Category: Cup Series

Jordan Taylor’s Cup cameo “was pretty much just survival”

Although he ran all the laps in his NASCAR Cup Series debut, Jordan Taylor was looking for something more from Circuit of the Americas. “It was definitely wild,” Taylor said after finishing 24th. “I wouldn’t say I survived, I feel like I’m beat up …

Although he ran all the laps in his NASCAR Cup Series debut, Jordan Taylor was looking for something more from Circuit of the Americas.

“It was definitely wild,” Taylor said after finishing 24th. “I wouldn’t say I survived, I feel like I’m beat up pretty much. Every restart, you just get smashed front, rear, side, so it was pretty much just survival. I felt like guys knew that I would probably be a bit hesitant, so they would take advantage of us.

“Near the end, I got more aggressive. We made our way almost all the way back to the top 10, and then the last restart, I don’t know who went down the inside, but they were never going to make the corner and kind of used us to stop. I’d say disappointing day.

“I made a couple of big mistakes early on that probably put us back there, but the car was fast. I’ve got to thank all the UniFirst people and Hendrick Motorsports for giving me the opportunity. We had good pace; it was just we got shuffled back every restart. Tough day.”

Taylor experienced everything a Cup Series race can throw at a driver. The sports car ace, called upon to replace the injured Chase Elliott, qualified fourth in the No. 9 Chevrolet and showed competitive pace.

But it didn’t take long for Taylor to know he was thrown into the deep end. First, there were the radio issues the team battled from a race course 3.41 miles long, which started before the green flag flew.

“I couldn’t hear the pit box, so I think everything was relayed through the spotters,” Taylor said. “It was probably better to have less communication with too many people, so the spotters were amazing today. They kept me out of enough trouble as they could. I think it was pretty much impossible to keep me out of trouble, but they were amazing. They definitely helped me survive the day.”

Good track position gave Taylor the experience of running near the top of the leaderboard. The rest of the day was filled with other eventful incidents like how easy it is to lock up the tires, being pushed around, green flag pit stops, and multiple restarts,

“Just the level of aggression and respect on track,” said Taylor of what stood out. “Guys see openings, and they probably know they’re not going to make it on their own, and they use you. It’s just a different form of racing from what I’m used to.

“On the sports car side, you’ve got to be a little more gentle, and these cars are definitely robust, and they’ll use you up. Just an experience thing that I definitely wasn’t ready for, but it’s good to get it in my back pocket.”

Taylor went into the last overtime attempt lined up 13th but didn’t make it back around without again encountering an issue perhaps not of his own doing. With a long uphill front straightway, Turn 1 at Circuit of the Americas lends itself to trouble as drivers can fan out three and four wide as they push the issue going into a tight left-hander.

But having gone through so much in the course of 75 laps, Taylor learned a lot. And was struck by the type of competition NASCAR Cup Series racing provides.

“It’s brutal,” he said. “Guys fight for every inch, every position, and even if you’re a second faster than someone, they’re going to push you off just to go for a top 30 finish. So, it’s just a different style of racing. Something to learn and something to know if I ever come back.”

Button on NASCAR debut: “It was an emotional rollercoaster”

Jenson Button was completely worn out after Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race but went the distance to earn a top-20 finish in his debut. “It was an emotional rollercoaster,” Button said. “First, it was terrible. I mean, I must’ve been last by the end …

Jenson Button was completely worn out after Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race but went the distance to earn a top-20 finish in his debut.

“It was an emotional rollercoaster,” Button said. “First, it was terrible. I mean, I must’ve been last by the end of it, and I was just like, ‘Everyone: Go. I just need to drive and find a rhythm.’ I’ve never gone through a corner too wide so often. And trying to place my car in the right place – I just got it wrong every time.

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“Normally, if you’re a little bit slow through a corner, nobody tries to overtake you from the outside. Because they’re not going to make it all the way on the next one. But here they do because they get a wheel inside for the next one, and if you turn in, you turn around.”

Button finished 18th after qualifying 24th in the No. 15 Rick Ware Racing Ford. In his first of three starts this season, Button stayed on the lead lap and shuffled up and down the leaderboard all afternoon. He ran as high as 15th.

“The first stint was really bad – it was embarrassing for me,” said Button. “I was like, ‘All right guys, we need to pit, freshen the tires and I need some air – I need some fresh air.’ I got that. The pace was good, consistency was good. I was really happy and passed a few cars which was nice.

“We got a little bit unlucky with the safety car because it was just two laps before our window. Pitted, then the next stint was mayhem. We also made a couple of changes that just didn’t work. Big oversteer – went from the car feeling great to really difficult to drive. I also had a massive whack from Kimi [Räikkönen], and it fell off after that. The car wasn’t quite right.”

After two quick cautions in the first 13 laps, the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix had a long green flag run through the end of the first stage and into the final stage. With over two-minute laps around the 3.41-mile, 20-turn course, many drivers were left feeling the effects of a long day in hot cars and working through multiple green flag pit cycles.

But there were six cautions in the final 31 laps. And it came down to Button having to fight through three overtime restarts before seeing the checkered flag.

“Every time I turned in, the rear tires would chatter, then immediately to oversteer,” Button said. “It was really difficult, but towards the end, we made some good calls stopping and putting on fresh tires. I enjoyed the last three restarts – got good placement and good overtaking moves from the outside. (We) finished 18th after almost stopping because I had heat exhaustion.

“It was so hot; I don’t have a fan in my seat which really didn’t help me too much. It was so hot, I thought I was going to faint in the car. So, I stopped twice for a minute. They put ice on me, gave me loads of water, and I went back out.

“I was so close to getting out of the car because I thought I was going to faint. I must’ve drank eight, nine bottles of water during the race. The team kept me calm, and it’s the reason why we got a good result in the end. So, I was happy.”

Button returns to the NASCAR Cup Series in early July for the inaugural street course race in Chicago.

‘It was the hardest I’ve worked in a race car’ – Byron fifth at COTA

William Byron had about as good a day a driver can without claiming the win as he started from the pole, led laps, won a stage, and finished fifth at Circuit of The Americas, yet he said the day was “hard as hell.” Without the stoppage of stage …

William Byron had about as good a day a driver can without claiming the win as he started from the pole, led laps, won a stage, and finished fifth at Circuit of The Americas, yet he said the day was “hard as hell.”

Without the stoppage of stage breaks, the race played out organically and, for much of the afternoon, saw long green flag runs and green flag pit cycles. But then a rash of cautions – six to be exact – broke out and turned the proceedings into a stop-and-go affair with incidents all over the place, debris littering the circuit, and wild restarts.

Sunday’s race went into multiple overtime attempts.

“It was hard as hell,” Byron said. “It was the hardest I’ve worked in a race car, I think. Honestly, not the hardest I’ve worked but just the amount of heat and the amount of (carbon monoxide) or whatever it is in the cars.

“It was definitely tough to deal with. By lap 25 I was just praying for a second wind. Luckily it came. That’s why you train, I guess. I don’t know if I’m that much better than everybody else, but I feel fine.”

Byron would have felt better leaving with the win, but like the rest of the field, had nothing for Tyler Reddick. The two drivers had the field covered, combining to lead 69 of the race’s 75 laps.

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The No. 24 won the first stage. Reddick won the second stage. The two also waged a clean and thrilling battle for the lead in the final stage. Byron lost the lead for good with 22 laps to go and spent the remainder of the event fighting to survive on the restarts.

Going into the final overtime attempt, he lined up fifth, but he was never able to make it back to Reddick to fight for the win.

“He just had the lead and I didn’t. He was better,” Byron said of the difference at the end of the day. “When we got that run with nine laps to go, he was able to pass me clean and gap me. I did a lot of blocking, a lot of protecting under braking, but he was just better.

“I think he had a little more grip than us, a little bit more lateral grip, and that’s what it takes on the road courses – being able to hustle the car a little bit more. He was still free and sideways but had grip doing it. So that’s part of racing. Good to come home top five here at COTA; we had a great weekend. We’ll take it.”

Busch leaves Texas with grace after COTA second place

Kyle Busch is an all-or-nothing driver in the NASCAR Cup Series, but he gladly took a second-place finish Sunday at Circuit of The Americas. The two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion put a lot of work into having the type of result he earned. Entering …

Kyle Busch is an all-or-nothing driver in the NASCAR Cup Series, but he gladly took a second-place finish Sunday at Circuit of The Americas.

The two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion put a lot of work into having the type of result he earned. Entering the first road course race of the season, Busch said with all the simulator work and preparation he and his Richard Childress Racing team had done, if they didn’t win, he wasn’t sure what else to do.

The No. 8 was best in class behind race winner Tyler Reddick, who had been the fastest driver all weekend. Second was a respectable ending to an up-and-down day where the RCR team fell behind on pit strategy, leaving Busch fighting on older tires through multiple overtime restarts.

“Oh, no question, yeah, for sure,” said Busch of it being the best-case scenario result given the series of events. “Reddick, when we tested here, was super, super, fast. He was the best car here when we tested, and he just didn’t have the long-run speed, but then they went to work and figured out the long-run speed to go with the front-side speed.

“So we just didn’t find enough front-side speed to be able to contend with those guys. But he’s a really good road racer; he’s proven the last couple of years winning road races. So (it’s) cool to come home second and get a good one here.”

The EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix needed three overtime attempts to decide the winner. Busch restarted inside the top five in each of them, also making it through what had been a wild and chaos-filled Turn 1 on each restart attempt all afternoon to stay in contention.

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On the final overtime restart, Busch, who was running second, chose to restart on the inside lane. It put him third in the running order behind leader Reddick.

“I got plenty of help from behind and about ran over Reddick and pushed him off,” Busch said. “But just a lot of bumping and shoving and banging there up in the first turn, so you just try to get through there as best you can and then go race it after that. The No. 48 (Alex Bowman) got in front of me — got in between us — and then once I got by him, Reddick was gone. But I didn’t have enough to contend with him anyway.

“I had to get by (Reddick) off of Turn 1 or through Turn 2 before we got to the esses to have a shot to beat him. But he was so strong in all the braking zones and everywhere that I think he would have got back by me. All in all, just a great day for us. Good to come home second.

“Our Netspend Camaro was fast. It’s really good to bring home a runner-up finish for Netspend, being a local Austin, Texas partner.”

Although there were no stage breaks, the race had its fill of bunching the field back together. Busch said Sunday didn’t feel much different playing out organically because of how many cautions broke out at the end.

“Once you get one, you’re bound to get a lot,” he said. “That first one that came, I think we were running fourth, and I was like, ‘Ah, I’ll take a fourth, let’s just get out of here.’ And then we were able to get up to second, so we got a couple of spots on some of those restarts.”

Reddick outbrakes the field for first win with 23XI at COTA

Tyler Reddick prevailed in three overtime restarts to claim his first trophy of the year – and first with his new team, 23XI Racing – with a 1.411s victory over two-time series champion Kyle Busch in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix, the NASCAR …

Tyler Reddick prevailed in three overtime restarts to claim his first trophy of the year – and first with his new team, 23XI Racing — with a 1.411s victory over two-time series champion Kyle Busch in the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix, the NASCAR Cup Series’ first road course race of the season.

It was a field of international champions and NASCAR’s very best at the Circuit of The Americas course, but for most of the race the outcome looked to be decided in a good ole Texas duel between the two fastest cars all weekend driven by Reddick and Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron. The pair exchanged the lead, lap after exciting lap for most of the afternoon.

On the final two-lap restart, Reddick was able to put his No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota out front exiting Turn 1 — a tight left-hander — and power forward to the lead, while Busch and third-place finisher Alex Bowman, fourth-place finisher – and defending race winner — Ross Chastain and fifth-place Byron fought door-to-door, bumper-to-bumper as they chased after him.

“I’ve been wanting to win here in a Cup car for a long time,” the 27-year-old Californian Reddick said, now having four NASCAR Cup Series wins, but noted this was his first as a Toyota driver and with his 23XI Racing Team – co-owned by fellow competitor Denny Hamlin and NBA superstar Michael Jordan.

“It means the world,” said Reddick, who sat down on the track and leaned against his car with a bag of ice to cool down on the typically Texas-hot afternoon. “This whole 23XI team has been working hard all winter long to make the road course program better and was extremely motivated to come in here and improve performance. Just so proud of this Monster Energy team and TRD. All the resources they’ve put in to turn around the road course program means a lot.”

As often happens late in a road course race, patience lags and urgency increases. That was certainly the case Sunday with three different overtime restarts deciding the outcome. Reddick and Byron’s No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet combined to lead 69 of the race’s 75 laps with Reddick out front a race-best 41 of those, most of them after hard-fought challenges and back-and-forth corner after corner with polesitter Byron.

“It feels good to get a top five, but we had a top-two race car really with the No. 45. He was really better than everybody, but I thought we were a close second,” said Byron, a two-race winner already in 2023, whose fifth-place finish at COTA was his career best on a road course. “We’ll keep building on it.”

Busch’s runner-up effort was an impressive comeback. He had been mid-pack for most of the afternoon but gambled on fuel strategy to move forward during some late race cautions.

“Even if we were on equal tires, they were lights out,” said Busch, driver of the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.

“Overall, for as much effort as we put into coming here and focusing on this place and all the testing we did in the offseason, we’re coming out of here with a good finish. Tyler’s obviously a really good road course racer.”

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In addition to the NASCAR stars, the field included four big names from other racing genres including IMSA champion Jordan Taylor, who drove the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet for injured former COTA winner Chase Elliott; a pair of former Formula One champions in Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen and popular IndyCar Series regular Conor Daly.

Among these four, Button – the 2009 Formula One World Champion – claimed the top finishing position, 18th in the No. 15 Rick Ware Racing Ford. Taylor, a two-time winner at COTA in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship finished 24th but made a huge impression in his debut after qualifying fourth.

Raikkonen, the 2007 F1 World Champion from Finland, finished 29th but ran as high as fourth place late in the race. Daly only got 16 laps into the race before his team had to take his No. 50 The Money Team Racing Chevrolet behind the wall for extended repairs. He finished 36th.

Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson didn’t even get a full lap of green flag racing in only his second start of the 2023 season. The owner-driver of the No. 84 Legacy Motor Club Chevrolet was collected in a multi-car accident that eliminated his car and left him 38th in the standings.

Team Penske’s Austin Cindric, 2023 Daytona 500 winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr., RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs and Front Row Motorsports’ Todd Gilliland rounded out the top 10.

Chastain takes over the championship lead by 19 points over Busch. Ty Gibbs, who finished ninth, continues to lead the Sunoco Rookie of the Year points standings.

The NASCAR Cup Series returns to competition next Sunday in the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway (3:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RESULTS

‘Trending the right way’ – Legacy Motor Club’s year of rebuilding

Legacy Motor Club got a much-needed boost Saturday at Circuit of The Americas when both its drivers advanced into the final round of NASCAR Cup Series qualifying. Erik Jones will start eighth in the No. 43 Chevrolet, while rookie Noah Gragson rolls …

Legacy Motor Club got a much-needed boost Saturday at Circuit of The Americas when both its drivers advanced into the final round of NASCAR Cup Series qualifying.

Erik Jones will start eighth in the No. 43 Chevrolet, while rookie Noah Gragson rolls off from 10th in the No. 42 Chevrolet. Not only was it the first time both cars made the final round, but is the best starting position for each in the first six races.

It’s perhaps the only thing that has gone according to plan in a season that is only a month old.

“We’re trying not to overreact to the first couple of races and performances,” team co-owner Jimmie Johnson said. “You go to Daytona and we all feel like we had good cars and were competitive. California is after that (and) we had some weird stuff with the splitter and all that dirt and rock and all the debris that was at the track that the splitters delaminated on our cars. It’s really easy to look at that and say that’s the reason why our performance wasn’t where it needed to be.

“Las Vegas, Atlanta, Phoenix — we’re at a point now where we have enough styles of tracks that we can better evaluate where we’re to start the year. We’re not where we want to be, but there’s endless work going on in the shop.”

Jones echoed the boss’s assessment and said while his top-10 finish last weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway was great, that was a superspeedway-style race. The intermediate tracks need work and COTA, the first road course race of the season, will be a good test of where the organization is making left and right turns.

“We’ve been fortunate that everybody has had up and down weeks, so we’re not too far out in points from where we want to be, which is in that top 16,” Jones said. “One good week gets you pretty good in there. But as far as our performance, I don’t think we’ve been happy with it.

“Las Vegas and California, neither were great. Phoenix wasn’t that great for us. So we’ve got to get better, and I think we all know that. Dave (Elenz, crew chief) and I are working hard, and all the guys are working hard to get faster. I’m doing what I can to get quicker, especially at a place like this where you’ve got to be on your game as a driver more than ever. We want to get better. It’s going to take time, but I think we’re trending the right way.”

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Speed will help those efforts. Jones has three top-20 finishes in five races, and before his eighth-place result a week ago at Atlanta, he’d finished no better than 19th.

It’s been frustrating for Jones to feel one thing with the car while it’s doing another. He’s felt good behind the wheel of his Chevrolet, but it hasn’t been fast enough.

“Vegas is one that has really stuck out for me because I felt like our cars drove really good in practice, qualifying and even the race. I told Dave a lot of the day, ‘It’s driving pretty good, we’re just not where we want to be in the field.’ So a lot of it is speed. California was kind of the same. I could get it driving good, but it wasn’t really going anywhere. Phoenix was a little different because I felt like we had speed and qualified well, and then didn’t race as well. It’s back and forth, but the speed, especially on the mile-and-a-half’s, has been kind of our hang-up.”

Gragson, who has just one top-20 finish, certainly wants more speed. Although he’s new to the Legacy M.C. team and understands the resources are not as deep as some other organizations, Gragson said Johnson, Gallagher, and Richard Petty aren’t going to be content with how they are performing.

Between the two, Gragson and Jones have combined for 15 laps led and sit outside the top 20 in points. Asked where the organization stacks up in the Cup Series field, Gragson took a long pause before responding.

“That’s tough to answer,” he said. “We’re a C or D team, realistically. We’ve got great help from Richard Childress Racing, but even then, we don’t have all the tools and resources some of the other teams (do). It’s a building year. It’s a building couple of years, probably.”

Legacy M.C. has teammates on the opposite ends of the spectrum. Whereas seventh-year driver Jones, who is in his third year with Petty and second under Gallagher, understands the building process, Gragson is experiencing it for the first time. The Las Vegas native graduated into the Cup Series after four years and 13 wins in the Xfinity Series.

Gragson became used to sitting in fast cars that he could contend with every week. Now he’s humbled every week in the Cup Series and doesn’t deny the challenge of keeping his head up after a tough race.

“I think having some of those guys come over from JR Motorsports that were with me the past several years allows me a little bit of comfort,” Gragson said. “I know they believe in me, and if you get with a bunch of new guys that you’re trying to build relationships with, you don’t know how realistically they’ve bought into you. We have a great team.

“But it’s definitely challenging from – I don’t want to say it being easy; we worked really hard – but we had a lot of success (in the Xfinity Series) to driving your a## off just to run like 27th at some of these places. It’s like, ‘All right, what’s the problem here?’

“Just trying to keep the confidence is key, and little building steps like being fast on pit road, having good pit stops, good restarts, having a good qualifying effort like we did today. Those little things are what we need to do this year and maybe into next year. But just trying to take it day by day right now.”

Said Johnson, “We’re digging along. We haven’t hit our peak for the season yet, and I think we now have an idea of where our short-track cars are and what we need to work on – mile-and-half stuff and certainly the restrictor-plate tracks.”

Same philosophy, same desire for Busch and Burnett

Changing teams comes with changing scenery, but it’s also come with changing radio communication for Kyle Busch. “He’s been calling me pal and homie,” Busch said of crew chief Randall Burnett, who oversees the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing team. …

Changing teams comes with changing scenery, but it’s also come with changing radio communication for Kyle Busch.

“He’s been calling me pal and homie,” Busch said of crew chief Randall Burnett, who oversees the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing team.

They’re classic Burnett nicknames — more fitting for Busch, whereas “little buddy” was frequently used with former driver Tyler Reddick.

“I’m a homie,” Busch said. “I can be as good a homie as anybody. All good.”

The Las Vegas native spent 15 years at Joe Gibbs Racing working around the same people day in, day out, including crew chiefs. Busch and Burnett have started 2023 strong at RCR as the new duo develops chemistry together.

Burnett is a no-nonsense NASCAR veteran who has always gotten the best from his drivers, but Busch is the first champion Burnett has been a crew chief for and doesn’t need the same type of leadership as a younger driver. Even still, Busch discovered his new crew chief has many leadership qualities that he admires and responds to.

“Adam (Stevens) would probably be my best crew chief that I’ve ever worked with, and it’s probably just a little too early to give Randall that title because I haven’t been around him long enough,” Busch said. “And (Adam and I) also won two championships together, so he gets that accolade.

“But the things Adam would do and the intensity that he would have on a lot of stuff was something I really enjoyed and really liked and Randall has that as well. Randall gets frustrated with some of…our system and things like that, so we see the same things. We have similar philosophies, and we have similar desires. It’s just a matter of being able to go out there and achieve that.

“He’s been super great to work with. I really enjoy working with my two engineers as well. Andrew (Dickeson) and Nate (Troupe) have been super helpful and super receptive to a lot of my thinking and my ways, and we’re putting a lot of that together.”

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Busch said everyone talks openly and freely about bettering their equipment. A month into the season, through five points-paying races, Busch hasn’t found anything surprising one way or the other with the team’s performance.

“I think what’s been positive…is we do have top-10 speed,” said Busch. “What’s been frustrating is that we have top-10 speed, so the positive of it is sometimes you expect to go somewhere and it takes a little bit of time, and you might run (top) 15 to 20s to get your footing and then get into the top 10.

“But we’ve already been into the top 10, so now it’s a matter of finding our footing and getting into the top five. Once you’re there each and every week contending, then you’re going to be out there contending for wins.”

After earning a podium in the Busch Light Clash — their first race weekend together — Busch led the season-opening Daytona 500 at the 200-mile mark before coming up short in overtime. In week three, the second points race, Busch, Burnett and the No. 8 team had a dominant second half in Fontana en route to scoring the win.

Entering Sunday’s race at Circuit of The Americas (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX), Busch is seventh in the championship standings with three top-10 finishes. Settled in with a new team, he’s pleased with how things have gone but sees Sunday as an opportunity to contend as they need to.

“I don’t think you’re ever happy unless you’re winning every week, but relatively speaking I feel like we’ve done a good job,” he said of the season-to-date. “There have definitely been some things that we’ve done in (the simulator) that haven’t correlated to the racetrack and that’s been frustrating, so it’s all about fixing that tool and continuing to work and evolve on that.

“We’ve done a lot of work on that – especially with COTA. It’s almost like with as much work as we’ve put into this race, if we don’t win then I don’t know what else you can do. That’s kind of where we’re going to stack up and see how we are against the competition Sunday.”

Byron takes NASCAR Cup pole at COTA

William Byron is becoming a betting favorite for the pole on a NASCAR Cup Series road course after grabbing another one at Circuit of The Americas. Byron earned the top spot for Sunday’s race with a lap of 93.882mph (2m10.76s). While it is his first …

William Byron is becoming a betting favorite for the pole on a NASCAR Cup Series road course after grabbing another one at Circuit of The Americas.

Byron earned the top spot for Sunday’s race with a lap of 93.882mph (2m10.76s). While it is his first pole at COTA, it is the fourth road course pole for Byron. And he is the first driver in the Cup Series to win a pole on four different road courses (Charlotte 2019; Road America 2021; Indianapolis 2021).

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“It’s been an up and down weekend; the Cup car, we definitely had a little bit of work to do yesterday on overall balance and grip in some areas and then me as a driver,” Byron said. “When I talked overnight (with the team) we felt maybe there were three-tenths on my end and on the car’s end. We were able to close that gap today a little bit and put both together.

“It’s good to get the pole, but tomorrow is what matters. There is a lot of work to do. A lot of physical work to do in the (Xfinity Series) race later today, and then tomorrow is going to be tough. Excited for it, and hopefully we can prepare throughout today and go into tomorrow.”

Byron will be joined on the front row by Tyler Reddick. Reddick, who was fastest in practice and fastest from the second group of drivers in qualifying, ran a lap of 93.783mph in the final round.

Austin Cindric qualified third at 93.459mph with Jordan Taylor qualified fourth at 93.174mph. IMSA veteran Taylor is making his NASCAR Cup Series debut driving the No. 9 for Hendrick Motorsports in-place of the injured Chase Elliott.

Daniel Suarez qualified fifth at 93.067mph ahead of Alex Bowman in sixth at 93.911mph and AJ Allmendinger in seventh at 92.840mph.

Erik Jones qualified eighth at 92.838mph, with Kyle Busch ninth at 92.678mph, and Noah Gragson qualified 10th at 92.188. It is the first time both Legacy Motor Club drivers made the final round of qualifying in the same session. Defending race winner Ross Chastain qualified 12th, his fastest lap was 93.310mph.

Kimi Raikkonen qualified 22nd and Jenson Button was 24th. Jimmie Johnson qualified 31st.

RESULTS

Suarez thriving in Trackhouse environment

While three seasons with a race team might not seem like much, it’s been invaluable for Daniel Suarez and his development as a NASCAR Cup Series driver. “I feel like with Trackhouse, I have grown a lot as a race car driver, as a person, and they …

While three seasons with a race team might not seem like much, it’s been invaluable for Daniel Suarez and his development as a NASCAR Cup Series driver.

“I feel like with Trackhouse, I have grown a lot as a race car driver, as a person, and they have given me the opportunity to just continue to get better and to grow,” Suarez told RACER. “I’m very thankful for that. I think we have a great future ahead of us; I think we’re in a very good position, and I can’t wait to continue to grow my race team and get more wins together.”

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An Xfinity Series champion, Suarez was moved into the Cup Series earlier than anticipated. And perhaps before he was ready to be thrust into the big leagues. Suarez ran with Joe Gibbs Racing for two years before moving to Stewart-Haas Racing for a season. Then came a disastrous year with Gaunt Brothers Racing in 2020 where he missed the season-opening Daytona 500 as the underfunded team attempted its first full season in the Cup Series.

But when Justin Marks founded his team, Suarez became the flagship driver. Marks has been all in on Suarez since the beginning, believing the best hadn’t shown from the Monterrey, Mexico, native.

Having the belief of the team behind you has been a game-changer for Suarez.

“It’s huge to know the team has your back, and regardless of what happens in the weekend, you’re all going to continue to work to get better,” Suarez said. “It’s pretty special. I haven’t had that in the past, really.

“I have had it to an extent, but never like I have with Trackhouse, and I feel very fortunate to be in this position. I truly feel that we have something great going on here.”

Suarez’s team is led by crew chief Travis Mack, who became a full-time Cup Series crew chief when joining Trackhouse Racing. Mack, who also had something to prove, joined the organization from JR Motorsports. What Mack and the rest of the No. 99 team do Suarez that is different is simple.

“They listen to me,” Suarez said. “I think that’s huge. They really listen to me if I tell them that I need this or we have to make an adjustment or we’re struggling. It’s important.

“And if I tell them that, for instance, we are struggling on pit road, we’re going to put a lot of work to be better on pit road. I feel like, in the past, it wasn’t the same. I feel like they have allowed me to make my racing better and that’s very special.”

The confidence to speak up has also helped Suarez become a better leader. After getting their footing underneath them in 2021, Suarez and Trackhouse Racing took a step forward in 2022 as both drivers – Suarez and Ross Chastain – won races and made the playoffs. It was a career year for Suarez, who improved in nearly every statistical category (win, top fives, top 10s, laps led, championship finish).

“I’m an extrovert, so I’m always trying to make things better,” Suarez said. “Not just for me but for my entire team, and Trackhouse has allowed me to use that to our advantage instead of just wasting it.”

The sudden career turnaround at Trackhouse Racing has also brought a different mindset. Suarez shows up every weekend knowing he and his race team can win races.

“That’s a lot of fun,” he said. “It’s a lot of fun to be in that position and I feel very fortunate. I have worked for years to put myself in that position where you have one of the best pit crews, one of the best engineers and one of the best crew chiefs. You have some of the best mechanics. It’s not easy to build a group like this, and today, I can say that I have it almost every weekend, and that’s a lot of fun.”

Button gets fired up for NASCAR debut at COTA…eventually

Jenson Button was so anxiously excited to finally get behind the wheel of a stock car at Circuit of The Americas that there was a minor hiccup before he could even get on track for NASCAR Cup Series practice. “I forgot how to start the car, which …

Jenson Button was so anxiously excited to finally get behind the wheel of a stock car at Circuit of The Americas that there was a minor hiccup before he could even get on track for NASCAR Cup Series practice.

“I forgot how to start the car, which was interesting,” he said Friday afternoon. “So they pushed the car back and I’m like, ‘It won’t start.’ There were a few other switches I had to put up. But then it was OK.”

Button clocked in 28th fastest in the only practice session of the weekend — fortunately a 50-minute extended practice as Cup Series teams worked with the new rules package on a road course for the first time.

“I got onto the circuit and I was surprised by how little grip there was initially when I pulled away, and the tires were cold,” Button said. “But it comes to you over time. The gear shifting is something that…I’ve not never driven a sequential gearbox car. I’ve (just) never pulled back going through the gears and pushed to go down. It’s something completely new to learn. I’ve driven a manual gearbox, but you always go across the box. The last time I drove a gearbox like this was like in 1999.

“There’s a lot that you go back into the bank of info you’ve learned over the years, and you bring it out again. It comes to you pretty quick. I really enjoyed it.”

The stark differences in the cockpit extended beyond shifting. Button was also struck by what he was looking through — a windshield with angles and braces that he admitted made it hard to focus on where to put his eyes.

Jenson Button came from a world where it takes a village to start a car. His Rick Ware Racing Mustang had a few more necessary switches than he was expecting, though. Nigel Kinrade/Motorsport Images

Like many other drivers who have come before him, the Brit has found many differences from the discipline of racing he’s most used to — in this case Formula 1 — to NASCAR. Not only is he learning stock cars and experiencing a much different family environment, but, as practice taught him, he’s learning the differences in how the radios are used as well.

“It’s also interesting having spotters,” he said. “I’ve never had spotters before. So I’ve got guys in my ear the whole way around telling me there’s traffic behind, there’s traffic in front – it’s quite soothing. I kind of like it.

“Our spotters have very soothing voices, which I think is good, and it’s especially going to be good on Sunday when it’s manic out there. That’s something else to learn – having my mirrors, so I can see around me. But they tell me all the fun information about what’s going on around me.”

Button and the rest of the Cup Series field will set the starting line with qualifying Saturday morning. Just as he’s doing with the race, he is going into qualifying with realistic expectations of being competitive but not necessarily at the top of the leaderboard.

The former World Champion is confident in what the car is doing and feels he did most things right during practice. COTA is the first of three races for Button this season, which was by design. Never in his wildest dreams did he think he’d get the “lovely opportunity” to race a Cup Series car, and doing just one race isn’t enough for him to learn and get the full experience.

“Driving a car is something I’ve done my whole life, so I will be competitive in terms of our race speed,” Button said. “But it’s the other side of it where I have no experience – and that’s being six abreast going into Turn 1 and tapping here and there. As I noticed here in practice, people don’t move out of the way when they’re on a slow lap and you’re on a quick lap.

“There’s a lot to learn. It’s a very, very different sport than what I’m used to. I’ll go with it; roll with the punches. I look forward to the challenge.”