THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, Jeff Gordon.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll open it up for questions.<\/p>\n
Q. Were you concerned in the camp or this is part of the process of going through a new body?<\/p>\n
JEFF GORDON: It\u2019s a little bit part of the process. We had a lot of discussions. I hate it when we go through stuff like this, but we\u2019ve been through this before. You lean on your tools more, you get back to the basics.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not saying that\u2019s what did this today. This is Martinsville. We\u2019ve run good here in the past. It\u2019s less of an aero track. We know that this new body, whatever, the upgrades, they show a lot of potential. But that doesn\u2019t always mean it\u2019s just automatic on how you extract it. It\u2019s definitely a little bit of a balance change, so we\u2019re working through that.<\/p>\n
If you look at the places we\u2019ve run good this year, we had good notes and ran solid at those places last year. Places that we didn\u2019t, we haven\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Our competitors have stepped up. I think you look at Ford in the areas, places they\u2019ve been good, they\u2019ve stepped up. Toyota\u2019s been solid and consistent with Gibbs and 23XI pretty much every weekend. You have to give credit to them where credit\u2019s due. All that does is make us work harder, come together stronger.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a long season. We got a lot of fighting to do. Today just feels good. It feels good to pull this off in the way that the 9 team pulled it off, taking some risks, executing, Chase getting after it when he needed to.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s always nice to reassure yourself of days like today that you can get it done, even as we\u2019re searching a little bit in some of the other areas.<\/p>\n
Q. You talked about days like this. Alan is not the most popular guy sometimes, fair or not.<\/p>\n
JEFF GORDON: He\u2019s my favorite (laughter).<\/p>\n
Q. When you hear noise like that, do you ignore it? Chase obviously defending him adamantly. This is his guy.<\/p>\n
JEFF GORDON: I hope so. I get to say this because Alan was my crew chief, I love the work and effort he puts in, how smart he is, the team he builds. Nobody is a tougher critic than he is of the team and their performance.<\/p>\n
Luckily, you\u2019re not even on social media, right (laughter)? You\u2019ve always seen this, right? Whether it was Dale Earnhardt Jr. or Chase Elliott, whoever is the popular driver in the series, there\u2019s a lot of critics that want to sit on the sidelines and evaluate it.<\/p>\n
You cannot let that tear you apart. You got to keep strong on the inside and believe in yourself and believe in your team, all the things you\u2019re doing. That\u2019s what Alan and Chase fall back on.<\/p>\n
THE MODERATOR: Alan Gustafson has also joined.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll continue with questions.<\/p>\n
Q. Alan, you mentioned the call from Rick Hendrick this morning. Can you give us the details?<\/p>\n
ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, no, he does it. He doesn\u2019t do it extremely often. It was nice to get a call from him.<\/p>\n
He just basically was super positive and wanted to reiterate \u2014 he wanted me to deliver a message to the team. He was in our meeting at Darlington. I think it was kind of fresh on his mind.<\/p>\n
He wanted me to deliver a message to the team. The quote from him was, this is a marathon, not a 10K race. We\u2019re in it for the long run. Regardless of the way it starts, it\u2019s about the way it finishes.<\/p>\n
He wanted to take as much pressure off of us as possible and basically say, yeah, that he has a lot of confidence in what we can do together, and ultimately, yeah, go out and have some fun, don\u2019t focus on any of the noise, focus on what we can control.<\/p>\n
It was just nice to hear from him. It\u2019s always a good message. He\u2019s the master of knowing what to say at the right time. Yeah, he\u2019s better than that, by far than anybody I\u2019ve ever met in my life. It was good to hear from him.<\/p>\n
Q. Was that on the way here?<\/p>\n
ALAN GUSTAFSON: If I\u2019m telling on myself, he called me when I was packing my suitcase. And I didn\u2019t answer, so I was like, Shit, I better get on it. As soon as I got in the car, I called him right back.<\/p>\n
Q. How many times have you gotten calls from Rick like that? Was there a sense with the season, the way it started, you and him and other leadership at Hendrick had to keep everybody pumped up?<\/p>\n
JEFF GORDON: Yeah, I mean, this is what I love about his style, is that he mixes it up. He\u2019ll surprise you. Some days he will just get fired up. You kind of are speechless, We better get to work. Then there\u2019s the days where you think you\u2019re going to get that, and he is calm and just positive and supportive, what do you guys need.<\/p>\n
Like Alan said, he\u2019s just a master. He\u2019s amazing. His experience level of being in business and how important the people are, he knows how to read a room, he knows how to read people, and he knows how to motivate \u2019em when they need it most.<\/p>\n
Sometimes that\u2019s a kick in the butt. Sometimes that\u2019s just support. Yeah, listen, he wants it bad. Nobody\u2019s more competitive than he is. But it\u2019s just always interesting to see how he views it and how he feels what the team needs best.<\/p>\n
Q. Alan, you pit with 138 to go. A lot of the chatter was we\u2019re not going to take the bait yet, stay out 30 to 40 more laps. I guess they were trying to split the whole stage in half. You were going to run yours out, pit with maybe 80 to go?<\/p>\n
ALAN GUSTAFSON: I think the runs, yeah. I didn\u2019t mean to cut you off.<\/p>\n
Q. I was wondering your strategy.<\/p>\n
ALAN GUSTAFSON: Yeah, I think it was 78-lap runs or something like that.<\/p>\n
(Temporary loss of audio.)<\/p>\n
I think probably where it turned a little different is when we pit, everybody basically at that time then has the same track position relatively, right? You\u2019re all spread around the track. So that advantage that the leaders had, it was diminished.<\/p>\n
When we pit, our lap times I think were pretty good and our falloff was less than expected, or less than the guys had run that run before.<\/p>\n
As soon as those guys who are going to one-stop then start shorting that by significant amounts of laps, that\u2019s playing into our hands, right? They\u2019ve got to run a lot longer. Mathematically they\u2019re going to be worse.<\/p>\n
From where the majority of the people stopped, I think for anyone, that would have been better to two-stop it.<\/p>\n
The flip side of that is caution exposure. You don\u2019t expect anyone, I don\u2019t think anybody in the top five, their cars were going to be good for long runs, they were ultimately going to be able to stop it and minimize exposure of the caution coming out, being trapped a lap down. It really wasn\u2019t going to work. If I\u2019m in their spot, I\u2019m doing the same thing. You don\u2019t want to take that caution risk.<\/p>\n
Where we were, we were probably right around the position that it makes sense to take that risk. Maybe a little further than us, if I was a little further up, would have been worth doing.<\/p>\n
Yeah, I mean, at the same time you can\u2019t sit on your hands and run 10th. You got to do something, right? I think that was the best shot.<\/p>\n
JEFF GORDON: I was going to add. I was sitting on the 5 box. I was listening to Cliff and some of the discussions that they were having. They had not planned to do the two-stop, if you want to call it that.<\/p>\n
They kind of shorted it. Then it drug everybody, right? So because they came a little earlier, I don\u2019t remember where they were sitting, sixth, seventh, I think they were struggling a little bit with some rear tire wear and grip, then all of a sudden that brought everybody in, which again played into their hands.<\/p>\n
That wasn\u2019t the plan. I thought that was interesting.<\/p>\n
Q. Alan, you\u2019ve been a crew chief for a long time. You have a lot more tools now, access to pit road, people back in the war room. How much of the decision to short pit was data driven and how much of it was your gut? Is it more fun or less fun having all that data?<\/p>\n
ALAN GUSTAFSON: So I\u2019ll answer the first one.<\/p>\n
I mean, if it\u2019s a clear mathematical advantage, it\u2019s what everybody\u2019s really going to do. I think in this case, in our world it\u2019s hard to quantify what we would call passing friction, what it would take to get \u2014 if you\u2019re out there running by yourself, it\u2019s easy to model. Where you come out on track, that gets a little bit difficult.<\/p>\n
In this situation, Luke Mitchell, who is my race engineer at home, does a great job with strategy, we just continued to communicate about it. He told me that it was close, ultimately felt like it was a safer play to one-stop it. I asked him to go do some other calculations based on some different scenarios. He said it\u2019s probably a couple seconds faster. That was just enough for me then to say, yeah, it\u2019s worth it. We have to give ourself as shot, so\u2026<\/p>\n
I enjoy being together with the team, being able to have dialogue, being able to really be innovative. To be honest, I think that is something that our sport needs a lot more of. I think the strategy is one of the few things left that we have that you can do that on. Everybody\u2019s pace is so close. Us winning the race is a perfect example of that, right? If you look at statistically we\u2019re 10th, 12th fastest on the day. You put that car in clean air, you can go win the race.<\/p>\n
I think that would probably have been true for a lot of the guys that, yeah, are running up there. I think we need to have a way to just be able to get teams some more opportunity and drivers more opportunity to have advantages.<\/p>\n
Q. Jeff, we heard recently that a Hollywood writer was speaking with drivers about the \u201cDays of Thunder\u201d sequel. Of course, you\u2019ve known Tom for a long time. Any updates you can share?<\/p>\n
JEFF GORDON: Yeah, I don\u2019t have any new updates or insight. I mean, I just assume that whatever was taking place was building a storyline or some characters, something to go do maybe some sort of a pitch to some studios or whoever.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t really know a whole lot more other than that. I\u2019m certainly optimistic and hopeful. I saw Tom one or two years ago. He actually brought it up then. We were just laughing bit. He said, No, I\u2019m serious, this is going to happen.<\/p>\n
When Tom Cruise says that, you take it serious. That would be exciting to see the sport to be able to be a part of that.<\/p>\n
Q. Jeff, you talked about the new package, the tire wear. Being able to see a race under the belt, can you walk me through how it unfolded not only for Chase, but the rest of the guys. Having won here nine times, you know the legacy of this track.<\/p>\n
JEFF GORDON: A lot tougher today than it was when I was driving I feel like (smiling).<\/p>\n
Yeah, the cars are all just so close. You\u2019ve got quality teams, quality drivers, quality pit crews. I was always interested, a guy named Ken Howes used to work at Hendrick Motorsports, we\u2019ve had a lot of conversations over the years about under-body aero versus over-the-body, what that might do in a stockcar on an oval. Even though we (indiscernible) now, I\u2019m still a little undecided on it to be quite honest.<\/p>\n
These cars are just so affected by every little piece. It\u2019s just fine-tuned so much that it\u2019s hard to get an advantage.<\/p>\n
Goodyear, I\u2019ll give them a lot of credit. They\u2019re working hard to get a tire that lays rubber and falls off. Even though maybe these conditions it didn\u2019t fall off as much as some guys would have liked it to have, the effort is certainly being put there.<\/p>\n
Then it goes back to what Alan is talking about, the strategy, what happens on pit road, some of those calls being so critical to the outcome of a race. That keeps it exciting and fun.<\/p>\n
Q. Winning this early in the season, that\u2019s big. What do you think that does for your confidence and momentum?<\/p>\n
ALAN GUSTAFSON: Chase told me this is the earliest we\u2019ve won. I guess that\u2019s true. Yeah, my response to him was, It\u2019s going to be a nice off week (smiling). That\u2019s probably the best thing right now.<\/p>\n
Yeah, I mean, winning is special. Like, it\u2019s such a huge accomplishment to win these races. Then the energy and enthusiasm and confidence that that brings to not only the 9 team but the shop in general. Yeah, I think for me, this one, I\u2019m rambling a bit, but just not winning on our own terms, it wasn\u2019t like we were the guy who should have won the race if you\u2019re looking on it on paper. That message is strong, right?<\/p>\n
Ultimately when you know you can win from 10th or whatever position if you just continue to hammer away and to do everything you can to give yourself a shot, I think that\u2019s a strong message, a lesson for us. I think that will help us out as we go through the season.<\/p>\n
Q. Alan, when this new format went into place, the chase, a lot of people pointed to the 9 team as being a big benefactor. Year in, year out, you\u2019re typically near or at the point, good job with stage points. When this changed, what were your thoughts? Do you think this benefits you guys maybe more than anyone else?<\/p>\n
ALAN GUSTAFSON: I like the change, for sure. Not for selfish reasons, but just because I know having raced that 10-race \u2014 at the time, the toughest for me was a 10-race, 10-team Playoff. Having raced that, I felt like that was the best indication of the best team.<\/p>\n
When the change happened, I felt like that was the same, I felt the same way, that that was ultimately going to be a better indication of who is the most deserving champion.<\/p>\n
Yeah, I think the old format was really exciting, there were some cool things about it. There were some jackpot kind of wins or however you want to describe it. I just feel like, you know, like today, there\u2019s so many circumstances that go in at any given time, that can change the outcome of the race.<\/p>\n
I think it\u2019s nice to have, yeah, 10 weeks. I think that we are great suited to win either. If I\u2019m choosing, I like this.<\/p>\n
THE MODERATOR: Congratulations.<\/p>\n
NASCAR PR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE MODERATOR: We are now joined by vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, Jeff Gordon. We\u2019ll open it up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":570012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,10660,34486,14056,49133,4384,4385,12716,634,721,82,926],"class_list":["post-570615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-chase","tag-dale-earnhardt","tag-dale-earnhardt-jr","tag-goodyear","tag-hendrick-motorsports","tag-jeff-gordon","tag-motorsports","tag-nascar","tag-series","tag-sports","tag-toyota"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}