NASCAR CUP SERIES: ADVENTHEALTH 400

April 19, 2026

Steve Lauletta

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Steve Lauletta. Congratulations on that win. A little bit crazy couple laps there. Maybe just takes through that perspective of what it was like to see Tyler in the lead, then have trouble, then the opportunity on the restart to show what he's made of.

STEVE LAULETTA: Yeah, I just think the whole team all year has been really poised. It's not the first time we've had any kind of adversity come at us. They just continue to stay calm, keep each other grounded. And know that we've got a fast car. If you have a fast car, all you have to do is really make sure you execute. That's what they've continued to do.

Super proud of everybody at Airspeed. All four cars in the top 15. Great day for Toyota and great day overall. Glad we could give Tyler what he needed too there at the end to run those last few laps and take it to Victory Lane.

THE MODERATOR: We'll now go to questions.

Q. You had such a great start for the first three races. The real season, you don't know for sure what you have. Does it feel now better or even more encouraging to know you have speed at all sorts of places?

STEVE LAULETTA: Yeah, I think we've been doing that for a few years now. I think the missing part has been really executing across the board. Our pit crews have taken a big step forward. Everybody worked really hard in the off-season to refine our processes and our communication.

We're only, what, nine races now into our sixth season. Still a lot of work to be done.

But yeah, we feel like we are right where we need to be to bring speed to any type of racetrack we go to this year and, like I said earlier, leave it to everybody to execute it the best they can.

THE MODERATOR: Steve, one question to wrap it up. A year ago the 45 team didn't win a race in that season. They've come back. Now they've won five of the first nine. From your perspective as a leader of the team, what was that like to manage what I'm sure was disappointment, but now to see the success?

STEVE LAULETTA: Yeah, I mean, again, super gratifying. It wasn't just the 45 not winning, right? Just as an organization, we only won the one race. It was the Brickyard, which was great. There was no heads being hung. It was just more the attitude of we've got to get to work. That was across the board.

It's just great to come here, new partner in SupplyHouse on the car, just announced a Rockstar deal, which is in Victory Lane. A lot of really good things that are happening overall that started with the work that we needed to do in the off-season to kind of make sure we would be where we wanted to as an organization this year.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Steve.

STEVE LAULETTA: Thank you.