NASCAR Cup Series
Talladega Superspeedway
Team Chevy Driver Quotes
October 24, 2026

 Carson Hocevar, driver of the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session at Talladega Superspeedway. Hocevar returns as the track’s most recent NASCAR Cup Series winner, a feat that also marked his first career victory in the sport’s top division.

Media Availability Quotes:

When you come back here, what is the feeling that you have, and how much did that victory change your life, and certainly going forward with the opportunities or just kind of you in general since then?

“My life hasn’t been the same, but it’s just more fun because a lot of it is very visual memories. I remember what everything looks like and what we experienced and all. A lot of my friends… I’m glad I won here of all places. My agent was like, ‘Man, with Carson winning everybody wants to come here, all his friends want VIP passes. I was like, “Dude, it’s Talladega. They were gonna come anyways. … It’s by far the most fun track you could play your first one at.”

Is there anything specific that feels life changing for you since you are a NASCAR Cup Series winner now?

“I think more so that you just say Cup Series winner. They don’t say Rookie of the Year like six years ago. I don’t remember whatever it was. They’re rather than saying Cup Series driver or Cup Series Rookie of the Year, they say Cup Series winner. Whether you have one or a hundred, they’re just gonna say Cup Series winner unless you win a championship. That’s a really cool title I’ll have for the rest of my life.

NASCAR fined Zane Smith $50,000 for running into you after the race last week. How hard of a hit was it? Did it jerk things in your hands? Did you think it put you in danger in any way?

“For me, it was just unexpected. I was looking around and I think I was looking down and I hit. My mindset was like, ‘Who did I just run into?’ Because I thought somebody stopped in front of me. Then I looked around in front of me and there was nobody in front of me. I was like, okay. I looked behind me and I was like, ‘I got hit’. I was like, okay, well. Because I remember I think it was Austin Dillon at Martinsville when we were going five miles an hour coming to pit road, and my cool box was broken and it was blowing hot air and we ran terrible. I was just trying to get my helmet off as fast as possible. Everybody checked up or somebody stopped or somebody walked in front of him and he stopped at the last second and I ran into him so I was like, ‘Crap.’ I figured I did that again somehow. But no, I mean it was a hard hit for sure. But more so the fact it was unexpected for me. Yeah, that’s all I got.”

You posted telling your fans to vote for Kyle Busch for Most Popular Driver. Just what made you want to do that in a year where maybe you had a chance to win?

“I’m gonna have way more years and everything. I think keeping up with tradition… obviously, (Dale Earnhardt Sr.) won it the year he passed, and I think Kyle was the most popular driver here at one point, right? The whole garage and everybody, every article… It’s crazy. A driver that was probably super hated or not appreciated enough. He’s super appreciated now after his passing, and I think it just feels right. I texted somebody and I was like, ‘Hey, just go ahead and take my name off.’ They used to be PR and really close to Kyle, and they’re like, ‘He wouldn’t want to win it by default.’ And so I was like, okay, I’ll just keep my name off then if that’s what you feel like. I’ll just urge my fans to go vote for him. I’d be very disappointed if they voted for me. We can try and win another year.”

The video last week of you and Blaney at Driver Intros… How has your relationship changed with him in any way since the thing in Bristol?

“We were cool before. At New Hampshire he didn’t have a ride back after he won. And so he got on the Spire plane because we were the only plane that had an extra seat. He likes the WhistlinDiesel guys a lot and he enjoys them. He always asked me for the last few months about what it’s like to go over there and what they got going on. He’d always had interest in the tank. At Phoenix, I was talking to him about, ‘Hey man, the tank comes next week. It’s pretty cool and stuff.’ But yeah, we were cool already before.”

It seems as though realistically you’re not in contention for the championship. Over the last maybe two or three races, it seems you have given those drivers who are still in contention a little more grace or space when you’ve been racing them — is that true? Was that a conscious decision that you made?

“We haven’t been very fast the last two weeks. We were okay, but we haven’t been super fast. When we were fast, I don’t think I gave them a lot of grace, obviously at Bristol and whatnot. Just trying to finish as good as we can in these things. When you’re going into it, we weren’t probably gonna race for a championship, but it’s just building the notebook of everybody gets faster and everybody gets better. You’re racing against the best guys that it’s tough to build points on them. So really it’s just going through the motions of the year and enjoying it. When there’s no expectations, there’s no pressure. … Ultimately, we’re just trying to have fun with it, enjoy it, and know that as it becomes the norm of being in the Chase, the expectations get higher, the fun gets probably a little less.”

Your win here in the spring greatly elevated your profile, not just within NASCAR, but also with all the national media attention you got and all the things that you got to do and everything that went with that. What would you say that in your experience here the last five months or so, what has that taught you about handling fame, success, things of that nature?

“I don’t think anything’s really changed other than I signed a few more autographs. But I’ve always enjoyed it. Obviously the crowds are a lot bigger, and I get recognized in a lot weirder spots and a lot more spots. There’s a lot more female fans for sure, which has been cool. All of it’s been awesome for me. I remember walking through places when I was a kid wishing that somebody would recognize me because I raced quarter-midgets. None of it is like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe this’ or ‘Man, this sucks’ or ‘Man, I wish I could walk somewhere and hide.’ I greatly appreciate it and look forward to it and know that I’m doing good. That’s what a driver should be and that’s what the sport should be. You should be able to really walk anywhere, especially within these walls you shouldn’t be able to walk anywhere without getting recognized.”

Have you thought yet of what driver intros are going to be like on Sunday and how Talladega might receive you now and moving forward as a winner here?

“I haven’t thought about driver intros. I was more thinking about how do I one-up that. And I have some ideas that I think would be good, and I think they’d only really work at places like a Daytona or Talladega where I could really ask for forgiveness on that. … But I feel like these tracks kind of fit the ideas I have.”

You have been in at least contention for the win at every single drafting race this year, including the one where you did win here in the spring. As you gain more experience in the Cup Series and these sorts of drafting tracks do you feel like you have gained a better sense over time of knowing which moves are going to work and which ones aren’t worth the trouble?

“Definitely trial by error. What I’m most proud of our superspeedway (races) is obviously Talladega, as the fans would say, is gridlocked and very difficult to pass. Atlanta is the exact opposite. Daytona is somewhere in between, and I think we’ve been up front or in contention at all of them. The one we won was the only time I’ve ever had a Chevy on my back bumper. Otherwise we finished second, third, fourth. Obviously you just kind of drag race to the line and whoever has the most help probably wins there. A lot of it is manufacturer-based, obviously. But I’ve just enjoyed that aspect of it – that at all the different styles of racing that the superspeedways present, we’re up front at all of them, and that’s what I enjoy and feel good about it. I think we’re one of the best at it right now. Everybody else studies and gets better. For me, I don’t think I ever watched a single lap of data from a superspeedway race ever. It’s just all adaptive for me, and everybody else has different ideas and ways of going with it. Right now our ways are going good. If the field somehow figures it out and a lot of them get really good or really comfortable at it, maybe I’ll have to adjust. But right now I think we’re in a really good spot.”

About General Motors

General Motors (NYSE:GM) is driving the future of transportation, leveraging advanced technology to build safer, smarter, and lower emission cars, trucks, and SUVs. GM’s Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC brands offer a broad portfolio of innovative gasoline-powered vehicles and the industry’s widest range of EVs, as we move to an all-electric future.

GM Motorsports, including the Cadillac Formula 1® Team develops and proves advanced technologies in the most demanding environments, accelerating innovation in performance, safety, efficiency, and electrification for its production vehicles. Cadillac Racing is one of the leading manufacturers in the IMSA and FIA World Endurance Championships (WEC). Chevrolet competes in single seaters in the US IndyCar series, and in NASCAR with multiple team partners and drivers. Corvette customer teams compete in GT series across the globe including IMSA and WEC. Learn more at GM.com.

Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
YellaWood 500 Media Availability — Talladega Superspeedway
Saturday, October 24, 2026

Ryan Blaney, driver of the No. 12 Advance Auto Parts Ford Mustang Dark Horse, comes into this weekend trailing leader Kyle Larson by 40 points for the NASCAR Cup Series championship. Those two, along with Chase Briscoe, participated in a press conference before today’s qualifying session.

RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Advance Auto Parts Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE CHASE FORMAT AND HOW IT’S PLAYED OUT? “What do you all think? Has it been exciting? I think that’s the most important thing is do the fans enjoy it. I know from my side, I have personally enjoyed it. I pay way more attention to the points week in and week out, not only through the Chase but beforehand way more than I ever did in previous years because it was so much more important and you kind of knew the guys you were racing. I think it puts pressure on you every week. You don’t have rounds to go, ‘Hey, we’ve already advanced to the next one.’ It keeps it really exciting and exhilarating. You look at last week, the excitement level. I’m sorry, Kyle, for bringing this up, but the whole storyline is, ‘Oh, six more guys are back in it now and they have a shot because the points leader had a bad day.’ That stuff is really exciting for everybody watching and people involved in it, so I’ve really enjoyed it. I think it’s good to have a lot of consistency in there. You need it. And winning has mattered probably even more than it has. I feel like before it was the playoffs I feel like in the Chase we talk about wins more. Before it was like, ‘Oh, you advanced to the next round. That’s cool. We’re not gonna talk about you much for the next race or two.’ Where, now, winning, that’s a massive points day for that person. How many positions did he jump? Did he get close to the lead or did he extend his lead? So, I’ve really enjoyed it. I think it’s been a lot of fun to be a part of, and I hope it’s been fun to watch, too.”

DO YOU SEE THIS TRACK AS AN OPPORTUNITY OR IS THERE MORE PRESSURE? “I’ve always tried to go to these places – Daytona and Talladega and stuff – and just try to do the best job that you can. Do you prepare as much as you can with your team and with your group and can you go execute that day? If you do, that’s very, very rewarding if you can go and do the right things and everything works out for you. But, if things don’t go your way and something happens that is outside of your control, that’s just kind of it is what it is. Sometimes, there’s not a lot you can do about it and you just have to deal with that, but, yeah, I think everyone thinks of these speedways a little bit differently, but I’ve always enjoyed coming just because I like the style, and I feel like it’s just a different form of racing and you just hope you make the right decisions. Sometimes you don’t, but you just hope you make the right ones between yourself and your group.”

AT DAYTONA YOU WERE EXCITED ABOUT THE AERO CHANGE BECAUSE THERE WAS NO SCIENCE TO IT. HAS SOME OF THE SCIENCE CREPT BACK INTO IT SINCE THEN? “Yeah, I mean, gosh, even before Daytona everyone over-engineered the hell out of it of aero maps and things like that, simulations of how do you have to adjust everything, your ride height to get close downforce numbers as you did before, whether that’s raising the nose or what, and now just with more time and not as big of a change from Daytona, teams obviously look at that stuff and figure it out. There’s only so much you can do from the car world, but I think drivers are like, ‘OK, we’ve got a race under our belt with this package.’ You kind of got the feel for how it drove, how it drafted. This is a different place than Daytona. It races a little bit differently, but I think with a half-inch spoiler change it’s not gonna be obviously as drastic as the multiple inches that they took off of it for that Daytona race. That’s what teams do. They go into data and try to tweak little things here and there, same as drivers. We try to tweak little things here and there from did you do some bad things at Daytona? How do you adjust it and try to do the right things, so you’re always working at it no matter how much experience or inexperience you have with it.”

HOCEVAR WAS IN HERE EARLIER AND HE TALKED ABOUT THE FERRARI STORY. HOW HAS YOUR RELATIONSHIP CHANGED, IF AT ALL, IN THE LAST MONTH? “Not really any. Yeah, not really much, whether before or after. I don’t walk around with a grudge on my shoulder. I get over that stuff and go out. The funny thing is we had our little mix up at Bristol and we’ve raced each other even better than when we did before, which we really didn’t have any problems before. It really hasn’t changed at all.”

BUT HE HELPED YOU WITH THE FERRARI? “That was back, yeah, he got me connected with some people of a potential buyer, which I didn’t pull the trigger on it, but he did help me with contacts.”

TOYOTA RACING – Chase Briscoe
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes

TALLADEGA, Ala. (October 24, 2026) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Chase Briscoe was made available to the media on Saturday prior to the NASCAR Cup Series race from Talladega Superspeedway.

CHASE BRISCOE, No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing

How do you balance your personal agendas with the plans for your teams and manufacturer?

“I think like Kyle (Larson) was saying, you have kind of a plan going into it and it’s different, from the Daytona 500 to the fall Daytona race to this race. For our group, at least there’s still four of us that are kind of in serious contention. So, yeah, you’re probably not going to cut each other a break. We’re all knowing what we’re racing against and what we’re racing for. I think the biggest thing you just ask that those other, for our sake, our other Toyota teammates, just kind of are aware of what’s going on and what we’re racing for, which I feel like they do a pretty good job of. But, yeah, I don’t know. I feel like this place is super hard just to have a plan and have that plan ever to actually come together.”

Did NASCAR make the right decision in bringing Chase back as it has played out, as you would have hoped, and what it’s doing for a championship?

“I would just echo a lot of what Ryan (Blaney) said, I definitely think it’s just made aware every stage, every weekend matters. Where in the past, you would advance early or win the first race of a round, really the next two weeks didn’t really mean a whole lot unless you won the race, and even then, you were only getting five additional bonus points. So, yeah, I feel like I found myself way more dialed into the points even during the regular season. Like, you have a bad week, you just feel that way more now, and even a good week, like it just boosts you way more than what it typically did. So, I’ve really enjoyed racing under this format. I think the balance has been great, and I do think that winning has probably mattered more than any of his realized. I mean, when we started this, we all talked about how you got to be the top five or six in points. I feel like that’s kind of gotten thrown out to a certain extent just with how much volatility there’s been. So yeah, I’ve really enjoyed it.”

Do you see Talladega as more pressure filled or more opportunity filled?

“Yeah, I would just echo a lot of what Kyle (Larson) said. I feel like it’s definitely an opportunity for the good and the bad, right? When you think of the next kind of two places, we’ve been earlier, the other six or so places we’ve been, like the more off than not, the Chase guys are for the most part all in the top 10 where here, like, you can just have such big swings, so that that’s an opportunity. If you do have a good points day, then you can just gain a ton of points on guys, but also, you can lose a lot of points too. So, yeah, I think it’s an opportunity for both sides. They’re just obviously a little bit more out of our control here. So yeah, I don’t know. Just try to come in with an open mind. Hope you go away with a solid day.”

About Toyota

Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in North America for nearly 70 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands, plus our more than 1,800 dealerships.

Toyota directly employs nearly 64,000 people in North America who have contributed to the design, engineering, and assembly of over 50 million cars and trucks at our 14 manufacturing plants. In 2025, Toyota’s plant in North Carolina began to assemble automotive batteries for electrified vehicles.

For more information about Toyota, visit www.ToyotaNewsroom.com.

NASCAR Cup Series
Talladega Superspeedway
Team Chevy Driver Quotes
October 24, 2026

Austin Hill, driver of the No. 33 Camaro ZL1 and No. 21 Camaro SS for Richard Childress Racing, met with the media in advance of running double duty in the NASCAR Cup and O’Reilly Auto Parts Series at Talladega Superspeedway.

Media Availability Quotes:

Austin, a lot has changed at Talladega. Can you talk to us about your season so far and your hopes for the races this weekend?

“Yeah, so this season, in general, has just been a lot of rollercoasters. You know, being tasked with doing the Cup side has thrown kind of a little bit of a curveball in some things. Going back and forth between the two is not the easiest thing to do, especially the way that both series of cars drive. Trying to still put all the effort into the O’Reilly side and the Cup side together, you know, it just kind of creates a little bit of a task. But I feel like we’ve been doing an okay job with it. You know, ever since the Chase started, we’ve just had things happen. Whether it’s been my doing, like last week speeding on pit road, or having right front tires go down, having loose wheels at Gateway; there’s just been things that have happened that’s kind of, I wouldn’t say fully knocked us out of the Chase on the O’Reilly side, but, man, we would have to really put it on them these last three races and we’d have to have some guys that have some misfortune starting this weekend.

So, you know, I’m not going to sit here and say that we’re out of it by any stretch of the matter. I’m planning on going and winning both stages and winning the race today, hopefully. But you just never know, with it being Talladega, we might wreck on lap one. But yeah, I mean, our season’s been okay. I’ve learned a lot about the Cup side. I think that the Cup cars are getting a lot easier for me to drive and the understanding about them has been a little bit better. But it’s still a work in progress and something that during the offseason I’m going to have to really dive deep into to get a little bit better on these Cup cars.”

Yesterday in the Truck Series, there seemed to be some tire issues. You guys have the same change to your right sides. Do you guys have any concerns? I don’t know if you’ve had time to kind of debrief and talk about any changes in plans for today.

“I’m worried about it, for sure. My crew chief, Chad, he said he’s talked to Goodyear. They don’t think that it should be an issue for us today. They think that it was kind of self-induced with some of the Truck teams. But it’s been a long time since we’ve seen tire issues on a superspeedway, even if the Truck guys were doing something funky. So that part of it kind of worries me a little bit. I think it could change a little bit of our strategy going into at least the race starting stage one, you know, for the first pit stop to see kind of where we’re at on tires, how much tire wear we’re getting and that sort of thing.

But at the end of the day, I mean, we can’t race scared, and we just got to hope that the air stays in the tires. Goodyear does a great job each and every week, and we don’t normally have issues like this. So, hopefully, maybe there’s a little bit different recommendation that they can have on air pressure for today or something like that that could kind of help us if there is any issue at all.”

How would you kind of sum up this experience, overall, in the Cup car having to enter it after Kyle’s passing?

“Yeah, it’s been very eye-opening on just the transition from the O’Reilly car to the Cup car and how much different it is. And, you know, as I’ve kind of ran more and more each week, learning how the air works, the dirty air is a lot different in these cars than the O’Reilly car. I almost feel like it’s easier the times that I go run the O’Reilly car now on working the dirty air. The Cup car, it’s really tough with how the dirty air works. If you have your car set out to the left or set out to the right, or if you’re directly behind somebody on how bad the dirty air is on the Cup side; I think that that’s something that I’ve gotten a little bit better at, but it’s still something that I’m going to have to work on in the offseason and really look at a lot of data. I think restarts are a premium in the Cup car. If you can get four or five spots on a restart, even if your car falls off a little bit, it seems like you can kind of work the air a certain way and still kind of have a net gain if you have some good restarts. So that’s something that I’ve been really working on and trying to perfect over these last several weeks and still have a lot of work to do.

But it’s been an experience, that’s for sure, going back and forth between the two. I didn’t want to have this opportunity in the Cup car this way, but this is kind of here we are. You know, this is what life is now and I’m trying to make the most of it.”

Your O’Reilly Series drafting record speaks for itself. Does that door close after today or could we see you make select starts next year and in the future?

“I want to run next year. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to run or not for sure with sponsorship and such, but I do want to run next year. I’d love to run the Daytona race to start the year to try to go for whatever number it is, number five, or whatever it is. Obviously, Atlanta being my home track, I’d love to run Atlanta. And then, honestly, I’d like to throw some road course races even in there and run some road courses. Those are kind of my two types of tracks that I’d love to run next year. Don’t know if it’s going to happen, but I hope that this isn’t the last time that I run an O’Reilly Series race on a drafting track. I have a lot of fun with it. I’ve talked about it before, I used to hate superspeedway racing, and now, I have a lot of fun with it because I have a different mindset coming into these weekends. It’s not that with all the success that we’ve had that I just expect to go win today. It’s just that I just have a little bit more relaxed demeanor and I’m not as stressed out when I come to these events because I know that we could either win the race or we could end up on the hook or run anywhere in between. You just don’t know. There’s just so much uncertainty, and I’ve kind of gotten better at not thinking that way. I just think about going and doing my job and hope it’s enough at the end of the race and it’s worked out for us. So, hopefully, this isn’t the end for us.”

Back at Daytona, you guys had kind of the updated aero package, and now, you have a slightly different version of that same package. What is the level of unknowns kind of heading into this race, especially the differences between Daytona and Talladega?

“I don’t think there’s as many unknowns as there was when we ran Daytona a little while ago. I thought that we made a pretty good improvement from the times that I have ran the Cup car to when we just ran that Daytona race. There’s still a ways to go, and I think that doing what we’re doing with the spoiler and all is the next step for that. I don’t think that that’s going to be the full fix, but I could be proven wrong. I still think that there’s an area that we’ve got to work on, too.

I think, for us, to have better Cup racing, my opinion for the superspeedway stuff, is we’ve got to have some type of bubble effect out of the back of the car. That’s what makes the O’Reilly Series so good on the superspeedways is you have that bubble effect. You have to create your runs. You can’t just throttle up and drive into the back of somebody to create a run. You actually have to work at it and back up to the guy behind you; get connected with them, create that run, that sort of thing. You have to break through that bubble. On the Cup side, you don’t really have that. I know that that was something that we were working on for Daytona. I felt like we got closer in the sense of being able to run more single file stuff. We were able to have the top rolling and you could pull out a line and make moves if you needed to, if you had some guys lined up around you. There’s still an area that we’ve got to get that bubble effect. If we get that, and maybe this will be the fix, if we get that going into this weekend; I think the Cup racing will be just as good, if not better, than the O’Reilly Series.”

About General Motors

General Motors (NYSE:GM) is driving the future of transportation, leveraging advanced technology to build safer, smarter, and lower emission cars, trucks, and SUVs. GM’s Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC brands offer a broad portfolio of innovative gasoline-powered vehicles and the industry’s widest range of EVs, as we move to an all-electric future.

GM Motorsports, including the Cadillac Formula 1® Team develops and proves advanced technologies in the most demanding environments, accelerating innovation in performance, safety, efficiency, and electrification for its production vehicles. Cadillac Racing is one of the leading manufacturers in the IMSA and FIA World Endurance Championships (WEC). Chevrolet competes in single seaters in the US IndyCar series, and in NASCAR with multiple team partners and drivers. Corvette customer teams compete in GT series across the globe including IMSA and WEC. Learn more at GM.com.