Tyler Reddick — winner: “Last year was really hard for all of us, hard for me. When you’re a Cup driver and you get to this level and drive for Michael Jordan, it’s expected you win every single year. For us to go on that drought we did made us look hard in the mirror, and really proud of everyone on our Toyota Camry. Worked really hard in the off-season, and there was many points in this race where we weren’t making decisions we wanted to, but we just reset, and every opportunity we got to reset we went back at it. Just speechless. I didn’t know if I’d ever win this race. It’s surreal, honestly. Honestly, the best part is my son asked before this race, Are you finally going to win this race? Something about today just felt right.
“Yeah, I keep looking for my wife and my kids. They’ll be here at some point, I’m sure. Maybe they’re taking a nap. Yeah, we had the lead there when that caution came out, lined up next to McDowell, and we just kind of kept getting hung a couple times in the closing laps there. Yeah, just every time we’d kind of break up, there would be nowhere left to go but to push, and they pushed me, obviously. My teammate Riley Herbst gave me a lot of pushes there and then tried to win the race for himself, as he should at the end there. Just incredible how it all played out. Just true Daytona madness. It’s going to be a long night if I’ve already lost my voice from screaming. Never thought I’d be Daytona 500 champion.”
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. — second: “It’s never bad to finish in the top-five in the Daytona 500. It’s a big race and we have left here finishing in the 30s and have been pretty down about that. So, on one hand, it’s good because our strategy worked out perfectly today. We stuck to it. It was brutal riding around there for a while. Not sure what the Toyota’s were doing, but I think that made the race pretty boring there for a while for the fans. It was chaos after they pitted, so yeah, our No. 47 Chevrolet was as strong as I needed it to be. It did the things I wanted, but we just came up one spot short.”
Joey Logano — third: “Yeah, eventful day for sure. Had a little damage from a wreck earlier. Made a good move there at the end, we got to the top and we were rolling and found myself racing for the lead. I had an opportunity to get underneath the Spire cars in the middle of 1 and 2, I felt like it was the right move, and I did it and put her out in the wind, I guess the damage was more than I thought because just kind of slowed down and I couldn’t clear like I thought I was going to.
Unfortunately, that kind of set us a little bit further back. Missed the last lap crash into 1, and off of 4 you just kind of go where they’re not. I got spun and came across the line third. Compared to where we’ve been in this race recently, to see the finish is great. I ended up in the same building, but at least I seen the finish, and that’s just kind of where it was.”
Chase Elliott — fourth: ": Yeah, I’m not really sure what happened with the first wreck. That’s a little further around. But we ended up kind of getting gifted the lead, and the 38 and I had got out by ourselves down the back. He had given me a good shove off into 3, and then it was kind of just he and I, and at that point I just felt momentum shift, like there was going to be another run coming behind us there at some point. Unfortunately, that was accurate, and then at that point in time, you’re just on defense. Man, that’s a really, really tough place to be, truthfully. Obviously looking back, you can run it through your mind 1,000 times, do you do something different -- I feel like if I had thrown a double block on the 45, probably would have just crashed us at that point in time. I felt like you had to pick your battles. I thought maybe if somebody would pick me up on the top, you might have one more run to the line, but unfortunately ended up getting turned around.
“Appreciate all the effort, everybody at Hendrick Motorsports, NAPA, Chevrolet, thought we had a good Speedweeks down here. Obviously hate to -- this really sucks to be that close and come off Turn 4 with the lead and not finish it off. But that’s part of this event, and unfortunately we were on the bad end of it today.”
Brad Keselowski — fifth: “Yeah, a lot of chaos. Last restart I gave William Byron a great push, and just wasn’t enough to move our lane. I was giving him all I had, and then right here at the end I had this huge run and the 35 wrecked us. Really disappointed. Tore up the 9, tore up the 22, a bunch of cars that didn’t deserve to be wrecked, so that was a big bummer and really stupid. Still a decent day for us to come home with a top 5 and to be competitive and have a shot to win. (How is the leg?) Great. Great. Once you’re in the race car, I’ve got a fast Mustang and you’re just digging.”
Zane Smith — sixth: “It’s painful that the 45 was, I guess, in my position, but I know I didn’t have the run on the 9 that I needed to win and so I tried backing up to any help I could get, and then obviously it fell apart there at the end. All in all, it’s a great growing day for us and some great points scored, but frustrating to be that close and just miss out. For sure. It’s not every day you have a shot to win the Daytona 500, so that feels great and I feel like there were some great points scored, just not quite enough.”
Chris Buescher — seventh: “It was nuts right there at the finish. I’m really proud of everybody to take this Ford Mustang from dead last on the field and run it up to a top 10 finish. It’s impressive. This team did such a phenomenal job. We are continuously in the hunt to win these things. We had a teammate with us this time, but just couldn’t close it. There were a couple good blocks from some others that really stalled us out. Our car pushed really well. I watched a lot of people struggle with handling, especially when the sun was out. It seemed like it got a lot better those last 50 laps and I think that made the racing so much tighter off of four. I think we would have had some bigger lifts had the end of the race been an hour earlier, but it was still a good run all the way to the end. I’m proud of RFK. Everybody on this team, I can’t thank them enough. That was our backup car and that was a lot of work for everybody on this team and they did a phenomenal job.”
Josh Berry — ninth: “We really just tried to stay with Chris and Brad the best I could, but it seemed like I could stay pretty close to them but whoever was behind me would lose me and we couldn’t get it going like we wanted. All in all, it was a solid final stage. We had a complete disaster in the first stage and rebounded really well and gave ourselves a chance at it at the end. I wanted to be a little bit further forward than we were. We just had the cycle work out and we slipped back a little bit further than I wanted, but we were still in striking distance. You see how much happens in the last couple of laps, but, all in all, we ran a good race and we had a really good Mustang. I’m really proud of the guys.”
Bubba Wallace — 10th: “Man, I don’t know what to say. First of all, hats off to the 45 group. I don’t want my emotions to take away from the monumental day they just accomplished. Happy birthday, MJ. That’s a massive birthday present. I thought this was our week, the best 500 I’ve ever had, and come up short, sucks. But couldn’t be more proud of the team. Led a lot of laps, lap leader, I believe. It was a good day for us, but damn. Try again next year.”
Noah Gragson — 11th: “Yeah. We had a decent opportunity at the end, but the 66 gave us a bunch of damage on lap five. That sucked because that parachuted me with the left-rear and we had no real straight line speed after that. It is what it is, but we’ll keep on trying to finish races and enjoy it. We’ll be all right.”
William Byron — 12th: “We had a lot of damage on our car from the Stage One incident. Our right-front suspension was bent, so the car was driving really weird and it was just super, super loose, as well as tight as the same time. I couldn’t believe we had a shot there at the end. I thought that was amazing. It was a great strategy with the fuel sequence, and I thought, man, we have a shot with lining up on the front two rows. That’s all you can ask for. I thought Tyler (Reddick) was out to a pretty decent lead on the restart, and I thought the bottom was the place to be. There was one time I got clear and I probably could have taken the middle, but I didn’t know if the balance of my car could handle being there. I just had to keep my car straight, so I thought if I tried to make a block, I would wreck. It was just incredible that we had a shot at it there at the end.”
Ty Dillon — 14th: “I feel really good about the day for our No. 10 Chevrolet team. A top-15 finish to start the year is nothing to frown about. Our Camaro was strong. We were able to lead laps in the Daytona 500 again and run up front most of the day. We just have to clean some things up so we can keep ourselves up front at the right times. I’m proud of this team’s effort. Everyone worked hard all week to continue to chip away at this race car. By the time we got to the last stage, it was the best it was all weekend. That’s all you can ask for and we’ll go onto Atlanta with some momentum.”
Cody Ware — 17th: “I think the No. 51 Chevrolet was a super-fast car and we were able to get to the front; lead some laps and just continue to build on the awesome improvements we have had with Chevrolet. I think our result didn’t show the speed, but still an awesome day. Stayed on the lead lap and mitigated some mistakes we had on pit road, and I think it gives us a lot of confidence going into Atlanta next weekend.”
AJ Allmendinger — 18th: “Just one of those races where you are just trying to be smart and be patient. Just trying to be smart the first two-thirds of the race and not getting in anything. Did a good job of that. We had to wait a little longer and I was basically at the tail end of the pack and we made a call there to try to do tires and it’s just hard to go anywhere on those restarts. I felt like every lane I would get in, I would get checked up and go to the back again. Technically, we missed the wreck, didn’t save it and did a 360 and that cost us some spots. But, yeah, just happy to come out unscathed and all in one piece and go do this again in Atlanta.”
Michael McDowell — 22nd: “I’m not really sure what happened. We had two Spire Motorsports Chevrolet’s out front there, and I thought we would have a great shot to have everyone covered there. It just didn’t work out. It’s unfortunate. I feel like we put ourselves in position to win and we just didn’t get there.”
Connor Zilisch — 33rd: “It was a long day after the wreck, but our No. 88 Red Bull Chevrolet was getting better as the race went on and as the sun went down. We struggled a little bit when it was really hot out, but as the shade came in, we definitely started to excel a little more. We were able to get up to the front and lead a lane. But right when we got up there, that’s when we wrecked. Overall, it was a good day for me. I learned a lot and I got to experience my first DAYTONA 500. I know there will be more to come.”
Austin Cindric — 34th: “It was definitely a shame to get caught up in that wreck. Wrong lane, wrong time for that to all happen. That’s the way it goes, but we had a fast Ford Mustang. The boys and everybody did a great job to get our track position and get some stage points and in position really to get more there. It’s good to work with the Ford boys, but we just weren’t able to see it to the end and, unfortunately, not able to make enough of an impact to help a Ford win the race. I expect us to have a lot of the same opportunities next week and we’ll try to make the most of them.”
Austin Dillon — 37th: “Not how we wanted to start the season. The Chevrolet was really fast this week and that’s a testament to all of the work that everyone does at RCR, ECR. We were in a good position when the wreck happened in front of me. I bailed to pit road and unfortunately the No. 19 was there in the smoke. Proud of the guys for hustling to fix the car so we could go gain a few positions. That is going to pay dividends in this
Justin Allgaier — 38th: “Unfortunately, I’m going to have to take 100 percent of the responsibility for that one. I hate it for everyone that got caught up in it. I felt like our No. 40 Chevrolet was incredible all day. Greg Ives (crew chief) and this whole team have done a phenomenal job building a race car that we felt like we could come here and not only run up front, but be able to lead laps. I got to the top lane there and I watched the run coming on the top with Denny (Hamlin). I thought he was going to push. I thought the lane was closed up just enough that he wouldn’t try to go up there, but when I realized he was going up there, it was just too late. Once the air kind of got on the spoiler, it just turned me to the right. I hate it for everyone that got caught up in it because it wasn’t what we wanted. But hats off to Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kelley Earnhardt Miller, everyone at JR Motorsports, for this opportunity. To have Traveller Whiskey and Chris Stapleton back on board, it was great to be out front and be able to lead the Daytona 500. Thank you to all of our partners and the Hendrick Engine Shop. We had big power today and that was really what it came down to. We’ll go back and regroup. I’m going to watch this video back a lot and really try to figure out what I could have done better.”
Todd Gilliland — 39th: “I don’t know what happened, but that’s two incidents that were completely out of my control. The first one only really got me and the second one was in my lap again. I guess that’s how these things go sometimes. It just really sucks. We made our way all the way back up there, and that was really impressive, but we’ll just have to do what we can next week.”
Alex Bowman — 40th: It’s just unfortunate - wrong place, wrong time. We made some good moves to gain some positions back that we lost when we got stuck on pit road. I had a little thought to bail earlier, but right as I thought, I gained a lot of track position through the middle, and I was going to stick with it and see if we could get some stage points. Just wrong decision on that one. It is what it is. We will keep digging; go to Atlanta next week and try to win. I think everybody’s cars are driving pretty bad from where I sat, especially off of Turn Four. I felt like I could push really well, so everything on the Chevy end was great there. It was just a lot of getting off of the throttle off Turn Four and that made the bottom really difficult to run, and it kind of brought the two grooves up the racetrack. Even the middle could get pretty sketchy. I was far enough back that I couldn’t really see what started it. I could see the No. 40 (Justin Allgaier) try and get up in front of the No. 11 (Denny Hamlin), and that is probably what caused it. But for us, just wrong place at the wrong time.”
