NASCAR CUP SERIES
NEW HAMPSHIRE MOTOR SPEEDWAY
POST-QUALIFYING REPORT
JUNE 22, 2024

Rain Cancels Qualifying; Elliott to Start on the Pole at
New Hampshire Motor Speedway

• When continued inclement weather, the NASCAR Cup Series’ qualifying session was canceled. The lineup of the USA Today 301 will be set per the rulebook, putting Chase Elliott and the No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 team on the pole.
• The USA Network will broadcast the NASCAR Cup Series USA Today 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday, June 23, at 2:30 p.m. ET. Live coverage can also be found on PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

TEAM CHEVY UNOFFICIAL TOP-10 STARTING LINEUP:
POS. DRIVER
1st Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1
3rd William Byron, No. 24 Valvoline Camaro ZL1
5th Alex Bowman, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1
8th Ross Chastain, No. 1 Kubota Camaro ZL1

 Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 – Pole Win Media Availability Quotes

Chase, you’re the pole winner. What does it mean to be upfront to start this race on Sunday?

“Yeah, I mean obviously we’d rather have an actual pole, for sure. But you know, circumstances being what they are, fortunately our team has been performing at a really solid level over the past couple of months. The reality of it is that it put us in a position to have a good starting spot for a rainout situation. That’s just the reality of the weekend. Certainly, we’ll take a good starting spot, and more importantly, take a really good pit pick there on pit road.”

Talk a little bit about leading the championship standings and getting back in the groove that you’ve really established over the years.

“Yeah, I mean like I said, I feel that our team has been in a good spot, really all year. To be honest, I’ve been super happy with where we’re at; really happy with everything, in general, top to bottom. I feel like we’re all in a good place. I feel like I’m in a good spot with what I’m looking for in the car. I feel like Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) is in a good place with knowing how to give me some of those things. I think that for us, we’ve just got to continue to keep working down those paths. I think that we’d like to have a couple more wins than we have right now. But at the same time, I’ve always been a believer that if you’re upfront – putting yourself in position, stringing together good finishes – you’re going to have your opportunities. I don’t feel any different about that now. I think we just have to keep doing what we’re doing.”

A lot of the time, championships are won in the little moments. The season that your team has put together to this point, how important are these little moments if you’re going to get back up to the top of the hill this year?

“Yeah, I mean I think obviously the way the playoffs are now is different than what it used to be. So you have to be really good in those last 10 races and you really have to be extraordinary in the last three or four. I think a lot of it is just having a solid enough base and a solid enough foundation to get you through those first two rounds without many problems; just have solid days. And then you want to be super good in those last three or four weeks. I think that we’re capable of doing that with where we’re at right now. We just have to keep it rolling. We’re only halfway through the year, so there’s a lot of racing left. A lot can change; a lot can happen. It can go your way or it could not, and ultimately it’s up to us to determine the direction it goes.”

I don’t imagine you look at points too closely, but did you take a second look when you saw that you were up top?

“Yeah, obviously they told me out there after the race (at Iowa Speedway). But yeah, it’s nice to be leading the points. Obviously, like I just said, there’s a lot of racing left. I think that we have room for improvement still yet, and the reality of it was that Kyle (Larson) had an unfortunate situation last weekend. We would like to get to a position where we could just be better and get more points, and so on and so forth. That’s where I’m at. I think that there’s still things we can do better; still things I can do better.. bringing more pace and just trying to be a little quicker. I think all of those things are really right there for us in the taking. Hopefully we can add that to our foundation that we have right now and I think we’ll be in a good spot.”

I know you’re not on social media much, but yesterday Christopher Bell said “when Chase comes to JGR…”, and one of your teammates joked that you were headed to JGR. I’m curious, did any of your friends or families fall for it and ask you if you were actually leaving?

“(Laughs) Yeah, I heard about that. It was funny.. the boss actually sent me a message about another – I’m not sure who sent it to him or whatever, but there were all kinds of stuff. He sent me this screenshot that I was leaving and going somewhere else and was going to own a team.. there’s been all kinds of stuff, evidently, going on that I didn’t know what I was doing this week. I guess I’m headed to go drive for JGR now, too (laughs). I don’t think so.. if I am, I didn’t know about it. But I felt bad for (Christopher) Bell.. such an honest mistake, you could tell. It was such a genuine – like he just slipped up, you know? Excited for (Chase) Briscoe, though. I think that will be a really good opportunity for him. I hate that Bell was the one to break the news. I’m sure he got into trouble for that, but it’s all good (laughs). It was going to come out eventually.”

Talk about the challenges that New Hampshire Motor Speedway presents.

“Yeah, I think the toughest thing about Loudon is just the lack of banking that it has. The straightaways are really long, so trying to have your car in a position where you’re just comfortable enough to get yourself in the corner is going to help you turn the middle and ultimately make the straightaway long on the backside. I think that why it’s tough; the corner entries are flat, the straightaways are long and you’re going pretty fast. There are bumps into (turn) three that can be a little unsettling. So just finding that right balance and the amount of comfort that you’re looking for in your car is really important. Comfort in this car, in general, is hard to find. And when you do find it, it’s worth the wait, for sure. So that’s what we’re looking for.”

I realize that it’s still only midway through the season, but it’s certainly looking like you, Kyle (Larson) and William (Bryon) are going to be three of the guys that are going to be going for the regular season championship and probably the overall season championship. What is that like, in terms of, are you guys still sharing everything? What is that dynamic like?

“Yeah, over the course of my time being there, nothing has ever changed, whether we’re racing – Kyle (Larson) and I have raced for a championship for a couple of times, I guess now, at Phoenix (Raceway). I can say with a lot of confidence that our meetings have not ever changed in how everyone talks; the things that are discussed, information that’s uploaded into our internal servers, as far as setups and things of that nature. It’s all very straightforward. It’s all an open book. What you take and do with that from there is up to you. It’s just important for us to try and lean on each other and ultimately take the information that you gather and try to do a better job with it.”

With how difficult it is to pass here, how much confidence does it give you to start on the pole?

“It’s certainly nice… nicer to have the pit pick, though, to be honest. I always feel like the pit stall is more important than the starting spot, just because you live with the pit box all day. The odds of you leading 301 laps are slim to none, but you live with that box all day long and that’s something that can help you all the way through. If you get a late caution or whatever and you’re right there in the hunt, that can be the difference of you coming off pit road first or third, and I think that’s a really important thing that we see every single weekend. Excited about that. Really, I think it’s a team effort that earned us that opportunity. It wasn’t a stellar lap on my end, it was just a solid effort from our group other the last two or three months to have us in a good position to take advantage of the circumstances today.”

William Byron, No. 24 Valvoline Camaro ZL1 – Starting 3rd

Are you prepared to race with no practice or qualifying, and how does that impact things for tomorrow’s race?

“I mean, for us, it’s probably a little nerve-racking, just because we haven’t had a ton of success here. So we just wanted to get laps and get a good balance. But we had good notes from last weekend and I feel like all four of us are probably going to be close or in the ballpark. This isn’t our best track, but if we can unload and have decent speed and a decent balance, we’ll be fine. Typically, we do hit our balance off the truck, no matter what track it is, so I’m not super worried.”

What would it mean to you to take Hendrick Motorsports back to victory lane at New Hampshire Motor Speedway?

“Yeah, Kasey Kahne was the last win here, so that’s been awhile, for sure. He was really good here, so maybe we can get some of that magic back. But I don’t know, it’s just been a tough place for us the last few years. I feel like it’s only gotten tougher for us. My first start here – we weren’t good at a lot of tracks that year, but we were OK here. I think we finished like 14th. But it’s just progressively gotten worse. Hopefully this year we can turn that around. Last year, we had a decent car. We were a little bit tight and then we got some damage on the splitter on pit road; ran into Justin Haley on pit road and that really hurt our day. Hopefully this year we’ll have a smooth execution and be upfront at the end.”

Alex Bowman, No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1 – Starting 5th

Bowman on how he feels going into tomorrow’s race with no qualifying:

“I’m not that sad that qualifying got rained out, to be honest. My average qualifying attempt here isn’t great, so I probably ended up with a better starting position without qualifying. Obviously we wanted to get laps. This is a place I’ve struggled at for a long time, so I’m running the Xfinity car, too, to try and get better. I haven’t gotten any laps yet, so we’ll see.”

How are you feeling with the weather forecast tomorrow? What are you planning for?

“I’m kind of curious to see how today plays out. Obviously, we want to get the Xfinity Series race in. I would rather not have to run both in the same day, but if we do, I’m sure it will be fine. We’ll wait and see.”

Is there anything you can learn from the Xfinity car that will help you for tomorrow in the Cup car?

“Yeah, I mean I think just fundamentally, I’ve struggled here. The way I like to approach race tracks just doesn’t really work at this place. My best day here in the Cup car, even though we blew a tire late and didn’t get the finish we deserved, was 2016 when I ran the Xfinity car on the same weekend. So hopefully we can go back to some of that; get more laps on the track, more reps and be better in the Cup car.”

Ross Chastain, No. 1 Kubota Camaro ZL1 – Starting 8th

How does no qualifying truly effort your day in the race tomorrow?

“I don’t know.. when it comes time to race, I go race. Wherever I start, we’ll make a plan to get to the front. It’s not the longest race of the year by any means.. it’s one of the shorter ones. But yeah, it’s alright – whatever it is, we’ll take it as it is.”

What’s the confidence going into this weekend knowing the success has been seen in the past at similar tracks?

“Yeah, the confidence came for me at New Hampshire (Motor Speedway) when I got my crew chief, Phil Surgen, on top of my pit box. He changed the game for me at this track.”

About Chevrolet

Founded in 1911 in Detroit, Chevrolet is now one of the world’s largest car brands. Chevrolet models include electric and fuel-efficient vehicles that feature engaging performance, design that makes the heart beat, passive and active safety features and easy-to-use technology, all at a value. More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com.

Ford Performance Notes and Quotes
NASCAR Cup Series
New Hampshire Media Availability | Saturday, June 22, 2024

Ryan Blaney, driver of the No. 12 Mendards/Dutch Boy Ford Mustang Dark Horse, met with media members at New Hampshire Motor Speedway Saturday afternoon to discuss his win last weekend at Iowa and more.

Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Menards/Dutch Boy Ford Mustang Dark Horse

HOW DOES THIS CHANGE THE SEASON NOW THAT YOU’RE IN THE PLAYOFF? DOES IT CHANGE IT AT ALL, YOUR PREP FOR THE PLAYOFF? “I feel like winning last week was just, I wouldn’t say kind of pressure off, just kind of a little bit of relief of man, you know, finally got in the victory lane. I feel like we’ve been close a couple of times and I thought we had one won at Gateway and it didn’t work out for us and it was nice to string together a few good runs in a row there with Gateway and Sonoma. I thought we were really good. And then Iowa last week. So hopefully we’re hitting our stride and learning things that I think we can apply. I just hope to keep learning and keep learning things on tracks. I think our short track stuff is pretty good right now. It’s just a matter of trying to get the mile and a half’s and bigger worked out. So hopefully we can continue this momentum in our company of running a little bit better.”

I’M DOING A STORY ON CHICAGO AND SHANE VAN GISBURGEN. ON A DRY TRACK, DO YOU EXPECT HIM TO KICK EVERYBODY’S TAIL LIKE HE DID A YEAR AGO IN THE COUNTER RACE? “I don’t know. It’s going to be interesting to see. Obviously he’s really talented. I’ve been enjoying watching his inaugural Xfinity season. He’s a good guy. I’ve gotten to talk to him a good bit, and he loves the sport and really enjoys it. I don’t know if he’ll have as much of an advantage this year because everyone was kind of in the same boat last year as far as first time there, but he raced on a lot of street courses, and the V8 stuff and the rain and all that craziness that went on. He probably had a little bit of a leg up on everybody and it showed, and he took advantage of it and won the race. Hopefully, we can all draw a little bit closer to him at that place to where he doesn’t embarrass us like he did last year. We’ll see though.”

YOU’RE STILL CHASING YOUR FIRST CUP WIN HERE AT NEW HAMPSHIRE. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE CHALLENGES THAT THIS TRACK PRESENTS FOR YOU, ESPECIALLY THIS WEEKEND GIVEN THE WEATHER? “I don’t know what the weather is going to do. Nobody knows. I feel like we’ve always run pretty good here. I thought we had a good shot to compete for the win last year and we had a problem on pit road, last stop of the race and kind of took us out of it. I feel like this place has been fairly good to us and like I said earlier, I think our short track program is kind of getting to be fairly decent. That stuff changes week to week. You just try to stay on top of it and try to keep learning from previous years and weeks. But I’ve always wanted to hold the lobster ever since I was a kid. So hopefully we can keep adding to our entrees. We had corn last week and lobster this week and trying to add a full plate of dinner. So we’ll see what we can do. But I love it up here.”

THE THREE TIMES THAT PENSKE CARS ROLLED INTO VICTORY LANE THIS YEAR WERE WITH THE SHORT TRACK PACKAGE. WHAT HAS BEEN CLICKING REALLY FOR THE TEAM ON THESE SHORT TRACKS AND ARE THERE ANY NOTES COMING IN TO LOUDON THAT ARE BEING CARRIED OVER FROM THE OTHER TRACKS? “I definitely think we can carry over some notes. This place has some similarities to Iowa last week as far as rough entries. I think entry to turn three is super rough. You can see it on TV and it’s kind of the same, a little bit kind of different angle in the corner, but turn one entry at Iowa last week was super rough also. So, did we learn some stuff last week that helped us get in the corner at Iowa that might help us get in the corner here? There’s all these things you piece together. You can’t just bolt in what was in the car last week. I think there’s maybe some ideas of what you can change. Here you’re kind of limited and we don’t have the long practice like we did. Locked into springs and stuff like that. You hope to hit it fairly right to where you can tweak on it. I think short tracks have been a strong suit for us this year. Last year I even would say the same thing as far as the end of the year. So hopefully that stuff continues to get better and you’re always trying to stay on top of the competition. We’re good right now, but that could change in a week. You just have to continue to learn with each other and your team and your teammates. But at the same time, you have people in the background working on mile and a half stuff. How can we be better at those places? So the neatness of what we do in our schedule, all different types of racetracks, that you have to figure out how to be good on all of them, but that seems to be a strong suit for us right now.”

HOW RELIEVED WERE YOU TO GET THE MONKEY OFF YOUR BACK LAST WEEKEND? “It was nice. I feel like we had a couple chances to win already this year and just hasn’t really gone our way. It was nice that we put a really good night together. I was proud of the effort from our whole group of the changes we made from Friday to Saturday and Sunday. I didn’t really feel good Friday. I knew we had a lot of work to do and they did a great job of figuring out what we needed to do to be better. It showed in qualifying, it showed in the race and we got better through the night, especially the last two runs of the race. It is good. I don’t sit around and think about races you lose, like Gateway, but you know you get asked about it every weekend about how much does that kind of still sting and it was just nice to kind of redeem ourselves from that one. Nobody on our group hung our head and just just kept thinking about man we gave that one away. It’s just we knew that we’ve been running good and let’s just utilize this while we can and try to get them while we have a little bit of a leg up on everybody on the short tracks. It sank in right away. I think it sank in the most when a lot of my family came to victory lane. That was pretty cool. It was neat to have my parents there, my Uncle Dale, my mom’s side of the family that were there. So yeah, it sank in pretty quick. It’s cool to do it at a place like that where I’ve gotten support over the years by so many of those folks that are just from down the road. A lot of them, you know, maybe never been to victory lane. I get lucky to go to victory lane if you get a chance to win the race and to be able to bring your family into something like that, especially the younger ones, that’s a pretty cool experience for them so to see that is cool. I feel like a cool uncle whenever you can do that and just add to the cool uncle pot. It’s a big big weight off our shoulders and hopefully we can keep keep this going and continue to keep running you know pretty strong like I know we should and try to get back some of those races in the month of May that we had really bad races. Charlotte and Darlington and getting wrecked out early. Try to get back a little bit in this points battle and keep trying to climb back up the ladder.”

HOW MUCH OF A GAME CHANGER WAS WINNING POCONO, THAT FIRST WIN, AND WINNING IT WITH A TEAM AS ICONIC AS THE WOOD BROTHERS? “Pocono is one of my favorite wins. You’d never forget your first one, and especially to do that with those guys. I remember walking into their race shop in 2015 before we did the part-time deal that year. And you see everybody up on the wall. They have all the winners up on the wall. Pearson and Yarborough and all those guys. And you’re like, man, I want to be on the wall. I want to be on the wall in their shop up in Stewart. I will never forget the day they hung that picture of me up. Even though it was a small contributing factor to their 99 wins, you’re still part of it. You still have something to do there. Those guys are family. Even when I started driving for Penske, they still considered me part of their family, which is great. I love seeing Eddie and Len and Leonard at the racetrack. Leonard will sneak up on you. I never know when he’s coming, but he’ll find me off pit road and it’s always good to see him and he’s doing good so that definitely means a ton. You never forget your first one. You they work so hard to get to that point of watching people win in the Cup Series. I was able to grow up around it and watch it and you want to be there you want to be there and this is what you want to do and you work every since you are young to try to get to that point and have an opportunity and then to do it like it’s just all comes full circle. It’s something I’ll never forget and standing with Eddie and Len anind victory lane at Pocono after the race for a long time just talking about it all is it’s pretty cool.”

FORDS AND TOYOTAS HAVE COMBINED TO WIN 16 OF THE LAST 17 RACES HERE AT NEW HAMPSHIRE. DO YOU REALLY THINK THAT THERE ARE TRACKS THAT FAVOR ONE MAKER OVER ANOTHER OVER THAT LONG PERIOD OF TIME OR IS THAT JUST A CRAZY STAT? “That is a crazy stat. I didn’t know that. I don’t really know if tracks necessarily form well with a manufacturer or anything like that. I think that’s just kind of a coincidental thing. I look at Gibbs, I look at Penske, we’ve both been really good here. Stewart-Haas have been good here for a number of years. You say that and there might be a Chevy in victory lane, you never know. I mean, it’s just one of those funny things that might happen. I don’t think it’s a manufacturer thing. I think it’s just kind of coincidence of what teams figure some things out here and what manufacturer they are. But that is a nice stat. Hopefully we can add to that streak.”

ARE WE AT THE POINT THIS SEASON WHERE WE SEE OR WHERE YOU CAN EXPECT GUYS TO GET A LITTLE BIT MORE, I DON’T WANT TO SAY DESPERATE, BUT RACY. THOSE GUYS THAT MAYBE ARE REALLY TRYING TO GET IN THE PLAYOFFS. ARE WE AT THAT POINT WHERE YOU NOTICE THAT AS YOU’RE RACING? “Yeah, definitely. I definitely pay attention to that. I look at the points once a week, like on Sunday night when y’all put it out, and then I don’t really look at it the rest of the week. There’s nine to go till the playoff start? So yeah, it’s getting down to those final two and a half months. It’s going to get pretty dicey here with guys who are close to the cut line. Guys who need to win. You kind of start seeing that develop. I feel like, within the last two months of the regular season and then you have funky tracks coming up, Chicago, Daytona and Indy. I don’t know what anyone thinks Indy is going to be like. So there are a lot of opportunities I feel like for teams to do some things that might be bigger risks but they have to do it because they know what they need to do to get in and then you always have the little points battles of a handful of guys who are close to the line and those are always interesting to watch through the stages and end of the race and all that stuff. It’s nice to not be a part of that right now. We just kind of worry about getting wins and trying to pass a couple guys that we’re close to in points. It definitely is that time of the year. You figure out where you’re at, where you’re settled in, and you never know who can jump up and win any single week. It’s just a product of the sport and this car. It will be definitely kind of a race within the race. I feel like sometimes watching on TV, you’ll have this battle and then you’ll have these battles kind of going on for points and playoff spots and things like that. Those are always fun to see. So hopefully TV does a good job covering all that stuff because there is a lot that goes on, but it also is a good storyline. If you can kind of weed that into your race program.”

DO YOU KEEP A LITTLE BIT OF A LITTLE NOTEBOOK ON THAT? MAYBE YOU’RE RACING SOME GUY LATE IN A RACE, YOU’RE LIKE, OKAY, THIS GUY’S LIKE 90 POINTS BELOW THE CUT LINE, HE’S GOING TO BE DESPERATE TO WIN OR WHEREVER. DO YOU SORT OF KEEP SOME OF THAT IN THE BACK OF YOUR MIND AS TO WHAT THESE GUYS MAY THINK THEY HAVE TO DO? “I feel like you do have a little memory bank of all that stuff, kind of where everyone’s at. I feel like sometimes I get told that in certain scenarios. I get reminded of it, like, hey, this guy’s, he might be desperate to win, he’s out, by a good bit he’s got to win the race. So that just kind of gives me a little bit of heads up of, hey, you know, might be some desperation moves that are gonna be thrown just so I can be prepared for it. So yeah, you definitely keep that in mind. You’re not gonna give up any positions for anybody. That’s just not the way it is but yeah it’s nice to know that if someone throws a haymaker, you never know but you have to understand, at least I try to understand in my shoes if that does happen, I get it. I’d do the same thing if I was in that person’s position for the win and they need to win and I get roughed up, that’s just part of it. I get it but it is nice to have that reminder every now and then just to make sure you know what might be coming.”