NASCAR CUP SERIES: QUAKER STATE 400 AVAILABLE AT WALMART

July 12, 2026

Jonathan Hassler

Michael Nelson

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: Now joined by the winning crew chief, Jonathan Hassler, as well as team president of Team Penske, Michael Nelson.

Jonathan, a crucial call to keep Ryan out there after brushing up into the wall. What went into that decision? What was the logic?

JONATHAN HASSLER: Yeah, we were able to get some pictures really quick, see that the damage wasn't too bad. Obviously we saw there was a little bit. Ryan felt like his steering wheel was rather straight. We didn't feel like we had any major tow issues.

We looked at it, there were 30 cars on the lead lap, not a lot of laps left. Our chance to win was to stay out, take a little bit of a risk. Fortunately it worked out for us.

THE MODERATOR: Michael, this is Team Penske, with this win they are tied for second most all time at drafting-style wins, as well as tied for the most in the Next Gen era. From a team president perspective, what goes into honing in on this style of racing?

MICHAEL NELSON: That's cool. I hadn't heard that. Really takes a lot of teamwork. We got a chance to put that on display tonight, especially earlier in the race. Takes everybody to bring that together.

Congrats to everybody at Team Penske for achieving that.

It's also a big night for us as well. It's 750th Cup win for Ford. Man, what an honor to be able to do that with Ford, bring that home tonight.

A great night on many accounts.

THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions.

Q. Jonathan, I can't imagine the answer is yes, you planned for everything that happened. Rain, weather. Was the race that it turned into by the end of the night, is that kind of in line with your projections?

JONATHAN HASSLER: Yeah, I think the one thing we knew that we'd have some weather this week. Probably some delays. I think the track probably cooled down and had maybe even a little bit more grip than what I was anticipating, which definitely I think worked in our favor.

I think early in the race you could see we took off really well. Some other cars towards the end longer runs would start to close on us a little bit.

But as far as how the race turned out, when the cautions fell, the number of cautions we had, not having green flag stops, I think that was definitely what we expected and what we prepared for. Certainly worked out for us tonight.

Q. The last two restarts, you were deliberating, not arguing, what to do on the choose. How much do you guys control beyond having a good car?

JONATHAN HASSLER: Yeah, I think a lot of people look at this kind of racing and say that it's luck or fortune, whatnot, or the speed in your car. What they don't realize is that the drivers and spotters put a lot of time and effort into all these small details of what to choose, what lane to choose, when to choose it, what runs look like, how to block runs.

There's a lot of things that go into it, for sure. But I give our guys a lot of credit top to bottom for being prepared with every last detail.

Q. Drivers said the first stage was like an old 550-horsepower package race, second and third were more Gen 7 Atlanta. How did you keep on top of those changes? Did anything catch you for a loop?

JONATHAN HASSLER: Yeah, I think, like I said, the track probably gripped up maybe a little bit more than what I anticipated. That definitely, like you said, brought the field closer together in the second and third stages.

We really didn't change our approach to the race. We were fortunate we were able to have a fast car on Saturday and qualified up front, had a good pit stall, really controlled that first run of the race where there's no pit stop required at the end of the first stage. Yeah, we were good enough with everybody behind us to continue for the most part to control the race.

I said this a lot about Ryan at these races. I think he's really good at blocking when he can block. There are times that you just don't have enough time to make the block. You could see there were laps we'd fall to second, third, fourth. He'd take his medicine, is a term he uses from time to time, and make some more moves to get back to the front.

Q. Moving forward with the way this track continues to evolve, what do you expect to happen heading into next season when you come back?

JONATHAN HASSLER: Yeah, our experience with Atlanta has really just been there's kind of like two different racetracks. The spring race has a lot of grip and it's more like just kind of your Daytona-, Talladega-style speedway racing where everybody is packed up. You definitely have opportunities in this race in the summer, like you saw in the first stage, where it's really spread out. But, yeah, as we ran into the night, that definitely kind of goes away.

I don't think it's going to continue to change a whole lot. It's been relatively steady. I think we'll see something similar next year.

Q. I noticed that the Penske cars are dialed in at the start. On the flipside the other Fords seemed out to lunch. With the talk about the collaboration in manufacturers, seeming to be tight with Toyota, maybe different in the Chevy and Ford camps, is that a result of that, or is it two different thoughts of how to approach a race that had a lot of unknowns?

JONATHAN HASSLER: Yeah, we definitely don't have a lot of these kind of speedway races. I think that gives a lot of opportunity for your teams to improve or get worse really. Like I said, you kind of have long spells between these kinds of races. Looks like some other teams definitely didn't hit it. That's pretty much all I can say for that one.

Q. In any given weekend Ryan can win radio sweetheart. How hard is it to calm him down when he starts to lose his mind a little bit?

JONATHAN HASSLER: That's something that honestly Ryan has gotten a lot better with. Honestly, as long as I've been with him, that hasn't been anything we've struggled with.

Maybe from time to time he'll kind of have to vent a little bit, because he's pretty quick to get refocused. If you look at Sonoma a couple weeks ago, the issues that we had, he went from 15 laps to go, questioning if he could finish the race, to running some of the faster lap times at the end of the race and passing cars.

In my mind he's the best in the garage. Proud to have the opportunity to work with him.

Q. Big picture after this win you have closed the gap to 65. Do you think it's a possibility you can cut that down? Did you think it was a possibility going into this weekend?

JONATHAN HASSLER: I think going into the year we definitely thought it was a possibility. We've been relatively consistent. We've seen the strong runs from the 11 and the 45, those guys building big gaps.

I wouldn't necessarily say it's a focus of ours either. We try to do the best we can each week, let everything else work itself out.

I mentioned Ryan in Sonoma after that tough day. I kind of went home, we both stayed out in Sonoma on Sunday night. Got in the rental car, the first thing he said was, Hey, we're still in this, we're only a hundred out.

He's definitely full focus. I think we got a lot of good tracks coming up for us.

Q. Jonathan, where would you rank this car tonight in terms of the best cars you've ever put underneath Blaney? Is there one that stands out more?

JONATHAN HASSLER: Yeah, I mean, this is certainly in the moment definitely the best one that I can recall. I definitely don't remember any kind of sweep like this. Certainly statistically probably the best car we've had and the best night we've had as a team.

THE MODERATOR: Gentlemen, thank you for coming in.