BRISCOE DRIVES TOYOTA TO VICTORY LANE IN VEGAS
Chase Briscoe delivers Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing third straight Las Vegas triumph

LAS VEGAS (October 4, 2026) – Chase Briscoe delivered a dominating performance for Team Toyota winning both stages and claiming his first Las Vegas victory on Sunday evening. Briscoe scored the third straight win for Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota at the track. It is Briscoe’s second win of the season (Chicagoland), and seventh of his career.

Despite running top-six for the early portions of the race several members of Team Toyota battled adversity throughout the race, including Tyler Reddick, who rebounded to finish third after changing a battery. Both Bubba Wallace and Ty Gibbs recovered after pit road penalties, while Denny Hamlin (spin) and Christopher Bell (power steering failure) both suffered woes while battling for the race lead. With five races remaining in the season, Hamlin and Bell continue to battle for the title with Hamlin 40 points out of the lead and Bell 55 points back.

TOYOTA RACING Post-Race Recap
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Race 31 of 36 – 400.5 miles, 267 laps

TOYOTA FINISHING POSITIONS

1st, CHASE BRISCOE

2nd, Kyle Larson*

3rd, TYLER REDDICK

4th, Austin Cindric*

5th, Ryan Blaney*

8th, BUBBA WALLACE

16th, DENNY HAMLIN

17th, TY GIBBS

18th, RILEY HERBST

23rd, CHRISTOPHER BELL

25th, ERIK JONES

29th, JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK

*non-Toyota driver

TOYOTA QUOTES

CHASE BRISCOE, No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE, Joe Gibbs Racing

Finishing Position: 1st

How uneasy was today’s race?

“It was definitely uneasy on the long run. On the short run, I felt phenomenal. I don’t know what else I could have needed. After 30 or so laps, I would kind of be hanging on. It would seem like even if I could stretch it even four seconds, they would ultimately catch me right before we pitted. I’ll be honest, with 35 to go, I was thinking I don’t know if I am going to be able to pull this off after leading all day. James (Small, crew chief) made an adjustment at the end and that was a huge deal there. It was definitely an exciting race from my point of view. I know the middle part, maybe not so much, but at the end it was like cat and mouse game of a couple of different guys, and then there was that group of seven or eight lap cars. It is really cool to get Bass Pro Shops, Toyota, Free Bird, Columbia Bank, Mobil 1, Zep, Lance Crackers, WIX Filters – all of our partners in victory lane. It has not been a terrible year, but it hasn’t been the year we’ve wanted, so this is really cool.”

TYLER REDDICK, No. 45 Jordan Brand Toyota Camry XSE, 23XI Racing

Finishing Position: 3rd

Can you talk about what happened in the closing laps there?

“That pretty much sums up what today was like. Just one thing after another for us. Just really proud of everyone’s effort on this Jordan Brand Toyota Camry. We didn’t lose a lap changing the battery there, and we able to drive back to the front – it just took too long. It put us in a spot where we had to be perfect on that final run, and unfortunately, we had some more mistakes and we came out behind the 5 (Kyle Larson) after we got by him in the first part of that run. I think ultimately that was the difference. If we could have stayed ahead of him leaving pit road, I think we get to those cars first and maybe don’t burn up as much. I think we could have won today.”

About Toyota

Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in North America for nearly 70 years, and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands, plus our more than 1,800 dealerships.

Toyota directly employs nearly 64,000 people in North America who have contributed to the design, engineering, and assembly of over 50 million cars and trucks at our 14 manufacturing plants. In 2025, Toyota’s plant in North Carolina began to assemble automotive batteries for electrified vehicles.

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

NASCAR Cup Series
Las Vegas Motor Speedway
South Point 400
Team Chevy Post-Race Report
October 4, 2026

Larson Keeps Top-Five Streak, Points Lead Alive at Las Vegas Motor Speedway

 A valiant last-lap effort by the reigning champion, Kyle Larson, saw the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team lead the manufacturer with a second-place finish in the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. While it was a challenging day of battling handling issues throughout the first-two stages, it was the final run that saw the team back in race winning contention that ultimately continued their top-five streak in The Chase alive. Officially reaching the halfway point of the title run, Larson will head to Charlotte Motor Speedway with a 40-point lead over Denny Hamlin.

Four Chevrolet-powered machines earned results within the top-10 at the Nevada-based oval with Larson leading his Hendrick Motorsports teammates and fellow Chase title contenders, William Byron and Chase Elliott, in the sixth and seventh positions, respectively, with Trackhouse Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen driving to an impressive oval performance to earn a ninth-place result.

RACE RECAP:

Stage One:

Showing speed early in yesterday’s practice session, Kyle Larson went on to lead Team Chevy in qualifying with a sixth-place starting position for the South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. While maintaining the position for the opening laps of the stage, the points leader made an early report that his Chevrolet was edgy and lacking grip. While fighting the handling issues, Larson fell outside the top-10 as the race approached the first green flag pit cycle that ultimately began on Lap 34. Crew Chief, Cliff Daniels, was the first to call his driver to pit road for a lengthy stop that included a major front-end adjustment to try to help the balance of his Chevrolet. Buried in traffic and one lap down, it was only a 10-lap run before the first caution of the day flew for the No. 38. Varying pit strategies saw Daniels make the call to stay out and take the wave around to lineup 30th for the restart and 31 laps to go in the opening stage. Among the eight teams on the lead lap that chose to stay out included title contender, Daniel Suarez, who ultimately earned a hard fought six-place finish to lead Team Chevy to the end of Stage One.

Stage Two:

Despite a challenging opening stage that resulted in a 23rd-place finish, Larson reported that the first adjustment made an improvement but he was still lacking grip in the rear of his Chevrolet. Now just facing smaller adjustments to continue the progress, it was a standard four-tire and fuel stop that put the No. 5 team in the 18th position for the start of Stage Two. The culmination of a two-position gain in the race off pit road and a pit road penalty for the No. 23 saw Suarez inherit a spot on the front row to lead the field to the green flag for Stage Two. While settled into second for the opening laps of the stage, Suarez kept the Stage One winner, Chase Briscoe, right within reach – managing a three-second margin for a 14-lap run that ended with a caution for debris. While the No. 19 team stayed out, a late call by Crew Chief, Ryan Sparks, brought Suarez to pit road to lead a handful of cars for a two-tire stop. While it was a split strategy throughout the field, all of Chevrolet’s Chase drivers chose to pit for right-side tires, while also putting them in a position on fuel that lent the opportunity to make it to the end of stage. On the alternate strategy, the Stephen Doran-led team opted to capitalize on the track position and forgo the trip to pit road, boosting the No. 97 up to fifth for the restart. Van Gisbergen put on an impressive showing during the green flag run, maintaining a top-six running position despite the disadvantage of older tires. Just past the halfway mark of the stage saw the start of the green flag pit cycle for those that didn’t pit under the caution. The trio of Hendrick Motorsports Chase contenders made the gamble to run the stage out with Chase Elliott cycling up to second and leading Byron (third) and Larson (fourth) for the stretch to the second green-white checkered flag. While those on fresher tires started to make a charge late in the stage, the trio put up a valiant effort to all drive to a points-earning effort.

Final Stage:

The No. 9 pit crew powered their driver to a two-position gain in the race off pit road during the stage break, putting Elliott in fourth to lead the Bowtie brigade to the start of the final stage. With a green flag run building, Elliott maintained a top-five running position while still fighting the handling in the rear of his Chevrolet. Through yet another green flag pit cycle, the trio of Hendrick Motorsports drivers quickly cycled back up into the top-10 for what was building for a long run to the finish. While the first-two stages were a challenge for the No. 5 team, it was the final run of the race that saw the reigning champions back in race winning contention. While hovering around a three-second deficit, Larson quickly closed in on then-race leader, Briscoe, to just one-second with 20 laps to go. Enduring a flurry of lap traffic in the closing laps, Larson made the pass for second with 12 laps to go and quickly went to work on the battle for the lead. Reaching the rear of the No. 19 in lap traffic, Larson made a valiant last-lap effort before going on to cash-in on a strong second-place finish and lead Chevrolet to the checkered flag and the halfway point of The Chase.

 Team Chevy Unofficial Top-10 Results
Pos. Driver

2nd – Kyle Larson
6th – William Byron
7th – Chase Elliott
9th – Shane van Gisbergen

Chevrolet’s season statistics with 30 NASCAR Cup Series races complete:

Wins: 8
Poles: 6
Top-Fives: 52
Top 10s: 105
Stage Wins: 21

The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series Chase will continue at Charlotte Motor Speedway with the Bank of America 400 on Sunday, October 11, at 3 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on the USA Network, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

Post-Race Driver Quotes:

Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 19th

“Proud of the work from everyone on the No. 3 Toys for Tots Chevrolet team. Our car was better on the long runs, and we struggled all race on the restarts and shorter runs. We kept working at it, but the car was just too loose overall and we lacked grip and downforce. We’ll take our 19th place finish, leave Las Vegas Motor Speedway with plenty of notes for next spring and now get to work for Charlotte next week.”

Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Finished: 2nd

“It was a fight all day long for this No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet team. I was surprised about how far off we were there in that first run. I was just doing all I could to hold onto it and get to the pit stop. Cliff (Daniels, crew chief) said it was going to be a lengthy pit stop, but I didn’t know it was going to be that long. We came out a lap down. I think, thankfully, that caution came out and we could take the wave around. I think that really saved us from being stuck a lap down a lot longer. My car got better, but getting track position was just difficult. We just chipped away at it all race long. We had a good green flag pit cycle, and I could tell I was gaining on him (Chase Briscoe, race winner) pretty quickly. I just tried to stay patient, but my tires were getting kind of burnt off by the time I got there. I did what I could to try and win. We did a decent job with it, but I was just trying to push it through (turns) three and four to build some momentum at him and try to get by him down the straightaway. I just got really loose and overcorrected it into the wall. Thankfully, I was able to limp it home. It got exciting, for sure. I wish I could have won in this paint scheme while honoring Kyle because that would have been in very Kyle Busch fashion, but again, it was a great fight by this team.”

William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Finished: 6th

“We were just kind of in the back-half of the top-10 throughout most of the day. We just couldn’t really advance past that. And then under the green flag run, we would just get kind of stuck. I thought that during the last run, our No. 24 HP Chevrolet got tighter. We just needed a little bit more.”

Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Finished: 7th

“I thought our No. 9 NAPA Chevy was, honestly, pretty good most of the day. We ran long with the No. 2 (Austin Cindric) there and the right-front came apart. For whatever reason, after that, I just kept getting looser and looser. I just kind of faded back a little bit at the end. We took a bunch of fuel and that didn’t help for those runs that went green. But overall, I thought it was a pretty solid day. It’s nice to have two solid days back-to-back for this team. There were some high spots in there. I thought our car did some really good things at different times throughout the day. I had some good feels at different points, and it was definitely something that we can build off of.”

Austin Hill, No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet

Finished: 22nd

“Solid day for our BetMGM team. All in all, to leave here with a top-25 is a stepping stone for our group. On the initial run, we were really good and drove forward. Gained over 12 spots in the first stage and put ourselves in a decent spot. As the race went on, our Chevrolet got tight, especially on fire off. Andy (Street, crew chief) and the guys kept working on the balance and got the front end in a good spot, but then we were too loose on the last run at the end. We will keep building as much as possible in these last handful of weeks.”

Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet

Finished: 21st

“It was a up and down day in Vegas, not the result we wanted, but today was just so unpredictable. Staying out, two tires, or four tires were all options and late in those runs was really where it made a difference with tire life. There was a time where we were running in the top 15 for some of the day, then the strategy didn’t come back to us the way we had hoped. Regardless, I feel like it was a step in the right direction with our 1.5-mile program. Special thank you to Fly Alliance for their support this weekend, hopefully we can continue to progress with our intermediate setups next weekend in Charlotte.”

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.

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

Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
South Point 400 — Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Sunday, October 4, 2026

Ford Racing Finishing Results:

4th – Austin Cindric

5th – Ryan Blaney

10th – Joey Logano

13th – Chris Buescher

20th – Noah Gragson

24th – Brad Keselowski

26th – Josh Berry

28th – Ryan Preece

33rd – Todd Gilliland

36th – Zane Smith

AUSTIN CINDRIC, No. 2 Autotrader Ford Mustang Dark Horse – A LITTLE BITTERSWEET TODAY? “Yeah, obviously we overcame a bit today, but to come up with a solid finish in our Autotrader Ford Mustang. I feel like we had a car that was pretty good and close to capable of winning today. There was a lot of deja vu from last week with the leaders fighting for the win and still giving us a shot there, but I’m just proud of everybody on the 2 car. We were able to bring two really fast cars two weeks in a row and we’re really starting to execute really well throughout this stretch.” WHAT DO YOU ATTRIBUTE YOUR STRENGTH ON THE MILE-AND-A-HALF TRACKS TO? “I think we’ve got a good notebook and I think Brian and all the guys do a great job weighing these things out. It wasn’t an easy weekend. We didn’t start the race necessarily as close as we needed to and didn’t start practice as close as we needed to, but the guys worked on it all day and gave us some strengths that we didn’t have before. It takes a great team. That’s what it takes to be good at this level on a consistent basis and I just want to win.” YOUR BEST FINISH HERE AT LAS VEGAS, BUT IT HAD SOME DRAMA. “We definitely had to work for it there, but the guys did a great job with the strategy and adjustments throughout the day. I just wish that third stage would have played out a little bit more favorably for us. I thought we had a good enough car to at least go contend. I wouldn’t say I’m the best guy out there, but I thought we were one of the best.”

RYAN BLANEY, No. 12 Menards/Duracell Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “I definitely felt decent. Our long run pace was good, but not enough to overcome the short run pace that I would lose. The 19 got really far away there and start of the third stage I lost a couple of more spots. I then found a little bit and ran along and just tried to get a tire advantage and kind of got back to right around where we were. Overall, it was a good day. Our mile-and-a-half program is definitely getting better. Three cars in the top 10, that’s a really good day for our group, so I appreciate Team Penske for continuing to work on it, Ford Racing, Menards, Duracell, everybody who puts a lot into our program. We’ll keep digging and keep locking in and go at it week to week.” WHERE DO YOU PUT YOURSELF NOW WITH BEING 80 POINTS BACK GOING TO CHARLOTTE? DO YOU FEEL YOU ARE STILL IN THE FIGHT? “Yeah. Hopefully, we can put together a day like we just did with good stage points and top fives, stuff like that. That’s what you’ve got to do. Our mindset, no matter where you’re at or how many points ahead or behind you are, you keep going to the racetrack and try to win the race and continue to try to fight for all you can. It’s nice that we gained a little bit on the leader, so that’s good. We’ll just try to do the same next week and try to piece it together one race at a time.”

JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Mustang Dark Horse – HOW WOULD YOU BREAK DOWN YOUR RACE TODAY? “It was okay. We got up there and got some stage points in the second, so that was okay. I saw the front for a second, but we either have short run or long run speed – pick which one you want, but you can’t have them both. That’s kind of where it seemed we were, and then we just got lucky because the rear gear was smoking hot. I was probably too aggressive with some stuff there, but it worked out that we made it. I feel lucky we made it.” YOU TALKED ABOUT JUST TRYING TO HANG IN THERE WITH THESE THREE INTERMEDIATES. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT WHERE YOU ARE? “I think we’re 71 behind, so we lost a couple but it could have been worse. We’ll just keep trying.”

Ford Racing Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
South Point 400 Qualifying — Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Saturday, October 3, 2026

Following NASCAR Cup Series qualifying at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Chip Bowers, president, RFK Racing, came to the infield media center and addressed the news that Brad Keselowski will not be returning to the team as a driver in 2027. He also answered questions from the media. Here is the full transcript of that session?

CHIP BOWERS, President, RFK Racing – “I want to start first and foremost by just saying how much I appreciate Brad Keselowski. He has been a tremendous partner to me personally, to our ownership group of Jack Roush and Roush Enterprises and Fenway Sports Group. He is not just the consummate professional and future Hall of Fame race car driver, but he’s also an incredible person. He’s been a great friend and someone who has really helped modernize our business on the track over the last five years. I think it’s fair to say he will be an important chapter in our organization’s history and he you will not find bigger fans in the garage or in life than the people associated with our organization, so I felt it was important to start by thanking him for all that he’s done for us and I’m excited to continue to root for him over the course of the next six weeks and the rest of his career.”

QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION

HOW IS RFK RACING A BETTER ORGANIZATION GOING FORWARD WITH BRAD KESELOWSKI NOT A PART OF IT? “I will tell you that, one, a lot of the reasons why we are competitive today are thankfully because of Brad. If you go back before Brad’s arrival, it’s fair to say that we weren’t as competitive as a racing team as we are today. That’s largely due to Brad’s vision for what we could become as an organization. I’ll tell you that there are 150 people in our competition room that are incredibly talented and very excited about their role with our organization, so we felt like we’ve built a really good foundation. Don’t get me wrong, Brad means a lot to us as a race car driver on the track. He’s had some success with us. He’s a tremendous teammate and he’s really helped us understand what we could become on the track. That said, we feel like we’ve gone to an area where we’ve become more competitive than we’ve been historically, now it’s time to take the next step. We have a great deal of belief that we have the right people to do that and look forward to adding additional talent to help us get there.”

WHAT WAS THE REASON FOR MAKING THIS DECISION? “Like any decision like this it’s hard. These decisions are not made likely. Myself and Brad’s team worked together over the course of a number of months to figure out what the next chapter of our careers looked like together, and I say our I mean our organization as a whole and Brad. One of the things that I heard very early in the process from Brad is that he really has an interest in being a race car driver for the foreseeable future. I think a five-year plus span is what he’s got his eyes on and I applaud that. We are excited about Brad considering all the things that he’s considering and things that he wants to achieve on the track. I think that’s tremendous. We’re gonna be rooting for him the entire way. I think for us as an organization as we looked at it and looked back as we started our journey together five years ago, we had an idea of Brad taking on a very ambitious role. He’s gonna be race car driver. He’s gonna be head of competition. He’s gonna be minority owner. He’s a businessman and has interest outside of our organization. He’s a father. That is an incredible amount of things to balance and we have a lot of empathy for just how hard all of that is to achieve and to achieve at a high level. So when we looked at it, we wanted to make sure organizationally that we not only set ourselves up for near-term success, but really long-term sustainable success, So when we started looking at what the next three years look like for us and beyond, it was clear that we wanted Brad to start focusing more on his role in competition. We felt like, as you all know, you look at a Chris Gabehart or a Chad Knaus and the list goes on and on and on, these are 24/7 jobs. I mean, you have to live, breathe it constantly and if we want to be in the same conversation as Hendrick Motorsports and Penske Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing, it’s gonna take that level of commitment and that’s what we’re focused on as a company. That’s what we’re focused on across the entire organization, and so, for us, we wanted that to be a natural transition over the next two to three years for Brad. I think he wants to continue to drive much longer than that and that’s fine. We applaud that. Like I said, we want to give Brad, because we have such immense respect and appreciation for Brad, every opportunity to do all the things he wants to do in his career. But that’s what makes it so hard. This is a business and we just weren’t aligned with that and that happens sometimes. We just wanted to make the competition side more of a focus and he wanted to focus more on the driving side. We get that and that’s why it took us so long to get here is that we worked so hard and so diligently to find a solution and just couldn’t get there. That happens sometimes in business. That doesn’t mean that it was acrimonious because it wasn’t. You hear a lot of things that there were arguments between Brad and Fenway Sports Group. That could not be further from the truth. There is no adversarial relationship. We are all still friends. It’s hard. That’s difficult emotionally. It’s been a tough week from that standpoint because we never thought we’d find ourselves here, but I think everybody did what they felt was in their best interest and that’s okay. We understand.”

ARE YOU SURPRISED YOU COULDN’T GET TO A POINT WHERE HE COULD STILL DRIVE AND POTENTIALLY GIVE UP SOME OF THE COMPETITION STUFF AND FIND A HAPPY MEDIUM? “Yeah, I am. I know he feels the same way. I think we’re both surprised that we just couldn’t figure it out. The reality is that when you have a relationship that was as intertwined as Brad’s was with our organization – driver, head of competition, investor – a lot of that was wrapped into one agreement, so when you start looking about what his future might hold on the track as a driver and we’re trying to figure out how best to allocate his time, we could have gone and tried to find a new head of competition. That’s challenging as you might imagine for someone to still drive for us who helped build that piece of the business, who now is going to be focused on other things. We wanted to set the next person up for success and if he is to go drive for another organization that is not a Ford Racing team, you might imagine there are a lot of concerns around that. So, there is a concern about sharing intellectual property and all the things, you simply just can’t have that dynamic. One key decision, unfortunately, creates a domino effect for all the other ones and that’s what ultimately led us to where we are.”

HOW MUCH OF YOUR SPONSORSHIP, IF ANY, IS TIED TO BRAD AND YOU MIGHT HAVE TO REPLACE WITH HIS DEPARTURE? “Zero. All of our partners are actually associated with all three of our cars for the most part, so that was part of how we planned out our partnership initiative so all of our guys can make appearances on behalf of our brands. Our partners have been extremely supportive of us. I know there was some discussion around was Kroger concerned about the fact that we may run an open car and a third car, the answer is no. Not once did they ever tell us that they had to have a chartered car. It never came up. Obviously, everyone if you’re running an open car at Daytona for the 500, there’s a little concern that you might not qualify, so, yeah, we’ve got to figure that piece out, but as it relates to the rest of the schedule, that was never a concern. So, there was no smoking gun here. There’s no other outlying issue that people want to point to for why unfortunately we weren’t able to figure it out. It was simply those issues that I’ve addressed.”

YOUR STATEMENT SAID YOU ARE COMMITTED TO RUNNING A THIRD CAR. WHY IS THAT AN IMPORTANT ASPECT FOR THE TEAM TO PURSUE? “I touched on it a little bit earlier, and I want to keep reiterating this. I’ve said this a lot since I joined the organization about a year ago, the reason I joined this organization is that Roush Enterprises, Fenway Sports Group, Brad Keselowski, collectively, our organizational focus has been on being a tier 1A organization. We had tremendous success as Roush Racing. We went through a period there where we weren’t as successful. We want to get back to that. No one wants to be a middle of the pack franchise. Not one. And we can’t do that running two cars. We know that we need three cars to achieve that. We’ve worked extremely hard in large part thanks to Brad’s leadership to run three cars, to secure more partners, to make sure that we build the right infrastructure with the right engineering talent and the right talent in the pit crew. The list is endless and now that we’ve done a really good job of building that foundation, we would be doing ourselves and our fans an incredible disservice to take a step back and go back to a two-car team. So, one, we would love to have Brad still be part of that journey. Obviously, that’s not gonna happen, but this is just a different path to the same destination. This is not a bump in the road and not one person in our organization sees it that way. We will miss Brad, no question, but the reality is we have a lot of faith in each other. We’ve got tremendous talent in our organization. We’re all committed to rowing together to get to where we want to go and the fact that we’ve got the support that we have from Roush Enterprises and Fenway Sports Group, not one individual has said slow down. It’s actually been the exact opposite, hit the gas.”

WHAT DOES THAT NEXT STEP ENTAIL FOR YOU GUYS IN TERMS OF PERFORMANCE AND IMPROVING FROM WHERE YOU ARE NOW? “I think it’s competing every single Sunday. We want to have a chance to win every single race. Hard stop. When you do that and you’re performing at a high level, then you’ve got guys in the Chase and you’ve got a chance at a Cup championship. We’re really excited that Ryan won a couple of races this year, one being a points race a few weeks ago. That’s awesome. It’s great for our organization. It’s great for our partners, but it just wants us to have more. You get a taste for it and you want more, so that’s what we’re focused on as a company. As we think about who we bring in to replace Brad’s role as head of competition, we want to make sure that person is the right strategic fit, the right cultural fit, someone who has a really good understanding of what it’s gonna take to be great, and that’s gonna be where we are hyper focused. That will be the next step in our process. As I run a parallel path to think about who our third driver is gonna be, which is gonna take some time, we are already out in the market. We’ve hired a third party search firm and CAA Sports to assist us with that process and we’re excited about the number of people that we know are gonna be interested in this role.”

WITH HIS DEPARTURE HOW DO YOU NOT LET HIS DEPARTURE FRACTURE TEAM MORALE? “Brad has had a large part given his role in helping us build the culture that we have today, but, as you know, culture is not led by one person. It’s led by many and a lot of that credit goes to all the people in our organization who see the vision of what we’re trying to accomplish. It starts at the top. I’ve got a mentor in our business who always says the best recipe for success in professional sports is three ingredients – ownership, ownership and ownership. So when you’ve got great ownership at the top, who trickle down the communication of we want to be great and this is what greatness looks like in our eyes and we want you to be a part of that, it’s hard not to get fired up and enthusiastic. Brad was a key voice in that conversation, but so are so many other people. That’s why his voice will be missed, but we know there are gonna be a lot of other people to pick up the mic and make sure that our voices are heard.”

WITH BRAD MOVING ON, WHAT IS YOUR PHILOSOPHY ON HOW YOU CAN BECOME MORE OF A FOCUS ON THE FORD INFRASTRUCTURE? “Partnership is everything and with partnership comes a lot of listening. We need to have a better appreciation from Ford and the other teams in the Ford family of how we can be additive to their process. It’s gonna take everybody for Ford to continue to race at a high level and compete against Toyota and General Motors and we get that. I will tell you that one of the things that we’ve got to do, and we talk a lot about it is our voice gets louder when we win more, so winning is the key thing. So, yes, should we do a better job of communicating effectively across the Ford group? Of course. I think every single person would tell you that, but it starts with listening and that’s what we’ve got to do. We’ll be continuing our effort along those lines and committed to that process, but the best way for us to have a bigger platform with any relationship, our partners, internally, you name it, we’ve got to do a better job of making winning the main thing and that’s what we’re gonna focus on.”

YOU KNOW THE CLUBHOUSE ATTITUDE AND THAT WHOEVER MANAGES THE TEAM MEANS A LOT. WHERE DO YOU FIND SOMEBODY TO FILL THAT CULTURE ROLE AND HOW KEY IS HAVING OWNERSHIP THAT IS ACTIVE IN THE ORGANIZATION’S SUCCESS? “I think back to the culture piece, to answer the first question, I’m a firm believer, and I’ve seen it in a lot of successful organizations, you mentioned my time working in a clubhouse. I’ll tell you that when I was with the Golden State Warriors, a lot of the culture in that organization bubbled up. It wasn’t just a trickle down, and so a lot of the bubbling up with great organizations comes from the locker room. I’ve had conversations with Chris Buescher and Ryan Preece about the opportunity that’s in front of them now. These are two really smart guys, really good racers. We have a DNA in our organization of being a racing organization. We embrace that wholeheartedly. We want to make sure that moving forward we do a better job of having group think. I want them to use their voices. They’re on the track. They recognize talent. They understand what’s going on with the car. We need to do a better job, and this is not a knock on Brad or anybody, it’s just I think as you evolve as a company and you take the next step, it takes more people leaning in and using their voice to achieve what you want to achieve. So, we’re gonna be looking for that next person to help lead that. It will not be expected of them that they are the sole beginning and end of building our culture. They’re there to be a voice in the building of that culture, but they’re really there to help us build strategy and build fast race cars. Ultimately, how we get along, how we think about what we do as an organization and what we set out to achieve, that should be a collective conversation and that includes ownership. That includes Roush Enterprises and that includes Fenway Sports Group and we’ve had a lot of conversations about that. I think they have always, but just so this group knows, they’ve been extremely supportive every single day of every week of every month of every year. They just choose to afford to give the ability of the people who are on the ground, afford them the opportunity to lead. I think moving forward they will continue to be more present, not because they feel like they need to, but also because they want to make sure that the organization believes what they’re saying. I think that’s important for them to see it optically as much as hear it, and we’re gonna do a lot more of that moving forward.”

HOW AGGRESSIVELY ARE YOU SEARCHING FOR THAT THIRD CHARTER? “Extremely. I’ve said this a number of times in different forums, there’s not a day that goes by that we’re not thinking about it, planning on it. I don’t talk about it publicly because I don’t know that it helps our process very much. We’re trying to be very strategic around what an acquisition of a third charter means. Certainly, it would be just transactional, and I get that, but if there are strategic alliances that can be created, if there’s a way that we find better ways to work with people through the addition of a charter, that we should be thinking about that. Look, just a matter of days ago our group reiterated to me we will buy a charter and we will pay for it. We just have to have one for sale and we’ve got to find the right situation for us and that’s what we’re working through. But there are a lot of conversations that will continue to happen. Patience is a virtue. Sometimes you sit back and you let things play out a little bit and the path gets a little bit more clearer.”

GIVEN THE AMOUNT OF PROPRIETY INFORMATION BRAD WOULD HAVE DUE TO HIS ROLE. IS HE SUBJECT TO ANY KIND OF NON-COMPETE THAT WOULD PREVENT HIM FROM RACING FOR ANOTHER CUP ORGANIZATION NEXT SEASON? “No. We’re not gonna hold Brad captive. We want, like I said before, this is not acrimonious. If Brad would like to go race somewhere else. If Brad would like to be an owner somewhere else. If Brad would like to lead competition somewhere else, he’s more than happy to do so. There are some things, obviously, we have to work out that we’ll do privately as it relates to his equity and that may take a little bit of time for all the reasons I talked about – just so there are no conflicts with our OEM or anything like that – but, look, Brad is an above board pro and so we have no concerns that he’s gonna take information from us or anything like that. We want Brad to be highly successful, so whatever it is he wants to do, we want him to be able to pursue it. It’s just unfortunate we couldn’t figure out a way to make it work here, but, again, it’s nobody’s fault. These things happen.”

IS THERE ANY PART OF YOU THAT IS NERVOUS ABOUT HOW THINGS COULD GO IF THERE WAS A POSSIBILITY OF NOT GETTING THAT THIRD CHARTER GOING INTO 2027? “No, and the reason being is that, one, we have the financial commitment of our ownership group to withstand any revenue loss by not having a third charter. I think a lot of times people are like, ‘Well, if you don’t have the third charter, you’re gonna make less money.’ That is correct, but back to my point about supportive ownership, they understand that sometimes things don’t happen as timely as we would like it. That doesn’t mean that our commitment to what we want to accomplish changes. It just means that we’ve got to be more patient. Our partners are tremendous. We sold out all of our sponsor deals this year. We’re growing our partnerships next year. We have a number of people coming back that are actually getting more races from us. There are a lot of great announcements that will be coming out in the coming weeks. We have wholeheartedly embraced as an organization the reality that we may have to run open next year, so with that sense of confidence that we can withstand an open year, we think we can do it for the foreseeable future if we have to. It’s not what we want to do, but we’re not gonna panic, and I think that’s the sign of real leadership as an organization when your ownership doesn’t panic and they stay the course because they believe so much in the people that work for them. That’s ultimately what we’re focused on right now, so we’re committed to our process. We’re not gonna veer off the path that we’re on and we’re excited about what our future holds.”