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Relocating Your Classic Car: 3 Common Shipping Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

By
SM
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Are you someone who breaks a sweat every time their car gets a tiny scratch? Then, chances are your heart is already racing at the idea of relocating your vintage car to another state or country.

The idea of entrusting a third-party auto transport company with your 1987 Ford Mustang GT or 1963 Corvette Stingray seems like an extreme leap of faith, doesn’t it?

Chances are you’ve already contemplated driving your car all the way to the new destination. But even then you risk damaging your prized possession due to inclement weather conditions, pollution, and accidents.

If you’ve been losing your sleep over the thought of moving your vintage car to a new destination, we’ve got you covered. In this blog, we’ve outlined a few crucial mistakes you should watch out for while shipping your vintage car. Let’s take a look.

Rushing to Finalize Your Car Shipping Company

There’s no dearth of credible auto transport companies in the market. Even a simple Google search will reveal a plethora of listings for car transport providers. But when it comes to moving a classic car, the biggest mistake most people make is choosing their car shipping company without performing adequate research.

When moving a classic car, finding a specialist auto transport company isn’t enough. You need a company that’s transparent about its registration and insurance details. Also, it’s important to use enclosed auto carrier services to protect your car from pollution and bad weather.

Here’s the thing – not all car shipping companies specialize in relocating classic and luxury cars. You must find a company that has adequate experience of transporting vintage cars across long distances. Before finalizing a shipping provider, ask them about the safety measures they put in place to ensure that your car reaches the destination in a pristine condition.

Also, it’s wiser to choose a local transportation company that’s familiar with the regulations and topography of the destination. For instance, if you want to ship a car to Washington (WA), it’s a good idea to hire a reputable and trusted Washington-based auto transport provider.

They are better equipped to identify the best-suited routes for safely transporting your car. Also, they’ll help you transfer your vehicle’s registration and deal with all other DMV requirements at the new location.

Not Digging Deeper Into Paperwork

Finding a specialist auto transport company isn’t enough. You don’t want them to dupe you of your hard-earned money, or worse still, cause damage to your vintage car.

As with any other relocation service provider, don’t forget to check the company’s license and registration details. You don’t want to hand over your vintage car to a transport company that isn’t registered with the Department of Transport.

If you’re moving your vehicle to another state, make sure you also check whether the company is registered with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. If a car shipping company hesitates to share its registration number, consider it to be a major red flag.

Additionally, you need to check the type of insurance coverage the company will provide. It’s crucial because even the slightest dents or scratches on a vintage car can cost you a fortune. Also, if your car gets misplaced or stolen, it’s only going to escalate the financial burden.

If you think the current insurance plan won’t provide adequate coverage, talk to the transport provider and explore the possibility of upgrading to a higher plan. While it might increase your overall relocation budget, it’ll eliminate the headache of expensive repairs (should the need arise).

While you’re at it, don’t forget to check your car’s insurance policy too. Consult the insurance provider to find out whether your current plan covers damages caused during shipping. Otherwise, choose a different plan with better coverage.

Choosing the Wrong Type of Carrier

When it comes to car shipping, you can choose from the following carrier options:

  • Enclosed carriers
  • Open-air carriers

While open-air transport carriers are most cost-effective, they expose your vehicle to adverse weather, pollution, and physical debris. Needless to say, you don’t want to skimp on the cost factor while relocating a vintage car.

That’s why it is wiser to opt for a transport company that provides enclosed auto carriers. These are ideal for protecting your vehicle from accidents and environmental damage. Also, you should check whether the company uses stackable carriers. If that’s the case, find out what safety measures they use to protect cars at the bottom of the stack.

Alternatively, you could choose a single-unit auto carrier for increased safety. Apart from eliminating damage, it also ensures that your vehicle reaches its destination faster.

Whether you’re moving your vintage car across the country or overseas, it’s crucial to find the right auto transport company. Choose a company that’s transparent about its registration and insurance details. Also, use an enclosed auto carrier to protect your car from pollution and bad weather.

Airborne Ericsson cruises to victory lane in Nashville Grand Prix

By
Briar Starr
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Photo Courtesy of IndyCar.

Despite going airborne on Lap 4 and receiving an avoidable contact penalty, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Marcus Ericsson fought and clawed his way back to score his second victory of the 2021 NTT IndyCar Series season at the first-ever Music City Grand Prix in Nashville.

“I thought my race was over there,” Ericsson said about going airborne. “Then we had to repair the car. I got a stop-and-go. We were dead last. It was all about trying to recover. I think the car got some damage, as well, from that flight. There was definitely some damage on the car.

“I thought I would try and recover as many positions as possible and have a solid, what, top 15, was sort of my game plan after that incident. Then, yeah, the team did a great job with the strategy. Pit stops were great. There were so many incidents. For sure there was a little luck there, as well, no doubt about that.

“But we delivered when we had to. In the end, I think when Colton was behind me and I had to do a really big fuel number to get us to the finish line and still keep him behind, that was one of the toughest challenges of my career. I’m very proud that I could keep him behind and keep the pace up. That won me the race.”

The first-ever Music City Grand Prix for the NTT IndyCar Series in downtown Nashville received a lot of hype. It also was filled with numerous incidents that produced nine cautions for 33 laps out of the 80-lap event.

During the first 20 laps of the race, there were four cautions with the first on Lap 1 when the No. 4 of Dalton Kellett came to a stop on the frontstretch. However, a big moment for the eventual race winner came on Lap 4, as Ericsson slammed into the No. 14 of Sebastien Bourdais and went soaring over him. Unfortunately for Bourdais, the damage to the No. 14 A.J. Foyt Racing machine was too much to recover from and he was out of the race early. Ericsson was able to stay in the race with a front wing change but received a penalty for avoidable contact.

A big pileup occurred on Lap 19 when the No. 22 of Simon Pagenaud crashed into the Turn 11 wall, stacking up cars behind him. At least 10 cars were involved in the wreck including the vehicles of Rinus VeeKay, Jimmie Johnson, Will Power and Takuma Sato, to name a few. During the red flag, the No. 48 of Johnson was disqualified from the race due to unapproved adjustments to his Honda machine. The red flag lasted 12 minutes.

With one-third of the race slowed under yellows, more cautions would be seen throughout the race. A caution was flown at halfway on Lap 40 for a crash between the No. 3 of Scott McLaughlin and Kellett in Turn 9 after contact was made from McLaughlin’s teammate Will Power. The incident left IndyCar officials no other choice than to penalize Power for avoidable contact.

After early and numerous cautions, there was a small gap of green-flag racing. Ericsson led the way over pole-sitter Colton Herta. With 10 laps to go, second-place Herta was chasing Ericsson down little by little and cut the lead down to 2.0448 seconds. But the Andretti Autosport car was struggling to catch Ericsson as Ericsson had more push to pass than Herta. Unfortunately, Herta’s attempt to chase down Ericsson came to a halt with five laps to go with Herta crashing into the Turn 9 wall.

In the NTT IndyCar Series, there are no green-white-checkered finishes or overtime attempts. So, in an attempt to end the race at the advertised distance, the red flag was flown following Herta’s incident. Following a brief track cleanup, the field was fired back up and went back to green with two laps to go.

With darkness and sunset approaching, Ericsson had one more task to complete. He had to hold off his teammate Scott Dixon who was lined up in second. If Dixon had been able to pass Ericsson, he had a chance to tie Mario Andretti’s all-time win record. As the green flag flew, Ericsson’s car was much stronger than Dixon’s and he was able to keep Dixon at bay. The Swedish driver went on to hold off Dixon for the win by 1.5 seconds.

The finishing result for Dixon gave him his third podium of the season and he took over the second position in points. Dixon now trails his teammate Alex Palou by 42 points.

“Man, I don’t really know what to say about the day,” Dixon said. “It was a crazy race. There were a lot of yellows, a lot of reds. I think we did almost 45, 50 laps on the last set of tires. We didn’t take tires on the last stop. They were blacks. That was real interesting.

“Yeah, kudos to the team. You got to take those wins, man. He was in the right place at the right time. I think he had probably one of the most eventful days of everybody out there, flying up in the sky, then getting a drive-through penalty and all that stuff, coming out with a win. It was just so good I think today for me just the parade lap, seeing so many people here. That’s what really fired me up, I think, what really made the event.”

James Hinchcliffe, who is fighting for a ride next year, came home with a strong third-place finish and obtained his first podium of the season. The podium finish was also Hinchcliffe’s first since the 2019 Iowa race where the Canadian finished third.

“For us in the 29 car, it’s been a rough season,” Hinchcliffe said. “We’ve had our own troubles, but we’ve also had a lot of bad luck. It looked like it was going that way again today when we got stuck in the traffic jam in turn 11. Brian Barnhart made a great call, got us in the pits there to kind of cycle through when it all shook out.

“We had a great car. The Capstone car was great. The Andretti Steinbrenner guys in the pits were awesome in that second stop, got us ahead of Ryan because he was ahead of us on track at that point. It was eventful. We were at the back, front, kind of ran a little bit of everywhere today, in the middle. Like Scott said, we probably had a few too many yellows for what we would have wanted to put on a good show for everyone here.”

There were nine cautions for 33 laps and four lead changes among three different leaders. Ericsson led twice for 37 laps.

  1. Marcus Ericsson, led 37 laps
  2. Scott Dixon
  3. James Hinchcliffe
  4. Ryan Hunter-Reay
  5. Graham Rahal
  6. Ed Jones
  7. Alex Palou
  8. Felix Rosenqvist
  9. Helio Castroneves
  10. Josef Newgarden
  11. Santino Ferrucci
  12. Conor Daly
  13. Pato O’Ward
  14. Will Power
  15. Jack Harvey
  16. Romain Grosjean, led four laps
  17. Alexander Rossi
  18. Max Chilton
  19. Colton Herta, led 39 laps, OUT, Contact
  20. Cody Ware, OUT, Disqualified for not running at competitive pace
  21. Simon Pagenaud, OUT, Contact
  22. Scott McLaughlin, 13 laps down
  23. Dalton Kellett, OUT, Contact
  24. Rinus VeeKay, OUT, Contact
  25. Takuma Sato, OUT, Contact
  26. Jimmie Johnson, OUT, Contact
  27. Sebastien Bourdais, OUT, Contact

Up Next: The NTT IndyCar Series will head back to Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but this time, competing on the road course, on Saturday, August 14, live on NBCSN at 12:30 p.m. ET.

Fourth Place Finish for the No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05 at Road America

By
Official Release
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Elkhart Lake, Wis. (August 8, 2021) — Ricky Taylor and Filipe Albuquerque made the most of a challenging afternoon for the No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05 in the IMSA SportsCar Weekend at Road America. Their fourth place finish means that they maintain a 41-point lead over the second place No. 31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac DPi in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with a total of 2,380 points.

Ricky Taylor started the sprint on the front row and made a daring dive around the outside of Turn 1 at the start, using every bit of his skill to maintain control and keep second place. He drove consistently to hold that position through the first round of stops and a pair of early cautions and restarts.

A minute past the halfway mark, Filipe Albuquerque climbed aboard and filtered out in P3 thanks to an alternative strategy by the No. 60 Acura that saw them take the lead. Albuquerque had to make an unscheduled stop with 24 minutes remaining. After a close battle with the championship rival No. 55 Mazda resulted in contact entering the Turn 9 Carousel, a puncture necessitated a tire change on the following lap.

After the No. 60 made a late additional stop for fuel, they emerged in fourth place ahead of Albuquerque in fifth. It wasn’t the Road America victory that the team had been hoping for, but with seconds remaining, Filipe took fourth position from the sister Acura car to maximise championship points under the circumstances.

“Tough day here at Road America,” expressed Ricky Taylor. “The streak is still in the wrong direction here for the No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05 Wayne Taylor Racing team with a win at Road America just eluding us. But, the team did a great job once again. I feel like had we gotten some track position on the start and led the race we could’ve controlled it a bit better. The No. 31 did a great job today keeping us behind. We tried everything we could and unfortunately a puncture caught us out. We recovered well. The team kept pushing and we kept trying. Our friends at Meyer Shank, Acura teammates, really helped us out at the end to give us some extra points. We come out of it still in the points lead and if we can have bad days like this, hopefully this is our worst day, we’re in good shape. We’ve had that little buffer, now we can’t afford any more of these. We can get it out of the way and move forward to Laguna Seca and hopefully have a good run.”

“Good start from Ricky putting the No. 31 under pressure,” said Filipe Albuquerque. “I think we had a really, really good car. In clean air we were a little quicker, but we were stuck behind the No. 31 which obviously had great pace. It was a really tight race, with a chance to use the traffic to make a pass and get the position. From then on we would’ve been in control, but that didn’t happen. The contact with the No. 55 Mazda was a racing incident and it is what it is. It’s very frustrating that we got the puncture because it completely took away the possibility to fight for the win or eventually finish P2. At this point in the championship all the points are important. We are still leading but with a more narrow window. The car is good and we will still compete for wins.”

“I don’t know what this track does to us, but we never seem able to win here,” reflected team owner Wayne Taylor. “We had a good race and unfortunately we had a tire go flat and that put us at the back. We managed to finish fourth and managed to maintain the lead in the championship, so that’s all that counts.”

The No. 10 Konica Minolta Acura ARX-05 2021 returns to the track for the Hyundai Monterey Sports Car Championship on September 10-12. Practice begins on Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET. Green flag will wave on Sunday, September 12 at 4:10 p.m. ET with live coverage on TrackPass on NBC Sports Gold.
About Konica Minolta
Konica Minolta Business Solutions U.S.A., Inc. is reshaping and revolutionizing the Workplace of the Future. The company guides and supports its customers’ digital transformation through its expansive office technology portfolio, including IT Services (All Covered), content services, managed print services and industrial and commercial print solutions. Konica Minolta has been included on CRN’s MSP 500 list nine times and The World Technology Awards recently named the company a finalist in the IT Software category. Konica Minolta has been recognized as the #1 Brand for Customer Loyalty in the MFP Office Copier Market by Brand Keys for fourteen consecutive years, and received Keypoint Intelligence’s BLI 2021 A3 Line of The Year Award and BLI 2021-2023 Most Color Consistent A3 Brand Award for its bizhub i-Series. Konica Minolta, Inc. has been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index for nine consecutive years and has spent four years on the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World list. Konica Minolta partners with its clients to give shape to ideas and works to bring value to our society. For more information, please visit us online and follow Konica Minolta on Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter. Wayne Taylor Racing’s existing lineup of partners that also features Harrison Contracting, Acura Motorsports , Hammer Nutrition and CIT.

CORVETTE RACING AT ROAD AMERICA: Two Podiums, on to Le Mans

By
Official Release
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ELKHART LAKE, Wis. (Aug. 8, 2021) – Corvette Racing finished second and third in the GT Le Mans (GTLM) category of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship on Sunday at Road America as the program now heads across the Atlantic Ocean for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

GTLM championship leaders Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor finished second in the No. 3 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R, just ahead of Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy in the No. 4 mid-engine Corvette. Shortly after the race, all focus turned to Le Mans with the team traveling over in the coming days with the Test Day set for Aug. 15.

Sunday’s race marked Corvette Racing’s 20th event at Road America, and early on the two C8.Rs were in control. Taylor and Tandy ran 1-2 during the opening minutes. An early-race call to take fuel and tires just 22 minutes in gave the No. 4 Corvette the advantage during the opening hour. Running second, Tandy took fuel and fresh Michelin tires just ahead of a full-course caution period.

Once the GT pits opened for stops, the No. 3 Corvette side switched to Garcia along with a full fuel fill and fresh tires. Meanwhile, Tandy remained in the No. 4 C8.R and took just enough fuel to top off the tank to move from third to first ahead of the restart at the 40-minute mark.

Tandy continued his good work in traffic on the restart to move five seconds ahead of Garcia before a second full-course caution 20 minutes later. Tandy and Garcia both stayed in with the No. 4 C8.R retaining an advantage.

Garcia stopped the No. 3 Corvette for more fuel and tires with 75 minutes left with the No. 4 coming in less than 15 minutes later for a driver change to Milner. Disaster struck, though, as the car’s wheels spun while on the airjacks. Race officials assessed the No. 4 C8.R a drive-through penalty for the infraction.

Meanwhile, Garcia set out to pressure Matt Campbell in the No. 79 entry late but the pace and gap was too much to overcome.

Corvette Racing next makes its return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which runs Aug. 21-22.

ANTONIO GARCIA, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – FINISHED SECOND IN GTLM: “Not bad. It was all about gambling. Before the first yellow, we had decided to split strategies to put pressure on the Porsche and they decided to follow us. I think we probably took a gamble on some tires and it didn’t pay off on that first stint I did. We lost some track position and had to change strategies from that point on to make up one stop. The information I got on my stint probably helped us close the gap. We had to get pushing but they (the No. 79) made it to the end. So we did all we could do – keep the pressure up and pray for a little less fuel in their tanks. They did right and won the race. I’m happy with it considering how the race went. It’s a shame the 4 car had that drive-through (penalty). I think they would have put the Porsche under a lot more pressure and would have to push. Maybe that would have put us more in contention. You never know in these races.”

JORDAN TAYLOR, NO. 3 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – FINISHED SECOND IN GTLM: “It’s not a win, but looking overall with how the day went I think we can be happy. We went a little bit off strategy tire-wise and it didn’t pay off. But we were a little off-strategy with the 79 there at the end. Had there been a yellow at the right time, things could have gone our way. We can’t be too upset with a second-place after winning three in a row.”

TOMMY MILNER, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – FINISHED THIRD IN GTLM: “Nick did an awesome job at the start. The pace was really good, he held on to the tires and the strategy was good. It was just one small, little mistake on the pit stop. My engineer Chuck wants to take the blame, but it’s also on me as well. In the moment and heat of it, we knew the stop was going to be finished around the time that the driver change was done. The information I got was that they were waiting on me, but obviously there was still some work being done and the car was in the air. There were a lot of things happening all at once there. At the end of the day, I don’t think it would have made a massive difference in the end result. Maybe we would have finished ahead of the 3 car. The 79 today was significantly faster than us at every stage of the race. Now the focus is on Le Mans. We definitely learned a lesson today. In the heat of the moment there, we need to make sure our processes are perfect. It wasn’t right there but we will take that lesson, move on and not make it again.”

NICK TANDY, NO. 4 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – FINISHED THIRD IN GTLM: “It’s not the result we wanted in the end. It was an interesting race for us in the 4 Corvette. We had a good start and led a couple of laps. The C8.R was good and we made a great call to pit before the first yellow. The pace of the Porsche at the end of their stints forced us into a box and we were trying to second-guess them because we saw the pace the car had. We had the mistake on the pit stop that set us back, and from then we were hoping for a yellow which never came. But now we go to Le Mans having run at the front again. All we need to do is finish off one of these races.”

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.

CHEVY NCS AT WATKINS GLEN: Kyle Larson Captures Fifth Win of 2021 at Watkins Glen

By
Official Release
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NASCAR CUP SERIES
WATKINS GLEN INTERNATIONAL
GO BOWLING AT THE GLEN
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
AUGUST 8, 2021

KYLE LARSON TAKES THE WIN AT WATKINS GLEN INTERNATIONAL
Team Chevy Scores 12th NCS Victory of 2021

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (August 8, 2021) – Kyle Larson’s title of the winningest NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) driver of the 2021 season continues on by driving his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL1 1LE to victory lane in the NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) return to Watkins Glen International in the Go Bowling at The Glen. Rolling off in the fourth starting position, Larson drove his Hendrick Motorsports’ Chevrolet to top-five finishes in both stages, leading 27 of the 90-lap, 220.5-mile race to capture the driver’s 11th NCS career-victory and fifth of the 2021 season.

The 29-year-old California native’s victory marks Chevrolet’s 12th win on the 2021 NCS season and its 807th all-time victory in NASCAR’s premier division. With just three races left in the regular season, Chevrolet continues to lead in the Manufacturer Points Standings in its quest for its 40th NASCAR Cup Series title. Larson’s victory brought the Chevrolet driver to the top of the Driver Standings, tying Denny Hamlin for the lead, in the battle for the Regular Season Championship.
The victory at the New York road course circuit is Hendrick Motorsports’ 24th road course win, extending its record as the NASCAR Cup Series all-time road course win leader. In 23 points-paying races in the NCS 2021 season, Hendrick Motorsports has made its way to victory lane 11 times, the most ever at this point of the year.

Larson lead a Hendrick Motorsports 1-2 finish after teammate, Chase Elliott, charged through the field after starting from the rear to give the No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro a runner-up finish and its 14th top-10 finish this season. William Byron took the checkered flag in sixth in his No. 24 Axalta Camaro ZL1 1LE. Tyler Reddick rounded out the Team Chevy top-10 in tenth in his No. 8 Chevrolet Accessories Camaro ZL1 1LE, giving the Camaro ZL1 1LE four of the top-10 finishers of the race.

Martin Truex Jr. (Toyota) finished third, Kyle Busch (Toyota) was fourth and Denny Hamlin (Toyota) rounded out the top-five.

KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1 1LE – PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
Q. Kyle, what a great victory, but there in those closing laps, I have to ask, as you caught all those lap cars were you worried about losing the time there?
KYLE LARSON: Yeah, I was. Chase was already catching me pretty quick, even with me being in open track, so when I caught those, I think, four cars and got into the 38 right here, I thought I would look at my mirror and the 9 would be right on me, but thankfully had a comfortable enough gap to where I could make a mistake like that.
I want to say a big apology to Christopher Bell. I was inside but I wasn’t inside enough, and I didn’t — I needed to have the nose a few feet further ahead, and the angles just caught there in the middle and I ended up turning him. I hate that. I race with him a lot. He’s probably the one guy that I race with the most in all my racing, so hate to turn him like that. We’ve had incredible races together.
Anyways, hats off to Hendrickcars.com. Thanks for everything you guys do for me, everybody at Hendrick Motorsports, Rick Hendrick, Jeff Gordon, Cliff Daniels, this whole 5 bunch. Another amazing car. I could tell from about lap 3 after I stopped making a bunch of mistakes that we were going to have a car that could win today.

Q. This is your fifth win on the season, one of the most successful seasons of all time. What does it mean to come to Hendrick Motorsports and have this successful of a season?
KYLE LARSON: Yeah, it’s awesome. I mean, it really just shows how good the organization is, all the people that they’ve assembled at their race shop, all the men and women. All four of us could not be getting these wins like we have been without them. Thanks to them, and thanks to everybody else I get to race for. Get to go to Iowa this week and chase another big win, so looking forward to that, and hopefully can just keep racking these wins up.

Q. What do you want to say to another massive crowd here at Watkins Glen?
KYLE LARSON: Yeah, thanks all you guys for coming out. It’s been a while since we’ve been here, so hopefully we put on a good show for you. It was definitely a good show from my seat when the three of us were going at it for the lead in the first stage, then there in the second and third stage. Just a lot of fun today and hope you guys enjoyed it.

CLIFF DANIELS, CREW CHIEF, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1 1LE – PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT
Q. Cliff, that pit stop really won the race when you guys jumped Truex. How good were they the entire day?
CLIFF DANIELS: Yeah, they were great. Honestly our first pit stop we just felt a little bit off to our standards, and the guys were hard on themselves, but credit to them, all the coaches back at Hendrick Motorsports; they knew how to be clutch when it was needed. That was the money stop of the race, and they did it.

Q. Kyle was talking about all the information that you were feeding to him. Is that conversation that you had with him pre-race in terms of how much information he wants, how much information you want to give him, or were you just kind of feeding whatever you wanted to?
CLIFF DANIELS: Yeah, we’ve kind of adjusted that over the course of the season. He is so intellectual about what he does. So we all know Kyle Larson, right, as the amazing talent and he hits the “go” button and goes really fast. But he’s also really aware of the race around him. Over the course of the season we’ve just kind of developed our communication, and I know that he is in a more comfortable spot behind the wheel the more information that he has.
The timing worked out where I could talk to him right down the front straightaway, kind of fill him in on what was going on around him, and then coach him not to over-drive it and certainly pace himself.
I think that’s just kind of developed throughout the year, honestly.

Q. The regular season points battle is tied right now with three races left. Kyle and Denny both said that they’re kind of enjoying it because it feels like a playoff race almost every weekend. How important is that to you as a crew chief and do you feel that way on the pit box, as well?
CLIFF DANIELS: Yeah, I would say so, and honestly I think if I was in your position I would ask the same question, but in my position you’ll understand that we’ve kind of had a thing that we’ve done all year on how we call races and how we prepare for a race, so I don’t plan to change that.
There’s a level of competitiveness that we strive for every week, and there’s things that our team tries to accomplish every week. That hasn’t changed. So the way we call the race really hasn’t changed. Our strategy from the start of the day is the strategy that we held to.
I will say that Denny and Chris Gabehart definitely are pros, and it’s going to be fun to race those guys. They’re tough, they’re going to be tough every week. Yeah, it’s going to be fun to race them, but I certainly don’t want to get distracted by that at the expense of calling a good race, if that makes sense.

Q. I don’t think a lot of us expected Kyle to be so good at road courses this year. He’s been decent at them in the past but really has excelled this year, now getting two wins here. What have you seen from him on these road courses that has allowed this kind of success?
CLIFF DANIELS: Yeah, he’s naturally good anywhere. One of the things that he challenges himself with during the summer months, and we’ve seen him do it years in a row, especially last year and then again this year, when he gets in a different type of dirt car at a different track, they don’t give much track time, right, so the driver has to adapt really quick, got to give the right feedback to make the right changes to a car.
That format that we have now in the Cup Series where we don’t have practice and qualifying, you don’t have three practice sessions before the race to dial yourself in or out; it’s just load and go. That suits him really well.
The timing of that, A; and B, I’ll give credit where credit is due. We’re kind of spoiled that we have the best road course team in-house, and that’s the 9 team. I think all things being equal today, it was going to be a really tough race to beat those guys if they didn’t have their issue middle of the race, and that’s no bigger compliment that I could give to the 9 team. Chase and Alan are pros.
To have their notes, to have the conversations and just the teamwork that we have with those guys, as cliche as it sounds, is so valuable.
I think a lot of things factor into what you’re seeing this year, and I know I’m getting a little long-winded here, but having good cars at the shop, good teammates, plus this format and Kyle’s all-in-the-gas nature kind of works out.

Q. I asked Kyle this question, and he said it was difficult to judge off one race whether he would have any kind of momentum. When you look at the last five races where you guys had not led very many laps, do you look at today as sort of a turnaround or at least looking back more like the team that we saw when you were winning three in a row?
CLIFF DANIELS: I think that’s a really fair question to ask, and our view out the windshield really hasn’t changed a lot. We’re trying to see everything out the windshield and make sure even looking in the rear view mirror that we evaluate ourselves every week, and if we — I mean, look, let’s be honest, at Loudon we were probably a ninth-place car. We were a seventh-place car; by the time the 18 and 19 wrecked, when you take them out of the field, we were a seventh-place car. I’m well aware of that. We weren’t at the level that we needed to be.
Looking at everything out front and what’s coming ahead, we’re going to prepare the same way using the same methodology that we’ve had all year. We’re going to have the same communication that we’ve had all year and just keep building.
To judge momentum at this point off of one race is hard to do, but certainly we’ll take it.

Q. As the playoffs approach, how do you feel about the 5 team now compared to maybe a month to month and a half ago?
KYLE LARSON: Honestly very much the same. When I look at Darlington, knowing that the pit road speed penalty put us back a little bit at Darlington and then we had to take a couple rounds of pit stops to get back up there and contend for the win. I know Darlington is going to be a good track for us.
Richmond we had a horrible race in the spring but our teammates, the 48, ran really well, so kind of confident that thankfully the 48 had a good race and a good datapoint that we can go look at.
Bristol, that has always been a special place for me and a special place for Larson. I think the dirt race kind of stung, the way it went for us this year, so Bristol is going to be a good race for us.
Going to the next round and go through those tracks and the next round and so on and so forth, I think there’s going to be a lot of opportunity for us, and we’re certainly eager to get there, but we’ve got to be really smart with the decisions that we make and how we execute.
The way we built our team to go into the summer months was to treat every race like it was kind of a do-or-die race, so we’ve had some training in that. Now the 11 is pushing us to stay on that path, right, and there’s no reason to let off the gas, so hopefully we’re keeping the arrow straight and true and headed for the target.

Q. Earlier in here Kyle talked about in terms of the points race and saying, hey, I want to try to get, build up a little bit of advantage the next couple weeks because Denny does so well at Daytona and he’s a little bit better. For what your driver has done this year, do you even want your driver to even think that somebody is better than him, even though maybe the numbers show it at that type of particular track? How do you, as you build up your driver, what you have to do, that he’s even thinking along those lines, you don’t care or do you want to get in his ear and say, let’s not be thinking that way?

CLIFF DANIELS: Yeah, I think it’s a fair question. We think a lot alike, and we both knowing if somebody beats us that we have that to shoot for and that we get to go study that much harder. If I think I’m good, I’m not very comfortable, and if he thinks he’s good, he’s not very comfortable. So he’s comfortable knowing that he needs to improve today to be better tomorrow. And I’m kind of the same personality.
I think that’s pretty healthy that he thinks that, and I think that of myself and our team, too. We’re going to look at today and be critical. I know my pit crew guys really well; they’re going to be critical of our first stop. You guys are all going to write about our second stop, but my guys at the shop on Monday are going to be beating themselves up over the first stop. Me and my engineer were already talking about things we could have done to make our car better to the 9 because the 9 was the best car at the end of the race. Like that’s a real thing.
Even leaving here as the winner, we already know two key areas that we can be better, and I think Kyle doing that, looking ahead at some of those races, is probably not a bad thing.

Q. He also talked kind of leading into that, that going into this race one of the things he took a close look at was how Chase got through the Bus Stop. He said he felt like that was a really key point and that’s something he really wanted to focus on going into this event. I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to look at the data or if you’re looking as the race goes on; was Kyle any better in that area? Did he close the gap on Chase in that portion of the course?
CLIFF DANIELS: He did, absolutely. Two things, big credit to Kyle because to himself, I think he had a huge improvement today just in some of the data that we studied the weeks leading up to this to prepare. I did try to look at it as much as I could during the race.
And then the second thing is Chase Elliott is still really, really good here, so he was still phenomenal through the Bus Stop.

Q. Next week at Indianapolis, inaugural race on that road course, obviously Xfinity raced there last year. Is there anything from this season, different courses, different portions of tracks that help with that, or is it so different because it’s flat there’s no elevation, it’s a different type of course? How do you prepare for that?
CLIFF DANIELS: It’s kind of a blend. This will sound weird, but we’ve studied it a good bit. It’s kind of a blend of Sonoma, Road America and maybe even a little bit of COTA. That’s pulling a lot of different areas. Trust me, I understand.
But different areas of the track can kind of resemble other different areas of those other tracks that I just mentioned. We’re trying to be smart and thoughtful in how we prepare the car for that race. I’ve said we’ve got to be smart in practice, execute in qualifying. Who knows for strategy during the race. I think tires are going to matter more than they mattered today, so you may see some guys, if there’s a weird caution, they pit and get tires on the car and could shake things up.
We’ll study up hard.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

About Chevrolet
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SNICKERS Racing: Kyle Busch Race Recap from Watkins Glen

By
Official Release
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Kyle Busch, No. 18 SNICKERS Toyota Camry
Race Recap for the Go Bowling at the Glen

Date: Aug. 8, 2021
Event: Go Bowling at The Glen (Round 23 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International (2.45-mile, 7-turn road course)
Format: 90 laps, broken into three stages (20 laps/20 laps/50 laps)
Start/Finish: 20th / 4th (Running, completed 90 of 90 laps)
Point Standing: 4th with 779 points, 138 behind leader
Race Winner: Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Joey Logano of Team Penske (Ford)
Stage 2 Winner: Martin Truex Jr. of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)

Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-20):

● Kyle Busch started 20th and finished sixth, earning five bonus points.
● The No. 18 SNICKERS Toyota had raced from 20th to 11th place by the time the competition caution was displayed on lap 10. Busch reported that the car was handling extremely loose at most points on the track.
● Green-flag racing resumed, and Busch quickly made a move to grab the eighth position.
● As Stage 1 drew to a close, a number of teams elected to make trips to pit road for service as part of their overall race strategy. The SNICKERS team remained on the track, finishing the stage in sixth place.
● During the caution the team made a big chassis adjustment, changed four tires and added fuel. Because a number of teams stopped prior to the end of the first stage, Busch lined up 20th to start Stage 2.

Stage 2 Recap (Laps 21-40):

● Busch started 20th and finished 10th, earning one bonus point.
● The Las Vegas native was in 18th place when NASCAR displayed a full-field caution for a single-car incident. Busch reported during the break that the balance on the car was better but still lacked what he needed to be aggressive.
● Green-flag racing resumed, and Busch quietly went to work. He was back in the top-10 on lap 36, and he reported that the SNICKERS Toyota lacked rear grip.
● The stage ended with Busch in 10th place. The team elected to stay out as part of their overall race strategy. This placed Busch in ninth place to start the final stage.

Final Stage Recap (Laps 41-90):

● Busch started ninth and finished fourth.
● When racing resumed, the two-time NASCAR Cup champion quickly advanced, picking up two positions on the restart to move to seventh place.
● The final round of green-flag pit stops started taking place on lap 55 with Busch scored in third place.
● The No. 18 SNICKERS Toyota Camry team made their final trip to pit road on lap 57 for a round of air pressure adjustments, four tires and fuel. Once pit stops cycled through, Busch was scored in third place.
● Busch was passed for third with less than 10 laps to go in the race. He maintained fourth place to the end to pick up the top-five finish.

Notes:

● Busch’s fourth-place finish is his 11th top-five and 15th top-10 finish of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season.
● The fourth-place finish improves Busch’s record at Watkins Glen to two wins, seven top-fives and 13 top-10 finishes in 16 career starts at the 2.45-mile road course.

Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 SNICKERS Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing:

“We didn’t quite have the car we needed with our SNICKERS Camry today. It was just all on top of the racetrack. We haven’t been here in a few years, and the track fell off, the grip fell off, and the tire being too hard – we just kind of missed all of that for the package that we needed. You know I’m pretty good here, and the cars are good here. We kind of overcame the downfall of what we had for car setup, but can’t blame anybody. Got to go to work, figure it out and make it better for what’s going to be here next year.”

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Verizon 200 at the Brickyard on Sunday, Aug. 15, on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The race starts at 1 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBC and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Busch Light Apple Racing: Kevin Harvick Watkins Glen Race Report

By
Official Release
-

Harvick Snares Another Top-10 at The Glen
Driver of No. 4 Busch Light Apple Ford Mustang Scores 16th Top-10 of Season and 11th at Watkins Glen with Eighth-Place Finish in Go Bowling at The Glen

Date: Aug. 8, 2021
Event: Go Bowling at The Glen (Round 23 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International (seven-turn, 2.45-mile road course)
Format: 90 laps, broken into three stages (20 laps/20 laps/50 laps)
Start/Finish: 5th / 8th (Running, completed 90 of 90 laps)
Point Standing: 9th (710 points, 207 out of first)
Race Winner: Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Joey Logano of Team Penske (Ford)Stage 2 Winner: Martin Truex Jr., of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)

Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-20):

● Kevin Harvick started fifth and finished 26th
● Dropped to ninth by the third tour around the seven-turn, 2.45-mile road course, but held steady in that spot through competition caution on lap 10.
● Crew chief Rodney Childers opted to keep Harvick out on the racetrack and maintain track position instead of pitting.
● Harvick lined up eighth for lap-13 restart and was back in ninth when the field came back around for lap 14.
● Made scheduled, green flag pit stop for four tires and fuel on lap 17, allowing Harvick to stay out after the stage ended.

Stage 2 Recap (Laps 21-40):

● Harvick started fourth and finished third, earning eight bonus points.
● Maintained fourth place through caution on lap 25 and remained in that spot for lap-28 restart.
● Harvick drove the No. 4 Busch Light Apple Ford Mustang into second place going into turn one of the restart.
● Christopher Bell got by Harvick in the Bus Stop section of the track to take second.
● Harvick stayed comfortably in third through the end of the stage.
● Stayed out at the end of the stage to maintain track position.

Final Stage Recap (Laps 41-90):

● Harvick started third and finished eighth.
● Kyle Larson passed Harvick on the final corner of lap 44 to take third, and then Ross Chastain got by Harvick in turn one on lap 45 to take fourth. The No. 4 Busch Light Apple Ford Mustang settled into fifth with Harvick’s Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Chase Briscoe behind him in sixth.
● Made scheduled, green flag pit stop for four tires and fuel on lap 55.
● “My car’s just become pretty loose,” said Harvick while running sixth on lap 70.
● Bell passed Harvick on lap 74 to take seventh and Harvick settled into eighth.
● Chastain got by on lap 88 to take eighth, but as Chastain’s fuel cell ran dry in the final lap, Harvick retook the position to finish eighth.

Notes:

● Harvick earned his 16th top-10 of the season and his 11th top-10 in 20 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Watkins Glen.
● This was Harvick’s third straight top-10 at Watkins Glen.
● This was Harvick’s second straight top-10. He finished sixth in the series’ prior race July 18 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon.
● Harvick’s 11 top-10s at Watkins Glen are the second most among active NASCAR Cup Series drivers.
● Kyle Larson won the Go Bowling at The Glen to score his 11th career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his series-leading fifth of the season and his first at Watkins Glen. His margin over second-place Chase Elliott was 2.430 seconds.
● There were four caution periods for a total of six laps.
● Twenty-four of the 37 drivers in the Go Bowling at The Glen finished on the lead lap.
● Larson and Denny Hamlin are tied for the championship lead after Watkins Glen with each having 917 points. Their margin over nearest pursuer William Byron is 131 points.

Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Busch Light Apple Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

“Our Busch Light Apple Ford was decent today. We just had to go into fuel mileage savings as soon as we came in the pits that last run, and just kind of ran our pace and finished where we finished because we couldn’t afford to run out of gas. So, they did a good job and had a good strategy. We scored a few stage points and had a solid finish, so we’ll go to the next one.”

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the Verizon 200 at the Brickyard on Sunday, Aug. 15 on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The race starts at 1 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBC and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Larson claims fifth checkered flag of 2021 at Watkins Glen

By
Andrew Kim
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WATKINS GLEN, NEW YORK - AUGUST 08: Kyle Larson, driver of the #5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, celebrates in the Ruoff Mortgage victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Go Bowling at The Glen at Watkins Glen International on August 08, 2021 in Watkins Glen, New York. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images).

Victory No. 5 was awarded to the driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE at Watkins Glen International after Kyle Larson led the final 26 of 90 laps and fended off his teammate and a hard-charging Chase Elliott to win the Go Bowling at The Glen on Sunday, August 8. The victory was Larson’s fifth of the season, which reignited his challenge for this year’s NASCAR Cup Series title.

The starting lineup was based on a performance metric formula, weighing the driver’s and owner’s results from a previous Cup event, the owner points position and the fastest lap recorded from a previous Cup race. With that, Brad Keselowski, who is set to join Roush Fenway Racing as a driver and co-owner in 2022, started on pole position and was joined on the front row with teammate Joey Logano.

Prior to the event, Chase Elliott and Christopher Bell started at the rear of the field due to their respective cars not complying with the technical rules related to the rear window air deflector. As a result, Alan Gustafson, Elliott’s crew chief, and Adam Stevens, Bell’s crew chief, have been suspended from participating in today’s Cup event along with being fined $25,000. Both competitors were docked 10 points. Engineer Tom Gray served as an interim crew chief for Elliott while car chief Chris Sherwood was atop the pit box of Bell’s team.

When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Keselowski managed to pull ahead of teammate Logano to assume an early advantage through the first turn and heading into the Esses. Through the Esses, the backstretch, the chicane and the seven-turn, 2.45-mile road course, Keselowski managed to lead the first lap while the field battled jostled for positioning.

Following the first lap, Ryan Newman spun in Turn 1, but he managed to continued and the race proceeded under green.

By the third lap, Keselowski was still leading by three-tenths of a second over teammate Logano, with Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. in the top five. Ryan Blaney was in sixth followed by Tyler Reddick, William Byron, Kevin Harvick and Alex Bowman.

Through the first five laps of the event, Keselowski, racing in the No. 2 Wabash National Ford Mustang, continued to hold a slim lead over teammate Logano’s No. 22 Verizon 5G Ford Mustang and Larson’s No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. By then, Elliott and Bell were mired back in 23rd and 26th.

On the ninth lap, Keselowski got loose while leading and spun in Turn 6. Keselowski’s misfortune allowed teammate Logano to slip by and take the lead just as the competition caution flew scheduled on Lap 10. Larson moved up to second place followed by Truex, Hamlin and Blaney while Keselowski, who quickly recovered following his spin, fell back to sixth.

Under the competition caution, names like Keselowski, Kurt Busch, Elliott, Michael McDowell, Bubba Wallace, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ryan Preece, rookie Chase Briscoe and others pitted while the rest led by Logano remained on the track.

When the race restarted on Lap 12, Logano managed to pull ahead of Larson and retain the lead through the first turn and heading into the Esses. While Larson kept Logano in his sights, Truex and Hamlin were in third and fourth while Reddick battled Blaney, Byron and Kyle Busch for a spot in the top five. 

By Lap 15, Logano continued to lead by three-tenths of a second over Larson while third-place Truex and fourth-place Hamlin were approximately a second behind. By then, Reddick retained fifth ahead of Blaney, Byron, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Alex Bowman. Behind, Austin Dillon was in 11th ahead of Erik Jones, Keselowski was in 14th behind Matt DiBenedetto, Aric Almirola was in 15th in front of Ross Chastain and Bell, Elliott and Kurt Busch were in 18th and 20th, Briscoe was in 21st, Daniel Suarez and Bubba Wallace were in 22nd and 25th and Ryan Newman was in 26th ahead of Stenhouse and Michael McDowell.

Not long after, some competitors led by Blaney and including Harvick, DiBenedetto, Ryan Newman, Chastain, Briscoe, Cole Custer, Wallace, Bell and Almirola pitted under green. The following lap, Truex pitted just as the pit road entrance closed to signal the end of the first stage nearing.

Back on the track, Logano continued to lead by nearly half a second over Larson and more than a second over Hamlin. Despite being pressured by Larson, Logano managed to maintain the lead and capture the first stage victory on Lap 20, thus claiming his fourth stage victory of the season. Larson settled in second followed by Hamlin, Reddick, Byron, Kyle Busch, Bowman, Elliott, Austin Dillon and Erik Jones.

Under the stage break, a majority led by Logano pitted while others led by Stenhouse and Truex remained on the track.

The second stage started on Lap 22. At the start, Briscoe, who restarted on the second row, made a bold three-wide move in a bid for the lead. Truex, however, was able to take over the lead over Briscoe through the first turn and the Esses. Behind, Kevin Harvick made his way to fourth ahead of Blaney, Bell and Matt DiBenedetto.

Approaching Lap 24, the caution flew due to James Davison stalling his car near Turns 6 and 7. By then, Truex was leading by more than a second over Briscoe, with Stenhouse, Harvick and Bell running in the top five. Behind, Blaney spun through the Bus Stop, but he managed to continue. In addition, Keselowski pitted to address a braking issue to his car. 

Under caution, names like Keselowski, Suarez, rookie Anthony Alfredo, Blaney and RC Enerson pitted while the rest led by Truex remained on the track.

When the race restarted on Lap 27, Truex managed to retain the lead while Harvick, a former Glen winner who is pursuing his first victory of the season, muscled his way into the runner-up spot. Briscoe fell back to third ahead of Bell, DiBenedetto and Stenhouse.

By Lap 30, Truex continued to lead by more than two seconds over teammate Bell, who out-braked Harvick entering the Bus Stop the previous lap to take over the runner-up spot. Briscoe and DiBenedetto were in the top five followed by Chastain, Stenhouse, Logano, Custer and Larson. Behind, Elliott, who was running in the mid-20s, pitted under green after he flat-spotted his tires.

With three laps remaining in the second stage, Bubba Wallace and Corey LaJoie pitted under green. By then, Truex was leading by three seconds over teammate Bell.

When the second stage concluded on Lap 40, Truex remained uncontested as he claimed his fifth stage victory of the season. Bell settled in second, trailing by more than three seconds, while Harvick, Larson, Briscoe, Chastain, DiBenedetto, Hamlin, Logano and Kyle Busch were scored in the top 10.

Under the stage break, some featuring Hamlin pitted while the rest led by Truex remained on the track.

With 47 laps remaining, the final stage started. At the start, Truex launched ahead while Bell withstood his ground over Harvick to retain the runner-up spot. Through the Esses, the backstretch and the bus stop, the field settled in a single-file line as Truex remained at the front ahead of teammate Bell.

At the halfway mark on Lap 45, Truex was leading by three-tenths of a second over teammate Bell while Larson was in third and trailing by more than six-tenths of a second. Chastain and Harvick were in the top five followed by Briscoe, Kyle Busch, Byron, Logano and DiBenedetto. Behind, Austin Dillon was in 11th ahead of Newman and Aric Almirola, Keselowski was in 15th behind teammate Blaney, Hamlin and Elliott were in 16th and 18th, Kurt Busch was in 21st ahead of Reddick and Wallace was in 24th ahead of Bowman and Suarez.

Two laps later, Bell and Larson issued a challenge for the lead on Truex past the start/finis line and entering the first turn, but Truex managed to fend off the near three-wide battle from both competitors past the first turn and through the Esses.

With 40 laps remaining, the top-three competitors — Truex, Bell and Larson — were separated by less than a second, with Truex continuing to lead over teammate Bell and Larson. Chastain and Harvick continued to run in the top five ahead of Briscoe, Kyle Busch, Byron, DiBenedetto and Hamlin. By then, Elliott moved up to 11th ahead of Logano.

Four laps later, what became an intense three-car battle for the lead dwindled down to two after Larson locked up his brakes and bumped into Bell, thus sending Bell’s No. 20 Stanley Toyota Camry spinning in Turn 1, though he continued under green. 

With Bell out of contention, Truex was leading by more than a second over Larson. Behind, Harvick and Chastain pitted under green. Back on track, another green-flag incident occurred in Turn 1 after Keselowski locked up entering the first turn and spun, clipping teammate Logano in the process as both Penske competitors spun and sustained damage to their respective Mustangs.

In the ensuing laps, names like Briscoe, DiBenedetto, Newman and McDowell pitted under green. Truex, the race leader, also pitted along with runner-up Larson, giving the lead to Hamlin while Elliott moved up to second.

With 30 laps remaining and a variety of pit strategy occurring, Hamlin continued to lead while Elliott surrendered the runner-up spot to pit. By then, names like Blaney, Bowman, Almirola, Chris Buescher, Wallace, Alfredo, Josh Bilicki, Reddick and Stenhouse had made a pit stop.

On Lap 63, Kurt Busch took over the top spot after Hamlin brought his No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry for fuel. Two laps later, Kurt Busch pitted and Larson, who had managed to squeak ahead of Truex on pit road during his previous pit stop, emerged with the lead. By then, Custer and Suarez pitted.

With 15 laps remaining, Larson was leading by nearly three seconds over Truex and nearly seven seconds over Elliott, who was the fastest competitor on the track. Behind, Kyle Busch and Byron were in the top five followed by Hamlin, Bell, Harvick, Chastain and Briscoe. 

Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Larson continued to lead by less than five seconds over Truex, who also had the No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE piloted by Elliott in his rearview mirror.

Not long after, Elliott overtook Truex’s No. 19 Reser’s Fine Foods Toyota Camry to move into the runner-up spot. By then, Elliott was more than five seconds behind teammate Larson.

With five laps remaining, Larson maintained an advantage of approximately five seconds over teammate Elliott while Truex was trailing by more than seven seconds.

Two laps later, Larson’s advantage was cut down to more than three seconds as Elliott continued to close in on his Hendrick Motorsports teammate. By then, the leaders were mired in lapped traffic.

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Larson was leading by less than three seconds over teammate Elliott, who was given a final opportunity to win the event after starting at the rear of the field.

Through the first turn, the Esses, the bus stop and the final corners, Larson was able to streak across the finish line and grab the win and the checkered flag by more than two seconds over teammate Elliott.

In addition to claiming his fifth victory of the season, Larson captured his 11th NASCAR Cup Series career win and his second on a road course after winning at Sonoma Raceway in June. Larson also recorded the 10th Cup victory of the season for Hendrick Motorsports. With that, Larson, who signed a two-year contract extension to remain at Hendrick Motorsports nearly a month ago, drew himself into a tie with fifth-place finisher Denny Hamlin for the lead in the regular-season standings.

“Yeah, it’s awesome,” Larson said on NBCSN. “I mean, it really just shows how good the organization is, all the people that they’ve assembled at their race shop, all the men and women. All four of us could not be getting these wins like we have been without them. Thanks to them, and thanks to everybody else I get to race for. Chase was already catching me pretty quick, even with me being in open track, so when I caught those, I think, four cars and got into [Anthony Alfredo] right here, I thought I would look at my mirror and [Elliott] would be right on me, but thankfully had a comfortable enough gap to where I could make a mistake like that…Thanks for everything you guys do for me, everybody at Hendrick Motorsports, Rick Hendrick, Jeff Gordon, [crew chief] Cliff Daniels, this whole 5 bunch. Another amazing car. I could tell from about Lap 3 after I stopped making a bunch of mistakes that we were going to have a car that could win today.”

Elliott, who started at the rear of the field following a pre-race technical issue that left his crew chief Alan Gustafson suspended for the remainder of the day, settled in second place as he came one spot short in winning at The Glen for a third consecutive time.

“I made too many mistakes to get the win, unfortunately, and made it too late in the race,” Elliott said. “Super proud of our team. Been kind of an uphill battle all day, but everybody was just super prepared coming into the day, and our NAPA team just did a really good job of fighting it. If I hadn’t have let them down there, I think we would have had a shot at it, but congrats to Kyle [Larson, race winner], Cliff, all the guys on the No. 5 [team]. Happy for everybody at HMS. Hendrick Motorsports has been working extremely hard, and not only do the people deserve to win, but Mr. [Rick] Hendrick deserves to win. Really happy for him, and I’ll try to clean some things up and make less mistakes next time. Maybe it’ll work out.”

Behind, Truex came home in third place while teammates Kyle Busch and Hamlin finished in the top five.

Byron finished in sixth followed by Bell, Harvick, Briscoe and Reddick.

Twenty-five of the 37 competitors in the field finished on the lead lap, with James Davison being the only competitor to retire due to electrical issues.

There were seven lead changes for six different leaders. The race featured four cautions for six laps. 

With three races remaining until the 2021 Cup Playoffs commences, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson are tied for the lead for the regular-season lead. Currently, 13 competitors (Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr., Alex Bowman, Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, Kurt Busch, Aric Almirola, William Byron, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski, Christopher Bell and Michael McDowell) are guaranteed Playoff spots based on winning at least once throughout the regular season. Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and Tyler Reddick continue to occupy the remaining three vacant spots to the Playoffs as winless competitors, with Reddick ahead by 15 points over teammate Austin Dillon, 135 over Chris Buescher, 147 over Matt DiBenedetto, 148 over Ross Chastain, 188 over Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 190 over Bubba Wallace, 219 over Chase Briscoe and 223 over Daniel Suarez.

Results.

1. Kyle Larson, 27 laps led

2. Chase Elliott

3. Martin Truex Jr., 34 laps led, Stage 2 winner

4. Kyle Busch

5. Denny Hamlin, six laps led

6. William Byron

7. Christopher Bell

8. Kevin Harvick

9. Chase Briscoe

10. Tyler Reddick

11. Matt DiBenedetto

12. Ross Chastain

13. Kurt Busch, two laps led

14. Ryan Blaney

15. Austin Dillon

16. Aric Almirola

17. Chris Buescher

18. Cole Custer

19. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., one lap led

20. Alex Bowman

21. Michael McDowell

22. Joey Logano, 11 laps, Stage 1 winner

23. Bubba Wallace

24. Corey LaJoie

25. Ryan Newman

26. Anthony Alfredo, one lap down

27. Erik Jones, one lap down

28. Ryan Preece, one lap down

29. Justin Haley, one lap down

30. Kyle Tilley, one lap down

31. Daniel Suarez, two laps down

32. Quin Houff, two laps down

33. Josh Bilicki, two laps down

34. RC Enerson, two laps down

35. Brad Keselowski, three laps down, nine laps led

36. Garrett Smithley, three laps down

37. James Davison – OUT, Electrical

Next on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the series’ inaugural event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course layout, which will occur on Sunday, August 15, at 1 p.m. ET on NBC. 

Kyle Larson takes fifth victory of the season by winning the Go Bowling at The Glen

By
Official Release
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WATKINS GLEN, NEW YORK - AUGUST 08: Kyle Larson, driver of the #5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, drives during the NASCAR Cup Series Go Bowling at The Glen at Watkins Glen International on August 08, 2021 in Watkins Glen, New York. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)

By Holly Cain
NASCAR Wire Service

Kyle Larson had to navigate lapped traffic in the closing laps and hold off his hard-charging Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott – the track’s most prolific winner of late – to earn the victory in Sunday’s Go Bowling at the Glen.

The 28-year-old Californian has been a driver to count on this season, finishing either first or second 10 times through the 23 races to date. And Sunday’s trophy at the historic Watkins Glen International road course is Larson’s NASCAR Cup Series-best fifth of the year; 11th of his career.

His 2.430-second victory over Elliott was good enough to move him into a tie with Denny Hamlin for the regular season championship with only three races remaining before the Playoffs.

It marked the eighth Hendrick Motorsports victory in the last 11 races and the fourth time Larson and Elliott have finished 1-2 – the third time at a road course event.

Larson led the final 27 laps of the 90-lap event, taking the lead for good from Joe Gibbs Racing driver Martin Truex Jr., who had paced the field for a race best 34 laps. Elliott got around Truex with nine laps remaining to claim second place.

Truex finished third, followed by his JGR teammates Kyle Busch and Hamlin. Hendrick driver William Byron was sixth with JGR’s Christopher Bell, Stewart-Haas teammates Kevin Harvick and Chase Briscoe and Richard Childress Racing’s Tyler Reddick rounding out the Top-10.

“Chase was already catching me pretty quick, even with me being in open track so when I caught those, I think four (lapped) cars and got into the 38 (Anthony Alfredo) right here, I thought I would look at my mirror and the 9 (Elliott) would be right on me, but thankfully had a comfortable enough gap to where I could make a mistake like that,” said Larson, who apologized to his friend Bell during his post-race interview. The two made contact racing door-to-door for second place late in the race.

“Incredible race today, hats off to Hendrick Motorsports,” added Larson, “It’s awesome. It really just shows how good the organization is, all the people that they’ve assembled at the race shop, all the men and women. All four of us (Hendrick Motorsports drivers) could not be getting these wins like we have been without them. Thanks to them and thanks to everybody else I get to race for.”

Although Elliott, 25, had to settle for a runner-up showing today, it was an incredible drive for the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion and two-time Watkins Glen winner. He started the race from the last row – and his crew chief Alan Gustafson was suspended – after his car failed pre-race technical inspection.

Elliott steadily made his way forward, picking off cars with each turn. And as with Larson, he had to navigate that lapped traffic in the closing laps, which essentially cost him any shot at getting close enough to his teammate to challenge for the lead.

“I made too many mistakes to get the win unfortunately, and made it too late in the race,” Elliott said. “Super proud of our team. Been kind of an uphill battle all day, but everybody was just super prepared coming into the day and our NAPA team just did a really good job of fighting it.”

With three races remaining to set the Playoff field, Reddick gave himself a little more cushion room in that 16th and final transfer position. He improved his advantage over his Richard Childress Racing teammate, 17th place Austin Dillon, from six points entering the race to 15 points heading to Indianapolis next week.

The series makes its Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course debut next Sunday with the Verizon 200 at the Brickyard (1 p.m. ET, NBC, IMS Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). It will mark the first time the NASCAR Cup Series has raced on the famed track’s road course since it began racing at Indianapolis in 1994.

CHEVY NCS AT WATKINS GLEN: Post-Race Notes and Quotes

By
Official Release
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NASCAR CUP SERIES
WATKINS GLEN INTERNATIONAL
GO BOWLING AT THE GLEN
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
AUGUST 8, 2021

TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1 1LE
2nd CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE
6th WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 1LE
10th TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 CHEVROLET ACCESSORIES CAMARO ZL1 1LE
12th ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 42 MYMCDONALD’S REWARDS CAMARO ZL1 1LE
13th KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE
15th AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 COWBOY CHANNEL CAMARO ZL1 1LE

TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Kyle Larson (Chevrolet)
2nd Chase Elliott (Chevrolet)
3rd Martin Truex Jr. (Toyota)
4th Kyle Busch (Toyota)
5th Denny Hamlin (Toyota)

The NASCAR Cup Series season continues next weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course with the Verizon 200 at the Brickyard on Sunday, August 15, at 1 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on NBC and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTES:

KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Race Winner
KYLE, WHAT A GREAT VICTORY, BUT THERE IN THOSE CLOSING LAPS, I HAVE TO ASK – AS YOU CAUGHT ALL THOSE LAP CARS, WERE YOU WORRIED ABOUT LOSING THE TIME THERE?
“Yeah, I was. Chase was already catching me pretty quick, even with me being in open track, so when I caught those, I think, four cars and got into the 38 right here, I thought I would look at my mirror and the 9 would be right on me, but thankfully had a comfortable enough gap to where I could make a mistake like that.”

“I want to say a big apology to Christopher Bell. I was inside but I wasn’t inside enough, and I didn’t — I needed to have the nose a few feet further ahead, and the angles just caught there in the middle and I ended up turning him. I hate that. I race with him a lot. He’s probably the one guy that I race with the most in all my racing, so hate to turn him like that. We’ve had incredible races together.”

“Anyways, hats off to Hendrickcars.com. Thanks for everything you guys do for me, everybody at Hendrick Motorsports, Rick Hendrick, Jeff Gordon, Cliff Daniels, this whole 5 bunch. Another amazing car. I could tell from about lap 3 after I stopped making a bunch of mistakes that we were going to have a car that could win today.”

THIS IS YOUR FIFTH WIN ON THE SEASON, ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL SEASON OF ALL TIME. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO COME TO HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS AND HAVE THIS SUCCESSFUL OF A SEASON?
“Yeah, it’s awesome. I mean, it really just shows how good the organization is, all the people that they’ve assembled at their race shop, all the men and women. All four of us could not be getting these wins like we have been without them. Thanks to them, and thanks to everybody else I get to race for. Get to go to Iowa this week and chase another big win, so looking forward to that, and hopefully can just keep racking these wins up.”

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SAY TO ANOTHER MASSIVE CROWD HERE AT WATKINS GLEN?
“Yeah, thanks all you guys for coming out. It’s been a while since we’ve been here, so hopefully we put on a good show for you. It was definitely a good show from my seat when the three of us were going at it for the lead in the first stage, then there in the second and third stage. Just a lot of fun today, and hope you guys enjoyed it.”

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 2nd
EXHAUSTING DAY, BUT WHAT A HEROIC EFFORT IT WAS TO GET BACK THERE TO SECOND AT THE END. HOW DO YOU SUM UP THIS DAY? YOU PASSED MORE CARS THAN I THINK ANYBODY OUT THERE BUT STILL COME UP ONE SPOT SHORT.
“Yeah, I made too many mistakes to get the win, unfortunately, and made it too late in the race. Super proud of our team. Been kind of an uphill battle all day, but everybody was just super prepared coming into the day, and our NAPA team just did a really good job of fighting it.”

“If I hadn’t have let them down there, I think we would have had a shot at it, but congrats to Kyle (Larson, race winner), Cliff (Daniels, Crew Chief), all the guys on the 5. Happy for everybody at HMS. Hendrick Motorsports has been working extremely hard, and not only do the people deserve to win, but Mr. Hendrick deserves to win. Really happy for him, and I’ll try to clean some things up and make less mistakes next time. Maybe it’ll work out.”

WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 6th
“We had a solid run and ended up sixth in the No. 24 Axalta Camaro ZL1 1LE. Lost the fifth spot on the last lap, unfortunately. We had a good car and it was a good run for us. We started mid-pack and worked our way forward, so I’m happy with that. Definitely a solid road course finish for us and we’ll keep moving forward.”

TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 CHEVROLET ACCESSORIES CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 10th
“We had some good speed in our No. 8 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE today but just needed the balance to be a little better overall. I was really tight throughout most of the day, especially on landing through the turns. It didn’t seem to matter which way I was turning, I just couldn’t get the front to rotate like I needed it to once I got through the first third of a turn. The adjustments we made during the day seemed to help during the last stage of the race and I was able to grab the tenth spot on the final lap. It’s good that we were able to leave the track with another top-10 to help us with the Playoff cutline. I wish we were able to finish a little higher up, but we will have a good shot next week to show what we can do at another road course. There’s no other group I’d rather be fighting with to make the Playoffs, and I know they’ll all continue to fight through the coming weeks.”

ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 42 MYMCDONALD’S REWARDS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 12th
“Tough day at Watkins Glen (International) for the No. 42 MyMcDonald’s Rewards Camaro ZL1 1LE. I think Kurt (Busch) and I both struggled for turn. There was quite a bit front chatter and it was just hard to get through a lot of the rights. That’s hard on a primarily right-hand turn track. Our left and rights balance was off just a little bit.”

“The pit stops helped, but we just started too far off. We definitely played the right strategy to keep cycling up. I went for one spot there at the end, I think for eighth, and gave up four to finish 12th when I ran it out of gas. A lesson learned there. I needed to save a straightaway more and I didn’t; I went for it. Live and learn.”

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 COWBOY CHANNEL CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 15th
“What a day at Watkins Glen International. We started the race 16th in the No. 3 Cowboy Channel Chevrolet and finished ninth in Stage 1 to grab a couple of stage points. We struggled a little bit through the esses but overall handling was pretty good today. I think we could have finished well inside the top-10 if things would have gone just a little differently. I made a mistake that cost us maybe five spots when a car ahead of us slammed on the brakes and I just didn’t anticipate it. Good job to everyone on this RCR team all day. Everyone fought hard, just as they have all season. Thank you to The Cowboy Channel for their support. We’ll go to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course next week ready to battle.”

ERIK JONES, NO. 43 CLEAN HARBORS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 27th
“The day started off okay. The No. 43 Clean Harbors Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE was good, and we made our way forward. Then we lost track position and got too far back, spun-out and never caught a caution to get caught back up. Not a solid end, but we proved to have an okay car. We just lost the balance a bit through the middle of the race, and got too free and didn’t really have it where we needed it. We will head to another road course next week. I think we learned some good stuff and got a few things better that will carry over.”

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.

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