Here is what drivers had to say after Sunday’s Round of 8 opener at Las Vegas Motor Speedway:
Joey Logano — Winner: “Oh my gosh. It’s an incredible turn of events coming from what was at the end of last weekend and what it was like Sunday night after a couple hours after the race and to this Sunday. This sport is just incredible. Things change, but what a team I’ve got. I stood out there at the start-finish line and it takes a total effort. Obviously, the car had to be pretty good. It was solid, but when you think about what it takes to win a fuel mileage race, you’ve got to have a good engine. You’ve got to have good engineers calculating stuff. You’ve got to have good communication communicating what they see and being able to make sure that I only gave up the right amount of spots on the racetrack and trying to get to the 99 in front and keep the 20 behind. Coleman, Paul, Joe, Nick Hensley, our gas man making sure it’s full. It takes everybody to do it, so we’re in the Championship 4 again. I’m so proud of this team. We just find a way and that’s what I’m most proud of. I said it as we entered this thing this week that we may be the underdogs, but I don’t think so anymore.”
Christopher Bell — Second: “I don’t think I’ve come to terms yet. I don’t know. Just a bummer. I think everyone on this team did everything perfect today. This thing was obviously on rails. Pit crew did an amazing job. Adam called a great race. Did everything we did everything we needed to to put this Rheem Camry in Victory Lane. Wasn’t meant to be today. It’s a whole new race next week. The track means nothing for next week. Fortunately we were able to go and win in Homestead. But nothing’s guaranteed. Just because I ran second today doesn’t mean I’m going to finish anywhere next week. Yeah, I think the points look pretty good, which is a positive. You’re never safe in this deal. We needed to win today. Unfortunately we didn’t. We’ll go on to the next one.”
Daniel Suarez — Third: “It’s a little heartbreaking. We had a great No. 99 Chevy. I think we could have won it. We just needed the bottom lane. A couple of cars right there, they were stuck on the bottom and I was in very dirty air. (Joey Logano) was a little faster than us right there at the end. I felt like if I had the bottom, Joey wasn’t going to be able to pass me, but you never know.”
William Byron — Fourth: “Yeah, we really improved a lot as the day progressed. That was a lot to be said about this No. 24 Chevy team, and our ability to get the balance close and get the speed once we had the balance close. We just started the race a little bit off, but I’m really, really happy with how we came on. I thought we were going to have a shot to compete for a win there in the final stage, but it turned into a fuel mileage race. Just sucks. It’s going to take a win, I feel like, so we have to keep working for it and keep running up front. If we run up front, it will do two things – we’ll be able to compete for a win and score a lot of points. We just have to keep running like this.”
Alex Bowman — Fifth: “Yeah, I mean obviously they made it on fuel, so that’s what got those guys there. But hats off to them for taking advantage of that opportunity. The second-to-last run, we were super-fast. And then on the last run, I don’t know if just coming out in some clean air or if I built the right-rear up too quick or what happened, but I was just too loose the last run. I struggled to run the wall in (turns) three and four like I could the run previously. I had some big moments behind Christopher (Bell) and kind of just melted the right-rear off the thing. Bummed that we’re not a couple spots better at least, but it was a solid top-five effort for the No. 48 Ally Chevy team. We’ll keep on digging.”
Denny Hamlin — Eighth: “Just not a clean day. That certainly kind of sums it up. You’ll have that. We’ll just do the best we can to to get the best finish. I thought (crew chief) Chris (Gabehart) did a great job trying to get some sort of finish. Once we lost the track position early, he was doing everything he could to try to get it back through some alternate strategy. It goes long there, we fall back to the back. Just part of it. Certainly we’re not running quite as strong as what we were earlier in the year. We’re definitely not as clean execution-wise as what we were. Just got to clean it up, go to Homestead and try to win it.”
John Hunter Nemechek — Ninth: “Solid day. We didn’t start off great – started in 26th, I think we fell back to the 30s and Brian (Campe, crew chief) and the engineers – everyone on this No. 42 Toyota team worked really hard to get the car right. I felt like our communication was good today. I just felt like everything went okay. We got track position, made some adjustments, woke the car up. I felt like we were running top-15 there for a little bit, and we opted to save fuel on the strategy that we played and came home ninth. Obviously, we want more – but at the same time, very, very solid day for this 42 group, and something I feel like us and Legacy Motor Club needed.”
Kyle Larson — 11th: “It was a messy, messy day. None of the first races in the rounds have been clean, at all, for us. But this was a long, hard-fought 11th-place finish. We just had a lot of unfortunate things happen with the debris that got stuck on our nose. We were able to overcome that and I thought we were going to be fine. We had a strong finish in the second stage, and then we had the issues on the pit stop and just had to fight from there. We got the most we could out of the rest of the day. I’m proud of this No. 5 Chevy team for the rebound and having a clean rest of the race.”
Kyle Busch — 13th: “Overall, it was a solid day for the No. 8 Chevrolet team. We started off loose, but crew chief Randall Burnett called for adjustments every time we stopped. By Stage 2, our Chevy was too tight but we had worked our way inside the top 10. The pit crew had a good day, and we were able to gain a few spots there. We chose to split the final run of the race instead of trying to stretch it to the end. Unfortunately, that didn’t work in our favor because some guys didn’t stop and made it to the end. We’ll regroup this week and bounce back next weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway.”
Chase Briscoe — 15th: "“My car just really struggled. All day, it just didn’t really seem to do anything it should do. So yeah, I don’t know. We changed everything throughout the race, and there at the end, it was finally good, so I wish we could’ve started the race where we just ended it, but obviously we can’t do that. Definitely a rough one, for sure.”
Jimmie Johnson — 28th: “Not bad for this No. 84 Toyota. We were in that lucky dog position, and as the race went on and some quality cars were trapped down a lap, it just made that really tough and we narrowly missed getting back on the lead lap multiple times, so trapped down a lap, and just ran along and did what we could, but it was great to see our other two cars with pace, especially (John Hunter Nemechek) finishing there in ninth. That was a great day for us.”
Ryan Blaney — 32nd: We’re still alive. It’s definitely not the best of days. It was just a rough weekend overall. I don’t know what to do about it, to be honest with you, running over something and having a hole in it in practice. And then just getting clipped by the 6 there. I thought I could get around him and didn’t know if he’d come up the racetrack and then by the time he was kind of on the track it was too late. I got clipped and bent everything all to hell, so it was just a rough weekend. We still have two more weeks, so we’re definitely not out of it.”
Chase Elliott — 33rd: “(Tyler Reddick) was coming with a really big run on the top. I don’t think Martin (Truex Jr.) knew that, and he was kind of running as if we were two-wide. Once I recognized that there wasn’t going to be enough room, I bailed and there was just nowhere to bail. It was too late. I need to sit down and take a look at it. I was, personally, just trying to get out of the situation, and it was just a little too late at that point. It sucks. Our No. 9 Chevy was really, really good there at the start. It was the best we’ve been out here in this new car, so it was just a bad day for that.”
Austin Cindric — 34th: “I haven’t seen a replay. I just know that they wrecked off of (Turn 4), and (Keselowski) came back up the track and either clipped me or I just got loose from getting up in the gray by the start-finish line and slapped the fence and killed all of the right-side suspension, and now I get to watch the rest of the race. It’s totally frustrating because we’ve had really fast cars, especially today. I felt like we had one of the best cars on the long run and the way those cautions and the strategy and all that, it’s a shame. The last three weeks we’ve had cars that easily could have finished in the top five and some of those we got wrecked. It’s racing. It’s tough, but I definitely want to finish strong.”
Tyler Reddick — 35th: “Yeah, you just have to be aggressive on restarts. It’s obviously how the Next Gen racing has been from the beginning. I kind of saw them both have a moment, and I just had to split second make a decision. You have to be aggressive on the restart. It is hard to pass after a while. Being myself on a mile and a half, being aggressive – by the time I realized I was in trouble, (Martin Truex Jr.) started sliding and (Chase Elliott) was coming up, and I was pretty much already on their outside at that point, with nowhere to really go. I needed to make the decision earlier when I saw them sliding to be more conservative to avoid an incident – just not who I am, but it is unfortunate. It took us out of the race. We had a really, really fast Toyota Camry, probably would have been in the mix all race long, but we will go to Homestead – a place where I have had to get it done before and go for it there.”
“We can still have a good day at Homestead and be in the mix in Martinsville. Ideally, yeah, it would have been nice to win today. It would be nice to win next week, and that is what we will focus on, but thankfully we got 10 stage points in stage one, and it’s not like we are absolutely out of it on points, yet. We are going to have to be perfect here on out, probably.”
Brad Keselowski — 36th: “I was coming off of turn four and the guys in front of me got together. It’s a shame. This is the best run we’ve had the whole playoffs. The car was really fast and we were fighting within the top five and top 10. It’s racing. You hang around long enough and you’ve got a shot at it if you hang around the top five or top 10. We just kind of got caught up in somebody else’s deal. I was kind of a victim of circumstances. A couple of cars got together in front of me and I just couldn’t miss them. It’s a shame. This is one of the best cars we’ve had in quite some time. I was really proud of our team. We were in a good spot to have a great day and just didn’t get to see it through.”
Austin Dillon — 37th: "(Daniel Hemric) flat-out wrecked me. No clue why. He’s got three races left, and I don’t know if he was just over his head. He stays in the gas into (Turn 3) until he hits me. I don’t know what that was. It was a hard hit, but I’m good.”
