THE MODERATOR: Good evening, good morning, not sure which one it is officially. We are going to start here with our post race media availability this evening from the Coca-Cola 600 here at Charlotte Motor Speedway with the 11 team from Joe Gibbs Racing.
We’ve been joined by the crew chief from Sam McAualy. Sam, congratulations on this win tonight. I know you were in a little bit of a unique situation, the whole team was, coming into this weekend. Talk about how this team has rallied, won the pole yesterday, won the Coke 600 today, what that feels like here in this moment.
SAM McAUALY: It was a tough, tough deal getting two of our guys on the pit crew suspended and Gabehart. We really did a lot of pit practice this week. JGR pit department worked a lot with Mike and Nate, our two fill-ins on the pit crew. They did a great job all night. On that side of it, a lot of hours put in, a lot of reps for them in their new positions.
On the car side, I think the main focus was just we really need to bring the best car we can, like we always do. But I’d say getting the pole, that was definitely something we were really working on. I think that was major tonight because having the new guys on the pit crew, having that built-in advantage of stall one was very beneficial for us.
Just the mindset of knowing we have an advantage here, we just need to be solid, maintain. Ultimately I think that was part of the key of ensuring we were first car on four tires on that last stop.
THE MODERATOR: We’ll go to questions.
Q. (Question about walking through his day.)
SAM McAUALY: It was definitely a very long day. I think there was a lot of talk coming into this weekend from everybody in the series that this could be one of the longest Coke 600s we’ve ever had. It proved to be up there.
Denny, his experience of really staying in it. There’s quite a few times through the race that the car wasn’t right. He could make up some ground on a restart, then we’d start to fall back a little bit on both sides of the balance.
I think the key was him fighting to get those spots to keep us up there in the top 10. We’re on the back end of getting a couple stage points. Started to turn when he got multiple good restarts in stage four. Once we got to the top five, now the message was we’re in the top five with the number one pit stall, we can’t beat ’em straight up but let’s just keep fighting.
With the race being so much attrition, so many people falling out of the race, that was the biggest deal. I think Denny understood that from the get-go and even mentioned it at one point at halfway, like this is a survival race. Kind of like it’s felt at the Daytona 500 sometimes, but you also have durability concerns, all sorts of things to fight the whole night.
Q. You have access to so much data that guides you towards making decisions. Was there a moment in the race where you felt pressure that this was the decision you had to make?
SAM McAUALY: I think the way that it played out at the end with as many green laps we had on the tires, I think it was 47 or 48 green, the end of the race is where there was one of the first big decisions. There was a couple times we had to debate staying out or pitting. I’d say the last one for sure coming down to take four was the hardest.
You started to feel this is a lot of pressure. But I think we were in a unique spot in the sense that we knew we needed some sort of advantage to go up there and win. We didn’t really feel like we wanted to be in a position where Denny had to defend because tires were falling off quite a bit and the left sides were wearing as much as the right.
For us it was kind of like we didn’t have to question it much. We knew we were going to take four there. You could start to feel the weight of it when it comes time to do that coming down to the end.
Q. It’s not just Denny who this win means a lot to, it’s you guys. One of the crew guys said he’s been waiting 17 years for this. What does it mean for you as the crew chief and the rest of the team to finally win this race?
SAM McAUALY: Oh, man, it’s a huge race. I would call this my seventh Coke 600. I’ve had the privilege of winning the Daytona 500, but it’s definitely a different feeling than the Daytona 500.
From a team aspect of building a car that’s capable of going the full distance, and being able to compete at a high level the entire night, more so than any other race you just feel like it has to be a full team effort to win this race.
I think a lot of guys on the team, you feel it preparing for the weekend, too, just how big it is. Packed stands. It’s very special, for sure. It’s a big deal.
THE MODERATOR: Sam, congratulations again. Thanks for spending a few minutes with us.
SAM McAUALY: Thank you.
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