DARLINGTON, S.C. — Here is what drivers had to say after Sunday night’s Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway:
Chase Briscoe — Winner: “For all 320 employees, everybody, to be able to race for a championship in their final year, man, unbelievable. God is just so good. It’s like déjà vu there at the end with Kyle, with the Xfinity race here in 2020. Obviously I didn’t know if I was going to be able to do it. … This night just literally went perfect. The pit crew did an incredible job. I was crying. After the checkered, I just won the Southern 500, this is a crown jewel.”
Kyle Busch — Finished 2nd: “When I made it through a few of those guys right there on the start, I thought we had a start to get there. I think I just needed him to have maybe three or four more laps, older tires for me to be able to break through the wake. Once I got within his air, I really didn’t have enough to power through that, to get closer. I was kind of sliding already. Hate it for our guys, everybody on our team, everybody at RCR. This Morgan & Morgan Chevrolet, they turned it around these last four, five weeks and we’ve run a lot better. That’s been much improved, beneficial to our team and the organization. Something to build on and get better for. We just missed a lot in the early part of the year, through the middle part of the year, to put ourselves in this spot, to be on the outside looking in. To come in here for a last ditch effort and have a shot. Early in the race, I wouldn’t have thought we had a shot. So felt like we really overachieved towards the end and got a really good finish for what we had or what I thought we had. We’ll take that and keep building on it.
Christopher Bell — Finished 3rd: “Chase (Briscoe) was awesome all night long obviously. Through stage one and stage two he was right there in the mix with them. He pounced whenever it mattered the most. I had the best seat in the house for the great shootout between the 14 (Chase Briscoe) and the 8 (Kyle Busch). And, yeah, it wasn’t meant to be for us today. Now, the real job starts.”
Kyle Larson — Finished 4th: “I think where it all kind of got crazy was when Ross (Chastain) stayed out. I had to choose the bottom on the front row. He got a good launch. I just got behind the No. 14 (Chase Briscoe) and kind of lost control of the race from then on. And then I just did a bad job on that last restart. Really, I just had the points on my mind there and really wanted to get the driver’s regular season championship there to get those bonus points. I was being extra cautious, which I don’t know if the end result was any different. But I was definitely as aggressive as I could have been with just being safe. But hats-off to Chase Briscoe; that’s amazing. He did such a great job all day long, all weekend long. This is a super, super tough race to win. To do it with the pressure that they had on their team was pretty amazing.”
Ross Chastain — Finished 5th: “For the final stage, we shorted the green flag stops the first time; netted some positions and we were fine. And then we did it again and as I was already on pit road, the caution came out. I could have kept rolling and probably stayed on the lead lap, but I wanted to try it just like Phil (Surgen, crew chief) was calling an aggressive race. I went ahead and stopped in the box knowing there was a chance that we would go a lap down. It was worth the risk. I had it off by about a quarter-lap in my head of where the No. 5 (Kyle Larson) would be. He was a lot closer than I thought. It’s one of those things that the staying out was a little scary in the moment, but I just kind of went through what I needed to do; get a good launch. I got clear into turn one, which I struggle to do that on equal tires, let alone the old ones. I was clear off of (turn) two still, and I was like – OK, this is going pretty good. And then new tires took over into Turn 3.”
Chris Buescher — Finished 6th: “We got back in contention there at the end and got a decent finish out of it. We just didn’t quite get it done again and we’re on the outside looking in. It’s just the system we’re all playing in. We had such a great year. Everyone at RFK has worked so hard. We’ve been so fast. We’ve outrun so many of these cars that are gonna get to run for a championship, but that’s the system and we didn’t work it right.”
Denny Hamlin — Finished 7th: “Just need to be a little bit faster in the short run. We chipped away at it all day and put ourselves in a good spot. Just once we had that restart upfront it looked like we were going to kind of settle in there and run second and then with all the cautions at the end we ended up where we ended up. Overall, a decent day.”
Joey Logano — Finished 8th: “Starting where we were, our goal was to pick them off one or two at a time and methodically move our way through the field. We were doing that. We got ourselves into the top 10 and looking pretty good. We had some issues on pit road - I’m not sure exactly what happened - but we cleaned it back up for the end there and got a top 10 out of it, at least. Not quite what we wanted with the Shell-Pennzoil Mustang but at least we recovered and got something decent out of it. We’ll move on to the playoffs and give it a run for our money and see if we can get down to the championship four.”
Tyler Reddick — Finished 10th: “Just things fell our way there at the end. Yeah, I started the day off feeling really, really good just kind of trying to take my time to get around Bubba (Wallace). Him and the 5 (Kyle Larson) kind of jumped us on the first cycle. I thought we had a long race and plenty of time and just man, by the end of stage one I couldn’t even really focus on what to tell the guys to do on the Upper Deck Toyota Camry. It was frustrating, man. We had that buffer over the 5 and just watched it disappear all day long. I tried everything I can to drive this car as fast as I can, it was just a real struggle honestly. I don’t have anything left.”
Chase Elliott — Finished 11th: “Very poor. We got a gift to finish where we did.. a bunch of gifts. But yeah, obviously excited to have that one over with and look forward to getting the playoffs started. These next 10 races; they’re intense, so myself and this entire NAPA Chevy team needs to hit the reset button in a big way. We were pretty bad today, but we’ll go to Atlanta (Motor Speedway); get things rolling in the right direction and see where we end up.”
Ryan Preece — Finished 12th: “We just got caught in a tough spot there at the end of the race. We decided to stay out and risk it on fuel and it just didn’t work in our favor today.”
Austin Cindric — Finished 13th: “From our first pit stop to our last one, it was definitely an adventure. I feel like I used that word a lot throughout the regular season. But yeah, having to come down for the uncontrolled tire penalty put us two laps down for pretty much the majority of the race. The first chance we got to do the wave we got it, and then they got to wrecking and we drove up to the lucky dog spot and got the lucky dog, leading us to a decent finish. Track position was important, and I’m happy we were able to get a solid result. It was definitely an entire race of not giving up.”
Austin Dillon — Finished 15th: “We had a fast Toys for Tots Chevrolet tonight at Darlington Raceway and the entire Richard Childress Racing team fought hard all weekend. We fell a lap down in Stage 2, but never gave up, stayed patient and raced our way back onto the lead lap. We could have had a shot there at the end. We were well within the top 10 and battling for position when a multi-car incident happened, and we ended up with damage. We lost track position pitting for repairs but fought back to finish 15th. I’m proud of this entire team.”
Bubba Wallace — Finished 16th: “We just were back and forth on our U.S. Air Force Toyota Camry. We were a little too loose, a little too tight. And the caution a couple laps on tires where we stayed out, I don’t know if that was the deciding factor or not. I was so tight there and got back there in traffic in a spot we hadn’t been all day and got caught up someone else’s mess. It’s unfortunate. I hate it for our guys. Hats off to the 14 (Chase Briscoe). I thought I did something yesterday, they one-upped us and showed up when it was game time so that’s pretty bad ass so congrats to them. Man, just wasn’t good enough for 16th this year. I hate that. It stinks saying that, but it wasn’t for a lack of effort for all of us on the 23 car.”
Daniel Suarez — Finished 18th: “It was an up-and-down day for the No. 99 Freeway Insurance Chevy team. I thought we made the car better when the sun was out. Once the nighttime came, I thought we were actually a little bit better, and good enough to run top-15. We were already right up there in the top-10 when the cautions started coming out. It’s unfortunate, but it’s part of it. There were people staying out. There were people with new tires. It was just a little bit of a crazy situation.”
Alex Bowman — Finished 19th: “We weren’t very good here in the spring either. We tried some different things, but it just didn’t really work out. We’ll keep digging at it. I’m glad we get to reset. Obviously next weekend at Atlanta (Motor Speedway) is going to be a wild, so we’ll see what happens.”
Ty Gibbs — Finished 20th: “That was really unfortunate. I was really confused at it. Tried to get wrecked in (Turns) 3 and 4 and then went and got finished off. I don’t know what was going on. That was unfortunate. I wish we could’ve ran better. I really love this track and have so much fun racing here. My car was so good. I wish we could’ve finished better but most importantly we made the Playoffs and that’s what we came here to do. We accomplished that so I’m very happy to be able to make it.”
Shane van Gisbergen — Finished 26th: “That was a tough one. The car was just super tight all race, but my No. 16 Acceptance Insurance team never gave up and kept trying to make the car better as the night continued. I learned a lot and am looking forward to next Sunday with this team.”
Justin Haley — Finished 27th: “We had a really fast Fraternal Order of Police Ford Mustang Dark Horse, but mistakes on pit road cost us a chance to show that. Atlanta next weekend is a good opportunity for us to get the No. 51 back into the top-10 and find some redemption after Daytona.”
Daniel Hemric — Finished 29th: “A long, tough battle at Darlington transitioning from day to nighttime. We started making improvements by the end of the second stage, but I got into the wall, knocking the toe out of the No. 31 Cirkul Chevy. That definitely hurt us quite a bit, but I’m proud of the fight in this Kaulig Racing team.”
Josh Berry — Finished 31st: “Tough way to end such a promising day. We had a great No. 4 Overstock.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse and we were going to net out to have a good points day, and it just was one of those nights that you look back on in frustration because this team deserves better. Our results don’t do us justice and tonight was one of those nights. We have 10 weeks to go chase a win.”
Noah Gragson — Finished 32nd: “I saw a couple of them wreck up front, so I tried to get on the brakes. Then I saw an opening and a little bit of smoke, but I thought they were all sliding down to the bottom and I throttled up. I thought it was open and it wasn’t. Definitely a bummer. We needed to be better all day.”
Martin Truex Jr. — Finished 36th: “It was all my fault, all my doing. I got a run on the 24 (William Byron) and went to the inside and thought everything was going fine and the car just took off and I ran into him. Obviously, that was on me. I hate it for my guys, Bass Pro Shops, Toyota, everybody. We had a phenomenal race car, and I know this is like the longest race of the year – just a dumb mistake on my part. I mean, it sucks. We’ve had a miserable two months. Fast cars and nothing to show for it. Again tonight – tonight was on me. Sorry to my team and all the guys who work so hard.”
Ryan Blaney — Finished 37th: “I was hurt for a little bit, but I think I will be okay. I am alright. I saw Martin (Truex Jr.) get loose, and I thought he was going to spin to the bottom, so I kind of gassed up to get around him, but it was just terrible timing. He overcorrected, and we were just right there. Gosh, I hate wrecking on Lap 2. It is one of those things where you think he is going to spin to the bottom, but his rear is hooked up but he just came up.”