NASCAR Cup Series
Kansas Speedway
Team Chevy Driver Quotes
September 25, 2026

Carson Hocevar, driver of the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series race weekend at Kansas Speedway.

Media Availability Quotes:

How aware are you of what (Ryan) Blaney’s been saying this week? Did you watch the clips from the podcast? I heard you reference what he said on the podcast. Did you consume the whole thing? What did you think of what he’s been saying?

“Yeah, I saw it, and I was shocked that he went on there, obviously. But, you know, he’s very scrappy. I’ve been cool with him. You know, before, I thought we’d been racing really well together. There are a lot of times, like at Atlanta, where he’s coming out on top, but it’s me and him. He’s the only Ford up there. I’m the only Chevy up there. And then, it’s us versus the Toyota’s, so we kind of had to help each other at times. So, that’s been a good working relationship-ish.

And then, yeah, we’ve been cool. I think Ryan’s one of the coolest guys in the garage. I mean, he’s got a cool mustache, drinks whiskey and all that, right? I think he looks the part really well. I thought he made me more of a fan, honestly. When he went on there, I had respect for that, for sure. He could have held some ice on his eye and whatnot, but he went right out there and did it, and I have the utmost respect for that.

I didn’t want to hit him, and looking back, I one-hundred percent see where he wanted to maybe just throw a shove in there and then yell. I think we both saw each other, but in the moment, you’re not going to see that. You’re going to predict the worst.”

Is there any part of Saturday night that you regret, as far as any of the post-race stuff?

“No, I don’t think so. You know, I was a little worried. My dad’s probably the least controversial or confrontational person I’ve ever met in my life. He’s got a local business, so he freaks out if he gets a bad Google review. So, yeah, I texted him and I was like, man, sorry about that. He was proud that I defended myself. I feel like that’s what you’d want to see out of a son, per se.

I feel like if we’re racing anywhere lower than second, I would maybe look at it differently. But I think Blaney would too, right? I think neither one of us would have put ourselves near that spot. But at Bristol, you’ve kind of got to be second or at least where the choose is. You line up behind Ty (Gibbs) there and that’s probably the best possible spot to win the race. You’re going to be the most aggressive just trying to hold on to that spot, so I think that’s just the Bristol experience.”

The handful of incidents that you’ve been involved in that’s triggered the most, I guess, animus, it seems to be situations where there’s a perceived code that you should maybe lift in that situation. It’s a question of the give or take. What is your personal philosophy, when and where, to give someone that break that they seem to expect you to give that you’re seemingly not?

“Yeah, I mean, I get pointed by periodically throughout races, and I point people by, as well, right? But certain situations, obviously, I think you want to be as aggressive as possible because this car is obviously really tough to pass with in dirty air. But at the same time, I think I bear a lot of the responsibility for probably 95 percent of those incidents. Bristol, maybe, is in the minority there.

But at the same time, I think similar to Bristol, if you kind of play the defense, I think this car loads the defense, right? You can aero block and sometimes you’ve got to blitz and just see if you can make some aggressive moves to catch the quarterback off guard, per se, right?

For me, I gladly point people by, especially the ones I probably have dumped or maybe owe one towards me. A lot of it’s just trying to get every spot you can and knowing when that spot is available, similar to a second at Bristol towards the end of the race. You know, you might not get that spot back. Especially for me in that spot, I got loose and Blaney got under me, right? I was like, dang, I want to try and still fight for this. I just think a lot of it’s racing. A lot of it’s circumstantial. I think the Chase probably raises that intensity for everybody. Sometimes the defense raises their bar, and then things just get elevated and you’re playing a game of chicken with racecars.”

Ordinarily, like a week after a fight or an on-track thing, there’s still a lot of tension. We saw that with Brad (Keselowski) and the RFK guys after Darlington. There seems to be this weird sort of like kinsmanship or at least some mutual respect. You’ve talked about how much you admire him, and he’s not really beat you up, really, publicly. Is there an opportunity or a willingness on your end to go seek him out this weekend and say, hey, let’s try to figure this out so it doesn’t linger on the rest of the chase or next year?

“Yeah, I mean, for me, I’ve watched this sport all my life. This tends to be the stuff that brings people closer together and you laugh about it. I’ve never had a problem, really, with him on a racetrack. We’ve been running good together. I think he’s as stand-up of a guy as he could be. He could look at it and know that that was just racing and whatnot. In the heat of the moment, ever driver is going to be biased towards themselves. And then you look at it and maybe look at things differently. You know, I looked at some things differently, obviously, from the situation. But at the same time, when you’re in the heat of the moment, it’s just the heat of the moment.”

I don’t know if you saw Joey’s (Logano) clip earlier in the week, but he said, essentially, if you didn’t have the reputation you did, you probably would have won the race last week. How do you balance that going forward because the ultimate goal is winning?

“Yeah, I mean, I think that’s possible. But at the same time, I had a lot of fun racing with Ty (Gibbs). Him and I have been letting each other go and been racing a lot, super respectfully, right? But towards the end of the race, and obviously with a special tribute car, obviously he’s going to be wanting to win with that with how fast they were. But also, for the 20 extra points with how close he is to a shot for the points championship. I thought we’d been racing each other fine, and I enjoyed it. It seemed like a really good race. It was fun to go back and watch, honestly, even though we didn’t win. I’d much rather be in it than get lucky, per se, and not be fast enough. I was proud of everything we did, and I don’t know that I could have done anything differently looking back. Hopefully, the next time we got to Bristol, we’re just as fast and in position again.”

A few minutes ago, you referenced looking at some things differently, looking back on it. What do you look back on differently, or what led you to say that?

“Yeah, I looked at the fight and whatnot. You know, hearing Blaney’s comments, I just saw his point of view and I was like, oh okay… that makes sense why he wasn’t expecting me to defend myself and vice versa, right? So yeah, you just look at that, and then you try to look at the race and what you could have done differently. Just look at different points of views. I’m not saying I could have or would have done anything differently, you just look at it from other perspectives. You look at it from every possible angle because that’s how you learn from it.”

He said he felt like it was a 50-50 type of thing, so do you see it that way now?

“Yeah, I thought so. I thought the same. I thought it was that he was wanting to put me in a spot where I would lift, and I was trying to stay in there long enough that he would give me a lane, right? And you’re kind of just playing that game of, you cut me a break or not, and a lot of times when you’re not talking to one another, obviously, during the race, you’re going to be biased and hope the other guy does what you’re trying to push him to do.”

Here at Kansas Speedway in the spring, you had a very fast car, and if it wasn’t for pit road issues, you could have been a lot closer to the front. Talking to Luke (Lambert), he says that you guys have really put in a lot of work with this place, and he’s worked with you a lot about versatility, some lanes and things like that. Can you talk about how you feel like you’ve gotten better with the work that you’ve put into this place to potentially have had, if everything had worked out, maybe a race-winning car last time and maybe have it this weekend?

“Yeah, I mean, we’ve just been working pretty hard on this place. You know, we felt like mile-and-a-halves, we’ve been pretty good at, but this one, we were always just kind of okay. I thought in the spring, they made a lot of progress on our car. Ultimately, you’re trying to replicate that or improve upon that. So luckily for the Chase teams, you get a little extra sim time, and the team wants to take advantage of all that.”

I know you mentioned your dad earlier, but I know after the race Jeff (Dickerson) was surprised just how you were able to defend yourself. Were you a little surprised with yourself and what you were able to do?

“Yeah, I was surprised, and so was everybody else. But luckily, I have a height advantage on Ryan, I guess, so that helps my athleticism. If we were in a running competition, I’m screwed, though. No matter who it is, I can’t run. So luckily, standing still, I can do okay and defend myself.”

Just looking overall, at least in terms of the Chase, I know that your expectation going in was more of we’ll see what happens. So far, has this perhaps surpassed at least your expectations of what your mindset was from the start of the Chase?

“Yeah, I feel like when you start focusing on the Chase, you start running hypotheticals, or you just start focusing on the points. You start running hypotheticals through your head of – oh, if we could have run better than this guy or that guy. Maybe you’re running sixth, but the guy you’re running with in the points is running fifth, and all of a sudden, you’re going to start overextending and driving too hard when you could have just ran sixth. So, for us, we’re just ultimately focusing on the race finishes and just kind of letting the points play out. If anything, we’ll look at where we’re at, but I want to be blind of who I’m racing with, just because I want to race the whole field.

But I think it’s been solid for us. We’re in the single digits right now and less than triple digits away from the points lead, so I don’t think that’s too bad.”

You spoke in the past about having a kind of ‘bring-it-on mentality’ for other drivers. If someone wants to do something about it, to do something about it. Now that someone kind of has, do you think anything will change in the future, or is it the same mindset going forward?

“No, I mean for me, I race really, really aggressively. The biggest thing that I don’t want to be is a hypocrite. Obviously, if I’m going to get raced really hard, I’m going to be understanding of that. For me, I just love racing. There’s a lot of times where there’s a reason the best car is not always going to win the race. You’re trying to do every possible scenario and every possible race technique to outrun a guy that’s got a faster car than you. Otherwise, we would just do chassis dynos and see who can run the fastest lap, reward it and send everybody home.”

Have you given any thought to what your celebratory post-race might look like at Talladega if you were able to go back-to-back?

“I don’t know. I’ll probably not run into the wall again for multiple reasons… I don’t want the win taken away this time (laughs).

But I don’t know. I hope to do it again. I hope the crowd gets as loud. It would be a lot of fun. I don’t know if anybody has done it since Dale Earnhardt Jr. did it in 2004, I think. But, yeah, so that would be really cool for me, obviously. We tend to run really well at the superspeedways, and I enjoy those probably the most. Being an Earnhardt fan, both Jr. and Sr., obviously, they were really good at those, so it’s fun to at least just have one in the column right now.”

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Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Hollywood Casino 400 Media Availability — Kansas Speedway
Friday, September 25, 2026

Ryan Blaney, driver of the No. 12 Menards/Cardell Ford Mustang Dark Horse, stopped by the Kansas Speedway infield media center this afternoon to talk about last weekend’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Blaney comes into the weekend sixth in the Chase standings, 52 points behind leader Kyle Larson.

RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Cardell Ford Mustang Dark Horse – DOES IT SURPRISE YOU THAT A DRIVER WHO HAS HAD SO MANY RUN-INS WITH OTHER DRIVERS AND DOESN’T SEEM TO HAVE THE RESPECT OF OTHER DRIVERS RESONATES SO MUCH WITH THE FANS? “No. The fans are gonna take a liking to whoever they want and that’s their own opinion. People like who they like. People dislike who they dislike. I can’t tell you why a fan likes a certain person, it’s just that person’s personality that might draw them, or they like their stuff on track, so, no, it doesn’t surprise me. Everybody likes somebody for a reason.

HOW IS YOUR EYE? “It’s fine. I wish it would have healed a little bit quicker than this, but it did not.”

EVERYONE WOULD AGREE IT WAS UNCHARACTERISTIC OF YOU TO BE IN A CONFLICT OF ANY KIND. WAS THAT PURELY BECAUSE OF THE CHAMPIONSHIP STAKES? WAS IT THE TOTALITY OF HOW HE’S RACED EVERYONE? “It was definitely unlike me. I talked on Denny’s show of it’s kind of the opposite of how I normally am. I get fired up quickly, but I calm down really quickly. The other night it just kind of slowly built over the half hour or so, and I think as I look back at what caused me to be so upset to where I would do something like that, so I think it was just a combination of the last month. Darlington went pretty good for us, but we had trouble getting through tech, so that stunk to start that race. Gateway ending the way it did was frustrating after having a really good day and throwing away a lot of points, and then having to start in the back at Bristol from qualifying being rained out after having our issue at Gateway, doing a really good job getting up through there, had a fast car, had our issue on pit road and we fought back from it and then the night ending poorly again, and just realizing how many more points we lost. It just kind of built and things like that. I think there was just a combination of things. In my seat, this Chase hasn’t gone exactly how I thought it was gonna go, just a couple of rough finishes back-to-back and you kind of start realizing like, ‘Man, this is just not going the way I thought it was gonna go.’ And whether it was things that we did. The Gateway thing was kind of just an unfortunate situation. Bristol ending the way it did stunk, and you start realizing like, ‘Man, it’s gonna be really hard to make up those points now, ‘ and this is your season. This is what we’re racing for, so I think all of those just kind of built.”

ARE YOU CONTENT WITH HOW NASCAR IS DECIDING TO POLICE WHAT HAPPENED WITH YOU GUYS? “Oh, yeah. I think they made the correct choice not to do anything. It would be one thing, I would fully understand, of getting slapped with a penalty if I went over and initiated a punch or something like that, but in that situation I kind of initiated a confrontation and Carson defended himself, and I’m happy they didn’t do anything. They just kind of let it simmer, so I think it’s the right call in that situation.”

MOVING FORWARD WITH HOCEVAR ON THE TRACK, DO YOU GO BACK TO RACING HOW YOU WERE BEFORE? “I don’t know yet. These things happen. The thing on track happens really, really fast and you making decisions in a split-second of a moment and sometimes you can be skewed or not skewed of what you think happened or what actually happened, and then reflecting on it for a day, watching the incident and talking back with Timmy and stuff like that was like, yeah, pretty 50-50 I thought, just kind of a racing thing of Bristol of two guys being aggressive with the line they wanted to be in, and, yeah, as far as racing around track, like I said on Denny’s thing, he and I really haven’t had a problem in a year or a year-and-a-half or nothing like that. I feel like we’ve raced each other pretty good, so I don’t think there will be really anything different than racing hard in tough moments per usual, but that’s with anybody in certain moments of the race, so I don’t see a big change.”

WHAT SHOULD BE THE DRIVER CODE WHEN YOU’RE BATTLING FOR A WIN LATE IN THE RACE? “Everyone is different. Everyone has a different code – every single driver in the garage. I feel like in that situation I said before it was pretty 50/50 why the contact was there, but I wouldn’t have been, I think a lot of guys in that spot that if someone wasn’t happy with the block or something like that that was pulled of, just run into me in the middle of the corner and move me up two or three lanes and get the spot back and then we’ll go at it again. I think me kind of getting destroyed was something that kind of fueled me a little bit more, but, like I said, everyone is different. People brought up the Joey and Christopher Bell thing that was kind of similar somewhat and that’s how Joey approached it, so everyone is different of what they think is fair or foul or just how they race. It’s the decisions that were made.”

HOW SURPRISED YOU ARE ONLY 52 OUT AFTER THE LAST TWO WEEKS? “Honestly, I thought I would be further with two DNFs. That’s not good, so it’s not unattainable. It’s just gonna be harder to do, but nothing worth doing is ever gonna be easy, so we’re up for the challenge. We’ve still got seven more weeks of this stuff and my guys understand that we can still get there. There’s still a lot of races left. We just have to really put a lot of work in. That just made the job harder, but I feel like that sometimes motivates you even more. Hopefully, we can put our heads down and get some good finishes here.”

YOU HAVEN’T HAD ANY ENEMIES DURING YOUR CAREER. HAVE YOU DONE THAT CONSCIOUSLY SO WHEN THE TIME COMES TO RACE FOR A TITLE YOU’RE NOT RELYING ON WHETHER OR NOT THAT GUY OWES YOU ONE? “To me, my dad beat this into my head when I was a kid. This is how my dad was raised by his dad and that reflected on my dad raising me as a racer of, ‘Hey, here is how my dad raised me from what I think he thought was right and wrong and fair and foul.’ That’s just kind of what my dad instilled in me and that’s how I’ve always just raced, but, like I said, everyone is different. When I look back on that stuff of what Joey said and things like that, yeah, it can come to bite you for sure, but everyone thinks what they’re doing is best. Every single driver thinks their mindset and the way they go about things, ‘This is the best way that I can do it.’ Everyone, like I keep saying, is different. Everyone has different ideals and things like that and the way they go about things, but I’ve just never wanted to make a ton of enemies because, yes, it could hurt me. If you have a recurring enemy and they’re waiting for their moment to cost you something that really is important to you on the racetrack, that stinks. So, I think it’s a combination of how I was raised by my dad and my dad just getting on me if I did something he thought was foul racing late models or something like that I tried to change it and do what I thought was the best thing to do. But, it definitely can hurt you in situations if you make a lot of enemies.”

WAS THERE ANY REACTION FROM ROGER OR ANYONE IN THE FRONT OFFICE? “Roger was fine. He was one of the few people I was worried about disappointing. I don’t want to ever disappoint Roger. I don’t ever want to disappoint Walter, Bud, Jonathan Gibson, Mike Nelson, Travis Geisler. I never want to disappoint those guys on that side. I don’t want to disappoint my guys either, but Roger was very supportive. He was one of the first guys to call me on Sunday morning and it was nice to talk to him. He was at the sports car race, but he got a chuckle or two out of me on a rough morning, so that was really nice to hear his voice and his words of encouragement for me after a night like that.”

HOW DO YOU MEASURE RISK VERSUS REWARD AT THIS POINT AND HAS THAT SHIFTED BECAUSE OF THE OPPORTUNITY TO GAIN SO MANY POINTS QUICKLY WITH A WIN? “I think you go into each weekend with a different mindset depending on where you’re at. You talk about risk and reward. Last week was a great topic to bring up. It’s like, ‘Alright, I could just run third here tonight and have a decent points night and things like that,’ but in the moment you’re like, ‘I’ve got a good shot to win this race.’ We’ve seen what winning the race does, the points benefit. When I went back and rewatched the race, when I was leading I was leading the points, so it’s like, ‘Man, if we can win this race, we might be right in the game or single digits out of it.’ So, you’re always having to measure that stuff and sometimes it doesn’t work out for you if you don’t think you take a big risk, but it ends up being a big detriment. Like the other night, I didn’t think the move I made was a big risky move, it just ended with unfortunate circumstances for our car. So, yeah, I think going forward I would say I’m not gonna take more risk than I normally would. I try to be very calculated with how I take risks or bold moves of things like that, so I think it’s just a balance of having a really good day but also you need to get every point available and you’re always just kind of weighing those options no matter where you are in points.”

YOU ONLY HAVE SEVEN TOP FIVE FINISHES WHILE MANY OF THE OTHERS HAVE 12 OR MORE. DID THAT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE OTHER NIGHT, AND WHERE DO YOU FEEL YOU NEED TO RUN OVER THIS LAST STRETCH TO CUT INTO THE DEFICIT? “No, the first part of your question I don’t think had anything to do with the other night at all, but where I think we need to finish – well, it starts with finishing. That’s the biggest thing. That has been what we have not done the last couple of weeks, but, I don’t know. These mile-and-a-halves, I’m curious and I’m excited to see where we’re at on the mile-and-a-halves right now compared to the Toyotas, who have been really good. I think we’ve done a lot of work and I think we’ve gotten better, but only time will tell when we get on the racetrack, hopefully tomorrow. I don’t want to start in the back again if qualifying gets rained out, but I’m really curious how these next three weeks are gonna go. It’s gonna be a big three weeks on did we make improvements at these mile-and-a-halves? Can we stay in touch with the Toyotas and a couple of the Chevys that have been fast. So, I don’t know. I don’t really have a number in mind, it’s just going and trying to get stage points, trying to finish top five, racking up high forties to low fifty point days. I think that will be really big. You never know, the Chase has been pretty entertaining so far. There have been a lot of ups and downs by a lot of drivers and we get into this mile-and-a-half stretch I think it’s gonna get even more exciting because places are wider, restarts are gonna be more crazy. You saw restarts at Gateway just be absolutely insane. Here, I think is gonna be just like that on steroids for sure, just because everyone knows what’s at stake. We’ll try to stay out of the trouble and hopefully we’re in front of it all. We’ll see.”

YOU MENTIONED THE WEATHER. HOW CHALLENGING HAS IT BEEN TO COME THROUGH THE FIELD? “I got done saying last week, ‘Oh, the metric is what it is.’ And now I’m starting to slowly hate it like you all for what’s been happening to us. I thought we did a great job last week dealing with starting in the back. I think we got to 20th after starting 29th before the comp yellow, and then did a good call to stay out. I thought our car was good enough to establish track position and then play around with it during that second yellow in the first stage to get some stage points and then flip and stay out and we were able to win the second one, so I thought we handled that really, really well. You never know how each week is gonna go. No matter where you qualify you have to adjust to it and then kind of audible as the race goes on and cautions fall, but it is tough. I mean, pit stall selection is also brutal when you don’t get to pick it or you pick towards the end, especially at these places or tracks to where two tires are really big. Getting wedged in between a couple guys that you’re gonna be racing around all day is always tough, but I feel like we’ve done a good job at what we’ve been given.”

ARE THESE MILE-AND-A-HALVES ALL THEIR OWN ANIMAL OR SHOULD WE LOOK AT THE GUYS WHO HAVE THE OVERALL RAW SPEED AS THE GUYS THAT ARE GONNA BE JUST AS FAST IN LAS VEGAS AND CHARLOTTE? “They’re all unique in their own way, but, at the same time, I think the guys who are gonna be fast this weekend is gonna carry over to Vegas and Charlotte, just the certain speed of a racetrack and things like that, so they get progressively rougher, each track, which is kind of fun. Vegas is rougher than here. Charlotte is rougher than Vegas, but I think your guys who are gonna run good here this weekend are probably gonna run up towards the front at Vegas and Charlotte. I could be wrong, I don’t know, but usually that’s kind of a trend. We talk about short, flat tracks and Penske cars are always really good no matter where they’re at. Everywhere is unique, but you always kind of have a good idea and a baseline setup of where to go, so it definitely wouldn’t surprise me. If they’re good here, they’ll probably be good the next two weeks.”

SOME TRACKS ARE D-SHAPED AND SOME HAVE DOGLEGS. DOES THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE? “Here is kind of the D-shape and Vegas is kind of the D-shape too and Charlotte is that little dogleg. It does make a little bit of a difference for your entry into turn one. The dogleg at Charlotte, there’s less banking. Your car isn’t loaded as much. The D-shape, it’s kind of loaded all the way down the frontstretch and how you enter turn one, so that’s really the only spot – that entry phase into turn one for a brief moment. But I would say at this track and Vegas, the apron is in play on the frontstretch, so on restarts kind of taking someone three-wide on the apron at Charlotte, you can’t really do that. We’ve seen guys go through the turf, but it’s not like you’re wanting to be down there. So, yeah, I think a little bit of the handling side in it, but then also just the raceability is a little bit more open at these kind of D-shaped front straightaways that have the big apron on the bottom.”

DO YOU HAVE GOOD TICKETS FOR STURGILL SIMPSON TOMORROW NIGHT? “I am going. Johnny Blue Skies is his name now. I’m gonna go with some buddies. I haven’t seen him play in a while, and I’ve never seen him as Johnny Blue Skies, his new stage persona, but I’m excited. I haven’t seen him since I was over in Ireland that last time I saw him was like eight years ago, so I’m excited to see him again and it should be a really good show. I’m a big fan of his no matter what name he goes under.”

HAVE YOU AND JONATHAN HASSLER TALKED AT ALL ABOUT WHAT YOU GUYS DO TO GO FROM SIXTH AND BACK INTO THE STRIKING RANGE? “I think just keep doing what we have been doing. We’ve been doing a great job. I feel like our on-track performance the first three weeks of the Chase has been solid. I feel like we’ve had top five speed in every single one, so you don’t want to change those things that you’re doing well. Is there a few things we can clean up? Always. There’s always some things that we can clean up, whether it’s me behind the wheel, pit road, strategy calls. Everything. You can always pick apart stuff, but I feel like we’ve been doing a great job, so it’s just continuing to do what this group does really well and what I feel like this group does insanely well is the position we’re in right now is just kind of keeping your head down and not letting previous weeks bother you and just continue to move forward and believing in each other week in and week out. It’s business as usual. It’s been a rough couple of weeks, but we’ll just try to get back on track here.”

LEGACY MOTOR CLUB:
KANSAS II PRE-RACE ADVANCE
EVENT: Hollywood Casino 400
DATE: September 27, 2026
RACE: NASCAR Cup Series 30 of 36
TRACK: Kansas Speedway | 1.5-Mile Oval

JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK
NO. 42 DOLLAR TREE TOYOTA CAMRY XSE
JHN AT KANSAS: John Hunter Nemechek has seven NASCAR Cup Series starts at Kansas, with his highest finish at the track of 10th in May 2025. In the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, Nemechek has made three starts, where he never finished outside the top-10, including two race wins in October 2018 and September 2023. In the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, he has earned three pole awards and four top-five finishes, including a race win in September 2022.

DOMINATING AT KANSAS: Nemechek has made three starts at Kansas Speedway in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, where he has an average finish of 3.3. He won in two of his three starts (October 2018 and September 2023) and has never finished worse than eighth in his career. In the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, he started on the pole for three of his six races and only finished outside the top-10 once. He took home the checkered flag in September 2022 with a 1.815 margin of victory over Carson Hocevar after starting on the pole and leading 88 of 134 laps.

A ROYAL FIRST PITCH: John Hunter Nemechek will take the mound at Kauffman Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 26 as he throws out the ceremonial first pitch before the Kansas City Royals host the Cleveland Guardians. The game is scheduled for 6:10 p.m. local time.

JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK QUOTE:
“I’m ready to get back to an intermediate track this weekend, and Kansas has always been a fun one for me. Our mile-and-a-half program has been a strength of ours at LEGACY MOTOR CLUB, so hopefully we can continue that trend and bring home a solid finish this weekend.”

ERIK JONES
NO. 43 ADVENTHEALTH TOYOTA CAMRY XSE
JONES KANSAS STATS: Erik Jones is set to make his 20th NASCAR Cup Series start at Kansas Speedway during Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 in the Heartland of America. In his 19 prior Cup Series starts at the track, Jones scored four top-fives and six top-10s. His best finish of third came in both his May 2019 and September 2023 starts at the 1.5-mile oval. Outside of the Cup Series, Jones has three starts at Kansas – two in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Part Series and one in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. His best O’Reilly Auto Parts Series finishes came in October 2016 and 2017 where he started second and finished 15th in both races. Meanwhile, his best Truck Series result was an 11th-place finish from the pole position in May 2015.

BRINGING IN A NEW ERA: In 2023, a new era dawned on LEGACY MOTOR CLUB and Erik Jones as Jimmie Johnson acquired ownership stake in the team. The team began to see improvements, and Jones secured not only the team’s first top-10 and top-five result since that ownership change but also a season high finish of third at Kansas.

3 REASONS TO RACE: On Tuesday, Erik Jones held his annual “Three Reasons to Race” Fundraiser at the Crystal Gardens Event Center in Howell, Michigan. After a one-year hiatus, the event returned in full force to support the fundraising for the Erik Jones Foundation. This signature event brought together great food, exciting racing action, and the foundation’s powerful mission in one place. Founded in 2021, the Erik Jones Foundation supports three pillars of giving that are close to Jones’ heart – literacy, early cancer detection and prevention, and animal welfare.

ERIK JONES QUOTE:
“I think Kansas Speedway is a welcome return for us. We’ve really been wanting to get back to a mile-and-a-half track here to see where we stack up. It’s been a while, but we’ve been trying to make improvements to that package since we’ve had a race with it. This season, we’ve had a pretty good history of running well on intermediates. Hopefully, we can do that at Kansas this weekend and get some momentum rolling.”

CLUB NOTES:
SEVEN-TIME AT KANSAS: LEGACY MOTOR CLUB owner and seven-time NASCAR Cup Series Champion Jimmie Johnson has 31 career Cup Series starts at the Kansas Speedway. During his remarkable career, he won three times (September 2008, October 2011, and May 2015) at the 1.5-mile oval in the Heartland of America. In addition to his victories, Johnson has earned nine top-fives and 19 top 10s. Johnson has one additional start at Kansas in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series in September 2001 where he started 38th and drove his way up through the field to finish sixth.

KENSETH KANSAS STATS: LEGACY MOTOR CLUB competition advisor and 2003 NASCAR Cup Series Champion Matt Kenseth has an equally impressive career at Kansas Speedway. Kenseth’s first start at the 1.5-mile speedway came in September 2001. In total, he collected 27 NASCAR Cup Series races. He earned seven top-fives and 13 top-10s, including two back-to-back victories when he won in October 2012 and April 2013. Over his career, Kenseth led a total of 774 laps at Kansas. He has another nine starts at Kansas in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series that led to one win in October 2013, six top-fives, and eight top-10s in addition to 405 laps led.

BIG WHEELS AND #READWITHERIK: Prior to Sunday’s Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway, Erik Jones and John Hunter Nemechek will head to the AdventHealth Shawnee Mission in Merriam for an event with the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Kansas City on Friday, Sept. 25. The AdventHealth-hosted event will feature a #READwithErik session for the kids. Jones will read “Little Blue Truck and Racer Red” by Alice Schertle before releasing the kids to race against Nemechek on Big Wheel Bikes.

DAY WITH THE CLUB: Join LEGACY MOTOR CLUB on Thursday, Oct. 8 at the shop in Statesville, N.C. to help celebrate the 2027 season and prepare for the race weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Stay tuned for more details and a schedule for the day.

SOCIAL SPOTLIGHT:

CLUB APPEARANCES:
John Hunter Nemechek will visit the trackside merchandise trailer on Sunday, Sept. 27 at 9:30 a.m. local time for an autograph session, followed by Q&A session in the NASCAR Kids Zone at 11 a.m. local time.

Erik Jones will visit the AdventHealth display in the fan midway on Sunday, Sept. 27 at 10 a.m. local time for a quick Q&A session.

TUNE IN:
Fans can tune in to watch the Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway on Sunday, Sept. 27 at 3 p.m. EDT on USA Sports, HBO MAX, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).

ABOUT LEGACY MOTOR CLUB: (LEGACY MC) is a premier auto racing organization owned by seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and 2024 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee, Jimmie Johnson and Knighthead Capital Management, LLC. Drawing from a rich tradition of success, LEGACY MC is dedicated to pushing the boundaries of motorsport and setting new standards of excellence. The CLUB competes under the Toyota Racing banner in the NASCAR Cup Series with the No. 43 Toyota Camry XSE piloted by Erik Jones and the No. 42 Toyota Camry XSE driven by John Hunter Nemechek. The No. 84 Toyota Camry XSE driven by Riley Herbst will debut full time in the 2027 season, while Johnson will make his final NASCAR Cup Series start at the 2027 DAYTONA 500 in the No. 48 Toyota Camry XSE. With NASCAR legend and Hall of Famer Richard Petty, “The King”, serving as CLUB Ambassador, LEGACY MC blends timeless racing traditions with a new forward-thinking vision. As an inclusive community for motorsport enthusiasts, LEGACY MC honors both its storied past and the promising future of its members, always striving for victory and championship glory at the pinnacle of NASCAR competition.