Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
NASCAR Zoom Media Availability | Wednesday, April 14, 2021

JEREMY BULLINS, Crew Chief, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang — WHAT MAKES RICHMOND UNIQUE? “Richmond is just a super technical track. It gets really slick. Cars fall off a lot. You lose a lot of forward drive over the run. You lose a lot of center turn. You get really loose in on the brakes. It’s a heavy braking track, so there are just a lot of challenges from the driver side and from the setup side to try to be really balanced over the course of a run.”

HOW HAS THE DYNAMIC CHANGED WITH THE TEAM IN THE COVID ERA? “It certainly is a much more challenging environment to try to be a leader, try to participate or get everybody together at once. I think we used to have a lot of team meetings that we don’t have now with the whole group. You’re just very cautious about gathering big groups of people like that, so there’s a lot more individual phone calls and texts and individual meetings with certain folks throughout the team and try to meet with the pit crew guys when you can at a distance and try to do the right things, but still have as much face time with all of your team members as you can. You just have to find different ways to do it, but it’s certainly changed the game in that regard.”

NASCAR IS LOOKING AT OPENING GARAGE ACCESS NEXT MONTH WHERE ARE THINGS FOR YOU AND YOUR TEAM IN TERMS OF VACCINATIONS? “I’ll be honest, I’m not really sure who has gotten the shot and who hasn’t. I have an appointment. I don’t have it yet, but I do have an appointment scheduled. It’s one of those things where it’s encouraged. It seems like it’s going OK and there’s no reason not to get it, so it’s something we’re encouraging everybody to do, but it’s a choice and I understand if somebody doesn’t want to get it. I don’t really know who has it and who doesn’t, but I read this weekend they’re gonna start letting fans back in. From that regard, I think our sport is not sustainable without fans, and I think the level of access that we’ve always provided is second to none compared to other sports. The ability to potentially be on the sidelines throughout a weekend is something that’s pretty cool about what we do, so I think it’s exciting to see some of that come back for the fans, and I think it’ll be good for the sport.”

SHOULD WE EXPECT TEAMS TO PIT TWICE IN THE FINAL STAGE AT RICHMOND THIS TIME OR ARE THERE THINGS THAT COULD IMPACT THAT STRATEGY? “I think the day race, I almost expect a little bit more fall off. It doesn’t look like it’s gonna be really hot. It looks like a fairly overcast prediction, so that may affect it some, but I think most of the teams will look at the fall off from the first two stages and come up with a strategy that mathematically makes the most sense for that last stage. I’d say there’s a good chance of that for sure.”

WHERE ARE YOU IN YOUR PREPARATION FOR THE NEXT GEN CAR COMPARED TO YOUR DAY-TO-DAY STUFF? “It’s on the radar. I keep up with what’s going on with it, but it’s not a primary focus right now. Our focus is getting this 2 car in victory lane and getting our spot in the playoffs locked up, and start making another run at Phoenix and trying to get back in the final four. We’ve got to put a lot of effort into this year and allocate some time to work on next year and beyond as well, so it’s on the radar, but it’s a blip on the radar for me right now. We’re trying to get this 2 car back in victory lane and hopefully we can do that this weekend.”

WHAT ARE YOU MOST EXCITED ABOUT WITH THIS NEXT GEN CAR? “Anytime you have something that’s brand new there’s an opportunity there to be the fastest out of the gate and that’s something that Team Penske takes a lot of pride in. HIstorically, through some of the rule changes, we feel like we’ve done a good job of adapting quickly and hopefully that’s something we can do again.”

HOW WOULD YOU RATE YOUR SEASON SO FAR? “I think we’ve had a lot of speed a lot of weeks and circumstances have prevented us from getting some of the finishes we wanted. I felt like we were in a good spot in Daytona and that didn’t work out. I felt like we had a couple other races — Phoenix, we were just a little bit off. We were so close, but come home fourth, and had a power-steering issue this weekend that kind of put us in a bad spot. We just had little things that have crept up that bit us and that’s part of it and that’s part of racing. I’d rather get that stuff out of the way now, but I feel like we’ve had times where we’ve had cars that were fast enough to compete and I feel like we’ve got some great racetracks coming up for us in the next few weeks and no reason we can’t turn our season into a really good season with a couple of wins.”

HOW DO BRAD AND RYAN COMPARE AND CONTRAST AS DRIVERS? “I’ve been fortunate enough all the way back to the XFINITY days to work with all of our drivers, with Joey as well. I always try to explain to people that they all have pretty much equal buckets of talent. If they had a bucket of experience, obviously Brad’s is more full than Ryan’s. I think the thing about working with Brad is he’s a veteran in the sport. He’s been to all these places so many times and he has a lot of knowledge about what happens on a race weekend and how the tracks change throughout the weekend and how the races play out — all those things that these veteran guys are able to leverage. In Ryan, you see that as he’s continued to progress and you see that every year he gets better and better, and all that is is a matter of combining the talent these guys have with the experience of knowing how your car’s got to drive during practice or how the race is gonna change throughout the weekend — from start to finish through a race of how you need to stay ahead on adjustments. The things that Ryan has learned over the years to have him where he’s at now to where he’s a lot more competitive than he was when he first started and it’s just a matter of experience. He’s always had the talent and all these guys that drive here at Team Penske are really talented.”

HOW DO YOU PLAN FOR A TRACK LIKE PHOENIX WHEN YOU HAVE NOTES FROM THREE DIFFERENT TEAMS TO LOOK THROUGH? “It’s funny, I was looking back this morning at notes from one of the last day races with Brad and the setup is very similar to what we’re gonna run and what we won with in the fall, so we’ve always tried to have a very open book policy here and everybody knows what everybody is running. You’re able to use all of that information to try to build from history, and as you look towards the short track package, I feel like that was one of the Team Penske strengths last year. We all ran really well at the short tracks and we have to try to play off that and the playoffs are still very heavily biased to short tracks, so we had speed at Martinsville. We didn’t have as much as we wanted. We had speed at Phoenix, and didn’t have as much as we wanted but we were close, and I think if we can continue to learn from that and apply the things that we know and have learned, there’s no reason we can’t go and compete this weekend. We get really excited about going to Richmond. We get really excited about going to Phoenix and Martinsville because those are all playoff races, so it should be fun and looking forward to trying to win again.”

HAVE YOU DIAGNOSED WHAT CAUSED BRAD’S PROBLEM AT MARTINSVILLE? “It was a power-steering issue. That investigation is ongoing. We’ve gone through the process that you go through, tearing parts apart and trying to figure out what happened and trying not to let it happen again. We made some changes and adjustments this weekend to try to keep it from happening again and hopefully we made the right ones.”

YOU OBVIOUSLY TRY TO ELIMINATE ALL OF THOSE GREMLINS BY THE TIME YOU GET TO THE PLAYOFFS. “Yeah, absolutely. It’s one of those things where it’s parts we’ve used before. It wasn’t anything new or different. It’s just that we had an issue, so our engineering group will take a deep dive into what happened and try to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

WHEN YOU GO TO RICHMOND DO YOU THINK ABOUT THIS STRETCH OF SHORT TRACKS AND HOW THE INTENSITY SEEMS TO PICK UP? “It’s not something I really think about. I’m sure it exists and I’m sure it’s a real thing. There tends to be some hurt feelings whenever you leave Martinsville, but I feel like it’s not something that I’m gonna dwell on. I’ll leave that up to the drivers to work that out amongst themselves and we’re gonna stay focused on trying to make this Discount Tire Ford go fast in a circle this weekend.”

DO YOU FEEL WITH THE NEXT GEN CAR COMING AND WITH ALL EVERYONE HAS BEEN THROUGH WITH COVID THAT YOU HAVE TO WORK TO KEEP EMPLOYEES MOTIVATED SINCE THEY’VE LIKELY HAD MORE TIME AT HOME? “I think it’s just a different environment. The work is still there. The work has still got to be done. We still have to do the same things to be able to race and race at a high level. It’s just a matter of how we adapted to how we do it, and that’s gonna change again. That’s gonna evolve. We got so institutionalized is what I call it. If anybody has seen the Shawshank Redemption, I talk about we’re institutionalized to what we do, but we did it the same way for so long that it was a huge change at first. We had to come up with new processes and new plans and new ways to be organized in a different way and now that’s normal, so now we’re institutionalized to that. Hopefully, at some point, it kind of gets back to the old normal and we get back to a different way again, and it’s just a matter of I think it shows the resiliency of the race teams and it shows their adaptability and their willingness to overcome whatever obstacles get put in front of us to do what we have to do and that’s just kind of the racer’s mentality.”

DOES SOME OF THAT STUFF YOU LEARNED STAY WHEN THINGS GET BACK? “Yeah, I think so. I think the way we wound up on shifts we were able to be more efficient with some things and get things done in a short amount of time here and there, so I think some of that we’re gonna learn from and carry forward.”

TEAM PENSKE HAS ONLY ONE PLAYOFF POINT RIGHT NOW. HOW MUCH OF A CONCERN IS THAT? “There’s 18 races left and there’s a lot of good racetracks for us through the summer. I feel like some of these tracks that we’re gonna go to are great racetracks for us. I’m looking forward to Darlington, Kansas and Talladega. These are great racetracks for Brad and great racetracks for us as a team, so we’ve got to get that first win. I think once you get the first one, you see it with the 19, they got the first one and then it wasn’t long before they got the second one. I think that we’ve had a lot of winners early in the season, but I think once the summer gets rolling you’ll start to see some repeat winners and our goal is to be one of them and get some playoff points before it starts. You have to win multiple races to get to the end of this thing and we know that. These things are hard to win and a lot of things can happen beyond your control and once we get to where we can control a little more I think we’ll be in good shape.”

CAN YOU STILL FIND DOWNFORCE IN THE WHEEL WELL AREA NOW THAT THEY’RE USING THE TEMPLATE OR IS IT A LOST CAUSE? “It can never be a lost cause. That’s what we do is try to keep searching. Whenever you get a template like that, that’s pretty encompassing and holds you pretty tightly in an area, it’s hard to work there. I mean, when you’re given a template that has to fit water tight, there’s not a lot of wiggle room there. It does kind of force you to look around in other places and other areas, but I think there’s always the opportunity to find something new and we’re not gonna stop looking. It’s what we have to do to get better, but I think the cool thing is it’s the same for everybody, so I think it has seemed to level the playing field a little bit. That’s not a bad thing. That allows us to try to be the next ones to find the next thing and everybody looks at it from that perspective, so it certainly made working in that area a challenge and I think that was the goal.”

WILL THERE BE A TIME YOU GIVE UP LOOKING FOR THAT NEXT THING ON THIS CAR TO START FOCUSING ON NEXT GEN? “November 9th or whatever the date is after Phoenix. There’s still a lot to be gained this year. There’s still a championship to be won. The manufacturers and the teams are gonna work on the Next Gen stuff and we’ll talk through how to be better and how to be as prepared as we can be with it, but we still have wind tunnel tests scheduled out throughout the year to try to learn as much as we can and be as prepared for the playoffs as we can be.”

For Matt DiBenedetto and the No. 21 Menards/Libman team, a third-straight short-track race is just what he says they need to continue climbing up the Cup Series standings.

DiBenedetto said he finds lots of positives heading into Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400 at the three-quarter-mile Richmond Raceway.

“The biggest thing I’m excited about is it’s a short track,” he said. “Our Menards/Libman Mustangs have been the strongest on the short tracks.”

He’s also looking forward to putting to use some of the information he and his Wood Brothers team gathered last fall at Richmond.

“We tried some things and learned a lot,” said DiBenedetto, who is set to start 16th on Sunday. “I feel really confident as far as coming up with a set-up that gives me what I need out of the car.”

Then there’s the alliance between the Wood Brothers and Team Penske, which won the most recent Cup race at Richmond with its No. 2 team and driver Brad Keselowski.

“Brad was really fast in that race,” DiBenedetto said. “Our alliance with Team Penske is really helpful. We can learn a lot from that.”

After a disappointing start to the 2021 season, which saw the No. 21 team finish outside the top 30 in the first two races, there’s been a steady climb. DiBenedetto and the team have climbed 15 spots in the points standings to 22nd, largely on the strength of five consecutive finishes between 11th and 16th.

“We’ve been able to come up in the standings even with some crazy circumstances thrown at us,” he said. “We’ve overcome tons of adversity and put together some OK finishes, even though our finishes are still not reflective of how good a race team we have.”

DiBenedetto said it’s important to remember that even though he and his team have had some bad luck this year, other drivers and teams have had more misfortunes.

“It just shows how tough this sport can be,” he said.

Sunday’s 400-lap, 300-mile race is set to get the green flag just after 3 p.m. Eastern Time, with no pre-race practice or qualifying. There will be Stage breaks and Laps 80 and 235. FOX will carry the TV broadcast.

Menards

A family-owned and run company started in 1958, Menards is recognized as the retail home center leader of the Midwest with 236 stores in 15 states. Menards is truly a one-stop shop for all of your home improvement needs featuring a full-service lumberyard and everything you need to plan a renovation or build a home, garage, cabin, shed, deck, fence or post frame building. Menards is known for friendly Customer Service and as the place to “Save Big Money” with low prices every day, and sales too! For more information, please visit Menards.com to learn about our store locations, offerings and services.

Wood Brothers Racing

Wood Brothers Racing was formed in 1950 in Stuart, Va., by Hall of Famer Glen Wood. Wood Brothers Racing is the oldest active team and one of the winningest teams in NASCAR history. Since its founding, the team won 99 races (including at least one race in every decade for the last seven decades) and 120 poles in NASCAR’s top-tier series. Fielding only Ford products for its entire history, the Wood Brothers own the longest association of any motorsports team with a single manufacturer. Glen’s brother, Leonard, is known for inventing the modern pit stop. The team currently runs the Ford Mustang driven by Matt DiBenedetto in the famous No. 21 racer.

This Week in Motorsports: April 12-18, 2021

· NCS/NCWTS: Richmond Raceway – April 17-18

PLANO, Texas (April 14, 2021) – This weekend marks the return to Richmond Raceway for the Toyota Owners entitlement races at the Virginia short track. The ToyotaCare 250 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) race is up first on Saturday afternoon before the Toyota Owners 400 NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) event takes place on Sunday afternoon.

NASCAR National Series – NCS| NCWTS

Toyota Owners Weekend… It’s the ninth annual Toyota Owners Weekend at Richmond Raceway. On Saturday, the ToyotaCare 250 NASCAR Truck Series race will be paced by the 2021 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro. The Toyota Owners 400 completes the weekend on Sunday. The Cup race will be led to green by thee 2020 Toyota Camry TRD.

Virginia is for racers like Truex… After earning his third Martinsville victory in the last four races on Sunday, Martin Truex Jr. added to his recent success in the state of Virginia. Truex has five wins in the state of Virginia since April 2019, including two wins at Richmond Raceway – a sweep of both races in 2019.

Busch looks to add to his Richmond tally… Kyle Busch has excelled at Richmond Raceway since joining Team Toyota in 2008. He scored Toyota’s first win at the track in May 2009, and has since added five additional victories (May 2010, April 2011, April 2012, April 2018, September 2018).

Hamlin holds race advantage… Denny Hamlin continued his stellar start to the season after leading over half of the laps at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday before scoring a third-place finish. In the first eight races of the season, Hamlin has seven top-five finishes and holds a race advantage in points over second-place Truex in the standings.

Toyota looks to extend streak… Tundra drivers have won five consecutive races since the start of the Truck Series season, marking the second time in the past three seasons (2019) Toyota has accomplished the feat. Ben Rhodes started the year strong for the Tundra – winning both races at Daytona, and since then it’s been all Kyle Busch Motorsports with series points leader John Hunter Nemechek winning at Las Vegas and NCS regulars Busch and Truex adding victories at the series’ last two events.

ThorSport strong at Richmond… ThorSport Racing swept the podium at last year’s return to Richmond Raceway with Grant Enfinger scoring the victory. ThorSport’s full-time drivers all currently hold Playoff positions in their return to Toyota.

Hill continues to rebound… After a tough start to the season, 2020 regular season champion Austin Hill has rebounded with three strong runs, including a runner-up finish at Atlanta and a top-10 run on the dirt in Bristol. Hill has moved back inside the top-10 in the standings. In his first truck start at Richmond last fall, Hill earned a top-10 finish.

About Toyota

Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in North America for more than 60 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands plus our 1,800 dealerships.

Toyota has created a tremendous value chain and directly employs more than 47,000 in North America. The company has contributed world-class design, engineering, and assembly of more than 40 million cars and trucks at our 14 manufacturing plants, 15 including our joint venture in Alabama that begins production in 2021.

Through its 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 www.toyotanewsroom.com.

Team: No. 17 Fifth Third Bank Ford Mustang
Crew Chief: Luke Lambert
Twitter: @17RoushTeam, @RoushFenway and @Chris_Buescher
Toyota Owners 400 – Sunday, April 18 at 3 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN, SiriusXM Channel 90

ADVANCE NOTES

Buescher at Richmond Raceway

• Buescher makes his 10th Cup start at Richmond this weekend where he carries a 26.7 average finish.
• Buescher’s best result at the ¾-mile track came back in the 2017 spring event when he ran 17th.
• At short track races in 2021, Buescher has finishes of 18th (Phoenix), 14th (Bristol Dirt) and 13th (Martinsville).
• Buescher also made five Xfinity Series starts at Richmond earning three top-10s, including a best run of seventh in the No. 60 entry in 2014.

Luke Lambert at Richmond Raceway

• Lambert will be on the box for his 16th Cup race at Richmond where he has an average finish of 17.1 with five top-10s, including two results inside the top five.
• Lambert finished fifth with Jeff Burton in just his second-ever Cup race at Richmond in 2013, and also recorded a top-five with Newman (third) in the 2017 fall event.
• Lambert also called a pair of Xfinity events with Elliott Sadler, finishing sixth and 12th in 2012.

QUOTE WORTHY
Buescher on racing at Richmond:
“Richmond is a place I’m still working on figuring out, but any short-track race is bound to be a fun one. Now that we’re settled into the season a bit we’ve been able to put on some pretty consistent runs, just need to keep grinding away at it and turn our 12th-place runs into 10th, and down the line. We’re looking forward to Sunday, and excited to carry the Fifth Third Bank colors for the first time this season.”

Last Time Out
Buescher fought and battled for his 13th-place run at Martinsville last weekend, in a race that saw his Fastenal Ford suffer major damage in a multi-car incident that stacked the field up late. Despite that damage – and a scuffle on pit road prior – Buescher and the No. 17 team persevered to finish 13th.

Where They Rank
Buescher has put himself 14th in points through eight events, as a tight race is already brewing with just under 25 points separating 11th-16th in the standings.

On the Car
Fifth Third Bank makes its first appearance on board Buescher’s Ford Mustang this season. The company is celebrating its 10th season as a partner with Roush Fenway in 2021, as the partnership began back in 2012 with Matt Kenseth at the time.

About Fifth Third Bank
Fifth Third Bancorp is a diversified financial services company headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio and the indirect parent company of Fifth Third Bank, National Association, a federally chartered institution. As of June 30, 2020, Fifth Third had $203 billion in assets and operated 1,122 full-service banking centers and 2,456 ATMs with Fifth Third branding in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Florida, Tennessee, West Virginia, Georgia and North Carolina. In total, Fifth Third provides its customers with access to approximately 53,000 fee-free ATMs across the United States. Fifth Third operates four main businesses: Commercial Banking, Branch Banking, Consumer Lending and Wealth & Asset Management. Fifth Third is among the largest money managers in the Midwest and, as of June 30, 2020, had $405 billion in assets under care, of which it managed $49 billion for individuals, corporations and not-for-profit organizations through its Trust and Registered Investment Advisory businesses. Investor information and press releases can be viewed at www.53.com. Fifth Third’s common stock is traded on the Nasdaq® Global Select Market under the symbol “FITB.” Fifth Third Bank was established in 1858. Deposit and Credit products are offered by Fifth Third Bank, National Association. Member FDIC.

Team: No. 6 Oscar Mayer Bacon Ford Mustang
Crew Chief: Scott Graves
Twitter: @Roush6Team, @RoushFenway and @RyanJNewman
Toyota Owners 400 – Sunday, April 18 at 3 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN, SiriusXM Channel 90

ADVANCE NOTES

Newman at Richmond Raceway

• Newman makes his 38th Cup start at Richmond this weekend, his best track on the NASCAR circuit statistically with a 12.6 average finish. He has 20 top-10s in 37 starts, eight of which were inside the top five.
• Newman won at the ¾-mile track back in 2003 when he started fourth and led the final 124 laps in the fall race, one of his eight wins that season. Newman is coming off a 23rd-place run last fall, but prior to that had two-straight top-10s with a ninth and fifth-place effort in 2019.
• Newman has six finishes inside the top three, including runner-up results in 2002 (twice), the win in 2003, and thirds in 2005, 2013 and 2017. He also has one pole at Richmond and holds an average starting position of 13.9.
• Newman also made five Xfinity Series starts at Richmond, recording two top fives with a best result of third in 2007.

Scott Graves at Richmond Raceway

• Graves will be atop the box for his 10th Cup race at Richmond on Sunday where he has five top-10s, marking his second-best track on the circuit statistically with a 12.1 average finish.
• Graves has finished outside the top-17 only once at Richmond – the 23rd-place run last fall – a year after leading Newman to the two-straight top-10s in 2019.
• Graves also called seven Xfinity events at Richmond earning five top-10s and one top five. He led Daniel Suarez to fourth and eighth in 2016, and finished seventh once and 10th with Chris Buescher in 2014 and 2015.

QUOTE WORTHY
Newman on racing at Richmond:
“Richmond is a great short track, the way the tires fall off reminds me of my Silver Crown days at old IRP, but it’s still Richmond and still different. The flatness of the track, braking application, all the things you have to be finesse about plays into my style as a driver. We’ve got to do our job better than the rest and eliminate the hiccups, getting the car to be balanced in the corner and still having that forward drive. We’re looking forward to the challenge and having Oscar Mayer back on board come Sunday.”

Last Time Out
Newman was on his way to a solid bounce back finish in Sunday’s postponed race at Martinsville, before a flat tire on the left rear – prior caused by contact multiple times – pushed him to a 19th-place finish. He was well inside the top-15 in the closing laps, and at one point ran inside the top five for the middle portion of the race.

Where They Rank
Newman is 18th in the points standings entering Richmond.

On the Car
Oscar Mayer returns as the primary on Newman’s No. 6 machine this weekend, highlighting its famous bacon products. So far in two races, Oscar Mayer has finishes of seventh (Homestead) and fifth (Bristol Dirt) when they’re on the car.

About the Kraft Heinz Company

For 150 years, we have produced some of the world’s most beloved products at The Kraft Heinz Company (Nasdaq: KHC). We are one of the largest global food and beverage companies, with 2019 net sales of approximately $25 billion. Our portfolio is a diverse mix of iconic and emerging brands. As the guardians of these brands and the creators of innovative new products, we are dedicated to the sustainable health of our people and our planet. To learn more, visit www.kraftheinzcompany.com or follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Ford Zoom Media Availability | Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Global Mustang Week Ford Mustang in the NASCAR Cup Series for Stewart-Haas Racing, is in the midst of his rookie season at NASCAR’s top level. He was a guest on today’s weekly Ford Zoom call, where he discussed how things have gone with members of the media.

CHASE BRISCOE, No. 14 Global Mustang Week Ford Mustang — IT’S MUSTANG WEEK, SO WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MUSTANG STORY? “I’ve been very fortunate to drive Mustangs my entire career, really. We were in the F-150 there for a couple years in the Truck Series, but, for me, when I think of Mustang I just think about the commitment that Ford has made to me, truthfully. Without them, there’s no way that I’m sitting here talking to you guys right now, and for them to believe in me from day one, I know it’s not necessarily a Mustang story on the street or something that you would be expecting, but when I think of Mustang I think of Ford and without Ford and them taking a chance on me, there’s no way I would get to do what I love to do for a living. So, when I think of Mustang or F-150 or any of those it all comes back to Ford and the commitment they’ve made to me. I’ll forever be grateful for that commitment. There have definitely been plenty of times I felt like they could have dropped me and they stuck behind me and continued to believe in me. Mark Rushbrook and Pat DiMarco and everybody over there from day one has believed in me, probably even sometimes when I didn’t believe in myself they continued to, so that’s what I think of when I think Mustang for me, and then just the heritage that Mustang carries and the cool thing about being with Ford is it’s all racers. That’s where the whole company started and to continue to have that racing heritage, and obviously with Mustang and it’s special for me to have Global Mustang Week on the car and carry that heritage for so many fans that come along with the Mustang brand. It’ll be cool to carry them all along.”

HOW HAS THIS PROCESS BEEN FOR YOU WITH SHR STRUGGLING AS AN ORGANIZATION AND YOU TRYING TO GET ACCLIMATED TO THE CUP SERIES? “It’s definitely unique and just being in our competition meetings and things like that talking to the other guys and just talking about some of the things that we’re struggling with this year we would have never really struggled with in the past, and just knowing that I think, for me, just trying to keep all of that in check. Obviously, we want to go out there and try to win every race and right now our cars are off. We’re just trying to keep that confidence and it’s been hard to not run like I thought we would. I think the encouraging thing is we’ve been fast at times of the race, we just haven’t been able to put the whole thing together and I think that will come with experience. But then I think the good thing, I guess for me in a sense of being a rookie and kind of struggling results-wise is our whole company is struggling, so it’s not like the other three guys are running in the top five and 10 the whole race. As a company we’re kind of off, so I feel like I’m getting kind of what we’ve got out of the thing, it’s just a matter of figuring out where we’re missing right now and trying to get it better, and I’m confident that we’ll do that. At an organization like SHR we have so many smart people that we’re gonna figure it out, it’s just a matter of finding that little bit that we need right now. So, it’s definitely been hard, but at the same time we’re only eight races in. I’ve learned a ton in these first eight races and will continue to throughout the year.”

DO YOU SEEM TO GET BETTER AS THE RACES GOES ON BECAUSE IT LOOKS LIKE THAT’S THE CASE? “Yeah, for sure. I think that just goes back to the no practice thing. The first 150-200 laps of the race I’m just trying to figure out what I’m doing and kind of what I need. You only have one or two adjustments up to that and I’ve probably steered them the wrong direction a time or two and then it takes us toward the last quarter of the race. Once we get to the three-quarter mark, I want to say in every race this year with the exception of Atlanta, we’ve been a top-10 speed car every week and I think with no practice it’s hard to expect to start off there with a rookie. I feel like if we could obviously start at that point, the race would go totally better, but, for us, at that three-quarter mark in the race when we have that top-10 speed we’re mired back 20th-25th area and then it’s just hard to rally. Last week, we were able to drive up to eighth or ninth that one run and then we had a loose wheel and end up blowing a tire, so we haven’t been able to put the whole thing together, and even just maximizing the end of the race when we have speed and trying to recover, and I think we’ve done a good job of making our cars better every week and driving better and getting more speed out of them, we just haven’t been able to capitalize necessarily on that speed. I could literally point back to every race this year where we could have finished way better than what we do and we just kind of have a mess up at the end. Phoenix is another one. I think we drove up to eighth or ninth and we had a 25-second green flag pit stop with 60 to go and you just can’t have that in the Cup Series. It’s just so tight and so competitive, so I think as the year goes on hopefully that three-quarter mark will move back to halfway into the race and then a quarter of the way into the race, and then from there you can fight and recover from things a lot easier and just have speed a lot earlier in the race.”

WHO FLIPPED YOU OFF FOR A WHOLE LAP AT MARTINSVILLE? “There was more than one. There was like four or five, to be honest with you. I felt like every person that I’ve raced around was mad. I don’t know if that’s just part of the Cup deal or what. I know I was talking to Corey LaJoie after the race and Bowman and all of them were like, ‘if you race hard, they get mad’ for whatever reason. There were a couple. I don’t want to throw them under the bus or anything like that, but I felt like everything I did was never in the wrong. I passed them and then they’d get mad or I’d out-brake them getting in the corner and then I’d be on their inside and they’d flip you off for the next lap. I don’t know. I don’t want to throw him under the bus, but it was somebody I raced with last year. It was frustrating, for sure. I don’t know why everybody was so mad about racing hard and getting out-braked, but I guess, according to Bowmand and LaJoie and them guys they get pretty mad if you do that.”

NASCAR IS GOING TO START LETTING SPONSORS AND OTHERS IN THE GARAGE STARTING AT DARLINGTON. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT? “I think we’re in a good spot to start opening things up. I feel like we’ve done a really good job even at the end of last year and this year. If they feel like they’re comfortable to be able to start doing that, then I know as a driver I’m comfortable. It’s really no different. I don’t feel like last week walking into Martinsville I probably signed for 30 or 40 fans walking in because they’re all standing there. I feel like it’s no different if we have sponsors in the garage or whatever. I think the sponsors in the garage is a huge thing that we’ve been needing to have happen. I know just from my end High Point has been in this sport since literally the first race of last year and that’s the only race they’ve been able to go to in the garage, and that’s something they’ve been needing to be able to do — to go and talk to other companies from a B to B standpoint and meet these other people and CEOs and things like that, and they haven’t had that opportunity because of COVID. To keep them around we need those B to B opportunities for High Point, so I’m glad that they’re gonna be able to go now starting at Darlington and hopefully we can continue to get more and more people in there, and then obviously the fans by the end of the year because it is such an atmosphere that we need.”

TONY STEWART SAID THERE’S NO PLAYBOOK WHEN SOMEBODY COMES TO THE CUP LEVEL. HOW HAVE YOU WORKED THROUGH ALL OF THE ADVERSITY YOU’VE FACED ON AND OFF THE TRACK DURING THIS TIME? “I think Tony definitely hit the nail on the head when you say there is no playbook, and just the change in everything. Whether it’s on the racetrack, off the racetrack, on the Cup side, I’ve been more busy now than I’ve ever been in my entire career combined just this year alone, so there’s a lot of things that are very new, and you add COVID on top of that and I feel like it’s even harder, but I feel like the mental side is so big in the race car, but off the racetrack and especially in racing. I just feel like confidence goes such a long way. If you’re not confident in your abilities and what you’re doing, you start second guessing and whenever there are split-second decisions to be made you can’t second-guess and normally if you second-guess nine times out of 10 you choose wrong, you end up in the wreck or you make the wrong move and all those things. I think, for me, I’ve really tried to lean on Harvick a lot this year and just talk to him, and even going back to yesterday I talked to him about, I feel like my entire career I’ve never really been vocal on the radio. I’m a pretty even-keeled guy. I don’t get worked up. I don’t yell. I don’t get frustrated. I’m pretty normal all the time and just kind of relaxed all the time, and I probably need to get a little more worked up in the race car and let my team know what I need and not get angry or mad, not yell and scream, but be more adamant. And just talking to Kevin yesterday about how to express my frustrations, how to kind of explain those things that I’m feeling inside the race car, just so we can make our whole team better. I don’t know if that’s necessarily the answer to the question you’re wanting, but I feel like just trying to lean on guys that have experience and have been there, and obviously Kevin is one of the best to talk to, whether it’s on-track stuff or off-track stuff and just trying to use him as much as I can to try to get as close to a playbook as I can get.”

KEVIN WAS KNOWN FOR BEING VOCAL ON THE RADIO EARLY IN HIS CAREER. HOW HAS HE HELPED YOU IN THAT REGARD? “I think, for me, I told him that I feel like in the past I’ve never been in a situation where I felt like I could not complain, but even bring up things that I felt like were a big issue. Going back to last week at Martinsville, I felt like as a team we could have communicated a lot better, for example. There were a couple of times we should have pitted and we didn’t, and we were gonna take the wave around, but there are lead lap cars in front of us and a couple times we didn’t even know who we were racing for the lucky dog. It was frustrating from my end just not knowing, and I know at Martinsville it’s really hard for my crew chief and spotter to even know all those things that are going on because stuff happens so fast, but I just felt like it needed to be addressed to make our team better, and just talking to Kevin about ‘how do I bring this up without being a rear end essentially?’ I don’t want to be that guy just because that’s not who I am from a personality standpoint. I’m not gonna be going into a meeting and pounding my fist or cussing or anything like that, and just trying to figure out how to be that guy because, like I said, in the past I never felt like I could complain because I was just thankful for the opportunity and I didn’t want to screw up my opportunity. So, just talking to Kevin about how I think the best thing he told me was you have to look out for yourself. This is a business and if you don’t bring things up, the blame is gonna get pointed at you on why the results aren’t coming and things like that. Not saying I’m trying to blame the results on our team, I just felt like we could run a lot better and just communicate a lot better, and as that communication gets better and even me communicating what I need in the car — all those things — those are gonna make our results better, so just trying to make our team better from start to finish of the race and talking to Kevin just about how he would go about the situation that I felt like I was in the other day.”

WHAT HAS BEEN THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE FOR YOU SO FAR IN THE CUP SERIES? “The attention to detail off the track, the things at the shop that are done, but then on the track just how you have to be 100 percent. You can’t make one mistake. If you make one mistake, at least kind of where we’re at from a speed standpoint, you just can’t recover and just how hard it is to literally run for 20th. I feel like I race harder for 20th in the Cup Series than I did to win XFINITY races, and I think what little I’ve been up front — like on the Daytona Road Course there for a couple of laps — I feel like the racing intensity is actually easier at the front of the field versus in that midpack area just because everybody is kind of fighting for their life back there and it’s just so cutthroat, so I think that would be the biggest thing is just how you have to be on. You can’t have one mistake and if you have one mistake, you’re just kind of buried for the day, especially if it happens late in the race. So, just trying to minimize those mistakes and try to do the best I can from a preparation standpoint and trying to know what I need to do on the racetrack with no practice, just knowing what my marks are gonna be from the get-go. It’s very tough. It’s very cutthroat and everybody talks about that step from the XFINITY Series to Cup, but it’s definitely tough.”

IS THERE ANYTHING YOU TAKE AWAY FROM MARTINSVILLE TO RICHMOND? “I know from a setup standpoint that one run where we drove up through the field we felt like we were really, really strong and that was an adjustment we made, and just trying to get the car as similar to that as we can. Richmond is probably my worst racetrack by quite a bit, so just trying to look at that stuff and kind of see what at Martinsville correlated over. I think they feel like their car will be a little bit better than what it was last year at Richmond just from a drive standpoint — forward drive, just a grip standpoint — so just trying to figure out setup-wise, looking back at even these first eight races and see how I’m different from Clint. I know that they’ve talked about how my tolerance for freeness is a lot bigger than what they’re used to, and I’m really loose, but, to me, I don’t feel loose, but for them setup-wise it’s way looser than what they’re typically used to running, so just trying to figure those differences between Clint and I so they can really try to build a setup more molded to me.”

HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO MAINTAIN MOMENTUM AND FOCUS WHEN A RACE GETS POSTPONED FROM ONE DAY TO THE NEXT LIKE LAST WEEKEND? “I don’t feel like it’s too hard, especially in today’s climate of no practice. We kind of do that every week, where you just show up and go. We weren’t really that far into the race. For me, I felt like that rain delay was a huge blessing just because it finally allowed me to get of the car and look at data, go home at night, sleep on it and think about what I needed to be doing different — even go back and watch the first 40 laps of the race and that’s something I haven’t been able to do all year, so, for me, I felt like it was big. Obviously, rain delays aren’t ideal, but for a rookie I felt like it was a huge advantage that would help me just kind of shorten that gap between the rest of the field.”

WHAT IS THE STATUS OF THE BABY CHICKS MARISSA BROUGHT HOME? “That deal there, I don’t know how she thought this was a good idea. I don’t know. It makes no sense to me why she thinks that we need four chickens at our house. Like I told her, it would be different if we lived on a lot of land or on a farm. I would be OK with getting 20 chickens, but we live in a neighborhood and they’re definitely not gonna be OK with chickens, so, yeah, they’re still here right now. They’re no longer in our house, thankfully. They’re now in the garage. I don’t know why she thought that was a good idea, either, but she said she was kind of bored watching the race because I wasn’t running very good and decided she was gonna go get some chickens because she wanted something to take care of, so we have four baby chicks and hopefully they’ll be gone soon.”

IF YOU RUN WELL THIS WEEKEND WHO KNOWS WHAT YOU MIGHT FIND WHEN YOU GET HOME. “Well, that was the scary thing is she said she was gonna go get four ducks and then they were out of ducks, so now she decided she was gonna get chickens. I told her I would have been way more happy and accepting if it was a puppy or something over four chickens. I don’t know where we’re gonna put these chickens. I’m trying to find somebody at our shop that has a farm. She just says she wants to get eggs and she doesn’t care she just wants them here and to be able to go outside and get eggs, but I’m pretty sure the town has an ordinance against that, so I might have to be the one to call the city on her.”

HAS THE MOVE TO CUP BEEN HARDER THAN YOU THOUGHT? “Yeah, I would say a little bit. I felt like I was gonna be able to go run a little bit better, for sure. If you would have told me that eight races in my best finish was gonna be 18th or 19th, I would probably been like, ‘No, I think we’ll be able to run top 10 maybe once or twice, right around that 15th mark almost every weekend.’ We just haven’t been able to do that and, like I was saying earlier, we’ve had the speed but just haven’t been able to capitalize on it. Phoenix was a great one that I felt like got away. I felt like at the worst we were gonna run eighth and potentially run sixth or seventh, and then we had that bad pit stop at the end and it kills you. I think we ended up running 24th or something there, so it’s definitely been tough. The Cup Series is just very intense and obviously the kind of struggles we’re having right now as a company, it’s not encouraging because as a team we want to be running better, but for me as a rookie to see that my teammates are kind of struggling just as bad as I am it helps a little bit, I guess, to relieve some of that worry and doubt that you would have just seeing if you were ready to do this or not. I feel like if Kevin is having a hard time running top 10, then our stuff is probably a little bit off, so hopefully we can get it turned around here soon and once we get the speed back in the car, like I was saying earlier, I feel like when our car drives the way I want it to drive, we’re always top 10 speed-wise, and as our cars get better that’s only gonna get easier, and then hopefully we can kind of get up front and more in the mix.”

DO YOU HAVE ANY SENSE OF HOW MUCH OF IT IS THE CAR AND HOW MUCH OF IT IS YOU? “I think it’s hard to put a number on it, but I think it’s both. I think, as a rookie eight races into your career, you can’t sit there and say it’s the car. A perfect example is the first three-quarters of the race I feel like I’m learning so much, even the last lap of the race I feel like I’m still learning a lot. I feel like I’m definitely part of the problem, for sure at the beginning of the race and just taking off and trying to maintain that track position and all of those things, but, at the same time, our cars are off from a speed standpoint. That’s no secret and even from a balance standpoint we’re off, and going through our competition meetings it seems like week in and week out all four of our cars fight the same thing, so we just have to figure out how to fix what we’re fighting from a balance standpoint and when the balance is better our speed is gonna be better, but I do think just from a raw speed we’re a little bit off still, but as a driver I’m definitely learning so much that I could definitely be doing better at the beginning of these races, but without practice it is hard. I think we’ve just got to continue to be the best I can be on the racetrack and then I know our cars are gonna get better for sure by the end of the year, and just trying to capitalize on that and at the end of the year we might say, ‘Hey, it was good for our team at the beginning of the year to have the whole company struggle and now that we’ve learned a lot and got to the end of the season our cars are fast now and we can capitalize on it.’ So we’ve just got to continue to learn — me as a driver and as a team — and I feel like once we get everything right, we’ll be able to contend and compete. It’s just a matter of putting it all together.”

IS YOUR DRIVING STYLE THE SAME OR DIFFERENT THAN YOUR TEAMMATES? “I think all four of us drive different, but I still feel like it’s all relatively the same. I think for us it has to be something a little bit with the car just because all four of us do struggle with the same thing every week, and even if we all four have totally different driving styles, we all four have the same complaints of what the car is doing, where we’re struggling with the car, what we need the car to do, so I think my driving style might be a little more different than what they’re used to with Clint, but I don’t think just because the other three drivers are different from me it necessarily means that we can’t take what they’re doing. I think you still have to fine-tune to your driver. What Kevin Harvick thinks is perfect is not gonna be what I think is perfect and vice versa, and that’s the same with all four cars. But I do think the 4 car, the 10 or the 41 hit on something that all of a sudden fixes their issue or all of a sudden gives them a lot of speed, I do think that will be a good fix for our whole company because we all do fight the same thing right now. Hopefully, we can figure that out soon. We really don’t get a true test, I mean we can still test but I feel like Kansas will be the first time back to see if we’ve fixed an issue or not, so hopefully we’ll have some more speed there and also this weekend because at Martinsville, obviously, we weren’t the best either.”

WHAT DO YOU HOPE YOU’RE ABLE TO DO AT KANSAS THAT YOU HAVEN’T BEEN ABLE TO DO ON THE MILE-AND-A-HALF TRACKS SO FAR? “I think just raw speed. You look back at Las Vegas. We were able to run wide-open just like Larson was, but he was still going way faster than we were, so just trying to figure out how he can run wide-open for 30-40 laps, where we can only do it for 5-10, and just try to figure out what we need in our race car to be able to do that, so hopefully we’ll have it by there. Kansas is a little bit different because I do feel like it’s gonna be easier to run wide-open there longer than most places, but just raw speed I think is the biggest thing. Like I said, when we’re both running wide-open they’re still going quite a bit faster than us and it’s easier for them to run wide-open. It’s harder for us even though we’re going slower, so just trying to figure all those things out.”