
What drivers said at Mexico City after Cup race won by Shane van Gisbergen
Christopher Bell — second: 'He was really good. Ultimately it was just a third-lpace day. I thought Ty was really good, the yellow flag bit him, and we walked away with second. More than anything, it was just me. I need to do a little bit more homework to figure out where I can be better to keep up with these guys. The Joe Gibbs Racing team brought an amazing Camry, and I can't really say it was my car that was lacking. It was on me this weekend.'
Kyle Busch — 37th: ""Just in the rain, and I went down into 11 and got on the brakes pretty hard. Everything was fine, everything was comfortable, stopped really good. And I'm like, 'OK, I can be a little more aggressive getting into 1,' and I figured it was going to be fine, and as soon as I went to the brakes, it was like being on ice, and I was just sliding. About a second and a half or so, I was trying to figure out which direction to go, and I was like, 'I've got to turn this thing around backward, because I'm going to nail some people.' Hate it for all those involved in my mishap. Hate it for RCR, ECR. The car in qualifying was really good, and I felt we were going to be really sporty in the dry. I hate that the rain came, and now it's nice and dry. Just have to go fight for more points in another week.'
WILL BE UPDATED

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

NBC Sports
14 hours ago
- NBC Sports
New crew chief, same winning ways for Denny Hamlin
Halfway through his first year with crew chief Chris Gayle, Denny Hamlin has shown no drop-off in performance compared to last season with Chris Gabehart. Hamlin admitted last November that he was 'shocked' when Joe Gibbs Racing moved Gabehart — who had been Hamlin's crew chief for six seasons — to competition director. The change was made to help the company, which went winless the final 18 races of last season. Joe Gibbs Racing then paired Hamlin with Gayle. Through the first half of this season, Hamlin has three wins, eight top-five finishes and nine top 10s. At this time a year ago, Hamlin had three wins, seven top-five finishes and eight top 10s. Hamlin is fourth in points this season — despite missing a race for the birth of his son. A year ago, Hamlin was third in points. Hamlin has scored 19 playoff points this season — the same total he had at the midpoint of last year. In an era where the competition is tight, to have a crew chief change not slow a driver's performance as the two learn to work together is a credit to the foundation Gabehart built, the work Hamlin does and the ability of Gayle to give Hamlin what he needs. Dustin Long, The challenge for Hamlin last November was that as he entered the latter part of his Cup career, he was going to do so with a new crew chief. He and Gayle had to build a foundation quickly so Hamlin could excel on track. It meant some extra work for Hamlin. 'Someone of my age, I think the easy answer would say, well, you're an old dog, you're not going to learn new tricks, you're not going to want to listen to anyone to tell you to do it differently,' Hamlin said last November of the challenge of a new crew chief relationship. 'But I've made it very clear to Chris Gayle that I do not want you treating me with kid gloves. You need to tell me when I need to improve in something or there's an area that I'm weak in as a driver. I need that feedback. I think that as long as he's comfortable with that, we're going to have a successful relationship because I'm very self-aware and I need someone to hold me accountable to be the best out there.' Nate Ryan, The process has worked but work remains. 'Do I feel like myself and Denny have even come close to reaching the peak of the relationship? No,' Gayle told NBC Sports last weekend at Atlanta. 'I feel like there's some me still growing into that position. 'I think that Denny has done a great job of fully trusting me to '(his) role is driving the car and (my) role is handling whatever happens to the car. But I think there's some communication stuff between us that can still be better from my end that you kind of grow and learn as you go along, like, oh if I had to do this over again, I should have communicated this, or we should have talked about this behind the scenes so we didn't have to communicate it then. 'I think that's still building, but I think that overall, the results have been good. I think that the results being good allows you to continue building the other stuff that not everybody sees without any sort of major panic or paranoia coming on that gets you behind.' One of the things Gayle said he has had to adjust is decision-making. Hamlin is a championship contender. Gayle had spent his previous years as a Cup crew chief working with younger drivers. He had a different mindset on calls for those drivers. His focus was on points because the wins were not as plentiful. Gayle points to Las Vegas, the season's fifth race, as an example of how he needed to change his thinking with Hamlin as his driver. Hamlin was 14th when he pitted with the field under caution at Lap 189 of the 267-lap race. Hamlin restarted 13th. He was up to fourth on Lap 214 and was in that spot when he pitted under green at Lap 231 — splitting the final 79 laps since he couldn't make it to the finish on fuel. Few used that strategy. A caution at Lap 244 left Hamlin trapped a lap down behind most of the field. They pitted during that caution while Hamlin waved around to get back on the lead lap, restarting deep in the field. Hamlin finished 25th. 'If it had gone green (to the finish), that would have been the best strategy to get the best finish for the day,' Gayle said of the call to split the remaining laps. 'But if you talk about floors and ceilings (in reference to lows and highs in the running order), for given finish positions vs. worst-case, best-case … our ceiling was going to be sixth or seventh our floor 14th. 'Denny would have rather had a shot to win at this point in his career, even though at that point he didn't have wins, so keep the ceiling as high as possible longer even though now the floor may be 21st because he doesn't care about a 14th vs. a 21st. 'Those were some conversations that if I'm running with rookies and I've to accrue every point because I don't know when win is coming, you take a different approach. We needed to sit down after that race and have those conversations and some was just me not thinking about it from the point of view of a guy who expects to win a lot, is going to be in (the playoffs) on wins, how can I give him more opportunities at wins? A 15th or 21st isn't going to make a difference.' Lesson learned and the team has won three of the last 12 races. 'I don't think we've been in a situation that went exactly similar to (Las Vegas),' Gayle said, 'but I've definitely been much more aggressive at making calls.'

NBC Sports
a day ago
- NBC Sports
Chicago weekend schedule, TV, weather info for NASCAR Cup and Xfinity
With hopes for a weekend with finally clear skies, NASCAR is back in the Windy City for the third edition of the Chicago Street Race. Since the inaugural event two years ago, the Cup and Xfinity series have been affected by inclement weather. After both series' races were shortened by thunderstorms in 2023, the Cup Series ended 17 laps short of the full distance last year because of rain delays. Alex Bowman is the defending winner of the Cup race. Shane van Gisbergen returns to Chicago this season as a full-time driver in NASCAR's premier series after winning the inaugural race in his Cup debut for Trackhouse Racing (he also won last year's Xfinity race). Chicago will be the second round of the In-Season Challenge. Here are the matchups (with driver seeding): —Brad Keselowski (17) vs. Ty Dillon (32) —Alex Bowman (8) vs. Bubba Wallace (9) —Chase Elliott (5) vs. John Hunter Nemechek (12) —Erik Jones (20) vs. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (29) —Ryan Preece (15) vs. Noah Gragson (31) —Tyler Reddick (23) vs. Carson Hocevar (26) —Ty Gibbs (6) vs. AJ Allmendinger (22) —Chris Buescher (3) vs. Zane Smith (14) Dustin Long, Chicago weekend schedule (All Times Eastern) Saturday, July 5 Garage open 8:30 a.m. - midnight — Xfinity Series 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. — Cup Series Track activity 10:30 - 11:20 a.m. — Xfinity practice (CW App) 11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. — Xfinity qualifying (CW App) 1 - 1:50 p.m. — Cup practice (truTV, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) 2 - 3 p.m. — Cup qualifying (truTV, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) 4:30 p.m. — Xfinity race (50 laps, 110 miles; Stage 1 at Lap 15, Stage 2 at Lap 30; TNT, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) Sunday, July 6 11 a.m. - 8:30 p.m. — Cup Series 2 p.m. — Cup race (75 laps, 165 miles; Stage 1 at Lap 20, Stage 2 at Lap 45; TNT, MRN SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) Weekend weather Saturday: Mostly sunny with a high of 95 degrees, winds from the south-southwest at 10-20 mph. It's expected to be 93 degrees with a 3% chance of rain at the start of the Xfinity race. Sunday: Partly cloudy with scattered showers and thunderstorms. A high of 83 degrees and winds from the west-northwest at 10-15 mph and a 56% chance of rain. It's expected to be 82 degrees with a 52% chance of showers at the start of the Cup race.

NBC Sports
2 days ago
- NBC Sports
How changes before 2025 season are paying off halfway through the year
More than three-fourths of the 15 full-time Cup organizations had either a driver or crew chief change to one of their teams entering this season. With the NASCAR Cup Series hitting the halfway point in the 36-race schedule this past weekend at Atlanta, here is a look at the results of those changes so far. 23XI Racing Charles Denike joined the organization to be Bubba Wallace's crew chief, taking the role over from Bootie Barker. 'I truly believe he's going to be a game-changer for 23XI,' team owner Denny Hamlin said early in the season. One of the focuses with Wallace was to have a better start to the season. He did. Wallace was seventh in the points after six races this season (last year Wallace was 18th in points after six races). Dustin Long, Wallace got off to quick start by often scoring stage points. His 61 stage points in the first six races ranked third in the series and were the most he had scored so early in the year. Four accidents in the last eight races have dropped Wallace to the final playoff spot. He holds that position by 23 points with eight races left in the regular season. Front Row Motorsports Zane Smith and Noah Gragson joined the organization in the offseason, while Todd Gilliland was reunited with Chris Lawson, his former Truck crew chief. Gilliland is 28th in points this season. He was 20th last year at this time. He has six top-15 finishes this year compared to seven at this time last year. Gragson is 33rd in points this season. He was 25th at this time a year ago for Stewart-Haas Racing. Smith has made a big jump. Last year he was under contract to Trackhouse Racing but since there wasn't room for him there, he ran for Spire Motorsports. He was 34th in points at the halfway point last year. Coming off last weekend's seventh-place finish at Atlanta — his second top 10 in the last four races — Smith is 25th in the standings. His best finish in the first half of last year was 13th. Smith has had six finishes better than that this year. Haas Factory Team Stewart-Haas Racing, a four-car operation, shut down after last season and Haas Factory Team emerged. Haas Factory Team runs one car in Cup with Cole Custer, who returned to Cup after spending the previous two seasons in the Xfinity Series. Custer won the 2023 Xfinity title and finished second in the points last year. Custer has been paired with first-year Cup crew chief Aaron Kramer. Joe Gibbs Racing This organization saw four major changes heading into this season. Last year was Martin Truex Jr.'s final full-time season of racing. Joe Gibbs Racing hired Chase Briscoe to drive the No. 19 car with crew chief James Small. Briscoe won at Pocono to give the No. 19 team its first victory since July 2023 at New Hampshire. Briscoe's victory snapped a 68-race winless drought for the team. Briscoe also claimed the pole for the Daytona 500 and the Coca-Cola 600. He has four poles this season. In another key move, Joe Gibbs Racing moved Chris Gabehart — who had won 22 Cup races with Denny Hamlin from 2019-24 — to competition director. That started a string of events. Chris Gayle moved from his role as Ty Gibbs' crew chief to become Hamlin's crew chief. Tyler Allen, who won eight of 33 Xfinity races in 2024 while working with six different drivers, moved up to Cup to be Gibbs' crew chief this season. Gayle has helped Hamlin win three races. Hamlin has 19 playoff points — the same amount he had at this time last year. Gibbs was 11th in points halfway through last year. He is 24th in points this season. Gibbs is the only JGR driver yet to claim a playoff spot this season. Gabehart was on Gibbs' pit box last weekend at Atlanta, serving as the race strategist. He was on the radio with Gibbs and orchestrated strategy with Allen in an effort to help get Gibbs into the playoffs. Kaulig Racing Ty Dillon, who ran five races with the team last year, joined Kaulig Racing full-time this season. He took over the ride Daniel Hemric had last year. Hemric was 31st in points at the halfway mark last year. Dillon is 31st. Dillon has scored 34 more points than Hemric had at this time last year. Trent Owens, who had been Hemric's crew chief, was moved to Allmendinger's team this season with Allmendinger returning to Cup full-time. Allmendinger had three top-10 finishes in six starts at this time last year. He has four top-10 finishes in 18 starts this year, including a season-best fourth-place finish in the Coca-Cola 600. The last time Allmendinger ran the full series was 2023. He was 19th in points at the halfway mark. He is 17th in points this season. Legacy Motor Club The team brought in crew chief Travis Mack from Kaulig Racing to be paired with John Hunter Nemechek. Nemechek has scored six top-10 finishes this season — his most in a Cup season. His passer ranking after the first 13 races was 29th but has improved to 16th in the last five races. He was 27th in points last year at the halfway point and is 23rd this year. Nemechek is 10 points from 20th in the points. He is 20 points from 18th in the standings. 'I think Travis and I gelled really well from the very beginning, hold each other accountable when it comes to situations,' Nemechek said. 'We spent quite a bit of time during the offseason communicating, looking at different races, talking about past races, simulation time, kind of just getting to know each other.' Richard Childress Racing After spending the past two years as Chase Briscoe's crew chief at the now-defunct Stewart-Haas Racing, Richard Boswell joined RCR to be Austin Dillon's crew chief. Dillon ranked 32nd in points at this time last year. He is 26th in points this season. Dillon's average finish this year is 20.1 — up five spots from last year. Rick Ware Racing After running select races last year, Cody Ware is running the full schedule for the team. Ware is coming off a season-best 13th-place finish at Atlanta. Justin Haley was the team's full-time driver last year before he moved to Spire Motorsports in a swap with seven races left that brought Corey LaJoie to RWR. LaJoie has run a limited schedule for the team this year. RFK Racing The organization expanded to three teams, adding the No. 60 car for Ryan Preece and pairing him with crew chief Derrick Finley. Preece is the first driver outside a playoff spot, 23 points below the cutline. He already has a career-high seven top-10 finishes this season, including four in the last seven races. 'Last year, we put that team together and ran a partial schedule with Derrick Finley and we had a handful of different drivers and matured a lot of that team and a partial schedule, whether it be pit crew as well, and that team has fired off with putting Ryan in as the driver full-time and shown a lot of strength,' team owner Brad Keselowski said last weekend at Atlanta. Spire Motorsports This team had a few moves last season. With Stewart-Haas Racing closing, Rodney Childers moved from there to be Justin Haley's crew chief. That partnership lasted nine races before the two sides parted ways and Ryan Sparks, who had served as Haley's crew chief for the final seven races of last season, returned. Michael McDowell and crew chief Travis Peterson left Front Row Motorsports to join Spire. A year ago, McDowell was 22nd in the points. His average finish this year is 19.1. Last year at this time it was 20.9. Trackhouse Racing The organization expanded to three teams this year, adding Shane van Gisbergen to the Cup lineup and pairing him with crew chief Stephen Doran. While the Cup rookie continues to learn the ovals, van Gisbergen has been strong — as expected — on the road courses. He won at Mexico to claim a playoff spot and was sixth at Circuit of the Americas. Wood Brothers Racing Josh Berry joined the team after Stewart-Haas Racing closed last year. He replaced Harrison Burton. Crew chief Miles Stanley joined the team. The pairing worked. Berry won at Las Vegas in his fifth race of the season with the team, putting the Wood Brothers back in the playoffs after making it last year through Burton's victory at Daytona in August. Berry has three top-10 finishes, which is one short of his career-best in Cup. He's led 169 laps, his most in a season. Berry is 19th in points. That's where he was a year ago. He has 363 points this season — six more than he had at this time last year.