NASCAR CUP SERIES
COOK OUT SOUTHERN 500
DARLINGTON RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY PLAYOFFS MEDIA DAY
SEPTEMBER 2, 2020

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 AMERICAN ETHANOL CAMARO ZL1 1LE – ROTATION TRANSCRIPT:

YOU COULD BE CONSIDERED AS AN UNDERDOG IN THE PLAYOFFS, WHO ELSE WOULD YOU CONSIDER TO BE LABELED AN DARK HORSE?:
“That’s a good question. You have the usual suspects that have been solid all year. Kurt Busch is one of those guys that can get streaky also. As far as starting with no bonus points and making a run. I also believe that all of the Stewart Haas cave had speed at certain tracks, (Clint) Bower is good at short tracks so I think that is another one who could. The first round is obviously the first one you want to get through.
There’s some good competition out there. So any of those guys in the Stewart-Haas that or possibly Kurt? I feel like another good one. It’s an experience. Cool. Thank you.

I AM JUST CURIOUS IF I WAS A DRIVER THAT TESTED POSITIVE FOR COVID-19, AND NOT BEING ALLOWED ANY POINTS IN PLAYOFFS IS GOING TO CONTINUE INTO PLAYLISTS AND I’M WONDERING HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT THAT. DO YOU FEEL LIKE THAT’S A FAIR PRACTICES AS SOMEONE WHO HAS ALREADY TESTED POSITIVE?:
““Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I’m kind of glad it happened in the regular season and we had to win some of these guys. I feel like our It’s definitely gonna have to be very careful on the moves. They make over the next couple weeks. You don’t want to get it and be taken out of the points because of that.”

SO OBVIOUSLY YOU GETTING THE WINNER CIRCLE IS GOING TO BE CRITICAL AND I’LL HELP YOU STAY ALIVE IN A PLAYOFF HUNT. BUT HOW MUCH WOULD IT MEAN TO GET IT DONE JUNIOR JOHNSON THROWBACKS TEAM?
“Oh man literally just made me smile because this Junior Johnson car means so much to me. It’s it’s a beautiful car. I grew up going to school with Junior’s kids and Junior actually came to our school and spoke to us when I was like in middle school and he was just a hero to me and when he came and spoke to us he kind of talked to me and because he knew my grandfather obviously and it was really nice and always just great people to be around. My mom and Lisa Johnson are very close friends. They talk all the time and to do this throwback for junior is very special. My grandfather’s pumped about. It’s a beautiful car Darlington could be a great place, you know, that would be third Crown Jewel too so that would be special.”

AUSTIN, OBVIOUSLY WHEN PEOPLE TURNED A SIGNIFICANT AGE 30 IN THIS CASE FOR YOU. THERE CAN BE THE POINT OF REFLECTION LOOKING BACK AT WHAT THEY’VE DONE. OBVIOUSLY. YOU’RE STILL A YOUNG GUY BUT YOU’RE NOT A KID IN THE SPORT COMPARED TO A LOT OF OTHER PEOPLE AND CERTAINLY WHAT YOU HAD AS YOU NOTED. YOU HAD YOUR TO CROWN JEWEL WINS. BUT AS YOU REACH THIS AGE AND LOOK AT YOUR POINT IN THE CAREER, DOES THERE GET TO BE I DON’T KNOW IF THERE’S MORE”
“Oh, yeah. I think it’s more about season every opportunity you get you know, you don’t know what could be your last everybody is fighting for their job every day. It doesn’t matter how many wins you got something becausecome up and change sponsorship wise or ownership wise. You just never know these days. So you just want to seize these opportunities and were in the playoffs again, and there’s another opportunity to become the first to win all three championships that we’ve got in our 16 guys that have this opportunity and we’re one of them so you want to take advantage of those opportunities and go out there and perform, you know, you can and you want to do it consistently. So yeah just doing everything you can to take advantage of the moment is big. Live in the moment and have fun doing it. And I do feel like I think the prime age and my dirt crew chie is always said this the prime age for a sin is like 35 Plus and you see it from Harvick and Denny Hamlin. So I feel like you start you gain so much knowledge during that time frame and I feel like I’m still gaining knowledge and your family situation changes, you know, I’ve got my first kid now and momentum has been good. And I just feel like I’m in a good spot and I think it can just keep going that way with the direction. I’m headed.”

HOW DO YOU ANSWER THE FOLKS THAT YOU’VE GOT HIGH EXPECTATIONS FOR THE PLAYOFFS? THERE’S A LOT OF PEOPLE THAT ARE KIND OF DISMISSING YOUR TEAM. WHAT DO YOU TELL THOSE PEOPLE?:

“I love being dismissed. I think it’s a great. It’s all I’ve just kind of always been that way. I feel like maybe not that way in the trucks are Xfinity at the end of those runs, but in the Cup series, it’s been a little bit of that. So and I feel like that’s what kind of propels us, and then we sneak up on people. I was very close to making it to the third round a couple years back in the playoffs and missed it by one point to Denny Hamlin not want to transfer this on and we missed at Talladega by one so I know from that experience at every Point matters, and we just need to go out there and do our job these first three races is good good races for us, but the stage is the way they play out. You got to get points. So we’re going to be very aggressive in getting those points and hopefully messed up a lot of brackets. Thank you.

GERMAIN RACING PUT OUT A STATEMENT ON MONDAYI BELIEVE IT WAS THAT BOB GERMAIN IS EXPLORING CONVERSATIONS FOR POTENTIAL SALE. HAVE YOU TALKED TO TY YET ABOUT THAT. AND IS THERE A POSSIBILITY THAT RCR COULD EXPAND AND INCLUDE YOUR BROTHER IN THE FOLD?
“I actually haven’t talked to my brother about it. Did to my grandfather little bit about it, you know, I think all kinds of opportunities are out there right now. There’s a lot going on in the sport as you can tell it’s silly season. So but I’ve tried to keep up with what’s going on out there, but right now I’m really focused on the playoffs and and because that’s my job is to go out there. So we’ve been on the simulator Monday. I’m going back this afternoon. But as far as everything else going on, I’m just happy we have the #3 team and all of our sponsors, you know in a good place right now. So we’re we’re pumped about next season but focused on this season with the playoffs that that are up front.”

HOW DOES DARLINGTON FIT YOUR DRIVING STYLE?
“Well, I think long races in the past have fit my race in the style plenty of time to make the car better being a long race and all of our wins have come in races 500 miles or more. So it’s a good one for us. We like the long-distance races and and it’s a place that falls off. RCR has always been known for a long run speed.

“Short run speed as something that we struggled with but we’re trying to change but it’s nice that we’re going to place that long run speed matters a bit.”

ARE YOU FEELING OKAY? WE HAD ANY EFFECT SINCE TESTING POSITIVE FOR COVID AND IN A CRAZY WAY. DO YOU ALMOST FEEL LIKE YOU HAVE AN ADVANTAGE BECAUSE YOU’VE ALREADY TESTED POSITIVE FOR THE DISEASE AND MAY NOT BE ABLE TO GET IT AGAIN.
“Yeah, you know, I mean who knows truthfully I still got to be safe and practice all everything that we’ve been practicing all year safe social distancing and wearing a mask. You know, I stayed it does feel good to had it and know what it’s like and hopefully never experienced again. It’s feels like its done and antibodies, obviously in me.Yes it feels a little better than some of those guys in the payoffs that you know have to worry about it more I think than I do. But yeah, no, I’m not experiencing any kind of I feel great and I’ve been riding a road bike working out. I had a massive pickleball game with my dad and I beat him. That was pretty nice. If you get went went pretty deep there. I sweated a lot right for the Daytona race. Oh and it was hot down there. So yeah, you know if I’m a I’m an active person love to get out and play sports. So I feel good and prepared for what’s ahead.”

IS IT AN ADVANTAGE ONLY TO HAVE ONE IN THE PLAYOFFS AND ALL THE RESOURCES BEHIND YOU?
” Yeah, you know, you definitely want both cars in. It is just good for the company when you have both cars and ready and very fast. But yeah, you know, I feel like in past. I’ve been on both sides of this this deal where you’re in or you’re out and the focus flips to whoever’s in and it feels good to have all the focus here at RCR. We’ve got some great teammates and great employees here that can do all they can to put effort into each car we take in the playoffs and I’m sure Tyler and Randall. I’ve already asked Tyler for his notes after Darlington, you know, we work together all year pretty great. So I think it’s it’s a good thing for us, but we’d love to have both in the playoffs”

AUSTIN, THANK YOU FOR JOINING US. YOU’VE BEEN TO THE PLAYOFFS TWICE. IS AS FAR AS FEAR THIRD TRIP, WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU’RE BETTER a THIS TIME AROUND AND WHAT’S GOING TO BE THE BIGGEST FACTOR IN FINALLY BREAKING THAT ROUND OF 16 THRESHOLD?
“Third, I believe I feel like it’s my fourth because I won Daytona nd I made it. I pointed of my way in and then won the 600. This should be my fourth. Okay? You’re right. The biggest thing is making it a couple rounds further. So yeah, you know want to survive in advance take the experiences from the ones past that they the biggest thing I’ve learned is, you know the points matter.When your are witting at the end of these stages are at the end of the race when you have a point right in front of you you got to do what it takes to get that point. You can’t ride you got to use the front bumper to get it. I mean, however, you got to get it strategy is also another key and you know, you try and lean on the strategy. We’ve been very good on strategy this year to be able to score points. So we’ll use some of that and also I think you got to be defensive at times when you’re struggling because there’s going to be times when the car is not handling right? You got to hold up the guys out back and be good in the mirror. I mean, there’s guys that are professionals at it Joey and Brad are very good at holding track position when their car is struggling and that puts them in a better spot when the caution comes out if they’ve held a couple more spots and then their pit crew comes and picks them up a position with one adjustment their car is able to win, you know what I mean or a little cleaner air and so knowing that there’s going to be times when you’re struggling how you handle those and taking every position you can take when a point is on the line.”

AUSTIN WHEN YOU DID WIN YOUR CROWN JEWELS AND MAKE THE PLAYOFFS IN 2017 AND 18. JUSTIN ALEXANDER WAS YOUR CREW CHIEF. OBVIOUSLY LAST SEASON, YOU’LL RCR TOOK A CHANCE AND DANNY STOCKMAN THE MAN WHO LED YOU TO YOUR XFINITY AND TRUCK SERIES TITLES AS YOUR CREW CHIEF ON UNFORTUNATELY DIDN’T YIELD THE SAME RESULTS NOW JUSTIN ALEXANDER RESPECT WE DO THIS TIME AROUND SO I JUST WONDERED HOW MUCH DOES HIS RETURN TO THE PIT BOX HAVE ON YOUR EFFECT AND MAKING THE PLAYOFFS AGAIN THIS SEASON.
“Well, it’s just been good for the entire organization the team Justin, you know to go through what he had to go through last year being switched off our team and the way he handled it was just so professional and I think also when you came back, you know, I just committed to him, you know, my full attention each and every week and he is he is delivered that back and more and and I think I’ve done the same reach other and we have a different respect for each each other this time around and he’s always been able to talk to me in a different way that challenges me to be better over the radio. It doesn’t get me frustrated or fired up and I don’t lose my focus. He’s all about the focus and maximizing our day and I also feel like the spotter that we’ve got this year. Brandon Benesh has been a big help also at those three my mom and she’s following us all the time and she listens to the radio and she said to me you are very fortunate because these guys are on a different level right now. The way they communicate on channel 2 said she never heard anything like it to my Cup career, and that’s good. You know, they’re on a good wave lengths together and really focused on what we’re doing and how how to make our cars better and how to make me better and to get the best out of the No.3 car.”

ALSO YOU TOUCHED ON YOUR MINDSET HOW YOU KIND OF LIKE PEOPLE COUNT YOU OUT BEING THE UNDERDOG WITH THAT BEING SAID THOUGH. WHAT ARE YOU YOUR GUYS IS REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS FOR THESE PLAYOFFS IN PARTICULAR KNOWING HOW DOMINANT THE FOUR, THE 11 AND SOME OF THE OTHER BIG GUYS HAVE BEEN THE SEASON.
“Well, you know the 4 and 11 are the two guys that everyone has circled and I feel like they’re pretty much in the final four at Homestead at this point with their points position and now granted anything can happen.
Some of these lineups that NASCAR’s created in the schedule for the playoffs. There are some places that a lot of Destruction chaos goes on but I would say those two spots of the four locked up when it comes to Denny and Harvick. Now there are two others to other spots out there that we have circled that we need to go take one. That’s that’s what I’m focused on is knowing that there’s two spots available. I feel like for the championship and we have to chip away at it each and every week. Treat it one race at a time kind of the Bill Belichick attitude of maximize each week and then survive and advance survive and advance and and try and win a race, you know, win a race when it counts when you get down to the end and there’s guys that more bonus points. The only thing to do is when we were able to win this year. I made a good call at the right time and we had the speed to be able to maintain it in years past. I would say we probably wouldn’t have had the speed to be able to maintain at a mile and a half but this year we do and that’s what’s exciting is anything can happen with the eight moves, mate.”

MEDIA MEMBER: Thanks, and just so you know, I don’t want you to end up in Miami for the championship. It’s a phoenix this year. I mess up to that’s right.
DILLON: Hey, I had a good run at Miami. So I kind of wish it was there, but we’ll go to Phoenix anyways time for thank you. Our next question will come from Peter strata. Go ahead with the question Peter.

WE SAW THAT OUR SEE OUR COMMAND CENTER IN DETAIL AFTER YOUR BIG WIN IN TEXAS. THEY GAVE YOU THE WINNING CALL. WHAT’S THE BALANCE AND MAKING THOSE PIVOTAL CALLS BETWEEN JUSTIN ON THE PIT BOX VERSUS THE TEAM BACK AT WELCOME.
“Yeah, you know, I think Justin truthfully makes the call and I would give him credit for the win at Texas. I think the what the the War Room has done has just give us another option and more of an eye in the sky to
relay more information that Justin might not be able to process fast enough the ability to process information faster is key to success and those guys in the War Room can be focused on other information that Justin can’t see so they can relay that to him and him trusting him is another part of that, but I do feel like a Texas myself and am kind of made the call and then with with help from our data showing that this was available and it’s the smartest route to go as far as keeping track position. It was it was the right decision to make so we’ll definitely use our wardrobe will definitely use our strategy tools to help us gain as many points as possible and hopefully put us in a situation where we can win again.

SPEAKING FROM THE TEAM ASPECT YOU GUYS HAVE EIGHT OF THE TEN PLAYOFF TRACKS THIS YEAR. YOU’VE ALREADY BEEN TO COMING INTO THE PLAYOFFS AND WITHOUT PRACTICE, HOW MUCH DO YOU RELY ON YOUR NOTES FROM THOSE OTHER RACES AND YOU THINK THAT’S AN ADVANTAGE FOR A TEAM LIKE RCR THAT SOME OF THESE BIGGER TEAMS DON’T HAVE THE PRACTICE ADVANTAGE.
“I’ve I think it’s been good for us not having to practice I think it’s good for me. I don’t overthink things and talk about it all night. But myself I just go. You know, I we make a decision after we run our simulation and we go from there where it’s a little less stressful when you got practice and all kinds of adjustments to worry about it kind of simplifies things and makes you go with what you know works and then you adjust it throughout the race. So I don’t know if it’s an advantage. I mean, I feel like are this year’s been good for us, but I feel like it’s also been good because we’ve had faster race cars than in years past so. Maybe maybe it’s been good. I don’t know. Sometimes you want practice. Sometimes you don’t but I feel confident with the way we’re doing it right now.

AUSTIN CONGRATULATIONS ON MAKING THE PLAYOFFS THIS YEAR KIND OF FOLLOWING UP ON AN EARLIER QUESTION. YOU KNOW, I KNOW TYLER REDICK, HE’S A ROOKIE AND HE’S HAD A GREAT BUT HE’S HAD A GREAT YEAR. IT’S A KIND OF
SURPRISING THEY DIDN’T MAKE THE PLAYOFFS THIS YEAR VIA POINTS,
“I’m not surprising I think you know for him he’s always wants as much as he can’t he’s a champion. He’s done a great job this year found a lot of speed at different tracks. But as a rookie man, this is tough. I mean if you don’t get a win like Cole or myself that it’s tough to point your way in and just a couple places that he probably can go back and look at that would change something he would have done nor things that happen here at Pocono. He had something go wrong with power steering. That’s a lot of points right there could have put him in a different situation. But you know, I think he did and does has done an amazing job all year as a rookie and I think it’ll be in the playoffs for years to come. So it’s it’s one of those things that he’s probably disappointed that but I think everybody knows that he’s got the speed and the pace to win races and ba in the playoffs in a real Contender for years to come.”

IS IT MORE IMPORTANT FOR YOU TO WIN A RACE IN THESE LAST TEN RACES OR ADVANCE THROUGH TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP?
“I would say I mean, I would love to win and advance to the championship. So I mean come on getting a win at the right time to advance in the championship would be I think the goal, you know, you get to the surviving advance and then you come down to rehab the wind and you make it happen. I think that’s what some of the great guys have done. You know, Kevin Harvick has shown an uncanny ability to be able to win when he needs one. That’s where you want to get to is where you’re confident enough where you can go and take a victory but atrophy is always good. I’d love to win another trophy in the last 10. So let’s just go with trophy.”

DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE TRACK THAT YOU’RE LOOKING FORWARD TO IN THE CHASE? I KNOW YOU TALKED ABOUT, YOU KNOW, DARLINGTON’S CARS AND ONE OF YOUR FAVORITES WITH THE HISTORY, BUT YOU HAVE A FAVORITE TRACK THAT YOU’RE LOOKING FORWARD TO. “Yes. The Richmond is circled right now. Richmond is a place I had to six Place finishes a year ago, I believe or something like that. We’ve had some good runs there and we’ve had a something that just hits her. That’s good. I feel like we had speed to finish better than six things just in play on our way. What strategy so Richmond is circled right now my list and that’s as far as I really would go Vegas is another one. So those are the in the first Six Vegas. Well heck I’ll just say all the ones that I feel like we could win at Richmond Vegas, Martinsville, Texas, obviously and then yeah, those are my favorite tracks Circle right now that I feel like I’m being honest about speed and where our setups have been in the past that those are good places for us.

AUSTIN COMING OFF ENTERING YOUR ROOKIE SEASON BY THE 2014 GED. I BELIEVE YOU WERE COMING OFF THAT CHAMPIONSHIP IN THE XFINITY SERIES AND YOU’RE A DOMINANT THAT SEASON DESPITE NOT WINNING A RACE AND YOU’RE A ROOKIE SEASON. YOU KIND OF FELL FLAT THEN LIKEWISE. TYLER REDDICK WAS COMING OFF BACK-TO-BACK CHAMPIONSHIPS IN THE XFINITY SERIES AND WASN’T THE ONE WHO MADE THE PLAYOFFS WHILE COLE CUSTER WAS A ROOKIE.THIS CLASS YOU DID AND THAT WAS JUST A CIRCUMSTANCE WHERE PIECES FELL INTO PLACE FOR HIM. SO WHAT KIND OF CORNY CURVE IS THEIR DRIVERS GOING FROM EITHER XFINITY OR TRUCK SERIES TO THE CUP SERIES?
“Well, it’s it’s number one Automotive racing series in the world in my opinion is the hardest one to win in you got multiple winners that are great at what they do, you know, everybody has gotten this point has one and done something that has gotten them to here. I think every level in the sport you go to from trucks to
Xfinity to Cup there is a another level you have to reach as a driver to step up your game and I felt like for me the formula was rookie of the year and the Truck Series and won a championship in the Truck Series and it was Rookie of the Year and XFinity Series and won a championship and Xfinity series, I get to the Cup series and I was hoping it would be the same way, you know, when a rookie of the year and go win a championship the next but it’s a different level and I’ve learned that over the last couple years. We made the playoffs in the playoffs are a huge feet when you’re in the Cup series. I mean you look at the Xfinity Series in my opinion. If you don’t finish the top ten you’re struggling every week and I would even go up to eight past that it’s not what the Cup series is where you’re fighting all the way back to what 22nd 23rd with guys that have won in the Xfinity series 24th, maybe but they’re just a different level of competition and that’s what it is and it takes a lot. I mean you could have a good crew good team good car good pit crew and still not win. You have a fastest car still not win. Every week is just a challenge so learning I think the learning process from a rookie to the next year is it’s big. That’s why we get so excited about rookies that come in and finish well early on in their career because you hope that the only way forward is up because they’re not getting some great finishes out their first year. They’re probably going to be fine.”

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The Klik Marketing logo will be positioned on the front quarter panel of Corey LaJoie’s No. 32 Trump 2020 Ford when the field kicks off the opening race of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs at the track “Too Tough to Tame.” Coverage of the event will take place on NBCSN on Sunday at 6 p.m. ET.

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About Our Team

About Klik Marketing:
Klik is a full-service marketing and communications company that helps brands identify their target market, find them online, and drive them to your website using search engine optimization, paid advertising, social media, PR, video, and photography.

We use storytelling through the written word, video and imaging to help you build trust and position you as an industry thought leader.

About Go Fas Racing:
Go Fas Racing (GFR) currently fields Ford Mustangs in the NASCAR Cup Series for driver Corey LaJoie. Located in Mooresville, North Carolina, GFR has competed in the NASCAR’s premier series since 2014; fielding cars for some of NASCAR’s top drivers, including past champions. To find out more information about our team please visit www.GoFasRacing.com.

MATT DIBENEDETTO, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang — ARE YOU PLAYING WITH HOUSE MONEY RIGHT NOW? “The way I look at it is I was pumped that we made it in and wanted it bad for the whole team because we know that we could be a playoff contender, not just making it and being there. I would say the most stressful part was making it in the playoffs. Now I feel like we are the most put together as a team and most prepared and ready to go and execute to make some hay and pick some guys off and try to make it through and do a really good job. I would say it is less stressful now and more exciting that it is a clean slate where we are all grouped together in points and can show the strength of our team now.”

NOW THAT YOU HAVE MADE THE PLAYOFFS AND DONE WHAT YOU EXPECTED TO DO, DO YOU START BUGGING PENSKE TO GET NEXT YEAR DONE? “Yeah, it is funny, we have talked about that. I hadn’t even brought it up or talked about it because the focus was so much of just making the playoffs which I am so glad we did for the team. Obviously I love driving for the Wood Brothers and our alliance with Team Penske is incredible and a place I want to call home for many years to come. I am sure we will get to that. My contract has options built in for multiple years and they expressed that they wanted this to be a relationship for many years to come so I would expect to have those talks here pretty soon to hopefully do what I assume should be continuing to drive this 21 car.”

ASIDE FROM YOURSELF, WHO DO YOU THINK IS A DARKHORSE OR POSSIBLE SURPRISE THAT COULD MAKE A RUN IN THE PLAYOFFS? “I think there are a lot of tough contenders but if I was picking somebody — we were talking last night and I was watching some of the picks that NBC and FOX and everyone was making for the Championship 4 and I thought that my pick might be Chase Elliott. I think he could be a good contender that might make his way into that final four and have a shot to win a championship. There are a lot of good contenders, so it is tough to pick.”

YOU CAME EXTREMELY CLOSE TO WINNING BRISTOL LAST FALL AND NOW BRISTOL IS THE FINAL RACE IN THE FIRST ROUND OF THE PLAYOFFS. HOW DO YOU VIEW BRISTOL GOING INTO THE PLAYOFF RACE? DO YOU THINK IT MAY BE YOUR BEST SHOT FOR A VICTORY IN THE FIRST ROUND? “Yeah, I love Bristol, everybody knows that. Our team is strong there. We haven’t gotten to show it. We had some unfortunate circumstances both times we raced there but we had fast cars. I would say that would be one that is circled as a great opportunity for us to get a win. I don’t put too much emphasis on winning because there are a lot of things that have to work out for you to win a race on top of being really good throughout the day. But that is one we definitely have circled off. Really this whole first round is great race tracks. Darlington is a lot of fun. Richmond could be a great track for us. I love short tracks and our cars seem to be really fast on them. There and Bristol as the cutoff race is pretty exciting.”

WHAT IS IT LIKE RACING FOR THE WOOD BROTHERS RIGHT NOW AND WHAT WAS IT LIKE PUNCHING THAT TICKET TO GET THAT TEAM INTO THE PLAYOFFS? “It made it extra special making the playoffs driving the 21 car and doing it for the Wood Brothers because they have so much passion for what they do and it was so special too because to give it a glimpse of what it is like driving for the Wood Brothers, during that week last week it was one of the most stressful weeks ever. My wife was crying and I got a phone call from Len Wood, Eddie Wood, Jon Wood, Nancy is texting me, the whole family. It is just so special driving for that family. They are so supportive and have your back. They just told me to do my job and that either way they were happy and had my back either way, that it wasn’t the end of the world if we don’t make it, but if we do they would be really excited but I should worry about it, just go do my thing and have fun. Things like that are so special. That is the kind of family that I am lucky enough to drive for wheeling this 21 car. That is one of the dynamics that makes it so special driving for the Wood Brothers. It is really heartwarming and it really makes a bigger impact than they think and even Nancy was texting my wife to help calm her down. Things that really make a big impact and are special to us.”

DO YOU VISUALIZE YOURSELF WINNING AS PART OF YOUR PREPARATION? “You know, I think the reason that I say I don’t put too much emphasis on winning is that my goal is absolutely that we want to win. That is a given. I know we can win, for sure and we will. That has been my goal my entire career. As far as execution, the reason I say it is that I feel like you can get too caught up in focusing your race on how to win. It isn’t always the best car that wins. My focus is on how to make the most of our race car and the most of that day and not get too caught up in guys pulling away or how to get to them but focusing on yourself, your car and your team. Make the most of it. Maximize your day. Hopefully that puts you in position to have a shot at winning at the end of the race. Everyone prepares differently mentally but that is how I prepare to go into a race and I have learned over time, and even this year, to make sure I stay focused on this because it makes us better as a team.”

WHAT IS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE RUNNING AT DARLINGTON? “I would say Darlington is a little unique in the sense that you have to focus on racing the track and not quite as much racing other people. You focus on minimizing your mistakes and racing the track and making good adjustments. It is a long race to keep up with and get your car handling well. You are focused on yourself and your team and not smacking the wall and things like that.”

WHAT DOES A SUCCESSFUL PLAYOFFS LOOK LIKE FOR YOU? “Clicking off a win would be great. That is a great goal. When I say that I don’t focus too much on winning that is more when I am on the track and in the car. From a goal standpoint we would absolutely love to get that 100th win for the Wood Brothers. That would be an amazing goal to accomplish. I would say that now that we are in the playoffs we are focusing on executing and making the most of what we have and make it through a round or a couple rounds. We are competing for a championship. This is the time to shine and hopefully make it down to the end. I would say if I come out of it knowing that we made the most of our race cars and executed well and continue to grow as a team, win a race, that would be an amazing end of the season. To really pick off a lot of positions and points, this is a great opportunity for us to capitalize on now that we are closed in points wise and are the most prepared as a team to go out there and pick off a lot of guys. That is the most exciting thing that I could check off the rest of the season and what we would call a success.”

HAVE YOU HAD A CHANCE TO REFLECT ON HOW FAR YOU HAVE COME TO THIS POINT IN YOUR CAREER? “Yeah, that is what contributes to a lot of the emotion and appreciation that people see when I say things like my wife crying because we made the playoffs and all the accomplishments that goes back to. It is because of my past and my path to get here. I have gone so far and gotten so lucky. To fight and claw from start and parking a car to being in underfunded equipment and trying to show that I can make the most of a race car to fastforwarding to now and being in way beyond my dream opportunity of driving the 21 car and making the playoffs driving for the Wood Brothers. It is pretty surreal to have that opportunity to drive. All those things make me and my whole entire family appreciate it on a completely different level that we wouldn’t be able to without those experiences.”

CAN YOU DESCRIBE WHAT THIS WEEK HAS BEEN LIKE AS A VETERAN DRIVER IN THE PLAYOFFS FOR THE FIRST TIME? “I would say that this week has been a release. It was so stressful and kept getting more stressful leading up to Daytona and the points closed in and we lost the gap that we had and all that. I would call this week exciting and we got to celebrate with some friends out on the lake Sunday and have a good time but come Monday it was time to shift focus and we still have a lot of racing left and a lot to accomplish. It was a relief and exciting moving forward now instead of stressful. Exciting knowing that we have an opportunity to really put a good end to our season and cap it off and have a lot more success. I am pretty pumped up about that and I am appreciative to be doing it for the Wood Brothers.”

YOU HAD A GREAT START TO THE YEAR BUT HAVE BEEN ON A BIT OF A SLIDE THROUGH THE SUMMER, WHAT CAN YOU AND THE 21 TEAM DO TO CORRECT THOSE INCONSISTENCIES? “Yeah, that is a good question because I feel like we started the year – to summarize our season, we started the year and we had fast cars but we didn’t execute well. We had a lot to work on. We were a new group working together so we didn’t maximize our races and that is frustrating if you don’t maximize what you have to make the best of your day. We got to work communicating and figuring out what we needed to do. During 2020 it is crazy times, but we really worked on communicating. In the mid stretch we got to the point we were running up front weekly and we got stage points like eight stages in a row and we were running top-five and top-10 and right up front. That was great. Then we got into a bit of a slump where not all of them were execution. We went to Texas and we were running fourth and got wiped out by a lap car. That hurt us really bad points wise. At Kansas we got our car really good and thought we could run top-five or top-10 at worst but got wiped out on the restart. Bristol we got wiped out from a crash. Then we went to Dover and just flat out struggled. Some of the circumstances were just not really great luck. Some of the things we can improve on as a team. Now, we are in the playoffs thank goodness and have a lot of race tracks that are big strengths for us and we are prepared as a team to go out and execute.”

HOW DO YOU ANTICIPATE THINGS WILL ELEVATE ON THE TRACK IN THE PLAYOFFS? AS A PLAYOFF ROOKIE, WHAT DO YOU ANTICIPATE IT MIGHT BE LIKE AND HOW WILL YOU HAVE TO REACT OR CHANGE? “I think there is just a little bit more desperation in the playoffs because there is so much on the line and every race matters so much. You just don’t have margin for error. During the regular season you have a little more margin for error and it is a long season and you are trying to rack up stage points and things like that. Now, there is just really no margin for error. As far as how I would approach it in the playoffs. I have been doing this awhile, my sixth year full time, but as a playoff rookie. From the experiences I have had I have learned to only focus on what is in my control and to drive the race car and approach the race just like I would any other race which is to make the most of what we have for that day. I really don’t change my approach personally. That takes discipline to do with so much on the line. I am lucky that as I have gotten older, I am 29 now and been doing this awhile, that I feel more disciplined and mentally mature and ready than ever on those things that really affect my execution of my race with my team.”

CLINT BOWYER, No. 14 PEAK Throwback Ford Mustang — GREG ZIPADELLI SAID HE POTENTIALLY COULD HAVE THE SAME LINEUP AS LAST YEAR. HOW CONFIDENT ARE YOU ABOUT RETURNING TO SHR? “They’re working on that on the future and what that looks like. If it’s a part of this sport in any way shape or form I’m excited about it. We’ll work on that and really go to that. For right now it’s still about the playoffs. It’s new life. I’ve been so frustrated this summer. I mean, this pandemic sucks. I’m frustrated for our sport. I’m frustrated for our fans. Twenty thousand people we got to bring back. It’s slowly starting to come back and see life. That’s awesome to see. You could hear them. You could see them. There was a damn crowd there last weekend and that’s a shot in the arm for our sport, a breath of fresh air for everybody involved — competitors, fans, everything. I was across the street at Bass Pro Shop and it was full of race fans it was like, ‘Yes, we’re back.’ This is getting close to what normalcy is and I’m excited about that and I’m excited about these first three races within the playoffs. I’m excited about Darlington. We ran well there in Darlington 2, won a couple stages and, again, it was the same old Darlington for me. We ran well doing the things we needed to do. We pit, the caution comes out and you’re a lap down. Boom. Next thing you know you’re trying to dig yourself out of a hole and put it in a hole I shouldn’t have been in and hit the wall and the rest is history. It’s just that fast it can get away from you and, oh, by the way, now it’s for all the marbles and a championship. People ask you all the time these playoffs, what does it mean to be in the playoffs? Yes, it’s an elite group or whatever, but that doesn’t matter. You’re in the playoffs for one reason — to compete for a championship and that’s Phoenix. The only way you can do that is to go through these rounds. We don’t have very many points. We’ve got to earn stage points. We’ve got to race under our capabilities and moreover for our 14 car we’ve got to minimize mistakes. That’s how we go rounds in this thing and compete for a championship. The capability is there, we’ve got to clean up the mistakes.”

WHAT WILL BRISTOL BE LIKE AS A CUTOFF RACE? “It’s gonna be more of the same. I don’t know. It’s like they were just wanting to — how can we make this as nerve-wracking as possible. I mean, we’re talking like ulcer level nerve-wracking situations and they found it. The Roval, Bristol, Daytona, I mean it can’t get anymore nerve-wracking than that. Going into this thing, I don’t have a lot of playoff points. We’ve got to get these stage points established right off the bat. We’re starting relatively up front. From the way I’ve started all summer long, a ninth-place start is way up front. I’m super-pumped about a top 10 starting spot and going after this thing. We’ve got a new rabbit you’re chasing. That thing gets a little bit wore out as you’re going through those summer months and we’ve got a new one out there in front of the hood and, by God, I’m gonna chase it.”

WHO IS A DARKHORSE TEAM IN YOUR VIEW? “That’s an interesting question. I don’t know. I think everybody knows everybody’s strength and weaknesses. Again, I don’t know who is the darkhorse. William Byron, I guess. If you look at him — momentum is something, confidence is something, winning your first race is worth something, having a crew chief like Chad Knaus is worth something — trust me. That all is building at the right time. I came into the playoffs before and won New Hampshire right off the bat and rode that off into a second place finish and a shot at a title. That’s real. Look at Tony Stewart, his last championship. They sucked all year. All of a sudden, boom, here they come running and get on that wave, found the right wave and rode that damn thing off into the sunset down there at Homestead and a championship. It can happen. It can happen with any race team, but you’ve got to, for us, again, going back to how it’s gonna happen for me and that’s minimizing mistakes. We’ve got to clean up the mistakes that we’ve made. If we can do that, I’m telling you we’re capable of going rounds in this thing.”

WHAT PRECAUTIONS DO YOU HAVE TO TAKE TO PROTEC YOURSELF IN THE PLAYOFFS TO PREVENT A POSITIVE COVID TEST? “Gas mask. Same precautions you have. I mean, it’s the same thing . It’s COVID. I mean, it sucks. It’s pretty crazy to me that we’re this far along and we still really don’t know a whole lot more than where we’re at. I mean, it’s crazy times, but, nonetheless, you’ve got to take care of yourself. I’m probably not gonna go to college and hit up a keg stand. I’m probably not going to do that. I would say that would be a good opportunity to find yourself pointless.”

IS IT ANY MORE SERIOUS FOR YOU NOW WITH THE CHAMPIONSHIP ON THE LINE THAN IT WAS THE FIRST 26 WEEKS? “No, it can’t be. The seriousness comes if you have COVID you can’t race. That sucks. Honestly, the thing that sucks even worse than that is I’ve talked to both of them that had it and probably had worse hangovers and couldn’t race. You know what I mean? It is what it is and that’s the foul. It’s not a judgemental call. When the ref calls a foul in a basketball game you don’t get a chance to go plead your case and get it overturned. It is what it is and it’s done. It’s very unfortunate that Jimmie Johnson didn’t get in the playoffs because he had COVID. It was completely out of his control. Honestly, you can do all of the things — you might get it opening your car door. There’s a lot of precautionary things you can do, but there are a lot of things out of your control, in my opinion. Eventually, we’ve got to put this thing back in gear. Your kid’s gotta go to school. They’re gonna be around people. I mean, there’s a lot of things that are real, but you’ve got to pray that it doesn’t happen to you and do everything you possibly can to stay away from it.”

AT WHAT POINT, IF RETURNING TO SHR ISN’T AN OPTION, DO YOU START TALKING TO OTHER TEAMS? “Man, again, we’re working on all of that with the future. Hey man, I said it to Bob, if it’s being a part of this sport in any way shape or form I’m excited about it. I’m more excited about the playoffs right now. We have an opportunity to win a championship. You see that right there? (Picture of the trophy) I don’t have one of those. If you get me one of those, I’ll have way different opinions on strategies and what I’m gonna do, whether I’m staying or whatever. I want one of those and right now that’s the only thing that matters.”

HOW HAS YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH JOHNNY KLAUSMEIER EVOLVED THIS YEAR? “I really like Johnny. I think a lot of him. His demeanor is certainly not like mine, and I think that’s a really positive thing. I don’t know how many times the old driver in me, I don’t know how many times I’ve got out of the car and got home and your wife is like, ‘What in the hell is wrong with you today?’ You’re like, ‘What are you talking about.’ You’re like, ‘God, you were an a-hole.’ ‘I don’t even know what you’re talking about. I thought it was a pretty good day.’ She’s like, ‘Man, you were pretty hard on it.’ That’s just part of I guess the competitive nature of me and how I go about business, but, all kidding aside, the thing I do like about him is when you’re whining about something all you get is a 10-4 and he goes back to work. He listens and he tries to make the car better for you and nine times out of 10 he does. A lot of unknowns with the way that this season has been since the pandemic and not having a lot of things to fall back on, and it’s been tricky watching him. It seems like it’s really tricky because in 2018 we kind of had this package going — the aero package — obviously a lot of things have evolved since then, but they had a lot of success in 2018, run up through the playoffs and had some fast race cars. I’ve seen it be confusing trying to land because you’re guessing at it anyway. At the end of the day you’re guessing at it, especially with no notebook with the driver, with no recent experiences with this aero package. I mean, not going to no practice — nothing. He’s throwing darts at it and a best guesstimate, and a lot of times he hit it and sometimes we didn’t. The thing that’s good about our relationship is we’ve got that behind us. Now, we’re finally going back to these tracks for the second time and we have that notebook. It’s established. We won’t make the mistakes that we’ve made. We learned from those mistakes and don’t make them again. Now, yes, that’s obvious and every other team is doing the same thing, but I feel like that’s gonna go rounds for us. That’s gonna be how we go rounds within these playoffs is just clean up the mistakes. We’ve shown our capabilities. We’ve run up front. We’ve won stages. We’ve led laps, probably more laps this year than I had last year, maybe, but, nonetheless, we’ve been up front but we’ve made mistakes. Now, we have a notebook of what not to do and we’ve got to put it to good use within these playoffs.”

WERE YOU WORRIED ABOUT THIS WHOLE THING BLOWING UP THE FIRST TIME YOU CAME TO DARLINGTON WITH COVID AND WE WOULDN’T EVEN GET TO THE POINT WE ARE NOW? “I’m not gonna lie, I was really confused. I don’t know. I’m as confused now as I’ve ever been. I remember Darlington well. I remember passing a drag strip that was packed, packed to the gills with people in the pit area and fans in the stands and everything else. The beach is going crazy and you could walk across the street and walk into a diner and eat, but you couldn’t bring my wife to the motorhome. There was just a lot of confusion, but there’s so much that we’ve learned from then that the regulations that the state put in, the guidelines that they hold you to as a sport so you can even come into the state and put on the show to begin with. You’re playing by their rules. It’s the house rules and it’s not the same, it’s not uniform across the country. You go to this state and it’s one thing. You go to the next state and his mind set on another opinion of guidelines, so they’ve done a good job of bobbing and weaving as we go throughout this endeavor of pandemic and, honestly, we’re still standing. I think it proves that you can do things safely. Again, looking back at last weekend 20,000 fans that’s nothing to miss. That was a gain, in my opinion a huge step in the right direction of getting back to normalcy. Do they have to wear masks? Do we all have to wear masks? Yes. That’s part of it, but if it’s making somebody somewhere safe, I don’t care. That’s fine. If that’s what I have to do to go race, then that’s what we’re gonna do. That’s human nature. Racers more than anything, and I will say this, it’s been this way my whole life. I’ve experienced it and I’ve watched it time and time again with racers and still do, whether it’s at a grassroots entry level of racing or the elite division of Cup — racers find a way and they always find a way before the next guy. That’s the competition of racing. I remember time and time again watching a guy roll into the racetrack, flip his car, total it down and out. The dude is working three jobs, wife is working, it’s time and time again you’re like, ‘Well, he ain’t gonna be back for a month or so.’ Nope, here they are probably the first ones sitting in line at the guard shack to come in the gates. I mean, that’s what racers do and it didn’t surprise me in the least that we were able to figure it out before other sports.”

IS LAUGHING HOW YOU HANDLE PRESSURE OR DO YOU EVEN FEEL ANY PRESSURE OF THE PLAYOFFS? “If this looks like fun, you’ve got to get out of that library or whatever you’re in. This is going on three-and-a-half hours of sitting in my office on a Zoom meeting. Zoom meetings suck. If there’s anything that I hate of the pandemic, it’s Zoom meetings and backdrops and Zoom meetings. I think everybody ought to have a free pass at Zoom when we’re all done with this crap. It’s all I can do to remember my password to turn on the damn computer and you’ve got me clicking Zooms and unmuting and muting and videos. Oh my God, but you’ve got to have fun with it. We all love this. If we didn’t love it, hey, it don’t pay that damn good. You know what I mean? This is a lot of work for everybody — you guys covering this sport, us. You’re gone from your families a lot, doing the things that we love to do. I mean, it’s what we do. We’re racers. I’ve been to dirt tracks and watching my dirt guys, I mean, it’s just what you do and I love this sport. I really do enjoy being a part of it on the racetrack. I love selling it to a new fan, interacting within it of this sport, whether it’s in the infield or a coffee shop somewhere. There’s nothing that makes me more proud to be a part of something when you walk in and they’re like, ‘Damn, that race was good last night,’ and sparked up a conversation of old boys somewhere at a Lowe’s or somewhere or a gas station. That’s cool to be a part of something that so many eyes are on and enjoy.”

SO DO YOU FEEL PRESSURE OR NOT? “Hell yeah, you feel pressure. Yeah. I’m gonna postpone that pressure until I get in that damn car Saturday night. I’m just gonna wait for then. I’m not gonna go ahead and feel pressure right now. I’ve chosen not to experience pressure today, Wednesday. Saturday, it’s a different day. I will feel the pressure. That’s just the way it is. I can tell you this, there’s nothing that lasts longer than a bad run. I’m bad about it. You ask my wife, she’ll say, ‘God, will you please get back to the racetrack and try to fix whatever this is’ because you come home as a race car driver and you are super-pissed and not much fun to be around for a couple days after a bad run.”

IS IT AN ADVANTAGE TO HAVE ALL FOUR SHR CARS IN THE PLAYOFFS OR MORE COMPETITION? “It could be both. It is both. There’s no question that it’s both. I’m super-proud of everybody, all the men and women at Stewart-Haas Racing. What an accomplishment. All four cars. All five cars. That car is gonna be racing for a championship too, that XFINITY car. A group of pretty special people. I’m gonna tell you, Stewart-Haas runs as lean as I’ve ever been a part of with any organization and arguably as lean as anybody we race against, and certainly as lean as anybody that’s sharing four cars in the chase, I can promise you that. I’m proud of that. That means that you’ve got the right people put in place and they’re all pulling on the rope in the same direction. That’s how we got here. We cannot lose sight of that, but, make no mistake, there’s probably gonna be a time within probably this first round you may have to be fighting one of your own for a position to go onto the next round within these playoffs. There’s real life scenarios that are gonna be there as well.”

NASCAR CUP SERIES
COOK OUT SOUTHERN 500
DARLINGTON RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY PLAYOFFS MEDIA DAY
SEPTEMBER 2, 2020

KURT BUSCH, NO.1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – ROTATION TRANSCRIPT:
“Yes, of course we want to win; but we want to advance through all the rounds to give ourselves a shot at the championship. So, consistency has been good for us this year. We just need to continue to do that and execute as a team to get through each of these rounds.”

COMING INTO THE PLAYOFFS, YOU AND (BROTHER) KYLE (BUSCH) HAVE BEEN SORT OF NECK-AND-NECK IN POINTS THIS WHOLE SEASON. HAVE YOU GUYS TALKED ABOUT THIS PLAYOFF RUN SORT OF BEING LIKE A RE-SET FOR YOU AND KYLE, TOO? HOW ARE YOU LOOKING AT THESE NEXT 10 RACES?
“I’m looking at it one race at a time. We put ourselves in this position to be Playoff-eligible and to have a shot at the championship. And so we know this is an opportunity to do something great. So, just one week at a time. I love Darlington. It’s one of my favorite race tracks, with Richmond and Bristol, two short tracks in this first round, we can’t get too far ahead of ourselves but if we execute as a team, we’ve got a great shot at all this. I know my little brother, though. He’s putting a little extra stress on himself because he wants to win a race and continue his streak of winning seasons. And so, he’s thrown a little extra pressure on himself that way. And so maybe that’ll be a distraction for him.”

THIS IS YOUR 14th TIME IN THE PLAYOFFS. YOU’VE BEEN THROUGH ALL THE DIFFERENT FORMATS WITH DIFFERENT TEAMS. WHAT IS THE MOST VALUABLE THING YOU’VE LEARNED THROUGH ALL THAT TIME THAT YOU FEEL WILL BENEFIT YOU THE MOST IN THIS PLAYOFF?
“I still think it comes down to consistency, and to know how to execute through each of the stages in the races, through each of the rounds. That consistency that we built on this year, with the Ganassi team, that’s our strength. And that’s what we have to use when we go through these different races and different rounds. And so, just staying calm and cool and collected around our consistency, is probably our biggest thing that I’ve taken through all these years.”

WITH BRISTOL BEING A CUTOFF RACE, WHAT DOES THAT MEAN TO THE FINISH OF THE RACE AT BRISTOL?
“It’s going to be big. It’s going to be exciting. It’s going to be a cool challenge to have that as a cutoff race. The biggest thing is that like Darlington and Richmond, anytime a yellow comes out, mostly likely you’re going to be pitting for tires. At Bristol you can stay out and change the sequence. And so that’s where the variable of that pit strategy call is going to be a huge difference-maker. So if we make it simple we just win at Darlington and that way we don’t have to stress that round.”

YOU KEEP MENTIONING CONSISTENCY. YOU’VE GOT FOUR TOP 5’S AND 14 TOP 10’S THIS YEAR. HOW WOULD YOU ASSESS WHERE THE NO. 1 TEAM IS GOING INTO THE PLAYOFFS?
“I think we’re in a good spot, you know. We’re in that underdog-type position that also, with the tracks that are coming up with Darlington and Richmond and Bristol, those are all my favorites. And the team has run really well at those tracks. And so we just have to go execute as a team and not get too far ahead of ourselves and just execute. That’s really what we’ve got to do these first few races to get to the next round.”

CAN YOU DESCRIBE WHAT YOU’RE ABOUT TO EXPLAIN OVER THE NEXT 10 WEEKS? YOU’VE DONE THIS MANY TIMES. BUT WHAT IS THE EMOTIONAL ROLLER-COASTER AND TRYING TO REMAIN CALM AND COOL GOING TO BE LIKE?
“It’s a Playoff mindset. It’s a Playoff atmosphere. And you can’t get too far ahead of yourself. Each and every week it’s just that laser focus on what it takes to execute and to put ourselves in good position at Darlington. Once Darlington is over, then its laser focus on Richmond. And again, just that Playoff mindset and going and attacking it peacefully and strategically because 10 weeks is a long run, but you’ve got to stay on it.”

DO YOU GUYS FEEL LIKE YOU’RE MISSING IT MORE SO BECAUSE CHEVROLET IS AT A DISADVANTAGE RIGHT NOW OR DO YOU THINK IT’S GANASSI RACING?
“I feel like we’ve done a good job as a group at Chevrolet to work together on superspeedway racing as well as tire data and strategic pit sequences and strategies. I really think Chevy has done a good job in connecting everybody. Yes, the Fords seem to be a little bit more powerful at like the 1.5-miles with their horsepower that they have. The Toyotas, they seem like they are downforce is a bit more than what we have right now. But hey, it’s what we have. It’s right now and it’s 2020 and I’m looking at our strengths with consistency is what we have to go through. It’s what we have to take with us as we go through each of these rounds.”

YOU ARE ONE OF TWO DRIVERS IN THIS PLAYOFF BRACKET THAT RAN WITHOUT A PLAYOFF SYSTEM. THE OTHER IS KEVIN HARVICK. HOW MUCH HAVE THE PLAYOFFS MEANT TO YOU, AND HOW MUCH AS IT MEANT TO NASCAR AS A WHOLE AND HOW IT’S CHANGED THE SPORT OVER THE YEARS IN THIS, OUR 17th YEAR OF THE POST-SEASON?
“What I think it’s done is it gave it a strong comparison to other sports. There’s that Playoff atmosphere. There’s that championship race, where four guys are eligible to win the championship and it’s an even playing ground. When it was a long marathon process of going through all 36 races, that was a different sequence. That was maybe not as intense when it got down to the final rounds. And so, with these 10 weeks, the Playoff atmosphere is there, and it relates well to other sports. And that’s where it draws in more fans that might not have been NASCAR fans before.”

WHAT IS IT ABOUT DARLINGTON THAT WORKS SO WELL FOR YOU AND DOES THAT GIVE YOU AN ADVANTAGE GOING INTO THE WEEKEND?
“I really enjoy running at Darlington and the way you have to race the race track and somewhat ignore the other cars out there while you’re racing. It’s that old school mentality at this great race track. Stay patient and find the right set-up changes to adapt to the track’s changing conditions. And so, it’s one of those crown jewel races, too. The Southern 500 kicks-off our Playoffs. I love the atmosphere right now and so we’re going after it strong.”

WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO WIN AT DARLINGTON?
“It would mean the world to me. A track that I really enjoy running, I feel like I’m competitive every time I go there. But I haven’t won. So, it’s one of those challenges of you love it but you hate it, but at Darlington you have to respect the race track. And you have to do your job as a driver to communicate to the crew on what changes we need to adjust to. The pit crew has a large responsibility at Darlington just because of the abrasive surface and how much the tires wear out. So, it’s that whole team effort. But, for me, I definitely want this crown jewel race. I want to put this trophy up on the mantle right alongside my Daytona win and alongside a 600 win.”

THERE ARE DISCUSSIONS ABOUT WHO IS GOING TO BE IN THE NO. 42 CAR NEXT YEAR. HAVE YOU OFFERED YOUR INPUT AND WHAT YOU’D LIKE TO SEE AS A TEAMMATE IN THAT CAR NEXT YEAR?
“Yeah, I’ve given my input to Chip Ganassi and to our management. I think it’s important to find the right combination of a driver that can add to the program right away, but also will have years ahead of him or her, on what they can bring to the program. It’s all about that team work effort right now. It seems like every year that I come back to race, there’s more and more that you have to rely on through different departments. And so, a driver what comes into our program is going to have to be able to adapt to all those departments and sequences. And so we’ll see how things play out. I don’t know where Chip is right now, but I know we have about 10 weeks ahead of us with a Playoff run and that’s my focus on the No. 1 car.”

FOR THE 2021 SCHEDULE AND BEYOND, THERE’S BEEN A LOT OF TALK ABOUT MAYBE SHORTENING RACES AND BEING MORE SELECTIVE AS TO WHICH RACES ARE 500-MILE RACES. RIGHT NOW, THERE ARE 10 RACES ON THE SCHEDULE THAT ARE EITHER 500 MILES OR 500 LAPS. DO YOU THINK THAT 500-MILE MARK SHOULD BE RESERVED FOR SPECIAL RACES LIKE DARLINGTON AND DAYTONA AND THE COKE 600 AT CHARLOTTE? WHERE DO YOU THINK THE SPORT IS GOING AS FAR AS THAT IS CONCERNED?
“I think you’re headed down the right path. I mean if I had a magic wand and could wave it over our schedule and adjust race lengths, yes, I think that the Daytona 500 is 500 miles, right? The Coke 600, leave that one. Darlington, it should be a 500-miler. And then maybe one more and that’s it. Just maybe have four races on the schedule that would be of that length, and that makes those races that much more of a marque-type win. And then the other races can be 400 or 300’s.”

WITH THE POINTS BEING AS TIGHT AS THEY ARE, HOW IMPORTANT IS IT THAT DARLINGTON, RICHMOND, AND BRISTOL ARE THE FIRST THREE TRACKS FOR YOU AND YOUR TEAM AND YOUR CONFIDENCE LEVEL TO CONTINUE IN THE ROUNDS?
“Yeah, I feel like, at this point, it’s a reset. Everybody is basically even in points. Yes, there’s a top-five. I would say that (Kevin) Harvick and (Denny) Hamlin and (Joey) Logano and (Brad) Keselowski and Chase (Elliott) are a little bit further ahead. But if we have one good stage, we can jump up to eighth in points before the halfway break at Darlington. So, points are basically even right now. It’s a matter of just staying calm and cool and being patient and finding the right points through the different stages and through these first three races.”

AS YOUR BROTHER, KYLE, FAMOUSLY SAID, ‘IT’S 2020’. BUT COULD YOU HAVE IMAGINED A SCENARIO WHERE BOTH OF YOU WOULD BE WINLESS ENTERING THIS YEAR’S PLAYOFFS? HOW MUCH HAVE YOU TALKED AND/OR JOKED ABOUT WHO IS GOING TO GET THE FIRST WIN OF 2020 BETWEEN THE TWO OF YOU?
“I never would have guessed. I felt like the way our season started, was strong and consistent; and then we had a shot to win the first race back, after our delay, at Darlington. And then, it just seemed like these opportunities here or there just like slipped through our fingers and we didn’t execute to get those wins. And so, my little brother, same thing. I feel like his luck has been challenged in many different ways and it just hasn’t unfolded for him to get those wins. But hey, we’re both championship eligible. We’re in the Playoffs and here’s the reset. So, here we go.”
Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.

About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is one of the world’s largest car brands, doing business in more than 100 countries and selling more than 4.0 million cars and trucks a year. Chevrolet provides customers with fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.

MATT DIBENEDETTO, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang — ARE YOU PLAYING WITH HOUSE MONEY RIGHT NOW? “The way I look at it is I was pumped that we made it in and wanted it bad for the whole team because we know that we could be a playoff contender, not just making it and being there. I would say the most stressful part was making it in the playoffs. Now I feel like we are the most put together as a team and most prepared and ready to go and execute to make some hay and pick some guys off and try to make it through and do a really good job. I would say it is less stressful now and more exciting that it is a clean slate where we are all grouped together in points and can show the strength of our team now.”

NOW THAT YOU HAVE MADE THE PLAYOFFS AND DONE WHAT YOU EXPECTED TO DO, DO YOU START BUGGING PENSKE TO GET NEXT YEAR DONE? “Yeah, it is funny, we have talked about that. I hadn’t even brought it up or talked about it because the focus was so much of just making the playoffs which I am so glad we did for the team. Obviously I love driving for the Wood Brothers and our alliance with Team Penske is incredible and a place I want to call home for many years to come. I am sure we will get to that. My contract has options built in for multiple years and they expressed that they wanted this to be a relationship for many years to come so I would expect to have those talks here pretty soon to hopefully do what I assume should be continuing to drive this 21 car.”

ASIDE FROM YOURSELF, WHO DO YOU THINK IS A DARKHORSE OR POSSIBLE SURPRISE THAT COULD MAKE A RUN IN THE PLAYOFFS? “I think there are a lot of tough contenders but if I was picking somebody — we were talking last night and I was watching some of the picks that NBC and FOX and everyone was making for the Championship 4 and I thought that my pick might be Chase Elliott. I think he could be a good contender that might make his way into that final four and have a shot to win a championship. There are a lot of good contenders, so it is tough to pick.”

YOU CAME EXTREMELY CLOSE TO WINNING BRISTOL LAST FALL AND NOW BRISTOL IS THE FINAL RACE IN THE FIRST ROUND OF THE PLAYOFFS. HOW DO YOU VIEW BRISTOL GOING INTO THE PLAYOFF RACE? DO YOU THINK IT MAY BE YOUR BEST SHOT FOR A VICTORY IN THE FIRST ROUND? “Yeah, I love Bristol, everybody knows that. Our team is strong there. We haven’t gotten to show it. We had some unfortunate circumstances both times we raced there but we had fast cars. I would say that would be one that is circled as a great opportunity for us to get a win. I don’t put too much emphasis on winning because there are a lot of things that have to work out for you to win a race on top of being really good throughout the day. But that is one we definitely have circled off. Really this whole first round is great race tracks. Darlington is a lot of fun. Richmond could be a great track for us. I love short tracks and our cars seem to be really fast on them. There and Bristol as the cutoff race is pretty exciting.”

WHAT IS IT LIKE RACING FOR THE WOOD BROTHERS RIGHT NOW AND WHAT WAS IT LIKE PUNCHING THAT TICKET TO GET THAT TEAM INTO THE PLAYOFFS? “It made it extra special making the playoffs driving the 21 car and doing it for the Wood Brothers because they have so much passion for what they do and it was so special too because to give it a glimpse of what it is like driving for the Wood Brothers, during that week last week it was one of the most stressful weeks ever. My wife was crying and I got a phone call from Len Wood, Eddie Wood, Jon Wood, Nancy is texting me, the whole family. It is just so special driving for that family. They are so supportive and have your back. They just told me to do my job and that either way they were happy and had my back either way, that it wasn’t the end of the world if we don’t make it, but if we do they would be really excited but I should worry about it, just go do my thing and have fun. Things like that are so special. That is the kind of family that I am lucky enough to drive for wheeling this 21 car. That is one of the dynamics that makes it so special driving for the Wood Brothers. It is really heartwarming and it really makes a bigger impact than they think and even Nancy was texting my wife to help calm her down. Things that really make a big impact and are special to us.”

DO YOU VISUALIZE YOURSELF WINNING AS PART OF YOUR PREPARATION? “You know, I think the reason that I say I don’t put too much emphasis on winning is that my goal is absolutely that we want to win. That is a given. I know we can win, for sure and we will. That has been my goal my entire career. As far as execution, the reason I say it is that I feel like you can get too caught up in focusing your race on how to win. It isn’t always the best car that wins. My focus is on how to make the most of our race car and the most of that day and not get too caught up in guys pulling away or how to get to them but focusing on yourself, your car and your team. Make the most of it. Maximize your day. Hopefully that puts you in position to have a shot at winning at the end of the race. Everyone prepares differently mentally but that is how I prepare to go into a race and I have learned over time, and even this year, to make sure I stay focused on this because it makes us better as a team.”

WHAT IS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE RUNNING AT DARLINGTON? “I would say Darlington is a little unique in the sense that you have to focus on racing the track and not quite as much racing other people. You focus on minimizing your mistakes and racing the track and making good adjustments. It is a long race to keep up with and get your car handling well. You are focused on yourself and your team and not smacking the wall and things like that.”

WHAT DOES A SUCCESSFUL PLAYOFFS LOOK LIKE FOR YOU? “Clicking off a win would be great. That is a great goal. When I say that I don’t focus too much on winning that is more when I am on the track and in the car. From a goal standpoint we would absolutely love to get that 100th win for the Wood Brothers. That would be an amazing goal to accomplish. I would say that now that we are in the playoffs we are focusing on executing and making the most of what we have and make it through a round or a couple rounds. We are competing for a championship. This is the time to shine and hopefully make it down to the end. I would say if I come out of it knowing that we made the most of our race cars and executed well and continue to grow as a team, win a race, that would be an amazing end of the season. To really pick off a lot of positions and points, this is a great opportunity for us to capitalize on now that we are closed in points wise and are the most prepared as a team to go out there and pick off a lot of guys. That is the most exciting thing that I could check off the rest of the season and what we would call a success.”

HAVE YOU HAD A CHANCE TO REFLECT ON HOW FAR YOU HAVE COME TO THIS POINT IN YOUR CAREER? “Yeah, that is what contributes to a lot of the emotion and appreciation that people see when I say things like my wife crying because we made the playoffs and all the accomplishments that goes back to. It is because of my past and my path to get here. I have gone so far and gotten so lucky. To fight and claw from start and parking a car to being in underfunded equipment and trying to show that I can make the most of a race car to fastforwarding to now and being in way beyond my dream opportunity of driving the 21 car and making the playoffs driving for the Wood Brothers. It is pretty surreal to have that opportunity to drive. All those things make me and my whole entire family appreciate it on a completely different level that we wouldn’t be able to without those experiences.”

CAN YOU DESCRIBE WHAT THIS WEEK HAS BEEN LIKE AS A VETERAN DRIVER IN THE PLAYOFFS FOR THE FIRST TIME? “I would say that this week has been a release. It was so stressful and kept getting more stressful leading up to Daytona and the points closed in and we lost the gap that we had and all that. I would call this week exciting and we got to celebrate with some friends out on the lake Sunday and have a good time but come Monday it was time to shift focus and we still have a lot of racing left and a lot to accomplish. It was a relief and exciting moving forward now instead of stressful. Exciting knowing that we have an opportunity to really put a good end to our season and cap it off and have a lot more success. I am pretty pumped up about that and I am appreciative to be doing it for the Wood Brothers.”

YOU HAD A GREAT START TO THE YEAR BUT HAVE BEEN ON A BIT OF A SLIDE THROUGH THE SUMMER, WHAT CAN YOU AND THE 21 TEAM DO TO CORRECT THOSE INCONSISTENCIES? “Yeah, that is a good question because I feel like we started the year – to summarize our season, we started the year and we had fast cars but we didn’t execute well. We had a lot to work on. We were a new group working together so we didn’t maximize our races and that is frustrating if you don’t maximize what you have to make the best of your day. We got to work communicating and figuring out what we needed to do. During 2020 it is crazy times, but we really worked on communicating. In the mid stretch we got to the point we were running up front weekly and we got stage points like eight stages in a row and we were running top-five and top-10 and right up front. That was great. Then we got into a bit of a slump where not all of them were execution. We went to Texas and we were running fourth and got wiped out by a lap car. That hurt us really bad points wise. At Kansas we got our car really good and thought we could run top-five or top-10 at worst but got wiped out on the restart. Bristol we got wiped out from a crash. Then we went to Dover and just flat out struggled. Some of the circumstances were just not really great luck. Some of the things we can improve on as a team. Now, we are in the playoffs thank goodness and have a lot of race tracks that are big strengths for us and we are prepared as a team to go out and execute.”

HOW DO YOU ANTICIPATE THINGS WILL ELEVATE ON THE TRACK IN THE PLAYOFFS? AS A PLAYOFF ROOKIE, WHAT DO YOU ANTICIPATE IT MIGHT BE LIKE AND HOW WILL YOU HAVE TO REACT OR CHANGE? “I think there is just a little bit more desperation in the playoffs because there is so much on the line and every race matters so much. You just don’t have margin for error. During the regular season you have a little more margin for error and it is a long season and you are trying to rack up stage points and things like that. Now, there is just really no margin for error. As far as how I would approach it in the playoffs. I have been doing this awhile, my sixth year full time, but as a playoff rookie. From the experiences I have had I have learned to only focus on what is in my control and to drive the race car and approach the race just like I would any other race which is to make the most of what we have for that day. I really don’t change my approach personally. That takes discipline to do with so much on the line. I am lucky that as I have gotten older, I am 29 now and been doing this awhile, that I feel more disciplined and mentally mature and ready than ever on those things that really affect my execution of my race with my team.”

NASCAR CUP SERIES
COOK OUT SOUTHERN 500
DARLINGTON RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY PLAYOFFS MEDIA DAY
SEPTEMBER 2, 2020

WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY THROWBACK CAMARO ZL1 1LE – ROTATION TRANSCRIPT:

OTHER THAN YOURSELF, WHO DO YOU THINK IS A DARK HORSE TEAM OR A SUPRRISE TO MAKE A RUN THAT PEOPLE SHOULD WATCH IN THE PLAYOFFS?
“That’s a good question. I think honestly, I’d say Aric Almirola. I just think they’re consistent, they’ve been consistently fast at a lot of these tracks. The only thing with that is I feel like a lot of the tracks are going to be much different in the Playoffs than the ones we ran in the summertime. Typically, summertime is a lot of 2-mile tracks and big, fast, open racetracks, and that’s not really the case in the playoffs. But I’d say they perform pretty well throughout.”

CONGRATS ON LAST WEEKEND – I KNOW THAT WAS BIG FOR YOU. YOU JUST DEALT WITH A STRESSFUL, PRESSURE-PACKED SITUATION IN TRYING TO ADVANCE INTO THE PLAYOFFS. TELL ME A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE MINDSET NOW FOR YOUR TEAM GOING FORWARD. YOU’VE GOT THESE NEXT THREE WEEKS. OBVIOUSLY, YOU’D LOVE TO GET ANOTHER CHECKERED FLAG, BUT TAKE ME THROUGH THE MINDSET RIGHT NOW THAT YOU GUYS ARE GOING THROUGH.
“Honestly, for us, I think that now having that first win of the season and first win for me and this team, I feel like we’re more focused on just executing the details of each race. Obviously, our goal going into this year was to make it further than we did last year in the playoffs, which was the Round of 12 last year. So, if we can make it to the Round of 8 this year, it would be a success, for sure. We just have to take it one race at a time. A lot of these tracks are good for us. I think the first round is probably the weakest of the tracks for us, so we just have to try to focus on that, try to just compete in every race and hopefully get out of this first round with a great race at Darlington. Richmond is definitely our toughest of the three, so we’re going to have to really work hard at that race to have a good run.”

CONGRATS ON THE WIN AND THE NEW CONTRACT. HOW DID ALL OF THAT COME INTO PLAY AND WERE YOU ALREADY NEGOTIATING PRIOR TO THE WIN?
“Honestly for us, we were already kind of negotiating that. I had one year left after this one, so it wasn’t super urgent to get it done or anything. But when Hendrick came to me and wanted to sign for a couple more years, I was thrilled and I think it’s worked out well for both of us. The fact that they have confidence in me is a great thing and I can just go out there and race as hard as I can and try to do the best that I can for them. They’ve made that known that they just want to focus on the race track and I’m going to try to do that throughout the playoffs, for sure.”

AS YOU LOOK AHEAD AT THIS FIRST ROUND, BRISTOL BEING THE CUTOFF RACE – DAYTONA WAS AN UNPREDICTABLE RACE, IT’S A SUPERSPEEDWAY. IS BRISTOL GOING TO BE THE SAME TYPE OF WILD CARD, WHERE JUST ABOUT ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN AND A SURPRISE COULD POP UP OUT OF NOWHERE AS WELL?
“I think the surprise will just be some of the guys that maybe have issues with their cars or get caught up in a wreck. But I think you’re going to have to run well and perform well to win that race. There’s really not a fluke, per say. For us, we’re just going to focus on running well at Bristol. It’s a track where things happen really fast. You can’t have mistakes on pit road and you can’t have mistakes on the track. So, that’s our focus – to just have a mistake-free race there. We had a fast car there in the first race of the year back in June. The All-Star race was OK for us – I think we finished somewhere in the top-10. We just have to try to improve and see what we can do.”

HOW IMPORTANT IS HAVING THAT STABILITY THROUGH 2022, ESPECIALLY WHENEVER A COMPANY CHANGES LEADERSHIP, THERE’S ALWAYS QUESTIONS ABOUT STABILITY OF THE SPONSORSHIPS. TO KNOW THAT YOU’RE GOING TO BE THERE FOR A COUPLE MORE YEARS, HOW MUCH DOES THAT IMPACT YOU?
“Well, it’s huge. I think for me, the confidence comes from knowing that Mr. Hendrick and Jeff (Gordon) have confidence in me no matter what sponsor or whoever is on my car. They’ve made that known since I’ve been there, is that my deal is separate from anything like that and I can go out there and compete hard, drive their car and they’re going to make sure that I can be on the race track each and every week. So, I think that’s where my confidence comes from – just knowing that I’m going to be in that car. Definitely with this deal, I can focus on the playoffs and focus on trying to win more races.”

YOU’RE IN A GREAT STARTING SPOT FOR THE UPCOMING RACE AT DARLINGTON. YOU’RE LINED UP RIGHT NEXT TO ALEX (BOWMAN). IS THERE ANY TALK ABOUT YOU GUYS MAYBE KIND OF GETTING A STRATEGY TOGETHER TO RACE TO THE FRONT OF THE PACK OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT?
“I mean not really, just because Darlington is not like a speedway race or somewhere where you can really work together. But I think that for us all starting up towards the front, the three of us, I think that’s going to be great. It’s going to be an advantage to have three cars up there competing for stage wins and things of that nature. I think it’s all going to elevate our game and just gives us that advantage. Starting up front is just huge at any race track. Darlington is luckily a long race, so even if you start towards the back, you’ve got plenty of time to get towards the front. It’s going to help having a great pit stall selection – that’s what really comes to mind for me is having that great pit stall.”

YOU’RE ONLY THE SECOND DRIVER TO WIN BEHIND THE WHEEL OF THE NO. 24 CAR – THE OTHER OF COURSE BEING JEFF GORDON. YOUR WIN LAST SATURDAY, YOU ACCOMPLISHED YOUR FIRST VICTORY AT A YOUNGER AGE THAN JEFF GORDON. I JUST WONDERED, WHAT WERE YOUR EMOTIONS FOLLOWING THE RACE TAKING THAT CHECKERED FLAG AND DID JEFF GORDON REACH OUT TO YOU AFTERWARDS?
“Definitely. It was cool to talk to Jeff (Gordon) on Sunday, just get his thoughts on it and just the excitement there between the two of us. We’ve really worked well together in the past of just trying to understand how to get better and improve. He’s given me some nuggets and some things that I can improve on. It’s been great to talk to him about the team aspect and things that we can do to just continue to elevate our performance. It’s just been a great couple of days. I was super excited when we finished that race like we did – it was really fun.”

YOU AND YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH CHAD KNAUS A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO WAS BROADCASTED OVER THE AIR WAVES – YOU KIND OF HAD A STRUGGLE THERE. BUT SINCE THEN, YOU GUYS HAVE REBOUNDED. HOW IMPORTANT IS THAT GOING TO BE GOING INTO THE FIRST ROUND, WHERE YOU SAY YOU’VE STRUGGLED AT THE THREE RACE TRACKS COMING UP? HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH JIMMIE (JOHNSON) AND WINNING THE SEVEN CHAMPIONSHIPS, HOW DOES THAT HELP YOU GOING INTO THIS FIRST ROUND?
“I think it helps a lot. I mean obviously, a couple weeks ago, we were struggling there at Dover. But we really turned it around. Since that second race, we’ve really been on it. I think honestly for us, we’ve gotten past those hurdles and we’ve been able to handle the pressure really well. So, just knowing that the two of us together can handle the pressure, go out there and do what we need to do – I have confidence in him and we know that we have the same goals. We both want to win and we’ll do whatever it takes to do that.”

WHAT IS IT ABOUT DARLINGTON THAT MAKES IT A CHALLENGING TRACK?
“Gosh, everything. I think just the fact that it’s two lanes wide. The fact that you have to run against the wall to make speed. These cars are super sensitive to hitting the wall to begin with – you can’t even really touch the wall nowadays and get away with it. So, you have to factor all that stuff in when you go to race at Darlington. It’s a tough track. Restarts are tough there because there’s definitely a dominant lane on the outside. Having the choose cone in effect is going to make that a challenge, as well. You can kind of name everything – the playoffs, it’s not going to be easy.”

THIS IS YOUR SECOND-CONSECUTIVE YEAR IN THE PLAYOFFS. YOU’RE A YEAR OLDER, YOU’VE GOT A WIN UNDER YOUR BELT. HOW DOES YOUR APPROACH TO THE 2020 PLAYOFFS DIFFER FROM YEARS PAST?
“I think honestly for me, just having that comfort in knowing what the playoffs are like. The first race last year in the playoffs was kind of action-packed and intense for me. I learned a lot through that and you have to handle adversity well. I feel like we’ve been through a lot of adversity this year. We’ve had a lot of tire issues, we’ve had some issues with just random things that have happened. So, now we’ve been through that stuff so we can go into the playoffs and know that we are able to handle that adversity well.”

YOU MENTIONED RICHMOND AS BEING A CHALLENGING TRACK. ONE THING THAT’S INTERESTING ABOUT THIS YEAR IS THAT THE SPRING RICHMOND RACE WASN’T HELD, SO THIS WILL BE THE FIRST TIME AT RICHMOND THIS YEAR. OBVIOUSLY, THERE ARE SOME OTHER TRACKS THAT CAN MAYBE CORRELATE. WHAT WILL THE CHALLENGE BE, ESPECIALLY WITH IT BEING A PLAYOFF RACE, FIRST TIME THIS SEASON FOR YOU AND EVERYBODY ELSE?
“That’s a good point – we haven’t raced there this year. It’s not one of my favorite tracks, but I think that for us, we’ll lean on our notes and information from New Hampshire. I think we had a good run there. We also finished OK at Phoenix, as well. I think we finished 11th at New Hampshire and 10th at Phoenix. So, right around the top-10, which is kind of our goal going into Richmond. I think if we can finish in the top-10, it’ll give us an opportunity to try and win at a couple other tracks. I think it’s one of those tracks where you kind of lower your expectations a little bit for us and try to just get out of there with a solid finish. One that we can kind of gather the points we need to going into the next couple.”

WE TALKED A LITTLE BIT ABOUT CHAD KNAUS – WE SAW THE TURNAROUND AT DOVER AND WHAT LED TO AT DAYTONA. CHAD’S BEEN VERY VOCAL IN SAYING THAT HE WANTED TO WIN WITH THE NO. 24 CAR. HAVE YOU GUYS TALKED AT ALL OR CAN YOU GIVE US ANY INSIGHT ON WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS, IF YOU AND CHAD HAVE TALKED ABOUT NEXT YEAR OR WHAT HE’S DOING?
“I don’t really handle all those talks and stuff with what’s going on there. But I love working with Chad (Knaus, crew chief). I think he’s been great for my career. He’s elevated me from where I was in my rookie year – where this team was in my rookie year, which was not something we were proud of – and elevated us into a playoff-contending team. A lot of that is thanks to him. It’s not just be as a driver – it’s our engineers, it’s our team, pit crew, mechanics, it’s everybody that he’s elevated their game for us to get into the playoffs two years in a row. I think it’s been a great thing for me and I look forward to what’s ahead in these next ten races with him.”

I KNOW JIMMIE JOHNSON HAS MEANT A LOT TO YOU EVER SINCE YOU JOINED THE HENDRICK SQUAD BACK IN 2017 I THINK IT WAS. THIS WEEKEND, WHAT’S IT GOING TO MEAN TO HONOR HIM THROWBACK STYLE IN HIS 2013 ALL-STAR SCHEME FOR THE 24?
“It’s going to be really cool. Honestly for me, I’m excited about running that scheme and I feel like looking at his car on the race track, as well, is going to be really cool. I’m excited to see all those throwback schemes, particularly Jimmie’s and just look forward to seeing what that’s like. I think Darlington has a great tradition going there.”

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

About Chevrolet
Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is one of the world’s largest car brands, doing business in more than 100 countries and selling more than 4.0 million cars and trucks a year. Chevrolet provides customers with fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.

DARLINGTON RACEWAY (1.366-MILE OVAL)
LOCATION: DARLINGTON, SOUTH CAROLINA
EVENT: NASCAR CUP SERIES (RACE 27 OF 36)
TUNE IN: 6 P.M. ET, SUNDAY, SEPT. 6 (NBCSN/MRN/SIRIUSXM)

Chase Elliott
No. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS Camaro ZL1 1LE
Driver Chase Elliott Hometown Dawsonville, Georgia
Age 24 Resides Dawsonville, Georgia

2020 Season
5th in standings
26 starts
2 wins
1 pole position
10 top-five finishes
15 top-10 finishes
530 laps led

Career
175 starts
8 wins
9 pole positions
54 top-five finishes
89 top-10 finishes
2,374 laps led

Track Career
7 starts
0 wins
3 pole positions
2 top-five finishes
3 top-10 finishes
37 laps led

Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, will be available to members of the media via video conference on Thursday, Sept. 3, as part of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Media Day. Visit NASCARmedia.com for details.

LET THE PLAYOFFS BEGIN: The 2020 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs kick off this weekend at historic Darlington Raceway. For the fifth consecutive year, Chase Elliott is officially part of the playoff contenders. In 2016, he became the youngest driver to make his first playoff start at 20 years, 9 months, 21 days, and last season he advanced all the way to the Round of 8 for the third consecutive year. Elliott’s average finish in the playoffs (13.0) is the second highest of the 2020 field of drivers, behind only Kevin Harvick. In his 40 playoff starts, he has garnered three wins (Dover 2018, Kansas 2018 and Charlotte 2019), 15 top-five finishes, 22 top-10s and 746 laps led.

THROUGH 26: As the regular season came to a close, Elliott continued to stack up career bests in runner-up results (three), top-five finishes (10), top-10s (15) stage points (200) and stage wins (six). Through 26 races, his two wins are tied for a personal best and his 530 laps led are his second most.

NAPA THROWBACK: NAPA AUTO PARTS will serve as the primary sponsor for Sunday’s Southern 500 at Darlington. In February, it was announced that NAPA AUTO PARTS and Hendrick Motorsports will continue their partnership for another two seasons. NAPA will remain a primary sponsor of Elliott and the No. 9 team through 2022. Click here to read the full release.

FOR 7X: In August, it was revealed that Elliott and Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron and Alex Bowman would pay homage to seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson with special paint schemes at Darlington Raceway. Elliott’s No. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE is a throwback to Johnson’s championship-winning 2009 season. Check out the scheme here.

UNDER THE LIGHTS: Elliott continued his night race success on Saturday, collecting a second-place finish at the NASCAR Cup Series regular season finale at Daytona International Speedway. The Dawsonville, Georgia, native has one win (Charlotte), three runner-up finishes and five top-fives in the last six points-paying night races. Elliott also collected a victory under the lights in the 2020 NASCAR All-Star Race at Bristol Motor Speedway in July.

LOOKING BACK: Elliott and the NAPA AUTO PARTS team overcame a mid-race speeding penalty to finish fourth in the NASCAR Cup Series return at Darlington Raceway on May 17. It marked a career-best finish for the driver at the track dubbed “Too Tough to Tame.” In the May 20 race at the track, Elliott led 28 laps and was in position to win during the closing laps but was spun late by Kyle Busch and relegated to a 38th-place finish.

‘TOO TOUGH TO TAME’ STATS: Elliott is set to make his eighth NASCAR Cup Series start at Darlington Raceway this weekend. In his previous races at the 1.366-mile track, he has two top-five finishes and three top-10s. Elliott also has three NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at the South Carolina venue, where he won in his 2014 track debut. He is one of only four drivers to win at Darlington in their first race there.

GUSTAFSON AT DARLINGTON: No. 9 team crew chief Alan Gustafson has called 17 Cup Series races at Darlington. Leading five different drivers, he’s collected one win, four top-five results and seven top-10s. Gustafson’s Darlington win came in 2009 with veteran Mark Martin, the second-oldest driver (50 years, 4 months) to win at the track “Too Tough To Tame.”

GUSTAFSON’S PLAYOFF RECORD: Gustafson has the second-most playoff appearances by a crew chief (13), behind only fellow Hendrick Motorsports crew chief Chad Knaus (17). The 45-year-old race caller is also tied for the second-most wins in playoff races with nine.

PIT POWER: As the NASCAR Cup Series kicks off its 2020 playoffs, the No. 9 team owns the third-best average time for four-tire pit stops at 13.96 seconds through 26 races. The team is comprised of jackman T.J. Semke, gasman John Gianninoto, tire carrier Jared Erspamer and tire changers Chad Avrit and Nick O’Dell.

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William Byron
No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE
Driver William Byron Hometown Charlotte, North Carolina
Age 22 Resides Charlotte, North Carolina

2020 Season
9th in standings
26 starts
1 win
0 pole positions
2 top-five finishes
9 top-10 finishes
97 laps led

Career
98 starts
1 win
5 pole positions
7 top-five finishes
26 top-10 finishes
391 laps led

Track Career
4 starts
0 wins
1 pole position
0 top-five finishes
0 top-10 finishes
3 laps led

HERE TO STAY: Coming off his first NASCAR Cup win and heading into his second series playoff appearance, William Byron confirmed Tuesday that he will continue to bring home the hardware behind the wheel of the No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE for the 2021 and 2022 seasons. While his contract extension was signed in early August prior to Saturday’s win, Byron’s success in the national ranks of NASCAR speaks for itself. Signing with Hendrick Motorsports in August 2016, he climbed the ladder to the Xfinity Series in 2017, winning the circuit championship before making his way to the Cup level in 2018. With a combined 12 NASCAR national series race wins, Byron is the fifth-youngest driver to score a victory in all three major touring levels and is one of only two drivers to be crowned rookie of the year in three consecutive seasons.

WINNER WINNER: With Saturday night’s event at Daytona International Speedway signaling the final race of the 2020 regular season, Byron rolled off from the sixth position in the No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE but quickly took the lead early on. The Charlotte, North Carolina, native continued to show speed throughout the night and narrowly avoided multiple incidents to position himself on the front row for the final restart heading into overtime. Jumping out to the lead just before taking the white flag, Byron got help from Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott, who gave him the push he needed to maintain the lead and capture the checkered flag for his first career Cup Series win.

THE NUMBER IS 24: The “24” car number, made famous by four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon, has an extensive history in NASCAR. Byron can now add his name to the legacy. En route to his Daytona win, Byron led 24 laps, including the final two in overtime, before capturing the checkered flag – the first time the No. 24 has been to victory lane with someone other than Gordon behind the wheel. Gordon’s first Cup Series win came at the age of 22 years, 9 months and 25 days, while Byron’s first victory came at 22 years, 9 months and 1 day – a difference of exactly 24 days. In fact, Saturday marked the first summer Cup race at Daytona not held on the Fourth of July weekend since 1998 when the event was held in October. The winner was Gordon in the No. 24.

LOCKED IT UP: Not only did his Daytona win signal the first of his Cup career but it also solidified Byron’s position in the 2020 NASCAR playoffs. Making his second appearance during his three-year Cup Series career, Byron is now seeded ninth, three points above the cutline heading into the first of three races in the Round of 16.

NIGHT VISION: While racing under the lights seems to bring a different level of intensity, it also brings success for Byron. In the last four races run at night, including Saturday’s Daytona win, the Charlotte, North Carolina, native has finished in the top 10 – a streak he plans to continue Sunday at Darlington.

DARLINGTON DEETS: With four previous Cup Series starts at Darlington, Byron is looking to capitalize on his strong showings at the track this Sunday and is hoping to find a little luck along the way. Despite running well early in races, Byron only has a track-best finish of 12th, which came earlier this year in the second race of the Darlington doubleheader. Last year in a “Days of Thunder” throwback paint scheme, Byron channeled his inner Cole Trickle and captured the pole for the prestigious Southern 500, becoming the youngest-ever pole sitter at Darlington Raceway at 21 years, 9 months and 2 days.

PLAYOFF MASTER: When the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team solidified its spot in the battle for the championship Saturday night, veteran crew chief Chad Knaus made history of his own. This year’s post-season berth continued his streak of 17 consecutive playoff appearances. Not only does that stat rank first among all crew chiefs – with Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alan Gustafson second with 13 appearances – but Knaus has yet to miss the playoffs since the format’s inception in 2004. Through his 17 trips, Knaus has gone on to win an incredible 29 races and seven championships, which are both records in the playoff format.

KNAUS DIGS DARLINGTON: Making his 25th start at Darlington Raceway atop the pit box, Knaus is optimistic that his previous success at the 1.366-mile oval will continue Sunday. With three crown jewel wins at “The Lady in Black,” all with Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 team, Knaus also has one pole award at Darlington, which came last year with Byron and the No. 24 team for the Southern 500.

LIBERTY HONORS JOHNSON: On board for his win at Daytona, Liberty University will remain on Byron’s No. 24 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE for Sunday’s race at Darlington – but with a different look. Embodying this year’s theme of “past champions” for the Southern 500, Liberty University is honoring seven-time champion Johnson by running his 2013 NASCAR All-Star Race paint scheme. Featuring a red, white and blue design with stars and stripes, the throwback scheme represents Johnson’s fourth and final All-Star Race win – the most of any driver – at Byron’s hometown track of Charlotte Motor Speedway. To see Byron’s No. 24 Liberty University Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE for Sunday’s race, click here.

SOUTH CAROLINA STATE OF MIND: While the fueler on the No. 24 team hails from North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, Landon Walker has significant ties to the southernmost Carolina state. The former college football player earned a scholarship to Clemson University in 2007 after being named an All-American offensive lineman in his hometown at East Wilkes High School. While playing at Clemson, Walker recorded 3,131 snaps with 49 starts at tackle through four seasons. In 2011, he was named team captain, the same year Clemson went on to win the Atlantic Coast Conference championship. The college football standout was then recruited by Hendrick Motorsports in 2012 and earned a position as a starting fueler for crew chief Gustafson in 2015.

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Jimmie Johnson
No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE
Driver Jimmie Johnson Hometown El Cajon, California
Age 44 Resides Charlotte, North Carolina

2020 Season
17th in standings
25 starts
0 wins
0 pole positions
4 top-five finishes
9 top-10 finishes
102 laps led

Career
676 starts
83 wins
36 pole positions
231 top-five finishes
373 top-10 finishes
18,936 laps led

Track Career
23 starts
3 wins
0 pole positions
9 top-five finishes
13 top-10 finishes
563 laps led

WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN: After teammate William Byron won Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway to clinch a NASCAR Cup Series playoff berth, Jimmie Johnson was one of the first to congratulate him in victory lane. Johnson ran strong all race until a late incident collected his No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE and ended his chances to earn a playoff spot, which he missed by just six points. Two regular season misfortunes proved especially costly to Johnson’s post-season hopes. The team was disqualified after a second-place finish at Charlotte, wiping out 46 points. Then Johnson was forced to watch from the sidelines for the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis due to a positive COVID-19 test, collecting no points for the event. If Johnson had retained the Charlotte points and earned 26 more at Indianapolis (his season average), he would have clinched a playoff position following the Dover doubleheader in August. Additional points were lost when Johnson had an accident while leading Darlington in May at the end of Stage 1. Those 10 points would have been enough to advance him into the playoffs

THROWBACK FOR THE AGES: Johnson and primary sponsor Ally recently announced their championship-caliber throwback scheme on Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s popular “Dale Jr. Download” podcast. The hood, roof and decklid of Johnson’s Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE are a tribute to Richard Petty’s iconic “Petty Blue” No. 43 car, while the design on the sides pays homage to Dale Earnhardt’s infamous black No. 3. Johnson also will carry a “7x7x7x” badge on the car that represents the three-way tie of the only drivers in history – Petty, Earnhardt and Johnson – with seven NASCAR Cup Series championships. Click here for more.

PETTY AND CHILDRESS RESPOND: In addition to Johnson unveiling the throwback No. 48 Ally Chevy for Sunday’s Darlington race on the “Dale Jr. Download,” the podcast featured No. 3 car owner Richard Childress and seven-time Cup champion Petty reacting to the tribute. Click here to listen to the podcast titled “Jimmie Johnson: 7×3 Perfection” in its entirety.

INTIMIDATING COMPARISON: While there will never be another driver like “The Intimidator,” a statistical look at Earnhardt and Johnson makes for an interesting comparison. Earnhardt made 676 career NASCAR Cup Series starts, which is where Johnson currently stands following Saturday’s race at Daytona. Johnson has recorded seven more wins and 14 more pole positions than the driver of the No. 3. But in the same number of races, Earnhardt recorded 55 more top-10 finishes, 50 more top-fives and more than 6,700 more laps led than Johnson.

200TH WIN: Fitting for a throwback weekend, Johnson won the milestone 200th win for Hendrick Motorsports at Darlington Raceway more than eight years ago. Starting the May 12, 2012, event on the outside pole, Johnson led 134 of 368 laps, including the final 44, en route to the victory.

ALL HAIL: Johnson revealed his Darlington throwback paint scheme honoring Earnhardt and Petty, and then the rest of the Hendrick Motorsports stable revealed their schemes. The Chevrolet Camaros of Chase Elliott, Byron and Alex Bowman all will pay tribute to their teammate and seven-time champion for his final time racing at Darlington in the NASCAR Cup Series. All four cars can be seen here.

NOT DONE YET: Of Johnson’s 83 wins, 41% have come in the months of September, October and November. He has accumulated 34 victories during those months over the course of his 19 seasons in the NASCAR Cup Series. Presently, there are still big milestones on the horizon. The next time he crosses the finish line first he will have scored his 84th points-paying Cup Series win to tie Hall of Famers Darrell Waltrip and Bobby Allison for fourth all-time. Johnson has the most wins of all active drivers.

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Alex Bowman
No. 88 ChevyGoods/Truck Hero Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE ​
Driver Alex Bowman Hometown Tucson, Arizona
Age 27 Resides Concord, North Carolina

2020 Season
8th in standings
26 starts
1 win
0 pole positions
3 top-five finishes
8 top-10 finishes
388 laps led

Career
179 starts
2 wins
2 pole positions
13 top-five finishes
34 top-10 finishes
862 laps led

Track Career
6 starts
0 wins
0 pole positions
1 top-five finish
1 top-10 finish
41 laps led

Alex Bowman, driver of the No. 88 ChevyGoods.com/Truck Hero Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, will be available to members of the media via video conference on Thursday, Sept. 3, as part of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Media Day. Visit NASCARmedia.com for details.

WELCOME, TRUCK HERO: This weekend marks the first event of the 2020 season in which the Truck Hero brand will adorn the No. 88 ChevyGoods.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE. Headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Truck Hero offers customers a full range of branded automotive accessories for vehicles with market-leading functionality, engineering, quality and design. Hendrick Motorsports announced its partnership with ChevyGoods.com earlier this season, which includes branding on Alex Bowman’s Camaro for 26 events. Associate brands featured are Adam’s Polishes, NOCO and Truck Hero.

HONORING A SEVEN-TIME CHAMP: On Sunday night, the No. 88 Chevy will honor teammate Jimmie Johnson during the throwback event at Darlington Raceway. Bowman will pilot a special Truck Hero Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE paying homage to Johnson’s 2006 NASCAR Cup Series championship. Not only is the scheme honoring the seven-time champ’s first title, it represents crew chief Greg Ives’ first championship with the No. 48 team. The 2006 season marked the first of five titles Ives earned as an engineer on Johnson’s team.

IT’S PLAYOFF TIME: Bowman is set to make his third appearance in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs beginning this weekend at Darlington Raceway. The No. 88 team clinched a spot in the 2020 playoffs following its March win at Auto Club Speedway. The 27-year-old driver raced his way into the Round of 12 the last two years, and this is the second season where he clinched a spot based on a victory. The team is currently sitting eighth in the playoff standings, just 48 markers behind the leader. This also marks Ives’ fourth Cup Series playoff appearance. He has three with Bowman and one with Dale Earnhardt Jr.

DARLINGTON STATS: Bowman, a Tucson, Arizona, native, has six previous starts in the NASCAR Cup Series at Darlington Raceway. His best finish of second came in May in the first race back after a two-month break due to the coronavirus pandemic. Bowman led for 41 laps after rolling off second, earning the second-most points in the event.

UNDER THE LIGHTS: Bowman has finished inside the top 10 in three of the last four night races this season. He finished sixth at Martinsville Speedway on June 10, eighth at Kansas Speedway on July 23 and most recently seventh at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday.

ALL ABOUT STAGE POINTS: The No. 88 team has four stage wins this season, which is tied for third overall in the NASCAR Cup Series. Bowman has captured 167 stage points in 2020, the eighth-most of all drivers. The sixth-year driver earned 27 stage points in the two Darlington events earlier this season, the second-most stage points earned in those two races. He is also running much better than his finishing positions show with an average running position of 12.85 and an average finish of 17.0 – a difference of 4.15.

IVES IS ‘TOO TOUGH’: For the eighth time in his career in the NASCAR Cup Series, Ives will call the shots at Darlington for the No. 88 team. The Bark River, Michigan, native’s best finish at the venue came in May after Bowman crossed the line in second after leading 41 laps. Ives’ drivers have completed 99.7% of the total laps and have one top-five finish and two top-10s at the facility. He was also the crew chief for Chase Elliott in the NASCAR Xfinity Series when the team captured the victory after leading 52 laps back in 2014. From 2006-2012, Ives was a race engineer for the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team. During that time, he was a part of one Cup Series win (2012) and four top-five finishes at Darlington.

NEW MONTH, NEW DEALS: During the month of September, No. 88 team sponsor ChevyGoods.com is providing discounts on various accessories on its website. Customers can receive 10% below MSRP on all Adam’s Polishes, NOCO and Truck Hero accessories purchased online. Use code CHEVYGOODS to receive the discount at ChevyGoods.com.

PIT ROAD KNACK: The No. 88 pit crew ranks seventh in the NASCAR Cup Series with an average four-tire stop time of 14.13 seconds after 26 events this season. The team includes fueler Jacob Conley, tire carrier Rowdy Harrell, jackman Dustin Lineback and tire changers Scott Brzozowski and Devin DelRicco.

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Hendrick Motorsports

MILESTONE WIN: William Byron’s clutch performance Saturday night at Daytona International Speedway was the 260th points-paying NASCAR Cup Series victory for Hendrick Motorsports, putting the team just eight wins from tying Petty Enterprises’ all-time record of 268. At Daytona, Byron also led the 70,000th Cup Series lap for car owner Rick Hendrick, extending Hendrick Motorsports’ record in the category.

WINNERS’ CIRCLE: With 22-year-old Byron added to the list, Hendrick Motorsports has now won points-paying NASCAR Cup Series races with 19 different drivers, including 11 who notched their first career victory with the team. Byron’s Daytona accomplishment made Hendrick Motorsports the first organization in NASCAR history to win with three different drivers under the age of 27 in a single season. Alex Bowman, then 26, won Auto Club Speedway in March, and Chase Elliott, 24, won at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May and the DAYTONA Road Course in August. Including 2020, Hendrick Motorsports has gone to victory lane with three or more drivers in 12 different seasons, the most ever.

POST-SZN STATS: Since the inception of the system, Hendrick Motorsports has won 44 races in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, which represent 28% of all playoff events and is 16 more victories than second-place Joe Gibbs Racing (28). Hendrick Motorsports has won at least one playoff race in a record 15 different seasons. The 2020 campaign is the 15th consecutive year the team has placed at least two drivers in the playoffs and the 13th different season with at least three.

PLAYOFF MO’: Hendrick Motorsports has built strong momentum going into the first race of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs at Darlington Raceway. In the four events leading up to the playoffs, the team won twice and notched eight top-five finishes, including one runner-up result. It has scored 11 top-10s and recorded an average finish of 10.25 – statistics that lead all Cup Series organizations in the last four races.

DARLINGTON DARLINGS: At Darlington Raceway, Hendrick Motorsports holds the track records for NASCAR Cup Series wins (14), top-five finishes (47), top-10s (78) and laps led (3,268). The team’s 14 victories there have come with six different drivers: Jeff Gordon (seven), Jimmie Johnson (three), Terry Labonte, Mark Martin, Tim Richmond and Ricky Rudd. Johnson led 124 laps and went to victory lane the only time a playoff race has been held at Darlington (November 2004).

STATS RUNDOWN: Since its inception in 1984, Hendrick Motorsports has earned 260 race victories and holds the all-time records for championships (12), pole positions (226), top-five finishes (1,090), top-10s (1,880) and laps led (70,006) in points-paying NASCAR Cup Series competition. Including 2020, the organization has won at least one race in 35 consecutive seasons, the longest-ever streak. Hendrick Motorsports is eight wins away from tying Petty Enterprises’ all-time Cup record of 268.

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QUOTABLE /
Driver Chase Elliott on heading back to the playoffs:
“I am looking forward to the playoffs. I think these last 10 races are going to be super interesting and I look forward to the challenges myself and the NAPA team have ahead of us. It’s going to be a tough 10 for sure. We will have to bring our best to compete and I think we can do that. We just have to be consistent and be up front every week.”

Elliott on the throwback schemes for Darlington:
“I’m really excited about Darlington this year. It’s a really cool deal that we can honor Jimmie (Johnson) this weekend. He has had such an unreal career and been successful for so long. I am proud to call Jimmie a friend. He really is a hero of mine and had a tremendous impact on me. I am really looking forward to getting to the track and showing off our NAPA throwback to his 2009 championship season.”

Driver William Byron winning the final race before the playoffs:
“Fortunately, we have pretty long weeks now with no practice or qualifying. We get two extra days, essentially. So we have had a couple days to take everything in and enjoy the win before turning on to Darlington. Darlington is a track that we’ve traditionally run well at and had a decent car in the spring this year. We’ll make some changes off of our previous setup and I think we’ll be in a good place.”

Byron on his feelings of getting his first Cup win:
“It was honestly just a big relief. I’ve been driving the No. 24 car for the last couple years and it was a relief to win that race in that car. There’s a lot of pressure that comes with that and the legacy of the car. These last couple years I’ve been really trying to work on being comfortable in the car and make it my own. I don’t remember much from crossing the finish line, but watching it back it just makes me smile. I’m still on Cloud 9. It’s been pretty special.”

Byron on racing at Darlington:
“Hopefully, we can have a good race and execute really well. Darlington is a really tough racetrack but luckily we’ve been there twice already this year. I have a pretty good idea of what the track is going to feel like and how it’s going to drive and handle. It definitely is a very temperature-sensitive track and it’s going to be warmer than when we were there in May. It rubbers up a lot, especially up by the wall. You have to move your line around and try to avoid the rubber at times until it covers the full track. Once it does, you can run wherever your car handles the best. It’s a balancing act of trying to chase clean track and trying to find good racetrack to run on.”

Crew chief Chad Knaus on the pressure of winning and the playoffs:
“The intensity was way higher and the pressure we felt was high, really high in Daytona. Quite honestly, I love it. That’s why we do what we do. That’s why we compete. If it was easy no one would want to do it. It felt really good after the race to get that checkered flag. Going into the playoffs now, it’s all in the details and we have to make sure that we execute properly. Going to Darlington now, it’s a great racetrack for us. We’ve ran well there. We sat on the pole last year, we ran up front in the first spring race until we had a loose wheel, and we were decent in the second May race. If we look at the details this week, I think we have an opportunity to be really competitive this weekend and run up towards the front.”

Driver Jimmie Johnson on keeping a winning attitude entering the playoffs:
“We won’t have the chance to go for eight championships, but I am pretty damn proud of the seven we won. We do have 10 more chances and there are plenty of trophies up for grabs with nothing to lose. Darlington owes me one and we plan to finish this season strong. I’m proud to honor these two legends (Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty) and what they’ve meant to me and the sport with this seven-time scheme at Darlington.”

Driver Alex Bowman on the start of the 2020 playoffs:
“Everything resets this weekend. As a team, we have to regroup and use the momentum from the last two races to start the playoffs strong. We have shown that we are capable of wins and we have shown we can move on in the playoffs. This No. 88 team and everyone at Hendrick Motorsports has been preparing for the playoffs since our win in California, so I am ready to get underway this weekend in Darlington.”

Bowman on capitalizing at Darlington:
“Earlier this year we had some good runs at Darlington. The first race back from the brief pause was really good for us as a team. We finished second and really capitalized on stage points. Our goal for Sunday is to do the same thing. We need to have a solid race, earn stage points and get a good finish at the end of the night to start these playoffs off right.”

COLE CUSTER, No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang — HOW DO YOU SEE THE CUP PLAYOFFS BEING DIFFERENT FROM LAST YEAR AND YOUR APPROACH TO THEM? “I think the biggest thing is that there’s just more competition. In the XFINITY Series you have probably five to six guys that can probably make it to Miami, where here there are probably 10-12 guys that could. It’s tough. You’ve got to be really competitive and you’ve got to beat a lot of good guys, but at the same time you don’t want to put yourself in a hole either, so there’s a lot to balance.”

WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE TO MAKE THE PLAYOFFS WITHOUT ANY EXPERTS HAVING YOU IN DURING THE PRESEASON? “It’s huge. I mean, I think we can go in there and prove some people wrong is the biggest thing, but at the end of the day it’s about being consistent and it’s about being competitive. I think we’ve had a lot of peaks and valleys at times this year, but at the same time we just need to try and level it out more going into these playoffs. If we can be consistent and we can put it all together and put all the pieces together for these last 10 races, I think we’ve shown that we can compete with anybody it’s just trying to put those pieces together every single race.”

ASIDE FROM YOU, WHO DO YOU THINK IS A DARKHORSE? “I think you can look at my teammate, Aric Almirola. They’ve been knocking on the door all year pretty much being consistent and it only takes one thing to go right and I think they can win some races, so I can definitely say that you can probably look at them a little bit.”

YOU ARE THE ROOKIE OF THE YEAR. DO YOU READ ANY OF THE STUFF ON TWITTER WHO FEEL YOU DON’T DESERVE IT? “I don’t know. I don’t make the rules (laughing). At the end of the day I guess we won, but I don’t know. I’m not the most confident guy out there that’s gonna say I’m better than all those guys. I know that all of us have been pretty competitive this year and I think we’ve all made big strides. It’s just a matter of we won at Kentucky. I don’t know what to tell you, so we were Rookie of the Year. It’s tough to swallow, I guess, for some people, but it is what it is. I’m gonna be proud of it and I think our team should be proud of it. I think we’ve shown that we can compete and we can have good finishes, so it’s just a matter of being consistent and putting it all together.”

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO WIN THAT AWARD? “It’s huge to be able to race against those guys. Tyler, Christopher, John Hunter, I think we all made huge strides this year and were all fairly competitive. It was definitely cool to be able to race these guys for the last 5-10 years and to move up to the Cup level together and have that battle still kind of going on was really cool.”

WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO GET AN AWARD OVER CHRISTOPHER OR TYLER, WHO WON CHAMPIONSHIPS IN OTHER SERIES? “It’s cool to win that. It’s one of those things you’re gonna look back in 5-10 years and say that was pretty cool to win because it was a really good rookie class and I think it’s cool. I don’t know what else to say about it, but it’s one of those things where it was competitive and I think for us to come out on top of it is definitely something to be proud of.”

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON LAYING THE BUMPER TO SOMEBODY, IF NECESSARY, DURING THE PLAYOFFS? “I think he put it about right. You’re not gonna do it every single lap and every single time in the race. You’ve got to do it at the right time, but if it’s gonna move you to the next round or it’s what you need to do to make your team move forward, it’s what you’ve got to do. I don’t want to be wrecking people. I think, for me, you want to move them out of the way cleanly. I don’t think you want to just start wrecking people, but it’s something where you’ve got to do what’s best for your team.”

HOW OFTEN WILL YOU LEAN ON YOUR TEAMMATES, ESPECIALLY KEVIN, IN THE PLAYOFFS? “Kevin has been a huge help to me this year. I’ve tried to talk with him pretty much every single weekend to try to get an idea of what to expect going into the races. He’s definitely been a huge help. At the same time, I think you’ve got to make your own path at times and you have to have your own ideas because sometimes you’re just gonna confuse yourself having a lot of different people talking in your ear. I have some great teammates at Stewart-Haas Racing and we all obviously made the playoffs and that’s a huge deal for our organization. I think we have a great team that can work great together and share info and it’s just a dream come true, I guess, to have those kinds of teammates.”

IS YOUR CONFIDENCE HIGH IN THIS FIRST ROUND SINCE THERE ARE SOME TRACKS YOU’VE WON AT BEFORE IN XFINITY? “I think so, for sure, but at the same time you’ve got to make sure you’re doing your homework before the races and going in there 100 percent. There are a lot of things that can go wrong in the playoffs. I think we’ve seen that in the past, so it’s a matter of trying to make sure you don’t put yourself in a hole is one of the biggest things. You’ve got to run competitively, that’s for sure, but you don’t want to be one of those guys that has to be desperate going into the final race.”

WHO HAS GIVEN YOU THE BEST ADVICE OUTSIDE OF SHR IN THIS PLAYOFF PROCESS? “I think I lean on my crew chief, Mike Shiplett, a lot. He’s been a huge help over the past two years of being a really calm guy that can give you a lot of advice on a lot of different things. He’s definitely pointed me in the right direction a lot of times. I think going in these playoffs it’s just a matter of taking it one step at a time and you do enough things right, you’re gonna find yourself in a good position.”

HAS TONY STEWART GIVEN YOU ANY ADVICE? “Tony is definitely probably every driver’s dream come true to have as a boss. I mean, somebody I’ve watched since I was a little kid on TV and one of the legends of our sport is pretty amazing and he’s definitely one of those guys to have somebody give you support going into different things and going into races and into the playoffs means the world. We had a team pep rally this week and he was on it, and on the Zoom call obviously since we can’t do it in person, but to have that kind of support from him and seeing how we’re doing means a lot for me. I’ve watched him since I was a little kid.”

DO YOU FEEL YOU’VE MISSED OUT ON ANYTHING THIS ROOKIE SEASON BECAUSE OF COVID? “I think all the races with the fans before the race is probably the biggest thing. It was cool going to Daytona and still having it be a normal race because you have all the pre-race stuff going on and it’s really cool. I think that’s one of the biggest things is just the atmosphere before the race with the fans is probably the biggest thing that we missed out on.”

DO YOU FEEL YOU’RE AT A DISADVANTAGE IN THE PLAYOFFS BEING A ROOKIE AND NO PRACTICE? “You can go back and forth on it for sure. I think I would definitely like some practice. It’s one of those things that even though we’ve been to tracks like Darlington before, some of these guys have been there for 10-15 years. There’s stuff as a rookie that we’d just like to try in our car to see if it was better or worse, but we don’t really have that opportunity, so we make our best educated guess on what we brought there last time and what our teammates did and what we’ve compiled through this whole year of what works and what doesn’t work, but it’s just a matter of adapting as fast as you can and try and use your notebook as best you can.”

WHAT WILL BE YOUR MINDSET FOR THIS SOUTHERN 500 WEEKEND COMPARED TO THE OTHER TWO DARLINGTON RACES THIS YEAR? WILL THERE BE MORE NERVES? “I think so, for sure. One of the biggest things is how you manage your car for that long of race in a playoff race. A lot of times sometimes you’ve got to be a little bit conservative at the start of a race to make sure you don’t knock the fence down and ruin your day, where now you might have to be aggressive from lap one, so you might see a lot more guys hitting the fence throughout the race, so that’s probably the biggest thing is how you’re gonna manage your car throughout that long of a race.”

HOW DOES THIS TRACK SUIT YOUR STYLE? “I think for me it’s a fun track to go and move around at and you do what’s best for you. You can kind of figure out your own kind of path of what works and what doesn’t for your line and how you work the throttle and how you want to save your tires. I think everybody kind of has their unique thing and own style in how they attack that racetrack.”

HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO RELY ON YOUR NOTES FROM PREVIOUS RACES THIS YEAR? “It’s huge. That’s all we have to really lean on is what we brought there last time because you don’t have any practice to kind of work through things. Keeping good notes and making sure you’re staying on top of things and coming to the racetrack prepared and crossing all the t’s and dotting all the i’s is very important right now. I think we’ve kept good notes. We’ve gotten better throughout the year and it’s just a matter of trying to put all the pieces to the puzzle together.”

WHICH WILDCARD TRACK IS YOUR BEST OPPORTUNITY OF MOVING UP THE STANDINGS? “Whatever one is next, I guess. You just look forward to the next one and you take it one step at a time. I don’t know how else to answer your question, really. I think all of the cutoff races are gonna be tough ones because they’re very unpredictable and they’re tracks where a lot of things can go wrong at, so I think they’re all gonna be pretty exciting.”

HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO FINE-TUNE YOUR NOTES FOR PHOENIX? “I think we’ve been good at the flat short tracks this year. It’s tough, like I said, there’s no practice to work through things, but at the same time we’ve had a good notebook and we make our best educated guess going into the race and I think we’ve done good at that. It’s just trying to use all your notes and trying to make sure you cross all the t’s and dot all the i’s going into every single race.”