NASCAR CUP SERIES: COKE ZERO SUGAR 400

August 29, 2026

Derrick Finley

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by our crew chief, Derrick Finley.

We'll open it up for questions.

Q. With all of the extra caution laps, was there ever a thought to come down and pit, especially after Shane?

DERRICK FINLEY: Yeah, there was a lot of concern actually. We did not see the caution being 10 laps or whatever it ended up being. We thought it was going to be four or five laps, like a normal caution.

Sure, we were getting nervous. The problem was if we came down later, we'd already given up all that track position if those guys pitted right away.

Ryan did a great job saving under caution, shutting the car off, coasting, doing all the stuff you do to save fuel. We made it (laughter).

Q. What is it about your team that works so well from that fiery personality side?

DERRICK FINLEY: The one thing our 60 team has from top to bottom is a lot of grit. I mean, we don't give up. We fight until the bitter end. We don't care if we're running 30th, we're going to run and fight and get a 10th place out of the car.

We fight. That's just the way we are. I played sports my whole life, played football through college. Obviously as soon as I was out of college I came out here. I've competed my whole life. It's in my nature. The guys around me are the same way, every one of 'em. Ryan is, too, obviously. Ryan has a lot of fight. That's a good thing (smiling).

Q. When you have a driver who says the things that Ryan says on the radio to galvanize the team, does it actually have any effect on the team tangibly?

DERRICK FINLEY: You know, it does. Coming from a sports background, then racing for the past 30 years of my life. When you have your quarterback and your coach, and you know they've got your back, then yeah, you play harder, you get that confidence, you learn, you learn to believe in each other. When that happens, anything can happen.

We called it before this. We're going to go out, try to win every stage, lead every lap, win the race. The guys believed it. We believed it.

I believe it helps bringing something like this to fruition.

Q. Stage one when your car winds up going through the tri-oval grass, what is going through your head at that point?

DERRICK FINLEY: We stepped into the race and we said it. We told Danielle, we said, We don't care what happens with the 97, we're racing our race. We know what we have to do.

We still got seventh place in the first stage, eighth place. I don't know, I was worried about damage (smiling). The car was still basically in one piece. When we saw the car, we said, We're not out of it. Let's fix this thing, we're going to get aggressive, we're going to fire before we should be able to make it on fuel. He did. He made it on fuel. Ended up getting second.

Once we got that second place, I think the 97 finished ninth. We evened the points out. We're like, Okay, here it goes. We got to win it.

Yeah, of course when it happens, you're like, Oh, no. But it's our group, right? We said, Hey, we're not out of this. That was the attitude we took.

Q. The final lap when the caution came out, looked like Preece and Suarez were side by side for the win. Were you nervous maybe Suarez had gotten the edge? What were your thoughts?

DERRICK FINLEY: I did not believe he got the edge. I might be partial (smiling).

Yeah, I'll be honest, never crossed my mind that anyone passed him. They should have thrown the caution seconds before they did. In my mind, we'd won the race already. It was over.

Yeah, I guess I need to watch the replay. I don't know how close it was.

Also I believe NASCAR always goes through their scoring loops, right, which are behind when the caution actually flies. That works obviously in your favor if you're leading at the point when the caution does fly, or tied at that point, whatever.

Q. You've been crew chiefing in the Cup Series since 2003. This is your first win. How meaningful is that?

DERRICK FINLEY: It's super meaningful. I've been off and on crew chief. I never tried to be crew chief. I always end up being crew chief. I've won several races as a director, whether it be director of operations or competition director for Cup teams, but never as a crew chief.

Something like this is awesome. To do it in the style and fashion that we did, coming in 31 points down, coming out how many up, in the Chase, man, it means everything. Obviously at Daytona, the mecca of NASCAR and motorsports pretty much as a whole. It's awesome.

Q. When you hear Ryan be as positive, confident and really egging you guys on, that's got to feel good as a crew chief. He was really doing that this evening. Does it affect the team like it would seem it does?

DERRICK FINLEY: It certainly did. You got to realize, our pit crew, they're all athletes, right? I'm an ex, really ex-athlete. Anyway. We all respond to that type of behavior. So when Ryan gets fiery or gives us that positive speech, we all jump on that. We're trained. We're used to getting halftime speeches.

We're like, yeah, let's go. We're ready to break through a wall here. Yeah, I mean, him being that way motivates the whole team. He's an awesome leader for us.

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations and thank you for your time tonight.

DERRICK FINLEY: Thank you.