NASCAR CUP SERIES
HOMESTEAD-MIAMI SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY QUALIFYING REPORT
MARCH 22, 2025

Bowman Leads Chevrolet to Third Consecutive Pole Win of the Season at Homestead-Miami Speedway

 TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 STARTING LINEUP:
POS. DRIVER
1st – Alex Bowman
5th – William Byron
10th – AJ Allmendinger

•  Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman extended Chevrolet’s 2025 pole-winning streak to three-straight at Homestead-Miami Speedway. One of the final three cars to lay down a qualifying lap, Bowman clocked-in a lap of 31.982 seconds, at 168.845 mph, in his No. 48 Ally Unrivaled League Chevrolet to earn the pole position for tomorrow’s Straight Talk Wireless 400.
• The feat – Bowman’s first pole at Homestead-Miami Speedway and his sixth all-time in NASCAR’s top division – is Chevrolet’s third pole win of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, each of which have been earned by a different driver.
• Three Chevrolet Camaro ZL1’s will line up in the top-10 starting positions for tomorrow’s 400-mile race. Among those includes Bowman’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate and former Homestead-Miami Speedway winner, William Byron, who drove his No. 24 Valvoline Chevrolet to a fifth-place qualifying effort. Coming off a top-10 result last weekend, Kaulig Racing’s AJ Allmendinger kept his mile-and-a-half momentum alive with a 10th-place qualifying result in his No. 10 Action Industries Chevrolet.

Chevrolet’s all-time NASCAR Cup Series statistics at Homestead-Miami Speedway:

Wins: 7
Poles: 7
Top-Fives: 52
Top-10s: 108

Chevrolet’s 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Statistics:

Wins: 1
Poles: 3
Top-Fives: 11
Top-10s: 25

Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet – Pole Win Press Conference Quotes

It was interesting, a lot of the drivers or cars that did very well in practice did not necessarily have that translate in qualifying. What would you attribute that to? You were fast in practice and in qualifying, but if you could just talk about kind of how that was different..

“Yeah, I mean, I think this place is pretty weather sensitive, right? So I think we probably had a little bit of a cloud there, it seemed like. And then, yeah, some people’s cars here are not great on the short run and really fast on the long run. We were kind of the opposite of that in practice.. we were really fast on the short run and not great on the long run stuff. So I knew that qualifying was going to be really important because of that, and that we have some work to do for tomorrow. But for me, I had a pretty clear-cut plan for qualifying. I thought I was able to execute that pretty well, and my race car kind of gave me what I needed to be able to do that.”

A lot of people really love this racetrack. Do you have that same sort of relationship with it?

“Yeah, when your race car is good, it’s really, really fun. But it just gives you options. It is still really hard to pass, for sure, just like anywhere else we go. But there’s so many different lines you can run, and running the wall can be so technical and a lot of fun.

It’s so high risk that there’s not many other things that we do that are that high risk, I don’t think.. aside from maybe making speed at the Chicago street course or some of those places. And maybe not so much with this car as it was with the steel body car, but it still makes it a lot of fun.

So yeah, I enjoy it. This hasn’t been one of my better racetracks, so a place that I’m working on a lot, and I’m glad to at least be on the good side of things on Saturday, so far.”

I spoke with Blake (Harris) this morning about just kind of what he had in mind for this weekend as kind of top priority. One thing he mentioned that helped you guys was a wet weather test last year, where you were kind of like not beholden to results or anything, and you were able to kind of just experiment a little bit more and find more comfort here. What did you take away from that experience?

“Yeah, we were really fast running the wall that day, and then I couldn’t run the wall at all in practice. I felt terrible trying to run the wall. But yeah, I mean, just laps here, right? I think really of any of the standard NASCAR scheduled tracks, I probably have the least amount of races here that I do anywhere. I missed one when I was hurt. I never ran here in Xfinity until 2016, so just not a lot of reps here for me. And obviously only coming here once a year, it’s just never been a place that I’ve felt super confident at or had a lot of laps at.

So just laps in general, and that test I think was really good. And running 185 mph in the pouring rain was pretty sweet, too, so it was pretty cool.”

Can you speak more to that experience and I guess what that day entailed?

“Yeah, I mean, I talked about it in some interviews right after that. I feel like my memory is probably not completely the sharpest on what went on, but yeah, the wet tires had a ton of grip. I think we were probably the same speed or faster on wets than we were on dries in the wet. But the water turned into like a water jet and just destroyed the race cars. With all the aggregate in the racetrack and how fast you’re going with that much water, it was just destroying the bottom of the car.. like punching holes in the floor. So yeah, that was pretty wild, but it was a really cool experience, and I think probably got Goodyear and NASCAR some really good data from it.”

What’s the compromise between having one good lap Saturday but then turning that into good long run speed over the course of Sunday’s race?

“Yeah, I mean, we were pretty fast on the short run in practice and I was pretty bummed after practice, just with how our long run went. So we have a long way to go for that, but I think starting from pit stall one, starting in clean air, all those things make your job a lot easier. Our teammates were really fast, so we’ll be able to look at what they’ve got going on. And honestly, I probably beat my tires up quite a bit in dirty air there in the beginning of practice. I caught the same couple guys like two or three times, and I’d back up, I’d catch them again and just kind of saw the tires off it and that’s like dirty air situations. So hopefully not having to be behind anybody there at the start will benefit us.”

Your last name starts and the winners all this year have come from B. Do you look at that stuff?

“Yeah, there’s something every week that means we’re winning. Last week, anytime somebody for the last couple years had won three-in-a-row, we were the guy that won after that and we didn’t do that last week. Although we probably had a car capable of doing it if our day would have just gone okay. But yeah, so at least we’re on the list. There’s some other guys that start with B’s too, but at least we’re the ones starting up front. And yeah, I think we’ll have a shot at it.

If there’s a conspiracy that’s getting me a win, I’ll take it, by the way. I’ll take them, as you guys know, any way I can get them (laughs).”

Normally, this race, you don’t come back here for a full year. It’s only been a few months. After having a top-10 and running the way you did last fall, how much can that be more of a carryover than a normal year, or is it a new year and everything changes, in a sense?

“Yeah, I think it helps. I still feel like it’s been forever, especially with testing afterwards. I think I had this exact idea of what I wanted to come back with, and then we sat down this week and I’m like — I’ve got to reread all this stuff because I don’t remember anything. Yeah, it still feels probably longer than it has actually been. But yeah, probably being able to build off just a solid run last time was really good because it had been a while since we’ve been solid here. Yeah, I think that was good for us.”

How do you feel like things have gone the start of the year? I mean, top-five, top-six in points, so you’re right there..

“Yeah, we’ve had interesting days, right? We just haven’t had a day that went okay for us and everything. We executed all day and we ended up where we ended up. Like something’s kind of happened every race that we’ve had to overcome, so I would like to have some clean days because I feel like we can be further up front than we have been at the end of these things. But it certainly could be a lot worse too, right? There’s plenty of things that could have completely taken us out of races that we’ve overcame, and we’ve had some cautions fall our way to kind of save us from messes we’ve made too. So yeah, I think we’re in a good spot. I think our cars are fast, which is really something to feel good about. And yeah, if we can just execute, I think we’ll be pretty good.”

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. Learn more at GM.com.

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Straight Talk 400 Qualifying
Saturday, March 22, 2025

FORD CUP QUALIFYING RESULTS:

2nd – Josh Berry
3rd – Noah Gragson
6th – Ryan Blaney
8th – Austin Cindric
11th – Chris Buescher
12th – Joey Logano
17th – Zane Smith
24th – Cole Custer
29th – Todd Gilliland
31st – Ryan Preece
32nd – Brad Keselowski
36th – Cody Ware

JOSH BERRY, No. 21 DEX Imaging Ford Mustang Dark Horse – MOMENTUM IS A WONDERFUL THING, RIGHT? “Yeah, for sure. I’m just really proud of everyone on this 21 team. The car has been really solid. The guys are doing a great job. We’re executing our Saturdays and now we just have to translate it into a solid day tomorrow. This track is really fun. I felt good about my car in practice. We got in some traffic and we’ve got a few things to work on to be better, but, overall, a great effort.”

ANY DISAPPOINTMENT WITH SECOND IN QUALIFYING? “I don’t know. Obviously, I would love to get my first pole position at some point, but it’s hard to be too disappointed with a second place start. It puts us in a great position for tomorrow. We’re gonna look at everything tonight and try to make some good decisions and see what we’ve got.”

NOAH GRAGSON, No. 4 Beef A Roo Ford Mustang Dark Horse – THERE’S DISAPPOINTMENT, BUT YOU’RE STILL STARTING THIRD TOMORROW. “Yeah. We’re still really fast, but I’ve never gotten a pole in the Cup Series, but our Beef A Roo Mustang is pretty quick on the short run. We just need to get a little better for the long run and we’re up in the hunt, so that’s good.”

AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Menards/Duracell Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I think the first time I turned left more than right was qualifying, so it was a start and we have speed with it. It was one of those days that you just have total trust in our adjustments to be able to run the laps that we want to, but we certainly have to put some thought into what we do for the race tomorrow. I want to have the options. I want to be able to be versatile, but obviously you’ve got to be good up by the fence as well.”

Toyota GAZOO Racing – Denny Hamlin
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes

HOMESTEAD, Fla. (March 22, 2025) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin was made available to the media on Saturday prior to practice for the NASCAR Cup Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 Progressive Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing

What makes Homestead a ‘driver’s’ race track?

“I think there’s a combination between the tire wear you have at this track versus the way the track sets up itself. Really can make a lot of different moves – you can cut distance or you can try to keep momentum, and that’s something that has to be fluid throughout the run. As a driver, you have a lot of tools at your disposal when you come to this track to change your line to help the race car do things it’s not doing well at the time. Certainly, it’s a lot of off throttle time and that usually, when you have to use both pedals, the driver is tested more.”

What does having Progressive as a sponsor mean for you and the team?

“It doesn’t take pressure off me necessarily, more Joe Gibbs Racing when you have a loss of revenue there, certainly, can make things tighter on their side. But really, it’s good for them to have an anchor partner and certainly for my fans’ sake, they’ll be able to identify me week-to-week and that’s something that’s very important. So filling out those races is going to be a big deal for myself and the team this year.”

How involved are you in the paint schemes for the throwback weekend at Darlington and what is the throwback’s impact?

“It seems like the throwback has lost a little of it for sure and a lot of it is we kind of get mixed up in a sense of there’s really no defined rules for it, so it’s a mix there. But there’s some really cool paint schemes that you see. It’s very difficult to make the cars look the same as there’s so many different placements, there’s a lot of things that are different than what they used to be. But it’s still something that is cool to see. You just don’t have buy-in from everyone. There’s a mix-and-match throughout the field, which is fine.”

Where would you like Homestead to be on the schedule in the future?

“I would certainly like to see it play a bigger factor in our championship. Whether it’s in the Playoffs, just a part of the championship race or round, or whatever it might be, I’d like to see it be a part of that as like we just talked about, the driver makes a bigger difference at this track compared to the car.”

Is it harder to keep track of who’s driving which car with sponsor changes?

“Yeah, it’s very interesting. You’d see photos that surfaced on social media from the 90s and 2000s and you took a snapshot of the field. You could name every car, driver from 1-40, based off the color. You knew the color. Now, it’s certainly very hard and got sometimes, multiple sponsors on one car and each one wants something different. Certainly, a lot different than it used to be. What I like about Progressive, and this paint scheme is it’s going to be identifiable. One color, that is unique that you can find anywhere in the field. But it’s hard as every sponsor wants something different and it’s harder to get the money you got back in the day.”

Do you feel more optimistic of winning at Homestead compared to other tracks?

“Yeah, it’s (Homestead-Miami Speedway) is in the top-five for me. I feel like it’s one of those tracks, again, we (drivers), can make a difference and my car was very good here just a few months ago and we had some issues on pit road (during the race). We weren’t great but had a shot to win it with a couple laps to go, I just didn’t get it done ultimately. Looking back at the race, it was one where were pretty strong so hopefully, we can build upon (that). Ultimately, I just want to win, and this is a track where we can kick that off.”

Do you have a favorite memory at Martinsville Speedway?

“Yeah, my favorite memory is going there, it being a three-horse race with myself, Jeff (Gordon) and Jimmie (Johnson). You could just mark it down that we’d run 1-2-3 or run that way through the course of the race. Just learning so much from those guys is my favorite memory. Not just one single memory but just going there knowing I’d have to out-duel two of the best in our sport. It was just a really fun time.”

What makes Martinsville challenging?

“Nowadays, it’s just track position. The cars are so close in speed than what they used to be. I actually saw a graph this weekend on where Next Gen has gone, even at a track like Homestead, the disparity between the first and last-place car. It was, say ‘this much in Year 1 of Next Gen’ and everyone’s (now) the same. You put that on a short track, it just makes passing really difficult. That is the single biggest challenge at Martinsville nowadays.”

Does it seem like the same drivers are at the top this year and how much from the fall carries over to Homestead from the fall race?

“To the first part of your question, yes, the best drivers are the best drivers, so it’s hard to hold that down. And the best teams are the best teams. For the second part, we weren’t here not too long ago so I’d imagine you’d have the same five or six that pretty much dominated the race last time do the same this time unless someone finds something in their setup that makes things quite a bit better. But the counter to that is (Las) Vegas, at the end of it, (pause). The strategy flipped. You had a situation where we were part of the very strategy, so that whole group that stayed out with 75 (laps) to go, pretty much finished towards the front and those that got stuck in the pack, that pitted for fuel, never made it back to the front, who were your essential front runners that day. It can get mixed up, but for the most part, but if the race runs long enough, and if the strategy works out pretty vanilla, you’ll see the top teams, top drivers, always.”

With all races being named by a driver with their last name starting with a B, are you close to changing your name?

“Yeah, it’s been an interesting trend, for sure. Will it continue this weekend? Yeah, there’s one certainly that has a chance to continue it, but not much else.”

Do you feel short track racing has improved since the genesis of the Next Gen car? What else needs to improve on those tracks?

“I think the tire has helped quite a bit, but it’s been an evolution. Like I talked about, when the disparity between the fastest car and the slowest car was much bigger when we started Next Gen, it was still tighter than when we had the Gen 6 car. Over time, it’s tightened up, but what the tire is doing is starting to spread that out in the long run. So, it’s bringing a lot of positives. Goodyear is testing themselves right now, trying to get softer at all of the tracks, which will be such a bonus. Every race track we’ve talked about this year and it being a better race, which it has been, you can attribute that to the changes we made to the tires and creating tire falloff. That’s absolutely the equation we’ve been searching for, and we’re finally getting it in the show you are seeing on Sundays.”

What goes into your preparation for Martinsville?

“It’s a little different for me than what it is for the race team. They’ll start working on that probably two or three weeks in advance. They have to get a car built, what parameters they want to have for that car at that particular track. For me, I narrow it down into a five-day window. I’m all about one track for five days and then, I’ll switch. Tuesday is my off day. It really switches in that essence, but five days is what I can concentrate on one race track. Monday is the final day I’ll be working on Homestead and then Wednesday, I’ll switch to Martinsville. Then, I’ll run that stretch over again. It’s easier for me than the team, but I’ve found that works for me.”

How would you describe your relationship with crew chief, Chris Gayle five races into the season?

“Yeah, I felt last week was a little tough as we were so far off to start the day. But what I’m noticing is we’re getting better as races go on, which is very good. It’s a good trend to have. We just have to start closer; we need to have better qualifying. All of those fall on my shoulders, not really the team’s. So, I feel confident in where we’re at and I feel like we’re messing as good as I would’ve hoped.”

How have you seen Ty Gibbs adapt to the adversity so far this season?

“Yeah, I don’t see him (Ty Gibbs) a whole lot other than at the race track, right? And how he handles adversity he’s going through during the week, I don’t know. I’ve certainly offered a helping hand to that team. This is just a tough part of the sport you find yourself in and there’s some things you can change to change the result. Other things, fall on the luck bucket. But still, sometimes, if you get crashed a lot, you happen to run in the place that gets crashed a lot. So, you need to figure out how to get out of that. He’s in a slump, no doubt, but have to find a way to grind through it. It’s a long season. We could be talking about in 10 weeks from now how much he’s turned it around, so it can change in this sport that quickly.”

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 spring 2025, Toyota’s plant in North Carolina will begin to manufacture automotive batteries for electrified vehicles. With more electrified vehicles on the road than any other automaker, Toyota currently offers 31 electrified options.

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

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Homestead Media Availability
Saturday, March 22, 2025

Josh Berry, driver of the No 21 DEX Imaging Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Wood Brothers Racing, is coming off his first NASCAR Cup Series win last week at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He stopped by the Homestead-Miami Speedway infield media center to talk about his week so far and what lies ahead in tomorrow’s race.

JOSH BERRY, No. 21 DEX Imaging Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HOW DIFFERENT IS IT FOR YOU TO FEEL LIKE YOU CAN EXPERIMENT NOW AND HOW OPTIMISTIC ARE YOU THERE COULD BE MULTIPLE WINS BEYOND? “I think initially, I mean it’s obviously a weight off your shoulders. Aside from maybe the guys you would consider to be the real championship favorites, the majority of the garage’s biggest goal in the season is to make the playoffs and get a win. To accomplish that is a big weight off our shoulders. I think it kind of validates a lot of the things that we’re doing and we’ve done over the offseason to prepare and start this season and be competitive. I feel like three out of the first five races, I would say, we were super competitive and in the mix, so I think, for us, we’re just gonna try to continue that trend and keep doing the things that we’re doing. I feel like if you would have looked at the schedule from my point, I mean, Phoenix and Vegas were probably two of the biggest question marks I had going into this. Obviously, the Penske cars have been really strong at those places, but I didn’t have great results there last year, so going into this next stretch of schedule I think there are a lot of good tracks coming up for us and a lot of tracks I ran pretty well at last year, so I think there should be more opportunities.”

HOW HAS THE LAST WEEK BEEN DOING THE MEDIA ROUNDS AND EMBRACING THE SPOTLIGHT? “It’s been good. It’s been a busy week. I talked to a lot of people and did plenty of podcasts and interviews. Taylor kept me pretty busy this week, but honestly it was all good and the best thing about it all is I feel like we were able to complete everything on the competition side that we wanted to, to make sure that we’re prepared for this weekend. Winning a Cup race is a big deal. I definitely felt that over the course of the week, but I’m excited to get here and get back to racing.”

CAN YOU ELABORATE ON WHAT WENT INTO THAT THROWBACK SCHEME YOU RELEASED ON THURSDAY? “It’s an amazing story. When you go to drive for the Wood Brothers, you get story after story after story of the history and the things that they’ve done, and the Jim Clark Indianapolis 500 win is something that came up pretty often. I think that throwback has been in the works for a while, but, to me, the biggest thing is Leonard, when we unveiled that Thursday, Leonard basically his exact words were, more or less, it’s one of the best memories he’s ever had in racing, and I think that shows you how cool that really is and what it means to them to have that relationship with Ford and go to the Indianapolis 500 and obviously pit the car and win it, but the effort and the ingenuity that Leonard himself and those guys had into that win makes it a really special moment for them, so it’s awesome to be able to honor that.”

HAVE YOU GUYS TALKED AT ALL ABOUT YOU PITTING IN A PENSKE PIT STALL IF YOU HAD AN ISSUE LIKE BELL DID LAST WEEK? “I would think so. We haven’t had any specific conversation about it, but generally I feel like NASCAR kind of clarified the rules and what the expectations are, and I feel like the biggest thing is we want to keep the wheels on these race cars. Honestly, I feel like the majority of pit road, if someone was in that situation, you’re still gonna get a penalty. Whether it’s under yellow or green, you’re gonna get a penalty, so honestly I feel like most of us could probably stop in most people’s boxes and they would help us out. The biggest thing is you hope if you’re in that situation somebody would help you, and you will return the favor. A lot has been made out of it, but honestly the biggest thing is it’s a safety issue. We want to keep the wheels on. We want to keep the gas cans on pit road and things like that. It’s just a unique scenario and honestly it was a pretty heads-up move from the 20 team.”

WHAT IS THE ART OF SAVING TIRES IN THE CUP SERIES? “I don’t know. It’s a hard balance in Cup Racing because obviously track position is so important, but I think the biggest thing is you just have to play to the strengths of your car. If you’re in the position to manage that a little bit, then it seems to pay off in the long run. I mean, just being smooth, giving up a little bit on entry, giving up a little bit on exit and just making sure you’re trying to not slide the tires, keep the car underneath you and be smooth.”

HOW DO YOU KNOW THEN WHEN TO GO FOR IT? “I think, from my personal experience and I think back to my years of racing short tracks, a lot of times if you’re saying you’re gonna go 90 percent, really by the end of the run your 90 percent kind of ends up being your 100 percent. I’ve never been one that’s like, ‘OK, I’m gonna be patient here and now I’m gonna go.’ A lot of times when you go, you go slower than when you were just being patient, so I think at these places it’s about staying under the limit of the tire a little bit and a lot of times towards the end of the run you don’t really do anything different, it’s just people seem to start coming back to you.”

UNDER THIS PLAYOFF FORMAT WE’VE SEEN HOW IMPORTANT EVERY POINT IS. DOES HAVING A WIN MEAN YOU MIGHT BE WILLING TO TAKE CHANCES AND DO THINGS LIKE TRYING TO WIN A STAGE IF OTHER CARS PIT AND THE OPPORTUNITY IS THERE? “Yeah, I think that will give us some flexibility and a lot of times that depends on how you’re running. To me, my personal opinion even going back to Xfinity racing, if you feel like you have a car that can go out and win the race, I think you have to call the race that way. That’s how I approach it, but if you don’t, maybe if you’re a 10th-15th place car and you have the opportunity to potentially get a playoff point, but even some more stage points, I think that opens up the door for that for sure.”

WHAT WOULD MAKE IT A GOOD SATURDAY TODAY AT HOMESTEAD? “I think for practice, for us, not necessarily worried as much about the speed of the car, just how it drives. If it stays consistent or pretty consistent over the course of the run, I think, for me, it’s important to be able to be pretty versatile here, being able to run the bottom, the middle to the top. I don’t see myself focusing that heavily on just running the wall the entire practice. I want to be able to run multiple lanes because I feel like that becomes so important at times in these races, so I’ll really just focus on that and trust your instinct on how the car feels and if it drives good. Usually, most of the time if it drives good and feels good, then you race good. And then obviously qualifying is an important part of this. I think, for us, we want to be in the top 10. We’ve been able to do that the last couple of weeks. We qualified 11th here last year, which gives me some optimism as well, so hopefully we can execute that today.”

WHAT IS YOUR PERSPECTIVE ON THIS PLACE AND DO YOU SEE THIS TRACK AS A DIFFERENTIATOR IN DRIVER TALENT? “I don’t know. Obviously, I’ve liked Homestead and honestly the Xfinity results never were really indicative of how we ran. I felt like we ran better than we finished and last year in the Cup car I thought it was a really solid race. I think you see the guys that can run the wall a little bit better than others, that are a little bit more committed to it, and then some of us see it, like I said a minute ago, that you need to be a little bit more versatile and be able to run different lanes. So everybody kind of has their own strategy, but I feel like whenever we see tire wear and things like we see here, really the cars that drive good and stay underneath of you for a long run really show out just as much as the driver’s talent.”

WHAT’S IT LIKE TO COME TO A TRACK FOR THE FIRST TIME AS A CUP SERIES WINNER? “It’s been cool. I mean, I’m obviously still kind of soaking that part of it in getting started here at Homestead, but just winning races in the Cup Series is a big deal and it’s so incredibly difficult, so I’m not taking that moment for granted. At the same time, I want to keep pushing forward and keep getting better and have more opportunities at this, so I don’t feel like this is the last one. I don’t think that Sunday was considered probably an upset, at least, but not a fluke with how we’ve been running and I feel like we can keep getting better and keep pushing forward and have other opportunities.”

YOU WOULDN’T CONSIDER YOURSELF A FAVORITE TO GO DEEP IN THE PLAYOFFS IF NOT WIN IT ALL? WHY? “I think, for me, it’s an experience side of things, like taking all this in for the first time. I just won my first race on Sunday, so experiencing that was a big deal, but I don’t know. I’ve just never been one as a driver to be real specific with setting goals because your performance on track and how you feel like it’s going is what really matters to you most personally. I mean, you can run well and have a mistake on pit road and not get the finish, but you still ran well, so, to me, I’ve always had the most success of just taking it week to week and preparing the best I can each week and taking that approach and not necessarily worry about as much of the finishes, but more so how you run and I think if we can establish that and be more competitive and up front and have good Saturdays and race well, that the opportunities are gonna come. Once you get in the playoffs, I haven’t dove deep into the schedule and what we think. I’m sure Miles has done more so of that, but the first couple of rounds are just about execution more than anything from what I watch. If you can just go out and have solid races, get stage points, finish, don’t have the big issue, we most definitely would be able to be in contention to advance through the rounds.”

HOW HAS HAVING A DIFFERENT CREW CHIEF THE LAST THREE SEASONS HELPED IN WORKING WITH MILES THIS YEAR AND WHAT MORE DO YOU STILL HAVE TO WORK THROUGH? “I think that’s a really good point, and honestly over the last couple years or few years, I feel like that’s something that’s been difficult to manage. Obviously, I’ve got a lot of experience working with a bunch of different guys and when we went through the process of talking with Miles and it gave me a lot of specific points of what I was looking for out of him and what worked for me and what didn’t work for me or whatever, but it’s definitely tough when you’re going up against guys that have been together three or four years now and they have seven, eight races at each one of these tracks working with each other. It comes a little easier to be able to fine-tune and focus on certain things that you want from your race car, so I’m excited. That’s why this start of the season is so important to us. You just kind of take it week by week and just build and learn and not every race is probably gonna go perfect, but we’ve been off to a really good start and I’m excited to keep working with him as we progress through the summer.”

EVERY POINTS RACE THIS YEAR HAS BEEN WON BY A DRIVER WITH THE LAST NAME STARTING WITH B. WHAT IS IT BEHIND ALL OF YOU GUYS? “I don’t know. That’s just a funny stat, a funny coincidence. I guess if your last name starts with a B, you’re feeling pretty good this weekend at least.”

IF NOT YOU, WHO IS THE NEXT B THAT WINS? “Ryan Blaney. He’s been super fast every week and just kind of had some misfortune. He’s been a great teammate to me, so I’d say he’s most definitely in line to get one sooner or later.”