Here is what drivers had to say after Saturday night’s Cup playoff race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Kyle Larson — Winner: “I’ve had a lot of good cars since I’ve come to Hendrick Motorsports. It’s tough to say. But man, that was just great execution all weekend by the team. Practiced good. You’ve got to qualify good; we did that. Yeah, just had a great car. Thanks to the whole 5 team. They’re the best in the business. We dominate a lot of races but we might not close them all out, so it feels really good to close one out here in this Hendrickcars.com Chevy. … Just a phenomenal car, could kind of manage my stuff and then really pass some cars there at the end.”
Chase Elliott — Finished 2nd: “Really proud of our effort tonight with our LLumar Chevy team. I thought it was a really solid night overall. Had really nice pace and really thought our car drove really well. I don’t think I could have asked much more out of the car. I think Kyle did a really good job getting through traffic, and that was the difference. I kind of got hung up and he was able to slice through there, so credit to him and his team. They did a great job. Nice to get a Hendrick one-two and nice to be moving on. Nice to be in the mix. It’s always more fun when it matters and you’re up front.”
Bubba Wallace — Finished 3rd: “I told Bootie (Barker, crew chief) that we are a seventh-to-12th place car, coming in here – and we ended up third. It is still not good enough. We have to go to work to figure out how we can be two spots better, but all-in-all – best in class in multiple categories. Just appreciate the effort. It stings, running this well when you are not in the playoffs, but it just makes you hungrier for next year.”
Denny Hamlin — Finished 4th: “My aspirations were to win it – but it looked like (Kyle Larson) was better than all of us. Solid car. I thought we were really good towards the middle of the stages, and then at the end, got too loose and couldn’t hang onto what we had. Overall, top-five day, good stage points – kind of in the mix, just not really as good as we’ve been here the last few times, but overall I want to thank this whole FedEx Toyota team for giving me something I can move on with.”
Christopher Bell — Finished 5th: “The way that the yellows played out in stage two, we did jump the stage, but I think the race was pretty straight forward. I’m happy we got out of here with a top five, but at the same breath, all of us got our butts kicked. The 5 (Kyle Larson) was the class of the field and everyone else was kind of racing to be best of the rest. Good day for our DeWalt Toyota team. Hopefully, we can go to Kansas and have a nice solid day and set us up good for the round of 12.”
Ryan Blaney — Finished 6th: “It was a good night overall. We came from not qualifying great and got up to the top 10 that second stage. I thought we had a really good long run car and the long run at the end was so many laps that we were guarding against blowing a tire, so I just kind of rode around the last 100 laps or so for that run and wound up with a decent finish. It was a good effort from not qualifying well. The speed in our car was pretty decent. It’s something to learn from and nice to go to the next round.”
Ryan Preece — Finished 7th: “We passed cars on the long runs and we needed about 75-100 laps before I could start passing. That’s when everybody would start coming back to me. I’m obviously proud with the gains we’ve been making over the past few months.”
Chase Briscoe — Finished 8th: “Honestly, it wasn’t really stressful. I knew our Rush Truck Centers Ford Mustang Dark Horse was really, really good and even when we had that bad pit stop, we came out 13th or 14th and I felt like I could drive back up there. At the end, probably bled three or four spots just trying to not do anything stupid. It felt like both arms got a Tetanus shot. Overall, it was a great night for us. Hopefully, people will start taking us serious. I truthfully feel like we can battle for the championship, so hopefully tonight proved that. I hate that we had to kind of dig ourselves out of a hole after Atlanta, but hopefully can go on to Kansas and start this next round strong. I feel like we can beat anybody on any given day when we put it together from start to finish. Obviously, tonight we had some hiccups, but we were still able to have a good finish and that’s what this championship run is gonna be all about, so go on to the next one.”
Alex Bowman — Finished 9th: “The racetrack just rubbered up and we progressively got worse as more rubber laid down I felt like. Yeah, proud of this No. 48 Ally Camaro team. We did what we needed the whole first round of the playoffs, but also we want to be better and continue that through the next round. Missed it a little today when it rubbered up, but other than that really solid points day for us, and we’ll keep at it.”
Noah Gragson — Finished 12th: “I had a solid Ford Mustang Dark Horse, but we just struggled firing off on short runs. On the long run we were really good and kind of just stayed in that 14th range, so overall, it was a solid day. That’s what our group needed. It was a solid weekend overall and I’m just proud of everyone we’ll just go on next week to Kansas.”
Austin Cindric — Finished 13th: “I don’t know what the average finish is for the round, but two top 10s and a 13th. That’s what we need to do as a team and it’s something we had challenges putting together, but the potential is there. The team did an awesome job this round and I’m proud of that, but everything resets so no reason why we can’t replicate that performance. I’m happy to be moving on. It’s one step closer to racing for a championship.”
Ty Gibbs — Finished 15th: “That was just unfortunate there. I felt like we were really good in practice and qualifying. Just a little too loose tonight and fired off too tight. Unfortunate. Speeding penalty is on me. You run the lights so close – it’s my fault. Unfortunate.”
William Byron — Finished 17th: “We started the race up front, which was great. Had a good Saturday. Then really from lap four or five, just couldn’t get the front end to work and just super tight. We threw a lot at it through the race, trying to make it better, and just was kind of stuck where we were. We kind of kept bleeding out. We’ll forget about this one for sure and go into Kansas, and I know we’ll be good there. Just try to get some momentum at Kansas and go on through that round.”
Tyler Reddick — Finished 20th: “We weren’t really going anywhere much tonight. Handling was kind of an issue for us all night long. Just couldn’t really get the balance right, and so we just kind of took a risk there. I was hopeful I could get second or third out of, but we ended up fourth. I think with how this race could have eventually played out – it is always good to take points you know that you are going to get, so it was nice to get some stage points with the McDonald’s Camry, but tough first three races of the playoffs. Thankfully we have some good races ahead.”
Martin Truex Jr. — Finished 24th: “We did good in the first two stages — we got a lot of points. I guess we would have had to run second or third to make it through – who knows if we would have been able to. I wish we could have seen if we could have done that. I’m just gutted for my team. We worked so hard this week. We all put in a lot – all season long, and in the last three weeks, just snake bit. Can’t do anything right. .09 mph hurts really bad to take the chance away to know if we even could have done it. I don’t know if we could have run second – maybe. We were close to it – all day – but in the end, it doesn’t matter. I feel terrible for my guys.”
Brad Keselowski — Finished 26th: “It was just a long night. We ran the best we could, we just didn’t have any pace. We lost lap early and that’s kind of what we had. There was no attrition to the race and tires didn’t fall off and we didn’t have the pace. … We didn’t show up in this round, I guess is probably just the easiest way to put it. We didn’t get any results and it’s a results business.”
Joey Logano — Finished 28th: “It was good that we got it. I still think we would have been fine because we had a solid run at Watkins Glen, at least scoring a lot of points. We just have to go back to Kansas this weekend and run good. We need to go up there and run in the top five and score stage points and position ourselves solid into the next two races after that.”
Josh Berry — Finished 29th: “We were just behind with our setup tonight and couldn’t find the balance I needed to make the top and bottom work. Our guys worked their tails off and tonight was just a tough night. We know we are plenty capable of being competitive, so we will just focus on going to Kansas with a clean slate.”
Daniel Suarez — Finished 31st: “It was a struggle. Since yesterday when we unloaded the car for first practice, we just didn’t have the speed. As you know, with a short amount of practice, qualifying, and going to the race, if you don’t have speed out of the trailer, it’s very, very difficult to bring it back to speed. We made it better, but it wasn’t good enough. We were running 30th, 28th, 32nd all night long, and that’s what we had. Luckily we had a great Atlanta, decent Watkins Glen after a broken wheel, and we were able to build a cushion, and we definitely used every single point out of that cushion.”
Harrison Burton — Finished 35th: “Earlier in the race it started to get heavier and then by the last 60 laps I ran it had just zero power steering It just got to where I couldn’t make corrections and my arms were just so tired that I couldn’t do anymore. It’s a really sad way to end it, but really proud of our guys. They changed the rack really fast and got a new pump in it. We gained a couple spots just from guys wiping themselves out. We didn’t quit, but obviously a frustrating way to go. I’m happy to have been a part of it. I’m proud of our guys for ending our relationship the right way and just hope to end the rest of the playoffs strong because we still have a lot to gain total points wise if we can just get some good races together. We’re not quitting yet. We’ll be back and ready to go.”