Cliff Daniels on Indy win: ‘We know how special this is’
Cliff Daniels recaps the No. 5 team's day from Indianapolis after grabbing the 11th victory for Hendrick Motorsports at the Brickyard.
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00:00Well, he just got done kissing the bricks because Cliff Daniels is a winner in the brickyard
00:03400.
00:04Atop the pit box.
00:05I don't know how you called it today because, man, the strategies came into play, but your
00:08driver put on a clinic.
00:09You restarted 23rd and drove through the field.
00:13How did the team do it?
00:14Yeah, I didn't realize it was that far back.
00:16Let's try to think through from the start of the day.
00:19I thought we were going to be able to hang kind of with the 11.
00:22Obviously, he was a great car.
00:23I think we were, you know, right there in the mix of the group of cars that are really
00:27good at the front.
00:28And then when we had that pit stop, the right rear lug actually started to cross thread.
00:33I probably owe the guys a little bit of an apology.
00:35I was kind of hard on him because I thought we just had a mistake.
00:38But honestly, Calvin did a great job of working through it, not letting it be worse than what
00:42it ultimately ended up being.
00:44And we had to pit again and kind of try to overcome that.
00:47So it put us on our heels for strategy.
00:49And then, you know, the way it kind of fell back and forth.
00:53Nobody had a crystal ball to know how fuel was going to come into play or not.
00:56If there were more yellows, more guys could make it.
00:58If there was less yellows, it was going to work out in our favor.
01:01But that was kind of our only move at the time.
01:03And we knew to get through traffic, we were going to have to be free enough.
01:06So I probably made more of an adjustment than what we were comfortable with.
01:11And I think the ability of our car to get turned and get through traffic and, of course,
01:14Kyle did an amazing job, you know, that kind of helped to start getting through there.
01:18I did not realize we restarted 23rd.
01:20So that's a lot of cars that we had to pass to get up there.
01:23In fairness, some were saving fuel.
01:25But luckily, we had the right adjustment at the right time.
01:28This is the 11th win for Hendrick motorsports in Indianapolis.
01:31I know it's been different.
01:32It's been a road course.
01:33We're back on the oval this year.
01:34But what is it about this place for you guys?
01:37We just know how special it is.
01:38I mean, the history speaks for itself.
01:40You walk when you fly into this town, you don't have to walk in the racetrack.
01:43You fly into this town.
01:45You feel the vibe that, you know, the locals are so just embedded in the racing community.
01:49There's so much racing heritage and history here.
01:53It just makes it so special.
01:54You know, from the time we land on the ground to the time we go wheels up tonight, it's
01:59just enjoyable to be here.
02:00You know, whether the weather is good or not, you know, the good Lord bless us with a great
02:02weekend for weather and obviously all the things that went our way today.
02:07You know, it's historic.
02:08And then, of course, to bring home number 11 for Mr. and Mrs. Hendrick on the 40th season.
02:13Testament to everybody back at the shop, everybody to help us get to this point and very proud
02:17and thankful to bring home for Mr. and Mrs. H.
02:20You're showing the Bricks some love.
02:21How'd they taste?
02:22They tasted great.
02:23I would love to do it again.
02:24Congratulations.
02:25Thanks.