NASCAR CUP SERIES: CHAMPIONSHIP RACE

November 8, 2026

Mike Nelson

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Mike Nelson, the president of NASCAR for Team Penske. A strong way to end the season with this victory. Talk about the 2026 season as a whole for Team Penske.

MIKE NELSON: Yeah, 2026 has been a great season. Coming into this weekend was bittersweet, not having the opportunity to win the championship, because that's what we feel like we need to do every year.

If you want to do the best you can and end it out the best you can, that's really the way it played out tonight. Yeah, it's exciting to be able to execute that win, bring it home first. That was the best we could do today.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. We talked a lot about Toyotas this year. We talked about the 5. The 12 has been there nearly every single week. What is it about the 12 that has been able to allow them to overcome -- I don't know another word to use -- the deficiencies that the Ford has been lacking some weeks?

MIKE NELSON: Well, I think we've had a good year for everyone. The 12, kind of like the 5 for Chevy, I guess, has been a little bit farther up the ladder in terms of results week to week.

Also have to give a lot of credit to Brian Wilson and Austin in terms of our intermediate program. They were really strong there. Obviously working well as a team, we try to get all of our heads together and try to improve. We thought that was our weakest area going into the 10-race series.

Fortunately we were able to get it better. Maybe not as good as we wanted it to, but got it better to be able to contend.

Q. You mentioned Austin. What was it about he and that team? Seems like something changed.

MIKE NELSON: Yeah, great question.

They ended last season well. Slumped a little bit to start the year. As a group, we didn't perform as well as we wanted to. Sometimes when you're trying to figure things out to be better, you can go backwards a little bit. On the short tracks, we were really strong. Yeah, they really came around when it counted.

Sometimes you don't know. Sometimes it's just trying some things and trying to get yourself back in the game. Did a really good job of doing that.

Outside of some issues they had, I mean, they really should have finished better than they did in 10th. They had a great 10-race stretch.

Q. Ford is getting a new car next year. What would you like to see with that car in terms of what it's lacking now? How long do you think it's going to take to get ramped up?

MIKE NELSON: Yeah, that's the million dollar question, right?

We're excited about the new Ford Mustang. You always go into coming up with a new car with the goal of it being better. The margins are really slim, the cars are so close. You hope it's going to be better and perform better, that you get a good handle on it.

We don't really have lot of testing going into the season. Yeah, we've got our work cut out for us early on. Hopefully we hit it, and we'll definitely be working hard to try to get it figured out as quickly as we can.

Q. Back to Austin, he downplays the notion that this format fit better into his wheelhouse. He did crack the top 10 in points for the first time in his career.

MIKE NELSON: Yeah, I think it's just maturation process for the driver and team. I mean, not too many years ago he was coming out of the Xfinity Series. It takes a little bit of time. He's continued to make progress each year. Had some ups and downs.

I think it's really that more so than any format or anything like that. I think they just have gotten better as a team. We're excited about where they'll go from here.

Q. Having all three Team Penske Fords in the top 10 in points at the end of this year, especially in this format which rewards consistency, what does it say about the resolve inside the walls of Team Penske?

MIKE NELSON: I think we tried to excel with whatever the rules package may be. We accept the rules for what they are at the start of the season and try to execute the best we can.

We just really have a mentality that that's where we should be. We want all cars in the top 10. We want to be 1-2-3. It was great to get everyone there.

It's been great to see these last 10 races where the performance has been. The unfortunate circumstances level has been pretty high. Outside of that, the performance has been really good. So we're happy with that.

We're just not happy that we aren't a few places better when it's all finished.

THE MODERATOR: Mike, thank you. Enjoy the off-season.

MIKE NELSON: Thank you. Thanks to all you guys. All year we appreciate what you do. It's a pleasure to come in here and answer the questions. Best of luck to y'all. Happy holidays. Hopefully we'll see you back in the media room in Daytona.