NASCAR CUP SERIES: SHRINERS CHILDREN'S 500

March 9, 2025

Adam Stevens

Press Conference

An Interview with:

THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by Adam Stevens, our race-winning crew chief. What does three in a row mean to the team?

ADAM STEVENS: I'm not sure. Still sinking in. Got a little crazy there those last few laps. Wasn't looking forward to that last restart.

It's hard to do. It's really hard to do, to put yourself in position to win three races in this day and age. If you think about it, we were in position to win the Daytona 500 leading that outside line with four or five laps to go when we got turned. We've had four races this year. We've put ourselves in position in all four and managed to win three, which is a pretty remarkable batting average, and something that will be hard to maintain, I believe.

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

Q. Prime tire, option tire, no tires at this point. What is it about Phoenix, why is Phoenix so successful for you as a team?

ADAM STEVENS: I think what you see, if you look back, is he's extremely good everywhere we go. But the short tracks he's got just a little bit of something. I think he's so good at micromanaging his line and finding that little bit of grip and willing to move around and change things.

The ability to adapt. I'm saying adapt lap to lap and adapt as the race goes. If we see something with another team's driving style, we can relay it to him and he can instantly duplicate it.

These short tracks have a way of changing quite a bit. You saw the groove move around as the tires age. He's just got so much talent that eventually I think all the tracks are going to look like this for him, that he can just do it anywhere we go.

Q. Last season you won the race at New Hampshire, then a drought. JGR didn't win until Christopher Bell. What does it mean now to start 2025 with three straight wins and silence the doubt?

ADAM STEVENS: It means we're working on the right things. If you paid attention, if you're in this sport, I think you saw a lot of speed out of the 20 team and the other JGR cars on occasion down the stretch. We just weren't able to convert those into wins. Extremely frustrating. It weighs you down. The Chase, we had so many opportunities and did everything we needed to do. It just didn't go our way.

What we've seen this year, three out of four times it's gone our way. You have to put yourself in position. Man, you can replay any one of those wins, change one or two things, it's not you that day.

We were just on the bottom side of that a lot last year after that Loudon win. This year we're on the other side of it. It feels good, but what feels better is being in contention and putting yourself in contention and being a factor every week. If you can do that, it's all about the process, and the wins will come.

Q. Did you or Christopher notice any balance shifts between the red and yellow tires?

ADAM STEVENS: Yeah, there's definitely a balance shift partly because they're quicker and it puts more load on the car. It's a different tire.

I think we see that it tightens up quite a bit. We've had the benefit of being on this option tire more than once now. We kind of have an offset built in that we try to maintain. I think we're honing in on it.

We probably missed it a tiny bit today and could have been a little bit better, especially on the first set of option tires. The caution came early. I think we only ended up with 21 laps on them. Later in the race when we had them on, they were a little bit better.

It's a little bit different every time we run them and we get a little bit smarter.

Q. You reference the chaos of the restart. What were you talking about with Christopher?

ADAM STEVENS: I stay out of it. I remind him to make sure he had his tires clean. We were clear on what we wanted on lane choice as the leader. After that it's making sure he has his switches right and leaving it up to him and the spotter. There's nothing I can coach him through in that intense of a battle.

Q. What does it mean to get three consecutive wins on three different racetracks?

ADAM STEVENS: I think it just showcases the strength of our driver and the strength of our team. Going back to what I said a minute ago, putting yourself in position. We're doing the right things as a company and as a team. We just know what we need.

The biggest part of that is just the continuity throughout our team. We didn't have a single head change. It's all the same guys over the wall, behind the wall, prepping the cars. Just the communication between Bell and I and the team has gotten a little bit sharper and clearer every year.

Being able to pick up where we left off last year, it's a big part of that.

Q. Did the high amount of cautions throw off what your original strategy was on tire play?

ADAM STEVENS: It did not throw ours off. I think it opened up some opportunities for other cars. Then the downstream cautions took those opportunities away from them.

It's tough when you only have two sets. They're clearly faster. It's a game of when to put 'em on. It's not fun. That's the most miserable part about running two sets of tires on a given weekend is knowing that it's going to come down to an educated guess at some points. Thankfully again it went our way.

Man, that's not a good spot, being that uncertain, with the stakes being that high.

THE MODERATOR: Adam, thank you.