NASCAR CUP SERIES: BANK OF AMERICA ROVAL 400

October 13, 2024

Cliff Daniels

Rick Hendrick

Kyle Larson

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by the winning owner of today's Bank of America ROVAL 400 of Charlotte Motor Speedway, Rick Hendrick of Hendrick Motorsports. Mr. H, before we get into questions from the media and while you are here on behalf of the 5 car's win today, if you could briefly touch on what it means to have all four of your cars advance to the Round of 8 and still be in contention for a championship this year?

RICK HENDRICK: Well, you know, you always talk about trying to get them in the Round of 8. We had our big kickoff, and that was our goal. It's so hard to do in this sport, as you saw people today above and below and having problems. I feel real good about advancing to the final eight because the next three racetracks are really good for us.

So we just got to show up and do our job, but we were very fortunate today, and Kyle just set of blistering pace. Nice to get the win and get everybody locked in to the next round.

THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up for questions.

Q. Rick, in your illustrious career there are so many things that you have done, but I think in the last couple of years there are things that you hadn't done until recently: The Indy 500, the Garage 56 experience, and now this where putting all four cars into the Round of 8. I'm just curious for when you have accomplished so much over your career to still do new things, what does that mean, and how does that -- I don't know if that continues to fuel and drive you in some way?

RICK HENDRICK: Yeah. You know, to be able to do things that if you are a racer and a car guy, to be able to win championships and then win over 300 races, and then Garage 56 was so much fun for us, and so much pride being over there and seeing that car. And then Indy and now we're going back to Indy.

I have had some things on the bucket list for me. 10/10, the track that we announced this week, it does fuel me. I mean, the competition, the desire to see our people have new opportunities and just the fierce competition that's in the sport.

I guess if you set out every year and you want to get better and better and our teams have been better together and to see them sharing and working so close. Yeah, Bill France told me something one time. He said, Your mind will take you places your body won't go. I'm getting there because I've got a lot of things I want to do and I love to do, but it's just I'm living the dream.

I mean, I grew up wanting to race and be in the automobile business, and I've got to be able to do those things. This morning to accept that award for Harry Hyde who really got us started and put us on the map.

I think seeing all of our people in victory lane. My grandson loves it, and it's just been -- Linda and I get just as excited as we did 40 years ago.

Q. Also, to have not won the championship the last couple of years. I don't think you guys have gone more than three years without a championship in the last 15, 20 years. What was the focus or drive going into this season after having the last two years not winning a championship and to be this close a month out?

RICK HENDRICK: Nothing fuels you more than get to that final race and not being able to close the deal. You go to the offseason thinking about you got two cars there, and you didn't get to close a deal.

So every race this year the crew chiefs are talking about Phoenix, and they're talking about wanting to get back and kind of have another shot. You know it's going to be a battle because whoever is going to be there in that final four is going to be the best out there. So you're going to have to race them, but you've got to get there.

Not getting the deal done and winning it back-to-back and then going two years. And having cars out there; just not being able to close the deal. That has been something we talked about offseason, early in the season, and I hear our guys now are talking about Phoenix. Not trying to get ahead of where we are, but knowing if we get there, we want to finish the job.

Q. How much do you now push the team to get all four into the championship for?

RICK HENDRICK: I don't think you can push them. They push themselves. You've got to show up and do the best you can. You're going to have problems. You're going to have a pit stop. You're going to have things that happen out of your control, restarts. You can't control all of that.

As the field gets down to eight, you've got a good shot at getting someone, hopefully more than one, in the final four. Right now I think we're running good enough to get -- I won't say we're going to be lucky enough or even, you know, we get to all four in the final four. That would be an ideal thing if we could do that, but as long as we can show up and be good every week and hopefully have better luck than bad luck, then that's our job.

Q. On Memorial Day Sunday you left the Indianapolis Motor Speedway disappointed with the way things worked out. Got here; didn't get a chance to even get in the car. Kyle goes back to Indy the very next race, wins the Brickyard 400, comes back here the very next race after the 600 at this track, wins today. So I think there's a bit of a trend there. What do you think of that?

RICK HENDRICK: I like your trend. I hope it continues. No, I think the magic between Cliff and Kyle is amazing. I think our crew chief/driver combination is really good, and I think the sharing -- I've never seen in my 40 years the crew chiefs as selfless -- is that right, selfless? They share and give each other information, and they work together, debrief coming home from the race. That's what makes them.

Listen, when you get everybody working together, you get a four-horse team pulling together, it's hard to beat that. If you can keep that communication going and the drivers and crew chiefs working, they get smarter and better. That's all I ask of them: share, communicate, and execute.

THE MODERATOR: Before we continue, as you see, we have now the winning crew chief of today's race, Cliff Daniels. We'll keep going.

Q. One for each of you. Rick, we've seen a lot of Alex Bowman running up front, winning stages, and being consistent in the top 5, top 10. What have you seen in the difference between out of the 48 team this playoff?

RICK HENDRICK: I think if you look back at Alex getting hurt and breaking his back and then he has a new -- they were new together, the crew chief. Blake and Alex have gelled. Alex is healthy. He's confident.

You can't drive one of these cars hurt. I mean, you can, but it takes 100% every lap. When Chase broke his leg and he got back in the car, it took him a while to get the rhythm going. You don't get hurt and get back and be as strong as these guys that have been in every week.

So I think Alex just having an opportunity to be healed up, feeling good. He and Blake are clicking. I think that's been the secret there.

I mean, I wish he hadn't gotten hurt. I think we would be way ahead. Now they're in a stride, and he's doing a heck of a job. Every racetrack he's doing a good job.

Q. Cliff, you look ahead to next round. You have yourself and Christopher Bell, Denny Hamlin, Byron and throw Blaney in that mix, and even Chase. It seems like it's going to be a slugfest. Really the seven or eight best teams throughout the course of the year. Your preview, if you would, for round three, what it's going to be like because all of you, that grouping, really runs extremely well on all three of the tracks.

CLIFF DANIELS: Yeah, they do, and a very strong amount of respect for all the teams that are going to be in the Round of 8. Everybody has earned their way to get there.

I think our No. 1 competitor is ourselves, and I think if we do the things that we need to do, our team can execute. Kyle has been done an amazing job, the pit crew, everybody in the shop. Yes to your point that the competition is going to be there. I think our mission is going to be probably to be as tunnel-visioned as humanly possible to stay on our path and execute the things that we need to.

For whatever reason, the opening race of each round this playoffs hasn't been very kind to us, and we want to go to Vegas with a lot of confidence just in our recent run there. We're going to have a healthy amount of respect for that race and really for all of them.

Yes, we look forward to them and think we have a good opportunity ahead of us, but it's going to take the little details to get it right and make sure of where we need to be.

Q. This question is for Rick Hendrick. Rick, I was just curious to follow up on Jordan's question. This is Alex Bowman's second appearance in the Round of 8. First, I was just wondering, how important it is for him to be in the Round of 8 and with Ally's support?

RICK HENDRICK: Ally is a really good partner, and we want to see them do well, as well as all of our sponsors. Again, like I said before, I think Alex is healthy. Ally has been with us for years now. They take the whole car. We're good partners in the business world and the automobile industry.

So you want to take care of all your partners, and they've been a great one. I'm just glad to see Alex in a position where he can show his talent, and he is healthy, and the crew chief are gelling. I'm happy for the team and for our sponsor.

Q. I was out there the other day, and you guys had a leadership group where Cliff and Kyle and Jeff spoke about communication and how important it is in making that work. I wanted both Cliff and Rick to discuss why the communication has been so successful from the very beginning with Kyle and the 5 team.

CLIFF DANIELS: Yeah, great question, and I think to me when I look at it holistically it started six or eight years ago now when Mr. Hendrick really demanded that we move from two different shops of two teams in each shop to putting all four teams together.

Once you kind of get through the human nature competitive spirit of that and what it meant to really share and communicate across the four teams and really understand that everyone was bought into knowing on principle that the four of us banded together and working together were all going to be so much better that way.

I will say that the 5 is always the beneficiary of that system of the four of our teams working together so well. I would like to think the other three are as well, and that starts with Mr. Hendrick encouraging us and pushing us to go that direction.

And then for us, just like any relationship, it always evolves. I've been very thankful for the opportunity to be with Kyle, to be in this position with the 5 team. There are so many core values that we hold true to our team of taking care of each other, having the relationship, having the communication really across the team.

Of course, it has to be with me and Kyle and race day as well and trusting each other to do our jobs in the moment and to make calls and to know that we're going to have to ride some ups and downs together. But without a lot of those things that kind of got us to this point of building the company, building our team the way that it is, we've certainly been stick surrounded with a lot of great leadership along the way.

Folks that have mentored me. Of course, Mr. Hendrick at the helm really mentoring everybody along the way. All of that presents a really good formula for the four teams to have success.

If we're being honest, having four out of the Round of 8, four teams in the Round of 8, doesn't happen by accident. That's from a lot of hard work, a lot of grit, a lot of communication, a lot of chemistry led by Mr. Hendrick for all four teams to have. Very thankful to be part of it.

Q. Did either of you see any extra, I don't want to say motivation, but extra umph from Kyle because he didn't race here in May?

CLIFF DANIELS: Maybe a little.

RICK HENDRICK: Yeah. I think he's been -- I don't want to say it's a chip. I would say the fact that he didn't get to race here and the race in Indy didn't turn out too well, he had extra motivation. But I think, too, as Cliff has said and I think we said earlier, when you have been to that final four and you came up short and you've got the offseason to think about it, you want to dig hard.

I think that's why our team has come out early and run so good early. Then we might take a little bit of a dip in the summer because we load so hard early on. We talked a minute ago about communication. I had our general managers in, and these guys talked to them. We want to call audibles immediately, constant communication, constantly getting better.

I want to get them on the plane together coming home after a race so the drivers and crew chiefs can debrief on what's on their mind, and then the very next morning. We don't have any disagreement in our camp. We don't have any in-fighting with crew chiefs or drivers in our camp. I'm not going to tolerate that. I see that out there sometimes.

But we're stronger together. We have proven it over 40 years, and that's what's made us strong. I don't have to worry about that with these guys. Sometimes we have a little scuff-up at the racetrack, but we get over it pretty quick.

CLIFF DANIELS: To answer your question for Kyle, I think just in some of the comments he made after the Indy Charlotte experience, I think he did put a lot of weight on his shoulders and was feeling like he had let down his team and his fan base, which I don't necessarily think was fair for him to put that on his shoulders, but I know that he did.

He's put in the work, and he's had the intensity and the determination to be as strong as ever right now. So props to him.

Q. Two questions for Cliff. The first one is, we know that Kyle is not big on the simulator. Did you have to twist his arm to get him to do the simulator for this race? If so, how did you do it?

CLIFF DANIELS: So this was a complete opposite experience from anything we've ever had in a simulator. He was very determined to go in, and he wanted to learn the new track layout and wanted to get reps and find a rhythm.

Knowing that sometimes he gets in there and gets frustrated, I really didn't want him frustrated at himself coming into the weekend. So as we're in the simulator and, of course, it goes that way at the beginning. He starts getting really mad at himself, and I keep screwing up and restarted, restarted, restarted.

I'm, like, Hey, man, if we're good, we can just leave, it's okay. Let's go over to the racetrack today. We can walk the track and talk about it.

Nope, I'm staying in.

So in this case I was the one trying to get him out of it, and he was the one who wanted to stay in. What he wanted to get to with his rhythm, with his muscle memory was finding the cadence of hitting each corner, understanding the sim a little bit more.

I don't know that that would have apply to every racetrack, and this racetrack is certainly unique. He came in with a mission that day to the sim, and certainly it paid off. Proud of him.

Q. My second question to you is, when you have such a dominant car and you have got such a lead, is it difficult for you on the pit box to stay engaged with the race? Is it your mind already starting to go towards Las Vegas and beyond?

CLIFF DANIELS: Zero. The whole race, especially at the end of the race, knowing that with a big lead there is inherently some punishment on your tires at that point, and if a caution comes out with 20 to go, 15, 10, 5, what does each one of those pit calls look like?

In that situation they were all going to look different. So we had a lot of communication going on within our engineering core and all the guys who were on the pit box on the 5 of what we were going to do in that case. Then I was even more curious as to what our teammates were going to do. I think we had the 24 in third and the 9 in fifth and the 48 was 16th or so. I was curious to get their temperature as well.

Back to Mr. Hendrick's point, the four crew chiefs, we all had some open conversation about, Hey, man, caution comes out now, what's everybody thinking? What are we going to do?

We could never get to a point of being comfortable. One thing I will say, in 2021 we were going to win our fourth race in a row at Pocono. Took the while flag. Most people think when you take the white flag, the race is over. Blew a tire going into turn three, didn't win our fourth race in a row. Even when we take the white, no, I'm not comfortable.

Q. One for Mr. H and then one for Mr. H and Cliff. We talked about the opportunity, the potential of having all four make it to the final four. Is there even a part of you that even allows yourself to think about that and how cool that would be for your team and organization?

RICK HENDRICK: I think about it, and I would love to see it happen. I don't want to be greedy, but that's the plan, but you just know along the way you've got to execute every week.

You know, having all four in the final eight, that's the goal. That was the goal. We accomplished it. So now we just got to go out, win races, and advance and do the best we can. I don't let myself think about the last race. I'm thinking about the next three races right now.

Q. Then for both of you guys, we in the industry and media, we made a lot of the course changes, turn seven, the front stretch chicane. It seemed those are some hot spots, but it seemed like this was a more procedural race than a lot of us thought it would be. What did you guys think of the configuration and layout?

RICK HENDRICK: I like it (laughing).

CLIFF DANIELS: Make that two.

Q. Cliff, obviously you guys aren't putting the cart before the horse, but as you look ahead, how much effort is placed on Phoenix, understanding that Chevrolet went without leading a lap that day? I think you guys were around top 15, but I know what the goal is for you guys there. How far do you push the preparation for that, understanding that there are still three weeks before there?

CLIFF DANIELS: Phoenix for Hendrick Motorsports started the day after Phoenix a year ago. I would say probably the same for Chevrolet as well. Very thankful to have such a core group and depth at the shop and with our partner at Chevrolet that it hurt last year to get beat for the championship.

Obviously the 1 car won the race, but Chevrolet and Hendrick Motorsports, we lost out for the championship. So the day after that race we started coming up with plans, and those have continued to build. Specifically for us, we know that this week we're going to prepare really hard on the race ahead of us and for the next three weeks ahead, but we've certainly been engaged in some of the conversations leading up to Phoenix prep, Phoenix car details and setup details, strategy, all the things that have been, like I said, a year-long in the making.

THE MODERATOR: Before we continue, obviously we now have the winning driver of today's Bank of America ROVAL 400, Kyle Larson, now with us. We'll go into questions.

Q. Cliff, my question is for you. I'm just curious with the mesh of minds between you, Alan, Blake, and Rudy, just that camaraderie you have when you are in team meetings and maybe when you talk in the garage before the race and then kind of just how fun the competition will be between you guys now that all four of you will be competing against each other in the Round of 8?

CLIFF DANIELS: Yeah, it's really special to get all four of us through. Honestly I don't think anything is going to change with us. I think the way our communication is, the way the competition meetings are, the way we all understand what's in each other's car and go through strategy conversations and race prep conversations, I don't see any of that changing. There's just no need for it.

We're so deep into the process. We're very much a process company and a process team that we're so deep into the process of how we debrief, how we communicate, how we plan and strategize that we know that's kind of the bread and butter of what got us here.

What's fun with a group that we have is everyone has a little different perspective and a little different personality where you just bring different ideas to the table, and that's so healthy and that's so beneficial for the four of us to dig into and take advantage of.

No, all of our cars aren't always the exact same, but a lot of our general philosophies are and a lot of the ways that we lead the company and build the cars overall is very, very similar.

Then, yeah, each team is going to tune a little bit to their own. I just don't see anything of that changing, and if anything, it's probably going to get stronger because when we look at what we have within our company knowing that the opportunity is sitting on the table for four of us to go to Phoenix, man -- I guess let me correct myself. If it changes, we're probably going to get stronger together than to compete with one another, if that makes sense.

THE MODERATOR: Mr. H, Cliff, thank you for coming in. We'll begin questions for Kyle. Thanks.

Q. Kyle, back on Memorial Day Sunday you left Indianapolis a little disappointed, didn't get a chance to run a lap at Charlotte in July, August, whenever it was. You return to Indy and win the Brickyard. Now you return here and win this race. I think there's a little bit of a trend that you have started there. What does it feel like to be able to get a little bit of redemption from that disappointment you felt on Memorial Day Sunday?

KYLE LARSON: I don't know. I don't really think about that anymore at this point. It was just cool to win here at home and get to have everybody there in victory lane celebrating from Hendrick Automotive Group and Hendrick Motorsports, the crew members, their families and kids and all that. I think that's what makes winning here at Charlotte extra special, whether it be May or October.yeah, it was a great day and great to have everybody here.

Q. Talk about this race and the fact that you win heading into the next round, and there are no slackers, as if there were coming into today, heading into the next round. Does it sort of make a statement, or what is the advantage of winning and being able to end this round winning -- obviously getting in is a big deal, but coming in as the last winner?

KYLE LARSON: For myself and I think our team it's no statements that we're trying to send to the field. I think the field knows that we're strong. I think the field knows that we could win at any track.

It is nice to win and really more than anything just gain five more points that rolls into the next round. We've won stages. We've won a couple of races since the playoffs have started, and that really helps.

I'm just excited to kind of get ourselves to the next three great tracks for us and hopefully we can make that final four.

Q. Mr. H always runs a family-oriented place. We've been talking about that for years. In victory lane Jeff Andrews' baby, the tiny little baby, holding up 4. I can't believe already doing that. And your daughter, Audrey, and then Ivey Daniels, they were adorable in victory lane shooting photos of the media with the little purple camera. What does it mean to you to have this whole family of people there because you don't get to do that all the time?

KYLE LARSON: Yeah, I mean, obviously we're at home, right? Hendrick Motorsports is just two minutes away. Hendrick Automotive Group is 20 minutes from here, probably a little more. All the families and mechanics and all that, a lot of them are here today.

It just makes it really great when you can win here, and everybody sacrifices so much time away from their families. So when they get to bring their wives and kids to the racetrack and then you get lucky enough to win that day and get to have those photos and those memories forever, it's great. Yeah, it's always fun.

For me I get to have my kids at a lot of the races, but really I think this is the only track that a lot of our team members get to bring their families. So, yeah, it's extra special when you can win here for sure.

Q. Before the playoffs started I asked the 16 drivers, is it possible to go on a Tony Stewart run, win five of the final ten in the Next Gen car? If I remember correctly, you were the only person that said, yes. Now that you have two of the first six races of the playoffs, how are you feeling about that opportunity?

KYLE LARSON: I don't know. I would like to have three at this point because I feel like maybe you could win a couple more, but yeah, it's really tough.

I think in the Next Gen era it's harder to win races in general. Yes, we've won six races this year, which is great, but yeah, it's just hard to execute Next Gen races. They're just wild and all that.

Yeah, to win the next three of four would be difficult. We're going to try. We try every week, so it would be great if we could, but yeah, it would be tough.

Q. You said the rest of the field knows that you can win pretty much any week. You have twice as many wins as any other driver in the field. Is there anybody else, do you feel, that the field believes can win every week?

KYLE LARSON: I mean, I still view Denny as probably being the guy that has the speed that we do. He's just had a run of some crappy luck really for a while. I don't know how his race played out today. I think the Gibbs cars are just a little off, besides Bell.

Especially I think when you look at the next four tracks, Denny could win at any of them. Then I think William too. He's sneaky good. Blaney for sure as well.

I mean, you can make a case for anybody in the final eight. Yeah, I would say Denny kind of all season, him and I have been the two consistently fastest teams. So I would -- if I had to pick one guy, I would say him.

Q. You've done this before, so I'm just curious, what do you notice in terms of the changes, the differences once you go from the second round to the third round and what it's like on track, off track, how things change to go from Round of 12 to Round of 8?

KYLE LARSON: Yeah, that's a good question. I'm not really sure. I think it gets -- I don't know. I feel like it calms down a little bit once we get to the Round of 8.

I feel like there's more desperate drivers I feel like in the Round of 12. To me the Round of 12 has always been the scariest round because of the tracks, but too just some of the drivers in it.

I don't know. I think the field starts giving more respect. As the group starts getting smaller, I feel like the rest of the field starts giving a little bit more respect and give and take to the playoff guys. I feel like it gets not easier by any means, but just a little less scary.

Q. Look, there's a lot that's going to take place in the next month, but the idea now that after this whole long season now instead of being three months, two months, you're a month away from potentially being a two-time cup champion. To getting closer to that, what does that mean and the thought of that at this point?

KYLE LARSON: Yeah, I don't know. You try not to get too far ahead of the skis. I don't know. I don't really think about that. You're just kind of so locked in the moment that you just go week-by-week at this point. For me in the times that I have made the final four, once I get to that point of that week, it's more very satisfying that you're in this position and a privilege. Until you get to that point it's kind of hard to forecast at all.

Q. Kyle, this round you just called this round scary. When you came out of Kansas with a 26th place finish going to your nemesis, Talladega, how did you feel at that point? How relieved was the Talladega finish? Then, how did that catapult you into how you could race today knowing that midway through this race you got locked in? What was the attitude like as you worked through this round with that brutal start out at Kansas?

KYLE LARSON: Yeah, really did start both of the rounds. We had a DNF in Atlanta. I think we left there with, like, 15 points ahead of the cut line after having a ton of playoff points.

I was a bit nervous after that going to Watkins Glen. Then same exact thing, if not worse, after Kansas. I knew Kansas would be a great opportunity for us to gain a lot of points. You know, when you go there and have issues in the very beginning and you know you're not going to get stage points and not going to get a good finish, it's like, Dang, now we're going to Talladega, and I could get wiped out there, and I could have -- say I had a DNF early on at Talladega. I could have been 15 or whatever points below the cut line. Then that just changes the whole outlook for the ROVAL.

Finally I had a Talladega go clean for once. Yeah, we left there with a big point gap. I think that really helps your race here because you can call the strategy way different. You are not kind of being so timid behind the wheel too. Yeah, getting through Talladega really helped our nerves for today and really helped our race for today.

Q. On the front stretch you said you were headed to Cabo. I know you're a big fan of social media, and that immediately drew a little bit of backlash and how could this guy dare go to Cabo?

KYLE LARSON: I'm going to a wedding.

Q. How could he dare go to Cabo on the verge of the semifinals of the playoffs?

KYLE LARSON: We're also going to Vegas this week too, so I mean --

Q. They are close. It doesn't seem like a long flight, but I just wanted to give you the opportunity to justify on how you can stay focused on your job and also take vacation?

KYLE LARSON: I don't know. I do it all the time (laughing). I don't know. I mean, we went to Paris in the middle of the season, so that's also another country, which yeah, every vacation I've taken this year I think I've won the race leading into it. So I should start taking vacations every week. It would be great.

I shouldn't have to prove a point, though. It's my life. We perform at a high level, so whatever.

Q. Going into the Las Vegas for the Round of 8, this round, how do you reset after a win like this to mentally prepare yourself to go into another round being like, okay, now we have to execute for another three races to get into the championship four race and everything? Mentally the ups and downs of accomplishment, but also having to reset at zero and make it to the next round, how does that work for you?

KYLE LARSON: Yeah, I don't know. I think you really in the playoffs have to take it week-by-week. When you close out a round and move into the next round, it's even more of a reset. For us in our case the points reset, which gets us even closer to the cut line than we were, but still a fair amount above it.

And, too, it changes with the tracks and the schedule. So for us these next three are great tracks for us. I just look at it as really good opportunity. We would love to win, but if we could just go there and perform how we typically do, we could have a really good point gap before we get to Martinsville.

That's my goal is just to be up front all race long at these next two races especially, but even Martinsville as well.

Q. During that final lap you had the race with Bell, and you guys had to go around Suarez as you were coming up to lap him. What was kind of navigating through that situation like? Were you kind of calm like I'll get by eventually, or did you feel like you had to push the issue eventually and get by as you could?

KYLE LARSON: Yeah, I was catching Suarez a lot, and I knew he was going to get out of my way once I got there. I was really kind of hoping he wasn't going to get out of my way into the hairpin.

I was hoping he would just kind of run his own normal hairpin and just kind of let me go on the straightaway. Yeah, I had to kind of close my corner off. It's really slick over there. Then when you tighten your corner, it's hard to accelerate. So, Dang it, now Bell is probably going closer to me.

It worked out fine. It got a little closer than I wanted it to be. I had a comfortable enough gap that I knew once I caught Daniel, it would be okay.

THE MODERATOR: Congrats on your win today and for moving on it the next round.

KYLE LARSON: Thank you.