Ryan Preece — winner: “I’m just speechless right now. But those guys, that 60 group, we’re fighters. When you put our back against the wall, we swing hard. So thank you to RFK, Jack Roush, the Fenway Group. Brad Keselowski. Last year there were a lot of
keyboard warriors saying I was nothing. Well, we just kicked their butts tonight. It’s a testament of how prepared these race cars are, man. I’m a racer. I know what it takes to
build speed. So every man and woman at RFK, thank you for giving me a rocket ship so I could go to the moon tonight. This is redemption.
“We had a bit of a slump there in May and June and we sort of found our way over the past few weeks, especially last week. We were a contender at Loudon. We were a contender tonight. Denny and those guys have been really fast, but it would be great to go on one hell of a run. ... I watched the movie The Replacements and I forgot what his first name was, but Falco and at the end he said, ‘Winners want the ball.’ So give me the ball. Derrick gave me the ball tonight and I gave the ball to him, so, for me, yeah, we were locked in. There’s just no ifs ands or buts. It was 100 percent about doing nothing other than putting ourselves in position and if we wrecked for the lead, we wrecked for the lead. If I rode around in 30th and didn’t have a chance to win, I’d be mad at myself right now.
“I’m not gonna have a voice tomorrow. Before the race, part of me – even last week – I thought we had a contending car that was capable of winning. I even kind of got choked up last week, and I’m not an emotional person. I am but I’m not. I don’t cry. I’m really shocked right now that I can even speak because there’s really no words to truly tell people how difficult this road has been. How many times people doubt you, but then I have a group of supporters, people that are from the northeast that have 100 percent been behind me all the way, so to stand here in Victory Lane and be able to share this moment with them even though they’re not here is amazing. This is a big win for the northeast. This is a big win for Connecticut. I’m a diehard New Englander, so it’s a big deal.
“I’m just glad that Daytona decided to love me the way I loved it. A big day for us at RFK. A big day for me. A big day for my family and I’m gonna drink quite a few beers and celebrate it with my friends and family and have a lot of calls tomorrow, but Monday the work is looking forward to trying to make a playoff run. To be able to bring my kids to Victory Lane and my wife to Victory Lane – Heather has been there from when I was broke and trying to win a Stafford race on a Friday night so I can get my 25 percent and make $400, to her not knowing that I borrowed money and I had to pay it back somehow, to using her credit card to go get shoes at Iowa because I forgot my shoes and they were wore out that time in 2017, to moving down to North Carolina away from her friends and away from her family to chase a dream with me. Man, this is what racers dream of. It wasn’t given. It was earned. A lot of risk involved and I’m damn proud to be doing it with Mr. Jack Roush, Brad Keselowski and the Fenway Group at RFK, and with Ford.”"
Daniel Suarez — second: “We had a really fast No. 7 Chevrolet. We were so close, two years in a row with a second-place finish. I’m super proud of everyone at Spire Motorsports. All the men and women have worked really hard on these racecars. The power under the hood from the Hendrick Engine Department has been incredible. All my teammates, we got to race together for a little bit. We were so close, man. I feel like if we got to race all the way to the end, we were going to have a shot at it. Super happy and proud to make it to the Chase with this team. This team deserves it. I feel like in the past, I’ve had runs in the postseason where I didn’t think we were strong enough to really contend. But this team deserves to be in the Chase. We are a Chase team. There’s so many people and partners that have helped us get here and put this kind of performance together.”
Tyler Reddick — third: “I was just really hoping we were going to be better than third there. It’s going to be close on points with the 54 (Ty Gibbs) so I don’t know if we got him or not. I was hoping something good would happen there -- I either wanted to win the race or pass the 54 in points. When the 38 (Zane Smith) threw that block, it’s just so late, if you lift, you’re not going to have the push and the momentum you need to stay with the front row. I was just in a spot where it’s like I couldn’t lift. Either I’m going to hit him or I’m going to get clear of him. Clipped him and lost some momentum there and lost some help. That’s a nice positive to come out of the weekend for our Toyota Camry. For us, I just would’ve loved to take another trip to victory lane here at Daytona. The thing that we were going to try and accomplish in a way I guess came to because we were up there in the mix. I just wish – I know Zane (Smith) got crossed up there and I’m guessing that’s where the 21 (Josh Berry) went – some of the help that I had behind me. You can’t lift in those moments, and you just hope if the blocks are thrown that you’re able to get square. If you can’t get clear, obviously the best thing possible is to be able to dodge the block and get alongside him. Just can’t lift in those moments. You try to keep the momentum going whether you’re pushing the winner or trying to be the winner.”
Michael McDowell — fourth: “We just needed a couple hundred feet more there at the end. I don’t think I would have won, but I think Daniel (Suarez) would have had a shot. We had a good run, and I had just picked him up when the caution came out. The timing was unfortunate, but you know how these races end here (at Daytona International Speedway). If you make it to the finish line, you feel very fortunate. I’m proud of everyone at Spire Motorsports to get two of the three cars into the Chase. To have a strong night like we did tonight and get two Spire Chevrolets in the top-five is a great run.”
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. — fifth: “It wasn’t a pretty day for the No. 47 Chevrolet team. We stuck to our strategy of riding around. I felt like the strategy that we had there in the final stage with the No. 1 (Ross Chastain), No. 3 (Austin Dillon), No. 41 (Cole Custer), No. 88 (Connor Zilisch) and the No. 33 (Austin Hill) was the strategy to win the race. We were catching the lead pack. I felt like the four of us were going to race it out if it went green, but the caution didn’t help us and it helped those guys make it on fuel. Obviously, they didn’t let us race back to the line, which at the Daytona 500, they did, so it’s kind of disappointing. Other than that, it’s cool to get a top-five. That’s a positive for us and what our team needed after the last few weeks.”
Austin Cindric — sixth: “Obviously, we had a strong Ford Mustang. We were able to get to the front when we needed to at times. I hate we weren’t able to capitalize and lead as many laps as we did in stage two to give ourselves a larger buffer for the final stage, but the guys did a great job of keeping me informed with what I needed to do to keep ourselves out front and get back to the front. Everything we needed to do we checked the boxes tonight. For us, it was fairly simple on how to control our destiny and obviously dodge the wrecks. That was the huge part, but as far as I understand it’s a best-case scenario for Ford tonight. I’m super proud of everybody and we’re ready to go chase for a championship. I think, for us, we’ve got to absolutely kill it to think we have a shot at a championship with the way that the points reset, but this team is capable of a lot and I want to see how far we can go. I think there’s a lot of variables and I don’t mean to downplay it, but there were certainly a lot of variables going into the night. We weren’t all on top of each other, so I felt like in a lot of ways it was somewhat more simplified of how the race was gonna play out after I was able to watch and observe. I thought our car was good enough to charge back through when needed and obviously we got ourselves in position. The guys did a great job of giving me information all night, whether it was points or fuel and how to adapt. That’s what it takes to be a contender at a minimum, but definitely look for a strong 10 weeks from us.”
Austin Dillon — seventh: “Really proud of the entire No. 3 Chevrolet team at Daytona International Speedway, but we still have some work to do on speedway racing. It was pretty tough out there tonight. Track position does seem to be key with this package. Our Chevy was tight on exit to Turn 4 to start the race, but still very drive-able. In the final stage crew chief Richard Boswell had us pit early and it helped give us the fuel and track position needed to go home with a Top-10 finish.”
Denny Hamlin — 11th: “I thought we were going to be in a little better position because we saved so much fuel throughout that last run and was still able to get some track position, but I saw the car spinning and the field got jumbled up. Just a great job by NASCAR as a team for coming up with something different here. I thought it definitely was a change. Our car felt a little different. I didn’t think it was quite as log jammed as what it was in the past. If you wanted to get to the front I felt like you could. Just the way the stages worked out was interesting. In stage 2 and 3 fuel saving came into play. Just a decent, clean night overall for us. Had a few small things with the car that we’ve got to make sure we get right from a details perspective. Impressed with the team for all the hard work this season. There’s many that have gained a lot of points here tonight. This is the time though that you’ve got to step up and find the next level and next gear. So, it’s on us to go out there and perform. We’ve got a great final 10 weeks ahead of us. This is the grind of the season, but you’ve gotta go give a little more now.”
Chase Briscoe — 13th: “I thought the package was way better. Who knows if there’s still more to go, but I thought compared to what we had it was really good. You could make moves and make passes. It was more like traditionally how you would race here. The fuel saving was still there, but it was just how the stages wind up. You have to save fuel to not have to pit so I don’t know what they can do to fix that part of it. If the stages were short enough, I think we would just run as hard as we could and it would be really, really good. Not sure how to fix that, but definitely interesting how it all plays out. I’m really excited. Obviously, I feel like it’s some great tracks for us to be able to get to fifth in points from being 37th I think in week four or five, I think it shows how strong we’ve been. I’m really looking forward to it. I feel like we’re definitely going to be in contention and just have to put 10 really good weeks together. I feel like if we can do that, we’ll be in the mix.”
Christopher Bell — 17th: “I mean, not really. We obviously wanted to maintain the fifth position in the standings. We were vulnerable to a couple of the guys tonight. Just wasn’t competitive tonight. In the second stage, I got up there in position for stage points and I just made a couple bad moves that took us out of stage points. Then, there at the end, we were still in position to finish ahead of (Chase) Briscoe and then the yellow flag worked in their favor. Could’ve been worse, but it’s five points in the grand scheme of things.”
Bubba Wallace — 20th: “Kind of an uneventful day. It got really sketchy there at the end. Good to be in the playoffs – obviously wanted to be higher than 14th. Our team is way stronger than what the picture paints right now. I’m excited for the next 10 weeks. Some really good tracks coming up for us. I’m really excited to go back to Darlington after the speed we had in the spring. Just for tonight though, our Toyota Camry was I thought really good. It was just kind of when we needed to bob everyone else weaved and just didn’t play our cards right so it’s unfortunate. Just trying to get a better understanding of what I need to do in the car.”
Ty Dillon — 21st: “This was a solid night for us. We ran up front, the car handled well, and we learned a lot with this new package. We just didn’t miss the wreck quite good enough. But, all in all, it was a solid night. We’ve been really good on superspeedways, and we just keep building momentum and confidence doing these races and running close to the front like we are. We are just pumped to keep doing it.”
Chase Elliott — 23rd: “It’s all eyes on Darlington (Raceway) now. We got through tonight. We had a couple shining spots, I feel like. We led some laps and we were in an okay spot there a time or two. We got caught out there on the strategy there at the end, and I felt like we were in a lot of trouble there pretty quickly. Unfortunately, that ended up being true; we got behind and the caution came out. Hopefully, we can put this one behind us, reset for next weekend – have a good week of preparation and get ready to start the Chase at Darlington.”
Ross Chastain — 24th: “Our Chevrolet was pretty loose tonight. We worked on it throughout the race but it was tough in traffic. Unfortunately, we ended the night with a damaged car but I’m looking forward to Darlington next weekend. It’s one of my favorite race tracks.”
Austin Hill — 27th: “Our Chevrolet was really fast tonight and I wish the finishing result showed that. Just missed the mark a bit tonight with strategy. We had a great qualifying effort with us starting third, and after the green, we quickly got to the lead. The car was way too loose to make moves with the steering wheel and I couldn’t make the hard turns to block the runs at the end of that stage. We made good adjustments, drove back forward, and finished inside the top-10 at the end of Stage 2. We pitted with five other cars under green in the last stage, and unfortunately, we came off pit road last of the group and ended up losing the draft. A timely caution let us get our lap back for the overtime finish, but there wasn’t enough time to make up ground. Proud of all the prep the guys put in to bring a fast car to the track.”
Shane van Gisbergen — 28th: “Congrats to the 60. But one night doesn’t sum up our year. I guess we haven’t been good enough. It’s been cool to be close. Yeah, shame we’re not in it. Bits of it were good, as a team obviously we struggled. I’m proud that I’ve been able to match my teammates on the ovals. I think I’ve stepped up this year. But yeah, obviously you want to be in that Chase. Didn’t make it.”
AJ Allmendinger — 30th: “We got free behind guys, but everything else felt okay with the car. We didn’t have the track position we hoped for late in the race. When they started wrecking up front on the final lap, we got clipped and collected in a multicar wreck. It’s terrible to get caught up in an accident like that coming to the finish line because we maybe could have got a decent finish tonight.”
Zane Smith — 32nd: “I just got wrecked. I haven’t really seen a replay to break it down, but it’s just unfortunate to come that close and have it not work out. I haven’t seen a replay. It felt like I didn’t even get a shot to survive with (Tyler Reddick) and just got wiped out.”
Ryan Blaney — 33rd: “(The Chase) will be different from what we’ve had the last little bit, but I think everyone was kind of used to that growing up or prior or things like that, so I really don’t think you’re just gonna have to know that you’re not gonna be able to really afford any mistakes. Things are gonna fluctuate up and down, for sure.”
Carson Hocevar — 38th: “I was always super tight behind people, it seemed. And so, I just changed from top to bottom there and that was the first time I really got a ton of air on my nose into three and I just lost it. It just kept going. I had the wheel straight, man, it just kept going with all the air and something down on the nose. I’m shocked that it did that. It caught me off guard, for sure. It was nice to ride around all day like we’d kind of planned, and then we gave ourselves a shot to win it at the end. We were up front, had track position and led laps, and that’s all I can really ask for from a team standpoint. Overall, I thought we did a pretty good job here tonight.”
Erik Jones — 39th: “(Carson Hocevar) just spun up the track there. I knew he was coming back across the track, and I was just trying to get down but it’s tough with all the traffic and as fast as you’re going. I hate it. I thought we were in a good spot – trying to put ourselves in a good spot – and just where we needed to be and it didn’t work out. That’s superspeedway racing. The Camry was fast – it just didn’t work out.”
