NASCAR CUP SERIES
ROAD AMERICA
JOCKEY MADE IN AMERICA 250
PRESENTED BY KWIK TRIP
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
JULY 4, 2021
CHASE ELLIOTT CAPTURES HIS SECOND WIN OF 2021 AT ROAD AMERICA
ELKHART LAKE, Wis. (July 4, 2021) – Chase Elliott continues his road course success by taking his No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Camaro ZL1 1LE to victory lane in the NASCAR Cup Series’ return to Road America in the Jockey Made in America 250 Presented by Kwik Trip. The impressive run came after Elliott started deep in the field in the 34th starting position, charging through the field to lead a race-high 24 of 62 laps and 5.705-second margin of victory. The win was Elliott’s second victory in 2021 and his 13th triumph in 205 races in NASCAR’s premier series.
Elliott is no stranger to success on road course circuits. The victory at the 14-turn, 4.048-mile Wisconsin road course venue marks Elliott’s seventh career NASCAR Cup Series road course victory. The 25-year-old Georgia native is now ranked third on the NCS all-time road course wins list, behind NASCAR Hall of Famers Jeff Gordon (nine) and Tony Stewart (eight). The victory marks Chevrolet’s 10th NASCAR Cup Series victory thus far in 202; and its 805th all-time win in NASCAR’s premier series. This is Hendrick Motorsports’ 273rd NCS victory, the winningest team in NCS history.
Team Chevy drivers captured two of the top-five and four of the top-10 in the finishing order of the race. Kurt Busch drove his No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1 1LE to a fourth-place finish, scoring his fourth top-10 in the last five races. Busch’s teammate, Ross Chastain, had a strong seventh-place finish in his No. 42 AdventHealth Camaro ZL1 1LE to give the Chevrolet driver his third straight top-10 on a road course circuit. Tyler Reddick, No. 8 Kalahari Resorts and Conventions Camaro ZL1 1LE, took the checkered flag in eighth to round out the Team Chevy top-10.
Christopher Bell (Toyota) was second, Kyle Busch (Toyota) was third and Denny Hamlin (Toyota) rounded out the top-five of the final running order.
The NASCAR Cup Series season continues next weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway with the Quaker State 400 presented by Walmart on Sunday, July 11, at 3:30 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on NBCSN, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE, PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
THE MODERATOR: We’ve been now joined by our race winner here at Road America, Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports.
This is Chase Elliott’s seventh career NASCAR Cup Series road course victory. He is now ranked solely third on the NASCAR Cup Series for road course wins behind Hall-of-Famers Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart. Not bad company to be in. Tell us a little bit about Road America today, Chase.
CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, it’s super cool an honor to even be in at least like four lines below them much less a couple (smiling).
Just really, really proud of our team. Yeah, we really kind of struggled yesterday and never got into a good rhythm I didn’t feel like on my end. And I thought we could be a little better with the car. Made a lot of changes overnight. Kind of started the day. I thought that I liked it – I thought. But I just still wasn’t in a good rhythm. About halfway I felt like I started to kind of put things together, start minimizing some mistakes I’d been making all weekend, then started finding some pace.
So, yeah, after that it got fun. I was able to get a flow going, get in rhythm. Then from there we were able to get on — we kind of got caught up from our bad starting spot, got on the same strategy as the leaders. From there, we were able to go to work. Had things going good enough to keep up and get by those guys.
THE MODERATOR: We’ll now go to questions for Chase.
Q. Was there any kind of mindset reset that had to be done, especially after what happened in qualifying this morning?
CHASE ELLIOTT: No. I mean, it is what it is. Yes, it wasn’t good, but it’s not like you don’t have enough time if things are good.
Yes, it’s a bad starting spot, a lot of opportunity to tear something up, get in the back of somebody or something back there. That’s obviously not good.
At the same time if your car is good, we made the right adjustments, all those things, I feel like 60 however many laps the race was is plenty of time to work itself out. Fortunately, we did make the right changes and our car was good, we were able to move forward and have a shot.
Q. Why do you think you’ve been so effective on these road courses, so many different types of road courses as well?
CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, I honestly don’t know, man. I wish I did. If I did, I’d tell you – maybe (smiling). But I honestly don’t. I have no idea. I just feel like it’s good cars. Our team has a whole, I mean, has been good at road courses the whole time, too. Kyle won, where, at Sonoma, yeah. I feel like drivers are only as good as what they have to drive. Fortunately I feel like I’ve got the best stuff and just got to make it work.
Q. As the most popular driver, fan enthusiasm is nothing new for you. But you seem to have a kinship with Wisconsin fans?
CHASE ELLIOTT: I haven’t spent any time in Wisconsin, so I’m not sure why they were so loud. It was super cool. Man, they were fired up. The amount of peer pressure I felt to do a burnout was, like, wow. I don’t know that I’ve ever had that much peer pressure in my life to do a burnout. I knew it was going to happen. NASCAR was yelling at me to make sure I went around the whole track. I did a burnout in the frontstretch. I was out of tire. I knew they were going to blow out.
I got down there in the interview, literally that place was packed. All these people are chanting ‘burnout’ at me. I wasn’t going to say no. So I did. Blew the back tires off of it, then ran out of gas, had to have a push. It was just a timely deal.
Sorry for my tardiness. I will say, I mentioned this before, the road to that first win, the lessons learned along the way, one of them is you have to enjoy these moments. They’re way too hard to get. You don’t know if or when you’ll ever get another one. If the fans want a burnout, I’m going to give them a burnout. That’s what it’s going to be. We’ll take the extra time going down the road.
Q. Chad Knaus was in here talking about the passion the race fans have. Did you sense that during the course of this weekend? Did you see it today?
CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, walking around I saw a lot of 9 hats and T-shirts and stuff. Yeah, it’s super surprising. I ran two Xfinity races up here. I think I ran an ARCA race in Madison I think, somewhere up here one time. Outside that, I never really spent any time up here. So I don’t really feel like I’ve earned the right to have that kind of support in this region.
But it was amazing. I was super humbled by that. Just the people in general. Whether you’re wearing 9 gear or not, there were just a lot of people here. I was just struck by how big of race fans we have and had here today. This place was packed. This is a massive road course. They were literally, I mean, people everywhere around the course.
It’s exciting, man. When they change the schedule up, go to new places, you bring energy and excitement that our series deserves to have. I think we saw that today.
Q. Maybe you should stick around and run slinger, too.
CHASE ELLIOTT: I actually considered it, but it didn’t work out (smiling).
Q. Are you feeling a little more pressure under your own roof this year because Larson has been on fire, Bowman, light switch has gone on there as well. You guys are winning so much. For you to make a comment where you sound like Mark Martin in his 30th year, these races only come along every so… That’s probably your hardest competition.
CHASE ELLIOTT: No, I just genuinely know how hard it is to win. I want to enjoy ’em. That has nothing to do with our team. I think it’s great our company’s having success. It’s making all of us better. It’s pushing us to be better. And the men and women at HMS deserve to win. I feel like we have the best people, and most importantly Mr. Hendrick deserves to win for all these given to this sport and the people in it for many, many years. He deserves to win the most. I’m proud of that. Proud to be a part of it.
But, no, I think my comments just come from literally it’s hard to win. I learned that lesson firsthand in how many races I threw away on the way to that first win. It makes you appreciate it more. I mean, bottom line, it makes you appreciate wins more and being in this position.
When the day comes that I don’t appreciate it, I should probably go do something else.
Q. You mentioned earlier, Alan talked about Pocono, how damage kind of hurt your days at Pocono. That was his big concern about starting in the back. Did you have thoughts of is this going to be Pocono all over again?
CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, I was very aware. I was trying really hard not to knock the nose off of it, you know, or get hit, have body damage. Bodies are just so important now. Even at the road courses, you don’t want to suffer any damage if you can help it.
I did a poor job of that at Pocono. Right there on the first start of the Saturday race, got kind of sandwiched there on the start, hurt our car. Late in the race there on Sunday, I knocked the nose off of it again.
There’s a reason that we build them the way we build them. When you break it, it doesn’t work as good. There’s a reason for all that. I tried to do a better job today of not breaking it.
Q. The race was at Milwaukee, the other one you did.
CHASE ELLIOTT: I ran one there. I did go to Madison one time, but it’s been a while. I think it was an ARCA race. Forgot about Milwaukee (smiling).
Q. You should have had a win here years ago, right?
CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, I remember it. Shoulds don’t matter. Coulds don’t matter. You either do or you don’t. We didn’t. Today we did and that’s what matters right now.
THE MODERATOR: Congratulations again on another victory. We appreciate you spending some time with us.
CHASE ELLIOTT: Thank you.
ALAN GUSTAFSON, CREW CHIEF, NO. 9 NAPA AUTO PARTS CAMARO ZL1 1LE, PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
THE MODERATOR: We’re joined by our race-winning crew chief, Alan Gustafson.
We’ll open it up for questions for Alan.
Q. After what happened in qualifying, were there any concerns not about Chase coming from the back, but mentally the frustration over that?
ALAN GUSTAFSON: I wasn’t really concerned about him, no. Just there’s a lot of danger. It’s super easy to get caught up in somebody else’s mess. Obviously we had to pass pretty much everybody at some point in time, which isn’t what you ideally want to have to do.
I think the biggest concern was just not getting wrecked or getting damage. At Pocono, we had both of our races ruined with damage, the first race right off the get-go. That’s something that can really happen easy back in that position. That was really my biggest concern, is just surviving the first few laps. That was our focus, is to kind of let it string out. Then there was that quick caution. Yeah, after that I think he was okay.
Q. We’ve talked to you many times about Chase’s road course prowess. He’s now won on five different road courses. Can you talk about what that says about his adaptability, versatility?
ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think I’ve said this before, I think he’s a very intelligent race car driver. I think that’s what puts him in a really good position at road courses where there’s a lot to process and a lot that goes on. It takes him a bit of time to kind of get all that put together and figured out. When he does, it’s not just a feel, he knows what he’s doing. There’s a lot of thought and process behind what he does. It’s very repeatable.
Then throughout the day, I think he iterates and improves. He’s really a fantastic driver, period. Really great at the road courses. This is a really challenging track. It’s got that old school feel, which the gravel is right there, the runoff is small, the risk is high. You have to be really, really calculated.
It just speaks to how smart and methodical he is. He just improved through the day and took very little unnecessary risk coming from the back, like I mentioned, which was a big risk for us. Kept the car in one piece. We knew he had a good car. We didn’t know it was that good based on yesterday. We knew certainly we have a platform for the road courses, it runs really well. Had to take care of that. He did an amazing job with it, yeah.
Q. What was going through your mind when Bowman got into the back of the 5? If the caution comes out, then all bets were off.
ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, I don’t know. I mean, Alex is doing everything he can do. He did a great job. I don’t know exactly, but he was right there at fifth place. He was running really, really well. Did a great job all race. You certainly don’t want him — I’m super selfish. You’re like, Stop, don’t race. You know it’s his job, right? What do you do?
I’m sure he feels terrible that he got into the 5. Looked like he got deep wheel hopped or something. Then the 5 was just like, Get going. Fortunately Alex didn’t have a flat tire.
But those are tough circumstances. Hey, man, those guys do a great job. We’ve got great teammates. Guys that we genuinely like to race with. It happens. Not what any of us wanted to see. It’s not what he wanted to see or the 5 or us certainly. Fortunately for us, it didn’t impede our progress.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Alan.
ALAN GUSTAFSON: Appreciate it.
CHAD KNAUS, HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS’ VICE PRESIDENT OF COMPETITION, PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
THE MODERATOR: Chad, congratulations own another victory for Hendrick Motorsports.
CHAD KNAUS: Thank you.
THE MODERATOR: Another road course win by Chase Elliott. Tell us a little bit about what it’s like to watch Chase on a road course.
CHAD KNAUS: Well, from our seat it’s a lot of fun. Maybe from some others, not great.
Just phenomenal, the skill level that he’s got to be able to come to a racetrack like this that’s four miles long, to be able to go out there and run as competitive as what he did. I thought it was pretty impressive.
We really enjoy it. He’s a technical driver, very smart, very savvy. So he understands the ebb and flow of a race, the tire falloff. You couple that with a good pit crew and a great crew chief, you’re going to go out there and get some wins.
THE MODERATOR: We’ll take questions for Chad.
Q. Chad, Chase was not comfortable at all yesterday, really felt kind of out of sorts, couldn’t get a rhythm mentally or with the car. How did he get from that point yesterday after practice to running away at the end today?
CHAD KNAUS: Well, I think obviously they’ve got a great baseline package that they’re very comfortable with. Chase, as he goes to these racetracks, albeit the tracks are a little unique, he knows that the car has got a very familiar feel for him. The guys do a really good job of matching that and working on the car for Chase.
I think as he showed up here, maybe some of us uncomfortableness was mainly him just getting acclimated to the racetrack. Once he was able to get out there, make some more laps, had a night to digest what went on throughout the course of practice, he was able to analyze it, get out there and start to methodically pick things off.
Honestly, starting in the rear maybe wasn’t a bad thing. The pace was slower back there, probably was able to pick some people off, learn some critical turning points where guys were making mistakes and he was able to capitalize on those. As he started to really string together some good laps, it was evident pretty quickly that he was fast.
Q. I know Jeff Gordon obviously has a big role in Hendrick Motorsports. Is there anything that Chase Elliott possibly learned from Jeff to get better at road courses?
CHAD KNAUS: I would say definitely. Like I mentioned very earlier, Chase, he’s very technical. He studies, he watches film. He analyzes tapes, all of that. So absolutely. There’s no doubt that Jeff has contributed to his success in some shape or form.
Now, you have to remember Jeff has never really raced here either, so he didn’t really have much to fall back on from that standpoint.
Yeah, just from a mentorship, Jeff is a great resource for all of our drivers. All of our guys are really young and look for that type of leadership. Jeff definitely contributes in that manner.
Q. Obviously the points race between Kyle and Denny are very close for the regular season championship. Kyle talked about, Denny raced me really hard today. Denny said, Yeah, I did, because of what’s at stake. How much do you see that battle, how that’s evolved on the track, what that means?
CHAD KNAUS: Yeah, points are points, right? You want to get as many as you possibly can. You never know what’s going to happen once you get into the Playoffs.
You can definitely get yourself in a position to points through I think the first few rounds. Beyond that, you’ve got to be able to win.
You have to try to get as many as you can to try to get as much cushion to kind of protect you if something goes wrong.
Those guys are going to continue to battle for that. I don’t see it ending any time soon. I think we can all anticipate the Gibbs guys are going to run stronger and stronger. We know weren’t going to be on their heels for long. As they continue to run strong, hopefully everybody at Hendrick Motorsports does the same thing and we can keep everything in position where they go for a regular season championship.
Q. A situation where there was contact between two teammates, Alex went down to pit road to talk to Kyle. How important is that to get that resolved? Alex talked about the brake issues. Any other cars have brake issues today?
CHAD KNAUS: I’m sure you guys heard a lot of folks on the track had brake issues. It was getting hot. If you look at that series right there, there were five cars that were really racing hard – the 11, the 5, the 48 was in the mix catching those guys. As you’re approaching on those groups of cars like that, you starve your car for air. Your water temperature increases, your brake temperature increases.
He went in there pretty hot, obviously tried to get some position, to protect against the 11. It’s unfortunate that they rolled in there with a soft brake pedal and got into the 5. I don’t think there’s anything for us to be concerned about from a management standpoint at Hendrick Motorsports. There’s a tremendous amount of respect between our drivers, crew chiefs and teams. It was unfortunate. It was a racing situation.
But we’ll get home, talk about it, make sure there’s nothing ill willed that comes out of this.
Q. Beyond the fact that you guys won this thing, walk off with a big trophy, you’re happy. Overall first-time event, what’s your impression of how this weekend came up?
CHAD KNAUS: This weekend up here?
Q. Yes.
CHAD KNAUS: Could you have asked for anything better? Holy smokes, it was phenomenal.
I was able to take a little bit of time I guess yesterday during practice. I rolled around to the back straightaway, just tried to get a feel for the vibe. I hadn’t been here in 20-plus years. This venue is still just as exciting today for me as what it was when I came here 20 something years ago. It’s a beautiful facility. The fans are just awesome. There’s fans everywhere. They’re lined up and down the straightaways, along the fence, on the concrete stairs. It’s amazing.
I think it was an awesome show. The race was great. Obviously fantastic for us to be able to get the victory. But I think all in all, if you look at what happened, the support that we got from everybody up here in Wisconsin to be able to come up here on Independence Day, a day we all cherish and win, it was awesome. Great event. Couldn’t be happier.
Q. You’re a Midwestern native. As a Midwestern native, you know what race fans up here are like. Perhaps they’re sort of overlooked. NASCAR not having the Chicagoland stop, is it important to have a Midwestern presence for NASCAR?
CHAD KNAUS: Racing up here is such a huge deal, always has been. You can name hundreds of greats that came out of this area not only from the driver standpoint but from the mechanics, crew chiefs, all of that. Deep-rooted motorsports group up here.
I think it’s awesome any time you go into a venue you see memorabilia on the walls, photographs, hoods, the beer signs with “Dale Jr.” on them. All that stuff is everywhere, right? People really love motorsports up here.
It’s a lot of fun to come up here, man. It’s really good stuff.
Q. Given his unfortunate situation with qualifying this morning, was it kind of like all hands on deck to try to figure out how do we need to strategize? Alan said something like, Give him some time and he’ll be there. Things kind of have to fall your way. Clearly his advantage at the end was substantial.
CHAD KNAUS: You’re right. But there’s really nothing you can do other than make sure that the guys have what they need, let them go do their deal. There’s nothing that I can do to help Alan Gustafson call a better race. He’s way smarter than I am. He’s going to do a way better job than I ever could. His team is going to do a way better job of understanding the chassis adjustments.
The best thing you can do, there he is right there, is let these guys get in there and do their job. They did a fantastic job. They executed flawlessly. Great strategy. Yeah, they came home with the trophy.
Q. Chad, obviously you referenced Joe Gibbs Racing. Everybody at Hendrick is highly motivated. How does Joe Gibbs Racing push you guys?
CHAD KNAUS: We all understand the ebb and the flow of the way the performance circle is in motorsports. It’s our job right now to continue to try to execute at a high level, continue to try to find advantages with our race cars. But we know that the Gibbs guys and the Penske guys, everybody else in the industry, is doing the exact same thing.
We’ve got to stay on point. We can’t sit back. We may have had one car win today, but we had other cars that didn’t. We understand the importance of continuing to push. Everybody at Hendrick Motorsports right now is doing that. It’s a lot of fun to be a part of.
THE MODERATOR: Chad, thank you for joining us.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
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