NASCAR CUP SERIES
POCONO ORGANICS CBD 325
POCONO RACEWAY
TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
JUNE 26, 2021
ALEX BOWMAN CAPTURES THE WIN AT POCONO RACEWAY
Team Chevy Scores Sixth Consecutive NCS Win
LONG POND, Pa. (June 26, 2021) – In a last lap, last corner pass in his No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1 1LE, Alex Bowman scored his third victory of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) season in the Pocono Organics CBD 325 to kick off the NCS doubleheader race weekend at Pocono Raceway. The victory is the Hendrick Motorsports driver’s first victory at the 2.5-mile track known as the ‘Tricky Triangle’ and his fifth-career victory in 207 starts in NASCAR’s Premier Series.
The 28-year-old Phoenix native’s win marks the Camaro ZL1 1LE’s ninth trip to NCS victory lane thus far this season and the Bowtie Brand’s 804th all-time win in NCS history. The feat gives Hendrick Motorsports its sixth-consecutive victory, tying the organization’s Modern Era (1972-Present) record for most consecutive wins, last achieved in 2007. The string of victories started with Bowman after he captured the victory at Dover International Speedway on May 16, 2021.
Bowman’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate, William Byron, took the checkered flag in the third position in his No. 24 Axalta Color of the Year Camaro ZL1 1LE to give the Chevrolet driver his eighth top-five this season. Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1 1LE, was the Stage Two winner and drove his way to a strong sixth-place finish. Kyle Larson, No. 5 HendrickCars.com Camaro ZL1 1LE, salvaged a ninth-place finish after a flat tire misfortunate while in the lead on the final lap, giving Team Chevy four of the top-10 finishers in the final running order.
Kyle Busch (Toyota) was second, Denny Hamlin (Toyota) was fourth and Ryan Blaney (Ford) rounded out the top-five of the 130-lap event.
The NASCAR Cup Series doubleheader race weekend at Pocono Raceway continues with the Explore the Pocono Mountains 350 tomorrow, June 27, at 3:30 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on NBCSN, the NBCSports Gold App, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 1LE – PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
THE MODERATOR: We are now with our race winning driver, Alex Bowman.
We’ll go right to questions.
Q. Alex, when the 5 passed you with four laps to go, where on the track were you beating him and where was he beating you?
ALEX BOWMAN: I thought I could do an okay job of taking his air through two and three. But I was plowing tight through turn one. We were on two tires there. I was free most of the day. We had tightened the car up, then put two tires on. I just burned the front tires off of it trying to stay in front of him.
Yeah, I mean, I was okay for a bit, then the fronts fell off a lot. Grille screen folded in. I don’t know if that kind of played a hand in it as well. As soon as he got beside me, I knew with clean air he was going to be able to drive away from us pretty big.
Just tried to do all I could to keep him behind us as long as I could.
Q. You’ve won basically all three of these races on late-race situations, specifically here and Richmond. Is there anything that you feel like you’re doing late in those moments or that you’re learning how to manage those situations that’s gotten you these wins?
ALEX BOWMAN: I wish there was something that I was like, Yeah, I’m doing this. I think it’s all pretty situational. We were really strong on that short run to end Richmond. Here I just got a hell of a push from the 12 to be able to clear the 18. Hendrick horsepower doesn’t hurt by any means.
Obviously got pretty lucky there with Kyle’s misfortune. I mean, I feel like we’ve always been a team that ends the day better than we started the day. We’ve never been that like win stages type of team, but we’ve won our share of races here lately.
Yeah, I don’t know exactly what it is, but glad it’s working out lately.
Q. How did you adjust to what Kyle was doing to hold you off, especially his bumper tapping you a little bit?
ALEX BOWMAN: Yeah, the Cup cars are super aero-dependent. If you don’t have a car in front of you, your car makes way more downforce than if you have a car right in front of you. Tried to take as much air away from him as I possibly could. A lot of time in the mirror trying to see where he’s running, trying to run similar lines as him to take the air away, keep him behind us. It honestly worked a lot longer than I thought it was going to. Didn’t work all the way to the end. Just got lucky that last lap.
Q. You were apologizing on the radio during that last lap. Have you ever gone from that kind of disappointed, that down, to that high in half a lap?
ALEX BOWMAN: Yeah, it was like a hundred feet. I keyed up. I’m like, I’m sorry. He’s blown a tire (laughter).
I don’t really know what to think. This is the strangest win I’ve ever been a part of. I thought I was running second, which was still going to be a good day for us with how we struggled throughout the course of the day. Then he blows a tire, we win; can’t do a burnout because I have to race the car tomorrow. I typically stand on the roof of the car; can’t do that because I got to race the car tomorrow. I typically drink all the beers; can’t do all that because I got to race a car tomorrow (laughter).
I have to be way more responsible than I really want to be right now. It’s definitely been a unique win. But, yeah, I’ve never been in a situation like that. I was literally keyed up, apologizing for burning the front tires off the thing. Saw his crush panel fly out, him have a flat.
Yeah, I can’t believe it.
Q. Did you see whether he cut something?
ALEX BOWMAN: I don’t know. I don’t know if he ran something over or what the situation was. I saw sparks, tire come apart, crush panel exit the race car because the tire came apart. Kind of normal flat tire situation.
Q. What has been the key to this Hendrick run? Three drivers winning all these races. What is it like around the shop to be part of this winning streak?
ALEX BOWMAN: Yeah, the morale is obviously super high at Hendrick Motorsports. It’s really cool to see it that way.
I think there’s not one thing. It’s each and every individual at Hendrick Motorsports from top to bottom in every department, it’s everybody at Chevrolet. Our engines are strong, bodies are great, chassis are great. The guys putting them together are doing a great job. Having Chad in a new role is really good. Mr. H and Jeff and everybody are giving us all the tools we need to put the parts and pieces together to go win races.
Yeah, it’s not one thing. It’s a culmination of everybody’s hard work. It’s cool to be a part of it and be the guy that gets to drive ’em.
Q. Over the course of your career you’ve had at times lamented your bad luck.
ALEX BOWMAN: I don’t know what to say about today (laughter).
Q. Just in general this season, how does it feel to be on the other side? You probably have seen other drivers when they say, You can do anything, just falls into wins. To have that feeling of coming out on the other side and enjoying it the opposite way, how does it feel?
ALEX BOWMAN: Yeah, it feels pretty freaking good. I don’t really know what to think. Richmond, when that caution came out, I was kind of bummed. Thought we were going to struggle on the short run like we had been most of that day. Then we came away with a win.
Here I’m apologizing to my guys, we come out with a win. Yeah, I don’t know. It’s pretty interesting to be on the other side of it. I’ll take it. I’ve had my fair share of bad luck over the course of my career. Hence the whole “Bad Luck Bowman” thing.
Maybe that’s all behind me and it was just in preparation for this great luck that we have right now. Yeah, I’ll take it.
Q. You alluded to it out there, how cool it was to see these fans back again? While your celebration has to be muted because of another race, you enjoyed that moment. Could you feel the excitement, the people embracing this win?
ALEX BOWMAN: Yeah, it’s really neat. I think Pennsylvania race fans in general are some of the best in the world. Whether it’s sprint car racing or Cup racing or whatever the situation is, PA fans are pretty dang awesome.
To see a packed grandstands, packed infield. I went through a run through the infield today, aside from everybody yelling “William Byron” at me, because they had us mixed up. Pretty normal for Pocono. I don’t know why Pocono people think I’m William. I guess I’m a little insulted because I feel like I’m way better looking than him.
PA fans are pretty awesome and it’s cool to see a packed house.
Q. Quite a duel here today. You held Kyle off for a long time. We saw that at Richmond. Greg talked about confidence. In dealing with you at times, confidence is up and down, it can be. What does it mean to have these types of performances at end of races? Until the tire blew, it didn’t work out. What does it mean for you from that standpoint?
ALEX BOWMAN: It’s pretty fair to say. It’s pretty hard to be confident coming running off of 15th to 20th at Nashville, right?
I think the guys have done a really good job of giving me fast race cars all year. Really, when you look at how we’re running as an organization, it’s hard to not be confident going to the racetrack. These couple races that we’ve won on late-race restarts, holding off some really fast race cars, it definitely gives me confidence. Getting the lead from a guy like Kyle Busch on a late restart is not easy to do. Definitely gives me confidence going forward.
Q. Obviously the announcement about Jeff Gordon, the role. He’s played an important role with the organization previously. Greg noted Jeff spent some time with him this week, helped him out. Don’t know how much you’ve consulted with Jeff, but any time recently any conversations with him?
ALEX BOWMAN: Yeah, I don’t remember if it was the beginning of last year. I guess it was probably there were some really impactful conversations from me midway through last year, kind of through our summer struggles a little bit. Then early in ’19, as well.
Jeff is super helpful. He gets it from an organizational side, he gets it from a race car driver side. That’s been really cool. I don’t think I talked to him at all this week aside from I think he was at the meeting. Lots gone on this week, I can’t remember.
I got to fly home from Raceway Park in Indianapolis I guess two weeks ago with him now. That was really cool, to fly home with him and his parents, share old open-wheel racing stories. It’s been kind of cool to build that relationship with Jeff.
When I first started driving the 88 and kind of sharing it with him, I didn’t really know Jeff. That probably out of everybody at Hendrick Motorsports, just with him having to wear so many different hats, having so much going on, like that relationship probably took the longest to build. But it’s really cool to get to lean on somebody with so much knowledge in so many different areas and have his help and advice.
Q. Obviously you ended up with a victory today. What do you feel about tomorrow? What do you have to do if Larson is as fast as he was today?
ALEX BOWMAN: We got to turn a little better at the end of the race. I think that was our biggest problem there, was just being a little tight off.
Yeah, starting 20th is going to be super difficult here. We’ll have a good pit stall, so that will be good. But we know we’re going to have a fast Ally Camaro. We know we’re going to have good pit stops, good strategy. I think Greg’s strategy was pretty on point today. I’m excited for it. I’m excited to go try to beat that 5 car again.
Q. Do you feel going into tomorrow’s race, the confidence that you have right now, do you believe wear and tear and fatigue is going to play a huge factor tomorrow?
ALEX BOWMAN: Somewhat. I feel like these Cup cars have come a long way. If you try to do a doubleheader 20 years ago, nobody’s stuff would have made it, right? Everybody seemed pretty successful with it last year. I put my guys in some terrible situations with it. I’m not sure there wasn’t a doubleheader that we didn’t go to a backup last year. Happy this is a little better situation for them. There’s not much damage on that thing to repair and start over with.
I mean, I think in what we do, if it was a hundred degrees here today, driver fatigue and pit crew fatigue might be a little different. But it was a nice day, not too hot, a little bit of a shorter race. I think everything will kind of be business as usual tomorrow.
Q. Did you feel like you learned enough about your car in traffic? What kind of adjustments do you feel you’re going to need to make for traffic?
ALEX BOWMAN: We ran like 12th all day. I feel like we were in traffic almost all day. Kind of took to the end for me to be able to kind of really drive the car how it is in clean air.
It’s a huge difference in how the race car drives. Yeah, I’ve got a pretty good idea of what it’s going to do in traffic. I experienced it all day. It’s only going to be tougher tomorrow.
Q. If you’re in the same position tomorrow on the final restart, do you pick the front row? Were you surprised that Larson didn’t pick the front row to get a push from you?
ALEX BOWMAN: I was really surprised he didn’t pick the front row. I was just surprised somebody didn’t, right? We were fourth. Somebody could have restarted second, and instead they restarted fourth and sixth. I was pretty surprised nobody took the bottom.
But, hell, I’ll take it. Thanks to Blaney for the push. He pushed me all the way to the center of one, never tried to get out of line, never tried to do anything, ultimately got us out front. Big thank you to him. Much appreciated.
But, yeah, I was pretty surprised. Obviously, I would do it over the same way I did.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Alex. Congratulations. Good luck tomorrow.
ALEX BOWMAN: Thanks, guys.
GREG IVES, CREW CHIEF, NO. 48 ALLY CAMARO ZL1 LE and JEFF ANDREWS, GENERAL MANAGER, HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS – PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
THE MODERATOR: We are joined by the winning crew chief for today’s race, Greg Ives.
Greg, wild one, wild finishes, restarts. Take us through your vantage from atop the box.
GREG IVES: Starting out the race, we definitely thought we had a good car. A little free taking off. Alex was pretty happy with it. We talked about the restarts and how difficult they were going to be making the right decision rather than the decision in the moment because that decision kind of hurts you two corners later.
We struggled with that. I think there was a little learning period for not only Alex but myself on how deep I can get him with pit strategy, how deep I can get him by just pitting. Obviously, the pit crew kind of understanding clean stops, even one or two spots is going to be so majorly important to getting the restarts.
At the end there, had a strategy in mind. You never know how it’s going to play out. Plans never always work. But our plan there was to minimize our stop and get enough fuel to make it to the end. We did that with two right-side tires. About 12 gallons is what we needed, maybe a little less with cautions there.
I think we were lined up fourth on that restart coming to the choose cone. He elected to take the bottom or third. I can’t even remember. It’s already pretty blurry for me. Yeah, he elected to take the bottom. That ultimately was the winning move, having Ryan Blaney behind us, getting that push, clearing Kyle Busch off of turn one.
It’s definitely an eventful day. We started free, ended a little tight on two tires. Honestly I probably didn’t need to touch the car. Looking back now, Sunday quarterbacking it, Saturday, sorry. In the end, yeah, lost the lead there to Kyle with three or four to go. Unfortunate for them to have that issue. They’ve been fast all year. We want to do it in the right manner. We raced clean, we raced hard. We have a lot of respect for them. Never gave up. Didn’t allow the 18 to get to us and pass us. Ultimately won the race.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for Greg.
Q. Looking at Larson’s issue, what were you seeing with tire wear throughout the day? One would assume he was pushing hard to get by. Were you able to see any tire wear that may have made that make sense to you?
GREG IVES: Ultimately that was pretty surprising. From the tire standpoint, Goodyear had I think a pretty good handle on the tire. We didn’t see any cracks, didn’t see any chips popping out, any possible wear issues that would expose a potential failure.
But it’s all about circumstances. I think they pitted under green there, took four tires. Typically we were under some type of caution to be able to build air pressure up. Ultimately that left front didn’t hold on. I don’t think it’s any fault of the team’s, Goodyear or whatnot. I think it’s just sometimes circumstances.
THE MODERATOR: We are also joined by the general manager of Hendrick Motorsports, Jeff Andrews.
This is Hendrick’s sixth straight points win, seventh if you include the All-Star Race. Congratulations.
We’ll continue with questions.
Q. What did you tell Alex when Kyle was really pushing him hard? What did you tell him to try to kind of hold Kyle off?
GREG IVES: Yeah, I mean ultimately, I was giving him little pointers through SMP on his driving style probably earlier in the race. It’s kind of hard to know. It’s kind of hard in the moment when you’re really focused on holding off Kyle to give him the pointers then.
I give credit to Kevin Hamlin, our spotter. Allowing Alex to feel comfortable with what he was doing, maybe not trying to — Kyle was really good through turn one, was able to close up and get a run. Kevin did a good job of maybe having Alex move down half a lane, take a little bit of air away from Kyle, and eventually get maybe a little tight off, hurt that run. Maybe Kyle slowed up a little bit, saved his tires. He definitely attacked us and got by us.
Mainly in those times you try to stay silent, you try to allow the spotter to have the radio, allow him to keep the driver focused. Through the tunnel turn, I can’t remember exactly when, Alex was kind of apologizing for getting a little too tight at the end, maybe burning the fronts off.
I came on Channel 2 to tell Kevin, The 5 is having an issue. Kevin definitely relayed that to him. It was very important to stay in the game and hold off the 18.
Like I said, unfortunate for the 5 team to have their issue. I’m happy that we were able to capitalize, but I know we got some work to beat them tomorrow.
Q. Do you know if Kyle cut the tire or being something as far as wear?
JEFF ANDREWS: We haven’t seen anything yet. We’re getting the left front off the car to get it to Goodyear. Certainly saw nothing of concern throughout the race that led us to wear-related type of failure. We’ll get it to Goodyear and take look at it and see.
Q. Is there any kind of feeling of vindication, a lot of chatter in the garage, They made Hendrick do this or that after Nashville to the cars? I know that is not rare when a team is on a streak, that there’s some chatter. Do you feel any sort of vindication of whatever we did or didn’t have to do, we’re still fast?
JEFF ANDREWS: I don’t know about vindication, if we feel vindication. Obviously, we’ve been a race team before that’s been in this position. We’ve been chasing several organizations before ourselves.
We certainly understand what it feels like. Hey, there was some great race cars out there today. I think you definitely saw gains in the JGR cars this week. We’ll keep pushing.
NASCAR and Jay Fabian, they do a great job of regulating this sport and keeping this sport in line. Any time they talk to you or want you to address something on your race cars, we go back and address that.
Q. Greg, all of Alex’s wins this season have come late in the race, taking advantage of circumstances. In a season where some of your top competitors are also your teammates, you kind of touched on this a minute ago, how important is it to remain focused that you might always be in the game regardless of the circumstances?
GREG IVES: Yeah, you know, somewhat of the metrics kind of get us in that position, we’re 11th or 12 in points, kind of hover around that 10th or 12th place starting position. Trying not to make excuses for it because we definitely need to do better with our cars.
I feel like that gets us a tick behind. We just got to continue to march forward. I pride ourselves on being a team that never really gives up, whether it’s pit road strategy, in the race car, on restarts. That’s what it takes. That’s when you’re the most vulnerable I guess, when the chips are down a little bit. You got to stay after it. You got to stay motivated and focused.
Coming off of Nashville, it was a struggle for us. Rather upset about our performance there. Somebody told me this week, You just got to continue to build comfort in knowing that we have a solid team and that we’re capable of coming back from anything.
Definitely saw that today with maybe some varying strategies, knowing that the vision at the end of the race was to put us up front or towards the front. We were able to accomplish that. Alex was able to make a decision on that choose cone it’s either win or we’re going back to 10th. If he didn’t clear ’em, it was going to be a really sad day.
Ultimately just keep marching forward. Number one thing I say is focus forward. If you look back at even this win, if we look back and cherish this win too long, tomorrow’s going to be a little early wake-up call that we got to get after it starting 20th.
Q. Greg, I know right there on the last lap Alex was on the radio apologizing before the race is over. Do you have to talk to him about that, saying anything about that, or is that more about good natured ribbing?
GREG IVES: Yeah, I mean, I love the fact that somebody can come on the radio and tell us what they’re feeling. In that moment, as any person would be, when you’re leading the race, towards the end of it, you put it on your shoulders.
Our team is looking at him to make it happen. Ultimately there’s probably some circumstances that could have led to a better race car on my side. That’s what I stay focused on.
But as far as Alex goes, I want him to wear his emotions on his sleeve sometimes. If he was sorry coming off of the tunnel turn that he didn’t make adjustments in the car to hold off Kyle, then that’s fine. But we have to definitely learn from it because we could be in that situation tomorrow. Come down to five to go, I hope he’s thinking and understanding what he needs to adjust to not only hold off Kyle but another faster car maybe with better tires, maybe even handling a little bit better.
We’ll definitely talk about it. Not so much about the emotion, but about the learning we need to do to continue to be better, especially in closing laps, holding onto the lead, getting that ultimate win.
Q. We saw the drive at the end of this race, holding off Kyle. We saw it at Richmond. What are things you’re seeing out of him late-race situations, what is he learning, what are you learning, that could be helpful later in the season?
GREG IVES: Ultimately, I feel like confidence. Anybody in here, when they have confidence in those situations, are going to perform at a higher level.
I think he’s coming into his own. I feel like his two wins at probably not our best racetracks, Dover I would say we run pretty well there, but it gives him a lot of confidence to say, Hey, give me the reins because I’m going to take care of this right here.
You don’t do that in the last 15 laps. You do that how you work, how you prepare, how you get ready for each and every race. Ultimately after this race, they were spraying champagne. He’s like, I got to hydrate and get ready for tomorrow. In the end that’s the mentality you have to have to stay on top. To be able to make the right decisions in those tough circumstances. He was able to make it.
You’re never sure how it’s going to work out. If you don’t give yourself the chance to win, you’re never going to.
Q. Jeff, will there be much difference with Jeff Gordon in his new role starting next year?
JEFF ANDREWS: I’m not certain about a difference, but any time certainly that you bring someone of that caliber further up in your organization, we’re really, really excited to have Jeff in that role. We look forward to his contributions to our company. I think we’ve already seen a lot of things he’s been involved in, behind the scenes, when he wasn’t working in his television job there.
For him to come to us now in that full-time role, he’s planning on being here tomorrow with us, to have watched him, to have been fortunate enough to have been with him through his career at Hendrick Motorsports, transitioning to a driver, getting more involved in ownership and leadership role now, it’s been an honor. I think all of us at Hendrick, from the drivers, crew chiefs, all the employees are super excited about what that means to our future.
GREG IVES: I can add on to that. Like I said, the 48 car had a tough Nashville, right? The greatest thing was Jeff gave me time to talk. He’s been through a lot of situations that involved winning, then involved tough days, right?
He was able to give me 20 minutes of his time, give me advice. Not only advice, but also how to maybe look at some different situations in the future because he’s experienced it.
I think it’s a huge impact for Hendrick Motorsports to have that guy that has accomplished so much, but also has had a long career. In a long career, you don’t always have — every day is not a success. You got to work through struggles. Those struggles make you better.
THE MODERATOR: Greg, Jeff, thank you for your time. Congratulations on this win.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
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