NASCAR CUP SERIES: WINDOW WORLD 450

July 19, 2026

Walt Czarnecki

Paul Wolfe

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We've now been joined by the race-winning crew chief, Paul Wolfe, and the vice chairman, Walt Czarnecki.

I'll put this question up to both you. Obviously this season has been one where you guys have had some good runs, not so good runs, making your way up in the points. Paul, maybe you can take this one. How did you approach this weekend and then how does it feel to have the 22 back in Victory Lane?

PAUL WOLFE: Well, you're being really nice saying we had good weekends. Hasn't felt like we've had a lot of good weekends this year.

It's obviously been a bit of a struggle for us, the 22 team. Just trying to find speed. I mean, obviously the short track stuff has always been a strength of ours. We were fortunate to test here back in December, then we tested again in January. We've run a lot of laps here in the last few years.

Proud that we've been able to continue to learn from our time on the track and be able to apply it. As long ago as the test feels like, a lot of the stuff we did, or some of the things we did, we felt we were able to apply to our car tonight. It was great to see the results from it.

Yeah, I said to someone a couple weeks ago, we're coming into this stretch where there's a lot of racetracks that are typically strong tracks for us, almost feel more pressure coming to these places just not wanting to screw it up, making sure we're able to capitalize and get the most out of it.

Proud that everyone was able to do that tonight. It was pretty flawless. Coming into this, 450 laps is a lot of laps around here. It definitely felt like it on top of the box tonight (smiling).

But the guys were great on pit road all night. We were making small little adjustments. Joey didn't want much. The car stayed good all night.

Like I said, proud of the effort. We'll continue to push forward here and see what we can get as we close out the regular season.

THE MODERATOR: Walt, for you, two back-to-back wins for Team Penske. Talk a little bit about what that momentum does for the company.

WALT CZARNECKI: First of all, it's a great morale builder. Last week it was. I said it to someone a little bit ago, Paul you may agree or disagree, but the run you had at Chicago two weeks ago was a real positive for the team, especially in the third stage. That seemed to carry through last week and into this week.

From a morale standpoint, we couldn't ask for more. It's kind of a cliché, but these guys just kept digging. They have for the first half of the season. We hope the momentum continues.

THE MODERATOR: We'll go to questions.

Q. Paul, did the race go pretty much the way you thought it would? 175 lap green flag run to the finish, a real lack of cautions in that period of time...

PAUL WOLFE: Yeah, I think there was a lot of unknowns coming into this race just because we haven't had a full-field race here before, being an All-Star Race. I didn't really know exactly what to expect.

Then we were on a little different tire here, as well. We weren't sure, based off of testing back early in the season, was it going to play out a lot like it did for the All-Star Weekend last year or was it going to be a little different.

There was quite a bit of unknowns. I wouldn't say we had a set thought in our mind of how it was going to go. It was just really being ready to adapt as the race got going, as it unfolded.

All the guys did a great job. All our guys during the race, the war room, on top of the box, understanding to the point, like, where is the tire degradation going over the run. The pit strategy when we get those cautions, I think we saw a little different stuff there early in the race, with I think the 11 staying out, guys doing two. We felt like four was the right call.

We were kind of learning a little bit on the fly just as there was a lot of variables that were different than what we had last year.

I'm not surprised the way it played out. I wouldn't say I had a thought in my mind of exactly this was how it was going to be.

Q. In your opening, there's races where it feels like it's good, then races like where is the 22 team. The win in the end is obviously gone this year. You have been bouncing around that bubble spot. How different is that for you? You know you can't rely on if we hit it one weekend we're going to be fine. How has that changed the thinking for you at all?

PAUL WOLFE: Yeah, well, it's for sure been different. With our struggles we had, there's a lot of DNF's in there, as well, but when you get this far into the season, if you look at where the points standings, where guys are, it ends up where typically they've been running.

Unfortunately we've been running around that position, that 16th, 17th, 18th, right where we are in the standings. Over time it works itself out.

With that being said, like, are we still a contender for a championship? I don't know. We still have a lot of work to do to get the other style racetracks where they need to be, the ones we've obviously struggled on this year.

We know the short tracks are our strength. I think the first thing we need to do is make sure we execute on these weekends here leading up to the end of the regular season and score those points to at least give ourselves a shot.

From there we're continuing to work and try to find things that suit what Joey's looking for. I think the mile-and-a-half's have obviously been our struggle. Just getting him comfortable where he can have the speed, where we can contend.

Yeah, I don't know. It's just continuing to work. I've told Joey a couple times over the last couple months, he gets frustrated at times in the car, but we haven't stopped working. We've continued to give him everything we know. The pit crew has been flawless.

I think we're a solid top-five team on pit road by a lot of the stats. I've just continued to preach to those guys, just make sure we continue to work at that level because eventually we're going to get the car where it needs to be. We need those guys to be at that level. They showed that tonight, which was super encouraging. We were flawless on pit road. Just had a dominant performance because everyone has continued to work at the level and expectation of everyone at Team Penske.

Q. Paul, how do you not have self-doubt and start questioning yourself during not just this year but going back to last year?

PAUL WOLFE: Oh, I do (smiling). There's doubts, for sure at times. I don't know how anyone can struggle at times like we did this year and not doubt are we doing this right, are we ever going to win again. I guess that's how I approach in general.

It's not about what we did last week, it's about what are we doing right now, right? But I'm good at trying to keep a level head and keeping everyone around me the same way. I don't get too emotional over the highs and the lows.

I hope that that kind of rubs off on everyone to keep them kind of focused and doing their job, knowing that if we all continue to work hard and work smart, make sure we're working in the right areas, been doing it long enough that it goes in waves, and we'll eventually get back to where we need to be.

We made the most of our opportunity tonight. I think that proves that point a little bit, letting everyone know that we can't give up on this 'cause we still have a lot of talent and ability here. We made the most of tonight.

Q. There's been a discrepancy between the 12 and the other two Penske cars, even last year. Why is there such a discrepancy with what the 12 was able to do on a weekly basis versus the other two cars?

WALT CZARNECKI: I think it goes back to the fact that everybody likes their own car the way they want it. I'm not saying that Joey drives the car any better than Blaney or Blaney drives the car any better than Joey.

By the way, I want to give a shout-out to Blaney, he had a great run tonight. As well as Austin. We had three good cars. Austin got caught out on the pit stop.

Again, it goes back to our shop. Even though all the cars are built in the same shop, everybody does their own thing, if you will. We go back to the days, kind of a classic story in our shop, of Rick Mears and Bobby Unser, teammates, great champions both. Unser could not drive a loose race car. It had to be tight. Mears, on the other hand, said: I can't drive his car.

So I think there's a little bit of that, those little nuances, little bits of changes until you hit it just right, the way the driver wants it.

To Paul's point, these guys haven't stopped working at all. They really haven't. As he said, you doubt when you're on a little bit of a string like that, like they've been on. But you just keep going. These guys have. They've been an inspiration for everybody else in the shop.

I think the 12 has helped that as well by their performance, so...

PAUL WOLFE: I mean, I think that's fair. We always were fortunate to have a lot of talent in our stable. Obviously Blaney is really good right now. I think every driver, the way they drive, they have different techniques and things that fit the way they want to drive or feel.

When you're not running well as a team, we're very open book within our company, that's why we've been able to have the success that we have, so we always kind of look and build off from, I guess, your best car depending on where you're going.

When we go to a place like North Wilkesboro or Loudon, the 12 is looking at, What does the 22 do there? That's a strength of ours.

It's really the mile-and-a-half tracks I would say is our weakness compared to the 12. So we look at where he's at. That's kind of a baseline, if you will. From there, we have to try to tweak it to get what Joey's looking for because he drives the car a little differently.

Overall the basic concept is the same, then you're trying to find that little bit of feel that's going to make him comfortable to hold the gas pedal down more and make that speed.

I think Blaney's just -- the way he drives the car and his techniques at a lot of these tracks, it's not just versus his teammates, it's versus the field. He's really good at it.

When you look at where the Fords are in general, we kind of judge ourself off the other Fords as a whole, Blaney always seems to stand out. He's pretty special right now at certain tracks.

We try to build off of that to get Joey where he needs to be. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But it's not always as easy as just making it the same, although we use that as a baseline, but then continue to work from there.

WALT CZARNECKI: That's a great really point. I want to underscore what you said, about it being an open book in our shop. For those of you who have been in our shop, the cars are all built right next to each other. There's no secrets. You can look at the 12 car, 2 car, vice versa. The crew chiefs sit within 25 feet of each other.

There's an open dialogue, if you will, all the time.

PAUL WOLFE: Yep.

Q. Speaking to Joey many times over the past few years, it's apparent he is someone who hates finishing second. He's had way worse finishes than that over the past year. What has this been like behind the scenes for someone as fiercely competitive as him?

PAUL WOLFE: Honestly, maybe it's just his experience level at this point, but for me and the team and my engineers and how we handle the week-to-week meetings and preparation, he's been able to stay really positive and seems to be able to focus like he does when we're winning and winning championships.

He does a good job of being able to maintain a positive attitude, which is important for the team and the team guys to keep everyone motivated.

So exactly how he does it, I don't know. Maybe that's a good question for him. I would say he does a good job of trying. Obviously he gets frustrated. Everyone hears it on the radio from time to time.

Overall in my mind he does a really nice job of just continuing to work through it and be as positive as he can, and continue to give his feedback, what he thinks. We continue to work on it.

WALT CZARNECKI: Again, I have had some candid conversations with Joey over these last 10 or 12 weeks. He's never lost his positive attitude. He never lost the fact that he's a three-time champion. Didn't forget how to drive the car, a cliche.

He's frustrated, as Paul said. He's expressed it. At least with me, he's not been, what, really -- I don't want to say wild about it, but he hasn't lost his composure. He's very analytical about it. What can we do to get better?

I think it's really been great to see the way he and Paul have continued to work together over these past several weeks, have a conclusion and a result like we had here tonight.

This isn't the end of the season for sure, but it's really a boost for them and for the team for the rest of the year.

Yeah, as Paul said a minute ago, Joey's frustrated, he was frustrated. He wasn't very frustrated when I saw him here about 10 minutes ago. He's not lost his positive attitude.

That's his very nature, as you all know. He's a very positive person. But analytical, as well.

Q. Paul, you mentioned the weakness being the bigger tracks. After that you have Iowa, Richmond, New Hampshire. What kind of run could this team go on in the next several weeks before the Chase?

PAUL WOLFE: Yeah, I mean, I'm excited about it. I mean, I think coming into this weekend we were optimistic. Like I said, we had good tests here pre-season. Was very optimistic, but still cautious. When you've been on a struggle of a season, you never know what could happen.

Like I said, it's proved out that continuing to stay focused and do what we know how to do, we were able to execute and get the performance we needed.

I think, if anything, it just reassures myself, and I'm sure the driver, that we can go to these tracks that are strengths of ours I guess, if you will, and put on good performances and really work our way up and gain a lot of points.

Is it going to get us to where we need to be a contender for a championship? I'm not going to say that. You never know. Joey has shown he does really well under pressure. Like, that's not a weakness of our team. We've been able to perform at the highest level when there's a lot on the line.

It's obviously a lot different format this year. Realistic to know that you're going to be at quite a deficit when the Playoffs start if you come in just over the cut.

For me it's about, like I said, making sure we maximize these races to end out the regular season, make sure we're getting all we're capable of, then we'll kind of see where we are when it all resets and focus forward.

I feel good about where we're at and our opportunities over the next month or so.

WALT CZARNECKI: We got a big weekend coming up next weekend. Very special for all of us. We're focusing on that, for sure.

THE MODERATOR: With that, congratulations to both of you on the victory.