Joey Logano won the Can-Am 500 at Phoenix International Raceway, clinching a spot in the championship race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Here is what most of the 40 drivers had to say about their day in the 324-lap race.
Joey Logano - Winner: “This feels so good. I’ve never felt this good about a win before. There was so much on the line and everyone brings their A-game when it comes to winning championships and this team did it. Man, this feels so good. I had a good restart there at the end and holding off Kyle (Busch) to try to get this thing into Miami. We’re racing for a championship now. We did exactly what we had to do. We’ve got to go to Homestead and do the same thing. I couldn’t be more proud of this team. Roush Yates Engines bringing the heat again ... I’m speechless right now. I feel like I just won the Daytona 500 again.”
Kyle Busch - Finished second: “It’s really unfortunate and devastating to have the race come down like that. I got a little bit better restart than (Alex Bowman) did and I felt like I had a run on him and had enough that I got to the inside and if he chopped me he was going to get wrecked and that’s what happened, but it carried on into (Matt Kenseth) and essentially I guess I wrecked a teammate.
“It’s so frustrating and aggravating and I feel horrible about it. It’s a shame to see it come down like that. I was really hoping I could get a good restart and force (Bowman) off the bottom and have him kind of block (Joey Logano) and I could have a position in between me and (Logano) and myself and both (Kenseth) and myself would transfer on into the final round. That’s how I was projecting the restart going, it certainly didn’t end that way. I felt really bad for (Kenseth) and all those guys. That was a really ugly race for us.”
Kyle Larson - Finished third: “I made a big mistake on the first lap and got loose into Turn 3 and got up into (Joey Logano). It obviously didn’t affect his race. Then we were coming in for a green-flag stop and all kind of had our hands full getting to the commitment line. I think (Ryan Newman) must have wheel-hopped behind me and had a lot of speed. He tagged me in the rear bumper and spun me around. So we went a lap down but we got the Lucky Dog pass-around later and fought hard the rest of the way.”
Kevin Harvick - Finished fourth: “We just started way too far off on Friday. We never got a handle on the racecar. They made it a ton better in the race and we were in contention there at the end and just came up short. Just really proud of everybody for the effort that they put in. It was a very challenging Chase for us for all the mechanical failures and situations that we had going on. We kept rebounding and winning races and today we were a lap down and came back to have a chance at the end. That says a lot about the character of our race team and we just came up short this year.”
Kurt Busch - Finished fifth: “We got up to the front as high as third and sniffed the front to try to win because we had to win to advance. We didn’t get the job done. The long run speed is where our Achilles Heel was these last few Chase races. It’s a little disappointing, maybe we can pinpoint that as our exact problem and figure out how to fix that, but really proud of (crew chief) Tony Gibson and everybody that worked on these cars all year-long from Stewart-Haas Racing. Thanks to Haas Automation, Monster Energy, Chevrolet, we finished fifth today, we battled hard we just didn’t have enough. You’ve got to have it all if you want to be in that championship four.”
Alex Bowman - Finished sixth: “We had a great car. We took four there and restarted on the bottom twice. Our car didn’t really take off on restarts all day long very well, so had to make our way back up through there, and we got to second at the end and had that caution come out, and didn’t get a terrible restart, and (Kyle Busch) turned me sideways getting into the corner ... I almost feel like (Matt Kenseth) thought he was clear because I was against the ‑‑ I wasn’t at the best angle but I was also against the inside wall when we made contact. I guess he said something on the radio that he thought he was clear. I hate it for Matt. You take somebody out like that. I would have raced the hell out of him for the win, but definitely don’t want to do that.”
Denny Hamlin - Finished seventh: “We took two tires and I knocked my right front trying to avoid the 20 (Matt Kenseth) and really hurt the good rubber that I did have on my tires. That hampered us a little bit and we climbed back. We just needed those guys to tussle up front a little bit more, but proud of my whole FedEx team this whole year. Our Camrys have been fast and giving us a chance to win each and every week and we’ll go to Homestead and try to win that one and get our fourth win of the year.”
Paul Menard - Finished 10th: “I’m proud of my team and the never-give-up attitude they showed today. This was the first uneventful race we’ve had in awhile. We made a lot of adjustments and tried a few different things on our Rust-Oleum RockSolid Chevy throughout Friday and Saturday. I think those changes translated well to today’s race. We only had to make a few adjustments to get the handling where it needed to be. It was a good day.”
Ryan Newman - Finished 12th: “This day is on me. We had a much better Cat Minestar Chevrolet compared to where we finished. That first deal, I did not anticipate the amount of rear brake we had and I spun entering pit road. I hit the commitment cone and it cost us a lap. It seemed like every time we were in a position to get our lap back, we’d come up short. Then I spun with Martin Truex Jr. and it just compounded everything. Fortunately, we raced back on the lead lap and up to ninth but the final restart did not go our way and we ended up 12th. I told (crew chief) Luke (Lambert) and the Caterpillar team that they did a great job improving our car from yesterday. I’m just sorry we did not get the result based on the quality of car we had.”
Carl Edwards - Finished 19th: “Our race day wasn’t that great. Yeah, we just struggled for a little bit of speed all weekend, and then we got some track position. I thought we were going to be good. I thought we were going to come out of here with a top five, and at the end we were on old tires and I think somebody might have bumped me. I didn’t feel the impact but I almost wrecked into (Turn) 3 and I thought I had a flat tire so I went too easy into the next corner and they all drove by me. I think we could have squeaked out a top five, but definitely not a great day, but definitely excited to go down to Homestead and race for that championship.
Matt Kenseth - Finished 21st: "(Alex Bowman) was laying way, way back for that restart, more than a car would so I got going early on purpose and I looked at him at the start-finish line and I thought we were doing okay and I looked back and it looked like he had a little run on me, maybe not and shortly thereafter (spotter) Chris (Osborne) cleared me so with the glare I started looking to the corner to approach the corner and I got turned out of the way. He hollered ‘inside’ at the same time I got turned towards the fence so I really don’t know what happened. I was just going off the information I had to try to get the best corner I could and lead more laps.”
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. - Finished 23rd: “We really struggled all weekend. We made our car better throughout the race but after we lost two laps from pit strategy, the cards never fell our way to let us get back on the lead lap. I’m looking forward to going to Homestead and ending the season on a high note.”
Jimmie Johnson - Finished 38th: “The thing there was just kind of a minor wreck in front of us and got into the back of (Greg Biffle) and it knocked the fitting off the oil cooler and we started leaking some oil. I think before that was the penalty I received for pulling up to pit, which was mind-blowing. In the 15 years I’ve been here that has never been officiated that way. The leader has always had the ability to pull up and maintain whatever gap they had to the cars behind them. They have never penalized the leader and make the leader stay alongside the pace car. On the majority of the tracks we compete at you just naturally progress in front of the pace car. So now to all of a sudden officiate this is mind-blowing to me. As long as they continue to do it from here on forward I will bite my lip and won’t say another word, but it just seems a little odd to be quite honest with you.”
Austin Dillon - Finished 39th: “This is a difficult one to stomach. We had another fast American Ethanol Chevrolet today but, unfortunately, we had a part failure that shut the engine off. Everything seemed fine but when we restarted the race following a caution flag, the car just locked up and shut off. We ended up in the garage making several changes and were able to fix the problem and return to the race. It’s a bummer to run in the top five and then finish 23 laps down. We only have one race left this season. I’m looking forward to Homestead-Miami Speedway and having the chance to finish the year off strong.”
