Blake Harris: Confidence key in Alex Bowman’s Pocono performance

Blake Harris, crew chief of Alex Bowman's No. 48 Chevrolet, talks about the team's runner-up result at Pocono Raceway.

Transcript

00:00solid day for the 48 team Blake Harris crew chief of Alex Bowman Blake having a

00:05strong day here today at Pocono so much of that goes back to what you do on pit

00:08road talk with the strategy specifically that last pit window yeah it kind of

00:13shifted on us mid race you know that we had that mid that caution the middle of

00:16stage one and a lot of guys come down and we felt like they would run through

00:20the stage at that point we'd originally wanted to flip the stage and kind of

00:23preserve track position all day so that kind of put us in a weird spot still had

00:26a few guys that peeled off coming to the stage in and that gave us the

00:30opportunity to pick up some valuable stage points so we went ahead and did

00:32that and really just kind of buried ourselves another 10-15 cars further

00:36back than we wanted to at that point so we got that little caution in stage two

00:40that gave us opportunity to go ahead and take rights try to get a chunk of it

00:43back knowing that you know you get him you kind of get a miss at tuning your

00:46car to four tires and all those things but we did get about half that track

00:49position back he did a great job on the restarts and then how that all played

00:52out the end just like being able to take the right amount of fuel and setting

00:55ourselves up for rights and minimal amount of fuel is ultimately what got us

00:59up in there in the top five at the end and gave him a shot so looking back to

01:04last week you making the call on pit road ultimately was what really helped

01:08that team get their first win of the season that being your first win as a

01:11crew chief in the Cup Series as well did that have an effect on your confidence

01:14now moving forward and making decisions for this team on the box I mean it

01:19certainly didn't hurt but you know there's certain scenario that had to

01:22play out we had to have the caution those slick tire guys had to be caught

01:26up a little bit in traffic like and Alex had to will the heck out of it he

01:29did a great job and and ultimately it all played out just right to where we

01:33could win but you know 50% of time it goes the other way so I you know I have

01:38confidence and with our team and Alex has confidence in me that we're gonna

01:43take the best shot set ourselves up for opportunity to win races and maximize

01:47points where we can and sometimes it works out sometimes it doesn't and just

01:50glad it did back on the oval next week at Indy this team obviously has some

01:54great momentum where's your confidence heading into that race yeah I think

01:57Pocono is always a good shape up for what Indy's gonna look like there's a

02:00lot of similarities to turn to to Indy we got we did a tire tester last year as

02:05well so and our engine shops been working hard to keep bringing big power

02:09and they have and that showed I think in qualifying and in the race as well so

02:13really stoked to get to Indy and see if we can get a brickyard one thanks Blake

02:17thank you