Cole Custer continued his hot streak by winning the pole for Saturday afternoon’s Roxor 200 at a hot and steamy New Hampshire Motor Speedway. “I didn’t know it was going to be a pole lap honestly,” Custer said after the qualifying. “I thought I could’ve hit it a little bit better. This Haas Automation Mustang […]
After leading the afternoon's practice session and winning the General Tire Pole Award, Chandler Smith (No. 20 Craftsman/828 Logistics Toyota) put a period on a clean sweep of the ARCA Menards Series Fans with Benefits 150 with a dominant victory Friday night at Iowa Speedway. Smith led the first 106 laps before losing the lead on pit road during the penultimate caution flag of the night. Once back under green, it took him just 10 laps to knife his way through the field to retake the lead from Ty Gibbs (No. Читать дальше...
BRAD KESELOWSKI, No. 2 Alliance Truck Parts Ford Mustang – WHEN DO YOU START THINKING ABOUT THE PLAYOFFS? “I think for me personally, I can only answer for myself, I start thinking about the Playoffs the second you get your first win and you’re locked in. And for there it’s kind of ‘how can I have the most amount of points, bonus points, whatever it might be, to enter those Playoffs.’ That’s why it’s such a big advantage early in the season because you can really focus your eyes on the big prize.”
KURT BUSCH, NO. 1 MONSTER ENERGY CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 3rd DID YOU GET EVERYTHING YOU COULD OUT OF YOUR RACE CAR? “I don’t know. I’m happy that we got third, but I’m disappointed because I’m like where was the lap time? Where did I lose it? But, thanks to the guys and the engineering group to take our car from where we were in practice and to give us a shot at the pole. That’s that team chemistry and that feel that we’re getting for one another. I don’t know. I’m going to call that one all-driver. Читать дальше...
“We were a little off to start with. We were trying something, and it didn’t quite work out the way we wanted it to, but I feel like we can get it right before qualifying. We can make a little change here and make a good, solid qualifying run and we will go out there and race them.”
“It was kind of a struggle this morning, but actually there it felt pretty good. Definitely a lot better than what we had in practice. I missed it a little bit on the lap. It had some more in it. Just didn’t hit it right. The Stanley Camry felt good there, so I think that was the first time all day I’ve had a good feel in the car and if we can kind of transfer that into tomorrow, that’d be a positive.”
“I don’t know that I’ve ever necessarily looked at a pre-Brexton era and a post. There’s something else that kind of happened around that same timeframe and that was Adam Stevens (crew chief). I think just having the opportunities to work with him and to have the communications that we had from the Xfinity side that transferred to the Cup side since 2015. Since having Brexton there’s been some good success as well too – the championship in 2015 and certainly would have liked to have won a couple more. Читать дальше...
Chandler Smith (No. 20 Craftsman/828 Logistics Toyota) backed up his performance in practice by taking his forth General Tire Pole Award of the season for tonight's ARCA Menards Series Fans with Benefits 150 at Iowa Speedway. Smith turned a fast lap at 24.182 seconds/130.262 mph to edge his Venturini Motorsports teammate Michael Self (No. 25 Sinclair Lubricants Toyota) by just one one-thousanth of a second. In addition to being Smith's fourth pole of the season, it is Venturini Motorsport's 13th pole in 14 races so far.
HOW MUCH IS THE TRACK GOING TO CHANGE DURING THE COURSE OF THE WEEKEND? “I don’t know if it was a different mixture or what, with the grip. The grip compound feels so much different than it did last year or the year before. It’s weird, to be honest. So, I don’t know. It definitely doesn’t feel nearly as gripped-up as it has in the past. But that could also be my car.”
RICKY STENHOUSE JR., No. 17 Fastenal Ford Mustang – DO YOU HAVE A PLAN FOR MAKING THE PLAYOFFS IF YOU DON’T WIN A RACE? “Short of winning, yeah. We’ve been trying to get stage points as much as we can and we’ve been doing that the last few weeks. We had a strong car last week and cautions and pit strategy didn’t exactly work out the way that we wanted it to, but I think we were in sixth or seventh position coming to the white and, I don’t know, a couple cars got together underneath us and moved... Читать дальше...
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 KELLEY BLUE BOOK CAMARO ZL1 Media Breakout Session Highlights: ON THE FOLKS THAT BROADCAST THE RACES “When I think of listening to races, I just think of the picture that you guys create in someone’s head when you’re riding down the road listening to the races, is second to none. It’s been awesome to grow up around that and have the broadcasters paint the picture of what’s going on.”
“In practice in my first run I felt pretty close to good. Then in the last two runs I made, the car was just too out of the track too much. So, hopefully we will make the right adjustments on it during this little break and be good here shortly for qualifying. I don’t know if the track changed a whole bunch for us there or if the cycled tires or what. But the balance changed from round one to two.”
JOEY LOGANO, No. 22 AAA Ford Mustang – WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE TO COME BACK HERE AS A CHAMPION? WHAT HAS THE REACTION BEEN LIKE? “It’s actually been, I didn’t really think about it before I got here much because you’re kind of thinking about how do you win here, but I went out this morning for the champions breakfast that Speedway Children’s Charities does every year and to see some of the support there, and I guess that’s when it kind of hit me."
“You just have to have a really good race car, man. That’s something that I’m very fortunate with driving for Joe Gibbs Racing. We’ve had a lot of success on the short tracks here recently. I think Joe Gibbs Racing has a great short track package. I’m excited to see what we have here at Loudon.”