KEVIN HARVICK
Richmond Advance
No. 4 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview
● Event: Federated Auto Parts 400 Salute to First Responders (Round 28 of 36)
● Time/Date: 7:30 p.m. EDT on Saturday, Sept. 11
● Location: Richmond (Va.) Raceway
● Layout: .75-mile oval
● Laps/Miles: 400 laps / 300 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 80 laps / Stage 2: 155 laps / Final Stage: 165 laps
● TV/Radio: NBCSN / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● The Federated Auto Parts 400 Salute to First Responders NASCAR Cup Series race Saturday night at Richmond (Va.) Raceway marks the second race of the 10-race playoffs. Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing, comes into the race ranked seventh among the 16 playoff drivers, 20 points above the top-12 cutline to advance to the Round of 12. The 16-driver playoff field will be whittled down to 12 after the third playoff race Sept. 18 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. This is Harvick’s 15th playoff appearance since the inception of the playoffs in 2004, and it’s his 12 consecutive playoff appearance. Harvick has finished among the top-eight in points every year since 2010. He won the championship in 2014.
● In the first playoff race last Sunday at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, Harvick delivered a gritty fifth-place drive. How gritty? An unscheduled pit stop for a loose wheel on lap 288 of the 367-lap race put him a lap down. He earned his lap back on lap 318 and rallied to fifth with a pass of Joey Logano on lap 352. Then, with two laps remaining around the 1.366-mile oval, Harvick suffered a flat right-rear tire. Despite this, Harvick stayed out and manhandled his Ford Mustang to hold onto fifth place through the checkered flag. It was Harvick’s seventh top-five and 17th top-10 of the season, and his 12th top-five and 17th top-10 in 28 career starts at Darlington. No other driver has more top-fives or top-10s at Darlington than Harvick. His nearest pursuer in this category is Denny Hamlin with 11 top-fives and 15 top-10s.
● The .75-mile Richmond oval serves as a return to short-track racing. The NASCAR Cup Series hasn’t raced on a track less than a mile in length since the series’ first visit to Richmond back on April 18. In that race, Harvick was a regular among the top-five until lap 379 when a cut right-rear tire sent him spinning into the turn-one wall. Work to repair the damage on his No. 4 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang resulted in an extended stay on pit road. By the time repairs were completed and Harvick was able to return to the track, he was scored three laps down in 24th.
● Harvick has made 745 career NASCAR Cup Series starts, with 120 of those starts coming on short tracks. And of his 58 Cup Series wins, seven have been at short tracks, with Richmond accounting for three of those victories. Harvick scored his first Richmond win in September 2006, his second in September 2011 and his third in April 2013.
● Harvick joined SHR in 2014 and has since recorded 35 of his 58 career NASCAR Cup Series wins. However, none of them have been at Richmond. But Harvick has remained stout at the .75-mile oval. In his last 14 starts at Richmond as a member of SHR, Harvick has two runner-up finishes, eight top-fives and 10 top-10s. He has only one finish outside of the top-15.
● Harvick has led 15,694 total laps in his NASCAR Cup Series career, with 1,180 of those laps coming at Richmond.
● The Federated Auto Parts 400 Salute to First Responders will mark Harvick’s 41st NASCAR Cup Series start at the Virginia short track. His first start at Richmond came on May 5, 2001. That race was won by SHR co-owner Tony Stewart, who beat then three-time champion Jeff Gordon by .372 of a second. Harvick finished 17th in what was his 10th career Cup Series start. Nine of the 43 drivers in that race have since been inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame – Stewart, Gordon, Rusty Wallace, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Mark Martin, Dale Jarrett, Ron Hornaday Jr., Bill Elliott and Terry Labonte.
● Harvick is the winningest NASCAR Xfinity Series driver at Richmond with seven victories. (Kyle Busch is next best with six wins.) Harvick finished among the top-10 in all but six of his 21 career Xfinity Series starts at Richmond.
● The 2021 season marks the 12th year of partnership between Harvick and Hunt Brothers Pizza. The nation’s largest brand of made-to-order pizza in the convenience store industry has sponsored Harvick for years in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. Hunt Brothers Pizza joined Harvick fulltime in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2019 and has been a mainstay in NASCAR’s premier division ever since. With more than 7,800 locations in 30 states, Hunt Brothers Pizza offers original and thin-crust pizzas available as a grab-and go Hunk, perfect for today’s on-the-go lifestyle or as a customizable whole pizza that is an exceptional value with All Toppings No Extra Charge®. Celebrating 30 years of serving great pizza to convenience store shoppers through its store partners, Hunt Brothers Pizza is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, and is family owned and operated. To find a Hunt Brothers Pizza location near you, download the app by visiting app.HuntBrothersPizza.com.
● Said Harvick about his more than decade-long partnership with Hunt Brothers Pizza: “Our fans are pretty loyal to the brands that are on our cars. Many of my pictures come from the standees in the store. People take selfies next to them. There are a number of reasons you have sponsorships – you want that brand recognition, the brand integration. Hunt Brothers Pizza is a very family-oriented company and we’re a very family-oriented group. Those relationships you build through the years with brands that recognize and reflect what you believe in are few and far between. We’ve grown with the Hunt Brothers Pizza brand. They’ve grown with us and been very loyal to us and I think our fans are very loyal to Hunt Brothers Pizza. It’s fun to see that brand recognition and that understanding of loyalty and partnership. You realize how many Hunt Brothers Pizza stores there are as you drive to racetracks.”

Kevin Harvick, Driver of the No. 4 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

You’ve had a lot of success at Richmond and you’re a fan of short-track racing in general. What is it about Richmond that makes it a good track for you?

“Through the years we’ve figured out how to get some solid finishes. We had a really good Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang there earlier this year and wound up blowing a tire and not getting a very good finish. I’m looking forward to going back just because of the fact that we ran so well there at the beginning of the year. Richmond is a little bit like Darlington just in the tire fall-off and the way the cars slow down. The line doesn’t move around very much at Richmond anymore, for whatever reason, so you have to grind away at one particular spot on the racetrack and make your car work as well as possible. It’s definitely a unique short track. It’s got enough speed to where you have to be good under braking and have a good-handling car in order to make it through the long runs that you know you’re going to get throughout the night. Hopefully, we can have a good night. Based upon the first race, we should run well.”

The Richmond race falls on the 20th anniversary of 9/11. Do you remember where you were on Sept. 11, 2001?

“We were flying to Memphis to test the Xfinity car that day and we were in Mike Skinner’s airplane. It was in the middle of the flight when everything happened. We got to the airport, landed, saw everything that happened, and we all got in the van and drove 12 hours home. We never ran that test.”

As you look back on 9/11, what stands out the most?

“We had so many men and women lose their lives that day, a lot of whom were first responders. I think as you look back, you just want to say thanks to all the first responders and everybody who was there to do everything they could do to help those in need. It was a tragic day, so as we go into Richmond, we have to remember and thank all those who were there during a really tough time.”

You and Kurt Busch are the only drivers in Saturday night’s race who competed in the first race after 9/11 at Dover (Del.) International Speedway. What do you remember about that race?

“I just remember the enthusiasm of the crowd. It was massive, and when you have the enthusiasm from a crowd like that, it’s something you never forget. Obviously, any time Dale Jr. won, it was quite the emotion from the crowd. But on that particular day, it was just different. Everything about that particular day was different. After the race, after he won, that was pretty spectacular and something that I’ll never forget, and for all the right reasons, too. And it wasn’t just Dover. The New Hampshire race got postponed to the end of the season and we raced the day after Thanksgiving, and then the banquet was still in New York. We toured Ground Zero and saw the magnitude of it all. There were just a lot of moments from that particular time period.”

No. 4 Hunt Brothers Pizza Team Roster

Primary Team Members

Driver: Kevin Harvick
Hometown: Bakersfield, California

Crew Chief: Rodney Childers
Hometown: Mooresville, North Carolina

Car Chief: Robert “Cheddar” Smith
Hometown: Whitewater, Wisconsin

Engineer: Dax Gerringer
Hometown: Gibsonville, North Carolina

Engineer: Stephen Doran
Hometown: Butler, Pennsylvania

Spotter: Tim Fedewa
Hometown: Holt, Michigan

Over-The-Wall Members

Front Tire Changer: Shayne Pipala
Hometown: Frankfort Square, Illinois

Rear Tire Changer: Daniel Smith
Hometown: Concord, North Carolina

Tire Carrier: Jeremy Howard
Hometown: Delhart, Texas

Jack Man: Stan Doolittle
Hometown: Ninety Six, South Carolina

Fuel Man: Evan Marchal
Hometown: Westfield, Indiana

Road Crew Members

Mechanic: Richie Bean
Hometown: Bradford, Vermont

Tire Specialist: Jamie Turski
Hometown: Trumbull, Connecticut

Engine Tuner: Robert Brandt
Hometown: Mobile, Alabama

Transporter Co-Driver: Rick Hodges
Hometown: Raleigh, North Carolina

Transporter Co-Driver: Stephen Mitchell
Hometown: Woodville, Ohio

NASCAR CUP SERIES
FEDERATED AUTO PARTS 400
RICHMOND RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
SEPTEMBER 8, 2021

ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE, Teleconference Transcript Highlights:

DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE TO DO ANYTHING TO STAY POSITIVE OR KEEP YOUR TEAM POSITIVE?
“I don’t know. Definitely a little bit, after a weekend like last weekend. It wasn’t good by any means. From start to finish we had radio issues, trouble with the engine, I drove it into the fence; and we had another flat tire after that. It was just kind of one of those days. I’m definitely trying to keep the team pumped up, but at the same time I think everybody on the team knows how strong we can be each and every place we go. We just had a bad day. Going forward, to a place like Richmond, where we won in the Spring, I think everybody is pretty positive that we can go there and have success and be strong. This Round of 16, with everybody having issues at Darlington, it’s not as bad as it could have been, the hole that we’re in. I think we’re in an okay spot going forward. Not comfortable by any means, but if we just go do our jobs, we’ll be all right.”

DO YOU BELIEVE THAT WHAT WORKED AT RICHMOND IN THE SPRING WILL WORK IN THE FALL, OR ARE THERE ANY SIGNIFICANT CHANGES THAT WILL DISRUPT THAT TYPE OF THOUGHT?
“I hope so because I haven’t ever had anything work at Richmond before the Spring. So that’s all I’ve got that works. But I hope so. I feel like I drive that place incorrectly to a point and I ask some different things out of the race car that kind of a lot of the normal guys that grew up racing stock cars on short tracks don’t do. So, going there has always been tough for me. I think Greg (Ives, crew chief) finally hit on something that worked really well for me. So, hopefully we can get it to work again. You never know until you get there, and without practice it’s hard to say. But I’m pretty confident that we’ll have another great race car this weekend.”

WITH THREE OUT OF FOUR HENDRICK DRIVERS EITHER NEAR OR BELOW THE CUTOFF LINE AND COMING OUT OF THIS PAST WEEKEND’S RACE, WHAT ARE YOUR TEAM MEETINGS LIKE?
“It definitely wasn’t a great mood after Darlington. But I feel like everybody is focused-forward and working hard to be the best we can be at Richmond. It was one race. It’s one week. The Playoffs, the way it goes, you have two bad weeks in one round, and you are kind of done. So, we know we have to be strong the next two weeks. But at the same time, we’ve been strong all year. I think there is a lot of confidence going forward that we can continue to do that. I think I’m probably the most frustrated of anybody and that’s just because it was like blatantly my fault, right? I drove the car into the outside wall. I’m frustrated with myself that I did that and that I made that mistake, but I’m also frustrated that I hurt the No. 24’s (William Byron) day like it did. But the No. 24 and the No. 9 (Chase Elliott) kind of had things going outside of their own control. And then the No. 5 (Kyle Larson) had a good day. I think we all just know we need to be strong at Richmond.”

WERE YOU SURPRISED WITH WHAT HAPPENED TO THE PLAYOFF DRIVERS AT DARLINGTON?
“I wouldn’t say I’m surprised. Darlington is an easy track to have issues at. So, for as many people to have issues as they did, I’m not all that surprised about it.

THIS SPORT IS SO FICKLE WITH THE POWER RANKINGS, LIKE S0-AND-SO IS FAVORED FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP AND THE HENDRICK DRIVERS CANNOT BE BEAT. WITH ONE RACE, EVERYTHING HAS SWITCHED. DOES THAT DRIVE YOU CRAZY A LITTLE BIT?
“As far as the media stuff goes, once I realized that I’m always going to get kicked a little bit by the media, I just quit reading it (laughs). Some are not the nicest to me. So, I just quit reading it and don’t pay attention to it. That’s fine. That’s part of my job. I’m sure Kyle (Larson) was the favorite and is still the favorite. Other than that, I don’t know anything about power rankings or anything like that. I just try to drive the race car as fast as I can.”

QUESTION REGARDING STARTING POSITIONS AND STAGE POINTS AT RICHMOND
“It’s still going to be difficult. In the Spring we had a really difficult day. We had a pit road penalty. I think we started at the tail end of the longest line in Stage 3. That late-race caution got us the win, but we had still driven back to third from last, basically. And for as strong as we were in the Spring, I know we’ll be able to pass cars because with a great long-run race car we were able to make a lot of headway there. But yeah, it’s going to be tough. It is definitely a little more intense in the Playoffs. Everybody is going to race a little harder. But Richmond is a place like, if you’re race car is good and you’re good on a long, run, you can give up that short run a little bit and make a lot of headway as the run kind of rolls on. So, I’m just excited to see how we are when we get there and go to work on making the car better and being there at the end.”

THERE ARE POSSIBLE CHANGES TO THE SCHEDULE NEXT YEAR, WHICH INCLUDE A BUSCH CLASH AT THE L.A. COLISEUM OR RACING AT WORLDWIDE TECHNOLOGY RACEWAY. WHAT CHANGES WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE?
“I love going to new race tracks. Obviously, I don’t know any more than what you guys (media) know. I haven’t heard anything officially. But it all sounds cool, right? When I ran the e-NASCAR Series, we ran Bowman Gray Stadium, which sounded like the most ridiculous idea I’d ever heard in my life. But when we got there, it was a lot of fun. So, I would imagine it would be somewhat similar to that at least. It could be pretty neat. If we went to Gateway, that would be neat. And it looks like a really interesting place. I’ve never been there. But anything new is always cool, right? Like any of the new races we’ve had this year have been kind of exciting and cool to be a part of. So, I’m all for new race tracks and new challenges. Shuffling-up the schedule every year I think is really cool.”

THE SAME TIRE IS BEING USED THIS WEEKEND AS WAS USED AT PHOENIX. IS THIS THE LAST CHANCE TO FINE-TUNE THINGS FOR PHOENIX? IF YOU WIN AND DOMINATE, DOES THAT MEAN THAT YOU WOULD BE THE FAVORITE AT PHOENIX BASED ON WHAT YOU DID AT RICHMOND?
“It’s interesting that you say that. Looking back, the NO. 5 (Kyle Larson) was really fast at Phoenix. And they were not very good at Richmond. We were terrible at Phoenix and won Richmond. So, I don’t know how much you can really take from one to the other. I know it’s the same tire and a somewhat similar race track. But at Phoenix you have some tire falloff, but you don’t have what you have at Richmond. Richmond is so much slicker. There is so much less load in the race car. There are so many big differences. Like it’s a quarter-mile shorter, but it feels tiny and extremely slow in comparison to a place like Phoenix. It’s definitely different, but I want to say we can carry it all over because we were good there in the Spring. But ever since 2016 we’ve really struggled at Phoenix. Hopefully we can get our stuff together and be good there at the end of this year.”

ARE THE COMMITMENT LINES MORE CHALLENGING AT RICHMOND?
“Yeah, it’s just where it is. How early it is. There are a lot of factors that go into it. I feel like people don’t realize how little you can really see out of the Cup cars. You can’t really see that box unless you’re squared-up with it. Late pit calls probably play a role in that. But it’s early. It’s hard to see. And that pit road entrance is super slick. The race track is super slick. So, there are a lot of factors. But it is definitely a tough one and an easy one to miss and cause a big penalty for yourself.”

DO YOU LOOK AT POINTS AND STUDY THEM? OR DO YOU JUST GO RACE?
“Yeah, I just go race. You can stare at the points sheet and know exactly how many points you have to beat so-and-so by. But it doesn’t help you any. Then you’re just more stressed out about situations you can’t control. I think the best thing you can do for yourself is to go drive the race car as fast as you can and maximize every Stage and go do the best job you can. I did a really poor job on Sunday night, and I’ve got two weeks to make up for it. I’ve just got to go maximize both races. Last year during the Playoffs I wasn’t looking at points. I wasn’t worried about it. We just went and tried to execute to the best of our ability each and every week. And we had a really good Playoff run. This year we started off really poorly, but I’m confident we can turn that around and at least do what we did last year if not better.”

DID YOU HAVE A RACE-WINNING CAR BEFORE THE DAMAGE AT DARLINGTON?
“I don’t think we were very good before I hit the wall at Darlington because I wasn’t running very hard. I was starting to struggle really early in that run and drove it right into the fence pretty early. So, I feel like we were going to struggle a little bit. I think we’d end up somewhere in the top 10, but now where we wanted to be by any means. I felt down on grip. I think it still would have been a way better day than it was, obviously. I’m still mad at myself that I did that.”

DO YOU FEEL LIKE MISTAKES, RATHER THAN SPEED, COULD BE WHAT KEEPS HENDRICK DRIVERS FROM THE CHAMPIONSHIP FOUR?
“I think we’ve had speed every week. It very well could be. But nothing has stopped us from getting there yet. We still have a chance. All four of us are not eliminated yet and still in it. I don’t want to say what’s going to keep us out because we’re not knocked out yet.”

DO YOU THINK THERE WILL BE LESS CHAOS AND AGGRESSION AT RICHMOND OR DO YOU THINK IT WILL CONTINUE?
“It’s hard to say. I feel like you’re going to have a lot of aggression at Richmond because it’s Richmond. It’s a short track. Tempers typically flare there. Stuff happens. And that’s just a part of it. I feel like it’s still going to be exciting. It’s still going to be dramatic. We’ll wait and see. Maybe it’s a smooth and easy day and the No. 48 is out front with no issues, and we get another trophy. I’d be okay with that.”
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.

CHASE BRISCOE
Richmond Advance
No. 14 Cummins/Rush Truck Centers Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview
● Event: Federated Auto Parts 400 (Round 28 of 36)
● Time/Date: 7:30 p.m. EDT on Saturday, Sept. 11
● Location: Richmond (Va.) Raceway
● Layout: .75-mile oval
● Laps/Miles: 400 laps/300 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 80 laps / Stage 2: 155 laps / Final Stage: 165 laps
● TV/Radio: NBCSN / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Richmond (Va.) Raceway for the second event of the 10-race playoff stretch, but Chase Briscoe, driver of No. 14 Cummins/Rush Truck Centers team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), looks to add to his lead in the Rookie of the Year standings following a 19th-place finish Sunday night at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway. With 27 races complete in the Cup Series season, Briscoe is 23rd in the driver championship and leads the Rookie of the Year battle by 223 points over Anthony Alfredo.
● In Briscoe’s first Cup Series start at the .75-mile oval at Richmond in April, he started 26th and finished 22nd. In five NASCAR Xfinity Series starts there, he has one top-five finish and two top-10s. His best result was a fifth-place finish in September 2019.
● Briscoe made 15 short-track starts in the Xfinity Series, scoring two wins – last September at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway and July 2019 at Iowa Speedway in Newton – among his 10 top-10s.
● Briscoe’s No. 14 Ford Mustang will carry the colors of Cummins and Rush Truck Centers at Richmond, along with a reminder to #ThankATrucker during National Truck Driver Appreciation Week, which runs Sept. 12-18. National Truck Driver Appreciation week takes on a special significance considering the crucial role truck drivers have played during the COVID-19 pandemic. Rush Truck Centers encourages fans to use #ThankATrucker to show their appreciation for the 3.6 million professional men and women who deliver our goods safely, securely, and on time.
● Indiana-based Cummins, from car owner Tony Stewart’s hometown of Columbus, is a corporation of complementary business segments that design, manufacture, distribute and service a broad portfolio of power solutions. It is best known for its diesel truck engines. Since its founding in 1919, Cummins now employs approximately 61,600 people and serves customers in about 190 countries and territories through a network of some 8,000 wholly owned and independent dealer and distributor locations.
● The No. 14 Cummins/Rush Truck Centers Ford Mustang and all the SHR cars travel from race to race in haulers from Rush Truck Centers, the premier service solutions provider to the commercial vehicle industry. And those haulers are supported by RushCare, which helps customers find the nearest Rush Truck Centers location, provides service concierge and technical support, schedules mobile service, dispatches roadside assistance and more. Rush Truck Centers is the largest network of commercial vehicle dealerships in the United States with more than 100 locations, and takes pride in its integrated approach to customer needs – from vehicle sales to aftermarket parts, service and body shop operations, plus financing, insurance, leasing and rental, as well as alternate fuel systems and other vehicle technologies.

Chase Briscoe, Driver of the No. 14 Cummins/Rush Truck Centers Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

Do you feel more confident heading into Richmond this time around?

“I think so. I’m a different driver. I’ve learned a lot since April and I feel like as a team we’ve come a long way. We saw in the first race that overcoming a starting position in the back is a really tough thing to do at a place like Richmond and I think, after how things went at Darlington, we’re going to be in just about the same position. Hopefully, we’ve got something that we won’t have to adjust on too much and we can get ahead of that early on. I think we’ll for sure see some differences between racing at night versus the day, but I know Johnny (Klausmeier, crew chief) will have a good plan for how we attack that. I’m just focused on using this as a chance to learn that track more for when we go back next year and see if I can finally figure something out.”

No. 14 Cummins/Rush Truck Centers Team Roster

Primary Team Members

Driver: Chase Briscoe
Hometown: Mitchell, Indiana

Crew Chief: John Klausmeier
Hometown: Perry Hall, Maryland

Car Chief: Chad Haney
Hometown: Fairmont, West Virginia

Engineer: Mike Cook
Hometown: Annapolis, Maryland

Engineer: Marc Hendricksen
Hometown: Clinton, New Jersey

Spotter: Joe White
Hometown: Windsor, Virginia

Over-The-Wall Members

Front Tire Changer: Daniel Coffey
Hometown: Granite Falls, North Carolina

Rear Tire Changer: Chris Jackson
Hometown: Rock Hill, South Carolina

Tire Carrier: Jon Bernal
Hometown: Shelby, North Carolina

Jack Man: Brandon Banks
Hometown: High Point, North Carolina

Fuel Man: Justin Wilson
Hometown: Wise, Virginia

Road Crew Members

Underneath Mechanic: Stephen Gonzalez
Hometown: Mooresville, North Carolina

Front End Mechanic: J.D. Frey
Hometown: Ferndale, California

Interior Mechanic: Trevor Adams
Hometown: Naples, Florida

Tire Specialist: Keith Eads
Hometown: Arlington, Virginia

Engine Tuner: Jon Phillips
Hometown: Jefferson City, Missouri

Transporter Co-Driver: Todd Cable
Hometown: Shelby, North Carolina

Transporter Co-Driver: Glenn Funderburk
Hometown: Mint Hill, North Carolina

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
NASCAR Media Zoom | Wednesday, September 8, 2021

Michael McDowell, driver of the No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang, is making his first appearance in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. He goes into this weekend’s race at Richmond Raceway 20 points below the final transfer position for the Round of 12. He spoke about his situation as part of a NASCAR Zoom call earlier today.

MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang — HOW MUCH OF YOUR STRATEGY IS NOW GOING FOR WINS VERSUS WHERE YOU FINISH IN THE OVERALL STANDINGS AND NOT WANTING TO RISK TOO MUCH? “I think that we are just gonna continue to try to be as aggressive as we can. Obviously, Darlington didn’t go how we wanted it, which doesn’t make us back down anymore. It actually, if anything, we have to be more aggressive. We want to finish up as high as we can in the points, but we also feel like we’re in a spot where we want to be aggressive and see if we can’t get through to the next round.”

DO YOU STILL SEE A PATH TO GET TO THE NEXT ROUND BY POINTS? “Yeah, for sure. I think at the beginning of Darlington it didn’t look that promising with us being the first car out, but then beyond that a lot of those cars had issues and the point gap isn’t that big and Richmond and Bristol both can be races where you have a lot of attrition and a lot of issues, so it’s definitely not that far out of reach. At first I thought it was gonna be impossible, but after the race played out I feel like there’s still a chance.”

HAVE YOU HAD A CHANCE TO FIGURE OUT WHAT HAPPENED? “I have had the opportunity to go back and look at data and watch it and kind of replay it all. Yeah, definitely that section was tricky just because you’re going from old asphalt to new asphalt, but that’s not really the cause. The cause was I was being pretty aggressive trying to get around the 43 because he was on old tires and I just gassed it up to try to clear him going into two and just was carrying too much speed and got loose. It’s just a mistake and it’s unfortunate, but there’s nowhere to place blame but myself. I was just trying to get around the 43 as quick as possible and not lose momentum and time. We had a good run going. We had a fast car. We felt like track position was gonna be important, so you don’t want to give anything up. If you can hit the rewind and do it all over, I would do it differently but you don’t get the rewind button so you just have to keep moving on and get ready for this weekend.”

WHY DO YOU THINK SO MANY PLAYOFF DRIVERS HAD TROUBLE AT DARLINGTON? “I don’t think that there’s any real reason other than Darlington is tough and it’s a tough racetrack. You get in the wall a little bit and you’ve got a fender rub and you cut down a tire. Just so much can happen there, and so I think it’s just one of those racetracks that it definitely can cause that type of race, but you just never know because you watch Kyle Larson those last 10 laps and he’s bouncing off the wall and never cut a tire until the end there, so you never know. It’s a tough track. It’s just the way that it all played out, but we’ve seen races like Bristol and races like that kind of be that way too, so having these tough tracks in these first three it is gonna create some opportunity to maybe get some points back.”

DO YOU REMEMBER WHERE YOU WERE ON 9/11? “I was in Chandler, Arizona on my way to work at the Bob Bondurant School. That’s where I worked at the time. I would have to do the math, but I was 17, 18 years old and when I got to work everybody was kind of just sitting around. You could tell something was going on and all kind of sitting around a small TV watching what was happening and about the time I got to work the second plane had crashed into the building, so it was one of those moments that you never forget — just not understanding what was happening and what was going on and seeing it. It was just kind of an overwhelming thing. I think everybody was very somber and overwhelmed with what’s happening and not knowing what the future would hold, and what was going on. And then you hear rumblings of other planes and the Pentagon and all these things happening. You’re trying to figure out what’s happening. It all seems like it’s happening at once, so as a young adult, teenage at the time, the thing that stands out to me was the next few days after and watching TV and watching first responders go into the building day after day after day after day and going through the rubble and pulling people out. There was a sense of unity and bond, I feel like, across every American and as tragic of an event as it was, it was this really incredible time where you felt like everybody was on the same team and everybody was focused on the right things, so it’s something that stands out to me for sure.”

HOW DO YOU APPROACH RICHMOND? “Richmond has definitely been a tough track for us as an organization and as a group, so we’ve been working really hard the last few months on the simulator and trying to come up with a new package there because what we’ve had hasn’t been working and so we’re just relying on our tools and relying on past experiences and trying to come up with a new package. We know it’s a big question mark race for us, but at the same time we went into Darlington with not knowing how we would stack up speed-wise and even though the result doesn’t show it, we actually brought a really fast race car and had a lot of speed, so I feel like we have the potential to do that again at Richmond and I know for sure we can do it Bristol because Bristol has actually been a strong track for us in the past. You don’t know until you unload. Unfortunately, without practice and all that, you don’t get a lot of opportunities to work on it, so you just have to trust your tools and your people and we’re all working hard and hopefully we hit it.”

DOES IT PLAY TO YOUR ADVANTAGE WITH THE 750 PACKAGE THESE NEXT TWO RACES? “No. I mean, the 750 package hasn’t been our strength. In our group, the 550 tracks have been better for us, so it’s not a strength for us, but, like I said, Darlington was a good example of what we could do as far as speed and performance, so I feel like we’re in a good direction and hopefully we’ll be able to have that same kind of speed at Richmond.”

THE SAME TIRE BEING USED AT RICHMOND WILL BE USED AT PHOENIX. HOW MUCH CARRIES OVER WITH THIS PACKAGE? “Not a lot. I mean, Richmond is kind of that old wore out surface. You have tire fall off, a lot of tire fall off, and you go to Phoenix and it’s fast and it’s smooth and you don’t have a ton of fall off, so I think that you’re always learning a few things, but I don’t feel like Richmond is an indicator of what you’ll have at Phoenix or there’s a whole lot to take from it.”

WE’VE SEEN COMMITMENT LINE VIOLATIONS AT RICHMOND. IS THERE ANYTHING IN PARTICULAR THAT MAKES THAT LINE MORE CHALLENGING AT RICHMOND? “No, it’s definitely a challenge I think just because the tires are worn out so much and a lot of green flag stops. I think Darlington and Richmond both are tough tracks as far as green flag stops and green flag cycles and not making mistakes. The pit roads are also curved, so that makes it tricky for us, the drives and the teams, as far as pit road speed and I think that’s why you see so many penalties too because you run different lights at the beginning and the end and that can get tricky as you’re accelerating and slowing down at different spots, so Richmond and Darlington are both tough racetracks to get onto pit road without making a mistake, and I think it’s more than anything the tire wear and you’re slip sliding around. When you’re coming to pit road you’re braking hard, you lock up the tire, it’s very easy to slide over that box for sure.”

HOW LONG DID IT TAKE TO GET OVER SUNDAY NIGHT? “I wish it was that easy. For me, there is always that internal wrestle and battle that you have, especially when it’s 100 percent your fault. I mean, there’s certain circumstances that are out of my control, out of my team’s control, and those are easier to stomach than when you just make a mistake, and then to add onto that we had a fast race car. The guys did a great job of preparing it and spent a lot of time as the playoffs were ramping up. Obviously these first three races we knew how important they would be, so there was a lot of emphasis on these race cars and so you feel like you let everybody down and that’s hard. It’s a hard thing to kind of navigate through, but you’ve got to get ready for next week and you’ve got to move on. I’ve got a great team around me. I think that’s part of what makes Front Row special is we have a really tight group, especially the 34 car. We’re all really tight on the 34 car and obviously everybody is disappointed and it’s a tough thing to do and to walk back to the hauler and see a wrecked race car and all those things, but my guys have been really supportive. We have a good team, so it took me up until about yesterday. As far as watching the end of the race and seeing all the other guys have trouble, it was a mix. The mix was it does create the opportunity for us not to be so far back, but the other side of it was it was one of those races where if you played it cool and didn’t hit anything you were gonna run 15th pretty easy and we would be in a much different spot. Like I said, you can’t hit rewind, but if you would have known that going into it, I would have probably approached things a little bit differently, but if I approached it differently maybe it wouldn’t have worked out that way either. You can’t overthink it. I think I’ve definitely analyzed a lot of things, analyzed a lot of data, looked at what I can do and can’t do. Sometimes that’s good and bad. It’s good because I’m always learning and growing and figuring out how I could be better, but it’s bad because I can’t necessarily shut it off and just be OK with, ‘I got loose. It’s over. That’s done.’ I tend to look at those things pretty in-depth.”

DID YOU WATCH THE END OF THE RACE OR DID YOU DRIVE HOME, AND WHEN THE OTHER GUYS HAD TROUBLE WERE YOU HAPPY? I’M SURE YOU DON’T WISH ILL WILL ON ANYONE, BUT IT WORKED OUT BETTER FOR YOU IN THE END. “I think as I was watching the race I wasn’t really thinking about it too much like that until I got to the end and saw the points and all that. Like I said, it’s a little bit of a mix for me. Being in that so many guys had trouble it keeps us in the fight, but it also is a little bit of a kick because you just know that those were points and probably positions that would have been hard to get otherwise, and so they were kind of free to take if we didn’t make that mistake. But I did watch it and watched the race, but as far as feelings when people fall out, I don’t get excited when people have trouble. But when you get to the end and you see how the points laid out I felt like we still had a chance, and without those guys having trouble we’d be pretty far back.”

WHY DID YOU WATCH? WAS IT SOMETHING TO LEARN OR JUST TO WATCH? “I watched because I’m into it. I want to see who is running well, what they’re doing, what line they were running. It’s hard for me to turn that off even if you have a night like we had when we were out, so you’re paying attention on who is doing what and how the pit cycles are going and all those things. I still can’t stop thinking about, ‘I wonder if we would have pitted early here or pittled later there or what would have happened if this cycled out,’ so I stayed pretty engaged with it all even after a tough day like that.”

Matt DiBenedetto and the No. 21 Menards/Dutch Boy team are hoping to rebound from a disappointing run in the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway by posting a good finish in Saturday night’s Salute to American Heroes 400 at Richmond Raceway.

The event, which will be run on the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America, will honor the first responders and other heroes of that fateful day.

While the day – and the race – likely will have a somber feel, DiBenedetto and the Menards/Dutch Boy team will be working hard to turn in a performance that will live up to the name of the race.

Throughout his Cup career, DiBenedetto has had some of his best runs on the shorter tracks such as the three-quarter-mile oval at Richmond.

It was there back in April that he got the first of his seven top-10 finishes this season.

“Short tracks are ones we look forward to most,” DiBenedetto said. “You’ve got to be easy on the throttle and on the tires.”

He’s also hoping to regain the momentum he’s had in recent weeks. In the past eight races, he’s had six finishes of 11th or better followed by a strong run at Daytona that ended with a crash while battling for the lead in the closing laps. The only disappointment was a 23rd-place finish at Darlington Sunday night.

“We have been on a good roll as a team and just have to shake off Darlington,” he said.

DiBenedetto will line up 28th for Saturday night’s 400-lapper as the starting positions are based on results from the most recent race, with the 16 Playoff drivers starting up front.

The green flag is set to fly just after 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time, with Stage breaks at Laps 80 and 235.

NBCSN will carry the live TV broadcast.

Menards

A family-owned and run company started in 1958, Menards is recognized as the retail home center leader of the Midwest with 236 stores in 15 states. Menards is truly a one-stop shop for all of your home improvement needs featuring a full-service lumberyard and everything you need to plan a renovation or build a home, garage, cabin, shed, deck, fence or post frame building. Menards is known for friendly Customer Service and as the place to “Save Big Money” with low prices every day, and sales too! For more information, please visit Menards.com to learn about our store locations, offerings and services.

Wood Brothers Racing

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

Aric Almirola
Richmond Advance
Smithfield/Tuesday’s Children Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview
● Event: Federated Auto Parts 400 Salute to First Responders (Round 28 of 36)
● Time/Date: 7:30 p.m. EDT on Saturday, Sept. 11
● Location: Richmond (Va.) Raceway
● Layout: .75-mile oval
● Laps/Miles: 400 laps/300 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 80 laps / Stage 2: 155 laps / Final Stage: 165 laps
● TV/Radio: NBCSN / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● This morning, Smithfield® and the Gene Haas Foundation had the honor of recognizing Tuesday’s Children, an organization formed in the wake of 9/11 that provides a lifetime of healing for families who have been affected by terrorism, military conflict or mass violence, with a $50,000 donation at Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) headquarters in Kannapolis, North Carolina. In addition to the donation, driver Aric Almirola unveiled the special-edition No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang that he will pilot in Saturday night’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond (Va.) Raceway. The Ford Mustang will feature a commemorative 9/11 paint scheme and the Tuesday’s Children logo to honor those whose lives were forever changed by the tragedy and further spotlight the non-profit’s mission. Since Tuesday’s Children was founded nearly two decades ago, it has served more than 42,000 individuals. The organization’s goal is to ensure that families who have suffered losses due to the events of 9/11, post-9/11 military service, or other acts of mass violence and terrorism always have a comforting place to turn to for support and community. This $50,000 donation will help provide individuals and families with counseling and support, youth mentorship and career guidance, healing through service and peacebuilding, and much more.
● History at Richmond: In 18 starts, Almirola has earned seven top-10 finishes, two top-fives, and has led one lap on the .75-mile Richmond oval. In his most recent start there, Almirola finished sixth, which was his third-best finish of the year behind Nashville Superspeedway, where he finished fourth, and his win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon. His sixth-place finish in April earned him back-to-back top-10 finishes at Richmond.
● Almirola and the No. 10 Ford team are bringing the same car to Richmond that piloted the team to a victory at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon on July 18. That win locked Almirola into the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. He led 46 laps around the flat, 1.058-mile oval en route to his third career NASCAR Cup Series win. After a year full of adversity and bad luck, the victory put the No. 10 team, which was 27th in the standings and facing a must-win situation if it was going to compete for this year’s championship, in prime position to earn one of the 16 coveted berths in the 10-race playoffs. Almirola’s award-winning YouTube series “Beyond the 10” captured his entire race day here.
● In his pursuit of his first Cup Series championship, Almirola looks to continue Tampa Bay’s recent sports successes by adding to the accomplishments of his hometown teams – back-to-back Stanley Cup championships won by the National Hockey League’s Tampa Bay Lightning, last year’s World Series appearance by Major League Baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays, and this year’s Super Bowl championship by the National Football League’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
● Richmond is a hometown race for Smithfield Foods, whose headquarters are located just 80 miles southeast of the track. Smithfield celebrates 10 years of partnership with Almirola this season with a special campaign called Taste Victory. As one of the most active partners in NASCAR, Smithfield engages fans all year long by hosting a microsite that provides the opportunity to win when Almirola wins or finishes inside the top-10. When Almirola wins, one fan wins $10,000, and 10 fans win a gift card for each top-10 finish. The microsite also doubles as an Aric Almirola fan page and entertainment source where fans can get behind the wheel of the No. 10 Smithfield Ford with a custom racing game, and learn more about Almirola with fast facts, favorite recipes and custom content about his life on and off the track. Visit www.tastevictory.com to learn more. Thanks to Almirola’s Feb. 11 win in his Duel qualifying race for the Daytona 500 and his July 18 win at New Hampshire, two lucky fans have already won $10,000 each.
● Almirola’s 2020 season proved successful when he earned a career-high 18 top-10 finishes, six top-fives and led 305 laps. During the season, Almirola went on a five-race streak of top-five finishes and earned nine consecutive top-10s.
● Career Stats: Almirola has career totals of three wins, two poles, 26 top-five finishes, 82 top-10s and 893 laps led in 379 NASCAR Cup Series starts.
● Beyond the 10 YouTube Series:In 2021, Almirola continues to share his life beyond the No. 10 Ford with season three of his award-winning YouTube series. Fans and media can subscribe on YouTube to see Almirola’s personality on and off the track. Episodes have already featured life as a dad, a husband and an athlete, and it gives fans a unique perspective on what goes on in the life of a professional NASCAR driver. Fans can also follow Almirola’s social media channels: @Aric_Almirola on Twitter and Instagram, and @AricAlmirola on Facebook. Almirola’s latest Beyond the 10 episode addresses the question “are NASCAR drivers athletes” in honor of the Olympic break.

Playoff Standings (with two races to go before Round of 12):

1. Denny Hamlin (2,072 points) 1 win
2. Kyle Larson (2,106 points) +80 points
3. Martin Truex Jr. (2,062 points) +36 points
4. Kurt Busch (2,062 points) +26 points
5. Ryan Blaney (2,048 points) +22 points
6. Joey Logano (2,047 points) +21 points
7. Kevin Harvick (2,046 points) +20 points
8. Brad Keselowski (2,038 points) +12 points
9. Christopher Bell (2,031 points) +6 points
10. Chase Elliott (2,030 points) +4 points
11. Aric Almirola (2,029 points) +3 points
12. Alex Bowman (2,026 points) +0 points
13. Tyler Reddick (2,026 points) -0 points
14. Kyle Busch (2,024 points) -2 points
15. William Byron (2,017 points) -9 points
16. Michael McDowell (2,006 points) -20 points

Aric Almirola, Driver of the No. 10 Smithfield/Tuesday’s Children Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

Earlier today, you had the honor of presenting matching $25,000 checks to Tuesday’s Children on behalf of Smithfield and the Gene Haas Foundation, as well as unveil a paint scheme paying tribute to the organization’s 20th anniversary. How was that?

“With Saturday’s race in Richmond taking place on the 20th anniversary of Sept. 11, we wanted to pay tribute to those who were affected by the heinous acts of 9/11. Tuesday’s Children has done an incredible job serving as a strong support system for so many individuals and families throughout the last two decades, and I am privileged to be a part of this moment to spotlight their organization through this donation and paint scheme.”

What do you expect at Richmond?

“More of the same. It’s going to be tough. It’s going to be intense. There’s going to be a lot of battling and I have no doubt that you will see a playoff car or a few run into some trouble. It just happens and you just don’t want to be that guy. We’ve been fortunate going to Richmond in year’s past, especially in the playoffs, where we’ve always had good cars. We’ve run in the top-five, scored a lot of stage points and had good finishes, so that’s been one of our best racetracks and we’re taking the same car we won with at Loudon, so hopefully we can produce a similar result.”

How much has changed since the first Richmond race this year?

“It’s hard to say because I feel like Richmond doesn’t change, but everybody always seems to find a way to get better, so you can’t rest on your laurels. If you were good at Richmond last time, you can’t automatically assume that you’re going to beat the competition. Everybody is always looking to find ways to make their cars better from the last race. And you just look at Darlington – I know the patch (of new pavement in turn two) was an added difference and something new about Darlington, but you go back and look at the spring race and look at the cars that ran well, and then you look at this race and there were some different cars running up front. I think the race teams, the organizations, everybody works hard to find more speed in our cars, more downforce, all those things, so that usually equates to stiffer competition in the playoffs, so everybody brings their A-game. I have no doubt that even though we’ve run well at Richmond and we ran well there in the spring, we’re still fine-tuning and tweaking on what we had there in the past to try and make it a race-winning car instead of a top-five car.”

What clicked for you so much earlier this year at Richmond when nothing else seemed to go right?

“I do feel like going to Richmond this time around I have so much confidence because I didn’t feel like our cars were where they needed to be earlier this year, and yet we still went to Richmond and ran in the top-10 and finished seventh. So, to go there and run like we did in the spring, where I felt like our cars were still off, especially the 750 (horsepower) stuff that we’ve made significant gains on, it gives me a lot of confidence knowing that we ran well there in the spring and that we’re going back with a lot better racecar and it’s a place that we just, for whatever reason, run better at. It doesn’t matter the team or the crew chief or whatever, I always show up to Richmond and tend to run well there – very similar to Loudon. I’m excited about it. It’s a great place for us. It’s Smithfield’s backyard, so it always feels good to go up there and run well, and then this weekend in particular we’re running a really cool, special paint scheme to honor and remember 20 years ago, 9/11, so I’m pretty excited about this weekend on all fronts.”

Is it better to go for the win in round one or survive? Is there a balance?

“That’s certainly a balance, but if you look historically over the last several years, the first round is definitely a round that you’ve got to survive. Winning obviously makes it way easier, but surviving is key because on any given year you look back and at least two or three cars end up taking themselves out just from one or two bad races, wrecks, blown engines, whatever it is So when you look at the first round, it’s about surviving, but you have to be aggressive. It’s such a balancing act between not making mistakes and don’t wreck, don’t take yourself out but, at the same time, you’ve got to race for every point. Every single stage point matters. Every single point in position on the racetrack at the end of the race matters, so it really is a tough challenge and a balancing act between being aggressive to go get the spots that you need to go get, and making sure that you don’t put yourself in a bad position to get tore up and have a DNF.”

What do you make of all the attrition at Darlington last Sunday, and how did your night go?

“I honestly can’t explain the amount of attrition between the playoff drivers, but it does seem to happen when we get to the playoffs. We see it time and time again where playoff drivers end up with bad races and find themselves in a hole. I guess it’s just the way it works and it creates a lot of excitement for TV and the sport in general, seeing guys trying to dig out of holes to make it to the next round of the playoffs. As far as our race goes, we overcame some adversity, for sure. We had some things not go our way, late-race cautions and a tire going down, and several different things just popping up and happening that we had to overcome. So, for us, getting out of there with a 16th-place finish and being three points above the cutline, while not ideal, especially with a car that was capable of running anywhere from seventh to 10th most of the night, we didn’t take ourselves out. We kept fighting, kept grinding away the whole night. It’s a long race. Five hundred miles at Darlington is a long race, but to get out of there with a decent night, scoring some stage points and finding ourselves leaving Darlington three points above the cutline is a good spot to be going to these next two weeks that are good tracks for us.”

Where were you on 9/11 and what do you remember from that day?

“I remember exactly where I was that day. I was a senior in high school and I was in drafting class. I was in an architectural engineering class and I was drawing on graph paper and I remember our teacher got a phone call or got notified, I don’t remember exactly how he got notified, but he got notified and he turned on the little tube TV that was mounted up on a wall bracket in the classroom and put the news on and we all put our pencils down and just sat there in shock. We couldn’t believe what we were witnessing. I remember it being very somber in the classroom and just a lot of emotion and everybody was very quiet and glued to the TV, trying to figure out what was going on. Shortly after that, we all got dismissed from school. If you drove to school, you could leave. Otherwise, you had to wait for the buses to come or for your parents to come pick you up. I was a senior in high school. I drove, so I was able to hop in my truck and drive home. I just remember getting home as fast as I could and turning the news back on.”

No. 10 Smithfield/Tuesday’s Children Ford Team Roster

Primary Team Members

Driver: Aric Almirola
Hometown: Tampa, Florida

Crew Chief: Mike Bugarewicz
Hometown: Lehighton, Pennsylvania

Car Chief: Jerry Cook
Hometown: Toledo, Ohio

Engineer: Lee Deese
Hometown: Rockingham, North Carolina

Engineer: James Kimbrough
Hometown: Pensacola, Florida

Spotter: Joel Edmonds
Hometown: Dobson, North Carolina

Over-The-Wall Members

Front Tire Changer: Ryan Mulder
Hometown: Sioux Center, Iowa

Rear Tire Changer: Michael Johnson
Hometown: Andover, New York

Tire Carrier: Tyler Bullard
Hometown: King, North Carolina

Jack Man: Sean Cotton
Hometown: Mooresville, North Carolina

Fuel Man: James “Ace” Keener
Hometown: Fortuna, California

Road Crew Members

Mechanic: Tony Silvestri
Hometown: Sylvania, Ohio

Mechanic: Robbie Fairweather
Hometown: Westbrookville, New York

Engine Tuner: Matt Moeller
Hometown: Monroe, New York

Tire Specialist: Russel Simpson
Hometown: Medford, New York

Transporter Co-Driver: Dale Lackey
Hometown: Taylorsville, North Carolina

Transporter Co-Driver: Wayne Smith
Hometown: Melbourne, Australia

GNOG Returns to No. 38 Team Ahead of Virginia Launch

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (September 8, 2021) – Anthony Alfredo’s No. 38 Ford Mustang will once again carry the Golden Nugget Online Gaming (NASDAQ: GNOG) colors this weekend at Richmond Raceway.

Visitors to GoldenNuggetSports.com in Virginia can enjoy mobile sports betting in the state with the launch of the Golden Nugget Sportsbook app coming soon. GNOG’s online sportsbook is also the home of their Golden Lines, featuring exclusive daily odds boosts and Notorious VIG promotions.

Alfredo continues to help familiarize GNOG to the passionate NASCAR fan base through social media promotion as well as carrying the patriotic Black and Gold Stars & Stripes scheme on the track and to the millions of NASCAR fans tuning into Saturday’s race.

“It’s great to have Golden Nugget back with us at Richmond,” said Alfredo. “I know they’re getting ready to unveil GoldenNuggetSports.com in the Virginias and we’re pumped to support that roll out. We have another opportunity on Saturday to do well for them on track and hopefully turn our luck around as we head into the last nine races of the year.”

For more information about Golden Nugget Online Gaming, visit GoldenNuggetSports.com; or download the app, available on iOS, Android, and Google Play.

Saturday’s race will be televised live on NBCSN at 7:30 p.m. ET.

ABOUT GNOG
Golden Nugget Online Gaming is a leading online gaming company that is considered a market leader by its peers and was first to bring Live Dealer and Live Casino Floor Roulette to the United States online gaming market. GNOG was the past recipient of 17 eGaming Review North America Awards, including the coveted Operator of the Year award in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020.

ABOUT FRONT ROW MOTORSPORTS
Front Row Motorsports (FRM) is a winning organization in the NASCAR Cup and Camping World Truck Series and the 2021 Daytona 500 champions. The team was founded in 2004 and is owned by successful entrepreneur, Bob Jenkins. FRM fields the No. 34 and the No. 38 NASCAR Cup Series teams along with the No. 38 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series team– from its Mooresville, N.C. headquarters. Visit teamfrm.com and follow FRM on social media: Twitter at @Team_FRM, Instagram at @team_frm and Facebook at facebook.com/FrontRowMotorsports.