NASCAR MEDIA CONFERENCE

July 10, 2022

Chase Elliott

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We've officially been joined by our race winner today for the Quaker State 400 at Atlanta presented by Wal-Mart, and we are now joined by Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports.

Before we go to questions, just your thoughts on winning at home, winning in NAPA's backyard. Obviously a lot of memories for you coming here with your dad, and I'm sure a lot of that went through your mind as you celebrated with the fans just before you went into Victory Lane. Just give us your thoughts on kind of the last 30 to 45 minutes here on this Sunday.

CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, just been a whirlwind. These are the moments you wish you could bottle up and kind of keep, and unfortunately it just doesn't work like that, moments that are really special and near and dear to your heart like winning at your home track, a place that I've spent a ton of time at as a kid racing on the quarter mile down here in Bandoleros and legends and a lot of trips between here and north Georgia up and down the road.

Just kind of -- when you're a kid and you're racing on the quarter mile over there you look at this big track and it's just out of reach, like not even real, just that your heroes are out there competing once or twice a year on this big track, and that's just not real.

To be here and to have a day like we had is really incredible, and certainly one I'm going to embrace and enjoy a lot.

Obviously be ready to go to Loudon here in a few days, but these wins are just too hard to come by, and especially when they're as special as this one. I've witnessed guys win at their home tracks and you can always tell it means a lot to them, but until you start competing somewhere at a sport's highest stage like this, I'm not sure you fully understand the meaning of it and what it could mean to you. So to be able to have this moment is really special and one I'm very grateful for.

Q. Seemed like a lot of respect between you and LaJoie, like you both kind of understood where the other was coming from. Did you anticipate that he was going to really send it on the last lap and try to do something kind of dramatic? And what was your approach of thinking, okay, how do I defend against that or what do I do here?

CHASE ELLIOTT: I mean, yeah, of course, I certainly expected that. That's what you're supposed to do, right? We're going for the win.

For me in my situation, I hate to throw a mega block like that. I had kind of shied away from that big block throughout the day. Had always kind of given in at different points to a guy when they had that big of a run.

But heck, running the last lap, if you let him go, one of two things can happen. Okay, you choose the lane you want to lose in and you hope that you have enough time to go and get him back. Or you throw a big block and hope you can stay in front of him. The problem is it could go one of two ways for you. Obviously you can crash throwing the big block or you can try to be patient and wait and then the crash happens behind you and you've given up the lead and the caution comes out and now the race is over.

I don't know how you know exactly what choice to make in that situation. I mean, a guy is coming with a massive run, am I taking the chance of crashing when I threw it up in front of him? Absolutely, but I just felt like -- I didn't think I was going to get another shot at him if he let him grab the lead right there in that situation.

I was able to defend the bottom side block and I felt more comfortable defending more aggressively up to the top. I thought that was a situation that I could win on. Fortunately it worked out. But those situations are impossible. They might go right for you some and they might not, and I don't really know how you know what's going to happen next to be able to make that choice.

Q. I saw you earlier before the race and the way you were interacting with everybody, you looked very confident, and Jeff said the same thing just a few minutes ago. Was it being here in Atlanta or what was it?

CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, I really don't know. We hadn't had a chance to be in the car all weekend, so I really didn't know how we would stack up. But yeah, just excited to be close to home and excited for another opportunity here. It's always really cool. Up until today we had never really had a great run here. We had been really solid I think one time in 2017 and outside of that it's been pretty mediocre. I was just excited for another opportunity and felt like we were in a good place as a team and as a group to go out there and execute a good day and fired off and our car was really, really good. Yeah, things went our way and was able to sweep the weekend.

Q. Talk about you said in Victory Lane, you said, this was the best car I've ever had at a superspeedway. What was different about this car and what did it give you that you needed?

CHASE ELLIOTT: I really don't know what was different about it. Alan and I were joking, he's like, I don't know what we did to that thing, but it was obviously really good. Whatever fine tuning that went on throughout the week obviously made the difference for us.

Yeah, it was just really solid. We've had a couple cars at speedways that have been that good. I can remember having one or two like that at Daytona that I thought we had the superior car that day, and I think I crashed both of them. That's typically what happens.

When I realized our car was that good, I was like, oh, boy, you know, and then especially when our first two stages go good. Typically when we have two good stages, we are wadded up in the fence for the last one.

Yeah, I was just kind of waiting on something bad to go wrong.

Yeah, fortunately it worked out for us today, and we were able to get it done.

Q. You're the second father-son duo to win at the Atlanta course. Dale Earnhardt and Dale Jr. What does that mean to you to be in the record books along with your dad here at your home track?

CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, look, those type things are more than special. I'm not sure that my dreams really grasped something like that when I was a kid and I wanted to be here. I wanted to be here and I wanted to make it and I wanted to be successful, but I'm not sure I got far enough into it to start thinking about joining Dad on lists like sharing a championship and sharing wins at our home track. Those type things are -- yeah, they're something that -- me sitting here telling you it's special I think it probably doing it a disservice. It's something to be very proud of and something I'm very proud of, and I think he is, too.

Q. I know you talked about it being surreal. It seems like the theme has been this whole family affair. How important was it to have your family around you as you grew as a racer? And at what point did you begin to think as a child, hey, how cool would it be for me to win here on this track and could I do it?

CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, when you're racing out here on the quarter mile you want to make it. You want to race on the big track. That was obviously the goal. That's I think what's always in the back of your mind. A lot of stuff has to go your way to get here and to have an opportunity.

Yeah, I think for me, I felt like we were capable of winning here. I think we've been capable here in the past. One thing led to another and didn't go our way, but the way this place is now, it really is a speedway race. I think everybody in this room has watched enough speedway races to know that it can pretty much go anybody's direction, so we were just the fortunate ones to have it swing our way today.

Q. I wanted to ask about once you got back in traffic, the cars seemed like they really handled poorly. A lot of people complained about it. I know horsepower and aerodynamics are important, but how much was handling coming into play as far as you being able to make moves like the three wide one at the end or the couple of other times you retook the lead?

CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, I felt like our car had a good balance of pace and drivability, and that's always something you want to marry together at these things. It's always a bit of a guess: Track conditions, how hot it is that day, track position, where you are on track, how fresh the air is that's hitting your car. All those things are factored into it, and it's a bit of a guess. Nobody has a magic ball when they're putting these cars together to know, hey, it's going to be 85 degrees and sunny on Sunday afternoon, we're going to build our car this way and we're going to be successful because of it. It just doesn't work that way.

The way that our car was configured suited the conditions today. The temperature, the sun being on the track for the majority of the event and had a nice balance from being out front and having enough pace to pull a line but also being able to drive well enough back in traffic to make moves and open up opportunities and stay on offense.

Q. Chase, we know that you're a Georgia boy through and through. Seeing the crowd reaction every time you took a lead, they were just up on their feet cheering on. The last lap under caution you see the fans -- I don't know if you noticed them up on their feet cheering you and then when you got the checkered flag and you saw the reaction of the crowd, tell me about that.

CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, I think for me, I'm just proud to be from here, proud to still live here, and I'm grateful that the fans of this state have always kind of kept me a part of the family really. At the end of the day I'm just a fan, too, as it pertains to Atlanta and Georgia.

I have always felt like they've kind of welcomed me as one of theirs and our team, too. It's a special thing, and to be able to share that moment, I saw a lot of people before the race wearing our hat and our shirts and stuff, and you always want to make those people proud, but when you have it go our way like it did today, that was pretty cool.

They were making a lot of noise there after the race, which it's kind of hard for me to see what's going on there during the race, but certainly after they weren't shy, and I loved it.

Q. One of the great advantages I think of the Atlanta race is that the Pool Room gets its fair bit of coverage. Today I noticed that every time they cut back to the correspondent up in the Pool Room as the race got more dramatic and you were still up front, they got more excited and intense as the race went along. What does it mean to have to have that strong of a devoted fan base, not only in Dawsonville with its rich history but the breadth of the fan base itself?

CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, I think, look, the tradition there at the Pool Room and the siren and all that stuff I think is really cool. Anytime you can carry on a tradition that your father had going on from his hometown and for them to still do that for me I think is really neat.

I didn't realize they were taking a crew up there until earlier today, so that's pretty cool. Obviously great timing. I don't know who decided that. But that worked out good.

The Pirkle family are just good people and huge race fans and genuinely enjoy seeing us have success on the weekends wherever we go ultimately. Happy to share a home town with them and happy that they have always included me in the excitement of what they enjoy.

Q. Chase, just again talk about that emotion. No matter where you go when you win you're going to have the biggest crowd, but this was the home crowd. When you got out, was there any different emotion getting out of that car and embracing the home fans?

CHASE ELLIOTT: Yeah, for sure, just I mean, I felt like there before the race there was definitely a larger quantity of the right hats and tee shirts than there typically are. I just think that's so cool. Like I know that our sport is a little different. It's not like we have home games and away games. There's 35 guys to pick from, and if you choose us, great, and if you don't, that's fine with me, too. Just make some kind of noise; it just means you care.

But to see that many people up there and cheering and wearing the 9 hats and seeing the NAPA gear, you want to make those people proud. For me, I just -- like I alluded to a second ago, I'm just grateful that the fans of this state have included me in part of the family of Georgia sports and kind of accepted our team as that, and I'm proud of that and glad we could do them good today.