CONCORD, N.C. -- Greg Ives and his crew had a rough start to the Pocono Raceway doubleheader last year, but the crew chief of the No. 48 team is taking every scenario from the 2020 races at the Pennsylvania track and turning it into a learning experience.
Driver Alex Bowman suffered damage from hitting the wall in the first Pocono race last season after running in the top 10, which resulted in his day ending early and having to go to a backup car for the second race 24 hours later. While it wasn’t an ideal start, Bowman worked his way from the back of the field for a ninth-place finish.
“Working through it the first time, for some it wasn’t a bad deal and for some it was,” Ives said. “It’s just one of those things where it’s all just the unknowns that you don’t know. Whether it’s a normal schedule or not, basically it comes down to we have experience now. We have the ability to prepare from the experiences that we’ve had. In the past, we didn’t have those experiences to prepare; you just kind of got ready for all the unknowns.”
Last season’s Pocono races served as the first doubleheader in the history of the NASCAR Cup Series, which Ives later realized affected the personnel the teams bring to the track. He said while it’s now easy to communicate with certain members of the team over the radio or through Microsoft Teams, it becomes tricky when there are two races in the span of 24 hours.
“You’re probably going to try and take one of your fabricators more so than a mechanic or another engineer,” Ives explained. “Having that fabricator at the shop not capable to work on the race car at the track is obviously very difficult. He can relay over the phone what he would do, but instead of him being at home, I’m going to take him with us. Those are they type of things that you adjust to a little bit. Being prepared, whether you need engines, transmissions, any part of the driveline or going to the backup car, you’re a little bit more prepared here at the shop to build that possible reality.”
Luckily for Ives and the rest of his Hendrick Motorsports teammates, the organization has been pushing out top-notch performances over the past month. Owner Rick Hendrick's team is riding a five-race win streak, not including the All-Star Race, and has posted four 1-2 finishes in four of the last five events. With Ives’ background in engineering, he’s aiming to use his technical knowledge and Hendrick Motorsports’ momentum to plan for the most efficient calls possible at “The Tricky Triangle.”
“Strategy is something I love to do,” Ives said. “The team of engineers do a really good job of making time not only on pit road, but time under those type of strategies. I’m looking forward to doing that and getting better at Pocono. Turn three there – it’s no secret that it’s a tough corner to attack, and I think some of the stuff we’ve been doing over the course of the year is going to apply really well there. … How you pit, how you conduct your pit strategy, just the speed overall with the car on the racetrack, getting all three corners the best that you possibly can to outrun the next day.”
Ives, Bowman and the rest of their Hendrick Motorsports teammates will start their engines for Saturday’s race at 3 p.m. ET and will roll off the grid again Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET. Both Pocono events will be broadcast on NBCSN.