NASCAR CUP SERIES
POCONO RACEWAY
HIGHPOINT.COM 400
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
JULY 21, 2023
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1, met with the media ahead doing double duty in the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series at Pocono Raceway this weekend. Media Availability Quotes –
CURIOUS GOING BACK TO LAST YEAR. DID YOU GET TO KEEP THE TROPHY OR DID YOU LET DENNY (HAMLIN) HAVE IT?
“He actually gave me the trophy, but he kept the flag though because I think his little girl was pretty married to the flag. So, it was all good. I appreciate him sending me the trophy though we didn’t win it outright. I certainly would have rather won it the way he won it, but maybe this year.”
IT’S GOING TO BE DIFFICULT FOR YOU TO POINT YOUR WAY INTO THE PLAYOFFS. WHAT TRACK COMING UP IS GOING TO BE YOUR BEST CHANCE TO WIN AT?
“I hope here this weekend. My thought process since all this has happened is that we are going to have to win. That is kind of what everybody was saying until we had a few good weeks of points and then everybody was like ‘oh, he can point his way in’. So, the storylines can change pretty fast.”
DO YOU FEEL LIKE THE DEFENDING WINNER OF THE RACE FROM LAST YEAR?
“Not at all.. not even close. We were credited with the win, but I don’t feel like we had a stellar run. We were decent, but certainly not like we came up here and dominated the race like you want to have happen. So, a little bit of a different vibe and I am not sure that I really….certainly not in the NASCAR time, I never remember being gifted a win like that. Any other time, maybe over the years somewhere, but certainly not since I have been doing this stuff.”
DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU ARE IN MORE OF A RHYTHM THAN YOU WERE A FEW WEEKS AGO?
“Yeah, I mean we had a couple of good runs that I thought were trending in the right direction. Loudon was terrible. We struggled all weekend really, which I was disappointed and I think as a team, we all were. We had a good test up there a couple of months ago and it hasn’t been a great track for me, so I was super excited to get some extra laps, and go up there and try to get better at a place that hasn’t been super good. I thought we did that and made a lot of gains, and went back and we were just horrendous. We didn’t really understand why – we came back in a very similar manner to when we left and we just missed. That stuff happens, unfortunately.
Yeah, didn’t have the run we wanted to have last weekend obviously, but I thought the prior three to four weeks to my recollection were certainly better and in the ballgame. That was good, and it’s in there, we just have to extract it.”
WHERE IS THE BALANCE OF THE TEAM, AS FAR AS GOING FOR WINS OR POINTS?
“We just have to go and do our jobs to the best of our ability, and show up every weekend and make sure we are prepared – thinking about the right things, talking about the right things and making sure that I am honing in on every piece of my craft and what I need to focus on that weekend from track-to-track. The road courses – everybody likes to talk about that, that I was this really good road racer two or three years ago, but now we haven’t won one and that has cooled off too. So, it’s just that narratives change really fast. The fun part of the position that I am in, and that our team is in, is we have the ability to change those narratives and we can make you’ll write about all kinds of stuff if we just go do our jobs. That is kind of how I look at it and I think that for us, as we look at the tracks coming up, this weekend I think is an opportunity. Has it been a phenomenal racetrack for me? No, it hasn’t, but it is an opportunity to get better. And you want to try to improve and that is where my head is at. I want to get better and I want to be fighting for wins each week and kind of get in the mix of those guys that when you walk in here after the race, you are not surprised to see have won an event. That is the group that I have always wanted to be in and just let the rest figure itself out. If I am up here and we are fighting for top fives and fighting for wins on a weekly basis, I am good. The rest of the stuff is going to work itself out eventually. That has always been my headspace, so it’s no different. No different today and I think we are very capable of doing that. Like I said, we just have to put the pieces together at the right time and extract our potential and we will be fine.”
LOOKING AT THE STATS, IT LOOKS LIKE YOU ARE NOT THAT CLOSE..
“Like I said, I think last weekend certainly was not very good. The prior two or three weeks before that, I thought were. Did we lead any laps in those events? Probably not. But we were running up front and inside the top five and putting together solid races. So from that standpoint, I think that is a pretty good weekend, in my opinion. If you are in those front two or three rows on the final two or three restarts, I consider that going in the right direction. So, I think we just have to keep working hard, keep….as I said a few minutes ago, thinking about the right things, talking about the right things, and I think we are doing that.
And I don’t see any reason why we can’t go and have a good run here this weekend and keep chipping away. That is all we can do. As I look back at last year, we had a really hot start or a hot summer stretch. We were decent at the start – had a good summer stretch and we struggled probably from about this time last year all the way through the end of the season and were just trying to get back on track and put some of those good runs together. So, I think it’s there. It’s just riding the wave. It’s like my dad has said over the years – you just have to ride the wave and continue to put the work in, and it will work itself out.”
CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THE DIFFICUTLY AND ART OF QUALIFYING HERE AND HOW YOU LOOK AT IT?
“To Bob’s point, I am not the person to be asking about qualifying if you haven’t noticed. I used to qualify okay, but we just haven’t qualified well in a while. So, I guess we had a couple of good starts a few weeks ago. Heck, I don’t know from that standpoint. My philosophy on qualifying has always been dialing in where I feel like the car needs to drive from a race-based perspective. And when you put on four tires, it should go faster. And that has always been my approach – when you put on better tires, it should go better. Yes, the balance might need to shift a little here or there and you might try and find that trend and then hit it each week. But I think that all starts with a really solid setup from a race-based perspective and go from there. It’s always my philosophy and I am not going to change that. We are going to keep trucking in that direction and try to get better.”
HOW ABOUT QUALIFYING HERE AT POCONO?
“Yeah, I think qualifying in general has changed over the course of my career. When we first came in, we were having Friday practices that were dedicated strictly for qualifying and we had these really elaborate qualifying setups that we would have to make one fast lap with weight distributed in different parts of the car and everyone was doing it. The schedules changed some and you had less that you could do from a one lap type situation and now even less than then with not even being able to tape up and things for qualifying. So, I think that has changed the qualifying aspect a little bit more than anything. Again, I think it comes back to getting your car driving like you want it to from a long run perspective, and when you put on four tires, you should be able to extract more pace from it.”
HOW DIFFERENT IS IT INTERNALLY FOR THE NO. 9 TEAM IN BEING ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN?
“Yeah, it’s certainly different from last year, but I think it has been in some ways enjoyable to find new challenges and kind of push yourself in different areas. It doesn’t really feel a ton different I guess than like a Playoff run, like in the final 10. In those situations like in years past….like last year when we had a good year, we had a lot of Playoff points going into the post-season and I am glad we did because that got us to Phoenix (Raceway). But in years that we didn’t, it was about that you had to show up every week and really get it in those last 10 if you wanted to advance, and that is really kind of how it feels now. I have always enjoyed those final 10 weeks just because of that. You show up to the race track every week and there was something on the line. There always is, don’t take me wrong. It is to me, it’s a little more fun knowing that it’s kind of ‘make or break’. You either get in, or you don’t. It’s up to us to go and try to achieve that. So, it feels very similar to a Playoff situation without having many Playoff points.”
HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS HAS BEEN GOOD AT POCONO RACEWAY FOR YEARS, BUT OBVIOUSLY THIS IS A NEW CAR. WITH YOU AND ALEX’S (BOWMAN) TEAMS BOTH ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN RIGHT NOW, IS THERE ANY PARTICULAR EMPHASIS ON POCONO THIS WEEKEND KNOWING THERE’S ONLY SIX MORE OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE TWO OF YOU TO GET INTO THE PLAYOFFS AT THIS POINT?
“No.. they all matter. They all pay the same amount of points to win or whatever. It matters.. they all matter.”
WHAT HAS YOUR CREW CHIEF TALKED TO YOU ABOUT, AS FAR AS THE SUCCESS THIS YEAR, BECAUSE YOU HAVE SEVEN TOP-10’S IN THIS SEASON ALONE AND WITH THE PLAYOFFS COMING UP SOON. WHAT IS YOUR CREW CHIEF TALKING TO YOU ABOUT TO TRY AND MOTIVATE YOU TO GET THAT SUCCESS THAT YOU’RE LOOKING FOR?
“We’re all motivated, and we’re always motivated. I’m hired to go and do a job, and my job is no different than any one person on our team, at the shop or wherever it may be. We all have an objective and an assignment, and we all want to deliver, no matter what your obligation is. The motivation is always there for that reason alone. I want to go do a good job. I want to do my part and make sure I’m holding up my end of the bargain. We’re not talking about motivating one another.. we’re talking about how we can be better at the upcoming track – what kind of balance trends we’ve had in years past; what kind of trends we’ve fought or had over the last few weeks; where have we made improvements; what have we not improved upon. So it’s really all performance-related in our conversations, honestly. He knows that when I show up to the race track, I’m going to give him my all. And I know when I show up to the race track, he’s going to give me his, and we’ve had that agreement since day one. I’ll never question that and he won’t either.”
WHERE WERE YOU AND HOW DID YOU FIND OUT ABOUT THE WIN AT POCONO RACEWAY LAST YEAR, AND WAS THERE ANY KIND OF CELEBRATION AT THE SHOP THAT WEEK?
“No, there was no celebration. I didn’t want to celebrate it, personally. That’s not how I want to win a race, personally. I don’t think anyone at Hendrick Motorsports or on the No. 9 team in particular wants to win that way. We all want to go win them out-right and make sure we feel like we earned it. We want to earn it every week.
So no, there was really no celebration. Heck, I was on the way home so when I landed, I had a couple text messages saying ‘hey, you won the race’. And I was like ‘we won the race.. no, we ran third’. Yeah, so that’s how I found out. It was just weird.. the whole deal was kind of odd. But it is what it is – it wasn’t anything I did, it just worked out, I guess.”
TALK ABOUT RUNNING THE XFINITY RACE HERE THIS WEEKEND. IS IT JUST TO GET SOME SEAT TIME? IS IT TO LEARN SOME THINGS FOR THE CUP SERIES RACE ON SUNDAY?
“Yeah, the opportunity – Jeff Andrews, Chad (Knaus), Alan (Gustafson) and that whole group at Hendrick Motorsports asked me if I was interested in doing it. I guess the schedule for the car has kind of changed a little bit with HMS entering a Xfinity car. They’ve predominately been doing road courses, and they’ve been tossing around the idea of maybe doing an oval or something here or there. So yeah, I threw my name in the hat and said – hey, if an opportunity comes up, I’d love to drive and this is one of the tracks that I would love to have some more time at. And just the way the schedule worked out and the timing of them getting the car built and things, it just landed here. I was super interested in doing it and would love to maybe do some more. I’m not sure – I don’t think anyone really knows what the schedule for this car is, internally or externally. So we’re just kind of going with the flow and making sure that whenever we do decide to go race, we do it the right way – everybody is prepared and we have the car built like we want to have it built and things inside of Hendrick Motorsports.
Just appreciate them letting me drive it and would love to have a good run this weekend for that reason alone. HENDRICKCARS.COM has been a part of my career for a long time. Obviously with my relationship there and obviously the number and the car is very special to Mr. Hendrick and Linda, so would love to put a good run together for them. And also for me, just try to help myself for Sunday.”
A LOT OF GUYS THAT ARE ON THE CUTLINE HAVE DIFFERENT STRATEGIES – PITTING AT DIFFERENT TIMES TO HOPEFULLY CATCH LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE. IS THAT SOMETHING THAT YOU’RE ALREADY CONSIDERING IN DOING OR IS THAT MORE DOWN THE STRETCH?
“I think that’s more down the stretch. A lot of those decisions are made based on how you’re running, really. If you’re out front and have the race under control, I think your call would be different than it would be if you were struggling. You look at like last weekend as an example – as bad as we were running, Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) is going to call a race differently versus how the No. 19 (Martin Truex Jr.) was running, right? Those guys had a nice lead and you can just call a race a little differently in that position versus needing to try to make something happen, or taking a chance even though you know it’s going to net out slower to maybe try and catch a caution or something. So I think all of those decisions are really made kind of on the spot and really based on how you’re running at the time.”
I KNOW YOU SAID EVERY TRACK IS IMPORTANT FOR THE NEXT SIX WEEKS, BUT IS THERE ONE THAT YOU FEEL STICKS OUT WHERE YOU HAVE THE BEST OPPORTUNITY TO GET A WIN AND LOCK YOURSELF INTO THE PLAYOFFS?
“I don’t think so. I’m sure everybody wants me to say a road course or something here or there, but no I don’t feel that way. Again, like I said, I want to have that opportunity every week. That’s where I want to be. That’s the position you need to be in to go and have a legitimate shot of winning the actual whole deal. You have one magic race track that gets you in the playoffs.. that’s not going to get you to Phoenix (Raceway). You’re not going to ride that one miracle all the way through. Yeah, we want to be good every week and we’re capable of being good every week. It’s not just that we want to, it’s that we’re capable of doing it. We need to go and make it happen. That’s where I want to get to and we’re going to keep working really hard to get there, and hopefully we can get in the show. And if we don’t, we’re going to continue to work really hard throughout the rest of the year – whether we get in or not – to try and win, improve and make ourselves better.”
THE ONLY TIME YOU’VE EVER BEEN TO POCONO RACEWAY IN A XFINITY CAR WAS 2018 AND YOU FINISHED SECOND IN THAT RACE. I KNOW IT WAS AWHILE AGO, BUT DO YOU REMEMBER ANYTHING AT ALL FROM THAT RACE THAT YOU CAN STILL APPLY FOR TOMORROW?
“I remember it now that you say that, but I totally forgot about that.. I kind of forgot that I’ve run one up here. Yeah, when I was running Xfinity full-time, we didn’t race here at that point the way the schedule was worked out.
Yeah, it’s been awhile. I remember the race, but I certainly don’t remember much about our car or all the little stuff. We’ll see today.”
THERE WAS A TIME WHERE WE SAW CUP DRIVERS NOT RACE AS MUCH IN THE OTHER SERIES BECAUSE THEY DIDN’T FEEL LIKE IT PAID A BENEFIT ON SUNDAY’S. BUT NOW THAT SHIFT IS CHANGING A LITTLE BIT, WE’RE SEEING MORE OF IT. IS IT MORE TOMORROW ABOUT ‘WIN OR BUST’, OR IS IT JUST EXPLORING OPPORTUNITIES TO SEE IF THERE IS NOW A DIFEFRENCE SINCE THE CARS ARE CHANGING AGAIN AND THERE IS A LITTLE BIT MORE OF A COMPATIBILITY?
“Well I haven’t driven one in a while, so I don’t know if it is compatible or not. From the outside looking in, I feel like there’s really more differences than there are similarities when you really dive into the fine details of it all. But I think there are a lot of positives from having a Xfinity car in-house for a number of reasons. Sure – from a driver’s standpoint, if you can pick up something that weekend, but also from a crew member’s standpoint. Finding and making sure that road crew guys are experienced and also used to the culture of whatever race shop that they’re working in. Hendrick Motorsports, for us – I think it can be a really useful tool for all of us to get our feet wet in a series that’s not Cup. And potentially better prepare new hires, guys that are going over the wall, or whatever it may be of being on the road and working in that environment. Building a car at the level that we want to build them at HMS on the Cup side. So I think there’s more benefit to it than just from a driver’s perspective. I think company-wide, it can benefit all of us.”
(NO MIC.)
“Yeah, I think the whole piece. Just getting different faces, sometimes fresh faces, all in the same room together, all at the same race track, in the same garage area with the same goal in mind – I think is very useful, I guess is what I was trying to say.”
I KNOW YOU SAID AFTER THE CHICAGO STREET RACE THAT SVG’S WIN MADE CUP DRIVERS LOOK BAD. NOW LOOKING FURTHER AHEAD TO THE INDIANAPOLIS ROAD COURSE, YOU HAVE TO RACE HIM AND BRODIE KOSTECKI. YOUR THOUGHTS ON THAT?
“Yeah, I didn’t know he was coming back, so that’s awesome. I hope all of those guys come and run more races because I think it’ll make us better at the end of the day. That’s super cool and I’m glad to hear that he got another opportunity. I mean the guy went and won the race – he deserves to race however much he wants. But I think that’s great and I’m looking forward to having him and looking forward to racing with him again. As I alluded to up in Chicago, I thought his drive was not only impressive, but very classy. You didn’t see him running over people. He didn’t run over people to go win the race. I thought he did it the right way and that is very admirable, and I think people like that deserve great opportunities. Looking forward to having him back and racing against both of those guys.”
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