NASCAR CUP SERIES
DAYTONA ROAD COURSE
O’REILLY AUTO PARTS 253 AT DAYTONA
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
FEBRUARY 19, 2020
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE, Press Conference Transcript:
AS WE GO TO THE ROAD COURSE THIS WEEKEND, IF YOU WERE A FAN, WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO TUNE IN AND WATCH THIS RACE?
“Typically, road racing I feel like gives you a little bit of everything. The challenges that we see on road courses is just different than the typical oval track that we go to. And a lot of times, it’s exciting, too. People are trying to get every inch of the track and as we saw last week, running through the dirt trying to make it work. Just something a little different; a little bit of a change of pace, which I think is nice from the regular ovals.”
WHEN PREPARING FOR THIS RACE, DO YOU GO BACK AND LOOK AT VIDEO FROM THE LAST LAP OF THE CLASH OR IS IT TOO RAW AND TOO MEMORABLE STILL IN YOUR HEAD TO NOT RE-LIVE IT?
“I haven’t really studied it, but I know what happened. I don’t get emotional watching it. It’s one of those things that it happened, it’s over with. I hate the result, but yeah you have to learn from it. I think there’s a lot of things I can learn from last week. I think we can be better, from a balance standpoint. I think I can be better behind the wheel. And then obviously, if you get put in those situations like that, how would you go about it differently to have a different result. And I think that’s kind of the big question from last week – what do you do different, right. The bottom lane was there, was kind of in there, and I don’t know exactly how to change up my approach there to better my chance of winning. So, yeah, all those things I’ve thought through. If we’re faced with it again, we’ll see how it goes.”
JOEY LOGANO AND HIS TEAMMATE HAVEN’T TALKED YET, BUT THEY WILL WORK IT OUT LIKE A MARRIAGE HE SAID. HAVE YOU AND (RYAN) BLANEY TALKED? DOES THAT MAKE IT HARDER ON THE TRACK? SOME PEOPLE JUST DON’T WANT TO HAVE FRIENDS ON THE TRACK FOR THAT REASON.
“Yeah, we’ve talked – we’re fine. It doesn’t fix his race car from last weekend and it certainly doesn’t fix his result. And I understand that, for sure. I’ve been there and I get it. Look, if you’re going to wreck somebody on purpose to win a race, typically that person wins, right. Just the way it all worked out – I hate that neither one of us won the race. If I can’t win, I would love to see him win, and I think he feels the same way. I think he would even still feel the same way after last week.”
“Yeah, we’re fine. We both hate the result; I hate it as much as he does and did. But it’s racing and we’re racing for wins. That’s a great problem to have. If he and I wrecked racing for 15th, that would be one thing. But if he and I are racing for wins and mistakes happen or somebody gets a bad end of it just because that’s the way it worked out, you really look at the big picture. That’s not all bad, if he and I are having the opportunities to win races. So, that’s the high spot for me and hopefully we’ll have more chances to have a good finish and not have that happen.”
CAN YOU EXPLAIN WHEN PEOPLE SAY ‘IF YOU’RE GOING TO MAKE THE MOVE, YOU BETTER WIN THE RACE’, BUT YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN YOU MAKE THE MOVE IF YOU’RE GOING TO WIN THE RACE.
“Well, you certainly put yourself in a better position sometimes than others, if you’re just going to flat-out crash a guy to win. I would say most of the time, the intent is not there to crash the guy; it’s somebody being aggressive and maybe being a little too aggressive, or lanes come together or whatever it may be. So, I don’t know that the intent is there very often for a person to just crash somebody and win. But yeah, if you’re going to do it on purpose, yeah – clean him out and keep trucking, I mean, I guess. That’s, I assume, how someone would go about it if you were going to do it on purpose. But yeah, I was trying to get next to him and get beside him, not run through his back bumper. I think that was the big difference in that situation.”
IF YOU FIND YOURSELF IN THE SAME SPOT, GIVEN WHAT HAPPENED, DO YOU FIND YOURSELF MORE RELUCTANT TO GO IN THERE AGAIN OR DO YOU SAY – LOOK I’VE STUDIED IT, I THINK I CAN HAVE A BETTER APPROACH. I’VE LEARNED SOMETHING FROM IT SO I CAN JUST BARGE IN THERE AND TRY?
“Like I said after the race, if I’m not trying to win, then what am I doing. And I think that’s pretty cut and dry, right. So, if the lane’s there for me and you’re coming to the checkered flag, I think you have to give yourself a chance to win in that situation. Me riding behind him through that chicane and not trying to get next to him on entry was one hundred percent not going to allow me to win. There was no way I was following him through there and going to get in the gas, have better drive off the corner with my older tires to the line; that wasn’t happening. So, I knew that and I felt like my best chance was to get next to him on entry and try to get up beside him. It didn’t work out, but situations change. You might be on offense; you might have a better tire than the guy ahead of you that tends to lend better drive off. If you’re on offense in that situation, then maybe you do something a little different. But in that situation last weekend, my best chance was to get next to him on entry and that’s what I did.”
HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO A TEAM TO GET AN EARLY WIN; GET ONE OUT OF THE WAY AS SOON AS POSSIBLE?
“I mean you never know, right? Phoenix could have been my last. I don’t know and nobody does, right? You have to enjoy all of them as if they are your last and that’s always going to be my approach in this stuff; they’re too hard to get. I don’t get picky on race wins; they’re too hard to win and you never know when they can or won’t come. So, whenever, wherever, however – I think you have to enjoy them. I think you can go on a good run late in the season just as you can early in the season.”
THE LAST LAP OF THE DAYTONA 500 – IF THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN YOU AND ANOTHER HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS GUY, HOW DO YOU THINK THE EXPECTATIONS WOULD BE FOR THE TWO TEAMMATES TO RACE?
“I don’t think it has anything to do with the team you drive for; I think it has to do with the individual and how that person races. So, I don’t think it would have mattered if you were at wherever – Hendrick, Penske or wherever. I think that has more to do with the driver than it does the owner.”
CAN YOU DESCRIBE WHAT IT IS THAT DRIVERS LIKE SO MUCH ABOUT THE TRACK AT HOMESTEAD FOR NEXT WEEK?
“I think the biggest thing that everybody likes is running up by the wall; that’s the thing that’s kind of cool and not a lot of tracks let you do that. A lot of times, the track isn’t symmetrical enough to run that close to it for that period of time. It might have little sections of the wall that might dip in or out and when that happens, it makes it really hard to run right by it because it’s hard to follow a curve in the wall. But Homestead is a place where the wall is super symmetrical and the track is symmetrical. And progressive banking too, which I think all those things kind of give you options on lanes to run and something a little different from the normal.”
REFERRING TO JENNA’S QUESTION, YOU TALKED ABOUT IT’S NOT REALLY A TEAM THING, IT’S A DRIVER THING. SO, WHERE DO YOU STAND ON THE BLOCKING DEBATE?
“That’s so tough, right. I’ll put it to you like this – the best example is last year; the reason Denny (Hamlin) won the Daytona 500 was because he didn’t throw a massive block. So, you do the math there.”
CAN YOU WIN WITHOUT BLOCKING? CAN IT GO EITHER WAY OR IS IT JUST THE INDIVIDUAL SITUATION?
“Well, I think the situation was pretty similar; go watch the last lap of the 2020 (Daytona) 500. Denny (Hamlin) had a massive run coming to his back bumper. He picked the lane he wanted to go to and ultimately put himself back on offense within a couple of seconds and gave himself a shot back around at the line.”
ALAN (GUSTAFSON, CREW CHIEF) SAID YESTERDAY THAT LOOKING BACK AT THE CLASH, YOU GUYS WEREN’T AS GOOD AS YOU NEEDED TO BE; EXECUTION AND STRATEGY WAS PRETTY POOR, I THINK WERE HIS WORDS. SO, WHAT WERE THE LESSONS TAKEN FROM THE CLASH, CONSIDERING THAT IT’S A DIFFERENT TIRE AND A DIFFERENT AERO-PACKAGE THAN WHEN YOU WON HERE AND RAN HERE IN AUGUST?
“Yes, I agree with him. I don’t think we were as good as we needed to be last week. I think the No. 19 (Martin Truex Jr.) was going to be the guy in that race last weekend. Yeah, I think we can improve in multiple areas. I think we can make our car better. I think we can do better on pit road and I can do better on pit road. And I think I can do better on the track, too. Yeah, I don’t think we were at our best by any means.”
THE CHANGES THAT NASCAR MADE TO THE BACKSTRETCH CHICANE – THEY SAID THEY MADE THOSE IN RESPONSE TO DRIVERS. WHERE YOU CONSULTED AND, ALSO, DO YOU THINK THEY WERE NEEDED AND WHAT KIND OF IMPACT DO YOU THINK IT WILL HAVE ON THE RACE?
“No, I try not to get involved in that stuff. If there’s dirt on the track, don’t run through the dirt – that’s pretty simple. As long as there’s grass there, I’d say there’s going to be dirt underneath it. But yeah, I think in short turn, they did a great job it looked like from the pictures I saw of trying to have a fix to it. I think we should all respect and give props to Chip (Wile) and everyone at Daytona for putting in the time and the effort to try to have a solution in that short period of a time. So, I think it’ll be good.”
YOU DON’T THINK IT WILL IMPACT THE RACING TOO MUCH?
“I don’t think you’ll be able to tell much of a difference, to be honest. There might be a little less dirt on the track, but I don’t think the race will change.”
Team Chevy high-resolution racing photos are available for editorial use.
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