MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
DOVER INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
DRYDENE 400
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
OCTOBER 4, 2019
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 HOOTERS GIVE A HOOT CAMARO ZL1, met with media to discuss his new paint scheme for the weekend, outlook for the next round of the Playoffs, what tributes to his success in road course racing, and more. Full Transcript:
YOU HAVE A SPECIAL PAINT SCHEME HERE THIS WEEKEND. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THAT TO START OFF?
“Yeah, it’s a really cool cause obviously. With Hooters being Hooters and the month of October being Breast Cancer Awareness month, it’s a good fit and they’ve been such a fun partner. Obviously, this is for a good cause. I feel like everyone has a family member or has some way been affected by it unfortunately. I appreciate them being on board and being willing to do something like this, and change up their colors. It’s not as easy of a thing for a corporate partner to give up their colors to do something cool and to do something good like this. So, I appreciate them and what they do.”
DID YOU ORCHESTRATE THE BURNOUT LAST WEEKEND?
“No, definitely not. It was just an accident. But I guess it was a good problem to have if you forgot to put it in gear after you did a burnout after the race. That’s not a bad problem. I figured it was going to hit something sometime and stop, so I just let it go.”
HOW DO YOU COME INTO THIS ROUND OF RACES THAT, ON PAPER, LOOKS GOOD FOR YOU?
“Yeah, I just think you can’t look at that. Past success doesn’t guarantee a good run here Sunday. If it did, we wouldn’t put the effort in or try. It would be guaranteed, so we just wouldn’t come. So, that’s part of racing and knowing that if you have a good run somewhere in the spring or last year if you only go their once, definitely doesn’t guarantee that you’ll run good this time. I think we just have to keep pushing and this round definitely isn’t going to be an easy round. I think it’s going to be tough. I think the caliber of cars left, there are some really strong teams in that 12, so I don’t expect this to be easy and we are certainly going to treat it that way.”
LOOKING AT NEXT WEEK AT TALLADEGA, DO YOU GUYS HAVE A STRATEGY IN PLACE ON HOW YOU GUYS ARE GOING TO RUN THAT RACE?
“We’ve talked about it some. It’s going to look real similar to what it did at Talladega in the spring and Daytona in the summer. We made a pretty conscious effort with our manufacturer of Chevrolet to try and do a better job of working together. It worked at Talladega. A lot of us crashed, but at least a Chevrolet still won the summer race at Daytona. Hopefully it works out. That’s the thing, we can put as much effort as we want or as little effort as we want, but it’s never going to guarantee that you aren’t going to crash or have a bad day there. I expect we’ll do our part on our end to try and make as good of a day as we can out of it, but no guarantees.”
IT’S THE 50th ANNIVERSARY FOR TALLADEGA. WHAT DOES TALLADEGA MEAN TO YOU, WITH YOU BEING FROM GEORGIA AND I KNOW YOU WENT TO THAT TRACK MANY OF TIMES WITH YOUR DAY?
“Yeah, obviously I haven’t been around for very many of the 50, but the race track has always kind of felt like a home race to me. It’s really as close as anywhere, it’s almost as close to going to Atlanta distance-wise. Any time you race close to home, it’s nice because you don’t have to go very far to go over there to the track, which is why I like it. Definitely the crowd makes you feel at home too; they certainly made me feel like that in the spring. I look forward to getting back over there. If it goes good, it goes good. If it doesn’t, we’ll figure it out after that.”
WHAT DO YOU TRIBUTE TO BEING ABLE TO HAVE SUCH SUCCESS HERE AT THIS TRACK?
“I think I’ve been lucky to have some fast cars. Obviously, Jimmie (Johnson)’s success over the years here has laid a great foundation for our cars to have speed and just his natural feel for the track. I honestly think a lot of it is him and being able to lean on him throughout practice, and that has been an asset to us. I’m going to continue to lean on him and hopefully we can have a solid day and try to get some more bonus points.”
JOEY LOGANO WAS JUST IN HERE AND HE HINTED TO THE FACT THAT THE PLAYOFFS SEEM TO BENEFIT THE VETERAN DRIVERS IN BEING ABLE TO HANDLE THE PRESSURE A LITTLE BIT DIFFERENTLY THAN THE YOUNGER GUYS. AS A YOUNGER GUY WHO SEEMS TO BE DOING PRETTY WELL RIGHT NOW, WHAT’S YOUR TAKE ON THAT?
“That’s his opinion and he’s entitled to it. So, whatever makes him feel good.”
DO YOU FEEL LIKE THE PLAYOFFS BENEFIT THE VETERANS?
“I think it benefits to do their job the best.”
YOU’VE PROVEN THAT YOU’RE PRETTY GOOD AT ROAD COURSES. WHERE DID YOU INITIALLY LEARN TO ROAD RACE?
“I was racing some go karts and when I was little, we did some road course racing. I’m not really sure that counts for anything, but I did a little bit there. Really, once we started racing some ARCA races, we started racing some road courses in the ARCA Series. I’m not sure, I think it was 2011 or 2012, something like that. So, that was kind of my first stab at running in a stock car. Through ties with Chevrolet, I had a chance to spend some time at Ron Fellows Driving School out in Vegas and that never hurts. Obviously, those cars are different in driving a Corvette versus one of our cars, it’s very different. But, at the same time, a lot of the techniques I think you can learn from and obviously Ron has been a great one to lean on with all of his success. I guess the ARCA days was the first stab at a stock car on a road course, but I’ve enjoyed it. It’s been a challenge, for sure, but I’ve enjoyed the challenge. Last week went good, but it doesn’t mean the next road race is going to go good. You enjoy it while you can.”
SPEAKING OF ARCA, YOU’VE HAD EXPERIENCE WITH K&N AS WELL, THEY’VE ANNOUNCED THE MERGER NEXT SEASON. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT?
“To be completely honest with you, I haven’t paid a lot of attention to the news this week. So, I really don’t know enough of the details of it to give you a really good quote. I apologize for staying off Twitter this week.”
WHAT ARE THE FIRST FEW LAPS LIKE HERE AT DOVER?
“It’s always a challenge and I think that’s what makes Dover fun I think for the drivers and the teams, and with how much it can change throughout a day. Typically, the first practice is always fast and the pace is up. To me, in the past, it seems like when we’ve been good here, you don’t want it to be really good to start. You don’t want it to be perfect I don’t think. If it is, I think you just have to know in your mind that we have some work to do to get a direction. Yeah, it’s laps on the track, but definitely not the environment that you’re going to see on Sunday after halfway.”
Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.
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