, more better.

WILLIAM BYRON: Yes, more better.

Q. Of the drafting you have done with this car, how differently does it feel from the Gen‑6 when it comes to what it’s doing here in the draft and some of the Penske guys were pointing out that drafting and especially bump drafting is going to be something to watch because the bumpers don’t line up as normal anymore because the bumper has more of a curve to it.
ALEX BOWMAN: I mean, when I tested here I felt like the bump drafting was great. I think that the car does seem to move around some, but at the same time you can drive it when it’s moving around. We’ll see how all that goes. I mean, probably Sunday.

Q. William, we’ve talked a lot of sprint car backgrounds in here today, but for your background the former NASCAR K&N Series, ARCA series, kicked off last night. When you transitioned from the previous Cup car to this year’s Cup car, can you look back on your career at how you transitioned and compare that transition from the K&N car to an Xfinity car to a truck to the Cup Series?
WILLIAM BYRON: I mean, not really. I think that it’s just ‑‑ still has similar horsepower that we had last year. I think the tire grip is just something to get used to. Yeah, all the ‑‑ going up through the ranks, like the K&N car, it has different suspension than ‑‑ it has ride height rules and things like that, so that’s the biggest difference.

Q. Alex, can you describe what the last few years have been like for you integrating yourself with Ally as a sponsor and what it’s been like figuring out how you two best work together and growing each other’s brands? All the programs involving pets and stuff has been very on brand for you and very on board with that. Has there ever been anything you guys have come into conflict over where you don’t like something they want you to do?
ALEX BOWMAN: Yeah, not really. I think the best part about working with Ally is they came to me and they’re like, hey, what do you want to do, and obviously pets are a passion of mine, so being able to help animals has been really cool. They’re all in on anything that they do. They don’t go halfway in on anything. Anything that they do, they are 100 percent of the way in. Whether it’s the program with Best Friends or the sprint car stuff with AVR, doing Chili Bowl, they’re all in on all of it, and it’s just been really cool to have that support. Everybody over there, J.B. and Andrea, from the top down, they’re awesome people. J.B. is a CEO of a company that I can text every day and talk to.

It’s really cool to have that relationship with those guys, and it’s just been a lot of fun. I didn’t know how it was going to work, obviously, going from Jimmie Johnson to me is like ‑‑ it’s a big jump. We’re not the same person, and I don’t have nearly the stats or anything that Jimmie has.

Just appreciative that they’ve supported me as much as they have and that they’ve allowed me to be myself and to do my own thing and kind of steer the ship because I’ve had a lot of fun, and definitely has made doing my day job a little easier, and I’ve really enjoyed it.

Q. Alex, what kind of grade would you give yourself with the World of Outlaws, and what was the biggest eye opener of racing with that caliber of open wheel?
ALEX BOWMAN: Yeah, I don’t know what to grade myself. I guess like a C or a B. I feel like I exceeded expectations on making the show every night. Can definitely qualify. I felt like we had a lot of speed.

Volusia was really tough to race in the dirty air, just trying to figure out how that works. Our stuff, the dirty air is more like center off the corner is where we really fight it, and Volusia it’s kind of the opposite. The straightaway is really difficult, and then corner entry is really tough. Just trying to learn.

The last night I felt really comfortable. Sensation of speed is insane. I felt like I was going 7 million miles an hour.

Then going to East Bay, I felt really, really good. I was really comfortable all night. I think we just kind of missed it in the feature a little bit, but felt like we were a top‑5 car all night other than that, set fast time and were really fast. I had a ton of fun, and I’m excited to continue doing that this year.

Q. William, you feel like after four years with Hendrick that this needs to be a breakout year for you because you’ve won races the last couple years, but you’re sitting next to a guy that won four. The champion won 10. Do you feel like now that you and Rudy have had a year to get reacclimated that this might be the year?
WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, for sure. I think that internally we’re definitely very motivated, so just trying to continue to kind of build on what we did last year. I think I said a couple times last year was tough in a lot of ways because I felt like we didn’t get the results that we wanted to get. Going into this year that kind of fuels us, and I felt like we made some good adjustments on our team to make ourselves better.

Q. William, earlier this week it was announced that NASCAR would be doing an iRacing collegiate series where they would be providing opportunities to collegiate drivers on iRacing. Your thoughts overall coming from a guy in iRacing?
WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I think it’s great what iRacing is doing with continuing to broaden their base of people. When I started doing iRacing it was a couple thousand people on there, and now it’s like 100,000. Pretty insane how far it’s come.

I think the more that they can continue to scan new tracks and like doing the LA Coliseum like they did was pretty impressive.

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
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
DAYTONA 500
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
FEBRUARY 16, 2022

RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 JTG DAUGHERTY CAMARO ZL1, Daytona 500 Media Availability Transcript:

YOU KNOW WHAT IT’S LIKE TO WIN THE POLE. DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO GET THAT DONE?
“In 2020, we got done with practice and I felt like we had a really good shot at it. After practice last night, it was kind of hard to tell who was legit by themselves – single car. I don’t think we have a shot at the pole. But if we could be 15th, somewhere around there, we’d be happy with that. I’m pretty comfortable with how my car drives in the drafting that we have done, so I’ll feel good for Thursday.”

YOU GOT THE WIN HERE IN 2017. WHAT DO YOU THINK IT WILL TAKE TO WIN THIS RACE SUNDAY? AND IT LOOKED LIKE YOU WERE WORKING WITH KEVIN HARVICK IN PRACTICE. WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM THAT?
“I don’t think it was something that was planned to go out there and work with him; we made an adjustment and just wanted to get the car closer to pack speed and feel that difference that we had at the test. We made another adjustment to go from your qualifying to your race setup – more simulating Thursday night. So, went out there and made some runs; wanted to run at the top of the racetrack, knowing that when it does single-file out that’s where you’re going to be. The track is a little bit rough up there, so just wanted to gauge on some of that and pulling down to pass. I don’t know what to expect or know a lot until Sunday comes. I felt like I had a really good test here where we basically simulated a race and were actually side-by-side drafting and I felt like I learned a lot there – probably more there until Sunday comes.”

WHAT ARE YOU EXPECTING THE DUALS TO BE LIKE?
“Obviously, the ones that have to race their way in got to do what they got to do. I think a lot of them aren’t worried about going to the next few races, so they have one agenda, which is part of what makes the Duals cool. You have people with different agendas. You have the people who qualified on the front row; not trying to tear their car up. You have the ones trying to make it. And I feel like you have a lot of us who don’t want to go to a backup car, but you still want to learn and get as many points as you can. I feel like we’re in a good position as a race team. As soon as allotments were able to be filled, we feel like we’re in a good position as a race team with parts and pieces relative to some of the other teams. You don’t want to put yourself in a bind either. I feel like it’s always exciting for a little bit and it kind of fizzles out and gets more exciting again at the end when the checkered flag is coming out.”

WHAT’S THE OFFSEASON BEEN LIKE FOR JTG MAKING THE TRANSITION FROM TWO CARS TO ONE?
“It’s been a good offseason for us. If there was a time to do it, it was now. I feel like we have more resources for our one car than we had for our two. I feel like we were running at a little disadvantage; maybe a little thin when we had two. I feel really good about where we’re at as a race team. We have the parts and pieces and a good assembly line of how we’re building our cars and how the process is going. We have a good schedule laid out for upcoming races and which cars we plan on taking to where. Obviously, it was good to get out of the Clash with no major issues to our car so we can put that one right into the rotation. Some cars weren’t as lucky do to that. I was able to be at every test, which was beneficial, giving my feedback every single test and every single Chevy simulator test. This is the first year we’ve had access to that, and I think we’ve seen a benefit already. We’re looking forward to using that more often.”

FONTANA, BEING A WORNOUT RACETRACK, HOW DO YOU THINK THESE CARS ARE GOING TO BE?
“I think it’s going to be fun. Obviously, the higher horsepower, lower downforce package that we landed on at the Charlotte test I felt like it made racing better there and I think it’s going to be a lot of fun for a driver when you get to Fontana. We’ll carry a lot of speed down the straightaway, you’ll have to lift and maybe use a little bit of brake when the tires get old, and I feel like many lanes are open for options. Definitely we miss going there. I think we were all kind of bummed when we heard it was going to be reconfigured. We’re looking forward to going back to the big track.”

WE’VE HEARD ABOUT THE PARTS SHORTAGE. AS A SHORT TRACK TEAM OWNER, CAN YOU COME WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE WORLD OF SPRINT CAR RACING IN ANY WAY WITH WHAT’S HAPPENING AT THIS LEVEL?
“We kind of went through a period last year where we were nervous about tires on the spring car side. Parts and pieces as far as the chassis and suspension on the sprint car side ahs been really good. We actually ran into a few issues last year where we had to run a backup engine that we didn’t want to run based off of not being able to get parts to freshen up our engines throughout the season. We had an engine that we placed on order in November and we’re hoping to get it in April. They’re not leaving things on the shelf anymore. It’s almost like you order and they make to your order, so that’s been a little bit tricky. Some of the tire issues that we had, we had a shortage on tires and now you get a little inconsistency on tires.”

WILL YOU RUN SOME SPRINT CAR RACES THIS SEASON?
“I’ll run some sprint car races, probably Talladega weekend. Dad and I are looking to build a 410, so that will be fun.”

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.

AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang – WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR AIRSTREAM? “My Airstream. Funny enough I left when the garage closed as I usually do and it was about 10 p.m. and I opened the door and it was off, so that’s a problem. So, I problem solved for about an hour-and-a-half last night and got some power, took a shower and went to bed. Otherwise, it’s all great. But, if I would have stayed in the team hotel, the fire alarm went off at 2 a.m., so the Airstream still wins.”

ARE YOU RENTING THIS OR OWNING IT? “It’s my parent’s. They bring it to a couple races. They’ll take the dog with them. They like going to Barber with it and a couple Indy Car races, so I’ll bring it to a couple races, but I am definitely a fan of standing up in the shower and I cannot stand up in that shower, so the hotel program is definitely more for me, but there’s a couple logistical races that make sense.”

HARRISON BURTON, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang – DOES THE ROOKIE OF THE YEAR TITLE MATTER TO YOU? IS IT A REAL COMPETITION? “I think so, yeah, it definitely matters. You look at the list of people that have won it in the past and it contains some of the best to ever do it. Anytime you can kind of put yourself on that list as the same group of guys I think you work hard to do it. It’s definitely a big deal. I know it is to me personally, for sure.”

AUSTIN CINDRIC CONTINUED – “To build off of that, I think it’s something that you probably focus on later in the year. Right now, we’re not competitive with one another. We’ll go workout together and try to one-up each other, but, otherwise, it’s not like we’re hiding information from one another and not talking about things. Obviously, we treat each other like teammates, just like Ryan and Joey, so I don’t think it’s a conflict of interest in any way.”

HARRISON BURTON CONTINUED – “It’s so tough to try and match this guy on the rowing machine because he just pulls forever. You see his legs? Holy cow.”

AUSTIN CINDRIC CONTINUED – “What about those pull-ups?”

HARRISON BURTON CONTINUED – “You got me there.”

AUSTIN CINDRIC CONTINUED – DO YOU TRY TO OUT-DO EACH OTHER? “He’s not as bad as Scott McLaughlin. I’ll be on the same treadmill right next to Scott and if I’m at 10.2, he’ll put his at 10.3 until we’re at 14 miles an hour and we’re all about to fall off the thing because it’s maxed out and we’ve been running for a minute. I think Harrison is competitive, for sure, because if I start trying harder, he’ll start trying harder, but I think it’s good to have friendly competition, but I think he stays within reason.”

HARRISON BURTON CONTINUED – “I still try and at least do the regimen that we have. I think Scotty is up there just trying to go all-out the whole time.”

AUSTIN CINDRIC CONTINUED – HOW DO YOU BALANCE OUT YOUR FRIENDSHIP WITH BATTLING FOR THE ROOKIE OF THE YEAR AWARD? “I think it’s just a respect thing. Harrison and I have raced each other for a little while and we went to high school together, so we’ve known each other for a while. We’re obviously here for the same reason and it’s because we want to be successful and not just as the rookie of the year, but understanding and grasping what it takes to be successful at the Cup Series level. I think from that standpoint there’s a lot more that we can gain out of helping each other than there is doing anything different. It doesn’t help our team at all either if there’s a different mindset there. I think especially in the first couple months of this new car and as we’re learning together, obviously, Harrison is working with somebody that I’ve worked with for a really long time, so I think there’s a natural connection there between the 21 team as well as my team to really help build our company forward.”

HARRISON BURTON CONTINUED – “I echo that. It’s easy. We’re all learning together and Joey and Ryan have been the same way. They’ve been really helpful for both Austin and myself. The biggest thing is as rookies it’s easy to just ask questions, ask questions and never contribute, so our job is to learn as quickly as we can and be able to help the team as much as we can as soon as possible. It’s really not too tough, I would say.”

AUSTIN CINDRIC CONTINUED – HOW MUCH HAVE THE PRACTICES HELPED FOR SUNDAY’S RACE? “I could do a single-car run with my eyes closed, let me tell you. We have not done a whole lot of pack runs or in traffic or anything like that. You can drive with one hand if you want. It certainly has been a bit of a process understanding with these tests how can we maximize this car. As you’ve seen, things are ever-changing as far as the regulations and what’s gonna be normal. I think you’re gonna have to be flexible throughout the first part of this year as the race teams get their hands on the cars, but I thing from my perspective we’re not gonna know anything until the Duels, and even from the Duels there’s a lot of different motivations for other people, whether it’s people trying to make it into the race, people trying to work on their starting position, people who are already set on their starting spot, people who want to ride in the 500 regardless of their starting spot, so I think there are a lot of different motivations throughout the field. I think you’re gonna have to constantly learn on the fly throughout the race.”

HARRISON BURTON CONTINUED – “I would echo that in that our tests were definitely the most aggressive pack racing we’ve done earlier this season, and that was when I felt like I learned the most about what I could do, what blocks I could make and couldn’t make. It’s definitely different. There are lines you can’t cross that you would be able to cross with the old car because you’ll just crash. There’s different grip levels and different factors that go into that. That was the biggest learning experience for me and there were only 15 cars.

AUSTIN CINDRIC CONTINUED – “And 10 laps, too. It was the first pack run really made and we had only like one single-car run beforehand. I was like, ‘No, let them race.”

HARRISON BURTON CONTINUED – “So there’s that and then there’s the 500, where it’s 40 cars for 500 miles and how do you manage that. As the whole season is gonna go for both of us we’re gonna have to learn on the fly quite a bit and this is definitely the first example of that.”

HOW PREPARED ARE YOU TO BE PART OF THE DAYTONA 500 FOR THE FIRST TIME? “As an excitement level goes, it’s pegged. I’m just over the moon that I’m here and able to kind of live out this dream I’ve had since I was a little kid. That’s awesome, but as far as nerves go, I’m sure there will be some. I’ve done two Cup races so far and one was Talladega, which is an electric atmosphere. The Clash at the Coliseum was the same way. It felt like a college football game and it was awesome. I mean, it was cool to be a part of that and then now the 500, I think, is gonna be the biggest of them all obviously. I’ve watched my dad do it and I’ve understood the moment and I’ve raced for a long time myself, so I think mostly I’ll be ready for it. It’s something you have to have some thought into, but I’ll be ready for it.”

AUSTIN CINDRIC CONTINUED – WOULD YOU LIKE TO RUN THE INDY 500 SOME DAY? “I’ll be conscious of the fact that I’m sitting here on Daytona 500 media day sitting at the Daytona International Speedway when I talk about the Indy 500 and how important it is to my family and, really, for me in motorsports there’s like probably nothing bigger, at least from my lifetime and my upbringing, but, yeah, it’s certainly something I have my eye on and it’s also something I don’t see in the near future for me. My commitment level has never been higher to one form of racing that it has in the last couple of years as my career in NASCAR has been. I’ve got an amazing opportunity in front of me that I want to make the absolute most of and if I find a few reasons to think that I’m not gonna get shot down when I ask for it, it’s not just as simple as asking Roger Penske, ‘Oh, can I run the Indy 500?’ It’s not that easy, but hopefully one day I feel like I can establish myself enough to find a time that we can do it because I would certainly love to, but I’ve got more direct things I want to tackle first.”

HOW DID DINNER GO WITH ROGER AT THE CAPITAL GRILLE AFTER WINNING AT INDY? “I had a race the next day, so I had another job to do. It was very clear to me that I had another job to do the next day, but winning at Indy last year was pretty awesome, but nothing really compares to the 500.”

HARRISON BURTON CONTINUED – HOW STEEP IS THE LEARNING CURVE FOR YOU THIS YEAR? “it’s super steep and you look at the rookie stats from year’s past and it’s obvious there’s a learning curve there. You’ve seen some of the best to ever do it and some of them will struggle in their rookie year and the best rookie year of recent history is probably Denny Hamlin was like a 12.5 average finish and two wins, so that’s like the over the moon, like the best in recent history, and then there’s guys that get 25th average finish. Trying to find your way through that and understand that this is the hardest form of racing that I’ve ever done and this is the highest level I’ve ever done it at. So understanding that and understanding the work that has to go into beating these guys and beating Larson is gonna have to be a lot. We have a lot of lost time to try and make up for really quickly and I know that we’re doing our best to do it.”

AUSTIN CINDRIC CONTINUED – “I think to add onto that if you were to make a quantifiable list of all the things that Harrison and I and Todd and anybody else who has been a rookie in this series to learn, you’d top on top of that a new car, you’d have a lot of subjects we’ve got to cover that are completely new, whether that’s being around new people, a new race team, a new car, new competitors, a couple new tracks on the schedule. There are certainly things that make this challenging, but I think with change is an opportunity and I think it’s a great opportunity for both of us to go out and really apply ourselves. I think to Harrison’s point, you look at guys in more recent history with more recent race formats and you think of guys like Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe, Tyler Reddick, William Byron, those are guys that I look at that I’ve either raced against or looked up to contending for wins and championships against, and those are guys that aren’t just showing up in the Cup Series and winning races. You look at that transition and what it’s been like for those guys. You look at someone like Christopher Bell, who every step of the ladder for me has been the most dominant guy and it’s hard. You get to the Cup Series and it’s hard, so I don’t know what to expect on that front other than what I’ve observed, but from our perspective we want to overcome that better than they did. Otherwise, it’s certainly gonna be a challenge and not sure what those are yet.”

WHO DO YOU LEAN ON FOR ADVICE? “I think you pick and choose the information that you process and listen to, just like anything else. There are gonna be plenty of people that want to tell you how to do something, especially when you’re struggling. It’s when people stop telling you how to do things that means no one cares anymore, but I think there’s certainly a plethora of information, it’s just how to process it.”

HARRISON BURTON CONTINUED – “I’ll add to that. Our two teammates have kind of both, Joey started when he was super young and had his start and then kind of came into his own and ended up being a Cup champion and Ryan is kind of doing the same thing and winning races consistently and being fast every weekend. They’ve kind of gone through that and leaning off of those two has been awesome so far.”

AUSTIN CINDRIC CONTINUED – “I’ve actually found myself paying attention to other sports. Like, you’ll see college athletes, like Trevor Lawrence – somebody who hardly ever lost a game in his entire career since high school. Obviously, he’s put in an organization that isn’t as strong as the best teams, but you try and pay attention to other sports like that and what those processes are like mentality-wise, how does that change different guys. I’ve found that to be fairly valuable because it’s more a controlled environment. There’s more details to go off of, where as like in racing you don’t pick and choose the opportunities you get to move up. I’m sure this time last year Harrison didn’t think he was gonna be driving the Wood Brothers car because I thought I was driving the Wood Brothers car this time last year. This changes so quickly and so rapidly and there are so many external factors that sometimes I actually find mentality-wise other sports are pretty useful in that respect.”

AUSTIN CINDRIC CONTINUED – LOGANO SAID HE’S NOT CHANGING A THING THIS WEEK. ARE YOU GOING TO DO THE SAME OR BE MORE CONSERVATIVE? “It depends if my backup car is shared with him or not. I don’t know. I think you have to race. The way I see it is there’s three other superspeedways on the schedule and you have to learn at some point and you have to learn what moves to make by the end of the Daytona 500. Obviously, you do that by proceeding with a certain amount of calculated risk, but, otherwise, from a parts perspective I think it’s more two, three races down the line how does this affect us as a company. If all four of us wreck out in the Daytona 500, I don’t think it’s gonna change whether or not we show up at Fontana with all of the cars. It’s certainly a calculated risk, but the Daytona 500 means a lot.”

HARRISON BURTON CONTINUED – “Yeah, especially as two rookies and Austin has run the 500 before, but this is a new car too, so you have to get aggressive and you have to learn what the limits are because the last thing that you would want is to put yourself in position to win the 500 and then miss the block late, or don’t have the right push late to help your teammate go up front and that be from I was too concerned about crashing. So, I feel like as drivers you couldn’t really live with yourself if you have a chance to win this race and you let it go for that reason. I think it would be really something that would weigh on you for a long time.”

AUSTIN CINDRIC CONTINUED – WHAT’S BEEN THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE THIS YEAR BEING LOCKED INTO THE 500 VERSUS LAST YEAR? “My anxiety level was significantly lower today than it was Wednesday of last year’s Speedweeks. Between that and having the Xfinity race and trying to be successful on that side of the garage, but I’m feeling like I can actually enjoy this a little bit more.”

HARRISON BURTON CONTINUED – WHAT ADVICE HAVE YOU BEEN GIVEN BY PEOPLE IN THE GARAGE? “I’ve had a lot of advice and I think one of the most interesting ones was from my dad, who said that the Daytona 500 Sunday is probably the craziest day of your life because every sponsor is here. This is the biggest venue with the most fans in the infield. I mean, it’s craziness, so being prepared for that. A lot of times I like to spend a lot of time alone before I race and think about things and understanding that you probably won’t be able to because you have to bounce around and see all these sponsors and do all this stuff that you normally don’t have to for every other race, and understanding that you have to be proactive and get your stuff done early and be prepared much earlier than Sunday, and that’s true for every race but more so for this one because you don’t have many hours on the clock on Sunday.”

AUSTIN CINDRIC CONTINUED – HOW DO YOU REFLECT ON YOUR XFINITY WIN HERE LAST YEAR AS YOU BEGIN YOUR CUP CAREER? “That race specifically was probably one of the most side drafting battles I had with this guy. I think we were side drafting each other for six laps”

HARRISON BURTON CONTINUED – “I’m so mad I lost that one.

AUSTIN CINDRIC CONTINUED – “It’s come up like three times today and it just really grinds his gears. I love it. But, otherwise, being able to win a superspeedway race for me I feel like that was kind of checking all the boxes as far as all the different types of racetracks, at least in the Xfinity level, that I’ve been able to be successful at, so that was kind of one of the top things on my list last year to accomplish and it was obviously cool to get it done, but I think the Daytona 500 is significantly different than that specific race, but I’m looking forward to getting back and looking forward to having a shot at it.”

HARRISON BURTON CONTINUED – WHAT KIND OF PRESSURE DO YOU FEEL RACING FOR A TEAM LIKE THE WOOD BROTHERS AND BEING THE SON OF A SUCCESSFUL CUP DRIVER? “There’s definitely pressure and it’s not really, for me personally, it’s not from external sources or anyone else, it’s just from me because I care about this sport and I want to be a part of it for a long time and there’s nothing I want more than to work really hard and prove that I belong this year. There’s pressure in that, but what happens outside of my personal head hasn’t really added any extra pressure, just the people around me have been really helpful and the group with the 21 car has been amazing with the Wood Brothers and then the help from Team Penske. It’s been awesome so far. I’ve had every resource I need to go and succeed, so the pressure from that isn’t there, but the pressure from myself is certainly there because I want to do well.”

AUSTIN CINDRIC CONTINUED – “I think from my standpoint the job of driving the race car is relatively the same. Obviously, different factors, different team, a whole lot of newness, but otherwise the job is relatively the same, but for me it’s actually been a bit of a perspective change because as a young driver you spend your entire career striving to get to the next level. When you’re in late models you want to go race at a national series level. If you’re in trucks you want to be in Xfinity. If you’re in Xfinity, you want to be in Cup. Even when you’re at that next level you’re like, ‘OK, what’s after this? What am I striving for next?’ There’s usually like clear-cut areas for you to be at and I’m at the highest level now. That’s it. That’s why there are guys that have been doing this for decades at a time. That’s why there are guys that are the absolute best and guys that have gotten here and not been able to do a thing. For me, I have to have that perspective change that there’s nothing after this. It’s how do you refine what you’ve learned to this point to make you the best, and I’ve got a lot of different notebooks to pull from. To Harrison’s point, we have all the resources possible to become successful, so how you utilize those is critically important and I don’t want to just compete I want to be successful. That process starts this weekend for me and it’s exciting, but I’m looking forward to getting started and actually have something to base it off of.”

HARRISON BURTON CONTINUED – WHAT WOULD BE AT THE HEAD OF YOUR WISH LIST IF YOU COULD TALK TO YOUR DAD AS HEAD OF THE DRIVER’S COUNCIL? “Wow, I haven’t thought about it. I feel like that’s insider trading or something. I don’t know. I’m new here, so this is my first run at this and I tend to let the guys that have been around for a long time and established themselves put on the wish list and I just kind of listen and sometimes I’ll text in our driver’s group chat. I’ve sent one message so far and checked that off the box. Other than that, I’m just happy to be a part of it.”

WHAT WAS YOUR ONE MESSAGE? “My friends, who are all in college, I felt like the Clash was a success because they don’t really care about racing, but that was the most I ever heard from my friends who are all in college about a race, so I felt like it had the younger audience interested.”

Toyota Racing – Kyle Busch
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes

DAYTONA BEACH (February 16, 2022) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Kyle Busch was made available to media prior to the Daytona 500 this Wednesday:

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 M&M’s Toyota Camry TRD, Joe Gibbs Racing

What is your interaction and opinion of BJ McLeod?

“I love BJ (McLeod). I think he’s a great guy, a great individual. Very kind in his ways. We’ve had lots of discussions over the course of our time here, his time. We come from similar backgrounds with Super Late Models. He’s raced there for a long time and now he’s getting into NASCAR trying to make his way here and things like that being a team owner on the Xfinity side. Racing and being a team owner now on the Cup Series side as well. Just the way he conducts himself and goes about himself and goes about himself on the race track too. He’s always been very fair. Always tries to be out of the way as much as possible and just minds his own business per say while looking out for others while on the race track and I’ve never had any issues with him. I feel like he’s done a good job and worked a lot and has a lot of self-awareness of the sport.”

How much fun did you have participating in the Monday Night Racing league?

“It’s been fun. Ford (Martin) and I, we’ve known each other for a long time obviously. He and I, we’ve had a relationship. He invited me to join the league a couple years ago before it kind of took off. I feel like it’s kind of taken off the last couple years which has been really cool. We’ve gotten a lot of guys in there, good guys that race hard and run hard for wins and stuff like that. Double-edged sword for me, there’s better competition so now I’m getting beat, but I did win a couple times this year which was cool and ran up front a bunch too when I was able to chime in. But, overall, I enjoy it and being able to sponsor it this year. Just put our name on it and have some fun with it, be able to do some giveaways and some fan interactions and stuff like that on social. That’s been a bit of where we’ve excelled with it, I feel like for us and our brand. The season of it, now that we’re into our NASCAR season I’m like, ‘Man, I kind of wish I was still going.’ But, on the other hand I’m like, no I don’t because I know I’m going to get too busy to join in a lot. I’m looking forward to the next season that starts up.”

What are your thoughts on the transition to talking more about sports betting?

“I’m all ears. I’m open to it. I wouldn’t say – I don’t have any reservations on anything like that to it. I’ve had friends that have bet on NASCAR races for years and have just kind of told me that ‘I’ve won such and such money on you.’ Or ‘Thanks for winning today.’ Some friends of mine from years ago put money on me to win the championship in 2015 before I even broke my legs and stuff like that, so when I got hurt, they were like, you screwed me this year, you’re out.’ And then I won, and they were like ‘man, thanks!’ With our regulations, being athletes in this sport, we’re not allowed to do any of that stuff. It really doesn’t affect me, but for outside eyeballs on the sport with sports betters and being a part of NASCAR and seeing who’s going to beat who. There are so many different ways of bets these days that it is not as simple as one or two or three bets, it’s hundreds that you can choose from, which is interesting. I think it lends itself to a different crowd.”

What do you do to help Brexton racing?

“It’s been really fun to work with him. When we started, we went three laps down in an eight-lap heat race. It was painful. But he learned. He just wanted to go to the racetrack and make circles and it was so frustrating as a dad knowing that he could do this. I was like come on step on the gas, let’s go to just let him get his bearings, get his feet wet and feel it out and let him figure out what is happening. At five years old, I don’t even remember five years old and figure out making circles. I can see how that is a bit tough and challenging for someone like that. He will turn seven in May. He’s very young for his age. He’s doing well. We are having fun. He’s in quarter midgets, junior sprints, outlaw karts going across the country. We’ve got three races out in California when we are out there. In Phoenix, we’ve got three races when were there. I’ve built out his schedule with like 80 shows this year, but we are not going to hit them all. I just put them on the calendar. I guarantee you that he runs 50-60 races this year at least. That’s going to be a lot for a six-year-old.”

Is his racing a good escape for you?

“He’s honestly taught me a little bit too. As I’m his driver coach, I’m helping him through things and I’m thinking – I’m on the sidelines and I’m like okay, what do I need to tell him? How can I explain this to a six-year-old so when he comes off the racetrack to go over things and watch film, I can talk to him about it? Now I’m using that too myself as I’m driving around the racetrack. I’m like okay, DA. Do this, look at this differently. Don’t screw this up. Hey, you need to throw it into the top a little higher. You missed that corner, that was dumb. Just certain things in that nature. I’m talking to myself, driver coaching myself a lot more now. Whether that is good or bad, we’ll find out.”

What benefits have you seen with your brother, Kurt, as part of the Toyota family?

“Nothing yet. We’ve only had one race and one competition meeting. We haven’t had a whole lot yet. So far, the things that I kind of said and Denny kind of said from our post-race at the Coliseum – he was online with a bunch of that as well too. He’s kind of adding in a little bit about his experiences over the last couple of races being with the Chevy guys, being with Ganassi and kind of what they were doing and how they were going about things. That’s all processes that I think are now completely different than what our current processes are now that we are in the new car. A little bit on the engine that was a little bit different. TRD should be leaning on him a lot because he’s very – he understands and sees what is happening and can explain some of that.”

Is there any chance we can see him in a KBM truck at some point?

“If he’s got any money, sure.”

What is your approach to superspeedways at this point in your career?

“I feel like Denny (Hamlin) does a pretty good job of preparing the most. As we’ve seen, he’s won three of the last seven 500s. He’s getting the most out of it as well. I don’t know what his preparations are, but they are probably different than mine which have become more fruit for him than me. Maybe I need to change something, but in reality, I feel like it’s so circumstantial anyways, I’m like ‘What is the point?’ Do your certain amount of study, watch film and talk to your guys and strategize what you can, but past that – I was leading the Daytona 500 a few years ago and had a flat left rear, crashed. I was leading the Daytona 500 with 13 laps to go and blew up. Running top-eight, top-10 most of the day, another year, finished second or third in that one. Whatever happens, happens. You could be running fourth going into (turn) three and win the race or be leading and get wrecked. What’s to study?”

What is the process with the new sponsorship like for you?

“The relationship has been fantastic – the relationship we’ve had with Mars, since 2008. They’ve been in the sport for almost 30 years, and been with me for 15 of those, so it’s been fantastic. It’s just unfortunate times of change and things like that. New regime at the top that comes in and I guess, don’t see the value, so we’re moving on. Overall, we’re in the process of looking and searching for new partners being involved with myself and Joe Gibbs Racing and hopefully, being able to take me into retirement – I guess you could say. If I’ve got five, six, eight, 10 years left, whatever – I would like to have a partner that could hang on that long and call it good. That would be a perfect world – a perfect storm, to not have to go after five people to replace one to take over 30 races, with Interstate having six. That’s just a part of where we are at right now. I’d love to be involved. I would love to be able to put Fortune 500 companies on the wall and start picking the ones you want to go after, which ones you want to have as your sponsors, but in reality, it doesn’t work that easy. Certain companies have different values or objectives on what they want to accomplish in marketing. Lowes, Home Depot – they got rid of all sports marketing in general completely, so there are going to be companies like that, that just don’t see it. Hopefully, we can find some that do.”

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