NASCAR CUP SERIES: BASS PRO SHOPS NIGHT RACE

September 18, 2021

Cliff Daniels

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations, Cliff, on a very exciting race, especially at the end. Why don't you take us through it from your perspective.

CLIFF DANIELS: Yeah, I think a lot of the night we probably had the best car on the long runs, definitely not the best car on the short runs. It was a lot of fun racing the 11 and those guys. Made a few adjustments towards the end and thought we were going to be okay.

For whatever reason after we kind of got the damage from the contact with the 11, we weren't just quite as good. Looked like the 4 made their car really good, the 9 made their car really good. We were kind of going to be in that third-ish range, depending on how hard they raced each other.

The way all that happened really left the door open for us. I think without that we weren't quite as fast as what we needed to be at the end.

Kyle hung tough like he always does and just drove a great last 20 or 15 laps to get the job done. Really proud of our team. Thankful for Valvoline, Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet, HendrickCars.com, everybody that supports us.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. How nerve-wracking is it when you've done all you can do and there's five or six laps to go, there's nothing you can do, sitting up on top of the pit box, your driver takes the lead? Talk me through the emotions.

CLIFF DANIELS: Yeah, I mean, certainly nerve-wracking watching it all play out. I knew there was going to be some fireworks between the 9 and the 4, wanted to make sure we didn't get caught up in any of that. Just make sure that whatever happened we were ready behind the wall if we had to pit and put tires on it. I was kind of mixed between watching the race, making sure we were set up behind the wall for a worst-case scenario.

Kyle is made for these moments. He does such a good job when everything, the energy, gets ramped up. He knows how to just focus in and drive his butt off and stay on the gas. That's what he did. It was fun to be a part of.

Q. After the contact with the 11, how much discussion was there and concern about whether the sheet metal was up on that tire to bring Kyle in?

CLIFF DANIELS: Yeah a lot of discussion for sure. We spent a lot of time under that yellow looking at it every time the car came by. Our car chief Jesse Saunders was looking at it through binoculars, trying to take as many pictures as we could, taking a look at the sheet metal.

The best we could tell, we weren't going to have a big issue once we went green again. I think guys must have been knocking off valve stems I would think is why we had so many flat tires. I knew our tire was still up, so the valve stem was still intact. The best we could tell the tire was still okay and the sheet metal was clear.

Certainly a little bit of a gamble but one at that point we really kind of had to take.

Q. How many more trips to Victory Lane do you predict for the 5 team this year?

CLIFF DANIELS: It is so hard to say. I have not even tried to forecast anything or predict anything for our team. We just take it one week at a time, focus hard for that race, try to maximize that race and that day.

Vegas is next. That's what we're going to do for Vegas so we'll see how it goes.

Q. Not having the spring Bristol race, what was it like working with Kyle to get the car set up in simulation and throughout the race?

CLIFF DANIELS: Yeah, there was a lot of discussions that we naturally have during the week. Kind of took me back to the beginning of the year where we hit a lot of these places together for the first time.

So coming here, we looked at a lot of our notes from last year with the 48. We had a really strong run with Jimmie both in the fall and in the spring. Kind of looked at what would suit Kyle's style because he admittedly does have a little bit different style here that he drives with and what he looks for out of the car.

Trying to piece together the best we could his kind of idea for what he needed, put together with our notes. Still a little bit of our best guess. Obviously the car was close. We did have to work on it some tonight but he was pretty comfortable and able to go pretty fast.

THE MODERATOR: Cliff, thanks so much. Congratulations again.

CLIFF DANIELS: Thank you.