NASCAR MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 29, 2024

Ross Chastain

Tony Lunders

Phil Surgen

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We have been joined by race-winning Crew Chief Phil Surgen and Tony Lunders, who is the Chief Operating Officer of Trackhouse Racing. We're going to go straight into questions.

Q. Tony, just what's a day like on this day when Chastain, who is not in the playoff run as well, and Suarez, who is in the playoffs, doesn't have a great day?

TONY LUNDERS: Any time you can win is special, so spoiling a playoff race is awesome. It's good that Daniel had a decent ending to the race. It was a little bit of a slow start for them, but any time you can pull off a win is special.

THE MODERATOR: Can you both talk about what was going through your mind in the last restart and the final few laps?

PHIL SURGEN: Yes. Coming up to that final restart obviously the 19 was choosing first, so we took inside, which I felt like was probably the preferred lane anyways. Once he got clear off of two, then it's just a matter of defending, and we were able to get a big enough lead.

Looking at the data, I felt like we were probably a little bit too loose too early and throughout the last 20 or 25 laps he did a great job holding onto it. It all just kind of came together.

Q. Phil, just talk about the philosophy to pit at 159 and go off from other people, and that kind of really changed the course of things for everybody.

PHIL SURGEN: Yeah, given our scenario in points and not being in the playoffs, those probably four or five points that would have been available were of lower concern to me today.

I knew that our car was responding well to better track position and cleaner air, and it was just one of those opportunities to gain positions. So we took it, and we're thankful that there was not more ensuing cautions that would have allowed the other guys to stay out and mired us back in traffic.

Today our restarts were phenomenal. I don't think we lost a position on restarts. We might have been one of the biggest gainers. That benefited us as well.

Q. Tony, you provided the 99 gets through to the next round. There's two more of these types of tracks in the next round. This was not a great showing for them today, so what can be taken from maybe the learnings of the 1 or just from today to help that group if you make it into the next round?

TONY LUNDERS: Yeah, for sure. I think either way hopefully we advance, and we can learn something from the 1's stuff. Obviously the two groups inside are really open about what they're doing.

I think Daniel probably felt better about what he had yesterday, and we'll go back and look at what that was, but I think it will be fairly easy for this group to narrow that down.

We had multiple Chevy cars running decent today. So we'll be able to apply that, and hopefully we're still in. But either way, we're just going to keep trying to win no matter what.

Q. Phil, looking ahead to next week, again, here you come in off a win, but you're not a playoff team. Obviously we know what the type of racing you typically see at that track with manufacturers support. My guess is there's probably going to be more of an emphasis for you to be a helper than be the guy unless you're in that prime position. How do you look at that, and how do you go from being a winner one week to the potential of maybe being more of a helper?

PHIL SURGEN: Yeah, this group that is at Trackhouse, I mean, we put in just as much effort for every race. I hear from time to time people ask about races that you'll circle on the schedule or what not.

I got asked this morning if it was more difficult to compete when other drivers have kind of risen to the occasion, and I don't think that's the case for this group. We're giving 100 percent every week.

That we're not in the playoffs, I mean, Talladega is the same as it was, you know, summer Daytona when we're hunting for the playoffs. We're going to put in the best effort we can to win first, and then second priority would be score the most points.

If we can help the 99 along the way in the draft, then that's what we're going to do. But, you know, our focus is on winning at Talladega.

Q. Two questions for Phil. First off, when Ross was battling Kyle Busch there, he got into the wall at least once, maybe twice. I can't remember correctly, but was there any concern among your team that that might have affected the car afterwards?

PHIL SURGEN: Yeah, there always is certainly. Immediately we try to get what we can for photographs to evaluate what we can see on the outside. We look at the data and obviously get his feedback on the car.

At these tracks where you're running so close to the wall and they're on the ragged edge, it's going to happen from time to time. I think, you know, you probably could go out there and look at the top ten, and half of them have some amount of damage on the right side from scuffing the wall.

So it's just all part of it. I have the guys on pit road to react if anything happens.

Q. What was the general mood among the 1 team when you guys just weren't able to get into the playoffs?

PHIL SURGEN: Oh, it's a kick. It's pretty deflating when you don't make the playoffs, and obviously we knew the last couple of races of the regular season we were right on that cut. I wouldn't have guessed that the 1, the 23, and the 17 all missed, but yeah, it was pretty deflating.

We rolled around to the next week, and I think we scored the second most points in the first round of the playoffs of anybody. So it just goes to show you that there's no give-up here. We're not laying down, and here's just more proof today.

Q. Phil, I just want to reiterate on a question that was asked to you right before this. Did you say anything to Ross after he had gotten the lead and then hit the wall just to try to get him back on track there to get his mind reset to battle the 8 there for the lead towards the end?

PHIL SURGEN: I don't remember what I said on the radio in that moment. You know, we can see immediately that he's back up to speed. He has a moment, scuffs the wall. He is right back up to speed.

We're looking at the data. Yeah, everything looks fine. A little bit of driver feedback at some point in that next few laps. Yeah, he just stepped over the limit a little bit, scuffed the wall. I don't think there was any permanent damage, but yeah.

Q. Were you surprised early on in the race at least from how the car was responding with -- I mean, I think there was a lot less wind compared to what we saw at the start of the weekend. Did that catch you by surprise at all?

PHIL SURGEN: Certainly not by surprise. Kansas is one of the most wind-sensitive tracks. It tends to be windy in Kansas, so we're looking at that multiple times in the week leading up to the race. We're looking at it for practice, qualifying, and race conditions.

Obviously the direction changed about 80 degrees today. It dropped 7 miles per hour. We considered what the impact of that could have been yesterday in practice and how the different direction and wind magnitude would affect the car today.

Q. Kind of bouncing off Daniel's question earlier, not making the playoffs and heading into these final ten races, how much are you guys regrouping for next year versus going out and trying to get wins?

PHIL SURGEN: Yeah, there isn't a huge concerted effort to do a lot different. Obviously given our points position, we're looking at what the 17, the 23, and that group does, and our goal is to finish 17th in points. That's the best we can do.

We're not going to throw any Hail Marys or take any huge risks, but it does give us a little bit more flexibility at points in the race. Today is a perfect example. End of stage two, probably four or five points on the table. We chose not to take those in lieu of track position after the second stage.

So those little things can change, but we're not throwing any Hail Marys.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you for joining us and congratulations.

We're going to continue with our post race media availability. We've been joined by today's race-winning driver Ross Chastain, driver of the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet.

Ross, can you take us through your emotions on that final restart and then ultimately the last lap?

ROSS CHASTAIN: Yeah, it goes back to the twos, right, and coming off pit road second. I was thankful actually that we didn't have to choose because it's a win-win or a lose-win. It's 50/50. It's not one way or the other.

I could make the case that you can win from both lanes. It comes down to the launch, the push, and then just air in one and two. I said on the radio I was glad we didn't have to choose.

Phil Surgen, he manifested earlier in the race us getting up to the front two rows because we just couldn't quite get there, and he manifested front row, maybe later we would get to choose, which we didn't have happen.

I think that the win was the launch. I did a really good job as close to the line as you could possibly be. Then the 48 getting inside of the 19 and into turn one was really key.

So from there it was all about locking my elbows in and trying not to get too loose, and just run clean laps to get to the end. 25 was, like, the perfect number of laps for us.

THE MODERATOR: We'll go to questions.

Q. When Kyle Busch was leading coming up on the 14 to lap him, that incident, I think you came pretty close to almost making contact. Can you walk me through and what you saw in terms of the 8 and the 14 in that case?

ROSS CHASTAIN: Yeah, well, earlier I saw the 8 drive it in the fence unforced. I got by him. That lap I drove it in the fence and gave him the lead back. I couldn't believe that, one, Kyle Busch, the guy I idolized as a kid, drove it in the fence as I ran second and then also that then I got the lead, and I did the same thing.

I mean, I'll have to go back and look, but it had to have been within 100 feet of wall contact in the same spot. He got the lead back. I had kind of conceded that I couldn't get back to him unless something else happened. Then the 47, 14 were fighting hard to stay in the lead lap.

The 8 fought the entire turns one and two. That lap he wrecked, he fought the entire turn to get outside of the 14. That's a spot that I didn't believe was a vulnerable spot when this car first started, and I heard my amigo, Daniel, tell me, I heard other Chevy drivers tell me, like, Careful when you are on the right rear. Then I had it happen at Phoenix this year, and I finally was a believer.

Yeah, when he spun, he was in the most vulnerable spot he could be to get loose, and he slapped the wall and spun out unforced. I mean, I couldn't get back to him. He could have ridden behind him, but I was close enough I think that if I'm the leader and he's in second, I'm trying to get by the 14 every chance I can get.

Yeah, I was surprised to see him spin out because he could have ridden behind him and passed him in the next corner. I couldn't get to him. I was already too loose.

Q. How close were you, and what did you have to do to avoid hitting him?

ROSS CHASTAIN: I think I might have lifted, but I more hit the brake, but I think I stayed more gas and hit the brake. As he spun, I just was happy that he spun to the left. If he spins back to the right, I probably pile drive him. At that point I'm committed. It was such a late spin off the exit, which is where we all hit the wall that I was already sliding.

So it was just by chance. It was by the racing chance, the racing luck that I made it by.

Q. We have seen a lot of drivers in long winless streaks this year. Yours is not as long as a lot of the others this year, but even for as I would say short -- but I'm sure you'll tell me that 29 is not short. For as short as yours was, what is that like, and is this satisfaction or relief, or what is it you're feeling right now?

ROSS CHASTAIN: It's all of that. It's satisfaction. It's seeing the process through. Y'all have heard me talk about it a couple of minutes. Yes, I have a process, but the process is always evolving.

I can kind of lump anything into it that I think is going to help me be a better race car driver. Although the inputs, the effort is there, the results do not come. That's live sports. That's football, baseball, basketball, soccer, anything around the world sports I might want even know about or definitely I don't understand, NASCAR included. You can try as hard as you want, and it does not mean that you're going to be faster.

But I know that if I show up Monday morning and try and Tuesday morning and try and Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and sometimes trying and being the most benefit for the team and for your race car and the performance is actually to go to sleep early. It's not to get that extra workout in. It's not to try harder in the gym. It's actually to taper off, and that's something that I've learned and have put into my life.

Sometimes it's going to sleep early yesterday was a big part of why I can actually perform better today. I took a snack in the car. I kept looking at it, but I wasn't ready for it, and then all of a sudden we were in the last restart, and I thought, Well, I'm not going to eat it now.

But the winless streaks are something that get talked about. Ours wasn't quite enough to get talked about. If we didn't win this year, I'm sure the room would have talked about it.

I learned that last year we won Phoenix, and I had the whole offseason to kind of let it marinate. I just let that sink in, and I thought it would be easier. I really did. I thought we had found some stuff, but that wasn't the case. That will not be the mindset through this offseason.

Q. Does that mean you sleep in tomorrow, or do you have a workout tomorrow morning?

ROSS CHASTAIN: I'll be there somehow, some way even if my head hurts, but I'll be there.

Q. I'm wondering, does it make it easier to eat the watermelon now that you don't have that beard anymore?

ROSS CHASTAIN: Well, I don't think any seeds stuck to the beard. They might have stuck to the skin, but no beard. But the watermelon, I think I threw it harder than normal because it was pulverized. It was gone when it hit the ground out there on the front stretch.

Q. I want you to recall for me, obviously you're battling Kyle hard. You make the move. You go to the lead. Then you hit the wall. I asked Phil what he had said to you, but I'm wondering on your end, what is going through your mind there once you get the lead and then you kind of lose it? How do you have to recollect your thoughts there in the car?

ROSS CHASTAIN: It humbled me real quick. I thought I've kept enough pressure on Kyle, a guy that I've looked up to. We're not that different in age. I mean, we are, but not drastically. I watched him when I was a kid in school, and he was racing in cup.

To get here now and race with him and know that I'm close enough to force him into an error. I clear him, and the very next lap I hit the wall in almost the same spot. It was just -- I had to laugh in the car. I just couldn't believe that I did it because I watched him. I watched him get into the corner. I watched him get in the fence.

So our cars were, like, identical, though. When I put my car, I didn't realize it until after I hit the wall in the same scenario as Chevy teammates and key partners. I'm sure there's differences. I'm sure an engineer could make the case that it was drastically different, but on track they looked really similar.

Yeah, I made a similar mistake that he did, which I'm proud of because in the lead of a cup race with less than, I don't know, was there 50 laps to go or something, like, I'm willing to run that close to the wall, which is really something that I'm proud of because I grew up clipping the grass. I grew up running as low as you could, like, kicked dirt up for the guy behind to hit. Run the bottom. You always ran the bottom.

To run the top is not natural. I'm willing to hit the wall to win these races. It didn't work out if in that lap, but it ultimately worked out because I was comfortable with running the fence.

Q. Did you feel I don't want to say ignored but almost out of the loop in a way not being in the playoffs?

ROSS CHASTAIN: I've never been so happy to watch y'all walk by, everybody in this room. I've never been so happy to watch Netflix walk the other way when I get there. Like, the boom mics are going that way. They're following Daniel. They're talking to Justin, but none of it's about me.

To be honest, I love it. I'm all for it. I'm the first one to sign up for Netflix. I'm the first one to sign up for interviews, but when they go the other way, I love it.

When we finish pretty good, we lead practice yesterday, not a single TV, nothing, interview. I'm, like, Oh, that's pretty awesome. But I will still sign up for every interview, and I will still go to New York on Tuesday. I'll be in New York City Tuesday for some stuff with NASCAR. Was going there already and will still go.

So, yeah, did I feel it? For sure. But, yep, See y'all. It honestly it's something that we'll talk through. It's something that we as in my group, Trackhouse, MMI, we do need to kind of grasp what is best. There's a bounce to all this.

We want to let all of y'all in. We want to let y'all see us feel what we're doing. We want to open the curtain, but I have seen that because we weren't having to do all the other stuff that there was some benefits to it. I had more time to do the things that I thought were better for the race car.

Now, could we still win with y'all talking to us after practice and Netflix following us? Probably, but it sure felt a lot better in the moment to go about our business. Anybody in business in the room and anybody listening, watching knows that you can just go to work when you want to go to work, it's a whole lot easier than having distractions.

Q. First off, what was the snack you took into the car with you?

ROSS CHASTAIN: Oh, man. Can I say watermelon? No, I can't say watermelon. It was a Clif Bar. I go with the OG peanut butter Clif Bar. It's the only thing that I found that doesn't melt.

So the problem with race cars is that anything with chocolate or anything else melts, but the Clif Bars just get warm, but they don't melt. When you open the package, you can still break off -- it's like really doughy and soft, but it's like it just came out of the oven.

I didn't open it today. I didn't have any.

Q. Well, this is now the second time in two years where you've gotten to play spoiler in the playoffs. You know, famously you won the championship race last year. I know missing the playoffs sucks, but what does it mean for you to be in this position where you can screw up other people's plans with a win?

ROSS CHASTAIN: Well, it's tough because in the moment I'm looking in the rearview camera, and I see the 24 and 48. I see the 24 most notably. William is a guy that I want to see win. I want to see him succeed. He is one of the few guys that I can say I'm buddies with, and we are kind of aligned in life. Although we come from different back grounds, we kind of came to the central point, and we get along more than I get along with most people.

Would I have loved to see the 24 drive into victory lane and lock himself into the round of 8? Sure. But not enough to pass the 1 car because I'm driving it.

It was everything that I could do to stay in front of him, and there was times where he would gain on me. Actually two to go -- we took two to go, we rolled one and two. We come off turn two, and I'm, like, He is closer than he has been this entire run. What just happened? I thought I was just managing the gap.

So, yeah, spoiler, yes, but when I'm watching, and I'm seeing my Chevy teammates, the people that I work with during the week. We do DIL simulations, like our simulator sessions in the simulators together with HMS, with RCR, and Trackhouse. I want them to succeed. I want the 99 to succeed. I wish the 99 -- I wish that Daniel was the one winning, but not at the expense of the 1 car and not at the expense of me.

At the end of the day would I truly give up the win? I would not. I don't care. It could lock them into anything. If I have a chance to win, I'm going to win.

Daniel and I worked closer together this week than we probably ever have, and there's a lot to digest from what happened today and this weekend. There's points in the weekend where I thought the 99 was better. There's points where I thought the 1 was better. Ultimately, we had the track position at the end to go win.