Denny Hamlin
11 FedEx Freight Toyota
Joe Gibbs Racing

Saturday Race Info:
Race: Jockey Made in America 250 Presented by Kwik Trip
Date/Time: Sunday, July 4/2:30 p.m. ET
Distance: 62 laps/250 miles
Track Length: 4.048 miles
Track Shape: Road Course

Express Notes:

Press Kit: Download the 2021 FedEx Racing press materials at www.fedexracing.com/presskit, including bios for Denny Hamlin, Chris Gabehart and Joe Gibbs Racing leadership, program highlights and statistics.

Pocono Doubleheader Recap: A fast FedEx Ground Toyota and strong pit strategy helped Denny Hamlin finish fourth in Saturday’s 325-mile race at Pocono Raceway in the first race of a weekend doubleheader. Hamlin started the event in 10th and moved up and down the leaderboard as the team worked a different pit cycle than many of the other cars. The team’s long-pit strategy led to Hamlin taking the lead in the final stage with 36 laps to go as others hit pit road. He led for 11 laps before being one of the last cars to peel off for a final green-flag stop, taking right-side tires and fuel. He rejoined the field in seventh and went to work chasing down the leaders. He passed two cars to claim fifth, and then moved to fourth when Kyle Larson crashed out of the lead on the last lap with a blown tire. In the second race of the weekend, Denny Hamlin was a lap away from his first win of the season. He was out front at a track where he already has six wins, and he had been saving fuel since his last trip to pit road early in Stage 3. But his FedEx Toyota sputtered out of gas on the last lap, forcing him to pit as the white flag waved. Hamlin crossed the line 14th after his pit stop.

Road America Preview: The NASCAR Cup Series is traveling to Wisconsin to its Road America road course for the Fourth of July weekend. Hamlin has no experience at this track but will look to capture a road course win as he works to officially secure a spot in the playoffs. The team is coming off two strong performances at Pocono Raceway and will attempt to carry that momentum into this weekend.

Hamlin Conversation – Road America:

How does it feel to race at a new track this week, and what can you do to position yourself to be successful?

“I didn’t race there in the Xfinity Series, so I’ll be one of the inexperienced guys. I like going to unfamiliar places. I like the process of trying to learn them. The great drivers have a way of figuring it out when they go someplace new. I hear it’s pretty smooth and has some heavy braking zones. You’re going to have to have a car that works well under braking. All road courses pose a challenge. Getting laps in the simulator, of course, helps. But, I’m excited about it. I love the challenge of being somewhere for the first time, and that track is certainly going to pose that challenge for me.”

What would it mean to get a win at Road America in your first time running on the track?

“Any time you can win somewhere new, especially when everyone is there for the first time, it makes it more special. It means you adapted to that racetrack quicker than everyone else. There will be some drivers that have some Xfinity experience there, like Kyle Busch, and they’ll have a little bit of advantage over us. But I’m sure once we get through some practice, we’ll be good.”

FedEx Freight Along for the Ride at Road America: For the NASCAR Cup Jockey Made in America 250 at Road America, FedEx Freight recognizes the company’s Sheboygan, Wis., service center by featuring the call letters SBM on the #11 FedEx Freight race car. The Sheboygan service center, opened in 2019, has approximately 30 team members who are committed to making every FedEx experience outstanding.

FedEx Office – Closest to Road America: 3434 Mill Rd., Sheboygan, WI 53083 (920) 803-5065

COLE CUSTER
Road America Advance
No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

Event Overview

● Event: Jockey Made in America 250 (Round 20 of 36)
● Time/Date: 2:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, July 4
● Location: Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin
● Layout: 4.048-mile, 14-turn road course
● Race 1 Laps/Miles: (62 laps/250 miles)
● Race 1 Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 14 laps / Stage 2: 15 laps / Final Stage: 33 laps
● TV/Radio: NBC / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● NASCAR’s top national touring series returns to Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, for the first time in 65 years and for only the second time ever when Cole Custer and the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang team for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) join their fellow Cup Series competitors for Sunday’s Jockey made in America 250. Tim Flock drove his No. 15 Mercury to a 14-second victory over Billy Myers, with Fireball Roberts finishing a close third, when the NASCAR Grand National Series visited the 4.048-mile, 14-turn circuit located in the heart of America’s Dairyland in August 1956.

● While it’s his and the rest of the field’s first Cup Series appearance at Road America, Custer has three NASCAR Xfinity Series races and one ARCA Menards Series outing there, all resulting in top-11 finishes. The 23-year-old from Ladera Ranch, California, logged finishes of eighth, fourth and 10th, respectively, driving the No. 00 SHR Ford from 2017 through 2019, and qualified on the front row alongside polesitter Matt Tifft in the 2018 event. In Custer’s lone ARCA start at Road America, in August 2017, he started fifth and finished 11th in the No. 78 Ford for team owner Mason Mitchell.

● Custer made three Xfinity Series starts in the No. 00 SHR Ford from 2017 through 2019, never starting worse than third, never finishing worse than seventh, and leading a total of 95 laps in the three events. He qualified third and finished seventh in 2017, then qualified on the pole in both the 2018 and 2019 races, finishing fifth in 2018 and scoring the victory by .228 of a second over Tyler Reddick in 2019 after leading a race-high 58 laps.

● Sunday’s 250-mile race marks Custer’s 59th career Cup Series start and his sixth points-paying Cup Series race on a road course. In his five previous points-paying Cup Series starts on road courses, Custer’s best was an impressive ninth-place run on the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval last October. In February, the reigning Cup Series Rookie of the Year rallied for a 13th-place finish on the Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway road course after dropping back as far as 24th while avoiding a multicar accident in the closing laps. In his most recent road-course outing, Custer finished 20th at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway four weekends ago. In this year’s non-points Busch Clash on the Daytona road course, Custer drove deep into the top-10 on multiple occasions, but he fell three laps off the pace late in the race when he could not refire his Mustang after serving a self-imposed stop-and-go penalty for missing the backstraight chicane. He finished 20th.

● In his 11 road-course outings in the NASCAR Xfinity Series from 2017 through 2019, Custer finished outside the top-10 just once with his fourth-place run at Road America in 2018 best of them all.

● Custer also has top-10s in all three of his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series outings on road courses, all three occurring at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario. His best was his most recent, a second-place run from the pole with a race-high 39 laps led in the No. 00 JR Motorsports entry in 2016. He also made three starts apiece on the road courses at Sonoma and Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International in NASCAR K&N Pro Series competition, with best finishes of third in the 2016 East Series race at Watkins Glen after having qualified on the pole there the previous year, and fourth in the 2019 West Series race at Sonoma.

● Sunday’s race is the fourth of a ground-breaking seven NASCAR Cup Series races to be held on road courses in 2021. From 1988 to 2017, there were only two road courses on the schedule – Sonoma and Watkins Glen. The Charlotte Roval was added in 2018, giving the series three road-course venues. The initial 2021 schedule doubled that tally, with Circuit of the Americas in Austin Texas, Road America, and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course all being added. And when COVID-19 restrictions forced the cancellation of the series’ stop this year at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California, the Daytona road course was put in its place.

● For the second time in three weeks, and the fifth time this year, Sunday’s race will be preceded by practice and qualifying. Cup Series competitors will have a 50-minute practice session Saturday afternoon, as well as qualifying on Sunday morning.

● After last weekend’s doubleheader at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, Custer arrives at Road America is 28th in the Cup Series standings, 150 points behind the 16th and final playoff position.

● Returning to Custer’s No. 41 Ford Mustang for SHR is team co-owner Gene Haas’ newest holding, Haas Tooling, which was launched as a way for CNC machinists to purchase high-quality cutting tools at great prices. Haas cutting tools are sold exclusively online at HaasTooling.com and shipped directly to end users. HaasTooling.com products became available nationally last July, and the cutting tools available for purchase at HaasTooling.com have proven to be even more important during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as CNC machines have become vital to producing personal protective equipment. Haas Automation, founded by Haas in 1983, is America’s leading builder of CNC machine tools. The company manufactures a complete line of vertical and horizontal machining centers, turning centers and rotary tables and indexers. All Haas products are constructed in the company’s 1.1-million-square-foot manufacturing facility in Oxnard, California, and distributed through a worldwide network of Haas Factory Outlets.

● As announced during the annual Coca-Cola 600 Memorial Day weekend, Custer and the team encourage fans to join Wow Wow Classic Waffles in support of Feeding America®, the largest hunger relief organization in the United States with a network of 200 food banks and 60,000 food pantries and meal programs. Fans are encouraged to text HUNGER to 50555 to make a $5 donation to Feeding America®, by visiting the Feeding America® donation page on Facebook, or the donation page via the Feeding America® website. Each $1 donated helps provide at least 10 meals secured by Feeding America® on behalf of local member food banks.

Cole Custer, Driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing

You’re returning to Road America, where you’ve enjoyed three solid runs in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, but this time in a Cup Series car. Your thoughts?

“I’m really excited for Road America. It’s a really prestigious road course in our country and I think it’s a place where, if you have any bad tendencies, it’s going to show up at Road America. You have so many different corners, there are so many hard corners, it just brings out some of the best road-course racing.”

A good number of other Cup Series drivers have experience Road America in the Xfinity and Camping World Truck Series. Will that experience have any benefit this weekend?

“Obviously, the Cup Series cars are vastly different. I think Road America is a track that’s really tough – it’s a really tough road course. Like I said, if you have any bad tendencies, they’re going to show up there. So it’s going to be a hard racetrack to figure out for a lot of guys who haven’t been there before, I think. I’m happy that I’ve raced there before, which makes it a good thing for me. It’s going to be an exciting race.”

Like we saw at Pocono last weekend, Road America is a place where fans have enjoyed the camping experience at the racetrack for generations. What kind of atmosphere are you expecting for Sunday’s race?

“Those cheese lovers, they might be out of control (laughs). It’s awesome to go up there. Just hardcore race fans, people who live and die by that racetrack, and I think it’s really cool to see people who are that passionate about the sport.”

This weekend marks the second of three new road-course races on the Cup Series schedule. With that, you once again will have the ability to practice and qualify. How does that change your approach to the weekend?

“The biggest thing with the new schedule in NASCAR, with the addition of COTA (Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas) and Road America and the Indy road course, is being able to get laps on those tracks. Being able to maximize your weekend as much as you can, getting laps at those tracks is the biggest thing you can do. Fortunately, I’ve turned a lot of laps at Road America in the Xfinity Series and, as much as I like that track and racing on road courses in general, it’s been frustrating to me that I don’t have a win on a road course in NASCAR. I feel like I’ve run solid and have had a lot of chances to win on road courses, but it just hasn’t ever worked out. I love going to road courses. I think it’s a lot of fun and it brings the driver more into play. Our goal, as always, will be to get a top-10 and try to run all the laps and figure out the best way around the track in a Cup car. Hopefully, we’ll be running in the top-10 and can find ourselves at the end with a shot at the win.”

At just over 4 miles, a lap around the 14-turn Road America layout is now the longest on the Cup Series schedule, each lap somewhat of a “road trip” in itself. If you could go on a road trip with anyone, who would that be, and why?

“That’s a good question. I think a lot of people are probably going say Dale Earnhardt. He’s really iconic in our sport, somebody who I think would be fun to talk to about what it was like back when he first got going and how much the sport’s changed, and what he thinks about it now. I think it would be a really interesting conversation.”

No. 41 HaasTooling.com Team Roster

Primary Team Members

Driver: Cole Custer
Hometown: Ladera Ranch, California

Crew Chief: Mike Shiplett
Hometown: Amherst, Ohio

Car Chief: Tony Cardamone
Hometown: Bristol, Virginia

Engineer: Davin Restivo
Hometown: Ashboro, North Carolina

Engineer: Scott Bingham
Hometown: Lawrenceville, Georgia

Spotter: Andy Houston
Hometown: Hickory, North Carolina

Over-The-Wall Members

Front Tire Changer: John Roselli
Hometown: Terre Haute, Indiana

Rear Tire Changer: Coleman Dollarhide
Hometown: Hickory, North Carolina

Tire Carrier: Dwayne Moore
Hometown: Griffin, Georgia

Jack Man: Matthew Schlytter
Hometown: Ponte Vedra, Florida

Fuel Man: Corey Coppola
Hometown: Bluefield, West Virginia

Road Crew Members

Mechanic: Joe Zanolini
Hometown: Sybertsville, Pennsylvania

Mechanic: Nick McIntosh
Hometown: Havre, Montana

Shock Specialist: Aaron Kuehn
Hometown: Kensington, Connecticut

Tire Specialist: Thomas Gagliano
Hometown: East Hampton, Connecticut

Engine Specialist: Evan Cupples
Hometown: Hudson, Illinois

Transporter Co-Driver: Eddie DeGroot
Hometown: Baldwinsville, New York

Transporter Co-Driver: David Rodrigues
Hometown: Santa Clarita, California

Front Row Motorsports to Make Road America Debut

This July 4 weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series will make its debut at the Road America road course. Sunday’s 62-lap race in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin is an opportunity for Front Row Motorsports (FRM) to continue its successful 2021 season.

With only 11 points separating four drivers from 14th in the point standings, every position will matter this Sunday for Michael McDowell and the No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops team.

Anthony Alfredo returns the Speedy Cash colors to the No. 38 Ford Mustang this weekend. Alfredo is more than ready to get to Road America after bad luck in Pocono. Alfredo has had some of his best finishes this season on the road courses.

Sunday’s race begins at 2:30 p.m. ET with the live broadcast on NBC.

Michael McDowell and the No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops team know they have a great chance to start their month of July off with a great finish at Road America. McDowell has a win, a pole and a runner-up finish at the track in the Xfinity Series. It’s proven to be one of his most successful tracks in his career and he was excited to see it added to the Cup Series schedule.

“This is a race that we’ve marked,” said McDowell. “And now, with us being in a tight points battle, it’s even more important that we have a good run. There is no better track for me to gain points and have a great finish. I really love racing at Road America, it’s been really good to me, and I know what I need in the car. We’ll have practice and qualifying and that will help us get the Love’s Travel Stops Mustang dialed in.”

McDowell has finished in the top-10 in two of the three road course events this season.

Another driver ready to race at Road America is Anthony Alfredo. He’s ready to climb back into his No. 38 SpeedyCash.com Ford Mustang after bad luck at the Pocono Raceway. Alfredo has shined on the road courses this season. His latest road course race at the Sonoma Raceway, Alfredo was running in the top-10 late in the race before being spun out.

“The road courses have been pretty good to us,” commented Alfredo. “It’s funny because I’ve never been or even seen some of these tracks before, but we’ve had really good races and finishes. From the Daytona Road Course, COTA and Sonoma, we’ve had good finishes or good runs. This weekend is no different. I’m going to a new track, but our Speedy Cash team feels confident that we can have a good day on Sunday.”

Alfredo has a best road course finish of 18th at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) earlier this year.

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.

This Week in Motorsports: June 28-July 4, 2021

• NCS/NXS: Road America – July 3-4
• ARCA West: Irwindale Speedway – July 3

PLANO, Texas (June 30, 2021) – The NASCAR Cup Series returns to Road America for the first time since 1956. They will be joined by the NASCAR Xfinity Series at the Wisconsin road course, while the ARCA Menards Series West returns on track at Irwindale Speedway.

NASCAR National Series – NCS| NXS

Busch looking for another milestone… Kyle Busch has won 199 races in a Toyota since 2008 and will have two chances to score his 200th Toyota victory this weekend as he’s competing in both the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series events at Road America. With his Cup Series victory at Pocono, Busch has 55 Cup Series wins, 89 Xfinity Series victories and 55 Truck Series triumphs in a Toyota.

Bell lone Toyota victor… Christopher Bell scored his first NASCAR Cup Series victory at the Daytona Road Course earlier this season, but actually earned his first road course win in the Xfinity Series at Road America in 2019. Bell took the lead late and led the final nine laps to score Toyota’s lone victory at the Wisconsin-based track.

Dillon returns… As the series returns to road course racing, Toyota also welcomes back Ty Dillon to the No. 96 Toyota Camry for Gaunt Brothers Racing (GBR) this weekend. Dillon has driven two road course races for GBR this season with an average finish inside of the top-20.

Hemric closes in on first victory… Daniel Hemric continues to close in on his first victory as the North Carolina-native had another strong race at Pocono Raceway. Although this is his first Road America start with Joe Gibbs Racing, Hemric has a top-five finish at the track in 2018.

Five for JGR… The Joe Gibbs Racing Xfinity camp will feature a fifth car this weekend as Ty Gibbs makes his track debut in the No. 81 Toyota Supra. He will join teammates Busch, Hemric, Harrison Burton and Brandon Jones. This is Busch’s fourth of five scheduled Xfinity Series starts this season, with his final event of the season scheduled to be next weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

NASCAR Regional Series – ARCA West

Love looks to return to winning ways… It is the third race of the season for the ARCA Menards Series West and 16-year-old Jesse Love is looking for a return to victory lane. The 2020 ARCA West champion scored his second of three wins in his championship season at Irwindale Speedway last year. The California-native won the pole and led 119 of 125 laps to score the win.

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About Toyota

Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in North America for more than 60 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands plus our 1,800 dealerships.

Toyota has created a tremendous value chain and directly employs more than 47,000 in North America. The company has contributed world-class design, engineering, and assembly of more than 40 million cars and trucks at our 14 manufacturing plants, 15 including our joint venture in Alabama that begins production in 2021.

Through its Start Your Impossible campaign, Toyota highlights the way it partners with community, civic, academic and governmental organizations to address our society’s most pressing mobility challenges. We believe that when people are free to move, anything is possible. For more information about Toyota, visit www.toyotanewsroom.com.

KYLE BUSCH
Hitting the Road

HUNTERSVILLE, North Carolina (June 30, 2021) – Like many Americans this Fourth of July weekend, Kyle Busch will be hitting the road. However, Busch, driver of the No. 18 Skittles America Mix Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR), will be doing it much faster than most, and he won’t be on vacation for the holiday weekend.

The two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion is set to take on a new challenge as the NASCAR Cup Series makes its debut at the 4.048-mile, 14-turn Road America circuit in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, for Sunday’s Jockey Made in America 250.

While Busch has become one of the veterans of NASCAR’s top series with 59 career wins in what is now his 17th season as a fulltime competitor, the 36-year-old will become a rookie, of sorts, as many of the newer Cup Series competitors have raced several times at Road America with NASCAR’s Xfinity Series, which has competed there 11 times prior to this year’s Cup Series debut at the historic road course.

Still, Busch made a strong debut in May at another new road-racing venue, Circuit of Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas. Busch led 12 laps and had a chance for a win had rain not forced the event to be cut short. The Las Vegas native led laps and finished fifth four weekends ago at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway. This weekend, he hopes to make it to victory lane at yet another new venue and the fourth road course the series will have competed on so far this season.

Road-course racing has taken on even more importance in the Cup Series this year with the addition of COTA, Road America, and the road courses at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway added to the traditional stops at Sonoma, Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International and the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval. With those additions, it’s more important than ever to have a strong driver and team that can turn left and right this season and beyond.

Busch heads to his Road America debut this weekend on a hot streak, of sorts, as he became the most recent Cup Series winner at the second race of last weekend’s doubleheader at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway. Busch finished just one spot short of a win on Saturday, but while he had a strong car on Sunday, he used a fuel-mileage gamble to bring home a win as the team also fought through transmission issues, which put him behind during several points of Sunday’s winning effort. Still, Busch added to his impressive resume by passing Kevin Harvick for ninth on the all-time Cup Series win list, with potentially many years left in the tank.

To help America’s Independence Day celebration this weekend, Busch’s No. 18 Toyota will feature the Skittles America Mix scheme.Each bag of Skittles America Mix contains a fun, fruit-flavored and patriotic mix of red, white and blue candies. The patriotic-themed Skittles are a must-have for celebrating this weekend – and of course, a great snack while watching a NASCAR Cup Series race. They’re available at retailers nationwide through the summer.

So as Busch heads to Road America for the first time this weekend, as virtually a rookie there, he’ll hope to hit the road not for a vacation weekend, but to get to work and learn an entire new road course in hopes of continuing to add to his impressive career statistics.

KYLE BUSCH, Driver of the No. 18 Skittles America Mix Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing:

What are you expecting this week for your first time ever at Road America?

“I’ve never been there before, so I’ll have a lot to learn, for sure. A lot of the young guys have raced there before in the Xfinity Series, so they’ll probably have a little bit of an advantage just knowing the track a little bit better than I will. We’ll get a chance to have practice and race with our M&M’S Ice Cream Supra in the Xfinity Series race (Saturday), so hoping we learn a lot from that. It will be nice to have practice for the Cup Series, too. Both COTA (Circuit of Americas) and Sonoma were good races for us so far this year, so I think our road-course cars have been pretty strong. We should have had a better finish at COTA, and we had a good car at Sonoma and got a decent finish out of it. Looking forward to getting to Road America this weekend and learning as much as we can and have a good run with our Skittles America Mix Camry and get us a win on the Fourth of July, that would be pretty cool.”

You are running both the Cup Series and Xfinity Series races this weekend. Are doubleheaders fun for you?

“I feel like preparing for a doubleheader is pretty easy. I’ve always been used to running in two or three races in a weekend, running the Truck, Xfinity, Cup, whatever it may be. I like that, so I think it gives us an opportunity to get out there and get our feet wet in the first race in the Xfinity Series, and get a feel for the tire and really think about what you can learn. This weekend at Road America, we’re running the Xfinity Series race with M&M’S Ice Cream on that car and Skittles America Mix on Sunday, so we have a couple of Mars Wrigley brands we would like to have a good weekend for. Obviously, this weekend you go to a place where we’ve never run a race before, so getting some track time in the Xfinity car on Friday and Saturday is going to be very important. I’m a bit of a perfectionist, so it will be nice to have some extra track time to work on my car and get some experience and also have just a little bit more knowledge of what it’s like beyond what we do in our (simulator) and other ways we prepare for races.”

Is road-course racing something that comes naturally to you, or is it something you had to work on?

“It’s definitely something you have to work on. With rule changes and tire changes, it’s something you work on every year. There’s always change that you have to work on to be competitive. When I was a kid back in Las Vegas in Legends cars, that’s where I was able to learn about shifting and turning left and turning right. I had the natural instincts for it and won a couple of championships in the winter series we had out there. We actually went out to Sonoma back then and ran the national championship races two years in a row and finished third both times, so I had a little bit of experience on road courses as I came up through the ranks.”

For a veteran like yourself, what’s the benefit of running the Xfinity race this weekend?

“Being able to come to a new track – when everything was announced that we were coming here – I wanted to run there as much as I could. We were able to work it out so both myself and Ty (Gibbs) can run here, as well, so I think it’s beneficial for both of us. He loves road racing, too. It was kind of a perfect scenario – being able to get in the Xfinity Series and be able to practice in both of those races. I’m hoping it will be a really good weekend for us.”

Even after all of this time, does experience matter?

“Absolutely, track time. You are able to work on all of your braking points, my turn-ins, and learn where the rubber will be laid down on the track. You try to get a little bit of a sense of where that stuff is – trying to pick out those visuals that you can really count on each and every day when you try and learn a new track like Road America, COTA, and other places we’ve gone to this year that are new to myself and a lot of the other guys.”

Event Overview:

● Event: Jockey Made in America 250 (Round 20 of 36)
● Time/Date: 2:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, July 4
● Location: Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin
● Layout: 4.048-mile, 14-turn road course
● Laps/Miles: 60 laps/250 miles
● Format: Stage 1: 14 laps / Stage 2: 15 laps / Final Stage: 33 laps
● TV/Radio: NBC / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Meet the No. 18 Skittles America Mix / Joe Gibbs Racing Team

Primary Team Members:
Driver: Kyle Busch
Hometown: Las Vegas

Crew Chief: Ben Beshore
Hometown: York, Pennsylvania

Car Chief: Nate Bellows
Hometown: Fairfax, Vermont

Spotter: Tony Hirschman
Hometown: Northampton, Pennsylvania

Over-The-Wall Crew Members:
Gas Man: Matt Tyrrell
Hometown: Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Front Tire Changer: Blake Houston
Hometown: Enochville, North Carolina

Jackman: T.J. Ford
Hometown: Charlotte, North Carolina

Tire Carrier: Joe Crossen
Hometown: Salisbury, North Carolina

Rear Tire Changer: Jeff Cordero
Hometown: Salem, Connecticut

Road Crew Members:
Race Engineer: Seth Chavka
Hometown: Soldotna, Alaska

Truck Driver: Chris Miko
Hometown: Bronx, New York

Truck Driver: Tom McCrimmon
Hometown: Spicer, Minnesota

Mechanic/Tire Specialist: Justin Peiffer
Hometown: Lebanon, Pennsylvania

Mechanic: Scott Eldridge
Hometown: Warsaw, Indiana

Notes of Interest:

● Twice is Nice: Busch’s win on Sunday at Pocono was his second of the season. Busch has now racked up 13 important playoff points he can take with him through each round. Busch also currently sits fifth in the point standings with 14 top-five finishes and 20 top-10s with just seven regular-season races remaining before the playoffs begin.

● Adding to 100: Busch picked up his 100th win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series two weekends ago at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway. He’ll look to add to his win total this weekend as he’ll strap in behind the wheel of the No. 54 M&M’S Ice Cream Supra on Saturday. Busch has just two races remaining on his Xfinity Series schedule with Road America this weekend and Atlanta Motor Speedway the following weekend.

● Road-Course Ringer: Busch scored his fourth career Cup Series road-course win in June 2015 at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway, and he heads to Road America with 12 top-five finishes and 21-top-10s at the traditional road-course stops on the schedule with 37 combined starts at Sonoma, Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International, the Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway road course, and the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval.

● Alone in Ninth: With Sunday’s win at Pocono, Busch scored his 59th career win in NASCAR’s top series as he moved past Kevin Harvick into sole possession of ninth on the all-time win list. Next up on the win list is Dale Earnhardt, the seven-time Cup Series champion and NASCAR Hall of Famer who won 76 races during his storied career.

● 220 and Counting: Busch will be aiming to add to his record 220 overall wins among NASCAR’s top three series this weekend at Road America. In addition to his 59 Cup Series wins and 100 in the Xfinity Series, Busch has 61 wins in the Camping World Truck Series.