Daniel Suarez — winner: “This one really means a lot. I’ve been saying for years, this is my favorite race of the year. I get to have my family here every year. This is one of the only times they get to come. It’s been a very tough week. This one is for Kyle, Samantha, Brexton, Lennix and all his family. This is very special. Every win is special. But definitely this one as a special flavor because of Kyle. This one is for him. If it wasn’t for Kyle, I wasn’t going to be an Xfinity champion. I wasn’t going to have my shot in the Cup Series. To be able to win this race for him is unbelievable. The team did an amazing job. They put us in contention, and we executed well. The car was fast. We knew all weekend the car had plenty of speed.”
Christopher Bell — second: “It is the opposite of what happened to me when I won. I honestly think they made the right call. It is really late, but it is a bummer. It is 2026 for us. I knew after the first restart that he couldn’t get clear. I knew that we would have to stay beside him and I couldn’t. (Suarez) cleared me and once he cleared me, I knew it was going to be a really tough pass with it being a short run. He was going to block like hell, and he did a good job blocking and won the race. (Kyle Larson) did a good job pushing him. He stole one today from the Toyotas. The Toyotas brought the heat. Really proud of Joe Gibbs Racing, and Toyota and Toyota Racing Development. It was a good showing for us, so I’m happy with that. It just wasn’t meant to be today.”
Denny Hamlin — third: “Every time it got called, we were on the bottom about to make a move on (Daniel Suarez). Me and (Christopher Bell) were fighting really hard. We knew whoever could get clear could make a move on the 7. I don’t know. It could rain till 2 am. We have no idea. Just unfortunate for us. We had a really fast Camry all day. We got really good restarts when I really needed them there at the end. Just didn’t pan out. I couldn’t quite clear (Bell).”
Tyler Reddick — fourth: “Yeah, on one hand, certainly. It is a 600-mile race. It’s tough, it is grueling, and you want to finish it out in the end. Twice I’ve been in this spot where I felt like we had a car that I think could have won the race, a couple of years ago, it was just past halfway, and it started on pit road. This year, it was much more of a clean race, but man, I just didn’t have a couple of good restarts at the end. Just gutted. I want to win this race so bad for this team. One of the biggest races we have on our schedule. I really want to win it. Yes, it is a good points day, but there are a couple of the schedule that it is not about the points – winning Crown Jewels. Just gutted we didn’t see the race end. On the other hand, thoughts and prayers are with the Busch family and what they are going through. I hope this weekend and the racing and the support they saw from everyone in the racing community helps them move forward. One hand there is that, but on the more important hand, I hope this weekend helps them and their path forward.”
Kyle Larson — fifth: “The No. 5 Chevrolet team did a great job tonight. I thought we made the most out of it. We got a stage win there early. Other than that, I thought we had the fifth- or sixth-best car behind the Gibbs cars. I thought (Tyler Reddick) and I were pretty equal, but better at different points of the run. My pit crew did a really good job all night. They were extremely solid. I thought everything was going as good as it could. The restarts could have played out a little differently there at the end. I don’t really know what I could have done differently. Overall, just happy for this entire No. 5 Chevrolet team. It’s cool to get Chevrolet a win today. We’ll keep trying to build on this.”
Ty Gibbs — sixth: “First off, I just want to say my condolences to Samantha (Busch), Brexton (Busch) and Lennix (Busch). I want them to know that we are there for them. It was unfortunate. We were in first, and it’s the worst time to be in first. Everyone is going to do the opposite of what you do on the strategy. I think if we would have pitted, everyone would have stayed out. Just unfortunate how it worked out, but we were really fast today. Would have loved to win that race, I thought we were really capable of doing it. Got the lead in the end, but just an unfortunate end. I want to say thank you to my team. It was a fun day. A lot of fun laps of racing. Everyone was on edge, and we had a great crowd.”
Ryan Blaney — seventh: “I think we finished a couple spots better than where we were running and the pace, but, overall, it was a scrappy day and night for sure. Running seventh and eighth with our cars is not a bad day.”
Joey Logano — eighth: “Honestly, I think we’ve been an eighth to 12th-15th place car and that’s kind of where we ran today. That’s just where we are at the moment, but we just finally finished one, so thank goodness we finished one and then getting those stages. At least we got a finish. That’s better than where we’ve been, so we’ll take it.”
Zane Smith — 10th: “It felt great and gives us some good momentum, certainly. It’s just a bummer on a few of those restarts. I wish different things played out. You’re gonna always wish that you could have some of those back, but I certainly felt like all day we had a top five car, just honestly from the back to the front and back to the front. We need to do the little things right and a little bit better, but I’m really proud of the whole 38 team. It’s really cool to have a solid run. I just proud of the effort. This place is really hard to keep up with the track and the changes it goes through, so when I was really good in the first stage leading laps I was almost kind of worried like, ‘Oh, man. What are we gonna be like in the night?’ But my car really never changed a whole lot, which says a lot about our group. I’m just proud of that. I wish we were able to win that, but, with that said, I’m just proud of the day we had.”
Shane van Gisbergen — 11th: “It’s hard. I had an amazing day, but I’m pissed. We were a top-five or six car, but we just didn’t execute at the end. It was really cool to run up front all day. We were gifted a good starting position with qualifying getting canceled. It was a good call by Stephen (Doran, crew chief) to stay out there. It was awesome to be able to lead some laps. I was just a little bit tight. When the track was fresh after every restart, I couldn’t find good speed in dirty air. But when it migrated to the top, my No. 97 Chevrolet came alive. My late-run speed was really good because I started tight. Some restarts were good, and others, I was putting myself in bad spots. But overall, it was a lot of fun.”
Michael McDowell — 14th: “It’s amazing to see my teammate, Daniel Suarez, get the win. It was a great call there by Ryan Sparks (crew chief for the No. 7 team) to take two tires and get track position. Just really happy for everyone at Spire Motorsports. That’s two wins this year for the organization. The No. 71 Chevrolet team had a good run today, too. We lost a few spots on that last restart, but I felt really good about our speed tonight.”
Brad Keselowski — 15th: “I thought we were gonna end up with a seventh or eighth-place day maybe, and the last yellows and the rain cycles all kind of cycled us back to 14th or 15th, so it was unfortunate. We really worked hard on this car through the race. We weren’t where we wanted to be at the start and we got to where we were reasonable there in the middle and that was good. Really hot. We just kept working on it and reset it. By the time we reset it, I was smoking pretty good but that’s how it goes.”
AJ Allmendinger — 18th: “I felt like we got pretty much everything we could out of the No. 16 Chevrolet. We really struggled on restarts. The dirty air was really bad. I thought our clean air pace was decent, but we would lose so much on the restarts no matter what lane I would choose. It was just a struggle. We got the free pass there that probably saved our race. We just need more speed in our racecars. I’m proud of everyone on this team. We’re trying, but it’s just hard. I thought we maximized the day. I thought we would be maybe one or two spots better, but we weren’t much better than that.”
Ty Dillon — 25th: “Today was a special day for us at Kaulig Racing and all of NASCAR. Obviously, Memorial Day weekend means so many things and we were able to honor the men and women who gave their lives for this country. We were joined by Gold Star Families. We also honored one of the greatest drivers who ever raced in NASCAR. We fought hard in the race and at times we were pretty good. My crew worked hard the whole race and stayed with it and we got a 25th place finish. That’s not our goal, but it’s a finish we can build on.”
Chris Buescher — 30th: “Had good speed tonight and kept ourselves in the fight, but the balance was a handful at times, and the tire wear kept us on our toes. It’s tough to have our night ruined in someone else’s mess, espeically when we are building something solid.”
Ryan Preece — 33rd: “I don’t know (what happened). I was going down the backstretch and the next thing I know I’m heading towards the infield. I know it wasn’t my teammate, so it’s unfortunate. I felt like we were gonna have a top 10, potentially a top five day and, I don’t know. I mean, I stepped on it last week, so somebody else did. I can’t get too mad, I guess. We’ve got a big week ahead of us.”
Ross Chastain — 35th: “I’m not really sure what happened. We were on the straightaway and the last I saw in my camera was that (Ricky Stenhouse Jr.) had a run. He went to go to the inside of me and hit me in the back bumper. It turned me right into the wall and then I hit the ROVAL chicane wall, which is the worst thing you could hit. Just an unfortunate way to end the night in our Chevrolet.”
Chase Elliott — 37th: “I just made a mistake, spun out and hit the wall, unfortunately. I hate it. It’s been a terrible race, I feel like, throughout the course of my career, just crashed a bunch. Just a lot of race left. I was trying to find something. We were bleeding pretty bad, and I moved up to the top there, trying to click off some faster laps and, yeah, I made a mistake, stepped over the line and paid the price.”
Austin Cindric — 38th: “It’s a lot louder out here than it is in the race car. I’m pretty sure I just got loose and then I got clocked, so it’s a shame not to even finish stage one in the Coke 600. I feel bad for my team and everybody else.”
Connor Zilisch — 39th: “I saw (Austin Cindric) spinning quite aways in front of me. As soon as I hit the apron, I was just going too fast to really be able to maneuver the car. I got loose and ended up getting clipped in the right rear. It’s really unfortunate for our No. 88 Chevrolet team. I felt like we made a good adjustment on that last pit stop. We just have to keep our heads down, and it’ll turn around.”
