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.

FastScripts by ASAP Sports
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.

NASCAR CUP SERIES
TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
O’REILLY AUTO PARTS 500
TEAM CHEVY POST-RACE NOTES AND QUOTES
JULY 19, 2020

TOP TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS / TRACKER OFF ROAD CAMARO ZL1 1LE
2nd TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 CAT OIL & GAS CAMARO ZL1 1LE
8th KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE
12th CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE
14th BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 CASH APP CAMARO ZL1 1LE

TOP FIVE UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS:
POS. DRIVER
1st Austin Dillon (Chevrolet)
2nd Tyler Reddick (Chevrolet)
3rd Joey Logano (Ford)
4th Kyle Busch (Toyota)
5th Kevin Harvick (Ford)

The NASCAR Cup Series season continues at Kansas Speedway with the Super Start Batteries 400 Presented by O’Reilly Auto Parts on Thursday, July 23, at 7:300 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on NBCSN, NBC Sports Gold app, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

TEAM CHEVY NOTES AND QUOTES:
AUSTIN DILLON, NO. 3 BASS PRO SHOPS / TRACKER OFF ROAD CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Race Winner
IT’S BEEN 88 RACES SINCE AUSTIN DILLON GOT TO DO THIS – CELEBRATE WITH A WIN IN THE CUP SERIES. MAYBE THIS ONE A LITTLER SWEETER. YOU HAD TO DO IT ON THREE DIFFERENT RESTARTS WITH GUYS LIKE KYLE BUSCH, JOEY LOGANO AND KEVIN HARVICK BEHIND YOU. AUSTIN, THERE’S FANS THERE CHEERING YOU ON. HOW ABOUT THAT?
“Not bad for a silver spoon kid, right? I’ll take that. Have to thank everyone at RCR, ECR, Bass Pro Shops. Tyler Reddick, he raced me clean. 1-2 for RCR – this has been coming. We’ve had good cars all year. Justin Alexander and my whole crew. I got my baby Ace back home and my wife, I love them so much. I’m just so happy – thank god.”

WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE FOR RCR? WE STARTED THE DAY ASKING YOU ABOUT THE CUT LINE. NOW, YOU’RE ABOVE THE CUT LINE AND IN THE 2020 PLAYOFFS.
“To tell you the truth, it means a whole lot. Just for the family, for everybody, all of our partners. Truthfully, I’m out of breath right now. I’m about to go down, I need a drink. That was fun.”

HOW ABOUT BEATING THE BEST IN THE BUSINESS? THREE STRAIGHT RESTARTS YOU HAD TO DO. YOU HAD TO EARN THIS ONE AUSTIN!
“Yeah, I had to change it up a couple of times. Definitely had to earn it. I changed it up. I waited the second one and I went on the last one. So, it worked out for me good.”

TYLER REDDICK, NO. 8 CAT OIL & GAS CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 2nd
“What a great day for Richard Childress Racing. This organization is working so hard and to have a 1-2 finish like we did is incredible. It felt like we had everything happen to our No. 8 Cat Oil and Gas Chevrolet, but strategy was king today. We had good speed overall and earned some stage points at the end of the first stage, but we got shuffled back for the majority of the second stage when we took two right side tires. That really messed with the handling of our Chevrolet and trapped us a lap down for a while. There were a couple major wrecks later in Stage 3 that we were able to miss and that helped us get our lap back to be able to contend at the end. My crew chief, Randall Burnett, made a great call to take fuel only during the caution with about 30 laps to go and that put us up front for those final restarts with our teammate, Austin Dillon. We really couldn’t ask for much more than what we got today. One spot better would have been great, but the recovery this No. 8 Cat Oil and Gas team made today was huge. We’re racing for the big picture of making the playoffs, so we have to race smart. Days like this will help us get there.”

YOU GO FROM 41 BACK OF THE CUTLINE, TO 14 BELOW NOW, ENTERING THE NEXT RACE. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE TODAY?
“It was not strategy in our Cat Oil & Gas Chevrolet. We had good speed in our Chevrolet ZL1 1LE, but we just couldn’t get our Camaro back in contention after we took right-sides (tires). It really shifted the balance of our Camaro. That just put us behind, and we had to catch a few breaks. Some cars got collected in carnage. We avoided it, but you can’t ask for much more than we got there. Me and my teammate (Austin Dillon) on the front row there in those last couple of restarts and you know, he’s done this a little bit longer than I have, and I’m a little rusty. I haven’t been on the front row in a while and he just snookered me those times. Kyle (Busch) was doing a really good job of pushing me, but that last one I put us in a big deficit and I just couldn’t get back out of it.”

WAS IS GOING THROUGH YOUR MIND THAT YOU REALLY WANT THIS BUT MAN, THIS IS MY TEAMMATE AND THIS LOOKS GOOD TO RC?
“Well, I knew it was going to be important. There was one restart where I probably could have went to his inside and I just wanted it to be between us. I didn’t want to bring other cars into it and make sure we could fight it out. We just got the restarts that kept giving us the opportunities. Unfortunately, we just couldn’t get it done today. But, hats off to the No. 3 and all those guys. They’re working hard. It gets one RCR Chevrolet to the playoffs and now we’re below the cutline. We’ve got to keep fighting. If we can keep running like this, we won’t have to worry about points.”

KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 8th
“We had one of our best points days so far this season with the Monster Energy Camaro. We scored stage points in the first and second stages, followed by another top-10 result. I really battled a loose handling car all day, it was really difficult on the restarts and short-runs, so I really had to work my butt off there at the end with all the cautions”.

BUBBA WALLACE, NO. 43 CASH APP CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 14th
“A top-15 day for the Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 Cash App Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE team at the Texas Motor Speedway – a long, hot day that’s for sure. Proud of the efforts from our team. Cash App was on the car for the first time, so that was cool. We got Cash App a really good first finish. I thought we had a chance there. If that last caution had not come out, we maybe could have held on for a top-10 finish. But all-in-all, a great effort. Good bounce back from our last two weeks and we’ll just keep pushing to get our cars better. Shoutout again to Cash App for jumping on-board. Being a part of the sport, how cool is that? Get them their first top-15 finish and go onto the Kansas Speedway. We’ll see what we got there.”

ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 CHEVYGOODS.COM / ADAM’S POLISHES CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Sidelined by accident on lap 318; Finished 30th
“That was not the way that we needed to finish Texas. We struggled some, but overall, our ChevyGoods.com/Adam’s Polishes team was good today. Our team worked really hard on the car today and the changes during our pit stops. We were in the wrong place at the wrong time, but we will move on to Kansas this week.”

TY DILLON, NO. 13 GEICO CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Finished 35th
“I bummed the way today ended for my Germain Racing team. Our GEICO Camaro ZL1 1LE was really good. We battled being loose at the start of a run, but it would get better and better as the laps clicked away. My guys worked extremely hard to turn this car around from Kentucky and we were putting ourselves in position to have another solid finish. My car jumped out on me under the No. 24 and I hate it for William and his guys too. I had a little damage on the left rear and just wasn’t expecting the car to jump out on me like that. We will rebound and get after it in Kansas on Thursday. On to the next one.”

WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 1LE – Sidelined by damage sustained in an accident on lap 250; Finished 37th
YOU STARTED THE DAY 15TH OUT OF 16 DRIVERS TRYING TO MAKE IT INTO THE PLAYOFFS. NOW, HOW TOUGH WILL THESE NEXT EIGHT RACES BE WILLIAM?
“Honestly, it’s going to be tough. We just have to find speed first. We’re not really running good at all and we’ve got to figure that out. Obviously, the 13 (Ty Dillon) got up into us there and took us out, but we were pretty far back anyway. Thanks to Axalta and everybody on the team. We’ve just got to figure it out and figure it out quick before the fall.”

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.

KYLE BUSCH LEADS TEAM TOYOTA IN TEXAS
Erik Jones also scores top-10 finish in Texas

FORT WORTH, Texas (July 19, 2020) – Kyle Busch (fourth) and Erik Jones (sixth) led Toyota with top-10 finishes in the NASCAR Cup Series race at Texas Motor Speedway on Sunday afternoon.

Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Texas Motor Speedway
Race 18 of 36 – 501 miles, 334 laps

TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Austin Dillon*
2nd, Tyler Reddick*
3rd, Joey Logano*
4th, KYLE BUSCH
5th, Kevin Harvick*
6th, ERIK JONES
20th, DENNY HAMLIN
21st, CHRISTOPHER BELL
23rd, DANIEL SUÁREZ
29th, MARTIN TRUEX JR.
36th, TIMMY HILL
*non-Toyota driver

TOYOTA QUOTES

KYLE BUSCH, No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 4th

You overcame a lot in today’s race to achieve a fourth-place finish, can you take us through the struggles?

“Yeah, good finish and proud of the effort. We came a long way today. We got a lot of damage on the frontend of the car that you can’t see with the eye. Going through the grass, it killed it. I thought early on in the first stage, second stage maybe that we had a second-place car and then as the day went, we just kept getting further and further behind. Still a lot of work to do. The car didn’t drive very good at all. Just was able to get something out of nothing there at the end. Thanks to Interstate Batteries, M&M’s, Toyota, TRD, Rowdy Energy – we’ll go to Kansas.”

How was your race car early and how were you able to overcome the damage of sliding through the grass?

“Early on in the day, the first stage, the Interstate Batteries Camry was good and had some good speed. We led a little bit. The 12 (Ryan Blaney) was really, really fast. We could kind of hang with him, but once we got more cars around us and more traffic situations, it just became more and more ill-handling for us and the rest of the day we just kind of kept going backwards. Then took the shot through the grass and that killed the frontend. Hard to tell with the naked eye that there was anything wrong, but it was definitely not right after that. We just kept trying to free it up and get the splitter back down to the ground somewhat to finish it out and get a good finish. Fortunately, we got that, but still not even close. A long way to go.”

ERIK JONES, No. 20 Craftsman Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 6th

How strong was your race car today?

“It was kind of a weird day. I thought the Craftsman Camry was decent all day long and had good speed at times when we could get some clean air and make some passes here and there. It was kind of a struggle to make some of those passes. It was challenging there towards the end with the short runs and the restarts. Our car really took 15 laps or so to get rolling so that kind of hurt us at the end, but we’ll take it. Sixth place isn’t too bad. We needed a solid run and mistake free and that’s what we did. I thought coming into this race if we could just go in and have no mistakes and have decent speed we could run top-five and we came real close to that. We have to keep doing that. Obviously, we need to get some points, especially with two winners the last two weeks that have been from outside the Playoff picture. That kind of changes things for us. We’ll keep rolling, but a decent day for us.”

Does today’s run give you momentum heading to Kansas?

“I hope so. I like Kansas a lot and we’ve run really well there in the past and had a shot to win there last year. Hopefully, we can go back and do the same thing. I feel like we’ve had good speed there each time we’ve gone. Especially in the night races there so looking forward to that. I think our cars have been right there if we can hit it right on the first run of the race. We just have to keep unloading well and starting the race close and I think we’ll have a shot at it.”

How difficult was the heat at Texas and how difficult are the quick race turnarounds this week from Bristol to Texas and then Kansas Thursday night for recovery?

“It’s kind of right on the limit. I usually take at least four days before the race is when I start hydrating so it’s going to be close. I know I did sweat a lot today and feel like I lost a lot of water weight. I feel dehydrated for sure. Going to take some time to get back from this one. It was obviously hot. It didn’t feel too bad in the car, but I know that I was losing a lot of water. Kansas hopefully will be a little bit cooler, that would be convenient for us, but it’s definitely been tough with the quick turnarounds of these last few races.”

# # #

About Toyota

Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in the U.S. and North America for more than 60 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands. During that time, Toyota has created a tremendous value chain as our teams have contributed to world-class design, engineering, and assembly of more than 40 million cars and trucks in North America, where we have 14 manufacturing plants, 15 including our joint venture in Alabama (10 in the U.S.), and directly employ more than 47,000 people (over 36,000 in the U.S.). Our 1,800 North American dealerships (nearly 1,500 in the U.S.) sold nearly 2.8 million cars and trucks (nearly 2.4 million in the U.S.) in 2019.

Through the Start Your Impossible campaign, Toyota highlights the way it partners with community, civic, academic and governmental organizations to address our society’s most pressing mobility challenges. We believe that when people are free to move, anything is possible. For more information about Toyota, visit www.toyotanewsroom.com.

NASCAR CUP SERIES
SUNDAY, JULY 19, 2020
O’REILLY AUTO PARTS 500 – TEXAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY
FORD PERFORMANCE DRIVER – POST RACE QUOTES

FORD FINISHING RESULTS:
3rd — Joey Logano
5th — Kevin Harvick
7th — Ryan Blaney
9th — Brad Keselowski
10th — Aric Almirola
11th — Clint Bowyer
13th — Ryan Newman
15th — Michael McDowell
16th — Corey LaJoie
17th — Matt DiBenedetto
19th — Chris Buescher
22nd — John Hunter Nemechek
25th — Gray Gaulding
32nd — Joey Gase
39th — Cole Custer

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang — WHAT WAS LACKING YOUR ABILITY TO CHASE DOWN THE FRONT TWO? “Air-pressure. Air is what cost us there. Air-pressure in the tires, just on the splitter too much firing off. It took us 15 laps to get rolling. Our long run speed was incredible, but it took too long and the guys up front were smart, they put fuel only and kept their car off the splitter in three and four over the bumps and maintained the clean air and just couldn’t do it. I could make runs, but I’d get to three and four and start chattering up the racetrack and had these big moments. Overall, I’m proud of what the Shell/Pennzoil Ford team did today, scoring a second-place in the second stage and a third in the finish. It’s not a win, especially when you come to Texas and all the fans here. Thank you guys for coming out, but it’s not the win we were hoping for as I look at the fire in Victory Lane is super-cool, but it’s progress. We’ve had a little rough streak on these 550 races, so I’ll take it as a little bit of a momentum-builder.”

KEVIN HARVICK, No. 4 Mobil 1 Ford Mustang — HOW TOUGH WAS IT TO KEEP UP WITH ALL THE DIFFERENT STRATEGIES? “The cars were just so bad in traffic, ours was anyway. Our Mobil 1 Ford Mustang, the guys did a good job of putting us in position and doing all the things we needed to try. We got in a wreck there and had to fix the car and put tires on it and tires just didn’t mean anything. You parked a couple of slower cars out there and nobody could pass them. I’m just really proud of our Mobil 1 Ford Mustang guys for the day and all the fight that they had in them and got a top five out of it. I always want to win here, but it is what it is.”

HOW DID YOU NOT GET AS MUCH DAMAGE AS YOU COULD HAVE ON THAT ONE WRECK? “I just closed my eyes, honestly. I couldn’t see anything because the 22 and the 12 were checked up and I was right on them, so I was just trying not to run over them and then I got hit in the side. Luckily, there wasn’t much damage, but it was pretty wild.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Wurth Ford Mustang — “We started off really struggling and took us a little while to figure out what was wrong and about a little before halfway we made some adjustments and the car was just hitting the racetrack really bad and I couldn’t make any speed. I had to slow down a bunch in the corners, so we worked on that under yellow and kind of gave up our track position working on it and was able to work the cycle to get back up towards the lead, but still didn’t quite have enough speed. So we worked on it again some more and got up to right about fifth and sixth and that was about all we had. We ended up the last restart and got the bottom lane and fell back a spot or two to I think ninth, but, all in all, a decent finish. It’s not the day we were hoping for, but a decent finish and we keep piling in on the top 10s and top fives, which is a good feeling. Our strategy has been really good. Jeremy and I are really clicking on all of those things, just looking to be a little bit faster. If we can combine our execution with a little more speed, we’re gonna be a serious threat to win week in and week out. We’re just not quite there yet.”

HOW MUCH OF A TRACK POSITION GAME IS IT AND WHAT ARE YOU THINKING WHEN YOU SEE A COUPLE OF GUYS WHO HAVEN’T RUN GREAT THIS YEAR SNATCH UP SOME PLAYOFF SPOTS? “Yeah, I was impressed. Initially, when I saw the 3 and the 8 do that strategy I thought there was no way that would work, but they made it work. They deserve a lot of credit and I’ll give it to them. We’re all learning. In the All-Star Race I was more shocked that more people didn’t stay out on the next-to-last yellow flag. Then from there, this week two or three people stayed out. It’s kind of hard to have any rhyme or reason there to understand it, but that’s how it plays out sometimes. They’re really hard races to predict. If I would have known that that many cars were gonna stay out or take two tires or whatever there at the end, we would have took it and we would have probably stole a win, but it’s just so hard to predict. And then last Wednesday we did that strategy and we got burned on it because not enough people stayed out, so it’s just part of the ebbs and flows.”

A CAR PITTED FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE TRACK TODAY AND COMPLETELY CHANGED THE OUTCOME OF THE RACE. AS A COMPETITOR YOU KNOW THE FASTEST CAR DOESN’T ALWAYS WIN, BUT HOW DO YOU JUSTIFY IT TO YOURSELVES WHEN A RANDOM INCIDENT LIKE THAT HAPPENS AND CHANGES THE COURSE OF THE RACE? “I think there are two ways to look at it. There’s the entertainment way to look at it and say that probably created a more entertaining finish, so if you like chaos, then that was good. I think on the other side of that there’s the, ‘Hey, I’m a professional race car driver that’s worked my entire career to get here. Had to jump through a lot of hoops to make it and would like to think that those efforts have created a spot for me in this series to be joined with peers of similar talent levels.’ I have nothing personal against anyone that has an issue like that because they do happen from time to time, but there are certainly a handful of drivers that kindly I wonder exactly how they got to this level. Part of it plays into all the rules. When you’ve got this rules package with cars that are super-easy to drive by themselves, it’s very hard for NASCAR, I think, to be able to tell who’s got it and who doesn’t. So it kind of puts them in a box until you actually get in a race, but one thing I would like to see, and I think I’ve been pretty consistent with this, is I would like to see drivers be able to graduate into this level and equally I’d like to see them be able to be removed from this level when they have repeated issues. I can’t speak enough to the gentleman that had that issue today, but I have seen in the past where drivers that have had this issue multiple times somehow are still here, where I think they should effectively be placed in a lower series or asked to go back to a more minor league level to prove their salt. But that’s ultimately not my decision to make. It’s what I would like to see, but it’s not my decision to make and until it is, I guess I should probably just shut up, but I certainly think there’s some merit to it.”

RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Maytag Ford Mustang — “It was a strong start to the day. We were able to start on the front row and get the lead there. We pitted on the competition caution, which I thought was a good call, and that inherited us the lead later and was able to win us that stage with just being fast and being able to make up all the time. Then we were able to do the same thing in the second stage, and I thought we had a good strategy for the last stage and the caution came out maybe eight to ten laps before all the other guys that were on the different strategy would have had to pit, so that just stunk. We had to take the wave around and lined up 15th or something and could only get back to seventh in that short amount of time. It’s a disappointing finish, for sure. We had a dominant car all day, especially on long runs, but really proud of that and just unfortunate with the way it ended for us.”

AS A COMPETITOR HOW CAN YOU DIGEST WHAT HAPPENED? YOU HAD THE DOMINANT CAR AND IT LOOKS LIKE YOU’RE ABOUT TO WIN THE RACE AND A GUY PITS OUT OF THE MIDDLE OF THE TRACK AND CLEANS PEOPLE OUT AND THAT’S IT. HOW DO YOU WAKE UP TOMORROW AND FEEL OKAY ABOUT IT GOING FORWARD? “I’ve been able to get over things pretty quick. I mean, that’s kind of how I’ve always been. There’s nothing you can do about it now. Really, there’s nothing you can do about it in the situation, just something you have no control over, so there’s no point in dwelling on it and what happened — just be proud of the effort that the team made and now that you had a really fast car. Honestly, I don’t know what the opposite material of a golden horseshoe is, but we’ve found it. We’ve just kind of been unlucky a lot of the year with really fast cars and just cautions when we didn’t need them or just bad breaks. Gosh, we feel like we should have four or five wins at this point. We’ve had cars to do it and it just doesn’t play out for us, but I’m proud of the speed that we have. I feel like we can go up there and compete with the 4 and the 11 and some of the best guys that have gotten all those wins this year, we’ve just got to be able to have things go our way. I feel like we’re doing a lot of things right, it’s just some bad circumstances. Like I said, I’m already over it. I’m gonna go to bed tonight, wake up and look foreward to Kansas here in a few days.”

IS IT FRUSTRATING OR NOT TO NOT HAVE ALL THESE WINS, BUT YOU’VE GOT THE SPEED? “Yeah, to a point it’s frustrating when it happens. You’re like, ‘Man, bad break after bad break. What in the hell do we have to do to have things go our way?’ But that side you can look at. There’s really two ways you can approach it. You can be a little upset and ticked off that things aren’t going your way, or you can just think about the good things that our cars are really fast right now over in that 12 crew. We’ve been capable to win a lot of races this year, it, like I said, hasn’t played out for us. It’s frustrating at the time, but there’s no point in dwelling on things. You just focus on what you need to do and that’s just keep bringing fast race cars. If you keep running up front and leading laps, I hope and I think that things will eventually go our way.”

DID YOU FEEL YOU HAD ANY CHANCE WITH HOW GOOD YOUR CAR WAS TO GET BACK TO THE FRONT OR WAS TRACK POSITION GOING TO BE KING WITH 20 LAPS TO GO? “Track position is gonna be kind. I can’t really think of a place where you can go from 15th to the lead in 20 laps. I mean, it’s just not gonna happen, especially here where it’s two lanes. I thought it was two lanes today, but when you’ve got cars running side-by-side you can’t go anywhere and with that little left to go, you just can’t do nothing about it. I was just trying to get the best finish that we could and try to pick off cars when we could and we made up some decent spots there at the end to try to get back to the top 10.”

HOW DO YOU FEEL WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE PLAYOFF PICTURE. YOU HAVE GUYS LIKE CUSTER AND DILLON WHO HAVEN’T BEEN THAT DOMINANT OR CLOSE TO YOU MUCH THIS YEAR POTENTIALLY TAKING SPOTS OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN RUNNING CLOSE TO YOU. DO YOU LOOK AT THAT AT ALL WHEN HANDICAPPING YOUR CHANCES IN THE PLAYOFFS? “Not really. The past couple of races at Kentucky and here those guys did a good job of putting themselves in a spot to win and they’ve got to be proud of that. So, I don’t really look at that. Guys find ways to win all the time. Maybe you don’t have the best car, but they’ve found ways to win. I don’t really look at that in particular. Those guys were able to get in Victory Lane, so that’s good for them.”

COLE CUSTER, No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang — “We just kind of got caught up in it. They started wrecking in the front. I couldn’t really see what happened. I was on the brakes as hard as I could, but couldn’t miss it. I feel bad. I mean, I feel like we were getting ahold of our HaasTooling.com Mustang. We fired off the race pretty decent and we were just trying to keep up with the track there at the end and I think we got it pretty decent. We just didn’t really get to show anything for it.”

IT LOOKED LIKE A CHAIN-REACTION. “Yeah, I mean it’s always one of the most humbling sports you can be a part of — winning last week and part of a wreck this week. I was on the brakes as hard as I could and then the 19, I think, came down from hitting the wall. It’s just one of those things where you couldn’t go anywhere. It felt bad. I thought we were getting our Haas Automation Mustang better as the day went and was trying to keep up with the racetrack, but didn’t really have much to show for it. I thought we would have ended up pretty good right there.”

WHAT WAS IT LIKE IN THE CAR WITH THE HEAT? “It was hot. It was definitely just trying to put ice bags on you, spraying cold water on you. Hopefully, your AC was working good. It was definitely pretty hot out there, but I think we were able to manage it pretty well.”

WAS YOUR AC WORKING GOOD? “Mine was. I don’t know if everybody else’s is, but I was happy with mine.”

Track: Texas Motor Speedway, 1.5 Mile Tri-Oval
Race: 18 of 36
Event: O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 (501 miles, 334 laps)

Michael McDowell
No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops | Speedco Ford Mustang

Started: 34th
Finished: 15th

Stage One: 26th
Stage Two: 27th
Stage Three: 15th

Michael McDowell and his No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops | Speedco Ford Mustang took the green flag from the 34th position on Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway. Under the Competition Caution, McDowell told the team that his Love’s Travel Stops | Speedco Ford Mustang was “bouncing pretty good through 3 and 4 over the bumps” and would pit for 2 tires, fuel and a track bar adjustment. With less than 20 laps remaining in Stage 1, McDowell would pit under green for fuel only and would go on to finish Stage 1 from the 26th position. Under the Stage 1 caution, he noted that his No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops | Speedco Ford Mustang was “really tight in traffic” and pitted for 4 tires, fuel, a packer and wedge adjustment.

The caution flag would fly early in Stage 2 and McDowell would pit for 4 tires, fuel and a track bar adjustment. Later in the stage, as the laps began to wind down, the yellow flag would fly again and Crew Chief Drew Blickensderfer would call the No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops | Speedco Ford Mustang down pit road for 4 new tires, fuel and another track bar adjustment. McDowell would go on to finish Stage 2 from the 27th position. Under the Stage 2 caution, McDowell pitted for 4 tires, fuel, and wedge, track bar and packer adjustments.

In the final stage of Sunday’s 500-mile race, Michael McDowell and the No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops | Speedco team battled hard both on track and pit road to make adjustments and find speed. The team would rally their way to a Top-15 finish, taking the checkered flag from the 15th position at Texas Motor Speedway.

McDowell on Texas:

“That was a long and hot day at Texas Motor Speedway. I’m really proud of my team; they did a great job. We started off really rough and the car was bouncing really bad over the bumps through Turns 3 and 4, but luckily Drew and the guys were able to work on it and get some good adjustments in; move some packer around and finally get it to where the car stopped bouncing and we were okay. From there, we were able to get back on the lead lap and come out with a Top-15. I really appreciate everyone at Love’s Travel Stops for coming on board today and I appreciate everyone that has been working on our No. 34 Ford Mustang at Front Row Motorsports. We battled hard today for 500 miles and got a good finish.”

FORT WORTH, Texas (July 19, 2020) – Chris Buescher had a strong performance at Texas Motor Speedway interrupted when his ROUSH Performance Stage 3 Mustang was caught up in an incident in front of him, but his team rebounded and he worked his way back through the field for a 19th-place finish. The team also earned two valuable stage points with a 9th-place finish in the first segment of the 501-mile event.

The Prosper, Texas native began the day at his home track from the 16th position after a random draw determined the starting grid earlier in the week. He quickly advanced through the field, as his ROUSH Performance Mustang blistered into the top ten early in the race. He would end the first segment of the race in the ninth position, collecting two valuable stage points as he battles for a playoff position.

Buescher was the first car in the field to come to pit road at the stage break, with crew chief Luke Lambert calling for wedge adjustments to aid the handling of the Ford Mustang. He would restart 20th to begin the second stage.

Once again, Buescher powered through the field and entered the top ten just 15 laps after the green flag. As the field began to hit pit road for green flag stops, Buescher came down at lap 172 for four tires and more adjustments. Unfortunately for Buescher, one of the fuel cans malfunctioned on the stop and the team was unable to get the fuel tank on his Ford full. The team was forced to pit again on lap 189 to correct the issue, leaving Buescher two laps down and in 28th – where he would end the second stage.

The No. 17 team was able to take the wave around during the stage break and get one of its laps back. On the ensuing restart, a pileup at the front of the field collected a number of cars, including Buescher’s Ford Mustang. Though the driver was able to avoid major damage, the nose on the car was impacted.

With fewer than 100 laps to go in the event, Buescher and the team had to manage the damage and keep an eye on potential strategies to get laps back. When a caution came out on lap 305, and opportunity presented itself. With fuel dwindling Lambert made a bold call to leave Buescher out on the track to get back to one lap down, needing a quick caution to get back on the lead lap. Unfortunately for the team, that caution came out just as Buescher brought the No. 17 to pit road with an empty fuel tank.

The team continued to pick off positions as laps wound down, ultimately getting back into the lucky dog position and needing just one more caution to get back on the lead lap. Buescher battled to maintain that position, but the race stayed green at the end and he would ultimately finish 19th.

Next up, the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Kansas Speedway for a Thursday night 400-mile event under the lights. Race coverage begins at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, with coverage also on PRN and SiriusXM Channel 90.

Track: Texas Motor Speedway, 1.5 Mile Tri-Oval
Race: 18 of 36
Event: O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 (501 miles, 334 laps)

John Hunter Nemechek
No. 38 CITGARD Ford Mustang

Started: 28th
Finished: 22nd

Stage One: 21st
Stage Two: 23rd
Stage Three: 22nd

John Hunter Nemechek took the green flag in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series event at Texas Motor Speedway in the 28th position, following a random draw for the starting lineup. In the first 10 laps, Nemechek radioed that his No. 38 CITGARD Ford Mustang “fired off loose, but not terrible.” At the Competition Caution on Lap 20, Crew Chief Seth Barbour made the call to try and tighten up the car by pitting for 4 tires, fuel, track bar and packer adjustments, and grille tape. In the remaining laps of Stage 1, Nemechek felt that he couldn’t predict what the rear of the car was going to do, particularly in Turns 1 and 2. Nemechek would take the green- and-white checkered flag in 21st place and pit under the Stage Break Caution for 4 tires, fuel, a wedge adjustment and more grille tape.

Shortly after Stage 2 began, Nemechek noted that his No. 38 CITGARD Ford Mustang’s tires were “really slick” and the car was still unpredictable. He stayed quiet on the radio for much of the stage, trying to see where he could run in order to find more grip on the track. Unfortunately, by the time he took the green- and-white checkered flag, the handling still had not improved. Nemechek would finish Stage 2 in 23rd place.

Shortly after the Final Stage got underway, a wreck happened among the lead cars, causing Nemechek to slide his tires through the grass in order to avoid getting caught up. He pitted for 4 tires and fuel after a brief red flag pause, but still was not satisfied with the handling on his No. 38 CITGARD Ford Mustang. On Lap 242, Nemechek would spin coming off of Turn 2 after the car “just snapped loose” and spun around on him. He avoided significant damage, but still would be unable to recover for a lead-lap finish. Nemechek took the checkered flag in 22nd place.

Nemechek on Texas:

“It was a tough day in our No. 38 CITGARD Ford Mustang. We had some issues and struggled to find a good balance throughout the day. And in the final stage, I think, it just snapped loose on me and spun me around. It’s certainly not the day we were hoping for, for our partners at CITGARD and FleetPride. We’ll talk through it at the shop this week and look for a better run at Kansas.”