NASCAR CUP SERIES: POCONO ORGANICS CBD 325

June 26, 2021

Jeff Andrews

Greg Ives

Press Conference

An Interview with:

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.