NASCAR CUP SERIES: COOK OUT 400

August 15, 2026

Walt Czarnecki

Paul Wolfe

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We've now been joined by our race-winning crew chief, Paul Wolfe.

Paul, congratulations on another victory. Obviously a really big day for the 22 team, both by winning the race and the gains you made in the points. Talk about all of that and the race win from your vantage point.

PAUL WOLFE: Yeah, obviously great weekend. We knew coming here it was another opportunity for our team to do good things, score a lot of points, obviously have a shot at winning. We unloaded yesterday and had good speed in our car, thought we were in the hunt if we could fine-tune our balance for the race this evening, that we would have a shot at it.

Joey obviously drove a great race. One point there we lost control when the 19 got us there on a restart. Then we were working with different sets of tires. We had to use everything we had tonight. We got off balance-wise for a run or two. Then the closing two runs we kind of got the car back where he was happy with it and were able to beat 'em off pit road. I think obviously that was the difference maker for us.

Yeah, we're in a great spot, like you said, from where we were a couple months ago to the gains we've been able to make. I think when we look at where we're at on the season, obviously a challenging start, but we knew this stretch of races was probably our strength. It just goes to show that no one kind of laid down, and continued to do their part as we got to this part of the season, and we're getting the results because of it.

Proud of the whole team. Pit road was great again tonight. That's a big part of it. It would have been easy to lose the lead on pit road. The guys once again did their part and were flawless. Got us off. Obviously Coleman, work in traffic, that's always tough. Coleman has been doing a great job of helping Joey navigate through all of that.

All around a great team effort, of course.

THE MODERATOR: We've also been joined by Walt Czarnecki, who is the vice chairman of Team Penske.

Walt, talk about that moment and your vantage point.

WALT CZARNECKI: I think Paul said it very well. It was a team win. All of our cars showed up ready to compete tonight, the 2, the 12 and the 22 of course. They were prepared. Pit work was good, as Paul pointed out.

But we were competitive all night long. I was fairly confident that we were going to be in a position as we got down to the last 40 or 50 laps, based on the performance at that point, we probably had a good chance to win the race.

It's a high right now. But we got to go to New Hampshire next week and do it again.

THE MODERATOR: We'll go ahead and take questions.

Q. Paul, after Wilkesboro you said, Are we a championship team? I don't know. A couple weeks later are you any closer to maybe having an answer if you guys are a championship team now?

PAUL WOLFE: Well, I think we're capable. There's still some tracks ahead of us that will be a challenge for us, just based off of the start of the season.

Like I said, we know Richmond is a great track for us. Obviously next week, Loudon, is another good one.

What gives me a little bit of hope is Iowa we struggled a lot last year. Even though we kind of consider that a short track-ish, it's kind of an intermediate, right side tire, so the car acts and drives a little bit differently than it does here or maybe at Loudon.

I guess where I'm going with that, is we were able to go to Iowa and have a lot of speed as well. That was encouraging. We had an issue on pit road at the end that cost us a solid top five there, but we scored a lot of stage points.

We know Darlington was probably the low point of our season early on. But I also feel like we've learned some things to this point in the season that I'm optimistic that will make us better and make us where we can have the kind of performance we need to have a legitimate shot for a championship.

In the meantime I think we need to continue to capitalize on the tracks that we know are our strengths and get all we can from a points positioning.

Q. For about the last month or so, Joey has been saying he's excited about the stretch to end the regular season. His confidence has been going up. How dangerous is that when Joey is now getting this confident at this point in the season?

PAUL WOLFE: Well, we've seen it a lot over the years here, in the recent years. That's a big part of it for a driver, is confidence. Believing in his team, that he can do it, those types of things.

He's very good under pressure situations, right? That's something we all know. We've seen over the years, when it's time to perform, there's the most on the line, he's able to perform as good as anyone. He's obviously doing that now.

Just to the whole team aspect, like I said, these are opportunity races for us. Everyone's getting it right. That's the part that makes me most satisfied about where we're at, is that although we may have had a bad start to the season, everyone's still working just as hard as they would any other year. It shows when we come to these opportunity races.

Like I said, we still have a lot to do, some areas to gain, but we're making the most of our short track races now. That's what I'm proud of most.

Q. With the performance today, does that change your strategy going into New Hampshire and Daytona in terms of playing it a different way?

PAUL WOLFE: No, I don't think it changes anything. I mean, I feel like New Hampshire next week is another opportunity for us. We were very, very good there last year. Obviously all our cars were. Like I said, we've continued to build and try new things with our short track program this year. They're paying off. We'll continue to push forward and shoot for another win and score as many points as we can.

Like I said, I guess we're eighth now, which is a bigger jump than I thought we could make in one race. So who knows. Yeah, just go there and keep pressing on.

Daytona's obviously a bit of a wild card. Nobody knows what will happen there. It's a new aero package, new engine package, so there's that unknown on top of just the things that can happen on a speedway.

It's nice that we're able to make the most out of the short track stuff. I know we'll be in contention at Daytona, but we've also come home on casters before, too. That's just part of it, something that you got to just expect, so...

Q. Paul, can you reflect on the last pit stop. Was that always the plan or was it purely reactionary to what the 19 was doing?

PAUL WOLFE: Well, we felt like whoever came off of pit road first has the best shot at it. Early in the race it seemed like we were much stronger than the 19 on the long run. They obviously definitely were working on their car throughout the race, and they got it a lot better where our strength early in the race kind of equalized a little bit in my mind.

We had so many sets of tires to work with. Every set at times can be a little different. We're trying to use them how we see fit. We got off one or two runs there the end of stage two where our car wasn't quite as good, and the 19 had gotten control of the race. But I felt good that if we could get back out in front, even if we're off a little bit, I think Joey is good enough at managing his car that we would be able to hold on.

We actually wanted to pit a lap or two earlier than we did, we kind of got stuck out with the traffic. I'm obviously communicating with the spotter, with Coleman, without letting the teams around us know what lap we're pitting. So our plan was, before we even passed him, was to come and jump him. If we get one lap here sooner, that's enough to jump the guy.

But the way it worked out we ended up passing him and then pitting. It worked out either way. Definitely wanted to come a lap or two earlier than we did.

Q. Joey mentioned he had self-doubts at the lowest point in the year. Did you have doubts in yourself during the tough time of the year?

PAUL WOLFE: Sure, when you don't run well, you start to question or wonder when you will again, right?

I think the way our company's structured, the way all our teams work so closely together, I think that's an advantage for us. Even if one team's off a little bit, another team is running well.

I think the 12 started the season really strong. So we're always able to kind of lean on our teammates and have kind of like a home base, if you will, then build from there.

I've been doing it obviously a long time now. I know there's the ups and downs, and that's part of it. For me, I'm able to kind of stay pretty levelheaded through the highs and the lows. I think that helps me when we go through maybe the challenging years or parts of the season.

Like I said, just keeping the guys focused, right? Keeping the pit crew going and the guys on the car, letting them all know that this is going to turn around and it's going to be okay, keep everyone focused. That's, I feel like, my job in the challenging times. That's why I say when we're able to come out here and do what we've done the last month, it's exciting for me to see that the guys believed in the process.

Q. Paul, it seemed like the race was between you and the 19 all night. Where did you feel like you were better? Where did you feel like he was better than you?

PAUL WOLFE: Like I said early on in the race, I felt like the long run was our strength. He was good the first 20, 25 laps. After that we were able to run some really good lap times. He would kind of fall off.

As we got middle to towards the end, I felt like we were pretty equal, honestly. I didn't see a standout where he was much better in an area or vice versa. That's where I say, when you get two cars that are that equally matched, it's usually who can come off of pit road or get the lead on the restart. It's very hard to beat those, whoever that may be.

I think that's where it got to at the very end of the race. Once we did get the lead there, we cleared -- I guess the 20 was on the opposite strategy, we cleared him, I felt like we were probably going to be in pretty good shape.

Then the 19, he never let off. He was on us all the way till the end. He honestly put more pressure on us than maybe what I expected once we were able to get the lead.

Q. This race was similar track-wise to North Wilkesboro. Did you take anything from there and translate it to tonight?

PAUL WOLFE: Yeah, I mean, I would say in general this short track aero package, engine package, with the increased horsepower this year is a little bit of a change for us. All those things.

Every track's different. Wilkesboro doesn't have the big tire degradation like we see here. I guess this would be the most extreme of the short tracks we run. But there's a lot of the basic concept of how we go short-track racing that you can carry over from one track to the other.

I think that's why we've been able to, over the last few years, see where we're good at Phoenix, we're good at New Hampshire, we're good at Richmond, it's because it's kind of the same basic package, then you make small adjustments for what each track wants.

Q. We've seen you struggle, get stronger as the season progresses, even win a championship that way. What is it people don't understand about what you're going through now, '24, trying to climb up along with beating other elite teams out there?

PAUL WOLFE: Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of it's just the chemistry and experience on the team. Obviously Joey, the driver, he's been doing this as long as most anybody in the field at this point. I'm probably one of the more experienced crew chiefs in the garage. I think we're able to use that to our strength.

Like I spoke earlier about keeping the team focused through the times, the challenging parts of the season, for us, and really maximizing and being able to handle the pressure for the opportunity races, if you will. That's what we've been able to do.

Obviously the format is much different this year. When the most is on the line, there's teams and drivers that make mistakes, right? That's kind of when it shows the cream rises to the top when there's the most on the line, the most pressure. There's some teams and drivers that handle that better. I think that's really just been a strength of ours.

During the struggles of the season, it's kind of the same thing. You're able to continue to stay focused and know what the goal is and continue to work. It's easy to get sidetracked when you're struggling, start going down these paths. I think being able to stay calm. I talked about the process, how we go about racing, being able to stay true to the process and know that eventually it's going to work out and we're going to get the right answer and do what we need to do.

I say I have a lot of experience. I may not be the smartest crew chief in the garage technically, but I feel like I can manage the situations and continue to keep smart people around me. That's what I like to say has been good for me over the years, is just surrounding myself with good people, right, and not micromanaging, letting everyone do their part. Just trying to lead 'em and keep 'em going in the right direction.

Joey's good at staying upbeat and keeping the morale up on the team when we are running poorly or not where we expect because that's a big part of it. I've seen drivers and teams that can come apart in those situations. He's a big part of being able to keep the morale up. That's important to some people, helping them do their job.

WALT CZARNECKI: I want to say it's the continuity of the process, the continuity of the people. We like to say, if you come into our shop, you walk in, on the wall as soon as you come in you see the name of the people who have been there 10, 20, 30 years. They know what the score is. They know what the goal is. They've all worked together. It's that institutional knowledge, institutional history. They rely on each other.

To have leaders in the organization like Paul, on the scrimmage line every day, makes the job a little bit easier.

Appreciate the leadership, Paul, too.

THE MODERATOR: Paul, Walt, congratulations again. Best of luck next week in New Hampshire.