NASCAR CUP SERIES COKE ZERO SUGAR 400 DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY TEAM CHEVY PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT AUGUST 30, 2020
WILLIAM BRYON SCORES FIRST CAREER VICTORY AT DAYTONA FINALEClaims Berth in NASCAR Cup Series 2020 Playoffs
DAYTONA, FL. – (August 29, 2020) – William Byron, driver of the No. 24 Liberty University Camaro ZL1 1LE, won the Coke Zero Sugar 400 NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) race at Daytona International Speedway in a wild overtime finish, and secured a spot in the upcoming 10-race season-ending Playoffs. The victory was Byron’s first in 98 NCS races, and ninth top-10 finish in 2020. He led 24 of the 164-laps and scored a .119-second victory at the checkered flag. It was the Hendrick Motorsports driver’s first win in six races at the 2.5-mile superspeedway.
Hendrick teammate, Chase Elliott, claimed second place in the No. 9 Hooters Camaro ZL1 1LE, and Bubba Wallace finished fifth in his No. 43 World Wide Technology Camaro ZL1 LE. Alex Bowman, in the No. 88 Axalta Camaro ZL1 1LE for Hendrick Motorsports, finished seventh, and Brendan Gaughan, in the No. 62 Beard Motorsports/South Point Camaro ZL1 1LE was eighth, to give Team Chevy five of the top eight finishing positions.
Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, Jimmie Johnson, behind the wheel of the No. 48 Ally Camaro ZL1 1LE, was involved in an 11-car crash with two laps remaining before the ultimate overtime finish. The Hendrick Motorsports driver rallied to 17th place overall, but fell just short of joining the 16-driver Playoff field.
Byron’s win marked the fifth of the 2020 season for the Camaro ZL1 1LE; the 49th win at Daytona for the Bowtie Brand, and 791st all-time for Chevrolet in NASCAR’s premier series.
Byron becomes only the second driver to earn a Cup Series victory in the No. 24 race car following Jeff Gordon, who took the No. 24 to Victory Lane 93 times. The win is the 260th triumph for car owner, Rick Hendrick and Hendrick Motorsports.
Toyota drivers Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex, Jr. finished third and fourth, respectively, at the finish.
Of the 16 drivers now secured in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, five are Team Chevy contenders: Joining Hendrick Motorsports teammates Elliott, Bowman, and Byron, are Austin Dillon, driver of the No. 3 Dow VORASURF Camaro ZL1 1LE for Richard Childress Racing, and Kurt Busch, aboard the No. 1 Monster Energy Camaro ZL1 1LE for Chip Ganassi Racing.
The NASCAR Cup Series season continues next weekend at Darlington Raceway with the Cook Out Southern 500, the opening round of the 2020 Playoffs, on Sunday, September 6 at 6:00 p.m. ET. Live coverage will air on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
WILLIAM BYRON, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1 1LE, POST-RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
THE MODERATOR: Thank you for taking the time to join us. Congratulations on the win, the Playoff berth, everything. Can you walk us through how you’re feeling right now? WILLIAM BYRON: Well, incredible. On Cloud 9 for sure. There was a point in that race that I didn’t really think things were going to work out in our favor to make the Playoffs, really have an opportunity next week. This was kind of one of those do‑or‑die situations. Kind of crossed that fork in the road tonight. We were able to be aggressive and make it happen. Really just the final probably 10 laps of the race I was on offense, trying to just win the race and take whatever run I could. Luckily was able to make the moves that I needed to. Got just enough daylight between the 22 and the 43 to kind of split that gap. I pushed the 43 really aggressively up, and he had done a great job to hold onto his car, get us to that place and position. From there, the next restart got a great push from the 14. I was fortunate that things worked out to where I had the 9 with me on the last lap, was able to make it work. Just incredible. Don’t even know what to say really. It’s a huge blessing. THE MODERATOR: We’ll open up the floor for questions. Q. Can you describe your emotions from the first red flag where things didn’t look that great to the finish where you score your first career win and get in the Playoffs?WILLIAM BYRON: Honestly the emotions for me were just to make it happen, try to get where I needed to be. I was taking every single run in the last five, six laps of that race. I think that’s what you’re supposed to do. It’s what Dale Jr. has taught me at JRM days. Really was able to work it out. Very fortunate that the runs did work out because a lot of times they don’t. This time they did, so it was great. Q. The first year that this race was at Daytona, end‑of‑the‑season race. Can you imagine it being more pressure filled or were you relaxed throughout?WILLIAM BYRON: You couldn’t have picked a more pressure‑packed race. When you’re at a superspeedway, the running order changes every two laps practically, it’s incredible to put that much pressure on a couple of points. You really can’t points race, which I think is probably what they want us to do. They want us to go for wins, try to compete hard. It was a perfect format for that. I’m fortunate that worked out for us. I probably would have been frustrated if it didn’t. It really forces your hand to go for the win. You just got to go all out. Pretty incredible. Kind of elimination style race this was tonight. I think it prepares us for the future eliminations coming up in the Playoffs. Really had the feeling of what it was like being in the Xfinity championship race. Was pretty crazy out there. Q. Back to Dover, first race, it was a struggle for you guys. On the radio you were pretty frustrated with each other. Was there a conversation between you and Chad after that race to clear the air?WILLIAM BYRON: Yeah, I mean, I think through those situations, they’re not pretty. It was the worst time of the year to have a bad race like that. We learned more about each other in those moments, in those situations. I think I learned a little bit about him, what things I could learn, how to communicate better. He learned a little bit about me, as well. I think that’s what’s propelled us into this hot streak we’re on. We had a fourth on Sunday, then under pressure ‑‑ both races were under extreme pressure and we executed. That’s a good sign for what’s coming up. Q. You talked about learning. What did you learn about him and he about you?WILLIAM BYRON: Just tones, what information is helpful, what’s not. It’s not personal by any means. It’s just what’s helpful. What can I do to help him get the car better, and what can he do to help me. We had a phenomenal run on Sunday at Dover, drove from I think we started 23rd and finished fourth. That was a great run. Come here and win the race is incredible. Thankful for his support. Just really blessed. Q. Chad is an intense competitor. Is it hard to match that intensity, have a crew chief that is telling you what to do, sometimes maybe too much?WILLIAM BYRON: It’s not hard. He just wants it as bad as I do. Some crew chiefs I guess are a little bit more laid back. I don’t know. We both want it really bad. We want to try to win races and keep it going. Q. We’re going back a couple years, but when you first entered the Cup Series, did you imagine getting your first win a little bit earlier? Did you ever question yourself and think if you could really get it done?WILLIAM BYRON: No, I think you just got to capitalize, given the opportunity. The opportunities in the Cup Series to win races, it’s hard. You just got to capitalize. It came together tonight. We capitalized. I don’t know. It’s the best series, really it’s tough out there. You got to fight really hard. I’ve learned a lot, learned a lot about how to get to that next step. So hopefully we just keep it going. Q. After 98 tries, when you crossed the finish line, what was the first thought that popped into your head?WILLIAM BYRON: The Playoffs. I guess just thinking about that. Honestly the first thought probably was just how excited I knew that my team was, how excited Tab was on the radio, how excited Chad was, how excited I was. That feeling of coming off four, it’s just a shot of adrenaline right into your arm, it really is. It’s just an incredible feeling. I can’t describe winning a race in NASCAR. It’s been a while, so it just is an awesome feeling. Q. Before today where would you have expected to get your first Cup win if not Daytona?WILLIAM BYRON: I didn’t really expect it anywhere. I think this was probably a great opportunity for it. I didn’t really expect it anywhere. I think we came really close at Martinsville last year racing Truex, ironically racing Martin again tonight. I don’t know. Whenever you’re really, really close, you got to capitalize. Definitely thankful that it worked out tonight. Q. With 15 to go, late in the race, the call to bring your car down pit road, was there any emotions behind the wheel thinking the chance to make the Playoffs was out the window at that point?WILLIAM BYRON: No. I mean, I think Chad and I had a good plan going in that we wanted to be able to be aggressive. We ran quite a bit of laps on those tires, some pretty hard ones, two‑ and three‑wide at the front. I think it was the right call. Yeah, it was pretty jammed up and hard to get back up towards the front. But there’s always a lot of laps left at these tracks. I really think the good fortune of the race was when we missed that wreck. I just had a feeling after missing that wreck that we were in a good position. We kind of crossed that one hurdle that seems to take at this track to really win races. As soon as you do that you kind of got to capitalize on it. I knew once we got to two or three to go we had a great opportunity. Typically, there’s some things that happen on that final restart that I’ve noticed. We were just in the right position. Kind of being second there might have been the better position to be in. We’re really fortunate that worked out, the 14 was pushing us, then just had to be aggressive. Q. With all of the strategizing on superspeedways, how important is the spotter and the crew chief encouraging you on?WILLIAM BYRON: I think it’s probably the most critical thing on the speedway, knowing where other cars are in terms of whether that comes from your spotter or the mirror. I feel like it’s a little bit of both. You use your spotter as a guide. It’s kind of 50% of the equation. The other equation is your mirrors. I think we try to spend a lot of time in the shop getting that stuff right. It paid off tonight, just knowing where other cars are, especially in the last couple laps, being able to watch your mirrors. iRacing has some good programs on there for the realism aspect of the visuals. Kind of learned some things off of that, too. Q. Do you feel if you had not taken the move between the 22 and the 43 that you would have likely been involved?WILLIAM BYRON: I don’t really know what happened. I don’t know if I directly caused it or not. Sure I had a role because cars were bouncing off me both sides. They bounced off each other. The 22 made a late block. They bounced off each other. I had already pushed the 43 into that hole, so I was committed. At that point not the middle but daylight opened up between the two cars after they bounced off each other. They kind of separated. I had enough of a run to stick in it there and complete it practically. I was going to go for that because I needed the points and I needed to try to finish the race in first, second or third. I really had that in mind. As soon as that happened I really went for it. Then the final restart was really me versus Denny and the 19. It came down to just a couple guys. I had to try to make it happen there, too. Q. How much information did you get from Tab to get through that wreck? Did you go through it with both eyes open?WILLIAM BYRON: I did. Tab played a really big role there. I mean, he said to go low before I even thought about going low. I was kind of in the middle of the track. I was on the top of three‑wide. I just made a move on the 19 to get to the outside of him into turn three. I saw the 18 start to smoke up there. I was hoping he would hold it against the wall and not cause a wreck. I think a wreck happened right behind him. However, it formed, those guys just started to kind of go up against the wall. I still had enough momentum to kind of try to get by it. Tab said to go low and gas it up. He was really on his game there. You just got to go for any daylight that you see, just hope it works out. Luckily the 37 kind of went back up the track, I gassed it up to get by. It just worked out. It was incredible really. I think that was a turning point for sure. Very fortunate that worked out to allow us to have an opportunity. Q. You alluded earlier how the first thought in your mind was you were in the Playoffs. That starts next week. Is it difficult to get your first win, have to quickly shift focus to race in the Playoffs?WILLIAM BYRON: I mean, fortunately we have pretty long weeks now with no practice and qualifying. Kind of get a few days to take it in. I think we get two more days than normal. Got Sunday tomorrow, which I’m probably going to hang out with some buddies, try to have a good time. Then Monday, Tuesday we’ll get ready for Darlington. We had a pretty good car there. We’re going to make some improvements. Darlington is a track we traditionally have run well at. Looking forward to that one, for sure. Q. When you look back on this race 20 years down the road, what are you going to remember most about it?WILLIAM BYRON: Just the excitement of crossing the line. It’s been a long time coming for this win in the Cup Series. I was thinking the other day before this race actually just how long it’s actually been since I’ve won a race. I’ve really been wanting to win and have that feeling again of adrenaline. The Duel this year was kind of half of that, I’d say, three‑quarters of that feeling. I just want that feeling again. This is awesome, man. It’s going to be great to celebrate with my family. Just extremely blessed and fortunate that it worked out. THE MODERATOR: William, thank you so much for taking the time to join us. Congratulations on the win. We will see you at Darlington. WILLIAM BYRON: Thanks, guys.
CHAD KNAUS, CREW CHIEF, NO. 24 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY CAMARO ZL1 1LE, POST-RACE PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
THE MODERATOR: Chad, thank you for joining us. We are joined by the crew chief of the winning No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team. Walk through what it feels like to be with William to get that first win and the Playoff berth.
CHAD KNAUS: The emotions obviously have run rampant over the last few weeks with the position we’ve been in. It’s been unfortunate the 24 has been back this far, needing to battle so hard for the Playoff spot. Coming into the weekend we were optimistic. We felt like we were going to have a good race car. Felt like the car was going to perform well. We knew William was really good at superspeedway racing. He’s done exceptionally well at the restrictor plate tracks, been able to get a lot of stage points. Going into today we really didn’t know what was going to happen, obviously. There was a lot of excitement and energy coming into the track this weekend. To be able to get out there and race competitively all race long, William doing a really good job of missing some critical crashes out there, put us in a good spot to get the victory, for Liberty and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports. It was a long time coming. Obviously the goal for me was to try to get to Victory Lane with this 24 car again. To be able to do it here in Daytona is really special.
THE MODERATOR: We’ll take questions for Chad. Q. You’ve been part of a lot of big moments, big‑time performances. How big is this in the sense of Byron with all the pressure on winning?CHAD KNAUS: I think it’s really big obviously. The one thing to be selfish from my standpoint is I wanted to get to Victory Lane with a car number as a crew chief without Jimmie Johnson on top of the door. Nothing against Jimmie or any of that, but just to do it, to see if I could accomplish it. We’ve come close, had some really solid runs with the 24 car. Not as many this year as we would have liked to have had. To do it really means a lot, to be able to bring this team into the Playoffs again. Last year in the Playoffs we performed really well. I’m really excited about the Playoffs this year. I think we have some racetracks at that we’ll run competitive. We’ll see what goes. Q. What were your thoughts on the first red flag?CHAD KNAUS: Obviously we were curious of what was going to happen. We knew there’s a long ways to go before the race was over with. Laps here at Daytona just take forever. There’s so many opportunities for guys to be aggressive, push. We knew there was going to be a lot more action before the race was over with. We needed to get ourselves in a position to get out there and battle with it. William held true and did a really good job of keeping focused, keeping his eyes forward, watching the guys behind him. Tab, our spotter, did a good job of keeping him informed of what was happening around us. We were in a real good position after skirting that crash. Q. How do you move forward and try to make sure this team advances?CHAD KNAUS: It’s all in the details, right? We have to make sure that we execute properly. Going to Darlington, a great racetrack for us. We’ve run well there. Sat on the pole there last year, ran up front. Ran up front in the first race in the spring this year. Unfortunately, we had a loose wheel and crashed. Second race we ran reasonable. But we didn’t execute the details as well as what we needed to. Getting back to Charlotte, getting back to work on Monday, executing the way we need to to make sure we take a race car over there, I think we have a competitive opportunity to go there and run up towards the front. That’s what we need to do. I’m not sure where we start. I’m sure somebody could tell me what our starting position is. That’s going to be critical with pit selection. If we can be up towards the front, get our legs out from underneath us, get going, we’re going to be okay. Q. You mentioned the Jimmie aspect of this, trying to win without him. How do you handle the emotions of this win, having a role in excluding Jimmie from the Playoffs in his final season?CHAD KNAUS: Man, c’mon. I feel awful. Let’s be quite honest, right? Jimmie shouldn’t be in this position. If it hadn’t been for COVID, him missing a race, he should have been solid in the Playoffs. That hurts. I hate it for Jimmie. He’s one of my best friends. He was the first guy that came by pit road and looked up at me, revved up the engine, gave me a thumbs up. He means the world to me. He’s a great man and brother of mine. It hurts me, but it is what we do, we compete. We’ve got to go do what we need to do. Q. The red flag, you seemed to be going back and forth on pitting, tire rub or not. Seemed like there was some indecision. Walk me through that.CHAD KNAUS: Oh, man, it was tough. It was tough. Obviously we knew we had some damage on the left rear tire, at least some contact. The lettering was rubbed off the sidewall of the tire. There was some contact there. We didn’t really know how bad it was. It was a tough spot, right? We knew we were ahead of the 48 at that point. We should have been obviously, we would have been, if we came down pit road. There was the opportunity for the 95 or the 17 up there to maybe push through and get the win, which would have then bumped us out. We had to make a decision on whether to go for it, see if we could make it for the two laps or pit. With the way our luck has been this year, quite honestly I was leaning towards pitting, making sure the fenders were clear from the tires, getting out there and get a good finish, making sure we finished five or six spots ahead of the 48. As we ran around, got some help from our TV partners out there, they took the drone, running around the car, I was able to see what the damage looked like. It helped us realize that we felt we were clear and we could make it a couple laps. Q. Does this prove to yourself that you can win without Jimmie Johnson?CHAD KNAUS: It makes me feel good, for sure. Jimmie could have probably won a lot more races if he had a better crew chief than me. How is that (smiling)? Q. On the radio after you won the race, you’re still being a crew chief, reprimanding. You seemed subdued. That is a fair assessment?CHAD KNAUS: Big dummies. I told them to go out there so they would get on TV and get a good picture of themselves. I told them to stay six feet apart. The first thing they did was go over there and picked up the driver. We’re going to hand out some team fines out. Just kidding (laughter). Q. Is it that you have a young team, have to mold them?CHAD KNAUS: You have to do that with any team. Any head coach or coach does that, right, if you’re trying to keep your guys safe and do what’s right. In this situation we’ve got to make sure we’re being smart about how we approach everything at the racetrack. Yeah, I was just telling them to give each other some space, still enjoy the time, but get some space. Q. After how long it took William to get this win, how do your feelings tonight compare to what you experienced with Jimmie back in 2002 at Fontana?CHAD KNAUS: Oh, geez. I don’t know if I can remember back that far. That was a long time ago. It’s a different emotion. It’s a different time. Obviously in 2002 it was just different. It was so raw and so pure, just a different time. William is experiencing those emotions right now obviously. I think it’s fantastic. We’ve got a handful of guys on the team that have never won a Cup race before. They’re going through those same emotions. For me it’s quite honestly a little bit more of a relief than maybe the elation of victory. I’ll be honest with you. I really wanted to get to Victory Lane with this 24 car again. To be able to do it with the legacy that Jeff Gordon and Ray Evernham started with this car, at Hendrick Motorsports to get it back to Victory Lane, follow suit with what Chase was able to do with the 24 car, to put William’s name up there, it’s a lot of pressure. I feel really happy about it and definitely a lot of relief. Q. Throughout this race obviously it stayed calm for the most part. Daytona typically plays out, you get some big wrecks at the end. Did you see this playing out or did it have a different feel?CHAD KNAUS: I think it definitely had a little bit more ‑‑ it depends on the situation. If you’re a guy that is locked into the Playoffs, you have a bunch of wins, don’t have to worry, it probably felt like it did in July from their perspective. For myself and the 21 and the 48, the handful of guys trying to win a race to make it into the Playoffs, I guarantee you the intensity was way higher. The pressure that they all felt was significantly different. For me it was high. It was really high. But quite honestly, I love it. That’s why we do what we do. That’s why we compete. If it was easy, nobody would want to do it. Yeah, it felt really good after the race when we got that checkered flag. Q. Chevrolet’s performance at the start of the year, looked like you were back. COVID, summer months. Where do you feel you are competitively, close that 50‑point gap to Harvick?CHAD KNAUS: Gee, whizz, already asking me that question? I think our superspeedway program looks fantastic, really good. I think we can go to Talladega and race well there. Our road course package obviously is really good. I feel comfortable with that. Darlington, I think we get around there pretty well. Martinsville we get around really well. Probably the sticking point for me right now is Richmond. I’m really not certain about that. Some guys run really well there, we haven’t as of late. Phoenix I think we can run pretty well. Man, I think we got a shot. Our package is picking up speed. I think we’ve seen that based off the performance at Dover last weekend. I think we ran really well along with our teammates. I think that kind of shows what we’re capable of. We ran well on Sunday, not on Saturday, but I think you get my point. I think we’ve got a shot to get up there, fight with these guys a little bit. I’m not going to say we can’t, but we haven’t shown we can get out there and run races with those guys as consistently as they can, finish in the top five as consistently as they can. Sometimes it only takes a little spark to light a fire, and maybe this is just that spark. Q. I read something that said you have now made every single Playoffs. Explain how that feels to you with some of the greatest crew chiefs.CHAD KNAUS: I think it’s great. Obviously it’s an honor to be able to be in this position, battle year in and year out for the championship. Some of them better than others obviously. But I do feel that some of the guys that I’ve seen come and go through our sport were better crew chiefs than myself. I maybe just had a little bit of luck on my side from time to time to get us to this position. It’s pretty cool. Hopefully that will go on my plaque one day when they hang it on the wall. Who knows. Q. With 15 to go, bringing William down pit road, cost a lot of track position at the time, but was there any doubt William was going to be stuck back there?CHAD KNAUS: Man, I was kicking myself in the butt right after we did it. I was a little frustrated. Man, maybe we shouldn’t have done that. Maybe we should have stayed out. Quite honestly, I see maneuverability be so important at the end of these races. Getting tires at this track on a short run like that I think is a good thing. I feel like we were going to get back up there and run. Crashes happen. Having fresh tires, it’s easier for the drivers to navigate around the crashes. We opted to do it. We’ve had success in the past making some decisions like that. Even though at one point there it wasn’t looking great, it panned out. It kind of happened the way we thought it would have. If we were up front, we would have been swept up with the 3 and the 1. I think it was the right call now looking back. It was the right call at the time. Q. You’ve faced a lot of questions concerning Jimmie Johnson, but one more. What was it like, the transition between being the crew chief for Jimmie Johnson and now William? Did you have to change the way you were a crew chief for the different drivers?CHAD KNAUS: Yeah, of course, obviously. I also had to change the way I was a crew chief for Jimmie from the way we started in 2002 to when we ended in the middle 2015s. I think, look, like I’ve said, I’m a good crew chief, I’m not the best crew chief that’s ever walked out there by any means. I think a good coach understands the situation and understands how to morph and adapt to the circumstances you’re in. Working with William is a completely different set of circumstances than what it was working with a seven‑time championship driver. I think we’ve done a pretty good job. Great, no. But we’ve done a pretty good job. We have been able to make the Playoffs both years. Now we are fortunate enough to have a victory. Hopefully we can get out there and have some success in the final 10 races.
THE MODERATOR: Chad, thank you so much for taking the time to join us.
CHAD KNAUS: Thank you.