TOYOTA RACING – Tyler Reddick
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes

LOUDON, NH. (Aug. 22, 2026) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Tyler Reddick was made available to the media on Saturday after winning the pole for the NASCAR Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Reddick recorded his fourth pole of 2026 and the 15th pole of his career. The pole was also Toyota’s 10th pole position of the season.

TYLER REDDICK, No. 45 Chumba Casino Toyota Camry XSE, 23XI Racing

How tough is it to go for where you were kind of out to lunch in practice to winning the pool an hour later?

“I wasn’t how you think things through and how you want it to go. I was thinking, like, qualifying went good, maybe top 10, whatever. I didn’t have this thought that we’re going to go lay a lap down here and I’ll be talking to you guys again in a little bit. The thought was you want to get the most out of the car, most out of the lap and I just tried to understand what didn’t like out of my car and practice and make sure I don’t tap into that at all and just tried to make the most of what I thought our strengths were in practice, and I was just kind of able to kind of tie it all together and run a really good laugh in qualifying. From my perspective the tracks seemed a little different than normal, but this is the first time we’ve come here and done the 50-minute practice and then go qualify. I just felt like my mindset was in a good place for what I needed to do on the lap. I didn’t make any major mistakes. Concerning practice, that was not good for sure. We went out there and Billy (Scott, Crew Chief) told me if I’m not happy by lap 15, let’s pit and work on it. I didn’t get to lap 10 and I was like we got to get to work. Run two and run three weren’t exactly what we wanted. But as much as it may not be fun out during the moment trying to sort it all out and run the laps, it’s good to acquire the knowledge, run the laps, and see what the tires are doing. Then for us to be able to go to work on it tonight, figure out what direction we want to go. We will lean on our teammates, see what they had gains with, things of that nature. We put it all together and have what’s the car capable of in one lap, right? We were able to do this, so it tells me if we hit it we should be pretty good on speed, that’s going to be the tough part, right? It’s just making sure that we make the right changes between today and tomorrow.”

Is winning the pole a big boost for you and your team right now?

“Going to some of these tracks when I have been on more typical days, when I’m sitting here talking to you guys about sitting on a pole, we went out there in practice and been fast. The fire off and are good on the mid run and the long run speed, all that’s good, you know? This one is really, really fun and cool because practice was not like that for us. We had things that we were unhappy with, things we wanted to work on. It wasn’t like we walked away from practice, let’s make a little adjustment here and there and we were good to go for the race. We knew we’ve got things we need to really work on. So for us to take that, put it over here, and then start to focus on what we need to do in qualifying and then go lay a lap down like we did, that’s a big deal because it’s very easy after a practice like that to just have a mediocre qualifying effort and then your day just continues to not be great. So, I’ve been able to get the bullet a few places over the years it’s really fun and special, but the fashion that we did it today was really, really awesome.”

What will you do between now and tomorrow for the race in terms of figuring things out since it seems like you guys were way off in practice for long run speed?

“Going back to debriefing my teammates, going back for your notes, obviously the tire combination is a little bit different. It’s more what we ran a lot of short tracks this year. You look at those notes from those weekends too, it’s why you take notes. You document what’s going on, so you can go back through and understand what we need to do. Billy’s really good at that. My team’s really good at that to begin with. So, let’s have some good discussions about it. And then, I’ll lean in and kind of say which direction I want to go, but Billy does a really good job of understanding, there this is good, but we need to ignore this. And so, we’ll just have some big-time decisions to make between now and Sunday morning. But we’ll do our best to get them right. We’ll lean on our teammates and see how we get going in the race.”

Is where you were at in practice perplexing at all?

“I would say the feeling would be worse if we qualified 30th, you know? Because now you don’t have the track position and you don’t have pit selection. It’s like, man, I don’t know, is there speed even there? After Richmond, it was kind of a way for us like, okay, where are we at? Like, we didn’t even see anything out of it in the qualifying session. We were able to turn that around and we had good speed in the race. You know, if anything, be able to put this lab together and go that fast, especially against the Penske cars who’ve showed a lot of speed here. It’s more promising than anything. It’s like, okay, you know, I think we can get this right. So, we’ll just work on it.”

Your teammate Bubba Wallace was second in average speed. Is this something you’ll look at later with him and his team?

“I’d say so. We’ll start with our teammates and lean on other Toyota teammates as well. Like I said, notes from years past, notes from other times we ran this tire. We have to do a really good job of going through that stuff. We’ll lean on others and see what their opinions and perspectives were for practice, they’re going to hear what mine was. That’s what having teammates is all about working together, helping each other out. It’s probably going to sound crazy but the guy who’s starting first is going to be really leaning on these teammates to figure out what to do.

You could see some wet racing in the rain tomorrow, what are you expecting if that happens?

“Funny enough, last, you know, when we when we did this here a couple years ago, I was the first one in turn one to figure it out. I have some good experience with it. That was the day I was really hoping it was ending under rain, but I understand what we did. But it was a lot of fun. When you race in damp conditions here, it’s very tricky. The grip is limited, and there’s cracks, so different levels of age with the asphalt, the paint, all the things that go into it. It makes it really tricky and fun, but we’ll just be ready for whatever. Got some good experience over the years at a couple other tracks with those conditions and I feel like everyone’s level just continues to raise up every opportunity we have with those wet conditions.”

How confident were you in your entry speed in turns one and three? And did you let the car attack the flat corners the way that you wanted?

“It’s tricky, I think in the qualifying scenario, you have a totally wide open, clean track. When you get running in the race you’re dealing with traffic, you have to adjust your line, you have to readjust your marks. And it’s tough here without flat this track is. The car needs to be stuck to the track and when you get in traffic and scenarios change your marks change. It’s easy for the car to not drive like you want it. Just in general, this is a really difficult track to keep the car working, but that’s what makes it so rewarding and fun when you get it right. You’ll see that in the race tomorrow, drivers will be having to move their marks around trying to keep the car working under the corner entries with that traffic. But, that’s racing.”

When you have a turnaround like that between practice and qualifying, how much confidence does that give you?

“When we get done here, we got plenty of things to discuss and figure out. It’s a confidence boost, right? It’s like, okay, well, we know we can at least get it, right? We didn’t really have a sign or a showing of that in one lap or the averages in practice. We were kind of in a bit of traffic. I love the single group practice session, the track evolves more like the race. I think it’s helpful in trying to understand what your car is going to do, what new tires are going to do, on the more rubbered in surface. But there are things that come with it, right? Like there’s just less holes on the racetrack to get a clean hole and figure out what he got. But it’s just one of those things that’s funny, right? Everyone hunts so hard to have clean air in practice but only one guy is going to have it a second of the race. Tt’s just one of those things you try and try and manage, but for us, we got it right on qualifying, so we know that the speed is there. We just got to figure out how to keep it, keep it coming over the run and find a happy spot where I’m good with the balance and I can get the most out of it like I did in qualifying.”

If it stays dry and we have a long run tomorrow, how sketchy are the cars going to be feeling?

“That’s always kind of a game that’s played everywhere you go. When you’re in traffic, people are trying to undercut. We’ve seen others go the opposite way when they know they’re getting undercut. They’ll just say, all right, well, we’ll go past our window, go long, and have try to have a tire advantage. It’s just one of the fun things about racing in general, stock car racing in general, when the cycle does start, and it’s a track where the balance fades away, the tires fall away, the pace slows down. So, it’s just one of those things that kind of happens everywhere. I think it’s kind of a product of the difference in left side tire even more so than the than the horsepower, just the snappy sketchiness on the exits. Richmond felt like it took a step in that direction too, this last time. But again, my opinion, more from the tire change than even the power. It’s kind of the direction they’re going with the tires and the left side being a little different this year. It’s making it more of a handful for us, which is good. It means more mistakes will happen, more lap time variation and more passing.”

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Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Dollar Tree 301 Media Availabilities — New Hampshire Motor Speedway
Saturday, August 22, 2026

Ford Racing drivers Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano and Ryan Preece all stopped by the New Hampshire Motor Speedway infield media center before NASCAR Cup Series practice and qualifying to answer questions from the media.

MEDIA AVAILABILITY PRESS CONFERENCES

RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Dutch Boy Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT IS YOUR CONFIDENCE LIKE GOING INTO THE CHASE AND WHAT DO YOU THINK IT’S GOING TO TAKE TO WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP? “I think Team Penske has done a good job all year of just kind of staying in the game. On my group’s side, I feel like we’ve gotten better at some places where we’ve really needed to improve and closed the gap a little bit to the Toyotas that were really strong. So, yeah, I think we’re in a good spot at Team Penske and hitting some really good momentum right before we get going in the Chase, and hopefully we can continue that.”

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I think recently, as far as the 22 itself, we’ve been able to get some good finishes back rolling again over the last couple months. It didn’t seem like it matters as to the type of track. It seems like we’ve been able to close that gap and find some consistency. We were lacking speed earlier in the year. When you lack speed, you get caught up in crashes more often and it just kind of snowballs. It seem like we’ve been able to scratch and claw and get some speed back in it. The mile-and-a-half stuff seems OK. Short tracks, obviously, is still our bread and butter and we were able to capitalize on that the last few weeks and hopefully we can do that again here in Loudon.”

RYAN BLANEY CONTINUED – WHAT DID YOU DO WITH THE LOBSTER FROM LAST YEAR’S WIN? “You can’t eat them. They’re too old. I learned that in Victory Lane. I get it tomorrow. I guess they put it on a plaque. He took a visit to the taxidermist and they put him on a nice little plaque, so I get it tomorrow. I’ll find a place in my house for him.”

JOEY LOGANO CONTINUED – WHAT DID YOU DO WITH YOUR LOBSTER? “I think I ate it. I don’t really remember. I think I’m the first one to put it on a plaque, I think, years and years ago because I remember when we won it back in 2009 they were like, ‘What do you want to do with the lobster? We’ll just ship it to you.’ And I’m like, ‘What do you mean you’re gonna ship it to me? Alive?’ And they’re like, ‘Yeah, alive.’ And I was like, ‘No, don’t do that.’ I don’t know what I was gonna do with this huge lobster, and so it was like, ‘Why don’t you just put it on a plaque.’ They kind of thought I was crazy the first time, but who is laughing now? Everyone does it, I guess, so there you go. I’ve got a couple on the wall at this point. It’s a good icebreaker when people come to your house and see a lobster on the wall. You have a cool story.”

THE CHASE WILL PROBABLY BE DECIDED ON 1.5-MILE TRACKS. HOW MUCH RESOURCES AND TIME IS TEAM PENSKE DEDICATING TO THAT KIND OF TRACK? “It’s constant. Everyone is always working towards finding speed at any track we go to. Sure, there’s a lot of mile-and-a-halves in there, but there’s also some of the tracks that we feel solid about, too. Those mile-and-a-halves, we’ve closed up the gap a fair amount from where we were. The 12 was able to run good at those tracks somehow before, but it seems like we can see them now a little bit too, and run up there too, so I think there’s kind of two ways to look at it. One, is if you zoom into your car in particular, whether it’s the 22 or the 12 for Ryan, but then zoomed out a little bit and looking at Team Penske as as whole, and then zoom out maybe more as Ford as a whole. Where can we be making gains? Those little things add up over time. You’re never gonna find one big thing that changes everything, but if we can work on the things together that are important to try to give it more potential, and then as a team try to work on your setups to get that little bit more of an edge. It’s just never ending. I don’t know if the focus is more so than it has been, but it’s just a constant work at it.”

NASCAR REINFORCED THE FRONT SPLITTER MORE AT NORTH WILKESBORO. HAVE YOU SEEN ANYTHING FROM THAT WHERE IT HAS HELPED? “I don’t know if it was designed just to help others. I think it was just to bring the field to where everyone was doing the same thing. There were cars that were more aggressive with that rule than others. I’m just telling you how it is. Some teams feel more comfortable pushing things past the edge a little bit and getting their hand slapped or worse, and other teams are a little bit more conservative. That was something that was obviously a decent sized needle mover for some teams. Kudos to NASCAR for finding a way to enforce it. It’s not an easy rule to enforce, obviously, so they’ve found a way to do it, so kudos to them.”

RYAN BLANEY CONTINUED – HOW MUCH DOES MOMENTUM PLAY IN THE CHASE AND TO GO INTO IT WITH A COUPLE TRACKS WHERE YOUR TEAM IS STRONG? “I’m a big believer in momentum and confidence, whether it’s in your group or yourself. They’re kind of two in the same. It is nice. We’ve had a stretch of races here closing into the Chase that our teams have really been able to step up and have had really good runs and contended for wins and win them. This weekend, we were all really strong here last year. Hopefully, that can continue and then the speedway, I don’t know what to expect at Daytona. I think everyone is kind of up in the air, but all you can do is go in with an open mind. I think momentum is a big thing, so you want it to be high and on your side when you get to the Chase, but then you still have to execute. You can have all the momentum in the world and it can break pretty easy, but it’s a positive mindset to have and I think that’s good.”

IS THERE ONE THING YOU CAN PULL FROM LAST YEAR’S WIN FOR TOMORROW, WHAT WOULD IT BE? “I think we did everything very well last year. The car was fast off the truck and I’d say one of the weaker spots in our race was short run, restart. That’s where we kind of struggled, but after 10 laps or so we really came to life, so we looked at those areas – Jonathan and I. ‘OK, how do we be a little bit better there.’ You don’t want to sacrifice later in the run because that’s where we were good, but you get late-race scenarios, it would be hard to hold some people off, I think, just how our car took off on new tires. So, you’re always trying to piece things together year to year, race to race, no matter if you were great the previous year or you were terrible, you were always trying to get a little bit better. You don’t want to do that same thing because you learn a lot over that year, so I think if that’s anything we could pinpoint from last year’s race to focus on, I think we focus on that a little bit.”

JOEY LOGANO CONTINUED – HOW WAS THE TRIP BACK FROM RICHMOND IN THE VAN? “Nothing would have been different if we finished 30th or first on the way home, I know that. I kind of laugh now. You win a race when you’re young and you’re like, ‘Let’s go party and have a good time.’ Now it’s like, my wife is like, ‘OK, I’m gonna go put the kids to bed.’ And I’m like, ‘Alright, I’ll finish taking pictures down here,’ and I kept a couple with me. Then you get back and everyone is tired and you go to bed and you wake up at 6:30 the next morning and I’m like, ‘Alright, load it up.’ And everyone gets in the van. There are five kids in a van. What do you think it’s like? (laughing) Someone touched the other kid. Some spilled their water. One is hungry. One’s gotta go to the bathroom. You’ve gotta make a pit stop. We did good, though. It was a one-stop trip. That’s pretty good and that’s pretty good on the bladder mileage, in our opinion. We’ve got it figured out pretty good at this point, or as good as you can imagine. But it’s loud. It’s fun (laughing).”

RYAN BLANEY CONTINUED – HOW DOES THIS TRACK STILL CHALLENGE YOU? “I think just year to year. You never know how teams improve year to year and everyone is working just as hard as your group to try to get better, but the good thing is these types of tracks have been pretty good to us this year. We do a great job at Team Penske on really running well at the mile and under flat tracks. We just do a good job of understanding what we need here, but we have no idea. We could be really off today. I don’t know until we get on the racetrack, but at least we’ve got the previous experience from last year and some notes on this tire through this year to where hopefully we can apply it all and be able to contend, but there are always challenges.”

JOEY LOGANO CONTINUED – “I think this track is one of the most technical, maybe the most technical oval that we go to. It rewards precision on the racetrack for the driver and you want to have a car that’s a little bit versatile, that’s a little bit more accepting to the bumps, to the banking transitions to the corner. Qualifying here today is a pretty challenging lap of trying to hit it all just right. If you overslow the entry, pick up the gas too soon, your timing gets screwed up. You overshoot it in there, you get loose. You’re a little bit too low and clip the apron, you get it loose and you’re up the racetrack. You jump over the third seam and then you’re too high. You get stuck on the seam. You’ve just got to be so precise around this racetrack to make a fast lap here, so qualifying, to me, takes a lot to hit it right on. It’s hard to ever feel like you just nailed the lap perfect. There’s always a little bit of something here and there. It’s just a pretty technical place.”

RYAN BLANEY CONTINUED – “And then you can throw everything out of the book when it’s gonna rain tomorrow. It’ll be a whole new race.” JOEY INTERJECTS: “It’s not gonna rain.” RYAN: “I hope it doesn’t” JOEY: “I hope it doesn’t (laughing).”

RYAN BLANEY CONTINUED – YOU RACED ON A DAMP TRACK HERE A COUPLE YEARS AGO. WHAT’S IT LIKE IF IT RAINS TOMORROW TO RE-LEARN A TRACK IN THOSE CONDITIONS AND THEN AS IT DRIES? “Well, if that does happen tomorrow at least we’ve had experience on this racetrack in the rain. I remember two years ago when it did rain. I think me and Reddick were on the front row and you’re like, ‘I’m gonna drive in as far as you, maybe a little bit deeper. I just don’t know.’ But now we’ve had that experience with it, just trying to see where the lines go, how it dries out. This place actually, when it did rain, it dried out fairly quick. I don’t think we ever got back on slicks, though. It was wet tires to the end of that race, but just trying to figure out where are the spots that are drying up. You don’t want to run in the dry too much because then you’re gonna just destroy the soft wet weather tires, but it is nice to have some experience if it does rain tomorrow, like two years ago when we had zero laps in the rain here and just trying to figure it out on the fly. That stuff is pretty fun and challenging, but experience is also nice when you’re sitting behind the wheel.”

WHAT WILL DAYTONA BE LIKE MENTALLY WITH THE UNKNOWNS OF THE PACKAGE? “Make one lap in qualifying and then fire it off in the race and see what happens. I’ve always tried to be open-minded on things, like try not to expect too much of when I don’t know 100 percent about it. I think I’ve just always tried to make myself more versatile that way and not try to get too stuck in my ways, but I don’t know. I go back and forth on it could be a massive, wildly different change, or it could be, ‘It’s not as much of a change as I thought.’ I don’t know what to expect, but we’re gonna be the first to find out, I’ll tell you that. So, we’ll see. What do you think, Joe?”

JOEY LOGANO CONTINUED – “I don’t know what to think yet, Ryan. Thanks for asking. I’m curious to see how much handling comes into play. Typically, even with the added downforce that we had before, coming off of turn four is kind of the trouble point, where cars would kind of slip up and those kind of things. I’m assuming it’s gonna look more like the old Daytona years ago before they repaved it – a little bit more that direction. Or like Atlanta, where handling is gonna come into play to some extent. I just don’t know at what point in the run does that happen. Are we packed up for the first 10 and then you start to see the cream rise to the top? You start to see the best cars start to move their way through the field. I don’t know. Maybe. I kind of think it’s gonna go that direction. It only makes sense if you’re taking grip away. Sure, the car’s gonna handle worse, so, like Ryan said, we’ll be the first to know, but we ain’t gonna know before anybody else, either because one lap of qualifying is gonna tell us nothing. So, I don’t know.”

RYAN BLANEY CONTINUED – HOW CLOSELY ARE YOU MONITORING POINTS THE NEXT TWO WEEKS WITH THE BATTLE FOR SECOND STILL UP FOR GRABS? “A little bit. I look at the points once or twice a week, usually the night after the race to see where everyone is at, and then I remind myself where everyone is at before the weekend comes. They don’t consume my whole race, but I notice where those guys are running just because we are in the fight with those guys for the second spot, but it doesn’t change our race. We won’t strategize our race around the 45 or the 54. We strategize to try to win the race and then the points stuff takes care of itself. You do know that and we do know from second to fourth is a decent chunk of points, so that’s goal number one outside of winning the race the next two weeks – try to stay ahead of those two guys.”

RYAN PREECE, No. 60 Mohawk Northeast Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HOW WOULD YOU ASSESS HOW RFK HAS PERFORMED OVER THIS STRETCH OF WILKESBORO, IOWA AND THIS SHORT TRACK STRETCH? “I felt like it was definitely an opportunity as well. North Wilkesboro went well for us just because of the race and the way that race played out. Iowa I thought was a struggle for us in general, but kind of gave us like, ‘Hey, we need to figure something out here.’ And we went into Richmond and, to be honest with you, we qualified up front and ran up front and then an untimely caution during a pit cycle ruined our day, so we didn’t go to Richmond and run 25th to 30th and go back after that like, ‘Hey, man. We need to completely re-do everything we’re doing at short tracks.’ So, I felt like we took a step in the right direction after Iowa for Richmond, and I feel like we’re gonna take another step when we come here today, so there’s a lot of things I’m looking forward to. Today, I was just in the trailer and Derrick said, ‘We need a home run right now.’ So, that’s the plan.”

DO YOU HAVE A NUMBER OF POINTS YOU WANT TO BE WITHIN REACH GOING TO DAYTONA? “Personally, I think no matter what when we go to Daytona we’re on offense. I would much rather be in Chris’ position or somebody who is 60 points above going into Daytona because it’s really gonna take a Hail Mary or a massive grand slam for somebody to go out and knock you out of the playoffs at that point, but, realistically, if we’re within 10 to 15 of Shane or Ross and going into that race we without a doubt have a chance. Because they’re gonna be going into that race with a mindset of, ‘Hey, we need to finish and not put ourselves in jeopardy,’ which you give up stage points and the next thing you know by the end of stage two you’re like, if the person goes out and does what we’ve done in the past of getting a lot of stage points, it puts them in an oh, boy mode. It’s a challenge because you’ve got your owner’s points and that’s 25 points behind Shane, and then you’ve got the driver’s points and that’s 50, so there are two different chases going on for us. For me, I love this place. It’s my home track and I feel like we can definitely take a big bite into that points difference that Shane has on us. We came in with the mindset of trying to go for it all.”

WHAT DOES A HOME RUN THIS WEEKEND LOOK LIKE? “Qualifying up front. A lot of stage points. Contending for a win, if not winning. Without a doubt, I feel like Penske has shown that the short track program for Ford is there. Last week, Austin had a great points day in which he needed, so, for us, I really like the direction that we’re trying to go to of, ‘hey, we need to run well.’ That’s tough to have because when you do run well, you don’t have those conversations of ‘hey, we ran really great,’ but to the flip side, this is an important one. Qualifying. Practice. That all really helps the beginning of the race and I think you guys have seen you can go out and have a ton of stage points in stage one and stage two and finish 12th or 10th and that’s a massive points day. So, you combine that with if Shane has a little bit of bad luck, yeah, there’s definitely a chance. Look at Joey. He’s 150 points from where he was six races ago.”

HOW CLOSELY WILL YOU MONITOR THE 97? “I’m not. Control the things that you can control and don’t worry about the things you can’t At the end of the day it’s much like Ryan (Blaney) just said. You get out of the car, you kind of look at it and say, ‘OK, whatever,’ and then you move on.”

YOU MADE YOUR CUP DEBUT HERE. WHAT MAKES NEW HAMPSHIRE SO HARD COMPARED TO OTHER TRACKS FOR YOUR FIRST START? “Everybody’s situation on when they do their first start is much different. Mine was Tommy Baldwin and Premium Motorsports at the time, and I think, to be honest with you, trying to finish in the top 25 or top 20 would have been really difficult, but New Hampshire, I feel like for us New Englanders, is a big deal because when you go to most racetracks – Texas Motor Speedway, it’s probably a big deal if you’re in Texas, or Daytona is Florida. But for New England, it’s Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine. It’s a whole bunch of states that just get around whoever is from New England – the sports team that’s from New England. We’re very passionate about our sports, but going back to answer your question on why it’s difficult, this place is tough. It’s flat. It’s fast. I’ve actually seen, and I feel like this track has widened out over time. It used to be when the days of Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton, there’s what we call the flat, which would be technically you would think the bottom lane, and then there’s a little bit of banking and everybody used to run around there. Now, people are running on that middle or whatever lower lane, and then going all the way above to the different color asphalt, so it’s definitely changed.”

YOU ARE IN THE MODIFIED RACE LATER TODAY. HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE YOU TO GET ACCLIMATED BACK TO THAT TYPE OF VEHICLE? “It takes half a lap, but, to be honest with you, the setup, the tires, all those things, it just changes and to try and keep up with that. Earlier this year, I did one race at New Smyrna. We qualified well and ran really well. We led a lot of laps and that was when everybody first switched over to this American Racer tire. I haven’t done one since and, clearly, I felt like our car drove good in practice. We were top five and going into qualifying we qualified 21st, so whatever I used to do for qualifying adjustments doesn’t work for that tire and that’s what makes it tough going in and racing against guys that are regularly racing that series and on that tire because you pick up on little things to help your speed. My hopes for today are to contend and try and win that race because this place has always been special to me and I love coming here and racing with these guys. My car drives really good, so I’m hoping we can move forward.”

WHAT IS IT LIKE PREPARING FOR A WEEKEND LIKE THIS? “The prep for the Cup side is completely different from the modified side. Luckily, my father gave me a big head start when I came in and kind of was working on it on Wednesday, but I just like the process. When it comes to preparing for the modified race is making sure my car is as low as possible and as fast as possible and that all the little details of what it takes to make a fast modified are there. With the Cup car, it’s how important is qualifying gonna be, which it’s always important, but track position is a big thing, and then just work on the things you can control. I feel like from a restart perspective and being aggressive, it’s kind of easy for me, especially here knowing all the lanes, where the grip is and where it’s not. I feel pretty good about that, but just being home. It’s a different feeling. Seeing all the familiar faces. The weather. It feels nice to walk out of the hotel and not feel like I’m hitting a wall of hot air.”

WHAT CAN RACE FANS WHO HAVE NEVER SEEN A MODIFIED RACE EXPECT THAT THEY WON’T SEE TOMORROW? “Drafting. Slingshot passes. Hopefully, there are a lot of passes for the lead in the Cup cars, but those cars are so draggy that when you’re out front you’re almost like a sitting duck, like when we’re at Atlanta. So you get a lot of passes and a lot of cool stuff like that. I want to say from a driver’s point of view, the modifieds are just a lot of fun to race in because you’re typically not gonna watch somebody just walk away with the lead and drive away. It’s very difficult to do that, so it’s one that I’ve been looking forward to for a couple weeks. Hopefully, I can dice it up with them who were fast yesterday.”

WHAT ARE THE MEMORIES AND EXPERIENCES STAND OUT TO YOU AT THIS PLACE? “Actually, it’s funny you asked that because I had one this morning when I was walking through the D/O lot to head into the Cup garage, Chad Knaus was driving by me and it brought back a memory of when NASCAR and the Whelen Modified Tour was doing the All-Star event here, and I was bringing the modified, I think it was 2013, right around then. I brought the modified, drove it up on the open trailer to do the announcement, and Chad Knaus and those guys were testing, and it was just me unloading the car and they’re all kind of there just looking at it like, ‘Hey, that’s pretty cool.’ So, it just brought back that memory. The grind. I don’t know. I’ve spent a lot of time here. I’ve loved everything about this place and it would be nice to have a win in the Cup Series here.”

WHAT IS YOUR MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT AT THIS TRACK? “It’s hard to pick just one. One was probably nerfing Newman out of the way for the win with that modified. I remember feeling his arms grabbing around my neck in a joking way, but he had some big hands. I think one for me on the national side was when I did that first race in the 20 and it went really well. Those are the things that stick with you. I’ve definitely had a lot of memories, especially as a kid and throughout many stages of my life, and it would be nice to add one this weekend.”

TOYOTA RACING – Christopher Bell
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes

LOUDON, NH (August 22, 2026) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Christopher Bell was made available to the media on Saturday prior to the NASCAR Cup Series race from New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 Rheem Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
You come into the truck race today a little further back, how does that change your approach to the race today?
“Certainly not off to a great start for the truck race. It’s going to be a challenge to get up to the field. You know, it takes a lot of time to pass cars. 
I’m going to have to make the most of the restarts. Hopefully the yellow flags fall to where we can, get some strategy and get up there. I was optimistic about the truck on the long run yesterday in practice. I was struggling for grip whenever we took off, but it seemed like the longer we went the hotter the tires got and I felt like I was in a pretty good spot. We are going to need the race to play out really well for us, but I love racing here. I’m excited about the challenge.”

You are currently 20 points out of fifth place in the standings. How much are you following that over the next two weeks?
“That’s been the name of the game, especially really the last month or so. We’ve been really focused on the tight battle between 5th and 10th. At one time I was on the losing side of it, and now we’re making our way up. (Chase) Briscoe had a great day last week at Richmond and got a little bit of separation, but the good news for me is that I seem to have gotten some separation from that 10th, ninth place area. 
So, yeah, still focused on that. We know that this is a huge opportunity for us and then Daytona is going to be a complete unknown. I think this one is kind of in our hands to where we can control our own destiny. 
And then Daytona, we’re just going to go out there and basically go to Vegas and gamble and see what happens. I’m happy that we got some separation from those guys. Obviously with Briscoe having that huge day at Richmond, we got some ground to make up on him. Myself and Chase Elliott are tied for sixth place. I think we’re in as good a spot as we could have asked for given the circumstances of 2026 for us.”

Can you explain what you’re learning in all three national series compared to the past since you run all three series extensively?
“With the introduction of the NextGen car and even the last couple years of the Gen 6 car, the aerodynamics of the Truck relate a lot more to the Cup car than the O’Reilly Series car. The O’Reilly Series car is kind of a low downforce, low drag, lots of off throttle time. A Cup car in recent years has been more of the high downforce, lots of on throttle time, which matches and gets more aligned with the Truck series. With the new car, the way that you’re creating the downforce is a lot different. So, there are probably more similarities to a Truck, but even that being so, they are still very much on their own. The Cup cars are very much on their own island. People ask me if it if it helps me and it really is just for the love of the game at this point.”

You posted a picture with deep admiration towards Kyle Busch this week. What were you thinking about posting the photo?
I think we were at a dirt track and just Kyle, whenever he was away from his day job, he was very enjoyable to be around. Fun to hang out with and lighthearted, always cutting up and cracking jokes. I don’t exactly remember what happened in that moment. We had a lot of good memories at the dirt tracks throughout those last couple of years whenever we were racing.”

Entering this weekend, you have 12 career starts and you have seven wins across all three national series here at New Hampshire. What is it about this track that just suits your driving style?
I think I’ve just had good cars. I’ve had great cars every time that I’ve come here between Kyle Busch Motorsports when I started in the Truck Series. One thing that was super beneficial for me was whenever my pavement career started at KBM, we came up here a lot. Even before I ran my first Truck Race, we came up and ran a super late model race with the KBM late model program. And then before my first Truck race we came up and used one of our NASCAR rookie tests at this racetrack because it was one of the first playoff races that we had in the Truck Series. So before I ran my first truck race I had a late model start and a truck test, which was super beneficial. And then from that truck test, we had a great setup and had really fast trucks between 2016 and 2017 that led to good results. And then Joe Gibbs Racing’s resume speaks for itself. Just having seat time here, this is a unique place that people don’t get a lot of seat time at just because historically it’s had one race a year. Then the trucks and the O’Reilly Series don’t both come here at the same time. There are just a lot of the younger guys that are coming into the sport don’t have a lot of seat time here and I was fortunate enough to get that seat time before I got into the Cup Series.”

Can you explain what the grind is like right now trying to climb from 10th and beyond to get to fifth in points. You have a lot to race for even in the old system, but is there a difference in what the grind is like from now to last year as well?
“The grind of the schedule was a lot harder last year with that. We had one off week, and it was Easter weekend and then we had 20 something races in-a-row. That was brutal last year. So at least I feel like the schedule being broken up a lot more this year having that extra off weekend and a couple weeks ago was great. But the new format has put a lot more pressure on every single race. The previous playoff format you very much have this win or bust mentality throughout the regular season. You’re racing for wins. And if you don’t have an opportunity to win, it’s like, okay, well, we’ll try again next week and just kind of put it behind you. Now, every single stage, every race, every position, all those points matter and have an impact on where you’re going to be whenever the Chase starts and then you’re seeding in the Chase. I would say the pressure of the week to week has been a lot more this year and it’s just going to ramp up whenever the Chase starts. But in all reality, the races that we’re doing now before the Chase starts have as big of an impact as those in the Chase. This format has definitely put pressure on the teams and the drivers. And based off what you’re saying, if you had a season like this year, last year, with the runner-ups, that wouldn’t have been as painful now because it’s been more gratifying now with this format. Because the previous format you got the bonus points, which were the only thing that transferred from race wins. If I would have had seven second place finishes last year and no wins, that would have been that would have been brutal. But at least in this format the bonus points are gone. It’s just the one point standing structure and we have been able to string together some solid point days. I think that it’s been a lot more gratifying this year to have those seven runner-up finishes than it would have been in the year in the previous format.”

Is there really a true reset heading into the Chase when you are riding the momentum that you are right now?
I think there’s going to be less of a reset this year. I don’t think anybody truly knows how it’s going to feel, but definitely in the previous format it did feel like you’re starting over fresh and the points kind of reset. They did reset to your bonus points, so this time your regular season finish is going to be where you get seeded. I don’t think any of us exactly know how it’s going to feel, but certainly the thing that I appreciate is that these races we’ve done since February matter, and they impact what’s going to happen in the Chase. So, every race is as is more important in this format, which I greatly appreciate.

Could you argue that doing well right now in July and August and heading into it, though, is a bit more of a benefit for it?
“It will be rewarded. It will be rewarded where the seven second place finishes meant nothing in the previous format, but now I’m getting rewarded for those finishes and those races that obviously came up short but still got a lot of points. So, I’ve enjoyed racing under this format.”

What is it about the Penske cars that make them so good on flatter tracks like here at New Hampshire, Martinsville and Phoenix?
“I think it comes down to strengths and weaknesses. The Toyotas right now, our strengths are going fast. If we go to the high-speed tracks where downforce matters a lot, it seems like we have a good package at the intermediates, Michigan, Pocono, even the Nashville style tracks. Then these shorter tracks, it seems like the Penske cars have the advantage where it comes to more mechanical grip. I don’t really know why that is, but certainly over the last 12 months for sure, you could argue even longer than that with the championships that they have. They’ve been really good at Richmond, they’ve been really good here at Loudon. I think they’re going to be the cars to beat again. This is definitely their strength right now.”

In addition to Denny Hamlin, who else do you see as guys you’re going to have to beat for the championship?
“Obviously all of the Toyota cars are going to be really good, you have four in the top seven of the standings right now. Any of us could get hot and go on a run. From what we’ve seen over the past year of guys being able to make up the positions, Joey Logano’s doing it right now. He came from way outside the cut line and now he’s inside the top 10 in points. I think the Chase is going to come down to who wins the most races? 
And if that guy is seated eighth, ninth, 10th, if he wins the most races, I think he’s going to have a really good shot at the championship. It’s going to come down to execution, and I think the champion is going to have to win in the Chase.”

How aggressively are you approaching stage racing now that it comes down to the wire with every point?
“It’s mission critical right now. The stages really start on Saturdays with qualifying, and we had an okay Saturday last week at Richmond, but (Chase) Briscoe beat us on Saturday and that led to more points for them in Stage 1 and we were just never able to catch them. We’ve got to have a great Saturday today and that puts us in position to have good stages on Sunday. So, it’s mission critical and we are absolutely have our eyes on being in the top 10 in the stages and hopefully in the top five in the race.”

How much does the race here this weekend translate when you guys go to Gateway in the Chase?
“It’s a similar style racetrack being flat with longer straightaways. For me, this track has been unique in the aspect that the pavement is completely different to what we have at Gateway. I think Gateway and Phoenix are pretty copy paste. The asphalt aggregate, the banking, the grip level between Gateway and Phoenix are very, very similar. Here in Loudon, it’s super rough, it’s very slippery. The tire degradation’s a lot different. It just feels a lot different than what those other two tracks do. The only caveat was that Gateway and Phoenix were on different rules packages. Now it’s going to be aligned with the rules package, which will be really good. But this one feels different than Gateway and I would say Gateway and Phoenix feel more aligned, but this one here at New Hampshire feels a lot different than the other two.”

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