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What Does A Non-owners Insurance Policy Cover?

By
SM
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Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash

Nowadays, almost everything under the sun is covered by insurance. However, navigating through our daily lives without any insurance can stir the fear of the unknown, which is especially true for drivers who risk being involved in road accidents and other roadside problems. But what if you don’t own the vehicle that you’re driving? Is there a particular insurance coverage that can help in case you encounter road problems while driving?

If you come out alive from a road accident or other road problems, that’s good, but that doesn’t end there. Piles of expenses will come rushing in before you know it. This is the main reason why insurance companies drafted and started offering non-owners insurance policies that can provide great assistance to people who are driving vehicles that they don’t own. But, what does non owner insurance cover? 

Nonowner car insurance, alternatively referred to as non-owners insurance or non-drivers insurance, protects individuals who do not own a car but occasionally drive another’s. Automobile liability insurance protects you against bodily injury and property damage caused by you in a car accident. However, it will not cover the damages to the borrowed or rented vehicle or your injuries if you caused the collision.

Coverage for Uninsured Motorist

Unless you have uninsured motorist coverage, you may be liable for high medical and repair costs if the uninsured driver hits your vehicle. Uninsured motorist coverage, in conjunction with underinsured motorist coverage, protects you from having to pay for injuries or property damage caused by accidents that you did not cause. 

Coverage for Personal Injuries or PIP

PIP is a type of car insurance coverage that pays for medical expenses incurred due to a car accident, regardless of fault. PIP is designed to cover any injuries you sustain as a result of a car accident, regardless of who is at fault, and it also includes additional benefits such as the following:

  • Medical expenses
  • Loss of income
  • Necessary services that a person can’t perform because of sustained injuries
  • Costs of the funeral if the accident leads to death
  • Cash benefit because of death

Non-owner car insurance is for individuals who do not own a car but may need to drive on occasion. For example, you may commute by bus or any mass transportation but occasionally rent a car or use a shared car to get to a meeting. If you frequently drive other people’s cars, nonowner insurance may be appropriate.

If you frequently borrow a vehicle from a relative or another member of your household, non-owner car insurance is not the best option. Instead, you should be added to the policy of the vehicle’s owner. 

Non-owner car insurance is typically less expensive than the same level of liability coverage for your vehicle. However, if the insurer is required to file for SR-22 or FR-44, the associated costs of any policy will almost certainly be high until there’s no need for it. The price is determined by factors such as your age, driving record, and frequency of driving, among others.

Larson scores a dominant win at Sonoma

By
Andrew Kim
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Kyle Larson, driver of the #5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Cup Series Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway on June 06, 2021 in Sonoma, California. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images).

On a bright, sunny Sunday afternoon in Sonoma, California, the hometown hero shined brightly at Sonoma Raceway after Kyle Larson held off teammate Chase Elliott, Martin Truex Jr. and the field through several late race restarts to win the Toyota/Save Mart 350 for his second consecutive NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season and first on a road course.

The starting lineup was based on a performance metric formula, weighing the driver’s and owner’s results from a previous Cup event, the owner points position and the fastest lap recorded from a previous Cup race. With that, Kyle Larson, winner of last weekend’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, started on pole position and was joined on the front row with teammate Chase Elliott.

Prior to the event, rookie Anthony Alfredo started at the rear of the field due to a pre-race inspection violation, a move that resulted with his crew chief Seth Barbour being ejected for the event and Derrick Finley serving as Alfredo’s interim crew chief. Scott Heckert also started at the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments.

When the green flag waved and the race started, Larson took off with the lead through the first two turns and entering Turn 3A ahead of teammates Elliott and William Byron while the field scattered behind while competing for positions.

Through the 12-turn circuit, Larson led the first lap followed by teammates Elliott and Byron while Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch were in the top five. By then, Larson was out front by more than a second.

The following lap, Larson extended his advantage to more than two seconds while Byron, Hamlin and Kyle Busch remained in the top 10. 

By the third lap, Christopher Bell coasted to pit road after reporting fuel pump issues to his No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry, an issue that cost him a lap from the leaders despite having the ECU in his car restored.

Through the first five laps of the event, Larson’s No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE was leading by more than four seconds over Elliott’s No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, with Byron’s No. 24 AXALTA Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE trailing in third place by nearly five seconds. Teammates Hamlin and Kyle Busch continued to run in the top five followed by Austin Dillon, Alex Bowman, Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick and Tyler Reddick. Meanwhile, Martin Truex Jr., who started 19th, was in 11th followed by Joey Logano, Chris Buescher, Ryan Blaney and Bubba Wallace.

Two laps later, Hamlin overtook Byron for third place while Bowman overtook Austin Dillon for sixth place. By then, Larson continued to lead by more than four seconds while Truex was scored in the top 10.

Near the Lap 10 competition caution, names like Kyle Busch, Bowman, Ross Chastain, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Michael McDowell, Erik Jones, Ryan Newman, Chris Buescher, Bubba Wallace and rookie Chase Briscoe pitted for tires under green.

Just as the field was approaching the start/finish line for the 10th lap, Larson pitted approaching Turn 11 along with teammate Elliott, Truex, Joey Logano, Kurt Busch and others. Following the sequence of events, Hamlin assumed the lead followed by Brad Keselowski as the competition caution flew on Lap 10.

Under caution, Hamlin pitted along with Keselowski, Kevin Harvick, Ryan Blaney, Cole Custer, Logano and others, giving the front row back to Hendrick Motorsports’ Larson and Elliott. 

When the race restarted on Lap 13, Larson retained the lead over teammate Elliott through the first three turns and entering the fourth turn while behind, Kyle Busch challenged Byron for third place through Turns 5 and 6, as Truex was running in the top five.

By Lap 15, Larson was leading by more than a second over teammate Elliott while Kyle Busch was in third place, trailing by less than four seconds. Byron remained in fourth place, though he had Truex challenging him for the spot. 

Not long after, however, Byron dropped from fourth to eighth after being overtaken by Truex, Bowman, Austin Dillon and Tyler Reddick, starting from Turn 4 through Turn 8. Behind, Hamlin received nose damage to the front of his No. 11 FedEx Toyota Camry while running in the mid-pack.

In the closing laps of the first stage, names like Ross Chastain, Bubba Wallace, Ryan Newman pitted under green. During the stops, Wallace was penalized due to speeding on pit road. Soon after, Michael McDowell pitted along with Byron, Buescher and Daniel Suarez.

Back on the course, Larson continued to lead by more than three seconds over teammate Elliott. With a comfortable advantage and gap over his teammate, Larson was able to navigate his way through the 12-turn road course one final time to win the first stage on Lap 20, thus claiming his 10th stage victory of this season. Elliott followed behind in second place followed by Kyle Busch, teammate Truex, Bowman, Austin Dillon, Reddick, Kurt Busch, Matt DiBenedetto and Erik Jones. 

Under the stage break, a majority of names like Larson, Elliott, Kyle Busch, Truex, Bowman and others pitted while the rest led by new leader Kurt Busch remained on the track. In total, 14 competitors remained on the track with Larson back in 15th.

The second stage started on Lap 24 with Kurt Busch and Matt DiBenedetto on the front row. At the start, Busch cleared DiBenedetto and retained the lead through the first two turns, with Keselowski, Blaney and Hamlin in the top five. Meanwhile, Christopher Bell rallied from his early issues to run in sixth place ahead of Cole Custer and Byron. 

When the field returned to the start/finish line to complete Lap 25, Kurt Busch continued to lead followed by DiBenedetto, Keselowski, Blaney and Hamlin while Bell, Byron, Custer, Buescher and Chastain were in the top 10. Elliott, meanwhile, was in 11th followed by Larson while Truex was in 14th and Kyle Busch was in 16th.

As the laps progressed, teammates Elliott and Larson continued to battle intensely over one another as they were stuck behind Bell, with the latter prevailing over both through Turn 6A. Meanwhile, Reddick made an unscheduled pit stop following contact with Bowman.

On Lap 28, Byron emerged as the new leader after he overtook Kurt Busch in Turn 11. With Busch back in second, DiBenedetto was in fourth in between Team Penske’s Keselowski and Blaney.

By Lap 30, Byron was out in front by more than three seconds over teammate Kyle Larson, who managed to carve his way near the front, while Kurt Busch was back in third. Behind, Keselowski was in fourth followed by Truex, Elliott, Kyle Busch, Blaney, Hamlin and Chris Buescher while DiBenedetto was back in 11th

A lap later, the caution flew when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. made hard right-side contact against the wall entering Turn 1 and went off course in the dirt as a result of a flat right-front tire.

Under caution, some of the competitors in the field led by Byron pitted while the rest led by Larson remained on the track.

With six laps remaining in the second stage, the race restarted under green as Larson and Truex started on the front row. At the start, Larson retained the lead through the first two turns over Truex and the field fanning out to two lanes.

In the closing laps of the second stage, Larson continued to lead followed by Truex, Logano, Bowman and Chastain. Meanwhile, Corey LaJoie and Erik Jones, both of whom made on-track contact that resulted with Jones nearly going off the course, were in sixth and 23rd. 

Soon after, Chase Briscoe, Wallace, Suarez, Jones and Reddick pitted. In addition, Truex pitted along with Chastain. During the pit stops, Wallace made a full cycle around the track with a left tire before returning to pit road for a second stop, though he lost a lap to the leaders.

Back on the course, Larson continued to lead with a healthy margin over Joey Logano. Continuing to flex his muscles, Larson was able to come back around and claim the second stage on Lap 40, thus claim his 11th stage victory of the season. Logano trailed behind by more than six seconds followed by Bowman, Kurt Busch and Elliott. Teammate Byron, Kyle Busch, Keselowski, Hamlin and Bell were scored in the top 10.

Under the stage break, some like Larson, Logano, Bowman, Preece, Aric Almirola pitted while the rest led by Kurt Busch, Elliott, Byron, Kyle Busch and Keselowski remained on the track.

With 46 laps remaining, the final stage commenced. At the start, Kurt Busch took off with the lead through the first two turns followed by Elliott, Byron, Kyle Busch, Keselowski, Bell and a steaming pack of cars.

At the halfway mark on Lap 45, Elliott moved into the lead for the first time after overtaking Kurt Busch through Turns 11 and 12. Truex, who restarted 15th, was in 13th in between Buescher and Chastain while Larson, who restarted 21st, was in 16th in between Alfredo and Suarez.

With 40 laps remaining, Elliott continued to lead by nearly four seconds over Kyle Busch, who moved his No. 18 Sport Clips Toyota Camry in front of brother Kurt’s No. 1 Monster Energy Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. Truex and Larson worked their way up to fourth and fifth while Keselowski, Byron, Chastain, Bell and Blaney were in the top 10.

During the next few laps, Truex and Larson navigated their way around Kurt Busch to move into third and fourth. Afterwards, Larson overtook Truex’s No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry for third place as he had Kyle Busch next on his sights. Meanwhile, Elliott continued to lead by more than four seconds.

Nearing the final 35 laps of the event, the Busch brothers along with Blaney, Byron and others pitted under green. By then, Elliott was leading by three seconds over teammate Larson.

Back on the track, the battle for the lead intensified between teammates Elliott and Larson, with the former fending off the latter through every turns and corner while Truex trailed by two seconds.

With 33 laps remaining, Larson prevailed over his intense battle with Elliott after overtaking him in Turn 7 to reassume the lead, with Truex narrowing the gap to more than a second. Meanwhile, Jones was in fourth followed by Logano, Bowman, Reddick, Briscoe, Hamlin and Almirola.

 A few laps later, Truex overtook Elliott for the runner-up spot. By then, names like Hamlin, Chastain pitted under green.

With 29 laps remaining, Elliott surrendered his track position to pit under green along with Erik Jones while Larson continued to run on the circuit with a two-second advantage over Truex. Not long after, Truex pitted. By then, Bowman, who went off the course through Turns 5 and 6, also pitted along with Aric Almirola and Briscoe.

Soon after, Larson pitted and surrendered the lead to Logano. By the time Larson exited pit road, Truex was able to cycle in front of Larson on fresh tires. 

Not long after, Larson was able to navigate his way around Truex through Turn 7 and move within striking distance of reassuming the lead with the finish in sight. By then, Logano pitted under green. 

With 21 laps remaining, Larson returned to the lead after he overtook Kyle Busch. Truex, meanwhile, was still in third while Elliott was battling Keselowski for fifth. Soon after, Truex moved into the runner-up spot over Kyle Busch as he was trailing Larson by more than two seconds. 

Then, the caution flew due to Quin Houff coming to a stop in Turn 6. By then, Keselowski pitted, though he was later penalized due to equipment coming over his pit stall too soon.

Under caution, a majority of the leaders returned to pit road and Larson exited pit road in front of Truex, Elliott and others. Back on course, Logano remained on course along with Reddick, LaJoie and Alfredo, where they were followed by Larson, Truex and Elliott. 

With 16 laps remaining, the race restarted. At the start, Logano maintained the lead through the first two turns and heading into Turn 3A while Larson quickly moved up to fourth place followed by teammate Elliott. 

Through Turn 7 and the Esses, Larson moved up into third place followed by Elliott while Truex was stuck in seventh. 

By the time the field returned to the start/finish line under the final 15 laps, Larson was up into second place behind Logano while Elliott and Truex were in fourth and sixth. Then, approaching Turn 8, Larson, racing on fresh tires, reassumed the lead over Logano.

Then, the caution returned when Chastain and LaJoie made contact in Turn 11, sending both cars spinning and in front of incoming traffic. In the ensuing chaos, Kevin Harvick, Byron, Bell, Bowman and Erik Jones sustained damage.

Under caution, nearly the entire field remained on the track while Harvick pitted to have the damage on his car addressed. 

With 11 laps remaining, the race restarted with Larson and Logano comprising the front row. At the start, Larson and Logano battled dead even through the first two turns before Larson cleared Logano’s No. 22 AutoTrader Ford Mustang entering Turn 3A. 

Through the Esses and Turns 10, 11 and 12 with 10 laps remaining, Larson continued to lead while teammate Elliott overtook Logano for the runner-up spot. Truex moved up into fourth place followed by Kyle Busch and Chastain.

With eight laps remaining, Larson was leading by nearly three seconds over teammate Elliott with Truex, Logano and Kyle Busch running in the top five. 

Three laps later, the caution flew when Ryan Preece spun in the Esses. While Preece was trying to recover, he was hit and turned by an oncoming Cody Ware in a heavy dust cloud, with Ware coming to a rest near the tire barriers as both competitors sustained damage to their respective machines.

Under caution, nearly the entire field led by Larson, Elliott and Truex remained on the track while few like Keselowski and Reddick pitted.

With three laps remaining, the race restarted with teammates Larson and Elliott comprising the front row. At the start, Larson managed to clear teammate Elliott to remain as the leader through the first two turns and heading into the third turn. Elliott retained the runner-up spot followed by Truex and the field.

The caution, however, returned quickly when Alfredo, who was primed for a top-10 result, and Bell spun following contact with Bowman in Turn 4. The incident was enough to send the race into overtime.

In overtime, Larson and Elliott engaged in a side-by-side battle for the lead through the first turn before the former emerged on top in Turn 2. Through the first four turns and the following three turns, Larson continued to lead despite being pressured by Elliott as Truex settled himself in third place. 

When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Larson was leading by nearly six-tenths of a second over teammate Elliott with Truex trailing by one-and-a-half seconds. 

Elliott gained ground briefly on Larson entering Turn 8 before Larson was able to retain his steady advantage through the Esses and Turn 10. After calmly navigating his way through Turns 11 and 12, Larson was able to come back around and take the checkered flag to win by six-tenths of a second over Elliott.

In addition to claiming his second consecutive victory of this season and first on a road course, Larson recorded his ninth NASCAR Cup Series career victory, third of the season and the 270th win for Hendrick Motorsports. He also became the 20th different competitor to win a Cup race at Sonoma Raceway and the first competitor to sweep the day at Sonoma after he claimed the first two stages en route to his dominating victory.

“It was not easy,” Larson said on FS1. “Any road course isn’t easy. Just trying to keep it on track is tough, especially when you got two of the best behind you on that last restart. I felt like I did a good job the one [restart] before and stretch it out a little bit and then, [I] didn’t want to give it another try at it, but [Elliott] kept the pressure on. Martin was strong, too, but what a car. This is unbelievable. I thought I would be okay today, but I just didn’t know how I would race. Our car was really good there and I can’t say enough about it. Northern California, this will always be home to me, even if I live out on the East Coast now…Look forward to just keeping this streak going.”

Elliott, who led 13 laps, claimed the runner-up spot for a second consecutive week, fourth overall this season, while Truex, winner of the previous two Sonoma races, rallied from a three-race stretch of finishing outside the top 15 to finish in third place.

“I wish I knew [where Larson was better],” Elliott said. “I would’ve tried to give him a little better run, but congrats to Kyle, [crew chief] and Cliff [Daniels], everybody on the No. 5 team. They’ve been doing an amazing job. Really proud of our NAPA group, though. I felt like we were a lot better there at the end than we were at the beginning, and definitely, the best I’ve ever been here, I feel like, at Sonoma, in particular. Pleased with that. I wished we could’ve gotten another spot, but we’ll try again.”

“[We were beaten] Just a little bit everywhere, I felt like,” Truex added. “Right handers, I couldn’t quite lean on the left rear like I needed to and didn’t quite have the drive off. More so than that, I didn’t have the short-run speed. I think the really long runs was our only chance there. All those cautions at the end, they killed any chance we had. Proud of the guys on the Bass Pro Toyota. Just not quite good enough. The Hendrick cars are really strong right now, they’re really fast, making a lot of grip, making our job tough, but like I said, we needed long runs at the end, not all those cautions.”

Logano finished fourth while Kyle Busch, a two-time winner at Sonoma, completed the top five on the track. 

Kurt Busch, a former winner at Sonoma, claimed his first top-10 result since Homestead-Miami Speedway in February by finishing sixth while teammate Chastain, Hamlin, Bowman and Blaney finished in the top 10.

Erik Jones, Daniel Suarez, Austin Dillon, Bubba Wallace and Brad Keselowski finished in the top 15 while Chase Briscoe was the highest-finishing rookie competitor in 17th. Harvick came home in 21st, Bell fell back to 24th and Ben Rhodes finished 30th in his Cup debut. Michael McDowell and Ryan Newman finished 28th and 33rd after both were turned and spun in Turn 11 on the final lap.

There were 13 lead changes for seven different leaders. The race featured eight cautions for 18 laps. In total, 33 of the 37 starters finished on the lead lap.

Hamlin continues to lead the regular-season standings by 47 points over Larson with Elliott trailing by 73 points.

Results.

1. Kyle Larson, 57 laps led, Stage 1 & 2 winner

2. Chase Elliott, 13 laps led

3. Martin Truex Jr.

4. Joey Logano, five laps led

5. Kyle Busch, two laps led

6. Kurt Busch, eight laps led

7. Ross Chastain

8. Denny Hamlin, two laps led

9. Alex Bowman

10. Ryan Blaney

11. Erik Jones

12. Daniel Suarez

13. Austin Dillon

14. Bubba Wallace

15. Brad Keselowski

16. Chris Buescher

17. Chase Briscoe

18. Corey LaJoie

19. Tyler Reddick

20. Cole Custer

21. Ryan Preece

22. Kevin Harvick

23. Matt DiBenedetto

24. Christopher Bell

25. James Davison

26. Scott Heckert

27. Aric Almirola

28. Michael McDowell

29. Josh Bilicki

30. Ben Rhodes

31. Anthony Alfredo

32. Garrett Smithley

33. Ryan Newman

34. Cody Ware – OUT, Accident

35. William Byron – OUT, Accident, five laps led

36. Quin Houff – OUT, Rear gear

37. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. – OUT, Engine

Next on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the series’ annual All-Star Open and Race events at Texas Motor Speedway, both scheduled to occur on Sunday, June 13. The NASCAR All-Star Open will air at 6 p.m. ET on FS1 while the All-Star Race will commence at 8 p.m. ET on FS1.

CHEVY NCS AT SONOMA: Kyle Larson Scores His Third Win of 2021 at Sonoma

By
Official Release
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NASCAR CUP SERIES
TOYOTA/SAVE MART 350
SONOMA RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
JUNE 6, 2021

KYLE LARSON TAKES THE WIN AT SONOMA RACEWAY
Team Chevy Scores Fourth-Consecutive NCS Victory

SONOMA, CA – (June 6, 2021) – Kyle Larson’s return to his home state of California brought the Hendrick Motorsports driver his third win of the 2021 season when he took his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL1 1LE to victory lane in the Toyota Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway. In back-to-back races, the 28-year-old driver swept both Stage wins and led a race-high 57 laps to capture his first road course victory and ninth-career victory in 239 starts in NASCAR’s premier series.

The triumph is the fourth-consecutive victory for Chevrolet Racing and Hendrick Motorsports, continuing to lead all manufacturers in the overall win count with seven thus far in the 2021 season. The victory, Chevrolet’s 12th win at the 2.52-mile/12-turn road California road course, brings the winningest manufacturer in motorsports its 802nd all-time NASCAR Cup Series win. Hendrick Motorsports now sits at an all-time record of 22 race wins on road course circuits, more than any other organization in NASCAR Cup Series history.

Hendrick Motorsports has been no stranger to dominance on road courses. Larson’s victory brings the organization its sixth win in the last seven road course events. Chase Elliott, who finished in the runner-up position, gave Hendrick Motorsports its fourth consecutive 1-2 finish, tying a NASCAR record set in 1956 by Carl Kiekhafer Racing. Chip Ganassi Racing teammates posted strong top-10 finishes, with Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1 1LE, finishing sixth; and Ross Chastain, No. 42 Clover Camaro ZL1 1LE, taking the checkered flag in seventh. Alex Bowman drove his No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1 1LE to a ninth-place finish, giving Chevrolet five of the top-10 positions in the final running order.

Martin Truex Jr. (Toyota) was third, Joey Logano (Ford) was fourth and Kyle Busch (Toyota) rounded out the top-five finishers of the race.

The NASCAR Cup Series season continues next weekend at Texas Motor Speedway for the NASCAR All-Star Race on Sunday, June 13, at 8 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1 1LE, PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
THE MODERATOR: We are joined by our race winner today, Kyle Larson. Congratulations on another victory. Last week and again today. An exciting week to be a part of Hendrick Motorsports. Talk to us a little bit about that run today.

KYLE LARSON: Yeah, thank you. It was an awesome race car. I was a little bit nervous to start the race just having Chase Elliott, who is probably the best road racer right now, lined up next to me. When I was able to kind of stretch out from him, then kind of slow myself down, I was able to learn some things about the track, kind of get into a rhythm. From then on, we were really good. Even passing cars was easier than I’ve ever had here before.

Just really shows how good my race car was today. Worked out great to win both stages and the race. Just an unbelievable race car, which it has been all year long. We just now finally have been able to get some wins to show for it.

THE MODERATOR: We’ll start with questions.

Q. There’s so many restarts late there, so many chances for the field to take a shot at you. What’s the key in those situations to not make a mistake?
KYLE LARSON: Yeah, on a few of the earlier restarts, they were able to kind of stay on my right side longer, then it had me out to the left through two, so I was hoping to get a better launch to where I’d be a little bit clear of them by the time I got to turn two to get down.

Each of those last restarts, I got good launches, was able to do that. On each of them I felt like I lost a little bit of front grip on each of them. Kind of went through there and pushed a little bit too much, couldn’t get on the gas as soon as I needed to. Same with three, three A and four.

Chase was actually able to stay closer to me than I wanted him to by the time we got to seven. He’s really good at out-braking people. I didn’t want to go in there and make a mistake. I can get good drive off to kind of stretch out from him. Just had to make sure I hit my marks and didn’t enter into the fast corners too fast, slide out and lose speed.

My car was really good. I didn’t really have to run 100%. I could run 95%, just limit my mistakes a little bit better.

Q. You’ve always been fast here, but you haven’t had the best races. What was the difference today?
KYLE LARSON: I think Hendrick Motorsports and just the cars that they bring to every racetrack right now, but today I think our car was better than Hendrick Motorsports has been here in the past. I think that helps my job out a lot.

Then also, I mean, there was definitely — I put work into it this week by looking at a lot of S and T, things like that. Josh Wise and I work out, not just work out, I do a lot of stuff with him, and he’s hired on Scott Speed to kind of work side-by-side with him. Scott is one of the best American road racers we’ve ever seen. Getting to pick his brain a lot, look at areas where I’ve probably struggled in the past.

Scott really helped me this week of, like, I had my mindset how I thought you needed to out-brake people, which was opposite of what you really needed to do. So talking to him, I felt like I got a lot better out-braking people. I was able to pass people really easily.

I think having him was a huge benefit to me, as well as Ross Chastain, Reddick, Bowman who ran pretty good today until he had his crash. Yeah, I think we have a really cool thing going throughout the week and it definitely helped prepare all of us drivers who work out with him, Josh and Scott, to be good for the weekends.

Q. The celebration in Victory Lane, where you spit the wine out, was there something behind that? Looked strange.
KYLE LARSON: I won a K&N race here in 2014. Apparently it wasn’t windy that day because it shot out perfect, was a cool picture. I was like, Man, I’m going to do that again today. But totally blew it. It was way windy. I feel super bad. I got it all over Jill Gregory. That was my bad (smiling). I messed that up.
I wasn’t spitting the wine out because it was bad or anything. I was doing it for a cool photo like it was in 2014.

Q. Can you remind me, when did you first start going to Sonoma? What are your earliest memories?
KYLE LARSON: I didn’t honestly come here a whole bunch. My parents brought me here, I don’t know what year it was, I would have had to have been probably five or six maybe, because it was before I started racing. We came to like a Happy Hour, the Saturday practice day for NASCAR. I’ve came to a lot more, like, NHRA qualifying days than NASCAR. I came to one NASCAR race here when Juan Pablo won, with me and my best friend who actually was one of our spotters today, we came here and watched Juan win.

Like I said, I was always racing on weekends. By the time we were done with our race for the weekend, we were pretty burnt out, didn’t make it up here.

I came to an INDYCAR race actually once or twice. Yeah, not a bunch of times here.

Q. The picture of you on the hillside in the DuPont year, when would that have been?
KYLE LARSON: That would have been during that practice day when I was probably five or six years old.

Q. To win here, is it a big deal to you?
KYLE LARSON: Yeah, for sure. Even though I didn’t grow up coming here a bunch, it’s still my home track. I’ve spent a lot of time in the Napa Valley when Rico and I used to hang out a bunch. Actually got to have lunch with David Abreu and his winemaker Brad Grimes yesterday, he cooked for a lot of my friends, we got to have some of his awesome wine.

Napa Valley, it’s obviously not my hometown, Oak Grove is my hometown. Throughout, I don’t know, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 or so, I spent a bunch of time here. Yeah, so Napa Valley is close to me for sure.

Q. Just watching you take off in turn one, you just really seemed to get a launch that would separate you from the competition. Is there something you worked on specifically on the restarts to try to get an advantage?
KYLE LARSON: Not really. I mean, I’m trying to get away from them in every corner and stretch out. The last two restarts I was surprised. We had a lot of laps on our tires. I honestly had probably better traction then, at least equal or better, on the launch as I did on sticker tires. I don’t know why that was. It kind of allowed me to get a little bit nosed ahead of the 9 through one, then kind of get my momentum built up like I needed to through two to get clear of him.

Where like the 19 and 22 on a couple of the restarts early in the race, they were able to stay on my right side for a couple corners. I didn’t want that to happen. I just needed to nail my launch, then my few couple corners.

Q. We have several more road courses coming up. How much confidence finally getting that first road course win is it going to help you in future road courses?
KYLE LARSON: It definitely, definitely helps my confidence. I mean, I think everybody knows, like, I’ve always qualified really well on the road courses, but I haven’t been the best racer. Then today starting from the pole, I was like, Man, I just hope it’s not like it always is. It wasn’t. I knew we had a car capable of winning after that first competition caution.

Yeah, so to get a win and know that I can race, I feel like I learned a lot here this week about how to kind of pass people on road courses. I think that’s really going to benefit me going forward. We were able to beat the two best road course racers of the last six years or longer it seems today.

Definitely means a lot. For sure helps our confidence on this 5 car.

Q. In recent weeks you’ve been on this run. Have you given much consideration to winning the regular-season points championship?
KYLE LARSON: Definitely. I think there for a few weeks, I was probably over a hundred-and-something points behind Denny Hamlin. I was like, He’s kind of got it locked up. I kind have thought, Well, I mean, I’ve had a couple really bad finishes, and he hasn’t had any. If he just has one bad race, we’ll be right back in it, which he still hasn’t had any bad races, DNF’s or anything like that. We’ve had a few really good weeks where we’ve won stages, won the race these last couple weeks. We’ve taken huge chunks out of it.

It’s definitely a goal of mine to get those I think 15 bonus Playoff points if you can win it. Yeah, we just got to keep finishing the races, gaining a lot of stage points, and finishing up front, not making things bad, just trying to be smooth and finish the best we can.

Q. Would you say at this point in time, is this the most confident you’ve ever felt in a Cup car in your career?
KYLE LARSON: In a Cup car, yeah, probably. I’ve talked about 2017 being a really good year for me. I would say this is better, for sure. Now we’ve got three wins at this point in the season. A lot of other seconds and top fives.

Right now I feel like we could go to any racetrack and be good. There were still times I think in 2017 where, yeah, we won a lot, ran up front a lot, but there were still races where we were just average.

Seems like this year we’ve been strong at every racetrack. I feel like I’m confident as a driver in what I’ve been learning, getting better at. I definitely feel like I’m a better driver than I was in 2017. But our team is also extremely good right now.

For sure I think all of us on the 5 car and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports for that matter is confident right now.

Q. Two years ago they added the carrousel back to Sonoma. What has been the biggest difference in tackling that?
KYLE LARSON: I don’t know. I like the carrousel. Even two different than a couple years ago, there’s a strip of new pavement there that you can kind of use, position your car on to get good grip, angle yourself for the exit. Some of the curbs were different than they were from what I remember in 2019, like up through one and two. Those curbs were different.

It was fun. You kind of had to learn it really quickly. Yeah, some of the braking markers were different than normal. Without having practice, it was fun to try to learn it all on the fly.

Q. With the stage wins, do you think this is the best stretch you’ve had in your NASCAR career?
KYLE LARSON: What was that?

Q. Do you think your current stretch is the best in the career?
KYLE LARSON: Yeah, I couldn’t understand.

Everything is going better than it has for me in the Cup Series. It’s just been a lot of fun. I just hope we can keep it going. I think it’s great to be on a hot streak, but this series is so tough that you could easily get knocked back and be struggling and don’t know why you are.

We just got to continue to work hard. Pit crew has been doing a great job. Cliff, everybody at the shop, on all the cars, have been doing great. I feel like I’m putting in a lot of work on my end and results are showing. We got to keep working hard to stay this good.

Q. It’s been two years since you have been to Sonoma because of the pandemic and all that. How reliable are the notes when you come back after two years, all the rule changes, the tire compound changes?
KYLE LARSON: Yeah, I was honestly nervous going into this race because, I mean, I feel like I looked at a lot of stuff, S and T, all that, watched a lot of in-car and things. I haven’t been here forever. None of us have.

A new team, all that. My week was really busy. I didn’t really have enough time I felt like to get on iRacing to kind of get familiar with things. I was honestly a little bit nervous, especially being the first car to turn one today.

But I think all that stuff, video and S and T that I watched, really helped, obviously paid off.

Q. How did today make you a better racer, especially knowing you had Chase chasing you, your teammate because of the conditions and your tire falloff? How did all of that come together to help you get this win?
KYLE LARSON: I don’t know. I think just preparation and work by everybody. Obviously it helped us today. Like I said, Chase and Martin are two of the best road racers. They are the two best road racers that have been around now for the last few seasons.

Throughout the race when I passed the 19, ran the 9 down and passed him, like it definitely helped my confidence out a lot throughout the race. I think going forward it will, too.

Just a cool day, for sure. Any time you win in the Cup Series, it’s not easy, so you know you did something good as a team to get it done.

Q. Did the late cautions get you over the hump where you could run with cooler tires?
KYLE LARSON: Yeah, I didn’t notice much with the tires. I think my car was really good. Honestly, my forward drive, the grip in my tires stayed better than what I’m used to. I don’t know how other people — how like the 19 felt compared to normal, if he felt like he fell off more or the lap times showed that.
For me, my car was good. I fell off, but I didn’t fall off nearly as bad as I feel like I typically do here.

Q. I saw on social media this week that you raised $62,000 through your Drive for 5 program. What does it mean to have a program like that alongside your stellar season?
KYLE LARSON: It’s cool. With each lap completed, the wins and stuff, the money gets bigger. It definitely in the back of my mind adds a little bit more pressure to want to go out there and complete every lap and win these races.

Cool that I’m able to raise that money, work together with some great organizations, too, through it. Definitely need to keep stacking that money up there. We have a goal of getting to $500,000. Hopefully we can raise some more money throughout the year with running up front, doing good, but also fans can donate as well.

Q. What were your emotions like returning home after all that happened last year? What was it like exiting the car in front of the home crowd?
KYLE LARSON: It was cool to be here today with I guess the largest crowd that California has seen at a sporting event since the pandemic started. I think it was just cool for all those people. I got to come hang out with a lot of my friends before the race. They cooked some tacos before the race, so that was cool. Did some wine tours throughout this week, went to Guy Fieri’s house the other night, have a good time, drink a little bit too much (smiling).

It’s good to come out West. I think all of us enjoy staying at a nice resort with our families. We’re just relaxed, enjoying some awesome weather. To cap it off with a win at my home track, it’s really cool.

Q. What was it like going to Guy Fieri’s house?
KYLE LARSON: He’s good friends with Clint Bowyer. This is kind of towards the end of the FOX broadcast. The other night they had like a little party to say thank you to them. We happened to be staying with Clint this week, so we got to go.

Yeah, I don’t really remember it, but I made I guess a deal with Guy that if I won this weekend, I would give him the trophy. I got to figure out how I’m going to get it to him.

But, no, it was cool that he let us come over and have a good time. Look forward to coming back out again next year.

Q. Knowing the past couple weeks it’s been you and your teammates racing each other closely and hard, how do you balance racing a teammate but also going out there yourself going for the win?
KYLE LARSON: Yeah, I don’t know. I feel like you do have to race each other a little bit differently. You don’t want to run into each other and damage their car or damage yours, take out two opportunities for our organization to get a win.

At the same time we got to run hard because we’re battling up front for these wins with each other. It’s been cool to get to race really hard with Chase especially. William and Alex have been doing a great job this year, to have us all getting wins, battling up front all throughout the race, it’s awesome.
I think, too, we all want to see each other do good. We work really well together. I think we all learn something off of each other each week.

Q. A lot of people with the success that you’re having have pointed to you as the championship favorite. What does it mean to you to hear that? Do you feel that is the case?
KYLE LARSON: Yeah, I mean, it’s still a lot of racing left. I think if you were to point right now at a favorite, I think for sure you’d have to look at us, with us running up front, leading lots of laps, getting the stage wins, things like that, and now getting a couple race wins these last two weeks.

Like I said, it’s still a long ways left to go. Teams are going to get better. Teams are going to fade. I just hope we’re a team that continues to get better, keeps getting these wins, hopefully be battling my teammates for a championship in Phoenix later this year.

Q. This is five consecutive finishes for you in the top two. What have you learned about yourself?
KYLE LARSON: I don’t know. I’m not really sure. We could have won some more races, I think. I got to race a lot last year. Gosh, I ran 90-something races. I think I was in the top two for 70-something of ’em. I think last year kind of taught me a lot, helped keep my heart rate down. These late-race restarts and things, I feel a lot less pressure I think when I’m out there nowadays than I did maybe before.
Yeah, I think just the experience of that really helps now more than anything.

Q. Mr. H was talking after last week’s win about the camaraderie and how proud he was that you and Cliff Daniels have built the relationship. Talk about that relationship, how beneficial it’s been.
KYLE LARSON: Yeah, all these wins are team wins. Yeah, my relationship with Cliff and everybody on the 5 car is great. Cliff is a very intense guy. He’s a perfectionist really. That’s what you want out of a crew chief.

Outside of that, it’s cool to me that obviously dirt racing is important to me, all that, but he watches more dirt racing than I do throughout the week. I think that’s really cool. He’ll talk to me, Hey, man, did you see this or that? This guy did great, did you see that slide job? I think that’s awesome.

It definitely helps us build a closer connection. He’s only a few years older than me. I hope we’re together for a very long time. I hope this 5 team is together for a very long time. They’ve already been together for a while with Jimmie and stuff. I hope with me plugged in, we can be together forever.

Q. How did today kind of reflect with you being with Hendrick now? Chase being the so-called road course ace, whatever, what is the competition like between you guys all under one roof? They have the Penske commercials where they have the competitive nature. Are you guys kind of like that, butting heads, pushing each other?
KYLE LARSON: I mean, so I wasn’t around before. Every week we go into the competition meetings, Marshall and Chad, even Rick, Jeff Gordon, guys like that, will talk about how the teams have never been working better together than they are right now. That includes us drivers, too.

Like I mentioned earlier, I think we’re all competitive with each other, but we all want to see our organization do well. We definitely work well together. We race hard together.

I’m sure throughout the years we’ll have run-ins over whatever on track. I think if we can be man enough just to have talks to get through them, be good teammates, it would be hard to stop us.

I think all of us are very unselfish too. Like I said, we all want to see each other do good. I’m an open book if any of them have questions for me, I answer it 100% honestly of what I may be doing in the car with my hands or my feet, whatever lines I look for, past trends and stuff.

I feel like I can ask any of them the same thing and I’ll get an honest response back. Like I said, we all want to see each other do good. I think that’s how you build great teammates.

THE MODERATOR: Kyle, thank you for your time tonight. Congratulations on the victory.

KYLE LARSON: Yep, thank you.

CLIFF DANIELS (CREW CHIEF), NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1 1LE, PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:

THE MODERATOR: We’ve now been joined by our race winning crew chief, Cliff Daniels. A victory last week, now a victory here today in Sonoma. Talk a little bit about this week and what it has been like to be a part of the 5 team.

CLIFF DANIELS: Yeah, it’s been a special week for sure. After the Coke 600, that was quite a race. It’s hard to even believe that the race played out then the way it did, our car stayed up front the whole time.
This week we were a little tired on Monday and Tuesday. I’m so thankful and proud of the guys back at the shop, everyone at Hendrick Motorsports, because we let opportunities like that — we let moments like that create opportunities for us to get rejuvenated and go work hard. Our guys put in a lot of long hours, the whole shop did, to try to get these cars ready to come out west. The trucks had to leave early this week.

Tuesday was a long day. Wednesday was a really long day. The guys were just ready to grind it out. It takes all of that prep and focus to get us back here. Very, very thankful.

THE MODERATOR: We’ll start with questions.

Q. Did your plan coming into the race, did it change at all or was it set in stone and it unfolded as you expected?
CLIFF DANIELS: Stage one was pretty set. I think we executed that basically how we planned to. Didn’t know how good our car was going to be. Haven’t been here before with Kyle. It’s been a couple years since we’ve been here anyways. It’s no secret the last handful of trips here, the Hendrick cars, Chevrolets as a whole, we just haven’t been as good as we need to be.

We were hoping we could stay up front and get stage points in stage one. We were prepared to shorten the stage like a lot of guys did in stage two. Once we realized we had a really fast car that could pass, Kyle was doing such a good job with it, it allowed us to gamble a little to try to get another stage winning, stage points, which luckily we did.

Then having a tire advantage on a handful ahead of us only by a few laps, but then a good chunk at the front of the field we had more than a handful of laps of tire advantage. Looking at that, assuming we could get through with clean tires and clean fenders, we thought stage three could play out eventually and work out okay for us.

I did not expect us to get back to the front that quick. That just shows how hard Kyle was able to drive the car. He’s just a master in traffic. To see that play out was really cool.

Once we got up front, from my perspective, it’s a little nerve-wracking because you know you have a fast car, there were still a lot of laps left. We didn’t want to abuse our tires or push too hard. Even the way the race played out at the end, he had three restarts that he had to nail. He nailed them perfect, so really cool.

Q. Coming into this race, as it unfolded, have you noticed winning the regular-season championship is more attainable and that has affected your wanting to go after stage points?
CLIFF DANIELS: I can’t say you’re wrong in that assumption. It’s definitely something we’ve had our eyes on. Credit to the 11 bunch, as good as they’ve been all year for a little while for the whole rest of the field. It didn’t really look like that was going to be achievable for someone else because the 11 had built up such a lead.
Our team is strong right now. Knowing that is kind of in our sights, we’re certainly going to pay attention to it. There’s still a lot of racing left. It’s going to be a long summer. A lot of weeks in a row where we’re going to have backup cars and practice-qualifying events.

We’ve got to stay sharp. Then come Playoff time, that’s when we’ve really got to be on top of our game.
Yeah, we’re going to keep our eyes on it, but we need to keep sharp in the meantime.

Q. Do you have a set number of points that by this time of the year we want to be within this much of Hamlin, a month later… Do you map it out when you’re trying to catch somebody like that?
CLIFF DANIELS: I understand the thought process, but honestly no way. Since the beginning of the year, we knew we were close in a couple races, for one reason or another, things didn’t work out for us. We really just want to focus right now on executing every week. It’s more about building our process, making sure the team — if there’s 10 tens out there to get, we don’t need to try to get 11 and stub our toe or we don’t need to get complacent and only get eight either, if that makes sense.

Yes, the points matter. Yes, the outlook of all that matters. Having the distraction of thinking we need to achieve a certain amount of points per event, we’re just not really going there right now. We’re keeping all of our focus just on what it takes to go execute every week.

Q. It’s not the same equipment, but Kyle always has been fast here, but he hasn’t had good races here. Was there anything you saw in his past races that you harped on him to focus on these things because if you do you’ll have a good race just like you qualified?
CLIFF DANIELS: Not specifically. I think he naturally, and we all saw it today, right, even from the drop of the green flag, he has an amazing knack for this place.

To be very candid, the issues he’s had of handling and the cars in the past at Ganassi, we have had the same issues. I can’t say Hendrick has been as good as we need to be here. I think it was more of a Chevrolet thing in the past. We struggled the last couple trips here with Jimmie. Some of our other teammates did as well.

Thankfully we’ve had a great foundation of the road course setups that we’ve been building, credit to Alan and to Chase on the 9 team, that we’ve all been able to take that kind of foundation of what they’ve built and we get to go apply it at these tracks we haven’t been at in a while. Obviously we have a few new tracks coming up that we haven’t been to either.

He have to keep building on it, which is a really cool spot to be in. We’ll just see how it goes.

Q. What was the difference with the tires this year? Seemed like they wore out a lot more than the past at Sonoma.
CLIFF DANIELS: There was a lot of falloff, for sure. To me, I guess what stands out is, as hard as we were able to run them at the beginning of the run, because we ran pretty hard, they didn’t fall off a cliff of lap time after eight or ten laps. It was more of a gradual progression. Still plenty of falloff, we know it’s a soft compound tire.

I thought that was encouraging, from the racing standpoint where a guy could go hard and kind of beat his stuff up, and didn’t have to pay a one-second penalty for the next five or eight laps. You could kind of get everything back underneath you and keep going.

Even when we were passing our way back up through there and we had to work our tires pretty hard, once we got back into clean air, Kyle did a great job of being patient once we reestablished track position, the tires seemed to come back to him. We haven’t had a chance to debrief yet, but it seemed pretty reasonable.

Q. Coming into the year you preached about building a foundation early with this team. Is there anything about how quickly things have come together for this team that is surprising or surreal?
THE MODERATOR: Hang tight. We will try to reconnect with Cliff. We’ll get started as soon as we can.
Go ahead with your question again.

Q. You preached coming into the season about building a foundation early, the importance of doing that. Is there anything about how quickly things have come together with this team that is surprising or surreal, you have to pinch yourself about?
CLIFF DANIELS: It’s definitely a very special place to be in for our whole team. There’s been a lot that has gone into getting us where we are. Kyle had an amazing year on the racetrack and had a lot he had to overcome last year off the racetrack. He’s probably never been in a better spot in his career now. He’s definitely amazing in any car that he gets in every week.

Then for our team, it’s been a challenge the last three or four years. We’ve really been seasoned to that. We have just an amazing chemistry back at the shop. Road crew, pit crew, our whole team is just absolutely phenomenal.

To kind of see it all come together in this way is really special. Even still, yes, with an amazing start to the year that we’ve had, very thankful for that, we’re still going to Texas All-Star next week. That’s the first time this team will be at Texas with Kyle behind the wheel. Then when we go to Nashville, that’s a totally new track. It will be our first time with him behind the wheel. So on and so forth.

I think the first rerun track we get to, correct me if I’m wrong, is Atlanta quite a few races from now. Every week in a way is still kind of a new week for us. It’s a good opportunity to continue to learn and continue to build that foundation. Again, still a lot of racing left. Hopefully we get it right when it counts.

Q. Given what you’ve seen from your team and Kyle, the organization in general over the last four weeks, the entire season, can you foresee anyplace on the schedule where one of your four Hendrick guys wouldn’t be a legitimate contender for a win?
CLIFF DANIELS: It’s a great question and it’s kind of tough to say. Pocono is always a challenge I think for everyone. If I remember correctly last year, we weren’t where we needed to be at Pocono. I do think there are a few more tracks coming up that are going to be challenging. Thankfully our company is so strong right now, everyone is working so well, locked in arms with each other. Hopefully that energy and that momentum can get us what we need when we go to some of those challenging tracks.

Going back to Watkins Glen, it’s been a couple years. Indy road course will be new. There are some of these places that it’s hard to say because we just don’t know. Pocono is definitely a challenge, and it has been for us for some time. We’ll brush up on our notes and give it our best shot.

Q. What is it like as a crew chief, you mentioned you were talking about how you didn’t come here last year because of the pandemic, we missed you out here on the West Coast, but how difficult is it when you have all these little rule changes over the past two years, trying to rely on notes from 2019? How difficult is it to approach a track with all the different rule changes?
CLIFF DANIELS: It’s definitely a big challenge. Another layer on top of everything you just said, is the tire construction changed coming here. It’s a place, that, yes, all the factors you just mentioned, plus the difference in the tire, I had a lot of anxiety even before the start of the race just because we know kind of our process of what we looked at from old notes, trying to do our best job to understand the tire or predict the tire ahead of time. There’s still so many unknowns.

Thankfully we had a good spot on pit road. Kyle is so good here. We saw that from the drop of the green flag. All of that helped. We did tune on our car just a little bit as the day went.

Yeah, there was a lot of prep to get us to this point that was our best educated guess, I would say.

Q. What kind of small things can you rely on when you have so much changing?
CLIFF DANIELS: Again, I mentioned it earlier. I think the foundation of where the Hendrick Motorsports road course package is right now, very thankful that it is strong and we can really compete well at all the places.

Thinking back to the Daytona road course at the beginning of the year, our cars ran up front. COTA, our cars were going to be up front wet or dry. Then to come here and be strong. Just a great a foundation. Those are the notes we rely on, then just try to piece together the uniqueness of Sonoma, how to apply that to here.

Didn’t expect it to work as well as it did today. Thought if we got it right, we could compete. Certainly a great day.

Q. As later stages of the race were unfolding, you were making up some ground on Chase in big, big chunks, but the tire was falling off really bad. Did you feel like the late cautions saved things a little bit?
CLIFF DANIELS: Yes and no. I mean, I think either way once we had gotten out to the lead, still under green before the yellows happened at the end, I think Kyle was going to be really smart with how he managed everything. He was going to maintain a pretty good gap. I think we would have been okay at that point.

Obviously it’s hard to say how bad the tire falloff would have been the last handful of laps of the race because that was going to be our longest stint of the day. Once the yellows happened, it gives everything a chance to cool down obviously, and that kind of more or less equalizes things to guys behind you.
I knew it was going to be critical to make sure we had a good launch on the restarts, have a good first couple corners. Kyle did just a phenomenal job of nailing I think it was three restarts, nailing all of that.
They certainly got to beat on our bumper for a corner or two, which is good, hard racing. Then it worked out after that. Yeah, tough to say if or if not the yellows. I think we were in a good spot either way.

THE MODERATOR: Cliff, thank you again for spending some time with us. Congratulations again on the win.

CLIFF DANIELS: Thank you, guys. Thanks for having me.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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Ford Performance NASCAR: Logano and Blaney Post Top 10 Runs at Sonoma

By
Official Release
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Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series –Toyota/Save Mart 350
Sonoma Raceway | Sunday, June 6, 2021

Ford Finishing Results:
4th — Joey Logano
10th — Ryan Blaney
15th — Brad Keselowski
16th — Chris Buescher
17th — Chase Briscoe
20th — Cole Custer
22nd — Kevin Harvick
23rd — Matt DiBenedetto
26th — Scott Heckert
27th — Aric Almirola
28th — Michael McDowell
29th — Josh Bilicki
31st — Anthony Alfredo
32nd — Garrett Smithley
33rd — Ryan Newman

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Autotrader Ford Mustang — “We’ll take it. We had the tire issue the first run and that got our strategy off. Paul did some different things and we were able to get some stage points in the second stage. We had nothing to beat the 5, if I’m being honest, but our Autotrader Mustang was good enough to finish top three or four. We kind of did that one stop strategy the last run there and got to where we were probably a third-place car if we had the same tires as the cars racing around us, but, overall, we’ll take that considering how it was looking in the beginning. It’s fun to be out here in Sonoma again and great to see so many fans back out in the grandstands and around this racetrack.”

DO YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF A GOOD ROAD COURSE RACER? YOU HAVE A TOP 5 FINISH IN ALL OF THEM THIS YEAR. “I like to think we’re getting pretty decent at them. I’m a little bit more confident and racing better. I feel like around cars I’m pretty aggressive. I’m making the passes and can make it happen. You watch drivers ike AJ and Ambrose and watching those guys over the years, for me, maybe I’m dating myself a bit, but you watch them and how they make passes and I feel like I’m to a point where I can feel confident sending it down in there and making a clean pass, but an aggressive pass, and I’ve got a car that can do it. I wouldn’t say we’re clicking because we didn’t win, but I think we’re in the ballpark and we’re making small gains. It’s hard to make the big gain. The Hendrick cars are just better no matter where you’re at. They’re just better right now, so we have to keep our heads down and keep digging, but know that our 750 stuff is in the ballpark so that part is nice to know. Overall, to overcome the tire issue that we had early in the race and then our Autotrader Mustang got some stage points in the second stage and having good long run speed made the strategy work at the end to get us to the front and hang onto it “

DID YOU HAVE TO APPROACH THE RACE ANY DIFFERENT WITH NO PRACTICE HERE FOR THE FIRST TIME? “Not really. I actuially think if you’re careful for the first few laps, you get eaten up. You’ve got to just go. It’s where the experienced drivers probably have an advantage because you think about it’s my 13th or 14th time coming out here, so I kind of know where I’m going. Even without practice laps you kind of just fire off. If I think about my first couple of seasons here it took a few laps of practice just to get even close, but now you kind of know where you need to be. With simulation these days you’re able to kind of be in the zone and have something somewhat close — at least braking markers to be in the ballpark when you’re starting and not just going in blind.”

DO YOU FEEL GOOD WHERE YOU ARE RIGHT NOW? “It’s hard to say it’s good when you’re not winning, at least that’s for me. You get paid to win> Top fives are great and running towards the front is good, but we need more speed to beat them. The 5 is the class of the field right now. You’ve got a really good driver and a really good car and that’s what you get. We’ve got to keep working, keep grinding. I have to keep grinding as a driver. We’ve got to keep grinding as a team and finding it. Everything goes through cycles, so we’ve just got to make sure we’re on the top end of the cycle when the playoffs come around.”

IS LARSON DOING ANYTHING DIFFERENTLY THAT YOU CAN SEE? “I haven’t gone back and looked at anything, but he’s always been fast here. He has speed here, I’d say he just has a car that hangs on for him now. That’s probably the difference. These road course, as much as everyone wants to say it’s all the driver, it’s 50-50 like everywhere else. A great driver can only do so much in a mediocre car and vice versa the other way around, so I always think it’s 50-50 and I think now he’s got both and that’s why we’re all racing with our tongues hanging out trying to catch him.”

IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE WHEN YOU GET THE RIGHT COMBINATION OF A CREW CHIEF AND DRIVER, DOESN’T IT? “Yeah, once you start running well and you start gaining confidence that momentum keeps rolling and rolling and rolling until something trips it up, so that’s our job — to figure out how to trip it up and figure out how to be faster than them and beat them at their game. I like that challenge. That’s why we do what we do. We love it because this is hard. You’re racing against the best stock car racers in the world, so that’s what’s fun about it, and the best teams all the way through, so it’s nice to know that we’re in the ballpark. This used to be one of our toughest racetracks as a team, as Team Penske. This was a tough one for us and we’ve been making gains at it and getting closer and closer. It’s nice to see our car in the top five, but it’s still not there yet.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK HAS MADE THEM SO HOT LATELY? “You just kind of get everything going at the right time. There are times your motors are really good, but your cars aren’t right and vice versa. Maybe sometimes your driver’s not on it or the pit crew’s not on it, or your strategy is not working. Having all of it click at the same time is so important and they have that. The speed in their car is what’s making them the best right now because they can make mistakes. They haven’t, but they have the ability to make mistakes and recover, especially on 550s, where they can definitely recover and not many cars can pass with that package right now because everybody is running about the same speed, except them so he’s able to recover. It’s everything together. When you look at their car it goes faster in the corner and it goes like hell down the straightaways too, so it’s just figuring what that is. It’s not gonna be one easy thing where you say, ‘Oh, there it is,’ but over time we’ll close the gap. It happens all the time. Remember, a couple years ago we were saying Hendrick couldn’t win a race and now look at them, so it goes in cycles and we’ve just got to keep working hard to get back on top.”

HOW DICEY WERE THE LAST 10 LAPS? “They were pretty fun. I had a blast out there today. I was hanging on. The last few laps you know you have a decent finish ahead of you — maybe those two would get into each other. You really think that teammates probably aren’t gonna do it, but, overall it worked out OK. You’re waiting for the big dive bombs and you’re trying to pass the car in front of you, but I just couldn’t get close enough to the 19.”

ANY TALK OF COMING IN AT ALL? “No, it was way too late.”

RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 DEX Imaging Ford Mustang — “We were never on the right tires with the right track position. We were kind of all over the place. I thought we were in a pretty good spot with 25-30 to go and we kept delaminating tires. We had a delaminated rear and I was in the dirt with no grip, and then we got sandwiched there and that’s kind of just what happens. That’s probably the ugliest top 10 car I’ve ever had, that’s for sure, but I’m proud of them for sticking with it. I just wish the strategy worked out a little bit better than what it did. We just couldn’t really catch a break at the right time, but, overall, ending up in 10th isn’t too bad.”

MICHAEL MCDOWELL, No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops Ford Mustang — “That was super unfortunate there at the end. We were running eighth coming to the white flag. We had a really good Love’s Travel Stops Mustang and got track position at the end. The last couple of restarts went well, but bumper cars didn’t work out there on the last lap and, unfortunately, it didn’t work out. We had another top 10 going, but didn’t finish it off. You’ll have that. They’ve gone our way a lot this year, so still proud of everybody with the effort. We were in position to do it again, but it just didn’t go our way.”

COLE CUSTER, No. 41 Autodesk/HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang — “It was definitely a battle all day. We got the car better and better, but for our first time at Sonoma it was a little tough to not have any practice here. We worked on it all day and survived and I think we got a decent finish, but it just wasn’t the day we wanted. We’ll go back and figure out how to make it better.”

CHASE BRISCOE, No. 14 Ford Performance Racing School Ford Mustang — “I felt like yesterday just learning the racetrack was big. These cars just drive so much different, so it’s hard to really take a ton away from that, but I felt like I just could never get the car to do what I wanted it to do. We just struggled for forward drive. It would have been nice if we had gotten practice because we could have worked on some of those things. In the race it’s just so hard to take the time to make those adjustments. I felt like we made the right calls track position-wise, but just didn’t get the cautions like we were hoping for, but to come out of here with a top 20 I felt like I learned a lot throughout the race and got better and that’s all you can kind of ask for right now.”

CHEVY NCS AT SONOMA: Post-Race Notes and Quotes

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Official Release
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NASCAR CUP SERIES
TOYOTA/SAVE MART 350
SONOMA RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES & QUOTES
JUNE 6, 2021

TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1 1LE
2nd CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE
6th KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE
7th ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 42 CLOVER CAMARO ZL1 1LE
9th ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE

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

The NASCAR Cup Series season continues next weekend at Texas Motor Speedway for the NASCAR All-Star Race on Sunday, June 13, at 8 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTES:

KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 HENDRICKCARS.COM CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Race Winner
YOU’VE ALWAYS BEEN A GOOD QUALIFIER AT SONOMA. NOW YOU’RE A GOOD RACER AND YOU GOT THE WIN TODAY. IT WAS YOUR SECOND WIN IN A ROW, AND YOU DID IT IN DOMINATING FASHION. WAS IT AS EASY AS YOU MADE IT LOOK?
“It was not easy. Any road course isn’t easy, just trying to keep it on track is tough; especially when you’ve got two of the best behind you on the last restart, Chase (Elliott) and Martin (Truex, Jr.). I felt like I did a good job at the one before and stretched it out a little bit and didn’t want to give him another try at it, but he kept the pressure on. Martin was strong too, but what a car. This HendrickCars.com Chevy, thank you Mr. Hendrick. The is unbelievable. I thought I would be okay today, but I just didn’t know how I would race. I don’t think of us really do with no practice. But our car was really good there and I can’t say enough about it.”

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO WIN IN FRONT OF YOUR HOMETOWN FANS?
“Yeah, it means a lot. Northern California will always be home to me, even if I live way out on the East Coast now. Thanks to all the fans for coming out. I know there’s a lot of Sprint Car fans in the stands and around this race track. I got to see a lot of my friends here today. I’ve got my family here. This is unbelievable.

“And to get back-to-back wins in the Cup Series is something I’ve always dreamed of doing and to get it done feels great. To win last week on Memorial Day weekend, four in a row now, if you count my dirt racing too. And we’ve got a big week of racing coming up. I look forward to all that and just look forward to keeping the streak going.”

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 2nd
THIS IS YOUR BEST FINISH AT SONOMA. WHAT A BATTLE BETWEEN TEAMMATES. WHERE WAS KYLE LARSON JUST BETTER THAN YOU TODAY?
“I wish I knew. I would have tried to give him a little better run. But congratulations to Kyle (Larson) and Cliff (Daniels, crew chief), and everybody on the No. 5 team. They’ve been doing an amazing job. I’m really proud of our NAPA group, though. I feel like we were a lot better there at the end than we were at the beginning; and definitely the best I’ve ever been here, I feel like, at Sonoma, in particular. I’m pleased with that. I wish we could have gotten another spot, but we’ll try again.”

KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 6th
“We had a smooth day. We figured out how to have a nice easy execution. I worked with Ross (Chastain), our teammate to get two top-10’s. It was almost a top-five type car, just needed better drive off the corners. To be in the mix and have the right strategy and have a smooth day, we’ll take it, and were going to build on it.”

ROSS CHASTAIN, NO. 42 CLOVER CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 7th
“Whoa!, seventh on a dry road course! This No. 42 team is so good, they gave me a Clover Chevy that I can go out and race with the best Cup Series guys; it just seems wild. The pit sequences were crazy; the car is pretty clean. A good day for both the No. 1 and 42 teams. I got to race with the No.1 car a lot there at the end, and only touched a little bit, which is hard to do here. A good teammate day and good building day for CGR.”

ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 9th
“Solid Top-10 day. Wish we would have been a little better. We were really fast to start, we just kind of struggled with track position and using the car up to get through the field. Onto the next one.”

DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 COMMSCOPE CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 12th
“It was an up-and-down day. I feel like we deserved a top-10 out of today. It was really hard there at the end, just pushing and banging. The car was good on the short run, but it was very bad on the long runs. We’ll have to keep working. We’ll try to make our cars a little bit better. I feel like today, we deserved a few spots better. I’m very proud of this team, we just have to keep getting better.”

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 CONGRESSIONAL SPORTSMEN’S CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 13th
“We lost the alternator as soon as the race started. It just started to lose voltage. The guys did a great job changing batteries and we were able to get sixth-place stage points that first stage. We just had to grind it out; battle it out. We kept losing track position, but we fought hard all day.”

“I can’t thank all the guys enough. The good Lord was looking after us today.”

TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 CHILDRESS VINEYARDS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 19th
Even though it’s my home track, today was the first time I had ever even seen Sonoma Raceway, so it was a big learning day all race long. My No. 8 Childress Vineyards Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE had some really good speed in it, I just needed better rotation and front grip for both the left and right-handed turns. It took me a couple laps at the start to learn how to pass on this course too, but once I got that figured out I was able to move up through the field better. Unfortunately, I had a tire rub after contact with the No. 48 car that caused me to have to pit for tires and burn one of our sets early. From that point on, we had to adjust our strategy to try to make it to the end of the race with the tires we had left. During the first batch late race cautions, I had to stay out and fight for every spot I could on older tires than the rest of the field. We eventually pitted to put on eight-lap scuffs since they were better than what we were on and just made the most of it. It’s frustrating to be way better than where we finished, but sometimes that happens and we did what we could. We will move on to the All-Star race next weekend and regroup there.”

WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Sidelined by damage sustained in an accident on lap 76; Finished 35th
WHAT DID YOU SEE FROM THE DRIVER’S SEAT?
“I was trying to roll the outside of the No. 43 (Erik Jones) and the No. 4 (Kevin Harvick) was in front of me. I thought he was going to run the bottom and obviously somebody spun in front of him and caused a big pileup. At that point, you’re just a passenger. You’re obviously going to knock the radiator in and be done for the day.”
“It stinks, but we were struggling all day to be honest. So, we have to go back and work on that. Definitely learned some lessons. Thanks to Axalta, Chevrolet and everyone. We’ll re-group. It was really the first bad weekend of the year, so we’ll re-group from it.”

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE, Second-Place Press Conference Transcript:

THE MODERATOR: Thank you for joining us, Chase. We’ll go straight into questions for Chase Elliott.

Q. Obviously you and Larson raced each other clean but hard all day. Do you have to race each other differently than if it was another car not on your team?
CHASE ELLIOTT: No, I think it’s really more the individual than it is what team you drive for whether or not you get along. Kyle and I have always raced each other with a lot of respect ever since we started racing against each other.

Yeah, all was good. It was fun.

Q. With this run today, back-to-back second-place finishes, do you feel you and your team are starting to get into a rhythm and you can compete with Kyle for some of these wins?
CHASE ELLIOTT: I hope so. We were solid today. Just not good enough at the right times.
But, yeah, no, I feel good about our group. We have a solid group. We just have to put it all together and execute when it counts most.

Q. (Indiscernible)?
CHASE ELLIOTT: I couldn’t hear you. Maybe something about the 2019 race.
It was really similar to what I thought we had then. The course layout is a little different. Yeah, I thought it was just like it was here a couple years ago.

Q. What were your initial thoughts about the racetrack for the first several laps?
CHASE ELLIOTT: Asphalt and had left and right turns. I don’t know. Looked the same as it had since they built it.

Q. You talked about racing back and forth with Kyle Larson. Where do you feel he was better than you today that ultimately got him the race win?
CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, I don’t really know exactly. There were spots on the track where I thought I was a tick better, and there were spots on the track he was better. Then there were spots I thought we were fairly even. Needed to have a tick more to get after it.

Proud of our team. I thought we were solid. Just need a little bit.

Q. It seems this is now the third week in a row we’ve seen the Hendrick cars battle amongst each other for the win. How do you balance sharing notes between teammates to be strong as a team but secrets yourself to be strong in your own group?
CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, I mean, everything is kind of an open book. It has been since I’ve been here. We just have to continue to push. I don’t think anything really changes there.

THE MODERATOR: Chase, thank you so much. We appreciate your time.

CHASE ELLIOTT: Thank you.

Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.

About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands, available in 79 countries with more than 3.2 million cars and trucks sold in 2020. Chevrolet models include electric and fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.

RCR Post Race Report – Save Mart 350

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Official Release
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Solid Road Course Performance for Austin Dillon and the No. 3 Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE Team at Sonoma Raceway

Finish: 13th
Start: 6th
Points: 12th

“We had a really fast Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE today at Sonoma Raceway, so it’s a shame that we had alternator issues during the race. In Stage 1, the voltage dropped but we were able to stay out and finish Stage 1 with stage points before pitting to change the battery. We ended up changing the battery a couple of times throughout the race, but this RCR team never gave up. Our Chevy was fast today, and it feels good to know that the effort we put into the off season preparing for these road courses is paying off because our performance is improving. We’re headed in the right direction. The All-Star race at Texas Motor Speedway is next and we’ll try our hardest to win a million bucks.” -Austin Dillon

Tyler Reddick and the No. 8 Childress Vineyards Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE Team Show Speed and Determination at Sonoma Raceway

Finish: 19th
Start: 10th
Points: 13th

“Even though it’s my home track, today was the first time I’ve even seen Sonoma Raceway so it was a big learning day for me. My No. 8 Childress Vineyards Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE had some really good speed in it, I just needed better rotation and front grip for both the left and right-handed turns. It took me a couple laps at the start to learn how to pass on this course, but once I got that figured out I was able to move up through the field better. Unfortunately, I had a tire rub after contact with the No. 48 car that caused us to pit for tires and burn one of our sets early. From that point on, we had to adjust our strategy to try to make it to the end of the race with the tires we had left. During the first batch late race cautions, we had to stay out and fight for every spot we could on older tires than the rest of the field. We eventually pitted to put on eight-lap scuffs since they were better than what we were on. I just made the most of it. It’s frustrating to be way better than where we finished, but sometimes that happens and we did what we could. We will move on to the All-Star race next weekend and regroup there.” -Tyler Reddick

Toyota Racing NCS Post-Race Recap — Sonoma 6.6.21

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TRUEX JR., BUSCH DRIVE TO TOP-FIVE FINISHES IN SONOMA
Martin Truex Jr. earns third consecutive top-three finish in the Toyota/Save Mart 350

SONOMA, Calif. (June 6, 2021) – Martin Truex Jr. (third) and Kyle Busch (fifth) earned top-five finishes in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway on Sunday evening.

Toyota Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Sonoma Raceway
Race 16 of 36 – 90 laps, 226.8 miles

TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Kyle Larson*
2nd, Chase Elliott*
3rd, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
4th, Joey Logano*
5th, KYLE BUSCH
8th, DENNY HAMLIN
14th, BUBBA WALLACE
24th, CHRISTOPHER BELL
*non-Toyota driver

TOYOTA QUOTES

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 3rd

Where were they just a little bit stronger than you today?

“I think just a little bit everywhere. Right-handers, I just couldn’t lean on the left rear like I needed too. I didn’t quite have the drive off. Moreso than that, I didn’t have the short-run speed. I think the really long runs was really our only chance there. All of those cautions at the end killed any chance we had. I’m proud of the guys on the Bass Pro Toyota, JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing), TRD, everybody that makes this possible. Just not quite good enough. The Hendrick cars are really strong right now. They are really fast. They are making a lot of grip. They are making our job tough. We definitely needed long runs at the end, not all of those cautions.”

Did you have anything for Kyle Larson today?

“No. Our only hope was for it really to go green the rest of the race there in that third stage once we both pitted and we were one-two. He (Kyle Larson) drove by me and he was just super fast for 10 laps. Our only chance was if the race would have gone green from there and I still don’t even know. He was really fast for 15 laps then obviously once we started getting all those cautions, we were toast. Definitely not what we needed.”

Why do you think Kyle Larson was so much faster, did he turn on the afterburners?

“I don’t know if it was afterburners, but it’s a good team and a good driver. Not making any mistakes and doing everything right and whatever it takes. He’s (Kyle Larson) always been good here. Obviously, all the poles he’s gotten, he’s never had a car that could stay under him all day long. I’m not surprised he won. He did a hell of a job.”

What do you think it’s like for Kyle Larson to be shining with an organization?

“I’m sure he’s (Kyle Larson) on top of the world and all the stuff he went through to get in a better position and be winning a lot more races, I would say it worked out pretty well for him.”

Do you feel Joe Gibbs Racing needs to fill the gap with Hendrick to make a run in the Playoffs?

“They’re (Hendrick Motorsports) definitely really strong and we definitely have some work to do to catch them. That being said, there’s always a chance. We’ve got a great team and great cars and we have some time to get with it and hopefully make some gains. When the Playoffs start, a lot of weird things can happen and you have to take what you can get. Luckily for us, we have some good tracks in the Playoffs, which is always good. They’re definitely strong and we definitey need to keep working on it.”

Was it difficult to come here with no practice and no qualifying?

“It’s not bad. When you’re starting 19th at a track where track position matters, you’re like, ‘Damn, I wish we were qualifying.’ As far as like being comfortable going on the race track and racing without practice, we’ve been doing this for awhile now. Aside from maybe the guys that haven’t been here before, I think everybody was okay with it.”

Did you have anything for Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott on the final restart?

“No, the restarts were not my thing. My only chance was really long runs and as I’ve been saying, once we started getting those cautions there in stage three, we were up against an uphill battle. We needed it to go green from there. We were out front one-two, I was saving a little bit to see if he would come back to me at the end of the race. Aside from that, they were just really fast. We couldn’t run with them.”

How good was your car in the early stages of the race?

“Our Bass Pro Toyota was pretty good and I was pretty happy with it all day long. We just lacked a little bit of speed to the 5 (Kyle Larson) there on the short runs really mostly and then at the end, even the 9 (Chase Elliott) got going really good on the short runs. All those cautions and short runs were really bad for us. It takes my car three or four laps to really come in good. That’s all we were having there at the end. I couldn’t do anything with the 9, which I thought we were a little bit better than the 9 and the 5 was just super strong. Our only chance was going to be a really, really long run if we got one and we didn’t get one.”

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Sport Clips Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 5th

Why did you not want to see the late caution, didn’t you need fuel?

“I don’t think we needed fuel. I never heard anything about needing fuel. I just thought that our car was a little bit better long run car than the 22 (Joey Logano) was and the 22 had older tires so I didn’t want to see a yellow kind of be an equalizer and get everybody back even.”

What was the ‘anything for Kurt’ comment about during the race?

“Just inside joke. Essentially, it’s the drinking word of the day.”

Where do you think Joe Gibbs Racing is currently considering how dominant Hendrick Motorsports has been in recent weeks?

“We’re number two, right. I feel like that’s where we’re at. Those guys, we know they’ve got a good road course program, we saw the 9 (Chase Elliott) finish second again today. If the 5 (Kyle Larson) wasn’t even here, he would have won. The 5 got just super fast. I don’t know where he’s at, but different zip code from all of us. The 5 was on his own level and the 9 and the 19 (Martin Truex Jr.) seem to be equal, we were a little off the 19, I don’t know why. We were just overall too loose all day.”

Do you feel like you’re going to fight this same issue at the future road courses?

“So far we’ve fought different issues at every road course so I can’t answer that question. I don’t know if the Hendrick cars run the same setup every week, but we keep making little tweaks and we keep chasing different demons. We’re right there, we’ve got good, fast cars. Toyota, JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing), everybody is doing a really good job. We just definitely don’t have the overall pace to the 5 (Kyle Larson) for sure.”

Where do you think the communication is right now between yourself and Ben Beshore (crew chief)?

“I don’t think there’s anything missing in that department right now. We went to the sim this week and we tried a few different things here and there and we thought a couple things were a little bit better and we tried those here today and they didn’t correlate the same, sim to track. That was not good. But we were really, really similar to the 19 (Martin Truex Jr.) and it seemed like we were pretty equal to them. That was just all we had. Overall, we were a top contender of a Gibbs car today so that’s all we can ask for.”

Did the low downforce make a difference today?

“It definitely did. The tire fall off was a lot greater so the pace would fall off more. I don’t know if the racing was really different. Carousel was definitely a handful – getting in there and just being loose or tight or washing out and trying to keep it out of the dirt.”

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 FedEx Express Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 8th

How was your race today?

“I got a lot of damage early on, but we never really had anything for the 5 (Kyle Larson). We ran down the 9 (Chase Elliott) after the first 10 laps but then we got off sequence and got in the mid-20s and got a bunch of damage. Our FedEx Toyota wasn’t just as fast after that. To get back into the top-10 with a car as torn up as that, I guess that’s an okay day.”

BUBBA WALLACE, No. 23 DoorDash Toyota Camry, 23XI Racing
Finishing Position: 14th

Battled back from going down a lap with a flat tire, and drove it back to the top-15. How was the race from your seat?

“It was a hard fought day. Shout out to Chris Cook (road course instructor). We came out here two weeks and ran a TA2 car and really just gained a ton of confidence with being on road course. I had a lot of fun. I was able to bring it over today. I just felt comfortable. We’ve still got some room to go. We’ve still got to figure out what we need in our Toyota Camry to make me a little bit better, but when they are telling me that I’m better than 10 cars on a road course, it’s a pretty damn good day. It was a good day for our DoorDash team. We will go on to Texas.”

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

SAMMY HAGAR TO PLAY “I CAN’T DRIVE 55” DURING PRE-RACE FESTIVITIES FOR THE 37TH ANNUAL NASCAR ALL-STAR RACE

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FORT WORTH, Texas (June 6, 2021) – The Red Rocker himself, Sammy Hagar, and fellow guitarist Vic Johnson will play Hagar’s classic guitar rock song “I Can’t Drive 55” as part of the pre-race festivities for the 37th annual NASCAR All-Star Race on June 13 at Texas Motor Speedway.

The two guitarists will perform the 1984 radio and MTV hit from a stage located in the Texas Motor Speedway grandstands at Section PL 102.

Hagar rose to fame in the 1970s with the band Montrose and the now classic “Rock Candy.” He then began a very successful solo career with songs like “There’s Only One Way to Rock”, “Your Love is Driving Me Crazy” and “Bad Motor Scooter.” His success continued as the lead singer for Van Halen from 1985-1996. Since 2014, he has played in the supergroup Sammy Hagar and the Circle with Johnson on guitar, former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony on bass and Jason Bonham, son of legendary Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham, on drums.

The Salinas, Calif., native has also had great success in business, owning multiple nightclubs and restaurants, tequila and rum distilleries, a syndicated weekly radio show (Sammy Hagar’s Top Rock Countdown) and the Rock & Roll Road Trip with Sammy Hagar television program.

Johnson is a guitarist and Los Angeles native best known for playing with The BusBoys, which appeared in the Eddie Murphy/Nick Nolte hit movie “48 Hrs.” as well as performing on Saturday Night Live. A heavy sought-after session musician, Johnson has played in various bands with Hagar since 1997.

Hagar performed previously at Texas Motor Speedway on Nov. 8, 2015 during pre-race festivities for the 2015 NASCAR Cup Series race.

On-track activity for the NASCAR All-Star Race weekend begins June 12 with a doubleheader, opening with the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series SpeedyCash.com 220 (12 p.m. CT on FS1, MRN, and 95.9 The Ranch) followed at 3 p.m. CT by the NASCAR Xfinity Series Alsco Uniforms 250 powered by Cheddar’s (FS1, PRN, 95.9 The Ranch). Then, on Sunday, June 13, is the NASCAR All-Star Open (5 p.m. CT on FS1, MRN and 95.9 The Ranch) followed by the $1 million NASCAR All-Star Race (7 p.m. CT on FS1, MRN and 95.9 The Ranch).

HASH TAGS: #AllStarRace #Alsco250 #SpeedyCash220 #NLTX

TICKETS:
Tickets for Texas Motor Speedway’s 2021 major event season, including the June 13 NASCAR All-Star Race, are on sale now at http://www.texasmotorspeedway.com.

MORE INFO:
Keep track of all of Texas Motor Speedway’s events by following on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Keep up with all the latest news and information on the speedway website and TMS mobile app.

Round 3 Racing Wins at Daytona International Speedway

By
Official Release
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Daytona Beach, Fla. (6 June 2021) – Continuing a three-race podium streak, Round 3 Racing (R3R) claimed the top step with a World Racing League (WRL) win in the GP3 class at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday. The WRL event featured 14-hours of racing in the series’s first single-day race weekend of the year.

No. 605 Hagerty Drivers Club Porsche Boxster – GP3

Representing R3R in Daytona’s fabled victory circle was the No. 605 Hagerty Drivers Club Porsche Boxster of Jim Ptak, Dennis Neel, Carter Pease and Cole Loftsgard. Starting the race from third, Neel took over control of the lead within the opening hour of the 14-hour race.

The No. 605 driver lineup moved swiftly, each working their tools in the car to extend their lead to a 7-lap advantage. Their on-track progress was halted as lightning appeared, bringing out a 1 hour, 30-minute red flag period.

Loftsgard took over control of the Porsche from Pease on Lap 212 as night began to fall. Completing a two-hour stint, Loftsgard came to the checkered flag claiming the win for the No. 605 Hagerty Drivers Club Porsche Boxster – their fifth consecutive podium appearance.

The win at Daytona moves the No. 605 into the provisional lead in the WRL National Championship standings.

“Today’s win was truly a team effort,” said Loftsgard. “Jim (Ptak), Dennis (Neel), Carter (Pease) and I all knew we had to drive as well and error free as possible as well as keep our Porsche Boxster free of contact. To bring home the win today is an amazing achievement and feeling for the entire Round 3 Racing team. We couldn’t be here without our crew and engineer who executed perfect strategy and pit stops all day long. To call ourselves winners is amazing, especially when we get to do it multiple times in a season.”

No. 702 Team Hagerty Porsche Cayman – GTO

Completing all 14 hours of racing at Daytona, the No. 702 Team Hagerty Porsche Cayman of Sarah Montgomery, Brad McCall and Buz McCall slotted into the 16th-place in the final running order.

Starting 11th, Daytona veteran Buz McCall took the green flag for the start of the endurance race. Battling high temperatures in the car, McCall pushed himself and the Porsche through an opening double stint before handing the car over to his son, Brad McCall, on lap 58.

Keeping the No. 702 Porsche clean through multi-class traffic, the Hagerty driver trio worked through each stint remaining in contention. Tasked with bringing the car home to the checkered flag, Montgomery pushed for the final hour to bring the No. 702 Team Hagerty Porsche Cayman across the finish line in 16th.

“Racing at Daytona is always special and even more so with this team,” said Buz McCall. “We had a good car and the entire team worked hard to complete the entire 14-hour race. Bill Riley was kind enough to share his wisdom of Daytona with us. He has been so successful here and gave us great advice that helped us today and will continue to help us moving forward. Sarah (Montgomery) and Brad (McCall) drove very well during their stints and we will work hard to keep improving.”

No. 701 Team Cooper Tires Porsche Cayman – GP1

The Team Cooper Tire driver trio of Loni Unser, Mike Gilbert and Mo Dadkhah were primed for success in the No. 701 Porsche Cayman earning a second-place starting position for the 14-hour endurance race. Gilbert took the green flag and quickly went to work. Close racing in the first three corners caused the No. 701 Porsche to receive a one-lap penalty.

Gilbert, Unser and Dadkhah combined to move back up the running order to second place by lap 182. A timely yellow allowed the No. 701 to return to the lead lap as well as take over the class lead.

On lap 217, the No. 701 Porsche suffered a wheel speed sensor failure causing Gilbert to make contact with the barrier in Turn Five. The mechanical failure forced an early retirement for the Team Cooper Tires team ending their day in ninth.

“It was a disappointing way to end such a great race for us in the No. 701,” said Gilbert. “I was heading into turn five when I hit the brake pedal but the car just didn’t slow down. We were running in the lead and were having a great race but with a mechanical failure, there wasn’t anything we could have done to prevent this. Loni (Unser), Mo (Dadkhah), and I will regroup and be ready for Road Atlanta in July.”

No. 601 Team Sentinel Porsche Boxster – GP2

Starting from fourth on the GP2 grid, Christian Maloof took the opening stint with Hannah Grisham and Oleg Gorshkov on deck. While Maloof was working on gaining position, an out-of-class competitor struck the left side of the No. 601 Porsche forcing Maloof to pit lane for repairs. Quick work by the R3R crew allowed the Boxster to return to the racing surface albeit five laps down. Unfortunately, an on-track incident forced Maloof in the bus stop, sending the car into the outside barrier causing terminal damage.

The No. 601 Team Sentinel Porsche Boxster retired on Lap 35 in 12th position.

Round 3 Racing returns to World Racing League competition at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. The weekend of racing in Georgia will be made up of two eight-hour races on July 16-18th.

Perez capitalizes late to win the Azerbaijan Grand Prix

By
Andrew Kim
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In a late chain of events that featured title contenders Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton left in a draw for the championship lead following late on-track issues, Sergio “Checo” Perez came out on top and claimed his first victory of the season in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix at Baku City Circuit, the sixth event of the 2021 Formula One season.

The 31-year-old veteran from Guadalajara, Mexico, was initially poised for a podium result when his teammate and leader Max Verstappen wrecked with five laps remaining due to a left-rear tyre puncture, an incident that left Verstappen upset following his Monaco Grand Prix victory. With the race red-flagged to have the debris cleared from the wreckage, the race restarted in a two-lap shootout that featured all of the cars restarting in double lanes. Hamilton, meanwhile, was poised to challenge Perez for the victory until he locked up his front tires and overshot the first corner, which took him out of race-winning contention and an opportunity to reclaim the points lead. That all but gave Perez the clean air needed to drive to victory.

The Azerbaijan victory marked Perez’s second Formula One career victory in his 197th career start, his first as a Red Bull Racing driver and his first since claiming his maiden F1 victory in the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix last December. It also marked Perez’s third time standing on the podium at the Baku City Circuit after finishing in third place in 2016 and 2018.

“I think we all love Baku, right?” Perez said. “It worked well. We had good pace, good start, good first lap. We did everything perfect apart from that restart. Simply, I didn’t have any grip. I had an issue with my tyres and I couldn’t warm them up, so I think that was part of it, of the issue that I had a very poor start. We gave it all. I thought, ‘I cannot miss this race two laps from the end.’ Overall, I’m just very pleased. I certainly did a very good step in understanding the [Red Bull] car, in feeling comfortable. I think there is still a lot to come from us, so we’re just working really hard. I’m giving it my best. The season is still very long, so anything can happen.”

Despite finishing 18th with a DNF following his late accident, Verstappen, who earned a single point by setting the fastest lap at 206.839 kph, retained the lead in the drivers’ championship standings after Hamilton fell all the way back to 15th place.

“Yeah, it’s, of course, frustrating and disappointing,” Verstappen said. “So close to the finish, to retire with a tyre blowout. It’s a big shame. Sometime, you can hate this sport for a few hours and then, I’ll be fine again. Up until that point, it was a great day. The car was on fire. I was just matching whatever I needed to do behind me. It would’ve been an easy win, but of course, I know no guarantees are in this sport. Shame because we missed out on an opportunity to make the gap [between myself and Hamilton] bigger.”

“Basically, when Checo pulled over to the left and I moved to the left, I, unknowingly, hit a switch and it basically switched off the rear brakes and only the fronts were working, so it just went straight,” Hamilton said. “It’s really painful, but I’m really sorry to the team for this day. All I can do is rebuild and know that I gave it absolutely everything today.”

Trailing Perez to the line by more than a second was Sebastian Vettel, who claimed his first podium result of the season, his first since the 2020 Turkish Grand Prix last November and his first with the Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team.

“I feel good,” Vettel said. “We started 11th, but I think we were very strong today. The team did a great job. We prepared well for the race, knew what to do and execute…good pace throughout. Looking forward to the next races.”

Pierre Gasly, meanwhile, fended off a late challenge from pole-sitter Charles Leclerc during the two-lap shootout to round out the podium in third place, thus claiming his first podium result since winning his maiden Grand Prix event in Monza, Italy, last September and the first podium result of the season for the AlphaTauri team.

“It’s been an incredible weekend for us,” Gasly said. “The car’s been very, very strong and [qualifying] was great yesterday. The race was going really well at the start. From mid-race to onwards, we had engine problems, so we started to lose performance, especially down the straights. I knew it would be tight with Charles with our lethal issue. It was quite close racing, hard racing, but exactly how we like it. I really wanted that podium and I’m really, really happy for the guys.”

Leclerc rallied from his dismal week at Monaco, where he did not make the starting grid nor competed, by finishing fourth while Lando Norris crossed the line in fifth place.

Fernando Alonso settled in sixth place followed by rookie Yuki Tsunoda, who notched a career-best result. Carlos Sainz, Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Räikkönen completed the top-10 points finishing results.

Antonio Giovinazzi finished 11th followed by Valtteri Bottas, Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin, all of whom finished in front of Hamilton. Nicholas Latifi finished 16th while teammate George Russell retired in 17th.

Lance Stroll ended his race in 19th place and with a DNF following a harrowing accident caused by a left-rear tyre puncture on the high-speed straightaway that sent the Canadian into the wall and with a wrecked Aston Martin F1 car.

Esteban Ocon finished in 20th place and as the first retiree of the event after an early engine turbo issue took him out of contention.

Results:

1. Sergio Perez, eight laps led, 25 points

2. Sebastian Vettel, four laps led, 18 points

3. Pierre Gasly, 15 points

4. Charles Leclerc, one lap led, 12 points

5. Lando Norris, 10 points

6. Fernando Alonso, eight points

7. Yuki Tsunoda, six points

8. Carlos Sainz, four points

9. Daniel Ricciardo, two points

10. Kimi Räikkönen, one point

11. Antonio Givinazzi

12. Valtteri Bottas

13. Mick Schumacher

14. Nikita Mazepin

15. Lewis Hamilton, nine laps led

16. Nicholas Latifi

17. George Russell, retired

18. Max Verstappen, retired, 29 las led, one point

19. Lance Stroll, retired

20. Esteban Ocon, retired

Verstappen continues to lead the drivers’ standings by four points over Hamilton with Perez trailing by 36 points. Red Bull Racing Honda also continues to lead the constructors’ standings by 26 points over Mercedes.

Next on the 2021 Formula One schedule is Circuit Paul Ricard for the French Grand Prix, which will occur on Sunday, June 20.

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