TEAM CHEVY ADVANCE
DRYDENE 400
DOVER INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
DOVER, DELAWARE
MAY 16, 2021

RACE #13 – DOVER INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
Team Chevy drivers will seek to extend recent and historic success as Dover International Speedway plays host to the NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) and NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) this weekend. Chevrolet has 41 NCS victories to lead all manufacturers at the 1-mile concrete oval that features 24 degrees of banking in the turns. The Drydene 400 on Sunday, May 16, will be the 103rd NCS race at Dover, which has held two NCS races every year since 1971.

Kyle Larson, coming off a runner-up finish at Darlington Raceway in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, paces active drivers with an average finish of 7.4 in 12 starts. That includes a win and third place in 2019 and a pair of second-place finishes. Reigning NCS champion Chase Elliott won at the track in 2018 and has recorded seven top-10 finishes in 10 starts.

Career Chevrolet driver Jimmie Johnson is the all-time leader with 11 victories at the track. Chevrolet drivers won six races in a row from June 2013 to October 2015.

Chevrolet remains atop the NXS Manufacturer Standings through nine races heading into the Drydene 200 on Saturday, May 14. Justin Allgaier, who drove the No. 7 JR Motorsports Camaro SS to victory lane last weekend at Darlington Raceway, won the opener of the August 2020 doubleheader at Dover. He also captured the win at the venue in 2018. Heading into the Series’ 10th race on the 2021 schedule, Team Chevy drivers occupy the fourth through ninth spots in the standings.

BYRON EXTENDS CUP RECORD
With his fourth-place finish last weekend at Darlington Raceway, William Byron, 23, became the youngest driver in NASCAR Cup Series history to record 10 consecutive top-10 finishes. The impressive streak makes Byron just the fourth driver in Hendrick Motorsports’ history to record 10 or more consecutive top-10 finishes for the organization in NASCAR’s premier series. Byron’s streak started with his win at Homestead-Miami Speedway in February and is the longest by a Hendrick Motorsports’ driver since Jeff Gordon in 2007.

Byron remains third in the Driver Standings. His Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Kyle Larson, who was runner-up at Darlington, moved up three spots to sixth. Reigning NCS champion Chase Elliott is eighth heading into the Dover race weekend.

CREED TOPS THE FIELD
Reigning NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) champion Sheldon Creed earned his first victory of the season and first at Darlington Raceway in the No. 2 GMS Racing Chevrolet Silverado. With his recent win, the California-native secures his spot in the 2021 NCWTS Playoffs and his chance to defend the championship title. NCWTS Chevrolet drivers will return to action May 22 at Circuit of the Americas.

ON THE WAY TO THE GREEN
With no practice or qualifying for the race, the starting lineup is determined by NASCAR’s metrics system that was introduced to the series last year and incorporates results from both individual races and season-long results.

Team Chevy’s top-20 starters:
3rd William Byron, No. 24 Axalta Camaro ZL1 1LE
4th Kyle Larson, No. 5 NationsGuard Camaro ZL1 1LE
8th Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 1LE
12th Tyler Reddick, No. 8 CAT Linkage Pins Camaro ZL1 1LE
14th Austin Dillon, No. 3 Huk Performance Fishing Camaro ZL1 1LE
16th Alex Bowman, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1 1LE
19th Ross Chastain, No. 42 Moose Fraternity Camaro ZL1 1LE

BOWTIE BULLETS.
· Chevrolet has 798 NASCAR Cup Series wins to lead all manufacturers.

· Chevrolet leads all manufacturers with 50 top-10 finishes this season.

· In addition to its 41 wins at Dover International Speedway, Chevrolet has amassed 205 top-five and 389 top-10 finishes.

· On Oct. 7, 2018, Chase Elliott became the youngest race winner at Dover (22 years, 10 months, 9 days).

· Career Chevrolet driver Jimmie Johnson is the last driver to win at Dover from the pole or first starting position (Sept. 26, 2010).

· Jimmie Johnson is the all-time leader with 3,113 laps led at Dover.

· Kurt Busch has the most starts at Dover among active drivers with 41.

· Kurt Busch (September 2000) and Ross Chastain (June 2017) made their first NCS start at Dover.

· Austin Dillon has completed 99.88% of race laps (3,341 of 3,345).

· Hendrick Motorsports leads all organizations with 20 wins among six drivers at Dover.

· Chase Elliott (Daytona Road Course), William Byron (Homestead-Miami Speedway) and Kyle Larson (Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Atlanta Motor Speedway 2, Kansas Speedway) have scored stage wins.

TUNE IN
FS1 will telecast the NASCAR Cup Series Drydene 400 live at 2 p.m. ET Sunday, May 16. Live coverage can also be found on MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. FS1 will telecast the NASCAR Xfinity Series Drydene 200 at 1:30 p.m. ET Saturday, May 15.

QUOTABLE QUOTES
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 3rd IN STANDINGS
BYRON ON HIS OUTLOOK OF RACING AT DOVER:
“Dover is just a tough, tough place. There are drastic shifts in the track and you have to be able to pick up on those trends early in a run. I feel like we have a good package prepared for Dover, though. It goes back to the Chad Knaus days with Jimmie (Johnson) while incorporating in some of Chase (Elliott’s) feedback with his success there. We’ve had really fast cars there and I feel like we’re able to take those setup notes and morph it into something that fits all of our driving styles. I think, because of that, we’ll be strong there again. I feel like there is no reason why we wouldn’t be. It’s going to be about making your car turn in the right spots and not get it too loose, because once it’s too loose, it’s just a real handful.”

RUDY FUGLE, CREW CHIEF, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 1LE
FUGLE ON RACING AT DOVER:
“I think Dover is pretty unique. It’s got its own characteristics and they kind of apply to everything, no matter what you’re racing there. I think a lot of those characteristics and those thoughts can be applied to a Cup car, and I can use all these great notes from Hendrick Motorsports. Obviously, they’ve had a lot of success here in the past, so you add those things together and, hopefully, get a winning race car.”

KYLE LARSON, NO. 5 NATIONSGUARD CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 6th IN STANDINGS
LARSON ON SUCCESS AT DOVER:
“Dover has always been a good track for me. I’ve led a lot of laps and finished in the top-10 a lot of times there. I’m definitely excited to race at Dover this weekend, and definitely excited to drive a Hendrick Motorsports car there. They’ve run well there for a long time now. It’s a fast track and you have to keep up with the changing track conditions during a run. It’s aggressive, so I like it.”

CLIFF DANIELS, CREW CHIEF, NO. 5 NATIONSGUARD CAMARO ZL1 1LE
DANIELS ON WORKING WITH JOHNSON AT DOVER AND NOW LARSON:
“There are a few things that Jimmie really looked for in a car at Dover. Comparing their driving styles, there are some things we can tweak for Kyle. Hendrick Motorsports has a great history at Dover. Assuming we do our homework correctly, we can run well there Sunday.”

CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 8th IN STANDINGS
ELLIOTT ON SUCCESS AT DOVER:
“Last year was unfortunate. We got caught up in a wreck pretty early and were done for the day, but we have had some good runs at the track in the past. Hendrick has had fast cars at Dover, too, and I know I’ve said it before but I think Jimmie (Johnson) is one of the biggest reasons for that success. He was so good at Dover and gave all of us such a good baseline to start each race weekend. We look forward to getting back this weekend and, hopefully, having a good run.”

ALAN GUSTAFSON, CREW CHIEF, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE
GUSTAFSON ON RACING AT DOVER:
“I always look forward to going to Dover. I have always liked the track and like racing there. Outside of our win, we have a pretty good track record at Dover, so we are looking forward to seeing what we have for Sunday.”

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 HUK PERFORMANCE FISHING CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 12th IN STANDINGS
DOES DOVER DRIVE LIKE A GIANT BRISTOL OR NOT SO MUCH?
“Not so much. There’s a lot of aero stuff that comes into play at Dover because you’re going so fast. You see different lines come into play as the rubber builds up. It’s always fun on a long run when you can run way up by the fence and find speed. I’m looking forward to it.”

HOW HARD IS THAT WHEN YOU PICK UP RUBBER DURING THE CAUTIONS?
“Yeah, it’s just a process that we go through every week that we have to try and balance our car around. It can get difficult at times, but Dover is a place where it’s fun.”

ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 14th IN STANDINGS
BOWMAN ON WHY HE LOVES RACING AT DOVER:
“This weekend, we are going to a track that has previously been pretty good for our team. Dover is one of my favorite places to go because it is a physically demanding race. It is demanding on both the driver and the car, so you really have to make sure that you take care of your stuff all day. We haven’t had the best of luck the past few weeks, but this Ally team is going into this week with a positive mindset and looking for a reset.”

GREG IVES, CREW CHIEF, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE
IVES ON STARTING FRESH AT DOVER:
“Dover is a great place to get to with our Ally Chevrolet. We have some good notes to go off of, especially from last season. We are looking to go to Dover and continue to march forward. We are starting 16th, which is further back than we would have wanted but we have come from the back before. We have to go into this weekend with a positive mindset and put that last few weeks behind us.”

TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 CAT LINKAGE PINS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 16th IN STANDINGS
“As much as teams maybe want to look back at Bristol to make things better at Dover, I don’t know how much you really can. We just didn’t get it right for the doubleheader at Dover last year. We were decent in the first race but didn’t make the right adjustments for Day 2 and went the wrong way. That was low-downforce race last year, which we have again this year, so we’ll see how it goes. I’m hoping that some of the gains we made that made us really good at Bristol in the fall last year will apply to Dover for us this time around. I really like Dover and have had some good success there in the Trucks and Xfinity cars. Mistakes have just been made here and there along the way at Dover, but I’m hoping that narrative changes this weekend. I do love the track, and I love going up there. It’s a fast concrete oval, and it’s really demanding.”

DANIEL SUAREZ, NO. 99 COMMSCOPE CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 23rd IN STANDINGS
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON DOVER?
“Actually, Dover is one of my favorite tracks that we go to. It’s so much fun and the feeling you get inside the car is pretty incredible. It’s also been one of my best tracks, statistically. My expectations are really high for this weekend because I have run so well in the past there.”

ERIK JONES, NO. 43 MEDALLION BANK CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 27th IN STANDINGS
WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES THAT COME WITH RACING AT DOVER?
“Dover (International Speedway) is a tough a place for a lot of reasons. Physically, it is probably one of the tougher races of the season for the driver. It is fast and rough. The track bounces you and throws you all around in the car, so that is always tough on your body. To get your car driving well is always hard, as well. The transitions into the corners are really big and it is kind of like falling off a cliff when you drive down into turns one and three. It is always a little bit of a difficult time to get your car really doing what you want it to do. It’s definitely physically one of the toughest races of the year.”

COREY LAJOIE, NO. 7 DRYDENE PERFORMANCE PRODUCTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – 30th IN STANDINGS
“Dover is one of the most unique tracks we go to on the schedule. We’re taking the 750 hp package back like we had last weekend, which will make the groove get wider to the second and third lane as you try to put the power down. The big transition from the banking to the straightaways always play into who can manage that best throughout the day. We had a solid car last week at Darlington and we’ll bring a setup similar this week. Dover is a place where I’ve been in Victory Lane (in a K&N car), so I always have more confidence rolling into the Monster Mile. I’m really excited to have Drydene back on the car for the Drydene 400 weekend. They’ve been a great supporter of mine for the past couple years of my career, so it’s awesome to continue that relationship and grow it with Spire Motorsports.”

Chevrolet NASCAR Cup Series Statistics

Manufacturers Championships:
Total (1949-2020): 39
First title for Chevrolet: 1958
Highest number of consecutive titles: 13 (2003-15)

Years Won: 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015

Drivers Championships:
Total (1949-2020): 32
First Chevrolet champion: Buck Baker (1957)
Highest number of consecutive titles: 7 (2005-11)
Most Recent: Chase Elliott (2020)

Years Won: 1957, 1960, 1961, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2020

Event Victories:
Record for total race wins in single season: 26 (2007)

2021 STATISTICS:
Wins: 3
Poles: 1
Laps Led: 929
Top-five finishes: 20
Top-10 finishes: 50

CHEVROLET IN NASCAR CUMULATIVE STATISTICS:
Total Chevrolet race wins: 798 (1949 to date)
Poles won to date: 718
Laps led to date: 237,634
Top-five finishes to date: 4,085
Top-10 finishes to date: 8,452
Stage wins: 5 Chase Elliott (Daytona RC), William Byron (Homestead), Kyle Larson (Las Vegas Motor Speedway), Kyle Larson (Atlanta x2, Kansas)

Total NASCAR Cup wins by corporation, 1949 to date

       General Motors: 1,132
       Chevrolet: 798
       Pontiac: 154
       Oldsmobile: 115
       Buick: 65

       Ford: 808                                                         
       Ford: 708
       Mercury: 96
       Lincoln: 4

       Fiat Chrysler Automobiles: 467
       Dodge: 217
       Plymouth: 191
       Chrysler: 59

       Toyota: 157

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 75 countries with nearly 4 million cars and trucks sold in 2019. 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 www.chevrolet.com.

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
NASCAR Zoom Media Availability | Thursday, May 13, 2021

CHASE BRISCOE, No. 14 Ford Performance Racing School Ford Mustang — DOES IT FEEL LIKE THINGS ARE GOING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION NOW FOR THE 14 TEAM? “Yeah, I mean I feel like for sure being able to run closer towards the front definitely is good for confidence and momentum, and I feel like this last couple weeks we haven’t made mistakes, where early in the year we had about the same speed — maybe a little less — but we would just have a bad pit stop or I’d speed on pit road or something like that, so I feel like the last couple weeks we’ve just executed and haven’t dug ourselves in a deeper hole. Obviously, right now as a company we’re still off a little bit, so we just have to be perfect. We can’t make mistakes. I feel like Darlington, for example, we just did everything all day right the correct way. We didn’t make any mistakes all day. We had solid pit stops all day long . Got on and off pit road good all day long and it was just a solid day all around and when we did that we had a solid result, so we just have to keep trying to do those things and as we continue to run farther up front our starting position gets better and all those things just compound and make everything easier in general in the race. I think right now we’re 20 points out of 20th place in points and if we could get to 20th it’s only gonna help our position in the starting lineup even more, so we just have to keep doing the little things right and, like I said all year long we’ve got to crawl then walk then run and we just have to keep making baby steps week in and week out.”

HAS THERE BEEN ONE BIG HURDLE THAT’S BEEN DIFFICULT TO CLEAR FOR YOU? “I think all of it. It’s all tougher. In the XFINITY Series I felt like on a bad day we would still run seventh or eighth, where now if you have a bad day you run 25th-30th, so the competition is a lot tougher. As a rookie, I feel like you get raced a little bit different than some guys. You’ve got to kind of earn your respect in a sense, so I think, for me, just the competitive side has been the biggest eye-opener, but then there’s been a lot of things that I’ve had to learn to get better at — green flag pit stops is obviously a crucial, crucial part of the Cup Series and I didn’t have a lot of experience with that in the XFINITY Series and then now with no practice I just show up and in the middle of the race that’s my first chance to try it. We don’t have practice or anything like that to kind of figure out where i need to start braking and pit road is a lot busier and all these things, so I think, for me, just trying to do all the little things right. If you go back to Kansas last week, I wasn’t hitting my pit sign hardly at all. I was always a couple feel short or a foot long or whatever and our pit stops suffered, so I went to pit practice this past weekend and really tried to focus on that and then this week made sure I hit my pit sign every time and I think we were the seventh or something best pit crew on pit road, so it’s all just the little details and when you’re kind of like where we are right now and you’re kind of racing in that 15th range speed-wise, those little details is what makes the difference in being in the back half of the top 10 or running 20th, so that’s been the biggest thing is just trying to do all the little things right because you do a couple of those little things wrong and it really adds up.”

HOW IS IT MENTALLY TO HAVE MORE BAD DAYS COMPARED TO WHAT YOU HAD LAST YEAR? “It’s certainly tough. I mean, you go from going to the racetrack — the XFINITY Series has 33 races and I went to the racetrack every weekend thinking that I was gonna be the guy to beat and not that you don’t also have that in the Cup Series, but I think you have realistic expectations. I knew coming into the Cup Series I probably wasn’t gonna win nine races this year. I knew it was gonna be a huge learning process for me just trying to continue to get better week in and week out, and, for me, I know that I’m not a worse race car driver than I was last year. If anything, I’m better now than I’ve ever been just because of the experience I’ve been getting, so I know I’m still capable of running up front and, for me, I just try to judge myself off of my teammates. They’re obviously the closest thing I have to what I’m racing week in and week out and fairly consistently I feel like we’ve been able to be the second-best car, so that’s been the biggest thing for me is just try to be the second-best car week in and week out. Obviously, we want to be the best car, but we’ve got a long ways to go to be where Harvick is right now and we know that. Truthfully, I don’t think there’s expectations for me to be outrunning Harvick right now, so if I can just be the second-best car every week I feel like I’m doing my job right now. I think the results will come as I continue to get experience. It just takes some time. Like I said, I feel like from where I was week one to where I’m at right now is a significantly different race car driver from the experience standpoint, even a confidence standpoint as I get these 11th-place runs and get a run. You know at Darlington we ran for a while there seventh or eighth place. As I continue to run up there I gain confidence. All of those things are just gonna continue to add up and once we slowly start putting it all together I feel confident that we’ll be able to battle for wins, but we’ve got to start battling for top 10s first and battle for top fives and eventually wins.”

DO YOU FEEL THE EQUIPMENT HAS IMPROVED THE LAST MONTH OR ARE YOU JUST GETTING MORE COMFORTABLE? “I think, I can’t speak for the whole company, but I feel like on the 14 team specifically we’ve just done a better job of doing those little things right. We haven’t been putting ourselves in a box. The way we look at a race on the 14 team is we just need to try to gain two spots every run. We need two spots over the green flag cycle then come down pit road, gain a spot or two, on the restart gain a spot or two where we continue to get up in track position, so, for us, I just feel like we’ve been doing that better. I don’t know if our cars are necessarily better. I think if you look at Kevin he’s kind of been the same area he’s kind of run all year long and I would say he’s kind of the benchmark for us, so I think there’s no question that at least for me that our cars are still off, especially on the mile-and-a-half stuff. I feel like we have quite a ways to go, but for us on the 14 team I just feel like we’ve done a better job of doing the little things right week in and week out and that’s why our results have been getting better.”

HAVE YOU DRIVEN COTA IN ANYTHING? “I went there two or three months ago and I think I ran seven laps total that day, so I’ve got very little experience, but I have at least seen the racetrack, so I’ve got a general idea of what to expect whenever we go there.”

WHAT DO FANS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE DIFFICULTY OF DOVER? “I personally really enjoy Dover. It’s one of my more favorite racetracks. It’s definitely in the top half of tracks I enjoy going to. It’s a place where I feel like it takes a lot of commitment. You have to have high commitment driving down into the corner. Whenever you go to pass somebody if you’re side-by-side, it’s who is braver getting into the corner. It’s that guy who decides not to lift that normally comes out with the position, so Dover is a place that is high commitment. Even when you’re just out there driving around by yourself it’s a high commitment racetrack to go fast. It’s so fast to drive down into the corner, high banking and you have to have high commitment on getting back into the gas even before you get to the center of the corner, so I think that’s the biggest thing that stands out to me is just the commitment level you have to have whenever you go there, and then it’s just a super tricky place to set up passes. You have to really time everything properly so you can even get beside them. When I go to Dover I just think of the commitment level it takes to go good there.”

WHEN DID YOU LEARN COMMITMENT AS A YOUNG DRIVER? IS THAT HARD TO LEARN IMMEDIATELY? “For me, I think the first I went to Dover we were able to sit on the pole and I truly attribute a lot of that to going back to my ARCA days and running at places like Salem and Winchester, which are kind of small Dovers in a sense. Those are places I’ve always enjoyed going to. I’ve always enjoyed high-banked racetracks, so, for me, I think if I wouldn’t have run Salem and Winchester and stuff in the ARCA Series, Dover probably would have been a lot harder for me, but I felt like going to those places it felt like you were going just as fast there even though it was half the size. I think some guys it might be really hard to show up and go there. It definitely can be an intimidating place, but with all the experience I have at those places I felt more comfortable, I guess. And then the restarts are definitely really challenging at Dover. It’s hard to make passes. It’s very easy to get caught up in somebody else’s wreck there, just how close we are all the time on the restarts. I think at Dover the choose cone probably comes more into play than a lot of places. It seems like sometimes the top will roll a little bit better and then the bottom is kind of the place to be, so it’s definitely a challenge whenever we go to Dover on restarts and it’s definitely one that gets the heart rate up for sure.”

HOW HAS THE LACK OF PRACTICE HURT YOUR ORGANIZATION AS FAR AS DIAGNOSING WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOUR EQUIPMENT? “I think for sure that practice would help. When you go to the racetrack, say we try something new you don’t know if it’s gonna work or not and if it doesn’t work, then obviously you’re kind of stuck with it the whole race, where if we had practice we could get more aggressive and try things and if it doesn’t work you could change everything and go back to kind of what we know, so that part is definitely I feel like affecting us a little bit, and as a rookie being able to have practice would be huge and just even if it’s 15 minutes so I can kind of get an idea of what I need in the race car and even what to expect on the racetrack, so I would say practice definitely is a contributing factor of why it’s harder now than ever to kind of get back on track when you’re struggling, but everybody is in the same boat as we are, we’ve just got to figure it out and I’m confident that we will.”

HOW CHALLENGING IS IT AT DOVER WITH THE RUBBER BEING LAID DOWN AND THEN COMING UP UNDER CAUTION? “That is a tough part about Dover. Your car is gonna do something totally different at the beginning of the run versus the end of the run just because of that rubber, and your car might be fighting one thing and then 10 laps later it’s magically fixed or it’s magically way worse. That’s kind of the tough balance about Dover. You throw in the green flag pit stops, where we don’t have the time to pick up the rubber, your car will handle totally different then too on new tires, so Dover is hard. That’s a place I feel like where you have to have that experience as a driver to kind of know what to expect, kind of that balance change as well as the crew chief and the engineers have to kind of know the trends that normally happen there, so it definitely picks up all the rubber under caution. It’s pretty incredible to see from the driver’s seat, just the color change in the racetrack from lap 100 of a green flag run versus whenever a caution comes out. That’s just one of the things you know going to Dover and you have to be ready for it.”

HOW DO YOU FEEL THE PJ1 WORKS AT TEXAS? “It’s definitely hard. The PJ1, it seems like it’s ice and then all of a sudden it’s like you’re on a slot car track. There’s kind of no in-between, so, for us, I feel like last year it was a little bit easier just to go out and get in it, where I remember the first year and a half we went there you couldn’t even touch it and you were spinning out. It seems like our tires do a little bit better job than what they (Indy Car) run. I think the PJ1 is probably a little more suited for what we do versus them, but it’s definitely challenging. I don’t envy what those guys are doing around that place at those speeds knowing how treacherous it could be. Unfortunately, that’s kind of the box we’re in at Texas right now, just with how the racetrack is and you kind of have to have that PJ1 out there to kind of make a race out of it and get the track more than one groove. As the years go on it will get better, I think, but it’s definitely challenging and I can only imagine how hard it is for those guys.”

NASCAR INFORMED TEAMS YOU DON’T HAVE TO WEAR A MASK OUTDOORS AT DOVER. WHAT IS YOUR TAKE ON THAT? “If NASCAR feels confident that that’s the OK thing, then I’m confident that all the teams will respect that decision and inside the hauler still wear it and then outside be able to take it off. I was reading somewhere where the CDC said that it was OK to be outside without one, so I know that NASCAR has done all their due diligence to make sure that what they’re making now the new mandate or allowing us to do is the safe and proper thing to do. I trust their judgment 100 percent. They’ve been on the forefront of all this stuff. Obviously, we were the first sport back and we’ve done it safely to this point, so I’m confident we can continue to do that.”

WHAT ARE YOU EXPECTATIONS THIS WEEKEND? “I feel like it is a good track for me. I’ve always felt like I’ve had pretty decent speed whenever I go there, but obviously the Cup deal, like we’ve been talking earlier this whole time, it’s definitely a whole other animal. It’s a lot tougher, so I think for us we have to do those little things right once again. If we do that, the one good thing is last year this was a low downforce race and the SHR cars were really strong, so hopefully we can continue that into this year. We have a little bit better starting position than we normally would, so we just need to keep doing those top 15, top 10. If we can get in the top 10 that would be great to finish up there, but I know as a race car driver I feel confident going there and I feel that’s a huge part of going to the racetrack is having confidence there, so we’ll see how this weekend goes. All we can do is control what we can control and try to do all those things right and hopefully at the end of the day the results will be there.”

WHAT HAS SURPRISED YOU THE MOST SO FAR THIS SEASON? “I think for sure all the different winners. The amount of winners that we’ve had it’s gonna be challenging to make the playoffs. Obviously, we’re still quite a ways off that. If we can get six or seven weeks in a row here where we’re running in the top 10 and getting stage points it’s still not impossible, I don’t think, to get to that cutoff spot, but with how many winners there is it’s very well possible that we have over 16 winners when we get to that point, so it’s probably gonna take a win, but I would say that’s for sure been the biggest surprise of this season is how many winners we’ve had.”

WHEN YOU GO TO COTA YOU WILL HAVE PRACTICE. HOW MUCH DO YOU ANTICIPATE THAT PRACTICE WILL BE DEVOTED TO NOT JUST GETTING READY FOR THE RACE WEEKEND, BUT WORKING ON THINGS AS A TEAM AND A TRACK ATMOSPHERE THAT YOU DON’T GET TO DO AT OTHER TRACKS THAT DON’T HAVE PRACTICE? “I think it’s gonna be hard. The thing is there, I don’t think you can necessarily try stuff that’s gonna work at other places with it being a road course, but I will say that it’s probably gonna be a challenge to go and do a practice environment. That’s something that normally doing a shock change or doing whatever is so second nature and they can do it so quickly to really maximize that practice time, where we haven’t done that a lot in the last year and a half, so I think the team guys might be a little rusty when it comes to that, but I think the other thing at COTA as far as I know there’s only a 50-minute practice and by the time you do an out lap, do an in lap, and do whatever lap you’re doing, you’re probably not gonna get but maybe eight to nine laps of practice at the most, so it’s gonna be really hard to make changes and figure out what kind of works because you’re probably only gonna get two or three changes at the absolute most. So, you’re still gonna have to unload very quick from a speed standpoint and a balance standpoint, so it’s gonna be hard. I’m glad we’re gonna have some practice just, for me, to get back in the rhythm of especially road course racing to see what I need. I felt like at the Daytona road course at the very end of the race we were pretty good, it just took us three or four adjustments to get to that point, so hopefully at COTA we can kind of start where we ended Daytona and have some good speed.”

YOU’VE GOTTEN SOME TRACK TIME AT NASHVILLE. WHAT WERE YOUR TAKEAWAYS FROM YOUR TESTS THERE? “It was definitely a lot quicker of a racetrack speed-wise than I thought it was gonna be. I didn’t realize we were gonna be using as much brake and stuff as we were, so that was very eye-opening. I think it’s gonna be a challenge to pass, but it’s hard to really say truthfully because there were only three of us there. There’s not a ton of rubber getting put down. It was really, really cold when we were there. I think you put 40 cars out there. We’re gonna have three series as well with practice, so the rubber is gonna get there. When we were there it was pretty much one lane on the bottom, but with all those cars, all the rubber that’s gonna be put down, there’s probably gonna be hotter temperatures, I would assume the track is gonna widen out quite a bit more, but it’s hard to say with only three cars there, so I think it’ll be exciting to go to Nashville. It’s a great city. I think they’ve got a ton of fans already scheduled to be there, so it’s gonna be really cool to race in front of a lot of people. It’s always cool to go to a new racetrack, so I’m excited for it. I’m glad I’m gonna have a lot of laps there, being able to use two Goodyear tire tests, I think that will be a huge advantage for me just unloading. By the end of practice I think everybody will be caught up, but it will be nice to go to a racetrack and kind of know what to expect the first lap.”

Roush Fenway Weekly Advance | Dover

Roush Fenway looks to tame Miles the Monster this Sunday at Dover, a track that’s seen a Jack Roush Ford win 17 times overall. Ryan Newman has four wins of his own at the 1-mile track, while Chris Buescher comes in on a hot streak of two-straight top-10 finishes and is looking to further solidify his playoff standing.

Drydene 400
Sunday, May 16 | 2 p.m. ET
FS1, MRN, SiriusXM Channel 90
· Ryan Newman, No. 6 Guaranteed Rate Ford Mustang
· Chris Buescher, No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang

Darlington Recap, Dover Preview

· Newman secured his third top-10 of the season last Sunday at Darlington, picking off a handful of cars in the closing laps to help notch an RFR top-10 sweep.

· Buescher captured his second-straight top-10 and ran most of the race inside the top-15, earning a stage point in the second segment and leading a lap for the second-straight event.

· Guaranteed Rate returns to the side of Newman’s Ford Mustang in Delaware for their third points event of the season and first of back-to-back primaries.

· Fastenal rides with Buescher as he goes for his third-straight top-10 result.

The Monster Mash

Roush Fenway’s nine wins in the NCS at Dover ranks third for the organization trailing only Michigan and Bristol with 13 and 11, respectively. Dover also ranks second in top-fives (52) and third in top-10s (84) for the organization.

Get the Broom

Roush Fenway swept the NCS and NASCAR Xfinity Series spring races at Dover in 2004 and 2011, and won both the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) and NCS races at the track in 2006.

First in the First State

Roush Fenway has won in all three major NASCAR series at Dover (9 NCS, 6 NXS and 2 NCWTS). Roush Fenway won its first race at Dover in the NCS from the pole in the fall of 1997 with former driver Mark Martin.

To Xfinity and Beyond

Roush Fenway has recorded six victories at the one-mile oval in the NASCAR Xfinity Series with drivers Chris Buescher, Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards. Buescher recorded his victory in June 2015, Biffle earned victories in the spring event in both 2002 and 2004, while Edwards took the checkered flag in the spring of 2007 and swept both races in 2011.

Tale of the Tape

Roush Fenway has started 218 NCS races at Dover with 84 top-10 and 52 top-five finishes along with seven poles. Former drivers Mark Martin (1997, 1998, 1999, 2004), Greg Biffle (2005, 2008), Matt Kenseth (2006, 2011) and Carl Edwards (2007) are responsible for RFR’s combined nine Cup wins at the 1-mile track. Overall, a Jack Roush Ford has led 3892 laps at Dover.

Roush Fenway Dover Wins
1997-2 Martin Cup
1998-2 Martin Cup
1999-2 Martin Cup
2000-1 Busch Truck
2002-1 Biffle NXS
2004-1 Martin Cup
2004-1 Biffle NXS
2005-1 Biffle Cup
2006-1 KensethCup
2006-1 Martin Truck
2007-2 EdwardsCup
2007-1 EdwardsNXS
2008-2 Biffle Cup
2011-1 Kenseth Cup
2011-1 Edwards NXS
2011-2 Edwards NXS
2015-1 Buescher NXS

The Iconic American Brand Expands Motorsport Presence with NASCAR Cup Series Team JTG Daugherty Racing

HORSHAM, Pa. (May 13, 2021) – Bimbo Bakeries USA and JTG Daugherty Racing continues to grow their partnership and announced today that Thomas® English Muffins and Bagels will join the team’s family of primary CPG brands sponsoring the No. 37 Chevrolet NASCAR Sprint Cup Series entry driven by Ryan Preece. Thomas’ English Muffins and Bagels takes over the paint scheme for Dover International Speedway this weekend and the Pocono Raceway doubleheader in June.

“For more than 140 years, Thomas’ has proudly been a part of our fans’ lives and traditions as they zip around their busy schedules filled with family, friends and delicious moments shared together,” Eduardo Zarate, Senior Director of Marketing for Thomas’. “We’re honored to partner with JTG Daugherty Racing to become a part of another treasured American tradition as Thomas’ zips around the track on the No. 37 Chevrolet at three exciting NASCAR races. We can’t wait to cheer on Ryan as these two great brands join together!”

JTG Daugherty Racing proudly partners with the best brands in the CPG Industry that fuel the race team’s desire to win. The Thomas’ brand dates back to 1880 when Samuel Bath Thomas created his original English Muffin in New York City using a secret process that included griddle baking to create a Nooks & Crannies® English Muffin. The company has since added bagels and breakfast breads, including a line of swirl breads, to its breakfast offerings. Today, Thomas’ sells the #1 English Muffin and #1 grocery bagel in the U.S. The brand is a household staple for JTG Daugherty Racing’s family and team members and now a primary sponsor of the No. 37 for three of Preece’s races.

“When you think of English muffins or bagels, Thomas’ is a brand that’s top of mind. In the bread aisle, you can’t miss Thomas’ iconic logo!” said Ryan Preece. “My wife Heather and I love stocking up on JTG’s CPG family of brands and we can’t wait to see Thomas’ branding on the hood of the No. 37. I feel like this relationship has the potential to grow bigger in the future and we look forward to more races together.”

Tune in to see the No. 37 Thomas’ Chevrolet in the Drydene 400 live from Dover on Sunday May 16 at 2:00 p.m. ET on FS1, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio and the Motor Racing Network.

For more information about Thomas’, visit www.thomasbreads.com.

About Bimbo Bakeries USA

Bimbo Bakeries USA (BBU) is a leader in the baking industry, known for its category leading brands, innovative products, freshness and quality. Our team of 20,000+ U.S. associates operates more than 50 manufacturing locations in the United States. Over 11,000 distribution routes deliver our leading brands such as Arnold®, Artesano™, Ball Park®, Bimbo®, Boboli®, Brownberry®, Entenmann’s®, Little Bites®, Marinela®, Mrs Baird’s®, Oroweat®, Sara Lee®, Stroehmann® and Thomas’®. BBU is owned by Mexico’s Grupo Bimbo, S.A.B de C.V., the world’s largest baking company with operations in 33 countries.