NASCAR CUP SERIES: AUTOTRADER 400

February 22, 2026

Billy Scott

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: Billy, we meet again. Congratulations on another win --

BILLY SCOTT: Thank you.

THE MODERATOR: -- here at EchoPark Speedway. That was a crazy finish at the end. I'm sure you have comments about that. Talk about this team. You guys didn't win last year. We're two races into the season, and you have already not only won, but you have now won two. Talk a little bit about kind of what you guys went through last year and maybe how that's actually helping you now.

BILLY SCOTT: Yeah, last year definitely remained a challenge the whole time, and we spent a lot of time this winter reflecting on that and a lot of deep discussion on how to rebound from that and how to stay focused on the right things and not putting too much emphasis on results.

That's hard to do when there is so much that revolves around winning and so much expectations that we have on ourselves, but also that comes with this sport and the ownership we have.

Just going into it with the approach of controlling things we could control and trying to stay focused on just doing the right processes and expecting results to just naturally come out of that. And for it to happen this quick and, like you said, twice already in two races is amazing.

THE MODERATOR: We'll go to questions for Billy.

Q. Two for two. These are drafting tracks obviously. Wins are wins and points are important. We know all that. Now, we shift up to road course, short oval, intermediate track. Is there anything you can carry over at all from these last two weeks to what is ahead for the next three?

BILLY SCOTT: I think just other than momentum and confidence, no. You're right, they're very different tracks. So many times these outcomes are out of your control. There are so many things that have to go right to win these types of races. I think more so than the ones that are coming up.

Honestly, we were just hoping to have good showings in these and get on to the meat of the schedule and the ones that are ahead. Really excited for what the future holds.

Q. What is it about 23XI that seems it's really hitting its stride? It's not just the winning, but Bubba is second in points. The consistency has been there now. It seems like all style of tracks, you are in the game. What is it about this organization that is putting it among -- we hear the big three all the time, but now maybe the big four.

BILLY SCOTT: I think a lot of it's the culture, the communication, just the open honesty that comes from the top down, starting with the ownership and what Michael and Denny both preach to us and what they expect, but also the advice and the camaraderie that we all carry.

I think we all just hold each other accountable right now, and everyone is certainly pulling rope in the same direction.

Q. I want to go back to that last restart, because you guys opted to take the bottom. I first want to know, who had the influence on the call? Was it you? Was it Bubba's decision? Who ultimately brought it up to switch you guys down there and make that decision? Tyler didn't have a right front fender. I'm no expert. You are as the crew chief. I mean, how does he keep the speed he does throughout the day without a right front fender?

BILLY SCOTT: We probably need to take that car to the wind tunnel and see what we learned. The bottom had been working for us on the restarts, and it worked on the previous one. Obviously there was some contact with the 77 there that sent the 20 in the wall, but we just -- yes, I think Bubba was the one that dictated where he went, but we were going to stay committed to him at that point when we had the choice. The one before, we were put there just out of what was left.

That worked out as we had planned. He got clear, and I still don't know exactly what happened that he ended up three wide top, but we were certainly the beneficiary. Had a great push from our Toyota teammate and the 19 behind us, and appreciate that, once again, helping us get us out front.

Yeah, I was really worried. After we had the damage, made the repairs, realized we did have speed, we definitely preached to him to stay in line, poke left front out, keep the right front hidden behind other cars. But I guess when you take the lead on the last three quarters of a lap, you don't have much of a choice. It managed to hang on just fine.

Q. Who initiated the conversation? Was it you, or was it the 23 team?

BILLY SCOTT: I don't know. A lot of that happens up on the spotter's stand, but from our standpoint, we were going to pick behind the 23 regardless of which lane.

Q. Just how do you feel about your chances of three-peating, considering Tyler is a very skilled road racer?

BILLY SCOTT: He is. One step at a time. We're going to enjoy this, but yeah, next week is a reset. It would be great if we could keep going on and on, but we're going to enjoy this one, and we'll certainly give it the same level of effort next week.

Q. We know the right front fender was missing. What were the other repairs that you made? You said you made the repairs. What were they?

BILLY SCOTT: Yeah, so couldn't do much about the right front fender. It was gone, left on the track somewhere, but the parts that were hanging off the front left, they did their best to Bear Bond to tie those up with tape and stuff, because it was so cold that it was hard to even get stuff to stick there to hold it together.

I believe they got a brace in on the last stop when we came down. We made one attempt on when pits were open to make -- put a brace in there, maybe make another repair and get the hood screwed back together to the louver. There was a lot of gaps up there that we felt like air was leaking out of.

I don't really know without looking closer on how many repairs were made, but basically the whole front end was torn up pretty good.

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations again, Billy, on that win. Best of luck next weekend.