NASCAR CUP SERIES: JOCKEY MADE IN AMERICA 250 PRESENTED BY KWIK TRIP

July 4, 2021

Chad Knaus

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: Chad, congratulations own another victory for Hendrick Motorsports.

CHAD KNAUS: Thank you.

THE MODERATOR: Another road course win by Chase Elliott. Tell us a little bit about what it's like to watch Chase on a road course.

CHAD KNAUS: Well, from our seat it's a lot of fun. Maybe from some others, not great.

Just phenomenal, the skill level that he's got to be able to come to a racetrack like this that's four miles long, to be able to go out there and run as competitive as what he did. I thought it was pretty impressive.

We really enjoy it. He's a technical driver, very smart, very savvy. So he understands the ebb and flow of a race, the tire falloff. You couple that with a good pit crew and a great crew chief, you're going to go out there and get some wins.

THE MODERATOR: We'll take questions for Chad.

Q. Chad, Chase was not comfortable at all yesterday, really felt kind of out of sorts, couldn't get a rhythm mentally or with the car. How did he get from that point yesterday after practice to running away at the end today?

CHAD KNAUS: Well, I think obviously they've got a great baseline package that they're very comfortable with. Chase, as he goes to these racetracks, albeit the tracks are a little unique, he knows that the car has got a very familiar feel for him. The guys do a really good job of matching that and working on the car for Chase.

I think as he showed up here, maybe some of us uncomfortableness was mainly him just getting acclimated to the racetrack. Once he was able to get out there, make some more laps, had a night to digest what went on throughout the course of practice, he was able to analyze it, get out there and start to methodically pick things off.

Honestly, starting in the rear maybe wasn't a bad thing. The pace was slower back there, probably was able to pick some people off, learn some critical turning points where guys were making mistakes and he was able to capitalize on those. As he started to really string together some good laps, it was evident pretty quickly that he was fast.

Q. I know Jeff Gordon obviously has a big role in Hendrick Motorsports. Is there anything that Chase Elliott possibly learned from Jeff to get better at road courses?

CHAD KNAUS: I would say definitely. Like I mentioned very earlier, Chase, he's very technical. He studies, he watches film. He analyzes tapes, all of that. So absolutely. There's no doubt that Jeff has contributed to his success in some shape or form.

Now, you have to remember Jeff has never really raced here either, so he didn't really have much to fall back on from that standpoint.

Yeah, just from a mentorship, Jeff is a great resource for all of our drivers. All of our guys are really young and look for that type of leadership. Jeff definitely contributes in that manner.

Q. Obviously the points race between Kyle and Denny are very close for the regular season championship. Kyle talked about, Denny raced me really hard today. Denny said, Yeah, I did, because of what's at stake. How much do you see that battle, how that's evolved on the track, what that means?

CHAD KNAUS: Yeah, points are points, right? You want to get as many as you possibly can. You never know what's going to happen once you get into the Playoffs.

You can definitely get yourself in a position to points through I think the first few rounds. Beyond that, you've got to be able to win.

You have to try to get as many as you can to try to get as much cushion to kind of protect you if something goes wrong.

Those guys are going to continue to battle for that. I don't see it ending any time soon. I think we can all anticipate the Gibbs guys are going to run stronger and stronger. We know weren't going to be on their heels for long. As they continue to run strong, hopefully everybody at Hendrick Motorsports does the same thing and we can keep everything in position where they go for a regular season championship.

Q. A situation where there was contact between two teammates, Alex went down to pit road to talk to Kyle. How important is that to get that resolved? Alex talked about the brake issues. Any other cars have brake issues today?

CHAD KNAUS: I'm sure you guys heard a lot of folks on the track had brake issues. It was getting hot. If you look at that series right there, there were five cars that were really racing hard - the 11, the 5, the 48 was in the mix catching those guys. As you're approaching on those groups of cars like that, you starve your car for air. Your water temperature increases, your brake temperature increases.

He went in there pretty hot, obviously tried to get some position, to protect against the 11. It's unfortunate that they rolled in there with a soft brake pedal and got into the 5. I don't think there's anything for us to be concerned about from a management standpoint at Hendrick Motorsports. There's a tremendous amount of respect between our drivers, crew chiefs and teams. It was unfortunate. It was a racing situation.

But we'll get home, talk about it, make sure there's nothing ill willed that comes out of this.

Q. Beyond the fact that you guys won this thing, walk off with a big trophy, you're happy. Overall first-time event, what's your impression of how this weekend came up?

CHAD KNAUS: This weekend up here?

Q. Yes.

CHAD KNAUS: Could you have asked for anything better? Holy smokes, it was phenomenal.

I was able to take a little bit of time I guess yesterday during practice. I rolled around to the back straightaway, just tried to get a feel for the vibe. I hadn't been here in 20-plus years. This venue is still just as exciting today for me as what it was when I came here 20 something years ago. It's a beautiful facility. The fans are just awesome. There's fans everywhere. They're lined up and down the straightaways, along the fence, on the concrete stairs. It's amazing.

I think it was an awesome show. The race was great. Obviously fantastic for us to be able to get the victory. But I think all in all, if you look at what happened, the support that we got from everybody up here in Wisconsin to be able to come up here on Independence Day, a day we all cherish and win, it was awesome. Great event. Couldn't be happier.

Q. You're a Midwestern native. As a Midwestern native, you know what race fans up here are like. Perhaps they're sort of overlooked. NASCAR not having the Chicagoland stop, is it important to have a Midwestern presence for NASCAR?

CHAD KNAUS: Racing up here is such a huge deal, always has been. You can name hundreds of greats that came out of this area not only from the driver standpoint but from the mechanics, crew chiefs, all of that. Deep-rooted motorsports group up here.

I think it's awesome any time you go into a venue you see memorabilia on the walls, photographs, hoods, the beer signs with "Dale Jr." on them. All that stuff is everywhere, right? People really love motorsports up here.

It's a lot of fun to come up here, man. It's really good stuff.

Q. Given his unfortunate situation with qualifying this morning, was it kind of like all hands on deck to try to figure out how do we need to strategize? Alan said something like, Give him some time and he'll be there. Things kind of have to fall your way. Clearly his advantage at the end was substantial.

CHAD KNAUS: You're right. But there's really nothing you can do other than make sure that the guys have what they need, let them go do their deal. There's nothing that I can do to help Alan Gustafson call a better race. He's way smarter than I am. He's going to do a way better job than I ever could. His team is going to do a way better job of understanding the chassis adjustments.

The best thing you can do, there he is right there, is let these guys get in there and do their job. They did a fantastic job. They executed flawlessly. Great strategy. Yeah, they came home with the trophy.

Q. Chad, obviously you referenced Joe Gibbs Racing. Everybody at Hendrick is highly motivated. How does Joe Gibbs Racing push you guys?

CHAD KNAUS: We all understand the ebb and the flow of the way the performance circle is in motorsports. It's our job right now to continue to try to execute at a high level, continue to try to find advantages with our race cars. But we know that the Gibbs guys and the Penske guys, everybody else in the industry, is doing the exact same thing.

We've got to stay on point. We can't sit back. We may have had one car win today, but we had other cars that didn't. We understand the importance of continuing to push. Everybody at Hendrick Motorsports right now is doing that. It's a lot of fun to be a part of.

THE MODERATOR: Chad, thank you for joining us.