No. 31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R paces contingent with fourth place at Long Beach
LONG BEACH, Calif. (April 12, 2025) – The No. 31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R advanced three positions from its starting spot to lead the Cadillac Racing Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) contingent with a fourth-place finish in the 50th Grand Prix of Long Beach.
The No. 10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R picked up two positions to place sixth, while the sister No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R gained three spots to place seventh in the 11-car lineup for its best showing in three IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship races this season.
Jack Aitken and Earl Bamber – along with Frederik Vesti for the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring – have combined to gain 12 positions in the past two races and finish just off the podium both times in the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R.
Most GTP cars visited pit lane during a full-course yellow 20 minutes into the 100-minute race for energy and the mandatory driver change. Quick work by the Action Express Racing crew got Bamber, who spelled Aitken behind the wheel of the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R back on the 1.97-mile, 11-turn temporary street circuit in fourth place.
Bamber, who was making his 75th IMSA start, remained within striking distance of the pole-winning No. 24 BMW M Team RLL entry in third place over the final 54 laps, closing to .580 of a second with 20 minutes left. Bamber recorded his best lap time on three consecutive laps, including 1 minute, 13.229 seconds with 11 minutes on the clock. But with limited overtaking spots on the tight circuit, Bamber was resigned to the spot just off the podium.
The No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport entry won the race.
Long Beach and Detroit on June 1 are the only 100-minute and street course races on the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship schedule.
Of note: The qualifying time for the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R was reinstated a few hours after the official time sheet was posted Friday. The No. 31 GTP initially incurred a penalty for working on the car (changing tires) in qualifying and the lap times were disallowed. According to IMSA: The regulation was improperly applied and in short order rescinded.
Media resources: Photos for editorial use | Cadillac Racing IMSA 2025 statistics | All-time statistics
Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing and Cadillac Whelen will participate in a test with one GTP car each next week at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in preparation for the May 9-11 race. Cadillac Racing swept the front row in qualifying in 2024 and finished second and fifth. Jordan Taylor-Louis Deletraz placed fourth and Ricky Taylor-Filipe Albuquerque finished sixth with another manufacturer.
Action Express Racing first-year endurance driver Frederik Vesti will sit in for Earl Bamber in the No. 31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R at the Laguna Seca test and 2-hour, 40-minute race. Bamber will co-drive with Sebastien Bourdais and Jenson Button the No. 38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R the same weekend at Spa-Francorchamps.
Said Vesti: “The preparation for Laguna Seca has already started and the test days will be part of that. How can we improve? What can we do to perform better on that circuit? I’m looking forward to getting back in the car.”
What they’re saying
No. 10 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R
Filipe Albuquerque: “Overall, I would say a hard weekend. We were not strong in qualifying and in the race we moved up but based on the mistakes of the other guys. P6 is a surviving result for us. Not really happy about the performance. On our side, we just need to learn the car and be more competitive.”
Ricky Taylor: “It was our first sprint race of the year and got through with no damage. I think the team learned a lot again. Unfortunately, I feel like we’re just a half a step behind each time we go on track, and every time we leave the track we say we wish we had one more session. I think that was the case again this weekend. I think if we had found what we found in qualifying a half a session earlier we would have qualified better and we would have put ourselves in better position for the race. At the end, I think we showed pace at times. Had we been in the mix, we could have salvaged maybe a top five. I think there’s progress and we’re looking forward to Laguna, which is longer race where we can strategize more and do our thing.”
No. 31 Whelen Cadillac V-Series.R
Jack Aitken: “The start was a little hectic as always at a street circuit, but I kept the position and was hanging on to the coattails of the cars in front of us. The pace was pretty strong and when it came to that early yellow we decided to get the driver change and stop out the way early and try and make it to the end from there much like the rest of the field. I think if we’d been in a situation where there was another pit stop sequence, we might have been in in a position to challenge the guys in front. But passing on track is nearly impossible here, so Earl did a great job bringing it around and managing the fuel. Top five on a weekend when we didn’t look our strongest, I think it was a good result. It’s solid points and got a clean car at the end of it, so it’s good work for the championship.”
Earl Bamber: “I think the team did a fantastic job. Whenever you start here seventh and finish fourth, with a clean car or not a mark on it, I think that’s a pretty good day. I’m gutted for the team that we just missed a podium. I had one chance at it, but I thought he’d probably force me in the wall but he gave me the room, and he would have the inside for the next corner anyway. A great team result, great work in the pit lane. Now we just need to look ahead to Laguna for these guys. It’s a great working with Jack, Fred in for the next one, so I think sooner or later we’re going to get some podiums and we’ll get a win.”
No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R
Louis Delétraz: “Good points today. Not the result we want, but we had a clean race, no mistakes. We kept learning and improving, so that’s a positive. We will take all that to Laguna Seca and go get some silver because it’s time for it.”
Jordan Taylor: “For the race, we could have taken some risks for strategy. But once that first yellow came out, it kind of took that out of play. The name of the game from there was trying to not making mistakes and trying to capitalize on other people’s mistakes. Not our best weekend, but we go to test at Laguna next week, so hopefully we can learn some things there for the rest of the year.”
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Kyle Larson did not let an early denial of a tripleheader weekend sweep at Bristol Motor Speedway deter him from a dominant NASCAR Xfinity Series victory in the SciAps 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday, April 12.
The 2021 Cup Series champion from Elk Grove, California, led four times for a race-high 277 of 300 scheduled laps. After starting on the pole position, he flexed his muscles at the drop of the green flag and led the first 78 laps. Despite settling in third place after the first stage period due to mixed pit strategies, Larson quickly reassumed the lead by Lap 93, and he proceeded to claim the second stage victory.
Then, after losing the lead to Justin Allgaier at the start of the final stage period with 119 laps remaining, Larson returned the favor by bumping and moving Allgaier out of his path to reassume the top spot with less than 110 laps remaining. During the event’s final restart, with 75 laps remaining, Larson motored away from the field. He spent the remainder of the event keeping the competition trailing by a distance. With the lead in his grasp and no competition lurking within reach, Larson capped off his dominant run with a victory for Hendrick Motorsports in the Last Great Colosseum.
With on-track qualifying that determined the starting lineup occurring on Saturday, Larson notched his eighth Xfinity career pole position and his third at Bristol after he posted a pole-winning qualifying lap at 126.287 mph in 15.194 seconds. Joining Larson on the front row was rookie Connor Zilisch, who posted his best qualifying lap at 125.642 mph in 15.272 seconds.
Before the event, the following names, including rookie Christian Eckes, Mason Maggio, and Parker Retzlaff, dropped to the rear of the field due to unapproved adjustments to their respective entries.
Green Flag
When the green flag waved and the race started, Larson quickly rocketed his No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro entry ahead of Connor Zilisch from the outside lane, and he moved to the inside lane through the first two turns. In the process, Justin Allgaier, a Dash 4 Cash competitor, tried to pursue from the outside lane, but he ended up battling teammate Zilisch for the runner-up spot while Larson maintained the lead entering Turns 3 and 4. Larson proceeded to lead the first lap ahead of Zilisch and Allgaier, while Sam Mayer and rookie Carson Kvapil battled for fourth place in front of Sammy Smith and Ryan Sieg.
Prior to the third lap, the event’s first caution flew when Harrison Burton, who was racing in 11th place, fell off the pace through the frontstretch and the first two turns as he had a flat tire on his No. 25 DEX Imaging Ford Mustang entry. Behind Burton, Mason Maggio smacked the outside wall entering the frontstretch. The incident caused Maggio to limp his entry to a halt just shy of entering pit road before it was pushed behind the wall.
When the event restarted under green on the eighth lap, Larson rocketed ahead from the outside lane for a second consecutive time. He then fended off Allgaier and Zilisch through the first two turns and the backstretch to maintain the lead. Larson proceeded to lead to the Lap 10 mark ahead of Allgaier, Zilisch, Mayer, and Ryan Sieg. Rookies Nick Sanchez and Carson Kvapil, along with Sammy Smith, battled for sixth place in front of Jesse Love and Corey Heim.
Through the first 20 scheduled laps, Larson led a hard-charging Allgaier as Zilisch, Mayer, and Sanchez pursued in the top five. Ryan Sieg, Sammy Smith, Carson Kvapil, Corey Heim, and Jesse Love trailed in the top 10. Rookies William Sawalich and Taylor Gray, along with Jeb Burton, Sheldon Creed, and Brandon Jones, raced in the top 15.
Ten laps later, Larson retained the lead by within two-tenths of a second over Allgaier while Zilisch, Mayer, and Sanchez continued to pursue in the top-five mark. Larson would proceed to extend his advantage to more than a second over Allgaier by Lap 40 while third-place Zilisch trailed by more than three seconds. By then, top-five competitors Mayer and Ryan Sieg trailed by five seconds while Larson, who was mired in lapped traffic, had lapped competitors that were racing within the top-30 mark.
At the Lap 50 mark, Larson, who continued to navigate his way through a bevy of lapped traffic and was lapping competitors racing within the top-20 mark, grew his advantage to more than two seconds over Allgaier. While Zilisch, Mayer, and Ryan Sieg retained their respective spots in the top five, Larson maintained his large advantage over Allgaier through the Laps 60, 70, and 75 marks.
Then, on Lap 75, the caution returned for a vicious accident that started when Sheldon Creed, a Dash 4 Cash competitor who was racing in the top-15 mark, spun in Turn 4 after he was hit by rookie Dean Thompson. As Creed’s No. 00 Friends of Jaclyn Ford Mustang entry slid to a halt towards the outside lane, he was then T-boned into the left-front area by Brennan Poole, another Dash 4 Cash competitor, as Poole was sliding his No. 44 Macc Door Systems Chevrolet Camaro entry while trying to avoid Creed. Despite the incident that left both Creed and Poole with significantly damaged race cars and out from further contention, both were able to emerge uninjured. Their accident was enough for the event to be placed in a red flag period for 14 minutes.
When the red flag lifted and the field led by Larson resumed to a cautious pace, nearly the entire field led by Larson pitted for service while Sam Mayer and Ryan Sieg remained on the track.
With three laps remaining in the first stage period, the event restarted under green. At the start, Mayer launched ahead from the outside lane and Larson pursued while Ryan Sieg struggled to launch from the inside lane. As Larson tried to reel in Mayer from the outside lane, he then slid up the track, which allowed Sieg to challenge Larson back for the runner-up spot. Amid the battles within the field, Mayer retained the lead for the following two laps.
When the first stage period concluded on Lap 85, Mayer captured his first Xfinity stage victory of the 2025 season. Ryan Sieg followed suit in second ahead of Larson, Sammy Smith and Allgaier while Zilisch, Sanchez, Love, Kvapil and Brandon Jones were scored in the top 10, respectively.
Under the stage break, some led by Mayer and Ryan Sieg pitted their respective entries while the rest led by Larson, including those who pitted prior to the first stage’s conclusion, remained on the track. As a result, Larson cycled back into the lead.
The second stage period started on Lap 96 as Larson and Sammy Smith occupied the front row. At the start, Larson jumped ahead from the outside lane and Allgaier would follow suit through the first two turns and the backstretch. With Sammy Smith falling into a side-by-side battle with teammate Zilisch for third place, Larson led the following lap over Allgaier. Larson would proceed to lead to the Lap 100 mark over Allgaier while Zilisch, Sammy Smith and Kvapil in the top five. Love, Sanchez, Jones, Sawalich and Heim followed suit in the top 10 while Gray, Mayer, Jeb Burton, Ryan Sieg and Austin Hill trailed in the top 15, respectively.
Through the Lap 110 mark, Larson extended his advantage to more than two seconds over Allgaier and Sammy Smith while Zilisch and Kvapil trailed by within three seconds. With four JR Motorsports’ entries racing in the top five, the top-six spots were occupied by Chevrolet competitors as Love retained sixth place in front of Jones, Sawalich, Heim and Sanchez.
Fifteen laps later, Larson continued to grow his advantage as he was now leading by nearly four seconds. Behind, Sammy Smith, who overtook teammate Allgaier for the runner-up spot 12 laps earlier, retained the runner-up spot over Allgaier while their teammates Kvapil and Zilisch retained their respective spots in the top five.
Another 10 laps later, Larson, who was mired in lapped traffic, continued to lead by more than four seconds over Sammy Smith and Allgaier while Kvapil and Zilisch trailed in the top five by five and six seconds, respectively. With a little over half of the 38-car field still scored on the lead lap amid Larson’s surge to lap those racing towards the rear of the field, Love, Jones, Sawalich, Heim and Mayer trailed in the top-10 mark while Larson led to the Lap 140 mark.
Halfway Mark
Photo by Christian Gardner for SpeedwayMedia.com
At the halfway mark on Lap 150, only 18 competitors were scored on the lead lap as Larson retained the lead by nearly five seconds over Sammy Smith. By then, Allgaier, Kvapil and Zilisch continued to race in the top five ahead of Love, Jones, Sawalich, Heim and Mayer while Ryan Sieg, Dean Thompson, Sanchez, Christian Eckes, Jeb Burton, Austin Hill, rookie Taylor Gray and Justin Bonsignore rounded out the lead lap field.
Ten laps later, Larson’s advantage grew to seven seconds over both Allgaier and Sammy Smith while Jeb Burton and Eckes were about to be lapped by Larson. By then, Allgaier capitalized on teammate Smith navigating through lapped traffic to reclaim the runner-up spot.
When the second stage period concluded on Lap 170, Larson, who lapped all but the top-12 competitors, cruised to his second Xfinity stage victory of the 2025 season. JR Motorsports’ Allgaier, Sammy Smith, Kvapil and Zilisch followed suit in the top five while Love, Jones, Heim, Sawalich and Mayer were scored in the top 10, respectively.
During the stage break, the lead lap field led by Larson pitted for service. Following the pit stops, Larson exited pit road first and he was followed by Allgaier, Sammy Smith, Kvapil, Love, Jones, Zilisch, Sawalich, Heim and Mayer, respectively.
With 119 laps remaining, the final stage period commenced as Larson and Allgaier occupied the front row. At the start, Allgaier used the inside lane to launch ahead and assume the lead from Larson through the first two turns. Through the backstretch, the No. 7 Jarrett Logistics Chevrolet Camaro entry that was piloted by Allgaier was leading as the reigning series champion led the following lap. Allgaier would proceed to lead with 115 laps remaining over Larson as Sammy Smith, Love and Kvapil followed suit in the top five ahead of Zilisch, Sawalich, Jones, Heim and Dean Thompson.
With 110 laps remaining, Allgaier led by a tenth of a second over Larson before the latter bumped and reassumed the top spot from the former entering the first two turns during the following lap. Larson would proceed to lead by half a second over Allgaier with 100 laps remaining as Sammy Smith, Kvapil, Love and Zilisch trailed in the top six.
Then within the final 90 laps, the caution returned due to the lapped competitor of Mason Massey spinning in the frontstretch after Allgaier steered from the top to the bottom of the track, where he rammed and sent Massey sideways through the frontstretch. Not long after and as the field reduced pace due to Massey’s incident, Sawalich collided into the rear of Zilisch and sustained significant front nose damage that ended Sawalich’s strong run in the top-10 mark.
During the caution period, some led by Jones and including Heim, Mayer, Ryan Sieg, Eckes, rookie Daniel Dye and Anthony Alfredo pitted their respective entries while the rest led by Larson remained on the track.
The start of the following restart, with 75 laps remaining, featured Larson jumping ahead from the outside lane. He fended off Allgaier to maintain the lead for a full lap as he led the following lap. As Larson led, Allgaier retained the runner-up spot over a hard-charging Love before the latter started to challenge the former for the spot. With Allgaier and Love continuing to battle for second in front of Kvapil, Sammy Smith and Zilisch, Larson led by more than half a second with 70 laps remaining.
With 60 laps remaining, Larson was out in front by a second over Allgaier while Love trailed by two seconds. By then, Love retained third place ahead of Kvapil, Sammy Smith, and Zilisch while Thompson, Jones, Ryan Sieg and Eckes raced in the top 10 ahead of Heim, Sam Mayer, Daniel Dye, Josh Williams, and Anthony Alfredo.
Down to the final 50 laps of the event, Larson stretched his advantage to more than a second over Allgaier while Kvapil, Love, and Sammy Smith trailed the lead in the top-five mark by three seconds. Behind, top-10 racers Zilisch, Thompson, Jons, Ryan Sieg, and Eckes trailed by within five and six seconds as Larson stabilized his lead to more than a second with 40 laps remaining.
As the event reached its final 30-lap mark, Larson retained his lead to more than a second over Allgaier as Kvapil, Love, and Sammy Smith remained in the top five, respectively. With Larson slowly approaching lapped traffic, Larson kept leading by more than a second with 20 laps remaining while a battle for the runner-up spot was brewing between Allgaier and Kvapil.
Down to the final 10 laps of the event, Larson, who was navigating through lapped traffic, continued to lead by more than a second over Allgaier and Kvapil, with Allgaier maintaining the runner-up spot over Kvapil. Fourth-place Sammy Smith trailed by more than five seconds, and fifth-place Jones trailed by six seconds. Larson retained the lead with five laps remaining while only 12 competitors were scored on the lead lap.
Final Lap
When the white flag waved and the final lap started, Larson, who was approaching the lapped competitor of Justin Bonsignore and Zilisch, the latter of whom was the final competitor scored on the lead lap in 12th place, remained in the lead by nearly two seconds over Kvapil as the latter assumed the spot from Allgaier a lap earlier. With the competition providing no final-lap charges, Larson was able to smoothly cruise his way around the Last Great Colosseum for a final time before he returned to the frontstretch and streaked across the finish line for the checkered flag and to cap off his dominant run with a victory.
With the victory, Larson notched his 16th career win in the Xfinity Series division, his first in the series since he won at Circuit of the Americas in March 2024 and his first at Bristol since August 2018. The victory was the 26th overall in the Xfinity division for Hendrick Motorsports, the organization’s first victory at Bristol since March 2006, the third for Hendrick’s No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet team and the first for crew chief Adam Wall.
Amid the victory celebrations, Larson dedicated his Bristol victory to Jon Edwards, Hendrick Motorsports’ director of racing communications, who passed away earlier this week.
“I just love this place, especially in Xfinity,” Larson said on the frontstretch on the CW Network. “You can move around and traffic is just a lot of fun, so [I] just felt like when I could get to traffic, I could get picking people off. Justin [Allgaier] did a good job of hanging with me there that last run. The pressure was on a little bit, but we just had a good enough car to get to the lead, stay in the lead, and be really good in traffic.
“It’s awesome. I wish I could’ve won last night, but just came up a little bit short. Cool to get a win this weekend for Jon [Edwards] and everybody who’s been a part of his life and all that. We got one more [race] tomorrow. It would be nothing better than to cap it off with a Cup win for Jon, all of Hendrick Motorsports. [I] Just look forward to it, have a great car there for tomorrow and just got to execute like we did today.”
Amid Larson’s race victory, Justin Allgaier, who finished in third place, claimed the third Dash 4 Cash bonus of the 2025 season and his second of the year. In total, Allgaier has achieved the program’s bonus of $100,000 seven times, including his first of the year in late March at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Photo by Christian Gardner for SpeedwayMedia.com
“I’m frustrated at the day that we had just because this place has been so good for us in the past,” Allgaier said. “Obviously, Kyle [Larson] did a great job. I was proud of our team. It’s hard to be upset, but at the same time, our Jarrett Logistics Chevrolet just needed a little bit. Proud of the team. Obviously, winning the Dash 4 Cash is a big deal. [We] Locked three of the four [Dash 4 Cash spots] in next week for JR Motorsports. Those are big steps. I’m excited to get back [to Rockingham]. Historic race track on the schedule. We’ll go have some fun and see what happens.”
Rookie Carson Kvapil claimed the runner-up spot ahead of Allgaier while Sammy Smith and Brandon Jones finished in the top five on the track. As a result of being the top-four highest-finishing Xfinity Series regulars, Kvapil, Allgaier, Smith and Jones will contend for the fourth and final Dash 4 Cash bonus of the 2025 season next Saturday, April 19, during the series’ return to Rockingham Speedway in Rockingham, North Carolina.
Jesse Love, Ryan Sieg, Corey Heim, Christian Eckes and Dean Thompson completed the top 10 in the final running order while Sam Mayer and Connor Zilisch rounded out the 12-car field that remained on the lead lap.
There were eight lead changes for five different leaders. The race featured five cautions for 44 laps.
Following the ninth event of the 2025 Xfinity Series season, Justin Allgaier leads the regular-season standings by 83 points over Sam Mayer, 109 over Jesse Love, 115 over Austin Hill and 135 over Connor Zilisch.
Race Results:
1. Kyle Larson, 272 laps led, Stage 2 winner 2. Carson Kvapil 3. Justin Allgaier, nine laps led 4. Sammy Smith, two laps led 5. Brandon Jones 6. Jesse Love 7. Ryan Sieg, one lap led 8. Corey Heim 9. Christian Eckes 10. Dean Thompson 11. Sam Mayer, 12 laps led 12. Connor Zilisch 13. Daniel Dye, one lap down 14. Josh Williams, one lap down 15. Anthony Alfredo, one lap down 16. Nick Sanchez, one lap down 17. Justin Bonsignore, two laps down 18. Parker Retzlaff, two laps down 19. Taylor Gray, two laps down 20. Jeremy Clements, two laps down 21. Jeb Burton, two laps down 22. Kyle Sieg, two laps down 23. Matt DiBenedetto, two laps down 24. Austin Hill, two laps down 25. Mason Massey, three laps down 26. Harrison Burton, four laps down 27. Ryan Ellis, five laps down 28. Thomas Annunziata, six laps down 29. Garrett Smithley, six laps down 30. Blaine Perkins, six laps down 31. Kris Wright, seven laps down 32. Greg Van Alst, 10 laps down 33. CJ McLaughlin, 11 laps down 34. William Sawalich – OUT, Accident 35. Alex Labbe – OUT, Power 36. Brennan Poole – OUT, Accident 37. Sheldon Creed – OUT, Accident 38. Mason Maggio – OUT, Accident
Next on the 2025 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule is the series’ return to Rockingham Speedway for the North Carolina Education Lottery 250. The event is scheduled to occur next Saturday, April 19, and air at 4 p.m. ET on the CW Network.
Kalitta, Lee and Anderson all pick up No. 1 qualifiers at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
LAS VEGAS (April 12, 2025) – The final pass of Saturday at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway proved to be a great one for Doug Kalitta, as the former Top Fuel world champion picked up the win in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge and rolled to the No. 1 position in one impressive pass at the 25th annual NHRA 4-Wide Nationals.
Spencer Hyde (Funny Car) and Dallas Glenn (Pro Stock) also won the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge bonus race on Saturday, while Paul Lee (Funny Car) and Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) qualified No. 1 at the fourth of 20 races during the 2025 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season.
Kalitta went 3.730-seconds at 331.04 mph in his 11,000-horsepower Mac Tools dragster in a standout quad that featured No. 2 qualifier Brittany Force, Tony Stewart and Clay Millican, handing the former world champion his second No. 1 qualifier of the year and 60th in his remarkable career. Kalitta Motorsports teammate Shawn Langdon won the first two Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenges this year, as Kalitta kept the Top Fuel team perfect this season in the bonus race.
Kalitta will take on Justin Ashley and Clay Millican in the opening round on Sunday, looking to repeat last year’s four-wide win in Las Vegas and sweep the weekend. He was also the No. 1 qualifier last April before rolling to the victory.
“Yeah, I really like the format, being able to race on Saturdays. It’s brought a lot more to the fans,” Kalitta said. “I think they’re all engaged a little more on Saturdays. We ended up winning this race last year. So, for me, coming to these races that you won the previous year, you really want to get it done again.
“Besides Pomona, I think this is the closest track to where Alan [Johnson, crew chief] lives, so he typically has a lot of people that come out. So, I’m going to have to give the love to Alan on this one, because this is like his home track and maybe has something to do with it.” Force’s 3.754 at 333.16 in that same quad on Saturday put her second, while Antron Brown jumped to third after going 3.787 at 326.08.
In Funny Car, Spencer Hyde’s rookie season continues to progress at a rapid rate, as the newcomer picked up the win in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge with a run of 3.968 at 318.54 in his 11,000-horsepower Head Contractors & Engineers Ford Mustang. After not qualifying at the first two races, Hyde has made rapid improvements, advancing to the semifinals at the most recent race in Pomona.
That put him in the bonus race in Las Vegas and Hyde took advantage on Saturday in a major way, winning a quad that featured Cruz Pedregon, Matt Hagan and Chad Green. The car has performed at a consistent clip the past two races and Hyde been on his game. He thrilled with Saturday’s outcome, marking his first major accomplishment in the NHRA ranks.
“It’s pretty cool. Obviously, we had a little rough start to the season — didn’t qualify in Gainesville, didn’t qualify in Phoenix — but we’re putting that behind us,” Hyde said. “We had a great outing in Pomona, going to the semifinals and obviously here with this win. I’m getting more comfortable in the car, getting some good, clean runs in.
“That’s the first time it’s blown up on me at the finish line, so that was exciting. I’ve been waiting for the last couple runs. I knew it dropped a hole [cylinder] in the last run, and it’s not if, it’s when in these things, so I just been kind of waiting for it. It wasn’t too bad it — just popped blower off – but there was no big fireball or anything, so all good.”
Paul Lee was challenged by Austin Prock on Saturday, but he maintained the No. 1 qualifying spot for the first time this season on the strength of Friday’s 3.940 at 326.08 in his 11,000-horsepower McLeod/FTI Performance Dodge Charger SRT.
It’s his second career top spot and he finished Saturday with a strong 3.981, giving him confidence for Sunday. His opening quad includes Daniel Wilkerson, Bob Tasca III and Gainesville winner Chad Green as Lee aims for his second win in three races.
“We feel good about tomorrow. That [3.981 in Q4], was going to be a low 3.90, but it dropped a hole about half track and slowed up,” Lee said. “This has been our goal, to be a top-five car. We want to be able to roll in the gate and be able to win a race, and we’re getting there.”
Prock is currently second with a 3.948 at 322.58 and Hyde’s 3.965 at 320.20 has him third.
Dallas Glenn won a thrilling Pro Stock final in the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge on Saturday, winning over KB Titan Racing teammate Greg Anderson on a holeshot with a run of 6.637 at 206.13. Anderson was quicker with a 6.614, but Glenn’s strong .022 reaction time handed the young standout his first victory of the season in the specialty race in his RAD Torque Systems Chevrolet Camaro.
“I’m really thrilled, because three of us basically staged at the same time, and then I didn’t feel like I hit the tree,” Glenn said. “I was happy to see I was .022, and then the car made a right turn. I was out in the weeds and it was spinning and bouncing. It was a little more shocking to see the win light come on.
“It was definitely a big confidence boost. You know, I feel like we’re still working on the car. We’re still getting a little bit better, and I feel like I can miss it and still be .022, so I’m definitely feeling more comfortable in the car, too. We have a lot of momentum going into Sunday.”
That run from Anderson gave him the quickest pass in both sessions on Saturday, as he qualified in the No. 1 spot in his HendrickCars.com Camaro for the third time this season and the 135th time in his career. He’ll look for his third straight win on Sunday, starting with an opening-round quad that also features Cristian Cuadra, Jeg Coughlin Jr. and Eric Latino.
“I feel fantastic about the car, the loose nut behind the wheel, maybe not so much,” Anderson said. “Just the four-wide is a tricky deal. We both hit the light at the exact same time and every time that seems to happen, it seems like it’s an extra-long light. That’s my kryptonite against me every time and it got me.
“Bottom line is, I’m proud of the guys. I’m proud of the product we’ve got out here. I’m proud of the race cars everybody under this KB Titan banner right now. It’s a hell of a feeling, like I said, a proud papa. We’ll come back tomorrow with a little bit more fire in the belly and hopefully close the deal, because I don’t like to lose.”
Cody Coughlin qualified second with a 6.636 at 205.60 and Glenn took third. Remarkably, six-time Pro Stock champion Erica Enders, whose 10 wins in Las Vegas are the most in NHRA history at the track, did not qualify. It’s the first time the 49-time event winner hasn’t qualified since the Charlotte fall race in 2016, a span of nearly nine years.
Eliminations for the 25th annual NHRA 4-Wide Nationals begin at 12 p.m. PT on Sunday at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
LAS VEGAS — First-round pairings for professional eliminations Sunday for the 25th annual NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the fourth of 20 events in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series. Pairings based on results in qualifying, which ended Saturday. DNQs listed below pairings.
Top Fuel — 1. Doug Kalitta, 3.730 seconds, 331.04 mph vs. Bye vs. vs. 8. Justin Ashley, 3.876, 315.27 vs. 9. Clay Millican, 3.915, 299.26; 2. Brittany Force, 3.754, 333.16 vs. 15. Terry Totten, 7.101, 130.34 vs. 7. Shawn Reed, 3.847, 322.65 vs. 10. Josh Hart, 3.918, 310.20; 3. Antron Brown, 3.787, 326.08 vs. 14. Scott Palmer, 5.410, 115.49 vs. 6. Jasmine Salinas, 3.840, 321.73 vs. 11. Shawn Langdon, 3.952, 286.98; 4. Steve Torrence, 3.809, 332.02 vs. 13. Steven Chrisman, 4.830, 158.20 vs. 5. Tony Stewart, 3.821, 321.96 vs. 12. Rob Passey, 4.800, 237.13.
Funny Car — 1. Paul Lee, Dodge Charger, 3.940, 326.08 vs. 16. Chad Green, Ford Mustang, 4.197, 272.06 vs. 8. Daniel Wilkerson, Mustang, 4.011, 324.51 vs. 9. Bob Tasca III, Mustang, 4.023, 315.05; 2. Austin Prock, Chevy Camaro, 3.948, 325.22 vs. 15. Jason Rupert, Mustang, 4.154, 305.01 vs. 7. Cruz Pedregon, Charger, 3.990, 325.37 vs. 10. Ron Capps, Toyota GR Supra, 4.055, 313.88; 3. Spencer Hyde, Mustang, 3.965, 320.20 vs. 14. Buddy Hull, Charger, 4.115, 301.27 vs. 6. Hunter Green, Charger, 3.980, 322.42 vs. 11. Dave Richards, Mustang, 4.064, 304.53; 4. J.R. Todd, GR Supra, 3.970, 324.51 vs. 13. Bobby Bode, GR Supra, 4.102, 305.84 vs. 5. Jack Beckman, Camaro, 3.972, 321.50 vs. 12. Matt Hagan, Charger, 4.071, 315.19.
Did Not Qualify: 17. Alexis DeJoria, 4.250, 285.47; 18. Dylan Winefsky, 4.271, 284.15; 19. Jeff Diehl, 4.516, 198.61.
Pro Stock — 1. Greg Anderson, Chevy Camaro, 6.614, 206.35 vs. 16. Eric Latino, Camaro, 6.693, 204.01 vs. 8. Cristian Cuadra, Ford Mustang, 6.654, 205.29 vs. 9. Jeg Coughlin, Camaro, 6.669, 205.44; 2. Cody Coughlin, Camaro, 6.636, 205.60 vs. 15. Chris McGaha, Camaro, 6.693, 204.32 vs. 7. Deric Kramer, Camaro, 6.654, 206.48 vs. 10. Matt Latino, Camaro, 6.671, 205.98; 3. Dallas Glenn, Camaro, 6.637, 206.13 vs. 14. David Cuadra, Camaro, 6.685, 203.98 vs. 6. Mason McGaha, Camaro, 6.653, 205.88 vs. 11. Aaron Stanfield, Camaro, 6.671, 205.72; 4. Matt Hartford, Camaro, 6.639, 206.16 vs. 13. Fernando Cuadra Jr., Camaro, 6.683, 204.35 vs. 5. Cory Reed, Camaro, 6.640, 205.79 vs. 12. Brandon Foster, Camaro, 6.671, 205.04.
JONES ADDS ANOTHER TOP-FIVE RUN TO STRONG START TO SEASON AT BRISTOL Sam Hunt Racing puts two Supras in the top-10 for the third time in team history
BRISTOL, Tenn. (April 12, 2025) – Brandon Jones followed his Darlington win with a fifth-place run to lead Toyota in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday evening. He continues his performance surge with his fifth top-10 in the last six races. With the finish, Jones is eligible for the Dash 4 Cash bonus in Rockingham next weekend.
It was also a stellar day for Sam Hunt Racing (SHR) as Corey Heim (eighth) and Dean Thompson (10th) put both of the team’s Supras inside the top-10 finishers. It is the third time in team history that SHR has earned two top-10 finishes in the same race (Darlington-1, 2023; Road America, 2023).
Toyota Racing Post-Race Recap NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) Bristol Motor Speedway Race 9 of 33 – 159.9 miles, 300 laps
TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS
1st, Kyle Larson* 2nd, Carson Kvapil* 3rd, Justin Allgaier* 4th, Sammy Smith* 5th, BRANDON JONES 8th, COREY HEIM 10th, DEAN THOMPSON 17th, JUSTIN BONSIGNORE 19th, TAYLOR GRAY 34th, WILLIAM SAWALICH *non-Toyota driver
TOYOTA QUOTES
BRANDON JONES, No. 20 Menards/Pelonis Toyota GR Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 5th
Another top-five for you. How good does it feel to have the team clicking?
“We kind really struggled today. It wasn’t one of our better race cars that we’ve brought to the table. I think on these kind of days – that is what you have to do. You have to put yourself in a position to capitalize and get a finish out of it. Definitely didn’t have the car to go out and contend today – we have some work to do when we get back – but really proud. These guys on pit road – I say it every single weekend – they are the saving grace when you have days like this. It is all about track position when you behind a little bit on adjustments. They just do such a good job to get me where I need to be. Everyone at Pelonis, thank you so much, Menards – it means a lot to have them on our Supra. I think going to another good race track next week in the Dash 4 Cash.”
COREY HEIM, No. 24 Upper Deck Toyota GR Supra, Sam Hunt Racing
Finishing Position: 8th
Can you tell us about your race?
“Yeah, overall, I feel like it was a pretty good day for us. Could never really get past that top-10 to top-five barrier, per say, but really proud of all the adjustments over the pit stops. We made a lot of improvements really overall since our first two races at Sam Hunt Racing in 2025. Really proud of my guys on this Upper Deck Supra. Thankful for Toyota and everything they do.”
DEAN THOMPSON, No. 26 Thompson Pipe Group Toyota GR Supra, Sam Hunt Racing
Finishing Position: 10th
What did you learn today and what can you take to Rockingham?
“I feel like I we’ve got good momentum with the Thompson Pipe Group Supra team. We’ve been getting better. I’m looking forward to Rockingham because we’ve tested there, so it is finally a track that I’ve been at in this car. It is not super new. I feel like it will even out the playing field for me. Looking forward to that. Good, solid day.”
SAM HUNT, owner, Sam Hunt Racing
Adding to team history today – what does it mean to have both of your cars in the top-10?
“Great day for the company. Proud of both drivers. They raced clean all day. They ran smart races. I really can’t say enough about this Sam Hunt Racing team – the crew chiefs. We brought two really, really good race cars this week and days like this mean a lot to everyone that is a part of our place. Couldn’t do it without Toyota. It is really cool to see all of these people smiling and rewarded for all of the hard work they put in.”
WILLIAM SAWALICH, No. 18 Soundgear Toyota GR Supra, Joe Gibbs Racing
Finishing Position: 34th
Can you walk me through what happened?
“We were just running normal laps and everyone checked up off of (turn) four. It sucks for my 18 team. They put in a lot of hard work to make the car good. Our Soundgear GR Supra was pretty dang good. Proud to say that. Finally got back on track, and unfortunately got collected in this, but will be back in Rockingham.”
About Toyota
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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.
Alex Bowman notched his second Busch Light Pole Award of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season for the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday, April 12.
The event’s starting lineup was determined through a standard practice and qualifying procedure. The field was split into two 25-minute practice sessions apiece before rejoining forces and participating in one two-lap qualifying session (impound). The groups and qualifying order were determined by metrics that included 70% based on previous race finish by owner and 30% based on owner points standings, with the best scoring competitors placed in the second group.
During the qualifying session, Bowman, the 10th-fastest competitor during the event’s practice session earlier on Saturday, posted a pole-winning lap at 128.675 mph in 14.912 seconds. Bowman’s lap was enough for the Tucson, Arizona, native to place his No. 48 Ally/Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet entry at the top of the qualifying chart as he will lead the field to the start of Sunday’s main event at the Last Great Colosseum.
With the pole, Bowman joined his teammate William Byron as the only competitors to notch multiple Cup Series poles through the first of nine scheduled events. Bowman’s previous pole of this year occurred at Homestead-Miami Speedway in late March and the Bristol pole award is the second in a row at Bristol and the seventh of his career.
Amid the celebrations of his pole award, Bowman dedicated his award to Jon Edwards, Hendrick Motorsports’ director of racing communications, who passed away earlier this week.
“[The pole] feels really good,” Bowman said on Prime Video. “Just proud of our Ally No. 48 team. Excited for a tire management race. It’s gonna be a lot of fun. We’ll see what we got.”
Bowman, the fastest competitor in Saturday’s practice session, will share the front row with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. after posting his best qualifying lap at 128.563 mph in 14.925 seconds. He was also the fastest competitor during Saturday’s practice session
Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin and Ryan Blaney qualified in the top five. Ty Gibbs, Christopher Bell, AJ Allmendinger, Carson Hocevar and Justin Haley completed the top-10 starting grid.
Notably, the following names that included Josh Berry, Michael McDowell, Chase Briscoe, Brad Keselowski, Austin Dillon, Chase Elliott, Austin Cindric, Bubba Wallace, Daniel Suarez, Chris Buescher, rookie Riley Herbst, William Byron, Tyler Reddick, Erik Jones, Ryan Preece, Noah Gragson, Ross Chastain, rookie Shane van Gisbergen and Corey LaJoie qualified 11th, 13th, 14th, 16th, 17th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th, 31st, 35th, 36th and 37th, respectively. In addition, Jesse Love qualified 19th for his Cup Series debut.
During the qualifying session, Kyle Busch spun in between Turns 3 and 4 but claimed the 15th starting spot. And he did so without sustaining any significant damage to his No. 8 Cheddar’s/Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet entry. On the contrary, Joey Logano got loose and hit the outside wall in Turn 2 while posting his qualifying lap. The incident resulted in Logano settling in the 38th starting spot.
With 39 competitors vying for 39 starting spots, all of the competitors made the main event.
NASCAR CUP SERIES BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY TEAM CHEVY POST-QUALIFYING REPORT APRIL 12, 2025
Bowman, Stenhouse Jr. Give Chevrolet a Front-Row Sweep at Bristol Motor Speedway
TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 STARTING LINEUP: POS. DRIVER 1st – Alex Bowman 2nd – Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 3rd – Kyle Larson 8th – AJ Allmendinger 9th – Carson Hocevar 10th – Justin Haley
For the second time this season, Alex Bowman and the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team will lead the NASCAR Cup Series to the green flag from the pole position. Posting top-10 speeds on the final practice leaderboard, the 31-year-old Tucson, Arizona, native went on to lay down a best lap of 14.912 seconds, at 128.675 mph, in his Chevrolet to earn the pole position for tomorrow’s Food City 500.
The pole – Bowman’s seventh all-time in his NASCAR Cup Series career – marks his second in the division at “The Last Great Colosseum”, with the Hendrick Motorsports driver also earning the pole in the series’ most recent visit to the Tennessee venue in Sept. 2024.
Bowman’s pole-winning effort marked Chevrolet’s fifth NASCAR Cup Series pole of the 2025 season; the manufacturer’s 41st all-time at Bristol Motor Speedway; and its 758th all-time in NASCAR’s top division – all of which are series-leading feats.
Four different Chevrolet organizations earned top-10 qualifying efforts for tomorrow’s 500-lap race, with Hyak Motorsports’ Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and the No. 47 Chevrolet team earning their season-best qualifying effort of second to give Chevrolet a sweep of the front-row. Joining their fellow Chevrolet teammates in the top-10 includes Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson in third; Kaulig Racing’s AJ Allmendinger in eighth; and Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar and Justin Haley in the ninth and tenth positions, respectively.
Chevrolet’s all-time NASCAR Cup Series statistics at Bristol Motor Speedway:
Wins: 47 Poles: 41 Top-Fives: 222 Top-10s: 464
Chevrolet’s season statistics heading into the ninth race of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Season
Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet – Pole Win Press Conference Quotes
Do we have any clue what we’re about to experience going into tomorrow, or are you and us all as clueless as we were going into last spring?
“I think all signs point to a race like this spring. We started practice with rubber already on the racetrack from the Xfinity cars, and peeled it right up, and sawed the tires right off. So, yeah, confusing why we’re doing it again when we didn’t do it in the fall. I don’t think the weather — obviously it’s really cold today, but I don’t know. It’s going to be warmer tomorrow, so maybe that changes it.
It’s really difficult to say. I think it’s going to be like that, but we’re going to find out together, I think.”
What did you see as the key on your qualifying lap? Was it going out early and having the cooler conditions, or something you found on track?
“Honestly, it really wasn’t the best lap for me. I kind of over-slowed entry to (turn) three, I thought. So, yeah, just probably going out early. Typically, this place trends that the later cars are faster. But, you know, obviously today’s scenario with tires are vastly different than what the racetrack is doing. So, yeah, hard to say. Certainly was watching the clouds there at the end… there were some big clouds coming. The 24 and the 11, guys that tagged the wall at the very end, I knew they were going to be good. So, yeah, happy that it held on.”
Alex, you said it’s a little bit of Deja vu towards last spring. There are a lot of new guys in this field. Jesse Love, for instance, making his first start. What is the conversation to a guy like that who, one, hasn’t been in a Cup car at this level on this track before, and two, has to deal with these tire wear issues?
“Yeah, so I think we’re all much more prepared than we were last spring. We all saw it in practice last spring, and we were like, ah, it won’t be that way. We see that in practice in a lot of places. Martinsville, Dover, a lot of places you cord tires really quickly, and then it goes away in the race.
So, obviously we found out quickly during the race that it wasn’t going to be that way. But, you know, a guy like Jesse that hasn’t run a Cup car before, I feel like the Xfinity car has way more tire fall-off anyway. And you have to be way more mindful of how you build those tires up on those cars. So I think he’ll be fine. I’m sure he watched the spring race, as did everybody last year. So, yeah, I mean I think everybody knows how to approach it now and is going to try to manage the tires the best they can. I was happy with my car and how it held on to tires in practice, so I’m excited for having a shot at it tomorrow.”
Can you give me a sense of what you as a driver have to do in terms of managing the tires for this race, potentially tomorrow, compared to what you did in the car last fall when you didn’t have to worry about it? What more are we going to see you guys do, or can you give us a sense of what more you’re going to have to do inside the car that we can’t see?
“Yeah, I mean honestly, in the spring last year, we rode around at what felt like half speed all day, and I thought I was going to get out of the car and everybody was going to be mad because we didn’t run hard all day. Everybody loved it because there was so much chaos. So in the fall, we just ran hard all day. You run hard every lap, and that’s kind of what Cup racing has become these days… how hard you have to run the car. There are some places you have to manage, but for the most part, you’re ten-tenths every lap. I think tomorrow, it’s really going to depend on when the cautions come out and what they do. Like you look at the end of that spring race, and we didn’t get any cautions for a lot of things that could have been cautions, probably. But at the beginning of the race, we were getting cautions all the time. So there’s two ways to predict that, right? If you save too much and you keep getting all these cautions, you’re just giving away track position. But if you don’t get the cautions and you run too hard, you’re killed on that, too.
So it’ll be interesting to see what the mindset is there and what the reality that we live in is tomorrow, as far as what the tires do with it being a little warmer and where we go. So I think the biggest thing is it’s going to be a ton of learning on the go because as much as we all think we know exactly what it’s going to do from practice, we probably really don’t have a clue, and we’re going to have to learn as we go.”
Can you give me a sense of what do you do between now and tomorrow’s race? I know there’s always homework to do for any driver, but does it change because of the uncertain or what it’s likely to be tomorrow, or does it make it easier because you say it’s learning on the go and you watch some sports on TV or something?
“Yeah, I don’t think they ever let us get away with ‘go watch some sports on TV’, at least for me. I’ve got to try really hard to run remotely good. But yeah, I think for me, probably look at the guys that ran really well in the spring, that finished well, and how they managed the race. I think at the end of the race, we were one of them. But throughout the majority of the race, we saved too much and kept getting those cautions. So it’ll be interesting to see where that winds up. But yeah, probably look at the guys that were good in the spring, and then if there’s not tire wear, you feel like you wasted a couple of hours. But we’ll see.”
When you have to find out about the tire wear during the race, what’s that like? What is it for the fans like racing when you’re having to… do you have to pay more attention? And the guys will be working on the pit box like crazy. But what’s it like for you when it’s like that?
Yeah, for me, it’s fun, I would say. Just something different, right? Different than the normal every week, run ten-tenths every lap. I feel like it gives drivers more opportunity to play a hand in how your day goes, just based on little things you can do.
But sometimes, obviously, you have a car to make those opportunities, and sometimes you don’t. So yeah, I enjoy that side of things. And yeah, I’m just probably as curious as all you guys are. I don’t really have the answer. I’m really curious on how it’s going to go. I’d say everybody’s going to ride around the first run, and if people start falling off a cliff with tire wear, we’ll all know it’s coming. And if the tires don’t wear out, then we’ll just progressively run harder throughout the course of the day.”
Chase Elliott said that last race he felt that it was relentless. He never could let up. When you’re having to learn during, and you like that, is that still going to be pretty relentless, or it’s just a puzzle for you?
“Yeah, I guess I wouldn’t have described it that way. The spring race, to me, was a lot of riding around and chilling out and being sad that the caution came out because you couldn’t save the tires for 40 laps. And then, obviously, it paid off for us in the end.
But yeah, I thought that was more of a mental game than anything, and just trying to know how to load the race car and feel the car to build it in the right direction and to take care of your stuff.”
I talked to Blake Harris and he basically said you’re executing at a very high level right now. He said you spend as much time in the shop as he does, just about. What kind of commitment does it take to excel at the level you guys are performing right now?
“Yeah, that’s Blake (Harris) being nice. He’s in the shop way more than me (laughs). But yeah, I try to hang out with the guys a little bit during the week when they don’t have me doing anything. I get some free time. I live pretty close to the shop, so it’s easy to take one of the dogs over there and go hang out, sit around the setup plate. But yeah, I mean just trying to be successful. Obviously, we saw that in the playoffs last year that we all bought in and worked really hard and found success, and just trying to keep that going. Obviously, it’s been a rough two weeks on the 48 team. Last week, I did not execute at a high level. I drove the race car into the fence at a high rate of speed. But I think just trying to be better every week and work as hard as it takes to continue to run well.”
Some drivers relish having managed tires in these kind of races where it’s on them. Where do you fall on that spectrum?
“I love it. I think it’s great. I think that really comes from when I first came to stock car racing. You know, you ran the same tire for the whole race. The very first race was Greenville Pickens. We rolled around in 24th all day, and then drove through the field like it was nobody’s business at the end, and almost won the thing. I think we ended up second or third.
From then on, I’ve loved tire management. I think it’s fun. It’s a fun mental game to play, and yeah, hopefully you’re on the good side of it. You don’t always get it right, but I do enjoy it.”
What is the art of saving tires?
“I mean, I guess I just drive slower than everybody. I do that most weeks, but on weeks like this, it pays off.
I don’t know. We’ll see tomorrow. I think it’s interesting when guys cord their tires and which tire they cord and how that makes them fall off. It’s interesting how the progression goes. So just trying to probably cord the correct tire; manage your builds and save yourself as long as you can. I wasn’t in the front of the field much in the spring until the end, and those guys — it was kind of funny how one guy would go lead and start to slow down, and another guy would go lead. Nobody wanted to lead and set the pace, so we’ll see how it goes.”
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LONG BEACH, Calif. (Saturday, April 12, 2025) – Just when it appeared reigning NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion and points leader Alex Palou looked invincible on the streets of Long Beach, Andretti Global stepped forward to make a statement by locking out the front row in qualifying Saturday for the 50th Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach.
Kyle Kirkwood earned his first NTT P1 Award of the season and third of his career with a top lap of 1 minute, 6.1921 seconds in the No. 27 PreFab Honda on his last lap in the Firestone Fast Six. Kirkwood’s first career pole also came at Long Beach, in 2023 when he also won the race on the iconic 11-turn, 1.968-mile Southern California temporary street circuit.
“When you’re in an Andretti Global car at Long Beach, you know you’re going to be quick,” Kirkwood said. “You’ve got to be so happy with that, right? A front-row Andretti Global lockout here at Long Beach.
“I’m shaking. That was great. That was such a good lap, such a good qualifying. Fortunately, I didn’t put any wheel wrong or hit anything. That’s always a question here at street courses. You’ve got to send it to get that top spot.”
Southern California native Colton Herta qualified second at 1:06.4232 in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda. It was the first front-row lockout for Andretti Global since the Honda Indy Toronto last July, when Herta won the pole and Kirkwood qualified second. Herta also won that race.
Palou, who has won the first two races this season, qualified third at 1:06.6254 in the No. 10 DHL Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. Felix Rosenqvist took advantage of misfortune by a competitor in the second round to earn a spot in the Firestone Fast Six and qualify fourth at 1:06.6358 in the No. 60 SiriusXM Honda of Meyer Shank Racing.
Marcus Ericsson was the third Andretti Global driver in the top five, qualifying fifth at 1:06.7061 in the No. 28 Bryant Honda. Scott McLaughlin will share the third row on the starting grid with Ericsson after qualifying sixth at 1:07.0393 in the No. 3 DEX Imaging Team Penske Chevrolet.
Up next is the pre-race warmup at noon ET Sunday (FS1, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network), followed by the 90-lap race at 4:30 p.m. (FOX, FOX Deportes, FOX Sports app, INDYCAR Radio Network).
Palou took the top spot in the Firestone Fast Six with about 30 seconds to go in the session. But Kirkwood then blasted his pole-winning final lap seconds later, followed by Herta’s quickest lap.
Herta ran out of time for a proper warmup lap for his final run, and he said the delay in raising the temperatures of his Firestone Firehawk alternate tires could have been the reason for Kirkwood’s gap to the rest of the field, the largest in qualifying this season through three races.
“The prep lap is what we do to try to get the temperatures in the right window, try to get the front and rear (tires) equal as we can,” Herta said. “I didn’t have that, so the tires started out a little cold. But they got there in the end, after maybe three or four corners.
“I’m guessing that maybe the time lost to Kyle is probably in those first few corners. Still can’t be mad at a front row, an Andretti 1-2, and Marcus is right there in fifth. All of us in the Fast Six. Shows we got a strong program here to go into the race with tomorrow.”
Christian Lundgaard, fourth in points, possibly lost a spot in the Firestone Fast Six when he hit the tire barrier in Turn 6 on his final qualifying lap in the second segment.
Lundgaard was fifth on the time charts when his No. 7 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet speared the barrier, triggering a red flag just moments after the checkered to end the session. INDYCAR qualifying rules state any driver who causes a red flag in qualifying loses their two quickest laps and cannot advance to the next session. That penalty placed Rosenqvist into the Firestone Fast Six.
Ford Performance Notes and Quotes NASCAR Cup Series Food City 500 Media Availability Saturday, April 12, 2025
Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse, has two career NASCAR Cup Series victories at Bristol Motor Speedway. The three-time champ visited the infield media center before today’s practice and qualifying to answer media questions, along with receiving the fourth quarter Pocono Spirit Award from the National Motorsports Press Association.
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse – COMMENTS AFTER RECEIVING THE AWARD FOR HIS FOUNDATION SUPPORTING VICTIMS OF HURRICANE HELENE IN WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA:
“This is obviously a real special thing because I think that storm impacted so many people in this area. I think everyone in this room probably knows somebody that lives in that area or visited that area or is from that area and you see some of the devastation that was up there, and I thought maybe the most special part about that is seeing everybody band together. I’ve always heard that – one of my quotes that I like to think about a lot is ‘Don’t let a crisis go to waste.’ A crisis like that presented a huge opportunity for all of us to band together and impact some people that just got their lives wiped out, whether it’s their homes or vehicles or their family. It’s some pretty heavy stuff up there and I’m sure a lot of you guys have seen it. The great news is there’s a lot of comeback up there and obviously they’ve been dealing with fires now as well, but it’s definitely been a tough road for everyone. I can’t take full credit for something like this. I’ve got a great group at the foundation that when I put a project together and say, ‘Hey, you want to go after this. Let’s go make a big impact. Let’s go help some people. We have the ability to do it. Let’s do it now while we can.’ So finding the right ways to do it, we did a good job with that and met a lot of great people and a lot of great relationships that will help us through the years moving forward in that area. For us, the Joey Logano Foundation is all about foster care and there’s a lot of families that you think about foster families, they have committed so much, such a selfless act to take on a kid that’s been put through the ringer to say the least and then their life gets wiped out by a storm of nothing they can do about it. It was pretty special to deliver some cars back up there. That was a fun one and make some repairs as well to people’s homes. Places that we love working with already had a lot of damage, so being able to work with them some more too was really nice, so, like I said, we committed $250,000 and as soon as we committed that and started doing things, another $300,000 or so rolled in and we ended up giving way over half a million dollars to that area. That just goes to show that once you start doing it and you start telling everyone what it’s all about, there’s a lot of great people in our industry, whether it’s in this room or fans or sponsors that wanted to jump on board and help too. That was really cool.”
HOW SPECIAL IS THIS PLACE? “I feel like everyone should know that answer when they walk into this place. I feel like it’s all written right on its face. When you walk in I like to cross over the track instead of going through the tunnel because you get the full experience and it’s the wow factor, it’s the badass factor of what this place is. I think that’s what stands out, whether it’s the fans all the way around here. It’s the Last Great Colisseum, that’s what it is and then obviously the racing it puts on, it puts on great racing. Last night, the Truck race was a pretty good race to watch, lots of interesting things happening, whether it’s strategy or moving around the racetrack. I just think it’s always put on a pretty cool race.”
HOW ARE YOU FEELING AFTER DARLINGTON. YOU HAD TO GO TO THE CARE CENTER AND GET FLUIDS. “I had the stomach virus and I thought I was good, and then right before the race I realized that I was not good. I was able to get through the race, but was pretty dehydrated afterwards because for one I was throwing up and all throughout the week and then just couldn’t keep any fluids in even during the week. It was not a fun experience, but I saw the end of it. It was a long race.”
NASCAR HAS NOT RE-APPLIED THE PJ1 AFTER THE RAIN AND IT’S COOL. SO WHAT SHOULD WE EXPECT WITH THOSE FACTORS? “It’s always interesting to watch these races as the weekend goes here because you don’t know exactly how it reacts. There are so many variables to PJ1, how it’s applied, what the temperature is gonna be like, how the rubber is gonna lay down. I mean, we’re one year anniversary from that crazy moment last year when everyone’s tires were wearing out in 30 laps. We don’t know that’s not gonna happen today. There’s no certainty of that as the temperatures are pretty cool, so I think we’re all curious to see what that’s gonna be like and we’ll watch the races. Last night, the top started to come in late in the run. You saw a few trucks be able to go up there and make something happen, not many, but as the Xfinity race runs today it may rubber up a lot down there, maybe it will lose a little bit of its grip. I know tomorrow it seems like it’s a question at the moment whether they’re gonna re-apply it or not, so we’ll see tonight.”
HOW DO YOU PREPARE FOR A RACETRACK AND A RACE WHEN YOU KNOW A TRACTION COMPOUND IS GOING TO BE APPLIED? “It’s harder because it’s a moving target. The question is like, ‘Is the track gonna apply more?’ That’s the first thing you want to ask and then, ‘What’s that gonna do? How long will it matter?’ If they re-apply, the bottom is gonna be super dominant to start the race, but at some point it’s gonna rubber up, get chunky, what’s that gonna do to your car? Are you still gonna be able to make it work down there? What do you need in your car to be able to make that happen? And then, if you can’t, then what does the top look like? You’re gonna need something different for the top to work versus the bottom to work. There’s been times in the years, and it hasn’t been recently, but it used to really over-rubber the top as well and it would get clumped up there, so there would be three or four different stages of Bristol and it was tough, and it still is today of understanding what do you need at what point in the race. It’s very different if you run 100-lap green flag run and then you stack it up with three 15-lap runs. The track changes drastically. It completely changes and then you need something else in your car and you don’t have enough pit stops to adjust it every time or know exactly where the track is gonna go, so you kind of go off of history a little bit and where you think things might go.”
YOU WENT TO THE WHITE HOUSE THIS WEEK. WHAT WAS DIFFERENT ABOUT THIS TRIP? “Both times were really special. It’s an honor to be invited to the nation’s capital. It’s a surreal experience to see your race car sitting up in front of the White House. That was really, really special. The last time we went was back in ‘18 and we didn’t have the opportunity to go in ‘22 and now we have the opportunity to go back, so it was definitely really special to do that and have a little bit of an idea of what to expect this time, although it still didn’t go the way I expected, but it was still pretty special. You walk into the oval office and you just think, ‘Gosh, all the things that have happened in that room.’ The stories that we don’t know, we’ll never know, but it all happened in that room. It’s a pretty big thing to take a moment to let it soak in, so it’s special that we had the opportunity. Our sport gives us the opportunity to experience something that not many people will ever get to do, so I cherish that memory.”
HOW MUCH DIFFERENT IS THE TRACK WITH THE FANS SO CLOSE? “You hear them better. You definitely hear the cheers and the boos. They’re much more in your face. I like that. It’s cool. It kind of brings a little bit more of the stadium environment that other sports get to enjoy a little bit more. It’s hard to get that feeling when you’re on a mile and a half racetrack. You may have more people there than other sporting events, but they’re spread out. Here, they’re right there and you’re gonna hear it all after the race, just kind of like it happens at Martinsville as well, but this place is even larger, so it becomes a pretty fun experience most of the time.”
HOW COOL IS IT THAT THIS PLACE IS HOSTING A MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL GAME LATER THIS YEAR? “I think more for the facility than anything. You have this incredible facility, a ridiculous amount of seats. I think everybody wants to compete in the Last Great Colisseum. Everybody wants to do it and it presents an opportunity for something like that, and I couldn’t understand how big of a task it is to create a baseball field in the middle of a racetrack, but if anyone is gonna do it, Bristol will do it because they put dirt on a half mile and I thought that was impossible, too. Nothing will surprise me at this point.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT TALLADEGA IN TWO WEEKS? “Talladega is kind of a beast of its own. It’s really about the draft. The track is pretty wide, so it’s quite a bit different than Daytona and handling isn’t as big of a factor, at least through the corners. What ends up happening is the pushes and shoves, the draft itself becomes more aggressive so definitely a unique one, but Talladega, people show up there, too. Everyone knows it as the party track, but I will never see that. I just race there.”
YOU’VE WON THREE TIMES AT TALLADEGA. HOW IS THE DYNAMIC DIFFERENT FROM THE TWO RACES THERE? “The feeling is similar, but, to your point, the playoffs change it all depending on where you are in the playoffs. It’s definitely the racetrack when you roll in there of concern when you’re in the playoffs because there is only so much you can really control. There’s a lot you can, but you can get caught up in something from someone else’s decision, which happens a lot, and the wrecks more times than not happen towards the front of the pack and we’ve had really good cars and our team is really good at superspeedways, so we expect to be up there and then as you get down to the end of the race the most aggressive cars are gonna be the leaders because they have the most to gain. And then when you add the playoffs to it, where there’s so much more on the line than what it is in the spring, that’s really the biggest difference. Once you’re in the car and the task is going you’re focused in so much that you don’t really think a whole bunch about it. You think about the points, don’t get me wrong, about each spot and what it’s worth, but you strap in and you can race.”
WHAT DID YOU TAKE AWAY FROM YOUR VISIT TO CAMP LEJEUNE? “I’m always impressed with the commitment level of the military and it’s something that I say it every time we leave one of these Mission 600 events, and I’m so grateful that we get to do it because you get to see things up close and personal that the typical civilian, like myself but doesn’t get to see the commitment that not only the soldier is making but their family is making as well. Even the training that they go through is brutal. The training that they were going through when I was there was like, ‘Oh, my gosh.’ They just got there that morning, they hiked 10 miles, they were sleeping out in the woods for a few nights. It was a training piece and they’re working on different missions and working on different things to try to be ready for whatever scenario could be coming their way, so the time commitment is one thing and the effort, but then you put the life and death scenario in front of you as well. It’s unlike anything else, and they’re fighting for you and me who are complete strangers. They’ve never met us. They don’t know who they’re fighting for, but they’re fighting for their country and what they believe in and that’s a commitment that none of us can understand. I like going there and saying thank you for one, but also learning a little bit about what they do and trying to bring that back to our world because a lot of times, and we’re all probably guilty of this, is we live in our own little world and we assume everything is taken care of and we just worry about the little things in our world that maybe really don’t matter in comparison to what these men and women are doing for us, so it’s good for us to remember that more than just on Memorial Day and this time of year. We need to be thinking about that every day because we do live in a great country and we shouldn’t be the people that complain about everything. There will always be something, but we need to be more appreciative of the people that allow us to live free and safe.”
THE STATS FOR YOU THIS YEAR ARE ALL OVER THE BOARD. HOW DO YOU ASSESS WHERE YOU ARE AND WHERE YOU NEED TO GO? “Thank God for stage points at this point for us. At times last year I could almost say the opposite, where we didn’t run very good and then we were able to fabricate a finish somehow. This year has just kind of been the opposite. You name it and it has happened. We’ve had good speed. Our car has been pretty solid. To your point, our average running position is good. We’ve led some laps. We’ve scored a lot of stage points, and then some things happen. It’s a long year. We’ve only just begun. We’re in the very beginning of this thing and the fact that we have speed gives me a lot of confidence that a win will be around the corner at some point. Do we have some areas we need to clean up? Yes. I’m not gonna pin all this on luck or misfortune of some sort. I don’t believe in that stuff, so there are areas as a team we can clean up and we’ll continue to work on that.”
JESSE LOVE WILL MAKE HIS FIRST CUP START. DO YOU REMEMBER THE SENSATION OF YOUR FIRST CUP START YEARS AGO? “Yeah. I remember you start making laps and keep going, and it’s the long green flag runs that will get you. You keep going and going and you just start to wonder like, ‘Gosh, is there ever gonna be a caution? I’d love a break.’ It doesn’t happen as much for me anymore, but for probably the first eight or 10 years I came here, that first few laps of practice you would be huffing and puffing after five. You’d be in there just hanging on and thinking, ‘How in the world am I gonna make 500 laps? There’s no way.’ Now I’ve become more relaxed and understand the scenario and I’m not hanging on for my dear life in there, so it’s changed, but the first few times you come here that’s how you feel. You run the first 10 laps in practice and think, ‘There is no way in hell I’m gonna make it to the end of this thing.’ You just figure it out. That’s what makes this place special. It’s hard. It’s challenging. Five hundred laps around here, it’s a long one.”
Toyota GAZOO Racing – Denny Hamlin NASCAR Cup Series Quotes
BRISTOL, Tenn. (April 12, 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 Bristol Motor Speedway.
DENNY HAMLIN, No. 11 Progressive Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing
Your next win will make you the winningest driver in the NASCAR Cup Series at Joe Gibbs Racing. What would that mean to you?
“It certainly is special. It is such a historical organization with the championship drivers. I’ve been there longer than anyone else, so that increases my odds. There has been a lot of greats that have ran through there, so it is certainly a title I would like to have.”
What is it about this place that makes a driver want to be successful here?
“I’m not sure. There is something to it, right? You have this stadium atmosphere – all of the sound is right here. It is the noises of the race track. The noises of the short track that you grew up racing when you were a kid. It is just on a much, much bigger stage. I think that is a big part of it and certainly over time, the fans are just right there on you. A lot of the tracks where the fans are super close to actual racing surface and the infield – it always feels bigger.”
What does 400 consecutive starts mean to you?
“I’m not sure. It is a number for me. I haven’t thought of it or anything like that. It is certainly very hard to do. I’ve done this for 20 some years now, and the tole that it takes on your body on the long term, it is very difficult to stay in the car at all times, and I’ve had to miss a few times because of other things. Certainly, it is great to be a part of the sport as long as I have.”
How does it mean for the sport to have venue that can have a baseball game inside of it?
“I think it is great for the facility, and they’ve hosted a few sports as well. This is a big area for sports – when you think how close Knoxville is and some other college football teams around this area, so to bring a major league baseball game is big. I don’t know that there is a lot of teams that are condensed into this area, so bringing in baseball – to me, it’s very similar to what we did in Chicago right? You are bringing the game to the people.”
How have you and your crew chief prepared for the traction compound this weekend?
“We are kind of assuming that we are going to have a very similar race to what we had in the fall last year. If it turns out to be something different, which I think is a very low possibility, then you adapt from there – just like everyone had to do last spring, but that is really important in a driver, crew chief relationship to understand – what are the things we need to work on, I’ve got the experience from last year to know that there are certain things I’m going to need out of the car if it is going to be a tire conservation type race. I think that puts you at a leg up in those situations – and one that we were successful in doing it. I have the upmost confidence that we will come here with a fast car, and contend and hopefully, find ourselves up front when it really counts.”
Can you talk about how much effort has gone into the 23XI pit crews?
“It is certainly encouraging to see because we have definitely put a lot of effort into it. Not just money, but effort. Whether that be recruiting people, getting to trust us that we have a process. A lot of the tricky things that you see on pit road these days came actually from 23XI – there is a lot of things that they are really being innovative in. It is exciting to see it kind of play out on Sundays. Knowing that your cars are contenders on the race track is one thing. Michael (Jordan, co-owner, 23XI Racing) has said for a long time – we are going to be able to sell the dream for so long. We are going to have to live it at some point. You have to be the dream. We can’t talk about how great we can be or gonna be. You have to be great. You can’t just talk about it. We really feel like we are taking the next step, and the pit crew is taking that next step to be better as an organization. We knew that we were building fast cars, but we as a team were letting our drivers down for a couple of years – that was just part of the building process. They understood when they signed on that this was something that was going to take time to get better and they were very patient with us.”
What is the challenge from a car owner’s perspective with 28 straight races and keeping people fresh? Is there a breaking point?
“There is always a breaking point. I think we’ve seen – it is harder and harder to keep people over the years. One thing that I do feel good about is our track record for keeping people at 23XI and keeping them happy. It is just generally a hard sport to be a part of because of the schedule and the task we ask our people to do, and how long we ask them to do it. It is really, really hard. It is certainly not ideal. I understand why we are doing it. We are going to cut one more week away from competing with football, but it is certainly really hard on people.”
Is it worth a conversation with NASCAR about having the PJ1 reapplied tomorrow?
“I think it’s good to apply it. I think some of the better races that we’ve had here have been when the bottom has been as good or equal to the top. The challenging races have been when it has been top dominate and you can’t move around. That is when you will see the accordion effect of – you will catch the lap cars and then no one can pass anyone. I think the PJ1 here has been a positive. I always wasn’t a huge proponent of it but after racing in it enough years, I think it is good for the competition aspect to be able to move around and have options and sometimes your car isn’t great in both options, both lanes – and that is really what makes the great cars show up when it counts at the end of this race. I don’t really have a preference whether they reapply it or not, as long as we all know ahead of time what it is going to be.”
Considering all of what you’ve accomplished, do you get value about new and different things you could accomplish?
“Yeah, but I try not to psych myself out too much about it because I think you sometimes put so much emphasis on those type of situations and you end up making silly mistakes. I just try to be as even keeled as I can. It is a new week. It is another great opportunity to win another race. If it just so happens that it is three in a row, that would be awesome and a very proud moment in my career, but it is not something that we set out to do each and every week. We don’t go into the season saying, alright, I want to win, at some point, three in a row this year. That is such a hard thing to do because all of the stars have to align perfectly like we saw last week. They did align perfectly for us. It would be fantastic – some of the greats in our sport have done it, and I haven’t. Just shows how difficult it is.”
Do you see yourself as defying the aging curve?
“I think that it has been different for everyone. Maybe, but I think people like (Kevin) Harvick were still – I think, was he 48 when he retired? He was still on top of his game. I think it is different for everyone. Some you get to 43, 44 the light switch goes off. You just never know. My drive is still there. Obviously, the performance is still there – I’m just going to keep trying to win all that I can in this window when it is still there. I think – Mark Martin, did it when he was 50. He was fantastic. There is no way I’ll ever make it that far for sure. But again, everyone’s body, everyone’s mind, everyone’s eyesight is all different and it goes away at different times.”
About Toyota
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NASCAR CUP SERIES BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES APRIL 12, 2025
Carson Hocevar, driver of the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series’ practice and qualifying session at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Media Availability Quotes:
First of all, sorry for your loss this week. Within the last hour, you posted a picture on social of you and I’m guessing your grandmother and grandparents. Can you just tell the story and the significance about that photo, and why it was important to share that with the world?
“Yeah, I mean, those were photos that I’d never seen before. They were going through my grandparents’ house and found a bunch of photos that they sent to me last night and this morning, so those were photos that I had never seen or I had forgot about. But, you know, I thought that was important for me to look at or post today. She fell when I was getting ready to qualify for Phoenix, and my grandpa called me. I didn’t know he knew how to use the phone, and my grandma fell getting the mail on the way to watch us qualify. I just know she won’t miss another qualifying session or watch another race. She was one of my biggest supporters.
But, yeah, I like to post things that mean stuff to me, obviously. I do all my own social just because, you know, it’s easy to lose things or lose photos or anything, so putting that out there, it makes it easier to know where that photo is going to be.”
So do you remember that moment from the photo?
“I remember a handful, but yeah, that one specifically, I remember always wearing my Dale Jr. shirts at that point. That was my favorite shirt to wear because it looked like his race suit. So, you know, it looks really similar to the shirts you see us wear now. You know, it looks like the suit. So that was at Disney World, which we’d go a thousand times. We stopped going there because it was either you go to Disney World or you pay for your tires when I started racing. But that was a really fun week and trip that I hadn’t seen photos of in a very long time.”
To get into racing, this will be the last race before you get a weekend off, and after that, there isn’t a weekend off the rest of the season. Drivers talk about — hey, I just as soon be in the car every day of the year. What will be the challenge after this Easter break of racing every weekend, whether it’s for you, the team, or everything in general?
“I feel like everybody’s so used to it. For us, I think it would be important to have that reset and then be able to go and hopefully we can refire really strong and get the finishes I feel like we’ve been striving for and feel like we could get or are capable of getting.
If we get on a roll, I don’t think any of us are going to want to stop or take a break and break up that momentum. So I think it’s a good time for everybody to get a reset and then hopefully have a really big push and make that be the second half of the year.”
Following up on that, you look at your recent results. Do you look at the results or do you look at performance? How would you assess this little stretch right now?
“Well, yeah, you look at the results, but then when the results aren’t good, you’ve got to look at the running average or where we’re at and wonder why. And luckily, Jeff Dickerson is the most understanding guy of all time basically and he’s the one that is just like — man, we’ve just got to finish the race because I don’t know what to tell you how to finish. You blow a tire, you blow this, you do this. It’s kind of all things out of our control-ish, right? Just kind of freak things that are just toppling on each other. But we’re running good, so I think that was the biggest thing that he said is just don’t get so caught up in the results right now because we’re not a 30th-place race car. We’re not slow. He’s like, man, right now we’re just trying to find new ways to finish 30th. So it’s just out of the get-go. We’re over this. We’ve gotten out of the way.
He reminded me there were times last year where we weren’t great and other guys had misfortune, so we finished good. So I think it’s sustainable for us long-term, for sure, to be fast and wonder what’s kind of keeping us from finishing good, rather than be slow and not sure why we’re finishing okay. Let’s keep all of us hungry and excited and keeping our group together, right? If you get five 30th-place finishes in like eight races, you start looking at crew guys, crew members and everything. Our group is so strong. We’re so good on pit road. We’re good on the racetrack throughout the race at some point that, and we know everybody on our group’s plenty capable of the potential of finishing really good. It’s just we just got to be able to, you know, take advantage of the adversity. And as my dad would remind me when I was a kid racing is they are character building moments and our No. 77 team’s going through that right now.”
You’ve had flashes here at Bristol of really good things. You’re a short track guy, came up that way. But what is the challenge here compared to, I guess, what you grew up doing and what we would call a traditional short track, so to speak?
“Yeah, I mean, you’re going so fast, right? The dirty air is a factor. You know, compared to that, the banking’s a lot. The track compound is always a confusion, right, of if it’s going to be on the bottom and what you’re going to get.
You never really 100% know when the top’s going to burn in and when it’s not. It’s a little easier to predict for the Cup races because it’s 400 or 500 laps that you can kind of guess what the pattern’s going to be just because you run enough laps. But, you know, I remember when I ran trucks here, it always was a question mark if it was going to be burned in by the end of the race or at the start, and you saw that yesterday without any practice or anything. It started to move up the racetrack at, like, the last 10 laps or something. So, yeah, it’s always a difficult deal here of just track position and balancing it out, and everybody being super, super good and moving around or trying to. I got to run here in a late model when I was about 14 or whatever, so it’s still got a little bit of feel to that when I was 14 racing here.”
Your No. 77 team really had a lot of stability over the off-season, but on the whole, when you look at what Spire Motorsports is doing and growing, how has just the influence or the leadership of guys like Rodney, Travis, Michael, even though they’re not directly working with your team, organizationally, do you feel like that’s lifted you or at least let you have some new ideas to work on your own path?
“I’m sure a little bit there. You know, for me on my craft, I’m very stubborn and like to go my own direction, do my own things, and I think that’s been healthy for us.
You know, Michael (McDowell) has his process. Justin (Haley) has his process. I have mine. But apart from the race cars, where I see a lot of impact on our program is the unsung heroes. You know, it’s the Matt McCall’s, you know, the Dax’s, and a handful of others, right, that are in the competition space.
You know, Ryan Sparks not being on a pit box and overseeing the whole program. It’s those three guys and the others that are sitting at home or sitting in the race shop right now that have really impacted the No. 77 more. Travis and Rodney, they’re working on their own stuff. They still work together, but it’s the job of Matt, Ryan, and everybody else to figure out what Rodney and Travis are doing and communicate that to the 77 car and vice versa and ultimately, you know, have all three cars be fast.”
Earlier today, Jesse Love was in here talking about his Cup debut and how he doesn’t know what he doesn’t know. So I was curious, do you remember the first time you started a Cup race here? I was only your fourth start and you finished 11th. I was curious, what was that process like for you adapting to this track and 500 laps?
“Yeah, I remember I ran the truck race, and it was different, right? You know, I got to come in the fall race, and I had a Cup deal signed to go full-time the next year. We just ran third or fourth in the truck race, and I was like plus 30 to make the final four on points. So I showed up with not looking at any data, any SMT for Cup, because I was so focused on the truck deal to make that race. I remember showing up thinking, you know, I’m just going to go out here and figure it out. I don’t think I looked at one piece of information. I didn’t sleep and, you know, mainly just breezed through that whole weekend and had a really, really good time with those guys and Luke and everybody. I remember being super cool, confident and an ego at an all-time high, probably, per se. And then we ran like fifth, so that didn’t help me or help bring me back down to earth. And then we had a loose wheel and finished 11th.
But yeah, I remember being really excited with it being the Bristol night race. My first few Cup races I did — I got to do the Gateway, obviously a cool track and unique. But I got to do the Southern 500, and the Bristol night race as my second and third ever Cup start. So super cool tracks to fire off and get going. I was not pumped, but it was Luke’s favorite race, and he made me super confident that we were going to be good. I don’t think he expected us to be that good, but it was a lot of fun driving by a lot of heroes of mine and everything. I still remind Rodney that that was the race that went like six laps down on speed. So I remind him of that, and so it’s fun to rag on him a little bit.”
You’ve improved every time you’ve gone to Talladega. Is there something that you’ve worked on to get better because with that place, sometimes it’s just luck on the draw?
“They’ve wrecked more, probably. I normally just sit around.. my average running position is like 33rd, and then I finish is like 14th because they crash, and I just avoid it. That’s kind of been the superspeedway strategy I’ve gone with because it’s really difficult with the way this package is right now. Last year or sure at superspeedways, our cars, even if I could have got the lead, it was just way too draggy, and I wouldn’t be able to hold on. You’d get shuffled out really quick. So if I felt like the best we could be was the high single digits, low teens, I could bank on a crash at the end and having our car safe and being fourth or fifth in line. Maybe they crash the line, and I win the race.
We kind of did that at Daytona again as we improve our cars. At Atlanta, I was able to make a lot of moves and pace, but you can kind of draft on your own and make moves. But at Talladega and Daytona right now, it kind of just gets gridlocked, and I just feel like you’re sitting in line waiting to crash almost at times. I kind of play into the role of, even if you miss the wreck and get a flat tire, you might go a few laps down. I try to pick a strategy rather than just hope on something, so I just kind of just go with the we’re going to wait until the green-white-checkered that always seems to come and then do a race. But this time at Talladega, I don’t know what I’ll do. I’ll probably try and get track position more because I think our cars are improving, but we’ll just kind of see how that goes.”
Do you think guys will be chomping at the bit to get back to competition after being off for a week?
“Yeah, I mean, maybe… I don’t know. I’ve always looked at superspeedways like they’re another off week almost because you don’t really prep. The preparation and what we look at is so different than anything else. You’re not stressed for qualifying. You’re not stressed on practice. You’re not talking about your race car.
You get Friday and Saturday basically off, and Sunday is just about saving fuel and picking the right line and working with your teammates really late in the race or really late in the stages. So, yeah, I don’t know. I’ve always looked at it like it’s almost an off week, per se, compared to the amount of work that goes into the rest of the races.”
Obviously the results this year haven’t been based on your guys’ speed, but when we watch the race, we usually see you at the front of the pack. Some of your run-ins over the last few weeks have come in the mid-pack. Can you describe just how difficult it is, you know, when you’re having to race in the mid-pack in a race?
“Yeah, I mean it’s a dogfight in the middle, but it’s more so just because everybody’s really close in mid-pack or in the low teens. All cars are good and they know how close they are to getting clean air. You’re only a few spots from getting that. It reminds me of, you know, what you see in sprint car racing now is — the leader will fire off and take off, but the second you catch lap traffic, the whole pack starts to come back into it. And then, if they’re behind lap cars or anything, you start seeing them really race… throwing sliders and then all of a sudden you’re four or five cars on top of each other. It’s kind of similar to what we have right now. Aero-wise is I don’t think too far away from that type of sprint car race you’d see from High Limit or anything else. You know, the top few spread out and it starts building a little closer gap as you get to the high single digits. And then all the teens are on top of each other because they’re all on just bad air.”
People have been around for years and kind of get used to things, but the track has changed, or being a young driver and probably kind of just learning it as you go — how much during the race, during the weekend, do you even know what to expect with the track here?
“Yeah, I mean, I know last year at this time, none of us knew what we were going to have. Where this time now, you’re expecting the worst or even worse than that or somewhere in between. So, you know, for us, I know we’ve planned for all type of scenarios as you can.
Yeah, the spring race last year, I don’t think anybody expected that, but it’s been seen before. You know, I remember watching on TV, in 2008 or whatever it was, at Indy when they had this issue or times before that. But, yeah, it’s just part of it.
Now it’s in the notebook, right? Now it’s in the playbook that this could happen or something similar to that that you have to prepare for. I know when I got my pre-race notes from my spotter, Tyler Green, he almost had three races worth of notes because he had somewhere in between how it was in the spring and the fall race.”
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