The Chevrolet NASCAR races forward under the leadership of Greg Ives

Greg Ives led the legends of the NASCAR such as Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson or Chase Elliott. When setting up the commando team in charge of entering a Next Gen NASCAR in the centennial edition, Rick Hendrick logically turned to one of his most talented shadow men. Because Ives is familiar with the famous routine that leads to success: arrive at the circuit, work hard, sleep, repeat. But he freely admits that nothing had prepared him to face the greatest race in history.Endurance of the world !

The Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 took care of its entrance © Paulo Maria / DPPI

Greg, how are you experiencing this Le Mans experience?

It's particularly intense! The somewhat crazy decision to enter this NASCAR car at Le Mans, the setting up of the project in a very short time…. It's crazy, it's a lot of fun, it's very exciting, but nervously exhausting. This morning during the Warm Up we made sure everything was going well so at the start I finally felt pretty confident.

You are the conductor of this Hendrick Motorsports team. What did you have to learn before the race?

Almost everything! The procedures are very different from what we know. Take the example of the training lap, it’s already a regulation in itself (laughs). From the grid procedure, to the pit stops, I had to assimilate everything... We learned a lot by interacting with the other General Motors teams (Chevrolet and Cadillac editor's note) but our entire team comes from NASCAR and had to learn and understand everything very quickly, but with immense pleasure.

The whole team seems to enjoy this adventure, from the mechanics to the drivers?

I assure you that our smiles are not forced. Just the reaction from the fans already brings us so much happiness. It's a complex project, and of course we went through certain phases that didn't make us smile but rather scratch our heads trying to find solutions to insoluble problems. But in the end we managed to bring this car onto the grid with the performance we were aiming for.

Each of the three drivers successfully completed their first stints despite the difficult track conditions between rain and accidents. How do you approach the arrival of night?

We'll just see how the race continues. It's crazy what can happen in a few hours and how everything can be turned upside down, so we approach it with humility, lap after lap. I just want to be able to say that with this exceptional team I completed my first 24 Hour race. At Le Mans it wouldn't be bad!

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