NASCAR CUP SERIES: NOCO 400

April 16, 2023

Jeff Andrews

Cliff Daniels

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We're going to get started with our post-race media ability for today's NOCO 400 at Martinsville Speedway. We are joined by members of the race-winning team, the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet. We have crew chief Cliff Daniels, and Hendrick President and General Manager, Jeff Andrews.

Q. Cliff, were you surprised that those two in no tires held up against all those fours?

CLIFF DANIELS: Yeah, for sure. Especially the SHR cars were really fast all day long. To be honest, earlier in the race when a couple of guys stayed out on older tires and survived for 20 to 30 laps, which was 20 to 30 laps longer than I thought they would have, that was a tell sign.

A couple of data points last year of guys on higher lap tires still maintaining track position. So still a little bit of a gamble, but we knew there were some data points where it had worked. So that's the way we went.

Q. One for each. Cliff, based off of what you were talking about and what we saw today, as a crew chief, are you having to think a little bit differently because of track position and it's more about you helping your driver pass as opposed to your driver in many cases being able to gain position?

CLIFF DANIELS: I would say a healthy combination of both. I'll be the first to admit for 200 laps we weren't a winning car. Our car just wasn't great.

Some of that was what was in our car, and some of that was kind of the track conditions. So then at the same time we got a couple of good changes in our car. The track did cool off a little bit, and I think all that kind of came our way.

So then to your exact question, yes, I think being able to be more aggressive on the strategy side, get some spots on pit road or spots on what your strategy is, certainly that's helpful. And every time we did it, we were able to kind of maintain.

But you still saw some cars that were really good cars that could pass up through the field, and we weren't one of those cars for 200 laps. It wasn't until later in the race that we got our car better. So both kind of worked out at the end.

Q. And for Jeff, with your extensive experience and knowledge of engines, the discussion comes up again after the race, hey, more horsepower is needed for these cars in a different tire. That sounds like a simple solution. Just give it more horsepower. From an engine perspective, I'm not an engine guy, so how difficult is that? How prohibitive is the cost of that? I mean, is that something that if enough people wanted to get done that that's something that realistically could be done, or is this trying to climb Everest and getting back to the level of horsepower it used to be?

JUSTIN ANDREWS: Yes, Dustin, I think multi answers to that question. First, yeah, it's always achievable. It takes quite a bit of work to get back there.

We are, I would say, five to six months out on parts, orders, and deliveries. Really when you get to this part of the season, you start to consume a lot of sealed engines that you have run earlier in the season.

So it gets complicated just to try to change a package over or change a power level over because these engines are built and tuned and all the analysis and everything that's run on them is for the current power level.

So when you start to make changes to that, it requires changes to a lot of parts and pieces. And some of those would be as much as a year to possibly 18 months lead time to get that work done and get parts ordered.

So it's a complicated question. I personally do not disagree with you that more power would be something to take a look at someday. It's a long-term decision for the engine companies to do that.

Q. So to follow up, it sounds like even if people wanted to do it for 2024, it's almost too late?

JUSTIN ANDREWS: That decision needs to be made now. Yeah, very soon. Because depending on the parts and pieces, some things, as I said, are easily six months to a year out from a planning perspective.

One thing that you need to realize is that all these engine companies have ordered parts and pieces for really the remainder of 2023, and to start to change that architecture around, it gets very, very complicated very quickly. That's a long-term decision for sure.

Q. Jeff, 295 wins for Hendrick Motorsports. Pretty big number. You guys are closing in on 300. Any thought on that? Any whispering about that might be an attainable number this year?

JUSTIN ANDREWS: I think it was more than a whisper at our season kickoff luncheon for Mr. Hendrick. It was an ask of his, and he lit that fire underneath of everybody very early on in January, and we're certainly marching forward towards that.

So, obviously, a goal we want to achieve. In addition to that, keep going right on past that. We need to focus on long-term on late summer and early fall and having performance in our cars like we do now at that point of the season. Certainly I know as a company we're very pleased with how this package has performed for us. Phoenix, Richmond, now here.

Certainly as Cliff said, we weren't in the best shape, and we still have some work to do here as a company to have some more consistency across all our cars.

But certainly a good start for us for 2023. Yes, 300 is something we're at for Mr. Hendrick, first and foremost, but that championship in Phoenix at the end of the year is another big one we've got our sights set on.

Q. If both of you can answer this question: What struck you most about Kyle's performance today?

CLIFF DANIELS: I think just the fact that all the conversations he and I have had here, he has had so much doubt in himself, but we've continued to stay true to our process, how we prepare, the data we look at, everything that we study.

He has been very open to any adjustments he has needed to make on his end, and it's kind of a two-way conversation from what can he do better and different and what can we do better and different with the car that really I would say the work behind the scenes, the work in preparation to get here today is what I'm most proud of because you saw at the end of the race when our car was good and he knew he had a shot, he did a great job to go through some of those guys, get to Joey, have a clean, for the most part, race for the win and laid down some really good laps to finish out the day.

JUSTIN ANDREWS: Yeah, certainly echo Cliff's comments there. I think the thing for me is just how Cliff and Kyle really put the whole day together. Certainly various phases of that race and track change with clouds and sun and then an untimely caution there certainly threw a twist in everyone's strategy.

Really just from start to finish how they work together on the radio and continue to make the car better really all day long. Various things for various teams, including our own, that came and went during the day.

It was certainly key to keep track position as you saw with a lot of cars that kind of went from the front to the back and back to the front. So I just commend them, both of them, on how they kept their head in the game all day long and raced the track the entire day and stayed in it all day long.

Q. The No. 5 car hasn't won here since '84 when Geoff Bodine went to victory lane. The significance of that number to get that car back in Martinsville victory lane, what does that mean to Hendrick Motorsports?

JUSTIN ANDREWS: That certainly is a great milestone. I'm not sure that I realized that.

CLIFF DANIELS: I didn't either. That's pretty wild.

JUSTIN ANDREWS: That's pretty awesome. Obviously being the site of the first win for Hendrick Motorsports back in 1984 and then to come here today and put No. 5 back in victory lane, that's always a special number. It has been for Mr. Hendrick through the years. A lot of great milestones that go with that number and a lot of history and heritage there.

So for us as a company very proud of that and to bring that to Mr. Hendrick as well back here at Martinsville.

Q. Jeff, I assume there wasn't much doubt on whether Chase can win or come back and be strong. Did today send any sort of message you feel to him and the team?

JUSTIN ANDREWS: Yeah, I think if you saw him after the race just the fight that's in Chase Elliott. Obviously, that was a tough race on him. Tough race on any driver to come here after being out for multiple weeks.

As I said earlier, we didn't have the best race car today, and he and Alan fought all day long together. Chase stayed obviously with Alan and the team and worked hard all day long, and at the end there that thing came to life and seeing him battle his way back up there to a top ten.

It's great to have him back. From that aspect, it's the first weekend for us to kind of have our team or have the band, so to speak, put back together. We haven't all been back together since Fontana for various reasons.

I think just a statement for the company and a compliment to the men and women behind the scenes at Hendrick Motorsports who have been building and working on these race cars through this time of adversity for us.

To come here today, not only Chase, but Cliff and Kyle, it's a good day for us, and we'll build on it. Certainly glad, back to your question, to have Chase back. He fought all day long and did a great job for us.

Q. You've won almost half the races this year as an organization. Do you feel like you are the dominant team?

JUSTIN ANDREWS: I wouldn't consider us dominant. I don't think there's anybody at Hendrick Motorsports right now that has that comfort level or that feeling. As I said a little bit earlier, we need to run and perform like this in the latter half of the summer, early part of the fall. That's when it really starts to count.

Yes, stacking up the wins right now and the points and the playoff points, it's very important to have those to go into the fall. We have a lot of work to do. We have to come back here. This is a very, very critical stop for us, as you all know in the fall on the way to Phoenix.

We have to certainly be a lot better than we were here today. We pulled it all together there at the end and had some competitive cars and were able to win the race, but we need to be better as an organization coming back here.

So we won't take too much confidence out of here, and we'll go on to Talladega next week and approach that and attack that for what it's worth, but we certainly need to put some focus on Martinsville for the fall.

Q. One other thing is you guys have won all the key races. Phoenix you've won, host of the championship. You win at Martinsville, the next to last race. You win at Vegas, a key race in the last round. Was there an emphasis? I know at Hendrick it's all about winning, but was there any additional emphasis on either of these tracks? And because there's such a long gap between now and when you come back to these tracks, the challenge of maintaining that strength so you can take advantage of those opportunities later? For either of you.

CLIFF DANIELS: Yeah, certainly everyone in the whole cup field has Phoenix circled, obviously; right? And we as a company didn't perform as well as we needed to in the fall. We certainly got beat by at least two organizations that I can think of just outright, forget strategy, forget anything else. They just had better and faster cars than we did.

So, yes, we did circle Phoenix specifically over the winter, and we kind of assembled a group back at the shop to help us attack some of these tracks in the specific areas that we knew we were deficient. So big shout out and credit to those guys back at the shop, those guys and gals.

Yeah, kind of the way you described it for each one of these races, we've had a similar approach. Vegas last fall all of our cars didn't run great. Obviously I spoke on Phoenix.

Here it's been hit-or-miss for us, and it was kind of that way today too. Kind of hit-or-miss from what you saw. So we have identified all those races, the keystones that they are, to your point, for the playoffs and tried to make an effort for what those are.

And then the things that can carry over between Phoenix and Richmond, you can carry a little bit of that to Nashville and Gateway and stuff like that in the summertime. No, it's not the exact same, but the general concepts you can take and you can keep working on and building on.

That's what's gotten us to this point, but certainly a lot of work ahead of us.