Here is what drivers had to say after Sunday’s race at Talladega Superspeedway:
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. — Winner: “It felt really good. We had our Chevy teammates behind us, and I was hoping Kyle (Larson) wasn’t going to push (Brad Keselowski) that hard. I knew (William Byron) was probably going to try and get to the line there. But, man, this team has put a lot of hard work in. Obviously, we haven’t won since the (Daytona) 500 in ’23. It’s been an up-and-down season. It was a lot of hard work this season just trying to find a little bit of speed, but we knew that this track is one of ours to come get. So for all of our Southern Mississippi people, appreciate you all coming. This means a lot, winning here.
“Got to say we’re thinking about everybody in western North Carolina. Brad Dougherty, his family right where he grew up there in Black Mountain, a lot of people are struggling. I wish my wife and son, Stetson, were here. They didn’t come this weekend. I’ll see you all at home, and man, what a day. This win is really, really special.”
Brad Keselowski — Second: "(Kyle Larson) gave me a good push down the frontstrech, but (William Byron) was able to really stick with (Stenhouse) there and just needed a tiny bit. It’s a good finish for us. We’ve been knocking on the door of these plate tracks. I hate that we didn’t bust through with a win, but I’m happy to be right there in contention. I knew they were gonna have a really big run and that (Byron) was really tight to him and I was just gonna get split, so I felt like I made the right move, but there’s only so much you can do when you’re outnumbered.
"(The 22-car crash before overtime) was just an interesting sequence of events. (Todd Gilliland) was a slow car for whatever reason, and he stayed on the bottom, and we had the Ford train pulling the bottom, and when he did that, it broke us all up, and when we rubberbanded back together, it just snapped. It’s a tough deal. I was getting pushed from behind and I ran into (Austin Cindric), and he spun out. It just wasn’t a good sequence of events for all of us.”
William Byron — Third: “I didn’t have a chance to get the lead myself on the last lap, so that was the thought process. I just couldn’t quite get him clear into (Turn) 3, or he didn’t take it into three. And then, I just kind of had to be diligent to push him the rest of the way. I felt like it all worked out. I’m happy for Ricky (Stenhouse Jr.) and everyone at Chevrolet. They deserve it. Ricky is a really good drafter.”
Kyle Larson — Fourth: “Second top five of my career in general on superspeedway, so yeah, I’ll take that. It’s really cool. There’s a lot of luck that plays into just finishing these races. I’m not going to blame my career on bad luck, because that’s not the case when we finish as bad as often as we do at these (tracks). But I feel we do a great job, and today just showed that. We came from the back of the first stage, had a shot to win. Second stage, executed as good as we could, got some points. There at the end, got lucky on the backstretch finally and got a good finish. Proud of the effort from all of Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. Great car, great power. It’s cool to finally go into the Roval with a 52-point gap. That race is so stressful. Way more stressful to me than Talladega. Glad not to worry bout it too much.”
Erik Jones — Fifth: “Yeah, we had an OK car. We lacked in speed, but it drove good. Kind of lucked out in that last wreck there. Felt like the damage wasn’t bad enough that we needed to come in (to the pits). Happy to get a good run. We’ve just had a rough year and struggled last two weeks, so it’s nice to finish up front.”
Christopher Bell — Sixth: “Yeah, I’m excited about the points standings. We came out of here as good as we ever have, so that’s awesome. Hopefully, we can have a (good) day next week at the Roval. I think we’re going to have pace, and we can open up the strategy a little to hopefully race for the win. We’re just getting fortunate, and we’re making it through the wrecks when they happen and that’s leading to good finishes.”
Austin Dillon — Eighth: “Good job by everyone on our No. 3 Chevrolet team today at Talladega Superspeedway. We showed speed early and ran in the top 10 for most of Stage 1. It was fun to lead a few laps and the balance of our Chevrolet was good all day. We played the strategy game all race long and our pit crew was solid under the green flag pit stops. We missed the big wreck on the backstretch, putting us in a solid position for the overtime restart. We didn’t get the big push we needed on the final lap and ended up finishing eighth. Our Richard Childress Racing team brought a fast car, and ECR engines were up front most of the day. Proud of the effort.”
Bubba Wallace — Ninth: “Just an average day here at Talladega. Obviously, wish we could’ve been in victory lane, but just didn’t have the speed in our Toyota Camry, so we just kind of tried to dodge all the wrecks – didn’t manage to do that some. Got caught up in the big one which hurt our chances at the end, but a good rebound by the team to get a top-10. Onto the Roval.”
Denny Hamlin — 10th: “I just got big damage here (on the hood). It happened on that (Ryan) Blaney wreck. We just figured the best option was to race and not fix it. Just, you know, I didn’t have the speed after that wreck I needed to contend. If you would’ve asked me about a top 10 before (the race), I would’ve taken it just because of how this round is. But either way, we need to go to the Roval and have a solid effort.”
Shane van Gisbergen — 15th: “That was a wild race! Had a lot of fun battling up front and leading some laps. Our Chevy Camaro showed a lot of speed, and it was awesome to race in the pack and continue to learn every lap. Glad we missed the big wreck there at the end and were able to have a solid finish. Proud of my No. 16 Kaulig Racing team and looking forward to racing the Cup car at the Charlotte Roval.”
Alex Bowman — 16th: “We had kind of gotten pretty far back in track position obviously; got stuck in the fourth lane, and that just killed us. Just overall kind of disappointed in myself. I made the wrong move a lot, and I crashed (Ryan Blaney) with just a crappy push. Obviously, just trying to push him to try and help our lane for the stage and just hit him in the wrong spot. I hate that I did that. I hate that I made the wrong decisions that I did, and I didn’t do a very good job today. Frustrated because we had a really good Camaro today. The team did a really good job, and we obviously had moments where we were really good. But just execution-wise, I made too many mistakes and put us in too many bad spots. Obviously hate that I ruined some other guys’ days too.”
Kyle Busch — 19th: “I’m really proud of everyone at RCR and ECR for their hard work leading into Talladega Superspeedway. Our Chevrolet was strong all weekend. We qualified fourth and were strong all day despite being conservative with our fuel mileage strategy. Our guys were solid on pit road today. We were able to dodge a couple of the big accidents, and crew chief Randall Burnett made adjustments to improve our car’s balance. Late in the race, we were in position to score a top-five finish. On the last lap, I made a move that, unfortunately, didn’t work, and we got shuffled back in the pack. It’s frustrating because we ran better than where we finished. We’ll bounce back next week at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval.”
Tyler Reddick — 20th: “It was a really solid points day, considering all of the carnage. Yeah, to gain points on the cut (line), considering the damage and the 20th-place finish, I’ll take that every single time. It was a hard race. I thought we had a lot of potential for points. Things just didn’t work out on the final lap a few times.”
Daniel Suarez — 26th: “It was a very difficult day for the No. 99 Chevy team. We put ourselves in a little bit of a hole with the pass-through penalty. We had a plan and I was expecting everyone to be saving fuel, and I was going to be able to block the lanes and stay in the pack. I just made a mistake. I tried to block when they were coming, but they were just coming too fast. That was on me. We put ourselves in a hole, and unfortunately we weren’t able to recover. And then in the last wreck, obviously that finished killing our chances.”
A.J. Allmendinger — 28th: “We played it safe there to start off and got in a bad spot when cars started pit. After we caught a break, it was fun having the No. 13 Chevy up front there for a while. Definitely disappointing end to our day getting caught up in that wreck, but I’m really proud of the effort out of this team and the showing we had today.”
Chase Elliott — 29th: “I thought Ricky (Stenhouse Jr.) and I had a really good system going there. I was really pleased with my spot. I thought I had a lot of what was going to transpire, was in my hands, which is what I want at the end of these things. Unfortunately what was in my hands ended up biting us. I don’t really know what you do about that. We were in a good position. The No. 9 Chevy team executed a good second half of the race. We were right there when it counted. I’m not sure how I got clipped. I thought I had it missed. Somebody just barely clipped me and it sent me spinning.”
Chase Briscoe — 30th: “It’s not the day we wanted, just with the way everything went. I don’t know what the points are, but I’m sure it’s not good. This is one of those races where if you didn’t run top five or whatever, you’re probably gonna be in a must-win either way, so that probably makes it a little more clear now and puts it where it’s not on that bubble of, ‘well, should we go for points or should we just try to win the race.’ At least now I feel it’s pretty obvious, so a frustrating day. It felt like there at the end we were in position and then I don’t know what happened. We had all the Fords in line and thought we were gonna be really good and then the wreck happened.”
Austin Cindric — 32nd: “In that position, the best thing you can do is be as predictable as possible, keep your car as straight as possible. The front of the pack got shuffled up from (David Gilliland) basically splitting the whole field, which definitely caused some congestion with guys getting out of lanes and obviously an off-center push from (Keselowski), and that’s it for our race. We had an exceptionally fast race car. It was A-plus execution by everyone on the 2 car, so I’m proud of the effort but definitely a bummer to be that close to punching our ticket. I just got turned at the front of the field. Unfortunately, that’s how Daytona ended for us and I think what that says is we’ve got really fast race cars and great execution. As the leader, I was trying to be as predictable as possible as far as taking pushes and it’s just a real shame. I don’t really feel like doing a whole lot of complaining about what happened or whose fault it is, it doesn’t really matter. It puts us in a must-win situation for the Charlotte Road Course. We’ve brought some exceptionally fast race cars every single race of the playoffs and I cannot understate how proud I am of my race team and we’ll have to bring another one next week.”
Joey Logano — 33rd: “Everyone was just shoving each other. It’s what you expect coming down to the end of the race. It kind of felt like we were in such a good spot though with (Keselowski), (Cindric), (Harrison Burton). I was not in the position to win the race where I was, but I felt like I was in a good enough spot to where I could get a top-five and if they started crossing each other up coming to the checkered, I was on the bottom, and things were going to work fairly well for us. I actually thought the bottom was the safest place to be, but (Cindric) got sideways, and there I was. Everyone just gets more aggressive at the end of the races. (Cindric) got out there a little bit more than what he had been, and (Burton) gave me a shove and transferred that to (Keselowski). You can’t see what’s in front of you from there, and he got to (Cindric) with a fair amount of steam there. It’s nobody’s fault. It’s not Brad’s fault. It’s not anybody’s fault. It’s just the product of the racing that we’ve got. Everyone is getting more and more aggressive as the laps wind down and it happens. It happens a lot.
“I didn’t even have fun today. You can’t even do anything here. You just get stuck. You’re running four-wide and it looks cool, but you’re running half-throttle and then when you want to go and it’s time to go, everyone is just stuck two-wide, so there’s just not many moves you can make. You just keep trying to re-learn how to run on these superspeedways as it evolves, but the car’s got so much drag on it that you can’t make moves and make runs happen and cross people up. You’re committed to where you are in that line.”
Ryan Preece — 35th: “I think we knew something was gonna happen when we were catching (Gilliland) and him staying on the bottom that it was going to shuffle things up, and it certainly did. It’s frustrating because I think all of us that were in the top 10 or so were in great position for the end of that race and giving everybody at Stewart-Haas Racing a great finish. Ultimately, it wasn’t our day but certainly still frustrating.”
Josh Berry — 36th: “Yeah, I thought we all worked together really well today. We pitted early there in that stage, and it just didn’t work out. All of our teammates, I think we worked really well together today. Unfortunately, none of us made it through that wreck.”
Michael McDowell — 37th: “I was just driving into it blind a little bit. I think we were sitting probably 12th or 13th, something like that, when it went down, so by the time I got there the road was already blocked. There wasn’t a lot of lanes available. It’s just unfortunate. We had a really fast Love’s Travel Stop Ford Mustang. We led a lot of laps and definitely had the speed in the car, it’s just that last pit cycle didn’t work out for us. You need to come out in that top five to protect yourself from this. I’m not sure where the wreck started, but you want to be somewhere near the top five to avoid it and we just weren’t. We were running right in the middle of the hornet’s nest when it happened.”
Daniel Hemric — 38th: “Unfortunate end to a really solid day. I’m proud of everyone on this No. 31 Chevy team. We had a really fast qualifying effort to put us in the top 10 to start. Unfortunate that it turned out the way it did. I thought I had a hole and just ripped around the top, but the two slid back up. I hate that for the team, but I’m super proud of these guys. We have five more opportunities to do something special as a team.”
Ryan Blaney — 39th: “I don’t know if (Bowman) ever lifted. (He) just drilled me from like three car lengths back. The worst possible spot you could do it, so it’s pretty dumb on his part and it figures that he gets away scot-free per usual. That’s the end of the day. We’ll just see where we are at the end of the race on points and go from there. I thought Austin (Cindric) and I worked well together. I had a feeling that (Kyle Busch) would pull out and help Chevy. He wasn’t going to help me, obviously, so we got in the middle. I didn’t think it was terrible. We were probably still going to run fifth or sixth (in the stage), and then (Bowman) just drove straight through me in the trioval. He just wrecked the (expletive) out of me. I don’t know what he’s thinking ... I thought he would have more sense than that, but obviously he didn’t. You can’t just run wide open through somebody in the trioval, but he did.”
Ross Chastain — 40th: “I’m not sure what happened there with those guys down there in the middle line. Coming into the trioval, I followed (Kyle Busch) and pushed him in the third lane; fanned out to push a Chevy. And yeah, somebody got shucked up. Seeing Ryan in there, I’m guessing he was the yellow blur that I saw.”
