NASCAR CUP SERIES

MONDAY, JULY 20, 2020

CLINT BOWYER MEDIA TELECONFERENCE

CLINT BOWYER, No. 14 Ford Mustang — HOW EXCITED ARE YOU TO BE AT KANSAS SPEEDWAY SOON? “Well, first of all, can you see my Ford hat? It is almost as cool as that Royals hat I see. I am really looking forward to getting back home. Obviously Texas we got a decent finish but not nearly where we need to be. To be honest, the way these draws, the random draw for just the top-12, thinking back to Talladega, that one last lap right there where we got in a wreck flipped positions with my teammate Aric Almirola. Boy, if I would have known then the difference that would have made a couple months later I probably wouldn’t have made that move. It has been a constant battle trying to dig ourselves out of a hole. The way that the draw is for the top-12 it basically just protects those guys and makes it virtually impossible for anybody outside of that to capitalize on that first stage which puts them in a really good position points wise for the rest of the race. Furthermore, it puts you in a situation to have to try to gamble either at the tail end of that first stage or throughout that second stage to try to capitalize off some points whether it be that second stage or set yourself up for the end of the race. Anytime you go to gamble we all know that it can either win or lose big. Nine times out of 10 the house wins from what I can see. So, I am kind of frustrated in a sense that I feel like over the last month and a half we have had a lot better runs than our stats show. Again, just constantly digging yourself out of a hole because of the way we start these races has been a challenge. Very, very challenging as a matter of fact. Going back to Kansas, I always love going back there. Obviously it is going to be drastically different not having fans. That is what put this sport on the map. That is what has kept it on the map all these years and without that, it is just a void that can’t be replaced. Are we putting a product on the race track? Yes. Are there people at home watching? Yes, the ratings show that and these are the things keeping us alive and relevant. I think the rest of the sporting world is fixin’ to see first hand just like we have experienced in the last few months the difference and challenges and impact of not having that fan presence there. It isn’t just the presence, it is the atmosphere and your event. Without that it isn’t quite the event that it could be or should be or would be.”

SCOTT MILLER SAID IF THERE ISN’T QUALIFYING BY THE PLAYOFFS, THEN THE SANCTIONING BODY MAY ALTER HOW THE STARTING LINEUPS ARE SET, AND HE CONFIRMED NO PRACTICE OR QUALIFYING THROUGH DOVER INCLUDING DAYTONA ROAD COURSE. DO YOU HAVE A THOUGHT ON THAT? “I voted to practice at Daytona. I mean, I guess I’m probably unique since at least I have some laps on the racetrack. It was a long time ago. I don’t even remember those laps, but I ran the Rolex 24

and have some experience on that track. But that being said, not in our cars, anything else I think it’s tall order to to show up there and to run a track that we’ve never been on before with a tire combination with the package, you know the aero, horsepower, everything we’ve never even seen before it’s it’s gonna be a crapshoot for everybody. I think there’s definitely drivers and teams that have experience of running at Rolex that will be ahead of the pack ahead of the curve. For sure. But, you know, these are challenging times. To ask the team to come up with a unique car again for a backup car and everything else. I mean, it’s saving them money, I get it, everything’s tight right now. So, you’ve got to give and take in this scenario, and I think that’s definitely a give for the Daytona race. I was actually shocked to hear you say that about Scott Miller and the starting procedures. I mean, that was just my complaint going in. But that just shows you that there’s some validity to that thought process. I mean, it’s literally every single time you start the race, you’re behind the eight ball.

Not only are you behind the eight ball, you’re behind the eight ball of cars that are capable of winning races. I mean, there’s a reason they’re up front. But it’s in a situation right now where you’re protecting those fastest cars on the racetrack. And if I’m a promoter and got my promoter hat on, I wouldn’t think that that would be necessarily the best case scenario to put on a great race for fans, you know, the more you shake those starts up, the better off. Whether I watch my dirt late models compete, modifieds, whatever the case may be all over the country. There’s inversions and things like that and that’s a product of putting a product on the racetrack but I have no idea why. I don’t know why. Why the hell would we wait till the playoffs if we have a problem and we see it? Why would you wait to the playoffs to change it? You know that’s my frustration with a lot of things. If I’m running something and I know that I have a problem, I’m not going to wait weeks to fix it. I’m going to fix it now.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI TALKED ABOUT AND WAS PRETTY OUT THERE ABOUT THE FACT AFTER THE QUINN SITUATION THIS PAST WEEKEND, HE’D LIKE TO BE ABLE TO SEE DRIVERS GRADUATE INTO THIS LEVEL AND EQUALLY BE ABLE TO SEE THEM REMOVED FROM THIS LEVEL. DID YOU HEARD THOSE COMMENTS? WHAT DO YOU THINK? “Well, I think the graduate process is definitely a thing that we’ve always had. Right? We’ve always had graduation processes. But that being said, some of its getting lax, you know, with putting cars on the racetrack and business reasons you’re putting people on the racetrack that you wouldn’t have 10 to 15 years ago. And that isn’t an excuse, that shouldn’t be the case. Just because you have money or whatever else, you shouldn’t be able to just buy your way onto the racetrack. And I’m not saying that whoever that was, had that happen. But nonetheless we’ve been doing this, what, 15 years or so. I know my competitors on that racetrack. And every year there’s a new one or a couple new ones and I know what I’m up against. I don’t like having guys that just show up and race every now and then at this level of racing. That’s not right. You don’t just show up and line up against Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. You shouldn’t be able to do that against Stewart Haas Racing or Joe Gibbs Racing or anything else. That’s not a knock to them.

I don’t necessarily agree. I think if you do a good job with your graduation process of graduating, I don’t think you have to worry about ever knocking anybody down. I guess that’s my point and that is his need to do a better job of making sure we’ve got the right guys on the racetrack and if you do a good job at that, you’ll never have to remove them.”

HAVE YOU STARTED TALKING TO STUART HOUSE YET ABOUT NEXT YEAR OR IS WITH EVERYTHING THAT’S JUST BEEN GOING ON AND THE WAY IT’S MADE RACES AS YOU’RE DOING THAT? ALL THAT STUFF’S GETTING PUSHED GONNA BE PUSHED LATER AND LATER THAN NORMAL? “No, I haven’t really talked to them much about it. I’ve been talking to partners and things like that and just trying to do everything that I can do to make sure that all the things are lined up for next year for them. I mean, that’s what I can do … we’ve got to, I’ve got to do a better job inside the race car, we got to do a better job of getting this 14 car back up front where it belongs. Doesn’t matter what you do outside the car if you’re not taken care of what is in the car, you shouldn’t be in any of them. Stewart-Haas is a wonderful organization. I want to be there. I want to retire there and and I love the opportunity and the people behind it. I believe all the pieces of the puzzle are there. The manufacturer in Ford, I mean, we’re sitting here representing Ford today and you couldn’t ask for a better manufacturer that’s invested in the sport the way they are. I just again, it’s a perfect fit for me. We started off really, really well. Started the front side of this pandemic well. We’ve run into some bumps in the road. And honestly, I hate to say it, I can almost pinpoint it on Talladega. You put it on Talladega and flip that over. And the next two months have been drastically different because of that, literally, every time we start the race we’re behind. And you’re behind cars that are hard to catch up with. If those guys hang, you know, 8 to 10 points of stage points on you. It’s a bit virtually impossible. You’ve got to do something then to try to differentiate yourself and nine times out of 10 the way that these races are, things don’t work out. Then you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t on a strategy call. You know, three weeks in a row, we were running in a single digit and look to have an easy single digit finish. And two top fives out of that the caution comes out a couple laps after you pit and the rest is history. You end up 15th to 20th. I mean it’s that fast it can change. But again it was a gamble because we were trying to catch up so anyway. To answer your question I really haven’t talked about it but you know, I’m more worried about soon as you get down here getting down to the shop.

“I’m going to go down actually and you know, get with my guys and right now it’s just everybody’s it’s very challenging under these times with the pandemic to get in the shop to work with one another you know, no practice Bob. Hell, we are new to this year together with John and all my guys, we’re trying to figure each other out. I mean, we stubbed our toe bad yesterday in Texas, but you unload and you’re laying in the bed you made. I looked at our pictures. Crew sent me some pictures this morning of our car and it was like oh boy, you know. I was floating the nose really bad off it to all the right front was putting air and the left front was dragging the ground. I was getting it three and four and it was on the splitter and it was floating the nose off of two. Again, those little minute things that make up the difference. And then with no practice, you don’t have an opportunity to fix any of those.”

COMING BACK TO KANSAS SPEEDWAY YOU USUALLY HAVE A PACKED ITINERARY WITH FAMILY FRIENDS BARBECUE ROYALS GAME. OBVIOUSLY IT’S GOING TO BE DIFFERENT BUT WHAT’S IT GOING TO BE LIKE FOR YOU COMING BACK TO KANSAS SPEEDWAY UNDER THIS PANDEMIC UMBRELLA? “Always exciting to go back home, it’s home. I mean, it’s literally that way. I mean we all experienced that a lot of people move away from home, going to college chasing their dreams, get a job, whatever. It’s always fun to go back home and see things and for me, having family now and having kids it’s fun for me kind of like I did with my parents to go back and see them and show them something about where you came from. That being said Kansas City kicks ass. It just does and I’m not saying that as far as pride of being from Kansas I mean I can anybody in the garage area goes to Kansas City and every single one of them are blowing up your phone I mean, where’s the hotspot where’s the barbecue joint to go to? It’s like, dude, all of them. All of them are knocking it out of the park and you know the power and light district and the sporting, I mean, it’s you can’t ask for a better time to be in any city than right now in Kansas City. And you know, the track, I’ve said time and time again, so proud of … we talk about the puzzle in our sport and all pieces of the puzzle have to come together. I mean just look at the impact in Wyandotte county when they put that piece of the puzzle at Kansas Speedway in there. Awesome part of town and going from Lakeside Speedway growing up over there and racing over there. So proud to call that place home and to see what’s happened because of that. Met so many good friends over the years and you know, just had a good winter. I saw Mahomes and Kelce over to Lake and got with them a day and had fun with them. And, you know, Eric Stonestreet got a new place over there and sent me pictures. Who would ever thought he’d enjoy fishing and everything he’s been doing on his lake. It is just a really good place to be from and to enjoy and looking forward to bringing in our sport there once again. Another thing about it is I think that the city embraces our sport well. When I go across the country, part of that’s our doing and and on us to be able to promote our sport and do that, but honestly, if you have something and you’re valid and relevant, the city embraces that and I see a lot of NASCAR when we come into town.”

DO YOU KEEP IN TOUCH WITH NED (YOST) AT ALL? “You know, I haven’t talked to Ned in a while and that’s my fault. You know, in every conversation with Ned is just like no other. The man is full of wisdom and always has something bright to say. The way I’m racing right now, that’s exactly what I’m doing. And I’m gonna call old Ned this week. Get a rah rah speech. Get my ass up off the plank here and off the bench and get me in the game. That’s what I need.”

HOW EXCITED ARE YOU TO GO BACK TO MICHIGAN HAVE THE DOUBLEHEADER AND EVERYTHING THERE UNIQUE YOU LEARN FROM AT POCONO AND WHAT YOU FEEL LIKE YOU LEARNED THERE THAT YOU COULD BRING INTO MICHIGAN IN TWO WEEKS? “Definitely looking forward to Michigan. Fast racetrack and when you talk about a fast racetrack you need fast hot rods and in our Ford Mustangs have been extremely fast up there. You know that Roush Yates horsepower is second to none when you’re talking about up on the pipe baby, and that track keeps it up there. You know, you’re just you never barely lift out of the gas. You are sailing around that place and I look for that track to be a track that we can contend for a win and get back in the right swing of things for these stage points. As bad as the race last week was, I gained some points on a 21 car and got a little closer to the 13th place. I look for a place like Michigan, Kansas this Thursday, I’ve got to get myself back in this top 12 if they’re not going to change the rules, you got to get back in the top 12 and get back in the swing of things so you can compete with these guys.”

OBVIOUSLY AFTER YOUR WIN THERE TWO YEARS AGO LAST YEAR WAS A LITTLE BIT OF STRUGGLE AT MICHIGAN ITSELF. DO YOU LOOK AT THIS YEAR AS MAYBE LIKE A LITTLE BIT OF A REDEMPTION TOUR TO TRY TO GET THE WIN? “Yeah, I mean, we’ve proven that we can do that. Our Ford Mustangs have been fast there. I think they’ll be fast again. It’s all about track position on these. God I hope they don’t bring this tire that we ran at Texas and Kentucky, but they probably will. And if they do, I’m going to have to get track position. Oh, by the way, we won’t have it when we start. Hopefully we can get it at Kansas and we won’t have to worry about that. But if not, we’re gonna have to gain it, gonna have to gamble somehow and rely on that to get to track position and hold on to it.”

WHAT IS THE SOLUTION OR WHAT’S YOUR IDEA IN MAKING THE DRAW BETTER OR HOW THE STARTING LINEUP IS DETERMINED? IS IT AN INVERSION WITH FASTEST LAP FROM THE PREVIOUS RACE? IS IT MAKING THE DRAW ONE THROUGH 16 BECAUSE THAT’S PLAYOFF NUMBERS? WHAT IS A BETTER IDEA THAN WHAT HAS BEEN HAPPENING NOW IN YOUR MIND? “I honestly think one through 20 would shake the race up well, and that puts me in a situation where I could start 20th. That’s not necessarily just putting it out there that it’s going to make my day better selfishly for me. I think that’s what the sport means. I think we’re putting our best cars right up front in the clean air on racetracks where we know that that’s important. I’m frustrated with this tire that we have. I think we all are and we’re protecting those guys. I think a one through 20 would probably be well. I saw that come up just like we all did. A fan actually had that idea of the week previous fastest lap but the problem with that, and I love the idea and that that mentality is phenomenal and I appreciate that fan for bringing that to the table. It’s a great idea. The problem with that is I can tell you who’s going to have the fastest lap. The guy in the lead when in the cleanest air. So that being said, again, it’s ] not going to shake the race up and in my opinion that’s what we need to do. The cream will rise to the top. The best teams will and if you can shake them up week in and week out in this scenario with no practice and everything else it will shake your environment up and make for a better race. I one hundred percent believe that.”

YOU RACE THURSDAY NIGHT SO YOU GET SUNDAY OFF. IN NORMAL TIMES A WEEKEND OFF FOR A DRIVER WOULD BE A BIG THING. BUT IN THESE TIMES WHAT DO YOU DO? WHAT DO YOU DO ON SUNDAY? HOW MUCH DOES IT MATTER TO HAVE THIS WEEKEND OFF? “Dude, scrambling. Literally scrambling. My wife is on me non stop. What are we doing? And my plan man, you get an idea and go down that path and that doesn’t work. I’ve been going over the lake a lot and I enjoy that. But it’s like, I want to go somewhere different, I want to take my family somewhere. The kids are fixin to go back to school or whatever the heck that’s going to look like. It’s just hard, you know. Camping. I love to camp, you know, we camp every weekend anyway. And it’s kind of funny to say, oh, let’s take the bus and go camp somewhere. We were going to do that. Good luck finding a campground somewhere you can get into to do that. I would say we’ll probably end up back over at the lake. It makes the most sense. It’s two hours from Kansas City or three hours drive over there, but who knows? We’re trying to figure it out. That’s a great question. And that’s a question that when my eyes woke up this morning, she was staring at me saying what are we doing this weekend? I still don’t have an answer.”

YOU’VE TALKED ABOUT POINTS IN TERMS OF THE DRAW, BUT WE’VE HAD TWO SURPRISE WINNERS OVER THE PAST COUPLE OF WEEKS. SO IN TERMS OF THE PLAYOFFS, HOW MUCH ARE YOU LOOKING AT POINTS? “Yeah, you’re looking at points. You’re always looking at points. They both did a great job of holding on to their clean air. You know what I mean? I’m a little .. hell, you’re jealous. That’s what you are. I wish I got strategy and a caution would have come out put me in the lead and been able to hold on to the win and not have to worry about it anymore. I mean it’s as simple as that. I mean they were decent cars but they weren’t leading lap cars, you put them in the lead and they drove off. Both of them.”

IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU’RE MORE INCLINED TO RETURN TO STEWART-HAAS RACING NEXT YEAR THEN MAYBE PURSUE OTHER OPPORTUNITIES OUTSIDE OF RACING. IS THAT CORRECT? “I’m a race car driver man. I love doing the broadcasts and things like that but you know, I think that time will come and I don’t know when that’ll be. I want to race and I want to be in a race car. I love competing. I love being pissed off at the end of the race. I love being happy at the end of the race. I love that adrenaline of lining up next to that guy and wondering how in the hell you’re going to come off the turn two ahead of him and that’s a feeling that can’t be replaced. That being said, I feel like I really have appreciated the relationship with Fox this year. I feel like that’s something. It’s not up to me whether that happens or not. It’s a ton of fun, I can tell you that. I mean, it’s relatively easy for me. I mean, everybody always asked how do you get up and do that? I mean, I don’t know. Let me get this straight, you want me to go up there and bench race with a bunch of my buddies and talk racing about a race like, like I’ve done since I was four years old at the dinner table? That’s what you want me to go do? Yeah, I got that, I can handle that. It is a ton of fun and I have a huge amount of respect for everybody that puts on the production of our sports and then you start looking at production when you watch a football game or a baseball game differently. Once you know how that you know product comes to play and what we see on television it’s a whole different respect for all the individuals that make that happen. From the cameraman to the producers. The lead guy like Adam, Alexander and Mike Joy, those guys are just crazy talented. They keep these maniacs that grew up racing and talk racing and doing that bench racing like we do up there, for those guys to get up there and to control all of that and to make that go smooth as silk is just amazing. So yeah, I appreciate that. And hopefully, that opportunity will come someday. I don’t know when that day will be.”

ALL THINGS BEING EQUAL. YOU’D LIKE TO BE BACK IN THE CAR THOUGH? “Yeah, hell yeah, who wouldn’t?”

WHEN YOU LOOK AT YOUR PERFORMANCE THIS YEAR YOU MENTIONED THAT YOU GUYS HAVE COME CLOSE ESPECIALLY WHEN IT WAS RIGHT AFTER THE PANDEMIC. HOW FAR OFF ARE YOU GUYS FROM GETTING BACK IN VICTORY LANE?

“Looks like one timely caution. That’s a terrible smart aleck answer. I’m in a bad mood dammit. I had a bad finish and had a bad day yesterday. I got home, went to feed cows and bought some new heifers and I had two of them through the fence and over I’ve been chasing cows all morning long. I’m in a bad mood. I’m on the wrong side of the pillow right now. Down on sleep. Bad Day. Damn cows are out. That was not a good answer. I feel like we could win anytime if we can get in position. I feel like our team is plenty capable of getting the job done.”

YOU MENTIONED THAT YOU’RE WATCHING POINTS. DO YOU FEEL THAT IT IS MUST WIN THAT YOU NEED TO GET A WIN IN THESE NEXT EIGHT RACES TO LOCK UP A PLAYOFF SPOT? “No, no, we just got to go and compete the way we’re capable of competing. We stubbed our toe yesterday. We weren’t very good. We missed our set up. And you know, with our tools and everything that we have at our disposal at Stewart-Haas Racing we probably shouldn’t have done that. We should have ran better than we did. But nonetheless, we were able to get it all wrangled back together. I mean, we were a lap down at a pretty dangerous time of the race. Got that back and got tore up with the damage. I was lucky. I got in the back of the 24 on that wreck and the front and knocked the grill in. We had to cut the grille. I think you guys saw the leaf blower in my car and was like, is he overheating. Be honest with you he was blowing it in the grill. That thing was like 320 yesterday, which doesn’t even register on like if your automobile ever overheats. By the way your gauge would never get to 320. The only reason ours do is they’re digital. I’m like, Oh boy, hey guys, this thing’s like nuclear meltdown right now so we got to come in. He was cutting the grill out and he was running that leaf blower in the in the ductwork because when I hit it smashed all the ductwork and it wasn’t getting any air to the radiator so that’s what he was doing. That guy was cutting the ductwork out of it so the radiator could get some air and I guess I don’t even know why he did it. He walked by and stuck that leaf blower inside the car. Let me tell you something, I wasn’t gonna complain about it. Wasn’t gonna shoo him away cuz it felt good.

Just coming back from all that adversity and everything elseI think we finished 11th which was probably pretty lucky given the circumstances that we were in.”

THE ROAD TO THE INDYCAR SERIES HAS THIS LADDER SYSTEM WHERE IF YOU WIN THELOWEST LEVEL YOU MOVE ON AND SO ON ALL THE WAY TO A GUARANTEED SPOT IN THE INDY 500. SO BASICALLY, IT’S LIKE IF YOU WIN A CHAMPIONSHIP IN ONE OF THOSE SERIES, YOU MOVE ON TO THE NEXT LEVEL. DO YOU THINK NASCAR SHOULD DO THAT WITH ARCA, TRUCKS, XFINITY AND THEN CUP? “Well, that being said, Kurt Busch ran an Indy 500. There have been other instances. I mean, I don’t know that they have a better stepping platform than NASCAR has. That jas always been in play for my whole career. I’ve felt comfortable with who’s on the racetrack. The last probably two years, we’re starting to see guys that we don’t know. And it’s unfortunate because it’s not just solely pinned on them. You know, given the pandemic with no practice and things like that. If that’s gonna be a challenge for any race team it would be their teams, right? Those guys are the ones that probably need to practice the most because they don’t have the ultra high tech simulation and everything we have to make sure that our gaps are exactly right. How many times you ever seen anybody put packer in their cars anymore? I mean, those are things that when we first started that and simulation was kind of shaky that you would do constantly, right? And practice. Those guys are the ones that are doing that during the race and everything now so not only are they probably down on experience, they’re in a car that’s a handful as well. My biggest pet peeve with those guys is they’ll give you — that kid he’s probably one of the worst ones — he’ll give you a finger out the window to the inside well then he’ll drive it in in the middle of the track and won’t give you any room and you get loose underneath of him and wreck. Hey man, if you are going to give somebody the bottom, give them the bottom. You know what they need to do is when you give somebody the bottom, you give them the corner. You lift before the corner and give them the corner. That’s stuff that we had rookie meetings and a veteran driver came in and told those guys. I don’t know if they’re still doing that for those guys, but they should. They’re not doing the things that we were told to do as rookies to be respectful for those guys on the racetrack. It’s not up to me to decide whether those guys belong on the racetrack or not and, quite frankly not up to me to decide if they’re qualified or not. We have a sanctioning body and they need to make sure that who we’re racing against on the racetrack has the appropriate credentials. I don’t know what those guys do or not. And I don’t know that. That’s the God’s honest truth.”

DOES THE SRS SERIES INTRIGUE YOU THAT TONY STEWART AND RAY EVERNHAM ARE PUTTING RAN TOGETHER? “What is it? No, I don’t know. I like short tracks. I don’t know anything about it. I will tell you that I got an education this morning. Just take all your cows for the sale and get out of the cow business. It sucks. They make good lawn mowers, though. I will say that. You can either spend your time chasing cows back to the fences or you can spend your time in a tractor all day long mowing fields. Its kinda take your pick.

I don’t feel like I answered any of these questions appropriately. I wasn’t prepared. I’ve been drinking water because I’ve been walking. I’ve already put in about four miles this morning chasing damn cows. I got poop all over my legs. It hasn’t been very good. You see all these kids falling out of the cars yesterday? Dropping and flopping? Come on man. These cars are hot. We got to get them cooled down somehow. I was riding, unfortunately I picked the plane ride with Austin Dillon. So I had to go home last night and I was happy for him but there’s nothing worse than having a bad day and have to get on a plane to somebody that had a great day. I had a beer with him. I took my licks. I was happy for him. He did a good job. But him and Kurt (Busch) both of those wusses. You can’t win a race and go to the infield care center to take IV’s. Here I am waiting on him with some cold beer to celebrate. And they’re in the infield care center with IV hooked to them. Bunch of sissy’s. Hey, why don’t you all go out and buy you a Ford today. Go drive one. Have a good day.”

NASCAR CUP SERIES
TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
O’REILLY AUTO PARTS 500
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
JULY 19, 2020

AUSTIN DILLON, CHEVROLET CAMARO ZL1 1LE SCORES VICTORY AT TEXAS
Third Victory for the Camaro ZL1 1LE in 2020

FORT WORTH, TX (July 19, 2020) – Austin Dillon adds his name to the record books by winning the O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway in his No. 3 Bass Pro Shops / Tracker Off Road Camaro ZL1 1LE, his first win of 2020 and third career victory in the NASCAR Cup Series (NCS).

Holding off the field with three stellar late-race restarts, Dillon led Chevrolet to its fourteenth trip to victory lane in NASCAR’s premier series at Texas Motor Speedway and the third win for the Camaro ZL1 1LE in the 2020 season. The victory, Chevrolet’s 789th all-time win in the NASCAR Cup Series, also secures Dillon’s spot in the Cup Series Playoffs.

Dillon led the bowtie brigade and Richard Childress Racing to a 1-2 finish, with teammate Tyler Reddick, No. 8 Cat Oil & Gas Camaro ZL1 1LE, posting a Cup Series career-best second place finish in his series debut at the 1.5-mile Texas oval. This is the first time since the 2011 Talladega event that Richard Childress racing has finished 1-2 in the NASCAR Cup Series. The win is the 109th NCS triumph for Richard Childress Racing.

Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1 1LE, came across the finish line in the eighth position to round out the Team Chevy top-10.

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

The NASCAR Cup Series season continues on under the lights at Kansas Speedway with the Super Start Batteries 400 Presented by O’Reilly Auto Parts on Thursday, July 23rd, at 7:30 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on NBCSN, NBC Sports Gold app, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS / TRACKER OFF ROAD CAMARO ZL1 1LE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:

THE MODERATOR: We’ll roll into our post-race press conference with our race winner, Austin Dillon. Thank you for joining us after a quick visit to the care center.
Take us through the final laps. Not only a win but a Playoff spot as well. How did you approach the final laps?

AUSTIN DILLON: I just had to have confidence that in the moment we had a car that had potential. It didn’t really run well in traffic. Justin and I both talked about what kind of happened in Kentucky with Cole, the way they ran.
If you can get the track position at some point, you can be fast. You saw when we got out front, we had a hot rod. Got to thank all the partners: Bass Pro Shops, American Ethanol, Dow, Coca‑Cola.
But the call was the win, the call that Justin made. I asked him for something. Our car was fading. I thought Tyler, his car was a little better coming down the stretch. He had kind of caught me, but we had track position on him. I said, Man, I got to have something to finish this race off.
He said, All right, we’re taking lefts.
Lefts had freed my car up all day. I was tight. When we put the lefts on, it was the call we needed to go on and win the race.
It came down to just some restarts, not screwing up, making it happen when it counted on those restarts, getting through the gears, timing them. I had some good pushing. My buddy Kurt Busch gave me a good push that first one. Joey Logano was also a lot of help down the stretch.

THE MODERATOR: We’ll go straight into questions for Austin.

Q. Did you just need some fluids? How are you doing?
AUSTIN DILLON: Yep, I got a couple IVs in me, feeling great. I felt great once I kind of got in the air‑conditioning. I was kind of wanting to come back out. I gave it all. I left it all out there. At least I can say that. Left it all out on the track.
Yeah, I feel great. The infield care center did a great job of taking care of myself. Kurt Busch, too. Kurt is okay. We’re actually flying back together so it worked out okay.

Q. Did you think you’d be able to survive that number of restarts with people having fresher tires behind you?
AUSTIN DILLON: Yeah, you know, I didn’t think tires were as big of an advantage, at least my car. Every time we put on four, we really struggled. We were just better on two. I felt like I could keep up with the competition better on two.
The restarts, as far as that went, I knew if I had a good push, I knew I could dictate when everything happened. I had good pushers with Kurt and Joey, like I said. The last one, I timed it perfect. Switched it up where I was in the restart box when I went. It gave me a gap to kind of put dirty air on everyone behind me.

Q. You’ve won two pretty big races in the past. That was on a superspeedway and fuel mileage. Does this mean any more because you had three restarts to earn it?
AUSTIN DILLON: Hell yeah, it does. We took it from them. That feels good. I’ve said it to my grandfather. I said, Man, the two races we won were fuel mileage and one was the Daytona 500, it played out. Either way we had to make it happen. So they’re both big wins in my career.
This one, once again, we had to make it happen multiple times on older tires. That was pretty cool. Feels great.

Q. Why do you think you don’t get the credit you deserve from fans? Do you think you deserve more credit from fans?
AUSTIN DILLON: I don’t know. It’s okay, man. Sports are sports. You got to have someone you don’t like. Maybe it’s just my background, where I come from. But I got a lot of people that love me, too. It doesn’t bother me at all really. They can either get on the bandwagon and love me… It’s okay. It’s part of sports. Haters are going to hate sometimes, but we’ll be all right.

Q. We heard from your crew chief about the late race call to take two tires. He was very surprised you were the only ones to take two tires. Were you just as surprised to find yourself at the front of the field?
AUSTIN DILLON: Yeah, I was pleasantly surprised. It’s a good thing when you see no one in front of you. I saw my teammate. I knew he was on fuel‑only strategy. He had a good car there late like I said.
But I felt like our left sides were going to give us the edge on him. Was able to make it stick on the bottom. That’s kind of what pulled it out for us.
What a call by Justin. I mean, he’s done a great job all year of putting us in good positions when it comes to track position. All three of my Cup wins are with Justin. Love the guy. I can’t thank him enough for everything he’s done for me and my family.
He’s been putting great products out there. He deals with me. I’m not the easiest individual in the world to deal with. I can get cranky from time to time. It’s just because I’m passionate and I’m a grinder. I feel like I can go out there and compete week and week out with these guys.
This was a huge win for our company, RCR, ECR, everybody that supports us. It was really cool.
It was nice to also have the ball in my court, you know what I mean, to dictate the end of the race.

Q. Nobody can take away you’ve won a couple of major races. When you reference talking to your grandfather about maybe not having earned it in the traditional sense, how much does that weigh on a driver? Were those things that gnawed at you a little bit because of what those races were?
AUSTIN DILLON: You stay patient. You have faith. I have faith. Faith can really take you a long way. I’m not saying there wasn’t a lot of ups and downs during that time period. You go through peaks and valleys.
Have you to be able to have a good support system. My wife, my family always believed in me. I couldn’t get there without that. You know what I mean? Without the friends and the family, I would definitely have let it weigh on me. I don’t know how many races it’s been in between. I think somebody said it earlier, it was a pretty big number from Daytona to now.
You just stay diligent. I put a lot of work in during the pandemic to get in good shape. Didn’t look like it after the race, but I’ve been working my tail off in the car. I left it all out there.
But all the work, all the effort, the continued thoughts. You got to think positive, know that it’s going to turn around and come your way. I know I can do this. I’ve done it in the Xfinity Series, Truck Series, won outright in those multiple times. It’s the same guys, just more of them.
Those other wins feel just as good as this one, but there’s definitely an edge to this win. It feel goods.

Q. You talked about how you nailed it on the last restart. You haven’t led much this season. There’s no practice. You’re not getting track time. Maybe it’s been months since you led a restart in a race. How do you hit it and not spin the tires?
AUSTIN DILLON: Kind of like riding a bike. I’ve been in that situation before. I’ve been given a lot of shit actually from all my friends about restarts, how I restart for a long time. I don’t ever want to let them down.
I had some dang good restarts at Kentucky from, like, eighth. I’ve always told them, Man, give me something I can drive and I can restart. I definitely made mistakes throughout the past. But I feel like in the right situations, I make it happen.
That was one of those situations where I had to clutch it. I had to make it work. I chose the bottom all three times. My spotter and Justin wanted it the second time. I didn’t feel real great about it the second time. It showed because I was a little late. It kind of backed everything up. Joey gave me a good push to get me going, which helped.
That last one I was thinking top, top, the whole last lap. Coming to the green, I said, I’m going to dictate this race from wherever I start. I chose the bottom. I thought our car was turning better than what Reddick was at that point. I chose that bottom. Just changed up, I made a different move than what I had been making on the restart.
I think it kind of threw a curve ball at the guys. That gave me that little bit of jump that I needed to be able to put dirty air on their nose going into turn one.

Q. How are you a different driver and how is RCR a different team going into the Playoffs this year?
AUSTIN DILLON: As much as I hate to say it, I’ve got a lot of experience now in the Cup Series. For a long time I was looked at as kind of a young gun. I still feel young. The biggest thing is I’ve had to step up in the role that I’m in.
You bring Tyler in, who has absolutely crushed it from the Xfinity Series with two championships, brought something to push me. I think that’s something that everybody needs, is competition. I can’t thank him enough for all the competition he’s brought to our company. You got to have that.
When I first came in the Cup Series, I thought I was going to have Kevin Harvick as my teammate. He left. Me and Newman started our deal out. Newman was really great for a long time. Daniel was unlucky last year. We didn’t have what we needed last year, I feel like. Reddick was on fire.
Bringing him in, it really kind of changed the dynamic this year as far as the competition goes. Got to hand it to my grandfather. He’s made some great calls on putting the people in the right places. Even though I’ve argued with him multiple times on it, I got to give it to him. He does a good job. That’s why he’s the legend that he is.

Q. This is the first time since 2011 that RCR finished first and second in a Cup race. How much do you think that will mean to the people in Welcome?
AUSTIN DILLON: Huge. Run a family organization back at home, at RCR. It’s so awesome. When you cross those railroad tracks, there’s a sign when you come in there. I can’t wait to get home because I know what it’s going to say on that sign: RCR goes 1‑2, and the 3 team brings home a victory at Texas.
That’s my favorite thing to do, home to all the hard‑working employees that have believed in me, those people matter the most to me. Our fans are huge, but also our employees that dig in and build these great racecars for us.

Q. You’re in the Playoffs now. Tyler is 14 points out. What does he have to do over the next eight races to get in?
AUSTIN DILLON: I already seen a lot more maturity this year out of Tyler than I figured was going to be there, truthfully. As aggressive as he was in the Xfinity Series, I didn’t know how he would fare throughout those long races.
He’s taken care of his equipment. That’s a big part of it. I feel like if he takes care of his equipment, he obviously has enough talent in the cars to do it. It’s hard to start in that group from 13 to 24 to get the stage points. That’s the hardest point that him and Randall are going to have to focus on moving forward is getting track position at some of these places to give him opportunity.
He can win anywhere he goes. He has that talent in him. I wouldn’t be surprised next week at Kansas if both of us have another shot with what we’re bringing to the track. We got to do a really good job, like we did today, putting ourselves in situations where we are leading the race and we can take that opportunity to the next level.
I have no doubt that Tyler is going to be a winner in the NASCAR Cup Series.

Q. We’ve heard from a lot of drivers that it’s been a while since they won, they start hearing things, phantom vibrations. Was anything going through your head on those final laps when you had those guys behind you?
AUSTIN DILLON: Only thing going through my head was the damn car was really hot (laughter).
The second to last restart, when that caution came out, I kind of had gotten tight into three. I don’t know if it was just because I was giving it all I had there at the end. That caution came out. I’m sure a lot of people were hoping it would go green right there. I think it was good for us. It cooled our tires back down, allowed me to fire it back in there that green‑white‑checkered.
No, I didn’t have any of those phantom vibrations. That was a good thing. You definitely start questioning them. The questioning thing is, like, you don’t want to give it away by choosing the wrong lane. That was my biggest thing. Don’t choose the wrong lane, inside or outside.
At the end, either way you have to make the move on your own. You dictate the start because you’re the leader. Doesn’t matter top or bottom, I knew what I had to do. I was able to make it happen.

Q. They showed Whitney on TV. Have you talked to her?
AUSTIN DILLON: I FaceTimed her. She was holding Ace. Mother‑in‑law was there. It was just elation. They’re super happy, super pumped. Can’t wait to get home. Praise the Lord, it meant a lot to our whole family.

Q. Short week heading to Kansas. Since 2016 your results haven’t been what you would expect at Kansas. Talk about coming off of this win, the momentum going into that race.
AUSTIN DILLON: Yeah, it’s another mile‑and‑a‑half. Our cars have competed well on mile‑and‑a‑half’s. Tyler had a pretty good run. It was his first Cup start there last year. Justin was crew chiefing him. We have some data from that run.
We weren’t bad in that race. We kind of gave it away in certain areas. We’re executing much better this year than what we were last year. Execution is a big part of it. I’ve studied some of the guys like Brad Keselowski who don’t always have the best car but makes it happen when it counts. They constantly are battling for track position even if they don’t have the best car.
We’re trying to do more of that and put ourselves in more situations, putting yourself up front so you’re comfortable running up there, make your own race at the end.

Q. You have had a couple opportunities to race in front of fans in recent weeks. This was the first event in the state of Texas to have fans. What was the moment like for you to be able to interact with fans?
AUSTIN DILLON: Felt really good. I think it would have been awkward without them. That’s why I parked it right in front of them and let them smell that smoke, the burnt rubber. Everything I did was for those fans. I think they loved it.
I also gave the flag away to a little kid. He had a Kyle Busch shirt on. I told him he needed to get a new shirt. Hopefully I transferred him over (smiling).

Q. This whole stretch up until the last two weeks, it was the guys top eight in points winning races. You and Cole now have won races. Do you think it’s fortuitous timing or something we can see more of?
AUSTIN DILLON: You saw Tyler up there with me at the end. There’s another guy in that area of points. A lot of disadvantages when it comes to the stages and points side of it. I also puts you in advantage to take chances when it counts. That’s what we did. It worked out for us.
You got to be aggressive in this sport to win races. I’ve kind of noticed that a lot of the great guys that are doing it. We were aggressive with our call. We maintained our position and won the race.

Q. Your teammate obviously has been one of the sources of inspiration for a lot of people. Strong rookie year. Where do you see his future in this sport?
AUSTIN DILLON: I think he’s super talented. I think he’s going to be great for RCR for a long time. He’s only going to get better I feel like. He’s got a lot of potential. He shows it week in and week out. He’s not afraid to change lanes.
Definitely pushes me, shows me some things from time to time. I think I can show him every now and then a couple things.

Q. When your former competition on the cusp of the Playoff picture, William Byron and Jimmie Johnson had some problems today, did that change the way you and the 3 changed things up a little bit?
AUSTIN DILLON: We didn’t start off real great truthfully our first run. We were bad off, made some adjustments. Never felt like we were out. We’ve had this saying on our car all year: FIDO, forget it and drive on. It’s been good for us. Even when we’re struggling, it’s FIDO, start over.
It was from a military guy that came and spoke to our company at the beginning of the year. I took that and used it. Even when we’re struggling, we kind of never are out of the fight. That was big today because I think with, like, 60 to go, I needed that saying FIDO because I came on the radio and said, We’re not good. We had the track position but we couldn’t hold it. He gave me better track positions. It was like, All right, I got to make it happen, do what it takes.

THE MODERATOR: Austin, we appreciate you joining us, especially after you made a trip to the care center. Best of luck in Kansas.

AUSTIN DILLON: Love you guys.

JUSTIN ALEXANDER, CREW CHIEF, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS / TRACKER OFF ROAD CAMARO ZL1 1LE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:

THE MODERATOR: Justin, take us through those last few laps, what it was like from atop the box, especially knowing that you were battling with your teammate as well.

JUSTIN ALEXANDER: Yeah, it was nerve‑wracking to say the least. We kind of had a good lead there about 15 to go. A caution came out. Every time a caution comes out, anything can happen. Especially battling with Tyler, he’s so good. He’s been good all day. He went to the back for a little bit, but came back up to the front.
Those last couple restarts, just nerve‑wracking. Anything can happen. We believed in Austin. He did such a good job the previous one. Just kind of hold‑your‑breath moment. We got through. Austin did a heck of a job. Can’t say enough about everyone on this team.

THE MODERATOR: We’ll start with questions for Justin.

Q. Joey Logano told us the tire that was used today wore but the car never slowed down. The only thing that affected it were the heat and balance. Did you notice those characteristics? If so, how did that influence your strategy on the final pit stop?
JUSTIN ALEXANDER: Yeah, I think he’s absolutely right about that. If you watch lap times, we never really fell off any. Sometimes it would get a little faster towards the end of runs. That definitely played into our strategy.
Definitely what he said, really you’re ‑‑ the tires did wear, left side wear was a little bit of an issue. We had to deal with that. Obviously balance. When you take left versus rights, it changes the balance of the car. Definitely we fought that all day along with everyone else.
I think at the end, when we came down there to pit, it made sense to me to take two, or even none. Really, usually you would fire off slower on four tires. For us, we’d been firing off really good on two. We took lefts. Our car was a little bit tight at the time, so lefts freed us up, which definitely helped the handling of the car and let Austin do what he needed to do.

Q. Would you consider today’s win an upset?
JUSTIN ALEXANDER: An upset? No. I think it depends in what terms you’re talking about an upset. The last time we were in Victory Lane with Austin was in 2018. It’s been a while since we’ve been in Victory Lane.
I think some people don’t give Austin enough credit. They think he may not be good enough to win races. They don’t give this team enough credit. From that perspective I do think we’re a bit of an underdog to some of these teams, bigger teams. In that respect, yeah, maybe it is a little bit of an upset.
We didn’t back into this win. We didn’t fluke win. It wasn’t a fuel mileage deal. We went up to the front, raced them at the end. The car had every bit of speed we needed to win this race. Our cars have had a lot of speed all year. It’s really about execution. We did put it all together today.

Q. Did the fact that you kind of needed a win to get in the Playoffs, did that affect your strategy calls at the end of the race?
JUSTIN ALEXANDER: No. I would have made those calls regardless of whatever we needed. Like I said, four tires for us actually fired off slower than two tires. For me it was a no‑brainer. Two tires, two left side tires, freed our car up which is what we needed at the time. For me it was a real easy call.

Q. How often have you been in the shop during this period? Joey Logano mentioned he thought it was more challenging when you’re down because you don’t have all the time at the shop to massage the cars. How have you handled this?
JUSTIN ALEXANDER: It’s certainly different times we live in today. That changes what we do. We do get to the shops. Our road crews, we do go in at nights after everyone is gone. The place is cleaned. We go in for a few hours a couple times a week.
I do get to look at the cars, massage on the cars, kind of final them. The guys at the shop do a wonderful job of prepping the cars for the most part. We just kind of go in there and fine‑tune on them.
It’s been different. I think it’s been good for us, this schedule. Not having practice, I don’t mind it at all. I think we’ve unloaded fairly well most races. The races we haven’t, we’ve been able to adjust and get the car where we needed it.
With all the tools and resources we have at RCR, I do feel like the way we’re running right now does benefit us a little bit.

Q. Did it just become evident from the start you were faster with two tires than four? How do you go through the learning process when you don’t have all the practice notes?
JUSTIN ALEXANDER: I think we use history. We look at what happened here last fall, some of the things that happened. It was kind of similar to last fall here, even with a little bit of a different tire.
Definitely just for us, when we put four on a handful of times today, it took a while, 20 laps for the car to come in for us. It may not have been like that for everyone. Definitely our car. We did do two multiple times today. We knew how it was going to fire off, what the handling was going to be with us. For us, it was kind of a no‑brainer.

Q. When you made the call, did you think you’d be able to survive three or four restarts? Did you think you were going to be toast?
JUSTIN ALEXANDER: You never know. I really didn’t know. I really thought more guys would do two. I was really surprised only one other guy did two. I think Tyler did fuel only. The rest did four. I was expecting not to be on the font row for that first restart. I was shocked when I saw the guys doing what they did.
Sometimes four tires work for other guys better than two. Those guys made those calls, which was best for their cars. Definitely it’s tough to survive one restart let alone three. Austin did a fantastic job getting out, going through the gears good, clearing the guys through one.

Q. When this aero package debuted, you had speed from the get‑go. You had difficulty translating it on race day. When the season started, you seemed to have made a lot of progress. Do you feel the break and the protocols since impeded your progress or do you think you could have even been better at this point?
JUSTIN ALEXANDER: It’s hard to say. It’s definitely the new body this year has really helped us out. I can’t say that the break in the protocol has helped or hurt us really. Every team is kind of working a little bit differently. Everyone is trying to make their cars better.
We definitely took off really well to start. We’ve really been fast a lot of weeks, honestly. We haven’t had finishes to show for it. Had some incidents that have happened, some other things. I really feel like we’ve had all the speed we need in these racecars since Daytona this year.
I really don’t think we’ve gotten any worse relative to the competition to be honest. We just kind of put it all together today.

Q. Austin always is looking to improve himself. How much do you think this win will help his overall confidence and momentum?
JUSTIN ALEXANDER: I think a huge boost of confidence to anybody, not only the driver but to everybody on this team, everyone in this organization. It just shows you’re capable of winning and you have what it takes to win versus all these other teams.
But definitely, especially all the restarts, knowing we have speed in the racecars, it certainly just gives you that. Especially Austin, it’s going to give him a lot of confidence going forward.
We’re not too far away from the Chase. It’s not bad to be on kind of a little bit of upward momentum streak right now. It’s good for the whole team. It takes a little pressure off of us on trying to race our way in on points. Sometimes that can get you a little stirred up.
Now we can just go out and focus on what we got to do to improve our team, improve the execution throughout the weekend, be ready for the Chase.

Q. RCR has been fairly forward thinking as far as embracing the technology. A recent example is the documentary about artificial intelligence, Pit Row products you used. Andy Petree has been forward thinking. You have embraced that. The example in that video was a race at Richmond where Pit Row was recommending certain strategies, and it looked like the team followed a couple of things, but diverged from the strategy at the end. Compared to that example today, just in general this year, how are you interacting with these products, as far as artificial intelligence in general, how does that help you and what have you learned from it?
JUSTIN ALEXANDER: Yeah, it’s a tool that we definitely use every race day. We actually use it throughout the week in some instances. But certainly on race days. Technology has really kind of gone crazy in the last few years. The things that we can do now, prediction models, a lot of this stuff is statistics, statistics based.
Can’t thank Pit Row and their product enough. Certainly we use it, like I said, on a weekly basis it. It helps us. Helps me call races. Certainly we definitely used it today.

THE MODERATOR: Justin, those are all the questions we have for you. Thank you so much for joining us.

JUSTIN ALEXANDER: Thank you very much.

RICHARD CHILDRESS, TEAM OWNER, RICHARD CHILDRESS RACING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Richard Childress. How was that, having to watch that from home?

RICHARD CHILDRESS: I wasn’t at home. We have a command center at the race shop. That’s where I’ve been watching the races. That’s where all of our engineers and everyone calls the race from. They actually made the call from the command center to do what they did to both cars.
It was pretty cool to be in there, watch how everything works. I’ve been watching all the races there. They probably won’t let me come back to another race for a while now (smiling).

THE MODERATOR: We’ll roll into questions.

Q. Today might mean more because Austin picks up his first win in 88 Cup Series races. How proud are you of the developments Austin has made since last year?
RICHARD CHILDRESS: I mean, it’s great. Chevy did a great job giving us a really good car. Having Tyler right there to work with, he has a teammate that he’s really working good with. To see both those guys racing for the win. I was hoping they didn’t wreck each other. It was pretty cool to see RCR in the front.

Q. How crucial was it to reunite Austin with Justin Alexander?
RICHARD CHILDRESS: It’s great. I’ve always believed strongly in Justin from day one. He believes in Austin. Austin believes in him. That’s what you got to have. You look back at all the greats throughout the time. I look back to the Earnhardt years with the crew chiefs he had, Chad and Johnson, the different people, how they worked together. That’s what Austin needed, was someone like this to work with.

Q. This is the first 1‑2 finish for your organization since 2011. What does this day mean for the organization and for you?
RICHARD CHILDRESS: It means a tremendous amount because we’ve struggled, and everyone knows that, but Chevy has really worked hard and put together a great car for us. To be able to go out and be able to win in a Chevy and be 1‑2 today, it meant a lot.
RCR and ECR, we’ve got so many partners that stuck with us through the whole thing. To be able to have them bring the win home, a second‑place finish for Cat, it’s just amazing.

Q. Have you even been to a race since the season resumed? You were probably at the Charlotte race because you were in the condo. Have you just been stuck at home? What has that been like?
RICHARD CHILDRESS: I really, really miss the people around the racetrack, the fans. That’s my biggest miss. And the racing. But, yeah, it’s different. I went there and seemed like it was one more that I went somewhere. That was the big one, was Charlotte. I was there for both of those races.

Q. What was that like to be there with nobody there?
RICHARD CHILDRESS: It was different. It’s really different. It’s great. My phone has been blowing up. I got over 200 texts, my voice mail is full. That means a lot of folks are watching us, people that I didn’t even realize were watching races.
To give them live entertainment, for NASCAR to be the first to bring live entertainment back, it’s great. The fans are loving it.

Q. Why do you think Austin is not given the credit that he deserves as a driver?
RICHARD CHILDRESS: You know, I don’t know. I think you get in the 3 car behind Dale Earnhardt, people think your granddaddy gave you this. He earned it no different than Ty Dillon. They had to earn their right to drive their cars. I think that may be a little bit of it.
We didn’t give him the cars he needed. I never forget ’98 when Dale Earnhardt came and said, I want to retire, it’s me.
I said, No, it isn’t, Dale. We haven’t given you the cars.
We haven’t gave him the cars he really needs until this year. Tyler Reddick will win a race before the year is up.

Q. You just mentioned Tyler Reddick. Coming into the year with consecutive Xfinity titles. Talk about where you see Tyler this year.
RICHARD CHILDRESS: Just his attitude, what he brings, the pep he’s got in his step. He and Austin have a really good relationship. I think that helps Austin, as well.
Austin drives awesome being competitive. Now he’s got somebody that is going to push him. Both of them are going to do well, for sure.

Q. Over the last 26 laps and multiple restarts, either Tyler or Austin had to hold off Joey Logano and Kyle Busch. What was going through your head? At any point were you trying to give advice subconsciously to Austin the final laps?
RICHARD CHILDRESS: It was a nail‑biter, for sure. When we had that big lead there, when Austin jumped out there and got him a good lead, then the caution come out. Wow, man, we didn’t need that. Had to restart. Did good. He had three restarts and was able to maintain and win the race.
Tyler was right there with him. That showed that both of them had cars that were capable to go. For him to beat the best of the best today, that shows where RCR is with both of our drivers.

Q. Obviously this year without the practice due to the pandemic, do you feel your teams have benefited maybe from a little bit less of that practice? Do you feel you need that back?
RICHARD CHILDRESS: No, I think actually the fans like it. If you look, with the amount of technology that every team has today, the majority of the teams, the technology is right there for everyone to come out and run really good. We’ve missed it a time or two, but we’ve been able to adjust back in. Just like today, we were a little off at the start, but we came right back in and were able to pull it off.

Q. Do you feel with Austin’s win now putting him into the Playoffs that this team is capable of making that deep run?
RICHARD CHILDRESS: We sure plan on it. We’ve talked about it, talked about it all year. We think with everything that’s going on, it depends on how the stages and everything run, we feel we can be right there for the win at the end of the day.
First you got to get in. That was one goal. Next you got to make it to the next round. Eve time you got to make it to the next round. I think if we get there to the final four, we may have a great chance.

Q. It’s been a while since you’ve gone to the next round. Ryan Newman since you’ve really been a contender. What is going to make this team a contender after all these years matching Gibbs and Hendrick and everybody else?
RICHARD CHILDRESS: I think this year Chevy has gave us a lot better racecar. We got a lot better racecar than we’ve had in the past. I think that’s going to be the difference this year than in the past.

Q. You mentioned you were in the command center for the final moments of the race. You mentioned technology. Andy Petree has been forward thinking with trying new stuff. Based on recent documents, you have used artificial intelligence from Pit Row. As an old‑school racer, what has been your view of that and how has it helped your organization?
RICHARD CHILDRESS: I got to go back to Eric Warren. Eric is a doctor. Andy had a lot to do with it. But we had this put in place, Eric wanted to put it in. We wanted to race Ryan Newman with it.
Today Pit Row and all the technology called for what to do with both teams there at the end. It definitely paid off for us. Pit Row has been a great thing.
I really enjoy it. I can actually see a lot more right there than I can at the racetrack actually, keep up with what every other car is doing. We can listen to every other car. We know where they’re at, know their strategy, when they have to pit, how far they can go. It’s Formula 1‑type technology. It’s really working great.

Q. In addition to things like the new body, do you believe that has helped you this year and the last couple of years to get ahead?
RICHARD CHILDRESS: Ask me that one more time.

Q. With you being early adopters of that, technology building up, has that been something that has helped you get up front?
RICHARD CHILDRESS: I think it really helps us as far as knowing what our cars are doing and what some of our competition is doing. But I think the key to it is we’ve got a lot better car this year than we’ve had in the last several years. Not that the cars were that bad, but this car is closer to what the other manufacturers that we’re racing is doing.

THE MODERATOR: Richard, thank you.

RICHARD CHILDRESS: Thank you.

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