Larson wins an eventful inaugural Cup event at Nashville

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June 20, 2021

Kyle Larson wins Cup race at Nashville by Don Dunn — Photo by Don Dunn for SpeedwayMedia.com.

Having enough fuel in the tank when it mattered most, Kyle Larson’s comeback season continued following a dominating victory in the inaugural Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway on Sunday, June 20. The Elk Grove, California, native led a race-high 264 of 300 laps and had enough fuel to beat a hard-charging Ross Chastain by more than four seconds in the final laps to achieve his fourth consecutive victory in the NASCAR Cup Series in recent weeks.

Qualifying occurred on Sunday, June 20, and Aric Almirola started on pole position after recording a pole-winning lap at 161.992 mph. Kyle Busch, who earned his 100th Xfinity Series career victory at Nashville on Saturday, joined Almirola on the front row.

Prior to the event, William Byron, Erik Jones and Quin Houff started at the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments to their respective cars. In addition, Ryan Blaney made the left-hand turn to pit road and into his pit stall to have damage to his left-rear quarter panel repaired. The move dropped Blaney to the rear of the field.

When the green flag waved and the race commenced, Chase Elliott darted his No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE to the outside of Almirola’s No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang in a bid for the lead. His plan, however, halted in Turn 1 when he nearly got sideways after getting out of the racing groove. Behind Elliott, teammate Alex Bowman also slipped from the groove and on the outside lane.

Just then, the caution flew when Quin Houff made contact with the outside wall through Turns 1 and 2 after losing a tire, an incident that eliminated him from contention following the first two turns. At the time of caution, Kyle Busch was the leader followed by Almirola, Kyle Larson, Joey Logano and Cole Custer, with Elliott back in sixth.

When the race restarted on the fifth lap, Kyle Busch and Almirola duked for the lead through the first two turns until Kyle Larson, winner of the last three Cup events, including the All-Star Race, made a three-wide move in-between Busch and Almirola to snatch the lead. With Larson’s No. 5 Valvoline Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE out in front, the field behind battled for early positioning.

By Lap 10, Larson was leading by nearly a second over Kyle Busch while Aric Almirola and Joey Logano, both of whom made contact that nearly sent Logano in the infield a lap earlier in Turn 4, were in third and fourth. Cole Custer was in the top five followed by Matt DiBenedetto, Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Kevin Harvick.

Ten laps later, Larson stretched his advantage to one-and-a-half seconds over Kyle Busch while Almirola, Logano and Custer continued to run in the top five. DiBenedetto and Bowman remained in sixth and seventh while Elliott, Harvick and Stenhouse battled for eighth place. Rookie Chase Briscoe was in 12th, Tyler Reddick and Brad Keselowski were in 14th and 15th, Denny Hamlin was battling Daniel Suarez for 16th, Bubba Wallace was in 19th, Kurt Busch and Ryan Newman were in 21st and 22nd, William Byron and Martin Truex Jr. were in 24th and 25th and Ryan Blaney was in 28th behind Erik Jones.

Through the first 30 laps of the event, Larson continued to lead by more than a second over Kyle Busch, who continued to track Larson. Almirola remained in third place followed by Logano and Custer. DiBenedetto also remained in sixth place followed by Stenhouse, Elliott, Bowman and Harvick.

By Lap 40, the battle for the lead between the two Kyles ignited as Kyle Busch closed in on Larson for the lead, with both encountering lapped traffic. By then, Blaney made a pit stop under green. Soon after, Martin Truex Jr. made the turn to pit road for his service.

Not long after, pit stops under green commenced as Bubba Wallace pitted along with William Byron, Denny Hamlin, Daniel Suarez, Alex Bowman, Christopher Bell, DiBenedetto, Harvick, Tyler Reddick, Brad Keselowski and others. During this sequence, the leaders, Larson and Kyle Busch, pitted along with Elliott.

With the green flag pit stops continuing, the caution flew when Reddick, who just completed his pit service, spun entering Turn 2 through the grass while trying to return to the main track.

Under caution, a handful of competitors that had not yet pitted under green, led by Kurt Busch, pitted. Names like Almirola, Michael McDowell and Stenhouse also pitted.

Prior to the restart, a number of competitors took the wave around to return to the lead lap and when the field cycled back, Kyle Busch was the leader over Larson.

The race restarted on Lap 52, with the two Kyles out in front. At the start, Kyle Busch jumped ahead and moved in front of Larson to retain the lead. A lap later, though, Larson made his move beneath Busch’s No. 18 Pedigree Toyota Camry to reassume the lead.

Another two laps later, a rough start to the day for Blaney went worse when his No. 12 Menards/Duracell Ford Mustang shot up the track and made hard contact against the Turn 1 outside wall following a brake issue, an incident that ended his day with a wrecked race car.

When the race restarted on Lap 61, the two Kyles battled dead even for the lead through Turn 1 until Larson gained the advantage on the outside lane entering Turn 2, thus keeping Larson in the lead.

A few laps later, Elliott moved into the runner-up spot while Stenhouse started to challenge Kyle Busch for the lead. Kurt Busch, meanwhile, was in fifth followed by Logano, Almirola, Erik Jones, DiBenedetto and Bowman.

By Lap 70, Larson was leading by more than a second over teammate Elliott, with Stenhouse in third ahead of the Busch brothers. Almirola and Logano were in sixth and seventh followed by Erik Jones, DiBenedetto and Bowman.

Eight laps later, the caution flew when Justin Haley and Chris Buescher made hard contact into the outside wall separately in Turns 1 and 2. Haley’s incident was due to a brake rotor while Buescher’s incident was due to hitting a piece of debris on the track. The incident ended Buescher’s run, with broken rotors and loss of fluid.

Under caution, some led by Larson pitted while the rest led by Elliott remained on the track. Following the pit stops, Bowman was sent to the rear of the field due to speeding on pit road.

With five laps remaining in the first stage, the race restarted as Elliott and Kurt Busch started on the front row. At the start, Elliott and Kurt Busch battled for the lead while Daniel Suarez was in third ahead of Erik Jones and the field. Behind, Larson, racing on fresh tires, charged his way into fourth place while Kyle Busch was also trying to march his way forward.

With the field behind jostling for positioning, Elliott was able to retain the lead and claim the first stage on Lap 90, thus recording his second stage victory of the season. Kurt Busch settled in second followed by Larson, Suarez and Kyle Busch. Austin Dillon, Stenhouse, Keselowski, Logano and DiBenedetto were scored in the top 10.

Under the stage break, names like Elliott, Kurt Busch, Suarez, Austin Dillon and Truex pitted. During the pit stops, Truex was penalized due to a pit entry violation, where he did not enter pit road in a single-file line with his fellow competitors. In addition, Kurt Busch made another pit stop due to a loose wheel.

Back on the track, Larson, who pitted earlier, remained on the track to assume the lead followed by Kyle Busch, Stenhouse, Logano and DiBenedetto.

The second stage started on Lap 97, and Larson retained the lead over Kyle Busch through the first two turns. Behind, Stenhouse overtook Logano for third followed by Denny Hamlin while Ross Chastain and DiBenedetto battled for sixth. Harvick, meanwhile, was back in the top 10 in eighth followed by Christopher Bell and Custer.

At the Lap 100 mark, Larson was leading by more than a second over Kyle Busch and Stenhouse, who started to challenge Busch for the runner-up spot. Hamlin moved into fourth followed by Logano, DiBenedetto, Chastain, Harvick, Bell and Custer.

Ten laps later, Larson extended his advantage to nearly three seconds over Stenhouse. Hamlin, Logano and Chastain were in the top five while Kyle Busch, who was battling handling issues, fell back to sixth.

By Lap 125, Larson continued to lead by more than two seconds over Stenhouse, with third-place Hamlin trailing by less than seven seconds. Chastain was in fourth followed by Logano, Kyle Busch, Harvick, Almirola, Bell and Custer. Meanwhile, DiBenedetto was losing spots on the track due to an engine issue.

Seven laps later, the caution returned when Bubba Wallace spun in Turn 2 after losing a left-rear tire. Under caution, the leaders pitted. Following the pit stops, Truex was penalized again, this time for speeding on pit road. In addition, teammate Bell was penalized due to an uncontrolled tire violation.

On Lap 138, the race restarted under green, with Larson and Hamlin on the front row. At the start, Kyle Busch challenged Larson for the lead. Despite his challenge, Larson retained the lead when the field returned to the start/finish line.

Not long after, Stenhouse overtook Kyle Busch for the runner-up spot while Logano prevailed in a battle with Hamlin for fourth.

By Lap 150, Larson was leading by over two seconds over Stenhouse, with Kyle Busch, teammate Hamlin and Kevin Harvick in the top five. Almirola was in sixth ahead of Logano, Byron, Chastain and Elliott.

On Lap 173, the caution returned due to debris on the track that came from Cole Custer, who lost a right-rear tire after he also lost his brakes.

Under caution, the leaders pitted and Briscoe exited in first following a two-tire stop. Reddick exited in second followed by Larson, the first competitor on four fresh tires. Austin Dillon was in fourth and Kyle Busch was in fifth.

With five laps remaining in the second stage, the race restarted. At the start, Briscoe took off with the lead followed by Larson while Reddick struggled on the start as the field was also bunched up and fanned out to three lanes entering Turn 2.

The following lap, Larson overtook Briscoe in Turn 2 to reassume the lead. Behind, Kyle Busch charged his way to fourth ahead of teammate Hamlin while Elliott was in seventh behind teammate Byron. Reddick, meanwhile, had fallen out of the top 10 while trying to keep his car straightened on old tires.

As the field continued to scramble for late positioning, Larson was able to cruise to the second stage victory on Lap 185 and record his 12th stage victory of the season. Austin Dillon edged Briscoe for the runner-up spot while Byron edged Kyle Busch for fourth place. Hamlin, Elliott, Stenhouse, Almirola and Harvick were scored in the top 10.

Under the stage break, some like Briscoe, Truex, Bell, Austin Dillon, Reddick, Erik Jones, Ryan Newman, Wallace and McDowell pitted while the rest led by Larson remained on the track.

With 110 laps remaining, the final stage commenced as teammates Larson and Byron led the field on the front row. At the start, Larson utilized the outside lane to retain the lead over teammate Byron while Kyle Busch was challenged by teammate Hamlin and Stenhouse for third. Soon, Elliott challenged Stenhouse for fifth with Kurt Busch lurking behind.

Six laps later, the caution flew when Ryan Preece spun in Turn 2. Under caution, some like Chastain, Bowman, Reddick, McDowell, Corey LaJoie, Suarez and DiBenedetto pitted.

With 98 laps remaining, the race restarted under green. At the start, Byron got loose and nearly clipped Larson sideways in Turn 1, but Larson was able to retain the lead through Turn 2. As Larson led teammate Byron, teammate Elliott was in third ahead of Hamlin and Kurt Busch. Stenhouse and Harvick battled for sixth followed by Briscoe, Almirola and Logano. Kyle Busch, meanwhile, was in 17th as he continued to battle handling issues to his car.

With 90 laps remaining, Larson was leading by more than a second over teammate Byron, with teammate Elliott trailing by more than two seconds. Hamlin was in fourth followed by Kurt Busch, Harvick, Stenhouse, Briscoe, Almirola and Logano.

Seven laps later, the event’s 10th caution flew when Wallace spun for a second time in Turn 2. Under caution, nearly all of the leaders pitted as Larson exited in first. Harvick, meanwhile, boosted his way to second place followed by Byron, Kurt Busch and Hamlin. Back on track, Chastain was the leader after he remained on the track without pitting.

With 78 laps remaining, the race restarted. At the start, Larson powered away from Chastain to reassume the lead while Byron, who battled with Chastain and Harvick through Turn 2, moved back up to second.

Down to the final 75 laps of the event, Larson was leading by seven-tenths of a second over teammate Byron while Chastain, Harvick and Elliott were in the top five. Kurt Busch was in sixth followed by Briscoe, Hamlin, Almirola and Logano. Truex was in 12th behind teammate Bell, Keselowski was in 14th and Kyle Busch was in 18th ahead of Austin Dillon and Bowman.

Soon after, the caution returned due to Briscoe making contact with the outside wall in Turn 3 after he lost his brakes.

Under caution, names like Chastain, Suarez, Keselowski, Stenhouse, Reddick, Jones, Bowman, Corey LaJoie, Wallace, Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon and others pitted while the rest led by Larson remained on the track.

The race restarted with 68 laps remaining, and Elliott made slight contact with teammate Byron in a three-wide bid for the lead. With Elliott backing out, Larson was able to receive another strong start on the outside lane to retain the lead over Byron. Behind, Harvick overtook Elliott in third while Kurt Busch continued to hold strong in fifth ahead of Almirola and the field.

With 50 laps remaining, Larson was leading by two seconds over teammate Byron while Harvick, Elliott and Kurt Busch were in the top five. By then, Larson used the lapped car of J.J. Yeley to clear some debris off of his car. Almirola was in sixth and challenging Busch for the top-five spot, with Hamlin, Chastain, Bell and Stenhouse in the top 10.

Fifteen laps later, Larson continued to lead by more than three seconds over teammate Byron. Harvick was in third followed by teammate Almirola and Elliott. Kurt Busch fell back to sixth in front of teammate Chastain while Hamlin, Stenhouse and Bell were in the top 10.

Down to the final 20 laps of the event, Larson was out in front by more than four seconds over teammate Byron, with Harvick, Almirola and Chastain in the top five. Kurt Busch was in sixth ahead of Stenhouse, Elliott, Bell and Hamlin.

With 10 laps remaining and fuel questions beginning to arise from a multitude of teams, Larson was leading by more than five seconds over teammate Byron. Harvick remained in third followed by Chastain and Almirola. Kurt Busch was in sixth followed by Stenhouse, Bell, Suarez and Hamlin.

A few laps later, Truex pitted. Meanwhile, Chastain, who had enough fuel to the finish, overtook Harvick for third place and went to work on Byron for second place, which he succeeded.

With five laps remaining, Larson, who remained in question about having enough fuel to the finish, was leading by more than five seconds over a hard-charging Chastain.

Down to the final two laps, Hamlin and Kurt Busch ran out of fuel, with Hamlin pitting while Kurt Busch continued to run on the track.

Back at the front, Larson continued to lead by more than five seconds over Chastain as he started the final lap of the race. Having enough fuel in his tank, Larson was able to coast his car around the circuit for a final time and take the checkered flag to win in Music City nation.

With the inaugural victory in Nashville and a Gibson Guitar trophy, Larson achieved his 10th NASCAR Cup Series career victory and fourth of the season since returning as a full-time competitor. In addition, Hendrick Motorsports has won the six Cup events, including the All-Star Race.

“Yeah, it was a great day,” Larson said on NBCSN. “We never really had to run behind people. When my teammates got out in front again, it would’ve probably been hard to pass them. The Valvoline Chevrolet was really good. It could cut the middle of the corner really well and our pit crew did an awesome job again. That number one pit stall helps a bunch, too. This crowd’s awesome…We had enough rubber and enough fuel leftover to do a good burnout there at the end. I can’t say enough about everybody at Hendrick Motorsports…I just hope we can keep it going.”

Settling in a career-best runner-up result was Ross Chastain, who also achieved his second top-five result of this season and of his career.

“We had the speed to run top five all day, but I sped on pit road and I boxed us in our pit box,” Chastain said. “For most of the day, I was so loose entry of Turn 1, just almost like wheel-hopping, bouncing the right rear. So, I really struggled, and finally, the last three runs of the race, [crew chief] Phil Surgen and this Clover Chevy team, they got it where I could hustle it and that’s what I needed. At the end, I didn’t want a caution. I knew Kyle [Larson] was out there. Just get to second and we’ll be happy with it.”

Byron finished third followed by Almirola, who achieved his first top-five result of the season, and Harvick, who ran out of fuel coming to the finish line.

Stenhouse came home in sixth place followed by Suarez, Kurt Busch, Bell and Logano.

Kyle Busch settled in 11th following a long battle with handling issues, Elliott fell to 13th after reporting concerns of a flat right-rear tire to his car, teammates Hamlin and Truex finished 22nd and 23rd, Keselowski came home in 24th following brake issues and DiBenedetto settled in 25th. Bowman finished 15th, Reddick settled in 19th ahead of Erik Jones and Bubba Wallace and rookie Chase Briscoe ended his run in 32nd.

Following the race, Elliott was disqualified due to his car having five lug nuts not secured. As a result, he was credited with a 39th-place result and he was not awarded his playoff point from the Nashville event.

There were 14 lead changes for seven different leaders. The race featured 11 cautions for 60 laps.

With nine regular-season races remaining until the 2021 Cup Playoffs commences, Hamlin continues to lead the regular-season standings by nine points over Larson. Eleven competitors, (Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr., Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott, William Byron, Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski, Christopher Bell and Michael McDowell), are guaranteed positions for the Playoffs along with Denny Hamlin, who leads the regular-season standings. Kevin Harvick, Austin Dillon, Tyler Reddick and Chris Buescher occupy the remaining postseason spots as winless competitors, with Kurt Busch trailing the top-16 cutline by 24 points, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. trailing by 43, Matt DiBenedetto trailing by 46, Ross Chastain trailing by 50, Daniel Suarez trailing by 61, Bubba Wallace trailing by 77 and Ryan Newman trailing by 81.

Results.

1. Kyle Larson, 264 laps led, Stage 2 winner

2. Ross Chastain, four laps led

3. William Byron

4. Aric Almirola, one lap led

5. Kevin Harvick

6. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

7. Daniel Suarez

8. Kurt Busch, three laps led, Stage 1 winner

9. Christopher Bell

10. Joey Logano

11. Kyle Busch, 10 laps led

12. Austin Dillon

13. Ryan Newman

14. Alex Bowman

15. Corey LaJoie

16. Michael McDowell

17. Anthony Alfredo

18. Tyler Reddick

19. Erik Jones

20. Bubba Wallace, one lap down

21. Denny Hamlin, one lap down

22. Martin Truex Jr., one lap down

23. Brad Keselowski, one lap down

24. Matt DiBenedetto, two laps down

25. Garrett Smithley, two laps down

26. Josh Bilicki, two laps down

27. J.J. Yeley, two laps down

28. B.J. McLeod, five laps down

29. Joey Gase, five laps down

30. Cole Custer, 48 laps down

31. Chase Briscoe – OUT, Accident five laps led

32. Ryan Preece – OUT, Brakes

33. Chad Finchum – OUT, Rear end

34. David Starr – OUT, Brakes

35. Justin Haley – OUT, Accident

36. Chris Buescher – OUT, Accident

37. Ryan Blaney – OUT, Accident

38. Quin Houff – OUT, Accident

39. Chase Elliott – Disqualified, 13 laps led

Next on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the series’ second annual Pocono Raceway doubleheader feature on June 26-27. The first Cup event of the weekend on Saturday, June 26, will occur at 3 p.m. ET on NBCSN and the second on Sunday, June 27, will occur at 3:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

CHEVY NCS AT NASHVILLE: Post-Race Notes and Quotes

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Official Release

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June 20, 2021

NASCAR CUP SERIES
NASHVILLE SUPERSPEEDWAY
ALLY 400
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES & QUOTES
JUNE 20, 2021

TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 VALVOLINE CAMARO ZL1 1LE
2nd ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 42 CLOVER CAMARO ZL1 1LE
3rd WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1 1LE
6th RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 KROGER/NATURE VALLEY CAMARO ZL1 1LE
7th DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 TOOTSIES ORCHID LOUNGE CAMARO ZL1 1LE
8th KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE

TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Kyle Larson (Chevrolet)
2nd Ross Chastain (Chevrolet)
3rd William Byron (Chevrolet)
4th Aric Almirola (Ford)
5th Kevin Harvick (Ford)

The NASCAR Cup Series season continues next weekend at Pocono Raceway for a doubleheader race weekend, kicking off with the NASCAR Cup Series at Pocono-1 on Saturday, June 26, at 3 p.m. ET, followed by the Explore the Pocono Mountains 350 on Sunday, June 27, at 3:30 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTES:
KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 VALVOLINE CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Race Winner
DID IT FEEL THE MOST DOMINANT BEHIND THE WHEEL?
“It was a great day. We never really had to run behind people, so I don’t know. If one of my teammates got out front again it probably would have been hard to pass them. This Valvoline Chevrolet was really good. It cut the middle of the corner really well and our pit crew did an awesome job again. That number one pit stall helps a bunch, too. This crowd is awesome!”

YOU DID A BURNOUT FOR THE ENTIRE CROWD, FROM ONE END OF THE GRANDSTAND TO THE OTHER
“Yeah, I was going to do something here and then I looked down there and thought, yeah, there’s a lot of fans down there, too. I need to go to the end. But we had enough rubber and fuel leftover to do a good burnout there at the end. I can’t say enough about everybody at Hendrick Motorsports, HendrickCars.com, Valvoline, and thanks to everybody who has been a part of this team this year. I just hope we can keep it going.”

ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 42 CLOVER CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 2nd
FIRST CAREER CUP TOP-FIVE, HOW ARE YOU FEELING?
“Really good. To come to a 750 hp track – lifting, sliding and moving all over the race track trying to get forward drive, it was really good.”

WHAT DOES THIS BATCH OF TOP-10’S SAY ABOUT YOU AS A DRIVER AND THIS TEAM RIGHT NOW? SONOMA, A ROAD COURSE IN THE RAIN AND NOW HERE.
“It’s finally on a circle track, that’s all I’m happy about. I’m happy about the road courses, I just don’t really know what it’s happening. Here, I know why. I know what we did. I know what I’m doing to drive the car. Road courses, it’s not really pre-planned. This is pre-planned. It’s what we all grew up doing.”

YOU’RE IN THE PLAYOFF MIX NOW. ARE YOU IN MUST-WIN MODE OR DO YOU FEEL PRETTY GOOD ABOUT DOING IT ON POINTS?
“I just want to compete, that’s the biggest thing. I’m racing with my heroes. I want to compete with them and I want to beat them.”

I GET THE IMPRESSION THAT YOU DRIVE THE SAME NO MATTER WHAT, IT’S JUST A MATTER OF THE PROGRAM COMING TO YOU. HAVE YOU HAD TO, WHETHER IT’S LEARNING THE CARS OR LEARNING THE PROGRAM, CHANGE THE WAY YOU GO ABOUT DOING EVERY WEEKEND?
“I’m just trying to keep my confidence up. I got down pretty early in the west coast swing. I’ve realized I just need to keep doing what I’m doing.”

WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 3rd
HOW DID IT GO OUT THERE FOR YOU TODAY? IS THERE ANYTHING YOU CAN COMPARE FROM FRIDAY?
“We had a little bit of right-front damage, so honestly we weren’t as good as we probably could have been. We were OK, we just couldn’t finish the corner and just struggled with the right-front all day. Overall, that’s just part of it. It’s hard to start in the back and we learned a lesson there on adjustments for qualifying. Nothing major, just something to learn from.”

DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING FROM THE TRUCK RACE REGARDING THE BRAKE ISSUES BEFORE YOUR ENGINE LET GO? DID YOU KNOW THIS WAS GOING TO BE AN ISSUE?
“Just low downforce, high horsepower. I think a lot of guys showed up with less brake than they needed. So, for us, we showed up with a good amount of brake, especially being back in traffic.”

RICKY STENHOUSE JR., NO. 47 KROGER/NATURE VALLEY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 6th
“It was a challenging day. The cars were not easy to drive and even when we were running second there, we were trying to make adjustments to get better and see if we could catch him. I felt like I was a little better than the No. 5 (Kyle Larson) in one of those stages on the long run and then we kind of lost our track position and struggled to get it back. I’m glad we were able to make it up into the top-10 there. Really solid day for our Kroger team.”

“It was a great day for our Kroger team. I was really happy with the racecar that we brought and hopefully we can carry this onto Pocono (Raceway).”

WAS THE TRACK A LOT DIFFERENT THAN YESTERDAY?
“I felt like it was pretty close to the same for us. We were pretty happy with our car yesterday and was really happy with it today, as far as the speed goes. I don’t think anybody’s was handling great. That’s just a product of concrete, rubber on the track and obviously the sun being out. The only thing I would have liked a little more was an AC unit today (laughs).”

“It was a good race. I had a lot of fun. I’m glad that we battled back close to the top-five.”

DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 TOOTSIES ORCHID LOUNGE CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 7th
THIRD TOP-10 OF THE YEAR. WHAT WAS TODAY LIKE FOR YOU?
“It was good. The car was good enough to finish right there in the top-10. I don’t know what it was, but in the last couple of runs, we lost some grip in the front. I don’t know if it was the race track, or what; but the guys did a very good job of making adjustments. The car was fast; we showed that a couple of times. We’ve just got to continue.”

KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 8th
“We ended up eighth. We were trying to save some fuel at the end and lost the race for a top-five. Awesome day for (Ross) Chastain. He pitted and got to run hard at the end. I was hoping he would catch (Kyle) Larson; that would have been incredible. We ran out of gas coming out of turn four, but had to do what we could with the Monster Energy Chevy. All-in-all, it was fun track to drive. It was a lot of fun just slip-sliding around with all that horsepower at a new track”

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 GET BIOETHANOL CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 12th
“What a race! We knew we would have our work cut out for us today in the No. 3 Get Bioethanol Chevy after qualifying didn’t go as well as we planned. This Richard Childress Racing team never gave up, though, and I am so proud of them for that. Early in Stage 1 we earned some track position, fell back a bit with an ill-timed caution after a green-flag stop, then we rallied to race our way to sixth to end Stage 1. We finished Stage 2 second to earn additional points, which is really good for our NASCAR Playoffs battle. Overall, I’m really proud of this team and we will take this 12th-place finish and move on to Pocono for a double-header next weekend.”

TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 JOE NICHOLS / QUARTZ HILL RECORDS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 19th
“Today was all about survival at Nashville Superspeedway. Our No. 8 Joe Nichols / Quartz Hill Records Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE had a lot of speed in it, but we had to overcome a lot of obstacles today. After our first pit stop of the day, there was no grip on the pit axis road while exiting, and I clipped the grass and spun around. Luckily, I didn’t hit anything and other than some dirt on the windshield, we was able to keep going after pitting for fresh tires. Shortly after that, someone on the track dropped some debris that went through the nose of my car but didn’t hit anything bad enough to end our day. From then on, we had to just race really smart to get our laps back, which we were able to do quickly after a couple cautions came up. Our car was a bit on the tight side today and needed to be looser, but our adjustments really didn’t seem to help a lot on the short runs like we needed them too. Our long run balance wasn’t bad, but I had a really bad vibration in the final 12 laps or so and had to slow my pace to make sure a tire or brake rotor didn’t blow. We were able to pick up a few extra spots since other guys ran out of fuel at the end, but we’ll definitely have to study this race and figure out how to be better next time.”

ERIK JONES, NO. 43 BLACK ENTREPRENEUR INITIATIVE CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 20th
“It was a tough day for the No. 43 Black Entrepreneur Initiative Camaro ZL1 1LE. We had an OK qualifying effort in the top-10. We had to start in the back and we fought our way back into the top-10 early in the race, and then just kind of lost the balance from there. Tough day – it wasn’t the day we were looking for, for sure, but we stuck with it all day and got a top-20 out of it. We’ll go to Pocono (Raceway) next week. It’s a place I really like and we hope to have a couple good 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.

Dixie Vodka Racing: Cole Custer Nashville Race Report

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Official Release

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June 20, 2021

Custer Finishes 31st at Nashville
Flat Tire Ruins Day for Dixie Vodka Tony’s Tea Ford Driver

Date: June 20, 2021
Event: Inaugural Ally 400 (Round 17 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway (1.333-mile oval)
Format: 300 laps, broken into three stages (90 laps/95 laps/115 laps)
Start/Finish: 7th / 31st (Running, completed 252 of 300 laps)
Point Standing: 27th (259 points, 425 out of first)
Race Winner: Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 2 Winner: Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-90):

● Cole Custer started seventh and finished 18th.
● The No. 41 Dixie Vodka Tony’s Tea Ford quickly moved forward at the start of the race and was running fifth when the caution flag waved on the first lap of the race.
● From the lap-five restart, Custer held steady in fifth until his lap-44, green-flag pit stop for four tires, fuel and a slight adjustment.
● The caution flag flew while the team was on pit road and Custer was set to restart in the top-10. However, the No. 41 was hit with a pit road speeding penalty sending Custer to the tail end of the longest line on the lap-52 restart.
● The No. 41 driver came to pit road under the lap-78 caution while he was running 25th to get four tires, fuel and an adjustment. This put the team in a position to stay out and gain track position when the stage came to an end 12 laps later.

Stage 2 Recap (Laps 91-185):

● Custer started 11th and finished 33rd.
● The No. 41 Dixie Vodka Tony’s Tea driver notched a spot in the top-10 on the lap-96 restart and stayed there for the opening part of the stage.
● On lap 117, Custer reported concerns over his brakes after several cars had been involved in incidents on track. The No. 41 Ford Mustang kept growing tighter on the run and fell back to 14th by lap 159.
● The No. 41 Ford Mustang began to slow with a flat right rear tire on lap 172, bringing out the caution flag. Unfortunately, the team was unable to fix the issue on pit road as the brake rotor was damaged. They took the racecar to the garage for repairs on lap 173 and continued to work until the end of the stage.

Final Stage Recap (Laps 186-300):

● The 23-year-old driver started 33rd and finished 31st.
● The Ladera Ranch, California, native brought his Ford Mustang back out on the track on lap 218 to re-enter the race in 33rd, 45 laps down.
● The No. 41 Dixie Vodka Tony’s Tea Ford Mustang came down pit road for an unscheduled pit stop on lap 281 after Custer reported vibrations. He rejoined the field and finished the race in 31st.

Notes:

● Kyle Larson won the inaugural Ally 400 to score his 10th career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his fourth of the season and his third straight. His margin over second-place Ross Chastain was 4.335 seconds.
● There were 11 caution periods for a total of 60 laps.
● Twenty of the 39 drivers in the Ally 400 finished on the lead lap.
● Denny Hamlin remains the championship leader after Nashville with a nine-point advantage over second-place Larson.

Cole Custer, driver of the No. 41 Dixie Vodka Tony’s Tea Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

“Just wasn’t the day we were hoping for at Nashville. Our car was strong and qualified in the top-10, but we had that right-rear flat in the second stage and after going to the garage, we just couldn’t recover. We’ll head to Pocono and try to turn things around.”

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is a doubleheader June 26-27 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway. The first race starts at 3 p.m. EDT on Saturday, and the second race begins at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday. Both races will be broadcast live on NBCSN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Monster Jam/Grave Digger Racing: Kevin Harvick Ally 400 Race Report from Nashville

By

Official Release

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June 20, 2021

Harvick Nabs Fifth at Nashville
Driver of No. 4 Monster Jam/Grave Digger Ford Mustang Scores Fifth Top-Five of 2021

Date: June 20, 2021
Event: Inaugural Ally 400 (Round 17 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway (1.333-mile oval)
Format: 300 laps, broken into four stages (90 laps/95 laps/115 laps)
Start/Finish: 12th / 5th (Running, completed 300 of 300 laps)
Point Standing: 8th (516 points, 168 out of first)
Race Winner: Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 2 Winner: Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-90):

● Kevin Harvick started eighth and finished 14th.
● The No. 4 Monster Jam/Grave Digger Ford Mustang gained five positions on the opening lap, which ended with the caution flag flying for a single-car incident. Harvick stayed on track and restarted eighth on lap five and maintained his position in the top-10 until pitting from ninth under green on lap 44. He took four tires and adjustments to tighten up the racecar’s loose condition.
● The caution flag flew for a spinning car in turn four during Harvick’s out lap, and he was shown in 17th.
● Less than two laps after the lap-52 restart, Harvick was 20th when the caution flag flew once again for a single-car incident in turn two. He pitted for four tires and chassis adjustments, and restarted 23rd on lap 61.
● Harvick held his relative position and emerged 21st after a two-car incident in turn two brought out the caution flag on lap 78. He said his Monster Jam/Grave Digger Ford was tight in the front, but the rear end needed more attention. He pitted for four tires, fuel and chassis adjustments and restarted 17th on lap 85. He picked up three positions in the final five laps of the stage. He stayed on track during the break after saying his racecar took off better for that short run.

Stage 2 Recap (Laps 91-185):

● Harvick started ninth and finished 10th, earning one bonus point.
● The No. 4 Monster Jam/Grave Digger Ford Mustang picked up a pair of positions in the early laps of the stage and held position in seventh until the caution flag flew on lap 132 for a spinning car in turn two. Harvick said his racecar felt better, just needed “a little bit of grip” in the center of the corner.” He pitted for four tires, fuel and restarted sixth on lap 138.
● Harvick held position over the next 30 laps, saying his racecar would go loose as the run progressed. He cracked the top-five on lap 170 with a pass of Denny Hamlin, just before the caution flag flew on lap 172 for debris. Harvick pitted for four tires, fuel and adjustments to tighten up the car’s handling and restarted 11th on lap 180, then picked up one more position over the final five laps of the stage. He stayed on track during the break.

Final Stage Recap (Laps 186-300):

● Harvick started eighth and finished fifth.
● No. 4 Monster Jam/Grave Digger Ford Mustang picked up a position in the opening laps of the stage before the caution flag flew on lap 197 for a single-car incident in turn two. Harvick stayed on track after reporting, “That’s the best I’ve been able to let off the brake and let it roll through the corner.” He restarted seventh on lap 202.
● Harvick was running sixth on lap 216 when he reported his racecar struggled to turn down in the center of the corner and was losing the back end. Moments later, the caution flag flew for a spinning car on the frontstretch. Harvick pitted for tires, fuel and chassis adjustments. He restarted third on lap 222.
● Harvick and the car of William Byron made side-by-side contact in turn two during the restart, after which Harvick reported the Monster Jam/Grave Digger Ford was “super tight.” He was fourth when the caution flag flew for a single-car incident in turn four. He stayed on track and restarted third on lap 232.
● From that point, the Monster Jam/Grave Digger Ford maintained its position in the top-three until eight laps remained while employing fuel-saving mode a majority of the way, and took the checkered flag fifth.

Notes:

● Harvick earned his fifth top-five and 12th top-10 of the season.
● Harvick won two NASCAR Xfinity Series races at Nashville (April 2006 and 2010). In his four Xfinity Series starts at the track he finished in the top-three all but once, and that was a seventh-place drive in April 2001. Harvick also made one NASCAR Camping World Truck Series start at Nashville in April 2010 and finished second.
● Kyle Larson won the inaugural Ally 400 to score his 10th career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his fourth of the season and his third in a row. His margin over second-place Ross Chastain was 4.335 seconds.
● There were 11 caution periods for a total of 60 laps.
● Twenty of the 39 drivers in the Ally 400 finished on the lead lap.
● Denny Hamlin remains the championship leader after Nashville with a nine-point advantage over second-place Larson.

Kevin Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Monster Jam/Grave Digger Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

“Our Monster Jam/Grave Digger Ford Mustang was a lot loose at the beginning and really pretty good the second half of the race. We got some damage there when we made a little contact with the 24 (William Byron) and that made it a little bit tighter. I thought we were better than the 24. The 42 (Ross Chastain) had fresh tires, and the 10 (SHR teammate Aric Almirola), I thought we were better than those cars. The 5 (Kyle Larson) was kind of in a league of his own, but once again the guys did a great job and ground away at it and came away with a top-five as we ran out of gas. I think before our damage we probably had the second-best car at the end and got a little bit of damage on the right side. I got a little bit tight and then ran out of gas off of turn four and lost a couple of spots but, all in all, it was a solid day.”

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is a doubleheader June 26-27 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway. The first race starts at 3 p.m. EDT on Saturday and the second race begins at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday. Both races will be broadcast live on NBCSN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

HighPoint.com Racing: Chase Briscoe Nashville Race Report

By

Official Release

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June 20, 2021

Briscoe Finishes 32nd at Nashville
Brake Issue Spoils Top-10 Run for HighPoint.com/Thorlabs Driver
Date: June 20, 2021
Event: Inaugural Ally 400 (Round 17 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway (1.333-mile oval)
Format: 300 laps, broken into three stages (90 laps/95 laps/115 laps)
Start/Finish: 16th / 32nd (Accident, completed 227 of 300 laps)
Point Standing: 26th (284 points, 400 out of first)
Race Winner: Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Winner: Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 2 Winner: Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 1 Recap (Laps 1-90):

● Chase Briscoe started 16th and finished 19th.
● Briscoe entered the top-10 on lap six but slipped back to 12th on lap nine. The HighPoint.com/Thorlabs driver held that position until lap 34 when cars further back in the field began to move forward.
● On lap 39, Briscoe reported he was free on entry to the corner. Crew chief Johnny Klausmeier called him to pit road five laps later for a scheduled green-flag stop. He received four tires, fuel and adjustments and returned to the track in 23rd, one lap down, just as the yellow caution flag was shown for the first time.
● Briscoe waved around and restarted 18th on lap 53. Just three laps later, caution was called again, and Briscoe restarted 16th on lap 62.
● The HighPoint.com/Thorlabs Mustang was running 20th when the field was slowed for an incident in turn two. Briscoe relayed his handling was good but he needed his right-rear tire to have more grip on entry. He pitted under the caution for four tires, fuel and additional adjustments, and restarted 20th on lap 86.
● Briscoe battled for position over the remaining five laps in the stage to finish 19th.

Stage 2 Recap (Laps 91-185)

● Briscoe started 15th and finished third, earning eight bonus points.
● The sixth caution of the race was called on lap 133 with Briscoe running 15th. He told the team his rear grip was much better but he still needed help with turn, as the HighPoint.com/Thorlabs Ford was tight center-off. The No. 14 team pitted for tires, fuel and several adjustments to help with front turn.
● Briscoe restarted 12th and worked to find the best line until caution came out on lap 174. Under yellow, he pitted for right-side tires and fuel, and then lined up first for the lap-181 restart.
● The HighPoint.com/Thorlabs driver held off Kyle Larson for a lap and a half before moving back to second. On the final lap of the stage, he battled with the No. 3 car to the finish line and was scored third at the line.

Stage 3 Recap (Laps 186-300)

● Briscoe started 13th and finished 32nd.
● After pitting for four tires, fuel and adjustments to help front turn, Briscoe started the final stage in the 13th position on lap 191.
● He fought his way up to eighth before the yellow flag was shown on lap 197. He radioed to the team that the HighPoint.com/Thorlabs Ford fired off the best it had all day. The team elected to stay on track and restarted seventh on lap 203.
● Briscoe maintained his position inside the top-10 and was running eighth until the next caution on lap 219. He asked the team for just a slight air pressure adjustment to help his front turn but noted the previous adjustments did help his handling. He was seventh off pit road and lined up eighth for the lap-223 restart.
● The HighPoint.com/Thorlabs Ford Mustang was running seventh on lap 228 when Briscoe drifted up the track and made contact with the outside wall in turn four. He reported that he had no brakes. After pitting for the team to assess damage, it was determined the No. 14 could not continue due to a loss of brakes.

Notes:

● Briscoe finished third in Stage 2 to earn eight bonus points.
● Briscoe led once for five laps.
● Kyle Larson won the inaugural Ally 400 to score his 10th career NASCAR Cup Series victory, his fourth of the season and his third straight. His margin over second-place Ross Chastain was 4.335 seconds.
● There were 11 caution periods for a total of 60 laps.
● Twenty of the 39 drivers in the Ally 400 finished on the lead lap.
● Denny Hamlin remains the championship leader after Nashville with a nine-point advantage over second-place Larson.

Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 HighPoint.com/Thorlabs Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing:

“We just lost the brakes getting into turn three. It’s super unfortunate for our HighPoint.com/Thorlabs team. We had a really, really good car, and I feel like we were going to be right there for a top-five at the end. We just needed a long run, but even on the short run we made our car so much better, so I really hate it, because that was going to be our best run of the year for sure and something like that happens. It’s really wild to see all the brake issues we’ve had today. We were able to do the Goodyear test a few months ago and knew that brakes were going to be way worse than everybody else thought. So we beefed them up and it still wasn’t good enough, so it’s unfortunate. We’ll go on to Pocono and try to have a good run for HighPoint.com at their home track.”

Next Up:

The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is a doubleheader June 26-27 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway. The first race starts at 3 p.m. EDT on Saturday, and the second race begins at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday. Both races will be broadcast live on NBCSN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Ford Performance NASCAR: Almirola and Harvick Post Top-5 Finishes at Nashville

By

Official Release

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June 20, 2021

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series — Ally 400
Nashville Superspeedway | Sunday, June 20, 2021

Ford Finishing Results:
4th — Aric Almirola
5th — Kevin Harvick
10th — Joey Logano
14th — Ryan Newman
17th — Michael McDowell
18th — Anthony Alfredo
24th — Brad Keselowski
25th — Matt DiBenedetto
27th — Josh Bilicki
29th — B.J. McLeod
31st — Cole Custer
32nd — Chase Briscoe
37th — Chris Buescher
38th — Ryan Blaney

ARIC ALMIROLA, No. 10 Smithfield Ford Mustang — “We had a good car, just, my goodness, we don’t have anything for those Chevrolets right now. They’re making grip and they’re getting up off the corner. It’s so hard to race with them. I can roll the center as good as some of the guys in those cars, if not a little better, and then it’s tough to keep up. But we have made huge strides to close the gap. Our race team is doing a great job scrounging and scrapping to build better race cars and it’s nice to come here and run up front, run in the top five and at least be in the mix, so it feels good. We’ll just keep building on it. The All-Star Race was a good race for us. Today, again, was a good race for us, so we’ll just keep grinding.”

HOW AS TODAY? “Today was a solid day for us, so it was good to bounce back and do it two weeks in a row, considering we had a good race at the All-Star and come here and have another good race. It feels good.”

ALL FOUR SHR CARS WERE IN THE TOP 12 AT ONE POINT. WHAT DOES THAT SAY AS FAR AS PROGRESS? “It means we’re working hard. We’ve had a lot of races where the 4 has been a 10th-place car and the other three of us have run 25th it seems like, so we’ve been working so hard. When you run bad it’s 10 times as much work because you’re going down every single different avenue trying to figure out what’s gonna make speed in the race cars, and when you have fast race cars it’s easy because you just massage on it and polish it and keep going to the racetrack with what you know is fast. We’ve been working so hard. I’m proud of everybody back at the shop and specifically this 10 team. We’ve been off and it’s been nice to get it back and go on here in the right direction after two weeks in a row of running up front.”

WHAT DOES THIS DO FOR YOUR CONFIDENCE? “it just feels good. It’s been such a tough year and it’s easy to get down on yourself and not have a lot of confidence. Confidence is something that comes with results. You can’t fake it, so it’s been nice to have two good weeks now and it certainly makes everybody have a little pep in their step and things are going in the right direction.”

HOW DO YOU FEEL THE RACE WENT TODAY AFTER 10 YEARS? “I don’t know, it was tough. The racetrack was really low on grip. The tires didn’t seem to have a lot of grip and we were just kind of slipping and sliding around. Nobody ever really felt stuck or looked stuck to the racetrack and it was just a challenge, to be honest. But, all in all, it still put on a race. There was a green flag and there was a checkered flag and there was a winner and that’s racing. We show up to all sorts of different racetracks and we do our best to compete and try and outrun each other.”

WAS IT NICE TO HAVE TONY HERE TODAY. DID IT HELP? “Yeah. That wasn’t the magic to make our race cars go fast, but it was certainly nice to have him here. Tony is a great morale booster. He’s our boss and we all look up to him and appreciate when he’s here at the racetrack, so it was certainly nice to have him here and see his smiling face and have him walking around patting everybody on the back. It’s nice.”

KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Grave Digger Ford Mustang — “Our Monster Jam Grave Digger Ford Mustang was a lot loose at the beginning and really pretty good the second half of the race. We got some damage there when we made a little contact with the 24 and that made it a little bit tighter. I thought we were better than the 24. The 42 had fresh tires and the 10, I thought we were better than those cars. The 5 was kind of in a league of his own, but once again the guys did a great job and ground away at it and came away with a top five out of gas.”

WHAT STATEMENT DOES THIS MAKE FOR THE 4 TEAM? “I don’t know if we made a statement, but we ran better.”

IS THIS WHAT YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT AS FAR AS A BUILDING BLOCK? “Yeah, I think before our damage we probably had the second-best car at the end and got a little bit of damage on the right side. I got a little bit tight and then ran out of gas off of turn four and last a couple spots, but, all in all, it was a solid day.”

WILL THE CONVERSATION NOW INCLUDE BEING CLOSE TO A WIN? “I don’t know. I don’t think anybody can beat the 5 right now.”

A LOT OF GUYS SAID THE TRACK WASN’T LIKE IT WAS IN PRACTICE. DO YOU AGREE? “Yeah, I think that was to be expected though with whatever they call it, the resin wearing in and out. I think that was to be expected — move around, change, so I don’t think that was a surprise to me.”

A LOT OF TEAMS MISSED IT ON BRAKE PACKAGES. DID YOU HAVE ANY ISSUES? “No, we didn’t have any issues.”

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang — “We just weren’t very good. We just kept grinding and grinding to get every spot we could and did what we could to try and get the best finish. Tenth was the best we were gonna do. That’s about where we ran all day anyway after the first few laps. Once we lost our track position that’s where we were.”

CHASE BRISCOE, No. 14 HighPoint.com/Thorlabs Ford Mustang — “We just lost the brakes getting into turn three. It’s super unfortunate. We had a really really good car. I feel like we were gonna be right there for a top five. We just needed a long run. Even on the short run we made our car so much better, so I really hate it because that was gonna be our best run of the year for sure and something like that happens. It’s really wild with all the brake issues we’ve had today. We were able to do the Goodyear test and knew that brakes were gonna be way worse than everybody else thought. We beefed them up and it still wasn’t good enough, so it’s unfortunate. We’ll go on to Pocono.”

RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Duracell Ford Mustang — “It was not a very good start to our day and not a good end, either. We had an issue before the race and had to come and fix it. Then we had some brake trouble and we came in and pulled tape, and then on the restart I’m not sure if I broke a rotor — I think that’s what happened because something exploded into one and then no brakes and took a pretty big lick. It’s a shame. Just not a very good day for us and hate that it ended early. I hate it for Menards and everybody in our group and Ford, but we’ll come back strong at Pocono next week.”

CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Fifth Third Bank Ford Mustang — “My feeling are hurt right now more than anything. The FIfth Third Bank Mustang was pretty good. We were wrapping the bottom and able to do so pretty well. We were just getting going there, but right before I left pit road it looks like probably a piece of debris from the 77 cut our tire down on the way into the corner. It’s definitely unfortunate. It’s one of those luck things. It’s not like we did something wrong to cause our own DNF. That’s a bummer. I’m proud of these guys. This was a good weekend. We were strong. We had a good qualifying and practice was good. The race was gonna be a really good one as well, so that one is gonna hurt as we look at the next handful of races heading to the playoffs as well, so we’ll go out there and go win a race.”

Toyota Racing – NCS Nashville Post-Race Report – 06.20.21

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Official Release

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June 20, 2021

BELL LEADS TOYOTA AT NASHVILLE
Christopher Bell scores a top-10 finish in NASCAR’s return to Nashville.

NASHVILLE (June 20, 2021) – Christopher Bell (ninth) scored a top-10 finish to lead Toyota in the Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway on Sunday evening.

Toyota Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Nashville Superspeedway
Race 17 of 36 – 300 laps, 399 miles

TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Kyle Larson*
2nd, Ross Chastain*
3rd, William Bryon*
4th, Aric Almirola*
5th, Kevin Harvick*
9th, CHRISTOPHER BELL
11th, KYLE BUSCH
21st, BUBBA WALLACE
22nd, DENNY HAMLIN
23rd, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
34th, CHAD FINCHUM
35th, DAVID STARR
*non-Toyota driver

TOYOTA QUOTES

CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 DEWALT Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 9th

Bounced-back from a mid-race penalty and scored a top-10 finish. How was your run?

“I feel like we were probably a back half of the top 10 car, so we finished where we should have. It was a lot of work though. I hope to make it a little bit easier in our DEWALT Camry next time.”

About Toyota

Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in the U.S. and North America for more than 60 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands. During that time, Toyota has created a tremendous value chain as our teams have contributed to world-class design, engineering, and assembly of more than 38 million cars and trucks in North America, where we have 14 manufacturing plants, 15 including our joint venture in Alabama (10 in the U.S.), and directly employ more than 47,000 people (over 36,000 in the U.S.). Our 1,800 North American dealerships (nearly 1,500 in the U.S.) sold 2.8 million cars and trucks (2.4 million in the U.S.) in 2018.

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

CHEVROLET NTT INDYCAR SERIES-ROAD AMERICA POST RACE RECAP

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Official Release

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June 20, 2021

CHEVROLET RACING IN NTT INDYCAR SERIES
REV GROUP GRAND PRIX ROAD AMERICA
ELKHART LAKE, WISCONSIN
TEAM CHEVY POST RACE RECAP
JUNE 20, 2021

ELKHART LAKE, WISC (JUNE 20, 2021) – Former NTT INDYCAR Series champion and Indianapolis 500 winner Will Power led the charge for Team Chevy in the REV Group Grand Prix Road America.

Piloting his familiar black No. 12 VERIZON 5G Team Penske Chevrolet, Power wrestled his way through a very competitive field to grab the final step on the podium in Wisconsin.

Last week’s winner in Detroit Race 2, Pato O’Ward, brought his No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet to the checkers in ninth place. A fierce points battle is raging as O’Ward sits second just behind today’s race winner Alex Palou.

Max Chilton, No.59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet, finished 10th as a result of great strategy that got him to the front to lead seven laps late in the race before getting a solid top-10 finish.

Oliver Askew subbing for Rinus VeeKay in the No. 21 Direct Supply Ed Carpenter Racing Chevrolet, took the checkered in a very respectable 12th position. VeeKay suffered a collarbone injury from a bicycle accident. This is his second super-sub assignment in two weeks as he jumped into the No. 7 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet for Felix Rosenqvist in Race Two at Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix.

Pole winner Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet, took the green after the final caution period of the race leading with two laps to go. As the two-time Series’ champion headed toward turn one, he slowed dramatically with mechanical issues possibly related to his gear box. Newgarden limped his way to the finish and claimed the 21st finishing position.

Kevin Magnussen made his career-first NTT INDYCAR Series start subbing for Felix Rosenqvist in the No. 7 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet. After a rush trip back to the U.S. from his home in Denmark, the former F1 driver and full-time driver of the Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac Dpi-V.R in IMSA competition, Magnussen maximized all the practice and qualifying laps he could get prior to the start of the race. He had worked to get close to the top-15 when mechanical issues sidelined him after 33 laps of the 55-lap race.

Team Chevy Drivers finishers at Road America as follows:
Will Power, No. 12 Verizon 5G Chevrolet – 3rd
Pato O’Ward, No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet -9th
Max Chilton, No. 59 Gallagher Carlin Chevrolet – 10th
Oliver Askew, No. 21 Direct Supply Ed Carpenter Racing – 12th
Scott McLaughlin, No. 3 PPG Chevrolet – 14th
Sebastien Bourdais, No.14 ROKIT Chevrolet – 16th
Simon Pagenaud, No. 22 Menards Chevrolet – 18th
Conor Daly, No. 20 US Army Ed Carpenter Racing – 20th
Josef Newgarden, No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet – 21st
Kevin Magnussen, No, 7 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet – 24th
Dalton Kellet, No. 4 K-Line Chevrolet – 25th

Alex Palou was race winner with Colton Herta finishing second.

Next on the schedule is July 4 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, Ohio.

DRIVER QUOTES
WILL POWER, NO. 12 VERIZON 5G TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – Finished 3rd
WHAT DOES A PERFORMANCE LIKE THIS DO TO RESTORE YOUR CONFIDENCE AND THE CONFIDENCE IN YOUR TEAM?
“Certainly, just qualifying well this weekend has got my bit of confidence back. I struggled this year, funnily enough. It’s usually my forte. But I’m really, really happy. I thought this morning if I can get a podium, I’ll be really stoked and I ended up getting one. So, keep trucking away here. Man, I would love to get a win here soon. I know we’ve got the team to do it. We have a really good strategists, engineer, and group of guys on the car. Let’s see if we can get that Verizon 5G Chevy in Victory Lane here in the next few races.”

YOU WERE PUTTING UP SOME GOOD TIMES IN THOSE FINAL LAPS. DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU’RE CLOSE AS WE GET TO MID-OHIO?
“Yeah, I do. I do. I think Firestone has changed the tire a bit and it’s taken a while to get used to. It’s really quite different. Although they say they haven’t, it’s significantly different set-ups everywhere. So, I’ve just got to get my head around that and I feel like I did this weekend. It was a lot of fun out there, actually.”

JOSEF NEWGARDEN, NO. 2 HITACHI TEAM PENSKE CHEVROLET – FINISHED 21ST: AFTER LEADING 32 LAPS FROM THE POLE, NEWGARDEN SUFFERED MECHANICAL ISSUES DURING FINAL RESTART WITH JUST TWO LAPS REMAINING:
ON WHAT HAPPENED:
“I couldn’t get it to shift into sixth gear. And then I got it stuck in fifth in turn one and finally got it to go down, but just could not get it to upshift after that. So I got it down to first essentially. So just trying to stay out of the way after that because I couldn’t get it to upshift after that. I’m not sure what happened. Obviously its disappointing for all of us. I know we had a great car. We had a good car all day and were doing everything we had to do. We were surviving the yellows. Surviving the fuel game. We had a rocket ship. Team Chevy did a good job for us. We had such amazing fuel mileage and good power. Super pleased about that. Proud of our teams. Proud of our partners. I guess it just wasn’t meant to be again. I think we have fast cars, its just not working out right now. But now we will claw. We will claw our way back. This is not what I was planning for this day. I would have liked for us to be a little closer. But, what are we 88 (points back)? Just a bigger challenge when we go to next race. We’ll get after it.”

WILL POWER PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
THE MODERATOR: The driver of the No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet, Will Power, also joins again, the second podium this year after a second place at Barber Motorsports Park. Big bounce back in Detroit. You guys needed this.
WILL POWER: Yeah, we did. I just think about Indy and Detroit, like two massive results of points there. Those two results have put us right back in the championship. Stoked to be third. Pretty fun race, to be honest. It had a bit of everything and good racing and a bit of roughing up.
THE MODERATOR: Was there more beating and banging going on out there than you can remember?
WILL POWER: There was a little bit. Drivers have good memories — no, just joking.
But yeah, solid day, fun racing and restarts, and dealing with deg, big tire deg and different levels of downforce, made for probably a pretty good race for the fans.
Q. Shocked about what happened to Josef?
WILL POWER: Man, you just don’t know what it is about our team right now. We almost have a win in the bag and something just ridiculous happens, like just something that — I don’t know what it was, but things that you couldn’t prep for, something that you couldn’t avoid. It’s like my thing was just a switch, just a weird glitch in the system in Detroit, and I don’t know what his was this time. But yeah, unbelievable. And maybe it wouldn’t have happened if there wasn’t a restart, but you don’t know.
Q. (No microphone.)
WILL POWER: No, no, no problems today. Pretty solid. Everything was good. Thank God we didn’t have the red flag. We had to restart the car, but…
Q. (No microphone.)
WILL POWER: They were all things that are not things that have been repeated, know what I mean? Like they’re not constantly the same things, so it’s really hard to — I’ve seen this through the years. It’s just one — you hate to be the pioneer of things that go wrong and then they fix it, which that was me in Detroit. Had a glitch in the system. It hadn’t happened to anyone else, but you being the one to find it really sucks.
Q. (No microphone.)
WILL POWER: Well, yeah, the same thing, you’re not doing a very good job. This team, again, a problem we fixed immediately and it won’t happen again. But I just can’t believe the luck that we’re having as a team right now. It blows my mind.
Q. (No microphone.) REGARDING TIRES:
WILL POWER: I think so, actually.
WILL POWER: They went on, but yesterday when it was hot they went off ridiculously.
Q. Will, do you feel this result will give you some good momentum heading into the second half of the season?
WILL POWER: Yes, I do. Even Detroit last week, sixth I was really happy with coming from 21st or 20th or whatever it was. And yeah, I was really happy to get my Fast Six this weekend, and I thought this morning if I can get a podium, I’ll be really happy. So finished on the podium and start heading in the right direction.
Q. What was Josef Newgarden’s advantage this weekend? Did you adopt his setup at all?
WILL POWER: I actually adapted his driving style and setup, yeah. I started perfecting it during the race but certainly got halfway there in qualifying.
Q. You’re being serious? You changed what you did, doing what he did and that sort of thing?
WILL POWER: Yep, I changed the way I drive, yep.
THE MODERATOR: Congratulations.

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.

Palou Wins in Dramatic Finish at Road America, Takes Points Lead

By

Official Release

-

June 20, 2021

ELKHART LAKE, Wis. (Sunday, June 20, 2021) – In yet another nerve-fraying finish, Alex Palou passed Josef Newgarden with two laps remaining Sunday to win the REV Group Grand Prix presented by AMR at Road America and regained the NTT INDYCAR SERIES championship lead.

Palou drove his No. 10 NTT DATA Honda to a 1.9106-second victory over the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda of Colton Herta. 2014 series champion Will Power finished third in the No. 12 Verizon 5G Team Penske Chevrolet. Palou, who led five of the 55 laps after starting fifth, averaged 119.424 mph in a race slowed by four full-course caution periods.

“It always feels awesome even if it’s your lucky day or just because you have really good pace,” Palou said. “We’ve been close. Indy road course, Detroit, Indy 500, and today I was like, ‘Oh, no, we need to get that win.’ A win is a win. It’s always the best thing.”

Palou took a 28-point lead over Pato O’Ward in the series standings with his second victory of the season, as he also won the season opener on April 18 at Barber Motorsports Park. O’Ward, who led Palou by one point as the series leader entering this race, finished ninth in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolet.

Spanish driver Palou became the first Chip Ganassi Racing driver other than six-time series champion Scott Dixon to earn at least two victories in a season since Dario Franchitti in 2011. Palou also kept Chip Ganassi Racing spotless at Road America over the last two seasons, as Dixon and Felix Rosenqvist swept the doubleheader here last summer for the team.

While Power returned to the podium for the first time since finishing second in the season opener at Barber, this was the second straight heartbreaking result for his Team Penske teammate Newgarden.

NTT P1 Award winner Newgarden led a race-high 32 laps in the No. 2 Hitachi Team Penske Chevrolet and looked to be poised for his and Team Penske’s first victory of the season on a restart at the end of Lap 53. But Newgarden’s car suffered a mechanical problem when the green flag flew, and Palou blew past him on the outside before Turn 1 on Lap 54 for a lead he wouldn’t surrender.

Meanwhile, Newgarden limped the final two trips around the 14-turn, 4.014-mile circuit with his compromised car and ended up a disappointing 21st as the last car on the lead lap.

It was the second straight Sunday of despair for Newgarden, who was passed by O’Ward for the lead with three laps remaining in Race 2 of the Chevrolet Dual at Detroit and ended up finishing second at Belle Isle after leading 67 of 70 laps.

“Down the front straightaway, as soon as I got to fifth gear, I tried to shift to sixth, and it didn’t take the selection, so I was stuck in fifth,” Newgarden said. “I was trying to get it up to sixth gear, and it wouldn’t go. Then I got stuck in fifth in Turn 1. I finally got it to go down, and I just could not get it to upshift after that. I got it to first, essentially, and tried to stay out of the way.

“I’m not sure what happened. Disappointing for all of us. I knew we had a great car all day.”

Team Penske also lost a possible victory in Race 1 last Saturday at Detroit when Power’s leading car wouldn’t refire on pit road after a red flag period late in the race.

“I don’t know what the luck (is) with our team right now, but with Josef to have a gearbox issue on the last bloody lap, almost the race won, like we were in Detroit, it’s just heartbreaking,” Power said. “I couldn’t believe it when he was pulling off to the side.”

Tire wear was a hot topic through practice and qualifying Friday and Saturday, so pole sitter Newgarden and the other top seven drivers on the starting grid elected to begin the race with grippier but less durable Firestone alternate “red” tires and switch to the more durable Firestone primary “black” tires during their final two stops.

Newgarden was hurt by his tire choice at the end of Race 2 last Sunday, as he was on worn-out alternate tires at the end of the race and was a sitting duck for O’Ward and his primary tires in the last three laps. That mistake wasn’t repeated today, and it was the right call.

Two-time series champion Newgarden, Palou, Herta and Power all were on the strategy of starting with alternate tires and switching to primaries after their first pit stop, biding their time for a final race for the checkered at the end after other drivers on different strategies cycled through their final stops.

Newgarden was running second, about seventh-tenths of a second ahead of third-place Palou, when leader Oliver Askew – on a different fuel strategy – pitted from the lead in the No. 21 Direct Supply Chevrolet on Lap 51.

But Newgarden’s gap to Palou was erased on the same lap when Ed Jones spun in Canada Corner after the left rear tire on his No. 18 SealMaster Honda appeared to deflate. That triggered the last full-course caution, setting up the final restart duel between Newgarden and Palou that never materialized due to Newgarden’s technical problem.

There were seven different leaders and 11 lead changes, mainly due to daring fuel strategies from teams lacking the pace of the frontrunners. But the dramatic finish was the culmination of a no-holds-barred race that featured ferocious battles for position throughout the field, with cars hip-checking each other and kicking up plumes of dirt off course during the duels.

The next event is the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio on Sunday, July 4 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course near Columbus, Ohio. Live coverage starts at noon (ET) on NBC and the INDYCAR Radio Network.

Results Sunday of the REV Group Grand Prix NTT INDYCAR SERIES event on the 4.014-mile Road America, with order of finish, starting position in parentheses, driver, chassis-engine, laps completed and reason out (if any):

(5) Alex Palou, Honda, 55, Running
(2) Colton Herta, Honda, 55, Running
(4) Will Power, Chevrolet, 55, Running
(13) Scott Dixon, Honda, 55, Running
(7) Romain Grosjean, Honda, 55, Running
(18) Marcus Ericsson, Honda, 55, Running
(9) Alexander Rossi, Honda, 55, Running
(20) Takuma Sato, Honda, 55, Running
(10) Pato O’Ward, Chevrolet, 55, Running
(22) Max Chilton, Chevrolet, 55, Running
(14) Graham Rahal, Honda, 55, Running
(16) Oliver Askew, Chevrolet, 55, Running
(8) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Honda, 55, Running
(17) Scott McLaughlin, Chevrolet, 55, Running
(19) James Hinchcliffe, Honda, 55, Running
(11) Sebastien Bourdais, Chevrolet, 55, Running
(3) Jack Harvey, Honda, 55, Running
(6) Simon Pagenaud, Chevrolet, 55, Running
(25) Cody Ware, Honda, 55, Running
(15) Conor Daly, Chevrolet, 55, Running
(1) Josef Newgarden, Chevrolet, 55, Running
(23) Jimmie Johnson, Honda, 54, Running
(12) Ed Jones, Honda, 50, Off Course
(21) Kevin Magnussen, Chevrolet, 33, Off Course
(24) Dalton Kellett, Chevrolet, 19, Mechanical

Race Statistics
Winner’s average speed: 119.424 mph
Time of Race: 1:50:55.0534
Margin of victory: 1.9106 seconds
Cautions: 4 for 7 laps
Lead changes: 11 among 7 drivers

Lap Leaders:
Newgarden 1 – 13
Palou 14
Dixon 15
Newgarden 16 – 24
Magnussen 25 – 30
Sato 31 – 32
Newgarden 33 – 39
Palou 40 – 41
Chilton 42 – 48
Askew 49 – 50
Newgarden 51 – 53
Palou 54 – 55

NTT INDYCAR SERIES point standings: Palou 349, O’Ward 321, Dixon 296, Newgarden 261, Pagenaud 255, VeeKay 243, Herta 242, Ericsson 239, Rahal 228, Sato 206.

Alex Palou grabs victory away from Newgarden after Newgarden has mechanical failure late

By

Briar Starr

-

June 20, 2021

Alex Palou wins the REV Group Grand Prix at Road America — Photo Courtesy of Joe Skibinski

Alex Palou overtook race leader Josef Newgarden with two laps to go following a restart and Newgarden having a mechanical failure. Newgarden had led the majority of the race up until that point and looked poised to win in dominating fashion before being passed by eventual race winner Palou. Pole sitter Newgarden fell to 21st in the running after leading 32 of the 55 laps.

“I don’t know, it was a really good weekend overall,” Palou said. “We started not super, super good, but we made some progress, and I feel like we always are really good when the weekend ends, and we were getting — every run we were doing with the reds, with the blacks, we were getting even closer to Josef. So I was really happy. And then yeah, I don’t know what happened to him, but we the lead, and that was super exciting, and yeah, we had good power, we had good car setup, and yeah, just super happy.”

Colton Herta placed second and earned his second podium of the season, his first since winning the St. Peterburg race earlier in the year.

“Yeah, it finally happened,” Herta said earning a podium finish. “I’ve been struggling to get on the podium when I’m not winning, so it feels nice to finally get one, or my second one in my career. Yeah, it feels good. Team did an amazing job. We seemed to lack a little bit of pace to Alex and Josef. They seemed to be the guys to beat. You know, so I think we had third place pace and that was where we were going to finish until Josef had that problem. Car felt really good. Guys did an amazing job in the pits to gain me a few spots on track and put us on the podium in the second spot.”

The action was intense and early, as Takuma Sato was penalized for avoidable contact with the No. 20 of Conor Daly. Former Formula 1 driver Kevin Magnussen filling in for Felix Rosenqvist as he was not medically cleared after his crash at Detroit went off course momentarily in Turn 13.

Meanwhile, as pit stops started to approach, race leader Newgarden had some issues with his gearbox as the gearbox would get stuck in Turn 8. Fortunately for Newgarden, the gearbox was able to get back to normal and he was able to continue to lead the race.

At Lap 11, the first round of green-flag pit stops occurred with Will Power, Colton Herta, Romain Grosjean, and others who came to pit road. Newgarden didn’t pit until Lap 13 and Palou one lap later at Lap 14.

The first caution of the day came at Lap 16 following the completion of green-flag stops. Jimmie Johnson in the No. 48 went off track spinning and scraping the Turn 7 wall. Another yellow was flown on Lap 22 for the No. 8 of Marcus Ericsson who went off in Turn 3. It was during this yellow on Lap 24, the majority of the race leaders pitted with the exception of Magnussen and Sato who stayed out to assume the top spots.

Magnussen held Sato by 2.3 seconds before eventually pitting on Lap 31 and Sato just a few laps later. Unfortunately for Magnussen, his day was cut short due to an engine failure on Lap 34. Magnussen came to a complete stop and brought out another caution.

With the laps winding down, the action started to heat up on the track and in the pits. Newgarden pitted on Lap 40 from the lead while Palou pitted one lap later. Palou came out briefly ahead of Newgarden, but Newgarden was already at full speed and flew right past him going into Turn 14 to come out ahead of Palou.

While Palou and Newgarden made their stops, they were stuck behind Max Chilton, Ed Jones, and Oliver Askew who had not stopped yet. Askew and Chilton led for a short while, however, a late-race caution was seen on Lap 51 as Ed Jones went spinning in Turn 12 to bring out the full course yellow.

Disappointingly for Askew, he had already pitted right before the yellow, which saw Newgarden and Palou take over the top two spots for the final restart of the day.

When the green-flag flew for the final restart, Newgarden’s car had trouble firing away, and Palou went straight to the lead and went on to win his second race of the 2021 NTT IndyCar Series season and his first since the season opener at Barber Motorsports Park.

Colton Herta, Will Power, Scott Dixon, Romain Grosjean, Marcus Ericsson, Alexander Rossi, Takuma Sato, Pato O’Ward, and Max Chilton rounded out the Top 10 finishers. Pole sitter Newgarden finished a disappointing 21st after leading four times for 32 laps.

“I couldn’t get it to shift into sixth gear,” Newgarden said about the mishap. “And then I got it stuck in fifth in turn one and finally got it to go down, but just could not get it to upshift after that. So I got it down to first essentially. So just trying to stay out of the way after that because I couldn’t get it to upshift after that. I’m not sure what happened. Obviously its disappointing for all of us. I know we had a great car. We had a good car all day and were doing everything we had to do. We were surviving the yellows. Surviving the fuel game. We had a rocket ship. Team Chevy did a good job for us. We had such amazing fuel mileage and good power. Super pleased about that. Proud of our teams. Proud of our partners. I guess it just wasn’t meant to be again. I think we have fast cars, its just not working out right now. But now we will claw. We will claw our way back. This is not what I was planning for this day. I would have liked for us to be a little closer. But, what are we 88 (points back)? Just a bigger challenge when we go to next race. We’ll get after it.”

As for Newgarden’s Team Penske teammate Will Power, the Aussie bounced back to finish third and secured his second podium of the year his first since the season opener at Barber.

“Yeah, we did,” Power said about the solid Road America weekend. “I just think about Indy and Detroit, like two massive results of points there. Those two results have put us right back in the championship. Stoked to be third. Pretty fun race, to be honest. It had a bit of everything and good racing and a bit of roughing up.”

There were 11 lead changes among seven different leaders and four cautions for seven laps. There were two penalties handed during the race. The first for Takuma Sato for avoidable contact with Conor Daly and the final penalty for the No. 14 of Sebastien Bourdais for pitting in a closed pit area.

Official Results following the REV Group Grand Prix at Road America:

Alex Palou, led five laps
Colton Herta
Will Power
Scott Dixon, led one lap
Romain Grosjean
Marcus Ericsson
Alexander Rossi
Takuma Sato, led two laps
Pato O’Ward
Max Chilton, led seven laps
Graham Rahal
Oliver Askew, led two laps
Ryan Hunter-Reay
Scott McLaughlin
James Hinchcliffe
Sebastien Bourdais
Jack Harvey
Simon Pagenaud
Cody Ware
Conor Daly
Josef Newgarden
Jimmie Johnson, 1 lap down
Ed Jones, OUT, Off Course
Kevin Magnussen, OUT, Off Course, led seven laps
Dalton Kellett, OUT, Mechanical

Race Statistics
Winner’s average speed: 119.424 mph
Time of Race: 1:50:55.0534
Margin of victory: 1.9106 seconds
Cautions: 4 for 7 laps
Lead changes: 11 among 7 drivers

Lap Leaders:
Newgarden 1 – 13
Palou 14
Dixon 15
Newgarden 16 – 24
Magnussen 25 – 30
Sato 31 – 32
Newgarden 33 – 39
Palou 40 – 41
Chilton 42 – 48
Askew 49 – 50
Newgarden 51 – 53
Palou 54 – 55

NTT INDYCAR SERIES point standings: Palou 349, O’Ward 321, Dixon 296, Newgarden 261, Pagenaud 255, VeeKay 243, Herta 242, Ericsson 239, Rahal 228, Sato 206.

Up Next: The NTT IndyCar Series will take a short break before heading to Mid-Ohio for the Honda Indy 200 on Sunday July 4 live on NBC at 12 p.m./ET.

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Palou Wins in Dramatic Finish at Road America, Takes Points Lead

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