NASCAR CUP SERIES: CHAMPIONSHIP

November 10, 2024

Paul Wolfe

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series crew chief champion, and that is Paul Wolfe for the second time in three years.

Q. Joey spoke Thursday about how it certainly doesn't hurt to have you be able to work on a car for two weeks. Given how you ran here in the spring, what was the focus once you guys locked in at Vegas that you really were able to dig into when it came to preparing for this race, this tire, and another championship?

PAUL WOLFE: Yeah, it was obviously -- it was great to be able to have that opportunity, no different than our 2022 championship.

We struggled, obviously, in the spring. You referenced back to the spring race. We weren't very good. But we had kind of developed our short track program over the season and learned a lot. I think that just gave us the opportunity there to just spend more time and make sure we had everything right when we got here.

Fortunately both our cars were pretty fast off the truck on Friday's practice, and Joey does what he does on Saturday for qualifying and put us in a good spot to get started today.

Obviously a little bit of an up-and-down day being able to lead that first stage and then have the hiccup on pit road, set us back. But he showed up at the end on that restart, and that's really the difference maker.

Q. The Winston Cup purists are already out in full force tonight saying that the 22 team, they're not the real champions, their body of work throughout the course of the year. Is there anything you want to tell that subset of the fan base?

PAUL WOLFE: Yeah, I don't really know what to say about that. These are the rules we're playing on right now, and we've done the best job with these rules. It's hard to compare because we would potentially approach the season differently if we were racing under a different format.

I don't know that it's fair to say that we couldn't win if we went back to the old format. That's not how we planned out our season. We work on our season based off of what the format is now.

So, sure, it's easy to say. And were we fast a lot of races this year? No. But we executed to what the format is now, and that's why we're the champions. There's a lot of cars that had speed early in the season that weren't able to show up when it mattered, and whether that's the pressure or what it is, I don't know. But as a team, we want to run good every week, right, but we know when it's time that you have to be your best and what it takes to prepare for that, and that's what we've been able to do as a company.

Obviously we've been able to walk out every championship with this new-generation car. I don't really know what to say other than that. If we're going to go back to the other format, then we'll gear up and do our best for that format.

Q. I know you guys felt super confident after practice, after qualifying, and you guys should have, obviously. But then Joey comes in here and he says, we want to step on their throats. Is there a part of you that's a team manager that's like, don't give them bulletin board material?

PAUL WOLFE: I mean, that's Joey. That's typical Joey. He shows up in the playoffs, and he's able to handle this pressure better than anyone in the garage, obviously. That's why he's a three-time champ now.

There's times when there's other situations that I maybe give him some advice to maybe not worry about or not say something, but that's who he is. That's fine. That doesn't bother me. I'm going to still go about how I do things in my way and the team, and that's what we did this weekend. That didn't really change a whole lot for us. We were able to put together a solid day and not make any major mistakes, keep him in the game there.

We had that really strong run there to end, I guess it was Stage 2 there when we were able to catch the 12 and the 20 there battling, and then he was able to have good restarts there in that final stage and take control of the race.

Q. Paul, you guys had to make a change at the jackman position mid-race when Graham went out. What can you say about the job that Patrick Gray did coming in off the 2 team and Team Penske's pit crew depth in general to be able to do that without too much of a hitch?

PAUL WOLFE: Yeah, obviously, first and foremost, obviously thinking about Graham, and hopefully he'll be fine and recover. I'm not exactly sure details. Initially I wasn't even aware that there was an issue. I actually saw it on one of the TVs, my monitors in front of me, like, What just happened to Graham?

But I think that just shows to the point the depth and the guys in the pit department and that area that were able to handle it, that I didn't need to stress about it or worry about it and they were able to bring Pat over.

We had an issue at Vegas with Dilly, our front changer, and we were able to bring Keiston over from the 2.

I think that just shows, obviously, how well we work together as a company and how there's always one common goal, right, and this weekend it was about making sure the 22 and the 12 had the best chance they could at racing for this championship.

I don't think it was a hard decision for anyone to be able to grab Pat and come on over, and it was really seamless. We had solid stops for a guy just jumping in that didn't practice all week. He did a great job, and it's nice to know that we have that ability in these moments to be able to step up and not really affect our race at all.

Q. You've been obviously on top of the box for quite some time after having a driving career. You're now part of an organization that's won three straight championships. That hasn't been done since Hendrick and previously Junior Johnson. Knowing that in the playoffs you've got to rise to the occasion, and now that you have three championships, two with Logano, one with Brad back then, what is your legacy as a crew chief at this moment in time?

PAUL WOLFE: Well, it's great. I'm excited about it. But I've said this many times; I just go to work every day and try to do the best I can for RP and the company and the opportunity they gave me when I came on board some 15 years ago or so now. I'm just trying to make the most of it. Really, you just have to go to work every day and prove yourself like it's your first day on the job. That's kind of how I've approached it.

I've been fortunate to work with two really talented drivers since I've been at Penske, and I'm surrounded by a lot of great people. There's guys on the team today that started with me back with the Nationwide car there when I first started in 2010 with Brad in the Nationwide Series. There's still some guys that were there.

And then obviously our transition to Cup in 2011. There's guys that started with me then. It's pretty special that we've been able to keep a great group of guys together that, I guess, kind of understand how I like to approach things. And they've done a really nice job. It makes my job easier.

I've never tried to micromanage. I try to hire guys that can think for themselves and do their job, and we all know what our position is amongst the team and do it to a high standard that is set from the boss, the expectations. And I'm just glad we can continue to bring him things that hasn't been done in the past with a three-time -- three-in-a-row championships is pretty cool.

Q. How concerned were you when Byron stayed out during that last caution? Did you think, oh, he's got about 15 or so laps on his tires so we can jump him quickly, or were you worried with his teammates running interference that you guys might be stuck in the back for a while?

PAUL WOLFE: Yeah, I mean, obviously it wasn't ideal. Those guys played the strategy like they needed to. They didn't have a fast enough car to run with us or the 12, so that was the alternate strategy, which was in our playbook if we were in that position this weekend. Obviously we weren't. We had the speed. Hats off to those guys for that strategy, and the caution fell just perfectly with their run long play.

I wasn't super concerned. I feel like coming into this weekend in general, it's about as a team making sure we're doing everything we can and controlling the things in our control. A caution falling, there's not really much you can do about that.

Honestly, I was more just worried about racing the 12. He was the guy that had speed besides us.

I figured there was still quite a few laps to go that eventually us and the 12 would be able to find our way up there.