NASCAR CUP SERIES: ALL-STAR RACE

June 13, 2021

Jeff Andrews

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We are with the general manager of Hendrick Motorsports and that's Jeff Andrews. Jeff, maybe lead us off, you won the million dollars for winning the race, won the hundred thousand dollars for winning the pit crew bonus. Couldn't be more white hot as a team. Maybe just talk about this stretch you guys are having and specific tonight and the $1.1 million you guys have taken home.

JEFF ANDREWS: Well, first, thank you very much on behalf of all of Hendrick Motorsports. We appreciate that.

I think tonight is a testament to a top-to-bottom effort from the entire organization. Obviously a little bit different package here the way the engine configuration was, and some unknowns there, certainly I think for everybody in the field as to just exactly what this package was going to do and how it would perform and how it would draft, and certainly eventually everybody has tools these days to make those kind of predictions, but until you get on track and race it and get some laps on it and see where you're at. But again, hats off to our group on the preparation of the cars and just all the men and women of Hendrick Motorsports who are just bringing some amazing race cars to the racetrack right now.

The pit crew, could not be prouder of Alan and those guys on that 9 team for winning that competition tonight, and I think, again, that's just to me a top-to-bottom total effort by the company as a whole. Certainly our pit crews have been working as hard as anybody in this business to be better, and that's starting to show, obviously. Some great stops in competition over recent weeks that have got our cars in great shape late race to win some races, and then again tonight when the money is on the line and a live pit stop like that in competition and the way we had set it up there at the end since we got our cars to pit together, to have that pressure on those guys and to have them come through, really proud of what our pit coaches are doing and everybody back at HMS.

Q. Just kind of curious with you having a background as an engine guy what you thought of tonight's package. I know it's too early and you're going to have to look at data and what have you, but just the eye test, what were some of your thoughts?

JEFF ANDREWS: Well, I think if the goal was to get the cars closer together and increase the effect of the side draft and increase the ability or the likelihood of a car to draft up on another car or two cars that were side-by-side in front of them, I think that worked.

I thought tonight's racing -- certainly some short segments in there where things really didn't have a chance to kind of relax a little bit and some of the pace start to show up, but certainly from a competition side and a fan perspective, I would have to say that that was a good move.

I think it produced the intent of what the reduction in power was intended to do. It looked very competitive on the racetrack, and I think at any given time there, it seemed like -- especially on restarts, I thought the restarts were great, and there were some real opportunities to kind of jumble some things up on the restarts, depending on the side draft you got and who your partner was pushing you.

Q. I'm just curious, what's the emotions like right now with Hendrick Motorsports? Is there a sense of pressure that with this dominance that you want to keep it going and it maybe creates more pressure to keep it going? Or is everybody just so confident that you just believe that this run will keep going?

JEFF ANDREWS: Well, I think, yeah, there's two aspects to that. You've got Mr. Hendrick preaches to us that we've got to celebrate our victories. We certainly need to do that because there's a lot of hard work that's going on by a lot of people back at Hendrick Motorsports behind the scenes that bring these amazing cars to the racetrack right now.

So we've got to take a little bit of time and make sure we're celebrating that with our folks, but at the same time we fully know that this is a long season, and we've seen many times there's been dominant cars and dominant teams through the season, and then when it gets time for the playoffs, there's all kinds of things that can happen in those couple of months there.

We're not wanting to be too confident right now. We're wanting to stay focused. We know we need to continue to improve our race cars and bring better race cars to the racetrack every week.

But in the middle there we're going to take a little bit of time to celebrate our wins and celebrate what's going on at Hendrick Motorsports right now. That's important for our people.

Q. Last week or the week before, I'm trying to remember exactly, but Martin Truex Jr. said of all the years to try to play catch-up to a team like Hendrick Motorsports, this would be the toughest. The parts freeze, basically the freeze on everything until we get to the Next-Gen car. Does that make you guys a little more confident that you'll be able to keep this edge for hopefully the rest of the season?

JEFF ANDREWS: I think from our perspective, we still feel like there's knobs to turn. There certainly is advantages to gain there. I think you saw tonight that there was some Gibbs cars and some Penske cars that were up there and very competitive. Those guys are going to come, and they're going to improve themselves through the year here.

When you're running like this, obviously you're making a lot of people mad at you and you go back and you work very hard. We know, we've been in that position. Last summer we were in this exact position where we were leaving here very upset and not satisfied with ourselves or our results, and you go back and you work hard.

So yeah, there certainly is some rules and parts freezes and regulations that are in place, but there's plenty of knobs to turn on these race cars to still find some speed here in the next couple months.

Q. I'm curious with the success that the 5 team has had this year, how much is that the driver versus just having a super fast car and being successful at these 1.5-mile tracks really?

JEFF ANDREWS: Well, obviously Kyle Larson is a tremendous talent and we're very fortunate to have him as a part of our organization. Great move in the off-season by Jeff Gordon and Mr. Hendrick to acquire him.

I think the success of that team is obviously Cliff Daniels and that race team have done a tremendous job with the race cars they've been given, and they come to the track and execute very well. They're very well prepared when they get here.

But that also goes back to, again, what they're being given to come here to the racetrack and race with, and there's a lot of things going on behind the scenes. Chevrolet this year has stepped up tremendously on the technical side and been a huge asset for us and a huge part of our success, and again, all the men and women back at Hendrick Motorsports that are just putting some amazing race cars together right now and locking arms and very focused and staying focused for the coming months in the playoffs.

THE MODERATOR: Jeff, thank you for your time. Congratulations and good luck next week in Nashville.