NASCAR CUP SERIES
PHOENIX RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY POST-QUALIFYING REPORT
MARCH 8, 2025

William Byron Drives Chevrolet to First Cup Series Pole Win of the Season at Phoenix Raceway

 TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 STARTING LINEUP:

POS. DRIVER
1st – William Byron
3rd – Carson Hocevar
6th – Chase Elliott
7th – Michael McDowell
8th – Justin Haley

•  Hitting the track as the final driver to lay down a lap in the NASCAR Cup Series’ qualifying session at Phoenix Raceway, Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron laid down a monster lap of 26.930 seconds – knocking the series’ reigning champion, Joey Logano, off the top of the leaderboard to earn the pole position for tomorrow’s Shriners Children’s 500.
• The pole – Chevrolet’s first of the 2025 season and 754th all-time in the division – came after the 27-year-old Charlotte, North Carolina, native drove his No. 24 Chevrolet to the only qualifying lap in the 26-second bracket among the 37-driver field.
• Byron extended Chevrolet’s pole-winning record at Phoenix Raceway to 22 all-time in NASCAR’s top division, with now 16 of those feats coming alongside Hendrick Motorsports.
• Chevrolet drivers will take five of the top-10 starting positions for tomorrow’s 312-mile race. Joining Byron includes all three Spire Motorsports entries, with Carson Hocevar in third, Michael McDowell in seventh and Justin Haley in eighth, as well as Byron’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Chase Elliott, in sixth.

Chevrolet’s all-time NASCAR Cup Series statistics at Phoenix Raceway:

Wins: 27
Poles: 22
Top-Fives: 125
Top-10s: 244

Chevrolet’s season statistics with four NASCAR Cup Series races complete:

Wins: 1
Poles: 1
Top-Fives: 7
Top-10s: 13

William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, Pole Win Quotes:

William, we spoke before the practice session kind of about the option tires and what you thought about it. Now that you have a bunch of laps in practice and qualifying, what do you make of them and how did they fall off for you?

“Honestly, I thought the tire was great. You know, I think it fell off some with heat and just kind of starting to slide around. But I felt like the tire felt good as soon as we bolted it on.

Obviously, more grip to fire off, so more pace on the short run. And then, you know, honestly, the progression throughout the run was exactly what you would want to see. So, I just had more grip, and then I felt personally like our car was pretty good on that tire.

We have a little bit of work to do on the yellow, but I don’t see any problems with the red. I think that it’s going to put on and promote a good race and probably a lot of variation between the tires.”

Some guys have come in here and they indicate that they kind of knew what their race strategy was, as far as the tires. Are you pretty aware of what your plan is or do you guys not really discuss a plan until you saw what they did today?

“Yeah, I have really no idea what the plan is, per se.

I think that we have a general sense of kind of when we would put on the reds, but you have to have, you know, some of those in reserve for the end. So, yeah, I just know that there’s probably going to be some varying strategies because the guys in the back of the field will be able to do something different. So, I anticipate everyone kind of being on different stuff, but probably your top-10 guys will be on the same.”

Does being on the pole in some ways dictate your strategy? Because if you were a little further back, maybe you would just say, okay, I have a win. Let me just try to earn a couple playoff points early…

“Yeah, maybe. I wish I knew a little bit more about the strategy. I try to stay a little bit removed just because I feel like it overwhelms my brain. So, just honestly for me, I think when we’re up front, we’re just going to probably do the same thing that the other guys in the top-five that we’re racing with.

And yeah, it’s going to open the door for, you know, a 20th place guy — like (Daniel) Suarez did at Richmond, basically, where he had not a great race going and put on the reds and capitalized, and I think there was a caution or something. But yeah, I don’t know. I think it could change things a bit, but for me, I’m just focused on having the best car we can get on both tires.”

William, you hear a lot about how important the first pit stall is in winning the pole at Phoenix. Is that pit stall even more important this time around with the option tires or is it more or less the same?

“No, I don’t think it really matters as much as it used to since they changed the line. Like I had the number one stall in the fall and I think it’s not as much of an advantage. So, no, I think this place has a lot room on pit road too.

So, there’s a lot of places you can have a good pit stall. So, no, I think this place matters a lot less on pit stall selection than a lot of other places. Like if you go to, you know, an SMI track that they have a pretty narrow pit road, the way that the dog leg is, it’s way more important there.”

Kyle Busch was just in here moments ago and he said he wished that there were more option tires available. Obviously, two stickers for tomorrow. Do you have that same feeling?

“Yeah, like I think that’s my consensus on the strategy is it’s going to be pretty straightforward because there’s only two sets. So, I personally would like to see us just go to the red and eliminate the yellow, and then just have red tires because I feel like they fall off more and you’ll see more like what you had at Martinsville in the fall. So, yeah, I don’t really love the fact that we’re alternating, but I mean it’s going to create an interesting race for sure.”

Kyle Busch was in here a few minutes ago and he talked about respect in NASCAR and how last week’s finish was a win for the sport. I’m curious, from your perspective being involved, what is the importance of having a clean finish of a race?

“It all depends on who you’re racing, you know, and that’s what people ask me throughout the week like — oh, what’s going through your head and all this stuff. And it’s like, me and (Christopher) Bell have always raced really well. I have a lot of respect for he and Adam and their team and what they do. I think that when you’re racing the same guys every week, you learn kind of their tendencies and you always have a memory of what happens on the racetrack. And yeah, so I think it is very situational, but I think that there needs to be a greater level of respect in general throughout the field. And still race hard because this car requires you to race hard and there is contact. So, yeah so to me, it’s all about who you’re racing.”

Do you think with the higher temperatures tomorrow and Xfinity rubber on the track, will that impact significantly or at all the tire wear?

“I mean, it’ll be worse. It’ll be worse than today, but I think this place is just starting to age and we’ve had hotter races than this weekend for sure. Like the last few, we’ve had some 90 degree races, so it’s not going to be as bad as that. But I think this track is starting to get some really good age to it. It is still difficult to pass because there is no banking to lean on, especially in (turns) one and two. So if you want to be aggressive, it’s hard to be, but you’re seeing the apron start to become a bigger deal and I just think the racetrack is starting to lose grip. So you’ll have more wear because of that.”

About General Motors

General Motors (NYSE:GM) is driving the future of transportation, leveraging advanced technology to build safer, smarter, and lower emission cars, trucks, and SUVs. GM’s Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC brands offer a broad portfolio of innovative gasoline-powered vehicles and the industry’s widest range of EVs, as we move to an all-electric future. Learn more at GM.com.

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Shriners Children’s 500 Qualifying (Phoenix Raceway)
Saturday, March 8, 2025

LOGANO QUALIFIES 2ND AT PHOENIX, WILL START ON FRONT ROW FOR SUNDAY’S CUP SERIES RACE AT PHOENIX

Ford Qualifying Results:

2nd – Joey Logano
4th – Josh Berry
12th – Ryan Blaney
13th – Chris Buescher
14th – Austin Cindric
20th – Brad Keselowski
23rd – Cole Custer
26th – Zane Smith
27th – Todd Gilliland
28th – Ryan Preece
33rd – Noah Gragson
35th – Cody Ware

Joey Logano, driver of the No. 22 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang was the highest qualifying Ford driver, posting the second quickest lap Saturday afternoon at Phoenix Raceway. Josh Berry joins Logano in the top-five, qualifying fourth.

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford Mustang Dark Horse (Qualified 2nd)

“The last car. I told Paul (Wolfe) just a second ago that it was going to really suck if the last car beat us and that is what happened. Obviously a real fast lap we ran there and overall it is a really good starting spot. We will tune her in a little bit. We have a little bit of work to do in race trim but I don’t think we are that bad by any means. We started second and won last time, so we will just have to go do it again.”

EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT THE TIRES, WHAT DID YOU GUYS FIGURE OUT ABOUT THE TIRES IN PRACTICE EARLIER? “I figured out that we have a lot to look at tonight. I am not quite sure yet. We have some homework to do, so we are going to go back and look at some traces and see what we can come up with for tomorrow.”

JOSH BERRY, No. 21 Eero Ford Mustang Dark Horse (Qualified 4th)

“I felt pretty good in race trim. We didn’t have the fire off speed exactly like we wanted but I was pretty happy with the car and how it drove. Obviously the guys did a really good job getting it ready for qualifying and it drove really well in qualifying. To be able to qualify that high and start up front is a really good start to the weekend for us.”

NASCAR CUP SERIES
PHOENIX RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES
MARCH 8, 2025

 Ricky Stenhouse Jr., driver of the No. 47 Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series’ practice and qualifying session at Phoenix Raceway.

Media Availability Quotes:

I saw you and Noah Gragson were kind of talking on Twitter a little bit. Is there any history there? What’s that all about?

“(Laughs) There’s no history there. Noah (Gragson) likes to have a lot of fun and give people a hard time, so I like giving it back to him.

Before I sent one tweet back to him yesterday, I told him I was sending one. He says — well, I got one in the chamber ready to send back. So, you know, I don’t know. He seems like he has a ton of free time on his hands, so I’m sure he’s always looking for ways to spice things up.

No, we’re friends, but it’s definitely fun. I think, you know, he’s obviously got a lot of energy and excitement around him. And so, yeah, I like to give it back to him a little bit.”

Weekends like this, where there’s two tire options, are you behind as a single car team?

“Definitely doesn’t help. You know, I think we get one data point on each set. I think, you know, I’m like Chris (Buescher).. I’d like to just have one option, preferably the softer option. But, you know, I get what having two does. And like Chris said, being able to have a test session where if it is a disaster with that one, then you have the other option to run. But, you know, I do like that we’re going a direction of softer tires and tires that wear out. So hopefully, you know, we can continue to build on that.

You know, I think we saw at the All-Star race that, the softer option was by far dominant, even on the long run with a track that doesn’t wear it out. So I assume, you know, here at Phoenix will probably be really similar to that. I think at Richmond, you get a lot of tire wear in general, and so the softer tire wore out and there was different strategies to be had. I think here, you’re probably going to save them for the last two runs if you want a good finish. But it does open the option up with, you know, different strategies to keep you on the lead lap, depending on kind of where you’re running; what you’re doing or trying to get some stage points or whatever. So, you know, it’s just something that, for us, we haven’t ran that well here at Phoenix. And so Mike (Kelley, crew chief) and I had been talking about trying to watch what some of these leaders do on green flag pit stops with that other option tire. If you’ve got somebody that pits and puts the options on versus the proms and is trying to get a stage win, now all of a sudden they’re running quite a bit faster. So we might have to react if we are in the position of trying to stay on the lead lap or something like that.

So, you know, hopefully we’re not in that position. But if that is the case, it could switch people’s strategies up quite a bit throughout the race, just depending on kind of reacting to what other teams do. But I think if you’re going to win the race, I would assume you’ve got to keep them both for the last stage.”

Kind of an off topic question for you.. with some of the bigger tracks that are coming up on the schedule, like next week at Las Vegas, and then you’ve got Homestead and Darlington. What does it take to run the wall at those particular racetracks?

“Yeah, I mean I think you’ve got to have a good car capable of doing it. And then, you know, there’s definitely an art to it, as well. I think it’s interesting… I feel like a lot more people can run closer to the wall now with this race car. You know, you can — I wouldn’t say bounce it off the fence, but you can touch the fence and kind of get away with it. Obviously the toe links are kind of sensitive, but we enter on the wall so close now that it’s not like you’re sliding up to it. You know, and then it’s odd — downshifting at some of those racetracks and running the wall like at Homestead, right? Like that’s something that we never did. And, you know, used to with the old cars, you had to keep your momentum up and you had to enter with speed.

You had to have a lot of speed up there, not shifting. And now it’s like, you can just kind of go in there, you know, use some brake and downshift. And so I feel like it’s gotten more people more comfortable, you know, running the wall and it’s the preferred lane.

So it kind of is something that we all, you know, just had to do, right? There’s still guys that are better at it than others, you know, and you can tell which cars are handling better inches away from the wall. And, you know, I think it’s fun and this car’s fun running up there. But I don’t think it just, to me, it just gets the wheel out of it… turning the wheel less, and your car has more rear grip because anytime you turn the wheel with these cars, with all the caster that we have, it takes rear grip away from the car. With our old cars, I felt like we ran up there because we gained a lot of side force and that kind of aero balance tightened your car up. And this, I feel like it’s more of, just gets the wheel out of it and, you know, gives you more rear traction.”

To that point, who do you think in the Cup Series is the best at running the wall right now?

“I mean, I would put (Kyle) Larson,(Tyler) Reddick and (Christopher) Bell probably at the top. You know, I think they were some of the best in the old cars, so I feel like it’s made it easier for them.

You know, it’s not like it made it more difficult. I felt like it’s brought people that weren’t as great at it into being able to do it a little easier. So I would say those three are probably still the best.”

A lot of buzz around Kyle and Christopher getting ready for the High Limit kickoff Thursday in Las Vegas. What are your plans to get back out on the dirt track?

“Yeah, I was just actually talking to my dad about that. He’s going to be working on our NOS Energy Drink sprint car over the next few weeks. I plan on running Talladega, the 360 races there, and then heading over towards Texas for the High Limit races there. So that’ll be kind of the kickoff to my sprint car racing for the season. And then we’ll kind of see after that… I don’t have a set schedule. I think if it was up to my dad, we would race every weekend, but just logistically trying to do everything. It’s normally just kind of dad and I when we go racing. So try not to overwhelm him, even though he’s ready for it (laughs).

This kind of piggybacks off an earlier question, but what do you think separates the good cars at Phoenix from the really great cars at Phoenix?

“Yeah, I mean, at Phoenix, obviously you see teams and cars that are always at the front here. And it seems like no matter what, those cars are it.

So for us, you know, we have struggled really bad here at Phoenix over the last two, three years… and in both races. You know, we’ve had some bright spots. So we’ve kind of revamped our program for this weekend to try and, you know, get our car to be a good car.

I don’t think it’ll be a great car yet. I think we kind of got to build a foundation. You know, it seems like to me, anytime you get to a racetrack where you’re shifting a lot, I think that kind of brings the Fords into play a little bit on the short-tracks. And then, you know, obviously the Penske cars are by far elite here. And then I think it’s kind of a mixed bag of which cars are better after that. So you got to have a car that can get into the corner with some stability and not be too loose in, and then obviously your front tires work right dead center of the corner. You know, trying to get that balance right is very difficult here at Phoenix. And then with both ends being so different, if you can have that in both ends, then you’re pretty elite, and I think you see that throughout both races here. I think the No. 12 (Ryan Blaney) and No. 22 (Joey Logano) are definitely by far the best.”

So you were talking about the High Limit kickoff at Las Vegas, but I’m curious, (Kyle) Larson has said that having Christopher Bell run in that series just elevates the awareness of dirt car racing. And I’m curious, I saw him speak to you, I think we were at Daytona at Media Day, and he was giddy. ‘Giddy’ the word that Larson used. And you told him you were racing Texas and he just, you know, he’s like — I want to go, you know, you could just kind of see it in him. How much has that opened the floodgate for Christopher Bell? I mean, we’ve watched him win the last two races. How much do you think that that has helped his mental psyche and, you know, just making him more comfortable on the track?

“Yeah, I think, you know — I look back at my Cup career and, you know, I was asked to quit racing sprint cars when I switched to Cup my rookie season in 2013. I mean, I was in the Xfinity Series. I was racing 30 to 40 times a year in sprint cars, as well as racing the Nationwide Series at the time.

And so, you know, for me, I was super bummed and it kind of made you resent racing NASCAR a little bit, right? And I was like that until, you know, really 2016 that I didn’t get back in a sprint car for those years. And so, you know, I could see that in Christopher, as well. And like you said, that’s the most excited I’ve seen him be was DAYTONA 500 media day when we were talking about him racing sprint cars again.

So it’s cool to see. I think, obviously he owes a lot to Ty Gibbs for that. You know, Ty’s just as excited as Christopher is being teammates with him at the Chili Bowl and him talking about him running sprint cars now. And so, yeah, obviously I think for me, it just puts you in a better headspace coming into the races.

And, you know, obviously I think you put Christopher in a better headspace with as fast as they are already and you’re already seeing those results.”

With these more normal tracks coming up, like Las Vegas and Homestead, is this the time where you’re really about to see what your team has with these more normal tracks coming up?

“Yeah, for sure. I think for us at Hyak Motorsports, I think we knew with the schedule layout that we needed to really capitalize on those first couple of races for us to gain the points that we needed, and we did that. You know, we left Atlanta eighth in points. We knew going into COTA, we didn’t get a lot of time. We got in that first lap wreck at Watkins Glen on the backstretch there, so we didn’t get time on that new tire and we really struggled at COTA with that. So, you know, for us to kind of get out of COTA with an 18th place finish was, I was pretty excited about that for as bad as I felt like we were running. We know that Phoenix is going to be a big test for us, to kind of see where our short-track program is.

But then, yeah, we’re excited to get to the mile-and-a-half racetracks. I think we’re closer as a team; our balance of the race car and speed is better on the mile-and-a-halves than we are at the short-tracks right now. So it’ll be nice to run Phoenix for us; kind of get a baseline and see where we are. And then, you know, jump to those mile-and-a-halves and kind of get back on the horse of getting good finishes and running closer to the front.

And, you know, hopefully we do that this weekend at Phoenix as well, but we do know that this has been a struggle for us. So it’ll be nice to get that short-track package; get a run on it, kind of reevaluate as we go back to the mile-and-a-halves. And yeah, I mean, you got to be good at all racetracks, so we’re just trying to elevate our game at all of them.”

About General Motors

General Motors (NYSE:GM) is driving the future of transportation, leveraging advanced technology to build safer, smarter, and lower emission cars, trucks, and SUVs. GM’s Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC brands offer a broad portfolio of innovative gasoline-powered vehicles and the industry’s widest range of EVs, as we move to an all-electric future. Learn more at GM.com.

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
Phoenix 1 Media Availability | Saturday, March 8, 2025

Chris Buescher, driver of the No. 17 RFK Racing Ford Mustang Dark Horse met with media members at Phoenix Raceway ahead of on-track action Saturday afternoon. Buescher and the NASCAR Cup Series will practice and qualify Saturday for Sunday’s Shriners Children’s 500.

WE HEARD PEOPLE SPEAK YESTERDAY ABOUT RACING PHOENIX IN THE SPRING IS A WHOLE LOT DIFFERENT THAN WHEN YOU GUYS COME BACK HERE. IS THAT KIND OF THE WAY THAT YOU LOOK AT IT AS WELL?

“Yeah I’d say that’s pretty accurate. You know, one thing, we run these races so far apart so it does go through temperature changes and track changes and intensity changes just on where it is during the season when we close out here. So yeah it’s accurate. The races do seem to play out quite differently year to year. That’s something that we try and understand. Everybody, for the most part, everybody knows it or admits it, I guess. But it just doesn’t 100% make sense. I don’t know what it is, if it’s just the track sitting through the winter or what, but the races do seem to typically play out a decent amount differently.

QUESTION INAUDIBLE: “It’s not a plug-and-play no. (t certainly is the same track still and we take a lot of what we learn and try and use it for championship weekend but it requires tuning and it requires our teams going through a lot of their notes and what they have seen as typical offsets from the spring race to a borderline winter race, right? So it’s definitely something that we have to plan for and there is something that everyone has built in or tries to understand as best as possible.”

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO RUN THE WALL AND WHO DO YOU THINK IS THE BEST AT IN THE CUP SERIES?

“This racetrack has not been going quite as wide over the last couple of races. It just keeps inching back down. I guess my theory, which could be a hundred percent wrong, is just that I don’t know if it was PJ1 or resin or what that was sprayed last. It just seems to steadily be wearing out or going away. I haven’t messed with it in several years now. With that, I think that you get in these races and everybody thinks the shortest distance around it is going to play out and there’s plenty of grip at this racetrack still, even as it’s aging. But you slide up the groove and find yourself not where you wanted to be and discover, oh, there’s a little bit of grip out here still. Then that just becomes the line for a while until it just starts to steadily move up. Some of it’s based on tire wear and what we fight. Trying to keep that smaller radius running the bottom of one and two, where it’s coming off the top, you can just kind of straighten out the wheel and be able to put power down easier. It’s wearing out. We haven’t been able to see it make quite the benefit from behind the wheel as we had in a couple of races back where we were sailing it up right against the fence. Now it will come in at points and it will be better for some people, but it’s not dominant. I think that’s a good thing. I think that makes the lanes stay more even here, which I do think is creating better racing here.”

OBVIOUSLY, THE OPTION TIRE IS GOING TO BE IN PLAY HERE. HOW DO YOU SEE THAT PLAYING OUT? WE SAW IT IN RICHMOND LAST YEAR. HOW DO YOU SEE THAT IMPACTING THINGS THIS WEEKEND?

“Until we get on track with it I don’t have the best answer, but a lot of study has gone into this. Realizing that North Wilkesboro, when we did this the first go-round, the surface was just new and we ended up running the whole race on reds, right? That was probably not the best read for it, but then Richmond, a track that has a rather abrasive surface, and we did see big movers when they would bolt on reds at certain times during the race, and then have more fall off with them. We have a lot of notes from that race that we have applied towards this one in trying to take into account that the surface is different here, but it’s on our minds. We’ll have one set of each one for practice coming up here, so we’re gonna be paying attention to others. It’s gonna create more work for our teams as they try and decide or figure out what other teams are running, just to make sure that we have that data right. If you just look at timing and scoring, you don’t know if it was a red tire versus a yellow. I don’t know what the official names are, that’s the only way I can keep up is red versus yellow. But for us it’s just a matter of keeping up with who’s on what so that we can understand where their speed is, whether that’s fire off, fall off, and try and compare it to what we’re going to do and we’ll obviously know what tires we’re on at any point during the run. We’re balancing that out across our three cars this go. So obviously we have some more data for our organization, which is exciting for us and we feel like it will be beneficial throughout the year, but it’s going to give us more notes to lean on after this practice here today and be more prepared for tomorrow. It’s certainly not going to be a race where you can put the reds on and just run this thing out. We’ve had some rather long runs here and that’s been our strong suit for RFK. So with this option tire, if it’s got some fire-off speed and if we can make that last longer than competition, then maybe it works out great for us. Or if it kind of falls off the same for everybody, then maybe we lose some of what we had. We’re not staying still though. We know what our cars did good last time here and what we need them to do better. So we are working on that and trying to make it be better on both tires.”

YOU’RE TRYING TO ACCUMULATE DATA AND NOTES FOR NOVEMBER, HOW MUCH DOES IT COMPLICATE THE FACT THAT YOU’RE RUNNING TWO DIFFERENT TIRES THIS WEEKEND?

“Yeah, it’s going to make this weekend busier. I don’t know, it’s so far away. I don’t know what the plan is, I guess, in my mind, and I don’t think I’m making this up, but I think the idea is to try and run if the option tire is good and holds on and has good fall off and good racing, it’s my understanding is to try and run that tire as the only tire when we come back. I guess that’s what I thought I heard. I don’t, you are probably way more up to date in here than I am on that. But that is correct? I’m not making that up? Good, good. I would usually blame it on early morning, but it’s like one o’clock. For us, we’re obviously going to take everything that we can figure out. We know there’s an offset when we bolt on that red tire versus yellow based on Richmond based on North Wilkesboro. We’ll base that off today and we’ll kind of find out what that means for us and if we get to a place where we’re happy on the reds and we come out of this race, and we get that information that this is what we’re going to try and run, and we like this then yeah, it’s only three sets through the weekend that we got to run on the reds. But that’ll make those notes all that more important as we come back and get ready for the championship weekend.”

HOW WAS IT RACING IN FRONT OF MORE OF LIKE A HOMETOWN CROWD LAST WEEKEND AT COTA AND COMING OFF YOUR SUCCESS LAST WEEK, WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO ACHIEVE HERE AT PHOENIX?

“I’m fortunate enough, I guess, to get two home tracks in a sense, which is kind of a stretch when you consider they’re four and a half, five hours apart. From where I live in the Carolinas now, I think I have five or six of our races that are all closer than that. So it internally makes me laugh a little bit, but going back home and seeing that home crowd is always fun. Whether it’s intros or walking around the facility there and seeing old friends that are there for that race, it’s even more so when we go up to Texas Motor Speedway. It always is just a good time. It creates a little bit more chaos and it makes it a little busier, but all for the right reasons. For us, road racing has been pretty notably strong for RFK, for ourselves on the 17 team, and for whatever reason COTA has been our worst road course. I don’t know if it’s because it’s the first one of the season and we’re just trying to knock the rust off or what, but practicing and qualifying were just kind of mediocre. Qualifying wasn’t good and had a lot of work to do during the race. The team stepped up and did a good job and were able to really roll through and get a solid finish out of it and kind of just give us that little bit of a kick in the rear that we needed leaving there because it was a tough first day in Austin. It’s obviously a different time of year as well. You think about the way this schedule is played out at the beginning of the season, it’s hard to get a read on where the entire garage is at as far as what this year is going to look like from speed, from who is strong at ovals. We don’t even know right now. Kind of leading into the second part of your question, as we head into Phoenix, this is kind of our first traditional style race for the year. So we’re hoping to get a lot out of this. We’re hoping that everything is really good right off the truck so that we can use this as kind of our baseline to set the tone for the first quarter of the season. The largest goal for our team is to make sure that we fire off this season on a high note and somewhere in these first eight races are able to find victory lane. I feel like that’s what we’ve been missing. So that’s our goal for Phoenix. We finished second here in the spring race last year. So we were very strong. Bell was in another world that race, so still had a lot of work to do to win it but certainly looking at that, we were strong here in the fall and in the last couple of years at a racetrack that — I don’t know if anybody from the tracks in here — but I hated this place. I hated this place so much for so much of my career and it’s been nice to say that I don’t feel that way about it. Talking for real, I don’t hate coming to Phoenix any longer. The last several years now have been really, really good and it makes me excited to come back here and see what we can do.”

IT FEELS LIKE GOODYEAR HAS RECEIVED A LOT OF THE PRESSURE TO FIX A LOT OF THE RACING ISSUES AND THEY’VE BEEN WILLING TO TAKE RISKS. THEY BROUGHT A SOFTER TIRE TO COTA, THEY’RE BRINGING THE TWO OPTIONS TODAY. FROM YOUR PERSPECTIVE AS A DRIVER, WHAT DOES THAT SAY ABOUT GOODYEAR FOR THEM BEING ABLE TO GO OUT AND RISK THE NEW TIRE COMPOUNDS?

“I think it’s fantastic for our sport. We appreciate the willingness from them to do it and I think we’ve seen it starting to play out and pay off in some big ways. Obviously I’m not in their shoes and I understand it’s definitely tricky to be making a race tire for the best racing possible and production tires to put on your passenger vehicle. From a racing side of it alone and forgetting the rest, we’ve been able to get to the point where we’ve had some big fall-off races. We’ve been pulling strategy back into these things where you feel like you can decide if you want to stay out and take a risk on a tire that maybe only has five laps on it, but it is making a difference. We went through a period of time where you could run tires just as long as you could run a tank of fuel out, and that’s showing up to make better racing. The tire last week from COTA was essentially the same tire as Watkins Glen and the fall off that we’ve seen there. And maybe I’m a little bit biased to that one, but you know what, it worked at COTA too. We had some strategies that we hadn’t seen in a while. I think the Richmond race last year with the two tires, I don’t know that I love running two different option tires in a weekend, but I do understand the end goal of trying to use it as a real-world test. Because when you come here, and I’ve been a part of these many times throughout my career, you come here with six cars after a race or just somewhere in the winter, and you try and test something and see what works, it doesn’t relate. There’s just not enough cars, not enough heat, not enough rubber in the track. It just doesn’t give you the real world answers that you need. So this is a way to get those answers during a race weekend. It does create some excitement and some unknowns, but it also gives us answers on what we can do as a sport and what Goodyear is able to pull off so that we can have better racing as we head into the next short track or the next time we come to Phoenix or whatever it may be.”

NASCAR CUP SERIES
PHOENIX RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES
MARCH 8, 2025

 Justin Haley, driver of the No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series’ practice and qualifying session at Phoenix Raceway.

Media Availability Quotes:

With the No. 5 team losing a couple of crew guys, they get a couple of your crew guys and you get a couple of guys who I think pitted Justin Allgaier’s car in the DAYTONA 500. Is there anything you can do to help new guys who come in on the team who are only going to be there for two weeks?

“Yeah, I mean obviously that’s a really in-depth question. Bob, you really do your research, huh (laughs)? I mean, I just hate that with how the system of NASCAR works, like it hurts us. I don’t know if the No. 5 is going to get really hurt that much losing two guys because they got two really good guys that were on the No. 7 car, right? So, I mean I have full confidence in the Hendrick Motorsports pit crew team, right? But they are newer guys that got put on my car and this is their opportunity to show what they’re capable of. So, yeah, I mean I don’t really think that we’re losing much either but it’s just a weird system, right? How it all kind of pans out. So, yeah – Coach says they’re ready. Obviously, they were good on (Justin) Allgaier’s car at the DAYTONA 500. But definitely a weird situation because, right, we didn’t really do anything wrong. Our car wasn’t the issue. But just kind of how things work in the world. But, yeah, I mean it’s going to be interesting, right? Because it’s two weeks for us that we have new guys on our car. So, a little bump in the road but I don’t think it’s going to take away from much.”

How do you think your communication with your crew chief has improved as the race schedule continues?

“Yeah, I mean obviously starting off the season with a new crew chief is always difficult. I mean it’s never going to be easy, especially because you’re racing against teams and drivers and crew chief pairings that have been doing it for decades. So, I really do think it’s underestimated how quickly you have to get up to speed with your new crew chief. So, obviously I have Rodney Childers who, you know, was with the same guy forever with (Kevin) Harvick. You know, throughout what I hear with Kevin, their communication was a little bit different than what me and Rodney’s communication is going to be and that’s okay. It’s just, you know, different people with different views and how they want to attack the race weekend. So, I feel like the first two weeks, we really didn’t know. Rodney and I sat down this week actually on Wednesday and just kind of talked about what we want out of each other. I thought COTA was a really good race for us. We executed well – had the fifth fastest lap and we were in the top-ten before the caution. So, yeah, I think honestly the speed at Spire Motorsports is there and just getting that communication down as early as possible and having those meetings during the week to improve is key.”

Justin, when you look at this weekend and the fact that we’re introducing the option tire for the first time at Phoenix – how do you approach this practice session being an all skate for 45 minutes but having, you know, to work both the primary and the option tire? What is the game plan that you guys are going to look forward to in this 45-minute session?

“Yeah, I mean, that’s not really my decision, right? It’s left up to Rodney and the crew for what they want to do and how they want to attack the weekend; when they want to use them and when they don’t want to use them. You know, I’m just going to try to give the best balance read I can on both; see if there is a shift of balance between the two tires. And then just try to run the two tires out as long as possible, right? I think our game plan like this week was when do you want to use them in practice because you want to wait for the track to rubber in as much as possible with the cup rubber. You know, there’s so many different ways to look at it, but I think for us, we’re going to start on the yellows and run those out for as many laps as we can, probably a whole green flag run, and then come in and put the reds on. But, you know, I heard from other teams that wanted to put the reds on when the track was green and let it rubber up and then put their primary tire on with, you know, a rubbered up track. So there’s different ways to view it. I’m just kind of whatever Rodney tells me I’m going to do, and we’ll be okay.”

Kind of sticking with the option tire. Do you like the fact that they’re doing the option tire this weekend and, you know, what have you heard from other drivers about their opinion on what’s going on this weekend?

“I haven’t talked to anyone about it, and I really haven’t done much research into it. So, yeah, I think it was okay at Richmond. Is that the only time we’ve used it once? So, yeah, it’s fine. We’re all in it together, right? It’s another variable for us to either get right or mess up. So, yeah, it just comes down to strategy, but I certainly don’t hate the idea.”

Looking ahead to Las Vegas next week, wind traditionally sometimes a problem there. How do you deal with high winds at a place like that?

“I mean, you just drive. I don’t really know what I can do about the wind. But, yeah, it’s definitely different. You know, even last week at Circuit of the Americas, we were dealing with some wind in different areas, and when you get to, like, Pocono or Indianapolis, you deal with it. So Vegas usually isn’t too big of an issue. I know they always make a big deal about it. But kind of with how the track is, the wind usually faces into Turn One and then there’s kind of big billboards there. So I don’t really feel like it affects us much at Vegas as much as some of the other tracks. But, yeah, you just try to balance your car as well as possible and deal with it.”

Justin, historically they’ve called Phoenix a driver’s track, and I’ve always assumed that that implies that the driver is a bigger part of the equation here. To your mind, what can a driver do here that perhaps he can’t do at Las Vegas, Kansas or even Dover? Are you a bigger part of the equation as a driver here at Phoenix?

“I mean, I would like to think so, but probably not. It still probably comes down to aero, just like every week. So, no, to be honest with you, it comes down to a great setup, a great prepared team and good pit stops to get you in front of the aero equations. So, yeah, like I said, I feel like we’ve been really fast, and I had a lot of meetings with Rodney this week. Obviously, Rodney had a lot of success here with Harvick. So, yeah, I think we had a good sim session and feel confident about it. So we’ll see here in a little bit if Rodney still knows how to get around Phoenix, and I still know how to get around Phoenix. But, no, it’s exciting as a younger driver to be paired with someone who has had so much success here and to kind of get his feel throughout the week of it.”

A lot of the drivers have talked about how there’s an art to running the dog leg here. Can you elaborate, especially from a driver’s perspective, because of how rough it is? Is there a way that you need to get off the dog leg without causing too much of a pain or too much damage underneath your car as a result of it?

“Yeah, I don’t know. I try to go down there as little as possible. But it is a big time advantage, and I think we’re probably going to do it in qualifying. So, yeah, it’s just kind of one of those things where you have to grit your teeth and deal with it. I don’t think it’s fun for any of us. I think you could ask every driver in the field, and they would say it’s not fun.

But, yeah, with this car and how low we are to the track, it’s definitely a necessity.”

Justin, can you give me a sense of going into this session with this tire, what you’re going to be looking for? And can you also give me a sense, maybe based off of Richmond? I know it’s different, but how different is it for the driver when you switch from a primary to an option tire? What more do you guys have to do? Or, I mean, is it just the same thing?

“Yeah, it just depends on the balance shift. Like I said, obviously the option tire is going to be faster, so you’ll have more grip and you’ll feel better about your car. And, yeah, just like I said, the balance shift. I feel like at Richmond, my car was similar on both tires, and I think that’s kind of what you want.

So, yeah, I don’t really have a good answer for you. You just hope and feel that both the tires have the same balance of your race car, right? Because if you’re going to be good on the primaries and then put the option tire on and the option tire you’re way tighter on, then that’s going to slow down your pit stop during the race. And then that’s just going to compound the issue because you’re going to want to get around adjustments for it. So, yeah, just trying to think about that.

But, I mean, to be honest with you, you’re still spending 90% of your race on the primary tire, so does it matter? Probably not. You just need to know when to put them on, right? If we knew Monday when the cautions were going to fall, we’d all be a lot smarter. So, yeah, just how lucky can you get?”

About General Motors

General Motors (NYSE:GM) is driving the future of transportation, leveraging advanced technology to build safer, smarter, and lower emission cars, trucks, and SUVs. GM’s Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC brands offer a broad portfolio of innovative gasoline-powered vehicles and the industry’s widest range of EVs, as we move to an all-electric future. Learn more at GM.com.

NASCAR CUP SERIES
PHOENIX RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER QUOTES
MARCH 7, 2025

Katherine Legge met with the media onsite at Phoenix Raceway in advance of her NASCAR Cup Series debut in Sunday’s Shriners Children’s 500.

What are you looking to accomplish as we get set for practice and qualifying, and the race?

“Thank you for having me, first. Second, I don’t think it’s been a very long lead up. It’s been a very intense lead up. I’ve literally known about doing this race for about 10 days, maybe. I sat with the NASCAR folks in Atlanta and asked them what I needed to do in order to be licensed in NASCAR. I have to start on a short track, and so here I am. Very happy to be here. Very happy that BJ (McLeod) and Live Fast gave me the opportunity. I’ve spent the majority of the week in North Carolina driving the simulator. RCR was kind enough to let me on their static sim, and Chevy was kind enough to put me in the DIL, the motion sim. Hendrick was really cool. They let me do pit stop practice and Kaulig has been super awesome, so I feel well-supported and as prepared as I possibly can having never driven on an oval like this, a NextGen car. I’ve done a handful of stock car races in my career, so I feel like I’m either going to sink or swim, but everybody has given me the best possible opportunity to go out there and do a good job.”

Talk about your love of racing and where it comes from…

“I don’t know where it comes from but it’s definitely inherent in me. I grew up racing go karts. I wanted to be a Formula 1 driver, but then I ended up in open wheel and found a love for Sportscar racing. I loved doing the Xfinity races I did and wanted to do more stock car racing. I got the opportunity to do the Chili Bowl, so I did it. It was really cool. It was a really cool experience. I figured the more things I do, the better I’ll become. Everything teaches you something, but I do feel I have one of the most diverse careers in racing. Literally, you name it, I’ve driven it. I’ve driven Formula E. I’ve driven prototypes. I’ve driven so many different forms of racing. I feel like this is the one I really wanted to do that’s eluded me. I just love it. It’s in my blood. I think, you know how they say your job should not be your identity? Well, this is 100 percent my identity. I’m just a racing driver. I don’t know where I’d be without it. I love it so much. I love everything about it. I love the driving. I love the comradery. I love the competition with everybody else. I love the competition with yourself. I love the technical elements of it and figuring out what to do to make your race car go fast. I love the strategy. Literally every aspect of it makes me want to get out of bed in the morning. I just love it.”

Talk about not making your debut on a road course, or if that’s been discussed?

“Yes. I think I would’ve felt a whole different level of comfort if I had been at COTA this past weekend. We spoke about it; it was just really tough to get it done in the timeframe. So, we were in Atlanta and NASCAR said you could do COTA or Phoenix. I was like COTA, COTA would be great, but there was just no way to get everything done and get the car ready for COTA. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, but fortunately here I am at Phoenix.”

What does the preparations you’ve made in the time you’ve had do to your expectations?

“I think expectations aside, if I can tell you what my goals and hopes are. That’s basically finish all of the laps. I want to do a good job and minimizing mistakes because everybody makes mistakes, but I really want to minimize them. I want to stay out of trouble and show respect and prove that I belong. I think if I do those things, I think I will get the opportunity to do more.”

Do you see yourself running more races this year? Is that the ultimate goal?

“That would be awesome, yeah. I would love to do that. I don’t think that we have any expectation that we’re going to go out and be competitive. I think if we finish anything but last, that would be a win for us honestly because I don’t have the experience that any of these guys have. I don’t have the car at the moment that’s capable of going and running up in front, so hopefully we can develop me and the car and everything else at the same time and we can get there.”

In talking more of doing these races, does that mean INDYCAR is off the table this year, or the Indy 500?

“Nope. It doesn’t mean that. I would say that I’m hopeful to do more INDYCAR races.”

Indy 500?

“I would love to. Let’s see.”

You’re the first female driver in Cup since Danica (Patrick). Is there any sense of pride?

“It’s disappointing that there aren’t more women in INDYCAR, NASCAR, Cup. (In) Sportscars, there’s really been kind of a gap. There was Sarah Fisher and Danica (Patrick) and me and Simona (de Silvestro) and a bunch of good drivers in that era. Then there’s been this gap, this lull, and so when I stop racing, or maybe alongside it but definitely focused when I want to stop racing, I’d love to bring up the next generation. I think there’s only a handful of us that have those shared, lived experiences, and I think that my experience might be valuable in helping them navigate it. Everybody says, ‘What’s it like to be a girl in racing?’ and I don’t know, because I only have my own experience. I don’t know what it’s like to be a boy in racing. So, I know what my journey has been, and I know that it’s gone for me, and it’s gone against me, and I know where the struggles are. I know mentally what you have to do to overcome those struggles, and so, I think, to me it just is I would much rather people just saw me as another racecar driver on merit, but that’s not reality and I’m not immune or blind to the fact it has helped me in ways too. I’m just going to go out there and be Katherine and do the very best that I can.”

It’s a tough balance in earning respect and getting experience for yourself. How do you balance those two things?

“That is one of my main concerns, I would say. I want to be respectful of the leaders and stay out of the way, because it’s going to happen inevitably. But I also am worried once you get out of the rhythm and you have people constantly passing you, then you’re always going slower. You’re never going at your limit, so you don’t really get to feel what the actual race is like. I don’t know yet. We’ve gone over it, saying stay in the second lane, let them go underneath you. I’ve got a great spotter. I haven’t met him yet, but apparently, he’s awesome, (David) Pepper. I think that will be a challenge. I will say this, and it will go for every form of motorsport – the guys at the back are working way harder than the guys at the front. Because the cars that you get when you’re in a Penske or a Ganassi in INDYCAR, whatever it may be over here that’s uber-competitive, it’s so much easier to be at the front than it is to be at the back. I know that a lot of them have paid their dues by driving in that position, and so that I think that they will respect that if I respect what they’re trying to achieve too.”

Talk more about the quick process from Atlanta to here, and when you talk about trying to get comfortable and get the experience, would it have made sense or why is it so important to be here as opposed to maybe later in the month like at Martinsville?

“That’s a great question. There is absolutely no reason however, when I talk to other drivers and teams in NASCAR and people that were helping me, they said this is the best track for me to learn at and going to somewhere like Martinsville would be terrifying. I don’t know whether that’s true or not, but I take their advice, right? I don’t know what I don’t know, so when someone says to me, then I do what I’m told.”

Have you met BJ (McLeod) and Jessica or what do you think of them?

“Such a good dude. They’re both awesome people. I mean, they hustle, and you have to respect their love for the sport, and they want it so badly. They do everything they can to be here, and I think that that kind of embodies how I feel about it sometimes too. You don’t always have the money or the equipment, but you love racing so you do what you can and try and build on that and improve. I think he’s the same.”

Was there any inclination with this being Women’s History Month and we’ve got to get this going for March?

“No. You know what? I’m going to admit this now and I probably shouldn’t use these words, but I’m going to anyway. I said, ‘Oh, I’m going to fly under the radar for my first Cup race,’ right? Nobody is going to notice. We’ll be in the back. We’ll chill. We’ll get NASCAR permission and then someone said ‘Oh, it’s International Women’s Day Saturday.” There’s no way I’m flying under the radar. No, we did not take that into consideration and here I am in front of you guys.”

On your meeting at Cosworth and where you are now…

“I think when you want something badly enough, you find a way to make it happen, and so I think I just kind of clawed and tried and did everything I could to get as many opportunities as I could. I’ve honestly driven some really bad cars that I probably shouldn’t have driven. I nicknamed one the car ‘almost certain death.’ You have to do what you have to do to get here. My father’s not well here but wishes he was, but we didn’t have a million dollars to spend on the best teams and the best equipment and working our way through the ranks to showcase my talent. I had to do a bit of everything, and sometimes it worked out and sometimes it didn’t. I never had a backup plan. I always had to go from opportunity to opportunity and make the most of it. My whole career, my whole life has been that kind of rollercoaster. You know what? I honestly wouldn’t have it any other way. I think when it’s hard, you appreciate it so much more. If you really had to dig in and work through it, then it means so much to you. I’ve had a hell of a life and a hell of a career so far, and I sit here ready to go run a Cup race. I’m such a dork. I did a picture of the garage with my name on it because it’s so cool. I’m grateful for the journey I’ve had, and I wake up every morning realizing how lucky I am”

You mentioned this track is so unique. What makes is so unique for someone who hasn’t run here before or run a Gen 7 car before?

“I think you’ll need to ask me that after a run on the track because I don’t know but I can tell you from the sim, it’s very different from one end to the other. I’ve got a couple of friends in NASCAR, luckily. I’ve been friends with AJ Allmendinger for 20 years. We ran Champ Car back in the day, and I’ve got a good friend in Andy Lally who lives just down the road from me. So, I’ve made both of them try and teach me everything they know in the space of 20 minutes and sit and watch video and watch in-car and old races. They’ve both said how awesome this track is, and how the different grooves develop over the race. Andy was also talking about the black stuff they put down around the outside they’re not going to do this time, I’m not sure. There’s the dogleg that you can cut as well, and all the things. It’s just a really unique place and it’s a really cool setting. The racing is always so good here. It’s a place where I can move out of the way, right, if I need to. So, I think that’s important. It’s wide. Hopefully, sunny.”

Have you, or do you, know many of the other competitors? Is there anyone you might seek out?

“It may not seem like it, but I’m kind of shy. I’m not like the person who just goes off and says ‘Hey, whoever you are, I’m Katherine.’ It’s like my first day at school, you know? It’s like if you’re starting a new job, but it’s doing the job that you’ve been doing for a long time but it’s in a new environment. You have to figure out who your coworkers are, make friends, and you have to figure out where the bathrooms are. Where’s credentials? I have no idea where it is coming in here. It’s all the auxiliary stuff that I don’t know that I don’t know. Everybody has been so friendly, so nice. It’s been such a really cool, supportive paddock, honestly. So many have been helping me this week. It’s made my heart very happy. I’m sure I’ll meet the other drivers, and hopefully, they’re receptive to me. I’m not sure what to expect, so there’s a certain level of apprehension that goes with that.”

About General Motors

General Motors (NYSE:GM) is driving the future of transportation, leveraging advanced technology to build safer, smarter, and lower emission cars, trucks, and SUVs. GM’s Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and GMC brands offer a broad portfolio of innovative gasoline-powered vehicles and the industry’s widest range of EVs, as we move to an all-electric future. Learn more at GM.com.