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

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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

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Official Release
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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

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Official Release
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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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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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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
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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):

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

  1. Alex Palou, led five laps
  2. Colton Herta
  3. Will Power
  4. Scott Dixon, led one lap
  5. Romain Grosjean
  6. Marcus Ericsson
  7. Alexander Rossi
  8. Takuma Sato, led two laps
  9. Pato O’Ward
  10. Max Chilton, led seven laps
  11. Graham Rahal
  12. Oliver Askew, led two laps
  13. Ryan Hunter-Reay
  14. Scott McLaughlin
  15. James Hinchcliffe
  16. Sebastien Bourdais
  17. Jack Harvey
  18. Simon Pagenaud
  19. Cody Ware
  20. Conor Daly
  21. Josef Newgarden
  22. Jimmie Johnson, 1 lap down
  23. Ed Jones, OUT, Off Course
  24. Kevin Magnussen, OUT, Off Course, led seven laps
  25. 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.

Meyer Shank Racing Finishes 17th at Road America

By
Official Release
-

Elkhart Lake, Wisc. (20 June 2021) – After charging to second in the order on the first lap of the the Rev Group Grand Prix, Meyer Shank Racing took a gamble on strategy midway through the race that didn’t play out as the team had been hoping, as driver Jack Harvey finished the race 17th in the No. 60 AutoNation / SiriusXM Honda on Sunday.

Starting from third, Harvey took advantage of a good jump on the start and made the pass for second going into turn 1. Harvey held second place through his first fuel stint before a lap 13 pit stop.

Harvey reentered the track fourth and continued his battle up front. Despite staying in the top ten, three yellow flag periods slowed Harvey’s charge back to podium position, with the team looking to take a different approach back to the front by electing to pit on lap 34 with a bold call on fuel strategy.

With the race having generated so many caution periods, the team had reason to anticipate that more would follow, allowing the strategy to pay dividends for Harvey at the checkered flag.

But after losing ground to fuel save, it was too little too late when a lone yellow came late in the race as Harvey put his head down to come home a disappointed 17th.

“Today was a tough day and definitely not the result that we had hoped for,” said Harvey. “We had a really great start and our pace on reds was pretty good. I know the guys on the stand were playing out different scenarios to get us back to the top. We made a strategy call and I had to save a ton of fuel at the end of the race. But unfortunately the strategy didn’t play out how we had hoped, which is pretty unfortunate considering the pace that we had all weekend.”

Meyer Shank Racing will be in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar action next weekend at Watkins Glen International for the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen.

Toyota Racing – NCS Nashville Post-Qualifying Report – 06.20.21

By
Official Release
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NCS Post-Qualifying Report – Nashville Superspeedway
Busch follows his Xfinity Series win with a front row starting spot in today’s Cup race

NASHVILLE (June 20, 2021) – Kyle Busch led the Toyota’s in qualifying on Sunday morning for the Ally 400 securing the second position to start on the front row when the field takes the green on Sunday afternoon from Nashville Superspeedway.

Toyota Racing Post-Qualifying Report
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Nashville Superspeedway – June 20, 2021

TOYOTA STARTING POSITIONS
1st, Aric Almirola*
2nd, KYLE BUSCH
3rd, Joey Logano*
4th, William Byron*
5th, Kyle Larson*
13th, DENNY HAMLIN
21st, BUBBA WALLACE
25th, CHRISTOPHER BELL
33rd, CHAD FINCHUM
35th, MARTIN TRUEX JR
38th, DAVID STARR
*non-Toyota driver

TOYOTA QUOTES

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Pedigree Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Starting Position: 2nd

Front row starting position. Knowing what you learned yesterday, how good was this run?
“I mean, it was better than expected. I didn’t expect to qualify that well, so that’s certainly a positive. Being able to get some speed in our Pedigree Camry, so it’s nice to have an upfront spot like that. Oh, so close to getting the pole. We don’t get the chance to qualifying much anymore, and when you get that close it’s like, damn, you have a goose egg in that column, because we are not good with the metric system. Overall, just hopefully today is a good day. We struggled yesterday, so I wasn’t so sure what we would have in store for us today, but it felt okay right there. I have no idea what that means for a race car. We completely wholesaled everything and changed it last night, so we will see what we have later today.”

BUBBA WALLACE, No. 23 DoorDash Toyota Camry, 23XI Racing
Starting Position: 21st

How was your qualifying lap?

“We just didn’t really know what to expect as far as grip. We weren’t the best of cars yesterday. I feel like we’ve been struggling as an organization, Toyota’s have kind of struggled, especially with the front ends of our racecars. It was good to get practice to see that though; it’s not like we are firing off blind. We threw a lot at it, and just didn’t get enough heat in the front tires for turn one. I relayed that message to the last three Toyota guys. It was okay. I feel like we made improvements overnight, which is good. We need a little bit more, but we will go have some fun and settle in and see what we can do here in Nashville. It’s a fun track.”

CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 DEWALT Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Starting Position: 25th

Have you seen improvement since the tire test?

“No, definitely not. I think all of us at JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) expected to be better, a little more competitive. It will be interesting to see what adjustments the teams made overnight. We had a lot to gain over yesterday’s practice session, so it will be cool to see who’s on it and who isn’t.”

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

Stewart Secures SRX Win at Knoxville

By
Official Release
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KNOXVILLE, IOWA - JUNE 19: SRX drivers Tony Stewart #14 (C), Hailie Deegan #1 (L), and Ernie Francis Jr. #2 (R) pose on the podium after the Camping World Superstar Racing Experience event at Knoxville Raceway on June 19, 2021 in Knoxville, Iowa. (Photo by Dylan Buell/SRX via Getty Images)

Three-Time NASCAR Cup Series Champion Victorious in Camping World SRX Series’ Dirt Debut

KNOXVILLE, Iowa (June 19, 2021) – Tony Stewart won the Camping World SRX Series race Saturday night at Knoxville Raceway, leading twice for a race-high 43 laps to take his first victory as a driver at the half-mile, semi-banked dirt oval roughly 40 miles southeast of Des Moines.

“It’s the first time I’ve been in victory lane at Knoxville,” said Stewart, who has witnessed his sprint car drivers at Tony Stewart Racing win the prestigious Knoxville Nationals 11 times. “This is where I’ve watched Donny Schatz and Steve Kinser and the greatest of the greats in sprint car racing. This is the place I’ve always wanted to be, for sure, so this is pretty cool.

“This is the Sprint Car Capital of the World, and I want to thank the Knoxville staff and all the fans. They’re not used to tin tops, and if they see tin, they want to see it on top of the cage, not surrounding the cage. Just appreciate the fans and everybody for letting us come here.”

Stewart won the first heat race and finished fourth in the second heat race to line up first in the feature event. He led the first 13 laps until Michael Waltrip took the top spot, but Stewart reasserted himself on lap 21 and held the point for the final 30 laps.

That didn’t mean Stewart went unchallenged.

Hailie Deegan finished second with a spirited drive and Ernie Francis Jr., impressed again with a strong third-place finish.

“My goal coming into this race was to prove to everyone that I deserved to be here. I feel like we did that tonight, running second to Tony Stewart, that’s a huge accomplishment for me,” said Deegan, a three-time winner in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West – one of which came on dirt Feb. 28, 2019 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Dirt Track. “I feel like we just ran a clean race, we just wrapped the bottom, stayed consistent, ran my line and finished second.”

Deegan substituted for Tony Kanaan, as a schedule conflict prevented him from competing at Knoxville. The 19-year-old Deegan will fill in for Kanaan again July 10 at Slinger (Wis.) Speedway as Kanaan is slated to race in his native Brazil.

Francis is the winningest driver in the 55-year history of the SCCA Trans Am Series, all while being just 23 years old. He is the youngest champion in Trans Am history and is the youngest professional driver to win seven consecutive championships. Francis finished fourth in the Camping World SRX Series season-opener last Saturday night at Stafford (Conn.) Motor Speedway.

“Not too bad for my second-ever dirt race,” Francis said. “We were just kind of riding around there trying to save the tires as much as I could. The car wasn’t as good in the feature as it was in the heat races, so I was just trying to keep the back end underneath me and just try to save it as much as I could, try to keep my position and I really had an awesome battle with Hailie out there. I was trying to get to the back of Tony’s bumper to try and get by him, but you can’t be happier than this. It was an awesome race. The car’s a little beat up, but I can’t wait to get to the next one.”

The victory marked Stewart’s third win of the season – all of which have come on dirt. He began 2021 by winning the final feature of the inaugural Wild Wing Shootout 410 sprint car event Jan. 24 at Arizona Speedway in San Tan Valley and then the All-Star Circuit of Champions 410 Winged Sprint Car feature April 15 at Virginia Motor Speedway in Jamaica.

“I thought our drivers did a fantastic job. I watched a lot of great racing tonight,” said Ray Evernham, co-founder of the Camping World SRX Series. “I’m happy for the guys who won, but you know me, I’m worried about the people who didn’t and I want to know what they thought.

“I felt like, for our first race on dirt, it was pretty respectable, really. We had a couple of little problems, but no really big issues, and I think the fans saw some great racing. We’ve got to work on our cars’ cooling a little bit. I think we need more right-side fiberglass, for sure, but other than that, I thought it was a really good race.

“We’ll go ahead and review the format, time-wise. I really want to know what the fans thought, what the drivers thought. I’m not afraid to tweak this thing to get it right.”

The Camping World SRX Series remains on dirt for a second straight week. The third event of the Camping World SRX Series’ six-race short-track schedule takes place June 26 at the legendary Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio.

Joining the Camping World SRX Series regulars at Eldora’s half-mile, dirt oval are Kody Swanson and Scott Speed.

Swanson is a native of Kingsburg, California, who resides in Indianapolis. His five USAC Silver Crown championships (2014, 2015 2017, 2018 and 2019) are the most in series history, as are his 30 career Silver Crown wins and 31 Silver Crown poles. Swanson holds the Silver Crown record for most consecutive wins (five) and he is the all-time series leader in podium finishes and laps led. In four of his last five Silver Crown starts at Eldora, Swanson has finished in the top-five. He is still searching for that elusive first win at Eldora, with second place in the 2015 4-Crown Nationals his best finish at the half-mile, dirt oval.

Speed is one of the most versatile drivers in motorsports. His career began with his climb up the American open-wheel ladder and it took him all the way to Formula One in 2006 and 2007, after which he turned his attention to American stock car racing, where the Manteca, California-native rose to the elite NASCAR Cup Series as a driver for Team Red Bull. Over the last decade, Speed has made his mark on the worldwide Rallycross stage, winning three Summer X Games gold medals from 2013 through 2015 for Team USA and five consecutive Rallycross championships from 2013 through 2017 for Andretti Autosport.

After Eldora, the Camping World SRX Series returns to pavement July 3 at Lucas Oil Raceway near Indianapolis. It then ventures north to SlingerSpeedway on July 10 before its season finale July 17 at the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway.

Every Camping World SRX Series race is broadcast live at 8 p.m. ET on the CBS Television Network with streaming live on Paramount+ Premium.

Heat Race No. 1 (12 minutes, 23 laps):

Note: Starting lineup determined by random draw.

  1. Tony Stewart (Started 1st; led laps 1-23)
  2. Marco Andretti (Started 2nd; completed 23/23 laps)
  3. Hailie Deegan (Started 4th; completed 23/23 laps)
  4. Ernie Francis Jr. (Started 6th; completed 23/23 laps)
  5. Paul Tracy (Started 11th; completed 23/23 laps)
  6. Bill Elliott (Started 5th; completed 23/23 laps)
  7. Brian Brown (Started 3rd; completed 23/23 laps)
  8. Bobby Labonte (Started 10th; completed 23/23 laps)
  9. Helio Castroneves (Started 9th; completed 23/23 laps)
  10. Scott Bloomquist (Started 12th; completed 23/23 laps)
  11. Willy T. Ribbs (Started 7th; completed 23/23 laps)
  12. Michael Waltrip (Started 8th; completed 23/23 laps)

Heat Race No. 2 (12 minutes, 22 laps):

Note: Drivers’ finishing positions in Heat Race No. 1 were inverted for start of Heat Race No. 2.

  1. Scott Bloomquist (Started 3rd; led laps 15-22)
  2. Ernie Francis Jr. (Started 9th; completed 22/22 laps)
  3. Michael Waltrip (Started 1st; completed 22/22 laps)
  4. Tony Stewart (Started 12th; completed 22/22 laps)
  5. Hailie Deegan (Started 10th; completed 22/22 laps)
  6. Bill Elliott (Started 7th; led laps completed 22/22 laps)
  7. Helio Castroneves (Started 4th; led laps 1-14; completed 22/22 laps)
  8. Brian Brown (Started 6th; completed 22/22 laps)
  9. Bobby Labonte (Started 5th; completed 22/22 laps)
  10. Marco Andretti (Started 11th; completed 22/22 laps)
  11. Willy T. Ribbs (Started 2nd; completed 22/22 laps)
  12. Paul Tracy (Started 8th; completed 22/22 laps)

Feature Results (50 laps):

Note: Starting lineup was based on average finishing positions in Heat Race Nos. 1-2.

  1. Tony Stewart (Started 1st; led laps 1-13, 21-50)
  2. Hailie Deegan (Started 3rd; completed 50/50 laps)
  3. Ernie Francis Jr. (Started 2nd; completed 50/50 laps)
  4. Helio Castroneves (Started 9th; completed 50/50 laps)
  5. Michael Waltrip (Started 7th; led laps 14-20; completed 50/50 laps)
  6. Bobby Labonte (Started 10th; completed 50/50 laps)
  7. Marco Andretti (Started 6th; completed 50/50 laps)
  8. Brian Brown (Started 8th; completed 50/50 laps)
  9. Scott Bloomquist (Started 4th; completed 50/50 laps)
  10. Willy T. Ribbs (Started 12th; completed 50/50 laps)
  11. Bill Elliott (Started 5th; completed 39/50 laps)
  12. Paul Tracy (Started 11th; completed 4/50 laps)

Camping World SRX Series Championship Standings (after Round 2 of 6):

  1. Tony Stewart (82 points)
  2. Ernie Francis Jr. (71 points, -11)
  3. Helio Castroneves (58 points, -24)
  4. Bobby Labonte (55 points, -27)
  5. Michael Waltrip (45 points, -37)
  6. Marco Andretti (41 points, -41)
  7. Bill Elliott (33 points, -49)
  8. Paul Tracy (27 points, -55)
  9. Tony Kanaan (26 points, -56)
  10. Willy T. Ribbs (25 points, -57)

Note: Points are awarded in both heats and the feature. In each heat, the winner receives a maximum of 12 points. Second place earns 11 points with every position in descending order receiving one fewer point, with the 12th-place finisher earning one point. Points increase in the feature, with the winner receiving 25 points, second place 22 points, third place 20 points, fourth place 18 points, fifth place 16 points, sixth place 14 points, seventh place 12 points, eighth place 10 points, ninth place eight points, 10th place six points, 11th place four points and 12th place two points.

About Camping World SRX Series:

The Camping World SRX Series was created by a team consisting of Sandy Montag and The Montag Group, George Pyne, NASCAR Hall of Fame crew chief and team owner Ray Evernham, and legendary driver Tony Stewart. The Montag Group leads business operations and Evernham oversees all racing operations. Pyne is a member of the Board and serves as an advisor. For more information, please visit us online at www.SRXracing.com, on Facebook, on Twitter and on Instagram.

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