Here is what drivers had to say after Thursday’s Daytona 500 Duel qualifying races at Daytona International Speedway:
Bubba Wallace — Winner in Race 1: “What a good night. I didn’t know how it was going to play out, and we got the lead there and my Camry just switched like a light switch to a totally different balance from being in the pack. It was a little bit edgy out front, but luckily, I’ve got some years under my belt that people still trust me. I was lucky to have Tyler (Reddick) behind me – he did a great job pushing me. I appreciate that massive 23XI effort to get us this win. But all-in-all, it sets us up really good for Sunday. We will enjoy this little moment right now. I told myself I would do more of – enjoy the little stuff. But hats off to these guys here. Hats off to Charles (Denike, crew chief) – first time at Daytona in a Cup car, and we got him a win. I forgot where to go. I forgot where to stop. The best thing is – I cried when I walked out with Becks (Wallace’s son) on pit road for driver intros, and it is really special to have him here. It is awesome.”
Austin Cindric — Winner in Race 2: “It’s great to get the points and obviously have a fast car and get to practice a good bit of execution – a good teammate and good teamwork with most of the Fords, so I’m proud of that effort. The guys did a really great job and I’m happy I was able to race tonight. It’s a long week ahead. There’s still a lot to go. Obviously a great race for us and a fast Ford Mustang, but I would say a bit of a surprise there. I thought it was super close. Sitting from my perspective, I thought I got it, but I think (Jones) beat me to the line, but the caution light came out a little earlier, so obviously it was a great result and glad my guys let me race this one tonight to see what we had. Now we can tune on this thing for the 500. I think I learned quite a bit. I’m looking forward to seeing what we can apply. Maybe we can work on it a little bit in these two practice sessions we have coming up. It’s still a long week ahead. We pretty much have to do three more of those Duels with a lot more cars and some really competitive cars and some tough competition and a lot of room for error. I’m looking forward to the challenge.”
William Byron — Second in Race 1: “I felt like our No. 24 was pretty fast. We were just kind of struggling with handling a little bit. I felt like I could be more comfortable than I was. We just needed to get the back of the car a little bit more stable. But overall, I was able to work with Ty (Dillon) really well. Ross (Chastain) and I were kind of connected for awhile, and then we just kind of got spread apart, disconnected and that’s what ultimately got the bottom line back. Wish we could have been closer at the end, but still a good result.”
Erik Jones — Second in Race 2: “We kind of went on a different strategy just to get up front and put ourselves in a good spot after the pit stop. After the restart, I was just trying to get to the top, and it finally kind of opened up there on the final lap. I felt like I put myself in a good spot and set myself to try to beat him to the line and did, but unfortunately, the yellow came out before. I haven’t seen it. It is a bummer. You think you win the race, and I’ve never had that happen so I feel for all of the others in that spot. It’s not fun. Either way, we will go make it up on Sunday. A wide range of emotions. It’s a bummer. It’s the rule. If the yellow is out, the race is over and it’s unfortunate but either way I feel like the Camry was really fast. It was fun running upfront, fun leading some laps, fun contending for the win. I did everything I could. It just didn’t work out and hopefully we can be in that same spot again on Sunday.”
Ty Dillon — Third in Race 1: “The raw speed of our Chevy has been quite obvious all weekend already, so that’s a great thing and a great start for our team. Our goal is to let everyone know we are here early in the season and we’re happy about that finish. I think if we had been running in the back, we probably would have made a couple different moves to be a little bit smoother at the end. This is the first time working with the team here at Kaulig Racing and I’m really proud of what we accomplished tonight. We’ll go back, get in the notebook and get a little bit better. You can’t ask for a better start to the season. Our team is determined and focused, and in the second race of the year to get a top three is nice. We’ll go to the 500 and have some fun. The biggest thing on Sunday is to make it to the end and get our year started on the right track.”
Chris Buescher — Third in Race 2: “This Mustang is really good. I’m really happy with that. The pit cycle got a little messier than we wanted. It seems to happen here and there at the end I had some really good help from Corey from behind us. We were able to make some really good momentum from our lane and ultimately the bottom just tightened up a little bit better there and I need to work a little harder to keep lanes better, but I’m pretty happy with this hot rod.”
Ross Chastain — Fourth in Race 1: “The No. 1 Chevy was really good in the draft, but we had some throttle issues with it sticking under caution. We pitted early before the race started trying to see what was wrong. It fixed itself, and then it came back. Then it fixed itself, and then it came back. The car drafted great; handled better than most I saw around me and handle the bumps better. It’s definitely a strong start there knowing this is probably the worst it’s going to drive from qualifying to now. We will get the throttle fixed, and I can push and get pushed with the best of them.”
Denny Hamlin — Fourth in Race 2: “I thought our Camry was really good. No complaints really from me. I had everything to compete and once we clean it up on Sunday we’ll be in good shape. It’s awesome (for Bubba Wallace to win). Tyler (Reddick) was able to get a Duel last year and then Bubba this year. The 23 and 45 really controlled that race quite a bit so it was great to see. Even though they didn’t qualify (last night) where we expected, I think obviously the true speed of their Camrys really showed up tonight.”
Tyler Reddick — Fifth in Race 1: “Early on, I felt like our Camry was going for a wild ride – thankfully, I was able to hang on to it. Knocked some of the rust off at Bowman Gray. I didn’t know what was going to happen there, but I feel like it worked okay with all of the cars coming back to pit road. Bubba (Wallace) and I were able to get hooked pretty up early on – and worked together a lot there. Gave him a couple of too big of shots at times, but it is a great learning tool to get ready for the 500. All-in-all, the main objective was to get one of us into victory lane, which we accomplished. I just wished we could’ve held on to second – we just kind of got swallowed up there on the last lap.”
Corey LaJoie — Sixth in Race 2: “Driving through this you have one eye out the windshield and one on the mirror to make sure whoever you are racing, you want to keep behind. I knew we blended well. Our pit road sequence there [on the pit stop], we had a good cadence. We came in with the Penske cars, we were able to have some good track position there for the last restart. I felt good about our chances there. I wanted to make sure I didn’t push (Buescher) there in a bad way, get him in a bad spot. Once you know you are in a good spot you are just trying to get it home. I can’t say enough about the RWR guys and Take 5 and DuraMax for coming on last minute. I fronted the money to Rick Ware in January to make sure nobody else got this car because I believe that much in him and this group. Luckily for me, DuraMax and Take 5 came in and took me off the financial hook. When you have to race your way in, you appreciate the event. You appreciate how hard it is. You appreciate the attention it gets. To earn one of those four open spots is really special. You take it for granted when you show up and you know you are racing. It is a different feeling for me driving my motorhome down here with eight hours of windshield time wondering when I am going to be driving the motorhome back, Friday morning or Monday morning? I was never planning for it to be Friday.”
Justin Allgaier — Ninth in Race 1: “This just means so much to Dale (Earnhardt Jr.), Kelley (Earnhardt Miller) and L.W. (Miller) and everyone at JR Motorsports. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to come make this happen, and it seems like no matter what we’ve done, it hasn’t went the way we wanted it to go. We said anything worth having is worth working for and it’s going to be hard. We’ve proven it time and time again, whether it be last fall at Phoenix (Raceway) or here this weekend. Greg (Ives, crew chief) was pretty hard himself last night after qualifying, but this No. 40 Chevy team rallied. This whole group is special. Dale told me before the race – if it’s meant to be, it will happen, and it did. Just really proud. This might seem like not that big of a deal to a lot of people, but when I think about our small team at JR Motorsports –- as big as it is, it really is a small family team. To see this happen tonight, it takes a lot of weight off my shoulders.”
Ryan Preece — 11th in Race 1: “We have a really, really fast Ford Mustang for Sunday and it was frustrating when we lost that track position. This car drives different from what I had and I just got put in a bad spot or what, I’ve got to go watch, but Sunday is gonna be fun having all the other Fords out there to be able to work together because in that race you just felt like every Chevy was trying to move you out of the way. This car is fast. It’s bad fast. I’m frustrated because when those guys went to the top and the middle broke free, I from everything I’ve watched the top never prevails and it did tonight, so you just don’t know. I think like I did early on, you’ve got to take every run you can and go. I’m just really disappointed with that because we have a really fast Ford Mustang.”
Josh Berry — 14th in Race 1: “I was glad to get to race up front a little bit and we just need to make our car a little bit better in traffic for Sunday, just to get it driving a little bit better in some different situations, but the car has good speed. We just need to tweak on it a little bit and go back and watch everything and learn and get ready for Sunday. I just kind of got in a bad spot there and just got really aero loose getting into one and had to go up the track and catch it. Really, from then on, we just battled to get the track position back, but we definitely learned a lot and, like I said, we’ll work on it and make it a little better. It’s in one piece and we’ll go race Sunday.”
Shane van Gisbergen — 14th in Race 2: “I’m not really sure what happened. We were all getting a bit tight off of Turn 4. I was just kind of riding and got spun into the fence. I’m not sure if that was my fault with the car placement, but I felt like I was doing it right. I was learning a lot; saved a lot of fuel and jumped up a lot of spots at the start. I’m not sure what happened at the end. It’s not fun when we’re crashing at the end, that’s for sure.”
Cody Ware — 15th in Race 2: “I’m not sure (what happened), I’ll have to go back and look at a replay. I just know that we were hanging out all race and next thing I know, I’m turned sideways and into the wall. So it’s a really frustrating way to end Thursday after some mechanical hiccups in qualifying, and then to wreck out in the Duels, it’s been a trying week so far, to say the least. Just from looking at the front end, it looks like it’s pretty severe mechanical damage, but I’ve got faith that my team is going to do the best that they can to get us on track for Sunday, and we will try to do our best like we always do here at Daytona.”
JJ Yeley — 17th in Race 1: “I just needed more pace, unfortunately. The car was really good. I just didn’t have that pole to where I could make something happen. Like seven to go, and I got by (Allgaier) and (Truex) went by us on the outside, I just committed to the bottom and put all my whiskey in one glass, hoping that was where I needed to be. Three to go, it looked like that was going to work out. I know with two to go, it just kind of goes into full chaos. I saw those guys go by and just almost abandon ship. I had (Ricky Stenhouse Jr.) push me. I thought, man, if it gets crazy in the back straightaway, the bottom always prevails. But I lost a bit of my help, and at that point I was hoping there would be more carnage off of four. Didn’t get it. I’m proud of the effort these guys put forth. I want to say hi to my beautiful wife, Kristen, and Faith at home. Just a little short this year.”
Chase Briscoe — 19th in Race 1: “Definitely learned a lot. I would have loved to have more laps. It was hard. I didn’t want to put myself in bad situations and lose the front row. Still ended up getting damage from debris – but I learned a lot. I thought my Camry was honestly a little better in the single car run than it was in the pack. It’s hard because nobody is really pushing like they would at the end of the race either. Definitely some stuff that I can work on for sure. I think some things we can do to make our car better, so we will see how it goes Sunday.”
Jimmie Johnson — 19th in Race 2: “Definitely a good performance for us. Unfortunately, we had some kind of fuel pump issue or a fueling issue, and cost us a chance to really race for it, but Erik (Jones) did a phenomenal job. I’m a little bummed for him to not have that Camry in victory lane, but we saw the video and it is clear – the caution came out, he is about 6 inches behind (Austin Cindric). Roller coaster thinking of it being our first win as an organization, and then let down that came behind that. But good things ahead for us. Just running more laps – getting a good feel for the Camry. A strong performance. We are eager to get off to a quick start and we know for our full-time cars that a good finish in these first four or five weeks really sets you up for a strong season and a nice look at the playoffs. So of course, we want to win the Daytona 500, but we are also very focused on the long game this year.”
Chandler Smith — 20th in Race 1: “I’m all good. I’m super grateful for everybody in the care center, taking the right precautions and making sure – not just letting me clear the normal protocols and just walk out the door. They were a little concerned and wanted to take some X-rays, so we did that and everything looked good there. I’m grateful that we have that good of an infield care center. My digital mirror ended up going out, so I couldn’t really see that. I couldn’t see out of my left side mirror and just got cleared on the inside and was about to drop down and kind of leave that lane. My spotter said the 7 is getting ready to start, come inside, and I knew for that opportunity I could start seeing the two cars in front of me was the 21 and I think the 9 started blending bottom a little bit, so I started fading with them and just made a bad judgment call. I didn’t know exactly where they were, where the 7 was that is, and there’s a lot of really good torn up race cars tonight for something that was avoidable.”
Justin Haley — 21st in Race 1: “I’ve never ridden a horse before, but I feel like I got bucked off one. I hit pretty hard. But yeah, I just tried to lift when Chandler (Smith) came across my nose there. He (Chandler) said in the infield care center that none of his digital mirrors worked and his spotter cleared him. But yeah, I tried to lift. It’s unfortunate. We’re going to have to go sleep this one off and get ready for the Daytona 500.”
Daniel Suarez — 21st in Race 2: “I thought the No. 99 Chevy team was doing a good job. Our Chevy felt very good. We actually did too good of a job on pit road in comparison to the people we pitted with. I felt like we were in a good position there. They were about to wreck in front of me and everyone checked up. It was kind of like a chain reaction. (Alex Bowman) pushed me, but (Bowman) was getting pushed by (Shane van Gisbergen) and I think someone else was pushing (van Gisbergen). It was just a bad situation. I hate it for my guys. They’re going to have to work some extra hours, but I’m sure we’re going to be able to build another fast car for Sunday.”
Alex Bowman — 22nd in Race 2: “I think I was just on the wrong side of an accordion, really. The No. 48 Chevy team executed our race pretty well. We had an OK pit cycle. We didn’t make any mistakes on the pit cycle, which in the group of cars that we pitted with, there were a bunch of mistakes. We avoided that, but looking at what happened afterwards, I wish we would have sped or something because we would have been in a better spot with track position. The front of the field checked up. It was just an accordion and got spun. Once it locked up, I kept trying to get the wheels to unlock to get it to spin the other way to not hit the inside wall. Unfortunately they never did and hit the inside wall.”
Helio Castroneves — 22nd in Race 1: “In one of the wrecks, I got hit and ended up hitting the wall in turn 2 pretty hard and broke a toe link. I should have actually just brought it in slower. We went really fast trying to fix the car, and then obviously when I hit the banking, the car just snapped to the right. It’s disappointing because the No. 91 Chevy was really good. The boys on the Project 91 team did an amazing job. They have a little bit of work to do, unfortunately. It wasn’t the night that we wanted, but we’ll take the provisional. So many people have been talking about it, but we will take it and we will learn more for the race. There are so many little things that people don’t realize behind the TV and even the grandstands. There’s so much going on. It’s actually incredible. The way the package is, it’s impressive. There was a lot to learn.. no question about it. There was a lot of movement in the car; a lot of air flow and a lot of brake-checking that you need to be aware of. But as long as you hold steady, it’s pretty good. I wish we could have kept it going.”
Zane Smith — 23rd in Race 1: “I don’t think I even broke a sweat. I felt like our Speed Cash Ford was pretty fast for the three or four laps I got to see, and then I just landed into turn one and I’m pretty sure we blew a right-front, but then after just had steering issues. I don’t know if that was what I felt or if that happened after we hit the wall, so we’ll be able to diagnose it here soon and be ready to attack on Sunday.”
