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What drivers said after Saturday night’s Clash at the Coliseum

Here is what drivers had to say after Saturday night’s Clash at the Coliseum.

Denny Hamlin — Winner: “It’s a great momentum boost. It doesn’t do much more than that. But I clean off all the trophies every January 1st in the entryway of the house, and now we get to add one pretty quick, so really happy about that.”

Kyle Busch — Finished 2nd: “It definitely does sting. I felt like the first half we were better. Had a better car. We were better than the 11. But some of the adjustments we made weren’t as good, some of the adjustments they made were better. All in all, just glad to have a good night. Glad to come out here in one piece, even with all the bumping and banging and everything else that happens.”

Ryan Blaney — Finished 3rd: “The plan was not to take a provisional. Our group was pretty slow. I guess we just couldn’t go, so we were lucky that we got in the race and then we did a good job all night. We just kind of stayed clean and our car was fast too, to just kind of drive up through the field. A couple of restarts went our way to where our lanes went. I had a shot. I got a terrible restart on the last one, but I probably wouldn’t have won anyway. We came from a long way back, so it was fun. I think every time I’ve been here I’ve been spun backwards two or three times, so it’s nice not to have that at the last one. It’s good.”

Joey Logano — Finished 4th: “I think it’s very entertaining and sometimes it’s real frustrating when you’re out there because it’s a tight bull ring and you’ve got big cars and they’re sliding around, especially on (restarts) with old tires you’re sliding a lot. I know from rewatching races and sitting in the grandstands for one of the (last chance qualifying races) a couple years ago it was like, ‘This is really entertaining to watch.’ It becomes pretty crazy at the end, obviously, but you kind of see that. I think we were actually a little better than we were last year.”

Kyle Larson — Finished 5th: “It got crazy at the end, but I was able to get a top five here again three years in a row. You would like to be better, but I felt like our car was better. Just a good point to work on it and try to get better for the other short tracks. … The crowd (was) awesome out there for a spur-of-the-moment race and free admission and all of that, so, hopefully, a lot of these fans who have maybe never been to a race before will now fall in love with the sport and venture out and it will kind of grow from there.”

Chase Briscoe — Finished 7th: “We were good. We weren’t great. We probably needed a little bit more to kind of get into that top three or five group. We were kind of just OK there, but for us starting 22nd and get to seventh was good. I did not even think we were going to make the race. I was walking back to change and ready to head to the airport and I realized we made it so from that to seventh is something to be happy about. It’s a good way to start the season with a little bit of confidence. It was gonna be kind of a kick in the butt if we didn’t make the race, so it was nice to just make the race and then be able to go forward and pass cars and a lot of good cars too. This doesn’t really mean anything for the rest of the year, but for our confidence and from a team building standpoint I feel like it’s a really good start.”

Ryan Preece — Finished 11th: “For us, we really struggled with balance all night. I felt like we were really good on restarts, but for the long runs, we struggled and I feel like 11th was kind of a victory for us. I think we’re going to really have to take a deep dive into what we have going on to continue to elevate ourselves because I know all of us had really high expectations to come in here and do what we did last year, and I know we’re going to continue doing that when we go to other short tracks this year.”

John Hunter Nemechek — Finished 13th: “It was great to make the show, great way to kick off our year and for myself just to get more experience and laps. Finishing in 13th is a solid day for the Dollar Tree Toyota Camry XSE, I ran around the track, ran into cars, and got run into as well. It’s what we expect in The Clash. On to Daytona.”

Ty Gibbs — Finished 18th: “It was just unfortunate. I just have to get better at restarts. My team brought me a great Monster Energy Camry as we saw. It was a good showing. … (Winner Denny Hamlin) just did a good job there getting back in contention for the race. I just overdrove the corner and got wrecked after that.”

Noah Gragson — Finished 20th: “Overall, it was a good weekend. Our first objective was to make the race. We did that, and then got a little mixed up as a team on communication and had some errors to start the race and went a couple of laps down. Still super proud of our team. It was our first weekend together. Really proud of the communication between Drew (Blickensderfer, crew chief) and myself and spotter Andy Houston and the rest of the guys, just making good adjustments to make the race. There are a lot of positives. Our communication mishaps as a team going into the race with the modified schedule – we were misinformed on some stuff. Other than that, I’m proud of these guys and proud of the effort, thankful for the hard work and just grateful to be back out here. Our goal was to make the race and, although we want to win, we at least got to go out there and be a part of the show. Thanks to Rush Truck Centers and everyone at Stewart-Haas Racing. It was really fun driving the new Dark Horse Mustang. I can’t wait to get back out there. We’ll clean it up for Daytona. Thank goodness this wasn’t a points race.”

Justin Haley — Finished 21st: “I’m really proud of the effort from everyone at Rick Ware Racing. We were having a good night. Early in the race we were able to make some gains and as it went on, you either get better or fall off, and once we lost some track position we definitely had some of that fall off. I think we would’ve been alright at the end. I feel like we could’ve gained a few more positions before it blew up, but overall I’m just really proud of how we did tonight and I can’t wait to get some more time with the team and show everyone what we’ve been working on.”

Christopher Bell — Failed to qualify for Clash: “Practice was good. I felt like we were in a really good spot, and just didn’t have in qualifying. Just no rear grip in our Mobil 1 Camry for some reason. Just couldn’t get off the corners.”

Austin Cindric — Failed to qualify for Clash: “Obviously, not excited about not being able to make the show. This place has been pretty challenging for me. We made a lot of progress between the first group of practice and second group of practice. We kind of did a Hail Mary on changes for qualifying, so I think we learned some stuff. We tried to apply some things that will hopefully help us with directions in the season, but it’s not fun to be able to watch it. I’d much rather be driving.”

Chris Buescher — Failed to qualify for Clash: “Nothing about that messed us up. We were better than we had been in the past. I felt pretty decent in the second practice there and got into our session and I don’t know. We were around fast cars in practice and thought we’d be able to pace them pretty well and the group didn’t go. I got caught up behind a car there and should have gapped more. I felt like we were definitely in a lot better spot this season and we were, but that’s just frustrating.”

Josh Berry — Failed to qualify for Clash: “Obviously, it was definitely a fun experience to race here at the Coliseum. I feel like everybody did a good job. It was a lot happening really quickly there and I thought we did the best we could and we just barely missed it. I think we just needed a little bit more time to make some adjustments, but ultimately we were really close to making it into the show, but we’ll just go get ready and get ‘em at Daytona.”

Erik Jones — Failed to qualify for Clash: “Today was obviously not the day we wanted. I wish things could have gone differently for our guys and our partners at Family Dollar and Toyota, but the real test is in Daytona. We have a week to reset and get better before the regular season kicks off.”

Kaz Grala — Failed to qualify for Clash: “I like the track a lot. Definitely quirky. It’s different than anywhere I’ve ever been in anything, but you know, I feel like we started out of the box a little bit far off there at the beginning and took a swing for that second practice that ended up actually being too much. Right in time for qualifying I felt like we got the balance better. We were finally in the mix and our lap times were close. We just missed it by a little over a 10th. So I mean, the times were so tight that a little bit went a long way here. I feel proud of our effort, we beat a couple of cars that we probably shouldn’t have. It seemed like anybody that just missed it a little bit or hit it a little bit, you know, could have swung anywhere on that sheet there. We were just on the wrong end of it, unfortunately, but it was good working with everybody here for the first time. I think we got our communication down a little bit. I would have liked to be in the race tonight. I feel like had we had one more practice maybe we would have been better but I think we can leave here with our heads up as far as who we were competitive with in time there.”