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NASCAR CUP SERIES: COKE ZERO SUGAR 400August 29, 2020Chad KnausDaytona Beach, Florida THE MODERATOR: Chad, thank you for joining us. We are joined by the crew chief of the winning No.24 Hendrick Motorsports team. Walk through what it feels like to be with William to get that first win and the Playoff berth. CHAD KNAUS: The emotions obviously have run rampant over the last few weeks with the position we've been in. It's been unfortunate the 24 has been back this far, needing to battle so hard for the Playoff spot. Coming into the weekend we were optimistic. We felt like we were going to have a good race car. Felt like the car was going to perform well. We knew William was really good at superspeedway racing. He's done exceptionally well at the restrictor plate tracks, been able to get a lot of stage points. Going into today we really didn't know what was going to happen, obviously. There was a lot of excitement and energy coming into the track this weekend. To be able to get out there and race competitively all race long, William doing a really good job of missing some critical crashes out there, put us in a good spot to get the victory, for Liberty and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports. It was a long time coming. Obviously the goal for me was to try to get to Victory Lane with this 24 car again. To be able to do it here in Daytona is really special. THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for Chad. Q. You've been part of a lot of big moments, big‑time performances. How big is this in the sense of Byron with all the pressure on winning? CHAD KNAUS: I think it's really big obviously. The one thing to be selfish from my standpoint is I wanted to get to Victory Lane with a car number as a crew chief without Jimmie Johnson on top of the door. Nothing against Jimmie or any of that, but just to do it, to see if I could accomplish it. We've come close, had some really solid runs with the 24 car. Not as many this year as we would have liked to have had. To do it really means a lot, to be able to bring this team into the Playoffs again. Last year in the Playoffs we performed really well. I'm really excited about the Playoffs this year. I think we have some racetracks at that we'll run competitive. We'll see what goes. Q. What were your thoughts on the first red flag? CHAD KNAUS: Obviously we were curious of what was going to happen. We knew there's a long ways to go before the race was over with. Laps here at Daytona just take forever. There's so many opportunities for guys to be aggressive, push. We knew there was going to be a lot more action before the race was over with. We needed to get ourselves in a position to get out there and battle with it. William held true and did a really good job of keeping focused, keeping his eyes forward, watching the guys behind him. Tab, our spotter, did a good job of keeping him informed of what was happening around us. We were in a real good position after skirting that crash. Q. How do you move forward and try to make sure this team advances? CHAD KNAUS: It's all in the details, right? We have to make sure that we execute properly. Going to Darlington, a great racetrack for us. We've run well there. Sat on the pole there last year, ran up front. Ran up front in the first race in the spring this year. Unfortunately we had a loose wheel and crashed. Second race we ran reasonable. But we didn't execute the details as well as what we needed to. Getting back to Charlotte, getting back to work on Monday, executing the way we need to to make sure we take a race car over there, I think we have a competitive opportunity to go there and run up towards the front. That's what we need to do. I'm not sure where we start. I'm sure somebody could tell me what our starting position is. That's going to be critical with pit selection. If we can be up towards the front, get our legs out from underneath us, get going, we're going to be okay. Q. You mentioned the Jimmie aspect of this, trying to win without him. How do you handle the emotions of this win, having a role in excluding Jimmie from the Playoffs in his final season? CHAD KNAUS: Man, c'mon. I feel awful. Let's be quite honest, right? Jimmie shouldn't be in this position. If it hadn't been for COVID, him missing a race, he should have been solid in the Playoffs. That hurts. I hate it for Jimmie. He's one of my best friends. He was the first guy that came by pit road and looked up at me, revved up the engine, gave me a thumbs up. He means the world to me. He's a great man and brother of mine. It hurts me, but it is what we do, we compete. We've got to go do what we need to do. Q. The red flag, you seemed to be going back and forth on pitting, tire rub or not. Seemed like there was some indecision. Walk me through that. CHAD KNAUS: Oh, man, it was tough. It was tough. Obviously we knew we had some damage on the left rear tire, at least some contact. The lettering was rubbed off the sidewall of the tire. There was some contact there. We didn't really know how bad it was. It was a tough spot, right? We knew we were ahead of the 48 at that point. We should have been obviously, we would have been, if we came down pit road. There was the opportunity for the 95 or the 17 up there to maybe push through and get the win, which would have then bumped us out. We had to make a decision on whether to go for it, see if we could make it for the two laps or pit. With the way our luck has been this year, quite honestly I was leaning towards pitting, making sure the fenders were clear from the tires, getting out there and get a good finish, making sure we finished five or six spots ahead of the 48. As we ran around, got some help from our TV partners out there, they took the drone, running around the car, I was able to see what the damage looked like. It helped us realize that we felt we were clear and we could make it a couple laps. Q. Does this prove to yourself that you can win without Jimmie Johnson? CHAD KNAUS: It makes me feel good, for sure. Jimmie could have probably won a lot more races if he had a better crew chief than me. How is that (smiling)? Q. On the radio after you won the race, you're still being a crew chief, reprimanding. You seemed subdued. That is a fair assessment? CHAD KNAUS: Big dummies. I told them to go out there so they would get on TV and get a good picture of themselves. I told them to stay six feet apart. The first thing they did was go over there and picked up the driver. We're going to hand out some team fines out. Just kidding (laughter). Q. Is it that you have a young team, have to mold them? CHAD KNAUS: You have to do that with any team. Any head coach or coach does that, right, if you're trying to keep your guys safe and do what's right. In this situation we've got to make sure we're being smart about how we approach everything at the racetrack. Yeah, I was just telling them to give each other some space, still enjoy the time, but get some space. Q. After how long it took William to get this win, how do your feelings tonight compare to what you experienced with Jimmie back in 2002 at Fontana? CHAD KNAUS: Oh, geez. I don't know if I can remember back that far. That was a long time ago. It's a different emotion. It's a different time. Obviously in 2002 it was just different. It was so raw and so pure, just a different time. William is experiencing those emotions right now obviously. I think it's fantastic. We've got a handful of guys on the team that have never won a Cup race before. They're going through those same emotions. For me it's quite honestly a little bit more of a relief than maybe the elation of victory. I'll be honest with you. I really wanted to get to Victory Lane with this 24 car again. To be able to do it with the legacy that Jeff Gordon and Ray Evernham started with this car, at Hendrick Motorsports to get it back to Victory Lane, follow suit with what Chase was able to do with the 24 car, to put William's name up there, it's a lot of pressure. I feel really happy about it and definitely a lot of relief. Q. Throughout this race obviously it stayed calm for the most part. Daytona typically plays out, you get some big wrecks at the end. Did you see this playing out or did it have a different feel? CHAD KNAUS: I think it definitely had a little bit more‑‑ it depends on the situation. If you're a guy that is locked into the Playoffs, you have a bunch of wins, don't have to worry, it probably felt like it did in July from their perspective. For myself and the 21 and the 48, the handful of guys trying to win a race to make it into the Playoffs, I guarantee you the intensity was way higher. The pressure that they all felt was significantly different. For me it was high. It was really high. But quite honestly, I love it. That's why we do what we do. That's why we compete. If it was easy, nobody would want to do it. Yeah, it felt really good after the race when we got that checkered flag. Q. Chevrolet's performance at the start of the year, looked like you were back. COVID, summer months. Where do you feel you are competitively, close that 50‑point gap to Harvick? CHAD KNAUS: Gee, whizz, already asking me that question? I think our superspeedway program looks fantastic, really good. I think we can go to Talladega and race well there. Our road course package obviously is really good. I feel comfortable with that. Darlington, I think we get around there pretty well. Martinsville we get around really well. Probably the sticking point for me right now is Richmond. I'm really not certain about that. Some guys run really well there, we haven't as of late. Phoenix I think we can run pretty well. Man, I think we got a shot. Our package is picking up speed. I think we've seen that based off the performance at Dover last weekend. I think we ran really well along with our teammates. I think that kind of shows what we're capable of. We ran well on Sunday, not on Saturday, but I think you get my point. I think we've got a shot to get up there, fight with these guys a little bit. I'm not going to say we can't, but we haven't shown we can get out there and run races with those guys as consistently as they can, finish in the top five as consistently as they can. Sometimes it only takes a little spark to light a fire, and maybe this is just that spark. Q. I read something that said you have now made every single Playoffs. Explain how that feels to you with some of the greatest crew chiefs. CHAD KNAUS: I think it's great. Obviously it's an honor to be able to be in this position, battle year in and year out for the championship. Some of them better than others obviously. But I do feel that some of the guys that I've seen come and go through our sport were better crew chiefs than myself. I maybe just had a little bit of luck on my side from time to time to get us to this position. It's pretty cool. Hopefully that will go on my plaque one day when they hang it on the wall. Who knows. Q. With 15 to go, bringing William down pit road, cost a lot of track position at the time, but was there any doubt William was going to be stuck back there? CHAD KNAUS: Man, I was kicking myself in the butt right after we did it. I was a little frustrated. Man, maybe we shouldn't have done that. Maybe we should have stayed out. Quite honestly, I see maneuverability be so important at the end of these races. Getting tires at this track on a short run like that I think is a good thing. I feel like we were going to get back up there and run. Crashes happen. Having fresh tires, it's easier for the drivers to navigate around the crashes. We opted to do it. We've had success in the past making some decisions like that. Even though at one point there it wasn't looking great, it panned out. It kind of happened the way we thought it would have. If we were up front, we would have been swept up with the 3 and the 1. I think it was the right call now looking back. It was the right call at the time. Q. You've faced a lot of questions concerning Jimmie Johnson, but one more. What was it like, the transition between being the crew chief for Jimmie Johnson and now William? Did you have to change the way you were a crew chief for the different drivers? CHAD KNAUS: Yeah, of course, obviously. I also had to change the way I was a crew chief for Jimmie from the way we started in 2002 to when we ended in the middle 2015s. I think, look, like I've said, I'm a good crew chief, I'm not the best crew chief that's ever walked out there by any means. I think a good coach understands the situation and understands how to morph and adapt to the circumstances you're in. Working with William is a completely different set of circumstances than what it was working with a seven‑time championship driver. I think we've done a pretty good job. Great, no. But we've done a pretty good job. We have been able to make the Playoffs both years. Now we are fortunate enough to have a victory. Hopefully we can get out there and have some success in the final 10 races. THE MODERATOR: Chad, thank you so much for taking the time to join us. CHAD KNAUS: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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