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Toyota Racing – NCS Nashville Post-Race Report – 06.20.21

By
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

By
Official Release
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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
-

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.

Tony Stewart claims first-ever SRX win at Knoxville

By
Briar Starr
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For the first time in his driving career, Tony Stewart brought home the checkered flag Saturday night at Knoxville Speedway after drawing pole position. The Indiana native had to fend off battles from Hailie Deegan, Michael Waltrip, and Ernie Francis Jr. to earn his first win at Knoxville.

“It’s the first time I’ve ever been in victory lane at Knoxville as a driver, are you kidding me?” Stewart said to CBS Sports. “This is where I watched Donny Schatz and Steve Kinser, the greatest of the greats in Sprint Car racing. I’ve never seen one coming backwards like this, but this is a place I always wanted to be for sure. So this is pretty cool.”

After making some rule changes earlier in the week, SRX Racing Series officials reduced the main feature from 75 laps to 50 laps and cut the heat races from 15 minutes to 12 minutes.

Stewart grabbed the checkers early on winning the first heat race but the field was inverted for the second heat race. In the second heat race, dirt late model racer stand out, Scott Bloomquist, scored the victory with Eddie Francis Jr., Michael Waltrip, Tony Stewart and Hailie Deegan rounding out the top five.

After the two heat races were completed, next up was the 50-lap main feature. Stewart was on the pole based on a random draw.

Four cautions occurred early in the main event due to multiple incidents. The first yellow was for debris with 46 to go and then the next two yellows were brought out by the “Local All-Star” Brian Brown. Brown caused two yellows as his machine spun around twice. During the first incident, he spun by himself while the second spin was caused by contact with Willy T. Ribbs.

The final yellow of the night flew with Ribbs spinning on the backstretch and bouncing off of Helio Castroneves.

Following the yellow, Scott Bloomquist was poised to pull away from the field with his dirt experience. Unfortunately, he slid up the track and lost several positions, ultimately falling back to eighth. It was during that moment that Stewart took the lead.

Shortly thereafter, Waltrip led with 39 laps to go and held on to the lead for 10 laps before Stewart resumed the top position with 29 to go. As Stewart was setting the pace, the field was slowed once again for a caution with 18 to go as Bloomquist was spun in Turn 4 by Castroneves.

Despite the late-race yellow and multiple challenges from Waltrip and Deegan, Stewart held on to win his first-ever Knoxville dirt race and his first SRX victory. Hailie Deegan, Ernie Francis Jr., Helio Castroneves and Michael Waltrip rounded out the top five.

Deegan, who competed in her first SRX race, came home second to Stewart as she replaced Tony Kanaan in what was called “The Replacement” car.

“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.”

Meanwhile, Ernie Francis Jr, a winner in the Trans-Am Series rounded out the podium finish with a third.

“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.”

Next week, five-time USAC Silver Crown Series Champion Kody Swanson and former NASCAR driver Scott Speed will join the field.

Official Results following the Camping World SRX Series at Knoxville Raceway.

  1. Tony Stewart
  2. Hailie Deegan
  3. Ernie Francis Jr
  4. Helio Castroneves
  5. Michael Waltrip
  6. Bobby Labonte
  7. Marco Andretti
  8. Brian Brown
  9. Scott Bloomquist
  10. Willy T. Ribbs
  11. Bill Elliott, 11 laps down
  12. Paul Tracy, OUT, Crash

Up Next: The Camping World SRX Racing Series continues its summer stretch by heading to Eldora Speedway next Saturday night. It will be broadcast live on CBS.

Kyle Busch captures 100th Xfinity Series win at Nashville

By
Angie Campbell
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Kyle Busch scores his 100th NASCAR Xfinity Series victory at Nashville Superspeedway. Photo by Don Dunn for SpeedwayMedia.com.

Kyle Busch scored his 100th NASCAR Xfinity Series victory Saturday at Nashville Superspeedway holding on through three late-race restarts to bring his Joe Gibbs Racing No. 54 Toyota to victory lane.

It was a repeat of last week’s race at Texas Motor Speedway as Busch had to fend off JR Motorsports driver, Justin Allgaier, who finished behind Busch for the second week in a row.

Busch has more than doubled Mark Martin’s 49 wins for the most all-time victories in the series.

“I remember growing up as a kid and watching Mark Martin win every week, in that 60 car, just the domination he had. And he‘s No. 2 with 49 wins. It’s just been phenomenal years to have (and) be associated with Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota.

“It was way racier than I remember Nashville being,” Busch continued. “At the end, I knew if we could clear those guys and I could hit my marks I could pull away.”

He also had a message for his fans and critics, saying, “Wanted to give a huge shout out to Rowdy Nation out there, we appreciate you, Rowdy Nation. I saw a lot of you standing up when Allgaier took the lead then a lot of you sat back down when I took the lead. So, an awesome day for Rowdy Nation.”

It was, understandably, a frustrating experience for Allgaier.

“Running second sucks, I’m not going to lie to you,” he said. “When we took the lead from Kyle I thought we were good, we were able to drive away. But then all those restarts at the end, he just held me down really hard in the middle of (Turns) 3 and 4 and we got loose and I think that was the difference-maker. After that, we just didn’t have the speed after that.

“Again, just proud of my guys – to bring two fast race cars two weeks in a row to have a shot at it and have it come down to late in the races is a big deal. We’ll keep digging.”

Harrison Burton finished third followed by Josh Berry in fourth and AJ Allmendinger rebounded from a pit penalty to finish fifth. Brandon Jones, Jeb Burton, Noah Gragson, Austin Hill and Riley Herbst rounded out the top 10.

Cindric continues to lead the championship points standings and has a 90-point advantage over second place, Allmendinger. Jeremy Clements is in the final spot, 48 points ahead of Brandon Brown. There are 11 regular-season races remaining before the Playoffs begin.

The Xfinity Series heads to Pocono Raceway on June 27 and will be broadcast on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Toyota Racing – NXS Nashville Post-Race Report – 06.19.21

By
Official Release
-

KYLE BUSCH SCORES 100th XFINITY SERIES WIN
Busch drives to the victory in NASCAR’s return to Nashville

NASHVILLE (June 19, 2021) – Kyle Busch scored his 100th NASCAR Xfinity Series win at Nashville Superspeedway on Saturday afternoon. Busch has won all three of his Xfinity Series starts this season and the No. 54 has scored five victories this season with Busch earning three and rookie Ty Gibbs scoring two wins.

Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Xfinity Series
Nashville Superspeedway
Race 15 of 33 – 250.04 miles, 188 laps

TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, KYLE BUSCH
2nd, Justin Allgaier*
3rd, HARRISON BURTON
4th, Josh Berry*
5th, AJ Allmendinger
6th, BRANDON JONES
9th, AUSTIN HILL
13th, DANIEL HEMRIC
14th, WILL RODGERS
24th, DAVID STARR
27th, JESSE LITTLE
36th, STEFAN PARSONS
*non-Toyota driver

TOYOTA QUOTES

KYLE BUSCH, No. 54 M&M’s Toyota Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 1st

You are back in victory lane in Nashville. Congratulations on the milestone.

“Thank you very much. Awesome day. Thanks to JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing), Toyota, M&M’s. Obviously, being a part of M&M’s all these years – M&M’s stayed with me and for them to be here with me for the 100th Xfinity win is awesome. I can’t say enough about Interstate Batteries, Rowdy Energy, Cessna, Xfinity, and the fans, Stanley, Rheem, everybody. Interstate Batteries again, Norm (Miller), he’s my boy. It’s so cool to get 100 here, and get done what we needed too. I didn’t want this to go on much longer. It’s all good. It’s been a true testament to all of the people I’ve worked with. This group here is really, really special and doing great things and I’m just glad to be a part of it.’

Did you ever think you would get to 100 Xfinity wins when you started?

“I don’t think you ever think of those things. I think one day you just hope that you can make it, and then when you make it, you are like okay, let’s go win some more races, and lets go win a championship. Being around for as long as I’ve been around, it’s a great opportunity in this position and to get this many wins is really, really cool. There’s a lot of great people over the years that have gotten me to this point, whether it be Hendrick Motorsports or Joe Gibbs Racing, most of it has obviously come with JGR for as long as I’ve been there. That just makes it all worth while and I wouldn’t say it has all came full circle. It would be nice to keep going, but everybody’s tired of me being here, so we hit the century mark and we will see if we can get 102. I don’t know what the plan is for next year yet.”

How was the restarts down the stretch?

“I don’t know. I knew if we could get out front and go that our car was faster and we could get away. It was just a matter of beating (Justin) Allgaier. Allgaier was really good and doing a great job on those restarts down low and getting his car to carve the corner and accelerate and getting alongside of me and then using the side draft to his advantage to get by. I slipped off the bottom one time and he got by. Definitely made me work for it. He is in the Final Four each year, so one of the best guys out here to be battling with. To have our other three JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) teammates up there most of the day. Bummer that the 18 (Daniel Hemric) got caught up in that wreck. The 20 (Harrison Burton) and 19 (Brandon Jones) did good there in the end. I’m looking forward to seeing those guys bring home some wins.”

Got a special place for this trophy?

“I’ve got the rest of the guitar trophies that I’ve earned over my career hanging over my office. This one will go right with it. It will look good.”

What a battle it was at the end of the race?

“Yeah, it was. A little bit too much, I guess. Overall, I knew that our car was really good and really fast. If we could just get clear of those guys, I could run my own line and hit my own marks, I would have the opportunity to drive away. My car was a little bit better on the longer runs. We would fire off fine, but after we got about 10 laps in, it would really just keep going, much faster than the rest of the guys. Great car. Everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing, thank you. Toyota, Mark Cronquist, everyone at the engine shop, I haven’t mentioned his name in an awful long time. He deserves it, and M&M’s of course for their participation and sponsoring us my last couple years in Xfinity racing and being able to get this 100 mark. It’s really, really special. It’s a great day for all of the teams I’ve worked for over the times. One of the crew chiefs that I had in my ’05 season and ’06 season from Hendrick Motorsports, came over and said hello. It’s really nice to have worked with all of those guys and have got to where I’m at today.”

What did you see with tire wear?

“I don’t think we had much tire wear this time around. The resin or whatever they did to the race track to get the tire to adhere and put rubber down was very helpful, very useful. It definitely did exactly what they were looking for and was able to persevere tire life. We weren’t really wearing tires out that I have seen. I think there was a guy that had a flat due to excessive brake heat with how heavy you are on the brakes here and how fast you can go down the straightaways and how tight these corners are and how much you slide through the corners. Overall, I feel like the tire was probably in my opinion a little bit on the conservative side. That’s kind of the way it always tends to be. Better to be that way than one of the uglier races we’ve had, years, years ago, blowing tires out.”

What allowed the leader to pull away from the field?

“Clean air. Dover is the same way. You look at these concrete racetracks and in my opinion the tire level to the grip level is very, very peaky, so as you are running up the grip level and the peak, it just falls down on the backside. So, when you are catching somebody, if the guy is right on that peak, there’s nothing else for you to get to be able to run faster than that guy. Dirty air plays a role. I felt like I should have been able to run Austin (Cindric) down. I was a tenth or half-a-tenth faster than him for a couple of laps and then he would get a couple of tenths faster than me and I would run him back down. It was kind of an accordion effect there of not being able to close the gap. Good cars, when they get out front, are just going to be hard to catch.”

Was the track like you remembered it?

“It really was. It was actually really racey, way racier than I remember Nashville being in the past. We used to come here, and it would always be bottom lane and if you ever got off of the bottom you were pretty much getting passed. That’s what it kind of looked like in the end, but in the beginning and the middle part of the race, you could move around and enter way high and come down to the middle or you could stay high, be wherever you want to be. Way wider than I remember it being.”

Tough Cup practice for the Toyotas. Can you get better for tomorrow and can today help tomorrow?

“I don’t know. I thought about the same thing myself. How can we correlate what we are doing on the Xfinity side and being so good and being so fast in Xfinity to being able to put that stuff in the Cup car, but it just doesn’t connect like that. It’s not that simple. Flat out, we suck. Tomorrow’s going to be a rough day.”

Do you just reflect what you have been able to accomplish in such a short time?
“Not really. It’s going to be negative of course, but if you look back on the last 10 years with all of the rule changes, hell, I thought we could make that number 150 by now, or 160, 170, whatever, but with everything that kind of went down and it’s 100 now. Technically, they probably kept me here a while longer. I would have been done a long time ago. Reflecting it, looking back on it, it’s cool absolutely. I remember the 60 car of Mark Martin would just dominate every weekend. I would wonder to myself, could anyone run with this guy? And that was 49 wins. I just can’t fathom to myself what 100 really means. It would certainly be something to look back on when it’s all said and done and I’m in my rocking chair somewhere.”

Did Brexton (Busch, son) shower you with Rowdy or water?

“That was water. That stuck gets a little sticky in the heat. It’s very hydrating though. You should try it.”

Are you going to run the Xfinity Series anymore?
“I haven’t necessarily had those discussions with Joe (Gibbs, team owner) or Pern (Dave Alpern, President), but from my understanding, there may not be anything sold for next year, so this might be it. Two more.”

Are you good with that?

“I’m good with that.”

Which are the Xfinity wins that mean the most to you?

“I don’t even know. I’ve forgot more than I did. I would say win number one was cool. Anytime you win your first one, so that was good. That was 2004 Richmond. There was a few that I missed that would have been really cool. At Charlotte in my first one, I finished second, that would have been cool. Damn, (Matt) Kenseth. Those Cup guys, they shouldn’t run Xfinity. I don’t know why they do. The 49th one, passing Mark (Martin). Mark was there, that was cool. Loudon, I believe that was my 100th NASCAR win, so that was cool. Some of the dominating ones we had. I believe we led all of the laps at IRP (Indianapolis Raceway Park). Just stuff like that and being able to have some really dominating days and the 13-wins season in ’10. I think that was ’10, that was really, really cool. Hard to pin-point more than that. The ones that were part of the Bristol sweep were really cool, getting the triple twice.”

What made you want to do the bow?

“I think the bow would have been the first race. I think I did the bow in the Lowes car in Charlotte when I won there. That would have been 2004. I did the bow that day, so it started really, really early.”

Why do you do it?

“I grew up in Las Vegas. Vegas is known for its shows and anytime a show was over, all of the performers would come out and do a bow to the crowd, so that was kind of my thing to the crowd after the show and putting on a big performance.”

Have you maintained the relationships with previous partners, and have they said anything to you about this milestone you have now achieved?

“A couple of them I have. Jim Sexton from Z-Line. He texted me and emailed me a few years ago. I hadn’t heard from him in a little bit, but Rick Dreiling from Dollar General. Him and I have remained really good friends. He’s been a huge supporter of mine over the years. I talk to him every now and then. Robert Nimlok from Lowes. He was the CEO of Lowes when I was driving the Lowes car. Him and I have remained in touch. There is definitely a few of them that I wouldn’t say I remain close to, but at least acquaintances.”

HARRISON BURTON, No. 20 DEX Imaging Toyota Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 4th

How was that last restart for you?

“It was kind of chaotic and we just weren’t fast enough today. I was really confident with our car. I thought we were a third-place car and we tried to make changes and it got worse. Just challenging. I think we had a tire going down at one point and we adjusted to that and then when we adjusted to that, we were playing catch up. I’m happy with our finish today. We finished better than we ran, so whenever that happens, you can’t be to upset and just move on to the next one. I think we’ve got a good finish and good stage points. It feels good to me to get the rhythm back going and get headed towards the front again.”

On that final restart, that was wild. What was going through your mind on the backstretch?

“It was wild, right? I was happy we got to second, I’m not happy we lost it. Just a really tough day for us all day really. We struggled quite a bit. We got behind on adjustments. We had a tire going down and made a big change because I thought we were just horrible and as soon as we left pit road it was like “uh oh,” now we know why we took a big swing to the worst. Just one of those days where we fight and claw all day and got a good finish and got good stage points, I think we were fourth in both stages. Just proud of my DEX Imaging Supra team. We kept digging and working and we got a good result out of it.”

When you saw all the craziness at the end there, what did you think about those restarts as far as line choice? How did you make that choice? It looked like it was almost equal between the two lines.

“It really was and a lot of times it just depended on what lane your car was better in, right? We were pretty decent on the bottom. We got at the end of the race where we were probably a third-place car, a second or third-place car, and we got it at the end of the day where we put ourselves in position and that’s all you can ask for. It was a lot of fun and happy with the result.”

It looked a little dicey out there. What was it like from the driver seat?

“Dicey. It was a good race and fun to be a part of. Gosh, frustrated. We had a really fast car in our DEX Imaging Supra was phenomenal in practice and I felt pretty confident we were going to be the car to beat Kyle (Busch) today and made some changes early in the race that helped us, and we were going in the right direction and then we had a tire going down and made a big change. We fell to eighth during that long green-flag run and I think we just had a slow leak there, so we made a change to that. We’re wrecking lose all the time and then come on pit road and make a big change, need some more speed and you leave, and you know you’re about to be really tight because it swings the other way. We weren’t as bad as I thought we were going to be making a change in the wrong direction like that. Just not quite the potential of the car. Frustrated, but happy because we finished third and got good stage points. We really finished better than we ran. Whenever those days come around, you can’t be to upset. Need to find a way to break into that first and second spot more often.”

BRANDON JONES, No. 19 Menards/Delta Faucets Toyota Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 6th

Talk about your sixth-place finish today and the ending of the race.

“I feel like all day we had a Supra that could compete, possibly for a win, I don’t know, it was a little up in the air for a bit. My restarts were not my strong suit today. My long run speed was where we were so dominate. I started coming through the field real nice and made some really good passes, so I’ve got great notes for when I come back here to pass, just have to figure out how to, not sure aggressive is the right word for it, but how to just fire the car off in the corner a little harder on the restarts just to maintain track position. I think there are some things that can definitely help us, I just need to get to the shop and look at it better, but all and all, this was a phenomenal day. Never even seen this track before, so to come here and legitimately be able to run top three all weekend has been pretty fun for us, so looking forward to the next couple of races.

About Toyota

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