Denny Hamlin — winner: “The 20 (Christopher Bell) and 19 (Chase Briscoe) were battling so hard in that first corner, it let me get to the inside of the 20 in the first corner there of the restart. And from there, side by side with the 20, and he drove in so deep on that last lap into 1, it allowed me to just barely clear off 2. But man, what an unbelievable day. Starting first, going to last and then back to first. I definitely jumped the start. Looking back at it, just didn’t wait quite long enough. Thank you to this sellout crowd. It’s been an honor.”
Christopher Bell — second: “It’s disappointment. I’ve got nobody, nothing, no circumstances to blame except myself. I just didn’t win the race. That’s all there is to it. I really felt like I was in a pretty good spot being on the outside. Obviously, you wanted to get clear. But once I didn’t get clear, I felt I had the leveraged position being on the inside, and Denny kept getting more and more aggressive with running me up the racetrack, and that brought (Briscoe) in, and yeah, I thought that even whenever (Briscoe) got the big run off (Turn) 4 and got to me, it kind of looked like he was going to go with me and give me a shove. And I’m like, ‘Oh yes, I got it.’ But then he split to the outside, and then I’m like all right, I’m going to get it in the corner, and yeah. Just lost the race.”
Chase Briscoe — third: “I kept trying to back up my entries to get a big run to try and take them three wide. I just kept running each other up the racetrack, so I kept trying to just hit the bottom. Denny kind of went to the apron, and I was going to do a three-wide to the bottom, because I knew if I hit the bottom, they were going to come up. He kind of covered it, so then I went to the top and was able to get to Christopher’s right rear, and then just everybody was just driving in so deep and sliding up the racetrack, and I was just in no-man’s land after that. Hate that we weren’t on the better end of it. We had a really good Toyota and felt it was capable of winning and ended up third. Great day for JGR. We ended up 1-2-3 and just wish we were in first.”
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. — fourth: “It was an up-and-down day. I felt like our No. 47 Chevrolet started off really tight, and we kind of fell back there. We made some adjustments and stayed out in the second stage to get good stage points. We kind of found our way back into the top-15. This team gave me a great car, and we made it better throughout the race. Our brakes were good. I could hustle it really all the way through a whole stage and a whole run, and I felt like that was a benefit for us. Our pit crew did a good job there. We decided to take four tires so we could be on the offense. The lanes just opened up. I was hoping they were going to fight a little bit harder up there so we could back into a win. It’s just really cool to get this Kyle Busch tribute Chevrolet in the top-five at a place where we struggle at with the Next Gen car. We ran here good with the previous car, and we’ve been struggling here as of late, so it’s really cool to come home with a top-five finish.”
Shane van Gisbergen — fifth: “It was a pretty awesome day for this No. 97 Chevrolet team. Starting up front obviously helps, but it was cool to lead some laps and battle at the front. Our Chevy was running really well all night. I really enjoyed myself tonight. I learned a lot. I learned to be comfortable moving around in (turns) one and two, which I’ve never been able to do before. We just got the balance better on the two-tire strategy. When we were on a four-tire strategy, we were lacking that. The two-tire stop at the end, we were able to get the balance back again. It was a lot of fun. It definitely feels like we’re making headway.”
Chase Elliott — seventh: “We got our Chevy pretty good by the end. We caught that caution, which was really nice and was able to get back in the mix. Anytime you’re back in traffic, you have to stick to your guns on what you think your balance is doing. Fortunately, we got the chance to get to the front and got to show that we actually had some OK pace. I’m not sure we had anything for Bell, he was probably the best car. So credit to those guys and obviously to (Denny Hamlin) for getting the job done. Just a solid night. It’s been a really bad month ever since Texas and nice to kind of get the train back on the tracks, I hope, and we can kind of build from here. I heard Tyler (Reddick) was OK, so I”m glad. That was a big hit. Nothing intentional for sure on my end. Ryan was trying to push me in line, and i just got super out of shape, and (Reddick) was just kind of in the end for me spinning. So hate that. But certainly proud of the fight all night to make it a top five, and we’ll go on to to Michigan and try again.”
Ryan Blaney — eighth: “It kind of got mixed up when the yellow came out late in Stage 2, and I had the lead and stayed out and couldn’t get going on restarts. Then yeah, we decided to pit and put rights on it with 70 to go, ended up we couldn’t make it. So we came down, put four on it and ended up with an OK finish. Good speed up front. Just couldn’t really go anywhere when I was buried. Sincere apologies to Tyler (Reddick). I was trying to push Chase and got him sideways and ended up hooking Tyler. So I hope he’s OK. Gosh, I did not mean to do that. So I hope he’s all right, but I’m proud of the fight from my 12 guys.”
Zane Smith — ninth: “Man, it was just playing cat and mouse with (Ryan Blaney), who obviously has a lot more experience than I do in that situation. Just trying to learn and put myself in control there and take advantage of that opportunity I had. Just really proud of our day and weekend. But man, I want to win so bad for everybody at FRM, my family, all our partners. We’re getting closer and closer to keeping this going every week.”
Ty Dillon — 12th: “I’m really proud of that finish. That was our best finish of the year and it wasn’t without its challenges being two laps down at one point. We knew the car had the potential all day. It was just getting it in the right spot, and the closer we got to the front, it just got better and better. So, I’m just proud of our effort, man. We’re digging. We’re fighters. We don’t give up no matter what comes our way, and I feel like our team is building. So, we’re learning, improving, and now it is onto the next one with a little bit of momentum.”
Joey Logano — 14th: “We had our struggles early on and I think the call we made at the competition caution was what we needed in terms of track position. It didn’t play out the way we needed it to with the way the cautions fell and we weren’t able to regain those spots from there. A hard-fought night making the most of what we had, for sure.”
Austin Dillon — 18th: “None of us are happy with finishing 18th at Nashville Superspeedway but after the day the No. 3 Chevrolet team had, that’s a pretty good recovery. That’s the way to fight. And how about that last restart? Wish we could have battled like that all day. We’ll take it.”
Austin Cindric — 26th: “Obviously a frustrating result. We kept working on the balance and got ourselves some track position and stage points, but getting caught up in that incident hurt us. The guys did a great job repairing the damage and getting us to the finish. We’ll regroup and head to Michigan.”
Austin Hill — 27th: “Not the result we hoped for with the Chevrolet. A lot of different things happened throughout the night, but everyone on this team kept making the most of each situation that was thrown our way. I thought we were on our way to a top-20 finish, but it just wasn’t in the cards tonight. We’ll continue to learn and fight for RCR heading into Michigan International Speedway next week.”
Chris Buescher — 29th: “Frustrating end to the day. We finally were starting to figure it out, and were about to make a charge toward the front. Until the brake rotor blew up and ruined the day.”
Bubba Wallace — 32nd: “Minding our own business again. Another week our team doesn’t get the finish they deserve. I’m tired, man. It’s hard to be in the same boat constantly every week. You got to figure out how to put it behind you and show up. I somehow become the bad guy the days following this, but I got to figure out how to be better and learn from it. It’s really hard when you are driving your best and trying to just make progress throughout the race, and you get wiped out. On to Michigan.”
Brad Keselowski — 34th: “I know I got hit from behind. Can’t really put myself in somebody else’s head. It’s a shame. I felt like we had just made the adjustments on the car that we needed to be competitive. And it’s pretty clear he wrecked me intentionally after seeing that replay. So turnabout is fair play.”
AJ Allmendinger — 35th: “Felt nothing until it exploded. No warning signs. Brakes weren’t soft or anything like that. I don’t think I overused them. I think it’s more horsepower, low downforce. I guess we’re using more brake than in the past, but yeah, it sucks. We were having a good day.”
Ryan Preece — 36th: “It was just one of those frustrating nights. We never really got the balance where we needed it, and we were fighting a tight condition from the start. The guys kept making adjustments and working hard to improve it, but unfortunately we had a piece of brake rotor go through the radiator and that ended our night. It’s disappointing because you always want the opportunity to keep working on it and see what you can salvage, but sometimes things happen that are out of your control. We’ll put this one behind us and focus on getting ready for next week.”
Ross Chastain — 37th: “We had a right-front brake rotor failure. It came apart and I just put it against the fence. You can’t slow down once the rotor is out of it. The car was okay, but it’s a rule that you can’t replace the rotors. It’s a bummer for Trackhouse Racing and our No. 1 Chevrolet team. We had a really good car and that’s something to hang our hats on. We had speed and grip, and we were able to pass cars after starting deep in the field. There’s a lot to take away on the good side.”
Connor Zilisch — 38th: “There was no warning at all. No pedal fade. The team was telling me that we had a little bit more glow than we would like, and that went away as the run went on. It just kind of came as a surprise. It’s unfortunate for our No. 88 Chevrolet team. I felt like we were moving in the right direction. We made up around 15 spots in the first few laps of the race. Just hate to cut another night short.”
