NASCAR CUP SERIES: DURAMAX GRAND PRIX OF TEXAS POWERED BY RELADYNE

March 1, 2026

Billy Scott

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by the crew chief for the record-setting No. 45 car, and that's Billy Scott. Let's start off with some quick thoughts on this historic performance by you and the 45 team. What are your general thoughts?

BILLY SCOTT: Yeah, just incredible. Never even think it's possible, but really, it's just been one week at a time. We've taken each week as its own race and just been fortunate. Things have just gone our way. When you're feeling things and everything is gelling and it seems like you can do no wrong, you just enjoy every step of it because you never know when it's going to end. Thankfully it hasn't yet.

Q. On the first run, you guys went backwards and then it was like, oh, maybe he doesn't have short run speed or something. Then the next time you were able to stay out in front of Blaney the whole time. Was it just an adjustment thing? How were you able to do that?

BILLY SCOTT: I think that was just Tyler's adjustment to understanding how hard to push, how much to save. Practice is limited so you only get so many laps. This tire has had a lot of places that it's fallen off really bad late in runs. I think he was just -- I haven't talked to him about it yet, but just watching, he did say at the end of the stage when we asked about balance, he said, no, I just need to push harder.

I think it was just a matter of he was just trying to save, and it did pay off. There were some cars we passed back before that run was over. We were able to -- I think we were probably third or fourth there before the pit cycle started, and I think it was just him getting used to how hard to go, and obviously he figured that out for stages 2 and 3.

Q. Billy, what aspects do you see in Reddick that separates him from the rest of the field? Even before he came to 23XI he was shining in his first few years in the Cup Series. What separates him and makes him a rising superstar in the sport?

BILLY SCOTT: Yeah, I would say work ethic because he puts in so many hours and never wants to go home when we're doing sim testing and film stuff. But I think a lot of them do.

So I think a lot of it is just coming down to just a natural ability and just being in a good place. He's put a lot of work into not just the on-track side of things but also where we stand with expectations.

He's kept all that in good perspective and comes every week hungry to do it again, and he's just able to. There's really not many places that he's not a contender.

Q. In looking lap after lap, it looked like where Tyler was making the most gains was off of 20 and then up the hill. Was that a perceived horsepower advantage? Because that's certainly what it looked like.

BILLY SCOTT: Well, we're never short on horsepower from Toyota, so we appreciate that. I think a lot of it was just the forward drive and the tires. That's what falls off at these tracks with this new high falloff tire. That's the biggest thing we focus on now coming to the road courses.

I think it's just a matter of him managing things, and that's what he was trying to get a gauge on in Stage 1 is how hard can he push through the high speed stuff, through the places where you're asking lateral to where you do have some drive left in the tires at the end of the run.

Q. Does this change anything in the way about how you approach the rest of the regular season? Because now obviously you're going for the regular season title, you've got points to play with, like all these people are going to be chasing you, but they're at a pretty big deficit. Bell was already 100 points back before today; now he's even more. Do you do anything different to manage the next 23 races as you're trying to hold on to this, or do you just try to keep opening it up? How do you approach this?

BILLY SCOTT: Certainly we do try to keep opening it up. That's what got us here is racing hard, and I think speedways are the ones that are the most out of your control at times, and thankfully those are two of the ones that started the year off.

Don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves but we feel good about the tracks coming up that those typically are our strong suit and the part of the schedule we look forward to. We're just going to race every week hard, and the points will be what they are.