NASCAR CUP SERIES: GOODYEAR 400

May 14, 2023

Jeff Gordon

Rick Hendrick

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We're going to get started with our NASCAR Cup Series post-race media availabilities here at Darlington Raceway. We are now joined by Rick Hendrick, team owner of Hendrick Motorsports, and Jeff Gordon, vice-chairman of Hendrick Motorsports. Also important to note that this is the 100th win for the No. 24. If you would start us off, just your reaction to that incredible stat.

JEFF GORDON: Well, obviously a great day for the 24 car. I think back to last year here at Darlington, a little bit of redemption, too, for William Byron and that team. Real special. This weekend is special with all the throwback, especially that 24 throwback meant a lot to me, a lot of memories from the 50th anniversary year - was that '98, I believe - and that car and that paint scheme.

Certainly was great to see it on track, but to see William perform and the whole team perform the way they did today, too, they had to fight back. They had great track position, good car, and they had to work on it a little bit throughout the race, got a little bit behind on one or two pit stops, but they hung in there and they were at the right place at the right time to capitalize at the end, and then great restart.

Really, really happy for that whole team. I feel like this year it's been just a phenomenal year for Rudy and for William and that whole 24 team. They've just been performing at a very high level every weekend, and that's why they've won the races that they have.

RICK HENDRICK: Anytime you can win at Darlington -- I didn't realize it had been since 2012 was the last race we won here. We won with Terry, and we won a lot of races here. I remember -- wasn't that the steam engine that you won here?

JEFF GORDON: Yeah.

RICK HENDRICK: It's great to win. Our cars were good. The Toyotas looked extremely fast as the race started, and we came back, and the adjustments they made were really good.

It's so good to see William win. To think about him, three wins now this year, more than anybody, and I feel sorry -- I feel bad for Kyle because he had a really good car and drove the wheels off of it. I hate to see that happen at that stage of the race.

But this is a good place. We're 296 wins now, Cup wins, so we're looking for 300. Hopefully we can get it this year.

Q. Rick, you've been stacking up wins over the past months and years, but like you mentioned it's been 2012 since you guys won here. Is there an easy explanation for that, or just coincidence?

RICK HENDRICK: Joey Logano hitting William in the ass.

JEFF GORDON: Kyle Busch.

RICK HENDRICK: Kyle Busch, yeah. Chase. You can go back and look at it you can see exactly -- we've led laps and been in position, but situations like that when you see a caution toward the end, and we thought Chase had one won, we thought William won it last year, and Joey got him going into Turn 1.

It's a hard race. It's a long race, and things happen. You can be in the catbird seat and then a caution comes out. People pit, don't pit, and then you're in a box.

But it's just tough to win anywhere in this sport right now.

Q. You mentioned 300. You're closing in on that. Any celebration in particular in mind? Going to have a big sale at the car shop?

RICK HENDRICK: We really want to celebrate 300, so it's going to be an awesome year. When we can do that we'll have a huge party with all of our guys. We'll try to get all the drivers that have won a race to come back and join it.

It's a milestone I never thought we'd catch Richard, and now to think about 300 wins, it's amazing.

We like to celebrate those victories because that's a real milestone in the sport. Big party. You can get cars on a deal any day. Any day.

Q. It seems like William is just calm and a cucumber all the time, just cool. Is he that way in the car and also outside of the car? You get drivers who are just all over the place in the car and get upset. Is he that way in the car?

JEFF GORDON: Well, I was standing right there with him on pit road last year when he didn't win the race because he got knocked out of the way by Joey, and I would not have considered that a calm, cool and collected William.

But he does hold it in and composes himself well. He just puts his head down, gets through it over the next couple days and goes on to the next one and puts it behind him. That's what great race car drivers do.

RICK HENDRICK: Yeah, I think we've seen it more this year and maybe last year when he was running up front and something happens. He gets really -- somebody gets into him, and he gets upset.

But he's calm in the car. He gives great feedback, and Rudy does an awesome job.

To look back at William and see how he's matured over the years and how good he is now, it's pretty amazing that the lack of laps he's got, to be in the position that he's in. But he's smart. He works hard. He's in the simulator all the time. He puts a lot of effort into the program.

JEFF GORDON: The only thing I'll add to that is leading laps, winning races, competing up front almost every single weekend, racing with the competitors he's racing with, that builds your confidence in a way where you can be more calm because something might happen that gets you behind, but you've got confidence in yourself, your pit crew, your team, we'll get it back. I think that's what I'm seeing kind of the evolution of William and the whole team this year.

Q. Rick, while you're celebrating a win by one of your cars, the No. 5 could have been in contention to have won today, and involved in the incident with the 1. It's the third time he's been damaged by the 1, either directly or indirectly the last month. Has Ross Chastain crossed a line?

RICK HENDRICK: I think you can ask any driver in here that he's wrecked or been involved with him. He doesn't have to be that aggressive, and I guess at this point in the race maybe you're super aggressive, but you just don't run people up in the fence or just -- he's not going to -- he's going to make a lot of enemies. It's hard to win a championship when you've got a lot of paybacks out there.

He's got so much talent. I think if he just calmed down that there's a time in the race -- Dale Earnhardt Sr. told me one time -- I won't name the driver that drove for me, but he said, he's got all the talent, he just doesn't know how to race, meaning he just knows when to race, when to push it. He's got a lot of talent, but he's making a lot of enemies out here.

Kyle, this one and Dover and just -- Talladega, it's really getting old with these guys.

Q. Obviously these guys are competitors, but this is another Chevrolet driver --

RICK HENDRICK: I don't care if he's driving a Chevrolet if he wrecks our cars. I don't care, and I told Chevrolet that. If you wreck us, you're going to get it back. If you don't do it, they'll run all over you.

I'm loyal to Chevrolet, but when somebody runs over us, then I expect my guys to hold their ground. I'm not going to ask them to yield just because of Chevrolet.

Q. Do you have to get involved, or is this all about Kyle -- I know Kyle typically is not a confrontational type of person. That's not in his nature. Is that something that needs to be discussed at a higher level, or is that something that Kyle has just got to stick him in the wall at some point?

RICK HENDRICK: Well, I would think Justin would have a conversation and say, you know, we're going to -- it's going to be hard -- again, if you have a lot of people wanting to pay you back, then it's hard to win a championship that way. He's got talent enough to do that. But we don't want to get knocked out of -- if you look at the points that Larson has lost because of that and the race here today, I think somewhere in the stages he was all over Larson.

The drivers have to settle that. Whatever I say to the owners or NASCAR, NASCAR wants to get in it -- they did with Jeff Bodine and Dale Earnhardt when he was going through all that, and they put a stop to it.

Q. But this hasn't reached that --

RICK HENDRICK: No, and this is now just between two guys.

Q. Cliff Daniels said over the radio, maybe this is just him venting, but he did say he wanted Chevrolet to step in or at least hinted at it strongly that Chevrolet should step in. Is that something you would like to see happen just to kind of maybe cool everything down a little bit?

RICK HENDRICK: Well, I don't know if Chevrolet can cool it down. I don't know that. That's not the way they usually operate. It's either NASCAR or the drivers, the owners. You've heard the pit crew say before, we like it. We don't care if people like us. We're here to run over and win.

If it doesn't change, he's going to have a hard time winning a championship.

Q. Jeff, I think it's fair to say Kyle is a mild-mannered driver for the most part. He's not somebody that's going to go out there and shove people around. Is that something you have to push for him to do to respond to this a little bit, or is that something that's just not his nature?

JEFF GORDON: Yeah, Kyle has got to work within what he's comfortable with and some people are really comfortable pushing and shoving and have no issues spinning guys or putting them in the fence. Kyle is a guy that you have a lot of respect for because of the way he races. But he knows when to be aggressive, too.

I think it depends on what's on the line. When it's maybe for the championship, if that's what it's going to take -- but I think Kyle is the kind of guy that if he leans on somebody, he's going to make sure both of you come out the other end. That's his kind of responsibility and the way he carries himself.

Obviously having multiple incidents, and it's a long list that Ross is now a part of, but I don't anticipate Kyle changing the way that he races guys, knowing Kyle the way I do.

Q. Mr. Hendrick, that letter came out earlier this week about team owners wanting NASCAR to continue negotiating for good rights settlement. Why do you think there's push-back on the charter -- permanent charter situation, and what do you think might happen next?

RICK HENDRICK: Well, I think it's a complicated situation when you look at permanent charters. I think they've got to -- they at least -- we met with them the other day, and they're listening, and I just think you've got the TV deal on the table.

NASCAR is listening, so we'll see if we can't get something worked out that everybody can live with.

Q. Jeff, I think you've been part of the negotiating team. Do you think that the negotiating team is still being listened to by NASCAR because Denny Hamlin came out with some comments the other day that he wasn't sure that --

JEFF GORDON: Denny Hamlin came out with comments? I'm shocked. I'll be honest, I have not seen any of those.

I think we're still having good conversations, as Rick mentioned, with NASCAR. Obviously they're right in the middle of negotiating with the TV networks and partners there and how that's going to all be packaged together.

We all want the same thing. We all want to have a sport that's thriving that fans love and great competition like what we saw on the track today, and also have something that works out economically for the teams, for the tracks, for NASCAR and everybody involved.

I think we're in a good place, but we're also making sure that NASCAR knows kind of where the teams stand and how united they are.

Q. Rick, Alex Bowman talked to us earlier today and said he doesn't know when he'll be back, that he's getting scans in a few days. Curious if those scans said he's okay, would you encourage him to race right away? Would you want him to wait until after the 600, and have you reconsidered your stance on extracurricular activities?

RICK HENDRICK: Yeah, I don't want him snowboarding anymore. (Laughter.)

No, look, I want him to be right when he gets back in the car because when you've got an injury like that, which he would like to be back in Charlotte. He's seeing the doctor this week, and he's got to get in and out of the car. They've got to get the belts on him and see how he responds.

That's a terrible injury. If you come back too early, it can mess you up for the whole year. I want him to be right. He's listening to the doctors. He has started working out. I think it's a good shot he'll be back pretty quick.

But we haven't done the test in the car with the straps on him and harnesses and see if he has any pain.

Q. Yesterday Larson actually went in a scheme which I assume is pretty close to you. Curious what your emotions were yesterday after that win.

RICK HENDRICK: Oh, I like to see Hendrick cars win races. That was a good day. He drove a heck of a race, and I would have liked for it to have been my car or JRM car, but he wants to race -- they had a car, and it was going to work. I was excited. I love to see him win whenever he's in.

THE MODERATOR: Jeff, Rick, thank you for spending some time with us, and congratulations.