Here is what drivers had to say after Sunday’s Cup race at Richmond Raceway:
Denny Hamlin — Winner: “I’ve had the best pit crew all year long. I loved our chances. We still had Martin (Truex Jr.) – he was the deserving race winner there, but you give these pit crews an opportunity – this is what it is all about. You have to have your whole team put together – and they just killed it today.”
Joey Logano — Finished 2nd: “I had a chance. I didn’t get a good enough restart. I really wanted to pressure them down into (Turn) 1 and force them to work up Truex, but I spun my tires there just trying to stay with them and that ultimately cost me to be close enough to do something. I don’t know. It feels good to be towards the front again. We haven’t had a run like that in a while, but it also stings to be that close and not capitalize on the win. I guess I have mixed emotions. We had a really good car, a car that was capable of winning if we were in the front, but we didn’t execute everywhere else good enough to get there.”
Kyle Larson — Finished 3rd: “Just got spun there down the frontstretch. Thankfully, I didn’t get turned all the way around and I only lost one or two spots there. My pit crew did a great job all night to gain those couple of spots back on pit road for us to lineup fourth and get one spot out of it. Proud of the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevy team. I’m really, really happy about the execution all night long. My pit crew kept putting us in position to have a shot to win, so can’t say much more.”
Martin Truex Jr. — Finished 4th: “Yeah, it’s unfortunate. Unfortunately, this has happened to be a few times over the years. We were in a great spot and had a great Auto-Owners Toyota Camry all night long. The guys did a really good job all night. We got beat out of the pits and then – I don’t know. He jumped the start and then used me up into turn one. Definitely sucks, but a good solid day and a car capable of winning, so we will just have to come back next week and try to get them then.”
Chase Elliott — Finished 5th: “I probably made the most of it there at the end. I honestly never felt like our UniFirst Chevy was all that bad. The caution came out there in the middle of that one-stop, two-stop strategy, and it set us back a little bit. I had a couple poor restarts there in a row, and then it was like after that, everybody was just the same. We would run around there and just kind of run the same pace. I felt like we kind of found a little pace there those last two runs, and we were able to actually pass a couple of cars under green. We got ourselves in a position there to have a good pit stop there at the end. I stopped a little short in my box. I think we could have been one spot better there off of pit road, but nonetheless, had a good restart and gave ourselves a top-five.”
Christopher Bell — Finished 6th: “To come out of here with a top 10 is something that ended up being a really good day. It was such a disappointing mistake on pit road (speeding on pit road). I was right there in the hunt, and it was going to be a race under the green flag there, so I’m disappointed, but happy to have a good showing for this Mobil 1 Camry. It stings to have a car that fast and make a mistake with it.”
William Byron — Finished 7th: “It was a grind today. I think we really got the car handling well there at the end, we just needed a little bit more. I’m proud of my guys though for pushing through and turning it around when things weren’t going right early on. We’ll take what we learned tonight and build for next weekend.”
Brad Keselowski — Finished 8th: “That was respectable. I don’t think we had the speed to win the race, but we had the speed to run in that eighth to 12th range and we kind of did that most of the night. We ended up executing at the end to get an eighth, so it was respectable. We took a little step backwards, but we’ll learn from it and be better.”
Chris Buescher — Finished 9th: “That’s certainly not what we were hoping for. I was really excited coming back here. We had a good day, but nothing terrific to write home about. We’ll definitely dive into it and try to figure out what changed and see where we might be able to get better for the next go round.”
Josh Berry — Finished 11th: “It was a solid night. We had a really good car and a really good practice. We didn’t qualify like we should have, but we were able to come up through there and get some track position back. It was just little things. We lost a little track position and got stuck in the back half of the top 10, but, all in all, it was a really good night. We have a lot to be proud of. It was a good points night and we’ll go to Martinsville.”
Noah Gragson — Finished 12th: “We were just a little too disconnected from the start of the race compared to (Saturday) in practice. I felt like we had a really good car but just kind of lost it. I don’t know if going to the night time was the difference, but I’m super proud of these guys. We kind of just maintained all day. We started 17th and finished 12th and could just never get a good handle on the car, but nobody quit. We kept our heads in it and I’m just appreciative of the opportunity.”
Erik Jones — Finished 14th: “Not a bad day. We started really far off and got better all day. We had some good spots, and we brought the Dollar Tree Camry home top 15. We needed a good week. It’s been a rough stretch these last few races. We took a day that I didn’t think was great and made something decent out of it. We’ve got to keep working. We’ve got a lot that we can better on.”
Chase Briscoe — Finished 18th: “It wasn’t our best night by any means. I feel like this was by far our worst race of the season. I guess it’s somewhat encouraging that we were still able to run top 20 even though that’s not really the goal. We just struggled all weekend. We could never really get the balance how we wanted and could never get the front to turn and then we would just unhook the back, so it was just a frustrating weekend to just try and get it to do what we wanted it to do. Honestly, the weather, I thought, probably helped us a little bit. We were able to leapfrog some guys there and then with green flag pit stops we didn’t have the best night on pit road. It was just an up-and-down night for us, so we definitely have a lot of work to do, which is a little head scratching with how good we’ve been in the past. We’ve always kind of been in the mix, so we just need to go back and try to do our homework and come back better.”
Kyle Busch — Finished 20th: “It was a battle all night in our No. 8 Rebel Bourbon Chevrolet at Richmond Raceway. We started the race on wet weather tires and had zero grip on the initial fire off. It felt like it took forever for the tires to come in. Crew chief Randall Burnett and all the guys on the team worked hard all night making adjustments, but we were just too tight in the center and too loose on entry and exit. They took some pretty big swings at it but unfortunately couldn’t get the balance where it needed to be. We’ll regroup and bounce back next week at Martinsville Speedway.”
Austin Dillon — Finished 24th: “We had a really good car tonight. Our No. 3 BREZTRI Chevy was fast. We just messed up coming to pit road. The car was in the pit stall, and when you go a lap down here at Richmond, it’s hard to get it back. It’s unfortunate, but we’ll go back to work and getting ready for Martinsville next weekend.”
John Hunter Nemechek — Finished 25th: “P25 with our Safeway Toyota Camry. Long day. We got behind on wets. We got behind on the first run and went a lap down and never got it back. Long day. On to Martinsville.”
Ty Dillon — Finished 29th: “Disappointing night overall for our No. 16 Chevy Accessories Chevrolet. We had some great speed, but unfortunately didn’t qualify as well as we could have and got stuck on pit road due to circumstances out of our control. All and all, despite not having things go our way, this team did a lot of things well and I’m excited to get back in the car again soon.”
Kaz Grala — Finished 31st: “We were fighting the handling the entire race. Once the green-flag pit stops start, it’s easy to get caught a lap or two down and it just kind of snowballs from there if you don’t make big progress. I think we learned a lot and hopefully we can find something that will work better for us before we come back in August.”
Justin Haley — Finished 32nd: “Our No. 51 Walmart Health and Wellness Ford Mustang Dark Horse was really good during the day. We struggled under the lights getting the balance right and just couldn’t seem to find the right adjustments to get it closer to where it needed to be. Our pit strategy in the second stage got messed up with that caution so maybe it wouldn’t have been quite as bad, but it was still a tough race. We at least have something to work with when we come back and the sun’s out.”
