TALLADEGA, Ala.: Hendrick Motorsports crew chief Greg Ives elaborated about his tweet earlier this week at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway Saturday morning when he apologized to his driver Alex Bowman after became sidelined for Sunday’s YellaWood 500 after being diagnosed with concussion-like symptoms.
“Ultimately, I think it’s for me, it’s all about togetherness as far I’m in the sport with NASCAR, with Goodyear with the race teams. I’m part of the race teams. Ultimately, it’s my job to make sure my driver, Alex is put in the safest situation possible,” Ives explained. “For me, decisions I made probably throughout the Texas race, ultimately cost us a crash probably and thinking I could have something different that’s how I look at things. I look in the mirror before I look into the crowd.”
While Ives would not go into specific details surrounding the current NASCAR Cup Series Playoff driver being sidelined for the second race in the Round of 12, Ives said that Bowman took the responsibility upon himself to get checked out before heading to the monstrous 2.66-mile superspeedway this weekend.
“Alex is very responsible, especially with Dale (Earnhardt Jr.) as a mentor. Ultimately, it was his decision to get evaluated – go those steps and everything checked out,” added Ives. “Ultimately, it’s a tough situation. In the end, the right decision was made no matter how the decision was made.”
Ives is no stranger to dealing with drivers with concussion-like symptoms. He was the crew chief for Dale Earnhardt Jr. who also suffered from concussion-like symptoms at several points during his career – including a stint where Earnhardt climbed from his car and Bowman served as a substitute driver.
Like Bowman this week, Ives as the leader of the No. 48 Ally Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE takes responsibility then and now – even if blame shouldn’t be put on his shoulders when his drivers can’t race.
“Being through this before with Dale (Earnhardt Jr.). I felt like a lot of his accidents – concussions was put on me so that’s my nature that’s who I am,” explained Ives. “No matter what anybody else says that’s ultimately what I’m going to think and I’m going to hope to help improve it.”
Even with expected changes coming to the Nex Gen car soon with an improved rear clip and rear bumper, Ives spent time with NASCAR officials Scott Miller and John Probst on Friday at Talladega giving input and feedback hoping to make the sport safer for all.
“I said I was going to help improve it and you gotta act on those words,” explained Ives. “I reached out to Scott Miller not only through the process of the driver change but I just wanted to go over a few things that could potentially could help or what I saw or what I experienced with the car.
“Ultimately can talk about the rear impacts being greater and you can’t foresee the future, but ultimately for us just trying to put the best racecar around him and safety equipment. We saw what happened with Kurt and just trying to go from there.
“Just to have that dialogue open. When you try to attack a problem, you want allies to help you with it and I want to be one of those guys.”
While some in the garage are quick to point fingers solely at NASCAR for perhaps not constructing the new Next-Gen racecar as safe as they possibly could, Ives wasn’t ready to put it all on them.
“We gotta come together,” he said. “We can’t continue to think it’s one individual’s fault or one sanctioning body’s fault or one race team’s fault. We gotta come together as a group of drivers, as executives, as team owners, as crew chief and say,” hey, what can we do to make this better?”
“Understanding the problem is I think clear. Solving the problem is where it starts to get a little cloudy and the common expense of it to what the right move is. That’s where I would like to continue to go.
“When you have a car of this nature, development slows down quickly comparatively to when a race team had it. There’s way for us to get better without a lot of expense and the time frame has to be shorter on these types of developments.”
With a planned Next-Gen crash test expected this upcoming weekend in Ohio, it’s unknown if changes will come before the end of the season next month at Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway, but Ives hopes the updates do come before the curtain falls on the season.
Even if the updates rollout for the Championship 4 race at Phoenix on Nov. 6, 2022, Ives sees that as a win.
“I think time is running out. Even if it’s for one race, it’s better than none and waiting,” he mentioned. “After Talladega, you have Vegas and that’s a big place you can hit. Like I said, if we get one race of development in then that’s a win for everyone.”
“You cannot knee-jerk react, especially in these types of situations. I think NASCAR has done a great job of trying to put regulations around the driver’s seat, headrest, headrest foam those type of things, leg boards to try and provide security and safety to them.
I think that’s another area that we can look to potentially improve, especially for rear impacts.
“I think NASCAR has done a great job of trying to put regulations around the driver seat, headrest, headrest foam, those types of things, leg board, to try to provide extra security and safety for them. I think that’s another area where we can look to potentially improve, especially for rear impacts. I can look at some education at how to crash.
“It seems very silly to say but if you look at the video, Alex with the way he drives, his head is off the headrest. His head is forward and it created that little bit of a gap created acceleration through the headrest that was quick and most likely could have caused the concussion-like symptoms. Your natural reaction is to brace. I don’t know how you can educate and teach that.”
Ives said he is hopeful that Bowman can return to competition for the October 9 race at the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway ROVAL. NASCAR granted him a medical waiver, but Bowman likely would need to win next Sunday’s race to advance to the Round of 8.
“He’ll be back,” Ives explained. “He’s determined to be back. He wants to finish the season strong. We had good momentum in the first round but had a little setback here.
“I feel like he’s going to do everything he can to make sure he’s back and right now that’s 100 percent my goal for him is to be at the ROVAL.”
The goal for Bowman’s replacement driver Noah Gragson on Sunday is for him to keep the team’s owner Playoffs hopes alive and put Ally in Victory lane.
“He came to the shop and we were able to go through the driver debrief. We went through everything with him trying to find out what he needed to be comfortable inside the race car,” sounded Ives.
“I don’t care if you’re a 5-year-old sprint car racer or a veteran, you’re ready for these moments whenever they arrive. Ultimately that is what a true competitor is. They’re ready for the moment. They may have the nerves but they aren’t going to show it.
“Our goal is to continue (the playoffs) on the owner’s points championship and put ourselves in the best position at the end of the year. We’ll try to win both stages and try to win the race. I think that should be our mindset. If we sit and ride around all day nobody’s getting better. We might as well just stayed at home.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
