William Byron — winner: “It’s been a tough year, but we’ve grinded and never stopped working. It means a lot for everyone on this No. 24 Chevrolet team. I think everyone’s felt it, but have worked hard and kept their heads down. To come to a place like this, where we’re traditionally good and just have an awesome performance like that, is incredible. We just kept getting a little bit better through the race and it was a lot of fun. We just did little adjustments, but it’s hard to say. The track kind of came to us, and when we made that green flag stop, it just stayed good for us. It was awesome.”
Chase Elliott — second: “I just needed some rear tires. I was running as hard as I could go. I really fell off hard on the run before, and I think that’s probably what hurt me the most with having to make up that gap. William (Byron, race winner) had that gap to play with and he did a great job managing that. He saved and he knew I was pressing. I’m really proud of our No. 9 Chevrolet team. I thought we got our car better and better all day. That last run, I was really happy with it, but I just needed to be a little further up the road.”
Ty Gibbs — third: “It was just a long night. Not a lot of passing. The tire was just really sensitive and the tire was made recently. Just made the material newer and fresher and easier to wear. The 54 Toyota was really fast but not fast enough. We were close enough and in contention, we’ll just go out there and go get them next week and next year.”
Josh Berry — fourth: “It was really fun. The car was really solid all day. We just needed a little bit of track position and needed to get up to the front a little bit sooner. Overall, the car was really solid. I just want to thank these guys, everybody at Wood Brothers and Team Penske, Ford Racing for everything they do for us. I’m just glad to have another good run. Obviously, Ryan (Blaney) got into me pretty good there and I got up out of the groove just trying to save it and we got together.”
Shane van Gisbergen — fifth: “I definitely feel like I’m getting there, thanks to having a great team around me. Our team did a great job getting our No. 97 Chevrolet better from yesterday and I qualified badly. It was a great day. The first stage was awesome with the different strategies. We managed to stay on the lead lap and we just kept working forward. I enjoyed it.”
Denny Hamlin — sixth: “Just really came down to stage one with us running the no-stop strategy. Lost all of our track position there. When we got to the back, then you got all those incidents, the cautions, then obviously the 22 (Joey Logano) got the 20 (Christopher Bell), and the 20 got into us. It’s racing, I guess. You’re going to have that. We just lost our track position. Once we lost our track position, the strategy, it’s hard to drive back to the front. Nobody else did. Obviously got some decent damage there. We didn’t capitalize today on Larson not getting any stage points and stuff like that. Yeah, just the first stage. The first stage was the killer for us that set us back. At the end of the first stage, not only that, we had to restart last because we had to wave around. It was just a lot of unfortunate timing of some things. For us, this weekend, it was about everything to gain, nothing to lose. We just didn’t gain enough to make it realistic. I mean, I feel confident that I’ll be able to go (to Homestead-Miami Speedway) and contend. I’d love to get another win before the end of the year. I thought it was going to come today. We’ll have to get one more shot at it next week and see if we can’t get one more win.”
Austin Dillon — seventh: “Heck of a day. Proud of everyone on the No. 3 crew. We fought all day long, making the needed adjustments and battling back when we went a lap down. Excited to be one of the seven cars to finish on the lead lap, and happy to see the momentum we’re bringing to the end of the season as we look to conclude on a high note and carry that into 2027.”
Kyle Larson — ninth: “It was a difficult race. The first stage got away with us on strategy. I assumed we were just kind of playing off (Denny Hamlin). The second-half of the run didn’t go like we needed it to. We could have used a caution at some point to save us, but unfortunately, it went green the whole way and we got ate up. I was just hanging on, really. Fortunately, we got back on the lead lap in the second stage, and we just kind of had to fight it out from there. It was just hard to pass. I tried some runs to pass and beat my tires up. Other runs, I tried to save and it was just kind of net-whatever. It was just a bummer day. I thought our No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet was going to be good, and I think it would have been okay had we kept the track position in Stage One. Obviously, William (Byron) and Chase (Elliott) were really, really good. I think they could have driven my car just as fast. Congrats to William and Chase, both, for the good run here. It was a good day for Hendrick Motorsports. I know you wanted to clinch it today, but is it a sense of relief with the points cushion heading into Homestead-Miami Speedway next weekend?
“It is a sense of relief, for sure. (Christopher Bell) played the first stage right, and I thought things could get crazy and we could get damage in the back. We got through the day relatively clean. I didn’t lose as many points as I was expecting to today, so I’m happy with that. We’ll go to Homestead-Miami Speedway and try to collect a good points day.”
Christopher Bell — 10th: “I got tricked into thinking I was better than I was. My team, Adam (Stevens, crew chief), did a great strategy call there in stage one to pit and got us a bunch of track position. On the Stage 2 start, I felt like I was pretty good. Adam came on the radio and said that William (Byron) was running part throttle. I’m at 100%, he’s at 80%. I don’t know, I was pretty close on the short run, then the long run I fell off. All in all, 10th is probably about where we stacked up. It was a really hectic day. It is what it is.”
Ross Chastain — 11th: “It felt really good to run consistently up front today at Martinsville in the Moose Fraternity Chevrolet. The car handled well and we didn’t need any major swings at adjustments, it was just small little things all day. Unfortunately, we had a little blip there on the last pit stop which hurt us at the end but that’s how it goes sometimes. We ended the day 11th and it certainly could’ve been worse, but it felt good to run well today.”
Michael McDowell — 16th: “It was such a busy day at Martinsville, it felt like we would go from the back to the front all the time with how the cautions played out. Outside of that, I feel like we had some good pace on our Chevrolet, we just couldn’t find our home in the top 10. We were right around that 15-20th mark all day, but it was a clean day without a torn up race car and that is always a good thing leaving Martinsville. One more to go, so hopefully we can build on Talladega and Martinsville into Homestead-Miami Speedway to go into 2027 with some good momentum.”
Connor Zilisch — 17th: “It was a good recovery for our team. We were three laps down at one point, but we were able to get back on the lead lap there to start the final stage and get a decent day out of it. Really proud of this No. 88 Chevrolet team, as well as Shane (Van Gisbergen) and Ross (Chastain) for having a great day, as well. It was a good day for the organization and a great day for Chevrolet. I’m excited to get to Homestead-Miami Speedway next weekend and close out the season strong.”
Joey Logano — 18th: “We kind of had them where we wanted them. They were trying to give it to us and we gave it right back, so just frustrating is what it is. You win as a team and lose as a team and today we’re gonna lose as a team. It just stings when you do that. When we look at the last couple of weeks the opportunity was there at the end of those races to do it. We’re out of it now, which stings. On one hand, you look at the comeback we had from the regular season and have a chance to win a championship all down to one race to go. That’s something to be proud of, but, at the same time, it’s really easy to find 60-plus points sitting on the table over the last three or four weeks. It is what it is. That’s racing for you. We’ll move on. There are plenty of positives, you just got me in a negative moment after just getting out of the car. Our Mustangs are getting faster, which is great. We showed that we can be in contention at almost every track now, so those have been good gains. We’ll see what the new SC is gonna be like next year. I’m kind of excited to see what that is, but we still have one more race to try to win and we can still get to second in points, which would be an accomplishment. I’m pretty sure there’s some kind of money involved with that, so let’s go get it.”
Austin Hill — 20th: “Solid top-20 day for our team. We qualified in a decent spot, which helped us with pit stall selection. For most of the day, our Chevrolet was tight on fire off but built free as the run went on. Andy (Street, crew chief) and the guys kept adjusting on it and towards the end, the balance was better. We just kept burning the rears off it. Didn’t matter how easy I was on the pedals. Overall, a good day for our No. 33 group. Still room for improvement but today was definitely better than the spring.”
Carson Hocevar — 21st: “I got lost there for a second. Our car wasn’t great, but my guys worked on it pretty good there, and we kept making round changes and front adjustments. We had a bad pit stop that unfortunately put us back, but luckily my guys rebounded, but it’s tough to rebound here when even good cars get out of the game and they can’t recover. So for where we were, just OK. We needed every advantage we could have or things to go right, and they just didn’t for us. Luckily, it’s still in striking distance to 10th in points, which would be good for us and good for our team. (On if his incidents with Austin Cindric were intentional) No. I mean, I got full throttle here in the
spring, and I just think it’s Martinsville. I had a lot of fun, and I think me and Austin have raced each other really well. Or at least I’ve been pointed by a lot of his cars have been really fast. So, no, I just think that’s just Martinsville, and I think we’re just having fun. “
Ryan Blaney — 35th: “We were definitely getting better. The first stage we weren’t great, but that run where that happened I thought we finally got pretty good. I was passing some cars and really running kind of the front group down a little bit, so I felt like we made good gains. The deal in three and four, I just barely accidentally bumped (Josh Berry), and he decided to slam on the brakes and end our day. I don’t really know why after just a tiny little bit of contact, not even on purpose. He just lost his mind and unfortunately it ended our day.”
