Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
Sober or Slammer 200
Saturday, August 30, 2025

Ford Unofficial Finishing Results:

4th – Ty Majeski
10th – Jake Garcia
11th – Ben Rhodes
17th – Layne Riggs
21st – Matt Crafton
26th – Mason Maggio
30th – Chandler Smith
31st – Stephen Mallozzi
32nd – Clayton Green

LAYNE RIGGS, No. 34 Clew Ford F-150 – “I’m just disappointed in myself with the way I didn’t really manage the race good enough. I thought we had a great truck all day. I felt like I was out of control in the first stage and we still finished second. I think we had a really good piece. We were leading and I ran the bottom in three and four a lot, and then it was time to move back to the top and I just didn’t anticipate the lack of grip that I had after running on the bottom for five, six, seven laps in a row. I drove it in just like I did five laps earlier and it just wasn’t enough. I just hate it for my team. They deserve a lot better. They deserved a trophy today in all honesty. These days will make us stronger. I feel like we’re still in a really great spot heading into these next few races. I’m just so happy with the speed that we have every weekend. I’ve just got to do better at a track like this that can come up and bite you so fast.” YOU ARE 39 POINTS TO THE GOOD. HOW DO YOU FEEL GOING TO BRISTOL AND NEW HAMPSHIRE? “Those are two great tracks for us. I feel like obviously anything can happen at either of them, but we’re just gonna go and keep trying to have smart days. Today, that was our goal and I kind of blew it. We just have to regroup and do better, get me right and make sure that we just keep bringing the same speed that we’ve been having and it’s all gonna work out.”

TY MAJESKI, No. 98 Soda Sense/Curb Records Ford F-150 – WHAT DID YOU HAVE TO DO TO RECOVER AFTER THAT FLAT TIRE? “It happened with about five to go left in the stage, so we obviously came down pit road and did a green flag pit stop and put those tires on. We took the wavearound and stayed out on those old tires in stage two. A five lap deficit is a big deal here, so I was just trying to get what I could get track position-wise. We had to come back down at the end of stage two and fix some damage, so we lost some more spots. We basically restarted 17th in that last stage and got up to 10th, and then the caution came out and we made up a few spots on the restart. We had a good truck all day, but just nothing to show for it with no track position. I’m proud of the effort today. It could have been disastrous for sure and glad we recovered as a team. The pit stops were great. Good execution today.”

JAKE GARCIA, No. 13 Quanta Services Ford F-150 – “It was a solid day. We got a top 10 out of it, so not bad for a day when we had a pit road penalty and had to come from the back. Overall, I didn’t think we would be quite that good after practice because we were really bad in practice. I want to thank my guys for doing a good job of keeping our truck fast and making improvements overnight. We’ll build on this hopefully and be stronger when we come back next time.” THIS WAS YOUR FIRST PLAYOFF RACE. DID IT FEEL ANY DIFFERENT? “I’ve been in situations before where I’ve had to points race, so it just felt like one of those deals where you try to be a little more conservative and just pay attention to your finishing position.”

CHANDLER SMITH, No. 38 Wheelers Ford F-150 – “Honestly, I’m not too worried about it. I’m not sure where the points are going to rack up after this race, but going back to Bristol, we were really strong there earlier this year. Then New Hampshire as well, so I’m not really worried about the point situation. I’m just a little disappointed in myself. I had a really fast Ford F-150 today and just barely got the wall and then throttled up and got out of it, and then my right-front tire kind of got stuck and got stuck right back in it and suckered me in. We run steel bodies, so you can’t really run the fence like you can in an Xfinity car or a Cup car without killing your day like that.” HOW DO YOU PROCESS THIS ONE? “It stings, but right now it looks like we’re plus-one, but we’ve still got two races left going back to Bristol, where we won earlier this year and then New Hampshire for the last race of this round, where I’ve been really strong in the past as well. I’m not really discouraged or anything about that. I think our pace in our trucks and our trucks here recently have been really good. Everybody at Front Row Motorsports has been giving be a truck capable of going out there and winning, but I just made a mistake on my end today. I just got a little too greedy trying to run the fence a little bit too hard. We’re in steel-bodied race cars and when you get into it that hard, it just suckers you in and you cut a tire and you’re done for the day. You’re used to the Xfinity cars, where you can actually go out there and learn and run the fence and kind of develop your craft, and when you get in the wall there’s not a lot of repercussions. In this deal, you can’t really go out there and do that. I’m looking forward to hopefully those changes coming in the near future for these truckers and looking forward to the rest of this round in the playoffs.”

Toyota GAZOO Racing – Denny Hamlin
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes

DARLINGTON, S.C. (August 30, 2025) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin was made available to the media on Saturday after winning the pole for the NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington Raceway.

Denny Hamlin scored his second pole of the season (Pocono), 40th pole in a Toyota, and 45th overall. It is his second pole in the Southern 500 (2018). Hamlin is the first driver in Toyota’s history to win 40 poles in the NASCAR Cup Series.

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 Sport Clips Haircuts Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing

What gave you the confidence that it was going to stick in turns three and four?

“Truthfully, I didn’t have a whole lot. A lot of it came from the balance I had in (turns) one and two – it was so superior to what I had in practice that I knew that I under drove that corner, and at that point, I figured I would just go deeper into turn three and the result was good. It just stuck. They made great changes. We were average at best, I thought, in practice, but for one lap, they made the adjustments that they needed too, and we need to go to work to get that for race trim.”

Can you continue this momentum through the Playoffs?

“I hope so. That is what we are here for and certainly think we have a great first round of tracks that hopefully can help us get some points, whether that be stage points or wins, to keep giving us a buffer heading into the more roll the dice type tracks later in the Playoffs. That is the goal, and certainly feel like it lines up well for us.”

Should there be any surprise that you are performing at this track?

“I don’t know that I’ve qualified on the pole that many times, maybe in Xfinity, but just the way you have to race at this track, typically the amount of patience you have to have here just suits my driving style and it has right from the very beginning.”

How does as a driver best adapt to this track?

“It does. This track definitely goes through changes when rubber is on it versus not. Even the advantage that you have going out later in qualifying versus early, is a big, big difference, and then at the start of this race, there will be some sort of sunlight and then we are going to go into full night to build some adaptability in your car. We always plan for the end of the race and we figure out how to make it work at the very beginning, so certainly, when you start up front like we are, that is going to help us band aid the car for a little while until it comes in.”

What is the importance of qualifying well at this race?

“Well, we saw in the Spring the 24 (William Bryon) was hard to pass until he got in traffic and that is when it changed. Luckily, we have that type of an advantage at the race. It could end on lap one, and we could be second, but you just never know. I feel like it gives you the advantage to set the pace and then once you get the lap cars, hopefully, you have something left.”

What is you and your team’s achilles heel going into the Playoffs

“Just execution. That is the only thing that I can think of. If it is going to be posted on speed, pit crew, all of those things. We are at the top of the list, certainly in the upper echelon that are going to be racing for the championship, but there is all the variables that we just don’t know about. Ill-timed cautions, you pit, green flag cycle and someone crashes coming onto pit road, and a yellow comes out. It changes the complete complexion of the race, so it is some of the things we can’t control and some the things we can. It is all of the other stuff. It is not speed. It is not qualifying. It is not long run speed. We have all of those things. It is just other things involved in NASCAR racing that can take you out.”

How do you balance your Playoff run as a driver versus the Playoff run for your drivers?

“No, I’ve done it for quite a few years now, and I feel like there is a good balance that I try to have. I try to give them, while I am able to have access to everything, I give them a little bit of space during the Playoffs – I don’t think it is necessarily fair if I sit in their strategy meeting and then I set in mine. I certainly know more about their cars and what they have and how they prepare, more so than any other driver knows for any other team, but I do give them their competition space when it comes to the Playoffs, because ultimately, while I’m still driving, nothing would anger me more than to give them a secret of mine and then it knocks me out of the Playoffs. I let them do themselves for these 10.”

What is your reaction to Thursday’s hearing?

“From our side what was shared was just talking, bantering amongst ourselves and has nothing to do with the actual case itself. We provided important documents to the case.”

Is the trial a good thing for the sport or a bad thing for a sport? Is it a distraction?

“I don’t know. Everyone has to deal with it. The team deals with it. We have our own stuff we have to deal with, while going through this. One thing is for sure – that 2026 will be better.”

What mentally does it do for you to start on the pole in the Southern 500?

“It does, just because we struggled during practice and I was worried about, well, if we are stuck in this box for the weekend with this setup then we will probably qualify bad, we are not going to get very good stage points – on and on and on, but that is thinking too far ahead. It is about the moment and what I feel like we can do well is, we kind of put things aside and say okay, we will handle that later. Let us figure out what we need to go fast for one lap. What do you need for that? So, I focus on that. Give them the information and they make the proper adjustments like they did right there, so it is a big momentum boost for myself personally to know that we are able to get the car where it needs to be, even though it was considerably off in practice.”

How is the weather going to affect the driver and the car?

“For the drivers, it is going to be much better for the young guys that can’t stand the heat (laughter). It will be a lot better for them. Generally speaking, for the car, it is going to just tighten up the competition. What it is going to do – the lap times kind of shrink slightly, we are not talking a bit amount, but slightly. Track position will just mean a little bit more because of the cooler conditions.”

Have you gone to a cool suit?

“No. We’ve found the best way to have them not fail is to not run one. (laughter)”

How have you learned to overcome obstacles and put your eyes on the prize?

“Still, if the same thing happened today, I would still be very, very disappointed, but the difference is what I didn’t understand in that moment that was something I control. That was just something that was very unfortunate that happened that we go from essentially locking up the championship to unfortunately losing it the next week. I’ve just been more content being disappointed with the things that I can control, versus the things that I can’t. That has certainly put me in a much, much better head space as I’ve gotten older.”

How did you learn to deal with it like that? Did you work with anyone?

“Just age. I wish I could say that there was a light switch or something in general that prompted it, but overall, it was just experience and understanding that your mental health cannot stand being pissed off all of the time. You have just to understand the little victories and best you can be okay with that, and whatever the result is, it is.”

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 nearly 49 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.

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Southern 500 Qualifying
Saturday, August 30, 2025

Ford Qualifying Results:

3rd – Josh Berry
10th – Austin Cindric
12th – Ryan Blaney
14th – Joey Logano
15th – Chris Buescher
18th – Cole Custer
24th – Zane Smith
27th – Ryan Preece
28th – Todd Gilliland
32nd – Brad Keselowski
34th – Noah Gragson
36th – Cody Ware
38th – Timmy Hill

JOSH BERRY, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I’m super proud of that effort. Our big focus was trying to qualify better here and the guys did a great job. I feel like our car is really strong and I’m excited for tomorrow. The biggest thing I feel like I’ve fought here is starting position, so starting up front I think we can just manage the race easier and obviously score some stage points. That’s going to be important, so just having a mistake-free day by taking care of the car and having good pit stops will help keep us in the hunt.”

AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Discount Tire Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “It was a solid day. I feel like I left a little bit out there for my qualifying lap, but, overall, I had really good long run speed. I feel like we have a good window of where to work on our Discount Tire Ford Mustang for 500 miles. It takes total focus and total execution for the whole race. It’s one of our longest and most mentally challenging of the year, so we were able to step through everything today with good execution. I’m happy with that, but tomorrow is a big goal.”

RYAN PREECE, No. 60 Trimble Ford Mustang Dark Horse –WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS NOW AFTER LAST WEEK DIDN’T WORK OUT FOR YOU? ”We spent the last two months trying to put yourself in position, but, at the same time, worried about points in case that cut line was never moved up. Now, it’s just try to win.”

WHAT IS THE BIGGEST THING YOU LEARNED ABOUT YOURSELF THIS YEAR? “There’s a lot of things, but, at the same time, it’s just been a nice change. I feel like there’s a whole bunch of things. I feel like Derrick’s done a great job leading this team. Brad did a great job, along with Josh Sell and everybody over there to put together a solid team for us. We went out and I feel like, for a first year team, we executed really well. Outside of winning right now, I feel like we’re hitting lot of the things that we need to hit on and I would say the last 10 races is all about continuing to build momentum for next year. We’ve put ourselves in position to capitalize, it just didn’t work out.”

DO YOU FEEL LIKE THIS SEASON CAN STILL BE VIEWED AS A SUCCESS FOR THE 60 TEAM? “First off, I think it’s really challenging with the way the format is. Look at Chris, he was top 10 in points and didn’t make the playoffs because he didn’t win a race yet. If you looked at Dale Jarrett or Bobby Labonte in the 2000s and said, ‘Hey, man. You finished 10th in points, would you consider this a successful year?’ What would you say? I don’t know. It just depends. For me, I think we have goals that we want to accomplish and, don’t get me wrong, going into the season we all said it wouldn’t be successful if we didn’t make the playoffs. We had to win, but this is the situation we’re in and we still have 10 races moving forward to do that.”

Toyota GAZOO Racing – Erik Jones
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes

DARLINGTON, S.C. (August 30, 2025) – LEGACY MOTOR CLUB driver Erik Jones was made available to the media on Saturday prior to practice for the NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington Raceway.

ERIK JONES, No. 43 Dollar Tree Toyota Camry XSE, LEGACY MOTOR CLUB

What is your outlook looking into the weekend?

“Yeah, I always enjoy this race. I look forward to it every year, but I feel like we have a good car – been getting our stuff better on the mile-and-a-halves. We will see how it goes, but I look forward to this race every year and enjoy the weekend and enjoy the race tomorrow. It has been a fun one for me, so I’m excited to get it going.”

How will the cooler temperatures play into the race?

“Yeah, it will definitely – the track I feel like always goes free here as the night goes on. I don’t know if it will change it a whole lot. The tires – when it is colder like that – they don’t get as worn out and as slick, so the line changes quite a bit, I feel like, every year. With it being colder, it might make it go a little freer, especially as it gets cooler and cooler throughout the night. But definitely one of the colder late summer Southern 500’s I can remember in the last few years, so it will be a bit different, especially with lines and where you run with the tires just wearing a little bit less.”

Do you always come here confident that you can win here with the success that you’ve had?

“I feel like we have a shot to win when we come here. I feel like this is our best chance in a few years – our cars are getting better. The last couple of years, I don’t feel like we’ve had the cars that we’ve needed to contend, but this year, I feel like we will be a bit closer. This is a similar car to what we had in Indy, where we had a lot of speed, so I think that will transfer over a bit. I know it is a different track, but it will transfer some speed over. Definitely feel good about it. It is a hard one to win. Everything has to go really well. A lot of green flag stops. You can’t get caught in a yellow or a weird situation. A lot of things have to work out throughout the night to have opportunities but definitely have the confidence coming here knowing that I feel like I know how to run the race and knowing what I need from my car and know that if it is doing certain things that we will be able to contend. You don’t have that feeling every week. There are not always tracks that you are comfortable at or had a car that was good enough to contend, but here I definitely have that feeling.”

How do you approach practice knowing the race is in completely different conditions?

“Yeah, thankful that we are at least in group two, so there is a few more minutes to get some heat here and some rubber laid down. It is tough. I feel like practice for this race, specifically, is tough because it goes to night the way it does. There are a few things I look for my car to do. It will be tough with how cool it is today. It is going to drive good compared to what the race will be like. Hope, I can kind of search those things out. There is a couple of things that I like to look for in each end, that if it is doing well, I think it will have it race pretty well, so hopefully, we can kind of feel that out and get it close to that. Probably will just try to make one long run, see what our fall off is like. Even as cool as it is, you would be able to get a sense of how your car falls off after 10 or 20 laps, that will probably be the most important to us.”

What do you feel like you found to make the progress you’ve seen this season?

“Well, I mean, there were a lot of new people that came into LEGACY MOTOR CLUB in September, October of last year. It takes time to build out a new process, a new way of doing things. I feel like it just took that stretch to get everyone comfortable the way that we were building cars, probably get our cars mapped out to even know what cars are our best, and it is still kind of that work in progress, but you know, for us, we didn’t have any notebook. In ‘22, ’23, even ’24 – we were so far off, we really had no notes to go off of and really get better, so we’ve kind of really spent all of this year building that notebook and trying to work from it, and I would say that is where our short track and road course stuff has struggled because we don’t have good notes on it and we need to build that out. I think just the new process in place at the end of last year, we needed six months to get to that point to where it showed performance.”

Can you explain the plush toy on stage?

“Oscar, my dog, this is his plushie. We sell them at the merch trailer. We got them back in stock. We sold a few more than we thought right off the bat. It supports my foundation as part of the animal welfare side of things. All of the profits and proceeds go back to the foundation for the animal welfare portion, so back in stock this weekend, so if you get a chance to go to the merch trailer, we’ve got them back for you.”

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 nearly 49 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.

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Southern 500 Media Availability
Saturday, August 30, 2025

Josh Berry, driver of the No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang Dark Horse, will be making his NASCAR Cup Series playoff debut tomorrow night at Darlington Raceway. The Wood Brothers Racing driver stopped by the infield media center before qualifying to talk about this weekend.

JOSH BERRY, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang Dark Horse – WHAT HAVE YOU FOUND WORKS WELL FOR YOU HERE AT DARLINGTON AND HOW DO YOU COMMUNICATE THAT WITH MILES TO GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR CAR? “I feel pretty comfortable here. I think that really started in the 4 car last spring, working with Rodney and studying a lot of Kevin’s data here, and we had a really good car. That kind of translated and built some confidence that I think I was able to translate to the Southern 500 last year and then the 21 car in the spring. I feel good. I think we ran well in both of those races last year, ran well in the spring. I don’t feel like there’s any reason why we can’t do it again this weekend.”

WHAT DOES THE SOUTHERN 500 MEAN TO YOU? “It’s high up there. It’s such a fun track, for one, but just a historic race. It’s a tough race, a grind. I think we all want to survive that and be in Victory Lane at the end of the day.”

DOES IT OPEN THE DOOR FOR YOU TO SCORE A LOT OF POINTS AT GATEWAY NEXT WEEK WITH PENSKE’S SUCCESS THERE? “Yeah, I think so. Obviously, they were super strong there last year and, honestly, personally, I feel like we had a pretty good race going. I got a speeding penalty at Gateway last year, but our pace was really good and then we blew a tire and wrecked. Ultimately, I’m confident going into these first three rounds. We don’t have to really do anything crazy. We just need to be solid and consistent like we know we can and limit our mistakes and I think we’ll find ourselves in the hunt when we get to Bristol.”

AVERAGE FINISH OF 20.8 GOING INTO THE PLAYOFFS. WHAT HAS YOUR ACHILLES HEEL BEEN DURING THE MIDDLE PART OF THE YEAR ENTERING THE PLAYOFFS? “I don’t really feel like, especially when it comes to the oval tracks and intermediates it wasn’t a performance thing, whether it was mistakes on pit road or getting caught up in accidents, there’s a number of races that I think back on. We were here in the spring, Martinsville, we were in the lead and break. There’s a lot of things that happen. I feel like some in our control, some outside of our control. The biggest Achilles heel in this whole deal is gonna be the Roval, but I feel like we’ve made gains on the road course program and when it comes to the Roval I feel like I think I finished about 20th there last year. I feel I’ve gotten better since then, but we’ve got to make it to that point before we start worrying about it, honestly.”

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS OF JUST MAKING THE PLAYOFFS? “It’s a big deal. It’s our biggest goal setting out this year. Obviously, to win my first race and if you do that, more than likely, you make the playoffs and here we are. It’s really cool. It’s been a fun year working with these guys. Everybody at the Wood Brothers has done a really good job. It’s been a lot of fun and I’m proud of the gains we’ve made with the 21 car compared to the last couple of years, and I feel like we’re set up to keep on doing that. Making the playoffs is fun, but, obviously, we want to be competitive and have a good start to this deal.”

DO YOU HAVE TO GUARD AGAINST COMPLACENCY OF MAKING THE PLAYOFFS AND JUST BEING HAPPY TO BE HERE? “We certainly have a long time to reflect on just making the playoffs, I guess. These guys, we’re prepared. We’re confident going into this deal. We thought these tracks line up good. We don’t need to do anything spectacular, like I said. We just need to limit our mistakes and be consistent and see how far we can go. Honestly, I feel like I’m in a good place and the team is in a good place. I think we’re ready to go.”

CAN THIS BE A WILD CARD TRACK WITH HOW WILD THE FINISH CAN GET? HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR CHANCES HERE? “That’s why we get paid the big bucks, right? Here we are. It’s the playoffs. It’s gonna be high-pressure and high intensity, but there’s no place better to be racing at, I feel like, for all that. I’m excited for it.”

THERE WAS A CARS TOUR RACE IN FLORENCE LAST NIGHT. WHAT’S IT LIKE VYING FOR A CHAMPIONSHIP AT DARLINGTON RACING FOR THE WOOD BROTHERS? “It’s awesome. It’s been a super fun year. It’s great to see how things have changed so much in the last four or five years. I watched that race last night. I thought it was a really good race. I kind of missed being out there, but obviously I want to be focused on this weekend, so maybe we can get back out there sometime soon.”

THE PENSKE GROUP SEEMS CONCERNED ABOUT THE INTERMEDIATE TRACKS. DO YOU SHARE THAT CONCERN? “Not really. I feel like we look at Kansas, I thought we were really strong at Kansas, especially at the end of the race. I got a speeding penalty there and came through the field. I had a really good push there at the end, and then obviously Vegas we were strong. I feel good, like I said earlier, about pretty much everywhere we’re going. We just need to limit our mistakes. If we can build off what we had in the spring, I think we’ll be in good shape.”

WAS THERE ANY SPEECH OR TALK THIS WEEK FROM YOU OR MILES TO THE TEAM? “No, not really. It’s kind of more business as usual. It’s easy to overthink these situations and over do it. You work all year long to prepare and get in your routine of doing things week in and week out to prepare for every week. I think a lot of times when you get to this point people overthink it and over-prepare. I feel like that can change your process and change your thinking going into this race that you’ve got to do more than what you’ve done all year. I just don’t feel like that’s the case. I think that just comes back from my background racing short tracks and stuff, and working on my race car. If you go to a big race, I never worked harder on my car than I did every other week. You just get in your routine and you do the things that you need to do to prepare and you just go out and try to execute. I feel like our team itself is in a great place. They’re really excited for the opportunity and feel like we’ve left a lot of potential on the table throughout the year and now it’s just time to capitalize on that.”

HAVE YOU EVEN TALKED ABOUT THE PLAYOFFS OR IS IT JUST ANOTHER WEEK? “We’ve talked about it a little bit. Obviously, it’s all the things that I’m saying, that we just need to go be solid. We don’t have to go hit a home run. We just need to go be solid. I think we feel like three top 10s will be enough points probably to make it to the Round of 12. That’s where our head is at, so as long as we keep doing that, there’s not too much to think on until something changes.”

Toyota GAZOO Racing – Chase Briscoe
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes

DARLINGTON, S.C. (August 30, 2025) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Chase Briscoe was made available to the media on Saturday prior to practice for the NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington Raceway.

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

How special is to come back here as the reigning Southern 500 winner?

“It definitely is cool. The confidence that comes with that – you definitely, I guess, don’t realize how big of a deal it is until you do it, but a year removed, it definitely feels like a bigger deal. I still have a group chat with the 14 guys and we were literally talking about that this morning. You look back on what we did a year ago, and it is crazy. We were proud then, and thought it was a big deal, but now, being a year removed and all of us bring at different places – I think it really kind of sank in, for all of us, coming back here a year later. It is special coming here. I definitely have confidence every time I come here, in general, but especially now, more than ever – knowing this race is as grueling as it is and knowing that I’ve been able to do it before – there is just a confidence that comes with that, so hopefully, can do it again this weekend.”

Have you thought about what it would mean to sweep the Crown Jewel poles?

“I would say – I didn’t even realize that no one had even done it three times until after the Brickyard, and it was obviously a thrill then. I will say I looked at the weather earlier this week, and I was bummed at first because I thought there was going to be a chance of rain. I told James (Small, crew chief) and them that I at least wanted a chance. So, yeah, it is a big deal. To be the first at anything in NASCAR is hard to do – I feel like – especially 76 years into. It would be special for sure if we could do all four.”

What is your mindset going to Playoffs?

“No, I feel like that is normally how I am. It is what it is. There is way more to life, truthfully, than the Playoffs. Yeah, I’m going to try to do my best and win it all, but at the end of day, there are way more things in my life that are important as far as – being the best husband, and father and man I can be, but yeah, I think for me, lay my head down 10 weeks from now, did I put the best foot forward that I could and put 100 percent effort into it, and if that is enough, it will be enough – if not, it won’t be. I’m excited for the opportunity. This is for the first time that I’ve ever felt legitimately that I can win a Cup title – but also, it’s an exciting thing, I would say more than anything.”

Can you talk about the learning process with your team?

“I think definitely all year long – once we kind of got established, I definitely went into the mindset that we know that this can be successful. We are not saying to drive it like Martin (Truex Jr.) did, but these are some things that the top guys are doing, kind of try to morph yourself into this and that has obviously worked for us almost everywhere this year. Darlington, I would say – if we could go back, I mean, we are back at Darlington but the Spring race – that was our worst race of the year. We would be doing a lot of things different, so it is hard to really say for that one. I know that for sure, a point of emphasis for us this week, has just been – into (turn) one for example, I run a really unique line compared to a lot of guys, I run really low. We kind of got ourselves, I thought, in a bad spot definitely in the Spring with how I was driving and the setup and stuff. It wasn’t meant to be doing that. It has definitely been a point of emphasis this week. I have to be open-minded about how I come here. Truthfully, every time I come here, we are always having to change stuff up. I would say for us it has been business as usual as far as our approach for the weekend and our prep work. This is how the car is going to be and the optimal line I think you need to run. Obviously, if you need to change it, you can – but this probably how you need to start the weekend driving – this is the line you need to try to run.”

How do you feel James Small helps you and pushes you?

“I would say for sure. I think James (Small, crew chief) and I – what has made us so good to this point is we are totally, polar opposites. He is very high intensity. I’m just the complete opposite. I’m very laid back and relaxed all of the time, so yeah, I think James has kind of learned that balance of – I need to be able to get on to him but there are times where it is too much or not enough, and he has kind of learned that balance just even in 26 weeks of when to push him, when not to push him – when I’m kind of already at my peak of pushing myself. I think we’ve done a really good job of how new we are as a team together to be able to have the success that we’ve had. Truthfully, I think if you ask myself and James, we are probably only at 80, 85 percent of what we are capable of. Hopefully, the sky is the limit, and I’m curious to see how this weekend goes for sure.”

What has been the approach for the Playoffs this year versus your previous experience?

“I don’t know – it is hard. James (Small, crew chief) and I have yet to sit down and say this is what we have to do these next three weeks. We’ve honestly acted like it is a normal race weekend. We know that if we go and run top-five, we are going to be able to move on, but I would say from a feel standpoint, it feels different because at SHR (Stewart-Haas Racing), we literally felt like we were on house money and if you got eliminated from the Round of 16, at the end of the day, it was probably still a successful season that you made the Playoffs, where here, if you just make the Round of 16, it is not a successful season – it is kind of a failure. That is really the part that feels different. At JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) it is expected that you make the Playoffs, and we’ve just checked the first box of many that we need to accomplish this year, where at SHR, if you could make the Playoffs that was a successful year in itself.”

Were there any big talks or motivational speeches this week?
“Not that I was a part of, and like I said James (Small, crew chief) and I have yet to talk about – hey, the Playoffs are starting this week, we need to focus on this for the next 10 weeks. It has literally been a normal week – I texted the group chat this morning and was like 10 weeks of the best weeks we can do, and we have a legitimate shot at this thing, but other than that, that is probably the only pep talk that we’ve had.”

Which was more pressure – last year or going into the Playoffs this year?

“I would say, probably starting the Playoffs, just because last year – nobody expected us, and truthfully, as a race team, we weren’t coming into Darlington and being like this is our weekend. At SHR (Stewart-Haas Racing), you really couldn’t go to the race track each weekend and say we are going to win this weekend, or we are going to have a shot at it. We knew that we would be good, because we had been solid at Darlington, but I don’t think we thought we would have race winning speed, I would say. So, this feels more pressure packed then a win or go home situation because we all kind of made up our minds that we were probably going home anyways, and it just so happened that we won the race, and we were in.”

What does it mean to you to be Stewart-Haas’s last Cup winner and that it happened in the Southern 500?

“It is special. Still for me, you kind of saw the emotion with me when we won, just the fact of getting the 14 car in victory lane was a big deal for me, and having it have a shot for a championship. So, yeah, to be a diehard of a Stewart-Haas fan, in general, that I was – and not that there is going to be some history book on Stewart-Haas – but the face that this diehard Tony Stewart fan as a kid ended up being the guy that won the last ever cup race in the Stewart-Haas 14 car is pretty cool. Stewart-Haas was such a big part of my life. I was there for eight years between the Xfinity and Cup program, and to know that I was the last one to win there was special for sure.”

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