NASCAR CUP SERIES
DOVER MOTOR SPEEDWAY
WURTH 400
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
APRIL 29, 2023
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 – Press Conference Transcript:
HAVE YOU TALKED TO ALEX? ALSO, WHAT DO YOU GET OUT OF RACING SOMETHING ELSE BESIDES A CUP CAR THAT WOULD MAKE THE ARGUMENT THAT WE NEED TO CONTINUE TO RACE OUTSIDE OF HERE?
“I have talked to Alex. Look, I know he’s bummed. But I think it could have been a lot worse, right. For me, number one, I’m thankful he’s in a position where he’s going to be able to get back to the team and be able to contribute 100 percent as he was before. So to me, his health is really first and foremost. I know he’s bummed and he’s probably not feeling good, but I’m looking forward to having him back.
As for what you get out of it, I think that depends on who you are. I think that depends on your outlook on what you enjoy doing and what makes you happy. Alex enjoys racing sprint cars. He likes building his cars – drift cars, midgets and going and racing that stuff. That’s a passion of his, so I think for that reason, it’s meaningful to him and I think that probably changes per who the individual is and what your outlook on things are. I think for him, he seems to really enjoy all aspects of that stuff. It’s a bit of his getaway and I think that’s important.”
HOW MUCH CONCERN IS THERE ON YOUR END ON WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE NO. 5 CAR LAST WEEKEND AND THE WAY THE PASSENGER SIDE COLLAPSED AND THE DOOR BARS COMING IN?
“Yeah, I mean it’s not great, right. At the end of the day, you look at that thing – I haven’t seen it in person. We tested at Loudon this week, so I wasn’t at the shop on Monday. From what I’ve heard and the pictures I’ve seen, certainly it’s a bit concerning on a multitude of levels. I’m disappointed in that, personally. Last year, the softer hits were a problem, but that’s in preparation for a bigger hit being covered. From the data I heard, he was only doing 130 mph, so what happens if he’s doing 180 or 160 mph? So yeah, I definitely think that’s concerning. But I also think it’s probably more of a conversation on how to move forward outside of this room. We’ll get it better to where we can be productive on it and not just sit here and run my mouth.”
JEFF ANDREWS WAS JUST IN HERE AND HE SAID ONE ACCIDENT IS BAD. TWO EXTRACURRICULAR ACCIDENTS IS NOT GREAT. HE SAID MAYBE THERE’S A CHANCE IN THE FUTURE THAT HE MIGHT HAVE TO LOOK AT WHAT YOU GUYS DO. HOW CONCERNED ARE YOU THAT THERE COULD BE A CHANGE IN WHAT YOU GUYS ARE ALLOWED TO DO AND HOW MIGHT IT EFFECT YOU IF THEY HAVE TO GO FORWARD WITH THOSE TYPES OF CHANGES?
“I really don’t see it changing. I think it’s obviously very, very poor timing with where I was at and just coming back and obviously Alex being hurt this week. I mean look, I get it. It’s a bad look. I totally understand that. But also, I understand that there is a timing piece of that and it’s just really poor timing. I think if one happened this year and the other happened next year, would we be having the same conversation? Probably not, you know really. I think them being back-to-back makes it look a little worse than the reality.”
YOU COME IN AS THE DEFENDING WINNER AT DOVER. HOW MUCH DO YOU USE FROM LAST YEAR THAT YOU CAN MOVE FORWARD TO THIS YEAR?
“Yeah, I’m with you.. I don’t know what aero package it is and isn’t anymore. Certainly I’m sure the car is going to drive different because at this point last year, there was still a lot of learning going on. Not that there’s not still a lot of learning going on now, but I do think that people have really progressed a lot through the second half of the season. So I anticipate that it’s going to feel different. The car might have some different tendencies. It’s still going to have those characteristics that come along with being at this race track and racing here, so I don’t anticipate that changing a ton. But we’ll see. It’s been a year since we’ve been here and obviously a lot can happen in that amount of time. We’ll get on track and kind of see where we stack up and go from there.”
HOW IS YOUR LEG DOING? ALSO, YOU MENTIONED THE TIRE TEST UP AT LOUDON. DOES DOING THOSE LAPS AND GETTING THOSE EXTRA REPS KIND OF HELP BUILD BACK THAT STRENGTH?
“Yeah, I feel fine. I’m not going on runs or doing sprinting drills, but I feel fine. I don’t feel like it impacts me in the car at this point. Really, I didn’t think it impacted me in the car at Martinsville either and I’m certainly better than I was then. It’s just one of those things where you’re going to have good days, you’re going to have days that you don’t get around great. That’s just going to be part of it here for a little while I think. I think those extra reps are good. We made a lot of laps and I felt fine there both days and the day after, yesterday, being out of the car.
Yeah, I feel good. Just ready to keep pushing forward.”
WHERE DO YOU FEEL YOUR PACKAGE IS AT, NOT ONLY HERE THIS WEEKEND, BUT GOING FORWARD, CONFIDENCE-WISE?
“Well for me personally, I’m just kind of getting back, really and truly. Obviously Hendrick Motorsports as a company has had a lot of success. When I was gone, I felt like they ran really well at Las Vegas. They ran really good at Phoenix. I thought they were OK at COTA. Atlanta is obviously a bit of a wash. But Richmond, they were obviously very strong there, as well. As a whole, I feel like the Chevrolet camp and Hendrick Motorsports have been strong. For me, we ran Martinsville and then went to Talladega. We were OK at Martinsville – we certainly weren’t anything special. We were really bad there for the majority of the day, but we qualified bad. We qualified bad and put ourselves in a tough spot. You’re going to start see that narrative more – I think when you qualify bad, it’s probably going to set you up for a long day. I think we’re in a good place. I just have to get back in the rhythm of doing this stuff and getting going.”
YOU MENTIONED IT’S STILL DOVER AND IT STILL HAS THOSE TENDENCIES. YOU HAVE TWO WINS HERE. WHAT IS IT ABOUT THIS PLACE THAT KIND OF SUITS YOUR DRIVING STYLE?
“Yeah, I don’t really know to be honest with you. We ran pretty well here I feel like on the Xfinity side, too. We’ve had some really solid runs on the Cup front; last year probably being one of our better runs, maybe our best run. But yeah, it’s been fortunate that this place has been a solid track for us over the last few years. I hope that continues. We’ll see. I’ve enjoyed coming up here. I wish that meant we were going to guarantee me a good run tomorrow, but unfortunately that’s not how it goes.”
WITH JOSH BERRY FILLING IN FOR YOU FOR A HANDFUL OF RACES, HOW DO YOU FEEL HE DID WITH THE TEAM?
“I thought he did great with the team. Not only did I think that from the outside, but once I got back, everybody enjoyed working with him. I think you have to have that dynamic. He’s a guy that doesn’t say a whole lot, but I kind of like that. He doesn’t talk a ton, but he’s certainly putting in the effort and putting in the work; thinking about things, dissecting what he feels and what he needs to do next. I think he’s going to continue to build on that. Obviously he’s going to get a few more weeks here now to run and I think that’s just going to make him better, better and better. I think he’ll continue to run well; keep building on like his result at Richmond. I think he’s going to keep building on those things because he’s a guy that he’s learning a lot in a short period of time and I think he’s going to apply that very quickly.”
DO YOU LOOK AT DOVER AS ONE OF YOUR BETTER OPPORTUNITIES TO WIN IN THE REGULAR SEASON TO MORE SAFELY SECURE YOUR PLAYOFF POSITION?
“Yeah, it’s certainly an opportunity. When we show up properly, I think any given week can be a good opportunity for us, frankly. But certainly as I reference a second ago, this has been a good track for us. Does that guarantee that tomorrow is going to go good? No, but I certainly hope so. But look, these races, a lot can happen and a lot can happen out of your control. You have to put it all together on the race track, on the pit box, on pit road – everything has to be perfect. That’s a lot to put together and I think it’s a bit unfair to throw that all on one day and bet the house on it. That’ just unrealistic. But I think we can go and have a good run here just like we can go and have a good run next week or the next 15 after that, if we show up and do our part.”
BEING OUT OF THE CAR THIS SEASON, YOU SAW JOSH BERRY GET THAT GREAT RESULT AT RICHMOND. NOW THAT ALEX IS IN THAT POSITION, SEEING SOMEONE ELSE HAVE SUCH A GOOD RUN IN YOUR CAR, WHAT WERE THE EMOTIONS OF THAT DAY?
“At that point, I was past the weird space of seeing my car – it’s not really my car, it’s really Rick’s (Hendrick) car – but seeing the NAPA No. 9 car go around the track, I was kind of past that weird space of it and was really just excited to see them do good. They deserve it, in my opinion. I’ve been telling you all in here a long time – that team is really, really good. They make me look a lot better than I really am. I was hoping that maybe you all would start to believe me on that over the period of me being out because it’s very true.”
DO YOU TAKE MORE RISK? OBVIOUSLY WITH A MEDICAL WAIVER, TOP-30 IN POINTS, THAT’S GOING TO BE A GIVEN. SO DO YOU TAKE RISK TO WIN AS IF YOU ALREADY HAVE A WIN IN YOUR POCKET, OR DO YOU KEEP CHOPPING AWAY AT THE POINTS AND MAYBE GET TO THE 16TH SPOT?
“I haven’t been keeping up with it closely. That’s pretty farfetched, I would say, even if we run really well. Not impossible, but we’d have to have a summer stretch like we did last year to do that, which was a really good stretch for us. Really, our mindset is no different this week than it was last week. I feel like we have to win. If you’re putting yourself in position to win races, I think it’s probably going to work itself out. On the other side of that coin, if you’re not putting yourself in position to win races at least once or twice in the next 16 weeks, then I’d say you’re not going to win a championship anyways. So does it really matter at the end of the day, right? It matters, obviously. But like when you step back and look at it – if you’re not in contention at least a couple of times, I’d say you thinking you have a shot to go win Phoenix is probably a little unrealistic.”
WE HEAR A LOT ABOUT THE PHYSICALITY OF THIS RACE TRACK AND HOW IT KIND OF JUST MOVES YOU AROUND IN THE SEAT AND HOW YOU’RE PRETTY WORN OUT AFTER A RACE HERE. HOW MUCH OF THAT PHYSICALITY IS ON YOUR LOWER EXTREMITIES, SPECIFICALLY YOUR LEG?
“I don’t think it will be a whole lot. Fortunately, my knee and just kind of where it sits in the car is in a really secure position. And even before the injury, the way I kind of had all my stuff setup like where my knee is, doesn’t move laterally or it’s designed to not move laterally, at least in a normal circumstance. Obviously crashing could be something different. So that being said, no – I don’t foresee it being any more difficult than say a Martinsville or Loudon test where you’re using the brakes and kind of pushing your car from that perspective. I could be wrong, but I don’t anticipate that.”
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