TOYOTA RACING – Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes

AVONDALE, Ariz. (October 17, 2026) – Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell were made available to the media on Saturday prior to the NASCAR Cup Series race from Phoenix Raceway. Hamlin and Bell are top contenders in this year’s Chase with four races remaining in the season.

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

CHRISTOPHER BELL, No. 20 DeWalt Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing

Christopher, last week you were mad after the race. Was it because you felt like you could have done more, or something else?

BELL: “I wasn’t mad at Chase (Briscoe) at all. It was just a whirlwind of emotion for sure. Felt like we had the race under control through the early parts of Stage three and then lost the lead and Chase started driving away and I had got to be pretty content with second. I was like, ok, it’s going to be what it’s going to be and then all the sudden the last couple of laps just kind of teased me a little bit. I was disappointed in myself coming to the line, I thought that I probably could have done a little bit more to get the win, so the frustration was really myself.”

Christopher, do you feel good coming here where you have run well but have come down to two or four tires at the end?

BELL: “Certainly our confidence is high and feel like we should be in contention this week, but week after week we are doing the right things and bringing the equipment to the racetrack that’s capable of winning. We got to do a few things a little bit better to get to victory lane, but I certainly love the speed that my team is bringing to the track.”

For Denny and Christopher, how tough has it been that you have not been able to gain as many points as you would have liked at the intermediate racetracks?

BELL: “For me, it’s just going to come down to wins. For at least the 20 group, that was going to be the difference maker. We’re all going to be fast and we’re all going to be running up front, so the difference between a couple positions in a stage or a couple of positions in a race is minute, it’s a couple of points. The difference between first and second in a race is huge. Kyle (Larson) has found himself in victory lane and Denny (Hamlin) hasn’t yet and I won one early, but it’s all about winning and limiting your bad days and we haven’t done that as good as the 5 (Larson) car.

HAMLIN: “It has frustrating days, but not discouraged. I’ve only had two potential race winning cars, crashed in both of those races. So just need to clean things up and overall as a team we have to execute better and we need to be faster in all facets, on pit road, on the racetrack, all the things have to be faster because these guys are obviously performing at a high level and you have to match that speed.”

For Denny and Christopher, nobody has had a start to the Chase like Kyle Larson has. Do you look at it like surely something is going to happen to him at some point, or do you have to assume he’s going to keep doing this?

HAMLIN: “Records are made to be broken and I think that every year in the NextGen car there’s been some sort of new precedent that’s been set in different categories of the racing itself. So you just never know. And then there’s been unprecedented amount of rainouts at some of the practice and qualifying. There’s always new trends that can happen. They are definitely the model of consistency right now and maximizing their days. If they keep doing that the path is going to just keep getting and easier for sure.”

BELL: “I don’t think I can add much more than what Denny said. They’ve done a good job of getting to the end of the races and they score points.”

For Christopher, you have been competitive with Kyle Larson for a lot of years. Has that changed over the years?

BELL: “I think Kyle (Larson) and I have raced each other hard basically our entire career and I think it’s fair to say that we’re different people and we hang out with different people and I think were not friends, but we are acquaintances and will race each other hard.”

Can you have close friends at the top level of this sport?

HAMLIN: “Close friends is difficult. I think you can have friends because close friends at this top level, especially when it’s easy when one is good and one is not. It’s toucher when they’re both good because you’re going to race each other a lot, and there’s always going to be contact at times and feeling get hurt. I think it’s difficult to have really close friendships, but I think that there is an ability to separate on track from off track and still get along with someone really well off the racetrack.”

There’s a lot of cloud cover here today. What are the difficulties in practice of setting up your cars for different weather conditions?

HAMLIN: I don’t think this racetrack changes that much. We have some that are far more sensitive to sunlight and temperature than this one. I has a effect, but I just don’t think it’s quite as much here.”

This is for Christopher and Denny, what would you consider a successful weekend to catch Larson and do you feel any desperation at this point?

HAMLIN: “No desperation, but the gap needs to close starting now, that’s probably pretty accurate with our position. Then just to get back on our front foot. I think that you have to start by winning the day and then go from there. But ultimately, with the races winding donw, we’ve got to start chopping into this.”

BELL: “I agree. I think that everyone has talked about that number, what is that number? Is it when the season started you have to be top-five in points. I think top-five is within 50 points, and that’s not proven to be the number. So is the number 50 points back with four races to go, is that out of contention? Nobody really knows. So certainly myself and Denny are both 50 back right now. We need to close that gap. But looking at the rest of the races, we are all going to be running up front and scoring stage points and competing for wins, so the difference maker is who gets those wins and then Talladega. Whatever happens at Talladega, the likelihood of a crash at Talladega is a lot higher at that track than other tracks. It can hinder your points that you take away. Between Talladega and race wins, that’s going to be the deciding factor.”

Denny, how do you try not to press too hard and put too much on yourself?

HAMLIN: “You don’t need to throw a hail mary’s until the end of the game. Just have to start getting some gains. It’s something that we have to start chipping away. The time is going by and so chipping away will still get it done but it has to start sooner than later. I have not hit the panic button at all, but I can see it, I’m just not quite there yet. It start this weekend, and if we end up with a larger deficit leaving here than where we started we need to start pressing from this point on.”

Christopher, how do you also try not to do too much and have everything on your shoulders?

BELL: “I think my group needs to keep continue going what we’ve been doing. We keep putting ourselves in position. Certainly some of the wins have gotten away have fallen on myself and I put Charlotte in that position as well last weekend. I basically drag raced him to the start/finish line and I think I could have done a little bit more to stall him out whenever we were coming to the line and I ended up losing the race. So, if my team keeps bringing these race cars back and I figure out how to get to Victory Lane, then I think the 20 car could be the champion.”

Denny, you said this week NASCAR is looking at aero for the NextGen car to be more like the O’Reilly Series car. Where would you like to see it go directionally?

HAMLIN: “I think they are trying their best to make the racing better whenever they can. It’s a process. I certainly thing all of us are envious kind of watching the Saturday races and seeing who is in the power position is in second and can get close to the leader and in Cup it’s the other way around where they can kind of dictate pretty strong defense on whoever is in second. I think we would all like to see that come back and it would take quite a few rules changes to make that happen to make us run our car up in the back compared to where we are now. So, they’re working through all that. It’s something that’s on the radar that could come next year, hopefully.”

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NASCAR Cup Series
Phoenix Raceway
Team Chevy Driver Quotes
October 17, 2026

Kyle Larson, driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, met with the media in a panel with fellow Chase contenders, Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell, in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series practice and qualifying session at Phoenix Raceway.

Kye Larson Media Availability Quotes:

You have three JGR drivers and teams on your heels. Which one are you most concerned about?

“I would say all of them equally. As Chase (Briscoe) and (Christopher) Bell has proven and Denny (Hamlin) has proven for decades, they can win anywhere at any point. As they said, you just have to limit your bad days, and for us so far, we haven’t had any. I’m not saying that we won’t, so we’re just trying to do what we can to execute to the best of our abilities every week and just try to maximize our days.”

Kyle and Christopher, you guys have been super competitive with each other for long stretches of your career, from dirt tracks to now. Has that competitive relationship evolved or changed at all throughout the years? Is it safe to call it a ‘friendly rivalry’ that might not have quite the bitter edge to it?

“I think I’ve said it in other press conferences; nobody’s pushed me more than Christopher (Bell) to become a better racer, so I appreciate that. I think in all forms of sports, there’s always athletes that push athletes, and he’s been the guy to push me to be better because he’s beaten me so much throughout my career. I appreciate the competitive rivalry, for sure. Like he said, we’re different people and hangout with different crowds. We’re just different. You’re always going to have that.”

You’ve been on record numerous times that you suck at Phoenix Raceway, but you’ve finished in the top-five the last four races and third in the last three, so what makes you say that? What constitutes ‘good’ for you?

“Well, I think if you would dig through and pull out average speed throughout a race, I think it would show – which I’m pretty blunt I guess with my comments, but why I feel like we suck here. It just hasn’t, historically, been a good track for us from start to finish. We’re able to finish well, but I think that just has a lot to do with team execution. We’ve done that time and time again here, I feel like. In average ranking, we’re probably an eighth to 13th- place car most times we come here. We’ve had a couple decent ones, but never do we come here and we’re the fastest. It’s just been a tough track for us and one that we’ve worked hard to try and find the speed. William (Byron), I feel like, has been the best out of the four Hendrick Motorsports guys here, consistently, but the rest of us are just always searching.”

Obviously we’ve had rain here today, but more importantly, there’s a tremendous amount of cloud cover here today. What are the difficulties with setting up your car for practice in trying to find a feel of the race pace that is going to be presented in a much different way on Sunday?

“I don’t know. I think in practice, you’re always trying to find a balance that feels comfortable, and I think that can translate to cool or warm conditions. And then, yeah, obviously it’s going to be a little different in the race, but I think the times that you’re off in practice, no matter what the conditions are going to be like in the race, you’re probably going to be off in the race. If you’re balanced in certain conditions, you’re probably going to be balanced in the other conditions.”

Do you guys think it’s weird that a year ago, this would have been the start of a round and Kyle Larson’s lead would have been wiped out and you (Denny Hamlin) would be the points leader?

“I just don’t know why we’re still talking about it because it’s not the format, so it just doesn’t matter. This is what it is now.”

About General Motors

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

Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Freeway Insurance 500 Media Availability — Phoenix Raceway
Saturday, October 17, 2026

Ryan Blaney, driver of the No. 12 Menards/Richmond Ford Mustang Dark Horse, is going for a NASCAR Cup Series season sweep at Phoenix Raceway after winning here in March. Blaney, who is fifth in the Chase standings and 85 points out of the lead, held a Q&A session in the infield media center before today’s practice and qualifying session.

RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Richmond Ford Mustang Dark Horse – YOU’VE WON THE LAST TWO TIMES HERE. WHAT MAKES IT DIFFICULT FROM A COMPETITIVE STANDPOINT TO GO BACK-TO-BACK AT A TRACK? “I think things change through the year. Teams find new things and teams evolve. I think that’s what makes this series really competitive is you have great teams and drivers and crew chiefs and engineers that sit down and do their homework and try to figure out when you do go to a track for the second time in the same season, how can we better? It doesn’t matter if you ran 20th or you won the race, you’re always trying to find new ways to be better and improve. Like this weekend, you can’t show up the same way we did in the spring just because you learn things through the year that you think are a better direction as an organization, and so while it’s hard to go away from things you know work well, if you’ve found success doing things a little bit of a different way, you want to keep heading in that direction and you hope that they continue to work. It just shows you the competitiveness of the Cup Series and how hard it is no matter if it’s a good track for you or not, running well is one thing but then trying to win the race is obviously incredibly difficult, so it just shows the level that everyone is at here in this garage area.”

IS IT A GIVEN NOW THAT EVERYONE WILL TAKE TWO TIRES AT THE END OF THIS RACE? “Yeah, the last two here have been won from rights that we’ve done. I think it’s all situational. It’s situational on how many laps are left in the race, how many laps you have on your stuff already, where you’re running. I feel like sometimes it’s hard to do two if you’re the leader and you’re like, ‘Our car is best on four. We’re leading this race. We don’t want to do two and everyone do four behind us and we kind of lose that way.’ So, it’s just two different ways to look at it. I think all that stuff is just certain scenarios that we did at that certain time that worked out for us. I think all of that is you never know what’s gonna happen. If you have 40 laps on your stuff, 50 laps on your stuff, I don’t know if you’d take two. Maybe if that’s like a Hail Mary and you’re running 10th or 12th or something like that. I think it’s just in the moment and what crew chiefs decide.”

DO YOU FEEL THE SLIGHT CHANGE IN SPOILER WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE AT TALLADEGA? “I don’t know if it’ll make a huge difference. A half-inch on the spoiler is not a ton. It’s definitely not the jump we made going into Daytona, but I think it’s the right direction. I keep thinking, ‘Just keep taking spoiler away from it.’ I think it’s a good thing – make the cars a little bit more difficult to drive, try to help get a little bit of separation to where you can kind of shoot through the middle and stuff like that. I thought it was a step in the right direction at Daytona, for sure, and I think it’ll be better at Talladega. I’m curious to see what they do next year. I’d like for them to keep going down a little bit on the spoiler and maybe putting a little horsepower back in it, but I think it’s the right direction but I don’t think sitting in the car I’ll be able to notice a ton with just another half-inch of spoiler off of it.”

HASSLER HAS A MINDSET OF A MUST-WIN THIS WEEK. DO YOU SHARE THAT SENTIMENT? “Yeah, a little bit. It’s definitely getting down to that time. You’ve only got four left and the points that we’re out, I think you do kind of have to treat it as a must-win. It’s gonna be really hard if you only gain four or five or six points on him this weekend. You know that’s hard, so you need to try to take a big chunk with the 20 bonuses and then you hope you outpoint him in the stages too and just keep chipping away. So, I would kind of categorize this as a big championship moment weekend for our team of if we can win this weekend, I think we can hopefully keep chipping away at it. If we don’t win this weekend, the job is exponentially harder going into the next three weeks. You try to win every week and I think coming here being a part of the Championship 4 in those years that was kind of the mindset like, ‘We’ve probably got to win the race to win the championship.’ We ran second when we won the championship in ‘23, but you treat it as like a must-win, so I feel like we’ve been in some of those situations before. I look at Martinsville in ‘24, that was a must-win for us to get here and I thought we faced that challenge head-on and did a very good job, so we’ve been in these spots before. Hopefully, we have some experience and we can lean on that.”

THIS IS THE SECOND-BEST SIX-RACE STRETCH IN THE FINAL 10 RACES THAT LARSON IS ON. HOW DO YOU VIEW HIM NOW? ARE YOU WAITING FOR SOMETHING HAPPEN? “No, I’m treating it as they’re not gonna have a mistake and we have to go win races to catch him. It could go either way. Everyone is like, ‘Oh, the law of averages, he’s gonna have a bad weekend,’ but they might not and if they don’t, then props, 100 percent. You did a heck of a job. You really whooped up on everybody, so that’s my mindset is they are not going to have a bad week and we have to capitalize on it if he fifths it out the rest of the way, we have to go win a couple at least to try to get there. That’s where our mindset is at. We’re not waiting on him to make a mistake. We want to capitalize on running well and winning races.”

WHAT IS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE AT THIS TRACK? “I think the two ends are really different. We talk about that a lot when we come here. I think the two ends are really different. Obviously, with one and two super flat, long, kind of how do you manage the apron, how do you manage moving up the track? That corner down there is really, really wide. It’s wider than people think as far as just lane options. I’ve always tried to get my car to work well on the apron at kind of utilizing the paint with my right side tires. Some people try to utilize it with their lefts, some people with their rights and then trying to move up the track and play around with that. Three and four is just kind of the sharper, way more brake pressure type corner. You’re always loose into that corner, always turns the center terrible and always is loose driving up the hill. So, it’s just how do you balance platforming those two ends because they’re very different with how each one takes load. How do you utilize your downshift, your downshift into fourth in one and two, and sometimes you’re fifth to fourth down on the back on new tires, but older tires you just stay in fourth. That’s big. How do you play restarts. Restarts here are always a big topic of I wouldn’t say chaos, but just opportunity, a good opportunity or a bad opportunity, however you want to put it, so trying to manage that. It’s just been a place that’s worked well with us, but I feel like we’ve done a good job of trying to understand what works on both ends of the racetrack and kind of what do we need in practice and then leading into the race I think we’ve done a really good job in past years of doing that together as a team.”

DO YOU FEEL LESS PRESSURE GOING INTO TALLADEGA BECAUSE YOU’RE TRYING TO GAIN POINTS WHILE THOSE IN FRONT OF YOU MIGHT BE TRYING TO PROTECT? “No, I wouldn’t think so, and I can only speak from my seat. I can’t speak from the people who are in other spots, whether they’re first, second in points or whatever of trying to protect as opposed to those of us who are trying to gain. I have just tried to approach these speedways as big opportunities and not trying to think about ‘this could be an awful day or not,’ just try to go control the race and lead laps and have a good day. I do think there’s a little bit of mindsets there that could be different. I always look at and I only say this because I’m a Buckeye and Ohio State did this with Texas earlier this year, they got up early and then they started to protecting that second half and Texas came back and won. You play different when you’re protecting, but I don’t think our mindset changes, at least from this 12 team of you’re always kind of on attack mode, whether you’re 85 points behind like we are or 85 points ahead. You always just go try to do the best job that you can and I think that’s the best way – just try not to defer from what you usually try to do in your job from each weekend.”

HOW HAVE YOU HAD TO GET BETTER SINCE THE LAST TIME HERE OR EVEN SINCE NEW HAMPSHIRE? “I think you’re always having to get better from a car side and a driver’s side. There are things you do poorly even if you win the race at a certain racetrack, at least I look at it as, ‘Well, I could have done better here.’ I could have done a better job at my approach, my mindset, whether it’s behind the wheel or just kind of approaching what I think I need before the race or through the race. So, yeah, you’re always trying to progress and look forward and look ahead and try to find different ways to improve no matter if you’re great or terrible at a previous place. It’s very important, like I said earlier, we’re not even the same as what we were here in the spring. You’re always trying to go in directions you think the team is better and it’s the same as the driver. You’re always trying to refine your skill set and change ways to improve behind the wheel.”

WHERE CAN YOU IMPROVE? “I’d say for us personally like short run pace, like restarts, has kind of been not an Achilles heel for us, but a place where we can improve. I think that was a little bit of an emphasis point for us is how do we get a little bit better for the first three to five laps of a run.”

DO YOU FEEL MORE PRESSURE TO GET IT DONE AT A PLACE LIKE THIS WHERE YOU’VE HISTORICALLY BEEN ABLE TO WIN? “No, I don’t feel anymore pressure with what you described. I take it as it’s a compliment that people are trying to chase you, so that means you’re doing something well. So, I don’t go into places where we’ve run well and are like, ‘Man, don’t mess this up. We always run good here. It’s gonna look bad if we don’t run good.’ I just look at it as, ‘Hey, we have a great starting point. Let’s continue to build off of this and be confident in unloading.’ I think it’s better when people are chasing you and kind of watching your car through practice of what your car does really well. That’s flattering.”

TOYOTA RACING – Chase Briscoe
NASCAR Cup Series Quotes

AVONDALE, Ariz. (October 17, 2026) – Joe Gibbs Racing driver Chase Briscoe was made available to the media on Saturday prior to the NASCAR Cup Series race from Phoenix Raceway.

CHASE BRISCOE, No. 19 Columbia Bank Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing

How important is momentum when it comes to competing in the Chase?

“It’s definitely a huge advantage. When they can have confidence in just the momentum. It’s really been 15 weeks in a row now. They have not had like a blow-up pit stop, so they’ve just been super solid for really the whole second half of the season. From my standpoint, it just makes your job so much easier because you come down pit road. You know you’re not going to lose spots and you typically gain spots, and that’s honestly the easiest place to lose your track position during the race. And when you can come down and gain two or three spots every time, it just makes a huge difference for your day. So yeah, they’ve been absolutely pivotal in our success and they’ve just been rocking lately.”

What’s it like walking into the JGR competition meeting on a Monday after a win?

“It was good. I liked it. It was a good meeting. I think that’s been the unique thing. That’s been like that a couple times. I feel like this year where one of us has sometimes been really, really strong and the other one’s struggling. Not that we struggled last week as Charlotte, but I don’t know. It’s just a dynamic you truthfully get used to it at JGR. I think we have as a company won like 10 races or something this year, so there’s a lot of the time where you’re in those meetings and one guy’s happy and the other ones aren’t happy. I think the big thing is, like last week, Christopher (Bell) felt like his car was more than capable of winning too. So that changes the mood a little bit. I think the hard meetings are when one of us have just a really, really strong car and the rest of us kind of struggle. That’s when it’s always good to be that one guy that was good, not the guy that struggles because those are those are not fun meetings.”

Are you and Christopher (Bell) good with each other after the close finish last week?

“Yeah, we talked all week. I think just Christopher really wants to win. I don’t think there was anything bad on the racetrack. I didn’t think anything of it. I think Christopher just definitely wears his heart on his sleeve and was mad that he didn’t win obviously.”

You’ve had a string of bad luck here at Phoenix with JGR, but prior to that, with SHR, you have a victory, and you’re constantly running in the top 10. How confident are you that you guys have kind of found that feel that you previously had here?

“I am definitely confident, coming here. You look at JGR and just like the results page here. It’s been terrible. It’s probably been my worst track statistically, but I feel like this has honestly been one of our best tracks. You know, the spring, the first race I ran, it would have been like race three or four of my career at JGR. I was really good and the best I felt early on in the season. Got crashed and the championship race last year, we went from dead last to second, I think, two times. So was extremely strong there, just kept blowing tires, and in the spring this year, I think we were running second or third and we blew a tire. We’ve been really, really strong here. Just been a matter of keeping air in the tires and they’re not blowing. I know that we’ve brought a different approach, at least that’s the plan. So we’ll find out, I guess, hearing a little bit that plan worked out.”

How much of a concern is it for your when you’ve had several blown tires here in recent races?

I mean, it’s a concern, I guess. But I also know that the first time, I guess the championship race, it was like, man, maybe it’s just bad luck that we keep blowing tires. Then when we came back in the spring and we blew tires, I remember the Monday after James (Small, crew chief) was like, obviously we have to make changes. We can’t just keep going back for the same thing and thinking that something else is going to happen. I’m not really concerned from that standpoint because I know that they’re super smart and they can normally make the thing better. I’m not like majorly concerned. And in the sim, it felt still really good, even with everything that changed. So, is there a little concern? Yes, but it’s not like I’m super panicked either. But yeah, if we blow a tire just hopefully it happens down the straight away and not going into the corner.”

How much can you still drive this track the way that you’ve driven it in the past?

“I think when we talk after the spring races, I run very different here than a lot of guys and the big things is I just run so high up the racetrack. Like in (turns) one or two, I’m basically scraping the wall and I think there’s a lot of things that I do that probably make the tires just wear more or have more heat or whatever. That was something that when we talked about even this week, James didn’t necessarily tell me that I had to start driving this place different. It was, we have to get the car to be able to suit how I drive here. That was really encouraging. In the sim it still felt really good. I felt like I could do all the things I needed to do. The sim sometimes isn’t accurate, so who knows if when we start practicing it will drive like that. But if it does drive like that in the sim, I feel really good about it and hopefully we can keep tires on it because I feel like if we can keep the tires on, we’re definitely be in the mix.”

Are you having to adjust the way you drive since joining JGR or is James (Small) adjusting to how you drive with his setups?

“I’m still driving how James wants me to drive for the most part. I think a lot of just my driving style, truthfully, has changed too. As I’ve gotten acclimated to the JGR cars and there’s just a lot of things from a technique standpoint, just how it manipulates the car that I feel like I’ve just almost became second nature. I still have to train myself to do it, but I’ve definitely gotten way better at that. I think just from a searching around the racetrack standpoint, just the line I’m running in (turns) one and two. James wasn’t super strong on me changing that because it’s been extremely fast, obviously. It’s just a matter of being able to keep the tires underneath it to do that.

You talked about Ryan Blaney running a low line in the spring, have you looked at changing your approach because of his success doing that?

“Typically for me it’s just not worked here. Like just how I do things, it just does not, for whatever reason, work. I’ve been able to go down there and still do it, but I’m just not as efficient and not as fast. I remember even back when I won in 2022, I was just running super high compared to everybody, and for whatever reason, that’s always been the thing that’s made me comfortable here. Even back to the 2020 Xfinity Series days, I would be terrible if we had to run the bottom for whatever reason. There’s just something about this place that is how you, or feel, the race car when you run the bottom that I always kind of struggled with. And hopefully the top will come in. I’ll just have to try to figure out how to run the bottom. The track might be totally different this time around as that resin kind of wore off, the top’s gotten worse and worse. It definitely has been trending back towards the bottom. I think the extra horsepower kind of helped the top come back a little bit. Just because it’s so much harder to put the power down the bottom, but we’ll just figure out the racetrack as we go here. I think it will be pretty dominant on the bottom, so I’ll get the least some practice in.”

What are you leaning into with this car with the strong runs you’ve had in recent races?

“We just have a really good understanding of kind of what I need as a team and the team’s just done a really good job of giving me that kind of feel that I look for, whether it’s a short track or a mile and-a- half, or a road course. We’ve been able to work together over the last couple of years, our group just does a great job, truthfully. And if I’m off to start the race or off to start the weekend, they always kind of know the adjustments to make to get it better. That feel obviously changes a little bit based on the track, but for the most part, that same kind of balanced profile you look for the same track to track. They’ve just done a really good job with the more experience of me being able to match that at a lot of different tracks. I feel like that’s where a lot of our successes came from.”

Any shift in strategy with Phoenix no longer being the championship race?

“I don’t think so, it is a little bit different. Last time we were here in the fall, you were really only racing three guys win a championship where you’re still racing for the championship, probably four to five different guys, but it’s not a win or take all, right? So, if you don’t win the race, it still definitely matters where you finish and stages and all those things where typically this race, it was very different from a feel standpoint because you weren’t racing for any points. All that matters is trying to beat the other three guys. I’m sure the strategy will definitely be different at the end of the race. If one of those late race cautions come out, what you did last year would probably a little bit different than what you did this year. I think that’ll all play itself out.

How soon do you start preparing for Homestead?

“I think after Martinsville. The team is obviously already kind of looking at Homestead stuff. We’re in the process of building a car and I’m sure setup wise, they’re in the beginning stages from a sim standpoint. But for myself, it really will start after Martinsville. I’m not going to change anything I’ve been doing. Tuesday night, Wednesday of that week, with Homestead being the last race, I’m sure Monday we’ll do some stuff too, especially if we’re in the mix. I would say after Martinsville is when the approach will actually happen.”

NASCAR announced this weekend that they’re going to allow teams to change the front brake pads and rotors after practice and qualifying. Do you feel like this was needed?

“I don’t mind it. I think that’s probably a good decision. I don’t think it’s going to get to where we’re bringing different brake pads to the racetrack and changing them in and out. If it gets to that point, I’m sure they’re going to make a change anyways. But I think from a safety standpoint, when you look at Gateway and even like our group in Iowa, you just don’t want guys blowing brakes, right? That’s a bad situation to be in as a race car driver. I think anything we can do to prevent that is probably not a bad idea. Who knows if it will actually be a storyline, I don’t know, but from a safety standpoint, I’m all about it. Now, if it starts being a performance thing, then maybe you consider changing that rule back. But from a safety standpoint, I don’t know why we would be so against being able to change brakes.”

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